Kaʻū News Briefs Friday, December 9, 2016

U.S. Geological Service reminds the public that we live with volcanoes. See story below on Volcano Awareness month. Photo from USGS

THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT passed the U.S. Senate yesterday. According to Sen. Mazie Hirono, Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower, Hawaiʻi priorities in the Fiscal Year 2017 were accomplished. The NDAA bill lays out resource levels and defense policy for the year. Hirono is on the NDAA Conference Committee, which reconciled different versions of the bill passed by the Senate and House earlier this year.

Sen. Mazie Hirono reports on U.S. Department of Defense bill. Photo from Sen. Hirono

     “Hawaiʻi’s vital role, especially in the Indo-Asia-Pacific Rebalance, continues to be reflected in our national security priorities for the coming year,” said Hirono. Nearly $300 million in military construction funding was secured, including $31 million for the Army National Guard Hilo Combined Support Maintenance Shop to support Pohakuloa Training Area.
    The bill includes Talia’s Law, which improves child abuse reporting requirements. It honors five-year-old Talia Williams, who died after months of abuse by her father and stepmother.
   In education, it supports the STARBASE program with $25 million to provide elementary students with opportunities to explore Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). The students served under the program are historically underrepresented in STEM fields.
     In health care, Hirono partnered with a Republican Senator, Dan Sullivan, to ensure that Department of Defense takes into consideration unique challenges of providing health care services in rural and remote locations when entering into medical support contracts with local providers.
     In business, the bill includes a provision that Hirono supported that extends the Small Business Innovation Research and the Small Business Technology Transfer programs for five years. Since both programs’ creation, Hawaiʻi businesses have received 593 awards totaling over $161 million, she said.
     In honoring veterans, the bill includes a Hirono-supported provision requiring the Department of Defense to review service records of Asian American and Pacific Islander veterans from Korean and Vietnam wars to determine if the award of the Medal of Honor is appropriate.
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STOP ARMING TERRORIST ACT was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday by Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and a group of Republicans and Democrats. The legislation would prohibit the U.S. government from using American taxpayer dollars to provide funding, weapons, training, and intelligence support to groups like the Levant Front, Fursan al Ha and other allies of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, al-Qaeda and ISIS, or to countries who are providing direct or indirect support to those same groups. The legislation is cosponsored by Reps. Peter Welch, Barbara Lee , Dana Rohrabacher and Thomas Massie, and is supported by Progressive Democrats of America and the U.S. Peace Council.   

U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard testified yesterday for legislation to prohibit taxpayer dollars from funding weapons and other support that could wind up in hands of enemies. Image from C-SPAN

     “Under U.S. law it is illegal for any American to provide money or assistance to al-Qaeda, ISIS or other terrorist groups,” testified Gabbard, herself a veteran of Middle East war. “If you or I gave money, weapons or support to al-Qaeda or ISIS, we would be thrown in jail. Yet the U.S. government has been violating this law for years, quietly supporting allies and partners of al-Qaeda, ISIL, Jabhat Fateh al Sham and other terrorist groups with money, weapons, and intelligence support, in their fight to overthrow the Syrian government.”
      Gabbard contended that “the CIA has also been funneling weapons and money through Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and others who provide direct and indirect support to groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda. This support has allowed al-Qaeda and their fellow terrorist organizations to establish strongholds throughout Syria, including in Aleppo,” she said.
     She pointed to, “A recent New York Times article, stating that it confirmed that ‘rebel groups’ supported by the U.S. ‘have entered into battlefield alliances with the affiliate of al-Qaeda in Syria, formerly known as al Nusra.’”
     Gabbard also pointed to Stephen Kinzer, a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, who said, “The proposal to stop sending weapons to insurgents in Syria is based on the principle that pouring arms into a war zone only intensifies suffering and makes peace more difficult to achieve. Congress made a decision like this about the Nicaraguan contras during the 1980s. Aid to the contras was cut off by the Boland Amendment. The result was a peace process that finally brought an end to wars not only in Nicaragua, but also in El Salvador and Guatemala. This is the example we should be following. Cutting off arms shipments forces belligerents to negotiate. That is what we achieved in Nicaragua. It should be our goal in Syria as well.”
        See her testimony at youtube.com .