[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5316-5317]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            CHEMICAL WEAPONS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of a 
heinous and violent event that has tragically changed the world. On 
April 21, 1915, near the beginning of World War I, the German Army 
introduced to the world large-scale chemical weapons. That gas swept 
the battlefield. People died and suffered enduring pain, and those who 
survived, with rare exception, suffered the rest of their lives.
  The Kaiser's army released tons of chlorine gas, nearly devastating 
the Allied line in Belgium. Europe would never be the same. The world 
would never be the same.
  The use of poisonous gas proliferated during World War I, bringing 
death and devastation to members of the military and civilians. 
Following World War I, nations joined to support the Geneva Protocol of 
1925, declaring that chemical weapons were so barbaric, so evil that 
they should be prohibited from use.
  The use of chemical weapons has continued. The world will never 
forget the atrocities perpetrated by Hitler during World War II, as 
Nazi Germany used chemicals in the genocide of millions of Jews. During 
the Nazi regime, at the beginning of it, five men--one name started 
with S, one started with A, one started with R, I, and N--invented 
sarin gas. The world will not forget the atrocities perpetrated by the 
Hitler regime during World War II as Nazi Germany used chemicals in the 
genocide of millions--millions--of Jews.
  The Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s was another terrible instance of 
lethal gasses being deployed as a tool of warfare. In 1988, Saddam 
Hussein unleashed a chemical arsenal on his own people, killing 
thousands of Kurds. Those pictures are available to see. The people are 
indiscriminately lying there--old men, old women, middle aged people, 
and babies. The world witnessed these events in horror and decided 
international action was absolutely necessary again. In 1992, the 
Chemical Weapons Convention was adopted in Geneva. The Chemical Weapons 
Convention outlaws the production, stockpile, and use of chemical 
weapons and requires their destruction. I voted for that ratification 
with pleasure. I voted for ratification--which was ratified here in the 
Senate--of the convention to do something more about these chemical 
weapons.
  But in spite of other efforts, the use of chemical weapons endures. 
One hundred years have passed since that fateful date in Belgium, and 
the world has yet to end the evil of those poisons. Today, Bashar al-
Assad and his regime and forces loyal to him in Syria are responsible 
for horrific violence that violates basic decency. It violates 
international laws of war and has shocked the global conscience.
  It is no secret that Assad has repeatedly used chemical weapons 
against the Syrian people and the country over which he dictates. Even 
after Syria was compelled to accede to the convention--the Chemical 
Weapons Convention in 2013--there is clear evidence that Assad has 
continued to reign terror over his own people by using barrel bombs 
filled with chlorine to indiscriminately wreak havoc.
  We are reminded of this all the time. I do not usually watch ``60 
Minutes.'' It is a good program, but I usually have other things to do. 
But I watched because of the promotion on Sunday evening about 
something they were going to do on ``60 Minutes.'' They had graphic 
pictures that had never been shown before of what this evil person who 
runs this country of Syria did to his own people.
  Sadly, in addition to the use of chemical weapons, the Assad regime 
has carried out all manner of atrocities throughout the course of the 
4-year civil war in Syria. As we speak, about 400,000 Syrians have been 
killed. He is responsible for the vast majority of those deaths. That 
does not take into consideration the millions of people who have been 
displaced.
  The regime has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, 
including starvation, systematic murder, torture, rape, sexual violence 
and enforced disappearance. If there were ever, ever something that is 
evil, bad, wrong, it is what he has done. The action of the Assad 
regime has resulted in the deaths--as I indicated--of countless 
innocent civilians and has sewn discord and disarray across the regime.
  Yet Assad has repeatedly lied to the world about using chemical 
weapons. He loves to get on these shows. The U.S. journalists go over 
there, and he sits there before us talking all of these lies about what 
he has not done. There are dead people--hundreds of thousands of them 
there. There are barrel bombs, cluster bombs. He targets civilians. He 
starves them, demonstrating again and again what a terrible person he 
is and someone who cannot be believed about anything he says.
  I am going to submit a Senate resolution condemning the actions of 
the Assad regime and its military forces for these crimes they have 
carried out against humanity. This legislation will express the Senate 
support for the referral of these evil acts that Assad has perpetrated 
and that have also been perpetrated by other Syrian officials and of 
course by the military leaders to an appropriate international tribune.
  Also, I have to say, it turns my stomach to hear people talk about 
making a peace deal in Syria and having Assad be a part of that deal. 
How could we do that? This resolution will make clear the Senate's 
opposition to any role for Bashar al-Assad in any final settlement of 
that civil war. I am confident my Senate colleagues will join me in 
condemning the Assad regime and its unthinkable campaign of evil 
against its own people.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

[[Page 5317]]


  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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