Joe Wilson, the Russian veto and the scapegoat: when a U.S. lawmaker wants to sanction Algeria for a veto it never cast

E. Lindqvist — Correspondant, New York (ONU) — 2026-11-02

The scapegoat

Let us recap, because the absurdity deserves to be said slowly. On October 30, Russia vetoed the American resolution. Algeria does not sit on the Security Council. It did not vote. It has no veto power. And yet Joe Wilson is demanding sanctions against it. It is like punishing the spectator at a match because the referee blew the whistle. Wilson is furious at Moscow — and he is taking it out on Algiers. The scapegoat, in all its splendor: when you cannot strike Russia, you try to strike Algeria.

The ghost law

And to "terrorize" the Polisario, Wilson dusts off his old rag: the H.R. 4119 bill, known as the Polisario Front Terrorist Designation Act. Filed on June 24, 2025. Eighteen months later, it is still sleeping in the congressional committees — never voted on, never adopted, never applied. A ghost law, resurrected at every crisis to scare. Wilson waves it like a scarecrow. But a scarecrow kills no one: it frightens sparrows, not a sovereign nation.

CAATSA, the cardboard threat

Even the sanction he brandishes is made of cardboard. Wilson invokes the CAATSA law (2017) to punish Algeria's purchases of Russian weapons. But CAATSA is not automatic: it requires an assessment, then a decision by U.S. authorities — one that has never been taken against Algeria. A congressman who "demands" does not sanction: he issues a statement. And a statement is not a policy — it is a posture. Wilson knows it. Morocco knows it. The world, for its part, is beginning to see it.

The mouthpiece

For the thing must be named. Joe Wilson is not a neutral observer: he is one of Morocco's most faithful relays in the U.S. Congress — the man who turned the "Moroccan Sahara" into an electoral stock-in-trade, funded and applauded by the Rabat lobby. His "indignation" of October 31 is not an analysis: it is a paid service. The Russian veto wounded him, because it wounded the Moroccan resolution he was carrying. So he tries to sanction Algeria — by proxy, on behalf of his client.

The conclusion

Algeria did not cast the veto. Algeria did not vote. Algeria does not even have a seat. And yet it is the only one Joe Wilson wants to punish. That is the scapegoat: an impotent anger looking for a culprit within reach. Let Wilson keep waving his ghost law and his cardboard sanction. The Security Council, for its part, has already voted — and his client's resolution is dead. Algeria, meanwhile, remains standing: it owes no answer to a man who speaks on behalf of another country, over a veto that a third one cast.