[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9635-9638]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      IRAN'S HISTORY OF TERRORISM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Rothfus) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. ROTHFUS. Mr. Speaker, this evening, I would like to take some 
time to remind the American people of the nature of a sworn enemy of 
the United States, whose leaders to this day, as they have for the past 
36 years, continue to chant, ``Death to America.''
  That enemy, Mr. Speaker, is Iran. Mr. Speaker, the permanent members 
of the U.N. Security Council--the United States, the United Kingdom, 
France, Russia, and China, plus Germany, this group known as the P5+1--
have engaged in negotiations with Iran in an attempt to halt Iran's 
development of nuclear weapons.
  Of significant note, unlike the negotiations that we had with North 
Korea years ago regarding its pursuit of nuclear weapons, those 
negotiations included the United States and North Korea's neighbors--
China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan. Iran's regional neighbors and 
closest targets, however--Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Israel--were not 
invited to participate in these talks.
  A framework for an agreement with the P5+1 and Iran was reached in 
April, but that framework is simply inadequate to halt the regime's 
march to a nuclear weapon.
  Iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon. Such an event would 
set off a destabilizing arms race in a region of the world that is 
already afire with sectarian hatred. It is a real threat that Iran 
would use such a weapon against Israel, Europe, or with its continued 
development of long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles against 
the United States.
  Iran's surface-to-surface missile expansion is a threat typically 
left out of discussions over its nuclear program, but we cannot ignore 
that Iran has now built itself the largest and most sophisticated long-
range missile arsenal in the Middle East.
  The current nuclear framework agreed to in April represents a 
significant shift in U.S. policy regarding Iran's nuclear program. 
Under the agreed upon framework, Iran's nuclear centrifuges will be 
allowed to keep spinning for the next decade. This is the first 
Presidential administration to agree to a deal that allows Iran to 
continue enriching uranium, thereby legitimizing Iran's entire nuclear 
program.
  Importantly, the administration's notion that oversight from 
international atomic inspectors can keep Iran from developing a weapon 
is simply not true. For over a decade, Iran has evaded the very 
oversight body tasked with conducting inspections and monitoring its 
nuclear stockpiles.
  If the past 15 years are any indication, we know that Iran will incur 
enormous financial costs and wreck its domestic economy, all to 
continue enriching uranium and developing and testing nuclear weapons 
at secret facilities and undeclared sites.
  In light of the past 15 years, we know Iran will continue to evade 
the international community just as it did when building and operating 
its Natanz and Fordow facilities in complete secrecy, concealed from 
international atomic inspectors.
  Those who choose can ignore the writing on the wall and whitewash 
Iran's previous violations of numerous international treaties while 
continuing to operate its covert nuclear program. Those who choose can 
ignore the hostile rhetoric that still spews from the mouths of Iran's 
so-called reformers, including so-called moderates, like President 
Rouhani, who publicly brags about Iran's ability to deceive the West, 
using stall tactics at the negotiating table when, all the while, Iran 
continues making progress behind the scenes on its nuclear program.
  Mr. Speaker, many of us have grave concerns about the deal being 
negotiated in that it will leave Iran on the path to nuclear weapons 
while allowing for the complete relief from the sanctions that forced 
Iran to the table.
  I suggest that, even if Iran abandons its path to the bomb, it is 
completely reasonable to leave the sanctions in place until Iran stops 
the terror campaign it has been on for the last 36 years.

                              {time}  2115

  I simply ask fellow Americans to be skeptical of any assurances that 
Iran has stopped or will stop pursuing a nuclear weapon. Just 6 months 
ago President Obama used these Iran negotiations to silence critics who 
oppose his foreign policy. In an interview with CNN, the President 
suggested that the year-and-a-half of ongoing negotiations with Iran is 
probably the first time that Iran ``has not advanced its nuclear 
program in the last decade.''
  President Obama didn't stop there. He went on to assure people that 
this freeze on Iran's nuclear program had been verified by the U.N. and 
the international atomic inspectors, who acknowledge that Iran has not 
made progress. Yet, we know now that the opposite is true. In the last 
18 months of negotiations, Iran has not frozen its nuclear program, by 
any stretch, but has actually increased its nuclear stockpiles by 20 
percent.
  Iran's nuclear program is a very serious problem. But it is only one 
of the dimensions of the threat that Iran poses to the world. It 
remains only one part of an overall program of terror that has been 
carried out by Iran for a very long time.
  I wanted to offer this Special Order about Iran today because it is a 
very

[[Page 9636]]

important anniversary. Thirty years ago today Navy Seabee diver Robert 
Stethem was singled out and murdered by Iranian-backed terrorists 
because he was a United States servicemember. He was only 23 years old 
at that time, the same age that I was. His murder was at the hands of 
Hezbollah, an Iran-funded militant terror group aboard the hijacked TWA 
flight 847. We can never forget the barbaric way in which he was 
murdered and his body subsequently dropped from the plane onto the 
Beirut runway.
  Master chief constructionman Stethem, we will never forget the 
sacrifice you gave for our country, and together we pray for your 
family.
  Robert was born in Connecticut to parents Richard and Patricia 
Stethem. Just as his mother and father had done, Robert followed his 
family footsteps and signed up to serve in the U.S. Navy shortly before 
he would celebrate his 20th birthday. He was returning from an 
assignment in Greece aboard TWA flight 847 headed to Beirut when the 
aircraft was seized by militants.
  Bobby Stethem never got to pursue the hopes and dreams that every 
American has: settling down, raising a family, and contributing more of 
himself to this wonderful, exceptional Nation. His parents lost the 
comfort and grace of seeing a son grow old, and his siblings lost a 
lifelong friend and companion. And lest we forget, it was Iranian-
backed terrorists who put an end to this young life. Bobby Stethem was 
one victim of Iran's reign of terror. There have been many more.
  Iran's hostility toward America emerged in full force in 1979 when it 
failed to protect the American Embassy in Tehran and allowed radical 
Islamist students to seize the Embassy and take American diplomats and 
marines hostage, holding 52 of them hostage for 444 days. The attempted 
rescue of the hostages in April 1980 resulted in the deaths of eight 
Americans, and Iran bears full responsibility for those deaths.
  Throughout the 1980s, Iran funded terrorists in Lebanon who were 
responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans. To recall some of 
the events: Between 1982 and 1992, Iranian-backed Hezbollah 
systematically kidnapped 96 foreign nationals, 25 of them Americans. At 
least eight died in captivity. Some were murdered, while others died as 
a result of inadequate medical attention.
  On April 18, 1983, Hezbollah bombed the American Embassy in Beirut, 
killing 63, including 17 Americans. Six months later, on October 23, 
1983, a Hezbollah suicide bomber drove a truck laden with more than 
15,000 pounds of explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks at the Beirut 
airport, killing 241 marines and wounding more than 100 more. Fifty-
eight French paratroopers were also killed.
  On September 20, 1984, Hezbollah struck again with another bombing, 
this time carrying out an attack on the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut, 
killing 24 people, including two Americans.
  The reign of terror moved from the 1980s to the 1990s, when Iranian-
backed terrorists attacked the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, 
killing 19 airmen of the United States Air Force.
  Iran continued its attacks on Americans throughout the 2000s and the 
2010s with its backing of terrorists who killed American servicemembers 
using IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan. An article from March 2015 quotes a 
former U.S. war general who served in Iraq and estimates that Iran was 
responsible for about one-third of U.S. casualties during the war, 
which amounts to approximately 1,500 sons and daughters of America who 
never came home alive.
  In addition to its attacks on Americans, Iran-backed terrorists 
attacked other nations around the world. In March of 1992, Hezbollah 
detonated a truck bomb at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 
29 people and injuring 240 others.
  On July 18, 1994, Iran bombed a Jewish community center in Buenos 
Aires, which took the lives of 85 innocent civilians and injured more 
than 300. Again, in July of 2012, Hezbollah operatives claimed 
responsibility after a suicide bomber detonated a bomb on an Israeli 
bus in Bulgaria, killing five Israelis and wounding 30 people.
  Until Iran stops its export of terror and stops its threats to 
Israel, the United States, and other nations, no sanction relief should 
be granted. If Iran does not abandon its nuclear ambitions, sanctions 
should be increased.
  I am privileged this evening, Mr. Speaker, to be joined by some 
colleagues. I would like to yield to my colleague from New York, 
Congressman Lee Zeldin, who represents a part of Long Island. 
Congressman Zeldin is a great addition to this House, serving in his 
freshman year, and also a veteran of the U.S. Army. I yield to 
Congressman Zeldin.
  Mr. ZELDIN. I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership 
on this issue.
  Iran is a nation led by a regime threatening the stability of the 
free world. That is nothing new. Iran has a long history of supporting 
terrorism and working to overthrow foreign governments. Since 1984, 
over 30 years ago, the United States has called Iran a state sponsor of 
terrorism, not only for their direct participation in attacks, but for 
their financing and other support for others who pursue terror.
  Iran has brought instability to the Middle East and does not act in 
good faith, blowing up mock U.S. warships, pledging to wipe Israel off 
the map, developing ICBMs, and chanting in their streets: ``Death to 
America.'' The Iranian Government threatens peace and democracy all 
across the globe. Nuclear weapons in the hands of our enemies harms the 
security of our freedoms and liberties that America cherishes and has 
worked so hard to defend.
  The Iranian Government came to the negotiating table dealt an 
impossible hand, you would think. In Texas Hold'Em, they call it a 7-2 
off suit. In 2009, when the economy was doing better in Iran--oil was 
$100 a barrel--millions of Iranians took to the streets to overthrow 
their own government. The President of the United States essentially 
made it out to be just their problem, not ours, and did not engage. Now 
look at the predicament we find ourselves in here today.
  The President of the United States comes into office, inheriting 
pocket aces when he sits down at the table, and pocket aces happen to 
be the best hand you can have in Texas Hold'Em. The President sits down 
with the leadership of the Iranian Government and asks to swap hands, 
in the spirit of fairness and equality and good faith. Yes, the pocket 
aces earned on the backs of generations of Americans who have shed 
blood--they have fought and died to protect the United States, the 
greatest nation on God's green Earth--and as a negotiating style, the 
President swaps hands with the bad guys.
  As we inch closer to the June 30 deadline, I want to reinforce that a 
bad deal is worse than no deal at all. Mr. President, you are getting 
played at the table. Take a walk; it is okay. It is time to strengthen 
your hand. Please do not prop up this regime with tens of billions of 
dollars in relief from sanctions. They are using that money to finance 
terror and overthrow foreign governments aligned with America, and that 
is with a bad economy and oil half the price.
  Don't make a slew of permanent concessions on our side in exchange 
for temporary concessions on the part of the Iranians. Show strength, 
not weakness. Too many Americans have shed their blood to make our 
great Nation what it is today. We need strength in your voice and an 
articulation of resolve that there will be no death to America.
  It is not okay for Iran to wipe Israel off the map. We demand the 
release of our Americans being unjustly imprisoned in their nation, 
which includes a United States marine. Where is the passion to free 
Amir now and the others of our fellow citizens wrongfully kept in their 
jails? Play the pocket aces, Mr. President. America's greatness, its 
exceptionalism, its strength is nothing to ever apologize for.
  About a month-and-a-half ago I was with former President George Bush, 
and a couple things he said then strike me, and I want to reference 
them here today. One is very simple. He says: The world needs America 
to lead. We can

[[Page 9637]]

have a different understanding or philosophy on tactics of what that 
means. It is something that we all know to be true. The world needs 
America to lead.
  The other was a story about him throwing out the first pitch at 
Yankee Stadium right after 9/11. He knew the stadium was going to be 
filled up. It was the World Series. It was right after 9/11. America 
was watching, and they were looking for something to be able to 
celebrate. Now, he was down getting ready to come out of the dugout, 
wearing a bulletproof vest, and he had a conversation with Derek Jeter. 
Derek Jeter asked the President whether or not he was going to throw 
from the top of the mound or the front of the mound, and the President 
answered: ``What should I do?'' Derek Jeter says: ``You have to throw 
from the top of the mound or they won't respect you.'' A few moments 
later, the President is getting ready to walk out onto the field, and 
Derek Jeter said one other last word of advice. His last words were: 
``Don't bounce it. They will boo you.''
  We need a perfect strike here, Mr. President, from the top of the 
mound, and don't bounce it. Don't bring home a bad deal. The resulting 
boos would be the least of America's problems. Right now is a time for 
strength and not weakness.
  For that reason, I once again want to thank the gentleman for 
bringing this important Special Order here tonight.
  Mr. ROTHFUS. I thank my colleague for his remarks and reminding us of 
the stakes. Also, Mr. Speaker, in a recent hearing held by the newly 
formed Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing, one expert we 
heard from described the threat posed by just one of the many Iranian-
backed terror groups. He told us: Hezbollah remains one of the most 
capable terror organizations in the world. The group's original aims 
were to establish a radical Shia Islamist theocracy in Lebanon and 
destroy Israel. However, in recent years Hezbollah has ``established 
cells and infrastructure in places across the globe, from Latin America 
and Africa to Europe and Asia.'' As a former Hezbollah leader confirmed 
years ago, ``Hezbollah has been receiving since 1982 all kinds of 
moral, political, and material backing from the Islamic Republic of 
Iran.''
  We must consider the implications that lifting sanctions could have 
on Iran's ability to export terror and finance military operations 
around the world. To this very day, we know that Iran remains the most 
active and largest state sponsor of terrorism. The wide array of terror 
activities Iran either supports financially or militarily include but 
are not limited to Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, the 
Houthi in Yemen, Shiite militias in Iraq, and militants in Afghanistan, 
while also maintaining its own terrorism apparatus, the Islamic 
Revolutionary Guard Corps.
  Notably, many of the terror financing experts we have heard from 
throughout our terror task force hearings have emphasized their 
concerns over the Obama administration's willingness to lift sanctions 
and free up billions of dollars for the Iranian regime to use at large. 
Many experts agree that these sanctions have, without a doubt, 
diminished Iran's ability to support terrorism and proliferation.
  It is shocking to think that the current administration would provide 
billions of dollars in a windfall for the Iranian regime in return for 
promises that Iran will limit its nuclear weapons pursuit without 
stringent mechanisms that can guarantee Iran will not use that money to 
send paychecks to militants or the family of militants who plan to use 
it for attacks against innocent civilians.

                              {time}  2130

  Sanctions relief will provide money Iran can continue to use to set 
up and enhance militant training groups for Hezbollah and Hamas and 
groups in northern Africa. It is money Tehran can continue to send for 
covert weapons shipments and support terror operations across the 
globe. Lifting economic sanctions will allow Iran to again use the 
international banking sector and make it more difficult to prevent them 
from conducting transfers and finding ways to support illicit terror 
groups.
  Mr. Speaker, we must wake up and recognize that the Iranian threat is 
much greater than the administration would have us believe. The threat 
is complex, multifaceted, and we must be combating the Iranian regime 
on multiple fronts instead of providing the regime billions of dollars 
in bonus money, all for agreeing to cooperate and pretend, if only for 
a short time, that they will act in good faith and adhere to 
international law and norms.
  I am also joined this evening by my colleague from Florida, 
Congressman Ron DeSantis, himself a veteran of the Navy JAG Corps. He 
has been outspoken on these issues.
  I am pleased to yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. DeSantis).
  Mr. DeSANTIS. I thank my friend from Pennsylvania.
  I was listening intently to our colleague from New York talk about 
the President needing to get up on the top of the mound and throw a 
perfect strike here with this deal. I have seen the President throw a 
baseball, and Lord help us if that is what we need to stop this, 
because I think we are in a major, major pickle here, and it has been 
the result of bad policies from the beginning.
  Almost 2 years ago, in 2013, this House voted to increase sanctions 
on Iran. And we did that with over 400 votes, on a bipartisan basis. 
And that was really the obvious thing to do at the time because the 
leadership of Iran, the mullahs, were chafing under the sanctions 
regime that was in place. And the way to deal with a country like Iran, 
with a leadership that is dedicated to militant Islam, is when they are 
starting to chafe, you turn the screws harder.
  We did that thing. We did the right thing. In the Senate, Harry Reid 
would not bring that up for a vote. The President decided that rather 
than that route, he would simply provide unilateral sanctions relief to 
Iran, saying: This is a gesture of good faith. Now we want you to 
reciprocate with your nuclear program.
  Basically, from that time forward, Iran has said: Go fly a kite. We 
are not giving up anything.
  So the agreement we seem to be on the verge of submitting to the 
Congress allows Iran to keep their entire nuclear infrastructure. The 
underground bunker at Fordow is fortified for a missile attack. Why do 
you need to fortify a nuclear facility against a missile attack if it 
is for peaceful purposes? So they get to keep that.
  They have a heavy water reactor in Iraq that they get to keep. That 
is used to produce plutonium. They don't need it for peaceful purposes. 
They have advanced centrifuges that they are allowed to keep. Again, no 
use for those for peaceful purposes.
  So Iran is basically in a situation where, if you turn back the clock 
almost 2 years, when this House voted those sanctions with over 400 
votes, if you asked Iran and the Iranian leadership what they most 
wanted, they probably said: Well, look, we want to keep our nuclear 
infrastructure, but we want to get rid of these sanctions.
  And guess what? That looks to be what is going to happen. And that is 
going to be a very, very dangerous and bad deal.
  I do think it is worth pointing out as much as we can the nature of 
this regime. They are not only fomenting problems in the Middle East, 
they are not only dedicated to the destruction of Israel, they are 
dedicated to the destruction of the United States.
  The most deadly attack on U.S. marines since Iwo Jima was in 1983 at 
the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, when Hezbollah, which was 
supported by Iran, bombed and killed 220 U.S. marines, another 21 
personnel. That is a major amount of American blood on their hands.
  In Iraq, in 2006, 2007, and 2008, they were responsible for killing 
hundreds of our servicemembers through the Shiite militias that were 
operating as their proxy forces, and may have killed as many as 1,500. 
So, again, that is major, major American blood on their hands.
  This is a regime that has never, since 1979, showed any evidence of 
changing

[[Page 9638]]

or deviating from their ideology-rooted and militant Islam. They are a 
danger not only to the region, but to the world.
  We have seen now for some time, since this President has taken 
office, Iran has steadily increased its influence and power in the 
region. They are the number one actor in Iraq, by far. They are now 
battling for Yemen with the Houthis. They are the number one patron of 
Hamas on the Gaza Strip. They are the number one patron of Hezbollah in 
Lebanon, and they are the number one patron of Assad in Syria. And so 
this is a massive Shiite crescent throughout the Middle East.
  And guess what? When Sunni Arabs see our administration bending over 
backwards to cut deals with Iran, they see the Shiite-backed militias 
that are backed by Iran and Iraq--the ones fighting ISIS--that makes 
the average Sunni Arab say: You know what? I am much more likely to 
want to join ISIS than have to live under Shiite oppression.
  So the President's policy, I think, has been bad for expanding Iran's 
influence, but I think it also has the effect of driving more Sunni 
Arabs into the hands of ISIS, and so it is lose-lose policy.
  I thank my friend from Pennsylvania for having this discussion. I 
hope that this bad deal doesn't happen, but if it does, we need to have 
robust debate in the House. We need to pick apart the deal piece by 
piece and show how this is not something that is good for security in 
the world.
  We can see that already before the deal has even been agreed to 
because you see an arms race in the Middle East with the Sunni Arab 
states that has been underway now for some time. That is a direct 
result of the bad policies that this administration has engaged in vis-
a-vis Iran.
  So the regime in Iran is an enemy of the country. We need to 
recognize that. And we need to make sure that we scrutinize any deal 
that comes to this Congress that allows Iran to maintain a nuclear 
capacity and that it is voted down resoundingly.
  Mr. ROTHFUS. I thank my colleague.
  There is plenty to consider as the negotiations continue between the 
P5+1 and Iran as we look forward to what deal will be produced.
  Again, with the concerns that have been expressed by my colleagues 
from Florida and New York, we must be vigilant, particularly when you 
look at the context of what has been happening with Iran over the 36 
years.
  Again, today we mark the sad anniversary of the murder of Bobby 
Stethem at the hands of Iranian-backed terrorists. Bobby is one of many 
victims that this Islamic regime out of Iran has been responsible for 
over nearly four decades.
  Going forward, an agreement where Iran would not even be required to 
actually stop enriching uranium merits our grave concern. In light of a 
final agreement's far-reaching implications for the security of both 
our allies in the region and our own national defenses, we must be 
extremely vigilant.
  As a Member who sits on a House committee that has been tasked with 
investigating the financial backers that keep international terror 
groups well-armed and operating, we cannot ignore Iran's leading role 
in international terror financing.
  As many experts have warned our Committee, once the administration 
agrees to lift all economic sanctions and free up billions of dollars 
to the Iranian regime, there is no guarantee that deepening the 
regime's pockets will not result in increased financing for acts of 
terror that will kill innocent people.
  In addition, contrary to what has been publicly suggested by the 
President, it will be all but impossible to simply slap those economic 
sanctions back into effect should Iran break the terms of a final 
nuclear weapons deal.
  We must look to the past and consider the present situation. We owe 
as much to all those who were murdered at the hand of the Iranian 
regime and by terror groups who would use Iranian money and weapons to 
take the lives of innocent men, women, and children.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________