With US Bombs Killing Kids in Yemen, Sanders Tells Pompeo 'Human Lives Worth Far More Than Defense C

[Judi Lynn]

Published on
Thursday, September 20, 2018
byCommon Dreams

With US Bombs Killing Kids in Yemen, Sanders Tells Pompeo 'Human Lives Worth Far More Than Defense Contractor Profits'
"Hopefully this news will reach the living rooms of all Americans," said Rep. Ro Khanna, "because I have faith the great people of this country do not support a war like this."

byJake Johnson, staff writer

American-made bombs are being used to massacre large numbers of civilians in Yemen, and new reporting shows that the Trump administration is allowing this carnage to continue and escalate in order to protect the profits of defense contractors.

Just days after the Yemen-based human rights group Mwatana gave CNN exclusive access documents showing that U.S.-manufactured bomb fragments have been found at the scene of at least 11 separate Saudi-led attacks on Yemeni civilians since 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo opted to continue American military support for Saudi Arabia over the objections of his staff in an effort to preserve $2 billion in weapons sales to the brutal monarchy.

"Pompeo overruled concerns from most of the State Department specialists involved in the debate who were worried about the rising civilian death toll in Yemen," the Journal reported, citing a classified State Department memo. "He sided with his legislative affairs team after they argued that suspending support could undercut plans to sell more than 120,000 precision-guided missiles to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)."

"Secretary Pompeo's certification last week that the Saudi-led coalition was taking appropriate steps to protect civilians in Yemen was ridiculous on its face," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote in response to the Journal's reporting on Thursday. "But now we find out that Pompeo overruled the advice of his own State Department experts and legal advisers in order to make that certification to Congress, because he feared not doing so would endanger U.S. arms sales to the Saudis and Emiratis currently destroying Yemen."

More:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/09/20/us-bombs-killing-kids-yemen-sanders-tells-pompeo-human-lives-worth-far-more-defense

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread Judi Lynn.