[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15749-15752]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1315
                         THE NEW OTTOMAN EMPIRE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cramer). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                          Keystone XL Pipeline

  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, this is an important day for a number of 
reasons.
  It is an important day in that we passed the Cassidy bill here in the 
House that will open the door to the Keystone XL pipeline being built. 
Since this administration has dallied so, the Chinese have entered the 
picture and are desirous of having a pipeline going to the west coast 
of Canada so that, apparently, when this administration does, finally, 
get around to deciding what is best for Americans instead of what is 
best for his political situation, then we will have to compete with the 
Chinese, who will be seeking the oil to go in their pipeline as opposed 
to the United States' getting it to come through our pipeline.
  We understand that our friend Ms. Landrieu, Senator Landrieu, will 
have

[[Page 15750]]

a bill in her name come to the Senate floor for a vote. I am really 
proud Bill Cassidy is a friend. I am proud that we had a chance to vote 
on the Bill Cassidy bill, and I am proud that it passed. I think it is 
such a shame that Mary Landrieu will not be able to likely get her 
colleagues to vote for the Keystone pipeline and pass it as Bill 
Cassidy has been able to do here in the House.
  Make no mistake. Since I live in east Texas and the pipeline will 
come through part of my district and come across private land, nobody 
who has private land wants a pipeline coming across their land. Anybody 
who has ever had one knows it is no fun. You don't like having an 
easement across for a pipeline like that. So it will require great 
diligence to make sure that it is properly maintained and that damage 
is avoided, and if damage occurs, then I will certainly want to fight 
for our landowners to make sure they are properly addressed and taken 
care of and compensated.
  That is one thing today, but it really pales in comparison, Mr. 
Speaker, to what happened 100 years ago today.
  In recent years, after this administration blindly supported what it 
called--and others in North Africa and the Middle East called--an Arab 
Spring, we have come to find out what many of us suspected even at the 
time and said was likely to be even more of a devastating winter than 
an Arab Spring. It has seen the fall of the government in Libya. It has 
seen the chaos arise in many parts of Libya. It has seen terrorists 
take control of parts of Libya. It has seen the fall of the governments 
in Algeria, Tunisia, and the takeover of radical Islam.
  I was amazed at the ignorance of many in the mainstream media when I 
said back at the time that what radical Islamists--what the Muslim 
Brotherhood--were seeking to re-create was the beginning of the Ottoman 
Empire and that, in its ignorance, our executive branch--this 
administration here in the U.S.--actually helped jump-start what the 
Muslim Brothers are hoping will be the new Ottoman Empire. I was 
surprised how many reporters asked what did I mean by ``Ottoman 
Empire.'' They had not had the kind of education that I was fortunate 
to have had in public schools in east Texas and in public school by way 
of Texas A&M University and then law school at Baylor. So they didn't 
know what the Ottoman Empire was. Hopefully, they did some research.
  Many of us did not realize that the date 9/11--when the worst attack 
on America occurred--also marked the anniversary of the worst defeat 
that the Islamic caliphate ever suffered in history. That was the 
devastating defeat to the caliphate. The radical Islamist caliphate had 
made it all the way to Vienna. It laid siege upon Vienna, and on 9/11 
of 1683, the radical Islamic caliphate suffered its worst defeat in 
history. Amazingly, that was the date that Osama bin Laden and the 
mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed--currently in Guantanamo, who 
hopefully will stay there until his death--chose to inflict the worst 
attack in American history.
  To many people, dates mean things. My anniversary means a lot. I have 
never forgotten one. Our birthdays mean a lot to most Westerners. Some 
of us begin to try to forget them, but major dates in caliphate history 
mean a great deal to radical Islamists.
  There was an article today written by Dr. Sebastian Gorka, and I 
would like to read this in for the Record. He does a good job of 
incapsulating this issue today.
  Dr. Gorka says:

       One hundred years ago today, the last caliph, or emperor of 
     Islam, declared the last jihad against the infidel, and today 
     is the first time ever that the National Cathedral in the 
     Nation's Capital will host Muslim prayers.
       Most Americans will have no idea that, as part of World War 
     I, the then-caliph of the Ottoman Empire declared a holy war 
     against infidels as was his right within shari'a law and 
     Islamic theology. You can read the full fatwa.

  In that fatwa, there actually was a typo in the original. It was 
provided on this day in 1914, but they had a typo saying it was 1915.
  The article says:

       That statement by the last sitting head of what was the 
     theocratic empire of Islam was the catalyst which led to the 
     religiously fueled genocide against Christian Armenians and 
     Assyrians.

  That is what is pictured. It actually represents a photograph that 
was taken of young Armenian Christian girls who were kidnapped, 
stripped naked, raped, and then crucified on crosses as far as the eye 
could see.
  This article points out:

       The Episcopal church leaders who agreed to host Muslim 
     prayers inside the Washington cathedral probably have no idea 
     what happened a century ago in Asia Minor or that there even 
     was a caliph in office at the beginning of the 20th century.
       However, we can rest assured that the co-organizers do, for 
     they include the Council on American-Islamic Relations 
     (CAIR), The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the 
     Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), and the All Dulles Area 
     Muslims Society (ADAMS) Center.
       Both CAIR and ISNA will be fully aware of the significance 
     of November 14th, seeing as both organizations were declared 
     by a Federal court to be unindicted coconspirators of Hamas, 
     the Muslim Brotherhood terror group, in the largest terrorist 
     financing trial in U.S. history.
       Those Muslims who have a supremacist understanding of their 
     religion, such as members of al Qaeda and the Muslim 
     Brotherhood, which was recently declared an illegal terrorist 
     organization in the country of its founding, Egypt, have a 
     special regard for historic dates and anniversaries.
       It is, of course, no accident that the 9/11 attacks--the 
     worst terror attacks in world history--occurred exactly to 
     the day in 1683 when the Islamic Ottoman forces were defeated 
     outside the city walls of Vienna, the deepest the Islamic 
     caliphate's forces made it into the heart of the Christian 
     West.
       There is nothing inherently wrong about interfaith 
     initiatives as long as they start from the same place: a 
     mutual respect for the belief system of the other and their 
     inherent dignity as humans created by God. When one party 
     acts in bad faith based upon its ideological commitment to 
     see other faiths destroyed or subjected, then the event runs 
     the risk of becoming a propaganda coup for the extremists and 
     their followers.
       The fact that this event is occurring just as ancient 
     Christian communities are being destroyed in the Middle East 
     and ``nonbelievers'' are being actually crucified by ISIS 
     jihadists makes it all the more egregious.
       We know that the Episcopal church is in trouble with more 
     conservative believers leaving in great numbers and the 
     remaining adherents not exactly outdoing their Catholic 
     cousins in terms of reproducing the next generation of 
     believers.

  The author goes on to say:

       But I doubt they also understand the finer points of 
     jihadist doctrine, one of which is that if a place of worship 
     is used by Muslims for their prayers that territory 
     subsequently becomes part of Dar al Islam, sacred Muslim 
     land, forever.

  That author was Sebastian Gorka, Ph.D., and he is the Major General 
Matthew C. Horner Distinguished Chair of Military Theory at the Marine 
Corps University and is the national security and foreign affairs 
editor at Breitbart.com.
  Mr. Speaker, it is an important day. The prosecution referred to in 
this article was actually the Holy Land Foundation criminal trial in 
the United States Federal District Court in Dallas, Texas. I have done 
a great deal of reading and looking into the issues involved in that 
case, and am aware of the massive number of counts of conviction, and 
also have read some of the pleadings in this case in which the Islamic 
Society of North America and the Council on American-Islamic 
Relations--CAIR and ISNA--were named as coconspirators in that 
prosecution, in which they were contributors and part of funding 
terrorism.

                              {time}  1330

  They were not named as indicted coconspirators, but they were named 
as coconspirators. And CAIR and ISNA were among parties that filed 
pleadings in Federal District Court, demanding that their names be 
eliminated from the pleadings.
  Yet after the Federal judge in Dallas reviewed all of the 
information, the evidence before him, he declared that actually there 
was plenty of evidence to support the fact that CAIR and ISNA--which 
have such cozy relations with this administration now--that there is 
plenty of evidence to support that those two entities are 
coconspirators in supplying and financing terrorism.

[[Page 15751]]

  Well, those convictions occurred in late 2008. And from some who have 
been involved in that effort, their understanding was that if the Bush 
administration Justice Department, after years of investigation and 
effort of prosecution, if they got convictions, then the intention was 
to come back--and especially since the courts had said that there is 
plenty of evidence to support that these named coconspirators were 
coconspirators, then they would come back and actually indict them, 
prosecute them. And those parties were not satisfied, though, with the 
judgment of the Dallas Federal court.
  So they appealed the ruling that there was plenty of evidence to 
support CAIR and ISNA being coconspirators, and Imam Majid, who is 
their part of the prayer effort at National Cathedral today--they 
wanted their names eliminated. The Federal judge in Dallas would not do 
that. So they appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
  And after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed the record, all 
the information, then they stated even more plainly and more directly 
than the Federal District Court did that, yes, there really was plenty 
of evidence to support that they were coconspirators and that the names 
should not be struck. They should not be kept private.
  And the thinking was that, you know, gee, any administration, of 
course, will understand that once a Federal District Court and a Court 
of Appeals find there is plenty of evidence to support that CAIR and 
ISNA are coconspirators in helping terrorism around the world that 
surely they would not end up being cozy with any American 
administration. That would be the common sense, you would think.
  There is plenty of common sense back where I come from. But you get 
to Washington, and it is not common sense. It is just sense.
  And it is rather a shame that organizations who were said by a 
Federal court system to have plenty of evidence to show that they are 
coconspirators and had radical Islamic efforts at terrorism, that they 
would have such an open ear at the White House.
  In recent years, there was a 2-day seminar that was going to take 
place out at Langley. And I know one of the instructors very well. He 
has made a career out of studying radical Islam. He used to provide 
briefings, do research, provide advice to the Joint Chiefs of Staff of 
our military about radical Islam. Well, he was one of them. Well, that 
rather upset what the Federal courts have said the evidence indicates 
were front groups for the Muslim Brotherhood, were suppliers, helpers 
in terrorism. They got upset that he was going to be out there and be a 
part of the teaching of the seminar. So they burned up the phone line 
to the White House. The White House canceled the seminar.
  And it was CAIR that had an ongoing partnership that they developed 
with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. And I was 
surprised that it took so long after the FBI had spent a couple of 
decades investigating what, ultimately, we understood was the Muslim 
Brotherhood. It was surprising, with Federal courts saying that there 
is plenty of evidence to show that they are complicit in supplying 
terrorism funding, helping with terrorism. I was surprised that the FBI 
decided, with all that evidence they furnished the prosecutors, that 
they ended up turning around and making CAIR their partner.
  So I was surprised that the letter took so long from the FBI 
eventually to the leaders of CAIR, saying that, in view of evidence in 
essence there in the Holy Land Foundation trial, we need to suspend our 
partnership in the outreach program that the FBI had to them.
  When I was questioning the immediate previous director of the FBI, 
Director Mueller, about the Tsarnaevs and the lack of investigation 
into their backgrounds, even after the Russians warned this 
administration twice--after the first time, apparently the Russians 
were surprised that we didn't do anything with the knowledge they had 
provided, that Tsarnaev had been radicalized and would likely kill 
people here. They warned a second time and had to be totally shocked--
and, to the best I understand, basically the investigation included 
talking to Tsarnaev, himself, and to his mom. There may have been some 
other peripheral things.
  But as I questioned the director of the FBI, saying, you guys didn't 
even go out to their mosque to ask questions to help you determine 
whether Tsarnaev had been radicalized. And, in essence, he ended up 
saying, we did go to the mosque. When he gave the answer, I didn't hear 
the little add-on he gave until my staff replayed it with the little 
add-on he gave after: We did go out to those mosques, but he added, 
``in our outreach program.''
  So just as I suspected, the FBI didn't go out and investigate. 
Michele Bachmann, Lynn Westmoreland reviewed some materials. Trent 
Franks looked at some of the materials. But we were concerned because 
CAIR, this named coconspirator in supplying and helping terrorism, as a 
front group for the Muslim Brotherhood, we were surprised that CAIR had 
such powerful inroads into the FBI, enough to the point that they could 
demand to have the training materials for the FBI reviewed and had them 
purged of things that they, as apparently a front group for the Muslim 
Brotherhood, found offensive. As named coconspirators in funding 
terrorism, they were offended.
  So a massive number of pages that radical Islamists might find 
offensive, that people who wanted to kill Americans might be offended 
by, were purged from our training materials. The State Department 
apparently purged materials. The intelligence community purged 
materials. And, as one intelligence officer told me, we have blinded 
ourselves of the ability to see our enemy.
  So, Mr. Speaker, it breaks my heart, grieves me deeply when innocent 
Muslims are maltreated, killed, tortured. It is a grievous violation of 
human rights. But in the same way, the things that have been done and 
are growing and spreading in numbers never before seen in human 
history, of Christians being persecuted around the world, as America 
basically remains silent.
  But today, being the 100th anniversary of the caliph's public fatwa, 
demanding the murder, killing of Christians in 1914 by the last Islamic 
caliph, also is the first day in our history when the National 
Cathedral, run by the Episcopal Church, conceded to the named 
coconspirators in funding terrorism, their demands to have prayers 
today on this 100th anniversary of the fatwa that caused the deaths of 
countless Christians, especially Armenian Christians, as depicted in 
this blown-up photograph from the newspaper, as depicted in this 
drawing that we have blurred, depicting what was actually seen along 
the road as massive numbers of young Christian girls were raped and 
crucified.
  We don't want a holy war. No Christian should ever go to some kind of 
holy war. But for heaven's sake, when there is an international group 
about which moderate Muslim leaders in the Middle East have said to me: 
The Muslim Brotherhood is your enemy; they have been behind every 
attack that has occurred onto America and Americans; they have been 
behind the killing of Americans all over the Middle East and the 
world--why do you keep helping the Muslim Brotherhood?
  When the largest uprising in the history of the world occurred over a 
year ago in Egypt, when moderate Muslims, Christians, even the Coptic 
Christian Pope, secularists, over 30 million came to the streets of 
Egypt and said, we don't want radical Islam controlling our country, it 
was a day of historic proportions. Never before had there been a crowd 
of that size gathered. Even when 20 million came out or when the 
estimated 33 million came out, they demanded the same thing. It was not 
a military coup, as CNN and this administration tried to paint. It was 
the largest uprising in the history of the world, in Egypt.
  And the Egyptians, instead of being called stupid, foolish by this 
administration and some media, they should have been congratulated. We 
should have rushed to their assistance. And,

[[Page 15752]]

instead, this administration said, Unless you put Muslim Brother Morsi 
back in power, then we are not going to help you. The Apache 
helicopters that were coming, that you use to keep the Suez Canal open, 
that you use to fight terrorism in the Sinai, that help Israel, we are 
not going to send them. You are not going to be able to keep the Suez 
Canal and the Sinai terrorism down until you put the Muslim Brothers 
back in charge.
  Many in the media made a big deal about the Christian churches being 
burned and about Jews and Christians being persecuted, tortured, and 
killed, and, for some unbelievable reason, tried to blame it on those 
who ousted the Muslim Brothers. And anybody that will do any modicum of 
research in Egypt will understand, it was the Muslim Brothers that 
burned the churches, that killed Christians and Jews there. It was not 
the government. It was not the military. The military, under General 
el-Sisi, was doing everything it could to stop it.
  I talked to a former CIA operative in the Middle East last year who 
said that he had talked to a guy who said, Morsi, President Morsi, had 
tried to contract through him to have General el-Sisi murdered.

                              {time}  1345

  I asked our Embassy personnel if they had heard of anything like 
that. They said they had not.
  In our meeting with General el-Sisi, I asked him directly, ``Did you 
have evidence when you arrested President Morsi that he was trying to 
hire someone to kill you?'' He beat around the bush twice and 
ultimately answered, ``Yes, we did.''
  Yet we even had even Republicans go to Cairo and say, ``Put back the 
Muslim Brothers.'' And I met the brilliant gentleman--Muslim, seemed to 
be a very fine man--that was put in charge of the committee to draft a 
new constitution because the constitution the United States helped and 
this administration helped Egypt to get that led to the Muslim 
Brotherhood control of the country had no provision for impeachment.
  So as Muslim Brother President Morsi began to usurp power, kind of in 
the same vein, and Noriega and other dictators who get elected and then 
start grabbing power, he was doing it in Egypt. There was no provision 
for impeachment.
  There was nothing they could do except what they did, go to the 
street in the tens of millions, demand his removal and, in the largest 
uprising, cause the removal of an unconstitutionally acting President, 
and he was removed, thank goodness.
  I was thrilled earlier this year when I think it was over 90 percent 
of the Egyptian voters voted to ratify the new constitution for Egypt. 
I really wished that all of the American media could have grasped the 
significance of what happened.
  That constitution actually included provisions that required the 
Egyptian Government under the constitution to rebuild and replace the 
churches or synagogues that had been damaged or destroyed by the Muslim 
Brotherhood. They felt so badly for what the Muslim Brotherhood had 
done to the Christians and Jews that they put it in their constitution 
that they had to be repaired and replaced. That should have been a big 
day for freedom, and most of the American media missed it entirely.
  Well, they are also missing today. As the left often wants to do--
maybe they want to vilify me. You can try to rewrite history, but you 
can't change what has happened in the past, and what happened 100 years 
ago today, the first day, November 14, that the National Cathedral, run 
by the Episcopal Church, has allowed Muslim prayers by named 
coconspirators in the terrorist funding trial to come lead prayers in 
this Christian cathedral.
  I thank God that the massive majority of Muslims, including some of 
my Muslim friends in the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, they don't 
want radical Islamists controlling anything. They don't want to be at 
war with Americans. They don't want to kill Americans. Thank God for 
that.
  But it is sheer lunacy not to recognize how important anniversaries 
are to radical Islamists, to the Muslim Brotherhood, to those who would 
kill and persecute and wipe out Jews and, as they say, wipe the Great 
Satan America off the map and the Little Satan Israel off the map. It 
is lunacy not to recognize the way these radical Islamists feel. We can 
live at peace with moderate Muslims.
  When I visited Nigeria not long ago to mourn with the Africans--23 
mothers who had had their daughters kidnapped, brutalized every day 
still in Boko Haram, radical Islamist controlled, it was a beautiful 
thing. Nigeria, until the radicals got involved, had Muslims and 
Christians living peacefully together.
  Meeting a government official, a devout Christian, who had in his 
wedding party one of his best friends in the world who was a Muslim, it 
is a thing of beauty to see people with different backgrounds and 
beliefs living at peace together.
  But until the American media, until a majority of Americans realize 
there really are radical Islamists that think that the fatwa that was 
declared by the last Islamic caliph of the Ottoman Empire 100 years ago 
today was a great thing, then this country remains at great risk.
  It is bad enough that we have enemies publicly saying they want to 
wipe us off the map, destroy our freedom of worship, free speech, the 
freedoms we hold dear and love, but to be blind that they want to 
destroy us is negligence, reckless indifference that can cost a 
country's freedom.
  Mr. Speaker, today is a big day. I hope Americans will wake up and 
understand the Muslim Brotherhood is not our friend. They want us all 
to be living, if we live at all, as Muslims or to pay the fine that 
acknowledges that we are subjugating ourselves to radical Islam. People 
have got to wake up. This country is at risk.
  Mr. Speaker, with prayerful regard to the masses of young Christians 
who were kidnapped, raped, crucified as a result of that fatwa issued 
100 years ago today, I hope that we will not be so blind that we could 
allow this movement to continue to grow as it has grown and grown.
  Some say a good way to avoid destructive forces overtaking civilized 
society is to watch Israel--that Israel could be looked at as the 
world's miner's canary, as miners used to take canaries into mine 
shafts. They knew canaries were more sensitive to poison gas, so if 
they saw a canary getting in trouble, falling, then they knew they 
better get out of the mine because it was very, very dangerous.
  When we see Israel being attacked, our best friend in the Middle East 
being attacked, when we see anti-Semitism, hatred for Jews, hatred for 
Israelis growing in Europe, of all places--I never thought that would 
happen again after Hitler--but it is growing again around Europe. It is 
growing on American campuses.
  These young, wonderful, brilliant students who have been miseducated 
to think that they need to get involved in anti-Semitism on their 
campuses in America will hopefully wake up and realize they have been 
played by people that are not about freedom.
  It is time for America to wake up. Because today, as an anniversary 
of what happened 100 years ago, is a really big deal for those who want 
to destroy our way of life and our lives if we are Christians.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________