{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20130925024633/http://wolf.house.gov:80/index.cfm?sectionid=34&itemid=2306", "Wolf: If Bashir Comes To The U.S., Arrest Him", "2013-09-23", "2013", "2013-09", "Republican", "House", "VA", "Frank Wolf", "W000672", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Contact: Jill Shatzen   (202) 225-5136  WOLF: IF BASHIR COMES TO THE U.S., ARREST HIM   Tells President Obama Granting Him a Visa Compromises Moral Legitimacy  Washington, D.C. (September 23, 2013) \u2013 Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) said today that if internationally indicted war criminal Omar Bashir, the president of Sudan, is allowed into the United States, he should be arrested.  In response to media reports over the weekend that Bashir booked a hotel room in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting, Wolf sent a scathing letter to President Obama, acknowledging that while the United States as a host country has certain obligations, allowing someone responsible for genocide into the United States would compromise moral legitimacy, embolden war criminals and entrench Bashir.  Wolf said the clear message to Bashir from the United States should be: \u201cYou are an international pariah; not a legitimate head of state.\u00a0 We are not required to embolden evil.\u00a0 Should you choose to come to New York, you will be met by U.S. law enforcement officials and a plane prepared to transfer you to the Hague.\u201d  EDITORS NOTE:Wolf has been a longtime critic of Bashir and Khartoum.\u00a0 He has travelled to Sudan on multiple occasions and was the first member of Congress to visit Darfur, in 2004.\u00a0 Last year, Wolf offered an amendment to the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill which would have cut non-humanitarian foreign assistance to any nation that allowed Sudanese President Omar Bashir into their country without arresting him.\u00a0 The amendment was adopted with bipartisan support by voice vote.\u00a0 Notably, the amendment garnered the support of 70 prominent Holocaust and genocide scholars.\u00a0 Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the Wyman Institute, who wrote a letter to the Obama Administration from these scholars expressing support for the Wolf amendment, said: \u201cHalting aid to those who host Bashir would be the first concrete step the U.S. has taken to isolate the Butcher of Darfur and pave the way for his arrest.\u00a0 If the Obama Administration is serious about punishing perpetrators of genocide, it should support the Wolf Amendment.\u201d\u00a0  Instead, the administration actively sought to remove the language from the final bill.\u00a0 This year, at Wolf\u2019s urging, the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, which has passed out of the full committee, included language consistent with the amendment Wolf offered last year.\u00a0  Wolf has long argued that Bashir should be diplomatically isolated and that the U.S. should utilize its foreign assistance, especially incentivized foreign assistance like the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) grants, to press countries to deny travel or pursue Bashir\u2019s arrest.\u00a0 In fact, after repeatedly writing the MCC leadership and pressing them to take action when Malawi\u2019s late president Bingu wa Mutharika welcomed Bashir to the country, MCC eventually suspended the compact in March 2012. \u00a0\u00a0According to MCC\u2019s press release announcing the decision, \u201cMalawi\u2019s decision to allow Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to attend a trade summit in Lilongwe, despite the International Criminal Court\u2019s (ICC) outstanding warrant for his arrest, further deepened MCC\u2019s concerns.\u201d  For more on Wolf\u2019s work on this issue, click here.  The full text of Wolf\u2019s letter is below.  The Honorable Barack H. Obama The President The White House Washington DC 20500  Dear Mr. President:  When news first broke that Sudanese President Omar Bashir had applied for a visa to attend the upcoming United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, I expressed my profound opposition to a senior State Department official and was left with the distinct impression that your administration would do the right thing.\u00a0   Outrageously, it appears that that is not the case.\u00a0 Multiple news outlets are reporting Bashir\u2019s assertion yesterday that he has booked a hotel room in New York to attend the General Assembly meeting, which leads me to believe that the State Department may have granted Bashir\u2019s visa request.\u00a0   I understand that there are host country obligations as it relates to the United Nations.\u00a0 Nevertheless, don\u2019t we have a higher moral obligation not to allow an internationally indicted war criminal to step foot on U.S. soil unless it is solely for the purpose of arresting him?\u00a0 Bashir has the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocents on his hand\u2014Christian, Muslim and Animist alike.\u00a0   From this point forward, the message to Bashir should be: You are an international pariah; not a legitimate head of state.\u00a0 We are not required to embolden evil.\u00a0 Should you choose to come to New York, you will be met by U.S. law enforcement officials and a plane prepared to transfer you to The Hague.   Failure to convey this message will have devastating ripple effects.\u00a0 Other war criminals will be emboldened, U.S. moral legitimacy will be compromised and Bashir will become further entrenched.\u00a0   Anything that delays Bashir being brought to justice is indefensible.\u00a0 We must not forget that his government gave safe haven to Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s, and Khartoum was a revolving door for Hamas and other designated terrorist groups.\u00a0 Further Bashir has long brutalized his own people.\u00a0 In June 2004, I led the first congressional delegation with Senator Sam Brownback to Darfur, soon after the world began hearing about the atrocities being committed against the people of that region.\u00a0 I witnessed the nightmare with my own eyes.\u00a0 I saw the scorched villages and overflowing camps. I heard the stories of murder, rape and displacement.\u00a0 The International Criminal Court prosecutor has described Bashir\u2019s crimes in stark terms saying he, \u201chas selected his weapons; they are: rape, hunger, fear.\u00a0 They are the most efficient method of destruction, in the face of international scrutiny.\u201d\u00a0 But Bashir\u2019s assault on his own people pre-dates Darfur.\u00a0 Consider the more than 2 million that perished during the North-South war.\u00a0 And his murderous aims persist to this day in the Nuba Mountains.   During your campaign for the presidency, when asked about Darfur, you said, \"We can\u2019t say \u2018never again\u2019 and then allow it to happen again.\u00a0 And, as President of the United States, I don\u2019t intend to...turn a blind eye to slaughter.\"\u00a0\u00a0 Bashir was the architect of that slaughter.\u00a0   You have before you a clear choice.\u00a0 Will you turn a blind eye to slaughter and extend diplomatic courtesy to such a man?\u00a0 Or will you seize the opportunity presented by Bashir\u2019s brazenness and facilitate his transfer, as is legally permissible, to The Hague, such that he is finally made to account for his crimes?  Best wishes.  \u00a0  Sincerely,  \u00a0  Frank R. Wolf Member of Congress", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20130925024633/http://wolf.house.gov:80/index.cfm?sectionid=34&itemid=2306"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9792046621441841, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}