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Category: saudi arabia

  • Saudi woman given 34-year prison sentence for using Twitter

    Salma al-Shehab, a Leeds University student, was charged with following and retweeting dissidents and activists

    A Saudi student at Leeds University who had returned home to the kingdom for a holiday has been sentenced to 34 years in prison for having a Twitter account and for following and retweeting dissidents and activists.

    The sentencing by Saudi’s special terrorist court was handed down weeks after the US president Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia, which human rights activists had warned could embolden the kingdom to escalate its crackdown on dissidents and other pro-democracy activists.

    Continue reading…

  • Weeks after Biden fist-bumps Saudi prince, US OKs $5 billion in Gulf arms deals

    Common Dreams Logo

    This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Aug. 2, 2022. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons license.

    Peace campaigners on Tuesday decried the Biden administration’s approval of more than $5 billion in missile sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a move that came weeks after US President Joe Biden visited the leaders of both countries despite pleas from human rights defenders.

    The US Department of Defense said the US State Department approved the $3.05 billion sale of 300 Raytheon Patriot MIM-104E missiles to Saudi Arabia, as well as 96 Lockheed Martin Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missiles worth $2.25 billion for the UAE.

    The move came just after the extension of a United Nations-brokered truce in Yemen, where a US-backed, Saudi-led coalition that includes the UAE is waging a war against Houthi rebels backed by the Iranian government. The sale’s approval also comes days ahead of a virtual Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) ministerial meeting.

    Citing “persistent Houthi cross-border” drone and missile attacks against Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said the proposed sales “will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a partner country that is a force for political stability and economic progress in the Gulf region.”

    However, anti-war voices argued that such sales will only prolong a seven-year war in which more than 300,000 people have been killed, millions have been displaced, and millions more face hunger and disease in what’s widely considered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

    Yemeni independent journalist Naseh Shaker tweeted that US professions of commitment to peace in his war-ravaged nation are belied by the Biden administration’s desire to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia, who will “use them in its aggression on Yemen.”

    The missile deals came weeks after US President Joe Biden made a contentious visit to Saudi Arabia, where he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Emirati President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and other regional leaders despite pleas from human rights defenders who drew attention to the coalition’s alleged and documented war crimes in Yemen and the Saudi monarchy’s repressive domestic rule.

    A now-infamous photo of Biden fist-bumping bin Salman stood in stark contrast with then-candidate Biden’s campaign promise to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” over the gruesome murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and other human rights crimes.

    After taking office, Biden temporarily froze arms sales to the country and the UAE and announced the offensive support ban. However, human rights defenders subsequently expressed disappointment when the administration approved a $650 million air-to-air missile sale to the Royal Saudi Air Force and a $500 million support services contract for Saudi military helicopters. Biden’s July trip also followed reports that his administration is considering lifting its amorphous prohibition on the sale of “offensive” US weaponry to Saudi Arabia.

    Raytheon shares—which have soared more than 250% since the US launched the so-called War on Terror in September 2001—were up slightly on the news of Tuesday’s approval. Lockheed Martin stock rose over 2% on Tuesday and is up more than 800% since 9/11.

    This post was originally published on The Real News Network.

  • USA stands for democracy…in certain places

    By Ralph Underhill

  • “Fortress Mentality” Among US Leaders Has Trapped Us in a Cycle of Militarism

    Mainstream media and politics routinely assume that the United States is a well-meaning global giant, striving to keep dangerous adversaries at bay. So, it was just another day at the imperial office on July 19 when FBI Director Christopher Wray declared: “The Russians are trying to get us to tear ourselves apart. The Chinese are trying to manage our decline, and the Iranians are trying to get us to go away.”

    Such statements harmonize with the prevailing soundscape. The standard script asserts that the United States is powerful and besieged — mighty but always menaced — the world’s leading light yet beset by hostile nations and other sinister forces aiming to undermine the USA’s rightful dominance of the globe.

    A fortress mindset feeds the U.S. government’s huge “defense” budget — which is higher than the military budgets of the next 10 countries combined — while the Pentagon maintains about 750 military bases overseas. But victimology is among Washington’s official poses, in sync with a core belief that the United States is at the center of the world’s importance and must therefore police the world to the best of its capacity.

    In recent decades, U.S. military power has faced new challenges to retain unipolar leverage over the planet in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse. (Heavy is Uncle Sam’s head that wears the crown.) Along with the fresh challenges came incentives to update the political lexicon for rationalizing red-white-and-blue militarism.

    Ever since Secretary of State Madeleine Albright gave the motto its bigtime national debut in February 1998 on NBC’s “Today Show”, efforts to portray the U.S. as an “indispensable nation” became familiar rhetoric — or at least a renewed conceptual frame — for U.S. interventionism. “If we have to use force,” she said, “it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future, and we see the danger here to all of us.”

    In 2022, such verbiage would easily fit onto teleprompters at the highest levels of the U.S. government. The appeal of such words has never waned among mass media and officials in Washington, as the United States simultaneously touts itself as the main virtuous star on the world stage and a country simply trying to protect itself from malevolence.

    Consider FBI Director Wray’s rhetoric about official enemies:

    “The Russians are trying to get us to tear ourselves apart.”

    This theme remains an establishment favorite. It dodges the grim realities of U.S. society — completely unrelated to Russia — such as longstanding and ongoing conflicts due to racism, misogyny, income inequality, corporate power, oligarchy, and other structural injustices. The right-wing menace to human decency and democracy in the United States is homegrown, as the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol made chillingly clear.

    This month, while the horrific and unjustified Russian war in Ukraine has continued, the United States has persisted with massive shipments of weapons to the Ukrainian government. Meanwhile, official interest in genuine diplomacy has been somewhere between scant and nonexistent. One of the few stirrings toward rationality from Capitol Hill came early this month when Rep. Ro Khanna told The Washington Post: “People don’t want to see a resigned attitude that this is just going to go on as long as it’s going to go on. What is the plan on the diplomatic front?” Several weeks later, the Biden administration is still indicating no interest in any such plan.

    “The Chinese are trying to manage our decline.”

    Leaders in Washington don’t want the sun to set on the U.S. empire, but China and many other nations have other ideas. This week, news of Nancy Pelosi’s intention to visit Taiwan in August was greeted with cheers from the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, which wrote that she deserved “kudos” for planning “what would be the first trip to the island democracy by a House Speaker in 25 years.”

    At midweek, President Biden expressed concern about the planned trip, saying: “I think that the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now. But I don’t know what the status of it is.” However, his team’s overall approach is confrontational, risking a potentially catastrophic war with nuclear-armed China. Despite dire warnings from many analysts, the U.S. geopolitical stance toward China is reflexively and dangerously zero-sum.

    “The Iranians are trying to get us to go away.”

    Iran’s government adhered to the nuclear deal enacted in 2015, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). But the Trump administration pulled out of the pact. Rather than swiftly move to rejoin it, the Biden administration has dithered and thrown roadblocks.

    Two weeks ago, Secretary of State Antony Blinken disingenuously announced: “We are imposing sanctions on Iranian petroleum and petrochemical producers, transporters, and front companies. Absent a commitment from Iran to return to the JCPOA, an outcome we continue to pursue, we will keep using our authorities to target Iran’s exports of energy products.”

    In response, Quincy Institute Executive Vice President Trita Parsi tweeted: “Biden is continuing and embracing Trump’s max pressure policy, while expecting a different result. All of this could have been avoided if Biden just returned to the JCPOA via Exe order” — with an executive order, as he did to reverse President Trump’s withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization.

    What continues — with countless instances of repetition compulsion — is the proclaimed vision of the United States of America leading the charge against the world’s badness. Beneath the veneer of goodness, however, systematic hypocrisy and opportunistic cruelty persist on a massive scale.

    A case in point is Biden’s recent journey to the Middle East: The presidential trip’s prominent features included fist-bumping with a Saudi monarch whose government has caused a quarter-million deaths and vast misery with its war on Yemen, and voicing fervent support for the Israeli government as it continues to impose apartheid on the Palestinian people.

    Leaders of the U.S. government never tire of reasserting their commitment to human rights and democracy. At the same time, they insist that an inexhaustible supply of adversaries is bent on harming the United States, which must not run away from forceful engagement with the world. But the actual U.S. agenda is to run the world.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • It’s Time for Congress to End US Involvement in the Saudi-Led War on Yemen

    U.S. critics are still buzzing with outrage about President Biden’s recent chummy fist bump and meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, accusing Biden of betraying his promise to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” after the brutal murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

    But it’s not just Khashoggi’s blood that’s on the Saudi crown prince’s hands. With U.S. support, Saudi Arabia has waged a horrific war and blockade on Yemen since 2015. We now have an opportunity to put a stop to our country’s participation in this senseless war that has taken the lives of nearly 400,000 civilians in Yemen.

    As a Vietnam War veteran, I saw firsthand that the cost of war is horrendous, and those who suffer the most are those caught in the crossfire. That is why I am urging members of Congress to join Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Patrick Leahy, and more than 100 members of the House in co-sponsoring the Yemen War Powers Resolution to end the U.S.’s support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

    We can’t wait to act. Although the warring parties negotiated an extension of a recent truce, Saudi Arabia could resume its deadly bombing campaign and blockade of Yemen when the ceasefire expires at the end of July. Given this crucial point in peace negotiations, it’s critically important for the U.S. to act swiftly. We must pass the Yemen War Powers Resolution now.

    By signing onto the Yemen War Powers Resolution, members will add to the momentum gaining now in Congress to end U.S. support for the devastating war and build pressure on the Saudi-led coalition to extend the ceasefire and peace talks.

    From my time in Vietnam as a medic, I have seen and dealt with the heartbreaking, deadly impacts that war has on the people of a country under attack. These victims of war are not just statistics or collateral damage, these are human beings deserving of our help and sympathy. The war in Yemen has led to a full-blown humanitarian crisis about which the United Nations has expressed grave alarm. Beyond the 400,000 Yemenis who have been killed as result of the war, approximately 16 million Yemenis are at risk of acute malnutrition, and millions more are on the verge of famine.

    And given the global spike in wheat prices caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the U.N. is warning that without immediate action, the situation is “about to get much worse” before it gets better.

    The ceasefire has allowed humanitarian organizations to reach previously inaccessible populations. A return to fighting would likely curtail the life-saving actions of aid organizations, as well as private-sector supply chains, exacerbating hunger and death.

    Congress never authorized U.S. support of Saudi Arabia’s brutal war on Yemen. Yet, the U.S. continues to provide critical support for the Saudi military’s offensive capabilities in this war, including through logistics, intelligence sharing, and providing spare parts and maintenance that the Saudi Air Force needs to continue bombing.

    Saudi Arabia is using the support provided by the U.S. to wage a years-long attack on the people of Yemen. It is time to end the suffering and dying caused by these endless wars. Congress must pass the Yemen War Powers Resolution and end U.S. complicity in the deaths of Yemeni civilians.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • The Fistbump Heard Round The World

    Listen to a reading of “The Fistbump Heard Round The World”:

    ❖

    Two powerful leaders met beneath the hot Jeddah sun to discuss oil and killing and friendship.

    One of the leaders rules a tyrannical regime which funds terrorists, murders journalists, suppresses civil rights and commits war crimes. The other, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, is no better.

    They greeted not with the traditional handshake, nor with a stern finger wag from the American for the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, but with the most epic fistbump in the history of civilization.

    Since the invention of the fistbump there have been none so pure, so affectionate, so expressive of perfect union and harmony. Observers said they thought they heard angels singing.

    Where their two fists connected, their souls merged. Their eyes locked with an intimacy poets and lovers have spent their whole lives trying to capture. Their dick chakras burned with the intensity of a thousand stars.

    “This is who we are,” the fistbump roared to the heavens. “This is who we have always been. Our sacred bond presides over an empire that is fueled by oil and blood, and we rule as one in holy communion with the great kings of old. Nothing shall ever come between us: not bone saw nor mass beheading nor strained lip service to human rights values on the presidential campaign trail.”

    Time froze as the two joined fists in genocidal matrimony, flashing coy grins at each other upon a mountain of Yemeni corpses and the tortured bones of Syria. Their faces turned to skulls. Doves with red-stained feathers filled the sky.

    And the Marxists of the world say “If only we could one day capture that kind of class solidarity.”

    And the wives of the world say “If only he would one day look at me like that.”

    And the arms manufacturers of the world say “Hoo hoo yeah buddy boy this is gonna be great let’s go snort coke off a Tomahawk missile.”

    And the hidden saints say “Something’s gotta give here.”

    And the world rotates on the axis of those two joined fists into ecocide and atrocity and Google Hollywood McDystopia.

    And the imperial juggernaut marches on, and the Earth spins off into the blackness, and we all hold hands and look to providence as we plunge into an increasingly strange Unknown.

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    This post was originally published on Caitlin Johnstone.

  • Bernie Sanders Unveils Resolution to End US Support for Saudi-Led War in Yemen

    As U.S. President Joe Biden visits the Middle East this week, three senators introduced a joint resolution to end the United States’ involvement in the Saudi-led war on Yemen.

    The resolution is sponsored by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — and, according to the trio, it is already backed by a bipartisan group of over 100 House members.

    “We must put an end to the unauthorized and unconstitutional involvement of U.S. armed forces in the catastrophic Saudi-led war in Yemen and Congress must take back its authority over war,” Sanders said in a statement, detailing the dire conditions in the region.

    “More than 85,000 children in Yemen have already starved and millions more are facing imminent famine and death,” he pointed out. “More than 70% of Yemen’s population currently rely on humanitarian food assistance and the U.N. has warned the death toll could climb to 1.3 million people by 2030.”

    “This war has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis today and it is past time to end U.S. complicity in those horrors,” Sanders declared. “Let us pass this resolution, so we can focus on diplomacy to end this war.”

    While a cease-fire in Yemen has held over the past few months, peace advocates and progressive lawmakers have continued to call for an end to U.S. support for the yearslong war.

    “The war in Yemen has been an unmitigated disaster for which all parties to the conflict share responsibility,” Leahy said Thursday. “Why are we supporting a corrupt theocracy that brutalizes its own people, in a war that is best known for causing immense suffering and death among impoverished, defenseless civilians?”

    Both Leahy and Warren emphasized that U.S. participation was never congressionally authorized.

    “The American people, through their elected representatives in Congress, never authorized U.S. involvement in the war — but Congress abdicated its constitutional powers and failed to prevent our country from involving itself in this crisis,” Warren said.

    Not long after taking office last year, Biden announced an end to U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition’s “offensive operations” in Yemen. However, his administration has continued to allow arms sales and provide maintenance and logistical support.

    The U.S. president is set to head to Saudi Arabia on Friday. Responsible Statecraft noted Thursday that “in an op-ed explaining the reasoning behind the trip, Biden touted an ongoing truce in Yemen, but didn’t say whether he would press for an end to the war.”

    As the senators’ statement explains, their resolution — which comes after a similar one introduced in the House last month — would “follow through on Biden’s pledge” from last year by:

    • Ending U.S. intelligence sharing for the purpose of enabling offensive Saudi-led coalition strikes;
    • Ending U.S. logistical support for offensive Saudi-led coalition strikes, including the provision of maintenance and spare parts to coalition members flying warplanes which are bombing Yemen; and
    • Prohibiting U.S. military personnel from being assigned to command, coordinate, participate in the movement of, or accompany Saudi-led coalition forces engaged in hostilities without specific statutory authorization.

    The statement highlighted that the resolution “is considered privileged in the Senate and can receive a vote on the floor as soon as 10 calendar days following introduction.”

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Noam Chomsky: Biden’s Middle East Trip Contains Echoes of Trump’s Policies

    After 18 months in office, President Joe Biden decided to pay a visit to the Middle East region. Oil is most likely what is dragging him back to the Middle East, and why for months now he had been warming up to Saudi Arabia, despite having said as a presidential candidate that he would make the Saudis “pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they are,” while saying that there was “very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia.”

    As Noam Chomsky notes in this exclusive interview for Truthout, Biden is carrying on a U.S. tradition: Relations with Saudi Arabia “have always proceeded amicably, undisturbed by its horrifying record of human rights abuses, which persists.” Security also likely figures in the equation of Biden’s trip, particularly with regard to Israel. He will also visit the West Bank and meet with Palestinan leaders, but it’s hard to say what he hopes to accomplish there. As Chomsky points out, “Palestinian hopes lie elsewhere.”

    Chomsky has been, for decades, one of the most astute analysts of Middle Eastern politics and a staunch supporter of Palestinian rights. Among his many books on the Middle East are Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians; Middle East Illusions; Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy (with Gilbert Achcar); On Palestine (with Ilan Pappé); and Gaza in Crisis (with Ilan Pappé). Chomsky is institute professor emeritus in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT and laureate professor of linguistics and Agnese Nelms Haury Chair in the Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona.

    C.J. Polychroniou: U.S. foreign policy under Joe Biden is barely distinguishable from that of Trump’s, as you pointed out just a few months after Biden took office. Indeed, as a presidential candidate, Biden had called Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state following the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but as president he is warming up to its de facto and murderous leader Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). What do you think is the purpose of his visit to Saudi Arabia?

    Noam Chomsky: It is surely a mistake to carry out a sadistic assassination of a journalist for the Washington Post, particularly one who was hailed as “a guardian of truth” in 2018 when he was chosen as Person of the Year by Time Magazine.

    That’s definitely bad form, particularly when done carelessly and not well concealed.

    U.S. relations with the family kingdom called “Saudi Arabia” have always proceeded amicably, undisturbed by its horrifying record of human rights abuses, which persists. That’s hardly a surprise in the case of “a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history … probably the richest economic prize in the world in the field of foreign investment,” as the State Department described the prize in the mid-1940s, when the U.S. wrested it from Britain in a mini-war during World War II. More generally, the Middle East was regarded at a high level as the most “strategically important area in the world,” as President Eisenhower said. While assessments have varied over 80 years, the essence remains.

    The same is true with regard to countries that do not rise to this impressive level. The U.S. has regularly provided strong support for murderous tyrants when it was convenient, often to the last minute of their rule: Marcos, Duvalier, Ceausescu, Suharto, and a long string of other villains, including Saddam Hussein until he violated (or maybe misunderstood) orders and invaded Kuwait. And of course, the U.S. is simply following in the path of its imperial predecessors. Nothing new, not even the rhetoric of benevolent intent.

    The most revealing examples are when the intent really is benevolent, not unconcealed Kissingerian cynicism (“realism”). An instructive case is Robert Pastor’s explanation of why the Carter Human Rights administration reluctantly had to support the Somoza regime, and when that proved impossible, to maintain the U.S.-trained National Guard even after it had been massacring the population “with a brutality a nation usually reserves for its enemy,” killing some 40,000 people.

    The Latin America specialist of the [Jimmy Carter] administration and a genuine liberal scholar, Pastor was doubtless sincere in voicing these regrets. He was also perceptive in providing the compelling reasons: “The United States did not want to control Nicaragua or the other nations of the region, but it also did not want developments to get out of control. It wanted Nicaraguans to act independently, except when doing so would affect U.S. interests adversely” (his emphasis).

    We sincerely want you to be free — free to do what we want.

    It’s much the same with Saudi Arabia. We wish they were more polite, but first things first.

    In the case of Biden’s visit, first things presumably include renewed efforts to persuade MBS to increase production so as to reduce high gas prices in the U.S. There would be other ways, for example, a windfall tax on the fossil fuel industries that are drowning in profits, with the revenues distributed to those who have been gouged by the neoliberal class war of the past 40 years, which has transferred some $50 trillion to the pockets of the top 1%. That, however, is “politically impossible.”

    Politically even more impossible in elite calculations would be the feasible measures to try to stave off catastrophe by moving rapidly to cut off the flow of these poisons. These need not, however, be the calculations of those who have some interest in leaving a decent world to their children and grandchildren. Time is short.

    There are broader considerations in Biden’s Middle East tour. One goal surely is to firm up Trump’s one great geopolitical achievement: the Abraham Accords, which raised tacit relations among the most brutal and criminal states of the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region to formal alliance. The accords have been widely hailed as a contribution to peace and prosperity, though not all are delighted. Not, for example, Sahrawis, handed over to the Moroccan dictatorship to secure its agreement to join the accords — in violation of international law, but in conformity to the “rules-based international order” that the U.S. and its allies prefer to the archaic and unacceptable UN-based order.

    Sahrawis can join Palestinians and Syrian Druze, whose territories have been annexed by Israel in violation of the unanimous orders of the Security Council, now endorsed by the U.S. And they can also join other “unpeople,” not least the Palestinian victims of Israel’s brutal and illegal occupation in areas not officially annexed.

    Celebration of these diplomatic triumphs will presumably also be heralded as one of the achievements of Biden’s visit, though not exactly in these terms.

    Israel may be the only country in the world where Biden is less popular than Trump, and one cannot of course forget the numerous times that he had been humiliated by former Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. Is there anything that Biden aims to accomplish with his visit to Israel other than reaffirm U.S. support and deepen the role of the alliance between the two countries in the region? After all, the Biden administration proceeded with whitewashing Israel’s killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in advance of the president’s visit to the Middle East.

    As in the Khashoggi case, the handling of Abu Akleh’s killing was bad form. Not just the killing — or, quite likely, assassination. It’s not wise, in front of TV cameras, to allow the IDF to attack a funeral procession and even the pallbearers, forcing them to almost drop the coffin. The brazenness of the assault is a revealing illustration of the drift of Israel to the right and the confidence that the boss will accept virtually anything. The confidence is not entirely misplaced, particularly after the four Trump years of lavish gifts and kicking Palestinians in the face.

    I haven’t seen polls, but it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to find that Trump is also popular in Hungary’s “illiberal democracy,” praised by Trump and virtually worshipped by media star Tucker Carlson on the far right. Orbán’s Hungary is now becoming a close ally of Israel on the basis of shared racist attitudes and practices and shared grievances about being unappreciated by soft-hearted liberals in the West.

    It’s an open question how much domestic capital Biden will win with his expected professions of eternal love for Israel. That stance has become less popular among his liberal base than it used to be as Israel’s criminal behavior becomes harder to gloss over. All-out support for Israel has shifted to Evangelicals and the right, sectors of which believe Biden is not the elected president and a substantial contingent of which believes Biden and other top Democrats are grooming children for sexual abuse. But there will still probably be some domestic gains. And it will show the hawkish elements that run foreign policy that he’s committed to containment of Iran by an Israel-Saudi alliance, to borrow prevailing doctrine.

    Biden may hope to firm up the alliance, but they scarcely need his help. Rhetoric aside, the alliance has been firm since 1967.

    In brief, at the time, there was a sharp conflict in the Arab world — in fact, an actual war in Yemen — between Saudi-based radical Islam and Egypt-based secular nationalism. Like Britain before it, the U.S. tended to support radical Islam, seeing it as less of a threat to imperial dominance. Israel settled the matter for the time being by handing the victory to Saudi Arabia. It was at that point that U.S. support for Israel took the extreme form that has since prevailed, as part of a Middle East strategy based on three pillars: Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran (then under the Shah). Technically, the three were at war. In reality, they were tacit allies, very close allies in the case of Israel and Iran.

    The Abraham Accords raise the alliance to a formal level, now with a slightly different cast of characters. It seems to be proceeding well on its own on the basis of shared interests. It’s not clear that Biden can do much beyond expressing U.S. support, which in any event is hardly in doubt.

    Do you see any reason why Palestinian leaders should meet with Biden? Can they accomplish anything else by doing so other than have their pictures taken with the president of the United States?

    Failure to do so will evoke a stream of hostile propaganda, the last thing the beleaguered Palestinians need right now. Doing so will achieve little or nothing, but it’s the least bad option, it seems.

    On this narrow question, that is. Palestinian hopes lie elsewhere.

    It may seem strange to say this, in the light of the colossal and unprecedented U.S. support for Israel since its demonstration of its military strength in 1967, but Palestinian hopes may lie in the United States. There are cracks in the formerly solid support for Israeli actions. Liberal opinion has shifted toward support for Palestinian rights, even among the Jewish community, as Norman Finkelstein documented a decade ago. The increasingly brutal torture of the 2 million inhabitants of Gaza’s open-air prison has had particularly dramatic effects.

    These shifts have not yet influenced policy, but they are likely to become more pronounced as Israel continues its drift to the right and the almost daily crimes become harder to conceal or explain away. If Palestinians can overcome their sharp internal divisions and effective solidarity movements develop in the U.S., changes can come, both at the people-to-people level and in government policy.

    There’s a background. In the 1970s, Israel made a fateful decision to choose expansion over security, rejecting opportunities for peaceful settlement along the lines of a growing international consensus. That compelled reliance on the U.S., which also entails submission to U.S. demands. Such demands were made by every president before Obama, and however reluctantly, Israel has to obey. Changing U.S. government policy, if significant, cannot fail to influence the array of policy options for Israel.

    That could be a path toward the elusive goal of a just peace in the former Palestine, and even for regional accords that will not merely reflect the interests of repressive power structures but of the people of the region, who have repeatedly struggled for a more decent fate.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Self-inflicted wounds: Courting the good-will of Middle East dictators

    News that President Biden is traveling to the Gulf region this month to meet with the rulers of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a betrayal of his promise to put “human rights at the center of our foreign policy, of the pro-democracy activists and journalists who have been imprisoned by the dictators of these countries, and of all the people who have died in defense of democracy. After months of quiet diplomacy to ease tensions between the US and Saudi Arabia in order to persuade the Kingdom to increase its global oil production and overset surging prices resulting from Russia’s war in Ukraine, it seems that “progress” towards this end has been made: a meeting between President Biden and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman where the leader of the free world will kiss the ring of a violent tyrant and beg for access to more oil. This meeting will represent a disturbing reversal of policy from an administration that had previously referred to the kingdom as having “very little social redeeming value” and openly touted its commitment to making Saudi Arabia a “pariah”.

    Support for the dictators in the Middle East who ultimately use their relationship with the US as a tool for oppressing their own people is a national security threat. The people in these countries, the teacher, the doctor, the store clerk, the child in school who have demanded a democracy of their own and demonstrated against the human rights abuses of these dictators who keep them under-foot, do not fade away with more and more violent government repression. US support for dictators in Saudi Arabia or Bahrain or the UAE – all enemies of democracy – who maintain their grasp on power with methods which nearly all of humanity has rejected, sends a signal to the world that the values of the U.S. and its moniker as leader of the free world might not mean very much. If this is how the world views our unconditional support for violent dictators our national security is threatened.

    Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) is deeply troubled by the potential for this meeting to mark the return to business as normal as it concerns US-Gulf relations, simply because there is a heightened need for oil. To accept this meeting, even under these circumstances, would be a critical mistake and entirely avoidable. For the leader of the free world to court the good-will of enemies of democracy and violent perpetrators of human rights abuses for oil, rewards violent autocrats and dangerously cheapens the significance of U.S. leadership.

    Dictators in the Gulf Region: Abuse with Impunity

    For years, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates have flagrantly disregarded their obligations under international law and increased their repression of human rights defenders (HRDs). In order to silence pro-democracy movements and remove all voices of dissent, government authorities have engaged in the systematic abuse of peaceful dissidents. Authorities routinely repress dissidents, human rights activists, and independent clerics through arbitrary interrogation, detention and imprisonment under overly broad anti-terrorism and anti-cybercrime laws. These have been used as a means to disguise the destruction of civil society and legitimize their targeting and attacks of peaceful activists.

    These countries have effectively criminalized free speech and taken actions not only to preclude the existence of a functional civil society but have also enacted measures to remove all independent media outlets. Demonstrative of the lengths to which Bahraini and Saudi authorities will go to suppress pro-democracy rhetoric is the complete lack of tolerance for the freedoms of expression, assembly, and opinion in any context, as both governments have systematically subjected human rights defenders and political opposition activists to harassment and reprisals, whether they are in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, or abroad.

    Saudi Arabia

    Market turmoil should not, and indeed for those victims of abuse does not, negate the reality that Saudi Arabia has intensified both its use of the death penalty and its targeting of human rights defenders.  Since 2015, the number of executions in Saudi Arabia has been rising steadily, with 184 prisoners were executed in 2019 alone; concerningly, the recent mass execution  of 81 individuals on 12 March 2022 indicates that this trend has not subsided. The vast majority of those executed had a Shia background and had been convicted for allegedly committed crimes such as supporting demonstrators or spreading chaos based on coerced confessions through torture and unfair trials. Relatedly, HRDs were and continue to be repressed through detentions, arrests and imprisonments, and their basic human rights are violated in all stages of the judicial process. Often held incommunicado, they are tortured during interrogation or in detention. Coerced confessions remain common practice in Saudi Arabia, and the courts mostly rely on confessions obtained under torture to issue sentences. Beyond torture and mistreatment, the Saudi judicial system does not respect the rights to a fair trial and due process, two fundamental rights provided by the international human rights framework.

    News of the impending meeting, which is expected to coincide with a meeting of GCC states in Riyadh, is particularly alarming given the firm stance the Biden administration had taken up to this point as it concerns the gruesome killing of former Saudi official and journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the ongoing war in Yemen. Khashoggi’s murder was a tragic example of the brazen disregard for international law and the prevailing culture of impunity that characterizes the GCC states. For those who were willing to accept the truth, it has been clear beyond a reasonable doubt for some time that the Saudi state was deeply involved if not directly responsible for this heinous murder.

    Additionally, for eight years Saudi Arabia has committed a series of war crimes as part of its involvement in the ongoing conflict in Yemen. Saudi Arabia has led a coalition that conducted numerous indiscriminate and disproportionate airstrikes which have killed thousands of civilians and decimated civilian structures such as school buses, hospitals, detention centers, factories, farms, mosques, and bridges. Additionally, the restrictions on imports placed by the Saudi-United Arab Emirates led coalition have gravely worsened the already dire humanitarian situation in Yemen. The coalition has actively delayed and diverted fuel which is necessary to power generators in hospitals and to pump water to homes, shut down vital ports, and prohibited goods from entering the Houthi-controlled seaports. It should be stated in no uncertain terms that the coalition’s actions are directly responsible for the ongoing famine in Yemen.

    While it is worth noting that the Biden administration took several notable steps towards reframing the US-Saudi bilateral relationship around human rights concerns, including imposing  sanctions on Saudi officials implicated in Khashoggi’s murder and ending US support for the war in Yemen, we are several years removed from this unrestrained brutality and there has yet to be any real accountability.

    Bahrain

    In Bahrain, the reality is disturbingly similar. High-ranking Bahraini authorities, including Nasser bin Hamad al Khalifa, the king’s son, have also been implicated in consistent human rights violations; credible reports from numerous human rights organizations indicate that Prince Nasser was personally involved in the torture of opposition figures, human rights defenders, and athletes. Torture remains endemic, in part because of the creation of ostensible oversight mechanisms which operate with little to no independence from the monarchy. Only limited efforts made to investigate claims of abuses and no high-ranking officials having ever been convicted. In its recently released 2021 country report for Bahrain, the State Department called attention to numerous human rights violations and restrictions on fundamental freedoms, including “torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by government; harsh and life threatening prison conditions; arbitrary detention; political prisoners; [and] arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy”. Further, the credible reporting of numerous human rights groups indicates that the human rights situation has continued to deteriorate in the eleven years since the government violently suppressed the emergence of a grassroots pro-democracy movement.

    The country’s decision to lift the moratorium on the death penalty in January 2017 has led to an increase in the number of death sentences, despite the concerning prevalence of torture and frequent reports that confessions were made under duress. Alarmingly, the death penalty continues to be imposed in cases where such punishment is not commensurate with the offense. Further, the Bahraini regime continues to repress civil society and restrict activities related to the fundamental freedom of expression. Security forces regularly summon activists, use violence and intimidation to extract false confessions, extrajudicially punish detainees, and suppress dissent. Human rights defenders and political opposition activists continue to be imprisoned for offenses that are directly related to their freedom of expression.

    United Arab Emirates

    As part of the increased efforts to address oil shortages, diplomatic overtures have also been made towards easing the strained relationship between the Biden administration and the UAE. To do so, however, would necessitate the willful disregard of the state’s horrendous human rights record. From 2013 onward, the government has granted itself new abilities to stifle dissent through the promulgation of, and updates to, restrictive laws. The government has taken further action to limit fundamental freedoms by building on an already expansive legal framework designed to criminalize many forms of activism, peaceful criticism, and dissent. The comments of the UN’s Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders in February 2021 indicate that persecution of human rights defenders in the United Arab Emirates remains systematic. Furthermore, independent indices on press freedom currently rank the UAE among the most restrictive in the world, due largely to the regulatory power wielded by the National Media Council.

    Human rights activists continue to be arbitrarily detained, harassed, and subjected to trials marred by due process violations. Individuals are routinely arrested for questioning the actions of authorities, calling for freedom of expression, or criticizing the United Arab Emirates’ role in the war in Yemen. Arrested dissidents are frequently forcibly disappeared, denied access to legal counsel before trial, tortured, kept in solitary confinement, and coerced into confessions. Despite allegations of such abuse, courts routinely ignore or deny defendants’ claim. In addition to being deprived of their fair trial rights, denied adequate medical care, and subjected to torture and ill-treatment, human rights defenders are commonly detained in prison after the completion of their prison sentence without any legal justification.

    The world has become less violent and more tolerant, less repressive and more cooperative, less authoritative and more democratic except in countries ruled by dictators; there are no exceptions to this in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, or the UAE. The skill of these countries with a public relations and marketing campaign would suggest otherwise but, a reasonable investigation of the human rights record over the last 20 years will demonstrate to a reasonable person, who is not beholden to U.S. foreign policy orthodoxy, that the greatest commonality between these three countries is the desire of its people to have democracy and then the repression of that natural inclination by dictators. Not holding the rulers of these countries accountable for their violence against rights activists and then courting them for their good-will and access to oil is a poor foreign policy and one which weakens the U.S. and U.S. credibility.

    Recommendations

    Even in outlining why such a meeting would conflict with the president’s commitment to place human rights at the center of foreign policy, and thus be misguided, it is acknowledged that rapprochement in this context is increasingly likely given Russia’s ongoing attack on democracy and the control GCC states exert over the global oil production. Therefore, in accepting the reality that this meeting between Biden and MBS will occur, ADHRB offers the following recommendations of how President Biden could leverage the position of the US within these meetings to encourage serious reform:

    • Call for the unconditional release of political prisoners and all individuals imprisoned in the GCC for peaceful expression, association, and assembly, including members of opposition parties, civil society activists, and independent journalists;
    • Discuss how meaningful reform and respect for human rights in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE will bring the governments up to par with the standards of 21st century governance;
    • Discuss how the Governments of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE rely on vague national security legislation to empower state authorities with the discretion to deem a wide range of behaviors to be threats to national security. Specifically, address how antiterrorism and cybercrime legislation have been exploited to target human rights defenders and other peaceful activists;
    • Discuss inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees, particularly as it concerns frequent credible allegations of sleep deprivation, denial of medical treatment, verbal threats, beatings, and sexual assault;
    • Call on Bahrain to allow independent investigations into allegations of torture and ill treatment in the country with a view to holding perpetrators accountable, as specified in the Bahraini constitution. Encourage the Government of Bahrain to urgently resume its engagement with the international system by scheduling a new visit date of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.
    • Call on the UAE to desist in their use of so-called “rehabilitation” programs that are not only inconsistent with international human rights law, but also contradict the UAE Penal Code itself, which requires the authorities to release convicts upon the expiration of their sentences.
    • Call on Saudi Arabia to discontinue its use of the death penalty for human rights and pro-democracy activists.

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  • Yemen: The Forgotten War’s Crimes Must Be Remembered

    Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, the topic of war crimes is once again being debated in mainstream media. Putin’s army is committing atrocious acts such as the killing of innocent civilians, targeting non-military institutions, and mistreatment of prisoners of war. These crimes are broadcast globally and rightfully condemned. Already, we have seen a war crime trial with the defendant receiving a life sentence. However, there is one place where horrible war crimes have been committed and the perpetrators are still facing no consequences: Yemen. Yemen’s civil war stretches into its eighth year, and while there is a ceasefire at this current time, the war has destroyed the country and caused the Yemeni people massive suffering. Since Operation Decisive Storm, the Saudi-led GCC coalition has committed atrocious acts that could constitute war crimes. These egregious abuses have resulted in Yemen being named the worst humanitarian crisis ever. Often called The Forgotten War, it has been left behind by the global community and its people have paid the price.

    Background of War

    The beginning of the war has roots in the infamous Arab Spring as people took to the streets to end President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule. Protesters were killed by the military and the country was unstable. An internationally brokered deal led to Vice President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi taking power. The Houthi rebels in the North, displeased with this outcome, reacted by forcibly capturing the capital and forcing Hadi to flee to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. It was in March 2015 when tensions escalated massively. Saudi Arabia led a Gulf Cooperation Council coalition intervention into the conflict in a military operation named Decisive Storm which entailed mass airstrikes on Yemen. This coalition enjoyed logistical support from the United States. Intense fighting has continued ever since, despite UN efforts to broker peace.

     In July 2016, the Houthi government allied with former President Saleh to form a political council to rule their seized area of Yemen. However, in December 2017, Saleh broke away from the Houthis, demanding his followers attack them. He was killed just two days later.

    The Houthis have received logistical support from Iran, particularly as it pertains to the provision of arms. This serves to further complicate the conflict, as the Houthis are Shia – like Iran – fighting against the majority Sunni Saudi Arabia, marking a strong Sunni-Shia divide. The conflict has caused the worst humanitarian crisis the world has ever seen. Global Conflict Tracker estimates there have been 233,000 deaths, many of them as a result of food insecurity and a lack of access to medical care. There are over 25 million people negatively affected by this war, many at risk of famine. In what was a promising move, President Joe Biden announced the end of US support for Saudi Arabia in February 2021. However, this end has not quite materialized, as the US is still selling billions of dollars of arms to Saudi Arabia. Although there has been a ceasefire since 1 April 2022, the negotiations which have followed have yet to produce any worthwhile outcomes.

    What are war crimes?

    Before discussing the war crimes in Yemen, it is important to know exactly what they are in international law. War crimes were made illegal under the Geneva Conventions, which consist of four treaties and three additional protocols that outline the international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The 1949 Geneva Conventions, which negotiated the state of human rights law after World War II, have been ratified by all member states of the United Nations (UN).

    A war crime is an act committed during an armed conflict that violates those humanitarian laws which were designed to keep civilians safe. The establishment that can hold individuals accountable for war crimes is the International Criminal Court (ICC), which evolved from the Rome Statute that lists certain actions as war crimes. These result in special tribunals from the UN. War crimes are investigated through interviewing witnesses, reviewing photos, and collecting forensic evidence. Admittedly, there are several apparent limitations to the effectiveness of the ICC: it has been increasingly difficult to prove the involvement of the head of state in a war crime committed by an army member, and the ICC remains reliant on the willingness of states to subject their citizens to jurisdiction of the court. However, there are no statutes of limitations for war crimes, and anyone could be prosecuted in the light of new damning evidence or reinvestigation.

    According to the Rome Statute, war crimes are considered as:

    • Wilful killing
    • Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments,
    • Wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health,
    • Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity,
    • Compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile power,
    • Wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the right of a fair trial,
    • Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement,
    • Taking of hostages.

    This is only a general list, however, as there are additional international law standards which may be applicable in international armed conflict. It should be noted, though, that what constitutes a war crime may differ depending on whether the armed conflict is international or non-international. War crimes can be divided into war crimes against persons requiring certain protection; war crimes against those providing humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping operations; war crimes against property and other rights; prohibited methods of warfare; and prohibited means of warfare. War crimes can be committed against both combatants and civilians. Medical and humanitarian personnel are also protected under international law.

    Crimes of the GCC Coalition

    It is important to note that all sides in the conflict in Yemen are guilty of human rights violations, but the focus will remain on the crimes committed by the Saudi-led GCC coalition. The Group of Independent Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen was set up in 2017 in order to monitor and report on the human rights situation. In 2018, they released an extensive report on the violations committed by all parties. It was found that there had been 16,706 direct civilian casualties, with coalition airstrikes being identified as the cause of most of these. These airstrikes hit residential areas, funerals, weddings, and even medical facilities. Médecins sans Frontières stated that they had shared the location of these bombed facilities with Saudi Arabia 12 times and ambulances were clearly marked. It was reported that the coalition failed to consult its no-strike list of more than 30,000 sites, resulting in thousands of unnecessary civilian casualties. These targets remained unchanged even after the coalition learned of the civilian suffering, and Saudi authorities have consistently refused to make their targeting process transparent. One of the most famous cases occurred in 2018, when a coalition airstrike struck a school bus, killing forty children. Human Rights Watch reported that this act would constitute a war crime.

    Another unlawful act committed by the Saudi-led coalition is the deliberate obstruction of access to humanitarian relief. International law states that warring parties must allow safe and rapid passage for humanitarian aid to reach civilians in need. There have been numerous reports detailing how the coalition systematically denies boat passage containing food and medicine for arbitrary reasons, leaving civilians at risk of famine. It was also reported the coalition was guilty of arbitrary detention. People imprisoned were not informed of the charge, denied access to lawyers, and sometimes forcibly disappeared for months. While detained, prisoners were subjected to beatings, electrocution, drownings, and solitary confinement. The United Arab Emirates was found to be culpable for multiple violations in their detention centres. Prisoners reported UAE security personnel sexually abused and assaulted them repeatedly. The Security Belt Forces were found guilty of widespread sexual assault, limited not only to detainees but also including refugee women and children as well.

    There were also reports of violation of the right to freedom of expression, as many who insulted the coalition ended up in prison. The UN report states that “As most of these violations appear to be conflict-related, they may amount to the following war crimes: rape, degrading and cruel treatment, torture, and outrages upon personal dignity”. The report further asserted that the Joint Incidents Assessment Team, the group set up by the GCC coalition to investigate claims of abuse by the military, was a front to prevent an independent inquiry of the situation on the ground. They claim its results are altered by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to suit its narrative. This report blatantly shows the Saudi-led coalition has committed what constitutes mass war crimes, resulting in devastating consequences for the people of Yemen.

    Unfortunately, the Group of Independent Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen has ceased to exist anymore due to members of the UN Human Rights Council voting against the decision to extend its mandate for two more years in October 2021. Among those countries who voted against the extension were Bahrain, Russia, and China. This decision devastated the West and human rights groups, as there is now a severe lack of accountability mechanisms in Yemen. Reuters reported that two months after the decision sixty human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, released a joint statement urging the UN to set up a new investigation team to continue monitoring. They also called for the need for accountability for ongoing violations. Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty, said “For too long, parties to the conflict in Yemen, including Saudi Arabia and Houthi forces, have committed atrocities with impunity”. She went on to accuse Saudi Arabia and the UAE of bullying and bribery as it concerns the decision to dissolve the investigative group.

    Future for Yemen

    Currently, the war in Yemen is experiencing a welcome ceasefire. The UN-brokered ceasefire began on the holy month of Ramadan in 2022 and will last two months, with the hopes that a peaceful political process can begin to take place. The conditions of the ceasefire include allowing 18 fuel ships access to Yemen and two commercial flights a week. Efforts have also been made to open roads and ensure the safe passage of civilians, offering a much-needed reprieve from the chaotic violence that had previously characterized the country. While there is hope for an end to this war for the first time in seven years, we cannot forget the damage already inflicted. Thousands of innocent civilians have lost their lives and millions more have been displaced, left homeless and starving by this war. As mentioned, there is no statute of limitations on prosecuting war crimes, and it is often the case that prosecution begins after the war. It is imperative that Saudi Arabia and the UAE be held for the atrocities they committed. It is clear from the report from the Group of Independent Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen that Saudi Arabia and the UAE have killed innocent civilians, targeted non-military infrastructure including medical facilities, blocked humanitarian relief, and grossly mistreated detainees. It is clearer still, that in using its allies to stop this group from independently monitoring human rights abuses in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have no plans of facing consequences for their actions. According to the Rome Statute, these acts are war crimes. According to the Rome Statute, the perpetrators of these acts can and should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court. The international community owes the people of Yemen that much. Yemen has long been The Forgotten War, but these crimes cannot be forgiven nor forgotten.

    Sources

    Reuters (2021) ‘U.N. urged to restore scrutiny of war crimes in Yemen | Reuters’. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-urged-restore-scrutiny-war-crimes-yemen-2021-12-02/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss (Accessed: 26 May 2022).

    UN votes to shut down war crimes probe in Yemen, in stinging defeat for rights groups (2021) France 24. Available at: https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20211008-un-ends-war-crimes-probe-in-yemen-in-major-setback-for-rights-body?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss (Accessed: 26 May 2022).

    UN General Assembly, Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (last amended 2010), 17 July 1998, ISBN No. 92-9227-227-6, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3a84.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss [accessed 27 May 2022]

    United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect (no date). Available at: https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/war-crimes.shtml?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss (Accessed: 27 May 2022).

    Wintour, P. and editor, P.W.D. (2019) ‘Yemen civil war: the conflict explained’, The Guardian, 20 June. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/20/yemen-civil-war-the-conflict-explained?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss (Accessed: 27 May 2022).

    Wintour, P. and editor, D. (2022) ‘Yemen: two-month ceasefire begins with hopes for peace talks’, The Guardian, 3 April. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/03/yemen-two-month-ceasefire-begins-un-hopes-for-peace-talks?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss (Accessed: 26 May 2022).

    ‘Yemen: Coalition Bus Bombing Apparent War Crime’ (2018) Human Rights Watch, 2 September. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/09/02/yemen-coalition-bus-bombing-apparent-war-crime?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss (Accessed: 26 May 2022).

    Yemen: United Nations Experts point to possible war crimes by parties to the conflict (2018) OHCHR. Available at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2018/08/yemen-united-nations-experts-point-possible-war-crimes-parties-conflict?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss (Accessed: 26 May 2022).

     

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  • The self-respect of democracy

    Read anything said about democracy and America by President Kennedy and President Reagan; read anything about Saudi Arabia’s bloody record of its repression of democracy and human rights; then try not to feel embarrassed and angry by the news that the President of the United States is travelling to Saudi Arabia to kiss the ring of that country’s dictator and beg for access to more oil.

    There is an idea from President Kennedy, that the strength of our leadership in the world is not based on the strength of our armies but on the example of our civilization. From President Reagan we have the idea that our strength comes from our defense of democracy and self-determination, wherever in the world people speak up and demand it for themselves. Keep these thoughts in mind and consider that the world looks to the U.S., and wants to continue to do so, because of what it can accomplish for the progress of humanity.

    Where the U.S. has been fully committed to fostering democracy and self-determination, it has fostered the establishment of some of the world’s strongest global leaders, economies, and our closest friends and partners. The nature of these other democracies – that is their strength in the international community and commitment to self-determination – have made the world a better place. When the U.S. has made commitments to democracy, equality, human rights, and self-determination, remarkable progress in the quality of humanity has been the result.

    Where the U.S. has ignored the demands of people who want a democracy of their own and the right to self-determination, i.e. in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, it has allowed one of the most repressive authoritarian governments and one of the least free countries in the world to flourish. Freedom House’s 2022 Freedom in the World report has ranked Iran as being more free with greater political rights than both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. When U.S. leaders choose not to position themselves between the destructive force of authoritarianism and people who are speaking up and asking for democracy, the world moves backward.

    For the President of the United States – after saying that “human rights will be the center of our foreign policy,” and that Saudi Arabia would be punished for killing the Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi as a warning to other dictators – to travel to the Gulf region and meet with the dictators of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain cheapens the significance of U.S. leadership; for the leader of the free world to travel and meet with enemies of democracy, violent perpetrators of human rights abuses, and manipulators of the international community’s multilateral institutions for more oil does not demonstrate that “America is back.”

    For the people of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the teacher, the doctor, the writer, and the child in school who are peacefully standing in public spaces demonstrating to create a democracy of their own and being imprisoned and killed for it by these dictators, President Biden’s trip there to “repair the rupture in relations” with those dictators is a betrayal. The President should not be courting the goodwill of dictators who perform mass executions of pro-democracy activists like Saudi Arabia, or jail nearly 1500 activists like Bahrain.

    Not holding the dictators of these countries accountable for their violence against rights activists and then courting them for good-will and access to oil is a poor recalibration in a bilateral relationship. U.S. support for dictators in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain – both enemies of democracy – who maintain their grasp on power with methods which nearly all of humanity has rejected, sends a signal to the world that the values of the U.S. and its title as leader of the free world might not mean as much as it once did.

    Not only have Saudi Arabia and Bahrain actively worked to stop the advance of democracy, at least one of them might be trying to do the same to American democracy. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain’s public relations and marketing campaigns predictably give a different narrative but, a reasonable investigation of their human rights record will demonstrate to a reasonable person, one who is not beholden to U.S. foreign policy orthodoxy, that these dictatorships, if left unchecked, are a danger to democracy.

    If democracy and freedom have improved the world and are the vehicle by which a better world may yet still be created, the democratic community, and especially President Biden, must be strong together and oppose tyranny. This begins with rejecting dictators and protecting people who want to be part of that community and are bravely standing up to dictators to achieve it. For the sake of our own democracy, for the progress of humanity, and for a future where freedom of conscience and expression are free everywhere, we must reject the dictators of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain; to meet with them is a betrayal of democracy and of the people who have died in its defense.

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  • No Starvation for Oil

    Sana’a, Yemen (Photo credit: Rod Waddington via Flickr)

    As President Joe Biden embarks on his trip to the Middle East, those of us back home must acknowledge that a “sensitive” trip would visit the victims rather than the butchers.

    President Joe Biden’s foreign policy advisors are applauding themselves for devising a “sensitive” itinerary as he plans to embark on a trip to the Middle East on July 13.

    In a Washington Post op-ed, Biden defended his controversial planned meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (known as MBS), saying it is meant not only to bolster U.S. interests but also to bring peace to the region.

    It seems that his trip will not include Yemen, though if this were truly a “sensitive” visit, he would be stopping at one of Yemen’s many beleaguered refugee camps. There he could listen to people displaced by war, some of whom are shell-shocked from years of bombardment. He could hear the stories of bereaved parents and orphaned children, and then express true remorse for the complicity of the United States in the brutal aerial attacks and starvation blockade imposed on Yemen for the past eight years.

    From the vantage point of a Yemeni refugee camp, Biden could insist that no country, including his own, has a right to invade another land and attempt to bomb its people into submission. He could uphold the value of the newly extended truce between the region’s warring parties, allowing Yemenis a breather from the tortuous years of war, and then urge ceasefires and settlements to resolve all militarized disputes, including Russia’s war in Ukraine. He could beg for a new way forward, seeking political will, universally, for disarmament and a peaceful, multipolar world.

    More than 150,000 people have been killed in the war in Yemen, 14,500 of whom were civilians. But the death toll from militarily imposed poverty has been immeasurably higher. The war has caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, creating an unprecedented level of hunger in Yemen, where millions of people face severe hardship.

    Some 17.4 million Yemenis are food insecure; by December 2022, the projected number of hungry people will likely rise to 19 million. The rate of child malnutrition is one of the highest in the world, and nutrition continues to deteriorate.

    I grew to understand the slogan “No Blood for Oil” while living in Iraq during the 1991 Operation Desert Storm war, the 1998 Desert Fox war, and the 2003 Shock and Awe war. To control the pricing and the flow of oil, the United States and its allies slaughtered and maimed thousands of Iraqi people. Visits to Iraqi pediatric wards from 1996 to 2003 taught me a tragic expansion of that slogan. We must certainly insist: “No Starvation for Oil.”

    During twenty-seven trips to Iraq, all in defiance of the U.S. economic sanctions against Iraq, I was part of delegations delivering medicines directly to Iraqi hospitals in cities throughout the country. We witnessed the ghastly crime of punishing children to death for the sake of an utterly misguided U.S. foreign policy. The agony endured by Iraqi families who watched their children starve has now become the nightmare experience of Yemeni families.

    It’s unlikely that a U.S. President or any leader of a U.S-allied country will ever visit a Yemeni refugee camp, but we who live in these countries can take refuge in the hard work of becoming independent of fossil fuels, shedding the pretenses that we have a right to consume other people’s precious and irreplaceable resources at cut rate prices and that war against children is an acceptable price to pay so that we can maintain this right.

    We must urgently simplify our over-consumptive lifestyles, share resources radically, prefer service to dominance, and insist on zero tolerance for starvation.

    This article first appeared in The Progressive Magazine.

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  • ‘In the Middle East, We Are Hearing a New Set of Excuses to Justify the Same Old Policy’

     

    Janine Jackson interviewed Raed Jarrar about Joe Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia  for the June 24, 2022, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

          CounterSpin220624Koshgarian.mp3

     

    NYT: Biden Has ‘Only Bad Options’ for Bringing Down Oil Prices

    New York Times (6/5/22)

    Janine Jackson: During the 2020 campaign, the New York Times explained, Joe Biden pledged, if elected, to stop coddling Saudi Arabia, after the brutal murder of a prominent dissident and Washington Post contributor, Jamal Khashoggi. “We are not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them,” Biden said. “We’re going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are.” 

    When officials said Biden would visit the kingdom in July and meet with Mohammed bin Salman, understood as the architect of Khashoggi’s murder, the New York Times explained, “It was just the latest sign that oil has again regained its centrality in geopolitics.”

    NPR said it tighter, telling listeners, “Biden has changed his tune on Saudi Arabia,” and “oil is a big part of the reason.” Vox had a long, twisty piece about the visit as a sign of “tensions” in Biden’s foreign policy. He wants policy to benefit the middle class, like trying to lower gas prices, but he wants policy to center human rights, a “reflection,” the outlet assures us, “of Biden’s gut feeling about democracies delivering better for people.”

    Pity the earnest soul trying to make sense of US foreign policy by way of news media, always being asked to believe in values that are nowhere in evidence, principles that are overthrown at the first turn—and, above all, something called “realism,” that always seems to afflict the afflicted and comfort the comfortable. 

    Vox: Biden distanced himself from Saudi Arabia — until gas prices got bad

    Vox (6/21/22)

    What would a humane, independent press corps be talking about when we talk about Biden’s upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia? We’re joined now by Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at DAWN, Democracy for the Arab World Now, an organization founded by Jamal Khashoggi. He joins us now by phone from Washington, DC. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Raed Jarrar. 

    Raed Jarrar: Thank you for having me again. 

    JJ: Jamal Khashoggi comes up in virtually every piece about this visit. Bloomberg‘s editors say that “Biden isn’t likely to elicit any public contrition, but Saudi leaders should at least guarantee that no similar atrocity will take place again.”

    You get the impression from coverage that Saudi leadership did one bad thing, so maybe we should all just try to get past it. It’s very strange, but given an absence of information, that might be what many people will come away with. 

    RJ: And that is a very misguided analysis, obviously. The Saudi government, and many other governments in the Middle East—Egypt, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and others—have been committing human rights abuses on a daily basis.

    And the Biden administration made big, grand promises before President Biden came into office. But regardless of these promises, what the administration is doing now is that it is breaching US and international law by continuing to support and aid these abusive and apartheid governments in the Middle East. And, unfortunately, we are just hearing a new set of excuses to justify the same old policy. 

    Raed Jarrar: “His visit will not help peace. It will not help human rights. It will not help US interests in the region.”

    JJ: Well, yeah, because people are going to read stories saying this visit is a bad idea, or it’s a good idea, or it’s a bad thing but we have to do it…. What we’re not seeing is discussion of what might be the real purposes or the likely outcomes of this trip. And I wonder what you make of that, and of this sort of scramble to present it as a necessary reset in terms of US/Saudi policy. 

    RJ: I wish there was a reset in US/Saudi policy. It is more or less the same for the last decade. The US policy in the Middle East in general has been on autopilot for decades, and many think tanks and human rights organizations in Washington, DC, have been pleading that this administration should change the status quo, and should rethink US foreign policy in the Middle East, whether it’s the $3.8 billion that we give to Israel every year, whether it’s the $1.3 billion that we give to Egypt every year, whether it’s the hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and Emirates.

    These are entrenched practices and policies that have been taking place for a long time. They are so deeply rooted in Washington, DC, protected by special interests and lobbyists, and all of the reasons why DC is broken.

    So the fact that the administration is continuing the exact same policy now…. The administration is telling us that it’s for our own good, or it’s for the realpolitik, just to be reasonable and realistic, that we have to go down the path of funding apartheid in Israel and selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and doing all of these crimes, supporting all of these crimes in the region.

    It’s not true. That’s actually not true. The United States does have an option to stop these policies, shift our policies in the Middle East and elsewhere, and start abiding by our own law. We have existing US law that prohibit the United States from funding and aiding and selling weapons to human rights abusers.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

    We have other options when it comes to energy; we don’t have to actually have all presidents fly and shake the hand of the mastermind of the murder of Jamal Kashoggi to bring us oil. That’s not true. There are so many other options for energy independence. There are many other options for the reduction of use of energy in the US. There are options for getting other types of energy. There are options of getting oil from other places. 

    These narratives that we’re dealing with now are fake narratives, lazy narratives to justify the status quo, because changing the status quo in DC is not easy. 

    JJ: Absolutely. And part of what presents an obstacle is this kind of misinformation or even disinformation that comes from the media—and from politicians. I’m just looking at media credulously repeating Biden’s quote: “Look, I’m not gonna change my view on human rights. But as president of the United States, my job is to bring peace if I can…. And that’s what I’m going to try to do.” 

    Going back to the Bloomberg editors, they say, “Healthy US/Saudi ties are critical to calming a volatile part of the world.” So I think even well-meaning folks are reading that and thinking, “Okay, well, shaking hands with someone, if that’s going to calm volatility, and if that’s going to bring peace, well, then I’m for that.”

    Bloomberg (6/21/22)

    And yet distinguishing that from actual diplomacy is something else again. 

    RJ: That’s right. And listen, I grew up in the Arab world. I am half Palestinian and half Iraqi. I grew up in different parts of the Arab world, in Iraq and Jordan and Saudi Arabia and other countries. And I’m very familiar with the narrative of trying to use Israel/Palestine, and peace for Israel/Palestine, as a justification to continue abusive government policy. 

    This is how we grew up. Saddam Hussein always told us that we have to not criticize the Iraqi government, because he’s working to bring peace and end the occupation of Palestine, right? Assad says the same and Mubarak said the same, and all of these other dictators.

    And now we are hearing, ironically, a similar narrative coming from the United States. So President Biden is telling us that to bring “peace” to Israel/Palestine, he needs to travel to the region and normalize relationships with dictators, normalize relationships with apartheid regimes. That is not true.

    The United States’ role in Israel/Palestine is a part of the problem, and there is no war between Saudi Arabia and Israel that President Biden has to go there and negotiate an end or peace treaty for. What President Biden is doing is, he’s continuing a negative US role in the region, a negative US role that has contributed, along with apartheid Israel, to additional human rights abuse in Saudi Arabia.

    And his visit will not help peace. It will not help human rights. It will not help US interests in the region. It will help maintain the very narrowly defined special interests that we have here in Washington, DC, whether they are the oil lobbyists or the weapon lobbyists or Israel lobbyists or Saudi Arabia lobbyists, the very, very narrowly defined interests that come from very, very, very small groups. Those are the people who are benefiting from this. 

    The United States as a country is not, the US people are not, and people in the Middle East region are not. 

    JJ: Let me just ask you, finally: While many in elite media are trying to hurry us past the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, and see that as something to put behind us in order to move forward, lots of folks are not supporting that and, in fact, have put in place, a symbol to say that this is not something we’re going to forget. Let me just ask you to end with that street renaming in DC, which I understand is in front of the Saudi embassy. Is that right? 

    Khashoggi Way, street sign in front of the Saudi Arabian embassy

    (CC photo: Joe Flood)

    RJ: That is right. Last week, we finally officially changed the name of the street outside of the Saudi embassy to Jamal Khashoggi Way.

    We placed official street signs, after the DC council voted to change the name of the street, and after the DC Department of Transportation worked with us to unveil these signs. We have four signs right outside of the Saudi embassy. One of them is immediately outside the door of the embassy. So everyone who’s going to the embassy will see that. 

    But not only this, if you look at Google Maps today, at the Saudi embassy in Washington, DC, the name of the streets right outside that has been changed also on Google Maps to Jamal Kashoggi Way. And this is a daily reminder to anyone who is going to the embassy, whether they work there or visiting, that Jamal Kashoggi has not been forgotten, and we will continue to fight for justice for Jamal.

    We will also try to work on other streets around the United States, around the US consulates, maybe in Los Angeles and Boston and New York, to also change the names of the streets there to Jamal Kashoggi Way, so that will serve as a permanent reminder to everyone who passes there every day about the crime that took place in 2018.

    JJ: We’ve been speaking with Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at DAWN, Democracy for the Arab World Now. They are online at DAWNMENA.org. Raed Jarrar, thank you so much for joining us this week on CounterSpin. 

    RJ: Thanks again for having me.

    The post ‘In the Middle East, We Are Hearing a New Set of Excuses to Justify the Same Old Policy’ appeared first on FAIR.

    This post was originally published on FAIR.

  • Raed Jarrar on Biden’s Saudi Trip, Lindsay Koshgarian on People Over Pentagon

     

    Khashoggi Way, street sign in front of the Saudi Arabian embassy

    (cc photo: Joe Flood)

    This week on CounterSpin: Elite news media are saying that Biden has to go to Saudi Arabia in July despite his pledges to make the country a “pariah” for abuses including the grisly murder of a Washington Post contributor, because…stability? Shaking hands with Mohammed bin Salman makes sense, even in the context of denying Cuba and Venezuela participation in the Americas Summit out of purported concerns about their human rights records, because…gas prices? It’s hard to parse corporate media coverage of Biden’s Saudi visit, because that coverage obscures rather than illuminates what’s going on behind the euphemism “US interests.” We talk about the upcoming trip with Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at DAWN—Democracy for the Arab World Now.

          CounterSpin220624Jarrar.mp3

     

    Also on the show: “Congressional Republicans Criticize Small Defense Increase in Biden’s Budget Blueprint,” read one headline; “Biden Faces Fire From Left on Increased Defense Spending,” read another. Sure sounds like media hosting a debate on an issue that divides the country. Except a real debate would be informed —we’d hear just how much the US spends on military weaponry compared to other countries; and a real debate would be humane—we’d hear discussion of alternatives, other ways of organizing a society besides around the business of killing. That sort of conversation isn’t pie in the sky; there’s actual legislation right now that could anchor it. We talk about the People Over Pentagon Act of 2022 with Lindsay Koshgarian, program director of the National Priorities Project.

          CounterSpin220624Koshgarian.mp3

     

    Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at media coverage of gender therapy.

          CounterSpin220624Banter.mp3

     

    The post Raed Jarrar on Biden’s Saudi Trip, Lindsay Koshgarian on People Over Pentagon appeared first on FAIR.

    This post was originally published on CounterSpin.

  • Biden Succumbs to Lobbyists in Move Toward Saudi Arms and Defense Agreements

    President Biden’s formally announced plan to visit Saudi Arabia next month is a dramatic reversal of earlier promises to treat the Arab nation as a “pariah” in light of its repeated human rights violations. Calls are growing for Biden to hold the Saudi government accountable for the brutal murder and dismemberment of American resident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. But as he faces domestic anger over rising fuel prices, Biden seems to have declining leverage with one of the most oil-rich countries in the world and the top weapons client for the U.S. “The Biden administration has succumbed to the pressures of defense industries and the foreign government lobbyists to continue what are very profitable arms sales,” says Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, founded by Khashoggi.

    TRANSCRIPT

    This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

    AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

    The White House has formally announced that President Biden will visit Saudi Arabia next month, as well as Israel and the occupied West Bank. Biden is expected to meet with both Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. As a candidate on the campaign trail, Biden pledged to make Saudi Arabia a pariah, following the brutal assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

    JOE BIDEN: And I would make it very clear we were not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them. We were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are.

    AMY GOODMAN: But Biden has taken a different stance in recent months as global gas prices soared. His talks in Saudi Arabia are expected to focus on oil production, the war in Yemen and other regional issues.

    For more, we’re joined by Sarah Leah Whitson, lawyer for Khashoggi’s fiancée in a lawsuit against the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for Khashoggi’s murder, his dismemberment in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. She’s executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, or DAWN, which Jamal Khashoggi founded.

    Welcome back to Democracy Now! We only have five minutes, Sarah Leah, but I’m wondering if you can respond to this just complete reversal of President Biden, from saying they’re pariahs to going to meet with them.

    SARAH LEAH WHITSON: It’s a very dramatic capitulation to a very clear red line that President Biden had announced, perhaps off the cuff, but I think it is in response to a massive amount of pressure from the defense industry lobbies, from the Israeli, Saudi and Emirati lobbies, and the confluence of the war in Ukraine that has driven up oil prices, all of which have resulted in pressuring President Biden to do what he clearly didn’t want to do, which is go and kiss the ring of Mohammed bin Salman.

    I also want to note that the notion of whether or not Biden is going to meet with Mohammed bin Salman is a bit of a red herring, because the real concession here, what the Saudis and Emiratis have been demanding in order to continue to purchase American weapons, is a security agreement, a defense agreement, that will commit U.S. troops to defending the Saudi and Emirati monarchies. That is what President Biden is going to deliver in Riyadh. That is what we should all be very worried about.

    JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what about the continuing massive weapon sales under the Biden administration, not only to Saudi Arabia, but to Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, as well?

    SARAH LEAH WHITSON: Well, I mean, the truth is in the pudding. Despite the promise from President Biden that you just heard, that he would end weapon sales to Saudi Arabia, it was very clear from the beginning of the administration that that was not going to happen. Saudi Arabia is America’s largest weapons client. It is the largest weapons client in the world. And number two behind it is the UAE. Everybody knows what the right thing to do is, and that is to end weapon sales to these heinous governments, given their atrocious war crimes for six years in Yemen.

    But, ultimately, the Biden administration has succumbed to the pressures of the defense industries and the foreign government lobbyists to continue what are very profitable arms sales for the defense industry. Certainly, this doesn’t suit or serve the interests of the American people, but it very much serves the interests of major donors to the Democratic Party, major donors to the Biden administration, and that is the lobbyists that represent the defense industries and the foreign governments.

    AMY GOODMAN: I was watching John Kirby, the spokesperson for the Pentagon, questioned about whether he’ll raise human rights, and he said, “Well, he does do that kind of thing. We kind of expect he will.” But what about — for example, is there pressure being brought to end your lawsuit on behalf of Khashoggi’s fiancée for the dismemberment of Khashoggi, the murder of Khashoggi? And we’re not only talking about one man here; also, the dismemberment of Yemen, the atrocity that is one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in the world, with U.S. weapons-backed Saudi Arabia bombing of Yemen.

    SARAH LEAH WHITSON: Well, just to be clear, the lawsuit is a lawsuit that DAWN has brought in its own capacity, and Hatice Cengiz, Jamal’s widow, is our co-plaintiff. We are joining together in this lawsuit for the murder and torture of Jamal Khashoggi. And we know that Mohammed bin Salman has demanded that the Biden administration interfere in our lawsuit to grant him immunity. That’s not going happen. It hasn’t happened so far. But if he ascends to become king, he will have sovereign immunity. The other defendants in the lawsuit will remain. And we are waiting for a verdict from the court on their motion to dismiss our lawsuit. We intend to prevail. We hope we will prevail.

    I should note that today we will be commemorating the murder of Jamal Khashoggi by Mohammed bin Salman by unveiling a new street sign in front of the Saudi Embassy at 1 p.m. That, I think, is the most important act of commemoration and accountability that exists to date, a permanent street sign in front of the Saudi Embassy reminding them and reminding the whole world who was responsible for this heinous crime.

    Very happy to see a truce in Yemen, but, let’s face it, this is a face-saving exit for the Saudi government from their catastrophic, futile war that has caused nothing but destruction and brought zero gain, even for the Saudis’ nefarious plot to contain and control Yemen.

    AMY GOODMAN: So, the Saudi Arabian Embassy will be on Jamal Khashoggi Way?

    SARAH LEAH WHITSON: That’s right. The new address of the Saudi Embassy — and we hope Google will adjust its maps to reflect that — is officially now Jamal Khashoggi Way. That is designated by the Washington, D.C., City Council, which unanimously approved —

    AMY GOODMAN: Three seconds.

    SARAH LEAH WHITSON: — our efforts to redesignate the street. And we hope you all watch the unveiling of the street sign today at 1 p.m. on DAWN’s Facebook page.

    AMY GOODMAN: Sarah Leah Whitson, we want to thank you for being with us, of DAWN. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • John Minto: Exposing Israel’s horrific record in targeted killing of journalists

    COMMENTARY: By John Minto

    A detailed study of the killing of journalists released this week by Countercurrents shows that Israel leads the world in this grimmest of statistics:

    Apartheid Israel tops the ranking by “average number of journalists killed per 10 million of population per year” that yields the following order:

    Occupied Palestine, over 6.164; Syria, 4.733; Afghanistan, 2.563; Israel-Palestine, over 2.190; Somalia, 1.751; Yemen, 1.278; Iraq, 0.897; Mexico, 0.750; Colombia, 0.366; Philippines, 0.283; Pakistan, 0.152; World, 0.084; India, 0.027.

    On a per capita basis, the killing of journalists by Apartheid Israel in Occupied Palestine leads the world, and is 73.4 times greater than for the world as a whole. In contrast, India scores 3.1 times lower than the world. The present data shows that Apartheid Israel leads the world by far for killing journalists.

    Israel has a long sordid history of targeting and murdering journalists reporting on its war crimes against the Palestinian people and last month’s killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh should be seen as part of this pattern.

    Shireen’s killing hit the headlines because she had such a high profile across the Arab world and was an American citizen.

    The New Zealand government waited a week before issuing an insipid tweet calling for an independent investigation into Shireen’s killing.

    The US has also been embarrassed into claiming it is “deeply upset” about the killing — usually the US looks the other way, giving impunity to its racist, apartheid proxy in Palestine.

    Journalists in US speak up
    But journalists in the US are speaking up — even mainstream journalists are beginning to speak out. CNN, for example, has conducted its own probe into the killing and in part concluded:

    “From the strike marks on the tree it appears that the shots, one of which hit Shireen, came from down the street from the direction of the IDF troops. The relatively tight grouping of the rounds indicate Shireen was intentionally targeted with aimed shots and not the victim of random or stray fire”

    Other journalists are also trying to hold the US to account for the impunity it gives to Israeli war crimes:

    During a Summit of the Americas event last night in Los Angeles, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was questioned by journalist Abby Martin about the killing of Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

    “Secretary Blinken, what about Shireen Abu Akleh?,” asked Martin. “She was murdered by Israeli forces. CNN just agreed to this. These are our two greatest allies in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

    “They have murdered American journalists and there have been absolutely no repercussions . . . you’re sitting up here talking about the freedom of press and democracy. The United States is denying sovereignty to tens of millions of people around the world with draconian sanctions for electing leaders that you do not like.

    “Why is there no accountability for Israel or Saudi Arabia for murdering journalists?”

    “I deplore the loss of Shireen,” Blinken responded. “She was a remarkable journalist, an American citizen…We are looking for an independent, credible investigation. When that investigation happens, we will follow the facts, wherever they lead. It’s as straightforward as that.”

    Deafening silence on Assange
    Meanwhile, there has been a deafening silence from most journalists about the plight of Julian Assange who has been persecuted by the US and its allies for exposing the truth behind the US pursuit of endless wars around the globe.

    Exposing Israel’s horrific record in the targeted killing of journalists is journalism at its best. Silence about the fate of Julian Assange is journalism at its worst.

    John Minto is a political activist and commentator, and spokesperson for Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa. This article was first published by The Daily Blog and is republished with the author’s permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs calls for an “immediate moratorium on executions” in Saudi Arabia

    Two Irish deputies brought the urgent death row case of Jaafar Mohamed Sultan and Sadeq Majeed Thamer to the attention of the Irish Foreign Minister, Simon Coveney on the 1st of June 2022. These two Bahraini men are on death row in Saudi Arabia, having exhausted all legal remedies and are at risk of imminent execution despite a grossly unfair legal process and allegations of torture. Paul Murphy TD of People before Profit and Catherine Connolly TD, an Independent, raised this case with Minister Coveney, asking if he will make a statement on the matter.

     

    In a written statement, Minister Coveney highlighted Ireland’s consistent opposition to the death penalty stating they have made this clear in previous interactions with Saudi officials. He noted this particular case with concern. Minister Coveney reaffirmed Ireland’s commitment to the UN Standard. Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. The EU-Saudi Arabia Human Rights Dialogue held for the first time in September 2021 was highlighted where the issues of arbitrary detention and the death penalty were raised. Minister Coveney then ended his statement by saying, “The abolition of the death penalty will continue to be a foreign policy priority for Ireland. I urge Saudi Arabia to establish an immediate moratorium on executions, with a view to abolishing the death penalty”. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Ireland has previously condemned the 81 executions in one day by Saudi Arabia in March of this year.

     

    It is great to see the Irish parliament publicly call for the end of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia and this urgent case getting international attention and condemnation. The two deputies involved have consistently raised human rights issues in both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in the Irish parliament. Now under an international spotlight, Saudi Arabia must commute these unjust death sentences and take steps to abolish the death penalty completely.

     

    The post Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs calls for an “immediate moratorium on executions” in Saudi Arabia appeared first on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

    This post was originally published on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

  • Human Rights violations of Yemeni migrant workers in Saudi Arabia

    Over the past several years, and specifically since July 2021, authorities in Saudi Arabia have intensified their unfair targetingof Yemeni migrants. Yemeni migrant workers in Saudi Arabia have been subjected to a myriad of abuses perpetrated and sanctioned by Saudi authorities including arbitrary detention, discriminatory restrictions on employment practices, and theloss of livelihood due to the unjustified termination of employment contracts. The severity of these abuses have been so extreme that they have forced thousands of Yemeni professionals to return the ongoing conflict and dire humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

    As part of the implementation of Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 policies, migrant workers have been governed by increasingly strict rules since 2017. For example, Saudi authorities imposed an annual fee of 100 riyals on each accompanying person and have since increased this fee each year. This makes it nearly impossible for migrant workers to travel with their families, as the rising fee for accompanying persons has quickly become untenable due to consistently low wages. Not only have fees for accompanying persons risen steadily, but fees on the workers themselves have also increased. Codified in Saudi law, the fees imposed on migrant workers is based on the proportion of foreign professionals to Saudi nationals in the workplace. If the number of foreign workers is larger than Saudi nationals, the migrants must pay 800 Saudi riyals per month. If the alternative is true, foreign workers only pay 700 riyals. This is in addition to the fee workers pay their sponsor. In addition to demanding various monthly fees, Saudi authorities also implemented a so-called “Saudisation” policythat prohibited migrant workers from being employed in certain sectors.

    The unwillingness of Saudi officials to humanely adapt their policies and make concessions in response to the global pandemic has created an environment even more dangerous and unfair than the pre-pandemic one. At a time when large companies had already dismissed many migrant workers and high contract termination rates resulted in a large contingency of Yemeni professionals forced to leave but unable to travel, the Saudi government allowed private-sector companies to reduce salaries of workers by up to 40%, with the further possibility of termination.

    According to a 2020 estimate by the Yemeni government, more than two million Yemenis live in Saudi Arabia. Remittancesfrom Yemeni migrant workers have become a vital lifeline forYemen’s devastated economy. The World Bank estimated in 2017 that remittances sent from Yemenis in Saudi Arabia amounted to US $2.3 billion annually. Statistics from Yemen’s Ministry of Planning and Cooperation indicate that remittances sent from Saudi Arabia account for 61 percent of total remittances. It would not be an overstatement to suggest that remittances are one of the only economic elements and mean of livelihood left for people in Yemen. Understandably, remittances have dropped since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the actions of the Saudi government have purposefully served to exacerbate the situation of Yemeni professionals in Saudi Arabia and increase the suffering of those individuals who remain in or were forced to return to the ongoing conflict within Yemen.

    In July of 2021, the Saudi Human Resources Ministry issuednew regulations for migrant workers, requiring businesses to limit the percentage of their workers from certain nationalities, including 25 percent for Yemeni nationals. By mid-August it was apparent that mass job terminations were targeting Yemenimigrant workers in Saudi Arabia which included medical staff, academics, and other professionals. In many cases, the dismissed professionals were not provided justification for government orders forcing the termination of their contracts.Although Saudi officials have refrained from commenting or offering a rationale for these mass terminations, reporting fromanonymous sources in Saudi Arabia suggests that thesediscriminatory tactics were intended to create jobs for citizens in the south as part of efforts to reduce Saudi unemployment of 11.7%, and as a reprisal against Yemenis due to the ongoing fighting between the Saudi-led coalition and Yemen’s Houthi group.

    In addition to being fired without cause, Yemeni migrant workers in Saudi Arabia have also been arbitrarily detained.Based on statistics provided by the MOI in 2018, around two million people were arrested, 500,000 of whom were deported.This targeting has only intensified in recent years. Over the course of a single week in March 2022, mass arrests by Saudi authorities resulted in the detention of 15,000 migrants, most of them from Yemen. Once detained, migrants await deportation, often in abysmal conditions. Despite the dearth of data on the conditions of detention and deportation centers in Saudi Arabia, reporting from human rights organizations offers insight into theinhumane and degrading conditions of the detention conditions.Recent reports have revealed that Saudi authorities have conducted mass searches of the detention centers, with the express aim of confiscating phones and any devices that could be used to relay images of the mass suffering to the outside world. The timing of this escalation of repression has been described as an attempt to prevent these abuses being exposed during Ramadan, which would risk international criticism and further unrest in the region during the holy month. It has also been reported that law enforcement officials have required migrant workers and other individuals set for deportation to sign non-disclosure agreements forbidding them from sharing their degrading experiences. Although firsthand confirmation of abuses at detention centers remains limited, it should be noted that the statements by the migrants about their humiliating treatment in unsanitary and overcrowded facilities appears to correspond with the assessment of staffers from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and other UN agencies supporting relief efforts at returnee reception centers in Yemen and Ethiopia.

    Despite the credible reporting of numerous human rights organizations, and the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council having expressed concerns about the overcrowding and poor conditions of detention facilities in Saudi Arabia, the US and the UK remain silent on the matter. The refusal of the West to address these grievous abuses is only made more condemnable when the truth of this mistreatment is fully acknowledged: by scapegoating Yemeni migrant workers and terminating their contracts because of the war with Yemen, Saudi authorities are effectively ascribing blame and forcing these individuals to return to a humanitarian crisis that they themselves were directly responsible for creating. Since the war began in 2015, attacks on civilian infrastructure by the Saudi-led coalition have been common. Airstrikes have targeted schools, hospitals, markets, and agricultural and water infrastructures. Environmental fallout of this war has included the destruction of ecosystems, the production of pollution and toxic dust, soil, and water contamination. This has led to persistent and worsening impoverishment and disease in Yemen, contributing to the forced displacement of 4 million people. 5 million people are suffering famine and disease because of this while 29 million people have been forced to rely on foreign aid for their survival.

    The collective impact of the war and the Saudi-led coalition have had a devastating effect on Yemen’s civilians. According to the U.N., coalition airstrikes have killed or wounded an estimated 20,000 Yemeni civilians. Also, research conducted by the Washington Post shows that the Saudi-led coalition has been responsible for 67% of attacks and destruction of infrastructure there. These attacks include the deliberate bombardment of Yemen’s agricultural sector which has severely exacerbated food shortages. The deliberate destruction of health, sanitation, agricultural, and water infrastructure in one of the most water insecure countries in the world has been called a violation of International Humanitarian Law.

    The silence of the US and the UK is yet another example of the West’s contribution to the “acute accountability gap” as it concerns Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations related to the war in Yemen. Both the US and the UK have signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which prescribes in Article 3 the right to life, liberty, and security of person. Through their continued support of the coalition and their unwillingness to address Saudi Arabia’s broader human rights abuses against Yemeni migrant workers, they are indirectly violating this fundamental protection. If the Saudi government continues to discriminate against and unfairly target Yemeni professionals, those migrant workers who are unable tofind another employer to act as a sponsor will continue to beforced to leave the country or face deportation. For Yemenis, this can mean a risk to their lives.

    The post Human Rights violations of Yemeni migrant workers in Saudi Arabia appeared first on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

    This post was originally published on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

  • Biden Plans to Visit Saudi Arabia in Push for Oil

    Two and a half years removed from his campaign trail vow to make Saudi Arabia’s leaders “pay the price” for their role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, U.S. President Joe Biden is reportedly planning to visit Riyadh in the coming days as part of the White House’s effort to shore up ties with the oil-rich kingdom as Russia’s war on Ukraine roils global energy markets.

    The timing of the trip has not yet been finalized, but the New York Times reported Thursday that Biden intends to add the Riyadh visit to his planned visit to Israel and Europe later this month.

    Saudi Arabia is the third-largest oil producer in the world behind the U.S. and Russia, and the kingdom has previously resisted the Biden administration’s calls to pump more oil amid surging gas prices. But more recently, the Saudi kingdom has indicated a willingness to ramp up production if Russia’s output tanks due to the West’s sanctions regime.

    According to the Washington Post, for which Khashoggi worked as a columnist, Biden administration officials have come to view a presidential visit to Saudi Arabia “as a necessary act of realpolitik to lower energy prices and inflation, despite a campaign promise to further isolate Riyadh.”

    Matt Duss, a foreign policy adviser to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), was among those criticizing the planned visit as egregiously hypocritical, flying directly in the face of Biden’s rhetoric on the campaign trail and since taking office.

    “If anyone can explain to me how this reflects the administration’s previously stated commitment to ‘a world in which human rights are protected, their defenders are celebrated, and those who commit human rights abuses are held accountable,’ I’d love to hear it,” said Duss.

    Bill McKibben, an environmentalist and co-founder of 350.org, tweeted that he “can’t wait for the day when the world can stop sucking up to murderers simply because they have oil.”

    During his trip to Riyadh, the president is expected to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi leader whom intelligence agencies say approved the gruesome killing of Khashoggi — a U.S. resident — inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

    The murder sparked international outrage, which then-presidential candidate Biden joined in 2019 with his vow to make the Saudi kingdom a “pariah.”

    Biden also pledged at the time to “end the sale of material to the Saudis where they’re going in and murdering children,” referring to the Saudi-led coalition’s yearslong, catastrophic war on Yemen — which the U.S. has aided every step of the way with arms and logistical support.

    But Biden is now facing mounting criticism for reneging on his promises. Despite the president’s February 2021 call for an end to U.S. support for all “offensive operations” in Yemen, the administration has continued providing the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates with weapons and jet maintenance services.

    While a newly extended humanitarian truce in Yemen has provided a brief reprieve to the poor and war-ravaged nation, it remains in a state of deep crisis with millions — including many children — facing starvation, disease, and displacement.

    In a statement on Thursday marking news of the deal to extend the fragile truce for two months, Biden lavished praise on Saudi Arabia, claiming the kingdom “demonstrated courageous leadership by taking initiatives early on to endorse and implement terms of the U.N.-led truce.”

    Biden did not mention that the Saudi crown prince, commonly known as MBS, is the chief architect of the assault on Yemen, which began in 2015 with the support of the Obama administration. The Biden administration has declined to directly penalize MBS for his role in the Khashoggi killing or the humanitarian nightmare in Yemen.

    “Applauding MBS’ ‘courage’ for supporting a ceasefire in a war the Saudi crown prince himself started — and to use that as a pretext for the presidential meeting — speaks to Biden’s desperation to lower gas prices, as well as to our need to end this dependency on Saudi Arabia,” said Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

    “Rather than rebuilding relations with Riyadh, Biden’s hat-in-hand approach will likely exacerbate the longstanding problems in U.S.-Saudi relations,” Parsi warned. “It will increase our dependence on the kingdom, which has long given its rulers carte blanche to act against American interests in the Middle East and beyond.”

    “MBS is playing hardball with the United States,” Parsi continued, “and Biden just let him win.”

    Sunjeev Bery, executive director of Freedom Forward, argued that “it makes no sense to strengthen Saudi Arabia’s oil dictator in order to stop Russia’s oil dictator.”

    “The planet is on fire,” Bery added, “and Biden is about to reestablish relations with one of the key arsonists.”

  • Biden’s Visit To Saudi Arabia Exposes The Ukraine Narrative For The Sham It Is

    Listen to a reading of this article:

    ❖

    In a major walkback from his campaign pledge to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” for human rights abuses like the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, President Biden will reportedly visit Riyadh with the goal of persuading Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to help the US alliance win its economic war against Russia.

    The Guardian tells us the trip “suggests Biden has prioritized his need to bring oil prices down and thereby punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, over his stand on human rights.”

    So in order to punish Vladimir Putin for his war crimes and his assault on freedom and democracy, Biden will be courting a tyrannical war criminal whose country has no freedom or democracy.

    Washington will be ending its brief diplomatic dry spell with a government that has been waging a horrific war against Yemen while suppressing any semblance of human rights at home in order to more effectively punish Putin for waging a horrific war against Ukraine which we’re told threatens freedom and democracy throughout the western world.

    I am not the first to note the risible irony of this development.

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    The EU literally just banned oil from Russia (mimicking the United States' actions) because they don't want to give money to a "dictator". So Biden is travelling soon to Saudi Arabia to try and bring energy prices down– which is a vibrant democracy, as you all know.

    — Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) June 2, 2022

    “The Biden Administration is openly planning to pay homage to one [of] its closest allies — one of the most despotic and murderous tyrants on the planet, the Saudi Crown Prince — at the same time it convinces Americans its motive for fighting wars is to defend freedom and democracy,” tweeted Glenn Greenwald.

    “The EU literally just banned oil from Russia (mimicking the United States’ actions) because they don’t want to give money to a ‘dictator’. So Biden is travelling soon to Saudi Arabia to try and bring energy prices down– which is a vibrant democracy, as you all know,” tweeted Richard Medhurst.

    “As part of mobilizing support for the great war for ‘freedom’ in Ukraine, Biden will be visiting the great beacon of ‘democracy,’ Saudi Arabia this month. What’s a little murder and dismemberment between friends?” tweeted Joseph Kishore.

    Indeed, one wonders if perhaps Putin could settle this whole conflict by staging a few mass beheadings and dismembering a Washington Post reporter with a bone saw to get on America’s good side.

    A lot of people talk about the “hypocrisy” of the US empire, as though being hypocritical is the issue. But the complete lack of moral consistency in US imperial behavior is noteworthy not merely because of hypocrisy: it’s noteworthy because it shows the US empire has no morality.

    Despite the astonishing deluge of propaganda and brazen government disinformation we’re being blasted in the face with painting the war in Ukraine as a fight between good versus evil, freedom versus tyranny, democracy versus autocracy, the truth is much less flattering to the imperial ego. In reality, the US is waging a proxy war in Ukraine for the exact same reason it remains close with Saudi Arabia: because it advances its own interests to do so.

    That’s it. That’s the whole entire story. The US doesn’t care about Ukrainian freedom or Ukrainian lives, it cares about strengthening its Eurasian geostrategic hegemony, and it would cheerfully incinerate every Ukrainian alive in order to accomplish that goal.

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    Grave mistake to go to Riyadh for this meeting. Not likely to get lasting gains while incurring risks and undermining values.https://t.co/dy5zZvlbjp

    — Dalia Dassa Kaye (@dassakaye) June 2, 2022

    A lot of commentators like to say the US government’s intimacy with Saudi Arabia undermines American values, but that’s not true at all. The US isn’t undermining its values by cozying up with Saudi Arabia, it is perfectly honoring and representing its values.

    One only believes the US is undermining its values by partnering with Saudi Arabia if one assumes that US values include freedom, democracy, justice and peace. This is not an acceptable thing for a grown adult to believe in 2022. US values in the real world are domination and global power. That’s it.

    Really if you think about it Saudi Arabia is just a more honest version of the United States. Its tyranny is right out in the open instead of being sneakily disguised under inverted totalitarianism. Its oligarchs and its official government are all the same people. It never tries to pretend its wars are “humanitarian” in nature. And when it wants to murder an inconvenient journalist it simply does so instead of dishonestly framing it as an espionage case.

    In truth, when you look at its overall behavior on the world stage, the US is far more murderous and tyrannical than either Russia or Saudi Arabia . Pretending that Biden is lowering the United States beneath its values by visiting Saudi Arabia is highly flattering to the US. If anything, it’s the other way around.

    ______________

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  • Corporate Media Fail to Cover War in Yemen Due to US Support for Saudi Arabia

    News outlets in the United States give prime coverage to the war in Ukraine but mostly ignore the devastating war that the U.S. has supported since March 2015 between a Saudi-led coalition that includes the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Houthis in Yemen. As a result, most of the U.S. public is unaware of the war’s catastrophic impact on the Yemeni population: according to the United Nations, around 400,000 people have died and 16.2 million are at the brink of starvation.

    The causes of this devastation include a Saudi-led bombing campaign that targets infrastructure, food sources and health services, as well as coercive measures, including a blockade, directed at destroying Yemen’s economy. The UN has called the situation in Yemen the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.

    Recently, the Houthis have retaliated against the Saudi-led coalition by launching transborder attacks into Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Most of those attacks have been deflected with the help of U.S. weapons. The Saudi/UAE airstrikes, missile attacks and strangling blockades regularly overwhelm the relatively ineffective weapons and military power of the Houthis. Yet, the U.S. media confer a disproportionate amount of media coverage and sympathy to Saudi/UAE aggression.

    What’s important to realize — and what the news media fail to discuss — is that the U.S. is complicit in causing this crisis. The U.S. is the main supplier of weapons to Saudi Arabia. According to the Brookings Institute, 73 percent of Saudi arms imports come from the U.S. In fact, 24 percent of U.S. weapons exports go to Saudi Arabia.

    Former President Donald Trump was eager to brag about the high sales of U.S. arms to the Saudis. Although President Joe Biden indicated that he would sell only defensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, the U.S. continues to provide the Saudis with missiles, parts, maintenance, logistical support and intelligence. Without U.S. support, the Saudi war effort would be greatly hampered.

    In view of the devastation to Yemen, it’s no surprise that several efforts were made by Congress to end U.S. support for the war. In 2019, Congress passed a War Powers Resolution calling for an end to U.S. support for the Saudis, partly in response to the brutal assassination of journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi. However, President Trump at the time vetoed the resolution. Likewise, the House of Representatives passed several versions of the National Defense Authorization Act that included language calling for a complete halt to U.S. support for the war. But during final negotiations, those provisions were dropped.

    Recently, lawmakers in Congress, including Representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) and Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon), indicated that they will introduce a Yemen War Powers Resolution to end all U.S. support for the war. We call on our federal lawmakers — especially our own Rep. Adam Smith (D-Washington), who chairs the House Armed Services Committee — to cosponsor the resolution.

    Still, some policy makers want the U.S. to continue support for the Saudi war on Yemen. Their motivations include a desire for continued oil supplies, as well as strategic issues related to China — Saudi Arabia has supposedly considered accepting yuan as payment for oil — and Iran. Another factor is the money earned from arms sales.

    But others point to the high costs of the U.S.-Saudi relationship, including security concerns. In April of this year, 30 members of Congress wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for a recalibration of the U.S.-Saudi partnership. The letter mentions the brutal war on Yemen, Saudi oppression at home, and Saudi Arabia’s flirtations with China.

    Furthermore, the Saudis have been unwilling to raise oil production to aid the international coalition that is confronting Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Others have published on the ways in which the Saudi-U.S. relationship is damaging to U.S. interests, including dispelling the myth of U.S. dependency on Saudi oil and threats to our national security.

    A discouraging development is that on May 17, Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Khaled bin Salman met with U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl, and the U.S confirmed its commitment to the U.S.-Saudi military collaboration.

    Moreover, recent reports indicate that President Biden is planning to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman early next month. This planned meeting is distressing to many antiwar activists because President Biden had earlier promised to make bin Salman a “pariah” for his role in the killing of Khashoggi and the war in Yemen.

    On April 2, a truce between the warring parties went into effect, the first in six years. The agreed upon truce included an end to attacks and provisions for better movement of goods and people into Yemen. The truce will expire on June 2, 2022, and it is unclear if it will be renewed. It is crucial that we prevent a lapse in the truce and the resumption of fighting.

    The threat of the U.S. ending its support for the Saudi-led coalition, especially the War Powers Resolution, has made the April 2 truce possible. Although the truce is fragile, and although not all the conditions were met, it is a first step to ending the devastating war and bringing peace to Yemen. The UN is discussing an extension to the truce, which the Houthi are considering.

    Without U.S. support, the Saudis would struggle to continue the war. So, it is crucial now that Congress supports the War Powers Resolution to send a signal to both the Biden administration and to Saudi Arabia that it will no longer support their war. It is time for Congress to exercise its constitutional right to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led War in Yemen.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • ADHRB urges the Saudi King to Commute the Death Sentences of Jaafar Sultan and Sadeq Thamer

    Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) calls on the King of Saudi Arabia to commute the death sentences of Bahraini citizens, Jaafar Mohamed Sultan and Sadeq Majeed Thamer, whose death sentences were upheld by the Saudi Supreme Court on 6 April 2022. They have exhausted all legal remedies, and their judgments have been raised to the King who can either ratify the judgment, commute it, or pardon them. This leaves Sadeq and Jaafar, two torture victims, at imminent risk of execution. Only two months ago, Saudi Arabia had executed 81 individuals in one day.  Many of those executed, similarly to Jaafar and Sadeq, had suffered gross fair trial and due process rights violations which ultimately led to their conviction and extrajudicial execution. ADHRB implores that Jaafar and Sadeq do not meet the same fate. 

    On 8 May 2015, King Fahd Causeway Customs Saudi authorities arrested both Sadeq and Jaafar and seized their car without presenting an arrest warrant or providing a reason for their arrest. Sadeq and Jaafar were then taken to the General Investigation Prison in Dammam, Saudi Arabia where they were placed in solitary confinement for nearly 4 months. While being held incommunicado, their parents consulted different entities to discover the whereabouts of their children, to no avail. 

    In court, Jaafar told the lawyer that he was tortured and threatened with the use of violent reprisals against his family; during his detention, Jaafar was transferred to the hospital for ten days because of the torture he was subjected to. Similarly, Sadeq informed his parents that he was physically abused, and recounted being slapped in the face and threatened with further solitary confinement when he refused to sign a confession. Throughout the interrogation period, Saudi authorities did not allow their lawyer to meet with Sadeq and Jaafar. The due process rights of Jaafar and Sadeq were further violated, as they were not given enough time to adequately prepare for the trial nor were they allowed to present evidence. 

    Following a trial marred by severe due process violations, the Specialized Criminal Court of Saudi Arabia sentenced both Jaafar Mohammad Sultan and Sadeq Majeed Thamer to death on 7 October 2021. Despite appealing the outcome of their trial, their verdicts were upheld. Furthermore, Sadeq and Jaafar had been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Bahraini court on the same charges for which they were sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia, prior to the issuance of the Saudi judgment. Despite this, neither Saudi nor Bahraini authorities have responded to requests urging coordination between respective authorities in order to return Sadeq and Jaafar to Bahrain to have them serve their life sentence.  

    Given the recent decision of the Saudi Supreme Court to uphold their death sentences, both men are now at risk of execution at any moment. Accordingly, ADHRB calls with the utmost urgency for the Saudi authorities to commute the death sentences of Jaafar Mohammad Sultan and Sadeq Majeed Thamer. Immediate action must be taken coordinate with the relevant Bahraini authorities to return both men to Bahrain, and all allegations of torture must be properly investigated with a view of holding perpetrators accountable. Further, in light of the Saudi government’s continued and alarming use of mass executions following grossly unfair trials, ADHRB urges the Saudi government to abolish its use of capital punishment, since the death penalty contravenes basic human rights. 

    The post ADHRB urges the Saudi King to Commute the Death Sentences of Jaafar Sultan and Sadeq Thamer appeared first on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

    This post was originally published on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

  • ‘Seriously misguided’: Amnesty angry at Greg Norman’s comments on Khashoggi

    • Norman said ‘we all make mistakes’ when asked about killing
    • Amnesty criticises LIV golf events as sportswashing exercises

    Amnesty International has criticised Greg Norman for “wrong and seriously misguided” comments about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi Arabian consulate in 2018 and the high number of executions carried out this year by the kingdom.

    Norman, the chief executive of Saudi-backed LIV Golf Investments, was asked about Khashoggi’s death during promotional work in the UK for an upcoming tournament. Last year US intelligence agencies concluded that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had approved Khashoggi’s murder. The LIV Golf Series gets underway in Hertfordshire in June.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Greg Norman says ‘we all make mistakes’ when asked about Khashoggi killing

    Australian golf champion makes remarks about journalist’s murder at Saudi-backed league event

    The golf champion Greg Norman has attempted to dismiss questions over the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate as a “mistake,” adding the Saudi government “wants to move forward”.

    Norman was speaking at a promotional event in the UK for a Saudi-backed golf tournament, the LIV Golf Invitational Series. The 67-year-old is chief executive of LIV Golf Investments, funded primarily by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Greg Norman: Saudi Arabia’s Sportswashing Emissary

    As with previous breakaway religions thrilled by the prospect of the new, breakaway sporting competitions offer a chance to reassess doctrine, administration, and philosophies.  It has happened in football, cricket, and rugby, often controversially, and almost always indignantly.  The attempt to create a rival competition is now taking place in a sport famously described as the spoiling of a good walk.

    The LIV Golf Invitational Series is set to run from June to October and promises to be an extravaganza played on three continents.  The chief executive of the enterprise is the man of the eternal tan, golfer turned businessman Greg Norman, while LIV Golf Enterprises is itself majority owned by the Public Investment Fund, which operates on behalf of that inglorious institution known as the Saudi government.

    Norman claims to have sent invitation letters to 250 players of the top-ranked players to compete in the tournament.  “Our events are truly additive to the world of golf,” he claims in justification.  “We have done our best to create a schedule that allows players to play elsewhere, while still participating in our events.”

    Opposition to such schemes from the traditional golfing establishment has never been in short supply.  Norman had previously pitched the idea of a World Golf Tour in November 1994, which would have featured eight events with $3 million on offer to the top 30 players in the rankings.  Despite being initially outmanoeuvred, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem retaliated by appropriating the breakaway challenge, announcing the creation of three $4 million World Golf Championship events in 1999 and a fourth the following year.

    A disgusted Norman could only rue his defeat before such unsportsmanlike devilry.  “I think there is only one word for it and that is control.  Now control is there, in their mind, and let them have it, let them go with it, let them see what they can do.”  Dreams of revenge at these closed shop operators were entertained.

    This time around, the Tours are again readying their weapons and options.  Retribution against the usurpers, they promise, will be severe: banning players who sign up, restricting entry into the majors, and preventing participation in the Ryder Cup.  Lawyers will be smacking their lips at the prospect of legal challenges and bloated briefs.

    The more troubling picture in the grand scheme is the sports washing hand of Saudi Arabia.  The kingdom has become an aggressive strategic investor in sports events, hosting Formula One motor racing, boxing events, purchasing European football clubs and promoting wrestling. With each encroachment, human rights considerations and a regime’s brutality blur and eventually vanish before the size of the wallet.

    This rebranding of the blood-stained image of Saudi Arabia using sports has been spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, palace coup plotter and figure behind the butchering of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018.  A good number of golfing officials have preferred to overlook that nastier side of the surly Crown Prince, not to mention such blemishes as the war in Yemen.  In the words of European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley, the Kingdom’s “goal to make parts of the country more accessible to global business, tourism and leisure over the next decade” was to be appreciated.

    Pelley is not the only ethically challenged enthusiast for Riyadh’s ventures.  From the other side of the competition, Norman, otherwise known as the Great White Shark, shows no sign of having a moral compass.  All he sees is golf and opportunity, promising his Saudi investors that the country will become a powerhouse of the sport under his guidance.  As for Saudi Arabia, he sees cashed-up reforms, star studded progress.  “It’s an eye opener to see how the country is investing into their people and opportunities from a health and wellness perspective, from a sporting perspective, from an education perspective,” he bombastically, and inaccurately told Arab News last year.

    Attacks on his recruitment as Saudi Arabia’s sportswasher-in-chief are parried.  “Look, I’ll be honest with you, yes, the criticisms have stung a little bit, but I’m a big believer that you can’t run through a brick wall without getting bloody,” he told The Telegraph last month.  “I’m willing to run through this wall because I’m a big believer in growing the game of golf on a global basis.”

    Such statements do not merely betray a crass insensitivity but a naked adoration for the agents of Mammon.  When asked about the fortune he is being paid by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund – some put the figure at $50 million a year – he retorted with a question.  “What’s the definition of a fortune?”

    Despite acknowledging the brutal murder of Khashoggi, having previously called it “reprehensible”, he found comfort in the passage of time.  “Every country’s got a cross to bear.”  There was much guilt to go around.  “I am the type of person who looks into the future, not out of the past, and see what Saudi Arabia has done in a very short time to invest in the game.” Well done, Crown Prince, you’ve certainly got an ally there.

    On the issue of hypocrisy, Norman is quick to identify his archenemies in the PGA Tour as monumental culprits.  While they had not specifically accused the entrepreneur of “sportswashing”, they had certainly gotten others to stump for them.  “Yes, it’s ok for them to go into China, with the Uyghurs?  Seriously?  Step back and take a really good, honest, hard look at the facts and then you’ll see, ‘Hey, Greg Norman is not such an ogre after all.’”  Not an ogre, but a most useful dolt for the House of Saud.

    The post Greg Norman: Saudi Arabia’s Sportswashing Emissary first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Greg Norman: Saudi Arabia’s sportswashing emissary

    The rebranding of Saudi Arabia’s blood-stained image using sports has been spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, palace coup plotter and figure behind the butchering of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, writes Binoy Kampmark.

    This post was originally published on Green Left.

  • Truce Or Not, Congress Must Urgently Bring About A Real End To The War On Yemen

    More than seven years after the first airstrikes were launched on Yemen by the U.S.-supported Saudi-UAE coalition, a two-month truce with Yemen’s Ansar Allah (also referred to as Houthis) was announced at the beginning of this month. This UN-mediated truce comes after weeks of negotiations in Oman and marks the first pause in airstrikes on Yemen since March 2015. As part of the truce, the first fuel ships were allowed entry into the port of Hodeidah, and limited flights were allowed to enter Sanaa airport from Egypt and Jordan.

    Despite these positive developments, however, Saudi Arabia and the UAE remain entangled in Yemen — militarily and politically. Days after the truce was announced, the Saudi-led coalition dismissed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who had hitherto been touted as justification for occupying and intervening in Yemen’s conflict, and replaced him with a Presidential Leadership Council. With the so-called “legitimate” president now reportedly confined to his Riyadh home, the coalition’s plan for Yemen appears to be entering a new phase.

    The post Truce Or Not, Congress Must Urgently Bring About A Real End To The War On Yemen appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Will Biden Shoot Himself in the Foot to Impose Sanctions on Russia?

    On Thursday, President Joe Biden ordered the largest release ever from the US emergency oil reserve in a futile attempt to bring down gasoline prices that have soared to record levels following the Russo-Ukraine War. Starting in May, the United States will release 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil for six months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), amounting to 180 million barrels in total, which is equivalent to only two days of the global demand.

    Invoking the fabled trope of American patriotism, Biden urged the consumers not to hesitate from paying twice the amount while filling gas tanks in order for the military-industrial complex to reap billions of dollars windfalls by providing anti-aircraft and anti-armor munitions to NATO’s proxies in Ukraine. “This is a moment of consequence and peril for the world, and pain at the pump for American families. It’s also a moment of patriotism,” Biden said at an event at the White House.

    The US announcement came a day before the International Energy Agency member countries were set to meet on Friday to discuss a further emergency oil release that would follow their March 1 agreement to release about 60 million barrels that would cover only two-third of a single day’s oil demand, as the global net oil consumption per day is over 90 million barrels. With over 10 million barrels daily oil production capacity, Russia, alongside Saudi Arabia, is the world’s largest oil producer accounting for providing over 10% of the world’s crude oil demand.

    As far as military power is concerned, Russia with its enormous arsenal of conventional as well as nuclear weapons more or less equals the military power of the United States. But it’s the much more subtle and insidious tactic of economic warfare for which Russia seems to have no answer following the break-up of the Soviet Union in the nineties and consequent dismantling of the once-thriving communist bloc, spanning Eastern Europe, Latin America and many socialist states in Asia and Africa in the sixties.

    The current global neocolonial order is being led by the United States and its West European clients since the signing of the Bretton Woods Accord in 1945 following the Second World War. Historically, any state, particularly those inclined to pursue socialist policies, that dared to challenge the Western monopoly over global trade and economic policies was internationally isolated and its national economy went bankrupt over a period of time. But for once, it appears Washington might shoot itself in the foot by going overboard in its relentless efforts to punish Russia for invading Ukraine.

    On March 17, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori, two British-Iranian nationals held in Iran since 2016 and 2017, respectively, were unexpectedly set free and were permitted to travel to the United Kingdom. In return, the British government, in what gave the impression of a ransom payment, triumphantly announced it had settled a £400m debt owed to Iran from the seventies.

    The thaw in the frosty relations between the Western powers and Iran signaled that a tentative understanding on reviving the Iran nuclear deal was also reached behind the scenes, particularly in the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis and the Western efforts to internationally isolate Russia. After sanctioning Russia’s 10 million barrels daily crude oil output, the industrialized world is desperately in need of Iran’s 5 million barrels oil production capacity to keep the already inflated oil price from causing further pain to consumers.

    Last month, Venezuela similarly released two incarcerated US citizens in an apparent goodwill gesture toward the Biden administration following a visit to Caracas by a high-level US delegation, despite the fact that Washington still officially recognizes Nicolas Maduro’s detractor Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s “legitimate president.” Nonetheless, Venezuela is one of Latin America’s largest oil producers and opening the international market to its heavy crude might provide a welcome relief in the time of global oil crunch.

    Niftily forestalling the likelihood of strengthening of mutually beneficial bonds between China and Russia when the latter is badly in need for economic relief, the United States pre-emptively accused China of pledging to sell military hardware to Russia, when the latter, itself one of the world’s leading arms exporters, didn’t even make any such request to China.

    US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held an intense seven-hour meeting in Rome with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi on March 15, and warned China of “grave consequences” of evading Western sanctions on Russia. Besides wielding the stick of economic sanctions, he must also have dangled the carrot of ending trade war against China initiated by the Trump administration and continued by the Biden administration until Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

    Despite vowing to treat the Saudi kingdom as a “pariah” in the run-up to November 2020 presidential elections, the Wall Street Journal reported last month the White House unsuccessfully tried to arrange calls between President Biden and the de facto leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as the US was working to build international support for Ukraine and contain a surge in oil prices.

    “Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the U.A.E.’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan both declined U.S. requests to speak to Mr. Biden in recent weeks, the officials said, as Saudi and Emirati officials have become more vocal in recent weeks in their criticism of American policy in the Gulf.

    “‘There was some expectation of a phone call, but it didn’t happen,’ said a U.S. official of the planned discussion between the Saudi Prince Mohammed and Mr. Biden. ‘It was part of turning on the spigot [of Saudi oil].’

    “But the Saudis and Emiratis have declined to pump more oil, saying they are sticking to a production plan approved by OPEC. Both Prince Mohammed and Sheikh Mohammed took phone calls from Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, after declining to speak with Mr. Biden.”

    To add insult to the injury, Saudi Arabia has reportedly invited Chinese President Xi Jinping for an official visit to the kingdom that could happen as soon as May, and is also considering pegging its vast oil reserves in yuan, a move that could spell end to the petrodollar hegemony.

    The United States and Britain were ramping up pressure on Saudi Arabia to pump more oil and join efforts to isolate Russia, while Riyadh had shown little readiness to respond and had revived a threat to ditch dollars in its oil sales to China, Reuters reported last month.

    “If Saudi Arabia does that, it will change the dynamics of the forex market,” said a source with knowledge of the matter, adding that such a move—which the source said Beijing had long requested and which Riyadh threatened as far back as 2018—might prompt other buyers to follow.

    Trump aptly observed: “Now Biden is crawling around the globe on his knees begging and pleading for mercy from Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela.” It appears quite plausible that in its relentless efforts to internationally isolate Russia, the Biden administration is likely to unravel the whole neocolonial economic order imposed on the world after the signing of the Bretton Woods Accord following the Second World War in 1945.

    In order to bring home the significance of the Persian Gulf’s oil in the energy-starved industrialized world, here are a few stats from the OPEC data: Saudi Arabia has the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves of 266 billion barrels and its daily oil production is 10 million barrels; Iran and Iraq each has 150 billion barrels reserves and has the capacity to produce 5 million barrels per day each; while UAE and Kuwait each has 100 billion barrels reserves and produces 3 million barrels per day each; thus, all the littoral states of the Persian Gulf, together, hold 788 billion barrels, over half of world’s 1477 billion barrels proven oil reserves.

    In many ways, the current oil crunch caused by Washington’s unilateral decision to impose economic sanctions on Russia’s vital energy sector is similar to the oil crisis of 1973. The 1973 collective Arab oil embargo against the West following the Arab-Israel War lasted only for a short span of six months during which the price of oil quadrupled, but Washington became so paranoid after the embargo that it put in place a ban on the export of crude oil outside the US borders, and began keeping sixty-day stock of reserve fuel for strategic and military needs dubbed the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

    Regarding the reciprocal relationship between Washington and the Gulf’s autocrats, it bears mentioning that in April 2016, the Saudi foreign minister threatened that the Saudi kingdom would sell up to $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets if the US Congress passed a bill that would allow Americans to sue the Saudi government in the United States courts for its role in the September 11, 2001 terror attack – though the bill was eventually passed, Saudi authorities have not been held accountable for nurturing terrorism.

    It’s noteworthy that $750 billion was only the Saudi investment in the United States, if we add its investment in the Western Europe and the investments of the oil-rich U.A.E, Kuwait and Qatar in the Western economies, the sum total would amount to trillions of dollars of Gulf’s investments in the economies of North America and Western Europe.

    Additionally, regarding the Western defense production industry’s sales of arms to the Gulf Arab States, a report authored by William Hartung of the US-based Center for International Policy found that the Obama administration had offered Saudi Arabia more than $115 billion in weapons, military equipment and training during its eight-year tenure.

    Similarly, the top items in Trump’s agenda for his maiden visit to Saudi Arabia in May 2017 were: firstly, he threw his weight behind the idea of the Saudi-led “Arab NATO” to counter Iran’s influence in the region; and secondly, he announced an unprecedented arms package for Saudi Arabia.

    The package included between $98 billion and $128 billion in arms sales and, over a period of 10 years, total sales could reach $400 billion, as Donald Trump himself alluded to in his conversations with American journalist Bob Woodward described in the book Rage.

    President Donald Trump boasted that he protected Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from congressional scrutiny after the brutal assassination of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.

    “I saved his ass,” Trump said in 2018, according to the book. “I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop.” When Woodward pressed Trump if he believed the Saudi crown prince ordered the assassination himself, Trump responded: “He says very strongly that he didn’t do it. Bob, they spent $400 billion over a fairly short period of time,” Trump said.

    “And you know, they’re in the Middle East. You know, they’re big. Because of their religious monuments, you know, they have the real power. They have the oil, but they also have the great monuments for religion. You know that, right? For that religion,” Trump noted. “They wouldn’t last a week if we’re not there, and they know it,” he added.

    In this reciprocal relationship, the US provides security to the ruling families of the Gulf Arab States by providing weapons and troops; and in return, the Gulf’s petro-sheikhs contribute substantial investments to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars to the Western economies.

    All the recent wars and conflicts aside, the unholy alliance between the Western powers and the Gulf’s petro-monarchies is much older. The British Empire stirred uprising in Arabia by instigating the Sharifs of Mecca to rebel against the Ottoman rule during the First World War, as the Ottoman Empire had sided with Germany during the war.

    After the Ottoman Empire collapsed following the war, the British Empire backed King Abdul Aziz (Ibn-e-Saud) in his violent insurgency against Sharif of Mecca Hussein bin Ali, because the latter was demanding too much of a price for his loyalty, the unification of the whole of Arabian peninsula, including the Levant, Iraq and the Gulf Emirates, under his suzerainty as a bribe for stabbing the Ottoman Empire in the back during the First World War.

    Consequently, the Western powers abandoned the Sharifs of Mecca, though the scions of the family were rewarded with kingdoms in Iraq and Jordan, imposed the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 dividing Arabs into small states at loggerheads with each other, and lent their support to the nomadic Sauds of Najd.

    King Abdul Aziz defeated the Sharifs and united his dominions into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932 with the financial and military support of the British Empire. However, by then the tide of the British Imperialism was subsiding and the Americans inherited the former territorial possessions of the British Empire.

    At the end of the Second World War on 14 February 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt held a historic meeting with King Abdul Aziz at Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal onboard USS Quincy, and laid the foundations of an enduring alliance which persists to this day. During the course of that momentous meeting, among other things, it was decided to set up the United States Military Training Mission (USMTM) to Saudi Arabia to “train, advise and assist” the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces.

    Aside from USMTM, the US-based Vinnell Corporation, which is a private military company based in the US and a subsidiary of the Northrop Grumman, used over a thousand Vietnam War veterans to train and equip 125,000 strong Saudi Arabian National Guards (SANG) which is not under the authority of the Saudi Ministry of Defense and acts as the Praetorian Guards of the House of Saud.

    In addition, the Critical Infrastructure Protection Force, whose strength is numbered in tens of thousands, is also being trained and equipped by the US to guard the critical Saudi oil infrastructure along its eastern Persian Gulf coast where 90% of 266 billion barrels Saudi oil reserves are located.

    Currently, the US has deployed tens of thousands of American troops in aircraft carriers and numerous military bases in the Persian Gulf that include sprawling al-Dhafra airbase in Abu Dhabi, al-Udeid airbase in Qatar and a naval base in Bahrain where the Fifth Fleet of the US Navy is based.

    The post Will Biden Shoot Himself in the Foot to Impose Sanctions on Russia? first appeared on Dissident Voice.

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  • Human Rights Organizations Address F1 Sportswashing in Joint Letters to Drivers

    On 24 March 2022, ADHRB and nine other human rights organizations issued joint letters to four Formula 1 (F1) drivers – George Russell, George Russell, Max Verstappen, and Sebastian Vettel – ahead of the F1 race in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The groups expressed their concern for F1’s complicity in the Saudi government’s use of the event as means to ‘sportswash’ its egregious human rights violations, which includes the recent execution of 81 people on March 12th, the largest mass execution in the country’s history.

    Saudi Arabia has carried out several mass executions in recent years. The March 12th mass execution is the most recent demonstration of the kingdom’s deeply flawed justice system and example of the monarchy’s violent hold on power. According to the joint letter, of the 81 people executed, more than 50 percent were killed for their participation in pro-democracy protests and over 70 percent were executed for nonlethal offenses. These statistics rare part of a dark reality, the Saudi state suppresses dissent by killing its critics, through sham trials marred built on due process violations and securing convictions from false confessions extracted under coercion and torture. Despite widespread international condemnation following the announcement of the mass execution, executions have continued a nearly daily basis; 16 more people were executed in the two weeks between the mass execution and the release of the joint letters. Alarmingly, there have already been more in executions in 2022 than in the two previous years combined.

    The mass execution, while certainly a major escalation of the Saudi government’s use of the death penalty, is unfortunately in keeping with the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in kingdom. While Saudi authorities declare to the world that immense progress has been made since the ascendance of King Salman to the throne in 2015, the Saudi criminal justice system continues to be characterized by a lack of transparency and independence, whereby the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) has been empowered to hand down excessively long prison terms for individuals peacefully expressing human rights rhetoric or dissenting views. Additionally, despite several Royal Orders issued in 2020 and 2021 which aimed to modify death penalty sentences related to drug-related crimes and offenses involving minors, these changes still fail to meet Saudi Arabia’s obligations under international law and have been adhered to infrequently and at the discretion of judicial officials. According to Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2022, Saudi authorities continue to engage in the systematic repression of human rights defenders and political activists through the widespread use of arbitrary arrests, grossly unfair trials, and a disturbing reliance on capital punishment for offenses related to charges that amount to nothing more than peaceful activism and the exercise of fundamental freedoms.

    The joint letters were sent after the principled stance taken by F1 regarding the Russian government’s abuse of power did not include similar action regarding the abuses of power by the Saudi government. Comments made by seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton expressed the discomfort he feels with racing in Saudi Arabia given its longstanding human rights abuses. Mr. Lewis stressed that “[U] ltimately it is the responsibility of those in power to make the changes and we’re not really seeing enough. We need to see more”. ADHRB and the undersigned human rights organizations acknowledged that while drivers are not involved in deciding where races are held, their voices can “… save lives, and empower the individuals and families that are suffering at the hands of the Saudi Arabian authorities”. Accordingly, the joint letters call upon the four F1 drivers to position themselves as allies of Lewis Hamilton in raising awareness of human rights abuses and expressing solidarity with victims of Saudi Arabia’s widespread human rights violations.

    The post Human Rights Organizations Address F1 Sportswashing in Joint Letters to Drivers appeared first on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.

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  • US Military Boosts Support For Saudi Arabia As It Bombs Yemen

    Joe Biden claimed he would end the war on Yemen. Instead, the US military is expanding support for Saudi Arabia, on the seventh anniversary of a brutal bombing campaign that has fueled at least 377,000 Yemeni deaths.

    The post US Military Boosts Support For Saudi Arabia As It Bombs Yemen appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.