Senate Proceeding on Sep 17th, 2009 :: 7:38:55 to 7:58:05
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7:38:51 to 7:39:12( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: like to speak as if on morning business and i certainly have no objection. th senator from alabama. mr. sessions: madam president, i thank the senator from california and her courtesy's legendary in this body and i thank you for that.

7:38:55 to 7:58:05( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Jeff Sessions

7:39:13 to 7:39:34( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: madam president, i -- i am taken aback and flabbergasted really by the obama administration's decision announced today to cancel the european missile defense i would ask, what does that mean, what kind of consequences are there for that? and i would just like to share a

7:39:35 to 7:39:57( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: few remarks that it is contrary to the sen of t senate language that included in the defense bill passed just a few weeks ago by this senate. it's a very, very significant decision. and i -- i want to give it more thought and i don't wt to overstate the problem, but i want to be on

7:39:58 to 7:40:23( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: saying this is a surprising decision, one that i've been involved in in discussion of for quite a number of years and i feel what happens? we ask our allies in central europe, poland and the republic, to stand with us and to agree to place a radar in the

7:40:24 to 7:40:44( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: czech republic and to place a defense system in poland, our missile they, the heads of those governments, agreed to that. we got a lot of opposition, they did, in those traditional european left. many of the

7:40:45 to 7:41:06( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: hard-line leftists who've opposed the western world's defense programs for many, many years. but they overcame that they were proud to be and stand with the united states o america. it did not bother them that their big neighbor, russia, objected. they're sovereign nations, of which they're quite proud, and

7:41:07 to 7:41:27( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: they were proud to make a decision and reach an agreement with the united states of america country from limited missile attack from a nation like iran, in particular. if iran were to launch a missile attack that could reach the united states, it would come over europe. th's the location the missile

7:41:28 to 7:41:48( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: would fly. it also -- iran could threaten europe. so they felt that they were participating both in a defense of europe and the quen defense of the united states, and it was a good government, public interest decision that they were pleased to participate in and stood up with us.

7:41:49 to 7:42:11( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: and we committed, of course, when we asked them to do this and go through this process to build a system. and for years, we've been moving forward with that in the senate. and this year we of discussion about it in e senate and we reached

7:42:12 to 7:42:34( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: agreement that i much stated flatly what the opinion of the united states senate is. and there were some that objected, and this is how we boiled downhe language. it's a sense of the senate that, one, the united states government should continue developing and planning for the proposed deployment of elements of

7:42:35 to 7:42:56( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: mid-course defense system, including a mid-course radar in the czech republic and ground-based interceptors in poland consistent with the duncan hunter national defense act of 2009. paragraph two, in conjunction with the continued development of the planned grouped-based mid-course -- ground-based mid-course defense system, the united states should work with

7:42:57 to 7:43:17( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: its north atlantic treaty allies to explore a range of options and architectures to -- quote -- "provide missile defenses for europe and the united states against current and future eye rain yaieyeraiiranian ballistic missile facilities.

7:43:18 to 7:43:39( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: and those deployed in europe to provide for the defense o europe and a redundant defense of the united states against future long-range iranian missile threats should be at least as capable and cost-effective as the proposed european deployment of the ground-based mid-course defen system. and any missile defense

7:43:40 to 7:44:01( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: capabilities deployed in europe should, to the extent be interoperable with the united states and north atlantic treaty organization. and, i indeed, nato endorsed this program. for awhile, some of our members said well, i'm not too sure about this, what does nato say?

7:44:02 to 7:44:22( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: nato did endorse it. so one of the things that's pretty obvious that would occur is that this backing down of our plan sds a signal to our allies that we don't fulfill our commitments to them. and it's bound to make our allies in central europe particularly nervous.

7:44:23 to 7:44:46( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: this decision sends a message from the administration reward bad behavior. now, the defense department says, we're not doing this to curry favor with russia, but that carly is a state department goal in this process, because they've objected to the

7:44:47 to 7:45:08( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: system -- to the deployment of this system, although it has virtually no capility with ten interceptors in poland to in any way be an effective against the massive arsenal that the soviet union -- the old soviet union developed, and russia now maintains.

7:45:09 to 7:45:30( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: so it does appear to be an attempt to placate russia at the expense of fabulous allies, the czech republic and poland. and we're walking away, i would note, from a bipartisan commitmencommitment to national missile defense and the -- we accepted

7:45:31 to 7:45:53( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: this sense of the senate unanimously because we hammered out an agreement that both parties agreed to. senator lieberman and i were the prime workers on this and -- and senator begich and others on the democratic side, along with -- along with a strong contingent of republicans. let me just say this about this

7:45:54 to 7:46:16( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: whole system -- and this is why i'm worried. i hope my colleagues will give thought to it. we have spent approximatel approximately $20 billion developing something that many people believe would never work. that is the ability to intercept in space an incoming icbm missile and hit it bullet to bullet.

7:46:17 to 7:46:38( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: we don't even utilize ex the energy is so great it destroys the target when it is him we've done it consistently. our military experts have said that if north korea were to be able to success missile, they have no doubt -- they believe they could knock it down ande're improving our system as we deploy it.

7:46:39 to 7:46:59( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: we have a number of those missiles deployed and we plan to deploy more. and, yet, this year's budget was a stunning retrenchment in our missile defense system. let me just summarize the things that occurred. even though this

7:47:00 to 7:47:21( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: that contemplated moving forward in europe, is this what we did with regard to -- for quite a number of years we planned to deploy 44 interceptor missiles, most in allah ka and a number in californ we talked about what to do with the iranian provide redunn dent coverage for

7:47:22 to 7:47:43( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: those the east. we agreed that we would seek the agreement of czech republic to put one the what happened in this year's budget that the 44 that was to be deployed in alaska and california have been cut to 30.

7:47:44 to 7:48:07( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: the next technological advance to our missile defense system, the m.k.b., the multikill vehicle, this is the warhead that we develop it, that could take out multiple incoming missiles with one missile. we think that was very capable technology that would be developed.

7:48:08 to 7:48:28( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: that was zeroed out. we had an additional system of smaller, but high-speed -- very high-speed interceptor called the can he nettic energy interceptor, k.e.i., that has been on the drawing board for a number of years an showing a great deal of promise.

7:48:29 to 7:48:50( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: the k.e.i. zeroed out after years of funding. and we had plans and were working on the airborne laser. an amazing technology that our defense department believes will work and we'll test it this year. the airboe laser can knock down missiles, particularly in their ascent phase, which would

7:48:51 to 7:49:12( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: be a airplane. and that missile system after this year will be zeroed out. and the 10 missiles that we intend to impanel in central europe has been

7:49:13 to 7:49:34( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: appears -- at least that's been the president's recommendation and decision that we heard about so i guess i would say this: we believe looking carefully at the numbers and putting in some for $1 billion, would could

7:49:35 to 7:49:57( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: deploy -- fully deploy the system. 44 missiles in the united states and 10 in europe. and we spent over $20 billion to get to this point. so it's just that we would take the chance of being low in our numbers to eliminate any future advancements in the system and i

7:49:58 to 7:50:19( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: think it's -- it's an unwise decision. so i'm conclude not the problem. i can only conclude that the obama administration h that they agree with the naysayers who opposed president

7:50:20 to 7:50:42( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: reagan when he said this could ever be a successful they posed it, opposed it, opposed it. and it looks like, to me a political decision, some sort of judgment decision to cancel this is involved more than a dollar and cents issue. because in the scheme of

7:50:43 to 7:51:06( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: a $500-plus to $1 billion defense budget, $1 billion over several years to complete the system, as planned, is not the kind of budget-breaking numbers that should cause us to change our policy. so senator lieberman and i had offered this amendment -- this sense of the senate. it passed the bill -- senate just a few weeks ago.

7:51:09 to 7:51:30( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: i believe it's the right policy. and i think the administration is trying to do some good things. they think maybe -- i that they are attempting to placate or somehow reach out to russia and gain some strategic advantage from that. although the secretary of

7:51:31 to 7:51:53( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: defense, i understan said it didn't have anything to do with russia on foreign policy, and i'm not sure that the administr that either. but i would say that nato -- the

7:51:54 to 7:52:14( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: czech premier yan fisher said thursday in an associated press article said thursday -- quote -- "president barack obama told him washington had decided to scrap the plan that deeply angered so it seems to me that's a part of it.

7:52:15 to 7:52:36( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: now, let's go to the core of this russian objection. as i've said on the floor -- and i won't go into detail about it again -- russia knows this system poses no threat to their massive arsenal. they know that. this has been a political

7:52:37 to 7:52:58( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: objection, in my view, a foreign policy bluster, and gambit to try to create a problem with the united states and something from us. but they've consistently opposed it. let's note the reuters news article today.

7:52:59 to 7:53:19( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: mr. michael scott in of this, the lead headline in his article is -- quote -- "demise of u.s. shield may embolden russian hawks." may emboalden the russian -- embolden the russian hawks. in other words, this retreat,

7:53:20 to 7:53:40( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: this backing down, may well encourage them to believe if they're more confrontational on other matters, they may gain more than if they're nice to this administration. and he -- his lead paragraph says: "washington hopes that by backing away from an antimissile system in east europe it will

7:53:41 to 7:54:01( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: get russian cope ratio on everything from cuts to everything with north are korean nuclear ambitions. but will moscow keep its side of the that's a good question.

7:54:02 to 7:54:22( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: mr. scott goes on in his perceptive article to say with the shield now on the back burners both sides believe a deal cutting long-range nuclear ars else in can be inked this year and russia has already agreed to allow u.s. military cargoes to transports across their territory to afghanistan."

7:54:23 to 7:54:43( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: that's something we've been asking them for some time and they've tangled it out there and -- and so apparently a valuable, but critical ability to transports cargo may have been gained from this.

7:54:44 to 7:55:08( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: the author goes on to note -- russian diplomacy is largely a zero sum gain that relies on projecting hard power to force gains as in last year's war with georgia over the rebel regions or the gas dispute w that started the year. he goes on to say -- quote --

7:55:09 to 7:55:30( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: "western concept of deals with -- with obama's drive for 21st century global partnerships are not part of its vocabulary." he's talking about russia. the western idea that you cut a deal and both sides benefit from has never been the way the russians think.

7:55:31 to 7:55:52( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: i think he's correct on that. he goes on to say -- quote -- "diplomats here -- and he's in moscow hardliners could read the shield back down as a sign of washington's weaknes" close quote. far from bidding the united states -- far from doing the bidding of the united states

7:55:53 to 7:56:17( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: they may instead press for further gains to shore up russian power in the former soviet block. czech republic, ukraine, georgia, poland, the baltics,

7:56:18 to 7:56:39( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: hilistonia, the author goes on to say that ukraine, georgia and other kremlin foein the ex-u.s. soviet union may be the first to feel the consequences. poland and the czech republic are also nervous. in warsaw, the timing of the u.s. move is particularly

7:56:40 to 7:57:00( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: delicate as it coincides with the 70th invasion of eastern poland. analysts are concerned about ukraine that faces election and the cou reluctantly hosts a large naval

7:57:01 to 7:57:22( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: base. well, i don't know what the geopolitical goals are here. i think it's a mistake to not deployhis system that we committed to deploy. i think we're not going to be able to rely on the good faith of the russians and i think they

7:57:23 to 7:57:47( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: ma inead of being -- leading to further accommodation, it may lead to embodien -- e embolding them to go demands against states legitimate national inte i thank the chair and would

7:57:49 to 7:58:13( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: yield the floor. mrs. feinstein: madam presint? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. feinstein: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted t speak for up to 10 minutes each. the presiding objection. mrs. feinstein: thank you very