UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

HEARING

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

JUNE 5, 2003

Serial No. 59

 We must be vigilant. We must be unrelenting. We must not forget that al Qaeda's primary terrorist target is the United States of America. Even though recent attacks were overseas, the terror network is committed to killing innocent Americans, including women and children, by the thousands or even the millions if they can.

    Nasser al-Fahd is a prominent extremist Saudi cleric known to have significant connections to al Qaeda operatives who seek his religious justification and his support for terrorist operations. Just last month he issued a new fatwah entitled ''The Legal Status of Using Weapons of Mass Destruction Against Infidels.'' This fatwah lays out, last month, his religious arguments for the use of weapons of mass destruction against Americans, including women and children. Let me quote. He puts it this way, and I am quoting now, of course, translated: ''Anyone who considers America's aggressions against Muslims and their lands during the past decades will conclude that striking her is permissible.''

    Al-Fahd asserts, and I am quoting again, ''The weapons of mass destruction will kill any of the infidels on whom they fall regardless of whether they are fighters, women or children. They will destroy and burn the land. The arguments for the permissibility are many.''

    I quote further: ''If a bomb that killed 10 million of them and burned as much of their land as they have burned Muslims' land were dropped on them, it would be permissible.''

    Despite the terrorist threats to America, there are some, both in Congress and across the country, who suggest that we should not have a USA PATRIOT Act. Others who supported the act 20 months ago now express doubts about the necessity of some of the act's components. Let me state my view as clearly as possible. Our ability to prevent another catastrophic attack on American soil would be more difficult, if not impossible, without the PATRIOT Act. It has been the key weapon used across America in successful counterterrorist operations to protect innocent Americans from the deadly plans of terrorists.

http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/judiciary/hju87536.000/hju87536_0.htm