(March 27, 2019)
Many U.S. lawmakers are concerned that sharing nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia could eventually lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. (…)
Last month, Democratic House members alleged in a report that top White House aides ignored warnings they could be breaking the law as they worked with former U.S. officials in a group called IP3 International to advance a multibillion-dollar plan to build nuclear reactors in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia.
(Oct 04, 2023)
Amid reports that Saudi Arabia is seeking United States support for its nuclear energy program—whose capacities critics fear could be utilized to develop nuclear weapons—a group of 20 U.S. senators on Wednesday urged President Joe Biden to „seriously consider“ whether such a move is in the national interest as the administration brokers a possible normalization deal between the kingdom and Israel.
“We are here at a historic time … and now it is an historic moment of opportunity,” Blumenthal stated. “It really is a magnificent potential achievement with enduring effect to match the successes of the battlefield with diplomatic successes.
(October 8, 2024)
„We can get you a treaty through the Senate between the United States and Saudi Arabia, a defense agreement like you have in Japan and Australia, if you do it on President Biden‘s watch,“ Graham, who is seen as close to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, told reporters in Jerusalem.
„The next president will have a very difficult time getting 67 votes,“ he said in reference to the two-thirds majority needed in the U.S. Senate for approving a defense treaty.
The Senate will vote on these resolutions when it reconvenes in November. Let me explain why these arms sales must not proceed.
Israel clearly had the right to respond to Hamas’ horrific terrorist attack on October 7th, which killed 1,200 innocent Israelis and took hundreds of hostages. But Prime Minister Netanyahu’s extremist government has not simply waged war against Hamas. It has waged all-out war against the Palestinian people, killing more than 41,000 Palestinians and injuring more than 95,000 – 60 percent of whom are women, children, or elderly people. Netanyahu has bombed hospitals and schools, starved children, destroyed infrastructure and housing stock, and made life unlivable in Gaza. The United States must end its complicity in this atrocity.
Sending more weapons is not only immoral, it is also illegal. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act lay out clear requirements for the use of American weaponry – Israel has egregiously violated those rules.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and a pair of his Senate colleagues on Wednesday formally introduced resolutions aimed at blocking a series of proposed arms sales to the Israeli government as it bombards Gaza and Lebanon, deepening humanitarian crises there and pushing the region to the brink of all-out war.
The six Joint Resolutions of Disapproval, five of which were backed by Sens. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), would together prevent the sale of $20 billion of U.S. weaponry to Israel. The Biden administration approved the massive sale of Joint Direct Attack Munitions, tank ammunition, F-15 fighter jets, and other military equipment last month.
“I am heartbroken and angry about the killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, an American citizen, in the West Bank today, who was reportedly peacefully protesting against illegal settlement activity. The government of Israel must deliver answers immediately and hold the perpetrators of this killing accountable. I will be in close touch with the Biden administration to press the Israeli government for full transparency and accountability. My heart is with Aysenur’s family and loved ones during this difficult time.
“Moreover, Israel must take swift action to put an end to the illegal settler-driven violence that has escalated to a dangerous level in the West Bank. Extremist settler violence in the West Bank, and the associated, ongoing expansion of illegal settlements and outposts, must come to an end—it is important for Israel’s own security and the stability of the entire region.”
During the DNC in Chicago, we made our demand for an arms embargo on Israel clear. Time and time again, we heard politicians — including Sen. Tammy Duckworth who told us back in October that she would continue sending weapons to Israel — posing as advocates for women and reproductive rights while arming Israel. They can’t hide from one undeniable fact: Genocide is not feminist.
Send a letter to the women of the Senate below and tell them: We Need an Arms Embargo on Israel NOW!
(19.03.2024)
It was here, he recalled, inside this hulking red brick school deep in south Brooklyn, where at 16 he was glued to his transistor radio to hear breaking news of the Arab-Israeli War of 1967. It was where he idolized Sandy Koufax, the Jewish pitcher for the Dodgers who refused to play on Yom Kippur, and learned it was cool to be proud of his heritage.
And on Sunday, Mr. Schumer, the New York Democrat, majority leader and highest-ranking Jewish official in the United States, returned to explain how his upbringing in Jewish Brooklyn in the shadow of the Holocaust prompted him to deliver a politically risky speech that brought about a watershed moment in the politics of U.S.-Israeli relations.
(20.02.2024)
Joseph and the former director-general of the national police, Leon Charles, were also found to have “sufficient indications” of involvement in the killing. AyiboPost specified that the document did not clearly identify the masterminds of the assassination, nor their financiers.
(20.02.2024)
A judge in Haiti responsible for investigating the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse has indicted his widow, Martine Moïse, ex-prime minister Claude Joseph and the former chief of Haiti’s National Police, Léon Charles, among others, according to a report obtained Monday.
Others who face charges including murder are Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian-American pastor who visualized himself as Haiti’s next president and said he thought Moïse was only going to be arrested; Joseph Vincent, a Haitian-American and former informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; Dimitri Hérard, presidential security chief; John Joël Joseph, a former Haitian senator; and Windelle Coq, a Haitian judge whom authorities say is a fugitive.
„No more deaths, no more bombs …free Gaza,“ state Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri told the crowd.
„A temporary ceasefire is just the bare minimum of what must happen, and the Greens have been unequivocal in their calls not only for a ceasefire but for a lasting and just peace for Palestine.“
One of the speakers, Independent senator Lidia Thorpe, spoke of how she had been in police protection in recent weeks and had been trapped in her home for five months.
(November 1, 2023)
Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told POLITICO that there’s early, closed-door diplomacy over establishing a peacekeeping force in Gaza, though it was not likely to include American troops.
“There are ongoing conversations regarding the possible composition of an international force,” Van Hollen said, refusing to go into specific detail. “They are very preliminary and fragile.”
Delaware Democrat Chris Coons also said that the Abraham Accords and progress toward normalization were among Hamas’s reasons to attack now.
Graham added that 10 percent of the US Senate is currently in Israel “because we care… I come here because I love Israel. I do not hate Palestinians. I hate Hamas.”
Graham also had stark words of warning for Tehran: “We’re here today to tell Iran, we’re watching you. If this war grows, it’s coming to your backyard. There won’t be two fronts, there will be three.”
(28.09.2023)
There has been talk that former talk show host and current magazine and book publisher Oprah Winfrey might be of interest. Winfrey, though, would have to take more than a year away from her many lucrative enterprises if she did this.
The passionate advocate for liberal priorities who broke gender barriers was the oldest member of Congress. She was 90.
„We want to ask ICC to be alert because what is happening are acts of criminality,“ he said.
Kiambu Senator Karungo Wathangwa asked the President to lock the country and deal with the opposition if that is what it will take to restore peace and order in the country.
„If it takes three, four or five days to lock down this country and deal with these people, let it be,“ he said.
We voted for billions of dollars in military aid for Ukraine and strongly believe we must continue to help the Ukrainian people defend themselves against Russian aggression. But supplying Kyiv with cluster munitions would come at an unsupportable moral and political price. Knowing that these weapons cause indiscriminate terror and mayhem, both of us — like many others in the international community — have worked for years to end their use.
(June 30, 2023)
Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) want President Joe Biden to forgive $50,000 in federal student loans per borrower. They claim that he can do this unilaterally through executive order.
(…)
The $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan proposed by President Biden does not include any student loan forgiveness.
The report was completed in January 2022 but only recently declassified. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon asked the ODNI for the report.
“Congress needs to pass legislation to put guardrails around government purchases, to rein in private companies that collect and sell this data, and keep Americans’ personal information out of the hands of our adversaries,” Wyden said in a statement Monday in response to the report.
(Jun 8, 2023)
(08.06.2023)
Congress voted to repeal the 1991 and 2002 AUMFs in March. Paul’s amendment to that legislation that would have also repealed the 2001 AUMF failed 9-86.
The Republican senator explained the difficulties he’s had with other Republicans in trying to rollback AUMF during a foreign policy conference hosted by The American Conservative on Thursday.
“I have good news and bad news,” Paul told the audience. “The good news is that Congress finally voted to end a war. The bad news is the war they voted to end had already been over for about 15 years.”
(09.06.2023)
At one event, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) released a letter to Biden on behalf of himself and nine Democratic senators “to urgently request that you prepare to exercise your authority under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.” He was joined in this by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), among others.
Obviously, these are not Nike-wearing cultists, but that only makes their actions all the more inexplicable. These are rational leaders whose desire to nullify their own existence would have seemed entirely implausible to the Framers.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) led a letter co-signed by 10 other senators that asked the president to use the Civil War-era amendment, which states “the validity of the public debt of the United States . . . shall not be questioned,” to continue issuing debt without congressional approval.
(July 26, 2022)
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is demanding answers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after the agency told a nonprofit group that it never conducted a mandated data mining analysis on reported adverse effects that followed the administration of COVID-19 vaccine doses.
The CDC is tasked with performing a proportional reporting ratio, or PRR, data mining analysis on a weekly basis to determine whether the amount of reported „adverse events“ following the administration of COVID-19 vaccine doses in the public Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, database is proportional to reported adverse events linked to the administration of other vaccines.
But the CDC said in a June 16 letter to Children‘s Health Defense, a nonprofit group led by anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., that „no PRRs were conducted by the CDC.“ The CDC‘s letter, which was in response to an FOIA request submitted by the group, added that „data mining is outside of th[e] agency‘s purview“.
(video)
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4)- Senator Mike Lee continued to oppose President Biden’s vaccine mandate on the Senate floor. For the 13th straight day, Lee spoke out against any measure that provided funding for the vaccine mandate.
– Deseret News quorumcall.org
Zur Übergabe hat der Oberkommandierende des US-Südkommandos (Southcom), Craig S. Faller, erneut Kolumbien besucht. Dieser dritte Besuch innerhalb kurzer Zeit gibt Anlass zur Sorge, besonders im Hinblick auf die Interventionsversuche der USA im Nachbarland Venezuela.
(20.07.2021)
The measure would also sunset 180 days after enactment all existing AUMFs, including the 2001 AUMF passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks and upon which every consecutive administration has leaned to justify military actions in regions around the world.
Instead of the current default approval of arms sales barring a passage of a resolution of disapproval by veto-proof majorities of the House and Senate, the proposal directs Congress to proactively approve certain sales topping $14 million including those of air to ground munitions.
Ein Bericht des französischen Senats, über den bei ouest-france berichtet wird, beschäftigt sich mit der Zukunft von Drohnenkriegen:
This is Part 8 of Consortium News’ multi-part series on the 50th Anniversary of the late Sen. Mike Gravel obtaining the Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg and the consequences Gravel faced for revealing the top secret documents in Congress, just hours before the Supreme Court decided the case on June 30, 1971, a half century ago today.
Echoing recent demands from human rights advocates and former detainees, two dozens members of the U.S. Senate Democratic Caucus on Friday pressed President Joe Biden to finally close the Guantánamo Bay offshore military prison, where 40 men are still being held despite global outrage over the facility and its long record of torture.
Newly minted Vice President Kamala Harris swore in Georgia Sens. Jon Ossoff (D) and Raphael Warnock (D), who defeated Sens. David Perdue (R.) and Kelly Loeffler (R.) in Georgia‘s runoff elections on Jan. 5.
Harris also swore in her successor as California senator, former California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who will hold the seat through the scheduled end of Harris’s term in 2022.
Ohio Democrat Senator Sherrod Brown said Tuesday that he would push for a Senate vote on $2,000 stimulus checks by joining Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders‘s filibuster on the Senate floor.
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney on Sunday called for the country to „get behind“ President-elect Joe Biden and said he has seen no evidence of widespread voter fraud, even as President Donald Trump has pushed for election-related lawsuits and refused to concede the election.
Etwa 20 Senatorinnen und Senatoren hatten Klage eingereicht, da sie der Ansicht waren, der Präsident habe das Recht des Kongresses auf politische Kontrolle verletzt. Duque hätte beim Senat die verfassungsmäßig vorgeschriebene Anhörung beantragen müssen, die für den Einsatz ausländischer Truppen in Kolumbien erforderlich ist.
Neben Fortschritten plant der Senat auch einige Rückschritte. Nicht nur der skandalträchtige Verfassungsschutz des Landes soll komplett von Transparenzpflichten befreit sein, sondern künftig unter anderem auch der Rechnungshof von Berlin, Universitätskliniken, Hochschulen, Schulen, Schulbehörden und Teile der Steuerverwaltung. Für sie gibt es im bisherigen Informationsfreiheitsgesetz keinerlei Auskunftsbeschränkungen – das Transparenzgesetz würde also hinter den Status Quo zurückfallen.
In combat and in Congress, Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth has seen a lot of firsts.
She was the first female soldier to lose both her legs in the Iraq War. She was the first Thai American woman elected to Congress. And she was the first U.S. senator to give birth while in office.
Now she may become the first Asian American woman nominated to be vice president for a major party in the United States.
(31.03.2020)
Holmes traded out two stocks a week later, on Jan. 29, then on Feb. 27 made two purchases that could prove advantageous in the weeks ahead: Holmes purchased between $15,001 and $50,000 of stock in each of two more companies, the pharmaceutical company Gilead, Inc. — which makes remdesivir, a drug that is currently being tested to treat coronavirus — and wipe manufacturer Clorox.
Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger said in a statement that he was grateful for changes Bennet had made to the paper’s opinion pages, including broadening the range of voices.
The furor began after ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization, reported that Burr unloaded the stock around mid-February, about a week before the market started to plunge because of coronavirus concerns.
„As much as I respect you, Dr. Fauci, I don‘t think you‘re the end all. I don‘t think you‘re the one person that gets to make a decision,“ Paul said. „We can listen to your advice, but there are people on the other side saying there‘s not going to be a surge, that we can safely reopen the economy, and the facts will bear this out.“
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases expert, defended his guidance to the federal government over how to respond to the Covid-19 outbreak, telling Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) that „I have never made myself out to be the ‚end-all'“ and warning against „cavalier“ thinking that children could be immune to the disease‘s effects.
Dr. Scott Jensen says the American Medical Association is now “encouraging” doctors to overcount coronavirus deaths across the country.
Jensen received a 7-page document that showed him how to fill out a death certificate as a “COVID-19 diagnosis” even when there isn’t a lab test confirming the diagnosis.
Schumer, D-N.Y., called for the investigations on MSNBC Saturday after Burr, R-N.C., Feinstein, D-Calif., as well as Sens. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., were hit with allegations of selling large amounts of stocks before the coronavirus crisis rocked Wall Street.
“The answer, in one word, is yes. There should be and there will be,” Schumer said on MSNBC. “I don’t own any stocks. I think it’s a very bad idea for senators to own stocks.”
(30.03.2020)
Financial disclosure statements indicated that Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C.; Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.; Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga.; and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; their spouses or advisers sold large chunks of stock around the time lawmakers received behind-the-scenes briefings about the severity of the coronavirus, which has claimed more than 3,600 lives in the USA.
A group of Senate Democrats want a federal watchdog to investigate the decision to change an online description of the country‘s Strategic National Stockpile following a press briefing with White House adviser Jared Kushner.
„We applaud the many senators who refuse to cave to efforts to jam a weak surveillance bill through Congress without debate and amendments,” said American Civil Liberties Union senior legislative counsel Neema Singh Guliani in a statement. “The inadequate House bill must be amended to further reform the intelligence courts, limit large-scale collection of Americans’ information, and ensure the government complies with its constitutional obligations.“
Dem von Uruguays Präsident Tabaré Vázquez unehrenhaft entlassenen früheren Chef der Streitkräfte, Guido Manini Ríos, der am 1.März sein Amt als Senator antreten wird, soll die Immunität entzogen werden.
Masked military policemen Wednesday shot the Brazilian Socialist Party‘s Senator Cid Gomes during a police protest in Sobral city, state of Ceara, Brazil.
The U.S. Senate advanced legislation on Wednesday intended to limit President Donald Trump’s ability to wage war against Iran, paving the way for a final vote as eight Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the war powers resolution.
On January 9, 2020, the House passed their war powers resolution and this week it is the Senate’s turn. The vote will happen soon. Contact your Senators now and tell them to vote for Sen. Kaine’s war powers resolution! Ensure that trump can not take any further military actions against Iran without congressional approval.
Fill out the form below to send an email to your senators — overseas supporters can scroll down to sign the petition below.
(17.01.2019)
Kudos to Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Todd C. Young (R-Ind.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) for their integrity in standing up for the resolution put forward by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) that joins the House to remind the administration that the Constitution gave Congress the right to declare war.
“It should be voted on when everybody’s in the chamber,” he said, noting Tuesday’s presidential debate. “A, I want to pass it. But B, it is the kind of a vote that should not happen with people absent.”
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Tuesday’s debate will include Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).