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Congress Votes To Give Jihadists
Anti-aircraft Missiles
By Mike Whitney
December 14,
2016 "Information
Clearing House"
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On
Thursday, the Senate passed a bill that puts every
American who travels by plane at risk. It is among
the stupidest pieces of legislation ever written and
it explains-- to a great extent-- why the US
Congress has a public approval rating of 13 percent
and is among the most loathed institutions in
America.
The 2017
National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed the
House last Friday in a 375-34 vote. On Thursday, it
cleared the senate with a 92 to 7 margin. The
bill will now be sent to Obama where it is expected
to be signed into law. According to an article on
SOFREP titled "Congress authorizes anti-aircraft
missiles for Syrian opposition":
"Congress
for the first time authorized the Department of
Defense to provide vetted-Syrian rebels with
anti-aircraft missiles. The provision is
contained within the $619 billion Fiscal Year 2017
National Defense Authorization Act, which passed the
Senate on Dec. 8 and the House on Dec. 2.
You
read that right, Congress just passed a bill that
will provide shoulder-launched
ground-to-air missiles to lunatic jihadists who will
undoubtedly use them to take down American or
Israeli jetliners. The
argument that these Islamic militants are fully
vetted is complete nonsense as both the New York
Times and the Wall Street Journal have repeatedly
shown. According to a recent article in the New York
Times, rebel groups supported by the USG "have
entered into battlefield alliances with the
affiliate of al Qaida in Syria formerly known as al
Nusra." The Wall Street Journal reports that rebel
groups are "doubling-down on their alliance with al
Qaida. This alliance has rendered the phrase
'moderate rebels' meaningless."
Everyone who
has followed developments on the ground in Syria
knows that the distinction between the "good"
terrorists and the "bad" terrorists is pure bunkum.
The various militias are merely the many heads of
the same homicidal anti-government hydra that has
killed over 400,000 Syrians and decimated a large
part of the country. The CIA should not be
assisting any of these madmen let alone providing
them with lethal state-of the-art weapons that will
inevitably be used to take down US aircraft. Here's
more from the same article:
"The inclusion
of the provision represents a departure from
previous versions of the NDAA. The original House
bill specifically prohibited the transfer of MANPADS
to “any entity” in Syria, while the Senate bill did
not address it."
So, the original bill forbid "the
transfer of MANPADS" to Syrian militants because it was
considered too dangerous. But now that Obama's
proxy-army is getting pulverized in Aleppo, Congress
has taken off the gloves and gone into full-revenge
mode. Isn't that what's really going on?
And it looks like Obama has already given this crazy
policy a big thumbs up. Check out this "Presidential
Determination and Waiver ....on the Arms Export Control
Act to Support U.S. Special Operations to Combat
Terrorism in Syria" that the White House issued late
Thursday:
"By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States,
including section 2249a of title 10, United States Code,
sections 40 and 40A of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA)
(22 U.S.C. 2780 and 2781), and section 301 of title 3,
United States Code, I hereby:
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determine that the transaction, encompassing the
provision of defense articles and services to
foreign forces, irregular forces, groups, or
individuals engaged in supporting or facilitating
ongoing U.S. military operations to counter
terrorism in Syria, is essential to the national
security interests of the United States." (Presidential
Determination and Waiver)
It looks
to me like our Nobel prize-winning president just
gave Congress's idiot plan his ringing endorsement.
Fortunately,
there's one member of congress who has spoken out
forcefully against the NDAA . Representative Tulsi
Gabbard from Hawaii released the following
statement following the voting on December 2:
“This bill contains the same deeply concerning and
dangerous Syria train and equip measures that I’ve
fought against since the program’s inception.
“First,
it creates the potential for dangerous ground-to-air
missiles getting in the hands of ISIS, al-Qaeda, and
other terrorist groups.
....
“Second, the
bill reauthorizes and extends the Syria train and
equip program for two years. When the Department of
Defense brought this program to Congress two years
ago, I strongly opposed it due to a weak vetting
process,...instead of fighting against ISIS,
al-Qaeda, or other terrorist groups—(the vetted
militants) ended up joining these terrorist groups
in their battle to overthrow the Syrian government.
“Over the
past 2 years, the Department of Defense has made
several improvements to the vetting process and
clarified the program’s objectives. These
improvements have helped to ensure that we work
solely with forces that share our common goal of
defeating ISIS. However, the bill that passed today
leaves out all of these improvements, allowing these
authorizing provisions to be used once again to
further the illegal, counterproductive regime change
war against the Syrian government. If successful,
this war will strengthen groups like ISIS and
al-Qaeda, worsen the humanitarian crisis, and cause
even greater destruction and suffering in Syria. I
will continue to do all I can to end this
devastating war, focus our resources on nation
building here at home, and defeat terrorist groups
like al-Qaeda and ISIS who threaten the American
people.”
("Rep. Gabbard votes against Defense Authorization
Bill", Hawaii 24/7)
Rep.
Gabbard has authored a "Stop Arming Terrorists bill"
that "prohibits U.S. government funds from being
used to support al-Qaeda, ISIS or other terrorist
groups. ... It would also prohibit the Federal
government from funding assistance to countries that
are directly or indirectly supporting those
terrorist groups." ("Rep.
Tulsi Gabbard Introduces Legislation to Stop Arming
Terrorists", Tulsi Gabbard)
Booyah, Tulsi. You are the lone voice of sanity in a
country that has gone stark raving mad.
Mike lives
in Washington state. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.
www.mikewhitneysgraspingatstraws.blogspot.com
The views
expressed in this article are the author's own and do
not necessarily reflect Information Clearing House
editorial policy. |
