Posted on 09/09/2001 5:43:07 AM PDT by veronica
Powell: Israel's use of US arms not illegal
By Janine Zacharia
WASHINGTON (September 9) - Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a letter sent last month to Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan), said Israel's use of American-made weapons in targeted killings of Palestinian militants does not constitute a violation of American law.
While State Department spokesmen have been saying so for weeks, it was the first time a senior administration official made such an unequivocal statement on the issue.
Powell, in a letter dated August 17, was responding to a letter sent by Conyers to President George W. Bush in June in which Conyers expressed concern that Israel's use of American-made weaponry in targeted killings was a violation of provisions of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA).
Responding on behalf of Bush, Powell wrote: "Under the AECA, we are required before supplying defense articles to obtain the recipient's agreement that those defense articles will be used only for specified purposes, including internal security and legitimate self-defense. Under section 3c, a report must be submitted to Congress if a substantial violation of such an agreement may have occurred."
Powell then added: "Based on our assessment of the totality of the underlying facts and circumstances, we believe that a report under section 3c of the AECA is not required." He did say, however, that the US "has been monitoring Israeli actions carefully and will continue to do so."
US officials have told The Jerusalem Post that they have expressed concerns privately to their Israeli counterparts about the possibility that an attack using American-made weaponry could go severely awry and cause massive civilian casualties to the Palestinian side. Such an error could force the US to take some type of counter-measures against Israel, the officials have said.
But Powell's statement was the clearest so far from the Bush administration that the US does not believe Israel is in violation of American law in its use of American weaponry. American-Arab organizations have urged the US to halt weapons sales to Israel because of the killings.
Now let's get Bush not to meet with terrorists and we are making some progress.
Your rhetoric is faulty
like your spelling.
Your hatred of Israel is poison in your soul.
You shall not inherit ...
While I have no indication of calling you any names, the fact is that there are NO Israeli members of Congress. Consequently, he could not have gotten a wake up call from any of them.
Perhaps, someday, when you have completely recovered from whatever illness is causing these delusions you have about our Congress, you can post again.
Then perhaps you can name these so-called "Israeli" members of Congress?
Oh you know....Mitch McConnell, Jesse Helms, almost everyone else....the "Jewish Lobby." And Condie Rice, George Will in the press...Jerry Fallwell, Cal Thomas, Joe Farah...and on and on.
Do not be so quick to run up the anti-semetic flag, it gets tiresome.
usually espouse something so totally devoid of facts concerning Israel or Israel's supporters that it boggles the imagination?
All I say is stop waving the anti-semite flag at every instance that someone disagrees and or states the obvious of reality.
Perhaps you should up your medication. Them perhaps you would make some sense.
At least to your credit, you did understand the message.
Your message was not subtle. I got it loud and clear.
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