[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 14, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S179-S181]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAN

  Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, as we go back through the calendar 
just a few months and get some context of what has been building for a 
while, in May of 2019, four different vessels that were traveling just 
outside of the Gulf of Oman were hit by mines laid by Iranian 
leadership. In June, just a month later, two different vessels hit 
Iranian mines. Those mines weren't just placed in the water flippantly; 
they were actually placed on the ship. In June of 2019, a U.S. Navy 
surveillance drone was flying through the Strait of Hormuz in 
international airspace and was downed by an Iranian missile attack.
  As we continue to move forward, we tracked an increase in Iranian 
activity in cyber attacks across the United States, but at the same 
time, individuals within our military bases in Iraq were facing more 
and more of a push against them in not just an external conversation, 
an actual kinetic attack.
  Our supply lines in the fall of last year, as trucks that were 
leaving from Baghdad and driving down to Kuwait for our supply lines 
there, were increasingly facing improvised explosive devices, something 
we had not seen in a long time. Those explosive devices were created 
and placed by Shia militias with materials provided by Iran.
  Then, in October, there were multiple attacks on our facility in 
Baghdad. In November, there were multiple attacks again on our facility 
in Baghdad. In December, there were multiple attacks again, each time 
increasing with more and more attacks.
  We hear that term ``attack,'' and it seems almost flippant, but we 
realize, for the thousands of Americans who work in that area of that 
diplomatic mission that is there in Iraq, there is a day that happens--
it could be the middle of the night, it could be the middle of the 
afternoon, but a moment happens, month after month, week after week, 
and sometimes within that, day after day--where the sirens go off, and 
everyone on campus runs into a bomb shelter, and then the explosions 
begin around the grounds.
  These were not just random attacks. These were designed kinetic 
rocket attacks coming into our Embassy that built up toward an attack 
on the U.S. Embassy on December 31, where thousands of people broke 
through the outer section, setting fires to the building, attacking the 
facility, smashing

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against the glass, trying to get into the next layer that they were not 
able to penetrate--into the inner layer in the Embassy. But thousands 
and thousands of rioters were moving toward the base.
  As calm was restored on the outside and a security perimeter was 
established on the outside, they could read what was written on the 
walls, spray-painted now on the Embassy: ``Soleimani is our leader.''
  I was interested in talking to a friend of mine just a couple of 
weekends ago, and he made an interesting comment to me. He said: I 
didn't know who Qasem Soleimani was. I had never heard that name 
before, and then I went back and started doing some research to find 
out who this guy is and what he is all about.
  His comment to me was: I went back and did some research and found 
out he is a bad guy.
  I said: Yes, you don't know the half of it.
  Soleimani is the leader of the Quds Force for the Iranians, was 
responsible for training the Shia militias in Iraq on how to kill 
Americans. Over 600 Americans died because of the training and 
equipping that Soleimani did for the Iraqis who were fighting against 
us at that time, specifically the Shia militias that Soleimani actually 
directed.
  My neighbor was surprised to learn that Soleimani was the one who 
actually organized all things with Hezbollah in Lebanon. He had 
organized Hezbollah also in Iraq. He is the one who was coordinating 
all that was happening in Yemen, in the civil war that is currently 
ongoing in Yemen.
  He was surprised to see that he was in Syria working with Bashar 
Assad and to see all that he was doing for that ruthless leader that 
murdered thousands of his own people. That was Soleimani.

  For those of us who are tracking the direct threats against the 
United States, we are very aware of who he was and what he was all 
about because he was the point person to try to take the fight to the 
United States. In the past 6 months, that fight had gone from an ``I am 
going to try to find individuals within Hezbollah or Shia militias 
somewhere to attack the United States'' to being more strategic to 
bringing the attack directly from his forces under his command to try 
to take the attack to us. He had become more and more overt and more 
and more obsessed with attacking the United States.
  Over the course of that time period, the Trump administration, over 
and over again, sent a message to the Iranian leadership: You are 
playing a very dangerous game, continually attacking American 
facilities, launching rockets randomly in there, starting fires, 
stirring up militias to attack us at every turn, attacking our supply 
lines. If an American is killed, President Trump made it very clear, 
the United States will respond.
  In December, Soleimani pushed it to a whole new level, with a 
multiple rocket attack into an American facility, killing an American 
and wounding four others. The President responded with a very reasoned 
response: taking an attack to where the Shia militias and Hezbollah 
were storing the munitions they were using to attack us, destroying 
that facility, destroying those munitions, taking the fight to four 
different training facilities where they were equipping the people to 
bring the attack to us but then also tracking very carefully the person 
who was actually planning the next set of attacks--Soleimani himself.
  The time came in January, when Soleimani had been traveling through 
Syria, through Lebanon, working with Hezbollah, and then back into 
Iraq, and he was personally meeting with another terrorist leader in 
Iraq--one terrorist leader, Soleimani, leading a terrorist 
organization, meeting with another terrorist leading a terrorist 
organization there. Both of them were planning together and met up that 
morning at the airport. A little after 4 o'clock in the morning, they 
left from the airport, headed to go have their next meeting and 
planning their next set of attacks.
  At that time, the Trump administration took the opportunity, while 
they were both far from civilians and no one else was on the road, to 
have a surgical strike and take out two different terrorist leaders, 
both in the process of planning their next attacks.
  What has been interesting to me has been the response of the U.S. 
Senate and the U.S. House and some of the debate there. We should 
debate issues like this. These are difficult moments in difficult days. 
We are not at war with Iran, nor should we be at war with Iran. There 
are millions of peaceful people in Iran. Thousands and thousands of 
those people are protesting on the streets right now in Iran against 
their own government. They are furious at the corruption in their 
government. They are furious that the people in Iran can't get food and 
can't get fuel because the regime there is spending their money 
attacking Yemen, attacking Syria, feeding money to Hezbollah and Iraq, 
feeding money to Hezbollah and Lebanon. The money that should be going 
to help their own people, the Iranian regime is sending out all over 
the region to spur their terrorism.
  The people there are frustrated and upset with their own government, 
and they are taking it to the streets under a threat of their own life. 
In the not-too-recent past, Iranians--whether it be the Green 
Revolution 10 years ago or just in days past and months past--had taken 
to the streets by the thousands, and some of them have faced all kinds 
of retribution coming back at them.
  We should be supporting the good people of Iran who are miserable 
living under that regime. We are not at war with the people of Iran, 
but we are very clear as a nation, when you are planning an attack 
against us, and we are aware of that attack and you have shown the due 
diligence to take prior attacks, we know you are not just thinking 
about it. You are actually planning it and about to carry it out.
  We have learned our lesson from 9/11, and for the last three 
administrations, the policy has been very clear. If we know you are in 
the process of bringing an attack to us in the days and weeks ahead, we 
will strike first to protect American lives. We will not wait until you 
kill Americans to come bring a strike to you. That is what happened 
with Soleimani.
  The debate that is happening on the floor now about a War Powers 
Resolution has been interesting to me because much of the language just 
affirms the current law. It almost seems to imply the Trump 
administration didn't follow the law when they did. The Trump 
administration continued to track an imminent threat that was coming 
into the United States. There has been some argument about how imminent 
is imminent. Some of my colleagues want to know that Soleimani was in 
the process of carrying out an attack within the next 30 minutes, and 
if he wasn't carrying out an attack immediately, in the next day or 
next hours, we shouldn't respond. I will tell you, intelligence is not 
that exquisite. You only know in the movies that someone is about to 
attack an exact spot at an exact time. That is not real life. With 
real-life intelligence, you gather information to track what you think 
is coming, but you don't get exact dates and exact locations like that.

  We knew he was planning this attack. They were zeroing in on the 
locations, but he was very specific as to the Americans he was coming 
after.
  To be able to bring the attack to him and to notify Congress within 
48 hours, which is the law, is consistent with the War Powers 
Resolution. The President did follow the law. He was justified in being 
able to carry out the strike against a known, declared terrorist 
leader--in fact, two of them--in the process of planning their next 
attack against Americans.
  The key thing I join my colleagues in talking about is not trying to 
be able to press back on the administration but to say that none of us 
want a war in Iran, including the Trump administration. In every 
conversation I have had with anyone in the administration, they have 
all been very clear. They are not planning a war with Iran. They don't 
want a war with Iran, but they do want Iran to stop their belligerent 
terrorist activities against us, against our allies, and against any 
American they seem to find in the region. I join my colleagues in 
warning Iran and assuring Iran at the same time that we have no desire 
for a war with the regime or with the good people of Iran. We should be 
able to find a way to work together.
  Since 1979, when this regime was coming into power, they have taken 
the fight to Americans and to all of our allies. It is time we pushed 
back and

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said: Stop shedding blood, and let's sit down at the table and be able 
to work this out.
  In the meantime, let's not assume that Soleimani was some innocent 
bystander. He had a lot of American blood on his hands. Let's take into 
real life what it really means to live in Baghdad and serve in our 
diplomatic mission and hour after hour run to bomb shelters as rockets 
are raining down randomly on your facility. There is plenty of 
provocation. Now it is time for diplomacy. Let's get this worked out.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Romney). The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, first, I want to say to my colleague from 
Oklahoma that I appreciate his remarks. I was on the floor last week 
talking about this issue. He is absolutely right. Soleimani was a 
recognized terrorist, not by the Trump administration but by the global 
community, including the Obama administration, the United Nations. The 
two organizations that he had were both considered terrorist 
organizations. He was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of our 
constituents and thousands more who were maimed or injured.
  When I have been at these briefings, I am sort of getting a different 
briefing than, apparently, some of my colleagues are. The briefings 
have been very explicit about the degree with which this particular 
individual had already attacked and killed so many Americans and, in 
fact, there were more plans, of course, in the future. That is why he 
was traveling around the Middle East, meeting with other commanders, 
including the commander of the Islamic militia group in Iraq that very 
day.
  I think this is a time for us, as the Senator from Oklahoma has said, 
to be sober and to be realistic about the great threat that he posed to 
us, and not just in this administration but in previous 
administrations, and now talk about a way forward, avoiding war with 
Iran but making sure Iran is held accountable.
  To the people of Iran, I say today that we are with you. We 
understand the fact that your country is one where your own rights have 
been repressed and you have not had the ability to achieve your dreams. 
We want that for you, as well. Our arguments are not with you. They are 
with the Government of Iran.

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