Iran Freedom Support Act Passes House...Again

“Enough with the carrots. It’s time for the stick.”
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., sponsor of the measure.

With scant media attention yesterday, the House of Representatives has again passed the Iran Freedom Support Act even as over 100 Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Leaders united to urge Congress to assert its oversight function to prevent a preemptive attack on Iran citing five causes for concern...

1) If passed, the Iran Freedom Support Act would add sanctions that could scuttle efforts for diplomacy in Iran.

2) The administration is using Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian terrorist organization on the State Department’s List of terror groups, to destabilize the southern region of Iran.

3) The administration is repeating the same tactic to justify a military strike against Iran as it used against Iraq. The creation in March of the Iranian Directorate in the Defense Department is staffed with the same objective and the same stove-piping of intelligence as the Office of Special Plans. Douglas Feith ran the Office of Special Plans while Abraham Shulsky, a senior Iranian policy advisor to Vice President Cheney, directs the new Iranian Directorate.

4) Time magazine reported September 17th, the U.S. Navy has communicated “Prepare to Deploy” orders and are revising long- standing plans to blockade two Iranian oil ports on the Persian Gulf.

5) For the White House to go behind the back of the Security Council and its EU allies - in the midst of the talks with Iran - and take significant steps towards military action, makes the conduct of the Bush Administration on Iran even worse than it was on Iraq.

As some may remember, only 21 congresspeople previously voted nay on this effort “to hold the current regime in Iran accountable for its threatening behavior and to support a transition to democracy in Iran”

Baldwin, Blumenauer, Boyd, DeFazio, Duncan, Flake, Hostettler, Jones (NC)
Kucinich, Leach, McDermott, McGovern, McKinney, Oberstar, Obey, Olver
Paul, Rahall, Snyder, Stark, Taylor

The most disappointing aspect however is the fact that so many of our ‘progressive’ leaders in congress voted for this lie. John Conyers voted yay. Maxine Waters, Murtha, Bernie Sanders, Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee all voted for it.

and with 21 democratic cosponsors including Barbara Boxer! it looked sure to pass the Senate....

Daniel Akaka (HI)
Max Baucus (MT)
Evan Bayh (IN)
Barbara Boxer (CA)
Maria Cantwell (WA)
Kent Conrad (ND)
John Corzine (NJ)

Mark Dayton (MN)
Byron Dorgon (ND)
Richard Durbin (IL)
Dianne Feinstein (CA)
Tim Johnson (SD)
Herb Kohl (WI)
Mary Landriew (LA)
Carl Levin (MI)
Joe Lieberman (CT)

Lincoln Blanche (AR)
Barbara Mikulski (MD)
Ben Nelson (NE)
Bill Nelson (FL)
Debbie Stabenow (MI)

Well as it turns out it didn’t pass the Senate last time...

When Mr. Santorum introduced his bill on the Senate floor on June 15, Senator Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he had just spoken with Secretary of State Rice, who urged him not to support the proposal....

According to a press release from the National Jewish Democratic Council, two lawmakers accused Mr. Santorum of opposing specific legislation to punish Halliburton, the oil services giant formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, for allowing its subsidiaries to do business in Iran.

Halliburton was able to enter a partnership with Iranian energy concerns in part because of waivers built into the original executive order authorizing sanctions on Iran passed under President Clinton

So in the effort to pass the Senate this time, it looks as if a provision was written in the new bill to handle any problems with Cheney’s interests in the future...

The bill, passed by a voice vote, sanctions any entity that contributes to Iran’s ability to acquire chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. The president has the authority to waive those sanctions, but only when he can show that it is in the vital national interest.

http://benfrank.net/blog/2006/09/29/iran_freedom_support_act_passes_houseagain/#comments