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patrick leahy
Biden Greenlights 'Racist' and 'Sociopathic' $8B Arms Sale to Israel
Multiple human rights organizations and international bodies have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza
Jan 04, 2025
The administration of US President Joe Biden announced on Saturday an arms sale to Israel valued at $8 billion, just ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House.
Biden has repeatedly rejected calls to suspend military backing for Israel because of the number of civilians killed during the war in Gaza. Israel has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, primarily women and children.
The sale includes medium-range air-to-air missiles, 155mm projectile artillery shells for long-range targeting, Hellfire AGM-114 missiles, 500-pound bombs, and more.
Human rights groups, former State Department officials, and Democratic lawmakers have urged the Biden administration to halt arms sales to Israel, citing violations of US laws, including the Leahy Law, as well as international laws and human rights.
The Leahy Law, named after former Sen. Patrick Leahy, requires the US to withhold military assistance from foreign military or law enforcement units if there is credible evidence of human rights violations.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s most significant Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called Biden’s new $8 billion arms deal “racist” and “sociopathic.”
Multiple human rights organizations and international bodies have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for committing war crimes.
The US is, by far, the biggest supplier of weapons to Israel, having helped it build one of the most technologically sophisticated militaries in the world.
CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said on Saturday:
“We strongly condemn the Biden administration for its unbelievable and criminal decision to send another $8 billion worth of American weapons to the government of indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu instead of using American leverage to force an end to the genocide in Gaza.
“Only racists who do not view people of color as equally human, and sociopaths who delight in funding mass slaughter, could send Netanyahu even more bombs while his government openly kidnaps doctors, destroys hospitals, and exterminates the last survivors in northern Gaza.
“If President Biden is actually the person who approved this new $8 billion arms sale, then he is a war criminal who belongs in a cell at The Hague alongside Netanyahu. But if Antony Blinken, Brett McGurk, Jake Sullivan, and other aides are making these unconscionable decisions as shadow presidents, then anyone with a conscience in the administration should speak up now about their abuses of power.”
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US accounted for 69% of Israel's imports of major conventional arms between 2019 and 2023.
On the other hand, incoming President-elect Donald Trump has also pledged unwavering support for Israel and has never committed to supporting an independent Palestinian state.
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Tlaib Leads Call for $1.2 Billion in Humanitarian Aid for War-Torn Yemen
"Without a significant increase in American assistance... we fear that 2023 will be a heartbreakingly deadly year for everyday Yemenis," Tlaib and 23 other House Democrats wrote.
Mar 27, 2023
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Monday led two dozen House Democrats in urging Congress to allocate at least $1.2 billion in humanitarian aid for Yemen—whose people have suffered eight years of U.S.-backed Saudi war—in next year's budget.
"As we approach the 8th anniversary of the Yemen war, the country remains stuck in a devastating cycle of conflict and humanitarian crisis that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives," Tlaib (D-Mich.) and 23 other lawmakers wrote in a letter to House Subcommittee on State and Foreign Relations Chair Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Ranking Member Barbara Lee (D-Calif.).
"Yemen has the grim title of the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with over 4 million Yemenis displaced and an estimated 80% of the country's 30 million people reliant upon some form of assistance for their survival," the letter, which was first sent last week, asserts.
The letter's authors lament that "international appeals for assistance for Yemen have consistently [fallen] short of their goals by large margins" and that "the continuous reduction in funding has greatly exacerbated the humanitarian suffering."
The United Nations "has had to close over 75% of its lifesaving programs, and the World Food Program has been forced to cut or reduce food distribution to 8 million people, increasing the number of areas at risk of famine," the letter notes.
"Without a significant increase in American assistance (which we believe would incentivize foreign nations to increase their support in turn), we fear that 2023 will be a heartbreakingly deadly year for everyday Yemenis," the signers assert.
The lawmakers urge Congress to include at least $1.2 billion "for humanitarian relief and reconstruction efforts in Yemen" in the budget for fiscal year 2024. They also ask the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development "to develop programming that directly invests in sustainably developing long-term economic opportunities for Yemenis."
Tlaib is one of four dozen bipartisan House lawmakers who last June introduced a War Powers Resolution to end "unauthorized" United States military involvement in the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen's civil war.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), along with Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), introduced a similar measure in the Senate. Last December, Sanders withdrew the resolution just before it was slated for a floor vote, while vowing to work with the Biden administration on ending U.S. involvement in the war.
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Citing Agreement With Biden, Sanders Withdraws Yemen War Powers Resolution
"We have a huge opportunity to remove unauthorized U.S. support for deadly and inhumane actions from Saudi Arabia, and Congress must act immediately," said one peace campaigner.
Dec 13, 2022
Update (8:56 pm EST):
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday night withdrew a Senate resolution to end U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led war on Yemen, but vowed to work with the Biden administration and congressional colleagues to keep trying.
"Today, I withdrew from consideration by the U.S. Senate my War Powers Resolution after the Biden administration agreed to continue working with my office on ending the war in Yemen," Sanders said in a statement.
"Let me be clear," Sanders continued: "If we do not reach agreement, I will, along with my colleagues, bring this resolution back for a vote in the near future and do everything possible to end this horrific conflict."
Earlier:
Anticipating an evening Senate vote on a resolution that, if passed, would block American support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, human rights defenders on Tuesday implored lawmakers to approve the measure and end what they call the United States' unconstitutional participation in the conflict.
"Members of Congress can't afford to punt on this any longer, and grassroots activists won't let them."
"For over seven years, Americans have been providing military support and weapons for Saudi Arabia that the dictatorship has used against civilians in Yemen. Article I of the Constitution says Congress--and not the president--has the power to declare war," wrote progressive activist Isaac Evans-Frantz, a co-leader of a national coalition against the war, in VTDigger Tuesday. "The 1973 War Powers Act further asserts Congress' role."
In July, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), along with Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), introduced a Senate war powers resolution (WPR) after a similar measure was put forth in the House by Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) the previous month. A procedural vote on the Senate resolution is scheduled for Tuesday at approximately 7:00 pm local time.
"We applaud Sen. Sanders' move to hold a vote on this critical resolution, and encourage all senators to vote in support of the WPR," Cavan Kharrazian, the foreign policy adviser at the advocacy group Demand Progress, said in a statement Tuesday.
Kharrazian noted that President Joe Biden "has said he is looking to work with Congress to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for siding with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin in the war on Ukraine and its oil price hike for the United States."
"The Yemen WPR provides the last clear opportunity for Biden to hold Saudi Arabia accountable on these fronts, and is a direct, measured congressional response to Saudi Arabia and Mohammed bin Salman for their human rights violations, including the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi," he added.
The White House, however, is reportedly urging senators to vote down the resolution.
The Saudi-led intervention in support of the Yemeni government against Houthi rebels began several months after civil war broke out in the country in late 2014. According to United Nations humanitarian officials, nearly 400,000 people have died since then, and a Saudi blockade has exacerbated starvation and disease in the country of 30 million people--more than 23 million of whom required assistance in 2022.
Despite a promise to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah" due to its abysmal human rights record, an initial freeze on U.S. arms sales, and a pledge to end "offensive" support for the war, the administration of President Joe Biden--who infamously fist-bumped Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a July visit--continues to back the war while also selling the repressive kingdom billions of dollars worth of weaponry and services.
In addition to providing intelligence, logistics, refueling, search-and-rescue, and diplomatic support to the Saudi-led coalition, the United States has also conducted more than 100 airstrikes and some ground raids in Yemen as part of its 21-year, open-ended so-called War on Terror.
"When [Donald] Trump was president, Bernie and his Democratic colleagues like Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut had no problem going all-out against Trump's support for the Saudi aggression in Yemen," Evans-Frantz said. "With a Democrat in the White House, Congress has been abdicating its constitutional responsibility over war. Congress has competing priorities, but members of Congress can't afford to punt on this any longer, and grassroots activists won't let them."
Indeed, hundreds of advocacy groups and activists have urged lawmakers to pass the Yemen WPR.
"We have a huge opportunity to remove unauthorized U.S. support for deadly and inhumane actions from Saudi Arabia, and Congress must act immediately," Kharrazian asserted. "The ceasefire in Yemen expired in October, and without a renewed peace agreement, Saudi Arabia could resume its bombing campaign in Yemen with crucial, unauthorized U.S. assistance."
"With uncertainty over what legislation will be able to pass in next year's Congress," he added, "this could be the last opportunity to pass the Yemen war powers resolution."
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100+ Groups Urge Congress to Back Sanders' Yemen War Powers Resolution
"After seven years of direct and indirect involvement in the Yemen war, the United States must cease supplying weapons, spare parts, maintenance services, and logistical support to Saudi Arabia."
Dec 07, 2022
A coalition of more than 100 advocacy, faith-based, and news organizations on Wednesday urged members of Congress to adopt Sen. Bernie Sanders' War Powers Resolution to block U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, where the recent expiry of a temporary cease-fire has renewed suffering in one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
"We, the undersigned 105 organizations, welcomed news earlier this year that Yemen's warring parties agreed to a nationwide truce to halt military operations, lift fuel restrictions, and open Sanaa airport to commercial traffic," the signatories wrote in a letter to congressional lawmakers. "Unfortunately, it's been almost two months since the U.N.-brokered truce in Yemen expired, violence on the ground is escalating, and there is still no formal mechanism preventing a return to all-out war."
"In an effort to renew this truce and further incentivize Saudi Arabia to stay at the negotiating table, we urge you to bring the War Powers Resolutions to end U.S. military participation in the Saudi-led coalition's war on Yemen," the signers added.
In June, 48 bipartisan House lawmakers led by Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced a War Powers Resolution to end unauthorized U.S. support for a war in which nearly 400,000 people have been killed.
A Saudi-led blockade has also exacerbated starvation and disease in Yemen, where more than 23 million of the country's 30 million people required some form of assistance in 2022, according to United Nations humanitarian officials.
Sanders (I-Vt.), along with Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), introduced a Senate version of the resolution in July, with the two-time Democratic presidential candidate declaring that "we must put an end to the unauthorized and unconstitutional involvement of U.S. armed forces in the catastrophic Saudi-led war in Yemen."
On Tuesday, Sanders said he believes he has enough support to pass a Senate resolution, and that he plans to bring the measure to a floor vote "hopefully next week."
The War Powers Resolution would require only a simple majority to pass in both the House and Senate.
Meanwhile, progressives are pushing President Joe Biden to hold Saudi leaders, especially Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, accountable for atrocities including war crimes in Yemen and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
As the groups' letter details:
With continued U.S. military support, Saudi Arabia escalated its campaign of collective punishment on the people of Yemen in recent months... Earlier this year, Saudi airstrikes targeting a migrant detention facility and vital communications infrastructure killed at least 90 civilians, wounded over 200, and triggered a nationwide internet blackout.
After seven years of direct and indirect involvement in the Yemen war, the United States must cease supplying weapons, spare parts, maintenance services, and logistical support to Saudi Arabia to ensure that there is no return of hostilities in Yemen and the conditions remain for the parties to achieve a lasting peace agreement.
In October, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced a bill to block all U.S. weapons sales to Saudi Arabia. After initially freezing arms sales to the kingdom and its coalition partner United Arab Emirates and promising to end all offensive support for the war shortly after taking office, Biden resumed hundreds of millions of dollars in arms and support sales to the countries.
The new letter's signatories include: American Friends Service Committee, Antiwar.com, Center for Constitutional Rights, CodePink, Defending Rights & Dissent, Demand Progress, Democracy for the Arab World Now, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Indivisible, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, MADRE, MoveOn, MPower Change, Muslim Justice League, National Council of Churches, Our Revolution, Pax Christi USA, Peace Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Presbyterian Church USA, Public Citizen, RootsAction, Sunrise Movement, Veterans for Peace, Win Without War, and World Beyond War.
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Biden Must Demand That Al-Sisi Release Alaa Abd El-Fattah
President Biden should work for the immediate release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah and many more Egyptian political prisoners before granting Sisi a plum White House meeting.
Nov 26, 2022
There are dictators in the world who wield absolute power, and then there are U.S. Senators. Very few understand the power these 100 individuals hold in the world's most powerful country. A single senator can effectively block any legislation. They don't need to give a reason, and often do it entirely in secret. President Joe Biden, who was a senator for decades, knows this and also knows he needs the vote of every Democratic senator to pass critical appropriations during Congress' current lame duck session.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, as one of his proud last acts in office, along with other Senators, should block further Egyptian military aid until Alaa is free.
Democratic Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, the longest-serving senator currently in office, is retiring on January 2nd after 48 years. He's been a champion of human rights, authoring the "Leahy Law" that denies U.S. aid to human rights abusing regimes. Senator Leahy or one of his colleagues could make a vital difference, and save lives, by blocking any bill in this session that shores up human rights abusing governments.
Take Egypt.
The U.S.-backed Egyptian dictator President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi rose to power after a military coup in 2013. His image is omnipresent in this sprawling capital city of 20 million, on buildings, lamp posts, and across the mass media, which is effectively controlled by the state. More than 60,000 political prisoners are locked up here; the true number is unknown. The most prominent is Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a writer, technologist and leading activist in the 2011 Arab Spring revolution that overthrew Egypt's previous, long-standing, U.S.-backed dictator, Hosni Mubarak.
Yet Alaa, a dual Egyptian and British citizen, has been in prison for most of the last decade. His case received global attention when Egypt hosted COP27, the UN climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh. Alaa had been on hunger strike for more than 200 days. As COP27 began on November 6th, he escalated his protest, refusing to drink water altogether. Last week, Alaa told family members, in their first prison visit in a month, that he suffered a near-death experience that week. The German Chancellor, the French President, the British Prime Minister, and President Biden had all raised his case directly with Sisi. Prison authorities medically intervened secretly, to avoid the crisis his death during COP27 would have provoked.
The Sisi regime survives largely thanks to massive support from the United States. Egypt receives $1.3 billion annually in military aid, with an additional $125 million-plus in economic aid. Egypt has long been the second-highest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, after Israel. Its support is delivered through annual Congressional appropriations, subject to verifiable compliance with human rights standards. The U.S. State Department oversees this massive aid package with the Pentagon.
As part of the process, the State Department is required to produce a human rights report on Egypt. Its most recent 72-page litany of horrors includes extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, torture and cruel, inhuman treatment; life-threatening prison conditions and arbitrary detention. The list goes on. While any rational reading of the report would result in the denial of aid, the State Department routinely invokes a "national security" waiver, authorizing the aid despite the rampant abuses.
"You train their police officers, their army officers," Laila Soueif, Alaa's mother, a math professor and renowned activist in her own right, told the Democracy Now! news hour during an interview in their family apartment in Cairo. "This is a U.S. operation. The helicopters they use to track people in the desert, this is the U.S. This whole Sisi thing is a U.S. security operation. Really, the U.S. can decide, if they want to, that they want the regime to do this or not do that."
Alaa's family has been tirelessly advocating for his release, at great risk. His youngest sister, Sanaa, 28, has already been imprisoned for three years for her activism. "The U.S. has stakes in that regime, stakes in that oppression, and so has responsibility," Sanaa said on Democracy Now!, sitting next to her mother. "It's not leverage. Leverage is as if you're not a stakeholder in this. You are a big part of this. You send $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt every year."
President Biden was photographed with Sisi at COP27, laughing with the dictator. Sisi has also been invited to next month's U.S.- Africa Leaders Summit at the White House. Like any Western-aligned autocrat seeking legitimacy, Sisi is reportedly seeking a one-on-one meeting with Biden.
President Biden should work for the immediate release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah and many more Egyptian political prisoners before granting Sisi a plum White House meeting. Meanwhile, Sen. Patrick Leahy, as one of his proud last acts in office, along with other Senators, should block further Egyptian military aid until Alaa is free.
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Progressives Demand Biden Increase Pressure on Saudis to End Yemen Atrocities
"The United States should no longer prop up that regime's unconscionable war in Yemen that killed nearly 400,000 people, including untold children," said one human rights defender.
Nov 22, 2022
U.S. progressives in recent days have renewed efforts to push President Joe Biden and Congress to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for atrocities including war crimes in Yemen and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
"Our foreign policy should not be based on a dependence on oil or the geopolitical whims of foreign despots."
Last week, the Biden administration angered human rights defenders by seeking sovereign immunity status for Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman--commonly called by his initials, MBS--in a lawsuit over the 2018 kidnapping and brutal murder of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist with permanent U.S. residency.
Activists were already infuriated with Biden for "letting MBS get away with the murder," as one writer put it, as well as for his summer summit and infamous fist-bump with the crown prince, and for continuing to support the Saudi-led war in Yemen after an initial temporary freeze on arms sales.
"President Biden vowed to hold accountable Saudi ruler MBS for Khashoggi's murder by making him a 'pariah,' and Congress should help Biden keep his word by passing a War Powers Resolution that cuts off U.S. support for the Saudi war in Yemen," David Segal, executive director of the online-intensive activist group Demand Progress, said in a statement Tuesday.
"Saudi Arabia is controlled by an outlaw regime, as demonstrated by the murder of a U.S.-based journalist and by deliberately holding down oil production to support Russia's illegal war in Ukraine," Segal added. "The United States should no longer prop up that regime's unconscionable war in Yemen that killed nearly 400,000 people, including untold children."
Additionally, a Saudi-led blockade has exacerbated starvation and disease in Yemen. Of Yemen's approximately 30 million people, more than 23 million required some form of assistance in 2022, according to United Nations humanitarian officials.
In June, 48 bipartisan U.S. House lawmakers introduced a War Powers Resolution to end the nation's unauthorized involvement in the Saudi-led war. The following month, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) proposed a similar measure in the upper chamber.
Interviewed for an Intercept article published on Monday, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)--one of the 48 co-sponsors of the House resolution--asserted that "our foreign policy should not be based on a dependence on oil or the geopolitical whims of foreign despots. It should be based on the rule of law and human rights."
Omar and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) led a letter signed last week by 13 House Democrats to Secretary of State Antony Blinken "to express our strong support for the United States to use its influence at the United Nations Human Rights Council to work towards the establishment of an independent, international investigative mechanism on Yemen at the earliest opportunity."
"This new mechanism should have the authority to collect and preserve evidence of violations for future consideration, by competent judicial authorities, of possible crimes committed by all parties to the conflict," the lawmakers' letter added. "Having an international mechanism would play a crucial role in ensuring accountability for the atrocities that have taken place for more than a decade in Yemen."
Omar contended that "true peace demands justice" and that "international institutions have a responsibility to account for any and all atrocities that took place in Yemen, and the United States has a responsibility to advocate for them."
"Truly centering human rights and a rules-based order in our foreign policy," she added, "requires full accountability when those rights are violated."
Joey Shea, a researcher on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates at Human Rights Watch, noted Monday that Biden's July meeting with bin Salman "was followed by an uptick in serious violations of human rights by Saudi authorities."
"In August, a Saudi appeals court dramatically increased the prison sentence of Saudi doctoral student Salma al-Shehab from six years to 34 years, based solely on her Twitter activity," she continued. "Other people--including at least one U.S. citizen--critical of the Saudi government on social media have received extreme prison sentences from Saudi courts."
"Biden's campaign promise to make Saudi authorities 'pay the price' for Khashoggi's heinous murder has not been met," Shea added. "Absent real sanctions against the Saudi government for its transnational repression, MBS will read U.S. policy as a 'green light' to continue committing abuses at home and abroad while enjoying generous U.S. military, diplomatic, and political support."
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Human Rights Watch to US: Stop Selling Weapons to Saudis
"Renewing U.S. offensive weapons sales to Saudi Arabia would further undermine Biden's promise to prioritize human rights in U.S. relations with the country."
Jul 15, 2022
As U.S. President Joe Biden met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Friday, a top official at Human Rights Watch implored the American leader to not lift a ban on the sale of certain weapons to the repressive monarchy as it continues waging an atrocity-laden war in Yemen.
Responding to reports that the Biden administration is considering ending its vague proscription against the transfer of "offensive" weaponry to Saudi Arabia, Michael Page, Human Rights Watch's (HRW) Middle East and North Africa deputy director, warned that such a policy reversal "could lead to fresh rights violations in Yemen."
"Since the beginning of the war in 2015, Human Rights Watch and other groups have documented how the Saudi- and [United Arab Emirates]-led coalition has used U.S. weapons in apparent unlawful airstrikes, including apparent war crimes," wrote Page. "The U.S. government's own report has detailed... oversight failures on these sales."
More than 300,000 Yemenis have died during the seven-year war, 150,000 of them as a direct result of military action, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED). A Saudi-led blockade of Yemen has exacerbated starvation and disease in the war-torn nation of 30 million inhabitants.
"Human Rights Watch has called for the suspension of all sales, both offensive and defensive, to Saudi Arabia and the UAE," said Page. "Renewing U.S. offensive weapons sales to Saudi Arabia would further undermine Biden's promise to prioritize human rights in U.S. relations with the country."
Shortly after taking office, Biden, who while campaigning for president vowed to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah" over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and other human rights crimes, imposed a temporary freeze on arms sales to the country and coalition partner UAE.
Human rights defenders were subsequently disappointed 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 militaty helicopters.
On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved an amendment to the $839 billion National Defense Authorization Act that limits U.S. weapons transfers to nations and armed forces implicated in human rights crimes.
Also on Thursday, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced a resolution to end U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led war on Yemen, which Sanders called "unauthorized and unconstitutional."
"This war has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis today," Sanders added, "and it is past time to end U.S. complicity in those horrors."
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Sanders Unveils Resolution to End US Support for 'Catastrophic' Saudi-Led War in Yemen
"Congress abdicated its constitutional powers and failed to prevent our country from involving itself in this crisis," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a lead co-sponsor with Sen. Patrick Leahy.
Jul 14, 2022
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.
"This war has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis today and it is past time to end U.S. complicity in those horrors."
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."
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Outrage as Biden Reportedly Considers Lifting Ban on 'Offensive' Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia
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."
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As Biden Reverses Trump Land Mine Policy, US Urged to Join Global Ban Treaty
"As welcome as this step is, the White House needs to put the U.S. on a definitive path to join the treaties banning anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions," argues Sen. Patrick Leahy.
Jun 21, 2022
Campaigners on Tuesday welcomed an announcement that the United States military would end anti-personnel land mine use in most of the world, while pushing the Biden administration to go further and join the international treaty prohibiting the deployment of weapons that kill and maim thousands of people every year.
"Inherently indiscriminate weapons that disproportionately harm civilians have no place in the 21st century."
Acknowledging that mines have a "disproportionate impact on civilians, including children, long after fighting has stopped," the White House said that "after conducting a comprehensive policy review, the United States is joining the vast majority of countries around the world in committing to limit the use of anti-personnel land mines."
The new policy reverses former President Donald Trump's 2020 rollback of restrictions on the use of weapons that U.S. officials say kill around 7,000 people a year, the vast majority of them civilians.
Notably, the shift does not apply to the Korean Peninsula due to what the administration calls the "unique circumstances" of the U.S. obligation to help defend South Korea from potential invasion by North Korea. Under the new policy, any of the approximately three million U.S. mines deemed not needed to defend South Korea will be destroyed.
Mary Wareham, arms advocacy director at Human Rights Watch and a joint recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL)--which led to the landmark 1997 Mine Ban Treaty--called the new U.S. policy "a positive step forward," while warning that it "doesn't go far enough."
Wareham added that "the U.S. should get rid of the Korean exception to its policy banning land mines and accede now to the international Mine Ban Treaty."
The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines-U.S. Cluster Munition Coalition said in a statement that "while this new anti-personnel land mine policy is an important step, the USCBL-USCMC reiterates our call for President Biden to ban the use of anti-personnel land mines without geographic exceptions, including the Korean Peninsula."
"The mines on the Korean peninsula continue to cause ongoing harm and serve as a barrier to peace," the coalition continued. "Additionally, the mines on the Korean peninsula are no longer under U.S. responsibility, having been turned over to the South Korean armed forces, meaning these mines should not and do not prevent the U.S. from joining the Mine Ban Treaty."
"Through this new policy, the United States is once again moving toward the global consensus against the use of anti-personnel land mines," USCBL-USCMC said. "Today, 164 countries are party to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Convention, representing over 80% of the world's states and all U.S. NATO allies."
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) joined campaigners in welcoming the policy shift, asserting in a statement that "inherently indiscriminate weapons that disproportionately harm civilians have no place in the 21st century, and those who use them--like Russia in Ukraine today--should be universally condemned."
"As welcome as this step is, the White House needs to put the U.S. on a definitive path to join the treaties banning anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions," Leahy added. "Neither of these indiscriminate weapons, the horrific consequences of which we are seeing in Ukraine today, belong in the arsenals of civilized nations."
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Patrick Leahy Agrees: It's Time to Free Leonard Peltier
The American Indian Movement activist—often called America's longest-incarcerated political prisoner—has been jailed 44 years after being dubiously convicted of murdering two FBI agents.
Dec 01, 2021
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy has become the most senior U.S. government official to support the release of American Indian Movement militant Leonard Peltier, who supporters say was framed and falsely convicted of murdering two federal agents during a 1975 reservation shootout.
HuffPost reported Tuesday that Leahy (D-Vt.)--the Senate's president pro tempore who will retire after this term as the chamber's longest-serving member--responded affirmatively when the outlet asked if it was time to free Peltier.
Peltier, now 77 years old, admits to having participated in the June 26, 1975 gunfight at the Oglala Sioux Reservation at Pine Ridge, South Dakota but denies killing Federal Bureau of Investigation agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams.
From the time Canada granted a fraudulent U.S. extradition request for Peltier in 1976, his case has been marred by improprieties.
Senior HuffPost reporter Jennifer Bendery writes:
Peltier has been in prison for 44 years for a crime he says he didn't commit. His trial was riddled with misconduct. Prosecutors hid key evidence. The FBI threatened and coerced witnesses into lying. A juror admitted she was biased against Peltier's race on the second day of the trial but was allowed to stay on anyway.
There was never proof that he killed two FBI agents in a 1975 shootout on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. But the FBI needed someone to take the fall. It had just lost two agents, and Peltier's co-defendants were all acquitted on grounds of self-defense. His trial was also happening as the FBI was trying to suppress the activities of the American Indian Movement (AIM), a grassroots group of activists focused on drawing attention to federal treaty rights violations, discrimination, and police brutality targeting Native Americans.
AIM activist Joe Stuntz Killsright was also killed at Pine Ridge when a U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs agent sniper shot him in the head after Coler and Williams were killed. Stuntz' death has never been investigated.
Peltier was found guilty and given two consecutive life sentences. Now in poor health, he is often referred to as America's longest-incarcerated political prisoner. Hundreds of thousands of people--including the Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, Coretta Scott King, John Lewis, and Nelson Mandela--and numerous advocacy groups have called for his release over the years.
Both the Canadian solicitor-general at the time of Peltier's extradition and the U.S. federal prosecutor who helped convict him have also pleaded for his freedom.
"I write today from a position rare for a former prosecutor: to beseech you to commute the sentence of a man who I helped put behind bars," former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds wrote to President Joe Biden earlier this year. "With time, and the benefit of hindsight, I have realized that the prosecution and continued incarceration of Mr. Peltier was and is unjust. We were not able to prove that Mr. Peltier personally committed any offense on the Pine Ridge Reservation."
Successive presidential administrations have declined to free Peltier, although he and his advocates are hopeful that could change under President Joe Biden. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland--the first Native American Cabinet secretary--advocated for Peltier's release due to the Covid-19 pandemic while she was serving in the House of Representatives last year.
In an action update in October, Amnesty International USA said Biden "must grant Leonard Peltier clemency on humanitarian grounds and as a matter of justice."
"I still hold out hope that I can make it home to Turtle Mountain while I can still walk out under my own power," Peltier wrote in a statement last week. "I remain grateful for the gift of life."
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