Waiting for Al
II, WILLIAM C. TRIPLETT
Waiting for Al by William C. Triplett, II Vice President Al Gore won't defend the integrity of his own legislation. Consequently, 15,000 American servicemen and women are threatened by modern...
...However, in answer to a question from Sen...
...Section 1608(a) defines "advanced conventional weapons" to include "cruise missiles...
...President, it is abundantly clear that we need to raise the stakes high, and we need to act without compunction if we catch violators...
...In full view of its neighbors, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Navy test-fired two of them in 1996—one off the back of a Combattante II and one from a Hudong...
...It is not a state secret that Chinese military companies have transferred the C-802 to Iran...
...The Chinese have also back-fitted five older French missile boats in the Iranian inventory with the C-802, for a total of 60 launchers...
...The Exocets that struck the Stark were not supersonic, but the American sailors still had a response time of only 14 seconds...
...Stark, killing 37 American sailors...
...CIA director John Deutch complained about Chinese cruise-missile sales to Iran at an open Senate Intelligence Committee hearing last February...
...So where is the vice president...
...This should be an open-and-shut case for the most severe sanctions...
...He was the principal drafter of the sanctions legislation...
...Why is there no indication at all that he is standing up for his own legislation or for American servicemen...
...Four C-802 missile systems are aboard each of the 10 Hudong missile boats the Chinese have delivered to Iran...
...In June, undersecretary of state Lynn Davis told the House International Relations Committee of the "evidence" of the sale...
...There may be worse to come...
...William C. Triplett, II, former chief Republican counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is writing a book on the Chinese military...
...The act grants the president discretionary authority to impose a wide range of sanctions, from denial of foreign aid to a full trade and investment embargo...
...Why is the vice president silent...
...This weapon is ramjet powered, giving it a speed in excess of Mach 2. It also has an armor-piercing warhead twice the weight of the C-802s...
...Robert Bennett of Utah last month, the State Department said, "The administration has concluded at present that the known transfers are not of a destabilizing number and type...
...The admirals are fully aware of the threat these weapons pose to their sailors and airmen and the quantum leap in capability they give the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy...
...Sheffield in the Falklands War, and in 1987 two Iraqi Exocets badly damaged the U.S.S...
...Sections 1604 and 1605 of the act prohibit companies and foreign governments from transferring advanced conventional weapons to Iran or Iraq...
...The legislation in question is the Iran-Iraq Arms Non-proliferation Act of 1992, commonly known as the Gore-McCain Act for its principal Senate sponsors, Al Gore and John McCain...
...This doesn't wash with the Navy...
...An Argentine Exocet, which the C-802 resembles, sank the H.M.S...
...Is the administration so committed to accommodating China at all costs that the vice president is rendered speechless...
...The China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corporation is already offering for sale a third-generation cruise missile, the C-101/301 series...
...The Chinese call their cruise missile the Eagle Strike, but the NATO designation is the C-802...
...When his legislation was being considered in 1992, he addressed the president of the Senate as follows: "Mr...
...Consequently, 15,000 American servicemen and women are threatened by modern Chinese cruise missiles in the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy...
...In the first seven months of 1996, Fifth Fleet commander Admiral Scott Redd held three news conferences to denounce Chinese cruise-missile sales to Iran, and it is known all over Washington that the Navy is seething about the Clinton administration's failure to act...
...The C-802 is a very dangerous anti-shipping weapon...
...In the close confines of the Persian Gulf, it's doubtful the Navy could protect itself against a surprise attack from a barrage of supersonic cruise missiles...
Vol. 2 • February 1997 • No. 23
