[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5583]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              URGING BOEING NOT TO SELL AIRPLANES TO IRAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Roskam) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I am very concerned about some news that has 
come to my attention and to the attention of the House recently, and 
that is that there is an iconic American aviation company--that is, the 
Boeing Company--that that has entered into preliminary talks with Iran. 
And the thinking is for Boeing to sell planes to Iran.
  I guess when you first hear about that, you say: Well, what is the 
big deal? Why is everybody so uptight about this? Why can't everybody 
relax and just let some commerce happen?
  Here is what is the big deal; here is why we ought not relax; and 
here is why Boeing shouldn't be in these discussions; and, ultimately, 
it is my sincere hope, Mr. Speaker, that Boeing does not sell planes to 
the Iranians:
  The entire Washington foreign policy establishment; that is, the 
House of Representatives, the Senate, the United States State 
Department, and the administration all agree on one thing. They all 
agree that Iran is still the world's leading state sponsor of terror.
  There is no credible organization; there is no credible voice today 
that says: No, no, no. That is not true anymore. In fact, the President 
has acknowledged this; the Secretary of State has acknowledged this; 
the national security adviser has acknowledged this.
  And if that is true--and it is true--how can someone, how can a 
company, how can an American institution say, we are going to do 
business with them? And how can it be true that we are going to sell 
something that can be easily converted for the use of terrorism?
  You see, planes are fungible. Airplane parts are fungible. Unless we 
think that only Boeing is beginning these sorts of discussions--we know 
what Airbus is doing. Airbus has made a decision to go in and do 
business with this terrorist regime.
  Why I am urging these companies--and particularly Boeing, as an 
iconic American company, as a company that has come to symbolize what? 
American strength, American innovation, and American greatness. And 
then to be complicit with the Iranians and the sheer possibility and, I 
would argue, probability that those airplanes will be converted to 
warplanes.
  Now, just so I am clear, I am not making an argument nor a suggestion 
today that Boeing is doing anything illegal. I am not making that 
argument.
  But here is my point: just because something is legal doesn't make it 
good; just because something is legal doesn't make it right.

                              {time}  1215

  There are some people who are saying: Well, look, other manufacturers 
are selling into that marketplace. And let me ask you this, Mr. 
Speaker. When has history ever been kind to the excuse: Well, somebody 
else was doing it, so I decided to do it too? History, Mr. Speaker, is 
a merciless judge and disciplinarian against that sort of argument.
  So what is the problem? Here is the problem. It is the Islamic 
Revolutionary Guard Corps that completely dominates the Iranian 
economy, and they certainly completely dominate the aviation sector of 
the economy. Iran Air was recently taken off the terrorist watch list 
by the State Department. Most people think that it was an agreement 
through the Iran nuclear deal and that it wasn't really deserved, but 
they were only recently on it. Regardless, the fungibility of these 
products can easily move into other areas of the sector.
  There are some people that say: Look, it is an emerging market and we 
ought to be selling American products there. No, Mr. Speaker. What we 
ought to do is recognize that there are things that are more important 
than American profits, and that is the integrity of American businesses 
not to be complicit in this shameful activity and to sort of draw a 
blind eye towards this activity to say we can somehow sell these 
products and they won't end up in the hands of terrorists. It is naive, 
it is a wrongheaded move, and I urge Boeing in the strongest possible 
terms not to be complicit in this activity.

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