The Trump administration is engaged in a last-ditch lobbying effort to stop the Senate from condemning a $500 million weapons transfer to Saudi Arabia as the kingdom wages a brutal, U.S.-backed war in Yemen.
After President Donald Trump signed a hastily-assembled $110 billion weapons deal during his visit to Saudi Arabia last month, Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Al Franken, D-Minn., introduced a bipartisan resolution of disapproval for a transfer of precision-guided weapons. If passed, it would force the Senate to vote on whether to block the transfer.
Ahead of a vote scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, however, senior officials from the State Department and Pentagon are holding a top-secret briefing on the arms sale to persuade the senators and their staff to support it, according to an invitation obtained by The Intercept.
The briefing, which was organized by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will be conducted by Tina Kaidanow, the State Department’s acting assistant secretary for political-military affairs, and Timothy Lenderking, deputy assistant secretary for near-eastern affairs. Both are career officials at the State Department, not political appointees. They’ll be joined by an unnamed brigadier general-level Defense Department official.
“It’s really unfortunate that Senate majority leadership decided to hold this briefing in secret,” said Kate Kizer, advocacy director at the Yemen Peace Project, which opposes the arms deal. “Americans deserve to know the conduct of our allies, especially when the U.S. is intimately involved in starving potentially millions of Yemeni civilians by continuing to provide unconditional support to the Saudi-led coalition.”
After Saudi Arabia bombed a funeral hall in October in its war against Houthi rebels in Yemen, the Obama administration put a temporary hold on a sale of precision-guided munition to the Persian Gulf dictatorship. An Obama administration official told Reuters that they halted the sale because of “systemic, endemic” problems with Saudi Arabia’s targeting decision.”They’re not picking the right targets,” the official said, citing the funeral bombing.
The Trump administration, though, wasted no time in reversing the decision and moving forward with the sale.
Amid the bi-partisan clamor against the deal, Murphy, a liberal on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has emerged as a leading opponent of the arms transfer.
“The Saudis will tell you they need these precision-guided missiles to more effectively target Houthi military assets inside Yemen,” Murphy said on a press call last week. “They’re not telling the truth. The fact is, they have deliberately targeted humanitarian and civilian assets within Yemen. They are purposefully trying to create a humanitarian nightmare — that they can starve the Yemenis to the negotiating table. The United States should not be a part of that strategy.”
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia has waged a brutal war of collective punishment in Yemen. Houthi rebels had ousted the Saudi-backed leader in 2014. A U.S.-supported naval blockade has left 19 million people — more than two-thirds of the country’s population — in need of life saving aid and 7 million on the brink of starvation and famine. Meanwhile, the Saudi air force has deliberately bombed food sources — like farms and fishing villages — as well as factories, hospitals, and children’s schools.
The U.S. has been a constant partner in the war since the beginning. Under President Barack Obama, the U.S. provided Saudi Arabia with targeting intelligence, helped refuel Saudi aircraft, and resupplied the Saudi military with more than $20 billion in weapons.
Murphy and Paul tried to pass a similar resolution of disapproval during Obama’s presidency last fall, but the measure failed by a 71-27 vote.
Top photo: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, right, welcomes President Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump prior to their meeting at Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 20, 2017.
No matter how you cut it, the profit motive in weapon sales exceeds any rational of Saudi Araba or any other country in the middle east’s claim of protection.
Its strictly who’s awarded with the contract and how to avoid congressional opposition. The casualties or political blowback are merely collateral damage.
see incomplete compilation of articles by Greenwald re: US lies and aggression toward Iran here https://www.facebook.com/events/386573454729656/permalink/392467460806922/
recommended:
The United States and Iran: Two Tracks to Establish Hegemony
http://petras.lahaine.org/b2-img/petras_iran_usa.pdf
Ya know, the U.S.’s strong support for Saudi Arabia shows that the U.S. doesn’t give a damn about democracy, massive amount of lies and propaganda to the contrary. The U.S. cares about oil and other resources, and about geopolitics, not democracy, real free speech (as opposed to BS like commercial speech, lies, and hate speech which deserve no protection), civil liberties, or any other high-minded ideals.
Are we not supposed to know that they’re arming Saudi Arabia to fight Iran?
Americans have supported doing something stupid against Iran because they were told it would protect Israel. That has never made sense. Looks more like a move that will be turned against Israel.
It would be helpful if Israeli officials spoke up and said something to to the effect of ” you know that problem with Iran we’ve been talking about? Well we were just letting off some neighborhood steam (its hot over here you know) We really wanted a more constructive relationship with our neighbors. How do you do that? Americans used to be nice, full of noble ideas… naturally we thought.. oh I suppose we just sort of kicked the can down the road for a bit too long. So never mind about all that with Iran. We’ve been talking, dinner dates etc turns out its not that complicated. There’s no need to surround us in a sectarian war. We got this”
Yeah so how do we ensure those weapons aren’t used against the US by SA proxies/mercs?
Doen’t matter, right.
I pray for the whole region and all the innocent victims. Thank you for helping me to understand.
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Imagine ISIS getting hands on these weapons.
I was reading this ( http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/06/qatar-diplomatic-crisis-latest-updates-170605105550769.html ) and it left me wondering if the whole crazy thing with Qatar is all about starving Yemenis. Apparently the Saudi Arabian led group accuses Qatar of terrorism in large part because of Qatar Charity, which the UN made a supportive statement about saying they worked with them in a nonpolitical way, but the Saudis call terrorist. And Qatar Charity has been active in Yemen, which the Saudis want to starve to death. Is this a valid inference?
I hope you don’t mind if i take a poke at this. The first thing I would point out is that aljazeera will definitely support the Qatari point of view since they own it. This sudden cutting of ties might actually be due more than one factor.
The support of Qatar to destabilizing regimes in the region (Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Gaddafi in Libya, Hamas in Palestine to undermine PLO).
Supporting jihadi elements aggressively in Syria and other parts (Nusra).
The biggest issue I believe, was negotiating a deal between jihadi factions in Syria, Hezbollah, Iran and Qatar that is tied to 26 Qatari royals on a jolly hunting trip in Iraq. This deal involved the release of the hostages after more than a year, large sums of hard currency to a group considered terrorist to everyone but their allies and relocating Sunni villages in Syria over the course of a week, thereby creating a corridor that links Hamas in Palestine, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Assad in Syria, Iraq and Iran. This poses a risk to countries in the region ranging from Israel to Saudi Arabia. Having said all that, there is a humanitarian crisis in Yemen, and Saudi has never denied that. I hope the Yemeni people find peace soon and the Middle East can use all of the peace it can get.
Consider this though, there is an actual UN resolution supporting the Saudi perspective and ample evidence of Iranian supplying the Houthis. Also, this adds another dimension to the Saudi/Qatari relationship since Qatar was part of the Yemen Coalition, which they are also no longer part of as a result of this rift.
Only psychopaths support the Saudi perspective. Their end is near, which is why the ruling class is swinging wildly. All that money and support from the most powerful nations on earth and they still can’t enslave or eliminate all the Shia in the region, which is their desire. They don’t know how to think because their confidence isn’t organic. Money masks their stupidity.
Qatar is just a deflection. Those criminal gangs and terrorists they’ve armed throughout the region will turn their guns on the them in the near future.
Hubris and arrogance will always destroy the most corrupt rich and powerful people in the end because they live a lie. They start to believe their own bull.
An interesting answer! I found the relocation you mentioned here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/14/besieged-syria-towns-evacuated-as-regime-and-rebels-begin-huge-people-swap I don’t know what to make of the hunting trip – I see stuff claiming the money is still in Iraq, though I am skeptical; it doesn’t really make sense they were just hunting by the edge of a war zone … there’s not much there that convinces me I have any idea what is going on.
We know how this will ultimately turn out. Iran, a Shia nation for the most part is a terrorist state, and Qatar, home of our biggest hegemonic base the Middle East are the new pariahs for this fcuked up country to meddle wage war with…. oooh, I forgot The Phillapines where mysteriously ISIL has appeared. What a effin’ mess.
The U.S. is far more of a terrorist state than Iran is. The U.S. and Britain overthrew Iran’s democratically elected leader in 1953, imposed their puppet the Shah, and created the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, which turned into the Taliban, which turned into Al Qaeda, which turned into ISIS. You’re just repeating U.S. propaganda like another brainwashed fool when you complain about Iran being a terrorist state.
To be clear, I hate religion and don’t support any theocracies like Iran, but they are very far from being the main bad guy in this area of the world.
The Saudis fund and arm our enemies in addition to attacking the innocent.
The few Americans who would benefit the most financially from these arms deals are profiting at the expense of our national security, the members of our military who will pay the ultimate price in dealing with the consequences, the innocent civilians here and abroad who will likewise pay with their lives, and our stated values (even if those are routinely broken).
The fact that this sales pitch is being conducted in secret speaks volumes about the legalized corruption in our two party establishment, and the politically untenable, craven nature of the arguments that will be made in favor of the deals.
Our country’s 50+ year support of terrorists and criminal gangs needs to be exposed. And, it’s not just the GCC, it’s NATO, Turkey being the main conduit and Likud, all supported by Neocon ideology in this country. They all get to blame Muslims and Iran, sometimes Russia, to stir up the most gullible among us, while they funnel these same weapons to groups that disparage the religion. It’s the biggest lie we’ve endured over the last couple of decades.
As always the weapons will be aimed at Europe, other Muslims and eventually the US. Many Dems have supported this policy (Hillary, Schumer, Feinstein, etc.). The GOP is all aboard but at least they are honest.
Can some journalist please expose everyone who have been involved with our death policy? The blowback will be severe if we don’t end it now. Once Al Qaeda overthrows the leaders in the GCC, there will be no plausible deniability. That coup will come sooner than people think. Al Qaeda and direct affiliates are much more globally connected to the infrastructure that keeps this policy alive.
Our foreign policy is a joke.
Say it ain’t so buttercup. Totally agree. Is god dead or just napping? Oh he is an illegal alien. Shoot first and ask no questions. The devil runs our country like a swiss watch on time all the time never quits. Shame on our religious leaders for not speaking out. But then those massive churches we see everywhere now have no room for god. It’s all the bible to them. Mans gift to man. A piece of paper not even worth a butt wipe.