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Ryan Goodman Profile picture
@rgoodlaw
Sep 14, 2020 • 6 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X
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

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More from @rgoodlaw

Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Dec 6
An important step in the right direction:

"The Senate Armed Services Committee ... has asked Adm. Alvin Holsey ... to testify before the committee next week, according to Blumenthal and another person familiar with the matter."

Report by @theodoricmeyer @noahjrobertson
1/ Image
2/ source

washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
3/ "A spokesperson for Rep. Adam Smith (Washington), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said that panel also requested briefings with U.S. Southern Command, though not with Holsey specifically."
Read 5 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Dec 5
How is U.S. military killing these 11 people keeping drugs (fentanyl) out of the United States?

DOD knew the drugs (cocaine) were headed to Suriname.

Yes, that's the OTHER DIRECTION.

Read what Bradley-Caine told lawmakers:

Scoop by @NatashaBertrand

🧵 1/ Image
2/ Problems for Bradley's credibility.

On left:

Bradley argued to lawmakers "still a possibility" drugs could've made way to US.

On right:

Trump State Dept: "Suriname is a transit country for South American cocaine, the majority of which is likely destined for Europe." Image
Image
3/ And, yes, the administration's attempted constitutional and other legal claims unravel if boats are delivering drugs (let alone, cocaine not fentanyl) to Europe instead.

Core policy claims as well.
Read 5 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Dec 5
NEW info on shipwreck attack. Gets worse.

The 2 survivors climbed atop wreckage and waved to overhead.

"Some of the people viewing the video thought ... could have been an attempt to surrender"

Others "said the most logical explanation was ... signaling for a rescue."

1/ Image
2/ What Adm. Bradley and Gen. Caine told Congress raises credibility concerns.

"The military officers briefing Congress on Thursday said the survivors could have been trying to beckon to other alleged drug traffickers in a plane or boat to come get them...."

But get this ...
3/

"But some lawmakers viewing the video rejected that interpretation. There were no other unknown aircraft or boats in visual range, and no other boats involved in drug trafficking could have rescued them."

And even worse, if I am understanding this logic correctly, ...
Read 6 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Dec 5
🚨🚨🚨This collapses the one 'argument' Hegseth had against it being war crime:

"Two men killed as they floated holding onto their capsized boat .. DID NOT APPEAR TO HAVE RADIO OR OTHER COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES, the top military official overseeing the strike told lawmakers."

1/ Image
2/ Secretary Hegseth bears ultimate responsibility as the designated Target Engagement Authority.

And recall how many times he has said Admiral Bradley acted within the authority Hegseth gave him, and that Bradley made "the correct" decision.

3/ It looks like DoD officials previously made false statements to Congress:

"As far back as September, defense officials have been quietly pushing back on criticism that killing the two survivors amounted to a war crime by arguing, in part, that they were legitimate targets because they appeared to be radioing for help or backup ... Defense officials made that claim in at least one briefing in September for congressional staff."Image
Read 5 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Dec 4
Debrief of shipwreck attack by Ranking Member of House Armed Services Adam Smith:

"The idea is supposed to be that if they could get assistance, they could get back 'in the fight,' ...But Smith said the officials confirmed...they have no recording of these communications."
1/ Image
2/ “Smith said the video shows two men, sitting without shirts, atop a portion of a capsized boat that was still above water. ...

... He called it a 'highly questionable decision that these two people on that obviously incapacitated vessel were still in any kind of fight.'” Image
3/ Rep. Smith:

“The broader assumption that they were operating off of was that the drugs could still conceivably be on that boat, even though you could not see them ... and it was still conceivable that these two people were going to continue on their mission.” Image
Read 6 tweets
Ryan Goodman Profile picture
Dec 4
USG has a new explanation on why they (now admittedly) intentionally killed 2 shipwrecked men. It does not pass the laws-of-war smell test

Worse for Hegseth, NYT: "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved contingency plans for what to do if an initial strike left survivors."
🧵 Image
2/ The Hegseth-approved contingency plan:

US military could try to kill shipwrecked survivors if "they took what the United States deemed to be a hostile action, like communicating with suspected cartel members." Image
3/ First it's absurd on its face that communicating to be RESCUED is a hostile act.

That's the definition of being shipwrecked and helpless.

The whole point of a legal prohibition on killing people who are shipwrecked is that they must be rescued or left to be rescued instead.
Read 12 tweets

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