The shockingly brutal Saudi air campaign in Yemen has been led by American-made F-15 jet fighters.
The indiscriminate bombing of civilians and rescuers from the air has prompted human rights organizations to claim that some Saudi-led strikes on Yemen may amount to war crimes. At least 2,800 civilians have been killed in the conflict so far, according to the United Nations — mostly by airstrikes. The strikes have killed journalists and ambulance drivers.
The planes, made by Boeing, have been implicated in the bombing of three facilities supported by Doctors Without Borders (Médicins Sans Frontières). The U.N. Secretary General has decried “intense airstrikes in residential areas and on civilian buildings in Sanaa, including the chamber of commerce, a wedding hall, and a center for the blind,” and has warned that reports of cluster bombs being used in populated areas “may amount to a war crime due to their indiscriminate nature.”
Bombs dropped by fighter jets are pulverizing Yemen’s architectural history, possibly in violation of international humanitarian law.
A few years earlier, as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton made weapons transfer to the Saudi government a “top priority,” according to her closest military aide.
And now, newly released emails show that her aides kept her well-informed of the approval process for a $29.4 billion sale in 2011 of up to 84 advanced F-15SA fighters, manufactured by Boeing, along with upgrades to the pre-existing Saudi fleet of 70 F-15 aircraft and munitions, spare parts, training, maintenance, and logistics.
The deal was finalized on Christmas Eve 2011. Afterward, Jake Sullivan, then Clinton’s deputy chief of staff and now a senior policy adviser on her presidential campaign, sent her a celebratory email string topped with the chipper message: “FYI — good news.”
The email string was part of a new batch of emails from Clinton’s private server, made public on Friday evening as the result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
One American official, whose name is redacted in the emails, said he had just received confirmation that Prince Salman, now the king of Saudi Arabia but at the time the senior Saudi liaison approving the weapons deal, had “signed the F-15SA LOA today” and would send scanned documents the following day.
“Not a bad Christmas present,” he added.
Another official, whose name is also redacted, confirmed that a Saudi general who had been working with U.S. officials was “pleased, as are all of us,” and said he would soon contact executives at Boeing.
The congratulatory tone continues through the email chain with other officials, also with redacted names, calling the weapons deal “Great news!”
On December 26, Jeremy Bash, then-chief of staff at the Pentagon, sent the email string, titled “F-15SA Christmas Present,” to Sullivan, who sent it to Clinton with his own note at the top.
David Sirota and Andrew Perez have previously reported for the International Business Times that Clinton’s State Department was heavily involved in approving weapons sales to Saudi Arabia. As weapons transfers were being approved, both the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Boeing made donations to the Clinton Foundation. The Washington Post revealed that a Boeing lobbyist helped with fundraising in the early stages of Hillary Clinton’s current presidential campaign.
Jeremy Bash is now managing partner at Beacon Global Strategies, a consulting firm that provides advice to Clinton on foreign policy while providing paid advice to the military contracting industry.
Related:
- After Executing Regime Critic, Saudi Arabia Fires Up American PR Machine
- Lockheed Martin, Boeing Rally Around Saudi Arabia, Wave Off Humanitarian Concerns
- Inside Saudi Arabia’s Campaign to Charm American Policymakers and Journalists
Top photo: Yemeni men inspect the damage to a sewing workshop in Sanaa hit by a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on Feb. 14, 2016. The shop’s owner told AFP that “two employees, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed and 15 others wounded in the overnight air raid.”
I won’t take sides in this discussion. What is curious is why Americans seem unable to connect the dots. But perhaps it is simply because, if they do, the conclusion is too frightening. For argument’s sake, how far back should we go? A few years might be sufficient.
George H. W. Bush….former C.I.A. director, becomes 41st president…appoints Dick Cheney Secretary of Defence….Bill Clinton becomes 42nd president….appoints Robert Rubin, former chairman of Citigroup as Treasury Secretary, followed by Lawrence Summers, former member of the Bilderburg Group…George H. W. Bush’s son, George W. Bush becomes 43rd president….appoints Dick Cheney (you remember him) vice president…appoints Donald Rumsfeld, Gerald Ford’s former secretary of defence..his secretary of defence…appoints Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, as secretary of the treasury. As secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld oversees the Iraq invasion and as secretary of the treasury Henry Paulson oversees the multi-billion dollar taxpayer bailout of financial institutions. More recently, and the subject of this article, Hillary Clinton former secretary of state…facilitates the sale of Boeing fighter jets to the Saudis….the Saudis, and Boeing, generously donate to the Clinton Foundation, while Jeremy Bash, former chief-of-staff at the Pentagon…hires himself as her campaign advisor…and an advisor to defence contractors.
Maybe this has been too hard follow and I apologize. But for crying out loud! Can’t anyone possibly see a connection???
A thread??
also from Lee Fang:
“GOP Lawmakers Rip Obama for not Being Faithful Enough to Saudi Arabia”
https://theintercept.com/2015/05/20/saudi-arabia-republicans-obama/
The planes will land in Turkey on Friday. Saudi Arabia sent a ground crew to meet them Tuesday. This is a boon to the arms industry and a theft from taxpayers. Good time for a Taypayer revolt – we’re going in on the wrong side of a world war. I’m not the only one who has called it – Deutsche Welle already did before this news, and was it reported by any Western source? Certainly not in the UK, they’re equal partners in the Royal Saudi Air Force. – I’ll also be playing a broadcast in about 4 hours with coverage on http://ch0.us – where the streams are now a bit behind my others, but they’ll suddenly leap ahead.
Unfortunate that we must fight our own military – but they’re all over Facebook (and other “social” media) shutting down dissent more than usual, because the next 24 hours will be a turning point.
How can you NOT expect Hillary to be in on this?
2 sources linked below, sorry I didn’t include them with my comment –
(1) http://www.todayszaman.com/diplomacy_saudi-warplanes-to-arrive-at-turkish-base-on-friday_413252.html
(2) http://www.dsca.mil/major-arms-sales/saudi-arabia-f-15sa-aircraft
AND SHE GOT HOW MUCH IN RETURN When she was an Official with Department of State? That alone is a serious crime that should have gotten her fired and Arrested.
That this loathsome, warmongering harpy supports the world’s most corrupt and brutal theocracy should hardly be a surprise. KSA played a key role in 9/11 and sponsors mosques and madrasas worldwide that radicalise previously docile Muslims. Much of the funding from terrorist groups come from there. They also happen to be the US’s go-to oil supplier, best arms customer, and generous donor to politicians. The Bush family alone has raked in almost $1.5 billion from them, and the Clintons haven’t done too badly either, and have been favoured in return.
Do any of the emails show Clinton telling the Saudi’s to cut it out?
Maybe not… but the emails may, “show Clinton telling the Saudi’s to cut it “down.”
Glenn Beck on Donald Trump:
Seriously?
Sure. And “we don’t torture” either.
Bombing Yemen s like bombing a kindergarten, just to amuse the rsaf pretendjocks!
Hey Lee,
Sorry that I seem to come down so hard on you – not that you may care anyway – .
I broke my #1 rule: always talk to others the way that you would talk to your children -MEANING – always try to gently instruct them, or to communicate and listen, AND to never use words that would unnecessarily hurt their feelings or sense of self-worth.
While I apologize for my harshness, I do still stand strong on these issues. Take care Lee. God Bless you.
Like the rest of you, I despise Hillary, but this article is a piece of garbage. First of all, we sold planes to SA in 2011 so that THEY could defend their homeland and its western-bound oil against Iran — a noble cause. Nobody imagined that Yemen would descend into a civil war with rebel forces funded and supplied by the Iranians. Second, senators and secretaries of state regularly promote high ticket sales to foreign countries to promote the US economy. Perhaps Lee Fang and the commenters can step back and see past our shared dislike for Hillary and recognize this article as a pathetic excuse for investigative journalism.
Who on earth ever thought that Iran would invade Saudi Arabia and take over their oil? As far as destabilization in Yemen goes, there has been a historical rift there going back generations- both on religious, ethnic and political grounds. As far as previous knowledge of an invasion goes, the largest arms sale in US history was clearly not meant merely for self defense. They received weapons and arms systems designed to project power for an offensive war. “Ansar Allah (sometimes Anglicanized as Ansarullah), known popularly as the Houthis, a Zaidi group with its origins in the mountainous Sa’dah Governorate on Yemen’s northern border with Saudi Arabia, began waging a low-level insurgency against the Yemeni government in 2004.[59] The intensity of the conflict waxed and waned over the course of the 2000s, with multiple peace agreements being negotiated and later disregarded.
On a separate front in 2007 southerners started calling for secession of the South through peaceful protest, which was met with brutal force by government forces.
[60][61] The Houthi insurgency heated up in 2009, briefly drawing in neighbouring Saudi Arabia on the side of the Yemeni government, but quieted the following year after a ceasefire was signed.[62][63] During the early stages of the Yemeni Revolution in 2011, Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi declared the group’s support for demonstrations calling for the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.[64] Later in the year, as Saleh prepared to leave office, the Houthis laid siege to the Sunni-majority village of Dammaj in northern Yemen, a step toward attaining virtual autonomy for Sa’dah.[65]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemeni_Civil_War_%282015%E2%80%93present%29#Background
Sam, when she was Secretary of State, she GAVE, Saudi and other countries our fighter jets as Thanks You’s for the hundreds of millions of dollars they gave towards The Clinton Foundation..are you kidding me, you are ok with this? We pay for our military’s weaponry, we, the taxpayers paid for those fighter jets, she armed other countries, some of which are questionable, as far as, being allies is concerned, are you seriously ok arming other countries military with our weaponry, why? She gave our fighter jets to the very countries that house the radicals we are now trying to eradicate from this planet..whose side is she on? Whose side are you on? Do your homework, shes a dangerous individual.
She did the same thing with Russia gy giving them Uranium, once again for donations for The Clinton Foundation…Russia is allies with Iran..so of course Russia in turn gave uranium to Iran, in case you aren’t aware, Uranium is used to make nuclear warfare..so she gets Iran supplied and then turns around as though she had nothing to do with their ability to turn out nukes..she helped them, so tell me whose side is she on? How did her taking that money, and giving Russia huge amounts of Uranium, help keep this country or any other countries safer? It doesn’t matter with her, its always the same theme..MONEY, The Clinton Foundation, Money, The Clinton Foundation..She should have been put behind bars years ago.
http://m.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/22/1489185/-The-Definitive-Encyclopedic-Case-For-Why-Hillary-Clinton-is-the-Wrong-Choice
” First of all, we sold planes to SA in 2011 so that THEY could defend their homeland and its western-bound oil against Iran — a noble cause. Nobody imagined that Yemen would descend into a civil war with rebel forces funded and supplied by the Iranians.”
These statements are demonstrably false. Not only is Iran non-aggressive, it’s incapable of presenting a threat. However, its defensive capacity seems to be sufficient to make it a boogeyman for repressive Gulf regimes and their dupes in the US.
And as for a civil war in Yemen being a surprise—are you making some kind of lame joke? When has Yemen NOT been racked by civil war?
Guess the author of the article is ignorant of the fact that Saudi Arabia is a U.S Ally. We’ve suplied arms and fighter jets to many allied counties. Other powers do the same , like Russia, it’s why so many countries have Migs flying around. Just another ignorant article, written by an ignoramus, probably a Bernie Sanders clown. Millenials are the most ignorant of any demographic in the U.S. Taking a politician at their word is very cute. Sanders will tell you anything to get elected. Personally I’ll take the person with the most political experience, and history. That’s Hillary Clinton. Everyone makes mistakes, hell, Obama has made a ton, but people just give him constant passes. Say what you will about campaign finances , if you’ve been around as long as the Clinton’s ,people want to support you and contribute to your campaign. Lack of support is what just made Jeb drop out. If all of the banks are supposedly paying for their candidates to win, where were all the Bush fans on Wall St ? Surely they would have supported a long standing Banks supporter like the Bush family. Nope, didn’t happen. Point is, sometimes a contribution is just a contribution. Go Hillary !
http://m.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/22/1489185/-The-Definitive-Encyclopedic-Case-For-Why-Hillary-Clinton-is-the-Wrong-Choice
Good read. Saudi arm sales has been at the heart of every administration sense Nixon.
The troubling factor is Clinton’s indiscriminately will take money however it comes.
TRUMP’s Colleagues and opponents, who choose to focus on criticizing TRUMP, do so at everyone’s peril; it is exactly this failed approach that is costing them voter support everywhere. When the only thing candidates have that makes themselves relevant to voters, is to make their opponents look bad, they have already lost the race. Voters see right thru this and they do not care for it. Please don’t waste voter’s time and energy trying to make this election about gender, race, minorities or hatred. A blueprint to running a better campaign: Today’s only successful approach for TRUMP’s colleagues and opponents would be to present their own strengths and values to the voters, and let the cards fall where they may, and may the best candidate win! The odds are slim to none that most candidates will ever grasp this logic! It’s not complicated. It’s just requires common sense. Too bad common sense is in such short supply these days.
Stop blaming TRUMP for other candidate’s failures. Voters couldn’t care less about party affiliations. Today the majority of Americans are desperate to reverse the export of jobs, manufacturing and money out of America. Americans want a health care system that works for ALL Americans. Americans want to deal with terrorism and illegal immigration once and for all. Americans want the right leader with a vision that embraces measurable achievable solutions that focus on taking back America for ALL Americans. The political establishment’s endless disasters have failed Americans, not TRUMP.
American voters want a leader who can show them a way to restore faith in themselves and their country. When the majority of voters choose TRUMP as their next President then ALL Americans must accept this because we live in a democracy, or don’t we! At the end of the day will Americas get what they wish for or will Americans get what they deserve!
What has all that got to do with the Clinton Foundation taking bribes from Boeing and the Saudis?
Who knows. TRUMP!
She should go to prison and everyone of her cohorts.
I absolutely agree.
With the “abdication” of Jeb Bush the history of this bleak royal family shut a sad period of the history of the USA. I hope that the other “royal” family, the killin-tons, also finish for good in this lugubrious chapter in the history of the empire. Amen.
She’s horrendous. Republicans at least have the decency to express their bloodlust openly. Plus they don’t have the support of “liberals”, which makes her all the more dangerous.
Merry After Christmas everyone!! According to Lee Fang’s deep investigative reporting…
for THEINTERCEPT_
Emails found on Cackling Clintons’ private email server, even heavily redacted under the FOA, shows that the high-five congratulatory, festive, celebratory mood that Boeing and Cackling got to share toward more contracts, and more and more shelling, and devastation, of lives and left-over lives in Yemen and elsewhere. Yay!!
Yet this IS NOTHING NEW!!
And what else is news? The ‘Cackler’ tells us OUT LOUD on MSM, that Libya, Syria and IRAN, (Russia et al pending), are, just for starters, the reason we need MORE contracts with Boeing and those F-15s. Yay!!!
But wait a minute: isn’t this already all over the MSM? pretty much…
This news should not be a surprise to anyone with something going on upstairs.
But Lee does it again!!! Cut and Paste (from MSM and more)!!!
Just like his vitriol about those dastardly Doctors (with years, experience, commitment, self-sacrifice and dedication (as well as dealing with their surmounting student debt loans), dedicated to the relief and possible cure for human disease, pain and suffering.
But HEY, Lee knows better than the Doctors, because of government ‘surveys’ and ‘statistics,’ and his own intimate knowledge, and years of practice of medicine toward helping the ill and suffering.
Well, He got to Cut and Paste that one too!! But not without a little VERVE to want to imprison Doctors should they practice their profession, and sometimes prescribe their patients -<<<>>>!!!!!!!
Hey Lee, keep up the GREAT WORK for the MSM PROPAGANDA MACHINE!!
the word omitted – out of my commentary, with the <<<>>!!!!, toward the last sentence, was…….OPIATES!!! Not so sure why it got omitted, but Lee Fang is an advocate for imprisoning Doctors for prescribing opiates to their patients.
Correction I think. they are also called, “opioids.”
Now you are talking to yourself. Seriously…seek help.
Nete…
It is called making a correction when you have the integrity to do so. Seriously, not something that you would be used to…
In case you haven’t noticed, almost all of the 9/11 suicide operatives were from SA.
And SA is swallowing billions in losses to keep the price of oil low, in order to knock out American frackers.
And the bin Laden family has done over $1+ billion in business deals with the Bush family.
Do you have solar panels on your house and a wind generator? I do.
Do you drive an electric car? If not, you’re part of the problem, not the solution.
With all that being said, blaming Hillary for “war crimes” committed by SA F-15 pilots is like blaming the owner of a gun store for murders committed by their customers.
This affair looks to be one complex intersecting arcs of corruption. Wikileaks earlier had released State Department documents showing in late 2009 Hillary complaining that the Saudis and other ME oil tyrannies were not trying to stop major private funding of various Sunni violent groups. She personally urged the Saudis to do more. And then a year and half later she is giddy about arming the largest funder of terrorists in the ME? I have a feeling a lot of people on both the American MIC and Saudi side were complicit in any corruption, and it may not have started off with Hillary, it seems certainly to have finished with here.
Blast from the past.
Political animal much? yeesh
Hey, I’d vote for Athiest Dennis Kucinich and his hot, tall red-headed wife any day over Hillary. But he isn’t running. Moot point.
Religion isn’t the point.
YASSS FANG
Neil Ashton says it’s a trap
Repugnant that these people were cheering the sale of arms to the Saudis as a “Christmas Present.” Trump would have a field day with stuff like this in the general election. #feeltheBern
Especially when you consider that in the Saudi Kingdom it is illegal to even be a Christian, let alone to celebrate the nativity of our lord and savior Jesus Christ according to the flesh. I guess the provisions about religious freedom and freedom to change your religion that are integral to the declaration of human rights that every nation agrees to in order to sit at the table at the UN don’t apply to the medieval radical wahhabi kingdom. Their constitution is the koran. their law is shariah. Tolerating their intolerance is what we’re supposed to do as liberals, I guess. Now, let’s all focus on micro-aggression on campus! yawn.
I won’t hold my breath waiting for Clinton to be questioned about all this during the next debate. Maybe if you tell her how many women and children were killed with these bombs she would shed a tear.
So, we are just supposed to sit around and do nothing to help our Allies ?
Take God out of the question, it is fiction! Stick him or it up your useless ass’s!
War is dirty, get over it. Innocent people are always killed in war, Remember Hiroshima?
She shouldn’t. Bombs are made to be destroyed; that’s their purpose in life. So it’s pointless to become emotional over the loss of a bomb.
One can always make more bombs, thank God. And the little ones are so cute!
God, how can her supporters continue to vote for this woman?
Hillary Clinton =Madalyn Albright =Henry Kissinger. Yes Virginia, it is possible for a woman to be worse than a man; just ask any of the tens of millions of women who were abused by their mothers messing up their minds. Not to mention powerful ones like HRC who order murder on a giant scale.
Don’t know why the Saudis don’t just stone them. At least, they won’t be bombed by women from SA.
Here’s a thought is Hillary Clinton the antichrist that the Bible talks about who says the antichrist has to be a man will Hillary Clinton drive us all to damnation in a fiery death wish to sell the country out from under us
And Hillary got 10 millions for the speech to Saudis? Just guessing….
Tit for Tat.
So disappointed in The Intercept. On so many levels:
– The lack of knowledge of what’ has been really going on in the Middle East since the catastrophic American Iraq Invasion is just embarrassing.. So here’s the jest of your article Mr. Fang : When America invades an “Arab” country, it’s OK. Maybe not OK but just bad. But when a major Arab country tries to sort out issues on ITS OWN BORDERS, It’s evil evil regime bombing so many innocent people!!
– After the American Invasion of Iraq. Iran, a “Non-Arab” country simply took over! First it took over Iraq ( by bombing and inserting Shia militias and then eventually installing their representative as “president”) . Then Iran took over Syria with their puppet Asad. Iran has also Hezboullah militant group ruling the country of Lebanon AND helping Assad killing his own people. Then Iran sent their militia , the Houthis to take over Yemen by overthrowing Yemen’s government by force. After all that, when an “Arab” country in Saudi Arabie decides to stand up for the Arab people against an expansionist Iran that’s Non “Arab’, oohh they’re so evil and bad!!
– The writer of this article suggest that he cares soooo much about the Arab people of Yemen so much. Why don’t you talk about the many thousands who died by the Houthis “indiscriminate” killing of their borthers. If you care about “civilians” so much , why don’t feel for the 250 thousand Iraqis who have died by American “indiscriminate” bombing of them. WHen America does it, it for “freedom”. When Iran does it ( they’ve been doing for 13 years now), it’s OK. When Saudi Arabia, an Arab country does to protect its borders, oh they’re sooo evil!
-Before understanding any historical event, we have to determine where is the action first started. And where’s the “reaction” first occurred? The action in this context is Iran’s actions post Iraq’s fall till now. The reaction, again in this broad context, Saudi Arabia’s reaction to its infiltration to most Arab capitals by use of terrorist Militias .
– Finally about the Saudi Arabia topic, if you think what they are going through right now in the Arab world is just a “Saudi” situation,you’re embarrassingly mistaken! There’s a WHOLE Arab movement that is brewing right now in support for the an Arab country standing up Against a Persian Expansionist/ colonial project in our region.
– The idea that a respected Intercept article taking advantage of certain negative narrative about a country by the western media ( Saudi Arabia) for cheap political gains inside the current campaign seems a little below what I would expect from The Intercept.
Hillary is bought and paid for: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-03/every-hillary-and-bill-clinton-speech-2013-fees
BernieorBust.org
WontvoteHillary.com
Go Bernie Go!
Grear reporting Lee.
What is this illusion that we continue to believe. This country is built on imperialism, on manifest destiny, and the he American way is a consolidation of power by an wealthy elite that rule through bloodletting and war. It allows refugees and immigrants only for cheap labor and then rewards them with an isolated middle class existence, that has finally rotted away. Why do we ever believe that this country is some kind of beacon of peace? Ask the American Indians, but we don’t want to address that as most of us European or Asian immigrants and we are ethnocentric and have amnesia because we work hard for our front lawns and decorations. We just stay quiet because we have a lot of stuff to play with, drugs, TV. As the masters of war, we win by cutting throats and them smiling at Xmas.
The Saudi wahabbist monarchy doesn’t need to hijack passenger planes to get their way anymore.
Now it’s autocracy and Sharia Law for all in the region, backed up by American F-15s! USA! USA! USA!
Those who hijacked the planes darling were people the US happily supported to defeat the Soviets.
When they came back to roost. The American media( and the politicians behind them) completely hushed on the fact that America did indeed fund these “Jihadist” to defeat the Soviets. They just gave them a different label when they didn’t like them any more. .
I totally agree, darling. Now, we’re selling them F-15s instead of conventional weapons, so they can make sure our oil keeps coming cheap and and exclusively for U.S. Dollars. That is, NOT in Euros (Iraq, 2000), the Dinar (Libya, 2006), Russian Rubles (Syria, 2008) or any other non-U.S. Dollar currency. It also happens that the Saudi’s get the added bonus of being able to drop bombs on “dissent” in the region under the auspices of the “War on Terror”. A handy little system, unless you have to live in it!
If there is ANY doubt that the fix is in, read Jon Ralston’s column in today’s USA Today, in which he shows how the “neutral” Harry Reid and “neutral” head of the Culinary Union teamed up to sabotage Bernie’s surge in Nevada. The only hope I see is for Bernie and his team to take the gloves off and really go after her.
Lolol
How much money you get from Iran?
There are non sequiturs, and then there are non sequiturs. Yikes!
Apparently Sanders is the Iranian candidate.
Follow the money and it will always, always, always lead you to the feet of … none other than “Bonnie and Clyde” Bill and Hillary Clinton. They don’t just sell planes – they have sold their souls for the smell of the greenback.
Bad News: If selling weapons to Saudi Arabia is bad then you got a whole lot of bad people other than Just HC.
you sure do. A whole White House, Congress , Pentagon and Judiciary full….
Give this man a prize.
Yes we should let the Russians sell them their planes. Why not let them blow up and totally destroy any sense of peace in the middle east.
…and how much did Bill get for the speech?….
Somehow Hillary supporters will twist even this into a positive… Like her Iraq War vote.
“Any vote that may lead to war should be hard, but I cast it with conviction” -HRC
“Any time I murder and torture thousands of people, I do it with the supreme conviction that it is in their best interest….”
Americans are lulled into a complacent state. Until there are troops on the ground and the body bags come home, most Americans could care less. Cheap gas, I-phones and big Trucks and SUVS. god Bless America.
By any definition this is just a shakedown scheme and I can’t for the life of me understand why Americans tolerate it. The Clintons really ought to be in jail with the little guys that commit petty extortion.
And.. what did and do the Republicans think of this weapons transfer?
Oh that’s right, they were too busy in Congress opposing improving leg room in airplanes to have an opinion or even know about arming the Saudis. Maybe Republicans don’t even exist anymore. It was all a bad dream. They went the way of Jeb . There is only Hillary now.
Did Bernie oppose these sales? Does he have any plans to put the breaks on weapons sales?
What can the people do to stop it?
Did and does anyone in government believe we shouldn’t be selling weapons to 9/11 Saudi Arabia?
What about the CIA getting money from Saudi Arabia to train Daesh?
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/world/middleeast/us-relies-heavily-on-saudi-money-to-support-syrian-rebels.html
you know, I used to like it here. Now its just light and airy kind of shallow place that offers you information for the purpose of demanding that you do not vote for Hillary.
Very disappointing to see this site be taken over by special interest money but that is our creepy election process, that’s America. Its all about edgy attacks on personalities – politicians and voters – and guilt by association but nothing is allowed to change.
No, it’s not. Hillary Clinton is toxic. She’s worse than a Republican because she has people fooled into thinking she’s a “progressive.” Hordes of people brazenly defend her as such. In fact, she’s the worst sort of oligarchical hawk. Other than being pro-choice, she’s a Republican.
Bernie Sanders is too hawkish. But he has never claimed to be anything other than what he is. And he’s far, far less hawkish than the monstrosity that is Hillary Clinton.
The Intercept does a great service to truth exposing the horror that is Hillary.
Yeah I’m pretty sure Hillary Clinton has never spoken this idea, much less ever thought it:
https://theintercept.com/2016/02/22/in-1974-call-to-abolish-cia-sanders-followed-in-footsteps-of-jfk-truman/
That at one time in America its presidents and high ranking officials like JFK, Truman, Dean Acheson, Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, and Daniel Moynihan could at least broach the subject in public, shows just how far right this nation has actually descended.
If you read that article again the author questions whether Bernie actually said that. If he did then does he have the same opinion 42 years later?
I don’t understand your comment. Hillary is just like republicans but republicans are better because they aren’t claiming to be progressives? So the only thing wrong with Hillary in your opinion is that she isn’t a republican?
There are plenty of differences between Hillary and republicans like views on separation of church and state, climate change, and the existence of diversity. Have you heard how republicans talk about immigrants, Muslims and Islam? What about prayer in school? The Christian Nation?
I know you like to defend this site. I’ll say I originally came here because of the connection to Snowden and I am interested in the intelligence community and related issues. I had posted because I know some of those people have to read every comment. More direct than holding a sign, dontcha think? I watch the watchers. haha
Ah who am I kidding? its morbid curiosity. I should just let it go.
Is the Intercept going after Hillary for Bernie or for Republicans? Where is the criticism of Republican candidates?
I know I would really appreciate reading some articles that go beyond negative one sided Hillary campaign ads and actually support Bernie or get this conversation going that Bernie and his supporters want. What the heck do they want anyway? What about this socialism.
as secretary of state, she arranged for the sale of nearly invincible killing machines to a government with an abysmal human rights record, and in very short order those killing machines were used to commit acts that were widely considered to be crimes against humanity. both the systems manufacturer and the foreign government in question were and are major supporters of the former secretary’s presidential campaign and her family’s charitable foundation. maybe there isn’t an indictment in there — maybe — but to call this story an attempt at “guilt by association” is kind of silly.
Facts are hard. I hear the MSM is better at the fairy dust
I agree with you., Candice The world is a complicated place. We have to stop thinking that individual presidents can control events. I have no idea where BS stands. HRC has a complex history but I support her ( also in 2008) because she is smart and knowledgeable. All this other stuff is cherry picking and guilt by association.
Thanks for doing the serious journalism we no longer get from the New York Times.
This is bad for Clinton, how? She’ll steal some of Trumps votes with stories like this
How in the world is this not a violation of Article I Section 9? No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.
Her cheers were no doubt for her supporters in the MIC. I suppose part of her job as Secretary of State was to do whatever she could to encourage US sales abroad, and let’s face it, apart from agricultural goods and bad debts, weapons are our number one export. The US leads the world in the foreign sales of armaments, and not coincidentally Saudi Arabia is the number one importer of weapons. How much does Saudi Arabia import? Well, in 2014 their defense budget was $80 billion, larger than any country other than China and the US. Larger than Russia, larger than France.
Lately, with the fall in the price of oil, the Saudis have been having trouble balancing their budget. Will that deter them from large weapons purchases? If they use the US as a guide for fiscal responsibility, the answer must be “No”.
Hillary is no different from her predecessors going back as far as I can remember, in that US weapons are available to anyone willing to use them against our perceived “enemies”, that word in quotes because it could mean anyone.
The real BURN comes from peeling the layers of the onion. Unfortunately, Hillary supporters only get through the first few layers before they cower from the pain of reality.
how i despise that woman!
I could not agree more.
Vote Hillary because she might be a little better than Trump. Dont count on it though
or vote Gary Johnson.
No corruption here, move along.
that type of bribery is legal
@chasrliethreeee
That’s the definition of public corruption, which is illegal, and a crime under US statutes.
I really hope this is sarcasm…
Between the lying, the paranoia, the corruption, and the militarism, Hillary ia going to make Richard Nixon look like Pope Francis.
Let’s be fair to Hillary Clinton and have mercy. As a woman who had once upon a time brought a child into this world, she could not possibly have conceived that these jet fighters were anything more than trophies for the Saudi royals to proudly display, as they do their swords. The idea that any of the US machines might ever in the future be used as killer war-planes would have been, very simply, way beyond her ken.
Someone remind me again why we should vote for Clinton in November if Sanders looses the nomination.
We need to vote for Clinton in November to insure the continuation of perpetual war for no peace:
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/02/19/hillary-clinton-and-the-dogs-of-war/
Also, to be certain that the most hawkish pro-Israel candidate gets in there to continue assistance to Bibi in his continued “mowing of the grass” (when needed).
We MUST have her so our good ally Saudi Arabia can continue their war crimes (but not ours!!) in Yemen:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44272.htm
And most importantly, we need Hillary Clinton to do the “Obama Double-Cross Part Deux”. Especially after she suckers all the Sanders supporters into “trusting” that she meant one progressive word that came out of her lying mouth during the campaign.
Capesh?!
Because many of the Republican candidates would be worse, including Ted “Carpet Bomb” Cruz . . .
I just sent $50 to Bernie Sanders campaign so hopefully people won’t have to make that choice. I already know I won’t do it, but many others will which is on them not me. My vote has to be earned, it is a function of my conscience, and I will never be guilt-tripped, cajoled, belittled or fear-mongered into voting otherwise.
If the Democratic Party can do no better than Hillary Clinton as its nominee and should she lose because people like me cannot be convinced to vote for her, then that’s on her and the national Democratic Party–not me. I do not owe any individual my vote or any party my solidarity.
I’m all for having a fight for the soul and direction of the national Democratic Party over the next two or three presidential cycles (and in between) even if that means some interim losses. But voting for the same mealy mouthed economically neoliberal pragmatic foreign policy hawks like Hillary Clinton isn’t something I’m prepared to do. Simply not going to happen and if that results in harsh losses for the Dems then maybe they should figure out why that is the case.
Hey, guess what? I don’t care who you or anyone else votes for. I think the Bernie movement is being duped and I explained why. Take it however you will. It makes absolutely zero difference to me.
If it makes absolutely zero difference to you, then why do you even bother to make the effort to comment?
@ Candace
Fair enough. I don’t really care for who you vote for either. Just sharing my thoughts in a public forum where others share theirs.
But please don’t accuse those of us who will vote for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party primary as being “duped”. Most of us are well aware of Bernie Sanders flaws particularly in tepidly supporting, if not outright supporting, America’s misguided foreign policies whether it be economic hegemony/empire/arms sales or support for such repressive regimes as Saudi Arabia and Israel. In fact, most of us who support him in these comments section have specifically, and more than once, pointed out that his problems in that arena are one of our biggest areas of concern. We are hopeful, although none of us are convinced, that if elected those on the left (and/or together with the non-interventionist right/libertarians) might be able to exert enough influence on him to do things like slow down arms sales, or not-intervene or start civil wars, or unilaterally invade or engage in regime change, or maybe lessen or stop the use of drones (although he’s said he’d still use them but rarely). That’s a start if not a departure from the past going on decades. And it is a meaningful one in my humble opinion.
In an imperfect world, that might be the very best one could hope for out of an American politician with any chance of being elected. None of us are under the misimpression that any politician could or would try and correct every problem in America–it’s too much to ask of any human being or office holder. But there is value in finding and electing someone who might be able to advance those sorts of conversations on a national level. Whether or not Bernie Sanders can or will, I don’t honestly know.
But, again, if his foreign policy positions are a deal breaker for you, then again, I applaud you for voting your conscience. I have zero problem with that. But accusing everyone of being a “dupe” for Bernie Sanders means you don’t really understand the positions of your fellow commenters here. IMHO.
You are always free to scroll past mine if you find them a nuisance.
Bernie doesn’t just support Israel but supports the Palestinians as well… says so right on his site, that he believes they both have should have equal say. Although how they implement this is a mystery to me, that would involve taking homes away from those in Israel and giving those areas back to Palestinians right? But what else can you do, it seems like they’re backed into a corner… aka Gaza and the remaining pockets of land they occupy.
I usually skim over comments here but I have read yours.(and others)
concerning the Hillary issue you’ve mentioned a number of times why you wouldn’t vote for her like you were defending yourself. It’s looked out of place to me in this environment because I couldn’t see who was trying to convince you to do that. I figured it must be a circle of friends, family?? or just misreading your presentation.
Fast forward I actually talked to you about this recently
https://theintercept.com/2016/02/20/wall-street-analyst-says-hillary-clinton-would-be-the-best-president-for-healthcare-investors/?comments=1#comments
Maybe I was wrong but I replied earlier here to what looked to me like a dramatic interpretation of why I was talking to you. I thought that was irritating and disappointing (sentiments already in effect over what Lee Fang posted.) because even with all of your participation in group trolling of people who would vote for Hillary and group hate for Hillary (it feels like a gossip column here sometimes) you still seem like someone who had thoughtful opinions
About being duped: It surprises me that you would find that offensive. I already explained what I meant by it (on the thread I linked to in a few posts there) and also surprised because you are pretty crass about people who would vote for Hillary.
I know you’re not much older than me so its too early for memory loss. I wondered why you thought the Sanders movement, including conversations he could start wouldn’t suffer the same fate as Obama’s. Or why you believe Republican Congress would treat Sanders differently than Obama. And if you don’t believe that I was trying to understand where your enthusiasm for this candidate and election and attitude about a different opinion was coming from.
That isn’t a “you dumbass you should vote for Hillary” comment. I was curious to see if I understood what your reasoning was.
With foreign policy and the surveillance state –all matters in security there are no candidates that I support. Its a matter to me of weighing likely scenarios with the landscape that prospective candidates will be working in which includes the US population and politics.
Maybe I would understand the positions of my fellow commenters here if they spent more time discussing them rather than their dislike of one candidate and people that would consider voting for her. But you know, people will talk about whatever they want and its crazy election season.
Candice… I left a commentary, designated as #50, et al, but I was bit late to the ‘Article.’ I like what you wrote.
I have to say I only just now checked this thread because the thought of doing so gave me stress. ;-) Happens, you know.
I probably don’t need to mention it except so I can let myself get back to sleep but intend to get back here tomorrow
Thanks for the comment.
We think alike. I do not owe this wretched party my vote.
The only way to make your point is to write in Bernie Sanders when voting for president. THAT will show the DNC we mean business.
Unless he runs an official write-in campaign, many such votes won’t even be counted. If you REALLY want to show the DNC that you mean business, vote for Jill Stein; if she got 5% of the vote, the Green Party would become the nation’s third major party.
IF Bernie is not on ballot . …I am absolutely writing his name in November !
60 year old from Iowa .
To keep fascism alive.
Yay! this from the woman who is our inevitable candidate from the left
America the Free! Freedom to make your way! Why in the world would you support turning our free society into Socialism. It doesn’t work. It destroys countries. I don’t think they even reach our kids in school what it is…. Our country was founded to get away from government controlling every aspect of our lives. The whole world has been envious of our freedom. Now our young ppl are supporting Socialism and they have no idea why. Lord help us.
Yep, supporting , and defending it. They say it’s different from the Communist version. Meanwhile Sanders has enough evidence that’s easily googled that proves he was a big time communist supporter going back to the 60s. Sad.