AFFIRMATION OF JAMES A. LEACH

AAFFIRMATION OF JAMES A. LEACH

Statement of James A. Leach, Chairman of the House Banking and Financial Service Committee on Report of Secret Gore-Chernomyrdin Agreement. October 13th, 2000

The secret Gore-Chernomyrdin agreement not only flouted law, but also failed. It amounted to an inverted arms-for-hostages policy. U.S policy was, in effect, taken hostage by a Russian arms strategy designed to destabilise the Middle East.

The agreement’s apparent purpose was to facilitate a Russian aid policy that resulted in the squandering of American tax dollars for the benefit of a kleptcratic elite, rather than the Russian people. 

The legitimisation of Russian arms sales in defence of law is hardly in the interest of a safer world.  The naivete of this approach is matched only by the perfidiousness of its execution.

August 20th 2000 President Clinton signed a bill that sets up a global fund for AIDS patients that has been compared to a kind of marshall plan namely World Bank Aids Trust Fund.  The bill includes $300 million for the US Agency for International Development.  If Bush gets elected as President this bill may be revoked.