January 14, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H311 

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. 

f 

b 2045 

HISTORY OF ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN 

CONFLICT 

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. 

ELLISON). Under the Speaker’s announced policy of January 6, 2009, the 

gentleman from New York (Mr. 

WEINER) is recognized for 60 minutes as 

the designee of the majority leader. 

Mr. WEINER. Mr. Speaker and my 

colleagues, we are now into our 19th 

day of the war of defense on the part of 

the Israelis in the territory called the 

Gaza Strip, and there has been enormous amount of coverage in this 24- 

hour news environment that we are in. 

And yet there has been a great many 

questions that have been raised about 

the origin of this conflict, how it might 

end, and whether or not it is indeed 

necessary at all. 

And the simple information that—to 

allow the public to understand this is 

that for the course of years, we have 

had a circumstance where residents in 

one small corner abutting the Nation 

of Israel—not part of Israel, not occupied by Israel, but the Gaza Strip—has 

been lobbying missiles, rockets, dayby-day, hour-by-hour, into their neighbors’ territory killing people, injuring 

people, and terrorizing people. And it’s 

gone on for a very long time. 

Despite the notion that sometimes 

we pay attention to these circumstances, only every so often for the 

residents of small communities who 

have been the recipients of these rockets, this has been a terrorizing period 

of years. In fact, there have been thousands of rockets that have gone from 

the Gaza Strip and fallen in Israel over 

the course of the last several years. 

Now, just so it’s completely clear, 

the Gaza Strip is not occupied territory by any definition any more. The 

Israeli Government unilaterally decided after efforts had broken down to 

negotiate some type of a two-state solution, the Israeli Government and 

Israeli citizens said, ‘‘You know what? 

We don’t want to be in Gaza at all any 

more. We’re leaving. We don’t want to 

be in West Bank at all any more. We’re 

leaving,’’ and let the Palestinians in 

the territories essentially with what 

they wanted. 

It wasn’t the perfect outcome. It 

wasn’t the outcome that the Israelis 

really wanted going in, and it was, 

frankly, probably an imperfect solution. But since that time in 2005, the 

territories have been under the control 

of the Palestinian people. 

Now, the Palestinian people have 

made some decisions under a democracy that was remarkably well set up, 

and despite all of the concerns, the Palestinians have indeed made their 

choice about what they want. And 

what they did is they chose to have 

Hamas represent them in the Gaza 

Strip, and they chose to have Fatah 

represent them in the West Bank. 

Well, in some ways, we now have the 

outcome that was almost preordained 

by that choice. Hamas, you see, is an 

organization that is not dedicated to 

improving the lives of Palestinians, is 

not dedicated to a two-state solution. 

They are dedicated to the destruction 

of Israel. And to many degrees, when 

they were elected as representatives of 

the people via a relatively free election 

in Gaza, they campaigned on a platform of saying, ‘‘You know what we’re 

going to do? We’re going to be a constant, violent thorn in the side of our 

neighbors in Israel.’’ 

And to some degree, what they did is 

exactly what they said they would do. 

Almost as soon as they got into office, 

they began using Gaza to launch weapons into their neighbors’ backyard. 

Now, throughout this entire time, 

you might believe that, well, if the 

Israelis or if any country—heck, let’s 

make it the United States. If we had 

even one rocket fall from Canada, or if 

we had one rocket fall from Mexico, or 

if the residents of New Jersey had one 

rocket fall from New York—even one— 

it would be reasonable to expect that 

the recipients of that violence would 

react. Actually that hasn’t happened. 

Now, I shouldn’t say there has been 

no reaction. There has been some outcry on the part of the Israeli people. 

The Israelis have gone to the United 

Nations and asked for help and asked 

for relief. The Israelis have pleaded to 

the Arab world—and this map shows 

some of the neighbors here. Says, ‘‘See 

what you can do to help us with this 

problem?’’ 

And this is not a fabrication. In fact, 

this is the pile of shrapnel of the rockets that had landed, the Katyusha 

rockets just in one town of Sderot. 

This is not something that’s the subject of overblown rhetoric. You can actually see these landing and see, unfortunately, the havoc that they have 

brought with them. 

So the question then becomes what 

does a country do? 

Well, first thing that Israel did was 

they made their best efforts to get 

Hamas to stop in nonviolent ways. But 

that didn’t bear much fruit. Then they 

tried appealing to the international 

community to rally around Fatah, who 

is the—who occupies and controls the 

West Bank. That didn’t seem to work. 

And finally, over the course of time, it 

got worse and worse and worse. 

For all of the discussion about 

whether or not Israel has overreacted 

to the attacks—this is a graphic visualization of attacks by Hamas before the 

war. This number here in 2008, this is 

before the war began. Look at this. 

Starting in 2005—I guess it was October 

of 2005—and Congressman BERKLEY, 

and she knows these facts better than 

I, October of 2005, elections happened, 

internationally supervised elections, 

and the Palestinians in Gaza choose 

Hamas to be their representatives. 

For anyone to say after that moment 

that much is a surprise would be 

wrong. Hamas campaigned on a reign 

of violence against Israel, and to their 

credit, if that’s the word for it, they 

carried it out. 

You can see from this 946 rockets fell 

on Israel; 783 rockets fell on Israel in 

2007. And this is the number—and I 

want to point this out. This has nothing to do with what might have happened recently. This is what happened 

in 2008. Even considering the fact that 

for a good portion of this 2008 there was 

a cease-fire that Israel agreed to engage in and Hamas agreed to engage in, 

and of course that was broken by 

Hamas when they started dropping 

rockets again. 

So I guess the question then becomes—and I ask any critics of Israel 

how they would answer this question— 

What do you do when it’s your job to 

protect your citizens? It’s the ultimate 

authority of any government is to protect its citizens from violence. What do 

you do when this type of violence takes 

place? 

But the question goes beyond whether or not Israel is within its right to 

defend itself. I think that’s almost beyond dispute. But it does go to the responsibility of the other nations in 

that area. 

Now, many people have asked how 

could it be that this tiny piece of land 

in Gaza, how could it be that they 

could even have thousands upon thousands of rockets to launch anywhere? 

Well, the answer lies in its neighbor, 

Egypt. 

Egypt, through this very tiny passageway through the Sinai Desert, has 

permitted tunnels to be dug for thousands upon thousands of rockets to be 

brought in to the Gaza Strip. 

Egypt, the second largest recipient of 

our tax dollars in foreign aid. Only 

Israel gets more; it’s about the same 

amount. Since the Camp David Accords, we, the taxpayers of the United 

States, have about $3 billion a year in 

aid going to Egypt. Egypt is the place 

that many of these weapons are coming 

from into Gaza. Largely speaking, the 

area along the western border is 

Egypt’s control and Egypt’s supervision. 

Then you’ve got to ask, well, what is 

Jordan doing? Many people have said, 

‘‘Well, why is it that the West Bank exists? Why isn’t it part of Jordan’s control? Who are the refugees refugees 

from?’’ Well, you go back historically, 

where they came from is Jordan. And 

Jordan has said, ‘‘We don’t want 

them.’’ 

For all of this talk about the new 

Arab World and all of the protests 

about who it is that should help out 

with the Palestinian problem, right 

now the only reason that they’re the 

Israeli’s responsibility is because Jordan has said, ‘‘We don’t want any part 

of these people.’’ 

And where is it that Hamas is 

headquartered? Why is it that we read 

reports today that the citizens of Gaza 

are saying, ‘‘We’re okay. We would like 

to try to figure out a way to resolve 

this peacefully’’? Well, the problem is 


smartinez on PROD1PC64 with HOUSE
H312 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE January 14, 2009 

Hamas leaders are in Damascus. They 

are nowhere near the action. Because 

Syria, just as they did in the War of 

the Rockets in 2006, provide harbor for 

the Lebanese attackers—for the 

Hezbollah attackers in Israel, Hamas 

has its leadership in Damascus; and 

they’re saying, ‘‘Go ahead. Blow up 

more Palestinian homes. Blow up more 

of the Palestinian territories.’’ 

So then you’ve got Saudi Arabia. 

Well, Saudi Arabia is even worse than 

perhaps the other ones because what 

they’re doing is pumping out more and 

more and more money for the terrorists at both sides of Israel. They want 

to continue the conflict as long as they 

can. Why? Well, if you were Saudi Arabia and you were the royal family and 

you had denied your citizens rights and 

you were like a monarchy constantly 

teetering on your point, you’d want 

any distraction possible. So they continued to fund the homicide bombers; 

they continued to fund the terrorists. 

So when you hear the protests from 

the Arab League, when you hear the 

protests from our feckless friends at 

the United Nations, the question 

should be, ‘‘Why aren’t you helping in 

some constructive way?’’ 

Israel has, over the course of time 

and time and again going back all the 

way to 1947 where Israel agreed to the 

United Nations’ original partition plan, 

said, ‘‘We’ll take half this amount of 

land so long as we can live in peace.’’ 

The Arabs said, ‘‘No.’’ 

The Wye River Accord. The Palestinians said no, the Israelis said yes. 

All throughout the history of Israel, 

it has been Israel saying, ‘‘We will do 

anything necessary to allow us to live 

in peace.’’ 

And the very reason that rockets are 

falling now on their citizens is because 

they said, ‘‘We’re going to give the 

West Bank, give the Gaza to the Palestinians. You govern it as you see 

fit.’’ How have they seen fit? They’ve 

given aid and comfort to an organization that every day is making war 

against Israel. 

Now there’s one other thing that’s 

come up—and it is indeed a horrible 

tragedy—that there are innocent victims in this. If you are a child going to 

school, whether it be in Ramallah, 

whether it be in Gaza, whether it be in 

Sderot, whether it be in Tel Aviv, 

whether it be in Minneapolis, or Brooklyn, if you’re a child, you’ve done nothing wrong; you don’t deserve to be a 

victim of anything. You hold no political views. You are a victim. 

But in this case the question has to 

be asked, Who are you a victim of? If 

you are living in Gaza and Hamas is 

launching weapons from the back of a 

school, if they’re launching weapons 

from someone’s apartment building, if 

they’re launching weapons from a public park and Israel responds, and unfortunately innocents get harmed, who 

was it that injured them? 

And I would argue, ladies and gentlemen, that what you’ve seen here is a 

systematic effort by those that are 

launching these rockets to take harbor 

in people’s homes, in schools, and in 

places like that. They’ve essentially 

created a whole country of human 

shields. 

So then we return to the question, 

What is a country to do? What is Israel 

to do in this circumstance? And I think 

most of us would say, who think about 

the idea of our neighbors launching 

weapons upon us, that you’ve got to 

stop them at some point. You’ve got to 

say enough is enough. 

Now, looking at it historically—and 

this may sound almost ironic—the solution to the conflict in the Middle 

East is remarkably easy. At the end of 

the day, there are some thorny historical issues, but Israel has said, ‘‘If it’s 

about land, we will give you the land 

that you desire.’’ And at Camp David II 

that led to the second Intifada, it 

began because Israel said ‘‘yes’’ to 98 

percent of what the Palestinians had 

asked for at the negotiating table. 

b 2100 

If it’s about who controls Jerusalem, 

if it’s about the borders and where in 

Gaza to provide checkpoints, none of 

these things have the Israelis said 

they’re not prepared to discuss, even 

though some of us from afar feel very 

strongly that the eternal, undivided, 

historic capital is Jerusalem. And I 

think that an argument can be made 

that only Israel has shown that they 

really do care about protecting that 

capital. And it does have a historic 

place in Jewish life that simply does 

not hold in Muslim life. 

But all of that being said, every one 

of these issues can be discussed and 

compromised on, provided Israel’s 

neighbors say we’re going to stop trying to blow you up. Even the Government of Israel has said even things like 

the Golan Heights along the border of 

Syria—and Syria, by the way, is our 

single greatest problem remaining in 

Iraq. These are not friends of the 

United States. Saudi Arabia is the 

country that funded Osama bin Laden. 

Syria is the one who has created a refugee crisis in Iraq and has allowed 

fighters to come in and kill our citizens. In Lebanon, a country that if it 

were left to its own devices could have 

a very bright future ahead just as it 

had a bright past so long as it’s not occupied by Hezbollah. Egypt, which entered into peace with Israel, and despite all of its shortcomings there is a 

peace treaty that exists today. So why 

is it this doesn’t happen? And that 

needs to be the question that American 

citizens ask as they watch the reports, 

why is it that you have a situation 

where you have people bombing day 

after day? 

Now, I think that the plight of the 

Palestinians is a tragedy, but they 

have become international pawns of 

these Arab states that seek the destruction of Israel. If the sentence becomes, ‘‘Hamas agrees Israel has a 

right to exist side by side and in peace 

with the West Bank and with Gaza as 

neighbors as part of a Palestinian 

state,’’ if that becomes the predicate 

for a discussion, there can be peace by 

the end of this year. There are deals to 

be done; I know it because Israel has 

offered them. But when you have a situation that the moment you have any 

kind of a democracy, the result of the 

democracy—which, again, began in— 

the Israelis left the territories here in 

2005. This is what a democratic country 

has decided to do with their democratic 

freedoms. If you have this, you leave 

Israel with no choice except to defend 

herself. 

And let me just make one point because a couple of my colleagues are 

here and I want to yield to them because they’ve been leaders on this issue 

as well. You know, who do you get to 

help with this? Who are you going to 

call? Well, theoretically you should 

call the United Nations. The United 

Nations should be the place that says, 

you know what? This is just unfair, it’s 

just not right. There is no reason that 

you should have a pile of missiles at 

the end of the day piled up at your 

town hall as it is in Sderot in Israel. 

But let’s look at the United Nations. 

The United Nations has passed 15 resolutions against Israel this session. 

They’ve done 22 of them that were just 

one-sided resolutions. The General Assembly has passed 15 resolutions. And 

since 2006, there have been 22 of them. 

Just recently, in fact, they passed a 

resolution calling for a cease-fire in 

the Gaza conflict. That’s fine. That’s 

fine. But it said that Israel should stop 

its attacks to try to knock out the 

rockets, but it said nothing about 

Hamas stopping its attacks. So essentially it said go back to that chart that 

I just showed you where more and more 

rockets land. 

Now, I have to tell you, it was a bad 

day for the United Nations, but I’ll be 

very frank, it was a bad day for the 

United States as well, because rather 

than voting no on that resolution, the 

United States abstained. And I’m a 

Democrat through and through. President Bush has largely been a very good 

President for Israel. He’s had some 

weak spots. He provided unseemly 

amounts of funding for the Saudi Arabians, but by and large has stopped 

these bad resolutions from passing 

unanimously like this one does. So it 

was a bad day for the United States as 

well. 

But it’s important to note that while 

all of this is going on, the United Nations—in my hometown and Congresswoman MALONEY’s hometown of New 

York—has not used its power to try to 

implore the Arab states in the region 

to be helpful. Instead, what they’ve 

done is resolution after resolution condemning Israel for defending itself. 

Now, I welcome a conversation about 

some other option that Israel has. 

Maybe it’s another few more years of 

this. Maybe Israel should wait until 

this gets to 10,000 or 20,000. There has 

to be a point on this chart where any 

person would say, okay, that’s enough, 


smartinez on PROD1PC64 with HOUSE
January 14, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H313 

you can now respond. Well, I believe 

after 3,000 rockets landing upon its 

neighbors, that that point has been 

reached. 

Now, I see a couple of my colleagues 

here, neither one of them is on their 

feet. Let me yield to someone who has 

shown remarkable understanding not 

only of world events in the Middle 

East, but all around, someone who has 

shown true leadership here on a number of issues, including this one, the 

gentlewoman from New York, Congresswoman MALONEY. 

Mrs. MALONEY. I thank my good 

friend and colleague from the great 

city and State of New York for yielding 

to me. And I am pleased to join him in 

this Special Order expressing our support for Israel. 

After 8 years of constant missile fire, 

Israel had to take action against 

Hamas. Every nation has the right, and 

I would say the duty, to defend its citizens from missile fire. 

For the last 8 years, more than 10,000 

rockets have fallen on Israel’s civilian 

population centers. This reign of terror 

has killed 28 people and injured more 

than 700 and traumatized tens of thousands. Any country that remained 

quiet in the face of such an onslaught 

would be failing its people and running 

away from its responsibility to its citizens. 

Israel had to act. And when Hamas 

announced that it was ending the socalled lull and began an active campaign against Israel’s population centers, Israel had no choice. I say ‘‘socalled’’ because nearly 400 missiles fell 

on Israel during that period. Hamas did 

not allow Israel a single month of 

peace. 

I am proud that on Friday, January 

9, as one of our first actions of the 

111th Congress, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted in favor 

of a strong resolution that places the 

blame for the situation in Gaza exactly 

where it belongs, squarely on the 

shoulders of Hamas. Our resolution 

makes clear that Israel has a right to 

defend itself and that the path to peace 

in the region lies in the recognition of 

Israel’s right to exist, the dismantling 

of Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure, 

and the release of Gilad Shalit. I want 

to congratulate Speaker PELOSI, the 

author of our resolution, for having the 

courage to put before Congress such a 

clear statement of support. 

In 2005, Israel withdrew entirely from 

the Gaza Strip; Israel gave the land 

back to the Palestinian Authority. Instead of using the opportunity, Hamas 

has squandered its resources, preferring to spend capital on developing 

weapons and smuggling tunnels rather 

than investing in the country and its 

economic future. 

Rocket and mortar attacks on Israel 

increased by 500 percent after Israel 

withdrew completely from the Gaza 

Strip. The world sat silent as those 

missiles fell. There was no U.N. resolution condemning Hamas, not even after 

Hamas repeatedly violated the ceasefire. There were no international conferences to discuss what to do about 

the flight of the Israeli families. There 

was no call to defend Israeli children 

caught in the missiles’ path. There 

were no human rights organizations 

worrying about the growing signs of 

post traumatic stress syndrome among 

the residents of Israel’s south. The silence was thundering. In the meantime, Hamas smuggled even more powerful weapons into Gaza. 

The number of Israelis who live 

under threat has grown as the range 

and strength of the missiles has improved. In recent days, Hamas missiles 

have hit a kindergarten in Ashdod and 

a high school in Beersheba. Both were 

empty at the time, but the loss of life 

could have been devastating. 

Nearly one million Israelis now listen 

for the sirens signaling a red alert. 

They have 15 seconds—about as much 

time as it takes me to utter this sentence—to reach shelter. Hamas has always targeted civilians, preferring to 

kill women and children instead of trying to take out military targets. At the 

same time, Hamas violates international law by using its own civilian 

population as human shields, knowing 

that it wins the PR war as the body 

counts rise. By contrast, Israel builds 

shelters and early warning systems to 

try to protect its citizens. 

Hamas is displaying the irresponsible 

acts of madmen and cowards, not rulers who can hope to lead a nation. The 

United States will not accept a return 

to a situation in which Israelis are living with daily missile fire. I hope the 

international community will join us 

in taking a strong stand against the 

actions of Hamas. 

I would like to yield back to my distinguished colleague and thank him for 

coming before us tonight with such a 

thoughtful presentation. 

Mr. WEINER. Well, I thank the 

gentlelady for her leadership. It is a 

voice that has been loud and clear in 

support of Israel over the years. And it 

is one that, who knows, might be loud 

and clear in the other body at some 

point in the future. 

I would like to yield now to my colleague from Nevada, SHELLEY BERKLEY, 

who has, from the moment when we 

were elected together and began service in 1999, has been a spokesperson for 

justice, not just in the Middle East, but 

again, throughout the world. And there 

is a notion that sometimes you come 

to Washington and kind of the waters 

of the town wash over you and take off 

your edge a little bit. You, Congresswoman BERKLEY, have been someone 

who has kept your edge when it came 

to fighting for what you believed was 

right, and it is my honor to yield to 

you such time as you might consume. 

Mrs. MALONEY. Would the gentleman just yield 30 seconds to me? 

Mr. WEINER. Certainly. 

Mrs. MALONEY. I would just like to 

be associated with your comments 

about my good friend, SHELLEY BERKLEY, and to note that I have had the 

honor of traveling with her to Israel to 

study the historic sites and meet with 

the leadership about these many pressing issues. She has held many meetings 

in her home to discuss the issues in 

depth, not only here in Congress, but in 

her home with concerned citizens. So I 

congratulate her for her continued 

leadership. 

Mr. WEINER. I couldn’t agree more, 

and I yield to the gentlelady. 

Ms. BERKLEY. Thank you very 

much, Congressman WEINER. And let 

me return the compliment, Congresswoman MALONEY; we appreciate so 

much your strong and vocal support for 

issues that I consider to be fundamental to the survival of democracy 

throughout the world, so thank you 

very much. 

Mrs. MALONEY. So eloquently stated. Thank you. 

Ms. BERKLEY. Mr. WEINER, coming 

from you that I haven’t lost my edge is 

the ultimate compliment for me after 

10 years in Washington, so I thank you 

very much for that. 

About three Augusts ago, a little 

over that, 31⁄2 years ago, I was part of a 

congressional delegation that was on 

the border between the Gaza and Israel 

as the Israeli military was removing 

the last Israeli settlers from the Gaza. 

As you can imagine, Congressman, it 

was a very painful thing to watch, seeing families being torn apart, taken 

away from the lands that they had settled, where nothing had existed before 

they created their settlements, being 

taken from their neighbors and the villages that they created, truly oases in 

the desert, was hurtful. But I understood why the Israelis did it. They unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza with 

the hope that turning that land back to 

the Palestinians would have the desired effect of bringing peace to that 

area. 

Rather than the peace that the 

Israelis had hoped for, the Palestinians, particularly when Hamas took 

over, became not an area where one 

would build schools and homes and infrastructure and demonstrate to the 

world that the Palestinian people were 

able to create a state of their own, 

rather than demonstrating to the 

world that they were capable of selfgovernance, quite the opposite became 

the very harsh reality. And what you 

saw, instead of schools being built and 

neighborhoods flourishing and businesses being built and infrastructure, 

hospitals, basic services for the Palestinian people, what happened instead 

was that the Gaza became a launch pad 

for a reign of terror upon the Israeli 

people that lived on the other side of 

the border. 

b 2115 

Rather than reaching out to the 

Israeli people in an attempt to forge a 

peaceful relationship between the two 

peoples, the Gaza has become a 

hellhole. It’s become a hellhole for the 

Palestinian people, and it is a hellhole 

for the people of Israel because they 


smartinez on PROD1PC64 with HOUSE
H314 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE January 14, 2009 

are continually barraged by rockets 

well within the Israeli border. 

How many rockets are we talking 

about? You demonstrated it with your 

graph. We’re talking 2 rockets, 10 rockets, a misfiring? We’re talking about 

7,000 rockets in the course of a few 

years. Who can exist, what peoples, 

what Nation would tolerate that type 

of continuous assault on their innocent 

population? There is not one country 

on the planet that would not respond. 

And yet with all the panic and the fear 

and the damage, the psychological 

damage, and the physical injuries and 

damage and the death that these rockets have caused, the Israeli people did 

not, did not, attack back. But at some 

point any government worth its weight 

in salt must defend its people, and that 

is exactly what Israel has done. 

Let me share a story with you, Mr. 

WEINER. A few years ago, I was talking 

to one of the Middle East ambassadors. 

And I said to him, Is there no way for 

you and your government to intervene 

and tell Hamas, ask Hamas, demand 

Hamas to stop launching Qassam rockets against the Israeli people? 

And his response to me incredibly, 

when he shrugged his shoulders, it was, 

Well, the Qassam rockets are very inaccurate. 

And I responded to the ambassador, 

They may be inaccurate unless one 

falls on your head, and then it’s very 

accurate. It’s deadly accurate. 

But he shrugged and he said, Well, 

it’s no big deal. 

Well, it’s a big deal if you’re an 

Israeli and your child was just killed in 

their school by a Qassam rocket being 

launched by Hamas from the Gaza. 

This simply must stop. 

But I went further, and I once spoke 

with the Egyptian ambassador. And I 

said to him, Mr. Ambassador, is there 

no way for you and the Egyptian Government to find those tunnels and blow 

them up so that the flow of arms being 

supplied mostly by Iran will stop, will 

cease the flow so that Hamas will not 

have a ready supply of rockets to be 

using against the Israeli people? 

And again I got another shrug: We 

don’t know where they are. We can’t 

identify them. 

I said, The Israelis gave you a list. 

They know exactly where the tunnels 

are. You can’t blow up those tunnels 

and prevent the death of innocent 

Israeli children? 

I got no response. 

Where was the outrage of the United 

Nations? Where was the outrage of the 

people throughout the world that are 

rioting now in their countries when 

Israeli children were being killed by 

Hamas’ continuing barrage of rockets? 

Not a one that I can remember. Not 

one that I’ve seen on TV. Not one 

speech in the United Nations. Not one 

moment of outrage. It was Israeli children that were being killed and a very 

patient Israeli Government trying to 

use every diplomatic tool at their disposal before they had to go in. They did 

not want to do this. They would not 

have unilaterally left the Gaza to go 

back in. It is not something the Israeli 

Government wanted to do. 

When Hamas refused to renew the 

truce in the middle of December at a 

time that we’re celebrating religious 

holidays throughout the world, I knew 

that we were in for an increase in the 

carnage being rained on Israel, and I’m 

sorry to say I was right. The Israelis, 

like any other sovereign nation, have a 

right to defend their people and protect 

the people of their country. Israel 

should not be held to a higher standard, although they hold themselves 

often enough to a far higher standard. 

The Israelis have made two requests 

of Hamas. These are the two requests: 

They want an end to the rocket attacks. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable request. And they want an end to 

the tunnels, blow up those tunnels to 

prevent the rearming of a terrorist organization that has a vice grip on the 

Palestinian people in the Gaza. Which 

one of those two demands is inappropriate? Which one is unreasonable? I 

would submit to you, Mr. WEINER, neither one. 

And for those that are talking about 

Israel’s disproportionate response to 

7,000 rockets, to death, to injury, to 

damage, how about holding the Palestinians to any standard, any measurable civilized standard, and put pressure on Hamas to stop launching those 

rockets into Israel? And after all of the 

last 2 weeks, after the pain on both 

sides, after the horror being perpetrated by Hamas on both the Israelis 

and their own people, Hamas is still 

launching rockets into Israel. 

Well, let me say if they might be listening today, this evening as we speak, 

we can end this thing. We can bring 

peace. There can be a long-lasting 

truce if Hamas stops the rocket attacks and if the tunnels are eliminated. 

And that is what this body, the United 

Nations, and everyone throughout the 

planet, throughout this world, ought to 

be demanding of Hamas. 

The human tragedy in the Gaza, the 

suffering of the Palestinian people, let 

us put it squarely where it belongs: not 

on the State of Israel, not on the 

Israeli people. It rests squarely on the 

shoulders of the Palestinian leadership. 

If the Palestinian leadership wanted a 

Palestinian State, they would have had 

one years ago. What Hamas is doing is 

not for the creation of a Palestinian 

State. It is for the destruction of the 

State of Israel. And it pains me to say 

this, Mr. WEINER, but if Israel ceased to 

exist tomorrow, the plight of the Palestinians would be no better than it is 

today. The suffering of the Palestinians would not magically go away. It is 

the Palestinian leadership, the leadership in Hamas, that has caused so 

much pain and suffering for the Palestinian people. 

It would be my heartfelt hope with 

the beginning of a new year and the beginning of a new administration in this 

country that we can truly bring peace 

to the Middle East. It’s something that 

I grew up fighting for and caring about. 

But this cannot stop until the Israelis 

are secure in their tiny country and 

free from a constant barrage of rockets 

and terrorist attacks by a terrorist organization on their border. 

And I thank you so much for giving 

me these few minutes to share my 

thoughts with you. You are truly an 

amazing leader, not only in Congress 

and representing your own district and 

State so well, but you make me very 

proud to be associated with you on 

these issues and so many more. And I 

thank you for all of that. 

Mr. WEINER. I thank you as well, 

and it’s all well put. 

One of the things, Congresswoman 

BERKLEY, that people have said is, well, 

maybe if Israel takes a deep breath and 

they pull back and maybe stop the assault against these terrorists, maybe 

that would be the correct approach. 

Well, you know that from June until I 

guess it was the 19th of December, the 

Israelis did just that. They observed essentially a cease-fire with Hamas. And 

what happened? Well, they noticed 

something unusual. They knew that 

weapons like this, Qassams and 

Katyusha rockets, which have a range 

of about 12 to 13 to 15 miles, during the 

course of that cease-fire, Hamas was 

getting a new type of weapon. They 

were getting it from Iran, the Grad 

missile, which is more like 20 miles. 

Now, it’s a little hard for us to get into 

context here in a tiny country the size 

of Israel. You’re talking about your 

enemy having a reach of about a quarter to about a third of your whole 

country, maybe even more than that. 

And it’s worth noting that you concluded on an appropriate point to talk 

about what is it that we can do to truly 

be helpful to the Palestinians here? 

No one, I think, can reasonably argue 

that Gaza’s being under control of 

Hamas has been a good thing for the 

Palestinians. It has gone from a community that had about 750 trucks of 

import and export coming through the 

borders every single day. They were 

trying to make a go of it under difficult circumstances. Now none of that 

goes on because Hamas, instead of trying to build up international commerce, instead of trying to make a 

country of it, they’ve chosen to import 

guerrillas from places like Iran to help 

train their military. They chose to devote much of their effort to producing 

things like this, which are just articles 

of death, rather than trying to figure 

out a way to make an economy work. 

So, frankly, it is not as if Hamas can 

say, well, we’ve achieved a better quality of life for our citizens, that we’ve 

fought with a sword against Israel but 

at least we have been trying to build 

up a government. 

You know the tragedy is that the 

Palestinians have had a choice between 

corrupt and violent. That’s really the 

only two choices they have had. They 

have got a government in the West 

Bank, the government in the West 

Bank here that’s controlled by Fatah, 


smartinez on PROD1PC64 with HOUSE
January 14, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H315 

which suddenly seems great except for 

the fact that they’re completely corrupt and incompetent; and then you 

have a government of Hamas, which is 

governed by terrorists. 

But as we think about what the solutions might be, and I think ultimately 

it will have to be that the Israelis have 

to stop. When they’re going to have to 

stop, though, is when they’ve gotten 

every rocket, when they’ve blown up 

every tunnel to Egypt, and ultimately 

they can go back to their side of the 

border and hope and pray that the Palestinian people come to their senses 

and say we don’t want this anymore. 

We saw that start to happen in Iraq 

after a while. They said, why are we 

making our country just the battleground for terrorists? But they’re 

going to need help. We’re helping a 

great deal. As you know, much to my 

chagrin, hundreds of millions of dollars 

of international aid has come into the 

territories hoping that maybe if we put 

enough money on the barrel head, then 

the Palestinian people would live in 

peace with their neighbors. Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked. They need 

help from other places. 

Well, we need help from Egypt starting immediately to say we’re not going 

to allow these tunnels to exist anymore. Now, I don’t believe we should 

sit back and hope for help. I believe we 

should leverage our substantial foreign 

aid to say, look, you’re an ally of the 

United States in the broad sense. We 

provide you billions of dollars in aid. 

We’re going to suspend that for a little 

while until you show that you get 

these under control. 

I will gladly yield. 

Ms. BERKLEY. As you know, we 

have attempted on numerous occasions 

to take the military aid, the $2 billion 

in military aid that we give the Egyptians every year, and take some of that 

away so that it would be humanitarian 

aid for the Egyptian people because I 

can’t help but wonder what are the 

Egyptians doing with $2 billion worth 

of arms every single year? 

Mr. WEINER. I agree. And looking at 

it another way, Mubarak, his thorn in 

his side is the Muslim Brotherhood. 

They’re kissing cousins with Hamas. 

It’s in Egypt’s interest as well. 

Ms. BERKLEY. It’s in Egypt’s best 

interest. Absolutely right. 

Mr. WEINER. Now, obviously we 

know what we can do with Saudi Arabia. We treat Saudi Arabia as if they’re 

an ally. We provide them with foreign 

aid as well. Even more, we are about to 

send them the most sophisticated 

weapons around. Now, I don’t know 

who it is they think they are defending 

themselves from. Maybe it’s the giant 

army of Jordan perhaps. But that’s a 

mistake we’re making. And our own 

State Department has confirmed over 

and over again money going to the terrorists. They’re a virtual Jerry Lewis 

telethon, sometimes literally, for funding of terrorists. So we in the United 

States should say to Saudi Arabia, you 

know, when the Crown Prince comes to 

Crawford, Texas, and takes our President by the hand and then does nothing 

to help with this matter, I said President Bush has been a good President 

for Israel. 

b 2130 

He has had a blind spot when it 

comes to the Saudis. Syria, look, let’s 

face the facts here. Syria has become a 

matrix of problems, second only to 

Iran, which is just off of the corner of 

this map. You know, if you consider 

how troublesome they have been in 

Iraq, how troublesome they have been 

in Lebanon, how troublesome they 

have been, if it weren’t for Israel taking back the Golan Heights they would 

still be lobbing missiles in from there 

as well. 

Well, so the question has to be what 

does Syria want for itself? I remember 

when the younger Assad, when Bashir 

Assad came in, everybody said he 

would be much better. 

Ms. BERKLEY. Western educated. 

Mr. WEINER. He went to the 

Sorbonne; he is a pediatrician or ophthalmologist. 

Ms. BERKLEY. Ophthalmologist. 

Mr. WEINER. Whatever it is, his 

mother must be very proud. 

But as it turned out, they have essentially outsourced to any terrorist function that wants to go. Secretary of 

State designee CLINTON, Presidentelect Obama, you know, if you want to 

look for your trouble spots, Saudi Arabia and Syria are turning out to be 

your next big problem spots, but Jordan bears a responsibility as well. 

But Jordan has been as close as there 

is to a moderate in that part of the 

world. They have been it. But if you 

look at the West Bank, and you look at 

the allegations about refugees, this 

used to be Jordan. If Jordan really 

cared about solving this problem, they 

will be doing some things that are 

more constructive. 

But I have got to tell you if they 

were all as good as Jordan, I think we 

would probably take it. The problem is 

that we are surrounded by people who 

seem to think that it is in their interest to keep the violence going on in the 

territories, and I think that that has to 

change. 

I am not sure if my colleague from 

New Jersey is here for this Special 

Order, because he has been a remarkable leader on the issues. This is truly 

a bipartisan issue. 

We recently had a resolution on the 

floor condemning Gaza and standing up 

in support of Israel. As it always is, we 

disagree on many things in this body, 

but I think that we have all agreed, 

and I have said previously, I think 

some Presidents of my party, like 

Jimmy Carter, have been a disaster for 

Israel. I think some Republican Presidents, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, 

have been very good. 

This is not a partisan issue. This is 

an issue of right and wrong. 

Ms. BERKLEY. I want to thank the 

Congressman again for allowing me to 

participate. 

Mr. WEINER. I thank the gentlelady. 

I yield to the gentleman from New 

Jersey. 

Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. I 

thank the gentleman for leading this 

Special Order hour on this topic. And I 

was just being enlightened, honestly, 

by the comments and your wealth of 

knowledge on the issues. 

So I appreciate the chance just to 

spend a couple of minutes with you and 

a chance to talk about this topic. 

Today is Wednesday. Just this past 

Sunday I was back in my district, 

which is in the great State of New Jersey, and there I was honored to take 

part in a solidarity evening, a rally, if 

you will, for Israel, held in the Fifth 

District in the State of New Jersey. I 

would like to just spend a minute or 

two to share with you what was discussed and why I was there. 

Our allies in Israel, obviously, are 

going through a tremendous crisis at 

this period of time. That’s why I was so 

encouraged that we had well over 1,000 

people in the room, maybe even more. 

Besides the room we were in, I was 

told, there was another assembly area 

where it was on TV as well. All of these 

people across the region came together 

in solidarity for both the victims’ families over there, as well as for the victims who have lost their lives in this 

recent conflict. 

The loss of life in this region is truly 

profound. As you know, when we have 

been on this floor on this issue, we are 

both tremendous advocates for the 

State of Israel, one of our key allies, 

our only allies in the region over there. 

As you say, it was last year that we 

were on the floor as well, on a particular resolution, I was sponsor of it, 

you were cosponsor of it as well, and 

there was a resolution at the time 

when the mortar attacks were picking 

up on the people in Sderot. There was 

a time that we passed that resolution 

overwhelmingly saying that the United 

States stood on the side of Israel and 

stood on the side of people of Sderot 

and the right to defend themselves. 

Unfortunately, the sentiments of 

that resolution were obviously ignored 

by Hamas. Instead, the number of rockets, instead of decreasing, increased it 

dramatically, the number of mortar attacks launched now from Gaza in the 

month of December. In the period of 

time just prior to that, Hamas, I think 

you were going into this a little earlier 

ago, their capacity to attack and bring 

violence on Israel has increased dramatically with the range, I saw the pictures you had up there before, of the 

mortars and rockets increasing from 20 

kilometers to over 50 kilometers, I believe it is. Basically, if you add all the 

numbers up on the map there, it means 

that over 1 million Israelis and their 

lives, their families, their children, are 

now at risk of mortar attack. 

Even worse than that, Hamas’ actions, I think, exhibit total disregard 

for innocent human life. Israeli civilians continue to be targets of those defensive actions. In addition, it’s really 


smartinez on PROD1PC64 with HOUSE
H316 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE January 14, 2009 

a shameful use of Palestinians’ innocent life as well because they are being 

used as human shields and it creates 

unnecessary victims of terror. 

This is a flagrant disregard of international human rights. It’s a flagrant 

disregard for the rights of the innocent 

people, Gaza and Israeli residents as 

well. 

If Hamas really did care about the 

citizens they purport to represent, they 

should really cease all military activity, all military activities against 

Israel right now and look to international forces to achieve peace. 

So I have been pleased to be here in 

Congress and that Congress has not ignored the Israelis’ plight, as you indicated just about 2 minutes ago, that we 

have had this resolution, they have 

worked on jointly on this to step up to 

the plate, and that is H.R. 34. 

Just to conclude, I commended President-elect Obama recently for expressing similar concerns that you and I are 

expressing right now, specifically for 

the people of Sderot. He did that just 

over a short period of time about a 

year ago when he visited Sderot last 

year. 

I think you and I join now in urging 

him to continue that effort to speak 

out, encourage him to demonstrate 

that unwavering support that you and 

I have for the people of Israel as a 

struggle against Hamas. 

I think if he takes a stand now on the 

Gaza issue as he did a year ago, as soon 

as possible, to eliminate any ambiguity 

concerning the resolve that the United 

States has to aid Israel, the Presidentelect really has an opportunity to 

strengthen our Nation’s diplomatic 

hand and call for an end to the destruction of innocent lives. I urge him, as I 

am sure you do as well, to take that 

step immediately. 

But as I close here I try to remain 

the optimist. Despite all of the current 

challenges, I still believe that there is 

a potential for further progress. 

Israel has shown a willingness to pursue peace. Now if only the Palestinian 

Authority and the Arab governments 

make equal steps forward, we can 

achieve that lasting peace. 

Finally, now, Israel left Gaza a short 

time ago in the hopes of peace. Israel 

returned to Gaza to fight terrorism and 

hopefully they will now achieve that 

peace. 

I, again, commend the gentleman. 

Mr. WEINER. Well, I thank the gentleman. Very well put. I appreciate 

your leadership on this. I should point 

out whenever I come to the floor, 

whether it be to make sense of our foreign policy as it relates to Saudi Arabia, you have been always been there 

trying to problem solve, trying to figure out the way we can use a lever. 

Before I yield to my friend from 

Iowa, you know, very often when we 

look at these stories on television, my 

neighbors say, well, why is it our problem? Why is it a United States problem? Why do we really care? It’s far 

away. 

If you think about what’s going on 

here, and I haven’t pointed this out yet 

today, and, frankly, we all take it as 

an article of faith, we don’t even think 

about it very much, there is really only 

one democracy on this map here. There 

is one democracy really fighting totalitarian regimes and terrorist exports, 

really, on behalf of all of us. 

I ask you to imagine this scenario. 

Imagine if this wasn’t Hamas, but it 

was al Qaeda. If we knew this little 

piece of land here was controlled by al 

Qaeda we would say, of course, you 

have got to be in a well—well, Hamas is 

an adjunct of the same type of influence. 

Frankly, Israel is the only country, 

not only in this part of the world, but 

you can make a pretty good argument 

anywhere that is truly every day dealing with the ravages of terrorism. 

We were struck on that fateful day 

when my city was struck on September 

11, 2001. But if you think about it, if 

every single day, if Iowa or New Jersey 

or if New York were getting hit with 

rockets, do you think, really, anyone 

would say, oh, that was a close call, 

let’s go back to work now, or anyone 

would say, oh, it was just a child that 

was harmed or, oh, it was just a school 

that was hit, big deal, let’s just go 

back to work. It would never happen. 

My colleague, the gentleman from 

Iowa, understands these issues very 

well. Once again, this is a bipartisan effort, and I would be glad to yield to 

him. 

Mr. KING of Iowa. I thank the gentleman from New York for organizing 

this Special Order. Even though I have 

60 minutes subsequent to this, I appreciate the yield because I would like to 

say a few words into the RECORD as 

part of this Special Order. 

This support of Israel goes back deep 

with me. The 1967 war was the year I 

graduated from high school. I came of 

age as Israel defended its freedom that 

they had achieved in 1948. My life has 

almost transcended, I am going to go 

through the sequential order—I was 

born in 1949, Israel was born in 1948. 

As I have watched this, as I have 

watched the courageous defense 

against enemies that surrounded Israel 

for all of these years, and I have 

watched the policies a little bit within 

Israel itself, it occurs to me that I have 

trouble finding a historical example 

where land was traded successfully for 

peace. I honor the effort that they have 

made, and I certainly honor and support and will continue to support 

Israel’s effort to defend themselves. 

As you have illustrated, rockets firing in from a few miles away, New Jersey into New York, for example, we 

would not tolerate that. We wouldn’t 

tolerate the second rocket. We 

wouldn’t tolerate the first one. This is 

thousands of rockets. 

So without belaboring the point, I 

support and endorse the statements 

that were made in this hour, and I support the resolution, obviously. I will 

continue to do so and will stand in solidarity across the aisle to stand for 

freedom. I would submit also that the 

only place I can see on that map where 

an Arab can go to get a fair trial would 

be Israel. 

Mr. WEINER. I thank the gentleman 

very much for his continued leadership. 

Let me conclude with just a couple of 

brief thoughts. You know, some of us 

have turned on the television in recent 

days and seen that there has been a 

change in tactics on the part of the 

Israelis. They are no longer going over 

with planes or sending rockets themselves to try to hit these targets. But 

they have actually gone in with troops 

and are going almost literally home by 

home trying to find the last of these 

rockets. 

Well, when people say the Israelis 

should use restraint, I ask you, how 

many militaries would do that, because 

that is the ultimate sign of restraint. 

They are sending in their troops to 

do as surgical a job as possible to try 

to exact from the population whatever 

rockets are still there. They are in people’s basements, they are in the back of 

schools, they are in supermarkets, and 

Israel more so than I think any nation 

maybe in the history of the planet, has 

always essentially taken one, two, 

three, 10 body blows before they react. 

They do something that I don’t think 

that anyone would expect the United 

States would do, and I don’t think they 

do anything that any country has ever 

done. Every single time that they are 

attacked, they wait, they calibrate. 

They very often consult with the 

United States and they try to figure 

out how do we prevent this from escalating. 

Whenever there is an opportunity to 

negotiate, it is the Israelis that say 

yes. And it is the Palestinians, with 

the support of these neighbors in the 

region, that say no. 

It has to end. It has to end. If you 

really want to end this cycle, there are 

some things that we can do. Believe 

me, I understand there are things that 

the Israelis have to do. And, to their 

credit, they have said time and time 

again they are prepared to do it. 

One final historical note, you know, 

the defense minister, Ehud Barak, has 

been quarterbacking this defensive effort. By the way, for anyone who follows this, he was very, very reluctant 

to strike back militarily. 

Ehud Barak was, in a past lifetime, 

he was the prime minister. He was the 

prime minister, the very same defense 

minister now who is leading this military effort was the prime minister who 

essentially said yes to everything that 

Yasser Arafat asked for at the time, 

the amount of land and the crossings 

and the control. 

He said yes. He said yes. And what 

happened? Once he said yes, the 

intifada began. Ehud said the thank 

you was not okay. We accept the deal 

as done. It was violence began again. 

So there is no one there that probably wants this to come to a peaceful 

ending more than the Israelis. They are 


smartinez on PROD1PC64 with HOUSE
January 14, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H317 

tired, they are exhausted. They recognize that they can’t be a sustainable 

country with this kind of circle, this 

kind of ring, this kind of enemy surrounding them. So the idea that somehow the Israelis are trigger happy and 

looking for a fight could not be any 

more wrong. 

So there are some things for all of us 

to do. One of the things to do, as we 

look at this through the lens, the western lens of why can’t we just solve this 

problem, well, you know what? These 

are difficult problems, but they are 

solvable. They are solvable when the 

weapons are put down, when the rockets are put down. They are solvable 

when a child in Sderot doesn’t have to 

have a blue room where they run to 

where they have 15 seconds, as Congresswoman MALONEY said, to get to 

safety. 

We can’t have a city like the one 

that has been referred to a few times 

here. Let me put this up one final time. 

b 2145 

Sderot is this little town here, right 

by Gaza, that has had hundreds of missiles fall upon them day after day. We 

can’t expect anyone to live like that. 

What we can do as United States citizens is say, listen; one, we are going to 

start talking with our wallets. We are 

not going to allow any aid to go to 

Gaza until they change their government there. We can’t support a military terrorist organization. 

We have to say that we want better 

accountability here too. We want better accountability from Fattah. 

We have to demand that Egypt, in exchange for getting billions of dollars in 

aid from us, the very least they can do 

is make sure the tunnels are stopped so 

if and when there is a cease-fire, and, 

God willing, it is soon, weapons don’t 

come. 

And we have to finally face the reality about places like Saudi Arabia 

and Syria. They are not our allies. 

Nothing could be further from the 

truth. Although we all know it about 

Syria, we need to recognize it about 

Saudi Arabia. 

Finally, let me just say this. One of 

the ways we say God bless America is 

joining with the Israelis when they say 

Am Yisrael Chai—the people of Israel 

live. 

f 

REQUESTING A PARDON OR COMMUTATION OF SENTENCE FOR 

JOSE COMPEAN AND IGNACIO 

RAMOS 

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. 

ALTMIRE). Under the Speaker’s announced policy of January 6, 2009, the 

gentleman from Iowa (Mr. KING) is recognized for 60 minutes. 

Mr. KING of Iowa. Thank you, Mr. 

Speaker. I again thank the gentleman 

from New York for yielding a moment 

of his time to me. 

I change the subject at this point, 

Mr. Speaker. I asked for this time before this great deliberative body and 

this honor and privilege to address you 

on this subject matter, speaking to 

you, Mr. Speaker, and understanding 

that there are eyes and ears across this 

country, particularly in the White 

House tonight, who are in the business 

of cleaning out their desks, going 

through their files, packaging up many 

in the archives, some going I presume 

into the trash or the shredder, and 

making room for a new administration 

that comes in. 

During this period of time, every 4 

years, we will see the President of the 

United States, the commander-in-chief, 

the conductor of our foreign policy and 

the chief law enforcement officer of the 

United States among other things, all 

wrapped up into the package of President George W. Bush, following in the 

footsteps of his predecessors before him 

and contemplating the right and the 

power and the authority that he has to 

pardon those who have been convicted 

of a crime or to commute their sentences, those who have been convicted 

of a crime. 

If we look back through history, 

there have been some long lists of people who were pardoned or had their 

sentences commuted, and sometimes it 

has been controversial. I won’t dredge 

up some of those controversial pardons, 

but I will raise the issue that a President has this authority. Sometimes he 

exercises the authority of the pardon 

or the commutation out of compassion. 

Sometimes it is out of a sense of misapplied justice. Sometimes it is just 

out of a sense of mercy that is coupled 

with compassion. 

But the case that I raise tonight, Mr. 

Speaker, is the case of Ignacio Ramos 

and Jose Compean, who are Border Patrol officers, I should say at this point 

former Border Patrol officers, who 

were involved in an incident down near 

the Mexican border that had to do with 

the interdiction of a drug smuggler 

from Mexico. 

This drug smuggler was an individual 

by the last name of Aldrete-Davila who 

was intercepted by agents Ramos and 

Compean. This was on February 17, 

2005, near Fabens, Texas, where they 

interdicted Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, 

who was suspected of smuggling drugs 

into the United States. It was later 

found that the van that they chased 

that Aldrete-Davila abandoned and ran 

across the countryside contained 743 

pounds of marijuana worth approximately $1 million. 

Well, this incident as it unfolded 

showed that one of the agents chased 

the drug smuggler, Aldrete-Davila, and 

the other agent cut across to try to cut 

him off, presumably to cut him off before he could get into across the border 

into Mexico. It was Ramos who chased 

him. Ramos chased him and Compean 

attempted to interdict him. 

In any case, there was an altercation 

that took place. Both agents discharged their weapons. The discharge 

from Agent Ramos’ weapon was stipulated to be the bullet that hit the drug 

smuggler. And, as the situation unfolded, there was a confrontation with 

Aldrete-Davila and Agent Compean 

that ended in multiple discharges of 

Agent Compean’s weapon. None of 

those rounds hit the drug smuggler. He 

disengaged himself from Compean and 

ran. As he turned and looked back, 

Ramos came onto the scene, Agent 

Ramos came onto the scene and discharged his weapon, as I recall, once. 

There was no sign by either agent, 

any observation that any of those shots 

actually hit the drug smuggler. That 

wasn’t known until some time later. A 

family connection, a relation of another agent with the relation of the 

drug smuggler, passed that information 

along, in which case there was an investigation that began. 

Agents Ramos and Compean admitted that they didn’t deliver the complete, full written report for the incident that took place. Recognizing that, 

the crime that they were charged with 

originally was a lesser crime than the 

crime that was brought against them. 

But, in any case, after this situation 

unfolded and Ramos and Compean were 

arrested and charged, then as agents of 

the Border Patrol arrested and charged 

for the incident, around the incident 

were failure to file a complete, honest 

and truthful report. There were other 

agents and supervisors that were purportedly on the scene. It wasn’t that 

the incident was necessarily covered 

up, but it wasn’t appropriately reported. 

After the original charges, the lesser 

charges were filed, the government 

drastically increased the charges by securing a superseding indictment pursuant to 18 USC 924, which is a statute 

that outlaws the discharge of a firearm 

in the commission of a crime of violence. This charge, 18 USC 924, carries 

with it a 10-year mandatory minimum 

sentence. 

So they were subsequently convicted 

of discharge of a firearm in the commission of a crime, a statute that was 

never envisioned to apply to a law enforcement officer who is lawfully carrying a weapon, in fact required to 

carry a weapon, and who perhaps discharged that weapon in a lawful fashion in carrying out their duty. That is 

a question that I think the court probably answered in the negative. 

But, in any case, this statute, 18 USC 

924, the discharge of a firearm in the 

commission of a crime of violence, was 

the Federal charge that was brought as 

a superseding indictment, and it was a 

heavy charge that was laid on Agents 

Ramos and Compean, and the conviction that followed from that resulted 

in the mandatory sentencing that came 

about which turned out to be 11 years 

and 1 day for Agent Ramos and 12 years 

for Agent Compean. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, and I implore your 

attention to this and I pray that the 

attention of the President is focused on 

this argument, and that is not that 

Agents Ramos and Compean are innocent of the charges that have been 

brought against them by the active 


smartinez on PROD1PC64 with HOUSE