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SERGEANT ANDREW TAHMOORESSI:

OUR MARINE IN MEXICAN CUSTODY

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON 

THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

OCTOBER 1, 2014

Serial No. 113–236

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

TOM COTTON, Arkansas 

PAUL COOK, California 

GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

DOUG COLLINS, Georgia 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

SEAN DUFFY, Wisconsin 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

MATT SALMON, Arizona, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

SEAN DUFFY, Wisconsin 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

Mrs. Jill Tahmooressi (mother of Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi) ..................... 7

Lieutenant Commander Montel B. Williams, USN, Retired (veterans advocate) ....................................................................................................................... 13

Sergeant Robert Buchanan, USMC, Retired (served with Sergeant 

Tahmooressi in Afghanistan) .............................................................................. 20

Mr. Pete Hegseth, chief executive officer, Concerned Veterans for America ...... 23

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

Mrs. Jill Tahmooressi: Prepared statement .......................................................... 10

Lieutenant Commander Montel B. Williams, USN, Retired: Prepared statement ...................................................................................................................... 15

Sergeant Robert Buchanan, USMC, Retired: Prepared statement ..................... 22

Mr. Pete Hegseth: Prepared statement ................................................................. 25

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 50

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 51

The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Representative in Congress from the 

State of Florida: 

Prepared statement .............................................................................................. 52

Letter from Jon and Olivia Hammar ................................................................. 54

The Honorable Tom Marino, a Representative in Congress from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Letter to His Excellency Eduardo Medina Mora, 

Ambassador of Mexico to the United States of America ................................... 56

The Honorable Juan Vargas, a Representative in Congress from the State 

of California: Prepared statement ...................................................................... 57

(1)

SERGEANT ANDREW TAHMOORESSI:

OUR MARINE IN MEXICAN CUSTODY 

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2014

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:06 a.m., in room 

2171, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Matt Salmon (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Mr. SALMON. A quorum being present, this subcommittee will 

come to order. 

We are going to limit the opening statements to myself, the ranking member and the chairman of the full committee; members will 

then be given ample time to ask questions, and if we have time for 

a second round of questions, then we will do so. 

I would like to start by recognizing myself and present my opening statement. 

Without objection, the members of the subcommittee can submit 

their opening remarks for the record. And now I yield myself as 

much time as I may consume to present my opening remarks. 

Welcome everyone to this very, very important hearing on 

Major—excuse me, Marine Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi, our Marine in custody in Mexico. 

I want to thank Chairman Royce and all my colleagues who have 

come back to Washington to take place in this hearing. This is a 

busy time, when members are campaigning in their districts, the 

election just a few short weeks away, and the fact that so many 

members have come back for this hearing attests to the fact that 

this is an extremely important issue that we want to resolve as 

quickly as possible. 

And I want to thank our witnesses, particularly Mrs. 

Tahmooressi, who has been steadfast and strong in her advocating 

for her son. 

Montel Williams and Pete Hegseth, your work on behalf of veterans is noble and important, and it is a pleasure to have you 

speaking on behalf of Andrew. 

And finally, Retired Marine Sergeant Robert Buchanan, who 

served with Andrew in Afghanistan, from the bottom of our hearts, 

we appreciate your great service and we appreciate the fact that 

you are here appearing on behalf of your good friend, and I would 

like to thank you personally for your wonderful service to our Nation. 

2

Not long after the VA scandal story broke in my home town of 

Phoenix exposing widespread mismanagement of veteran care on 

the part of the Veteran Affairs, I first traveled down to Tijuana to 

visit Sergeant Tahmooressi in prison. I had been following his 

story, how he had served with distinction in the U.S. Marine Corps 

on the battlefields of Afghanistan; returning home to the United 

States with physical and the psychological scars of war, he made 

his way to southern California, where he was diagnosed with 

PTSD, living mostly out of his truck, where he carried all of his belongings, including his three registered guns; and how he got 

turned around and found himself at the Mexican border, where it 

is illegal to carry guns. 

By the time I had visited Andrew back in late May and again 

in June with Chairman Royce, he had been through a lot, attempted to escape and take his own life, haunted by the 

hypervigilance that is the hallmark of his PTSD. Even so, he was 

polite, he was soft-spoken, a brave American who had defended 

this country and now needed our help to return home. 

Here is an interesting anecdote. On my way back from visiting 

Andrew the first time, just as I was crossing the border back into 

the United States, I heard on the news the Obama administration 

had negotiated with the Taliban for the release of Army Sergeant 

Bergdahl. 

Sergeant Tahmooressi’s circumstances are obviously very different than Sergeant Bergdahl’s, but it still struck me then, as it 

does now, that Sergeant Tahmooressi had served his country with 

honor twice in Afghanistan, and now he finds himself in a Mexican 

prison after getting turned around and crossing the border. I am 

mystified that President Obama couldn’t find time between negotiating with terrorists to call our ally, the Mexican President, to appeal to him on behalf of our Marine. 

If we in Congress don’t do everything in our power to try to get 

Sergeant Tahmooressi, an injured war hero, back to the States for 

treatment, then what are we doing here? Making sure that our 

combat veterans are taken care of when they return is one of our 

most honored and sacred obligations. 

As chairman of this subcommittee, I have been consistently supportive of our bilateral relationship with Mexico, committed to our 

security partnership and to helping Mexico reform and improve its 

justice system. Our commercial relationship with Mexico is strong 

and is vital. 

Today I feel the same way. I am optimistic about Mexico’s energy 

reforms, the growth of its middle class, and the increasingly close 

trade and diplomatic relationship that we share, but our significant 

and growing bilateral cooperation must also come with the ability 

to resolve important issues, particularly along our shared border. 

I firmly believe that Sergeant Tahmooressi meant no harm or 

willfully violated Mexican law when he crossed the border. And 

when I talked on several occasions with the Ambassador from Mexico, who by the way has been the Attorney General of Mexico in 

the past, he echoed to me the same thing, that he didn’t believe 

that Sergeant Tahmooressi had any evil intentions with those 

weapons in his car. 

3

Now, he has spent over 6 months in prison for what amounts to 

a wrong turn. I am disappointed that more could not be done to 

address this situation in a far more timely manner. The fact is that 

Mexican citizens violate U.S. law on a regular and continuing 

basis, illegally crossing our southern border. Mexican officials respond by asking the U.S. for compassion and amnesty for their citizens to remain in the U.S., but frankly, compassion goes both ways. 

Mexico does not have the ability to provide Sergeant Tahmooressi 

with the care that he needs. Our war hero needs to come home. 

Last week I spoke with the Mexican Attorney General, who explained that while Sergeant Tahmooressi had broken Mexican law 

by approaching the border with weapons, his combat-related PTSD 

could not be adequately treated in Mexico. The good news is the 

Attorney General explained to me and, I understand, Chairman 

Royce separately that he has the authority within Mexican law to 

dismiss Sergeant Tahmooressi’s case on humanitarian grounds 

once he has expert testimony that verifies his combat-specific 

PTSD diagnosis. 

Chairman Royce and I obtained the appropriate expert medical 

reports and forwarded them to the Mexican Attorney General’s 

desk this past Friday. In addition, at the court hearing yesterday, 

a Mexican psychologist submitted his official diagnosis confirming 

Andrew’s PTSD. 

Now, with all the information available to him, I am confident, 

I am hopeful that Attorney General Murillo Karam will do the 

right thing and very soon order the release of Andrew so he can 

begin his treatment and move forward with his life back home with 

his family and his friends. 

Once again, we are asking our men and our women in uniform 

to embark on the mission of fighting on behalf of our Nation in our 

war against the terrorist organization ISIS. Making sure that Sergeant Tahmooressi is brought home and provided the treatment 

that he so desperately needs will send a message and demonstrate 

to our military men and women, who are in harm’s way, that 

America stands up for our soldiers and our Marines. That is how 

it should be. 

I look forward to hearing from all the witnesses, and I thank you 

for being here. 

And I now yield to Ms. Gabbard, the ranking member. 

Ms. GABBARD. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for holding 

this important hearing. 

And most importantly, thank you to our witnesses today for taking your time to come and allow us the opportunity to hear directly 

from you and to allow us the opportunity to elevate your story and 

Sergeant Tahmooressi’s challenges to the American people. 

Mrs. Tahmooressi, your story, what you and your family have 

gone through, and more importantly what your son is going 

through is incredibly heartbreaking. I have never met you before, 

I have never met your son, but hearing your story, hearing the 

story from those of you who have served with him, he is our brother, he is part of our family, part of the family of those who have 

worn the uniform from whatever branch of service and who have 

gone through that fight together, and to see what he is facing now, 

one of our own, is unimaginable upon coming home. 

4

When we serve overseas, the one bright light that we have is the 

fact that we can come home and that we come home to our loved 

ones and we come home to some sense of normalcy. And to see now 

what he is going through, to not have that bright light, is despicable and unimaginable. 

There is no question that our Government needs to do whatever 

it takes to support Sergeant Tahmooressi as he seeks justice and 

freedom in Mexico, and there is no question that the State Department must make this a priority. While we hope that the Mexican 

court and the Mexican Government will do the right thing and recognize that this case must be dismissed as soon as possible, the 

reason why we are here is because we know and understand that 

we cannot let up, that action is necessary, and we have to continue 

to apply that pressure to force that action and to bring him home. 

I want to thank each of you for coming today, for your championing Sergeant Tahmooressi and his freedom, and continuing to 

push for this action and being his voice in his absence. 

I thank you all for being here and look forward to hearing from 

you. 

Thank you. 

Mr. SALMON. I thank the gentlewoman. 

The Chair now recognizes the chairman of the full committee, 

Mr. Royce. 

Mr. ROYCE. Well, thank you Subcommittee Chairman Matt Salmon for your work on this issue, for holding this hearing. 

Matt Salmon and I had an opportunity to go down and talk to 

Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi in his cell. And I do want to share, 

Jill, I want to share with the Sergeant’s mother an observation 

that I think that Sergeant Buchanan was absolutely right when he 

said this was one of the most impressive young men he had served 

with. He is a very, very fine young man. And he has been through 

a lot. 

I think this committee has played a role historically in trying to 

make certain that in foreign policy, we look after the interests of 

those men and women who have served this country, and in this 

particular case, a young man who made a wrong turn and has now 

found himself 6 months, 6 months after his diagnosis, in this situation. 

Now, Matt and I had approached the Government of Mexico on 

several occasions, and one of the things you had us do was to try 

to get him moved from the prison in Tijuana, and he is now in 

Tecate, and in a much better place, I must say, and he expressed 

that. 

And we are respectful of our relationship with Mexico, but it has 

been 6 months. And I now feel in our discussions, which we have 

had in the past with the Ambassador, with the Foreign Minister, 

but now over the phone last Thursday, I had a long discussion with 

the Attorney General, and with the case, with the argument that 

I think we are making and making here today, the argument that 

he cannot get PTSD treatment, but less than 10 days before he was 

taken into custody, he was diagnosed with just that diagnosis. 

And as the Attorney General has shared with us, it is within his 

ability to make a decision based on humanitarian grounds if the diagnosis shows that this in fact was the case. And we sent him that 

5

diagnosis, and we have sent him subsequently the diagnosis also 

that we have now from the doctor in Mexico. 

I think that, as Matt has raised this point, it is important to consider, since we have raised this with the State Department, our 

Government took steps to have one soldier released in exchange for 

five senior Taliban leaders, five senior Taliban leaders who had all 

committed serious offenses, war crimes. All five would be hauled up 

in front of the Hague for crimes against humanity based upon the 

terror that they visited on Afghan and U.S. forces. All five were determined to be a serious danger to the United States, and yet at 

the end of the day, those five, with close ties to Osama Bin Laden 

and to Mullah Omar and to the Haqqani terrorist network, have 

all found their way out of custody. 

The question is, what steps has the Government taken in order 

to ensure the release of this young Marine? 

And that brings us to why we are having the hearing today. And 

as Members of Congress, we must see to it that U.S. servicemen 

and servicewomen, who are put in harm’s way to defend our country, are properly cared for when they return back here to the 

United States, when they are injured, as Andrew was injured, by 

a grenade. 

Mrs. Tahmooressi, I am pleased, I must say, that you are with 

us today. And I am equally pleased that we have with us a brave 

Marine who served two tours, combat tours, in Afghanistan, your 

son did this, Jill, and we talked a little bit with him about his service, but during his time when he was deployed in Helmand Province with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine regiment, he received a 

combat meritorious promotion, a battlefield promotion under meritorious conditions. Now, this speaks to his valor and to his love of 

country. 

And to discuss his service, it is an honor to have Robert Buchanan with us today. I met Robert at my office back some months 

ago when he came to talk to me about his comrade and about the 

effort he was undertaking, along with you, Jill, in order to secure 

his release. And he served with your son and said, as I indicated 

to you, that not only was he a fine young man, he also told me he 

was one of the bravest young men he had served with. 

And I must admit here too that Robert has been very brave himself and earned the Purple Heart after sustaining injuries himself 

from an IED explosion. And we want to thank him and others for 

traveling all the way here to Washington. 

And, as many of you know, these physical injuries as a result of 

that IED attack that Andrew sustained lead at times to psychological difficulties that we call PTSD, and the fact that the San 

Diego Veterans Affairs Hospital diagnosed him less than 10 days 

prior to this event on the border and the fact that it results in 

hypervigilance and memory and cognition lapses and depression, 

the fact that he will not be able to receive treatment in Mexico, and 

so this has been—the treatment has been prolonged by 6 months. 

It is because of this that I, together with Congressman Salmon, 

have pressed this case with the Attorney General of Mexico. And 

last week, after our conversation, I must say that I am confident 

that a humanitarian release of Andrew will occur very soon so he 

can start getting better and get the treatment he needs. 

6

And I believe the case that is being made here is a compelling 

one that will result in the right decision, the correct decision, the 

humane decision from the Attorney General. 

Thank you very much. 

Mr. SALMON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Pursuant to Committee Rule 7, the members of the subcommittee 

will be permitted to submit written statements to be included in 

the official hearing record. Without objection, the hearing record 

will remain open for 7 days to allow statements, questions and extraneous materials for the record subject to the length limitation 

in the rules. 

Ms. GABBARD. Mr. Chairman? 

Mr. SALMON. Yes. 

Ms. GABBARD. I request unanimous consent to recognize one of 

our colleagues, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who 

actually represents the home district of Mrs. Tahmooressi in 

Westin, Florida, to join us here on the committee today. She has 

been actively advocating on this issue, working closely with Jill, 

with the Obama administration and the Mexican Government to 

try to secure Andrew’s release. 

Mr. SALMON. Without objection, so ordered. 

Ms. GABBARD. Thank you. 

Mr. SALMON. First I would like to introduce our panel. And 

again, thank you so much for traveling across the country. I know 

you all have very busy schedules. 

Mrs. Tahmooressi is a resident of Florida and is the mother of 

Marine Corps Sergeant Andrew Paul Tahmooressi, an inactive reservist. Mrs. Tahmooressi is a licensed registered nurse in the 

State of Florida. She has been serving at Miami Children’s Hospital since 1980, and from everything that I have seen and in my 

conversations with her, one heck of a mom. Glad to have you here, 

Mrs. Tahmooressi. 

Lieutenant Commander Williams is founder of the Montel Williams MS Foundation. Together with researchers and the U.S. 

Army, Mr. Williams is working on ways to improve the treatment 

for soldiers who have experienced blast-related traumatic brain injuries. It is so great to have you here and see you again. Lieutenant Commander Williams began his professional career in the U.S. 

Marine Corps. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a 

minor in international security affairs from the U.S. Naval Academy. 

Sergeant Buchanan is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and a Purple 

Heart recipient, who was honorably discharged after 6 years of 

service. Thank you. Mr. Buchanan was a machine gun squad leader during the work-up training for his deployment with the 2/6 battalion, and helped train Andrew Tahmooressi as a machine gunner. 

While on deployment in Afghanistan, he fought side by side with 

Andrew. In August 2010, Sergeant Buchanan’s all terrain vehicle 

ran over a 1201 IED, BIED, resulting in him earning his Purple 

Heart award. Since his exit of the Marine Corps, Mr. Buchanan 

has been active in his school’s veteran club, in his community’s veterans organizations, and is actively attending American Legion 

Post 862. He is currently working on his business degree. 

7

And Mr. Hegseth is the CEO for Concerned Veterans for America. The mission of CVA is to advance policies that will preserve 

the freedom and prosperity that veterans and their families so 

proudly fought and sacrificed to defend. An infantry captain in the 

Army National Guard, Mr. Hegseth served in Afghanistan in 2012, 

where he was the senior counterinsurgency instructor at the 

Counterinsurgency Training Center in Kabul. Previously, he served 

in Iraq with the 3rd Brigade of the 101st airborne division for their 

2005–2006 deployment. He earned two Bronze Stars and a combat 

infantryman’s badge for his time in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. 

Hegseth graduated from Princeton University, completed a master’s in public policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy 

School of Government in 2013. 

So the lighting system. And, Jill, even though I am going to enforce it on everybody else, I am never going to mess with somebody’s mother. The way it works is, you are each given 5 minutes 

for your testimony. After 4 minutes, the amber light goes on. When 

you start speaking, it will be green. When the amber light shows 

up, it means you have got 1 minute to wrap it up. The red light 

means stop for everybody but Mrs. Tahmooressi. 

And, Mrs. Tahmooressi, you are recognized. 

STATEMENT OF MRS. JILL TAHMOORESSI (MOTHER OF 

SERGEANT ANDREW TAHMOORESSI) 

Mrs. TAHMOORESSI. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, Members 

of the committee and Congress, thank you for the invitation to testify today. 

I am grateful for the committee’s interest regarding Sergeant 

Tahmooressi, my son, and his ongoing incarceration in Mexico. 

As the mother of a high achieving young man, there are a few 

horrific memorable quotes I recall and wish to share with you regarding my son. I believe these quotes will not only frame the character of my son, yet will also highlight the current predicament my 

son is in. 

In 2006, at the age of 17, he said, ‘‘Mom, I’m scheduled for my 

solo flight today. I’ll be getting checked off on my private pilot license.’’

At age 18, after having graduated from public school, Westin 

Florida, and having been afforded the Florida Bright Scholarship, 

he said, ‘‘Mom, I’m not ready for college yet. I’m going to head out 

to Alaska. I would like to be a commercial fisherman.’’ One of his 

favorite shows at the time was ‘‘The Deadliest Catch,’’ if anyone remembers that. 

In 2008, ‘‘Mom, God just nudged me to join the military. I’m 

going to enlist in the Marines.’’

In 2010 he would phone home when he could with the battle stories. I am a brave mom. I am a mom of a Marine. And so in 2010, 

‘‘Mom, we just hit an I.E.D.’’

In 2012, ‘‘Mom, I blacked out when I fell from atop an M-Rap, 

hit my head on one part and I blacked out. They found me.’’

In 2013, ‘‘Mom, I’m dropping out of Embry Riddle Aeronautical 

University [where I was enrolled in a bachelor’s degree for the commercial pilot degree] because I can’t concentrate on the academic 

work.’’

8

March 14th—or March 31st, sorry, 11:25 this year, ‘‘Mom, I got 

lost. I made a wrong turn. I’m at the Mexican border. You need to 

know this, because I have been surrounded by military. In case 

anything happens to me, I need you to know where I am.’’

The following morning, April 1st, 2014, ‘‘Mom, I’ve been arrested. 

Please secure me an attorney.’’

April 5th, ‘‘Mom, I am not going to make it through the night. 

Whatever you do, do not come down here to investigate, do not 

come down here to ask questions. You will be killed as well. I need 

you to go underground. I need you to cancel your bank accounts. 

Let the Broward sheriff’s office know, but, Mom, I am not going to 

make it through the night. Don’t come down to investigate.’’

April 14th, ‘‘Mom, I tried to kill myself because the guards and 

the inmates were going to rape, torture and execute me for personal information. I needed to protect you.’’

May 1st, ‘‘Mom, it has been 25 days. I have been in four-point 

chain restraint spread eagle on a cot in the infirmary.’’

These quotes, horrific in varying degrees for a mother, pale in 

comparison to Andrew’s statement that, my time in Mexico has 

been far worse than my two combat tours to Afghanistan. 

Andrew is under contract with the U.S. Marine Corps. He is still 

a Marine, will always be a Marine, but he is an inactive reservist 

until August 24th, 2016. He was discharged active duty October 

2012, serving unselfishly in Operation Enduring Freedom, multiple 

combat tours, being meritoriously promoted on the battlefield. 

Andrew felt privileged to serve the war on terror. He fought in 

an infantry battalion as a section lead and a 50-caliber gunner. He 

volunteered and was willing to lose his life for freedom, liberty and 

the elimination of oppression. He fought not for one political party, 

yet he fought for the world at large, including Mexico, who does not 

send their military to foreign combats. 

Suffering symptoms suggestive of combat-related post-traumatic 

stress disorder throughout 2013 while attending university, Andrew packed up his Ford F–150, the same truck that he drove to 

Alaska the 6,000 miles. He packed up his whole entire truck with 

all of his possessions, including his three U.S. legally purchased 

firearms. His first purchase, by the way, was in 2007 on his way 

to Kodiak, Alaska. That was the shotgun for his protection. 

He arrived at San Diego at the invite of a friend, who has got 

a Purple Heart, 100 percent disability, who said, Andrew, come out 

here. We have got the best VA system in the country. So he did 

that. 

And on March 12th, he received his crisis intake positive screen 

for post-traumatic stress disorder. At the time, he was ordered the 

cognitive therapy, the veteran group therapy. He attended on 

March 20th. And indeed there is a third medical record in his Veteran’s Administration record from the morning, March 31st, that 

famous day when, at 10:30, he pulled out of a parking lot on the 

California side, San Ysidro, very confusing area, lots of construction going on. He had just come off that on ramp earlier in the day, 

so as he pulled out left, made a sharp left back onto that on ramp, 

thinking it headed north to San Diego, but in just a few hundred 

feet, a blind curve into a barricaded Mexican customs lane. There 

9

was no way to turn around at that time. In fact, there was no signage at the border at that time. 

With no visible sign indicating how to turn around and with no 

U.S. presence at the border, Andrew purposefully stops at the first 

Mexican official he sees and explains, I got lost, made a wrong 

turn, and ended up here by mistake. I have all of my possessions 

in my truck, including three U.S. legally purchased firearms. Can 

you show me how to get back to the border? He thought that that 

Mexican customs agent was going to flag him an escort vehicle, but 

over time, the military came onboard. That is when he dialed 911 

for help. No one was able to help him, including the 911 operator. 

These facts are recorded and is evidentiary statement in the Federal Court of Tijuana, Mexico. 

Arrested on weapons and ammunition possession, now incarcerated in a Mexican prison, Andrew is despondent and desperate to 

return to the United States. His PTSD treatment plan has been 

aborted. It was aborted on April 1st, as Mexico does not have the 

ability to provide combat-related PTSD expressive group therapy as 

recognized here. 

He phones home every day. He is very complimentary and appreciative for the actions of the Congress, the actions of the White 

House in responding to the wethepeople.gov petition that was responded to on August 28th. At that time, the White House responded that they would ask for urgency, but today the urgency to 

influence expedition, in my opinion, is ineffective. It is 6 months, 

and we are still connecting dots. We still do not have the authenticated 911 call in the record. It is supposedly held up in a department in Mexico. 

Today, though, there is new signage at the border for wayward 

passenger—for wayward drivers that make that error that Andrew 

made, and I am sure there may be hundreds each day that do that, 

there is now a new sign that says, Return to the USA, erected in 

May, and the graffiti-laden sign that was on the on ramp, that also 

has been changed. So should any motorist make that mistake now, 

they do have way to come home. 

Mr. Chairman, I urge attention and collaborative action among 

the United States and Mexico for an expedient resolution of Andrew’s Mexican judicial process, expecting wholeheartedly that release to the U.S.A. is justified. My son is despondent, without 

treatment, and he needs to be home. 

Thank you very much, and I look forward to your questions. 

Mr. SALMON. Thank you, Mrs. Tahmooressi. 

[The prepared statement of Mrs. Tahmooressi follows:]

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Mr. SALMON. Lieutenant Commander Williams. 

STATEMENT OF LIEUTENANT COMMANDER MONTEL B. 

WILLIAMS, USN, RETIRED (VETERANS ADVOCATE) 

Lt. Commander WILLIAMS. Thank you, Chairman Salmon, Ranking Member Sires, and Chairman Royce, members of the subcommittee and full committee. 

It is very critical, extremely critical that we are holding this 

hearing today, and I can’t thank you enough for doing so. 

I also want to say thank you to all the members who made it a 

point to come back for this hearing today, but you have to understand that your peers must recognize the fact that veterans are 

watching today, and for those of them who did not come back, this 

will be remembered. 

While the scope of this hearing is limited to the case of Sergeant 

Andrew Tahmooressi, I would be remiss to remind this committee 

that Andrew’s case is merely a symptom of a greater policy failure 

in how we address the needs of all of our returning soldiers. The 

failure is unfortunately even more pronounced when it comes to 

PTSD. And we throw this term around very lightly, but what we 

have to recognize is that 30,000 new cases of traumatic brain injury occur every year in our services, and it doesn’t matter whether 

or not soldiers go into a combat situation or not. The majority are 

from training exercises. We currently have over 600,000 veterans 

suffering from residual symptoms from traumatic brain injury right 

now in the VA system. 

And I will tell you, no ifs, and or buts, our veterans from Iraq 

and Afghanistan often feel absolutely abandoned by our Government, and I believe that they have a reason to feel so. 

Before I begin, my testimony is definitely longer than 5 minutes, 

so I am going to synopsize and make sure I yield to others, but 

there are some points that I think really clearly have to be made. 

As we have addressed it over and over again, Andrew made a 

wrong turn. And we have thrown out a couple of terms related to 

PTSD with that by saying, hypervigilance, but we have got to slow 

down for just a second and take a minute and understand what 

that means. Though Jill can’t say it and others won’t say it, we 

know for a fact that Sergeant Tahmooressi’s time in this prison has 

been worse than his time in both combat situations. He is going to 

come back to the United States and have to be treated for his combat PTSD, but also his incarceration PTSD. And to me, this is an 

abomination. 

Six months. He didn’t hesitate to say, aye, aye, sir, to go off and 

serve. How dare we, how dare we as a Nation hesitate to get that 

young man back. We sit here in this city and discuss sending more 

young people off to die. I have a son who is 21 years old who has 

asked me over and over again, dad, should I serve? And right now 

I am telling him no. That is coming from a guy who did 22 years 

in the service, but, no, because our Government doesn’t respect you 

enough. And how dare they treat him the way they do and the way 

they will. 

Andrew’s incident is clearly triggered by his PTSD. The 

hypervigilance, when he made that turn while in Mexico, he made 

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a decision to leave. When he got in his car, he was probably already triggered. 

And just so some of you understand, I suffer from MS, I have 

scars in my brain that are synonymous with concussive brain injury, so some of the symptoms that I am talking about are symptoms that I live through on a daily basis: Emotional lability, sometimes depression, sometimes hypervigilance. I can walk in this 

hallway in Congress, where I am most protected, and be afraid to 

walk in that bathroom. This is what these young men live through, 

and it is sad that we have one of our own right now being held in 

a prison while we talk about it. 

It is clear, everyone understands, he is not going to get the treatment that he is due. He has served the time, I believe, for any 

crime that he could have committed. So bring him home and let’s 

treat him appropriately, but his treatment is not going to just be 

for combat PTSD. And remember, his treatment for his PTSD for 

being in prison rests on our shoulders. 

Now, I want to clearly say I have the utmost respect for the 

Mexican Government and the Mexican people. I am not one of 

those who is going to join into the fray of screaming for invasions 

and all of those things, but what I am going to scream for is the 

one part of political diplomacy that has not been used yet, and Congressman Salmon, you pointed it out, it is called political compassion. Compassion is what is needed right now. Woe be it to us to 

let this case go by and then have to deal with the other 600,000 

soldiers who are suffering who could make the same mistake. 

My testimony is much longer than 5 minutes. I would please, 

please ask the members to read the entire thing. I have synopsized 

for you, but I would like to leave you with one other little point. 

Every nation on this planet and all people are judged, no matter 

what religion you are, whatever faith you are, we are all judged by 

what we do for the least of us. Andrew is one of the best of us, 

America’s treasure. If we can’t treat the best better than we treat 

the worst, how dare you ask another gentleman to put on a uniform. 

Thank you so much, sir. 

Mr. SALMON. Lieutenant Commander Williams, without objection, your testimony, your full testimony and everybody’s full testimony will be entered into the public record. And I appreciate your 

great comments. 

[The prepared statement of Lt. Commander Williams follows:]

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Mr. SALMON. Sergeant Buchanan. 

STATEMENT OF SERGEANT ROBERT BUCHANAN, USMC, RETIRED (SERVED WITH SERGEANT TAHMOORESSI IN AFGHANISTAN) 

Sergeant BUCHANAN. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, members 

of the committee, thank you for the invitation to testify today. 

I am forever grateful for the subcommittee’s interest in the overview of Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi’s dire need to get Veterans 

Affairs Hospital medical treatment as soon as possible. 

First off, I want to say, I knew Andrew, I was a corporal when 

he came to our unit. And I was the guy that made sure he had a 

haircut on Monday and a fresh shave every day, but if you guys 

have any questions to who Andrew truly was, I recommend you ask 

Sergeant Mark Podlaski back here, his best friend, brother in 

arms. The two were inseparable the entire time I knew them. 

You don’t truly know a man until you have deployed to combat 

with that individual. I had the pleasure of both taking part in 

training and deploying to Afghanistan with Sergeant Tahmooressi. 

He was truly one of the best junior Marines I have ever had the 

pleasure of working with. You tasked something out to him, there 

was not a second thought. It was going to get done. He was the 

kind of guy that his peers looked up to. From the get-go, the first 

day I met his group when they came to our unit, Sergeant Podlaski 

and Sergeant Tahmooressi stood out amongst their peers. He had 

a humble attitude, never talked back, was always eager to learn 

and be the best Marine he could be. 

This was a Marine who received a combat meritorious promotion. 

Let me go back. Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi was meritoriously 

promoted to corporal. That alone speaks to somebody’s character. 

To be combat meritoriously promoted in this day and age amongst 

our field, it is a rarity and an honor amongst our gun club, if you 

want to call it. This alone speaks volumes to what kind of individual Andrew is and can attest to his character. 

On Andrew’s last deployment, he saved the life of a fellow Marine by securing tourniquets on him after he stepped on an IED, 

improvised explosive device, causing him to lose both of his legs. 

It is in these moments that a man’s true character is tested, and 

Andrew shined. He did not run away; he ran to help. 

Congressman Matt Salmon, Ed Royce and Duncan Hunter, I 

want to personally thank you. You have spearheaded our cause in 

getting Andrew home. And from the bottom of my heart, I want to 

thank you personally. They have all sent out multiple letters in 

support to the State Department and the White House. I also had 

the opportunity to sit down face to face with Congressman Ed 

Royce, and from the get-go, we had his immediate and unflinching 

support toward Andrew’s release. 

The crime with which Andrew is being charged requires intent. 

Weapons trafficking is not a negligent crime, and his true intent 

has been proven as being an accident. 

Please help us get this combat veteran home and into the VA for 

much needed medical care. Every day he is down there is a day 

longer that it is going to take for him to readjust in the civilian 

life. Every Marine, every military member comes back with difVerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:48 Feb 04, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00024 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_WH\100114\90725 SHIRL
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ferent luggage from war and it takes different amounts of time to 

readjust in the civilian life. We all have our good days and bad, but 

isolation is the last thing anyone needs. 

Please help us get him home and the treatment he so direly 

needs. 

Thank you. 

Mr. SALMON. Thanks, Sergeant Buchanan. 

[The prepared statement of Sergeant Buchanan follows:]

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Mr. SALMON. Mr. Hegseth. 

STATEMENT OF MR. PETE HEGSETH, CHIEF EXECUTIVE 

OFFICER, CONCERNED VETERANS FOR AMERICA 

Mr. HEGSETH. Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, thank 

you for the opportunity to be here today. 

I want to thank Chairman Salmon, Chairman Royce, Ranking 

Member Gabbard, U.S. Marine Duncan Hunter, and everyone else 

who came back from their districts to be here for this important 

hearing. It is greatly appreciated. Your forward-leaning support of 

veterans and our military matters and is noticed. 

I also want to thank my fellow witnesses, who are allowing a soldier to hang out with a bunch of Marines. 

Mrs. Tahmooressi, your courageous advocacy on behalf of your 

son inspires us all. It really does. 

Sergeant Buchanan, thank you for having the back of your fellow 

Marine. 

And Lieutenant Commander Williams, Marine, using your platform the way you are makes a huge difference. Thank you very 

much. 

My name is Pete Hegseth. I am the CEO of Concerned Veterans 

for America, and our mission is to fight for the freedom and prosperity of all Americans, but specifically for the well-being of veterans. And we represent a growing number of veterans and military families who refuse to accept the status quo in Washington. 

We fight like hell, aggressively and passionately, to ensure that 

America’s veterans are no longer treated like second-class citizens 

in their own system and in their own government. 

The ongoing situation with Sergeant Tahmooressi, who has now 

been held for 184 days by the Mexican Government, is yet another 

example of our Federal Government leaving a man behind. In the 

military, we leave no man behind. We are leaving an inactive reservist behind in Mexico. 

Andrew Tahmooressi is a United States Marine, he is a non-commissioned officer, he is a machine gunner and infantryman, a decorated combat veteran who deployed twice to Afghanistan, meeting 

the enemy in fierce combat. Sergeant Tahmooressi literally saved 

the lives of his fellow Marines. He was so good, as everyone has 

said, a meritorious battlefield promotion, which is nearly unheard 

of. 

His gunnery sergeant called him, your gunnery sergeant, called 

him an outstanding Marine and a stand-out guy. There is no doubt 

this guy is an American hero, plain and simple, but his service 

comes with a physical and psychological cost. And let me assure 

you, post-traumatic stress, or PTS, it is real. And if left untreated, 

especially for those who partook in the horrors of war, it can become a lifelong disorder that you manage. And it can also be deadly. As many people here know, 22 veterans in America today take 

their own lives. Many more struggle in silence. 

As has been reported widely already, Sergeant Tahmooressi was 

diagnosed with PTS before he crossed that border and attempted 

to take his own life in a crowded Tijuana prison. The condition has 

only been exacerbated by his treatment there and his lack of treatment in the United States. 

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He doesn’t face post-traumatic stress because he is weak or because he is a coward or because he is a victim. He simply faces the 

invisible wounds of war. And right now he faces them alone, largely alone, with a few advocates fighting for him on the outside. 

Left untreated, these hidden wounds, they can lead to the bottle, 

they can lead to reckless behavior, they can lead to detachment 

and societal withdrawal. Following my tour in Iraq, I know I dealt 

with all three. But much worse, these scars can end in suicide, unless, of course, there is a lifeline. Seeking care for post-traumatic 

stress either through peer-to-peer counseling, alternative therapy, 

family support, or proper care at the VA saves lives. 

Those who manage post-traumatic stress, they are not ticking 

time bombs, they are not victims. With the right treatment at the 

right place at the right time, most soldiers and Marines, like Sergeant Tahmooressi, come back and become the leaders and the pillars of our communities that we need so badly in America today. 

My bottom line to this committee and to this Government and to 

the Mexican Government is this: Sergeant Tahmooressi needs and 

deserves immediate treatment for his post-traumatic stress, and 

shame on anyone at home or abroad who doesn’t move heaven and 

earth to make that happen. 

In combat, men like Sergeant Tahmooressi never have enough 

troops or enough ammunition, never have enough time or enough 

equipment, but they still get the job done. The same should be expected from the United States Government. No excuse for inaction 

is good enough. He should be released immediately, end of story. 

Before leaving home for this testimony, I kissed my two young 

sons on the forehead. And I am willing as a soldier and a citizen 

and a father to someday lend them to the cause of freedom’s fight, 

but in doing so, I only ask that my Government do everything possible before, during and after they serve, to stand right beside them 

and be there for them. Mrs. Tahmooressi expected the very same 

thing. Is she going to receive it? is the million-dollar question. 

In closing, the contrast before this committee, this Congress and 

this White House could not be more stark. And it has been mentioned twice, but it is worth mentioning again. This administration 

negotiated with the Taliban and exchanged five terrorist killers 

with American blood on their hands for the release of Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, a soldier who deserted his unit on the front 

lines 2 months into his first tour of duty. 

And as everyone has heard, Sergeant Tahmooressi did two tours 

of duty, a highly decorated Marine. Sergeant Bergdahl cost American lives; Sergeant Tahmooressi saved lives. Does that not matter? 

It is time to bring our Marine home, long overdue, and get him 

the care that he has earned. 

Thank you for this opportunity, and I welcome your questions. 

Mr. SALMON. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Hegseth follows:]

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Mr. SALMON. I am going to yield myself 5 minutes for questions, 

and Mrs. Tahmooressi, I would like to start with you. 

Interesting enough, Mr. Hegseth, after the release of Bergdahl, 

there was a lot of media scrutiny about that arrangement, that 

trade. And the President very boldly said on national TV that as 

Commander in Chief, he leaves no soldier behind. That is his policy. 

I just want to ask you, Mrs. Tahmooressi, has the President personally called you, has he personally contacted you about this case? 

Mrs. TAHMOORESSI. No, he has not, Chairman. 

Mr. SALMON. To the best of your knowledge, has the President 

made any kind of a phone call to the President of Mexico to intercede on Andrew’s behalf? 

Mrs. TAHMOORESSI. Not to my knowledge. 

Mr. SALMON. I know I had a personal meeting with Vice President Biden the week before the President was to speak with the 

President of Mexico, and Vice President Biden assured me that 

they would be on top of it. And I was told after the phone call that 

the President did not bring it up. Very, very disappointed. 

Can I ask you, Mrs. Tahmooressi, how have the Mexican authorities treated you as you have searched for information regarding 

your son and his location? Have they been forthcoming or have 

they left you in the dark during this process? 

Mrs. TAHMOORESSI. Well, the judicial process is one that is done 

in secrecy, in a sense, because I attend all of Andrew’s hearings, 

and supposedly it is supposed to be open to the public, yet each and 

every hearing I attend, the honorable presiding judge asks that I 

sit out in the hallway, because there is not enough space in the 

courtroom. 

So I have not been given any information forthcoming from Mexico officials other than a fact sheet that did come out some time 

ago, yet I had some questions on their facts. 

Mr. SALMON. I was mystified when you told me that the judge 

would not allow you, the mother, to come in and sit in the hearings, that you actually have to sit outside. 

Mrs. TAHMOORESSI. Correct. And it is interesting, that it is always a hearing room that is selected without even a window. All 

of them have windows except for the one that Andrew’s court proceedings are going on. 

Mr. SALMON. How about our folks at the consulate there in Tijuana? Have they been pretty helpful? 

Mrs. TAHMOORESSI. Well, the local department, that would be 

Consul General Andrew Erickson, who actually served with Andrew in Afghanistan in 2012, from a personal standpoint, like making sure Andrew has a toothbrush, making sure that I get escorted 

in and out safely, because there are travel warnings, in the beginning they had red alert travel warnings to Mexico, Americans were 

supposed to keep a low profile because of a high risk of kidnapping. 

So they do help escort me in and out; however, it is the State 

Department local level on April 14th that translated the VA medical record that I ran to San Diego, and it is the State Department 

in Tijuana, Mexico, on April 14th that flew in Dr. Riegel from the 

U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. Dr. Riegel did a full evaluation that 

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day. I witnessed it. And I received the report from the State Department approximately May 1st with the diagnosis of PTSD. 

It was translated and supposedly given to the judge, but it was 

never entered into court as evidence to substantiate PTSD. It was 

not considered—I don’t know if it was because it wasn’t considered 

legitimate, it was from a U.S. source, and that is why just 2 days 

ago, 6 months into this ordeal, a Mexican psychiatrist has come in 

to validate combat-related PTSD, which I just find ironic, because 

they don’t send their military to combat. 

But the Mexican psychiatrists are considered legitimate, but not 

Dr. Riegel, who did a full evaluation, from our U.S. Embassy in 

Mexico City on April 14th, but those documentations have not 

seemed to be effective or considered of high importance. 

Mr. SALMON. Thank you. 

Lieutenant Commander Williams, you mentioned in your testimony that him being in prison for 6 months is extremely counterproductive to his PTSD. Can you elaborate on that just a little bit? 

Lt. Commander WILLIAMS. Yes, sir. No question. I was afforded 

with Jill an opportunity to speak to Andrew, what, 3 nights ago, 

3 days ago, and it was my first time speaking to him, because I 

literally tried my best to keep this off of Montel and keep this on 

Andrew, and knowing that when I enter this fray, the press would 

maybe take it in the wrong direction. 

When as I spoke to him, he said to me the other night specifically, we talked for a couple minutes just in general, how are you 

doing? Okay. And I said to him, it is an ignorant question for me 

to ask you, Andrew, but Marine to Marine, how are you doing? And 

he paused and he said, I have a hard time keeping the bad 

thoughts out. I have a hard time keeping the bad thoughts out. 

This is 2 days ago. I have a hard time keeping the bad thoughts 

out, this is a key statement from a person suffering right now, and 

he was sending that message, I think, clearly to let me know and 

let his mom know, it is not going well, but he couldn’t say it in any 

other way. 

So why am I so concerned? Again, this is not about me, but most 

of you know I have suffered from MS for the last 20 years, diagnosed in 1990. My MS, I have scars on my brain that are closely 

equivalent to a concussive blast, so these symptoms, I recognize. I 

am in a treatment program for them now and I am doing very well, 

however, I know 1 day, 2 days without treatment that I have, these 

things come back. 

And unfortunately, Andrew being involved in a concussive blast, 

we have just now determined he has traumatic brain—well, PTSD, 

but they really haven’t looked at his brain yet, and there may be 

residual effects that are going to cause this a little bit longer to be 

treated. And now for him to sit in a prison, and I know we are 

hesitant to say it, but the rumors are that he has been beaten, he 

has been treated like a POW, not a person incarcerated for making 

a mistake. 

And he said it to his mother and he said it to his peers: His 

treatment here is worse than being in Afghanistan. And for a person who is suffering to make that statement, he knows it. So when 

we get him home, this is just the beginning, but it is also an example of what we need to make sure we take care of for the other 

30

guys and the other soldiers that are serving and suffering the same 

way. 

Mr. SALMON. Thank you very much. 

The Chair yields to the gentlewoman from Hawaii. 

Ms. GABBARD. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank 

you all for your very heartfelt testimony. 

I wish we had more time. I know it is very difficult to capture 

everything that you are conveying in such a short period of time. 

I understand and can appreciate everything that each of you has 

communicated with regards to post-traumatic stress, with regards 

to the treatment that Andrew needs, but I want to take a step back 

for many people who may be watching or listening who have not 

worn the uniform or who have not had a family member who has 

worn the uniform and who haven’t had that first-hand experience 

that each of you has related. 

And put us in the position of any one of us going there, any one 

of us missing that turn, any one of us not seeing a sign and ending 

up in a position where you are getting arrested, you are surrounded by the military after making an honest mistake, I think 

each of us would probably be pretty pissed off, each of us would 

probably not be acting in the calmest of manners, understanding 

the unknown that lay ahead, anyone in that situation. 

And I think that on top of that, understanding the strong case 

of his character that you have made, the strong case of his service, 

his commitment, what he has done, the commitment he has had 

throughout his life only adds to that understanding and really goes 

to the point of the fact that what is occurring, there is no excuse, 

there is absolutely no excuse for it. 

And the most unfortunate thing is it appears that bureaucracy 

is being allowed to be used as an excuse for his continued incarceration and is really being blamed for why no action has been taken. 

As many of you said, whatever it takes, whatever it takes, he 

should be brought home. 

My question for Jill is after the September 9th hearing, it has 

been reported that your son’s lawyer expressed confidence that a 

favorable ruling may be close, and I am just wondering if the assessment has changed since then and how you expect things in the 

near term to go from the Mexican judicial standpoint? 

Mrs. TAHMOORESSI. Thank you for that question. Mr. Fernando 

Benitez is Andrew’s current criminal defense attorney. We had had 

two attorneys previous to Mr. Benitez, who did great disservice to 

Andrew. They were not of the ethics that I had expected, especially 

since the first one was actually—I selected off of the Department 

of State reference sheet in Tijuana, Mexico. 

But Mr. Benitez does state a high degree of confidence. There 

was a hearing on September 9th where the video surveillance was 

watched for 8 hours, and it definitely corroborated Andrew’s truthful and forthcoming statement and it did poke holes in the statements by the Mexican officials and customs agents. 

So for that reason, Mr. Benitez believes that he is very close to 

resting the case now and he expects a verdict—or an action of either dismissal or acquittal within the next couple of weeks, especially since the two psychiatric evaluations, one from the defense 

31

and one from the prosecutor, have just been done and filed in the 

court yesterday and ratified at 5:30 in the afternoon. 

So I believe we are just several weeks away. We are hopeful. 

Ms. GABBARD. Thank you. 

And for Mr. Williams, I know that you, as well as Jill and others, 

have talked about specific actions, a phone call from the President, 

you mentioned the petition that over 100,000 people have signed. 

What specific actions do you feel will actually truly be effective in 

gaining Andrew’s release that we can advocate for and that we can 

push for here? 

Lt. Commander WILLIAMS. Congresswoman Gabbard, first, I 

want to apologize for not acknowledging you as the ranking member, and I also want to say thank you for your service. 

It is right now 11:05. If this hearing is going to stop in the next 

10 minutes, I think the President needs to pick up the phone in 

15. Make the call. Make the call today. If you are not going to call 

President Pen ̃ a Nieto, call this woman. This woman’s child, he is 

a father. I am a father. 

I need to say something else that I didn’t say earlier. The reason 

why I jumped out, decided to become more public—and please, believe me, it is not about me—I have a daughter right now who has 

been going through cancer treatments for a year. She is now in her 

second round. It came back. It is the worst of it the last couple 

days. 

This woman, since June, has sent a prayer to my family every 

day for my daughter. So those who wonder why I am here, this is 

a father and a mother who have two ill children. I know a lot of 

us who suffer from post-traumatic stress don’t like to use that term 

‘‘ill.’’ But if we use it appropriately and use it the right way, that 

means it can be treated. It is an illness. 

And so I would beg that the President make that call. If that 

can’t happen, then I would say that I would beg that maybe this 

committee, we issue a joint statement directly to President Pen ̃ a 

Nieto and say the world is watching, it is time for you to act. 

Ms. GABBARD. Thank you. Thank you all very much. 

Mr. SALMON. Thank you. 

Chair now recognizes the chairman of the full committee, Mr. 

Royce. 

Mr. ROYCE. Yeah, I wanted just to go to Sergeant Buchanan. 

And I think all of us are hopeful that your friend Andrew will 

be back here soon. But what advice, I think I would ask, would you 

give him and us on how best to approach his PTSD treatment? And 

I would also ask that question of Mr. Hegseth, since he is a veteran 

and works regularly with those who have gone through something 

of what Andrew has gone through. 

Sergeant BUCHANAN. Thank you for your question, Congressman 

Royce. 

He needs to be with his brothers, the guys that trained with him, 

deployed with him, know what he is going through. It doesn’t matter what branch, what your job was, we all wore a uniform, and 

that is what we have in common. And that is something, outside 

of the military, when you are readjusting. That is something about 

Sergeant Tahmooressi, is his humble attitude. He has a servant’s 

32

heart. He always wants to help. And part of the problem with that 

is he will help other people before he helps himself. 

He had just started the VA treatment, the process. He was just 

at the beginning, getting diagnosed. That is nothing. That is the 

first of many steps, and it is a long process, the VA system. We 

need to get him in there, get him with his friends, start the healing 

process, because, like everyone was saying, isolation is the last 

thing a Marine, a combat vet needs that is suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. 

Mr. ROYCE. And I will go to Mr. Hegseth. You mentioned also the 

trade that the United States made for five senior Taliban leaders, 

including former director of intelligence for the Taliban, one of 

their senior commanders. One was chief of staff. The chief of staff 

was implicated in the death of thousands of Shia. All five had been 

involved in coordinating attacks against American and coalition 

forces, and three of the five were directly linked to al-Qaeda. 

Now, the United States has taken an action to get them released. 

And one of those five in Qatar today already told a senior Taliban 

official—this was reported on the news—that his next step would 

be to try to return to Afghanistan in order to carry out attacks 

against American and coalition forces there. 

Let me ask you your thoughts on this and what can be done in 

order to secure the release of Sergeant Tahmooressi. 

Mr. HEGSETH. Me and my men guarded those five detainees at 

Guantanamo Bay for a year. This is something that is incredibly 

personal for all those that have served and specifically those that 

have served in those combat zones. 

To know what it took, to know the number of boots that were on 

the ground that sought those men, to lock those men up, so that 

we don’t have to face them again, and then to know that our Government is willing to give them away. And then a Rose Garden 

ceremony with a family of someone who everyone knows who has 

looked at the case deserted his unit. And then Ms. Tahmooressi 

can’t get a phone call. 

And we hear all about a pen and a phone. Use your pen and your 

phone and call the President of Mexico and get this done. It is not 

hard. And it is not political. It is personal for people that know it. 

And Sergeant Buchanan was perfect on his remarks about the 

VA. It is peer-to-peer counseling. It is being and talking to the men 

that you have served with. And oftentimes at the VA, there is also 

alternative therapy. 

The question also, and this is not the hearing for the Department 

of Veterans Affairs, but, Ms. Gabbard, you talked about bureaucracy. How many people, how many Sergeant Jones and Sergeant 

Smiths are attempting to access mental healthcare at the VA and 

then they are made to wait weeks and months? 

You know how many mothers I meet on the road when we do 

events that come up to me and said, I lost my son to suicide as he 

was waiting for treatment at the Department of Veterans Affairs? 

That is a scandal just like this one and another instance where 

our Nation turns its backs, as Lieutenant Commander Williams 

talked about, on those who have given so much for this Nation. So 

trading deserters for terrorists and making veterans wait for basic 

care, unacceptable. 

33

Mr. SALMON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The Chair recognizes Chairman Smith, who is chairman of the 

Subcommittee on Human Rights and the former chairman of the 

Veterans’ Affairs Committee. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Chairman Salmon. 

And I think this hearing perhaps more than anything else that 

has happened so far will give additional hope to Andrew. And hopefully he knows the strong bipartisan support, the concern, the prayers that go out for him. 

And I would just say to my colleagues, I am not surprised, I am 

not shocked that the President has until this moment—and Montel 

Williams, I think, made an excellent point about pick up the phone, 

Mr. President. 

This is not calling Ruhani on behalf of Saeed Abedini, a pastor 

from the United States. This is a calling a friend and ally with 

whom we have a robust trading relationship. It is a dereliction of 

duty on the part of the President that he has not made this phone 

call. And not just one, but then put the full court press on the 

Mexican Government to release Andrew. 

Let me just say also, and Matt Salmon mentioned I was chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, I served on that committee for 26 years, including a stint as its chairman. 

PTSD, as I think you know, Pete, during the Vietnam war there 

was denial about PTSD. That argument has long been over. And 

the care, even though it is often delayed, that the VA provides, 

they have literally written the book on how to care for veterans 

who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. And delay is 

denial. One day of a delay is denial. 

And I also think it needs to be pointed out that 6 months of inattention to any service-connected disability, be it physical or psychological, causes that condition to fester and to worsen. 

So the ongoing appeal to the Mexican Government today is very 

simple and very direct: Release Andrew now, today, so that he can 

procure badly needed treatment for PTSD. He is a hero. He is a 

man that the American people and this Congress looks up to and 

says thank you. And yet he languishes in a Mexican prison. And 

we need to do more. 

But, again, we write law, we fund programs, and we do oversight 

as Congress. It is the executive branch that has direct contact with 

the President of Mexico. And that phone has to be raised to his ear 

and he has to not get off the phone until Andrew is released. 

So, again, I want to thank you. This is powerful testimony. And 

to hear a mother make such an articulate and strong appeal on behalf of her son and then have three very distinguished Americans 

do so in a way that has to be heard in Mexico City, it has to be 

heard at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It has already been heard by 

Members of Congress. 

And my colleagues have done yeoman’s work. And, again, thank 

you, Matt, thank you, Chairman Royce, Duncan Hunter and others, 

who have done so much for so long. But the President has to do 

his part. Andrew has to be on a plane getting that health care that 

he needs. Delay is denial. 

I thank my friend, and I yield back. 

Mr. SALMON. I thank the gentleman. 

34

I would like to now recognize the former chairman of the full 

committee and a great American, the gentlewoman from Florida, 

Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Thank 

you to the chairman of the full committee. 

Wow. Incredible witnesses. Thank you so much. 

Jill, I wanted to follow up on a few things that we discussed 

when we met in Miami. I am aghast that you still have not heard 

from the White House. 

Do you play golf? 

Mrs. TAHMOORESSI. No. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. No? Because I know that you are a nurse at 

Miami Children’s Hospital. That is just literally blocks away from 

the Biltmore, a beautiful hotel in Coral Gables. They have a wonderful golf course. Should we invite the President to play a few 

rounds of golf with you, get his attention? 

Mr. Chairman, I would like to request unanimous consent to submit a statement from a constituent of my congressional district, 

Olivia and Jon Hammar. Jill knows them well. They are parents 

of a Marine veteran, Jon Hammar, who similarly was arrested, detained for weeks and weeks and weeks in Mexico. 

It is an absolute shame, it is a disgrace that we even need to be 

here. It says quite a lot about the priorities of this administration. 

It should not be up to the moms, it should not be up to the wounded warriors, to the families, to the friends—and Mr. Tahmooressi 

has so many friends—to wage this awareness campaign to get our 

Government to act, to press the administration for Andrew’s release. 

And I wanted to ask you about the process you have had to go 

through with the lawyers in Mexico. And I am recalling some of the 

same things that Olivia had to go through. Because it is important 

that we recognize the similarities between the cases. Tahmooressi 

took a wrong turn, ended up in the twilight zone, and we must get 

him back. 

I know that the consulate is prohibited from providing legal advice, but it does give folks some help in finding a suitable lawyer. 

Both you and Olivia had to go through a number of lawyers before 

you could find a good and trustworthy one. Is that correct? 

And could you describe the process that you went through to find 

your lawyers? And the consulate provided you with a list, but was 

it a list of vetted individuals or was it more like, okay, here is an 

abbreviated version of the old-fashioned Yellow Pages, select from 

this. And I will have you respond in a second. 

And, finally, I would like to ask about Andrew’s health and his 

injuries from Afghanistan and ask the panel for their recommendations on how we can better serve our combat veterans who return 

home. 

As we have heard, Andrew has suffered at least two separate 

concussions. We heard today that he has not been evaluated for 

traumatic brain injury. There should be no reason why our veterans should return home, don’t get the immediate attention that 

they deserve medically. 

What do we need to do to make sure that these brave men and 

women aren’t falling through the cracks when they return? 

35

And as we heard from Mr. Williams and Mr. Hegseth, who testified, the alarming number of veterans who take their lives every 

day. We need to do more as a society, as a government to address 

this issue today. 

So, Jill, I will start with you. If you could tell us about the process of finding a lawyer. 

Mrs. TAHMOORESSI. Well, when I got that phone call on April 1, 

Mom, I have been arrested, get me an attorney, I did the responsible thing, I reached out to my congresswoman, Debbie 

Wasserman Schultz. And her staff led me to George Rivas of the 

Citizen Services in Washington, DC. He said, go to the Web site, 

there is a Web site, Tijuana, Mexico, U.S. Consulate Services, and 

look at the list. 

And so I started down the list, and I reached this gentleman’s 

name. I phoned him. He answered the phone. He spoke English. Tijuana is just 10 miles away from San Diego, yet there is a language 

barrier. 

So this particular lawyer spoke English, actually U.S. trained. 

And he was listed as a criminal defense attorney. That experience, 

I thought I was getting a reputable attorney, and he was probably 

the most scrupulous and exploitative person I have ever met in my 

life. 

He served in the disclosure statement before the judge as attorney and translator, and he scripted a mistruth. He scripted a 

mistruth. He perjured my son. He scripted a mistruth and told Andrew that, this is Mexico, forget anything you know about American law. And this is Mexico, who I believe we sent $100 million 

to in the past couple of years to help them reform their judicial system. 

This is the attorney that told Andrew that he must say that he 

just arrived in San Diego that day, he was rushing to meet a 

friend, he has never been to Mexico before, and he got lost. 

When Andrew called me that afternoon and said, Mom, where 

did you get that attorney, he just lied, and he told the judge that 

I have never been to Mexico. Mom, I stood up twice. The prosecutor 

was there. The defense attorney. Andrew, he stood up twice to say, 

no, because he must have understood that, no, I have been to Mexico. This attorney hushed him, told him to sit down. 

And when I called up this attorney that night and I said, you 

said what? I said, my son has been to Mexico, and my son never 

lies. My son has some faults, we all do, but lying has never been 

one. He is a man of integrity. 

He said, Mrs. Tahmooressi, this is Mexico, you have to forget everything about America. We don’t practice common law. We do oral 

arguments. They are not going to check any evidence. 

I said, they are not going to pull bank accounts? Because I pulled 

his bank account. I see that he has been in Tijuana twice. And I 

got validation that he had walked into Mexico with his best buddy 

friend, the Purple Heart that invited him to San Diego. Within 

hours of arriving to San Diego they were already in Tijuana. There 

must be a popular place in Tijuana for the Marines to visit. 

So I knew he had walked into Mexico one other time. And he had 

told me he had walked out of Mexico that day when he got in his 

truck purposefully to head back north to San Diego, because he had 

36

stayed in a hotel the night previous, the Old Town San Diego. He 

was headed back because he got triggered in Tijuana. Upon nightfall, he got triggered and thought I need to get out of here and to 

my friends in San Diego. 

So that was my experience with the first Mexican attorney. And 

that is why Andrew’s original court date, I think it was August, I 

am not sure of the exact date, but he had to go into court and say, 

Judge, I request that this attorney no longer represent me, in a 

sense, I fire this attorney. Because we could not proceed with the 

lies. We could not proceed with the lies. 

That was my experience with selecting an attorney. And by the 

grace of God, though, a great man serving California, he is a criminal defense attorney, Phil Dunn. He had heard me on a radio station or TV maybe. And he called me and said, Jill, I am sorry, but 

you don’t know how to pick Mexican attorneys. I am going down 

with you and we are going to pick an attorney. 

So we did. We went down there. But this time the State Department, the same State Department that referred me to the list, we 

met in their boardroom. And we said, please provide us a list, a 

short list, and as we typically rank number one as preferable, do 

provide us a short list. 

So they did. They provided a short list within hours. We went 

interviewing at least four to five different firms and selected Mr. 

Benitez the next day. 

Mr. SALMON. Thank you very much. 

The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr. Rohrabacher. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Thank you very much to all of the leaders 

who have provided their time and effort to make sure this hearing, 

which is an incredibly significant hearing, is happening. 

And let me thank Mrs. Tahmooressi for sending me a tweet the 

other day to draw my attention to something that I didn’t notice 

was even going to happen. And so I did redo my schedule. Thank 

you. 

We are defining ourselves today. We define ourselves by our actions, especially in times of crisis. Andrew defined himself. At a 

time of war, he joined the United States Marine Corps. I come from 

a Marine family, and I know what that means. 

And I will just say that I also know that Andrew did not do anything intentionally wrong. I went to Tijuana and I retraced his 

steps. I retraced his steps. And on the way back, when I drove out 

of that parking lot and made that turn to the left, it appeared, I 

can testify to everybody today, it appeared that I was going into 

California. And once you made that turn there was no going back 

until you were in Mexico. There is no doubt that this problem was 

not caused by any intention of Andrew to in some way not respect 

the law of Mexico, and that is very evident. 

Today, Mexico is defining itself, however. Mexico is defining itself 

to us. I have a warm spot in my heart for Mexico, and I like the 

Mexican people. And I think that I am speaking for most of us here 

today. Mexico we look at as a friend. I hope the people of Mexico 

are listening, because if this thing isn’t cleared up soon there will 

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cause they will be proving themselves to us that they aren’t our 

friend and we shouldn’t treat them that way. 

If they treat an American hero like that, we can no longer treat 

Mexico as our friend. I would hope in a very short time we can celebrate together with the people of Mexico, with you, and recement 

a friendship. But it will all depend on whether they do the right 

thing now. They will define themselves that way. 

We are defining ourselves. The President is defining himself. 

Shame on President Obama for not making a 30-second telephone 

call to the President of Mexico and getting this thing settled a long 

time ago. He is the Commander in Chief. That means he is personally the commander of people who volunteer to fight our wars. And 

if they don’t think that he cares enough about them to make a 

phone call, they going to feel they are betrayed, and they are being 

betrayed. 

I would recommend, Mr. Chairman, I understand the President 

is in Washington today, that we not wait for the President and that 

we put a call, a conference call in to the President, or that today, 

within the next 1⁄2 hour, we call the White House and personally 

request that each and every one of us go and see him to have a 

meeting to talk to him about this case. 

This has gone on long enough. We have a hero——

Mr. SALMON. Mr. Rohrabacher, the chairman would like to——

Mr. ROYCE. If the gentleman will yield, I will just relay that I, 

myself, as well as Mr. Matt Salmon, in meeting with the Vice 

President, relayed that request that the President do make that 

phone call. And I would suggest it is quite appropriate for other 

members here likewise to contact the White House and make that 

request. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Well, I think we went to the second guy. Now 

it is time to go to the guy on top. And I would ask my colleagues 

to join us today in that telephone call. 

And, finally, let’s just hope and pray, and our thoughts are with 

you. And this is a travesty that a brave hero has been treated like 

this. He did his duty, it is up to us to do our duty. The President 

of the United States is not doing his. So let’s act on this. 

Thank you very much. 

Mr. SALMON. Thank you. 

I yield to the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Poe. 

Mr. POE. Thank the chairman. 

Sergeant Tahmooressi, a Marine, he exemplifies exactly what I 

believe it was Ronald Reagan said about the Marines: There are 

two groups that understand the Marines, Marines and the enemy. 

And I think that is a true statement. 

This hearing to me is more than about the way America has handled the situation of your son, Jill. It is an example and a symptom 

of a bigger problem that our Marines and soldiers that have testified have talked about, the idea that the Government released five 

terrorists who killed Americans and are on the battlefield again 

doing the same thing. They are in Guantanamo. You have been to 

Guantanamo Bay prison. People need to see what it is like. It is 

no Mexican jail. It is a lot better than a Mexican jail. And we have 

learned about the Mexican incarceration system. As a former judge, 

I heard a lot about it at the courthouse. 

38

But a prisoner, a Marine being threatened and assaulted while 

incarcerated, that is wrong, no matter who he is, whether he is a 

Mexican national or American. But yet we know that has occurred, 

but still, 6 months later, there he is. And during that 6 months—

and this is not about the President—but he has had the opportunity to make a couple of phone calls during that 6 months. He 

called, on July 3, the United States men’s soccer team congratulating them. June 20th, he congratulated the San Antonio Spurs’ 

head coach for their victory. So he can make those congratulatory 

calls. Let’s just make one more and make a statement to the Mexican President. 

I have sponsored, along with the chairman, a resolution, House 

Resolution 620, sponsored by 81 Members of Congress, Republicans 

and Democrats, that calls on the Mexican Government to release 

our sergeant. We hope that we could get this resolution adopted at 

least by action before we have to take a vote on it. 

And I think the comments about contacting the Mexican President, maybe that is something we ought to be doing. Whatever it 

takes, there is action. But that is one avenue we are going through 

legally to try to get something done. 

You have all been excellent witnesses. You don’t hedge on anything. I wonder why there is no witness here from the State Department, why they are not here testifying what they are doing or 

not doing about the Marine that we have been talking about. 

Lieutenant Commander Williams, your comment, going back to 

about this is bigger, it is a symptom of other things, our veterans 

coming back, how they are treated, waiting in line to die at the 

Veterans Administration hospital. And I am not very IT savvy, but 

I have been getting constant tweets, I think they are called, from 

citizens in Texas complimenting you and demanding Congress do 

something about our Marine. 

There have been 37 young men and women from my congressional district in Texas killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, men and 

women from all races, all branches of the service. Their photographs are on my wall here in Washington, as with many other 

Members. 

We are not forgetting this Marine. We are not forgetting any of 

them, whether they were killed in action or whether they are 

wounded or whether they come back with the wounds of war, as 

you have talked about. The American public, I think, stands with 

our military, all of them, because, as it has been said, the worst 

casualty of war is to be forgotten. And we are not going to forget 

those that come back, and we are certainly not going to forget Sergeant Tahmooressi while he is in a Mexican jail. It is long past due 

to come back. 

And I think I am out of time, so I will yield back to the chairman. I have some questions, but I will ask you later. Thank you. 

Lt. Commander WILLIAMS. Mr. Chairman, could I please, sir, just 

make one comment. I will be brief. 

Mr. SALMON. Please. 

Lt. Commander WILLIAMS. Congressman Poe, I want to thank 

you, sir, for bringing up House Resolution 620. And as you pointed 

out, 81 Members of Congress, both sides, have signed on to this. 

But, unfortunately, we need to get this to the floor. It would send 

39

an incredible message today to the President of the United States 

if the House and Congress would go ahead and at least call a vote 

on this. 

And I should also say that what you stated, the American public 

knows about Sergeant Tahmooressi. But I don’t understand what 

is going on, sir, at the political level. In the last 12 days, two governors have sat down and had conversations, one from each side, 

with President Pen ̃ a Nieto, and neither one of them has raised this 

question. And we asked them both to do so. 

I was in a meeting yesterday with an individual who is a grand 

funder of a lot of the campaigns going on across this country right 

now. And he sat with President Nieto 3 days ago, 4 days ago. And 

I was in his office yesterday. And I said, why didn’t you tell me 

that, because I would have called you and asked you to do so. 

But here is what is unfortunate that we are holding this hearing 

today: Most of the American public has some weird idea that he 

must have done something wrong, that is why you are not backing 

him. And one of the points that has to be made, when you talked 

about the fact that he made a wrong turn and you followed this, 

that wrong turn, what people have to understand is that submitted 

as evidence in the Mexican court right now is the video of Sergeant 

Tahmooressi pulling up to the checkpoint. And in that checkpoint, 

they gave him a green light. He could have entered the country, 

buried his guns, come back, figured out a way to get one back every 

week. 

He put his hands up and said, hey, I made a mistake. Now, that 

right there is clear enough for anybody in America who has to understand this is not us trying to get—for some reason, there are 

some people who claim that he had to have done something 

wrong—this is not us trying to get a soldier who has done something wrong back. This is trying to get a soldier back. 

Sorry, sir. 

Mr. SALMON. Thank you. 

The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. 

Marino. 

Mr. MARINO. Thank you, Chairman. 

I want to thank you all for being here. 

Mrs. Tahmooressi, to you and to your family, from my family, we 

pray for Andrew daily. 

And, Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record 

a letter that I wrote that I dated July 10 of 2014 to the Ambassador of Mexico to the United States of America respectfully asking 

for the immediate release of Sergeant Tahmooressi. Could I have 

this letter unanimously entered into the record? 

Mr. SALMON. Without objection, so ordered. 

Mr. MARINO. Thank you. 

I did not receive a response. 

Again, ma’am, my staff and I will assist the chairman in any way 

needed or any way in which he requests to continue to work on the 

release of your son. As Lieutenant Commander Williams said, you 

and your son and veterans deserve more, have a right to more. And 

we need to see that that is accomplished. 

I apologize for how inappropriately you have been treated, and 

I apologize for the inappropriate level of concern by the White 

40

House. I am truly disappointed in that. The President said on numerous occasions he has a pen and a phone, he can do what he 

wants. 

So at this time, Mr. President, I am asking you to use your pen 

and your phone that you so continually tell the American people 

that you are going to use. 

I am disappointed that you have to be here today, ma’am. I am 

disappointed that vets have not received the appropriate care that 

they should be receiving in this country. And the President needs 

to step up and show you the proper attention. 

Our allies, the Mexican Government, also need to do what is 

right and need to do it immediately. 

And again my respect. I yield back. 

Mr. SALMON. I thank the gentleman. 

The other gentleman from Texas, Mr. Stockman, is recognized. 

Mr. STOCKMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I appreciate Congressman Matt Salmon and his efforts throughout all this. 

In a tangent a little bit, I have to say, if your son is a gunrunner, 

he is one of the worst ones I have ever seen. I mean, to openly 

admit and raise his hands. Furthermore, I don’t think he brought 

enough to make any money. I mean, it is just so bizarre that this 

whole thing is upside down, that what is good is bad and bad is 

good in this nation. 

He is unbelievably over there. And I actually sat with the Consul 

General from Mexico right after he was taken. I gave him a stack 

of papers on your son. And I said, look, I said, this is going to grow 

into something really bad for both our countries if you continue to 

hold our hero. I go, this isn’t going to end up well for either of our 

nations. Please show compassion. I said, you show compassion, you 

are going to hit the park. 

We, all the time in Texas, we have them come across our border 

accidentally and we turn them around. In fact, they were shooting 

.50-caliber machine guns at us and we let them go back in. 

This lack of friendship by our ally, supposedly, is so disturbing, 

and I for one am puzzled by it. And I would hope this committee 

in future hearings reconsiders the amount of money we are sending 

down there. I don’t think we should keep investing in friends. If 

we have friends like this, we really don’t need enemies. 

And I know we shouldn’t get into bashing them, but I am really 

frustrated because I see the lack of compassion on their side. And 

I see compassion on our side. And we just want balance. That is 

all we ask for. 

And there are some other people that haven’t been announced 

that have come up on the Hill on your behalf. William Chatfield, 

who is a Marine, came up here and lobbied—I don’t want to use 

the word ‘‘lobbied,’’ but spoke on your son’s behalf; Larry Ward 

from Special Operations Speaks has been up here; Sam Bushman, 

who is a great guy, he has been up here with his organization lobbying on your behalf. And then in my office, Printus LeBlanc, who 

is a Marine, has been pushing very hard, and Anna Marie Hoffman, who has been pushing. 

Some of the things I want to just, I don’t know, we are trying 

to struggle and do something, but it feels like we are pushing 

41

against Jello sometimes. Every time we push, Congressman Ted 

Poe’s thing, we thought that is going to be the answer and it seems 

to fall on deaf ears. We talk to the President’s people, it falls on 

deaf ears. This hearing seems to be falling on deaf ears. We have 

nobody from the State Department here. We have nobody here that 

should be here. 

I mean, you are here. That is great. But there should be other 

people here that can pull strings that should be in this hearing, 

hearing this powerful testimony, and they are not here. And that 

is disappointing to me personally, because I think in the long run 

this will do damage to Congress too that we haven’t taken up. And 

it will do damage, I think, to the institution of the Presidency that 

there is so much silence. The silence is deafening. These are our 

heroes from every standpoint, and we continue to be silent, and it 

is very disturbing. 

I guess I would just ask is there any more we can do to—besides 

calling the President—but is there anything we can do outside of 

what we are doing right now that would move the process forward? 

Mrs. TAHMOORESSI. Thank you. I mean, just simply, I would like 

to see more than 81 signatures on the House Resolution 620. So 

if you could reach out to all your colleagues. Because I believe Mexico would find that profoundly intimidating, maybe, if there was 

more than 81 signatures on that House Resolution 620. 

But thank you for all of your efforts, and thank you so much for 

coming in out of session to hear about Andrew’s fight for freedom 

and the plight of our veterans in America. Thank you. 

Mr. SALMON. Thank you. The Chair recognizes the former veteran and Congressman from Florida, and a dear friend, Congressman DeSantis. 

Mr. DESANTIS. Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing. 

Sergeant Tahmooressi is an American hero who fought for us 

with honor and distinction in accordance with the finest traditions 

of the United States Marine Corps, and yet he finds himself languishing in a Mexican prison for 6 months. His imprisonment is 

unjust, and the length of his detention is a national disgrace. 

I think the witnesses here have been phenomenal. I am only a 

first-term Member, but I have sat through a lot of congressional 

hearings, and I really want to applaud you, because I think you all 

have brought tremendous insight into this issue. And I think it will 

help educate the American people about Andrew’s plight. 

But it is inexplicable to me that this is even necessary to have 

this. This should have been resolved long ago. And people have 

mentioned that we would like to see action from the White House. 

It is interesting, if you look, 22 USC 1732, this is the law of the 

land right now, states,

‘‘Whenever it is made known to the President that any citizen 

of the United States has been unjustly deprived of his liberty 

by or under the authority of any foreign government, it shall 

be the duty of the President forthwith to demand of that government the reason of such imprisonment; and if it appears to 

be wrongful and in violation of the rights of American citizenship, the President shall forthwith demand the release of such 

citizen. If the release so demanded is unreasonably delayed or 

42

refused, the President shall use such means, not amounting to 

acts of war, not otherwise prohibited by law, as he may think 

necessary and proper to obtain or effectuate the release; and 

all the facts and proceedings relative thereto shall as soon as 

practicable be communicated by the President to Congress.’’

I am not aware of the President taking any action so far to bring 

our Marine back. And I don’t think we have received any information in Congress about actions that have been taken. 

So I would say, Mr. President, we have a man down. Pick up the 

phone and do your job on behalf of our Marine. And I think it could 

be solved very quickly with that. 

But I do think, even though it is the President’s duty, and I 

think that falls on him, we do need to speak in Congress, and not 

just in a hearing, not just in press releases, but in actual votes. 

And so that means, absolutely, we call up House Resolution 620 

and we vote it out of the House of Representatives. It means, I believe, to say to Mexico, we send you hundreds of millions of dollars 

in foreign assistance. That money stops until our Marine is brought 

back to the United States. We need to stop talking in this town and 

start acting. 

So I am very glad that you called this hearing. I would like to 

see more action. And I think that there are a lot of other things 

that the President could do; obviously, pick up the phone. We have 

a lot of leverage we can use on Mexico to secure our Marine’s release, and this needs to happen as expeditiously as possible. And 

I yield back. 

Mr. SALMON. I would like to just say for the record that when 

we go back into session, if our man is not back home, we will be 

moving that bill. And we will be moving it out of the subcommittee, 

and I will have every intention to work with leadership to get it 

expedited on the floor as quickly as possible. 

I do have a sneaking suspicion and a very optimistic view that 

good things are going to happen very, very soon. And, Congressman 

from Florida, I know we have all heard that before. But I have reason to believe that maybe some optimism might be in vogue right 

now. 

I recognize the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Yoho. 

Mr. YOHO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to thank you, 

Chairman Royce, Mr. Hunter, for going and doing what you have 

done, the stellar work you have done. 

I want to thank you all for showing up and doing, again, I agree 

with everybody up here that you guys have done a great job. 

And, Mrs. Tahmooressi, the story you are telling exemplifies only 

the love and concern a mother or a parent can have for a child. 

And the things that you have shared with us are great. I mean, 

I am reading this here, you know, it says, Mom, I did this; Mom, 

I scheduled my solo flight. And you went through this whole list. 

And the last one, I can’t read because it is too disturbing. 

But to hear the excitement of our kids—Mom or Dad, I did this—

and then to have this turn out, to me it is just unconscionable that 

we have gotten to this point. 

And I think of everything that we have gone through in this 

country with our relationship with Mexico, and it has been brought 

up. They get $300 million a year in foreign aid. They are a neighVerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:48 Feb 04, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00046 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_WH\100114\90725 SHIRL
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bor, they are a friend, they are a trading partner, they are an ally. 

They don’t send their young to defend freedom around this globe 

as we do. 

Again, the story you are telling, it is interesting how you brought 

out the paths and turns that we make in life often lead us in the 

wrong direction. But how many of us have made a wrong turn that 

have had this kind of consequence in our life? Not many of us, especially as rapidly as it has for your son and monumental for a 

wrong turn. 

And I see a young man that went down there who made a wrong 

turn, realized he made a wrong turn, goes to the security guards 

and says, hey, listen, I made a wrong turn. I want to go back to 

America. And, oh, by the way, I have three guns. I am telling you 

what I did. 

Now, as it was brought up, if you were doing that to smuggle 

them in there, you wouldn’t say that. So obviously, it was a mistake, it was a wrong turn. They need to let him go. 

And for our President not to stand up to demand his release, yet 

he negotiated and released—and I feel illegally—five of the all-star 

players on the Taliban team for one our Marines. And I am always 

happy to get one of our soldiers home. But if we can do that, and 

he can do that, he can do this and just ask for him to be returned. 

We don’t want to make an international incident out of this. We 

just want our Marine home, we want your son, your comrade home. 

We want him home. 

And I guess I just want to say, I, as a U.S. Congressman, I apologize to the President of Mexico that our Marine, one of our citizens, 

came into your country and made a wrong turn. And he admitted 

that. And I apologize he made a mistake. And I hope you find in 

your heart the ability to forgive him and release him so that we 

can put this to an end and he can get on with his life and with 

his treatment. 

And I just want to thank all of you that have served. We are well 

aware of the 22 suicides that happen every day in this country. 

And we need to get him back and get him treated. 

And I thought it was also interesting that President Obama, with 

Sergeant Bergdahl, stated that it was a medical emergency, it was 

a risk to his life, that we bring this young man home. And if that 

was true then, it is true now. And I urge this President to pick up 

the phone and use his pen and bring this man home. 

And with that, I am going to yield back. We are with you. We 

will do whatever we can. And God bless you all. 

Mr. SALMON. Thank you. 

I recognize the gentleman from California, who is also a former 

veteran, also worked tirelessly on behalf of Sergeant Tahmooressi, 

a great guy and a good colleague, Duncan Hunter. 

Mr. HUNTER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks very much for 

holding this. 

And thank you, everybody, for coming out. 

Number one, we don’t call it the Marine Corps, we call it America’s Marine Corps. Sergeant Tahmooressi is a son of America. He 

is a Marine who fought for every single person. When we have Marine Generals testify, they say it is your Marine Corps, it is AmerVerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:48 Feb 04, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00047 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_WH\100114\90725 SHIRL
44

ica’s Marine Corps, and that is how we should be looking at this 

case. 

Frankly, I am tired of the lip service, of the thanks for your service, while I watch the President give speeches in front of our men 

and women in uniform so that he can look sexy on television. Because it is just lip service. He doesn’t care. Secretary Kerry does 

not care. And the State Department, for all the little things that 

they have done for you, they have not gone out of their way. In 

fact, the first lawyer that you got was off of their Web site that 

they vetted. They do not care. But people in this room care. 

I would say too that when a parent gives their son or daughter 

up and entrusts their lives to the U.S. military, to the United 

States Marine Corps, you gave your son up for your country, and 

he did it willingly and proudly. And I look at those pictures popping up. He is a stud. He is a young killer of bad people. And that 

is why he joined, to go serve his country. 

And to see him now and what they have reduced him to in Mexico and to read that excerpt that you said he told you where he was 

tied spread eagle and beaten and threatened with rape, that is appalling. This isn’t Yemen, this isn’t Somalia. This is supposed to be 

one of our number one neighbors, Mexico. 

But I would advise everybody, we don’t allow our Marines at 

Camp Pendleton, where I was stationed, we don’t allow them to go 

to Mexico. The sailors in San Diego, not allowed to go to Mexico. 

Mexico is more than Rosarito, Cozumel, Ensenada. In Mexico, they 

make $5 a day. That is their new minimum wage. It is not a First 

World country. There is a reason we don’t allow our Marines and 

sailors to go to Mexico from San Diego. They don’t get leave shifts 

there at Camp Pendleton. They are not allowed to do it. 

Andrew does not just deserve this, and he doesn’t have a right 

to this, to this hearing and to this attention, he has earned it, 

along with about 1 percent of the U.S. population who has served 

in the military, and an even smaller slice of that has served in 

combat situations. He has earned this attention here today. He has 

earned this Congress coming together and this committee holding 

this. This is what we are here for. This is why we are in Congress. 

This is why we run for Congress and win, is to represent people 

like him so we can go fight for him when people like our own President won’t. 

And I will tell you what. I am tired of hearing about the President making a phone call. What kind of a low bar do we have we 

set for this President, we ask him to make a phone call? He ought 

to get his tail down and play some of those Mexican golf courses 

and get him out of jail in person. That is a low bar to set for the 

Commander in Chief, a Commander in Chief that should go to hell 

and back for one of their men or women who has been left behind, 

as has been stated. 

I have a question for the panel. Would you allow your Marines 

or soldiers to go to Mexico today? 

Mr. Hegseth? 

Mr. HEGSETH. No, Congressman. 

Mr. HUNTER. Sergeant? 

Sergeant BUCHANAN. Negative, Congressman. 

Mr. HUNTER. Commander? 

45

Lt. Commander WILLIAMS. No, sir. 

Mr. HUNTER. Jill, would you allow your son or any of your 

friends or their kids, to go to Mexico? 

Mrs. TAHMOORESSI. It is too dangerous. No, I wouldn’t. 

Mr. HUNTER. In 2011, when Afghanistan was raging, you had 

nine times more likely of a chance to be killed in Mexico than to 

be killed in Afghanistan—nine times. Afghanistan was safer than 

Mexico. This does not sound like a good neighbor. It doesn’t sound 

like a neighbor that makes our Ford trucks and does deals with all 

of our big American corporations so that they can have $5-a-day 

labor in Mexico. 

Mexico stole Andrew’s chance at a quick recovery. And I think 

that Montel hit that right on the head. They stole his chance at a 

quick recovery. By getting rid of this case and acquitting him or 

throwing this case out now, today, or this week, or sometime soon, 

they at least set him on a slow, uphill path to be being healed. 

And I will tell you, Montel, you are dead on. This is much worse 

than Afghanistan. He would probably want to go serve two or three 

tours in the most horrible, dirtiest, grittiest combat place on Earth 

than sit in a Third World country jail. 

So thank you all for what you are doing. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for doing this. And God help us if we 

can’t get one of our own back out of the clutches of a not-so-great 

government like Mexico. 

Mr. SALMON. Thank you. 

I recognize the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Jolly. 

Mr. JOLLY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

To the panelists, thank each of you for your service. 

I want to associate myself with comments of my colleagues, particularly Mr. Hunter. We are elected to work, we are elected to actually get things done, as Members of Congress and the President 

is as well. 

Every member of this panel, every Member of this body at some 

point has probably run against the dysfunction of Washington. And 

when we are elected, we don’t have the luxury of resigning ourselves to that dysfunction. We have a responsibility to work. That 

means holding hearings like this, and that means actually putting 

your name on important pieces of legislation like House Resolution 

620. 

The issue clearly is leadership. The facts are as clear as they can 

be. We have established today that we have to get Andrew home, 

that the President has not done enough. But also, importantly, as 

Mr. Hegseth said, that PTS is real. We have talked about getting 

Andrew home, but we have also talked about a very important condition, and that is PTS. 

My question for Mrs. Tahmooressi is, can you walk us through 

very briefly, because I will have a couple other questions, as a 

mom, what you noticed in Andrew as PTS began to progress with 

him? 

Mrs. TAHMOORESSI. Thank you. 

He got out of active duty October 2012 and pretty much immediately enrolled in Embry-Riddle. He was accepted in January. 

That probably wasn’t the wisest thing to do, because it is hard to 

46

acclimate from the battlefield into a college environment, especially 

when you have a difficult time relating to your peer group now. 

So I think it began just having a difficult time relating to the 

peer group. He would see a classroom full of people his age, but 

they were disrespectful, they got up and left. And as a Marine, you 

definitely bow down to authority. 

So he started getting aggravated, frustrated. He was having 

flashbacks, really difficult time sleeping. So he would wake up 

screaming. And we would hear him wake up screaming. 

So a lot of restless nights, agitation. And also suspicion. As the 

year progressed in 2013, he did have a hypervigilance to self-defense. He still had what I call a hunter-prey syndrome. I don’t 

know if that is really a legitimate word. But to me, he was always 

hypervigilant. 

And 2013 is when he purchased his concealed weapon. So he had 

the shotgun in 2007 when he went to Alaska, but then he felt the 

need to have himself armed with the handgun. And being a Marine, he carried a rifle for those 4 years. And he was responsible 

for the biggest gun on the battlefield, a .50 caliber. 

So when he made his second purchase in 2013, which was his 

third firearm, the rifle, that also kind of made sense to us. I mean, 

we knew that that was his tool of the trade, that is what kept him 

alive for 4 years. 

Mr. JOLLY. Let me pause just a second because of time. I want 

to be respectful of time. 

We know we have a wait list. I have had a conversation with a 

mother like you referred to, Mr. Hegseth, somebody awaiting treatment within the VA, and then committed suicide while on the wait 

list. What do we need to do more. 

Mr. HEGSETH. As the Congressman said, delayed care is denied 

care. We hear all the time from the VA, well, it is great when you 

get in. If you can’t get in, you don’t get the treatment that you 

need. 

We have to cut through the bureaucracy. We have to hold leaders 

accountable for their performance. We need to provide transparency. And we need to give a veteran a choice. If they can’t be 

seen in a timely manner from a VA facility, why can’t they go to 

a private facility to get that care? 

Mr. JOLLY. Put a choice card in the hand of every veteran and 

let them control their health care. That is the answer to shattering 

the failure of the VA bureaucracy right now. 

Mr. HEGSETH. Introduce a little competition. 

Mr. JOLLY. You are right. 

I have got a question, one last question. Mr. Williams, you made 

an extremely powerful statement in your opening statement today, 

that you couldn’t counsel your son to put on the uniform and carry 

the flag of our Nation. That appears to be a failure in leadership, 

probably systemic, perhaps in this body as well as the administration. 

My question for you is, what do you need to see change to find 

yourself in a position to say yes to your son, to say it is okay to 

put on the uniform and carry the flag? 

Lt. Commander WILLIAMS. I believe this body knows that over 

the course of the last 4 or 5 months I have been extremely vocal, 

47

and I am not going to let up. I gave the President and this last bill 

the 90 days that was requested to make a change. So I am keeping 

my mouth shut for about another 35 days. 

But at the end of 35 days, believe me, I am not going to stop, 

because all the claims that were made in this bill that was passed, 

so far I don’t believe these things are being implemented. Just the 

idea that the fact that our soldiers were supposed to have the right 

to go and visit outside hospitals and get assistance if they couldn’t 

get it, that is not happening as quickly as we think. 

And one of the things, giving a card to say go see a civilian, each 

one of these soldiers has said this, and they will say it over and 

over again: We need to be with our brothers. The simplest thing 

that this body could do and Congress could do is authorize our veterans to go to DoD facilities. Augment those facilities to see those 

troops. This is where we grew up being treated. Why should we not 

be treated by the same people right now? End the backlog immediately. 

Mr. JOLLY. Well, the card is intended to empower the individual 

to stay in the VA, go to DoD, stay with their guys if they want to. 

But if they need immediate assistance elsewhere and they want to 

go there, put the individual in charge of their own health care. Let 

them control their own healthcare. 

Thank you. I yield beck. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. SALMON. I thank the gentleman. 

This hearing has been a fantastic hearing. 

Jill, I know that not so long ago, just a few short hours ago, you 

were actually in Mexico, sitting outside the courtroom, as ordered 

by the judge, to support your son. And now here you are across the 

country here in Washington, DC, as a tireless advocate and a wonderful example of what an American mother is all about. So thank 

you. God bless you. 

And all of you panel members, your service is truly humbling. 

And I think that the consensus of this panel discussion, which 

focuses on a brave soldier who gave his country his everything, it 

is a lot broader. It is about, do we stand for those who stand for 

us or not? Do we stand for them? 

And, Mr. Jolly, you made reference to the Veterans Administration. So we chuck $17 billion at them and we do this, and pat ourselves on the back like we have really done something stupendous. 

Well, I will tell you something, in the last 60 days the calls haven’t 

stopped, not in any office, not with my caseworkers. And I don’t see 

anything changing, and I don’t see anything better. And I am dubious that it will get better until major changes happen, until there 

is a major mindset change within our country that we really do 

care about those that care about us, that we send into harm’s way. 

This is a case of a young man who served our country proudly 

who is suffering from PTSD, who is now languishing in a Mexican 

prison. I implore the President to do what a Commander in Chief 

should do, and that is use everything that he has got to get this 

young man home. I implore the Government of Mexico to do the 

right thing. 

Laws are there for two things, to provide safety for its citizenry, 

but also to enact justice. We know what justice would be. Justice 

48

in this case would be to have this young man home, being treated 

for PTSD. That is justice. That is compassion, but that is justice. 

I thank everybody for being here at the hearing. I thank you for 

taking the time. I thank the members for coming across the country. 

Tulsi, I think you win the award for coming the furthest, from 

Hawaii. 

But this hearing is concluded. And God bless. 

[Whereupon, at 12:06 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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