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“CALLING ON CONGRESS TO STRIKE LANGUAGE IN TRADE BILL IN REGARD TO SUDAN” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H7349-H7351 on Sept. 7, 2000.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
CALLING ON CONGRESS TO STRIKE LANGUAGE IN TRADE BILL IN REGARD TO SUDAN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I am appalled and outraged that language was included in a recent bill that unanimously passed the House that will lift the embargo on gum arabic from Sudan.
Language was included in H.R. 4868, the Miscellaneous Trade and Corrections Act of 2000, which does not even mention the word or country of Sudan or gum arabic. Yet the passing of this language is a significant foreign policy issue for the U.S. The language was known about by very few Members of the House. This is very cryptic language that was used to describe a major foreign policy issue for the U.S., whether to lift significant sanctions against one of the worst regimes in the world.
The regime in Khartoum harbors gobs of terrorists. Abu Nidal, Hamas, and all of the terrorists who are doing so much to disrupt the Middle East have training camps in Sudan. Virtually every major terrorist group in the world passes through Khartoum, many under the tutelage and sponsorship of the government of Sudan. The government of Sudan was implicated and behind the assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The government of Sudan condones slavery. Slavery exists in the 21st century. Yet the Congress voted to help a country that has slavery. Over 2 million people have died because of the war conducted and generated by the northern-led government.
The government of Sudan indiscriminately and repeatedly bombs and kills innocent civilians. They are killing hundreds of Catholics in Bishop Max Gassis' diocese in the Nuba Mountains. Just over the past few weeks, the Sudanese regime has shut down a U.N. humanitarian relief Operation Lifeline Sudan that feeds millions of people in southern Sudan, by repeatedly bombing and attacking and killing workers and planes.
Chinese troops are now supposedly present in Sudan, most likely guarding the precious oil fields that are now generating hard cash for the government.
Now, Mr. Speaker, every Member should know that we have just learned that Osama bin Laden, a terrorist who killed American citizens and bombed two of our embassies, one of the most wanted international terrorists, is reportedly a major investor in Gum Arabic Company Limited. This company is a Khartoum-based firm that has a virtual monopoly over this issue. The new book out called The New Jackals by Simon Reeve says the following:
Perhaps most crucially, bin Laden cannily invested in Gum Arabic Company Limited, a Khartoum-based firm which has a virtual monopoly over most of Sudan's exports of gum arabic, which in turn comprises about 80 percent of the world's supply. Gum arabic comes from the sap of the Sudanese acacia tree, a colorless, tasteless gum that makes newspaper ink stick to printing presses, keeps ingredients in drinks from settling at the bottom of a can, and forms a film around sweets and medical pills, keeping them fresh. It is a crucial ingredient in dozens of western products.
Then he goes on to say that bin Laden is believed to have secured an effective monopoly over the entire Sudanese output that this Congress has voted to help.
Even now the State Department in Washington and analysts at the CIA remain unsure whether bin Laden is still profiting from his investment. Thirty percent of the shares in Gum Arabic Company Limited are held by the Sudanese government, who tried to assassinate Mubarak who did not support American troops in Desert Storm and Desert Shield.
Then he goes on to say and end that it is still possible that every time someone buys an American soft drink, they are helping fill Osama bin Laden's coffers, his coffers whereby he can go out and kill American men and women and children. I have a description of Osama bin Laden as described by the Anti-Defamation League which I will include for the Record.
Gum arabic is an important Sudanese primary export. The administration has prohibited and put it on a list of sanctions, a comprehensive list of sanctions against the government of Sudan. The executive order was issued as a direct consequence of the Sudanese regime's sponsorship of international terrorism, its effort to destabilize neighboring countries, and its abysmal human rights record, including the denial of religious freedom.
Mr. Speaker, why would the Congress, why would the House pass a bill without telling anyone what was in the bill and every Member that voted for that bill did this and did not know to lift the sanctions on Sudan also in the gum arabic area that is controlled perhaps by Osama bin Laden, who has bombed two American embassies, who we have watches out for with regard to the Canadian border over New Year's Eve and many other times? Why would the Congress do that? I am concerned that this money will help Osama bin Laden continue his terrorism.
I call on the Congress to strike this provision and do as the administration requested, whereby they can have the opportunity to deal with this issue.
Mr. Speaker, I submit the following material on Osama bin Laden.
Osama bin Laden
Osama Bin Laden is a 41 year-old ``businessman'' and son of one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest families, who has been linked to a number of Islamic extremist groups and individuals with vehement anti-American and anti-Israel ideologies. He is a mysterious figure whose exact involvement with terrorists and terrorist incidents remains elusive. Yet his name has surrounded many of the world's most deadly terrorist operations and he is named by the United States State Department as having financial and operational connections with terrorism. Most recently Bin Laden formed the ``International Islamic Front for Jihad against America and Israel.''
In 1994 when Bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia after having spent the two previous years in Khartoum, Sudan allegedly financing such militant Islamic causes as terrorist training camps, he was stripped of his citizenship by Saudi authorities who cited his opposition to the Saudi King and leadership (who enjoy warm relations with the U.S. and the western world). In 1996 it was reported that Bin Laden had relocated to Afghanistan, where he had financed and organized training camps for young Muslim extremists during the Afghan War of the 1980's.
Bin Laden has been thought to finance, inspire or directly organize various terrorist attacks. In one way or another his name has been linked to the killings of Western tourists by militant Islamic groups in Egypt, bombings in France by Islamic extremist Algerians, the maintenance of a safe-house in Pakistan for Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and sheltering Sheikh Omar Abd Al-Rahman (the Blind Sheikh), who was also convicted in the World Trade Center bombing. He has also been linked to the 1992 bombings of a hotel in Yemen, which killed two Australians, but was supposedly targeted against American soldiers stationed there; the 1995 detonation of a car bomb in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; the 1995 truck bomb in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. servicemen; and the 1995 assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Osama Bin Laden has made no secret of his anti-American, anti-Western and anti-Israel sentiments. In fact, he has been outspoken on these topics, issuing theological rulings calling for Muslims to attack Americans and threatening terrorism against related targets:
Osama Bin Laden's Threats of Terrorism
August 1998--The ``International Islamic Front for Jihad against America and Israel,'' a group sponsored by Bin Laden, issues a warning in the London-based newspaper al-Hayat that,
``strikes will continue from everywhere'' against the United States. (CNN Interactive, 8/20/98)
May 1998--Bin Laden announces the formation of an
``International Islamic Front for Jihad against America and Israel,'' according to The News, an Islamabad, Pakistan daily. (The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism web site, www.ict.org.il)
March 1998--Bin Laden faxes messages to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and U.S. consulates in Peshawar, Lahore, and Karachi threatening to attack U.S. facilities and citizens.
(The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism web site, www.ict.org.il)
February 1998--Bin Laden uses a fatwa, religious decree, to call for the liberation of Muslim holy places in Saudi Arabia and Israel, as well as the death of Americans and their allies. The decree says, ``These crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on God, his messenger and Muslims.'' (The Washington Post, 2/25/98)
May 1997--During an interview with CNN, Bin Laden reaffirms his call for a holy war against Americans. ``We have focused our declaration of jihad on the U.S. soldiers inside Arabia .
. . The U.S. government has committed acts that are extremely unjust, hideous and criminal through its support of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.'' (Reuters, 5/11/97)
February 1997--Bin Laden threatens holy war against the U.S. in an interview on the British documentary program, Dispatches. ``This war will not only be between the people of the two sacred mosques and the Americans, but it will be between the Islamic world and the Americans and their allies because this war is a new crusade led by America against the Islamic nations.'' (Reuters, 2/20/97)
November 1996--Bin Laden issues an ultimatum to the U.S. and Western countries with troops stationed in Arab countries and declares a holy war against the ``enemy.'' Had we wanted to carry out small operations after our threat statement, we would have been able to . . . We thought that the two bombings in Riyadh and Dhahran would be enough (sic.) a signal to the wise U.S. decision-makers to avoid the real confrontation with the Islamic nation, but it seems they did not understand it.'' (The Washington Times, 11/28/96)
November 1996--Bin Laden warns U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia to expect more ``effective, qualitative'' attacks and advises Western forces to speed their ``departure'' from the Middle East. (UPI, 11/27/96)
August 1996--Bin Laden says to the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper that the Saudis have a ``legitimate right'' to attack the 5,000 American military personnel stationed in Saudi Arabia. ``The presence of the American crusader armed forces in the countries of the Islamic Gulf is the greatest danger and the biggest harm that threatens the world's largest oil reserves . . . The infidels must be thrown out of the Arabian Peninsula.'' (The Washington Post, 8/31/96)
August 1996--In an interview with The Independent, a London daily, Bin Laden calls the June 1995 truck bomb in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia ``the beginning of war between Muslims and the United States.'' (New York Daily News, 8/11/96)
July 1996--Bin Laden warns that the terrorist who bombed American soldiers in Saudi Arabia will also attack British and French military personnel. He said ``[the bomb in Dhahran] was the result of American behavior against Muslims, its support of Jews in Palestine, and the massacre of Muslims in Palestine and Lebanon.'' (New York Times, 7/11/96)
The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the Future of
Terrorism
a portrayal of the life and crimes of Ramzi Yousef Ahmed, the terrorist who bombed the New York World Trade Center in 1998
(By Simon Reeve)
On 26 February 1993 a massive bomb devastated New York's World Trade Center, creating more hospital casualties than any event in American history since the Civil War. Ramzi Yousef, the young British-educated terrorist who masterminded the attack, had been seeking to topple the twin towers and cause tens of thousands of fatalities.
An intensive FBI investigation into the crime quickly developed into a man-hunt that took top FBI agents across the globe. But even with the FBI on his trail, Yousef continued with his campaign of terror. He bombed an aeroplane and an Iranian shrine.
He tried to kill Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani Prime Minister, and planned to assassinate the Pope, President Clinton and simultaneously destroy 11 airliners over the Pacific Ocean using tiny undetectable bombs. He also plotted an attack on the CIA headquarters with a plan loaded with chemical weapons. His pursuers dubbed Yousef ``an evil genius''.
During their huge investigation FBI agents discovered that Yousef was funded and sent on some of his attacks by Osama bin Laden, a mysterious Saudi millionaire. By the mid-1990's they realized bin Laden had become the most influential sponsor of terrorism in the world, and agents now conclude that since the early 1990s a small group of terrorists supported by bin Laden have dominated international terrorism.
These ``Afghan Arabs'' helped defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan before killing thousands of people in campaigns against governments in the West, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. When bin Laden's followers attacked American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on 7 August 1998, killing 224 people, the U.S. finally launched cruise missile strikes in an attempt to destroy his secret organization.
Drawing on unpublished reports, interrogation files, interviews with senior FBI agents who hunted Yousef, intelligence sources and government figures including Benazir Bhutto, Simon Reeve gives a harrowing account of Yousef's bombings, offers a revealing insight into his background, and details the FBI's man-hunt to catch him.
Reeve explains how Yousef was one of bin Laden's first operatives and documents bin Laden's life and emergence as the leader of a potent terrorist organisation, giving fascinating insights into the man President Clinton has called ``the pre-eminent organizer and financier of international terrorism in the world today''.
Highly detailed and yet immensely readable, The New Jackals sheds new light on two of the world's most notorious terrorists. Reeve warns that Yousef and bin Laden are just the first of a new breed of terrorist, men with no restrictions on mass killing. He also offers evidence that bin Laden's organization may already have chemical and nuclear weapons and explains why the world could soon face attacks by terrorists with weapons of mass destruction.
Simon Reeve is a journalist and writer. He worked for The Sunday Times for five years before leaving to finish co-writing The Millennium Bomb, published in 1996. He has since contributed to books on corruption, organized crime and terrorism, and has written investigative feature articles for publications ranging from Time magazine to Esquire. He lives in London.
During research for The New Jackals Reeve has eaten ice cream sorbet with Benazir Bhutto, spent hours sitting in a stairwell on a London housing estate waiting for a former Lebanese smuggler, met American intelligence officials in a suburban burger bar and a Chinese restaurant, and been followed by agents from two different countries during meetings with a renegade spy.
Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the ``Afghan Arabs'' have
``dominated international terrorism as it relates to the United States and Europe [in the 1990s]. At the international level the only terrorist apparatus that the United States has had to deal with over the past several years has been Osama bin Laden and before that Ramzi Yousef.'' Oliver ``Buck'' Revell, former Deputy Director of the FBI.
``Ramzi Yousef is an evil genius.'' Senior Pakistani intelligence officer.
``Yousef was a pretty unique person. He liked the bar scene, he liked women, he liked moving around. Yousef was very good. He was well trained, very clever. He'll certainly be ranked right up there with the all-timers. Even to this day, he is a very shadowy figure that we really don't know that much about, even after all that's been done and all that's been investigated on him.'' Neil Herman, the FBI Supervisory Special Agent who led the New York Joint Terrorist Task Force during the hunt for Yousef.
``Yes, I am a terrorist, and I'm proud of it.'' Ramzi Yousef.
``In the past, we were fighting terrorists with an organisational structure and some attainable goal like land or the release of political prisoners. But Ramzi Yousef is the new breed, who are more difficult and hazardous. They want nothing less than the overthrow of the West, and since that's not going to happen, they just want to punish--the more casualties the better.'' Oliver ``Buck'' Revell, former Deputy Director of the FBI.
``He's a cold-blooded terrorist. He doesn't care who he kills. He may be the most dangerous man in the world.'' Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao of the Philippines National Defense Police describing Yousef.
``One man said to me `remember there will only be those who believe and those who will die. There will only be the dead and the believers'.'' Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan.
``If Russia can be destroyed, the United States can also be beheaded.'' Osama bin Laden.
``In my personal view [Osama bin Laden' is very much interested in obtaining weapons of mass destruction and he has the money to pay for them. It's certainly a credible threat.'' Peter Probst, Pentagon terrorism expert.
``We don't consider it a crime if we tried to have nuclear, chemical, biological weapons. If I have indeed acquired these weapons, then I thank God for enabling me to do so.'' Osama bin Laden.
``Terrorism is changing. We expect biological attacks in the future.'' Marvin Cetron, author of the Pentagon's secret Terror 2000 investigation.
____
``The New Jackals'' by Simon Reeve
al qaeda
Perhaps most crucially, bin Laden cannily invested in Gum Arabic Company Limited, a Khartoum-based firm which has a virtual monopoly over most of Sudan's exports of gum Arabic, which in turn comprises around 80 per cent of the world's supply. Gum Arabic comes from the sap of the Sudanese acacia tree. A colourless, tasteless gum, it makes newspaper ink stick to printing presses, keeps ingredients in drinks from settling at the bottom of a can, and forms a film around sweets and medical pills, keeping them fresh. It is a crucial ingredient in dozens of products Western consumers use every day, and within two years in arriving in Sudan, bin Laden is believed to have secured an effective monopoly over the entire Sudanese output.
Even now the State Department in Washington and analysts at the CIA remain unsure whether bin Laden is still profiting from his investment. Thirty per cent of the shares in Gum Arabic Company Limited are held by the Sudanese government, who may or may not be siphoning profits into bin Laden accounts. The other 70 per cent is held by individual shareholders and banks, any or all of whom may be acting as fronts for bin Laden. It is still possible that every time someone buys an American soft drink they are helping to fill Osama bin Laden's coffers.
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August 11, 2000.Hon. Frank R. Wolf,U.S. House of Representatives,Washington, DC.
Dear Congressman Wolf: Thank you for your recent letter expressing your concern about Section 1439 of H.R. 4868. The humanitarian situation in Sudan is a tragic one, and every effort should be made to bring an end to the unnecessary suffering of the Sudanese people.
The Administration agrees with you that the sanctions on the government of Sudan's exportation of gum arabic should not be lifted. The government of Sudan has not made progress in rectifying the human rights abuses for which those sanctions were imposed, and we should not consider permanently lifting sanctions until satisfactory progress has been made.
The crisis in the Sudan is an important issue to me. I recently shared my concerns with Secretary General Annan, and requested that he and his staff continue to work to ensure that humanitarian organizations like Operation Lifeline Sudan are able to effectively carry out their desperately-needed work.
I share your hope for and commitment to an end to this humanitarian disaster.
Sincerely,Richard C. Holbrooke.
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