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EDITOR'S NOTE:
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence conducted a hearing to discuss the 9/11 commission recommendations on August 4, 2004. Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) contributed remarks concerning the US-Saudi relationship in the context of the war on terror during questioning of hearing witness Ambassador J. Cofer Black, State Department Counterterrorism Coordinator. Mr. Cunningham spoke of his visit to Saudi Arabia, the close cooperation in the war on terror and on the prospects for maintaining close ties with particular emphasis on the dwindling number of Saudi students seeking American education. [See
Terror, Students, Policy and Relationships: A Congressman Looks to the Future," SUSRIS IOI of August 8,
2004.]
On September 29, 2004 Representative Cunningham (R-CA) returned to the subject of U.S.-Saudi relations in a special order speech during which he laid the groundwork for what he described as a "vision of peace in the Middle East." Those remarks are provided in this item of interest.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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