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The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bucshon). Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized for 30 minutes.
Mr. GOHMERT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. These are interesting days in which we live. There is supposed to be an old Chinese curse that says: May you live in interesting times; and it's as if that curse has been placed on us. We certainly live in interesting times.
On 9/11/2001, this country suffered the worst attack in its history on its homeland. It was worse than December 7, 1941. It left thousands dead, it left the Nation reeling from the feeling of vul ner a bil ity, and it pushed the Federal Government to respond quickly.
Now, there are a number of things that could be effectuated more effectively in Iraq and Afghanistan. That would be a subject for another time.
I recall after 9/11, Bill Bennett coming to my hometown of Tyler, Texas, and speaking at Tyler Junior College. And there was a huge crowd that turned out. People, in fact, turned out during those few months after 9/11 in record numbers to their churches and to places of worship in record numbers. Because much like the children of Israel after a disaster, they realized they needed to get back closer to our Creator.
The FBI, our intelligence attributes, all of our Justice Department, State Department and all of the Bush administration immediately was pushed into gear to do something to protect us. And in that regard, Bill Bennett speaking there in Tyler said, Some people get offended if they look somewhat like someone who committed the worst attack in American history and they're searched more thoroughly than perhaps someone else.
And Bill said, I just know that if there was a red-headed Irishman that had attacked the United States, he said, I could anticipate having to go through heightened security checks every time I try to fly, every time I try to go anywhere. And he said, If that were to happen, I would understand because, he said, I love this country. I want people to be safe and feel safe, and since someone who looked like me with red hair and my same heritage had committed that act, even though he was and is a law-abiding citizen, he would understand being subjected to more scrutiny.
There was a time in this country when common sense like that did prevail, when no one would have ever dreamed that in going through security at an airport and somebody like me asking, why did I get pulled aside for the extra inspection and the puffery and all the added scrutiny, and being told, you look like you wouldn't get mad. That told me a lot. I stood there and watched for about 20 minutes. There were a couple of African American businessmen, well dressed, they were pulled aside for the heightened scrutiny. They certainly had no resemblance to anybody that had attacked America on 9/11. A little old lady, one of our seniors, full of vim, vigor and spirit, she was pulled aside. Anyway, interesting times.
I think our Justice Department, some of our folks who are supposed to be looking out for our protection have been lulled into a false sense of security, and they have done what some say
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would be to respond to the squeaky wheel. The OIC, the 57 Islamic nations that make up the OIC, are the ones that invented the term ``Islamophobia,'' and it was Islamic nations that have funded some of our Ivy League schools, institutions of higher learning yearning for more dollars to accept massive contributions in return for their doing seminars and conferences on Islamophobia and trying to make Americans think there's something wrong with them if they fear the people who brought about 9/11.
[Time: 20:10]
Now, I am grateful for my Muslim friends. I am very grateful for the Muslim allies we had--and have, although this administration is throwing them under the bus--that we have in northern Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance, those in the Balochistan area of Pakistan. We've got Muslim friends all over the world. We have Muslim friends in this country who love the freedom here, who don't want to see this country hurt.
But there are those who have contributed to terrorism. There are those who have come here from other countries who hope to see our demise. My brother, who was living out north of the beltway, was shocked on 9/11, that afternoon, to see in a Muslim area north of the beltway children jumping and yelling and rejoicing over the deaths of Americans in the Pentagon and in the 9/11 towers. There was a time when Americans would have had more sensitivity than that. They would be so grateful to be in America they would not rejoice in the loss of innocent lives by Islamic jihadists.
The 9/11 Commission, bipartisan as it was, came to conclusions--with all of which I don't agree--but they made a very good-faith effort. They came to the conclusion about certain things, and it was clear that the actions of the terrorists that killed over 3,000 Americans were those of Islamic extremists, not rank-and-file, but Islamic extremists who believed that jihad meant the destruction of our way of life here in America, of Americans as infidels because they do not believe the same way.
Who would have believed that 10 1/2 years later the mean people would not be those who have refused to denounce terrorist activities, those groups who have not only refused to denounce terrorist activity but who have actually supported terrorist activity through Hamas and Hezbollah--known terrorist organizations--and against whom there is sufficient evidence, as found by a district court in Texas and by the Federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, sufficient evidence to move forward with the case. That's because the judge in the district court, Judge Solis, and the Fifth Circuit agreed that there was prima facia evidence of Muslim groups here in America who were named but unindicted coconspirators in funding terrorism, ``prima facia'' meaning adequate evidence to basically go forward. In fact, the words ``prima facia'' were used by Judge Solis in his decision.
Well, the FBI, over the years, seems to have relaxed in some regards, wanting to avoid being called Islamophobic, as the 57 Islamic states have shoved that notion further and further across our Nation, have pushed to meet one of their 10-year stated goals, as found in the materials of the Muslim Brotherhood archives found across the river in Virginia in a subbasement.
One of those goals was to subvert--actually subject the U.S. Constitution to sharia law; and the way to do that was to force a pronouncement that in America you could burn a Bible, you could put a cross in urine, you could call Christians all kinds of names, blaspheme Jesus Christ, you can burn an American flag, call the American Government all kinds of names, but under no circumstances should anyone defile a Koran.
As a Christian, I do not think anyone should ever abuse a Koran in any way. But the Constitution says if somebody wants to burn a Bible, that's been interpreted to mean you can burn a Bible. It's a freedom of speech issue. If you want to burn a flag, we're told you can do that.
Well, we had the Director of the FBI come before our Judiciary Committee in the not-too-distant past. And these are some of the documents that have been involved in the prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation in which groups like the Islamic Society of North America, CAIR, others, were named coconspirators. In any event, Director Mueller, March 16 of last year, before our Judiciary Committee, had testified in answer to a number of questions that, gosh, they viewed the Muslim community as absolutely the same as any other community, even those Muslim communities that rejoiced over 9/11--he didn't say this, but it was clear--that rejoiced over the deaths of Americans on 9/11. They saw them just like every other community. He also testified about the positive outreach that the FBI had been making to Muslim communities.
Well, I don't have a problem with that, but why would the FBI see the need to make positive outreach into any community of a specific nature?
So, after Director Mueller had indicated, yes, we have this wonderful outreach program with the Muslim communities and those communities are exactly like every other community, I said:
You had mentioned earlier--and it is in your written statement--that the FBI has developed extensive outreach to Muslim communities. And in answer to an earlier question, I understood you to say that Muslim communities were like all other communities. So I'm curious, as a result of the extensive outreach program the FBI has had to the Muslim community, how has your outreach program gone with the Baptists and the Catholics?
Mr. Mueller said:
I am not certain of necessarily the thrust of that question. I would say that our outreach to all segments of a particular city or county or society is good.
I said:
Well, do you have a particular program of outreach to Hindus, Buddhists, Jewish community, agnostics, or is it just an extensive outreach program to----
He interrupted and said:
We have outreach to every one of those communities.
I asked how he did that. And he started to filibuster. I said:
I have looked extensively, and I haven't seen anywhere in any one from the FBI's letters information that there has been an extensive outreach program to any other community trying to develop trust in this kind of relationship, and it makes me wonder if there is an issue of trust or some problem like that that the FBI has seen in that particular community.
[Time: 20:20]
And just so there's no mistaking, let me just read directly from the judge's opinion in the Holy Land Foundation case in response to the effort by ISNA, CAIR, NAIT, the Holy Land Foundation, and others.
The judge said:
The government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA, and NAIT with the Holy Land Foundation, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and with Hamas. While the Court recognizes that the evidence produced by the government largely predates the HLF designation date, the evidence is nonetheless sufficient to show the association of these entities with the Holy Land Foundation, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and Hamas.
There was plenty of evidence to support that, according to the judge. That was affirmed by the Fifth Circuit.
It is important to note that, out of concern for the FBI's outreach program, and the State Department, and the White House, for reaching out and bringing in people who courts have said have supported terrorism, and these people are being brought in--in the military we said brought inside the wire--in this case, brought inside the State Department, brought inside The White House on a regular basis, brought inside the Justice Department, my friend, Frank Wolf, had this language added to the continuing resolution that was passed, that President Obama signed into law. This is language in the law, and my friend, Mr. Wolf, included it to reference the FBI's policy.
It says, and this is the language in the law:
Conferees support the FBI's policy prohibiting any formal non-investigative cooperation with unindicted coconspirators in terrorism cases. The conferees expect the FBI to insist on full compliance with this policy by FBI field offices, and to report to the Committees on Appropriations regarding any violation of the policy.
Well, guess what? We didn't get this from the FBI. We had to get it from the Islamic Society of North America's own Web site. They reported that on Wednesday, February 8, that's this year, the American Arab Anti-discrimination Committee, the Arab American
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Institute, the Interfaith Alliance, the Islamic Society of North America, ISNA, which has been pronounced by the Fifth Circuit as having plenty of evidence to support that they fund terrorism and have, and then it mentions other groups, including the Shoulder-to-Shoulder Campaign.
But they, it says:
They had an opportunity to discuss the matter with the Public Affairs Office of the FBI. Director Robert Mueller joined the meeting to discuss these matters with representatives from the organizations.
The conversation with Director Mueller centered on material used by the agency that depicts falsehoods and negative connotations of the Muslim American community. The use of the material was first uncovered by Wired magazine.
And that was uncovered by an organization that seems to be right in there with those who were unindicted but named coconspirators in funding terrorism.
Well, from ISNA they say:
Director Mueller informed the participants that the FBI took the review of the training material very seriously, and he pursued the matter with urgency to ensure that this does not occur again in the future.
ISNA President Imam Magid, who's a frequent visitor to the White House, who the White House consults on speeches, or has, and welcomed to the inner sanctum of the State Department, other Departments here in Washington, Magid stated:
The discovery of FBI training materials that discriminated against Muslims did damage to the trust that was built between dedicated FBI officials and the American Muslim community. We welcome and appreciate Director Mueller's commitment to take positive steps toward eradicating such materials and rebuilding trust in an open dialogue.
The director also informed participants that to date, nearly all related FBI training materials, including more than 160,000 pages of documents, were reviewed by subject matter experts multiple times. Consequently, more than 700 documents, 300 presentations of material, have been deemed unusable by the Bureau and pulled from the training curriculum. Material was pulled from the curriculum if even one component was deemed to include factual errors or be in poor taste or be stereotypical, or lack precision.
I guess stereotypical would mean if they point out that terrorists have had one thing in common, that that would be stereotypical.
Well, ISNA also reports:
It was clear to all meeting participants that the issue of trust between community members and the FBI needs to be taken seriously by all our nation's decisionmakers. It was evident the Bureau must strengthen its efforts to build trust.
How about trust from the other side? How about condemnation of terrorist acts?
How about coming out and making clear all ties have been severed with Hamas and Hezbollah and those who would seek to make terror on innocent people?
Anyway, ISNA's rejoicing because they've gotten the FBI to actually go through and cull material that includes words like jihad, words like Islamist.
And, in fact, and I really do wish, Mr. Speaker, that our Director of the FBI would be as concerned about this law as he is about laws that don't exist, but his concern is about offending people who have been supporting terrorism that has been killing innocent people around the world.
Instead, this is what we have as a result of the efforts by this administration and the Director of the FBI. The 9/11 Commission report mentioned 322 times Islam because the people who were the hijackers, the people that planned the attacks, that hoped that they would kill tens of thousands of Americans instead of 3,000, those who helped train them in Afghanistan, those who helped plan and participate from other radical Islamist groups, they were Islamists. They believed in Islam. And thank God that they only represent a tiny percentage of Muslims around the world. But let's be realistic. As one intelligence officer said, we are blinding ourselves to being able to see who our enemy is.
Well, our FBI can be very, very proud. No longer in training materials, as the director told the named coconspirator of terrorism, ISNA, no longer are they going to mention Islam, Muslim, jihad, enemy. They don't mention the Muslim Brotherhood. They don't mention Hamas. They don't mention Hezbollah. They don't mention al Qaeda. They don't mention caliphate. They don't mention sharia law.
Those have been wiped clean from our training materials so that new FBI trainees, people coming in, will have no idea exactly what they're facing because they're being told, you must look only at a group as supporting heightened violence. But you cannot examine their books, things that mean very much to them, things that motivate these killers, these terrorists. You can't look at the things and their interpretations, what makes them tick.
How do you defeat an enemy if you cannot look at what makes them think the way they do? I would think that groups, our Muslim friends who want to help keep this country free, instead of demanding that we not realize that these are Islamic jihadists that want to kill us, that they would be out there pointing these people out publicly and condemning them. Instead, they're condemning those who simply want to protect America, who want to live in peace, want to live in freedom.
[Time: 20:30]
Imagine what these same kind of groups would have said if they had heard the prayer on D-day, live? Can you imagine these groups hearing Franklin Roosevelt's prayer on radio as he prayed for 6-to-10 minutes publicly, a prayer that you can find online?
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set up on a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization to set free a suffering humanity.
He goes on and prays for a very long time on D-day as our troops were trying to retake Europe.
He also says in his prayer:
And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment--let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose. With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy.
Back then, Roosevelt didn't know you couldn't call your enemy that wanted to take over your Nation, that wanted to kill innocent people, that wanted to take away your liberty, Roosevelt didn't know you couldn't call them unholy forces of our enemy. So he used those terms because he cared about America. He cared about protecting America.
We want to live in peace. We want to live in peace with our Muslim friends, our Hindu friends, our agnostics, our atheists. But for heaven's sake, do not keep blinding our intelligence community, our justice community.
There was a time when in America you could call things just as they were, and in the Revolution one of the most quoted statements was attributed to Voltaire:
I disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it.
Now, when someone disagrees with what you say, they want to destroy your life, destroy your livelihood.
It's time for America to wake up before we get hit again. We have people in this country who are supporting terrorism. There's prima facie evidence to establish it; the courts have found it. This administration refused to pursue it when the evidence was clearly there, refused to pursue these people; and instead of pursuing the unindicted coconspirators after the convictions and the Holy Land Foundation--oh, sure, this administration says, Well, the Bush administration wasn't going to. The Bush administration was going to pursue the unindicted coconspirators if they got convictions in the Holy Land Foundation trial, which they did, near the end of 2008.
It's this administration that refused to go forward and prosecute anyone further.
So instead of prosecuting people supporting terrorism, this administration calls them into the White House, calls them into the Justice Department and says why can't we be friends.
It's time to wake up. We owe this country a defense with our eyes open, with our arms and heart open to help those who really are helpless, but to stand firm even to the death as our serv ice mem bers are pledged to do, as I did my 4 years on active duty. Let's stand firm together until those who are intent on destroying us and supporting
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terrorism are made to account and back off and say we're no longer your enemy. Then all communities can worship and love as one.
We've got to protect America.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
