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Coalition Urges Senators to Stop 'Illegal, Ineffective' US Airstrikes in Yemen
"Instead of bombing Yemen," one group said, "the U.S. should be securing a cease-fire in Gaza and restoring humanitarian aid for people across the Middle East."
Jul 11, 2024
An anti-war coalition of over 50 groups this week wrote to four U.S. senators who have raised alarm about American airstrikes in Yemen and the Red Sea to call for legislation that would stop "illegal, ineffective, and deadly unauthorized" bombings.
The coalition on Wednesday wrote to Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and Todd Young, (R-Ind.), who in January sent a joint letter to President Joe Biden stressing that "there is no current congressional authorization for offensive U.S. military action against the Houthis" and demanding answers about recent strikes against the group.
"We are grateful for your long-standing efforts in support of both ending U.S. participation in the war in Yemen, as well as your defense of Congress' war powers, including your joint letter," the coalition wrote to the senators. "We write today to urge you to take necessary actions to defend the role of Congress in authorizing war and military action, as the framers of our Constitution intended, and to introduce a Yemen War Powers Resolution to this end."
The coalition includes Action Corps, CodePink, Democracy for the Arab World Now, Demand Progress, Democratic Socialists of America International Committee, Just Foreign Policy, National Iranian American Council, Peace Action, RootsAction.org, Veterans for Peace, and dozens of other groups across the ideological spectrum.
"Unfortunately, about six months after the strikes began, there is scant evidence that the strikes have been either strategically smart or successful, as you correctly predicted when you wrote that the unauthorized strikes 'will not deter the Houthi attacks,'" the coalition continued, citing the January letter.
As the groups detailed:
Far from being deterred, the Houthis have actually expanded the range of their attacks, with an attack in late April targeting an Israeli-linked ship sailing 375 miles off the coast of Yemen. More recently, Houthi attacks have shown a 'significant increase in effectiveness,' according to security firm Ambrey, including through the use of drone boats and double-tap strikes. Houthi military officials have announced plans for further escalation of their attacks if no cease-fire is reached in Gaza. All of this was foreseen by experts, who widely predicted that the U.S. strikes would only strengthen the Houthis' narrative, contributing to greater popularity both at home and across the Muslim world, and helping them enlist tens of thousands of new fighters.
"To our knowledge, the administration has not even made a good-faith attempt to engage with the valid constitutional concerns and substantive policy critiques you have raised alongside dozens of House members, experts, and advocates," the coalition noted. "This leads us to believe that the administration has effectively conceded that it does not have valid legal and constitutional authority to engage in these strikes."
"The strikes have nonetheless continued unabated for months, with hundreds of missiles launched in Yemen, including an attack on May 30th that killed at least 16 people and injured about 42 people," the groups added. "This threatens to deny the American people critical congressional debate and oversight regarding this dangerous and strategically dubious military action, and could be cited by the executive branch to attempt to justify similar or even more expansive unauthorized military actions in other contexts in the future."
The coalition is calling on the bipartisan group of senators to "to move swiftly to rein in these unauthorized and unconstitutional strikes by introducing a War Powers Resolution to remove U.S. participation from hostilities in Yemen, until or unless Congress authorizes such action."
Multiple coalition members echoed the letter's demands on social media Thursday. Peace Action declared that "Congress needs to flex its constitutional duty to rein in unauthorized U.S. missile strikes."
Action Corps emphasized that Biden—who is seeking reelection in November against former Republican President Donald Trump—"has no authority to continue dropping bombs on Yemen."
"With each illegal bombing, peace is delayed, and more children are starved to death. It's time for bipartisan action to ensure only Congress can declare war, regardless of which party is in office," the group added. "Instead of bombing Yemen, the U.S. should be securing a cease-fire in Gaza and restoring humanitarian aid for people across the Middle East."
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The Second US Civil War Has Already Begun
This time, the rebels are using their power inside the government and their influence through social media to subvert fundamental democratic institutions.
Jun 14, 2024
For those who are concerned that America’s increasing political polarization could lead to another Civil War, I have some disheartening news: The Second Civil War is already underway.
It’s not a clash of opposing armies on a traditional battlefield. The weapons are not bombs, rifles, guns, or semi-automatic firearms. Rather, the rebels are using their power inside the government and their influence through social media to subvert fundamental democratic institutions.
Devote the time it takes to understand the stakes in the November 5, 2024 election and then cast a vote to save America.
Wrapping themselves in the American flag and the false rhetoric of freedom, morality, and a return to “godliness,” they’re targeting the rule of law itself. Some, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, admit brazenly that they are pursuing personal agendas aimed at transforming the country into a quasi-theocracy.
And they’re conducting the war along multiple fronts.
Front 1: Poisoning the Body Politic
Even before Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, he rallied his followers with rants about the need for “vengeance” against his enemies who have “rigged” every American institution against him. “Enemies” means anyone who disagrees with him or defends the foundations of our democracy, including free and fair elections, the civil and criminal justice systems that have held him accountable, and the rule of law itself.
Trump’s agenda is not the pursuit of the country’s best interests. His sole focus is whatever is best for Donald Trump. If a scorched-earth strategy to obliterate the Constitution will allow him to avoid accountability—and prison—so be it.
One-by-one, his followers—virtually the entire Republican party—have fallen into line. Rather than defend the rule of law, they parrot his lies.
Front 2: Jordan’s ‘Weaponization’ Subcommittee
Along another front, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and his “weaponization” subcommittee in the House professed for more than a year to be investigating the Biden administration’s wrongdoing. The effort was supposed to provide the basis for impeaching President Joe Biden. After fruitless hearings that became another forum for frivolous conspiracy theories, his committee found nothing.
So now Jordan has asked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and prosecutor Matthew Colangelo to explain the decision to prosecute Trump. The answer is that a jury of Trump’s peers concluded unanimously that prosecution was appropriate because Trump had broken the law. But harassing state prosecutors is Jordan’s latest gasp to breathe new life into his moribund investigations.
Front 3: Mobilizing GOP Investigators and Prosecutors
On May 31, Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller toldFox News, “Is every House committee controlled by Republicans using its subpoena power in every way it needs to right now? Is every Republican DA starting every investigation they need to right now? Every facet of Republican Party politics and power has to be used right now to go toe-to-toe with Marxism and beat these communists.”
Likewise, Trump’s former chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, gave Republicans their marching orders: “There are dozens of ambitious backbencher state attorneys general and district attorneys who need to ‘seize the day’ and own this moment in history.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is on Trump’s short list of vice presidential prospects, tweeted that it was time for Republicans to “fight fire with fire.”
Another close Trump associate, Mike Davis, is a former top Senate Judiciary Committee attorney. He offered his fellow Republicans this advice: “The Republican attorneys general in Georgia and Florida and the county attorney in Maricopa County, Ariz., need to open investigations” into the prosecutors and investigators pursuing the indictments of Mr. Trump and his allies. “Then on Day 1, when he wins, President Trump needs to open a criminal civil rights investigation.”
Front 4: Mobilizing GOP Members of Congress
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said that the U.S. Supreme Court should “step in,” overturn Trump’s conviction, and grant him immunity from prosecution. That’s nonsensical, but other Johnson actions are deadly serious.
At the behest of Trump, he appointed two of Trump’s lackeys—former Freedom Caucus chair Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Trump’s former White House physician, Ronny Jackson (R-Texas)—to the House Intelligence Committee, one of Congress’ most sensitive committees. It oversees the entire U.S. intelligence community—the CIA; FBI; National Security Agency; the intelligence activities of the Justice, State, and Treasury Departments; and the intelligence activities of the armed forces. The appointments stunned even some of Johnson’s fellow Republicans.
Perry was a central figure in efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss. He was among at least 11 Republican members of Congress involved in discussions with Trump administration officials about reversing the results, including plans to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to throw out electoral votes from states that Biden won. Shortly before the January 6 attack, he also endorsed the idea of encouraging supporters to march to the Capitol. The FBI seized his phone, and a judge ordered him to turn over cellphone records and disclose thousands of documents to government investigators.
As for Jackson, the Pentagon demoted him amid allegations that he mistreated subordinates, sexually harassed a woman, and drank and took sleeping pills while serving as the White House physician. But Trump then endorsed him as a congressional candidate, and he won.
Jackson told the pro-Trump network Newsmax, “President Biden should just be ready because on January 20 of next year when he’s former President Joe Biden, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander… I am going to encourage all of my colleagues and everybody that I have any influence over as a member of Congress to aggressively go after the president and his entire family, his entire crime family, for all of the misdeeds that are out there right now related to this family.”
After years of futile searching, Jordan’s subcommittee found no evidence of any such “misdeeds.”
Immediately after Johnson announced the appointments of Perry and Jackson, another fierce Trump loyalist, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), tweeted his approval to placing them on one of Congress’ most sensitive national security committees:
Congrats to @RepRonnyJackson & @RepScottPerry on these very significant appointments. President Trump now has MAJOR REINFORCEMENTS for his plan to obliterate the Deep State. This is now the most Pro-Trump intel committee we have ever had. By far.
Front 5: Obstructing the Senate
Republican Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) recently opened another front in the Second Civil War: obstruction. After the 2020 election, Lee had promoted false conspiracy theories and fake elector schemes to overturn the results and keep Trump in power. He backed off that position, but has now retaliated for Trump’s later conviction. He tweeted that that the Trump trial showed the White House had made “a mockery of the rule of law and fundamentally altered our politics in un-American ways,” even though the trial in New York was a state case with no connection to the Biden administration.
Now Lee leads a group of far-right Senate Republicans trying to block all White House nominees and Democratic legislation. As of noon on June 5, Lee and 12 others had signed a pledge to follow his lead. Among the signatories are two senators on Trump’s short list of vice presidential candidates: Rubio and J.D. Vance (R-Ohio).
Are We Worthy of Our Legacy?
On June 6, 2024, the free world celebrated the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion—a crucial moment leading to Allied victory in World War II. In the four-year fight (1941-1945) to save democracy, more than 400,000 Americans lost their lives. History is now asking their successors—all of us—to sacrifice much less in return for much more: Devote the time it takes to understand the stakes in the November 5, 2024 election and then cast a vote to save America.
The battle has been joined. The Second Civil War has begun. Ignoring reality will not change it. But complacency will result in tragedy from which the nation—and the world—will not soon recover.
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Rights Groups Cheer Senate Bill to Curb Warrantless Spying on Americans
The SAFE Act "would make critical reforms to stop persistent abuse" and is "meticulously designed to account for operational needs," said one advocate.
Mar 14, 2024
Just weeks away from the expiration of a U.S. government surveillance power with a history of abuse, a bipartisan group of senators unveiled a reauthorization bill welcomed by rights groups who have long demanded reforms.
Congress and U.S. President Joe Biden last year temporarily extended Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which permits warrantless surveillance targeting noncitizens located outside the United States, to allow for ongoing discussions of possible changes opposed by the intelligence community and its allies on Capitol Hill.
"There is little doubt that Section 702 is a valuable national security tool. However, while only foreigners overseas may be targeted, the program sweeps in massive amounts of Americans' communications, which may be searched without a warrant," Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) noted Thursday.
Durbin, who also chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) are leading the Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act with support from 11 other senators who have backed reform efforts in response to rampant abuse, particularly by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
"The documented abuses under FISA should provoke outrage from anyone who values the Fourth Amendment rights of American citizens," said Lee. "From warrantless searches targeting journalists, political commentators, and campaign donors to monitoring sitting members of Congress, these actions reveal a blatant disregard for individual liberties."
After noting that "even after implementing compliance measures, the FBI still conducted more than 200,000 warrantless searches of Americans' communications in just one year—more than 500 warrantless searches per day," Durbin framed the SAFE Act as "a sensible, bipartisan path forward on reauthorizing Section 702 with meaningful reforms."
With the April 19 sunset of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act approaching, I'm announcing a bipartisan compromise bill that protects Americans from foreign threats and from warrantless government surveillance. WATCH: https://t.co/3ELLO7O7YN
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) March 14, 2024
Specifically, the bill would require agencies to "obtain a FISA Title I order or a warrant before accessing the contents of Americans' communications collected under Section 702—but not before running queries," the sponsors explained. It also includes additional layers of internal supervision for queries involving Americans and would close the data broker loophole, among other provisions.
"Sen. Durbin and Lee have carefully crafted a bipartisan compromise bill," said ACLU senior policy counsel Kia Hamadanchy. "While this legislation does not include every reform civil liberties groups have been pushing for, it does include meaningful changes that will rein in the government's warrantless surveillance of Americans and help ensure that our privacy is protected. The Senate should take up this bill immediately."
Demand Progress policy director Sean Vitka agreed. While also noting that it doesn't have everything rights advocates wanted, he said that "the SAFE Act is a major development in the ongoing fight to rein in warrantless government surveillance of people in the United States."
"We commend Sen. Durbin and Lee for their leadership," Vitka added, stressing that "an overwhelming number of Americans from across the political spectrum want Congress to seize this once-in-a-generation moment and get this done."
Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, similarly praised the pair for crafting the bill, which he said "takes a pragmatic, measured approach to reform that draws upon a wide range of proposals" to offer "a clear path forward to reauthorizing Section 702 while ensuring that our rights are protected."
Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Center for Democracy & Technology's Security and Surveillance Project, also celebrated that the bill "would make critical reforms to stop persistent abuse" and is "meticulously designed to account for operational needs."
"We're just a few weeks away from the expiration of FISA 702—it's time for congressional leadership to stop stalling and allow a vote on these critical reforms," Laperruque declared.
The SAFE Act comes just days after Wiredrevealed that U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) privately tried using peaceful protests at the home of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) as proof of the need to block long-demanded reforms to Section 702.
Turner notably already faced calls to resign after he announced that his panel had provided members of Congress with "information concerning a serious national security threat," which news outlets reported was that Russia has made progress on a space-based nuclear weapon to target U.S. satellites.
Amid that controversy—which was widely seen as a ploy to force the reauthorization without reforms—House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) abruptly delayed action on Section 702 in February. However, the Republican leader toldPolitico on Thursday that "the current plan is to run FISA as a standalone the week after Easter."
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