Bipartisan legislation in the House and Senate — that would bar the federal government from giving money and weapons to known terrorists — has virtually no support on Capitol Hill.
On the Senate side, Rand Paul (R-Ky.) put forward S 532, which is the same legislation that Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) introduced in the House — the Stop Arming Terrorists Act (HR 608).
Her bill was quietly referred to the House Committee on Intelligence back on Jan. 23, the day she introduced it. Sen. Paul’s bill was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee March 6.
Supporters range from Reps. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who help comprise the anti-war Republican back-benchers, to highly liberal notables such as Reps. Bobby Rush (D.-Ill.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.)
“For years, our government has been providing both direct and indirect support to ... armed militant groups, who are working directly with or under the command of terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS, all in their effort and fight to overthrow the Syrian government,” Rep. Gabbard bravely stated in an interview earlier this year.
She’s well-known for having made an equally courageous private trip to Syria, against the grain of the Western interventionist foreign policy establishment, to see firsthand the devastation wrought by Western-backed terrorists and to fact-check constant orthodox media reports that paint Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad as the region’s premier “bad guy” who allegedly gases his own people.
A veteran of the Iraq War and major in the Hawaii National Guard, Rep. Gabbard “has long been committed to peace and ending counterproductive, interventionist wars,” her spokesperson Emily Latimer explained earlier this year to the world news outlet RT.
And it cannot be over-stated that Al-Qaeda is the faction the US government, in its official narrative parroted by the compliant mainstream media, blames for the 9/11 attacks. Thus, for the US government to give aid to that very same faction, or to anyone in its employ, is the height of ultra-hypocrisy and could be seen as an extreme betrayal of America.
Gabbard is helping to illustrate what is becoming increasingly clearer: To keep the ultimate control of money, trade and natural resources in the clutches of the private international banking cartel—from which “our” government borrows to stay afloat rather than directly issuing interest-free public money into the economy—the US government covertly “subcontracts” with non-uniformed armed factions to fight proxy wars in collusion with the UK and other nations.
The Gabbard-Paul bills each prohibit the use of federal agency funds to provide “covered assistance” to:
• Al Qaeda, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or any individual or group that is affiliated with, associated with, cooperating with, or adherents to such groups; or
• The government of any country that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) determines has, within the most recent 12 months, provided covered assistance to such a group or individual.
• According to the Library of Congress, “covered assistance” is defined as “defense articles, defense services, training or logistical support, or any other military assistance provided by grant, loan, credit, transfer, or cash sales,” along with “intelligence sharing” or “cash assistance.”
“It is not a secret, nor a conspiracy theory, America arms bad guys,” Information Clearing House-World News Daily commented on June 21. “Given the insidious history of the American empire and its creation and fostering of terrorist regimes ... it should come as no surprise that the overwhelming majority of politicians would refuse to sign on to a law that requires them to Stop Arming Terrorists. It is quite possibly the simplest and most rational bill ever proposed by Congress.”
As of July 4, HR 608 still had just 14 co-sponsors, while S 532 had zero, with only Sen. Paul’s name listed as the sponsor. So, I’d strongly recommend that interested readers contact Congress on this matter. Besides contacting the local offices of House and Senate members, use the Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 or 225-3121 where you can ask for any Congress member by name.
Mark Anderson is a veteran journalist who divides his time between Texas and Michigan. Email him at truthhound2@yahoo.com.
From The Progressive Populist, August 1, 2017
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