The U.S. State Department has not addressed the legal ramifications of selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and could be increasing its exposure to war-crimes charges for top U.S. officials, according to a report last week.
The New York Times reported that President Obama’s State Department first raised the issue back in 2016, during the air war between the Saudis and Yemen. The conflict resulted in a high civilian death toll, and the inspector general from the department said officials at the Pentagon did not address some of the legal risks for selling the bombs.
The Times’ report was extensive and mentioned how the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia, in this case, was a unique one. The paper said never before has the U.S. provided such material support “that have caused the continuous killing of civilians.”
The Times, citing an estimate from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, reported 127,000 died in the war, including 13,500 civilians.
Human Rights Watch said the war in Yemen is approaching its seventh year and – aside from the deaths – the organization documented 1,605 “cases of arbitrary detention and 770 cases of enforced disappearance by all parties to the conflict.” Saudis and their geopolitical allies are almost fighting a proxy war with Iran and are trying to defeat Iranian-backed Houthis in the country.
Nicholas Goldberg, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, wrote a column recently that was critical of Obama for taking so long to restrict the bomb sale to the Saudis. The article also blamed President Trump for increasing sales again and then vetoing an effort by Congress to produce a bipartisan resolution.
“Since then, a wedding party and even a school bus have been bombed with U.S.-made weapons supplied to the Saudi coalition forces,” he wrote. A coalition jet dropped a U.S.-made bomb on the bus that killed 54 people, including 44 children, The Times reported.
Goldberg wrote the war in Yemen “has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.”
According to the U.N., some 80 percent of Yemen’s population of 24 million need humanitarian assistance and protection; 20 million of which need help securing food and almost 10 million considered “one step away from famine.”
“If we know they’re being committed with our weapons, and if the country we’re selling to is refusing our advice to change its behavior, from that point on we are complicit. And the Saudis have consistently refused our advice even as they have taken our weapons,” Rep. Tom Malinowski said, according to the column.
The New York Times report, which cites legal scholars, said the U.S. knew these weapons would be used on the civilian population and, hence, these U.S. officials become legally vulnerable in international courts.
TRENDPOST: As we have been reporting since the outbreak of the Yemen war, it was launched from Washington, D.C., by the Saudi Ambassador to the United States in March 2015.
Long forgotten was President Barack “The Nobel Piece of Crap Prize Winner” Obama’s strong support for a war that has devastated Yemen, the poorest nation in the Middle East.
This is how Reuters reported America’s involvement following the Saudi announcement on 7 April, some two weeks after the Saudi’s attacked Yemen:
U.S. expedites arms shipments to coalition bombing Yemen
RIYADH/ADEN (Reuters) –The United States is speeding up arms supplies and bolstering intelligence sharing with a Saudi-led alliance bombing a militia aligned with Iran in neighboring Yemen, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S., a key ally of oil-rich Saudi Arabia, had also set up a coordination center in the Sunni Muslim kingdom, whose forces have led an air campaign against the Shi’ite Houthi group which rules most of Yemen.
“Saudi Arabia is sending a strong message to the Houthis and their allies that they cannot overrun Yemen by force,” he told reporters in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
“As part of that effort, we have expedited weapons deliveries, we have increased our intelligence sharing, and we have established a joint coordination planning cell in the Saudi operation center,” Blinken added.
And this is from The Council on Foreign Relations six months after the Saudi’s launched the war:
Nevertheless, since March 25, the United States has been providing in-air refueling, combat-search-and-rescue support (including the rescue of two Saudi pilots whose helicopter crashed in the Gulf of Aden), detailing forty-five intelligence analysts to help advise on target selection, and redoubling weapons exports and contractor support to the GCC countries.
Indeed, Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the United States is primarily as a source of cash for weapons. Since October 2010 alone, the Obama administration has agreed to sell $90.4 billion in weapons to the Gulf kingdom, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Yet, these facts are ignored by The New York Times whose reporting has become bias, taking positions for who and what they support rather than reporting as a member of the Fourth Estate.