Rep. Ted Poe (TX-2) on Secure Freedom Radio

FRANK GAFFNEY:

We’re back. It is a great pleasure to say we are joined by Representative Ted Poe of the second district of Texas. He is one of the leaders in the United States congress on matters of great importance, I believe, to the security of the United States, but that are altogether too little acknowledged, let alone addressed in our government. He is the chairman of the subcommittee on terrorism, non-proliferation and trade of the House foreign affairs committee. And also serves on the House judiciary committee, notably on its subcommittee on crime, terrorism, homeland security and investigations. Mr. Chairman, welcome back. It’s so good to have you with us, sir.

TED POE:

Always good to talk to you, Frank.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Listen, we’re talking on the eve of a very important hearing you’re having next week in your House foreign affairs committee subcommittee. Talk if you would a little bit about the US/Saudi counter-terrorism relationship, Mr. Chairman.

TED POE:

The purpose of the hearing is to find out exactly what, if any, cooperation the Saudi government has had now or in the past regarding terrorism and terrorism financing. And it includes, of course, the 9-11 attack on the United States. Centers around the missing twenty-eight pages. So we will have a hearing and find out one way or the other if the Saudi government helped in any way, members of the Saudi government, helped in any way in the 9-11 attacks. I’m not saying they did, but we’re going to find out. And also whether the Saudi government has had any relationship with terrorist financing since then. So we’re going to air that out, we’re going to get both sides and hopefully we can find out the relationship Saudi Arabia, with the United States, its financing and with terrorist groups, if any relationship exists. That’s the purpose of it.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Well, this is incredibly important. The twenty-eight pages to which you refer, of course, were pages that were not published after a congressional inquiry into these sorts of questions was finalised some years ago after 9-11. To the extent that the Saudi government as well as lots of Saudi nationals, Congressman Poe, are deeply imbued with this shariah agenda, as they call it, this idea that they need to spread it worldwide and impose it on all of us, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, there is a lot of evidence, I think, that that is translating into active support, financial, material, and otherwise, for the jihad. When you drill down on this, and I know you’re doing so in a number of respects, including with the Charity Transparency Act, do you expect to find, in fact, well, smoking guns of support that is material to terrorism?

TED POE:

Well, I’ll just say that’s what the purpose of the hearing is, Frank, and we’re really trying to center on what the Saudi government is – whether they’re involved or not. There is, I think, evidence that individuals, benefactors, I use that term, billionaires who live in different countries, including Saudi Arabia, that helped finance terrorists, terrorism in the world. I think there are those individuals. But then the relationship – let’s find out the relationship of the government to that terrorism if it is occurring. And of course the Saudi government says it’s not occurring, but we’re going to get both sides and find out where the money is, because the bottom line is these groups are able to operate all over the world because they have money to finance their reign of terror. And we got to cut off that money. That’s one way we prevent them from killing folks that don’t agree with them.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

It is critically important. And I know as a former judge in the state of Texas, you are intimately familiar with things like the Holy Land Foundation trial that took place down in Dallas in 2007 and 2008. And I gather your Charity Transparency Act, Congressman Poe, is designed to sort of address some of the things that have happened since that trial exposed what’s being done in the name of charity to, well, raise funds for jihad. Could you describe that act a little bit and its prospects, as you see it, in the congress of the United States?

TED POE:

Groups like the Holy Land Foundation had received a tax exempt status. And some of those folks, after the Holy Land Foundation was caught doing what they were doing, have moved to other so-called charities and are opening up shop again. And some of these charities are involved in the BDS movement against Israel. And so the legislation simply says that organisations must be transparent and that if any person is involved in a charity that has any ties to any terrorist organisation, the IRS must know that. But also the contributors must know it. The people who give money to these organisations, cause some of these people, they give money to these well-sounding, lofty charities, they don’t know who these people are. So that’s the purpose of the legislation. Be more transparent. We want to know who’s working in these so-called charities and, of course, they shouldn’t receive a tax exempt status if terrorist groups or terrorist individuals related to terrorism are now just moving to another organisation and trying to raise money that may be sent to – against our allies like Israel or cause terror somewhere in the world.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Congressman Poe, can I ask you about a group – and I don’t know if you’re a sponsor of this legislation, I’m sorry, I should know that, but there is a bill that Mario Diaz-Balart has introduced in the House as you probably are aware, to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation. And my sense of it, for what it’s worth, sir, is an awful lot of the charities that you’re talking about are actually directly tied to the Muslim Brotherhood or its front organisations and I just wonder what your thoughts are about that group and its relationship to this global jihad movement and whether charities that are associated with it should be also transparent.

TED POE:

My personal opinion is that we should designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation. And what does that do? That gives them a status where the United States government then prohibits them from doing certain things. And sanctions can be imposed against that organisation – as an organisation no matter where they are in the world. But I agree with you, I think the Muslim Brotherhood is. There are members of congress who disagree with me. And that’s why we’ll have a hearing on it and get a vote on whether the Muslim terrorists – whether the Muslim Brotherhood is a foreign terrorist organisation or not.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

In this regard, of course, one of the looming problems in terms of terrorism financing is the prospect that some substantial percentage of, well, maybe as much as a hundred and fifty billion dollars that the Obama administration saw fit to unfreeze and allow the Iranians to have access to again might wind up supporting their part of the jihad. The Treasury Department is being rather cagey as to whether they’re going to facilitate that now by letting them have access to sort of the dollar economy. What are your thoughts on that, sir, and how serious a problem do you consider that to be?

TED POE:

Well, it’s a major problem. But it shouldn’t surprise us because at the very outset of this whole terrible deal with Iran, I think the administration has been on the wrong side. They haven’t been on the American side. They’ve been on the side to get this money to Iran. So the hundred and fifty billion dollars that has been given to Iran, they are not going to build schools and hospitals and libraries in Tehran. They’re going to spend that money on terrorist groups throughout the world. Remember, Iran is the number on state sponsor of terror in the world. And they had the Haqqani network all over the world and the government of Iran sponsors them. It’s a terrorist organisation. I believe that money’s going to go to these terrorist organisations. And of course, the federal government, the Treasury Department, is stonewalling giving us information about whether this is taking place or not. So it’s very tragic. I mean, giving them money, now they’re going to spend it on terrorist groups. Groups that don’t like Americans and other people in the West.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Don’t like is the least of it. They’re vowing death to us all. And this is not a trivial problem. I hope this will be a subject for a further hearing by your important subcommittee on terrorism, non-proliferation and trade, Congressman Ted Poe, and a further conversation with you in the near future. Thanks so much for taking the time today and for the important work you’re about. Keep it up, sir. God bless you. Next up, we’ll talk with Bill Gertz, straight ahead.