Offers is a 2005 Dutch television film directed by Dana Nechushtan and starring Maryam Hassouni and Jacob Derwig. The thriller film is a personal drama about suicide bombers and counter-terrorism in Western Europe.

In 2006 Maryam Hassouni won an International Emmy Award for her role as Laila al Gatawi.^[1]

Plot[link]

Khalid al Gatawi (Iliass Ojja) is about to become a suicide bomber in Paris. Even though he hesitates, his bomb is detonated from a distance by a cell phone. In the explosion a Dutch woman is killed and her Lebanese husband is seriously injured. Haron Nasrallah (Jacob Derwig), the son of the senior couple, is a police officer in Amsterdam. When the trail of the bombing leads back to the Netherlands, he decides to cooperate with the secret intelligence service.

Khalid and his two sisters Laila (Maryam Hassouni) and Alisha al Gatawi (Mimi Ferrer) wanted to revenge their fathers death. Mokhtar (Sabri Saad El-Hamus) will arrange the suicide bombings for Laila and Alisha. Haron goes to Alisha's house and discovers she is pregnant. Laila catches him and forces him with a gun to bring her to Alisha. They find out Alisha tries to flee abroad with her boyfriend. Alisha and her boyfriend get killed by a bomb thrown in their car. When Haron is seen with Laila during their pursuit the police is going after the both of them.

The Dutch ambassador in Egypt helps Mokhtar by giving false papers to future suicide bombers. Laila finds a memory stick with information about suicide bombers, but also information that the Dutch ambassador in Egypt was cooperating with Mokhtar. Mokhtar decides to kill the Dutch ambassador in Egypt. With the memory stick Laila and Haron try to make a deal for their freedom and future safety with the secret intelligence service.

Haron meets Mokhtar and, because he doesn't want to blow his cover, he joins Laila in a suicide bombing on Queen's Day in Amsterdam. Both Haron and Laila record a video testament. He negotiates with his colleagues how they will prevent the bombs from exploding. When his colleagues catch Haron he is handed over to the United States for suspected involvement in other terrorist attacks. When they catch Laila one agent leads her outside the Queen's Day crowd and let her bomb explode in a small alley.

Cast[link]

List of actors from the film with their character names:^[2]

Production[link]

Offers is filmed in Amsterdam and Paris. The television film is broadcasted by VARA.

Awards[link]

• International Emmy Award (2006) for Best Performance by an Actress for Maryam Hassouni^[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Offers at the Internet Movie Database

The Gang of Eight is a common colloquial term for a set of eight leaders within the United States Congress. Specifically, the Gang of Eight includes the leaders of each of the two parties from both the Senate and House of Representatives, and the chairs and ranking minority members of both the Senate Committee and House Committee for intelligence.

The President of the United States is required by 50 U.S.C. § 413(a)(1) to "ensure that the congressional intelligence committees are kept fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States." However, under 50 U.S.C. § 413b(c)(2), the President may elect to report instead to the Gang of Eight when he thinks "it is essential to limit access" to information about a covert action.

The individuals are sworn to secrecy and there is no vote process.

Background[link]

This section's representation of one or more viewpoints about a controversial issue may be unbalanced or inaccurate. Please improve the article or discuss the issue on the talk page.(December 2010)

The term "Gang of Eight" gained wide currency in the coverage of the Bush administration's warrantless domestic spying program, in the context that no members of Congress other than the Gang of Eight were informed of the program, and they were forbidden to disseminate knowledge of the program to other members of Congress. The Bush administration has asserted that the briefings delivered to the Gang of Eight sufficed to provide Congressional oversight of the program and preserve the checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches.^[1]

The non-partisan Congressional Research Service released a legal analysis on January 18, 2006,^[2][3] concluding that the Bush administration's refusal to brief any members of Congress on the warrantless domestic spying program other than the Gang of Eight is "inconsistent with the law".^[4][5]

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales repeatedly made references to the "Gang of Eight" when being questioned about the warrantless surveillance/ domestic spying while testifying at the Justice Department Oversight hearing held July 24, 2007. AG Gonzales' testimony may be retrieved from CSPAN online.

Current Members of the Gang of Eight[link]

• John Boehner (R), Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
• Nancy Pelosi (D), House Minority Leader
• Harry Reid (D), Senate Majority Leader
• Mitch McConnell (R), Senate Minority Leader
• Mike Rogers (R), Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
• Dianne Feinstein (D), Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
• Dutch Ruppersberger (D), Ranking Minority Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
• Saxby Chambliss (R), Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

See also[link]

• United States Senate Majority Leader
• United States Senate Minority Leader
• Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
• Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives
• U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
• U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Popular Culture[link]

The Gang of Eight appeared in the Season Three finale of the political drama The West Wing. President Bartlet was staging an assassination of a foreign leader who was discovered to be behind several terrorist attacks, including a failed attack on the Golden Gate Bridge. The Gang of Eight on The West Wing consisted of the Majority and Minority Leaders from both the House and the Senate as well as the Chairman and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. The Gang of Eight on The West Wing differed from the real world's Gang of Eight as the Speaker of the House (portrayed in the fourth and fifth seasons of the show by actor John Goodman) was not a member.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Scalable Context Timeline: Bush Administration Broke Law in Failing to Properly Inform Congress of Domestic Surveillance Program, History Commons
• 50 U.S.C. 413
• 50 U.S.C. 413b