US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation's National Advocacy Director Josh Ruebner reports on the US government in action:
Today, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs held a “mark-up” session on the FY2010 budget. I know, this stuff sounds pretty arcane. Actually though, it’s a very important step in the budget process. Today, for example, the subcommittee voted to recommend to the full Appropriations Committee that the United States give Israel $2.775 billion in weapons for FY2010 despite the fact that Israel used U.S. weapons to kill more than 3,000 innocent Palestinian civilians during those wonderful Bush Administration years in violation of the Arms Export Control Act.
Since we’ve been running a multi-year campaign to challenge U.S. military aid to Israel, and since we sent every member of the subcommittee an open letter yesterday signed by nearly 40 prominent national organizations and more than 150 other local groups asking the subcommittee to end or, at the minimum, condition military aid to Israel, we naturally wanted to check out the proceedings to see if we were having any influence on the discussion.
The problem was that the subcommittee scheduled the “mark-up” for a tiny room in the Capitol, a building which is nearly inaccessible to the public. On Monday, I called the subcommittee asking if the “mark-up” session was open to public. I was assured by the staffer that it was, but I was also cautioned that there was very limited seating in the room so if I wanted a shot at a seat, I better arrive at the crack of dawn to line up.
Okay, I’m not exactly a morning person, but I hauled myself up and was in line this morning with two of our interns before 8:00AM, an hour before the start of the “mark-up.” Happily noting that we were the fifth, sixth, and seventh people in line, I smugly told our interns that were in as good as gold.
Psych. The sergeant-at-arms came out to announce that due to space limitations, they would only be able to seat five people (by this time, the line had stretched to a few dozen, including our Code Pink friends). But, wait, he had a magic list of lobbyists, none of whom I’m quite sure gives any money to any of the members on this subcommittee, whose names he called out like the winners of Willy Wonka’s contest to step to the front of the line. Democracy in action! Fortunately, none of them bothered to show up, and I felt so honored and privileged to be allowed the opportunity to be lucky person #5 in line and get into the “mark-up.”
In I went to the Capitol with the sergeant-at-arms, through the metal detector—oops, actually, twice through the metal detector because my shoes set it off the first time, down a corridor painted in heroic murals and festooned with patriotic quotes, into—another line. Well, no problem. I had waited for 45 minutes just to be one of the lucky ones let into the Capitol and I could wait a few more minutes to get into the committee room. Except, then a subcommittee staffer came out with a grave expression on her face and solemnly declared that due to space limitations, she wasn’t even sure that us lucky five would be let in. What? After I had to run in my socks through the Capitol to catch up with my group that left me behind at the metal detector?
Well, sure enough, after about another half hour’s wait in line, the doors to the committee room were flung open and the lowly line peons were able to get a glimpse of those who decide how we as a nation spend our taxpayer dollars in far-flung countries around the globe. Wow, I thought to myself, I’m actually going to get into one of these and see what actually takes place (no video or transcript of these “mark-ups” are made available), as I grabbed my bag and moved forward with the line.
Super-psych this time. The door literally got slammed in my face. Sorry, no more room, I was told. No worries, I said, I don’t take up much space anyway and I’ll just plant myself in a small corner. No dice, sucker. After five minutes of trying to humor my way in past the staffer, I gave up. I did ask another staffer before leaving why the subcommittee always decides to do the “mark-up” in such a small space. It’s not like Congress doesn’t have huge rooms in which to hold meetings. He answered with a grin, quite frankly, something to the effect of “To keep the public out.” Nice.
I feel personally insulted, and robbed. Robbed of the right to know how money allocated for arms to Israel gets decided upon. The Gaza invasion was a war crime, and a disgrace. The idea that no one gets to participate in the follow-up funding, except for those who somehow "own" that process, and the ability to keep others out, is just an outrage. Who do these people think they are?
They think they are our overlords. What good is democracy when the people you elect aren't accountable to you? THere should be a way of recalling them back if they aren't doing the people's will.
RE: "How the sausage is made – a report from the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations" MY COMMENT: "Forget it Jake. It's Chinatown." PS. Pardon Roman Polanski!
Kudos for trying, Adam. This is a very important story.
No transcript? Doesn't that (in conjunction with the other issues) pretty much mean 'meeting in secret'? For that matter, since 2003 the transcripts from the 1953 secret meetings of the McCarthy committee have been available, but the 2009 budget mark-up will apparently never be available. Democracy marches ever on…
Josh Ruebner ends his report on being forbidden to see decisions discussed by "our" public "servants" with another outrageous discovery. The decisions were not made at that meeting at all: they had already been made behind closed doors–doors that did not even pretend ever to be open to the public: 'Well, my hour-and-a-half adventure wasn’t a total loss. I did walk away with a consolation prize. While in line in the Capitol, I got a press release from the friendly staffer highlighting what the subcommittee decided to do in the “mark-up.” Wait, how did they figure that all out before the meeting even started? Those press secretaries must have some straight-up supernatural mind-reading powers. How come they don’t teach you any of this stuff about how Washington really works in your high school civics class? I don’t remember “closed-door meetings” and “pre-written press releases about things that are supposed to be decided on in the future” being on that neat flow chart about check and balances.' For the masquerade of holding a public meeting was obviously a "bait and switch"–like everything else about Israeli government negotiations and U.S. Congressional support: " I called the subcommittee asking if the “mark-up” session was open to public. I was assured by the staffer that it was, but I was also cautioned that there was very limited seating in the room so if I wanted a shot at a seat, I better arrive at the crack of dawn to line up. " Ruebner did more than call the subcommittee: he called its bluff on the pretend-transparency and exposed the "fraud."
Banana Republic?
This is a shocking story. Although I would expect that many of these decisions were made behind closed doors, I did not imagine that Congress would show such contempt for their obligation to hear testimony and record their deliberations. If events such as this are routine, then I think there would be solid Constitutional grounds for a Federal court suit.
It's important to show it. And Josh Ruebner strikes exactly the right humorous note for his report. Basically the whole military industrial complex and it's deals abroad are shrouded in exquisite secrecy over here in Germany too. German should be neutral after its history. Now there are huge attempts to shun the fact that the EU can't fund military activities. That is one of the issues that may well have been a source for the resistance towards the European constitution or a closer collaboration of NATO and the EU, which is proceeding via creative means by the EU nevertheless.This may be the reason too the neocons have their own representative in Bruxelles. I am not an expert on these matters, but it feels this doesn't concern US sponsorship of the Israeli military only, but I can see the point. A class mate of my partner worked for Thyssen/Krupp in this field. http://www.thyssenkrupp.com/ He now seems to work free as a lobbyist or vendor only. There is not a trace of him on the net, but he keeps commuting between Berlin and Washington. None of these guys it seems wants to be visible, they all work in the shadow. About 2 decades ago, the said, he already had earned more than he will be ever able to spend, so what exactly pushes him on? Being part of an elite military complex moneymaking circle?
Thanks for pointing that out Susie. This is important work. I am occasionally watching a German member of the Green party and an EU parliamentarian. He often dissents with his own party line interestingly and at times publishes statements from The Left too on his issues. I vaguely remember that when the Green Party become part of the government over here, there was a huge debate if the could really be allowed to know all the arcane security issues. In Germany the export of weapons is dealt with by a very tiny circle. Which obviously makes it more easy to pull strings. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundessicherheitsrat And the far right complains about restrictions for exports compared to other EU countries.
Banana republic with nukes is the usual term, I believe.
Additional to how the Israeli sausage is made at a tune of about 3 billion per year (with another 2 billion tacked on for Egypt to be kept on the Israeli leash), here's a report on another Israeli sausage-making room, the one that has the hard-pressed US taxpayer fuel the entire Israeli military, rubber-stamped every five years–thus helpfully assuring any Palestinian state will remain non-viable no matter what Hillary said yesterday: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/01/16/gaza...
Here's a white house sausage-making history pertaining to the settlements issue–this record is the template for Obama's Hillary/Mitchell? http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1091250.html
I'm happy knowing that some of my taxes help keep Israel safe from terrorism. You should be concerned with aid that the US gives to Jordan, Egypt, or Saudi Arabia, all countries with ATROCIOUS human rights violations, things you never hear about in the West due to their government-controlled media. Ahhh, but you, have a not-so-well hidden agenda…
The aid to Jordan and Egypt comes conditional they play along with Israel; the aid to S Arabia is basically to grease access always to oil; the S Arabians pay for all the stuff they get from us, unlike Israel (or its bought lacky, Egypt). I'm not happy knowing that some of my taxes rubber-stamp Israel, opening up the USA to the charge of total hypocrisy and lumping us in with Israel at our continued and long-term expense solely due to the virtually non-existent and completely ineffective US campaign finance laws.