Chris Smith

Let me just make clear for the record that after being unjustly jailed for 3 years, Igor Bitkov and his wife Irina, who spent 3 months unjustly jailed, and their daughter Anastasia, another 3 months for being unjustly jailed, Igor got out…

I remind my colleagues that under Palermo--I mean, we are talking about migrants, these are asylum seekers, a family that was escaping the impunity of Vladimir Putin and his cronies.

Wouldn't you use every means possible to get out of a country that is going after you, hurting your daughter, putting you into prison and maybe even killing you?

I am asking today, and I will do it by way of letter, that the Inspector General investigate the potential of collusion.

Let me ask you again, is there any kind of connection between CICIG and the Russians?

I call your attention to this, and we will give you a copy, an excellent piece that was put together by Mr. Bill Browder--this just reeks of collusion.

It is because of Bill Browder that we have the Magnitsky Act. It is because of Bill Browder that we have the Global Magnitsky Act, so when he speaks, everybody should listen and should listen very carefully, and I share his concerns about…

I support the bills that are before us but I just would like to focus especially on the Democratic Republic of Congo Democracy and Accountability Act.

Thank you for providing very, very sobering and distressing numbers of people are being hurt, killed, displaced.

The amount of money you mentioned seems to be a drop in the bucket for what I think sustaining the health and well-being of those refugees and IDPs would be.

If you could, what exactly are we doing? And, I mean, how do we define pressing the Cameroonian Government, the military?

It is necessary to reevaluate further counterterrorism cooperation with Cameroon to ensure the protection of Cameroonian citizens and respect for civil and political rights.

We also have ongoing concerns about the 85-year-old strongman Paul Biya who has either served as Prime Minister or as President since 1975.

Cameroon's political stability is of great importance to the United States because the country plays a critical role in American counterterrorism efforts again Boko Haram in the West and Central Africa.

I want to thank all of my colleagues. I want to thank our very distinguished witnesses for your extraordinarily incisive and illuminating testimony.

I am shocked and dismayed how the cast of human rights abusers remain dominant at the Human Rights Council.

I am going to introduce a new bill that says we'll hold criminally and civilly liable those at the PLA who provide this blood money to terrorists.

The way it focuses on Israel is an abomination.

I, for one, believe that we should always stay and fight from within.

Well, we speak out--if you would yield for a moment--very aggressively on the Rohingya, which, obviously, are in the crosshairs.

I think that that, again, offers more encouragement that this can happen.

So we have to push back hard, and I think, as you pointed out, Ms. PoKempner, they take notice.

It shows the animosity that continues to be animosity on steroids.

If ever there was a time--and it does call for a designation of CPC, country of particular concern, because of religious persecution by the government.

Minimally, it should be on the watch list--if not Tier 3, where I think it really belongs.