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senator iran paul was one of the main sponsors of revolution to block arms sales to saudi arabia. he and other senators debatedor that measure on the senate floor and this is just under an hour. >> pursuant to the arms export control act of 1976, i moved to discharge the foreign relations committee from further consideration of sj resolution 42 relating to the disapproval of the proposed foreign military sales of the government of saudm arabia.onents o the time is 12:30 p.m. and it will be divided proponents and opponents on the mode motion to discharge. >> mr. president, today is an extraordinary day. today is an auspicious day for we will be discussing issues of war and peace.s been a believe it or not, we rarely discuss such important issues. we been at war for 15 years, there's been a handful of debates, most of them interact,b most of them only forced under

duress and most of them would have been avoided if the leadership of both parties can avoid them. but today they cannot avoid this debate because this is what's called a privileged motion. today we will discuss the involvement of the united states in the middle east and we will also discuss whether we should engage in a new war in yemen. today we will discuss and arms sales to saudi arabia that burned the lives of millions of yemenis but we will discuss something more important than an arm sale.e we will discuss whether we should be actively involved, should the united states be actively involved with refueling the saudi planes with ticking targets, with advisors on the ground, should we be at war with yemen? if you remember your constitution, it says no president has that authority. only to repel imminent attack but no president alone has the unilateral authority to take us

to war. yet, here we are on the verge of war. what will forming for yemen? yen 17 million folks in yemen live on the brink of starvation.on i think to myself, is there ever anything important that can happen in washington, is there anything i can do to save some of the millions of children that are dying in yemen? this is it. this is this debate today. it is in about an arm sale, it's about children like ali who di died, why are they dying because the soviets have blockaded the ports. o 90% of yemen food, from the ocean and they can get no food and they are starving and dying of cholera because of poor. think of family being related to the weather and sometimes it is but more often than not, famine is related to man, is man-made and the most common cause is war. how bad is it in yemen?

17 million people live on the edge of starvation. some, like ali, have already died. what are people saying about its but they say that humanitarian crisis in yemen maybe worse than in syria. let me repeat that because nobody in america is listening to this. everybody is paying attention to some silly show trials and silly stuff going on in committees. no one is talking about this at all. they say it is worse than syria, millions of people have fled to syria, hundreds of thousands have died, and people are now predicting yemen be worse. one refugee group said this: the impending famine in yemen may reach biblical questions. think about that. it's astounding what's going on there and it's been done without your permission but with your weapons. today i will force a vote with

senator murphy's help.en he's been a prime mover in this, to tell you the truth, and done a great job bringing people together. we will force this vote for these children in yemen because we have a chance today to stop the carnage.th we haven't chance to tell saudi arabia the had enough. the question is should we give money or arms to saudi arabia at all? what has saudi arabia done over the last 30 years patrick had been the number one exporter of jihadist philosophy. the number one exporter of let's hate americ. let's hate the judeo-christian tradition. it's coming from saudi arabia. the teacher in the school and in our country they teach it in the schools in indonesia, they corrupt the religion of islam throughout the world and were going to give them weapons? i think it's a huge mistake. o

if you say i doubt that, there's no way they are that bad, don't they share with us intelligence? don't they help us in the war on terror? yes, every time they help us, they held her is twofold worse. for example, direct from hillary clinton when she's writing honestly and not talking to the public. she sent an e-mail to john after and this is one that was leaked through wikileaks: hillary clinton writing to john podesta. she says we must put pressure on saudi arabia and cutter because they're supplying logistical and financial financial support to iso. isis, the group were fighting again in the middle east, saudi arabia is applying them according to hillary clinton not indirectly but directly. who in their right mind would give money or share our technology with a country that's been supporting isis? would do that?

would think that's a good idea? yet, they'll come here and say that it's about iran and we had to combat iran everywhere. guess what? this may make the situation with iran worse. what do you think iran thanks that saudi arabia gets weapons? they'll think if the saudi's are getting more than we should get more. what do you think israel thanks perspective the saudi is get more than we should get more. ever heard of an arms race? that's what this is. we are fueling an arms race in the middle east. every side once more. you say we have to do this, we have to combat iran. do you know how much of the golt she comes and all the allies that are bombing the hell out of yemen, do you know how their military spending compares to iran? eight-one. all of the money is in the golf she comes. all of the weapons and all of the power are in the golf she comes. they spend more weapons than a random principle both on a randomization this week because

they don't want ballistic missiles in iran. i don't either. the best way to do that is to put pressure on saudi arabia. how do you do that maybe we wouldn't sell them arms. maybe we would hold the sale of arms until they come to the table and we get a ballistic agreement with the iran. it is a naïve and foolish notion to think that it iran will give up the ballistic weapons. they are never giving up on theu ballistic weapons unless saudi arabia did the same thing. people don't talk about this but saudi arabia has ballistic missiles, they've got chinese missiles,. [inaudible] have dozens of these. due to weather pointed? to run and tel aviv. saudi arabia is no friend of israel. there missiles are printed at tel aviv israel there also printed at toronto.n they are not thought to be nuclear tips, they haven't been

armed with nuclear missiles but everyone who is been in the arms community acknowledges that t these missiles could carry a nuclear payload if they were offered. they have the ability to do it. should we send arms to saudi arabia? here's another quote from bob graham. this is a paraphrase what he says there is an abundance of evidence that the saudis were complicit in 911. have we forgotten that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from saudi arabia? have we forgotten the missing 28 pages that they kept from the american public for over a decade? when you read those missing 28 pages that have now been released, they tend to indicate saudi arabia? they tend to indicate the attackers in particular he and san diego were befriended by a government agent for saudicates arabia. there is an abundance of information that implicates saudi arabia and 911. in fact, this very congress

voted, less than a year ago, we voted unanimously or virtually sleep unanimously to let american citizens, the victims of 911, their families, we voted to let them in the sioux saudi arabia. this is an extraordinary thing. we must never let people sue governments, particularlypl foreign governments but we voted nearly unanimously why bismarck because people have symphonies still for the 911 victims and their families and because people obviously believe there is some information that may implicate saudi arabia. how much could they have changed? it's only a year or two ago that hillary clinton was writing that in the e-mail saying the saudis are giving financial and logistical support to iso. who in their right mind would sell arms to saudi arabia and under those circumstances?

so, if it doesn't persuade you that the saudis are supporting n isis and terrorism, they may have been part of 911, perhaps, we should look not only at the humanitarian disaster in an yemen but their goal basically is famine to bring them to submission perhaps we should look at saudi arabia as a country, perhaps we should look at the human rights record of saudi arabia. i will give you a couple of instances of what it's like to live in saudi arabia. there was a young girl, who is 19 years old, they haven't named her because her story is so dramatic.. she was 19 years old, they call her the girl of teeth. she was 19 years old and she waa raped by seven men the men were punished.le they had a couple years in prison but you know what happened they arrested theour f victim because in saudi arabia

it's your fault if you're raped. publ like your imprison, and publicly wept. she was given six months in prison and 200 lashes was her sentence. ultimately, it did not come to w for, do you know why marked partly because the us stood up and said it was wrong, partly because for us behind the scenes said maybe we won't sell you weapons if you behave like a bunch of barbarians. i'll tell you another story. ali, he's a shiite, middle east is somewhat divided betweennt sunni and shiite so he's a shiite and about 10% of the public in saudi arabia and they are the minority and they are treated like dirt. his uncle was a chic and by allw accounts was one who called for peaceful elections was an advocate of violence, was never

known or seem to have a weapon both executed by the saudis for leading protests. executed for standing up in front of people and saying we should have elections and we should not have this authoritarian government that lords it over us and does not allow us to practice our religion in public. his uncle was beheaded, ali was 17 at the time and it was the s beginning of the arab spring and ali got excited and motivated and if you see the pictures of them, it's heartbreaking. you see pictures of him in western clothing, he liked poetry and music, he was by all means the kind of people that we wish would come to leadership in saudi arabia but at 17 he went to a rally and he chose to be part of the arab spring to say we don't want authoritarianism and we don't want despots, we

don't want kings and all their predatory lording it over us. we want elections and for that he was arrested and put on death row. death row, in saudi arabia, pain saudi arabia includes beheading and crucifixion. that will be his sentence beheaded and crucifixion. ame this is the regime that you're being asked to send weapons to. people say they're buying them, the technology is ours. it's american technology that was developed for the defense of this country and the companies would never have the technology had we not paid them to have it. the american taxpayer has a right to that technology and well, every other good in the marketplace says the government does not have rights tell you who it solid two, arms are different because they're all developed by the us taxpayer. i do believe there should be

rules but gets our arms. i don't think we should sell them to saudi arabia if they might wind up in the hands of isis. i don't think we should sell them to saudi arabia if they punish people for protests, if they punish people for speaking out by beheading them and crucifying them. them i'm not for selling them a rifle, much less precision guided missiles. now, some will say that we give them more accurate missiles don't kill us civilians.as that presumes that they're not targeting civilians. you think it was a mistake, you think they accidentally bombed a funeral procession?e you think their intelligence is so bad they didn't know the funeral procession? they killed 125 people at a funeral. they wounded 500. do we wonder about why we have so much terrorism was for some, yes, they may be hate us inherently but some of it is

blowback to policy. you think of the people who died or the people who survived were the relatives of those who died in that funeral procession, will they forget it? they will remember it a hundred years from now. the problem we face terrorism goes on and on and on, as long as we keep supporting desperate treat their people like crap, sentenced them to beheading and crucifixion, who are starting their neighboring country which is one of the poorest nations on the planet earth. we are not getting better, we are not getting closer to peace by supporting the saudis. it's a huge mistake. with the girl of the teeth, rape victim, sentenced to prison and lashes, 70 lashes. ali, still on death row, sentenced to beheaded and crucifixion. race, what is he? i don't know about him but he's an outspoken blogger.

someone who writes his opinion and may have opinions that mayh not be orthodox. for that, the saudis arrested him and he's in jail for ten years and he's sentenced to 1000 lashes.re i don't thank you can survive 1000 lashes, so the saudis and their great humanity are dividing his treatment into ten doses. he's already had 100 publicly applied and he has 900 more to go. shouldn't we think a little bit about supplying arms to this country? it's a human right aspects if it's not enough. we should think about the region. there is a problem in the middle east, there is conflict. some of it goes very deep and those who live in the middle east reminder the battle in 680 a.d. when the grandson of

mohammed and a kaylee came together and had a battle. they still remember and they're still unhappy about a battle from 680. they have long memories. i'm reminded of what one afghan told a reporter or soldier recently, you have all the watches? but we have all the time. they lived there and have for centuries. they will be there when we are gone. they have to fix their own problems. we can occasionally say will help some people destroy an evil empire or an evil group like isis, yes, but the people fighting in the people on the be ground or the people who live there and it can't be foreigners, can be people who they consider to be pagans. it won't work. we are foolish if we don't look at the repercussions of what it means to sell arms to saudi arabia. how will iran react work i was a

senator says we don't care how t iran reacts that we don't care what they think. by golly, we ought to for pulsations on them.s doesn't that mean that we careai enough to modulate and change their behavior? the whole idea of sanctions means we care about what i iran things. doesn't mean we agree with it or condone it and it doesn't mean that we say he iran his right but certainly, it means we care what they think. what you think iran means about supplying arms to saudi arabia they think we need more. if you add up saudi arms alone are the third biggest in the world, now. it's us, is because the next time combined and then it'ssa china and then it's saudi arabia.se saudi arabia has these other testbeds and allies of ours andv theirs about five-six of them, altogether they have eight times more weapons than he iran. were complaining, justifiably so, because we worry about the mischief of iran in the middlehe

east but were complaining about that we want them to change their behavior. what do you think is the prime reason they create weapons and their creating the ballistic missiles perspective some of it is because they fear our invasion, like the rack, but a great deal of iran develops weapons as their fear of saudi arabia. when you look back in iraq and the weapons of destruction that never existed and it may be a theory but it has some evidence is saddam hussein pretended valiantly that he had weapons of mass destruction, not to deterer us, but to deter you iran. here is saddam hussein sending all the smoke signals up that hg has weapons of mass destruction because he wants to keep you iran at bay. we think everything is about usl that we never acknowledge that maybe some of it is about the regional politics.

when we give weapons or sell weapons to saudi arabia that will be for every action and reaction. there will be significantly more pressure for iran to come forward and have more weapons. what does it do for our ally, israel? there's been at least a few reports that say israel believes that every time we give a dollar to saudi arabia they need to respond to a dollar and a half. there is a quote from one of their government ministers on the seine he worries about their qualitative edge. i have a quote here from a colleague of mine, friend of mine, was a rabbi and a friend of the constitution, rabbi nate writes while i understand the president's intentions we mustio proceed with great caution. due to the challenges and the history of the region. at this time, i don't see the benefit of the arms deal for the united states or israel. defe believes with every fiber of his being that israel should be t

defended, he's worried that by giving weapons to saudi arabia it detracts from the qualitative edge that israel currently has.. imagine what will happen if the government of saudi arabia was overthrown? they have billions and billions of dollars of weapons, many ofth these weapons are the most sophisticated weapons we have. k is there chance they could be overthrown? i don't know, they behead theirr citizens and crucify them. you think anybody who lives in saudi arabia might have some pent-up anger for the regime? william were both force once said of slavery, he said havingt heard all this, you can look the other way but you can never say that you didn't know. i love that statement. so many people at the time of slavery looked away.

they just said that's something we do, part of our time, part of our age and so many people knewe the order of slavery, so many people knew the horror of what was happening to a people and they looked away. i think having heard of the impending famine in yemen, having seen ali and having heard of the impending famine you can choose to look away. many in this body will today choose to look away and they will say, you know what? saudi arabia gives us some benefits sometime and we hate you iran more so let's just give weapons saudi arabia but they will be looking away from the human rights tragedy that is central to saudi arabia's whole being. they will be looking away from the fact that saudi arabia was supporting isis in the syrian-civil war. they will be looking away that the fact that the saudi blockade is starting your many children.

you know what? i choose not to look away and today i stand up for the thousands of civilians who are being killed in yemen. today i stand up for the millions of voiceless children in yemen who will be killed by the saudi blockade. today i stand up for saying we, the united states, should no longer be fueling the arms race in the middle east. it's come to no good, the wars and the rage and anger are thousands of years old and we will never get to the bottom of it. we should defend ourselves, at all cost, we should be very careful who was admitted into the country and we should not get involved in every civil war and every misbegotten part of the payments. it is my hope and prayer that enough americans will wake up and say we are tired of war.

we are tire of funding every war in the globe and we are tired of sacrificing our young in every civil war. today, this would be a bipartisan vote, there will be a large contingency from the light other side of the aisle and the light from the site. but this is important. this is a rare day in senate history where we actually have the chance to stop and evil. we would stop this evil by sending a loud message to the president and a loud message to saudi arabia that we are not going to blindly support the arms race, we are not going to be blind to our human rights transgressions and we are not going to be blindly give you weapons in the face of beheading your citizens and find them. so, today, i take a stand for those who do not have a voice and i hope the senate will think long and hard and will voteal

against this arms sale to saudi arabia. >> is the president. >> that the democratic leaders back let me say at the outset that i support the position of the senator from kentucky and i believe what he has said about the situation between the united states and saudi arabia is neede to be heard. people across the united states and around the world to be aware of the fact that we are witnessing for famines across this world and one of them is in yemen. three others on the continent of africa. this is a famine that is created not by drought, not by natural saud by a war that has been created and one that has been pushed, largely by the saudi's, at theat expense of the people, innocent people who live in that country of yemen. >> what the senator of kentucky is calling on all of us to do is

what role will the united states play in the aggressive activity of saudi arabia? should we be more vigilant? k that what we are selling them is being used in ways that are inconsistent with the values of the united states of america. we know the record of the finer saudi monarchy and the senator of kentucky has spoke on this quite eloquently. we know what they've done to their own people and the women who live in their country and those who seek to have the basic freedoms which we take for granted in america. we also know that when it comes to saudi activity of promoting their version, the most extreme version of islam, they have been guilty of propagating communism that has led to extreme forms of the muslim faith in some places in the world. those are realities. we know the reality of 911 when we trace the origin of those who came and killed a 3000 innocent americans, too many roads lead back to saudi arabia.

why can't we be more open and honest in our relationship witht this country. i think that senator of kentucky has told us this morning, the amendment offered shortly by him and by senator murphy is onedd that calls on the senate to take an honest look at saudi arabiao today and the relationship withr the united states and may i add one other element on a personalo basis? it is so rare, on the floor ofam the united states senate, to see what we've just seen this morning. a proposal for an amendment to be debated, and amendedca, amendment to be voted on on the floor of the senate. a i can count on one hand how many times that has happened this year in the united states senate. what used to be the most deliberative body in america and a great debating society has turned into a place of rubberstamps and unanimous consent. i'm glad, win or lose, in our effort here on this amendment that the senators bringing to support the issue to the floor