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Ryan Goodman Profile picture
@rgoodlaw
Sep 14, 2020 • 6 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X
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Breakthrough journalism on US support for Saudi #WarCrimes in #YemenWar (NYT @laforgia_ @ewong).

Implicates Obama and Trump administrations' support.

Key item:

Trump admin. dropped conditions on Saudis with big result: US officials became liable for those war crimes.

THREAD
2. A mechanism for US officials to avoid personal liability for war crimes involved assurances/conditions placed on the arm sales.

But senior Trump State Dept officials apparently dropped that mechanism.

Inspector General August report showed the problem.

Then guess what...
3. The State Department buried a significant passage in Inspector General's report by moving the UNCLASSIFIED text to the classified annex.

the New York Times obtained the earlier draft text.
4. As that NYT excerpt shows, Marik String (State Dept's acting legal adviser) played a central role in all this.

Plus: "String tried to pressure Steve A. Linick, the inspector general, to drop his investigation."

String goes before Congress (#HFAC) on Weds

He'd be advised...
5. Marik String, the State Dept's top lawyer, would be well advised to get himself a personal attorney before testifying before Congress on his alleged role in US aiding and abetting Saudi war crimes in Yemen.

As professor @oonahathaway put it bluntly in New York Times report.👇
6. The U.S. support for Saudi-led Coalition's war crimes in Yemen War is an issue we've focused on @just_security.

NYT links to 3 Just Security articles:

@oonahathaway on missing State Dept Memo
Isa Qasim on conditions on US arms sales
Me on aiding and abetting liability

<end>

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More from @rgoodlaw

Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Jan 12
A time for choosing, from main street to wall street.

"This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings. It is not about Congress’s oversight role. .... Those are pretexts."

Thank you, Chairman Powell.
2/ "I have served at the Federal Reserve under four administrations, Republicans and Democrats alike. ... Public service sometimes requires standing firm in the face of threats."
3/ "I will continue to do the job the Senate confirmed me to do, with integrity and a commitment to serving the American people."

Full transcript:
federalreserve.gov/newsevents/spe…
Read 4 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Jan 11
NEW

An initially-secret report for Customs and Border Patrol in 2013 found:

In many cases, the “driver was attempting to flee from the agents who intentionally put themselves into the exit path of the vehicle, thereby … creating justification for the use of deadly force.”
🧵
2/ I discuss this report at greater length on my YouTube channel and Substack

Substack: substack.com/home/post/p-18…
YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=izontt…
3/ Customs and Border Patrol tried to keep the report’s findings secret from Congress.

Excerpt from LA Times Feb. 2014 (by @ByBrianBennett) ⬇️

latimes.com/nation/la-na-b…Image
Read 7 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Jan 7
It was an honor to work with Brian Egan and Tess Bridgeman on this important piece.

- The President did not have constitutional authority for the Venezuela operation.

- It also violated the "supreme Law of the Land" - UN Charter, which the Senate passed 89-2.

1/ Image
2/ source

Congress, the President, and the Use of Military Force in Venezuela

By Brian Egan, Tess Bridgeman and Ryan Goodman

justsecurity.org/128211/congres…
3/ "Applying even the OLC’s expansive view from its recent opinions to Operation Absolute Resolve, the Executive action clearly crosses the threshold for requiring congressional authorization."
Read 5 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Jan 4
I joined with two great legal experts on this analysis.

In this thread, I highlight 3 items you may not see covered in same way, if at all, elsewhere.

Panama 'precedent'
safeguards for Heads of State
Venezuelan nationals new legal protections in US

🧵
justsecurity.org/127981/interna…
2/ "Panama precedent" of 1989 US action to capture Noriega counts against, not in favor, of US actions in Venezuela.

a) UN General Assembly "strongly deplored" US 1989 action
b) HW Bush, James Baker, Amb Pickering cited justifications nowhere in Venezuela case

Excerpt⤵️ Image
3/ Maduro is a monster, but the U.S. action is also unravelling protections for Heads of State and Foreign Ministers around the world.

Just recently the United States government made this point on the "personal inviolability" of such foreign officials from criminal arrest.⤵️ Image
Read 7 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Dec 31, 2025
WSJ report is extraordinary in implicating Mar-a-Lago in Epstein systematic sexual abuse.

It takes a close read, but looks like WSJ is reporting Trump was informed and told Mar-a-Lago manager to "kick out" Epstein in 2003 not from Mar-a-Lago, but from the Mar-a-Lago Spa.

1/
2/ Note the WSJ report says:

"But Epstein continued to attend parties and events at Mar-a-Lago."

gift link (reporting by @joe_palazzolo @rebeccaballhaus @khadeeja_safdar):
wsj.com/us-news/trump-…
@joe_palazzolo @rebeccaballhaus @khadeeja_safdar 3/ It's in the very headline Image
Read 5 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Dec 13, 2025
With Admiral Bradley's lawyer speaking to Congress this upcoming week.

Threshold question is how ANY of these strikes are legal.

On Sept 2 strike: Q is whether they applied standard Collateral Damage Estimation Methodology.

Because look what it says (declassified 2012)⤵️
1/ Image
2/ The Collateral Damage Estimation Methodology goes to the heart of the latest DoD claims about the strike.

The claim is that the second strike was targeting the (possible) cocaine, not the shipwrecked.

I do not see how that could have possibly complied with the Methodology.
3/ As shown in the screen shot, the Methodology states:

The laws of war (LOW) require anticipated "noncombatant" deaths must not be excessive in relation to expected military advantage to be gained (the possible cocaine).

Noncombatants defined to include shipwrecked.
Read 6 tweets

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