Wyden Speaks on Senate Floor in Support of Stop Arming Iran Provision
Mr. President, I rise today to thank my colleagues for their robust debate about this important piece of legislation.
I would also like to highlight a provision included in this bill based on the Stop Arming Iran Act, which I introduced in January of this year. The provision seeks to end the Iranian government's acquisition of sensitive military equipment by blocking the Pentagon's sale of F-14 fighter jet parts.
It is the sensitive job of the Department of Defense to demilitarize and auction off surplus military equipment. However, recent investigations and reports have uncovered a frightening trend regarding the sale of F-14 "Tomcat" aircraft parts. U.S. customs agents have discovered F-14 parts being illegally shipped to Iran by brokers who bought F-14 surplus equipment from Department of Defense auctions.
Mr. President, other than the United States, Iran is the only nation to fly the F-14. The U.S. allowed Iran to buy 79 F-14s before its revolution in 1979. Fortunately, most of Iran's F-14s are currently grounded for lack of parts. As the F-14 is retired from active service in the United States, a slew of parts are about to be processed by the Pentagon.
We know that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons capability. We know that the Department of State has identified Iran as the most active state sponsor of terrorism. We know that the sale of spare parts for F-14s could make it more difficult to confront the nuclear weapons capability of Iran. And yet F-14 parts are still being sold by the DoD.
Iran's F-14s, especially with the parts to get more of them airborne, greatly strengthen its ground war potential, harming our national and global security. Our country should be doing everything possible to deny the brutal regime in Tehran access to spare parts for their F-14 fleet.
The Department of Defense will tell you that it is already taking action to control the sale of F-14 parts. They now say that every F-14 part is frozen and cannot be sold. However, they will not commit to keeping this freeze in place and admit that the Pentagon can choose to rescind or make exceptions to this policy at any time. I have identified three large-scale changes to the Pentagon's policy on F-14 parts in just the last year. And history has shown us that these rules are not enough.
The Department has been caught still selling F-14 parts, even when its rules forbid it. It has sold F-14 parts to companies that have turned out to be fronts for the Iranians. More recently, the DoD sold sensitive technology, including classified F-14 parts to undercover GAO investigators.
This provision will make it crystal clear to the Department of Defense that it may not sell any F-14 parts to anyone for any reason. There should be no chance for the parts to make their way to the Iranians.
I am very encouraged that both the Senate and House Armed Services Committees have included the Stop Arming Iran provision in both versions of the Defense Authorization bill. I commend my colleagues for allowing this important legislation into today's bill.
The provision fixes a very specific, but very important problem: the sale of F-14 components to a state sponsor of terrorism. We cannot - and with the passage of this bill, we will not - allow that to happen.
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