Lantos supports Saudi arms sale [View All]

Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) is blocking an effort by Jewish Democrats in Congress to stop the planned sale of arms to Saudi Arabia.

Reps. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) asked colleagues to sign a letter to Lantos, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, asking him to convene the committee to block the arms sale.

“Chairman Lantos does not intend to ask the committee to consider any resolutions of disapproval on this matter,” Lantos spokeswoman Lynne Weill said Jan. 15 when asked about the letter.

In a statement last June, Lantos suggested that he would support the sale because it would help contain the Iranian threat.

“We welcome the development that the Saudis and other Gulf states have recognized that a nuclear weapons-equipped Iran is a mortal threat to them,” Lantos, Congress’ only Holocaust survivor, said at the time.
http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/34390/format/html/displaystory.html
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In contrast, Rep. Barbara Lee (oakland-berkeley) has this statement on her website:
http://lee.house.gov/index.cfm?ContentID=1187&ParentID=0&SectionID=4&SectionTree=4&lnk=b&ItemID=1182
Congresswoman Barbara Lee (Oakland) issued the following statement regarding the proposal Bush administration has proposed to Congress to sell precision-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia, despite significant Congressional opposition:

“This arms package is a very dangerous move by this Republican administration. What they are proposing may potentially create a powder keg, ultimately sparking a regional arms race. It is reckless to think they can buy peace through arms. Selling precision-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia will only flare up an already volatile region and further weaken our national security.

“Ignoring Congressional opposition to this arms sale is yet another example of the ‘go-it-alone’ foreign policy style of the Bush administration which has repeatedly failed.

“I am fully supporting the Weiner-Wexler Resolution of Disapproval to block the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia and I am very proud to be an original cosponsor of this important legislation.”