A
Vision of Peace in the Middle East
Remarks by
Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham |
|
 Representative
Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA): Madam
Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for
yielding. I applied for a one-hour Special Order, but
under the rules, you are only allowed two hours; and
thanks to the goodness of my friend, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Dreier), I am able to speak for a few
minutes.
Madam
Speaker, my intent is to bring something different,
something refreshing to a Special Order. As I listened to
my colleagues on the other side, you would think that the
White House and Republicans are mean-spirited, evil, and
do not really care about the American public. I think it
would be refreshing to listen to a Special Order that
actually projects a vision. I wish it was my vision, Madam
Speaker, but there are many great men that have tried to
work on this, and the good news is that it is achievable.
Now,
tonight I only have 20 minutes left to speak. On Monday
night, I will have a full hour, and I will expand. But,
history has witnessed great men with a vision
accomplishing some very difficult tasks, and that vision
is a safe and secure Israel. That vision is a Palestine
that lives in peace beside its neighbor, Israel. It is a
vision that says that the Muslim world can be supportive
of both Palestine and Israel. And to make this happen, I
want to go through this vision.
I
am just a Member of Congress. I do not have the power to
bring this to fruition. But, I think it is possible, and I
think if all of us pull together on both sides of this
aisle, it could be something that will change this world
for the better, for Republicans, for Democrats, and all
Americans.
Can
you imagine a time of peace? I know in my life I thought
there would never be peace in Ireland. I am of Irish
descent. A Democrat went under the Clinton Administration,
and I think worked wonders in that part of the world. He
had a vision of bringing Ireland together in a time of
peace. Are there differences today? Yes. But, it is a lot
better than it was.
That
is what I want to talk about, and this is why I think it
is possible, is to talk over this 20 minutes and then the
hour on Monday night.
First,
I want to tell why I think it is possible. This is coming
from a pilot that flew in Vietnam and also flew in Israel
in the 1970s. It comes from a Member of Congress that is a
strong supporter of Israel but yet sees the possibility of
Palestine living side-by-side with Israel and peace in the
Middle East.
I
recently visited Saudi Arabia for a week. I went there
with a constituent of mine who is an American citizen and
has been for many years. He is an American citizen first,
but he also wants that vibrant feeling that used to exist
between the United States and Saudi Arabia to be
rekindled. Madam Speaker, I think that vision is possible,
so much so that I am willing to lay out political capital
to invest in this Special Order.
![Chamber of the Saudi Arabian Majlis Ash-Shura (Consultative Council) in Riyadh. [Photo: Ryan & Associates]](http://www.saudi-us-relations.org/images/IOI/2004_01_14c.jpg) I
would like to thank Minister Mohammed. He put together a
difficult schedule in which I was able to speak to every
minister in the council. I was able to talk to the Shura
Council, which is like our Congress, to business leaders,
to students, to families, to bankers. We even went to an
orthopedic rehab center that is rivaled nowhere in the
world that takes care of people with orthopedic problems.
Saudi
Arabia is a leader, Madam Speaker, in the Muslim
community. What happens in Saudi Arabia directs the rest
of the feelings in the Muslim community itself. Both Mecca
and Medina are looked upon by 1.3 billion Muslims many
times a day and pray towards Saudi Arabia -- Muslims that
want peace, not their counterparts that are active
terrorists and extremists.
On
9/11, Saudi Arabia saw many of the Saudi Arabians involved
in the 9/11 attacks. They were shocked. And, one of the
reasons they were shocked is that it was purported that
many of the people that were still walking around in Saudi
Arabia had been linked to those aircraft crashing into our
World Trade Centers, and they were not.
So,
they acted in disbelief as a nation that had been an ally
of the United States. Yes, they had problems. They had
problems then, and they still have problems now. But, the
majority of Saudi Arabians have a very strong friendship
and belief with the United States itself. They thought
that this terrible event, when it was confirmed, the Saudi
leadership at first was slow to react in some areas; but
in other areas, they stepped forward.
One
example is they provided millions of barrels of oil right
off the bat to stabilize the U.S. economy and to help us
meet our needs to help New York, to help the rest of the
community when jobs were being destroyed right and left.
Madam Speaker, in many instances I will discuss tonight,
Saudi Arabia has helped us over and over again.
 I
want to talk about some of the things I think that hurt
us, that can take away from this vision. I look at the
students before 9/11 from Saudi Arabia. When I spoke to
the cabinet in Saudi Arabia, and I spoke to the Shura
Council, 75 percent of both the cabinet and Shura Council
graduated from U.S. universities. Saudi Arabians that came
to this country and made personal investments in this
country; and to a person, not a single one that had
graduated said that they want to separate the ties with
the United States. Quite on the contrary. They love the
United States; they want to see those relationships
rekindled. But, yet, they are angry at some of the things
the United States is doing towards Saudi Arabia and the
rhetoric that comes out of much of our newspapers that
hurts that relationship.
If
Osama bin Laden wanted to achieve a division with the
United States and one of its best allies in the Middle
East, it would try and drive a wedge between us. They feel
that is exactly what Osama bin Laden did on 9/11 in using
Saudis. He could have used anybody within the entire
world.
Let
me tell my colleagues about some of these students. I
spoke to cabinet members that had graduated and, as a
matter of fact, Madam Speaker, the majority of those
students obtained Ph.Ds. These are the people who are now
leading the Saudi government, both in the Shura Council
and within the cabinet itself. But, those who had just
visited in the United States to a person said, "We do
not need the United States. I am going to send my son and
my daughter to Australia, to England, to Austria, to New
Zealand, to English-speaking schools," because they
did not make that personal friendship bond with the United
States.
| My
biggest concern, Madam Speaker, is the fact that
if we lose that strong support for the United
States, 30,000 students from Saudi Arabia prior
to 9/11, do we know how many we have today in
U.S. universities? Two thousand Saudi students.
There is a fine line between issuing visas and
national security. Colin Powell is working
desperately to change that and weigh the
differences between making sure that those visas
are offered only to people that are safe; but on
the other hand, we are denying access to our
universities and our schools, which people
within 5 to 10 years, we are going to ask to
support the United States, and that support is
not going to be here. That is dangerous, Madam
Speaker. |
..
on the other hand,
we are denying access
to our universities and
our schools, which people
within 5 to 10 years, we
are going to ask to
support the United
States, and that support is
not going to be here ..
|
I
will give a couple of significant issues as examples. When
I talked to one of the students, one of the students who
had been attending a United States university for many
years had gone back and forth, a strong supporter of the
United States even though he was a Saudi . When he checked
in through INS, the INS agent looked at his passport and
saw that he was from Saudi Arabia. The INS agent said,
"Smile for me like a terrorist." These are the
affronts that every single day Muslims in this country
face and the ignorance of some people on how it affects
people.
I
have a constituent that lives in San Diego. He has been an
American citizen for many, many years. His brother is
still in Saudi Arabia. His brother's son had been a
student within the United States, again for many years. He
stepped foot into the United States after traveling back
and forth many times, was put into handcuffs, was
shackled, his legs where he could just shuffle, and
shipped back to Riyadh with no explanation. And guess
what? When he got to Riyadh, our agency said, "Oh, it
is a big mistake."
Now,
when this constituent of mine goes to Saudi Arabia and
speaks about how strong the love is that the United States
has for Saudi Arabia, can we imagine what his brother
purports to him about his son being shipped back without
any reason, and then it is proven wrong? And, did the
United States even offer to ship this man back? No, that
is not the case.
When
I talked to this young man, his name is Badar, and Badar
was even allowed to go get a meal. He had handcuffs, his
legs were in irons, he had a tray, and as he is walking to
the little cafeteria, he looks over and sees the very
agents that had secured him, and he looks and says,
"Can I pick you up anything while I am on my way? I
am on my way to do that; can I help you get
anything?" This is the attitude of many of these
young men and women who attend our universities, and it is
a shame. They give us support, and the problem is that we
may do away with that support in the future.
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..
we need to help a nation [Saudi Arabia] that is
trying to help us instead of bashing that
nation.
In trade, in oil, they have always been there ..
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Madam
Speaker, I have heard over and over the media, and even
some of our Members of Congress, purport that Saudi Arabia
is evil. They have problems in Saudi Arabia. I sit on the
Subcommittee on Defense of the Committee on
Appropriations, and I also sit on the Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence. I will tell my colleagues
directly, not rhetoric, not spin, but the Saudi Government
is working with the United States' intelligence service in
which on Monday, I will purport and submit for the record
reams and reams and pages of al Qaeda that they have
captured, that they have killed, of their own soldiers
dying to help us and the rest of the world live in peace
from these terrorists. Again, have they had problems in
the past? Yes. Do they have problems now? Yes. But, we
need to help a nation that is trying to help us instead of
bashing that nation. In trade, in oil, they have always
been there.
Now,
in the 1970s, when we had our oil shortage, Saudi did not
help us. But, since that time, under the first George
Bush, under President Clinton, and now under George W.
Bush, while the world is providing us oil at $50 a barrel,
Saudi Arabia is working to give it to us at $38 a barrel.
In the 1970s, when some of us were old enough to remember
the gas lines, it was $72 and $73 a barrel. Yet, Saudi
Arabia is pushing their own wells to make sure that the
United States is taken care of, not just for Republicans
but for Democrat administrations as well. Colin Powell is
working desperately to resolve this as well.
Let
me get into one last issue before my time runs out. Some
of my friends that I meet with regularly, and I meet with
Jewish constituents, with Persian constituents, with
Muslim and Arabic constituents, and they have told me,
those who have served in Saudi Arabia, that the Saudi
curriculum, education curriculum, has not changed in 40
years. Eighty-five percent of that curriculum was okayed
by U.S. standards. Fifteen percent was in a gray area.
Five percent taught the Wahhabism, the anti-tolerance
system. Well, guess what? Saudi Arabia not only supported
the 85 percent that we support; they got rid of the 15
percent that was in a gray area. The five percent that
taught intolerance; they fired those individuals, over
3,000 teachers that were teaching intolerance were
eliminated, fired. And, they actually have schools that go
to purport a new curriculum to help not only not teach
intolerance, but to help the Saudi education system
itself. Many Americans do not recognize that, that they
are trying to work in that direction.
So,
the students coming to the United States and establishing
a bond, the curriculum that they have changed to make sure
that it is a curriculum not of intolerance but of
tolerance for other nations and adhere to the United
States' standards. I think that is significant.
Madam
Speaker, I am not sure how much time I have left, but I
think it is a good start to set forth on Monday, when we
talk about the issues and how do we get from this vision
of having Palestine and Israel secure, yet to have a
strong Middle East with support for a peaceful system in
the viable future.
Madam
Speaker, I will start by saying on Monday, I am going to
talk about a controversial issue. Crown Prince Abdullah
purported U.N. resolutions and supported U.N. resolutions
338 and 442, and those resolutions were adopted by the
United States. They were adopted by the U.N. and NATO and
all of the Arab nations. And, what that did is it
established a Palestinian state, a Jewish state, and if
anyone violated those resolutions, the Arab nations would
come to the rescue of Israel and support it.
Now,
I ask my colleagues, Madam Speaker, can we in today's
environment continue the Israeli-Palestinian issue as it
exists today? Every day people are losing their lives. I
strongly feel before we ever have peace in Iraq and in
Afghanistan and Egypt and Syria and Lebanon and other
areas that the resolution between the Israeli and the
Palestinian people has got to be fixed, and that is no
easy issue. They have been fighting for a long time.
So
on Monday, I want to give my colleagues a vision, not my
vision, but a vision that has already been adopted by the
United Nations, by the United States, by all of the Arab
world, and supported by Crown Prince Abdullah. That is the
antithesis of the direction that I would like to go
forward in on Monday and give examples of how Saudi Arabia
has helped the United States and other nations in the war
on terror and the directions that we can go to have peace
in the Middle East.
Also
see:
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