Hamas' Benefactors
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HAMAS’ BENEFACTORS: A NETWORK OF TERROR JOINT HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA AND THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TERRORISM, NONPROLIFERATION, AND TRADE OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION SEPTEMBER 9, 2014 Serial No. 113–213 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/ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 89–738PDF WASHINGTON : 2014 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:34 Oct 28, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 F:\WORK\_MENA\090914\89738 SHIRL COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American DANA ROHRABACHER, California Samoa STEVE CHABOT, Ohio BRAD SHERMAN, California JOE WILSON, South Carolina GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey TED POE, Texas GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia MATT SALMON, Arizona THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania BRIAN HIGGINS, New York JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina KAREN BASS, California ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts MO BROOKS, Alabama DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island TOM COTTON, Arkansas ALAN GRAYSON, Florida PAUL COOK, California JUAN VARGAS, California GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania AMI BERA, California STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California RON DESANTIS, Florida GRACE MENG, New York DOUG COLLINS, Georgia LOIS FRANKEL, Florida MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii TED S. YOHO, Florida JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas SEAN DUFFY, Wisconsin CURT CLAWSON, Florida AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director (II) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:34 Oct 28, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\_MENA\090914\89738 SHIRL SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairman STEVE CHABOT, Ohio THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois BRIAN HIGGINS, New York TOM COTTON, Arkansas DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas ALAN GRAYSON, Florida RON DESANTIS, Florida JUAN VARGAS, California DOUG COLLINS, Georgia BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts TED S. YOHO, Florida GRACE MENG, New York SEAN DUFFY, Wisconsin LOIS FRANKEL, Florida CURT CLAWSON, Florida SUBCOMMITTEE ON TERRORISM, NONPROLIFERATION, AND TRADE TED POE, Texas, Chairman JOE WILSON, South Carolina BRAD SHERMAN, California ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California MO BROOKS, Alabama JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas TOM COTTON, Arkansas JUAN VARGAS, California PAUL COOK, California BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts TED S. YOHO, Florida (III) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:34 Oct 28, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\_MENA\090914\89738 SHIRL VerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:34 Oct 28, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\_MENA\090914\89738 SHIRL C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES Jonathan Schanzer, Ph.D., vice president for research, Foundation for De- fense of Democracies ............................................................................................ 11 Mr. Avi Jorisch, senior fellow for counterterrorism, American Foreign Policy Council .................................................................................................................. 34 Steven A. Cook, Ph.D., Hasib J. Sabbagh senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies, Council on Foreign Relations ................................................................ 47 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING Jonathan Schanzer, Ph.D.: Prepared statement ................................................... 14 Mr. Avi Jorisch: Prepared statement ..................................................................... 36 Steven A. Cook, Ph.D.: Prepared statement .......................................................... 50 APPENDIX Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 82 Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 83 The Honorable Gerald E. Connolly, a Representative in Congress from the Commonwealth of Virginia: Prepared statement .............................................. 84 (V) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:34 Oct 28, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\_MENA\090914\89738 SHIRL VerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:34 Oct 28, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\_MENA\090914\89738 SHIRL HAMAS’ BENEFACTORS: A NETWORK OF TERROR TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA AND SUBCOMMITTEE ON TERRORISM, NONPROLIFERATION, AND TRADE, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. The committees met, pursuant to notice, at 10 o’clock a.m., in room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ileana Ros- Lehtinen (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. The joint subcommittee will come to order. After recognizing myself, Chairman Poe, Ranking Member Deutch, and Ranking Member Sherman for our opening state- ments, I will then recognize other members seeking recognition. We will then hear from our distinguished panel of witnesses. And with- out objection, the witnesses’ prepared statements will be made a part of the record, and members may have 5 days in which to in- sert statements and questions for the record, subject to the length limitation in the rules. The Chair now recognizes herself for 5 minutes. ISIL, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas—these are some of the most dangerous terrorist groups out today. Though they have all of their differences, notably different ideologies, different objectives, what they do have in common is that they are all non-state actors who need to get their resources from somewhere. We are now just 2 weeks into the open-ended ceasefire agree- ment between Israel and Hamas. In the previous 2 months, Hamas terrorists have fired over 4,500 rockets indiscriminately into Israel, including into its most populated areas such as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Of course, it isn’t forgotten that the start of these attacks coin- cided with the abduction and murder of three innocent Israeli teen- agers. Hamas originally denied its complicity in this heinous crime but last month admitted responsibility, and it is important to note when this admission took place and by whom. The announcement was made by a known terrorist and Hamas operative in Turkey where he lives openly. This is the same Turkey that is a supposed U.S. and NATO ally that is harboring not just this member of Hamas, but it is known to be harboring several of Hamas’ top operatives. But harboring these terrorists isn’t where Turkey stops. It pro- vides financial, material, and political support for this U.S. des- (1) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:34 Oct 28, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_MENA\090914\89738 SHIRL 2 ignated foreign terrorist organization and has been doing so for years without repercussions. In fact, in 2011, Turkish Prime Min- ister Erdogan said, ‘‘Hamas is not a terrorist organization. It is a political party.’’ But Turkey isn’t the only U.S. ally, or at least U.S. partner, that has been known to harbor Hamas leadership and provide the ter- rorist group with funds. Qatar, the very same Qatar that the ad- ministration entrusted to monitor the Taliban five, who were swapped for Sergeant Bergdahl, and which it recently agreed to an $11 billion armed sale with, has been known to be perhaps the largest financial patron of Hamas. Not only does Qatar harbor Hamas figurehead Khaled Meshaal, Qatar reportedly threatened to exile him if Hamas accepted an Egyptian-backed cease fire agreement last month. In 2011, the Emir of Qatar was the first head of state to visit Gaza and pledged over $400 million of infrastructure money to Hamas. Qatar funds Hamas’ strikes in Gaza, as well as its project, building terror tun- nels from which to attack Israel rather than building up Gaza for the Palestinian people. The administration took a step to block a recent transfer of funds from Qatar to Hamas terrorists, and earlier this year the Treasury Department openly admitted that Qatar for many years has openly financed Hamas. It is also supporting extremist groups operating in Syria and has become such a permissive terrorist financing envi- ronment for all of these groups, and that includes its funding of the Muslim Brotherhood, and, along with Kuwait, has become a major source of funding for ISIL, a threat that must be eliminated. According to reports, Egypt has charged former leader Mohamed Morsi with giving national security documents to Qatar, and Qatari connections to the Brotherhood are deep and troubling. But the ad- ministration has not done nearly enough to curb Qatari support for terror. We cannot continue to allow Qatari funds