'A vote for Pompeo is a vote for war'

By Askia Muhammad -Senior Editor- | Last updated: Apr 24, 2018 - 1:36:55 PM

Controversial Trump nominee for secretary of state faces opposition

Mike Pompeo, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on his nomination.

WASHINGTON—Just as Senate confirmation hearings got underway for CIA Director Mike Pompeo to become secretary of state, President Donald J. Trump confirmed that CIA Director Mike Pompeo held a secret meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang over Easter weekend. The meeting came as President Trump and the North Koreans are preparing for a possible face-to-face meeting, which would be the first time a sitting U.S. president has met with a North Korean leader.

Secretary Tillerson delivers farewell remarks to State Department employees, at the Department of State. Photo: dvidshub/ courtesy of U.S. Department of State

Mr. Pompeo is the president’s nominee to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. Critics asked why the current CIA director was chosen to carry out the secret talks and whether the leaking of the story is related to the increasing resistance to his confirmation from members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine, and New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen have all said they will vote against recommending Mr. Pompeo to the full Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) could still bring the confirmation vote to the Senate floor, although it would be the first time for a secretary of state nominee to fail to be recommended by the committee since 1925.

During five hours of testimony before the committee, Mr. Pompeo faced protests from CODEPINK Women for Peace demonstrators who objected to his long history of ties to Islamophobic organizations; his climate change denial; and his hawkish views on Syria, Iran and North Korea. He is a vocal climate change denier. More than 200 environmental groups wrote a letter to senators urging Mr. Pompeo’s rejection.

“This man is no diplomat! This man is no diplomat! War …” CODEPINK member, former U.S. Army colonel and retired State Department official Ann Wright shouted, disrupting the hearings April 12. Last year the Senate confirmed Mr. Pompeo to head the CIA by a vote of 66 to 32, but the vote is expected to be far closer this year.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said on Twitter: “I voted YES on Pompeo for CIA on the theory that he would be the ‘adult in the room.’ I was wrong. I am voting NO on Pompeo for Secretary of State because our top diplomat should believe in diplomacy. He has an alarming tendency towards military provocation and brinkmanship.”

Mr. Pompeo has a long history of support for the right-wing agenda: the Iraq invasion and the use of torture and he has strong ties to Islamophobic organizations. The National Iranian American Council has warned that Mr. Pompeo’s confirmation would threaten the Iran nuclear deal and increase the risk of a U.S. attack on Iran.

Mr. Pompeo served in Congress from Kansas, where he was widely rumored to be “the Koch brothers’ favorite lawmaker.” He once wrote an article for Politico titled “Stop harassing the Koch brothers.” The group Act for America, which is considered the largest anti-Muslim group in the U.S., awarded Mr. Pompeo its highest honor, the National Security Eagle Award in 2016.

“Pompeo has a history of his work in the Congress,” Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK said. “There he was known as an Islamophobe, and he was known as a hawk. He was also known by his close relationship with people who are known Islamophobes. So I think all of that has come back to bite him, because, maybe as director of the CIA he’s been more in the background, but his record as a member of Congress is very clear, and it certainly isn’t one that reflects the kind of skill that our chief diplomat should have.”

“It is very interesting that he just went to North Korea, secretly,” Ms. Benjamin said. “I think that actually is a signal that this administration is serious about the talks with North Korea, but also is serious about messing up the Iran nuclear deal and possibly taking us down the path of war with Iran, which is something that Mike Pompeo would be qualified to do because he has been such an Iran hater for many years now.

“So I think the place to look for real danger as far as Popmeo is concerned is Iran,” said Ms. Benjamin. The concern is heightened because Mr. Pompeo joins hawkish National Security Adviser John Bolton in Mr. Trump constructing what resembles a “war cabinet.”

“This is not just a vote for Pompeo. This would be to enable Donald Trump to have a cabinet in which you have no longer these mythical ‘adults in the room’ any longer, but rather almost exclusively yes men,” Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council told “Democracy Now!”

“And as a result, I think what is emerging on Capitol Hill is a understanding that a vote for Pompeo is essentially a vote for John Bolton, and a vote for John Bolton is a vote for war. And I think that has been one of the factors that has really changed the dynamics, because it’s going to be very difficult for the Democrats to be able to justify such a vote, particularly mindful of the fact that we are very likely to see the death of the Iran nuclear deal, which then, once again, will open up the pathway for a war between the United States and Iran.

“His rejection of the Iran deal is part of the reason why he’s being nominated by Donald Trump to be secretary of state,” Ms. Parsi continued. “If we pull out of the deal, which Trump is very likely to do, particularly with people like Bolton and Pompeo around him, then we lose the inspections. And if we lose the inspections, forget about a 12-month breakout capability. That’s when the real danger comes in. So, the path that Pompeo is arguing for is actually the exact path that would lead us to some of these disastrous consequences.”

Mr. Pompeo defended his and the Trump administration’s critique of Obama administration policies. “My critique of the Obama administration’s JCPOA commitment was that they left the Iranians with a breakout capacity,” he testified in his confirmation hearings. “They had a short time frame that these would—these restrictions would remain in place. And North Korea’s human capital and enrichment capacity continues to remain in place. Those are—those are all things that present risk to the world, and President Obama is—or, excuse me, President Trump is determined to prevent that from happening in North Korea.”

Mr. Pompeo’s opinions in light of his access to information at the CIA are something that troubles Ms. Parsi. “I think we should be very concerned that as head of CIA, he was presented with evidence from the CIA that shows that the Iranians are living up to the deal. His response was, ‘Well, we know that they’re still cheating.’ He had no evidence for that, but he had already drawn that conclusion. That reminds us of what happened during the Iraq War, in which the conclusion was drawn first, and then the CIA was being asked, ‘Now go find the evidence for it.’”

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