SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
President Donald Trump holds up a chart of military hardware sales as he meets with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Oval Office at the White House on March 20, 2018 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images)
Peace Advocates Praise Senate for Voting to Block 'Brazen Power Grab' by Trump to Sell Saudis More Weapons
By arming the Saudi-led coalition waging war on Yemen, said Amnesty International, "the U.S. government has already devastated the lives of thousands."
Jun 20, 2019
Peace advocates and progressives applauded Thursday as the Senate approved resolutions to block the Trump administration from using emergency authority to bypass Congress and allow more than $8 billion in weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are leading a war on Yemen.
"Congress is forcing the president to either stop arming countries that are using U.S. weapons to starve the people of Yemen, or issue more vetoes and defend the indefensible."
--Paul Kawika Martin, Peace Action
The GOP-controlled Senate considered 22 resolutions of disapproval--one for each weapons contract the administration tried to push through.
A small number of Senate Republicans joined with Democrats to pass the measures: 20 that were voted on collectively passed 51-45, and the other two passed 53-45. See the full roll call votes here. The resolutions now head to the Democrat-held House, where they are expected to pass.
Although President Donald Trump may veto the resolutions if they reach his desk--as he did in April with a War Powers resolution approved by Congress--critics of U.S. complicity in the Saudi and UAE coalition's war in Yemen still welcomed the Senate votes as, in the words of Peace Action's Paul Kawika Martin, "yet another rebuke to this administration's reckless foreign policy in the Middle East."
By approving these resolutions, Martin said Thursday, "Congress is forcing the president to either stop arming countries that are using U.S. weapons to starve the people of Yemen, or issue more vetoes and defend the indefensible. If Trump does veto these resolutions, Congress should vote to override in order to help bring the terrible war in Yemen to an end."
A group of lawmakers led by Sens. Bob Menedez (D-N.J.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) started working together to block the weapons sales in late May, when the Trump administration confirmed that it planned to exploit a loophole in the Arms Export Control Act to allow U.S. weapons companies to export arms to members of the Saudi and UAE-led coalition slaughtering and starving Yemeni civilians.
Win Without War executive director Stephen Miles, in a statement Thursday, praised the Senate for challenging the Trump administration's "brazen power grab" to enable weapons sales that would "make the U.S. further complicit in the brutal war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen, while rewarding Saudi Arabia and the UAE for their war crimes."
Noting that research conducted by human rights advocates "indicates that arms manufactured in the U.S. have been used in deadly strikes against civilians," Amnesty International advocacy director for Middle East and North Africa Philippe Nassif said Thursday that "by supplying arms to this coalition, the U.S. government has already devastated the lives of thousands."
"Halting this emergency arms delivery could prevent enormous harm to families and individuals in Yemen," he added. "Yet there is still much more that can be done. Congress must ban all arms sales to the coalition and hold Saudi Arabia accountable for human rights abuses by passing the bipartisan Saudi Arabia Accountability and Yemen Act of 2019."
Among those promising to continue fighting the administration's support for the war in Yemen is Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who voted for the measures Thursday and sponsored the War Powers resolution that Trump vetoed in April.
"Repeatedly, we see this president using phony 'emergency' declarations to sidestep the law to get what he wants," said Sanders, who is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. "The fact that he is transferring these weapons at a time when the Saudis and Emiratis are waging a catastrophic war in Yemen, a war that a bipartisan majority in Congress has declared to be unauthorized and illegal, is even more outrageous."
"I will do everything I can to assert Congress's power over the purse to end the war in Yemen and block these weapons from being used by the Saudis in that war," the senator vowed. "Trump should not do the bidding of the repressive, undemocratic regime of Saudi Arabia, which was exposed this week by the United Nations for the premeditated killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the coverup of that crime."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
amnesty internationalbernie sanderscodepinkpeace actionsaudi arabiatrumpismunited arab emiratesus senatewin without waryemen
Peace advocates and progressives applauded Thursday as the Senate approved resolutions to block the Trump administration from using emergency authority to bypass Congress and allow more than $8 billion in weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are leading a war on Yemen.
"Congress is forcing the president to either stop arming countries that are using U.S. weapons to starve the people of Yemen, or issue more vetoes and defend the indefensible."
--Paul Kawika Martin, Peace Action
The GOP-controlled Senate considered 22 resolutions of disapproval--one for each weapons contract the administration tried to push through.
A small number of Senate Republicans joined with Democrats to pass the measures: 20 that were voted on collectively passed 51-45, and the other two passed 53-45. See the full roll call votes here. The resolutions now head to the Democrat-held House, where they are expected to pass.
Although President Donald Trump may veto the resolutions if they reach his desk--as he did in April with a War Powers resolution approved by Congress--critics of U.S. complicity in the Saudi and UAE coalition's war in Yemen still welcomed the Senate votes as, in the words of Peace Action's Paul Kawika Martin, "yet another rebuke to this administration's reckless foreign policy in the Middle East."
By approving these resolutions, Martin said Thursday, "Congress is forcing the president to either stop arming countries that are using U.S. weapons to starve the people of Yemen, or issue more vetoes and defend the indefensible. If Trump does veto these resolutions, Congress should vote to override in order to help bring the terrible war in Yemen to an end."
A group of lawmakers led by Sens. Bob Menedez (D-N.J.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) started working together to block the weapons sales in late May, when the Trump administration confirmed that it planned to exploit a loophole in the Arms Export Control Act to allow U.S. weapons companies to export arms to members of the Saudi and UAE-led coalition slaughtering and starving Yemeni civilians.
Win Without War executive director Stephen Miles, in a statement Thursday, praised the Senate for challenging the Trump administration's "brazen power grab" to enable weapons sales that would "make the U.S. further complicit in the brutal war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen, while rewarding Saudi Arabia and the UAE for their war crimes."
Noting that research conducted by human rights advocates "indicates that arms manufactured in the U.S. have been used in deadly strikes against civilians," Amnesty International advocacy director for Middle East and North Africa Philippe Nassif said Thursday that "by supplying arms to this coalition, the U.S. government has already devastated the lives of thousands."
"Halting this emergency arms delivery could prevent enormous harm to families and individuals in Yemen," he added. "Yet there is still much more that can be done. Congress must ban all arms sales to the coalition and hold Saudi Arabia accountable for human rights abuses by passing the bipartisan Saudi Arabia Accountability and Yemen Act of 2019."
Among those promising to continue fighting the administration's support for the war in Yemen is Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who voted for the measures Thursday and sponsored the War Powers resolution that Trump vetoed in April.
"Repeatedly, we see this president using phony 'emergency' declarations to sidestep the law to get what he wants," said Sanders, who is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. "The fact that he is transferring these weapons at a time when the Saudis and Emiratis are waging a catastrophic war in Yemen, a war that a bipartisan majority in Congress has declared to be unauthorized and illegal, is even more outrageous."
"I will do everything I can to assert Congress's power over the purse to end the war in Yemen and block these weapons from being used by the Saudis in that war," the senator vowed. "Trump should not do the bidding of the repressive, undemocratic regime of Saudi Arabia, which was exposed this week by the United Nations for the premeditated killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the coverup of that crime."
Peace advocates and progressives applauded Thursday as the Senate approved resolutions to block the Trump administration from using emergency authority to bypass Congress and allow more than $8 billion in weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are leading a war on Yemen.
"Congress is forcing the president to either stop arming countries that are using U.S. weapons to starve the people of Yemen, or issue more vetoes and defend the indefensible."
--Paul Kawika Martin, Peace Action
The GOP-controlled Senate considered 22 resolutions of disapproval--one for each weapons contract the administration tried to push through.
A small number of Senate Republicans joined with Democrats to pass the measures: 20 that were voted on collectively passed 51-45, and the other two passed 53-45. See the full roll call votes here. The resolutions now head to the Democrat-held House, where they are expected to pass.
Although President Donald Trump may veto the resolutions if they reach his desk--as he did in April with a War Powers resolution approved by Congress--critics of U.S. complicity in the Saudi and UAE coalition's war in Yemen still welcomed the Senate votes as, in the words of Peace Action's Paul Kawika Martin, "yet another rebuke to this administration's reckless foreign policy in the Middle East."
By approving these resolutions, Martin said Thursday, "Congress is forcing the president to either stop arming countries that are using U.S. weapons to starve the people of Yemen, or issue more vetoes and defend the indefensible. If Trump does veto these resolutions, Congress should vote to override in order to help bring the terrible war in Yemen to an end."
A group of lawmakers led by Sens. Bob Menedez (D-N.J.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) started working together to block the weapons sales in late May, when the Trump administration confirmed that it planned to exploit a loophole in the Arms Export Control Act to allow U.S. weapons companies to export arms to members of the Saudi and UAE-led coalition slaughtering and starving Yemeni civilians.
Win Without War executive director Stephen Miles, in a statement Thursday, praised the Senate for challenging the Trump administration's "brazen power grab" to enable weapons sales that would "make the U.S. further complicit in the brutal war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen, while rewarding Saudi Arabia and the UAE for their war crimes."
Noting that research conducted by human rights advocates "indicates that arms manufactured in the U.S. have been used in deadly strikes against civilians," Amnesty International advocacy director for Middle East and North Africa Philippe Nassif said Thursday that "by supplying arms to this coalition, the U.S. government has already devastated the lives of thousands."
"Halting this emergency arms delivery could prevent enormous harm to families and individuals in Yemen," he added. "Yet there is still much more that can be done. Congress must ban all arms sales to the coalition and hold Saudi Arabia accountable for human rights abuses by passing the bipartisan Saudi Arabia Accountability and Yemen Act of 2019."
Among those promising to continue fighting the administration's support for the war in Yemen is Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who voted for the measures Thursday and sponsored the War Powers resolution that Trump vetoed in April.
"Repeatedly, we see this president using phony 'emergency' declarations to sidestep the law to get what he wants," said Sanders, who is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. "The fact that he is transferring these weapons at a time when the Saudis and Emiratis are waging a catastrophic war in Yemen, a war that a bipartisan majority in Congress has declared to be unauthorized and illegal, is even more outrageous."
"I will do everything I can to assert Congress's power over the purse to end the war in Yemen and block these weapons from being used by the Saudis in that war," the senator vowed. "Trump should not do the bidding of the repressive, undemocratic regime of Saudi Arabia, which was exposed this week by the United Nations for the premeditated killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the coverup of that crime."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.