E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 112 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 157 WASHINGTON, THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2011 No. 100 House of Representatives The House met at 10 a.m. and was fall of the governments of Tunisia, body has been seen by millions on tele- called to order by the Speaker pro tem- Egypt, and perhaps Yemen is testa- vision and the Internet. pore (Mr. WEBSTER). ment to the pent up frustration of mil- Hamza, like the Tunisian fruit ven- f lions of people who were denied the dor who set himself alight, has become basic rights and economic opportunity a symbol to his countrymen and the DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO that we take for granted here in the world of the depravity and illegitimacy TEMPORE West. of a regime that would torture its own The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- But it is in Syria, where the future of children to death. fore the House the following commu- the Arab Spring seemingly hangs in Our ability to bring additional eco- nication from the Speaker: the balance and where the security nomic pressure on Syria is limited. Its WASHINGTON, DC, services have acted with the least re- economy is already under immense July 7, 2011. straint and maximum violence. Like strain. It is small, weak, and isolated. I hereby appoint the Honorable DANIEL marauding armies of old, select units Political pressure, in the form of a U.N. WEBSTER to act as Speaker pro tempore on of military and security services troops security resolution condemning the vi- this day. have been moving from city to city in olence and crackdown, has been JOHN A. BOEHNER, a quest to quash the ever-spreading blocked by Russia and China. And Speaker of the House of Representatives. demonstrations that have become a there is dread over what will happen f feature of life in Syria. when Assad falls, given the internal di- Deraa, a town of some 75,000 lying MORNING-HOUR DEBATE visions between Sunni and Shia, Mus- near the border with Jordan, has lim and Alawi, Christian and Druze. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- emerged as one of the centers of the The confessional and sectarian splits ant to the order of the House of Janu- Syrian uprising against the 40 years of are as pronounced as in Lebanon, the ary 5, 2011, the Chair will now recog- rule by the Assad family. Army and se- potential for large scale violence as nize Members from lists submitted by curity forces have repeatedly assaulted great as Iraq. the majority and minority leaders for the town and surrounding villages, The dangers are real, but the promise morning-hour debate. killing hundreds of civilians and ar- of what began in Tunisia and is now The Chair will alternate recognition resting anyone suspected of taking materializing in Egypt and elsewhere is between the parties, with each party part in demonstrations against the re- also real. People of courage can deter- limited to 1 hour and each Member gime. On April 29 in the village of Jiza, mine their own destiny, and it need not other than the majority and minority the Syrian secret police rounded up be one of hereditary dictatorship, leaders and the minority whip limited anybody it thought was involved with kleptocracy, or lack of opportunity and to 5 minutes each, but in no event shall the protests, including Hamza Ali al- stagnation. In the Arab world, as else- debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. Khateeb, who had gone to watch the where, people should be free to choose f demonstration with other members of their own government to represent his family. them and to chart peace with their SYRIA’S BLOODY SPRING For a month, Hamza’s family waited neighbors. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The for him to return, worried but hopeful To conclude otherwise means that we Chair recognizes the gentleman from that he would be released unharmed. It relegate tens of millions of people to California (Mr. SCHIFF) for 5 minutes. was not to be. On May 30, Hamza’s mu- suffer the capricious ruthlessness of Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, there are tilated body was returned to them. He their despots for generation after gen- moments in the lives of nations when had been tortured, subjected to re- eration, or that we are willing to trade the existing order is suddenly revealed peated electric shocks, and whipped the illusion of stability for the harsh as bereft of legitimacy and no longer with cables. His eyes were swollen and reality of their suffering. That is not viable. The wave of unrest spreading black, and there were identical bullet the choice we made for ourselves 235 across the Arab world, touched off by wounds where he had been apparently years ago, and it is not one that we the self-immolation of a Tunisian fruit shot through both arms, the bullets should presume to make for others. vendor tired of petty humiliation by lodging in his belly. On Hamza’s chest Bashar Assad is a ruthless tyrant corrupt governments, has exposed the was a deep, dark burn mark. His neck whose time has passed and who clings rot of decades of caprice, corruption, was broken, and parts of his body were to power only by virtue of brutal force. and incompetence. That this one man’s cut off. Hamza Ali al-Khateeb was 13 Our role and that of the international desperate act could lead to the down- years old. Video of the boy’s shattered community should be to work with b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. H4677 . VerDate Mar 15 2010 23:32 Jul 07, 2011 Jkt 099060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A07JY7.000 H07JYPT1 rfrederick on DSKDVH8Z91PROD with HOUSE H4678 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE July 7, 2011 Syrian opposition figures and others to lives protecting the First Amendment Mr. Speaker, because his father, a advance a negotiated transition to a is malicious and it’s not forgivable. World War II veteran, was days away new Syrian Government that will rep- Director Ocasio is an unelected bu- from being buried in Houston National resent all Syrians and prevent the reaucrat, a nonveteran who is clearly Cemetery. And his father had heard trading in of one set of thugs for an- out of touch with our veterans and the about the censorship of religion and other. The Arab Spring cannot be al- Constitution. And it’s unbelievable speech, and he doesn’t want to be bur- lowed to fail because of brutal repres- that she would be put in charge of the ied in that cemetery with other vet- sion, the specter of religious fanati- sacred burial ground in Houston, erans any longer. cism, a fear of the unknown, or the Texas. So no wonder that so many people cynicism born of unmet expectations. Here’s what the accusations against are shocked by the actions of this di- The region’s many millions must have her are, according to the Veterans of rector. After all, it reminds me of the the freedom to write a new chapter for Foreign Wars who I met with. And old Soviet Union, the way they used to themselves and their posterity. these are the men who go to those fu- censor speech and prevent the free ex- In this, the younger Assad has taken a page neral services and are the honor guard ercise of religion. from his father, who unleashed his troops in for America’s war dead that are buried. The First Amendment is sacred. Fu- 1982 to suppress a revolt by the Muslim And here’s what they say that she has nerals are sacred; and when our vet- Brotherhood in the city of Hama, an offensive done. The chapel that is on the prem- erans are buried, that soil becomes sa- that may have cost as many as 20,000 civilian ises has been closed. The Bible has been cred. And this action has to stop, and if lives. Indeed, history may be repeating itself removed. The cross has been taken out these actions are true, the director as Hama has become a focus of both anti- of the chapel. We don’t know what the needs to be terminated. government activity on the one hand, and the chapel’s being used for. Some stay a The government’s attack on the very use of extreme violence by the Assad govern- storage place. Some say a meeting freedoms that these people have lived ment on the other. place. Some say it’s not being used at and died for is a violation of the free- For American policymakers, Syria presents all. This is what she is accused of dom of speech and the freedom to free- a collection of overlapping and sometimes doing. ly exercise religion promised to all contradictory challenges. Like his father, Presi- She censors the prayers that are Americans in the Constitution, and dent Assad has repeatedly tantalized the being given at the burial services of that must be upheld. United States and the west with the possibility our veterans. She’s banned the word And that’s just the way it is. of a new opening, but he has never followed ‘‘God,’’ the words ‘‘Jesus Christ’’ from f through.