Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, today, we will consider a House-Senate agreement on additional measures targeting Hezbollah, Iran's leading terrorist proxy, with tough new sanctions that we will impose with this bill. Last Congress, the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act was signed into law. This legislation threatened to cut off any financial institution that knowingly facilitates significant transactions for Hezbollah from the U.S. financial system. That was a major step in the financial fight against Hezbollah. In the immediate aftermath of the law's enactment, Hezbollah's leader gave a public speech blasting U.S. sanctions as ``unjust and false accusations.'' Hezbollah also asserted that it ``does not have any funds in any bank in the world . . . or in Lebanese banks and the central bank and the directors of banks must not panic.'' Well, if a terrorist organization must publicly state that they are not panicking, then they are definitely panicking. And Hezbollah was panicking, Mr. Speaker, following the passage of this landmark legislation. Hezbollah reportedly had to cut salaries, defer payments to suppliers, and slash money stipends to allied parties. Facing increased financial pressure, Hezbollah has also lashed out most recently by bombing a Lebanese bank in an effort to intimidate the board members into noncompliance. But Hezbollah's cowardly stance and its scare tactics have not worked.…”