Mark Kirk: “the State Department has notified this House of the President's intent to transfer $86 million to provide vehicles…”

“the State Department has notified this House of the President's intent to transfer $86 million to provide vehicles, uniforms and body armor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' security forces. Yet on January 11, Abbas made the following remarks at a Fatah rally in Ramallah: ``Let 1,000 flowers bloom and let our rifles, all our rifles, all our rifles, be aimed at the occupation.'' Mr. Speaker, we have seen this movie before. In 1996, the U.S. pledged $100 million to help Fatah defeat Hamas terrorists. But in 2000, Yasser Arafat turned his American-funded security forces on Israel. Now, Abbas calls on rifles to be aimed at Israel again, and we are poised to give him $86 million to upgrade his security forces, without first establishing an independent audit regime. I urge my colleagues to apply the lessons of history and to increase the effective oversight of this taxpayer-funded program, which in the past has been turned against our allies in Israel.”