BANKING COMMITTEE APPROVES DODD-SHELBY IRAN SANCTIONS BILL

[Orwellian_Ghost]

BANKING COMMITTEE APPROVES DODD-SHELBY IRAN SANCTIONS BILL

October 29, 2009

WASHINGTON – Today the Senate Banking Committee unanimously approved the Dodd-Shelby Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act.

“Earlier this year, I believe that all of us were deeply troubled to see the Iranian regime violently punishing its own citizens for calling for fair and open elections in their nation. And we have watched with growing concern the illicit nuclear activities of this troubled regime, including their deception about the previously secret enrichment facility at Qum,” said Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. “And so today, Senator Shelby and I have worked to put together comprehensive legislation dealing with Iran sanctions.”

“Our approach acknowledges the gross human rights abuses that Iran’s people suffer at the hands of Iran’s security forces – with the approval of its political leadership – and the widening chasm that has opened between the regime and the people of Iran.”

The bill will:

· expand the Iran Sanctions Act to cover a range of financial institutions and businesses and extend sanctions to oil and gas pipelines and tankers;
· impose new sanctions on entities involved in exporting certain refined petroleum products to Iran or building Iran’s domestic refining capacity;
· impose a broad ban on direct imports from Iran to the US and exports from the US to Iran, exempting food and medicines;
· require the Administration freeze the assets of Iranians, including Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, who are active in weapons proliferation or terrorism;
· require the President to determine and report to Congress if investments in Iran’s energy sector are eligible for sanctions;
· enable Americans to divest from energy firms doing business with the Iranian regime;
· strengthen export controls to stop the illegal black market export of sensitive technology to Iran through other countries and impose tough new licensing requirements on those who refuse to cooperate; and
· prohibit the U.S. government from purchasing goods from firms that do business in Iran’s energy sector, or that provide sensitive communications technology to monitor, jam or otherwise disrupt communications among Iranians, or between the Iranian people and the outside world.

...

Below is Chairman Dodd’s Statement as prepared for delivery and a summary of the bill.

...

http://banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Newsroom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=a21e0a54-a82c-92ac-3f31-135fa3afe5b7

[autorank]

1. k*r Oh, that will help

We're punishing the Iranian people, just like we did the Iraqi people for years, by cutting off trade.
Outrageous. The Iraqi sanctions killed 228,000 children under five (excellent study)

Sanctions don't work. I'm on record clearly as highly critical of the Iranian regime here and here.
I find them to be enemies of their own people and fundamentally useless to their nation and the world
in general.

On the other hand, the Iranian people showed great courage in standing up to these thugs and they
put their lives on the line, suffered injuries, torture, and humiliation. Their action came despite
not because of U.S. meddling. We'd been seeding "democracy" there for years. But their protests
emerged from the people.

In the same way, whatever positive will happen in Iran despite sanctions and because the people
of Iran continue their struggle.

These two Senators are an embarrassment during normal times. This ups their status to that of world
class clowns.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

2. Why Obama's Iran Policy Will Fail

Most important, the Obama administration is ignoring the altered international order that has emerged in the wake of the global financial crisis triggered by Wall Street's excesses. While its stimulus package, funded by taxpayers and foreign borrowing, has arrested the decline in the nation's gross domestic product, Washington has done little to pull the world economy out of the doldrums. That task -- performed by the U.S. in recent recessions -- has fallen willy-nilly to China. History repeatedly shows that such economic clout sooner or later translates into diplomatic power.

Backed by more than $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, the state-owned Chinese oil corporations have been locking up hydrocarbon resources as far away as Brazil. Not surprisingly, Iran, with the second largest oil as well as gas reserves in the world, looms large in the strategic plans of Beijing. The Chinese want to import Iran's petroleum and natural gas through pipelines across Central Asia, thus circumventing sea routes vulnerable to U.S. naval interdiction. As this is an integral part of China's energy security policy, little wonder that Chinese oil companies have committed an estimated $120 billion dollars -- so far -- to Iran's energy industry.

During a recent meeting with Iran's first vice president, Muhammad Reza Rahimi, in Beijing, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao stressed the importance of cooperation between the two countries when it comes to hydrocarbons and trade (at $29 billion a year, and rising), as well as "greater coordination in international affairs." Little wonder, then, that China has already moved to neutralize any sanctions that the United States -- backed by Britain, France and Germany -- might impose on Iran without United Nations authorization.

Foremost among these would be a ban on the export of gasoline to Iran, whose oil refining capacity falls significantly short of domestic demand. Chinese oil corporations have already started shipping gasoline to Iran to fill the gap caused by a stoppage of supplies from British and Indian companies anticipating Washington's possible move. Between June and August 2009, China signed $8 billion worth of contracts with Iran to help expand two existing Iranian oil refineries to produce more gasoline domestically and to help develop the gigantic South Pars natural gas field. Iran's national oil corporation has also invited its Chinese counterparts to participate in a $42.8 billion project to construct seven oil refineries and a 1,000 mile trans-Iran pipeline that will facilitate pumping petroleum to China.

...

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175132/dilip_hiro_is_obama_s_iran_policy_doomed_to_fail_

[autorank]

9. Wonder when they'll figure it ut

Going all over the world invading countries and killing people really pisses people off. They remember and then there's "blowback." It's all so unnecessary. Thanks for the update.

Wonder if anyone in DC (in government) is reading this: http://www.landartgenerator.org/blagi/archives/127

[bamacrat]

10. Because he has a douche bag like Shelby writing the bill.

I have met on many occasions both of his sons, one is a decent guy, doesnt like politics but is a know it all about everything else. THe other is a douche like the dad.

[slipslidingaway]

4. Glad you pointed to that study, I remember reading it years ago and thought...

it the best of all that was out there at the time.

[autorank]

8. It's quality work, I agree

The Hopkins School of Public Health the ORB work out of England are great too but this is a conversation stopper. "Children under five" -- that's so harsh.

[leftstreet]

3. Good God

Sickening

[slipslidingaway]

5. :( knr nt

[slipslidingaway]

6. kick nt

[slipslidingaway]

7. .....nt

[optimator]

11. sounds like the same premise as healthcare Opt-out

PUNISH POOR PEOPLE