[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12712-12713]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
                     CRISES IN UKRAINE AND NIGERIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, on Monday, I joined other Houstonians 
to express our sympathy by greeting citizens from the Netherlands and 
Malaysia after the enormous tragedy that occurred just 4 days ago, or 
more than 4 days ago, the shooting-down of the Malaysian flight over 
Ukraine territory, manned by an illegitimate government that thought it 
was appropriate to shoot missiles where no knowledge, allegedly, was 
gained or understood as to what it was, and hundreds of souls lost 
their lives.
  I hope that today, as the remains will be reaching the soil of the 
Netherlands, we will all take a moment to reflect on that enormous 
tragedy.
  As a senior member of the Homeland Security Committee, I am, 
obviously, extraordinarily disturbed because it pierced the sanctity of 
the international airways, and it says that there is no respect, 
dignity, or protocol as relates to the commercial flights and 
international airway.
  That, first of all, for all countries, must be abhorrent and 
outrageous. And then, we must take knowledge of the atrocious behavior 
of Russia. And it should not be silenced; their behavior is outrageous.
  It is inappropriate because Mr. Putin is a head of State. Bodies of 
another sovereign nation lay in a field, many sovereign nations. Mr. 
Putin did absolutely nothing to avoid the desecration and the insult 
and the indignities given to those lost souls.
  I am reminded of crashes over the years when countries or airlines 
were able to take the family members, within days, to the site for 
prayer or acknowledgment, giving them added comfort.
  So I think it is important to understand, and I refer my colleagues 
to an article, yes, in The Wall Street Journal, on why Putin is taking 
major risks in Ukraine. He is still living in the world of the Soviet 
Union.
  But it is imperative to know that we have something that we can 
offer, besides a request of peace, reconciliation, and international 
investigation unfettered. We have something that we can acknowledge.

[[Page 12713]]

  Even the Transportation Secretary indicated that energy resources, 
natural gas, oil and gas, natural gas, LNG, are resources that we can 
utilize to substitute for the despotic hold that he has over Europe.
  The Secretary of Transportation indicated it is a creator of jobs. 
But we need to start having Europe turn to the United States to ensure 
the opportunity for freedom and ceasing this atrocious hold on Europe.
  Let me state, just for a moment, to acknowledge a tragedy and the 
terrorism of Boko Haram. I will go to the Nigerian Embassy today, Madam 
Speaker, to acknowledge that the girls in captivity have been held for 
almost 100 days.
  I will look to introduce legislation that will use some of the seized 
Nigerian assets that have been seized through criminal activity to 
establish a real victims funded, even though I congratulate President 
Jonathan for creating one, but there has been no money given to these 
victims.
  And I will say that we need to watch this place because Boko Haram 
has now seized a whole town in the Northern State, the very State we 
were in when we went to Nigeria and spoke to the Governor. Now, a whole 
city, like New York or Chicago or Houston, has been seized.
  We have elements that we can do something about: Russia and its 
misbehavior, mistreatment of lost souls, and the terrorists and 
terrorist activities of Boko Haram.
  I implore my colleagues to work together to find a solution so that 
souls may be buried in dignity and never have this happen to them again 
and, as well, so that Boko Haram, is in essence, brought to justice.

                          ____________________