Senate Proceeding on Apr 5th, 2011 :: 0:22:10 to 0:34:30
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0:22:06 to 0:22:27( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: we hear a lot about the disaster, the things that are taking place and the loss of lives in libya and many other places, particularly the last few months, with you going seemingly unnoticed is probably just as great a disaster that's

0:22:10 to 0:34:30( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: James Inhofe

0:22:32 to 0:22:52( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: happening in coat did a -- cote d'avoir as we speak. the incouple dent president gbagbo was claimed by quattara. he comes from the north, the muslim area up there. we found so much voter fraud that we identified, we specifically talked about on the senate floor that i have asked

0:22:53 to 0:23:15( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: secretary clinton by letter twice to intervene and demand a new election. when i say voter fraud, i entered this in the record yesterday, so i won't do it again today, but this shows how they miscalculated all those votes up in the north. in just one precinct, a thousand votes.

0:23:16 to 0:23:36( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: well, actually, 94,873. now, obviously, if we have 100,000 or so votes in one precinct, it can happen that way. use logic. if all else fails, stop and think about this. how could it be possible that in the northern part of cote d'ivoire, that when they had the election, what we would call the primary election, president

0:23:37 to 0:23:57( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: gbagbo got thousands, thousands of votes in each one of the precincts, and yet when the runoff came, he got zero. that is a statistical impossibility, and i think for those of us -- certainly the united states thought the u.n. and perhaps france was accurate in their initial response to this thing that we were going to

0:23:58 to 0:24:18( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: have to get something done. let me go ahead and finish what happened. i mentioned yesterday. in the town of duekoue, with a quattara's forces along with the french went in there and murdered something over 1,000 people. we get the reports from the red cross and from other sources, but when quattara has tried to

0:24:19 to 0:24:40( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: deny his involvement in the slaughter, his forces took the town earlier, and this is a week after the gbagbo forces had gone. and i think we could just look at the deputy head of the united nations mission in cote d'ivoire, he said that quattara's forces had carried

0:24:41 to 0:25:01( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: out the killings in duekoue. -- quote -- "we have evidence, we have pictures, this was retaliation." and so we have all this evidence that i mentioned yesterday was a part of it. i read yesterday from "the guard ran," the british guardian, the u.s. mission has tara dicials hunters fought alongside

0:25:02 to 0:25:22( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: quattara's forces and took part in killing 330 people in the western town of duekoue which we now know is over a thousand people. the international committee of red cross said at least 800 people. it goes on and on, which i made a part of the record yesterday. but in addition to that, we have a statement that was made in the bbc yesterday. keep in mind now, they have in

0:25:23 to 0:25:44( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: duekoue, they murdered all these people, they have mass graves. people are charred and burned. i will quote right now. hold your stomachs." i spot four pigs eating something dark and charred in the courtyard, standing by a newly dug mass grave. a u.n. soldier from morocco is choking with rage and grief. i ask him if the dead are children. he nods and begins to sob

0:25:45 to 0:26:07( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: quietly into his facemask." so we know of this disaster that is taking place, and here we do nothing, and we know about it. and i just would say america, wake up. the massacre could have been avoided if quattara had accepted the mediation effort from the african union. president gbagbo did accept,

0:26:08 to 0:26:29( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: quattara did not, and he rejected it, and i think we know why he rejected it. because he wants that power, he wants that job. well, anyway, where we are now -- and i'm going to try to get this all in -- the united states i think should call for the cease-fire and for a new election. i have also been told within the

0:26:30 to 0:26:50( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: last day that the united nations helicopters, u.s. peacekeeping helicopters are firing upon gbagbo's military camp. lastly, i have sent a letter to the foreign relations committee chairman john kerry. let me applaud john kerry. he has agreed to hold a hearing to look at this. i can't tell you how much i appreciate it, because it takes

0:26:51 to 0:27:11( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: courage to stand up against the united nations and france and our state department and admit that we have to look into this thing. so that's exactly what we're going to do. but that was yesterday on the floor. what happened last night? last night, the job was finished. they went in and they massacred i don't know how many people.

0:27:12 to 0:27:32( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: you see, president gbagbo had young children that were surrounding his palace and his residence, and his willingness to sacrifice their lives to save their country from the french influence that they are getting with quattara. they were armed with baseball bats and two-by-fours. i don't know, there are hundreds of them out there.

0:27:33 to 0:27:54( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: last night, sarkozy went to the -- had gone to the secretary-general mune and said use my forces to end this, and they did, and we know what happened last night. maybe you don't know what happened last night. they went in with helicopters and with rockets, and they destroyed most of a town, of a major city, abidjan, the capital of cote d'ivoire.

0:27:55 to 0:28:16( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: and -- and we have evidence. i hope that people will take advantage of this, particularly those people. i know there are a lot of people out there that are just opposed to any intervention that we have, and they don't really care about sub-sahara africa. no one cares about sub-sahara africa. i have stood on this floor time and time again, back when we were sending troops into bosnia. the excuse was ethnic cleansing.

0:28:17 to 0:28:38( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: i said for every one day, and any town in, any country in sub-sahara africa, there are more people ethnically cleansed than any day in bosnia, but nobody seems to care. so we have hundreds of kids around there, and last night they were mowed down. if anyone questions this, you can access on my internet, inwho

0:28:39 to 0:28:59( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: have.senate.gov and get the youtube that shows graphically what they are doing. i don't know how many hundreds, how many thousands of people have been brutally murdered last night by the french-supporting quattara, and it's something that we need to get involved in, and i am -- when i look at

0:29:00 to 0:29:20( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: president obiange from ecuadorial guinea, the chairman of the african union, he says he condemned the foreign intervention in the ivory coast. and we stand by idly and we don't do anything about it. so, again, i'm going to renew my request to secretary clinton and to the state department and to others who really care about the

0:29:21 to 0:29:41( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: loss of innocent life in sub-sahara africa, specifically in abidjan and cote d'ivoire to come forward and help us in this hearing to find that justice is done. i hope that president gbagbo and his wife simone, good friends, i hope they are not dead today. they might be dying as we speak. they are raiding their

0:29:42 to 0:30:02( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: residence, they are raiding the palace, and it's a brutal mess. so i don't think i have ever seen in the years that i have been here, particularly coming from france, supported by sarkozy the raid on innocent lives in sub-sahara africa. and with that, i will yield the floor. if no one else comes in, i'm going to talk longer.

0:30:03 to 0:30:24( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: all right. i ask unanimous consent that i be permitted to speak until someone comes in to speak. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: madam president, i guess you might wonder why i am concerned about this. i have had an interest in sub-sahara africa for quite some

0:30:25 to 0:30:48( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: time, and after 9/11, finally the united states of america decided they would do something of concern in sub-sahara africa, and so what we have had since that time is an interest in helping them to build african brigades as the terrors come -- terrorists come down through the

0:30:49 to 0:31:09( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: horn of africa and jabudi and the couldn't tent of africa. we need to help the africans build brigades so we can resist them, not doing it for them, not doing it in place of the africans doing it, but to help them so they can defend themselves. that's exactly what we have been doing. i have been honored to be kind of the point man on the armed services committee and to go over and work with these guys.

0:31:10 to 0:31:30( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: our countries in africa are our friends. they participate in programs like the imet program that allows us to train their officers in the united states of america, like the train and equip program that allows us to work with them and train these individuals. and so when you see something, an atrocity like this that takes place and you just visualize the young kids that are out there

0:31:31 to 0:31:52( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: being brutally murdered, it's something that we should do something about. i again am going to praise someone who philosophically -- i have not agreed with most of the time i have spent in the united states senate and senator john kerry, and he is very -- john kerry, and he is very sympathetic to

0:31:53 to 0:32:17( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: what is going on there and has agreed to having a hearing. there is a man named mel tiadora. mel tiadora was the mayor of and january -- abdid i january in -- abdijan in cote d'ivoire.

0:32:18 to 0:32:38( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: he is the heads of the opposing party to president gbagbo. he was the candidate against him when he ran for president. here is a guy who has every reason to be opposed to president gbagbo. yet he is willing to testify before senator kerry's committee

0:32:39 to 0:33:00( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: that not only did they rig the election, but -- and showed the documentation on rigging the election, that we should be in a position where we could strongly recommend that we have a -- that we recommend another election. i have nothing against what you

0:33:01 to 0:33:21( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: you -- guaterra except i know he has been an enemy of gbagbo since 2002. this is the final kill. at what expense is this coming? at a high expense of a number that we can't quantify today. if you don't believe it, look it

0:33:22 to 0:33:42( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: up you can get the youtube site and watch what happened last night and watch it on inhofe.senate.gov. i see my good friend, senator manchin, a new senator from west virginia, before i yield the floor to him, i want to applaud him for his being courageous and standing up for doing something

0:33:43 to 0:34:04( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: about the e.p.a. taking over the regulation of greenhouse gases that would put coal and oil and gas out of our reach in this country. so i applaud you, senator manchin, and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the

0:34:24 to 0:34:30( Edit History Discussion )

James Inhofe: senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: i want to talk about the occasion of the worst