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
For Immediate Release
November, 29 2020, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Ariel Gold | CODEPINK national co-director | ariel@codepink.org | 510 599-5330
Medea Benjamin | CODEPINK co-founder | medea.benjamin@gmail.com 415 235-6517
Over 80 Organizations Urge Biden to Prioritize Ending U.S. Involvement in Yemen War
Today, over 80 organizations representing millions of people across the United States sent a joint letter to President-elect Joe Biden with an urgent request that he prioritize ending U.S. support for the disastrous Saudi-led war in Yemen, as he indicated he would during his campaign. The letter, from groups ranging from foreign policy organizations to faith-based groups, outlines the specific measures Biden should take through executive powers and by working with Congress.
WASHINGTON
Today, over 80 organizations representing millions of people across the United States sent a joint letter to President-elect Joe Biden with an urgent request that he prioritize ending U.S. support for the disastrous Saudi-led war in Yemen, as he indicated he would during his campaign. The letter, from groups ranging from foreign policy organizations to faith-based groups, outlines the specific measures Biden should take through executive powers and by working with Congress.
Acknowledging that when Biden comes into office, he will surely get pushback from those who want to keep the U.S. involved in the Saudi-led war in Yemen, the signers of the letter felt it necessary to show that there is a broad constituency clamoring for an end to nearly five years of participation in this catastrophic war and for the U.S. to help the Yemeni people rebuild their lives.
"Before coronavirus, Yemen was already experiencing the largest humanitarian crisis on the planet," the letter reads, pointing out that the Saudi-led bombing campaign and blockade of ports has decimated the country's healthcare infrastructure and severely damaged access to clean water, sanitary systems, and nutrition. "Ending U.S participation would signal to millions of Yemenis living in Yemen and thousands of Yemeni-Americans who worry about their families in Yemen that weapon sales and geopolitical chess moves are not more important than their lives and the lives of their loved ones," the letter continued. "It would be a monumental first achievement for your administration that would be praised by Americans across the ideological spectrum."
"American involvement in this brutal catastrophe is shameful and must come to an end. Pulling the U.S. out should be among Biden's top priorities for his first days in office." -- Ariel Gold, CODEPINK national co-director.
Biden is given an opportunity to correct the wrong policy of supporting the Saudi war on Yemen in 2015 under the Obama administration. I hope that he now helps end the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, one that he helped create. -- Aisha Jumaan, Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation
"It's time for America to reclaim its moral compass and withdraw completely from any involvement in the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen." -- Hal Ginsgurb, Our Revolution
"As military veterans, we know the true cost of war. The victims of the armed Saud- led conflict in Yemen include starving children and countless people suffering from COVID-19. It is shameful to have American support for atrocities that only benefit weapon industries and Saudi royalty. If the United States will have credibility as a stabilizing leader in the international community, we need to start by prioritizing humanitarian aid and stop enabling warmongering." - Garett Reppenhagen former US Army Sniper, Executive Director of Veterans For Peace
"The American people have been calling on the United States to end all support for the Saudi-UAE coalition's disastrous war in Yemen that serves as the worst humanitarian crisis, said Yasmine Taeb, Senior Fellow at Center for International Policy. "The U.S. needs to prioritize human rights in our foreign policy and must stop providing arms to authoritarian or repressive governments that systematically violate human rights."
While millions of Americans recently finished their Thanksgiving feasts, millions of Yemenis will face famine without action by the new Congress and Administration. The new government should rapidly stop backing the Saudi-led bombing of Yemen -- begun under the Obama-Biden Administration, and ensure an end to the de facto blockade which is starving the Yemeni people. Through the recently-introduced War Powers Resolution, Congress is once again asserting its will to stop U.S. participation in this unconstitutional war. The Biden Administration should stop all participation in the war -- including intelligence sharing -- and refocus on true U.S. security interests rather than the whims of the famine-causing Saudi dictatorship." -- Isaac Evans-Frantz, Action Corp
Read the full letter here.
Signers:
Action Corps . American Friends Service Committee . Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain . Avaaz . Ayada Leads . Beyond the Bomb . Brooklyn For Peace . Campaign for Peace Disarmament and Common Security . Casa Maria Catholic Worker Community . CAPA DePaul . Center for Economic and Policy Research . Center for International Policy . Chicago Area Peace Action . Clearinghouse on Women's Issues . CODEPINK . Daily Kos . Demand Progress . Democracy for America . Democracy for the Middle East Now (DAWN) . Episcopal Peace Fellowship . Fellowship of Reconciliation . Feminist Majority Foundation . First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor, MI . Franciscan Action Network . Freedom Forward . Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) . Friends of Sabeel North America . Grassroots Global Justice . Health Alliance International . Historians for Peace and Democracy . Indiana Center for Middle East Peace . Institute for Policy Studies, National Priorities Project . Institute for Policy Studies, New Internationalism Project . Interfaith Community Sanctuary . Islamophobia Studies Center . Israel Palestine Mission Network PCUSA . Isuroon (Strong Women, Strong Communities) . Jetpac Resource Center . Jewish Voice for Peace Action . Just Foreign Policy . Justice for All . Justice Is Global . Kairos Center . Mass Peace Action . MADRE . MPower Change . NorCalSabeel . Organization for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain . Our Revolution . Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace . PAX Christi USA . Peace Action . PEACEWORKERS . Presbyterian Church USA . Progressive Democrats of America . Project Blueprint . Project South . Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft . Raytheon anti-war Campaign . Rethinking Foreign Policy . Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment . Revolving Door Project . RootsAction.org . Saudi American Justice Project . September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows . Sisters of Mercy of the Americas - Justice Team . The International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) . The United Methodist Church - General Board of Church and Society . Tunisian United Network . United African Congress . United for Peace and Justice . U.S. Labor Against Racism and War . Veterans For Peace . WESPAC Foundation, Inc. . West Suburban Peace Coalition . Western New York Peace Center . Win Without War . Women's International League for Peace and Freedom-US . World BEYOND War . Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation . Yemeni Alliance Committee
CODEPINK is a women-led grassroots organization working to end U.S. wars and militarism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect our tax dollars into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming programs.
(818) 275-7232LATEST NEWS
Bragging of Wartime Iran Blockade, Trump Admits 'We're Like Pirates'
"We took over the cargo. We took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business," said the American president of seizing ships many thousands of miles away from US waters. No mention of what the war of choice against Iran is costing the US taxpayer.
May 02, 2026
President Donald Trump on Friday night openly bragged of the US military acting "like pirates" in the world's oceans as he described recent activities of the US Navy incapacitating vessels at sea and then taking their cargo.
"We took over the cargo. We took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business," Trump said with a smile as the friendly crowd at the Forum Club in Palm Beach, Florida cheered him on.
"We're sort of like pirates, but we're not playing games," Trump added before calling the Iranian "bullies" who had to be confronted.
Trump on US Navy Seizing Ships:
It’s a very profitable business. We’re like pirates. pic.twitter.com/erWDQmJWnw
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 2, 2026
"The only good thing about Trump—only thing!—is that he sometimes says what we all know to be true," said journalist Mehdi Hassan, "but don’t expect an American president to say, admit, out loud."
In social media post, the Iranian Embassy in New Zealand said: "No need to confess President, the whole world already knows you. By the way, those who, with performative noise, constantly talk about 'international law' and 'freedom of navigation'… don’t want to condemn piracy now?"
"The only good thing about Trump—only thing!—is that he sometimes says what we all know to be true, but don’t expect an American president to say, admit, out loud."
While using the US military to seize the contents of ships may be profitable to somebody, it's not entirely clear who that might be.
So far, the estimate for what Trump's war of choice against Iran over the last two months has cost US taxpayers in the immediate term ranges from $25 billion, which is what the Pentagon itself said this week, to upwards of $100 billion. Over the long term, including the increased cost of gas and groceries due to the economic disruption and the care of veterans involved in the war, the costs of the war—which remains historically unpopular among the US public—could exceed $1 trillion.
Mark P. Nevitt, a retired US military lawyer and now an associate professor at the Emory University School of Law, argues that the series of maritime blockades imposed by Trump on Iran has created a "legally surreal moment" in the ongoing conflict.
"The United States is simultaneously observing a ceasefire with Iran while enforcing a naval blockade—a belligerent wartime operation that has no legal basis in peacetime," explained Nevitt in a column for Justice Security on Friday. "Normally, the imposition of a naval blockade ends a ceasefire, because a blockade is itself a belligerent act."
While there are established legal frameworks for naval blockades during wartime, legal scholars have asserted from the outset of the war—when US and Israeli launched unprovoked bombings of Iran on Feb. 28—that the war itself is illegal under international law.
While the existence of the blockade, an overt act of war, means the US and Iran remain in active military conflict, Trump himself and the Pentagon made the untenable claim this week that because a tentative ceasefire is in place, the US is not engaged in war—thereby trying to sidestep a 60-day threshold under the War Powers Act of 1973 which mandates the president either get permission from Congress to continue the war or end military operations completely.
As Nevitt puts it, "the United States is neither fully at war nor fully at peace according to its own logic."
In his assessment, which makes distinctions between maritime law under normal circumstance versus laws of war and blockades during active military conflict, Nevitt said the Pentagon's position that it can enforce a total blockade of ships coming or going from Iranian ports by interdicting or boarding "sanctioned vessels of any flag state anywhere in the world is remarkably broad and lacks a sound legal basis in international law."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'I Refuse to Be Complicit': Man Scales 168-Foot Bridge in DC Demanding End to Iran War
"I'm at the top of this bridge," says Guido Reichstadter, "because the government of the United States is engaged in acts of mass murder in my name."
May 02, 2026
Forty-five year old social justice activist named Guido Reichstadter on Saturday morning was still perched atop the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington, DC after first scaling the structure Friday afternoon in protest against President Donald Trump's disastrous war against Iran, now in its third month, and the rapid and unregulated spread of artificial intelligence technology.
As Reichstadter, who described himself as the father of two children with masters degrees in both math and physics, said in a video posted to social media on Friday: “Hi my name is Guido Reichstadter and I’m currently occupying the top of the Frederick Douglass memorial bridge in Washington, DC.”
"I'm calling on the people of the United States," he continued, "to bring an immediate end to the Trump regime's illegal war on Iran and the removal of the regime power through mass nonviolent direct action and non-cooperation."
"I woke up on February 28th and I found that hundreds of schools children had been blown apart. I think there are many millions of Americans who reject the war in principle, but whose actions have not yet been sufficient to bring it to an end."
In a separate video, he explained he was at the top of the bridge, which rises approximately 168 feet above the Anacostia River at its highest point, "because the government of the United States is engaged in acts of mass murder in my name. And I refuse to be complicit in that."
While bridge traffic in both directions was closed at times on Friday and overnight, the bridge is reportedly open to traffic Saturday morning, though with some lane restrictions, as law enforcement said a "barricade situation" with the protester continued.
Reichstadter, who has staged high-profile protests in the past, spoke to Al-Jazeera via video stream on Friday to explain his actions and call for an end to the war that he says—and tens of millions of other Americans agree, according to polling—is a colossal failure by the Trump administration.
A 45-year old man is occupying the top of Washington’s Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge to protest the war on Iran.
Guido Reichstadter spoke to Al Jazeera from atop the structure - here's what he had to say. pic.twitter.com/YzHghEoS8m
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 2, 2026
"I mean, it's an atrocity, right?" he said, when asked what motivated him. "I woke up on February 28th and I found that hundreds of schools children had been blown apart. I think there are many millions of Americans who reject the war in principle, but whose actions have not yet been sufficient to bring it to an end."
Democratic members of Congress, both in the US House and Senate, have now brought several War Powers Resolutions to the floor in an effort to end the US attack on Iran, which now includes a naval blockade of the country, but Republican majorities in both chambers backing Trump, those efforts have failed.
Poll after poll, meanwhile, shows that Reichstadter is completely correct in stating that millions of people "reject the war," but still the war continues even after a 60-day deadline, according to the War Powers Act of 1973, which says the president must either end military operations or get the explicit approval of Congress, came and went on Friday.
On Friday, video showed Reichstadter wearing a t-shirt that read "NO WAR" and he unfurled a large black banner down the side of the bridge's central arch as part of the protest.
Before scaling the bridge, Reichstadter also spoke with journalist Ford Fisher to explain his motivations and what he hoped to accomplish with his one-person direct action:
Guido Reichstadter reached out to me prior to doing this demonstration (where he is still on the bridge arch now).
He expressed his opposition to the Trump administration’s war in Iran.
He did the same for abortion access in 2022.https://t.co/b7iM0eZlHL pic.twitter.com/AzlFgjRysX
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) May 1, 2026
Reichstatder stayed on the bring overnight, even as fireworks exploded overhead from a nearby Major League Baseball game.
In his statement concerning AI, Reichstadter said he wanted to "urgently warn the people of the US and the world of the imminent danger we are in of crossing a point of no return towards the development of artificial intelligence which poses the risk of catastrophic harm to humanity, including human extinction."
"I call on the governments of the world to take immediate action to end this danger by permanently banning the development of artificial general intelligence and machine super intelligence," he said. "I also call on the people of the world to exert all possible influence through nonviolent action to compel their governments to end this danger with all possible speed."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Citing Bogus 'Threats' to US, Trump Expands Already Devastating Sanctions on Cuba
The president's latest aggression toward Cuba comes amid his repeated threats to "take" the island.
May 01, 2026
Citing Cuba's ties with its ally Iran, President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order expanding the already crippling US sanctions regime against Cuban officials, as the US administration has the island in its crosshairs after ousting Venezuela's socialist leader.
Trump's executive order cites highly dubious "national security threats posed by the communist Cuban regime," including Havana's alignment "with countries and malign actors hostile to the United States."
The directive "imposes new sanctions on entities, persons, or affiliates that support the Cuban regime’s security apparatus, are complicit in government corruption or serious human rights violations, or are agents, officials, or material supporters of the Cuban government," without identifying any of the affected groups or individuals.
For 65 years, the US has imposed an economic embargo on Cuba that has adversely affected all sectors of the socialist island’s economy and severely limited Cubans’ access to basic necessities including food, fuel, healthcare, and medicines—with disastrous results. The Cuban government claims the blockade cost the country’s economy nearly $5 billion in just one 11-month period in 2022-23 alone. United Nations member states have perennially—and overwhelmingly—condemned the embargo.
The Trump administration also imposed a fuel blockade and reinstated Cuba on the US State Sponsors of Terrorism list, from which former President Joe Biden removed the country before leaving office in 2021. Cuba was initially added to the list during the Reagan administration amid a decadeslong campaign of US-backed Cuban exile terrorism, failed assassination attempts, economic warfare, and covert operations large and small in a futile effort to overthrow the revolutionary government of longtime leader Fidel Castro.
Cuba says US-backed terrorism has killed or wounded more than 5,000 Cubans and cost its economy billions of dollars.
The Cuban government—which was celebrating International Workers' Day on Friday—did not immediately respond to the expanded sanctions.
Experts warned that the new sanctions are worryingly broad, with Georgetown Law visiting scholar Peter Harrell writing on X that "basically any non-US person or company doing any business in/with Cuba could be sanctioned."
Harrell noted that the edict "gives the Trump administration a fair amount of easy-to-deploy firepower to drive remaining international businesses out of Cuba."
"The questions will be in implementation," he added. "For example, will Trump sanction a Chinese firm installing renewable energy in Cuba?"
Trump's edict comes months after the president ordered the invasion of Venezuela and abduction of socialist President Nicolás Maduro and amid the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran, the 10th country bombed during the course of Trump's two terms in office.
Trump last month declared that “we may stop by Cuba after we’re finished with this,” referring to war on Iran that’s left thousands of people dead or wounded, including hundreds of children. The president has also said that he believes he’ll “be having the honor of taking Cuba,” language echoing the 19th century US imperialists who conquered the island along with Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines from Spain in another war waged on dubious pretense.
“Whether I free it, take it—I think I can do anything I want,” Trump said of the island and its 11 million inhabitants.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular