[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15806-15807]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           TERRORIST POACHING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, the call of the wild from mammoth 
African elephants and rhinos has grown meek and blissfully silent.
  The culprit: outlaw terrorists who are tracking and hunting down 
these massive creatures to fund their filthy, lucre terrorist 
enterprises. Our enemy is sophisticated and well-funded, but their 
weapons, surveillance equipment and training, food, lodging, and travel 
cost a lot of money.
  ISIS has a terrorist army that has raised billions of dollars through 
extortion, drugs, bank robbery, kidnapping, and oil smuggling, but 
there is one source of funding for terrorism that is being overlooked: 
poaching.
  Madam Speaker, the illegal wildlife trade in Africa is a $7 to $10 
billion a year business. According to the nonpartisan Congressional 
Research Service, a rhino horn sells for $65,000 a kilogram in Asia. 
That is more expensive than silver, gold, diamonds, or illicit drugs.
  The number one buyer of ivory is none other than China. With big 
profits and high demand, poaching has risen dramatically.
  Madam Speaker, two-thirds of central Africa's forest elephants have 
been wiped out in the last 10 years. 100,000 elephants were killed in 
Africa between 2010 and 2012. In just those 10 years, central Africa 
has lost 64 percent of its elephants, according to National Geographic.
  One of those elephants killed was Satao, pictured right here before 
he was killed. Satao was called by some as the world's biggest and 
largest elephant. Satao had tusks that reached to the ground, as you 
can see, but last June, he was found in a swamp, dead, killed for his 
tusks. He was 45 to 46 years old. The poachers finally got this old 
bull.
  Terrorists have identified this lucrative industry of systematically 
killing African animals as another source of cash to fund their 
murderous enterprises. The al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab generated 
between $200,000 and $600,000 a month from just tusks, according to the 
African Elephant Action League. The blood money accounted for as much 
as 40 percent of al Shabaab's total operating budget.
  These terrorist poachers not only kill African animals, but they kill 
the wildlife wardens guarding them as well.
  Other terrorist organizations implicated in the illegal poaching 
trade include Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army in central Africa 
and Boko Haram in Nigeria.
  Unsurprisingly, these terrorists have also taken advantage of the 
instability and corruption in African governments. Terrorists sell 
their bounties under the radar in the illicit market. The penalties for 
those caught poaching are minimal.
  So for terrorists who are looking to avoid detection, make a lot of 
money, and not face consequences if caught, poaching is their grand 
bargain.
  So what is being done? Our intelligence community has yet to 
establish a clear understanding of which terrorist groups are the most 
involved in poaching and who facilitates the worldwide transactions 
from Africa to other countries.
  We need wildlife trackers to track the money trail and the 
destruction of these creatures. The administration needs to have a plan 
to stop this eradication of mammoth animals.
  Multiple agencies from the State Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service, and others have been involved in efforts to eradicate 
poaching, but it appears no agency has taken the lead. Talk must turn 
to action.
  Last February, the Presidential Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking 
issued a national strategy for combating wildlife trafficking, but 
there is no implementation plan. Nine months later, we are still 
waiting for a strategy to go into effect.
  Meanwhile, endangered species are being slaughtered, like Satao, and 
terrorists are being paid from the sales of endangered species' tusks 
and horns.
  Preserving endangered species is a noble goal, but the fact that 
killers

[[Page 15807]]

worldwide are using this money to fund terrorism makes it even more 
urgent we stop this ruthless criminal conduct.
  These terrorists kill animals, so they can get money to kill people. 
The combination of these two evils, the killing of endangered species 
and innocent civilians to further radical terrorism, is an 
international threat.
  The world cannot allow radical Islamic terrorists to continue the 
wholesale slaughter of rhinos and elephants to fund their reign of 
terror. Make terrorists extinct, not these animals. Otherwise, the only 
rhinos and elephants our grandkids are going to see are the stuffed 
animals at Toys ``R'' Us.
  And that is just the way it is.

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