PRESS RELEASE
UN Covers Up for Saudi Killings of Yemenis—U.K. Blocked Probe!
Sept. 12, 2017 (EIRNS)—With Saudi Arabia again exposed in helping prepare the 9/11 attacks, activists against the Saudi genocidal war on Yemen believe U.S. arming of that war can be stopped. This week amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act to stop it may be voted on in both Houses; the Senate version failed by only 47-53 in July. According to today’s release from Robert Naiman of Just Foreign Policy, if five Democrats—Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Mark Warner (Va.), Bill Nelson (Fla.) and Joe Manchin (W.V.)—had voted for the amendment, the Senate would have blocked the Saudi arms deal.
A UN resolution, sponsored by the Netherlands, which would have created an international independent commission to investigate war crimes in Yemen, was blocked by the United Kingdom, which is providing the Saudi "coalition" with both arms and intelligence.
Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley have introduced amendments of the National Defense Authorization Act would which block the arming of Saudi Arabia’s war crimes in Yemen. Senator Young’s amendment would prohibit any arms transfer to Saudi Arabia until the Saudis stop bombing hospitals and stop blocking humanitarian aid. Senator Merkley’s amendment would prohibit the transfer of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia.
This is the e-letter Robert Naiman’s cohorts are using in meetings with the U.S. Senate and House. Several are 9/11 widows, including Kristen Breitweiser and Monica Gabrielle, others members of the VIPS, such as Bill Binney and Colleen Rowley; John Kiriakou, former CIA Counterterrorism office and former senior investigator, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Barbara Bodine, former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, (1997-2001); prominent law professors, international policy experts, prominent lawyers and activists.
Their statement says,
"Launched in 2015, the Saudi-U.A.E.-led war against the Houthi-Saleh alliance has directly led to the deaths of over ten thousand Yemenis. An ‘unwarranted’ blockade on imports of food and medicine enforced by Saudi warplanes and navy, according to Idriss Jazairy, United Nations special Rapporteur on Human Rights and International Sanctions, is ‘one of the main causes of the humanitarian catastrophe’ afflicting the country. ‘The blockade involves grave breaches of the most basic forms of human rights law, as well as of the law of armed conflict,’ he concluded."
The letter concludes,
"By invoking provisions of U.S. law allowing for the introduction of a privileged resolution to withdraw unauthorized U.S. forces from this conflict, you are reasserting the rightful role of Congress as the constitutionally mandated branch of government that must both declare war and retain oversight over it. We, the undersigned, encourage all U.S. Representatives to vote yes to this resolution. This measure strengthens U.S. governance to better comport with the Constitution, assists in reducing a genuine threat to national security posed by the expansion of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and promises to assist in ending the senseless suffering of millions of innocent people in Yemen."
