10660 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE, Vol. 155, Pt. 8 April 27, 2009 probably familiar with the name crash a plane into a Western naval ves- In 2007, the Senate rejected moving Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. He is a sel in the UAE. Gitmo detainees to U.S. soil. The Sen- Guantanamo resident. Before his cap- In 2002, however, he was captured and ate spoke loudly and clearly in an over- ture in 2003 and later transfer to Guan- ultimately sent to Gitmo. whelming 94–3 vote against moving tanamo, he was one of al-Qaida’s top These extremists are part of the al- Gitmo prisoners to our shores or re- agents and mastermind behind the Sep- Qaida A-Team of terrorists; and they leasing them into our society. I do not tember 11 attacks. I believe this man have no business being released or believe the sentiment in this body has belongs in Guantanamo. With his con- transported to American soil. changed today. tacts and his terrorist expertise, he I describe these individuals today to The last option that I will mention— would be a menace to the United put a face on this debate. releasing them into the American pop- States and its allies should he ever be The al-Qaida members detained in ulation—seems unthinkable, if not ab- set free. Guantanamo are the worst of the surd. However, if they are transferred But he is only the operational face of worst. They are unrepentant, they are into the American judicial system, this contagion. Also in custody at unpredictable, and are still dangerous. their release is a possibility. This op- Guantanamo is Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, a So, if not Guantanamo, where should tion is simply unacceptable. lead operative in the September 11 these unrepentant terrorists reside? The $80 million requested by the ad- plot. This terrorist could not obtain a One option would be for our inter- ministration to close Guantanamo, and U.S. visa to get into this country. That national allies to help with their de- the executive order signed to that ef- made it impossible for him to partici- tainment. fect, are troubling. pate in the attacks directly. He was I know that the administration has In a dangerous world, facilities such forced to remain in Germany where he been trying to persuade the Europeans as those at Guantanamo are a neces- lived as a student. However, this did to accept custody of some of the de- sity that we cannot change simply by not stop him from acting as a primary tainees. Attorney General Holder is in waiving a magic wand and wishing it communications liaison between the fact discussing this issue with Euro- so. U.S.-based hijackers and the al-Qaida pean officials this week. With about 270 days left before its management in and in On Wednesday, he will be making a proposed closure date, it is clear the Pakistan. speech in Berlin about Guantanamo, administration still has no plan for its Shortly after the September 11 at- and I hope he has some good news. Un- demise. tacks, he arrived in Afghanistan where fortunately, there has not been much That is a gamble that the American he was forced to flee when the Taliban to date. people cannot afford. fell. He was apprehended in 2002 and When the President met with Euro- Mr. President, I yield the floor and eventually transferred to Guantanamo. pean leaders in early April, he also suggest the absence of a quorum. runs in this family. His asked for help in resettling the de- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The uncle is Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, tainee. They agreed to help—with one. clerk will call the roll. mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. His We should perhaps count that as a The assistant legislative clerk pro- cousin is presently incarcerated for his victory, since many national leaders ceeded to call the roll. participation in the 1993 World Trade have said thanks but no thanks or re- Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I ask Center bombing event. He served as a mained completely noncommittal. unanimous consent that the order for travel and financial facilitator for the For example, Austria’s interior min- the quorum call be rescinded. 9/11 terrorists and helped al-Qaida ister has rejected accepting detainees The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without members escape from Afghanistan flat-out. I am not surprised. Despite all objection, it is so ordered. after the fall of the Taliban. From 2002 the international angst about Guanta- f to 2003, this individual prepared al- namo, most nations recognize that CREDIT CARD INTEREST RATES Qaida members for travel to the United these detainees are very dangerous to States and later plotted attacks free people. Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I wish against Western targets in Karachi. Our time is not unlimited, since the to take just a very few moments to A different detainee at Guantanamo administration’s self-imposed January speak about an issue I think is reso- was involved in plotting to kill the 2010 deadline for transferring these in- nating and causing great concern all Philippine Ambassador to Indonesia, as dividuals is coming closer. In the ab- over our country; that is, the out- well as attacks on a series of Indo- sence of radically increased inter- rageous escalation in credit card inter- nesian churches on Christmas Eve in national cooperation, the administra- est rates. the year 2000. Most famously, this ter- tion will thus be forced to release the I note that the House and the Senate rorist helped plan the Bali bombings, remaining detainees or keep them on will soon be addressing the issue of in October of 2002, which killed over 200 U.S. soil. credit cards, but I hope very much that people, including several Americans. And those are possibilities that I, both bodies will include within their Another notorious face residing at like many Nebraskans, am particularly legislation something that is long over- Guantanamo was the head of al-Qaida concerned about. Two of the sites being due; that is, a cap on interest rates. We operations in the Arabian Peninsula. considered are Fort Leavenworth in need a national usury rate law. It is to- This terrorist saw combat within var- Kansas, and the Peniten- tally unacceptable to me—and I think ious insurgencies and later with the tiary Maximum Security facility in the vast majority of the people in our Taliban before being instructed by , known as ADX Florence. country—that credit card companies to focus on terrorism Both are far too close to Nebraska for are charging people 25, 30, and 35 per- in Yemen. He followed bin Laden’s or- comfort—both within 250 miles of my cent rates of interest on their credit ders. In 2000, he successfully coordi- home State of Nebraska. cards. This is usury. This is wrong. nated the attack of the USS Cole in the This is likely a non-starter with my From a biblical perspective, this is im- Yemeni Port of Aden. That attack constituents, and for good reason. moral, and it is time we got a handle killed 17 American sailors. Thus, last week, I sent a letter to At- on it. The Cole attack is the most well- torney General Holder asking to be in- The truth is that a number of years known event in this individual’s long formed if any of the detainees were to ago, many States had usury laws which career of terrorism, but it doesn’t stop be moved within 400 miles of Nebraska. prohibited very high interest rates. As there. He has a resume of attacks. He I will not allow my home State to be a result of a Supreme Court decision, coordinated efforts to kill U.S. per- endangered by the proximity of unre- those State laws were essentially made sonnel in Saudi Arabia. He planned car pentant al-Qaida terrorists. Other Sen- null and void and companies that bomb attacks and assaults on oil tank- ators and their constituents are likely moved to States such as South Dakota ers. He was also involved with a plot to to have similar concerns. and Delaware could essentially charge

VerDate Mar 15 2010 13:53 Aug 17, 2011 Jkt 079102 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 0686 Sfmt 0634 E:\BR09\S27AP9.000 S27AP9 wreier-aviles on DSKDVH8Z91PROD with BOUND RECORD April 27, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE, Vol. 155, Pt. 8 10661 the American people any rate they I have excellent credit. Nearly 780 last One day late, and their rate went wanted. Within the last 20 years, we time I checked. I had a ‘‘fixed’’ interest rate from 16 percent to 29 percent. have seen a huge increase in interest with Capital One at 4.9 percent since 2002. In As I mentioned, in 2 days we have rates. About one-third of the American 2007 the rate was raised to 7.9 percent. I re- gotten about 900 e-mails, significantly people are paying 20 percent or more. It ceived a letter in early April of this year that it will rise to 17.5 percent for no par- from Vermont but from all over the is time we got a handle on that issue. ticular reason, except that it was a company country. So I have introduced legisla- What I would like to do this after- decision. I am outraged! This is really unfair tion which would cap interest rates on noon, very briefly, is read some of the for everyone but I think especially unfair for credit cards at 15 percent, with some e-mails that are coming to my office those who really pay attention to maintain- exceptions going up to 18 percent. That from the State of Vermont but, in fact, ing good credit. legislation is cosponsored by Senators from all over this country. On late Fri- That person had a 780 credit number, DURBIN, LEAHY, WHITEHOUSE, HARKIN, day afternoon, I sent out an e-mail to which is very good. and LEVIN. The legislation is based on our e-mail list, and within 2 days’ time Here is one from Bennington, VT: longstanding law which regulates cred- we have had 900 responses from people I’d been on time every month and one day it unions, which under normal cir- who have expressed to me what is I got my statement and wow my interest cumstances cannot charge more than going on in terms of their relationship rate had more than doubled. I called and 15 percent. with their credit card companies. The they did put it back to the rate I had and The American people are hurting. We stories I am hearing are absolutely ap- said it would be good for only 9 months and then they would up it again and I would have are in a recession because of the greed palling—in some cases, unbelievable. of a small number of banks on Wall What is particularly disturbing is that to call again. This is hard for the families who aren’t using their credit cards anymore Street, and now these very same banks at a time when the taxpayers of this are hitting the middle class and work- country have provided hundreds of bil- and they are on a budget and factor in the credit card payment, and then all of a sudden ing families of this country with out- lions of dollars to bail out failing fi- one month it’s gone up a lot and you didn’t rageously high interest rates. Enough nancial institutions—which, because of factor that in. is enough. We need to establish a na- their greed, their recklessness, and Wilder, VT: tional usury rate, so I ask my col- their illegal behavior, caused them to I am tired of being the one who has to pay! collapse—these same financial institu- leagues to support this legislation. The executives of these credit card compa- Mr. President, with that, I yield the tions are now saying to the taxpayers nies mess up and the little people pay. The who bailed them out: Thank you very floor. government messes up and the little people The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- much; now we are going to raise your pay. Now my oldest child is going off to col- interest rates substantially. lege and I can’t even get financial help ex- ator from . So what I will be doing in the coming cept for loans. Yes, more interest. So now I f weeks is coming here to the floor and have to pay more interest on my credit ROXANA SABERI IMPRISONMENT reading stories from Vermont and from cards. When will I get help? I pay my bills, all over this country. Let me start off I pay my taxes. If I pay late I get a finance Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, this is a with one that comes from Poultney, charge and it hurts my credit rating. When photograph of Roxana Saberi. Yester- these big companies fall behind, they get my VT. This is what the gentleman says: day, April 26, was her 32nd birthday. tax money, and I get to pay it back for them. She was born and raised in Fargo, ND. I owned and operated a summer business in excess of 43 years. My business credit card This is from Bridport, VT: Her father Reza Saberi is an Iranian was with Avanta at 7.9 percent for years. On my Bank of America cards I made pur- citizen who moved here over 35 years Last year, my payment jumped about $400 chases at 9.9 percent which was not a vari- ago. Her mother Akiko is Japanese. per month. I thought there was fraud in- able rate. I assumed I had that interest rate This young woman is a 1994 honor volved. Upon checking, I found my interest because I have never had a late payment and graduate of Fargo North High School, had been raised from 7.9 to 28.8 percent. I al- have never made just the minimum pay- active in music, soccer, dance, a mem- ment. This month I received notice that my ways paid more than the minimum and al- ber of the North High School Hall of ways on time. When Avanta was contacted interest rate is going to jump to 15.65 per- and asked why, I was told it’s a floating in- cent and be a variable rate. I do have steady Fame, and an outstanding athlete. In terest. I asked to speak to a manager and income and I don’t want to damage my cred- 1997, she was voted Miss North Dakota. was advised that’s the way it was and they it rating by paying the balance off in a few That year, she was made one of the 10 could do nothing to lower it. I got a line of months then cancel the card. finalists in the Miss America pageant, credit loan from Heritage credit union at 1 Here is another, from West Burke, winning the Scholar Award. In 1999, she percent over prime, paid them off, and shut VT: completed her master’s degree in down my business. After 43 years of business, My husband sustained severe brain trauma broadcast journalism at Northwestern. it took usury to shut me down. in 2000. We managed to not file bankruptcy In 2000, she earned a master’s degree in That is just one story. and to pay off all credit cards. I now find international relations from Cam- Somebody writes from Virginia—the that we were idiots to do this. Our credit is bridge University in England. I tell you State of our Presiding Officer—and ruined by going a year without income. Ru- all that about this young woman be- says: ined, because we paid any credit card debt we owed. cause she sits in a 10-foot by 10-foot Explain to me, do the banks/credit card cell in Evin Prison in Tehran, companies feel that the only way to make Here is one from Little Rock, AR: money is to cheat us or manipulate us into Iran. I am 67 years old and had the card since I spoke to her father this weekend. taking part in an endless Ponzi scheme? How the year of the flood. I was on vacation and much profit is to be expected in an honest out of the country and did not make my card Her father and mother are in Tehran. deal? Even 15 percent seems high to me. payment on time. I had always kept my ac- Roxana was arrested in Tehran and This goes on, Mr. President. We have count up. When I went to charge a flight on put in prison, and she has been there 86 one from Barre, VT: line it was denied. I called them and they re- days. When she went to Iran, she did so I only have one thing on my credit card plied that since I was a ‘‘late payer’’ I had to because she was proud of her Iranian every month. It is the Internet access charge pay off my account every 30 days as it used heritage. Even though she was born, of $10.95. My credit card is a Visa from Cap- to before they allowed extended payments raised, and educated here in the United ital One. I received a letter stating that the for large purchases. I paid off the card that States, she was interested in going to day and cut up the card. rates were almost double what I agreed to the country where her father had come pay if a payment was late, but it also stated From West Newberry, VT: from, and so she went to Iran. She is a if I did not agree to their term, they would I send my payment by mail and sometimes cancel my credit card. Let’s not only do woman who was trained in journalism. the postal service is slow and the card com- I met her when she practiced jour- something about credit card fees, let’s stop pany got payment one day late and has banks in their tracks with all fees they ac- changed my interest rates from 16 percent to nalism in North Dakota. She has re- cess on customer accounts they have. 29.9 percent, and now if I pay the minimal ported for National Public Radio, BBC, From Castle Rock, CO, another indi- payment the charges are more than what I for , and others, from vidual writes: paid on the bill. Tehran. She stayed in Iran after her

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