[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 129 (Thursday, September 26, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H5878-H5880]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Valadao). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Gohmert) for 30 minutes.
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, there has been some interesting news come
out. The Council on American-Islamic Relations is changing its name.
There was an article in the American Thinker on September 23. This
article points out that an explosive story posted Sunday by Charles
Johnson at The Daily Caller reveals that:
CAIR has apparently been laundering money obtained from
Middle East donors in violation of Federal law. While it
publicly presents itself as a single organization, CAIR has,
in fact, created a multitude of 501(c)(3) organizations and a
501(c)(4), CAIR Action Network. By moving donations around,
CAIR may have evaded taxes and has avoided disclosure of its
foreign funding sources required by the Foreign Agent
Registration Act.
Quoting Johnson, ``Under IRS regulations, an organization
may have 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) related entities, but they
must maintain a wall between the two; this is accomplished by
establishing separate bank accounts, board of directors,
bookkeeping, and payroll. CAIR, though, had none of these.''
Johnson cites David Reaboi, vice president for strategic
communications at Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy,
``Plentiful legal evidence, acquired in the course of a
lawsuit--plus CAIR's own official filing documents to the
Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) and
IRS--make clear that CAIR has engaged in a thinly-disguised
money laundering operation. In addition to violating its
501(c)3 regulations, CAIR's undisclosed and hidden foreign
donations amount to violation of the Foreign Agent
Registration Act as well.''
Guidestar reveals nine state chapters, a property holding
company in California, a main office in Washington, D.C., and
the CAIR Foundation. Many of these chapters have little
income. The Iowa chapter--yes, there is one--has none. The
Foundation was de-listed in 2011 because it failed to file
the requisite IRS form 990 tax returns for the three prior
years. However, in June, WND reported that while Tea Party
organizations were being sandbagged by IRS, the agency
quietly restored the CAIR Foundation's nonprofit status
following a meeting with White House officials.
Well, the article, though, points out that CAIR is changing its name.
And it should also be noted that this comes on the heels of an
inspector general report last week that was made public that
established that the FBI had not properly followed its own directives,
that it had told FBI offices that they were not to have non-
investigative relations with CAIR as part of their so-called community
outreach program because of the evidence that was introduced in the
Holy Land Foundation trial in 2007-2008.
It should be noted that the judge in the U.S. District Court in the
Holy Land Foundation trial--in which there were over 100 counts of
funding terrorism, basically, that were found to have been violated,
criminal violations--found that when CAIR, ISNA moved to have their
name struck--there was one other name, I believe--they had been listed
as unindicted coconspirators. And they wanted to have their names
removed. And the court there at the District Court refused to remove
their names. So they appealed to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court group of judges ruled that there
was plenty of evidence to support CAIR, ISNA, their names being part of
the suit because the evidence was sufficient to show they were the
largest Muslim Brotherhood front organizations in America.
So it is interesting when the article points out that they got their
IRS nonprofit status returned after they had visited with White House
officials.
Which reminds me of back 2 years ago. There was a law enforcement
seminar at Langley out at the CIA headquarters. And CAIR, though--at
the time, the FBI was not supposed to have any relationship with them.
The White House certainly had plenty of relationships with them. And
they made calls to the administration, and they got these seminars
eliminated out at Langley because they objected to people being taught
about what radical Islam believed, what it wanted to accomplish.
And they actually got people delisted from being able to teach. One
of whom, Steve Coughlin, spent many years studying radical Islam. And
he used to brief our military commanders. And it was located at the
Pentagon. Studied radical Islam. And then all of a sudden, because CAIR
makes a phone call or two to the administration, now a man that knows a
tremendous amount about radical Islam is no longer able to teach people
about the dangers of radical Islam. That went well in line with CAIR's
complaints that the FBI training material needed to be purged because
there were things in there that they found offensive. And so things
were eliminated.
Well, when Michele Bachmann, Trent Franks, myself, and a couple of
others sent five separate letters to five different departments--the
Department of State, Homeland Security, intelligence--one was to the
Department of Justice. And in each letter, it set out specific facts
indicating that there was at least some Muslim Brotherhood influence in
that department. So the inquiry was not requesting an indictment, just
an investigation about the extent of Muslim Brotherhood influence in
that particular department.
The Department of Justice response indicated they had an ongoing
investigation at that time, and it was with regard to the impropriety
of FBI offices dealing with CAIR, despite the FBI's new policy to the
contrary, since there was evidence they were a large Muslim Brotherhood
front organization.
But nonetheless, some FBI offices continued to have their so-called
outreach programs. One found that they had brought a couple of CAIR
officials in to help teach about Islam and Muslim activities. And the
relationship went on.
I asked the former FBI director why it took so long since the FBI had
been gathering that information about CAIR's relationship to the Muslim
Brotherhood, why it took so many years after they started gathering
evidence about them to sever that partnership relationship for
community outreach.
So there's no question there's Muslim Brotherhood influence in this
administration. The Egyptians have pointed that out for a long time.
And
[[Page H5879]]
even under President Morsi in Egypt, it was published that they were so
proud that there were six--and they named the six--Muslim brothers who
were in high positions affecting the Obama administration.
Well, since CAIR--like ACORN had before it, when ACORN was found to
have engaged in improper activities and they were captured on video
engaging in highly inappropriate activities, and there was a move in
Congress to sever any Federal funds going to ACORN--well, they just
changed their name, and established different organizations so they
could still get Federal funding.
But now CAIR--and I don't know if they had seen what ACORN did so
they could still get Federal funding from different other agencies--
CAIR, according to this article, has changed their name, to the WTF.
They changed their name to WTF. So no longer will they be CAIR for the
Council on American-Islamic Relations. Now they will be WTF. CAIR has
now become WTF? Well, now when people want to have relations with CAIR,
they'll have to seek out WTF.
So the article also mentions the Justice Department inspector
general's report. This article says, ``Yesterday the Justice Department
Office of Inspector General released, then yanked, then released again,
its report on the FBI's questionable interaction with CAIR--sorry
again, WTF. The FBI had a strict policy in place limiting its
interactions with the group following revelations of CAIR's involvement
with terror in the Holy Land Foundation Trial. But those policies have
not been followed.''
So anyway, quite interesting there.
And I see my friend from Minnesota has come to the House floor. But
it is very important to know that CAIR has been found by a district
court and a Federal appellate court to be a Muslim Brotherhood front
organization.
{time} 1830
And now, when you seek out CAIR, you'll have to seek out WTF, the
Washington Trust Foundation, or WTF instead.
I'd like to yield to my friend from Minnesota (Mrs. Bachmann).
Mrs. BACHMANN. I thank the gentleman from Texas.
You are talking about an extremely important subject because the
Muslim Brotherhood has been on the rise across the world, and the
Muslim Brotherhood, Mr. Speaker, as we know, is a terrorist
organization.
So a terrorist organization has tried to manufacture a false front or
a false facade for itself. They called themselves CAIR, or the Council
on Arab Islamic Relations. They set up shop here in America. They
wanted to be the voice for the Muslim community in the United States,
even though they are the voice for the violent Muslim Brotherhood
terrorist group, which, by the way, was outlawed in Egypt for about 30
years under former President Mubarak.
And then the Muslim Brotherhood came in. They became the party of
record in Egypt. The former President of the Muslim Brotherhood became
the President of Egypt, until the people of Egypt decided to go into
the streets, in the largest human demonstration in history, to take
their country back because they didn't want the cruelties of this
organization.
It's bizarre to think that this organization, CAIR, was having any
relationship of any kind with the United States Government, with the
Obama administration, and with the FBI.
When you think about our chief law enforcement organization, which we
all have great respect for, it's incomprehensible that the FBI would be
reaching out in a so-called engagement strategy and bring in this
Muslim Brotherhood front group to advise the FBI on how to deal with
Muslims.
So here you have a terrorist organization that tries to put a new
face on themselves, call themselves CAIR, a terrorist organization,
come into the United States, and our FBI is working with them and
asking CAIR to advise them on how to reach out and deal with the Muslim
community? No wonder the FBI Director Mueller said, We're not going to
have this anymore, and decided we wouldn't have that engagement. And
it's disturbing to hear that there was continual engagement going on
with this organization.
One thing that I've noticed with a lot of these organizations that
have sometimes nefarious purposes--certainly CAIR would be one of those
groups--what is very interesting is that a lot of times these groups do
change their name. They change it to protect the guilty because people
are on to them, and that's exactly what's happened with CAIR. People
figured out who they are, just like you said, Representative Gohmert,
Mr. Speaker, that the CAIR organization was found to be part of this
terrorist coalition and involved in terrorist financing in the Holy
Land Foundation case.
So, now that this word is getting out to the American people in a
mainstream way, now they change their name to WTF. Well, it's kind of
self-explanatory. WTF, that will be the new acronym. But the American
people are smart. It's just the same group. They changed their name to
protect the guilty terrorist organization they were before, a front
group they were today. It doesn't matter what their name is. WTF may be
a very good name for this organization, may be a very good name, but it
doesn't change and alter who they are underneath.
I'm glad that you brought that up.
Mr. GOHMERT. Reclaiming my time, it's also important to note, the
American people are smart, but somebody at this administration
continues to give CAIR access to the White House, to the
administration, continues to listen to them.
I know the gentlelady from Minnesota and I were there to go through
the materials that were purged from FBI training materials, and you
actually came back and went through some additional materials later
that I didn't, the only one to have done that.
And it's interesting, again, to me that it was CAIR's complaining.
Here they are, a Muslim Brotherhood front organization, according to
the courts, and they complained about instruction on radical Islam and
the material is removed.
At the same time, another organization, the Islamic Society of North
America, ISNA, was also one of those mentioned, a named coconspirator
in the Holy Land Foundation trial. And ISNA's President, Mohamed Magid,
Imam Mohamed Magid, has--every time we hear about him it seems like
it's another piece of influence he has had on the White House.
And I know I've even read a speech given by the Chief of Staff of the
President himself, Denis McDonough, when he was the Deputy National
Security Advisor. He spoke at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society,
ADAMS--and I'm sure John Adams appreciates this. But he spoke at the
All Dulles Area Muslim Society and thanked Imam Magid for his wonderful
prayers during the Iftar celebration at the White House.
We know the head of ISNA, Imam Magid, has been in the center of the
State Department, was there when President Obama gave a speech. He
supposedly had helped him with his speech about the Middle East, which
explains why there were problems with things the President said in his
speech that were an insult to Israel and not factually accurate.
So, just as the letter that we signed, five different letters, five
different statements of fact in each of those five letters, but just as
they pointed out, we know there is Muslim Brotherhood influence in each
of those Departments. All we were asking for, not an indictment, just
please investigate your Department, as this limited IG inspection did
at Justice, of the FBI, and tell us how extensive or how little the
influence is. We know there's some there, so is it very little? Is it
great?
It's still a legitimate question. And I think, in view of the IG
report, it's time to revise our letter to the Department of Justice and
make further inquiries, because there's more information the gentlelady
from Minnesota and I have obtained that indicates it's an even bigger
problem than we knew at the time that those letters were sent.
I yield to my friend from Minnesota.
Mrs. BACHMANN. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I think one thing that absolutely shocked me was in the month of
June, when an individual who was the chief deputy of the spiritual
advisor of the Muslim Brotherhood--Qaradawi is the spiritual advisor
for the Muslim Brotherhood. His deputy, whose name is bin Bayyah, was
granted a visa by the
[[Page H5880]]
United States State Department to come into the United States.
Now, that's pretty unusual. You have a terrorist organization that
was outlawed in Egypt formerly, and the United States Government is
issuing a visa to the chief deputy of the spiritual advisor of the
Muslim Brotherhood. That, in itself, should kind of raise concern. Not
only was he granted a visa, he came into the United States this June.
He had a meeting in the White House.
How do we know that?
Bin Bayyah put a photo up on his Web site and bragged about this
meeting that he had, and he said it was in the White House, in the
Executive Office Building. He named the people. There were people,
obviously, in the photo. And he said, during the course of that
meeting, he came in and requested that the White House give arms and
training and weapons to terrorists that would be fighting in Syria.
That was what the request was that he made. That's in his words. That's
not my words. That was in bin Bayyah's words on his Web site.
Well, just this last Monday, not the Monday of this week but the
Monday before, on the same day as the tragic shooting of 13 people at
the Navy Yard here in Washington, D.C., just 2 miles from where
Representative Gohmert and I are standing today, Mr. Speaker, on that
same day, President Obama signed a waiver to the Arms Export Control
Act. Nobody heard about it because it was a big news day. Thirteen
Americans were gunned down that day by an individual.
But this is very big news because President Obama, when he signed
this waiver of section 40 and section 40(a) of the Arms Export Control
Act, what he did is waived the prohibition against the United States
arming terrorists, including al Qaeda, in Syria. And this isn't Michele
Bachmann saying this. This isn't Representative Louie Gohmert saying
this. This is the White House saying this and also major news reports
coming out that the President signed this waiver.
Now, I want to just repeat it, because this was hard for me to
understand when I heard this, that our President of the United States,
Barack Obama--this is not meant to insult him in any way, it's just
meant to inform the American people--he signed a waiver from the
prohibition.
It would make sense that we would prohibit spending U.S. tax money to
arm terrorists. That would make sense that we wouldn't want to do
something like that. No arming of terrorists, especially al Qaeda.
We've only been trying to fight them and defeat them for 12 years,
minimum, more than that.
But a week ago Monday, President Obama chose to waive that
prohibition; and, as myself and Representative Gohmert are standing on
the floor today in this greatest of all deliberative bodies in the
world, it is a fact, today, in the United States, that our President
has intentionally chosen to arm terrorists, including al Qaeda.
Now, I think it's important that the American people know that, that
our President signed that piece of legislation--or not legislation,
waiver, because if that was legislation that came on this floor, I
don't think you would find Democrat Members of Congress who would be
willing to vote for that measure. I don't believe they would, because
one thing I know about this Congress, we're pretty bipartisan when it
comes to national security. I don't care what your political background
is, you want this country safe; and I'm very, very proud of what I've
seen coming from Democrats and Republicans working together, because we
want national security.
But this is a big issue, and that's why I think it's very important
that Representative Gohmert is bringing up this issue, Mr. Speaker,
about the level of influence of the violent terrorist organization
known as the Muslim Brotherhood, what their presence is in the United
States, and, most particular, what their influence is on our United
States Government.
Mr. GOHMERT. Reclaiming my time, that is an extraordinary
development, our President deciding, after America rose up so clearly
with, basically, one voice, saying, do not get us involved in Syria.
I know in my own office, we had heard from, I think, three people who
did not live in our district and between 1,300, 1,400 that did, saying,
do not get involved in the war in Syria.
And we knew at the time that the largest part of the rebels were al
Qaeda-linked. We knew that President Assad was backed by Iran and
Hezbollah and with Shia. We knew that the rebels, the largest part of
them, were Sunni, al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood, and there's no reason
to get in the middle of that. And, frankly, that's why, since we know
so much about the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist activities abroad,
despite CNN's reporting and so many reporting about the so-called coup
in Egypt, we knew, the gentlelady from Minnesota and I having been in
Egypt in the last few weeks and talking to so many people and doing our
own homework, that that was not a coup. And the Coptic Christian Pope
told both the lady from Minnesota and me that that was not a coup; that
was the Egyptian people rising up.
And I did not know--maybe the gentlelady from Minnesota knew. I did
not realize that the constitution in Egypt that America supposedly gave
them advice about, didn't have a provision for impeachment. So when
they had a Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer as the President who was
disregarding the constitution, there was no way they could bring
impeachment charges to get him out.
They had one answer, one solution, and they acted peacefully; and
millions--millions--more than ever has protested in the history of the
world, came out to the streets and demanded the Egyptian military
remove the President. And they did so, and he's awaiting trial. I'm
hoping they'll wait until newly elected officials are present so that
they can have the trial of former President Morsi in front of a new
regime that's elected by the people.
{time} 1845
But we didn't help give them any options there. And yet so much of
the mainstream media has been reporting, as the Muslim Brotherhood has
been killing Christians, killing moderate Muslims, and just destroying
and burning churches, that it's basically the military, when it's not
the military at all. It's the Muslim Brotherhood.
And they have made clear they'll burn the country down, and they'll
kill everybody they can in order to get Egypt back under radical
Islamic control. Because for those that envisioned a new Ottoman
Empire, envisioned the beginning of a worldwide caliphate, they could
not afford, in their dream of running the world as one massive, radical
Islamic caliphate, to lose Egypt. And they were willing to do whatever
violence they had to do to avoid that. As the gentlelady has mentioned,
the Muslim Brotherhood now has been outlawed in Egypt. I really applaud
the efforts of the people in Egypt.
I couldn't help but be amused by some of the mainstream and then some
of the far left-wing reporting about my coming here to the floor and
showing blowups of pictures and giving speeches here about what the
Egyptian people were doing and rising up and that they were upset not
with America--they showed by their signs they love America--but they
were upset with our President. Frankly, in my own ignorance, I didn't
even know who our Ambassador was, but the people of Egypt knew. They
had signs out there. They are upset with her. They were upset with the
Obama administration. But they love America.
And I thank the gentlelady from Minnesota for her valuable input, and
I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________