Shaykh Hisham met with many of the Senators and congresspersons, and was invited to pay a visit to Dana Rohrabacher's office. Representative Mr. Rohrabacher had been one of the guest speakers at the last International Islamic Unity Conference.
During his lecture at the Unity Conference, Mr. Rohrabacher praised Islam and Muslims of which he has experienced both firsthand. Mr. Rohrabacher was a powerful supporter of the mujahideen of Afghanistan during their struggle against the former Soviet Union and was instrumental in getting aid in the form of supplies and advanced weaponry delivered to them. In his talk, he had described his many adventures in the mountains of Afghanistan when he spent time in the ranks of the mujahideen in close battle with the Soviet Army.
http://www.ocweekly.com/printme.php?&eid=38162COVER | FEATURE Vol. 8 No. 01 September 6 - 12, 2002
Rogue Statesman
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher’s absolutely crazy, quite possibly illegal back-channel chats with the villains of Sept. 11
by R. Scott Moxley
Rohrbacher with Afghan rebels, 1988
Photo courtesy Congressman Dana Rohrbacher
"
says the Taliban are devout traditionalists—not terrorists or revolutionaries. He believes a Taliban takeover would be a positive development."
—Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, November/December 1996 issue
In the hours after the deadly Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strikes, fear loomed that the federal government had fallen into disarray and would be impotent to stop additional attacks. It didn’t help that President George W. Bush hid for several hours at military installations in middle America or that a Bush staffer claimed (without evidence) that Air Force One was a target of foreign terrorists. Members of a special House Intelligence subcommittee on international terrorism evacuated the U.S. Capitol and, in hopes of calming public anxiety, called an emergency press conference.
"Today’s vicious attacks were clearly intended to instill fear, cause panic and kill innocent Americans in large numbers," said Representative Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia), head of the House terrorism group. "If terrorists believe they could shut down the U.S. government and paralyze the American people, they were simply mistaken. The government is functioning."
Then Chambliss turned to a bigger question: How could Middle Eastern terrorists hijack four loaded passenger jets and convert them into missiles without any detection by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies?
"Obviously, nobody knew that this threat was imminent in the way that it happened," Chambliss said. "But terrorism throughout the world, particularly directed at Americans, has been in existence for any number of years. And our committee is striving hard to ensure that we provide the best intelligence possible to hopefully ensure that these types of incidents don’t ever happen again."
..please read this article.....
Research assistance provided by Anthony Pignataro.
http://csf.colorado.edu/mail/wsn/2001/msg01609.html
(this is a wonderful site..lots of links)
Dana Rohrbacher, California congressman, then identified the Taliban as
the ruling controllers among
various factions in Afghanistan and characterized them as "opium
producers." Then Rohrbacher asked Maresca: "There is a Saudi terrorist
who is infamous for financing terrorism around the world. Is he in the
Taliban area or is he up there with the northern people?"
Maresca answered: "If it is the person I am thinking of, he is there in the
Taliban area." This testimony
obviously alluded to Osama bin Laden. Then Rorhbacher asked: "... in
the northern area as compared to the place where the Taliban are in
control, would you say that one has a better human rights record toward
women than the other?" Maresca responded by saying: "With respect to
women, yes. But I don't think either faction here has a very clean human
rights record, to tell you the truth."
So women's rights were introduced into Congressional testimony by
Congressman Rohrbacher as the
wedge for UNOCAL to build its pipeline through Afghanistan. Three
years later CNN would be airing ist acclaimed TV documentary "Under
The Veil," which displayed the oppressive conditions that women
endure in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban (a propaganda film
for the oil pipeline?).
Rohrbacher then went on to say that a democratic election should take
place in Afghanistan and "if the
Taliban are not willing to make that kind of commitment, I would be very
hesitant to move foreward on a $2.5 billion investment because without
that commitment, I don't think there is going to be any tranquility in that
land."