Exclusive: As Saudis bombed Yemen, U.S. worried about legal blowback
The Obama administration went ahead with a $1.3 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia last year despite warnings from some officials that the United States could be implicated in war crimes for supporting a Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians, according to government documents and the accounts of current and former officials.
State Department officials also were privately skeptical of the Saudi military's ability to target Houthi militants without killing civilians and destroying "critical infrastructure" needed for Yemen to recover, according to the emails and other records obtained by Reuters and interviews with nearly a dozen officials with knowledge of those discussions.
U.S. government lawyers ultimately did not reach a conclusion on whether U.S. support for the campaign would make the United States a "co-belligerent" in the war under international law, four current and former officials said. That finding would have obligated Washington to investigate allegations of war crimes in Yemen and would have raised a legal risk that U.S. military personnel could be subject to prosecution, at least in theory.
Ironically, the U.S. government already had submitted the Taylor ruling to a military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to bolster its case that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other al Qaeda detainees were complicit in the Sept 11, 2001 attacks.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-saudi-yemen-idUSKCN12A0BQ
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The mask is starting to slip. We are a nation of genocidal war criminals and we do it for one reason. To make money:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/02/the-company-getting-ric...
http://www.globalresearch.ca/blood-money-these-companies-and-people-make...
If you look at that second link, you'll find the names of a number of companies who have supported and donated to the Clinton creature. And why not? Why would they not support her? They are making money hand over fist. Every time a bomb is dropped on a village of Yemeni civilians by the Saudis, US corporations know there will be future orders to replace the 'stock' that has been 'used'. Or to put it another way, they will need more bombs to kill more children, old people, and innocents who don't have anywhere to run or hide. And not only in Yemen, but in areas all over the Middle East, in the Americas, in Africa, in the Ukraine. Anywhere there is money to be made by our MIC, there will be Americans selling killing machines and armaments.
Between Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Kerry, there would be enough work to keep an honest war crimes tribunal busy for a long long time. I would include the bush**/cheney cabal in that scenario, but they were given a get-out-of-jail card by President Peace Prize way back when there was still an opportunity to try to do something to get our country off the path of eternal war. What we found out, much to the dismay of many of us, was that Obama was just blowing smoke up our collective ass. People beat Clinton over the head for openly supporting Shock and Awe. How about those that lied? Like this guy:
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(NOTE: This is a link to a quote from Obama's 10/2/2002 Speech on going to war in Iraq :)
But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history. I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the middle east, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.
So for those of us who seek a more just and secure world for our children, let us send a clear message to the President today. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's finish the fight with Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings. You want a fight, President Bush?
Let's fight to make sure that the UN inspectors can do their work, and that we vigorously enforce a non-proliferation treaty, and that former enemies and current allies like Russia safeguard and ultimately eliminate their stores of nuclear material, and that nations like Pakistan and India never use the terrible weapons already in their possession, and that the arms merchants in our own country stop feeding the countless wars that rage across the globe. You want a fight, President Bush?
Let's fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil, through an energy policy that doesn't simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil. Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that we willingly join. The battles against ignorance and intolerance. Corruption and greed. Poverty and despair.
https://web.archive.org/web/20070418194951/http://www.barackobama.com/20...
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(NOTE: Me again)
Now, that was some record setting bovine excrement.
We wanted to believe this guy's smooth line of talk. Many of us knew better, many didn't. But in the end, we're all screwed because he's calling the shots now and the horrific creature that he knew was a war loving snake in the grass 8 years ago is now expected to carry out his 'legacy'. And even though we ARE guilty as sin in the murders of innocents in the Middle East, don't expect anything like reform and/or regret to ever come of it. We as a nation have lost our way.
Next up at bat? Her Heinous, the seller of lies and death.
Comments
Gotta love the House of Saud
They've bought literally billions of dollars worth of armaments over the years, but essentially 'wetted their pants' when faced with Saddam Hussein (see dodgy/possibly disloyal armed forces/institutions).
Yet happily display their manhood in bombing those in the back-of-beyond that is Yemen.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Yemen and Afghanistan, among the poorest countries on Earth
So where does the Empire pile in with full force?
The least and lowest omega of the have-nots: painted as somehow presenting the biggest threat evah to the most mega alpha of the haves.
We've been doing this for decades. At last
it is coming to light in a big way.
Is this all we have to sell anymore? All manner of military weapons and Hollywood?
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
We don't do manufacturing anymore, what is there to sell?
We don't even make the things we need. China, India, etc, they have it all.
We do have the "may I take your order please" market covered. But that's not going to help.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
That's what I'm saying
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
Well that's not what I got out of it but anyway, excuse me.
EDIT: now/not
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
seriously though
all yemeni children are murderous terrist and must be DE-STROYD.
bombs or cluster bombs, the more the better.
fucking children.
GIANT ALL-CAPS SIG
Brown on brown
bombing is ok though.
Just remember, if it weren't for the black on black killings, we'd have no excuse for killing them.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
The U.S. isn't just the "co-belligerent" of the Yemen war,
it's the primary belligerent. The Saudi's are doing some of the dirty work like in Syria but this is another U.S. led war for U.S. imperialism. Yemen is a valuable area to control, off the coast is one of the world's seven oil checkpoints and of course there's oil and minerals. The U.S. has been fomenting strife there for decades.
So the question whether the U.S. should be implicated for war crimes in Yemen should be an easy one, yes. But as usual, the truth is upside down.
I wish that I still believed in God
Because then I would know that all these people who have voted for or ordered the invasions of countless countries knowing that doing so would send them to a special place in Hell.
I just can't wrap my head around how so many people don't give a second thought to the millions of innocent people who will be killed in a horrible way when they vote to invade or bomb a country.
Or vote for sanctioning countries knowing damned well that the sanctions aren't going to affect the leaders of the countries they sanction but the people in them because they won't get access to food, medicine and other items that they need to live.
Albright said it was worth it for over 500,000 Iraqi children to die because of the sanctions. Worth what? What was accomplished because of the sanctions? It didn't affect Saddam in any way and Clinton and Bush still bombed the hell out of Iraq and then the military was sent in to kill more people who hadn't done anything to our country.
And most of the American people didn't have a problem with our troops kicking in people's doors in the middle of the night and killing more people.
The only people's deaths that counted in their minds was our soldiers and what did they die for? Seriously, what did their deaths or injuries accomplish?
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey got mad at Assad when he told them no, they couldn't build their own pipelines so they bombed his country.
The Saudis told Kerry that they would fund removing Assad, but Obama asked himself how he could order people to risk their lives so that Saudi Arabia and other countries could build a pipeline. Apparently he decided that he could do that.
(I read this in an article that I can't find the link to. And I realize that Obama doesn't have a problem ordering our troops to go to countries or have a problem killing people with his drones. Hell, he knew that the CIA gave his moderate terrorists the sarin gas that killed 1,000 people so that he would have an excuse to tell the American people why he was going to bomb Syria and they would agree that Assad was a bad man that has to be removed from office.
I think it's our government, the people in the CIA , the pentagon and military generals and anyone else who is on board with US hegemony that needs to be removed from office and charged with war crimes.
Over 250,000 Syrians are dead but Assad is still alive.
And the Syrian people are dying from lack of medicines and food because of the sanctions against Assad. I'm sure that Assad had a nice dinner before he went to bed tonight, but how many of his people didn't? Or even have a place to sleep?
Why are people still joining the military and believing that they need to risk their lives and leave their families without one of their parents?
I keep hearing that people are joining the military because there aren't any other jobs. Seems a stupid reason to me to risk their lives in order to make a living wage, which isn't actually a decent wage because many military families need to rely on food stamps.
How does this make sense?
I'm watching the latest Star Trek movie and the Enterprise has just docked at the outpost.
If you haven't seen the movie, this outpost is incredible.
It's a huge city in the middle of nowhere in space and when I first saw it, it made me wonder if humanity, especially the United States hadn't spent the last century wasting money on all of the wars, is there any chance of humans exploring space on Starships like the Enterprise?
I like to imagine that we could be.
But even if we weren't exploring space on starships, I can imagine using those Quadtrillions of dollars that was spent on wars and doing other incredible things with it and living life in peace.
Sigh
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Thomas Friedman explained very well what it’s all about
We have to have American boys and girls going house to house kicking in doors in the middle of the night as a way of telling the entire Muslim world to “suck on this.”
Feigning outrage about Trump’s attitude and language while keeping Thomas Friedman in a cushy gig at the New York Times as “America’s foremost political columnist” — yeah, that’s convincing.
There are some people on this planet that need to be
isolated from the rest of us because they are so toxic. And they're dangerous because America is just chock full of complete fucking morons and they listen to these people. People like Judy Miller, Rush Limbaugh, Joe Scarborough, Charles Krauthammer, George Will, and William Kristol, and the like. That list could never be, would never be, complete without this jackass's name right up there in the Top Ten.
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friedman unit
A period of time equal to six-months, named in honor of New York Times columnist Tom Friedman for his repeated pronouncements that conditions in Iraq will improve "in six months."
"This time I really mean it - - we're just a friedman unit away from victory over the terrorists."
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=friedman%20unit
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Americans are ignorant. They haven't seen battlefields in this
country since the Civil War so they aren't really all that familiar with all it's bloody realities. And they are too damn arrogant to think that it can ever happen to us.
Americans don't know what to do when trouble strikes. Look how easy the cops were able to shut down Boston during the hunt for younger bomber. They commanded the people of the city to stay indoors. And they did. They shut down an entire American city because they could, not because it was necessary.
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Boston is on LOCKDOWN as the ENTIRE CITY told to stay indoors during manhunt for the second bombing suspect
Police order all residents to stay inside as the manhunt continues for the second suspect, identified as Dzokhar Tsarnaev
Public transport system shut down
Amtrak service stopped north of New York
All public schools and 16 colleges are closed today as well as UMass-Dartmouth where Dzokhar was enrolled
Red Sox game scheduled for this evening now postponed
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2311634/Boston-LOCKDOWN-ENTIRE-c...
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Americans are such stupid sheep,
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
IMO, the Boston incident was a trial run on Martial law
They wanted to see how people would react in a situation like that and the stupid sheep complied.
The cops would tell people that they needed to enter their houses to look for Dzohkar even though there wasn't any proof he was even in the area and people willingly complied with them. No warrants were required because people let them enter their houses.
Then what would have happened if the cops found drugs or anything else that was illegal?
Yep, they did it because they could, not because it was necessary.
I didn't know that Amtrak was shut down in such a large area. Another test run.
And his arrest was very suspicious as were his injuries and the note he conveniently left them.
And just like on the days of 9/11, the London subway bombing and one other event, during the Boston bombings there were safety drills happening when the incidents happened.
Washington, D.C. has the most regulated air space in this country, yet those planes were able to fly for over an hour without one damned jet scrambled? Seriously?
The brothers had been under CIA investigation, their uncle called the authorities about them.
The underwear bomber was allowed to buy a one way ticket and had no luggage when that was a red flag and one of his family members had also contacted the authorities. Yet he was able to buy a ticket?
After him and the shoe bomber, the TSA cracked down again on what was allowed on planes and after everything that the TSA said was unacceptable, the sheep went along with it.
People are still taking their shoes off and not one person ever questions why handicapped people in wheelchairs, military veterans with prosthetics, young kids having their diapers checked and other stupid pat downs on people who don't look like terrorists.
I only flew once after the TSA was formed and I will admit that I didn't read the instructions, but I was flying to a cow roundup and wore a western shirt with metal snaps instead of buttons and set off the alarm. Instead of asking me to remove it and send it through the scanner and then going back through the metal detector, I was shuffled off for a pat down.
After that I refuse to fly again and I wish that more people would have boycotted flying until the TSA bullshit was reversed.
But people not only accept what the TSA puts them through, they also line up like sheep at football, baseball, basketball and other events and lets the goon squads illegally search their belongings.
The powers that be keep pushing for more restrictions on our liberties and people willingly let them because they think it makes them safe.
Nothing is going to keep people safe from crazy people who shoot up the malls or streets or anywhere else attacks have happened.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Oh most definitely it was a trial run at martial law. That has
always angered me. It angered me then and it angers me now. For me that was a huge turning point in this country. Coupled with what the NSA has been doing lo us these past couple decades, it finally made me really stop and wonder where all this 'liberty' and 'justice' that we were taught pledge our allegiance to went.
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
I was born shortly after WWII ended. In 1949. I remember a time when people cared. I also remember that there were good people willing to fight and sacrifice for others. A man could support a family on his paycheck. It was a time when we had a chance to level the playing field for everyone. And it seems like this country still had a soul. Now it's just a money making organization run by and for the 1%. And we're about to elect one of the worst players in our country's history to the Presidency. One who, along with her hubby, put us firmly on the path to neo-liberalism and the Third Way. The Clinton's share a central role in all the lies and deceptions that pretty much drove the metaphorical knife smack through the heart of the 'American Dream'.
People today are willing to give up their rights, your rights, my rights, everybody's rights at the first sign of 'trouble'. THAT IS WHEN YOU NEED TO STAND UP FOR THEM THE MOST. And that pledge is nothing but a joke.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
stop selling weapons of mass destruction
the Obama administration is ruthless in selling weapons and arms used for killing innocent people
Hillary is worse than Obama because she will actually start wars
She is already planning on starting a war with Russia as soon as she gets into office, followed by North Korea
She will send troops and bombs into Russia, then Syria, then North Korea
Congress will agree with her and approve the wars
Congress hates Trump and will never approve anything he does/wants, so nothing will actually happen
Vote Jill not Hill
The major question I have when HRC is coronated is "where"?
Your list of possible war targets is very plausible. The first on my list is Iran. Sending troops into Russia won't happen--there WILL BE mutually assured destruction before that happens.
This (just found in my inbox)
This (just found in my inbox) is a domestic start, after a long and hard fight of over 14 years to even have it accepted by the Supreme Court as a case - please, don't let this beginning fall by the wayside!
(Sorry, no email address out of my inbox one.)
The abuses of the Bush Administration must be addressed so that the corrupt can no longer use their irresponsible, illegal and unconstitutional actions as precedents which they and others can follow and expand upon - as they have, and are, doing.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.