Hagel ripped by Dem over plans to arm Syrian rebels that will only hand arms to ISIS
* Congressman Loretta Sanchez lit into the Secretary of Defense for not providing a blueprint of the weapons and training program to Congress
* The House authorized the plan yesterday despite not having had a look at the fine print
* 'What type of arms...are we going to hand over to these people?' Sanchez asked Hagel during a hearing today
* 'We handed over arms to [the Iraqi government] and they ended up in ISIS and the very safe arms are going after us,' she added
By Francesca Chambers
for MailOnline Published: 04:42 AEST, 19 September 2014 | Updated: 05:06 AEST, 19 September 2014
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel found himself on the receiving end of diatribe from a Democratic lawmaker on Thursday afternoon over the Obama administration's plan to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels as part of its strategy to defeat the Islamic State.
California Rep. Loretta Sanchez harangued Hagel at a House Armed Services Committee hearing for not offering Congress documentation on which Syrians it plans to give weapons to and how it will prevent Islamic extremists from confiscating those arms.
'I don't think that the plan that I have seen was detailed enough to make me believe that your plan will work,' she told Hagel.
'I'm not so sure of it, and I haven't heard the details as I'd like to hear them,' she said moments later.
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was on the receiving end of a diatribe from a Democratic congresswoman while testifying before the House Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill today. The congresswoman, California Rep. Loretta Sanchez, demanded to know detailed information about the administration's plan to arm moderate Syrian rebels
A House-passed resolution calls for the United States government to give weapons to 'appropriately vetted' members of the Syrian opposition of both ISIS and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The plan, approved yesterday in the lower chamber by a vote of 273-156 as an amendment to legislation that would fund the federal government through December, stipulates that the Obama administration can arm the rebels, but it must give Congress an outline of it's intended actions before it can commence the program.
Ahead of the vote, Iraq war veteran and Hawaii Rep.Tulsi Gabbard blasted the notion of arming Syrian rebels as 'unrealistic' and warned that Obama and his advisers were on track to repeat the previous administration's mistakes in Iraq.
'We’ve heard this story before. We know how it ends. Look at Iraq. Look at Libya,' Gabbard, who is also a Democrat, said.
'Clearly, our leaders have not learned their lesson. We must focus on taking out our enemies and investing in our own country here at home,' she continued.
Another Iraq veteran, California Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican who also fought in Afghanistan, said he no longer had 'confidence we are arming the right people.'
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'We don't know how moderate these Syrian rebels really are,' Sanchez chimed in on the House floor Wednesday.
'In fact, some of my Syrian constituents, Syrian Americans who live in Orange County, have told me that there are no moderates left or, worse, that the moderates, given the choice between losing or Assad or ISIS, want ISIS, and they say people aren't going to fight against ISIS,' she claimed.
'We don't know if somewhere down the line they will turn our guns right back on us.
'In fact, that is one of the scarier things that we have to face,' she added. 'We simply don't know who we can trust. In an uncontrolled, war-torn destabilized country, who do we trust?'
Sanchez, Gabbard and Hunter were among the lawmakers who voted against the amendment.
A demonstrator is removed from House Armed Services Committee hearing after interrupting Hagel as he testified about the U.S. response to the ongoing threat from the Islamic State. Hagel was in the middle of his opening statement when two protesters, one of whom is not pictured, sought to steal the spotlight
In today's Armed Services Committee hearing featuring testimony from Hagel, Sanchez restated her concerns that the arms the United States provides to the so-called moderate Syrian rebels may fall into the hands of the Islamic radicals the Obama administration has promised to 'degrade and destroy.'
Contending that it's 'pretty disturbing' this afternoon's hearing with Hagel happened after the vote to authorize the weapons program, Sanchez said her Syrian constituents have informed her that 'Syrian moderates have gone over to ISIS.'
'And most of them have told me that they don't think that the Syrian moderates we arm, whoever those may be, are actually going to fight against the ISIS moderates who used to hang out with the Syrian moderates,' she said.
Pointing to war in Iraq - which she also voted against - as an example, she argued that the U.S. spent $35 billion on equipment and training for the Iraqis, yet ISIS managed rise up and take over large parts of the country anyway.
After indirectly referencing her Republican colleagues on the committee, Sanchez said that 'some have said wasn't a problem of equip and train, it was a lack of leadership, it was bad people commanding, it was the commander in chief, [former Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki] who was wrong and didn't help us on this or didn't make this thing work,' she said.
'Can you tell me who the commander in chief of the Syrian moderates - who are all over the place, don't even talk to each other sometimes - how we're gonna see that leadership?' she asked.
'What type of arms, exactly, what type of arms, are we going to hand over to these people? Because the last time I checked, we handed over arms to Maliki and they ended up in ISIS and the very safe arms are going after us.'
Hagel had said in his opening statement that the U.S. would give the rebels small arms, vehicles, and basic communications equipment in addition to providing them with tactical training.
As they prove themselves, he said the U.S. military will provide them with more sophisticated training.
Repeating testimony he gave to a Senate panel on Tuesday, Hagel promised that the Syrian rebles accepted into the program would go through a 'rigorous vetting process' and that the Department of Defense would work hand-in-hand with the State Department to 'monitor them closely' to make sure that the weapons are not transferred to ISIS.
'There will always be risk in a program like this, but we believe that risk is justified by the imperative of destroying ISIL – and the necessity of having capable partners on the ground in Syria,' he said on Tuesday and in similar testimony again today.
During her lecture Sanchez also tore into Hagel over the administration's claims that an international coalition of 40 countries are standing with the U.S. against ISIS.
'Who? What will they really do? How many troops?' she demanded to know of the Pentagon head, noting several times along the way that he could provide this information to her privately if necessary.
The administration has repeatedly claimed the U.S. has the backing of dozens of other countries in the fight against ISIL but has refused to name names in most cases.
'I've been through this, you guys,' Sanchez told her colleagues.
'I saw the coalition in Iraq, and we used to sort of like chuckle at each other. It seems some of these countries with one person. I don't know, training dogs? Maybe a bomb expert?'
As her time to question Hagel expired - before the Obama administration official could officially answer her questions - Sanchez clarified that she wants the president's strategy to take out ISIS prove successful, though she fears it won't.
'I hope your plan works, because you know, ISIS, ISIL, they're not good,' she said. 'I hope I am wrong. I hoped the same thing when I voted against the Iraq war, that I was wrong, but I don't believe that I was wrong on that.'
Secretary of State John Kerry has promised to reveal the names of the international coalition in the near future.
'Later this week we will have more to say about our partners and the coalition,' he told a Senate panel on Wednesday.
'Not every country will decide that their role is to have military engagement, but every country can do something,' he said, without going into further detail.
Members of the committee, which oversees foreign affairs, were unimpressed.
'Typically you have a coalition in place before you announce it,' Republican Sen. Bob Corker told his former colleague. 'In this case we have announced one and are attempting to put it together.'
'Do you realize how unserious the things you are laying out sound?' Corker told the country's top diplomat.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2761207/Hagel-ripped-Dem-plans-arm-Syrian-rebels-hand-arms-ISIS.html#ixzz3DhGwNvEP
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