Leahy and Sanders against Iran resolution

10/01/2007

Bob Kinzel
Vermont Public Radio
Montpelier, Vt.

Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders recently voted against a resolution that they believe may give the President the authority to go to war.

VPR's Bob Kinzel reports.

(Kinzel) The resolution designates Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization and it also calls on the Bush Administration to impose new economic sanctions against Iran. It passed the U.S. Senate last week by a three to one margin.

Backers of the plan say it's needed because Iran appears to be pursuing the capability of developing a nuclear weapon and because supporters believe that elements of the Iranian government are aiding terrorist efforts in Iraq.

Senator Patrick Leahy says these are serious issues but he says he voted against the resolution because he feels it could be misinterpreted by the White House:

(Leahy) "With this Administration if you even look like you're approving something they're going forward...It's crazy they do that, but I'm not about to vote for anything they're going to hang their hat on to be a pretext for starting another war, especially when they haven't figured out how to get out of the war they're in."

(Kinzel) Leahy says he doesn't put much faith in the intelligence reports of the Bush Administration after the C.I.A. was so wrong about events in Iraq.

(Leahy) "Of course they were not involved in 9/11 and they had no weapons of mass destruction and yet we've lost thousands of brave American lives we've spent close to a trillion dollars we'll probably spend two trillion dollars by the time we get done all on the pretense I'm not buying a pig in a poke."

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