Motion to Discharge--S.J.
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. PAUL. Mr. President, I move to discharge the Committee on Foreign Relations from further consideration of S.J. Res. 35, a joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval of the proposed foreign military sales to the Government of Egypt of certain defense articles and services.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. PAUL. Mr. President, according to tradition, King Menes united the two lands of Europe about 5,000 years ago. Although Egypt appears today as a single state on the globe, American foreign policy still treats the country as if it were two completely different lands--one a critical ally of American aid and one a tyrannical nightmare unworthy of American security assistance.
A State Department human rights report details how General Abdelfattah Elsisi converted a country into a prison. Among other horrors, Egyptian security forces engage in extrajudicial killings, torture, as well as harsh crackdowns on anyone who wishes to practice the right of freedom of speech.
As a result of Egypt's abysmal human rights record, the Biden administration recently blocked $130 million in annual security assistance. At first glance, that might sound like a rebuke to Egypt. Before applauding this supposedly principled act in solidarity with the long-suffering Egyptian people, keep in mind that in the same week, the State Department--the Biden State Department--approved a military sale of Super Hercules aircraft, which are used to airdrop troops and military equipment, to the Elsisi regime for $2.2 billion. On the one hand, they blocked $130 million; on the other hand, they approved $2.2 billion.
In what may be only described by definition as a slap on the wrist, the $130 million the State Department blocked is only one-tenth of the annual $1.3 billion the United States has given to Egypt every year since 1987. In fact, Egypt is one of the largest recipients of U.S. military aid.
If the State Department strictly adhered to Federal Leahy laws, it would insist that Egypt abandon its despotic ways before Egypt received any more security assistance. This law was named after our colleague Senator Patrick Leahy. These laws compel the United States to withhold security assistance to countries that have committed gross violations of human rights.
The Biden administration should strictly enforce the Leahy laws and deny Egypt the American dollars it craves until it becomes a place where human rights are honored and respected. Instead, as punishment for their crimes, the ruling class of Egypt will somehow, some way, have to make due with only 90 percent of what they annually expect in largesse from the American taxpayer. Adjusting for inflation, the decades-long transfer of wealth from America to Egypt amounts to over $41 billion. Of the $41 billion, some estimate that the previous President, Hosni Mubarak, and his family stole nearly half. The aid not stolen is used by Egypt to buy American weaponry.
Since 2009, the United States has sold Egypt $3.2 billion in fighter aircraft, $1.3 billion in tanks and armored vehicles, $750 million in missiles, $36 million in ammunition, and $328 million in military technology, as well as $240 million in naval craft. As the United States prepares for yet another military sale, perhaps we should review how one of our most reliable customers treats their own people.
Human Rights Watch reports that ``Egypt's security apparatus has arbitrarily arrested and prosecuted tens of thousands of persons'' and that ``torture crimes against detainees in Egypt are systematic, widespread, and likely constitute crimes against humanity.''
One such victim of torture is known as Hamza. He was arrested at his home late one night for the crime of participating in a public demonstration. Despite tireless attempts to track him down, his family was unable to locate him for months. Later, it was revealed that the officers who captured him--the officers of the government of Elsisi-- used electric shocks on his genitals, his head, and his tongue. But even that was not enough for Elsisi's henchmen, who later suspended Hamza from his arms until his arms were dislocated at the shoulder.
As a physician, I have treated patients who have dislocated shoulders. It is a very painful injury. Imagine being hauled up by your own government, suspended by your arms until your shoulders are dislocated, and then when they finally cut him down, they left him on the floor without medical treatment for 3 winter days without any blankets.
Such torture would be virtually unbearable for any man. Hamza was not even yet a man; he was a 14-year-old boy at the time of his torture and arrest.
Hamza is not alone. The stories of other victims appear in Human Rights Watch's 43-page report detailing Egypt's systemic torture of children, including a victim as young as 12 years old.
In Egypt, journalism--journalism--is a dangerous profession. The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks Egypt the third worst jailer of journalists in the world behind only China and Myanmar.
Take just a few examples. When a 26-year-old man died in police custody, a prominent Egyptian journalist, Islam el-Kahly, was arrested for covering and reporting on the detainee's death. He is only one of many well-known journalists to be imprisoned for the crime of keeping his people informed.
Photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid was arrested in 2013 for covering the violent break up of a sit-in protest--a peaceful sit-in protest--in Cairo. Zeid was released after 5 years in prison, but he is still not free. He is required to report to the police station at 6 p.m. every night, where it is unknown whether the officer on duty will keep him or not, whether he will be imprisoned every night of his life.
Perhaps no activity is more dangerous than running for Egypt's Presidency. General Elsisi was reelected--if you can call it an election--in 2018 with 97 percent of the vote, whose Soviet-style results were made possible only after opposition candidates were effectively eliminated.
Two candidates, Sami Anan and Ahmed Konsowa, were imprisoned. A third candidate to run against Elsisi, Ahmed Shafik, was placed under house arrest. A senior staffer to one of the candidates, Hisham Geneina, was brutally attacked by three men, resulting in serious damage to his left eye and orbital bones. When another candidate, Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, withdrew from the race, he said: ``It's like committing suicide to run against someone like this.''
President Biden pledged to put human rights at the ``center of our foreign policy.'' Torture of children, arbitrary arrests of dissidents and journalists, sham elections, and the violent crushing of peaceful opposition--if these are not gross violations of human rights, nothing is.
The United States cannot proudly proclaim human rights to be the center of our foreign policy while it arms a regime that has a war against its own people. We should end military sales to Egypt's criminal masters. Partially taking away some military aid while offering new sales that are 10 times what we withheld shows weakness in the face of repression.
Our weapons are an incredibly important part of America's power, and we should not willy-nilly and without judgment give them to anybody and everybody around the world. They could be used as leverage for improving human rights. Instead, we just give them, and there is this vicious cycle of enriching those who produce the munitions and no concern for human rights.
Mere slaps on the wrists cannot hide the inescapable fact that the United States has handsomely rewarded Egypt as it degenerated into one of the most autocratic places on the globe. America should in no uncertain terms demonstrate we will no longer strengthen a strongman.
My resolution is to cancel military sales. It offers a choice-- whether the United States will side with the Egyptian people or with their oppressors.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source