[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 177 (Wednesday, November 6, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6431-S6432]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

  Mr. President, let me move to the al-Baghdadi killing.
  We know that on October 27, just weeks after the U.S. withdrawal, the 
President announced that U.S. Special Forces, those brave fighters who 
are the best in the world, with support from the U.S. intelligence 
forces, conducted a raid and confirmed the death of ISIS leader al-
Baghdadi.
  The President's failure to credit our Kurdish allies, who provided 
critical intelligence that led to a successful U.S. operation, is 
further evidence of his total abandonment of the Kurds and the lack of 
appreciation for the critical role the Kurds have played in promoting 
U.S. interests in Syria.
  Let us also not forget that the President credited Russia's 
cooperation in opening Russian-controlled airspace to U.S. aircraft 
conducting the raid. He credited them before--before--he credited the 
U.S. Special Forces who laid down their lives for the mission. I think 
he could have at least, at a minimum, switched the order there, and he 
should also have credited the Kurds, as I have stated.
  While al-Baghdadi's death is certainly a major victory for our 
counterterrorism efforts, the fight against ISIS is far from over. I am 
deeply troubled--and I know a lot of Members of the Senate in both 
parties are deeply troubled--by the President's and, frankly, some of 
my colleagues' assertions that our withdrawal from Syria was justified.
  The U.S. Defense Department estimates that 10,000 to 15,000 ISIS 
fighters are working to reconstitute themselves as a major terrorist 
threat after U.S. withdrawal from Syria.
  Let us be clear. Killing al-Baghdadi is not the end of ISIS and 
certainly not the end of the U.S. commitment to eliminating ISIS.
  The decision-making process leading up to U.S. withdrawal carried the 
hallmarks of chaos and recklessness that are so indicative of how this 
administration operates when it comes to these issues. Two weeks ago, 
the U.S. Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, Jim 
Jeffrey, testified that he was neither consulted nor made aware of the 
President's intent to green-light Turkey's planned offensive but was, 
rather, briefed afterward.
  Special Envoy Jeffrey has decades of experience in the region, and 
the lack of consultation ahead of this major foreign policy decision 
shows the lack of deference this administration gives to seasoned 
career national security officials. Weeks after the withdrawal, 
Secretary of Defense Esper; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 
Milley; Special Envoy Jeffrey; the CENTCOM commander, General McKenzie; 
and the intel community briefed the Senate regarding the events of the 
last several weeks. It is unacceptable that it took over 3 weeks for 
Congress to receive a briefing on such a critical change in U.S. 
foreign policy.
  I will speak for myself, but I left that briefing with genuine 
concern. There is still, in my judgment, no definitive consensus 
strategy--weeks after withdrawal--to prevent the resurgence of ISIS and 
ensure the promotion of U.S. national security interests in the region.
  This is why Congress must reclaim its authority to conduct oversight 
over this administration's unilateral policymaking, which only makes 
America less safe. The administration's failure to consult with 
Congress on its plans in Syria, its support for Saudi Arabia's campaign 
in Yemen, and its incendiary actions toward Iran over the last year 
alone--all of that raises the need for Congress to debate and to vote 
on an updated authorization for the use of military force, and I will 
say authorizations, plural. We likely need more than one.
  If the President is truly serious about ending U.S. involvement in 
``endless wars,'' he should work with the Congress to repeal the 2001 
AUMF, which is out of date, and pass an updated authorization that 
addresses the threats we face today. We must not only ensure that 
Congress asserts its constitutionally enabled warmaking authority but 
also that we thoroughly consider the consequences before sending brave 
men and women into harm's way.
  The President's plan to secure oilfields in northeastern Syria is 
misguided and obtuse. Experts agree that many of these oilfields are 
already under Kurdish control, and the Kurds have not asked for U.S. 
support in protecting them. Leaving behind a ``small'' U.S. force would 
likely be an ineffective and insufficient gesture after our radical 
betrayal of Kurdish allies.
  This administration must formulate a coherent strategy for a path 
forward in Syria that goes beyond oilfields and encompasses civilian 
protection, humanitarian support, and the prevention of the resurgence 
of ISIS.
  Looking ahead, the U.S. goals must focus on three elements: No. 1, 
preventing the resurgence of ISIS in Iraq and Syria; No. 2, holding 
Turkey accountable for its war crimes and human rights violations 
against the Kurds; and No. 3, accomplishing both by keeping the 64-
nation Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS intact.
  Our allies are the keys to any hope of success here. However, working 
with allies and coalition partners is exceedingly more difficult due to 
the President's reckless actions of late and his constant denigration 
of U.S. allies.

[[Page S6432]]

  Ambassador Jeffrey and former Special Envoy Brett McGurk's efforts to 
build and maintain the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS are the primary 
reason we were able to convene allies, build and leverage relationships 
on the ground, and mobilize resources to reclaim territory from ISIS 
through Iraq and Syria.
  Finally, I reiterate my call on the majority leader to allow for a 
debate and a vote on an updated authorization for the use of military 
force--and I would say that again, plural--for Iraq and also for 
Afghanistan. I also call upon the administration to present a clear 
path forward for U.S. engagement with Syria and Iran.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
an article from the New York Times International, dated October 13, 
2019.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the New York Times, Oct. 13, 2019]

       12 Hours. 4 Syrian Hospitals Bombed. One Culprit: Russia.

                 (By Evan Hill and Christiaan Triebert)

       The Russian Air Force has repeatedly bombed hospitals in 
     Syria in order to crush the last pockets of resistance to 
     President Bashar al-Assad, according to an investigation by 
     The New York Times.
       An analysis of previously unpublished Russian Air Force 
     radio recordings, plane spotter logs and witness accounts 
     allowed The Times to trace bombings of four hospitals in just 
     12 hours in May and tie Russian pilots to each one.
       The 12-hour period beginning on May 5 represents a small 
     slice of the air war in Syria, but it is a microcosm of 
     Russia's four-year military intervention in Syria's civil 
     war. A new front in the conflict opened this week, when 
     Turkish forces crossed the border as part of a campaign 
     against a Kurdish-led militia.
       Russia has long been accused of carrying out systematic 
     attacks against hospitals and clinics in rebel-held areas as 
     part of a strategy to help Mr. Assad secure victory in the 
     eight-year-old war.
       Physicians for Human Rights, an advocacy group that tracks 
     attacks on medical workers in Syria, has documented at least 
     583 such attacks since 2011, 266 of them since Russia 
     intervened in September 2015. At least 916 medical workers 
     have been killed since 2011.
       The Times assembled a large body of evidence to analyze the 
     hospital bombings on May 5 and 6.
       Social media posts from Syria, interviews with witnesses, 
     and records from charities that supported the four hospitals 
     provided the approximate time of each strike. The Times 
     obtained logs kept by flight spotters on the ground who warn 
     civilians about incoming airstrikes and crosschecked the time 
     of each strike to confirm that Russian warplanes were 
     overhead. We then listened to and deciphered thousands of 
     Russian Air Force radio transmissions, which recorded months' 
     worth of pilot activities in the skies above northwestern 
     Syria. The recordings were provided to The Times by a network 
     of observers who insisted on anonymity for their safety.
       The spotter logs from May 5 and 6 put Russian pilots above 
     each hospital at the time they were struck, and the Air Force 
     audio recordings from that day feature Russian pilots 
     confirming each bombing. Videos obtained from witnesses and 
     verified by The Times confirmed three of the strikes.
       Recklessly or intentionally bombing hospitals is a war 
     crime, but proving culpability amid a complex civil war is 
     extremely difficult, and until now, Syrian medical workers 
     and human rights groups lacked proof.
       Russia's position as a permanent member of the United 
     Nations Security Council has shielded it from scrutiny and 
     made United Nations agencies reluctant to accuse the Russian 
     Air Force of responsibility.
       ``The attacks on health in Syria, as well as the 
     indiscriminate bombing of civilian facilities, are definitely 
     war crimes, and they should be prosecuted at the level of the 
     International Criminal Court in The Hague,'' said Susannah 
     Sirkin, director of policy at Physicians for Human Rights. 
     But Russia and China ``shamefully'' vetoed a Security Council 
     resolution that would have referred those and other crimes in 
     Syria to the court, she said.
       The Russian government did not directly respond to 
     questions about the four hospital bombings. Instead, a 
     Foreign Ministry spokesman pointed to past statements saying 
     that the Russian Air Force carries out precision strikes only 
     on ``accurately researched targets.''
       The United Nations secretary general, Antonio Guterres, 
     opened an investigation into the hospital bombings in August. 
     The investigation, still going on, is meant in part to 
     determine why hospitals that voluntarily added their 
     locations to a United Nations-sponsored deconfliction list, 
     which was provided to Russia and other combatants to prevent 
     them from being attacked, nevertheless came under attack.
       Syrian health care workers said they believed that the 
     United Nations list actually became a target menu for the 
     Russian and Syrian air forces.
       Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the secretary general, 
     said in September that the investigation--an internal board 
     of inquiry--would not produce a public report or identify 
     ``legal responsibility.'' Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian 
     permanent representative to the United Nations, cast doubt on 
     the process shortly after it was announced, saying he hoped 
     the inquiry would not investigate perpetrators but rather 
     what he said was the United Nations' use of false information 
     in its deconfliction process.
       From April 29 to mid-September, as Russian and Syrian 
     government forces assaulted the last rebel pocket in the 
     northwest, 54 hospitals and clinics in opposition territory 
     were attacked, the United Nations human rights office said. 
     At least seven had tried to protect themselves by adding 
     their location to the deconfliction list, according to the 
     World Health Organization.
       On May 5 and 6, Russia attacked four. All were on the list.
       The first was Nabad al Hayat Surgical Hospital, a major 
     underground trauma center in southern Idlib Province serving 
     about 200,000 people. The hospital performed on average 
     around 500 operations and saw more than 5,000 patients a 
     month, according to Syria Relief and Development, the United 
     States-based charity that supported it.
       Nabad al Hayat had been attacked three times since it 
     opened in 2013 and had recently relocated to an underground 
     complex on agricultural land, hoping to be protected from 
     airstrikes.
       At 2:32 p.m. on May 5, a Russian ground control officer can 
     be heard in an Air Force transmission providing a pilot with 
     a longitude and latitude that correspond to Nabad al Hayat's 
     exact location.
       At 2:38 p.m., the pilot reports that he can see the target 
     and has the ``correction,'' code for locking the target on a 
     screen in his cockpit. Ground control responds with the green 
     light for the strike, saying, ``Three sevens.''
       At the same moment, a flight spotter on the ground logs a 
     Russian jet circling in the area.
       At 2:40 p.m., the same time the charity said that Nabad al 
     Hayat was struck, the pilot confirms the release of his 
     weapons, saying, ``Worked it.'' Seconds later, local 
     journalists filming the hospital in anticipation of an attack 
     record three precision bombs penetrating the roof of the 
     hospital and blowing it out from the inside in geysers of 
     dirt and concrete.
       The staff of Nabad al Hayat had evacuated three days 
     earlier after receiving warnings and anticipating a bombing, 
     but Kafr Nabl Surgical Hospital, three miles northwest, was 
     not as lucky.
       A doctor who worked there said that the hospital was struck 
     four times, beginning at 5:30 p.m. The strikes landed about 
     five minutes apart, without warning, he said, killing a man 
     who was standing outside and forcing patients and members of 
     the medical staff to use oxygen tanks to breathe through the 
     choking dust.
       A spotter logged a Russian jet circling above at the time 
     of the strike, and in another Russian Air Force transmission, 
     a pilot reports that he has ``worked'' his target at 5:30 
     p.m., the time of the strike. He then reports three more 
     strikes, each about five minutes apart, matching the doctor's 
     chronology.
       Russian pilots bombed two other hospitals in the same 12-
     hour span: Kafr Zita Cave Hospital and Al Amal Orthopedic 
     Hospital. In both cases, spotters recorded Russian Air Force 
     jets in the skies at the time of the strike, and Russian 
     pilots can be heard in radio transmissions ``working'' their 
     targets at the times the strikes were reported.
       Since May 5, at least two dozen hospitals and clinics in 
     the rebel-held northwest have been hit by airstrikes. Syrian 
     medical workers said they expected hospital bombings to 
     continue, given the inability of the United Nations and other 
     countries to find a way to hold Russia to account.
       ``The argument by the Russians or the regime is always that 
     hospitals are run by terrorists,'' said Nabad al Hayat's head 
     nurse, who asked to remain anonymous because he feared being 
     targeted. ``Is it really possible that all the people are 
     terrorists?''
       ``The truth is that after hospitals are hit, and in areas 
     like this where there is just one hospital, our houses have 
     become hospitals.''