[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 24824-24826]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         GORE-CHERNOMYRDIN DEAL

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I wish to take some time this evening 
to discuss an issue on which I held a hearing, along with Senator 
Gordon Smith, yesterday. It concerns something that is very troubling: 
The arming of Iran, which occurred recently, and concerns an agreement 
that was made by Vice President Al Gore with then-
Prime Minister of Russia Viktor Chernomyrdin on allowing Russia to 
convey armaments to Iran and avoid U.S. sanctions law.
  I do not want to discuss so much that part of the issue, although it 
is an important part of it, but I want to get to the issue of an 
agreement made between the Vice President and then-Prime Minister of 
Russia Viktor Chernomyrdin to allow the conveyance of this equipment, 
military hardware--we are talking submarines, tanks, attack 
helicopters, a lot of equipment.
  It was stated by the Vice President in this agreement--and we found 
this out when it was leaked to the press 14 days ago, in the New York 
Times--that we will not sanction Russia for allowing this to take 
place.
  I asked the administration in the hearing I held yesterday and I 
asked by letter today signed by a number of my colleagues: Let us see 
the agreement the Vice President entered into with Viktor Chernomyrdin. 
To date, the administration has refused to convey that document to us. 
We held a closed session yesterday. We said: Convey it to us in closed 
session. They refused.
  This afternoon, a group of Senators and myself sent a letter to the 
Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, restating our position that the 
administration should share with the Congress the documents relating to 
the Gore-Chernomyrdin agreement which allowed Russia to sell 
conventional weaponry to Iran and not be sanctioned under U.S. law.
  If we have not received the documents by noon on Monday, the Foreign 
Relations Committee will be forced to issue--and pursue issuing--a 
subpoena to receive those documents from the administration.
  This letter was signed by Senator Gordon Smith; myself, who chaired 
the hearing yesterday; along with Chairman McCain of the Commerce 
Committee; Senator Lugar; Chairman Shelby of the Intelligence 
Committee; Chairman Warner of the Armed Services Committee; Chairman 
Thompson of the Governmental Affairs Committee; and Senators Nickles 
and Lott of leadership.
  In it we express our disappointment with the administration's 
continued stonewalling and refusal to provide documents related to the 
Gore-Chernomyrdin agreement. They refused to even allow us to see 
documents which have been published in the press, which is how we 
learned about them. These were published in the New York Times. That is 
how we learned about this taking place.
  Essentially, now, the administration is asking us to trust them. But 
the fact that almost everything we have learned about this secret deal 
has come from the New York Times and the Washington Times--and not the 
administration--makes such trust difficult.
  Congress has the right and the responsibility to review all the 
relevant documents and to judge for itself whether the transfers the 
Vice President signed off on were covered by U.S. nonproliferation 
laws.
  Unfortunately, until the New York Times broke the story 14 days ago, 
Congress had not seen this written, signed agreement between the Vice 
President and the Russian Prime Minister. In open session hearing 
yesterday, I asked them to deny this, that this had been conveyed to 
the Congress. What we heard was that the administration had 
``telegraphed'' the contents of the agreement, that they had 
``briefed'' but they were unable to say that they had transmitted this 
document to the Congress, as they were required to do.
  In essence, they said to us: Look, we were telling you that the Vice 
President was meeting with Mr. Chernomyrdin. We told you that they were 
discussing a number of issues. That should be good enough.
  Well, it isn't. Now we are saying to the administration: Show us the 
documents that have now been--some of them have been leaked to the 
press. Tell us what the agreement was. Because we want to determine 
whether or not laws were violated.
  To date, they have continued to stonewall and to refuse to provide 
the documents to us. We provided, as I stated, a closed session for 
them to provide it to us in case there were national security concerns. 
They refused to do so.
  The decision to allow Russia to escape the consequences of providing 
Iran with conventional weapons is one which affects not only the 
security of the American military personnel in the gulf but also the 
security of our allies in the region. This is not the type of agreement 
which should have been kept from the American people, and it certainly 
is not something that Members of Congress should have learned about 
first in the press.
  The Vice President is saying this deal with Russia slowed down and 
prevented more weapons transfers from Russia to Iran. The fact is that 
the Russians did not keep their side of the bargain.
  I have held a number of hearings on Russian arms transfers to Iran 
over the last 4 years. As a matter of fact, I held six hearings on the 
topic of Iran's weaponry buildup. At each of these hearings we have 
seen and have had experts cite the level and the amount of weaponry 
that has been transferred from Russia to Iran. At almost all these 
hearings--as a matter of fact, I think all of them--we had an 
administration witness there. We said to them: Stop this flow of 
weaponry from Russia to Iran. We are going to face this weaponry or our 
allies in the region are going to face this weaponry.
  At each of these hearings the administration would say: Yes, it is 
terrible that Russia is conveying this weaponry to Iran. We are trying 
to stop it. Then I would ask: Are you sanctioning Russia for doing 
this? They would say: Well, no, we are not doing this. We are not sure 
it rises to that level. We are not sure we should do this. And all 
along, there was this secret agreement in the background that they had 
agreed to--the Vice President had--that they would not sanction Russia. 
And they did not disclose that at any of these hearings nor even allude 
to the fact that that existed. Until we found out about it 14 days ago 
in the New York Times, I did not know this existed.
  This should have been conveyed to the Congress. We should have been 
brought in so we could appraise whether or not these sanctions should 
have happened with this level of weaponry that has been flowing from 
Russia to Iran.
  I have a compilation now, from open sources, of some of the weapons 
that have been transferred. These are all weapons which pose a direct 
threat to our forces in the gulf as well as to our allies. This is a 
list gleaned from various press sources and other open sources. And we 
do not have the list of the weapons the administration agreed to let 
Russia supply to Iran.
  Yes, the press is reporting there was an annex to the Gore-
Chernomyrdin

[[Page 24825]]

agreement that listed the level of weaponry, the amount of weapons that 
could be conveyed from Russia to Iran, and that this would not be 
sanctioned. We need to see that annex. We need to see what was agreed 
to be allowed to be conveyed. We know some of what has been conveyed 
because of open sources in the press. We do not know what was in the 
agreement between Vice President Gore and Mr. Chernomyrdin. So the 
Congress is continuing to be left in the dark about what laws, if any, 
have been broken.
  The administration claims that the weaponry is not destabilizing and 
therefore not subject to sanctions anyway. When you look at the list, 
the public list, I submit that any and all of these weapons pose a 
direct threat to our soldiers and sailors in this region. They include 
submarines. They include attack helicopters. They include attack 
aircraft, mines, and torpedoes. I think that would be and is 
destabilizing in the region. It is destabilizing. It is clear that this 
so-called deal did not stop these transfers from occurring.
  The main problem here, that I am complaining about this evening, is 
not the weaponry, although I think that is a terrible problem and one 
we are going to have to face. It is going to be very problematic for us 
and our allies to face in the future. The main problem is we are not 
being given the opportunity to look at these documents--the agreement--
ourselves, to determine the legality of this deal and whether or not it 
falls into the categories of an agreement that should have been 
transmitted to Congress by law, and then whether, in fact, this deal 
allowed Russia to circumvent the law.
  By stonewalling on providing us with the material to allow us to see 
their side of this issue, the administration is raising even more 
questions than were raised by the initial New York Times article. Why 
are they refusing to provide these documents? Is there something they 
are hiding? Provide it to us in closed session. Yet they have continued 
to refuse to do that.
  The administration has an obligation to submit these agreements to 
the Congress. They never revealed there was a written and signed 
agreement which binds both sides and binds the United States into 
skirting U.S. laws.
  Now, a couple of laws I think are in play here, whether or not they 
have been violated. We have not heard from the administration about 
these. They say they have not, overall, been violated. But the Gore-
McCain Act is one, I believe--as we look at it and study it, if we are 
able to get the information--that was probably violated. Allowing Iran 
to have this sort of weaponry is one that would violate this law.
  Mr. President, I want to go through a series of charts here to maybe 
put down clearly what has taken place to date.
  Fourteen days ago, there was an article that appeared in the New York 
Times. I am summarizing here about what took place. Fourteen days ago, 
an article appeared in the New York Times stating that a secret 
agreement had been reached between Vice President Gore and then-Russian 
Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin allowing Russia to avoid sanctions 
required under U.S. weapons proliferation laws for selling arms to 
Iran. This is what was in the newspaper, signed by Al Gore and Viktor 
Chernomyrdin. There is attached to this--we have not seen it, but it 
has been reported--an annex listing weaponry that can be conveyed.
  They are saying here: In light of the undertakings contained in this 
joint statement--in the aide-memoire--the United States is prepared to 
take appropriate steps to avoid any penalties to Russia that might 
otherwise arise under domestic law with respect to the completion of 
the transfers disclosed in the annex for so long as the Russian 
Federation acts in accordance with these commitments.
  So here is the Vice President of the United States signing an 
agreement with Mr. Chernomyrdin saying we are going to not enforce U.S. 
domestic law on these transfers.
  Now my question to you, to all of the people, and to the 
administration, is: Does the Vice President have this authority to 
waive these sanctions? No, he does not have the authority to waive 
these sanctions. Under the law, they have to issue the sanctions.
  Now they can choose later to find a way out, to waive them 
afterwards, but they cannot just waive these sanctions. The Vice 
President does not have the authority to do this. He enters into an 
agreement saying: We will take appropriate steps to avoid any penalties 
to Russia that might otherwise arise under domestic law with respect to 
the completion of the transfers disclosed in the annex for so long as 
the Russian Federation acts in accordance with these commitments.
  I want to go to Secretary Albright's letter to Ivan Ivanov, the 
Foreign Minister of Russia, about this aide memoire where she says:

       Without the aide memoire which we just looked at--

  This is the Gore-Chernomyrdin agreement--

     Russia's conventional arms sales to Iran would have been 
     subject to sanctions based on various provisions of our laws.

  This is her letter to the Russian Foreign Minister, January 13 of 
this year. The Secretary of State is saying, if we hadn't agreed in 
this signed secret agreement that we would not sanction you, you would 
have been subject to sanctions. The Secretary of State is saying it. 
You would ``have been subject to sanctions based on various provisions 
of our laws.''
  This is the other part that was in the secret agreement with 
Chernomyrdin, that ``we are prepared to take steps'' that I previously 
read. The administration itself is saying, look, we agreed with you not 
to sanction you, but if we hadn't agreed to it, you would have been 
subject to U.S. sanctions law. Does the Vice President have the 
authority to waive U.S. sanctions? He doesn't have that authority to do 
this. Yet that is what he did.
  I want to show you some of what we are talking about, the weaponry 
that has been conveyed. This is one piece of equipment, Russian attack 
submarines for Iran, three Kilo-class attack submarines have been 
conveyed under this agreement. We have, as I mentioned, attack 
helicopters, airplanes. The administration was saying, look, we are not 
going to sanction you because we have secretly agreed not to sanction 
you.
  I don't want to go on a long time about this. I just want to continue 
to raise this issue because I am deeply troubled about a couple of 
things.
  No. 1, for 4 years I have been holding hearings about conveyance of 
weaponry from Russia to Iran and pressing the administration, what are 
you doing to stop this conveyance of weaponry from Russia to Iran, 
because our allies will face this equipment in the future. They wring 
their hands and say, it is terrible what is going on. And then nothing 
would happen.
  Now, 14 days ago, I found out the reason nothing is going to happen--
a secret agreement was agreed to that they weren't going to sanction 
Russia. They were going to let it go ahead and continue to happen. Now 
we face heightened danger in the Persian Gulf. This equipment is there, 
and some of it is still being conveyed.
  No. 2, we have asked the administration, show us the agreement. You 
should have shown it to us when it took place so we could understand 
what this is. I believe there was a violation of the law then. We need 
to see these documents now. They say nothing illegal has taken place. 
OK, then, fine. Show us the documents.
  A letter was sent today. We want to see the documents of this 
agreement. We don't want to continue to read about it in the newspaper. 
We want to see the documents. Convey them to us; send it in a closed 
session. If there is national security interests, we want to see these 
documents. That is what we are saying now.
  What I am also saying is, what I have stated this evening, if we 
don't have these by noon on Monday, we will seek a subpoena to receive 
these documents and get them from the administration.
  I think this is highly suspect, what has taken place by the 
administration. We are only now finding out about it. We need to see 
what it was that the administration agreed to, what it is that is still 
taking place between Russia and Iran, and why the United States is not 
stepping in to stop this.

[[Page 24826]]

  I believe you will be hearing more about this unless the 
administration comes forward and comes clean. I hope they do. I hope 
they tell us: Here it is, and here is all of what we agreed to. Here is 
why we agreed to all of this. Here is why we think this is working, 
rather than it isn't.
  But right now, all we have are secret deals that somehow are getting 
leaked out to the newspapers, and we don't even know what the agreement 
is. We don't know what it is. We deserve to know what that agreement 
is.

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