Reuters: US pursued arms deal with Saudi Arabia despite possible war crimes implications News
Reuters: US pursued arms deal with Saudi Arabia despite possible war crimes implications

According to a report [Reuters report] released Monday, the Obama administration conducted a $1.3 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia last year despite warnings that such contribution to the country’s activities could implicate the US for war crimes. The information was discovered through current and former government officials as well as documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [official website]. The information showed that the administration never made a determination of whether such an arms deal would make the US or its military personnel open to prosecution, although one email contained a reference to precedent the US used in previous litigation that would suggest an affirmative answer. The documents also showed an effort by the US to limit Saudi Arabia’s use of the arms, pressing them to limit civilian casualties and providing “no strike lists” limiting locations that could be attacked. However, there was also skepticism as to whether the Saudi military was experienced enough to effectively follow these limitations. The US’s dealings with Saudi Arabia will be under the spotlight, as this report was released after yet another attack in Yemen. While the Saudi-led coalition denied responsibility, UN officials looked in their direction and issued a statement [JURIST report] containing a request for all States to reevaluate their contribution to the situation and move towards a ceasefire.

Last month independent UN human rights expert Alfred de Zayas [official profile] said [JURIST report] that “[a]rms deals are a major threat to security, peace and human rights.” Looking at what could create legal consequences for the US, the rapidly deteriorating situation in Yemen has sparked significant international concern. Also last month international human rights groups issued a joint letter [JURIST report] to the permanent representatives of member and observer states of the UN Human Rights Council urging them “to support the High Commissioner’s call [JURIST report] for an international, independent investigation into civilian deaths and injuries in Yemen.” In July Human Rights Watch (HRW) [official website] urged [JURIST report] Saudi Arabia and other coalition members to create an independent international inquiry into their attacks on civilian economic structures in Yemen. In March two human rights groups called [JURIST report] for the US, the UK and France to stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia due to accusations and evidence that the weapons are being used in attacks against Yemen.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail

On April 16, 1963, an incarcerated Martin Luther King, Jr. (arrested for demonstrating in defiance of a court order) wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to a published statement by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama.

Part of the letter read: We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. Read the full text of the Letter.

Former communist countries admitted for EU accession

On April 16, 2003, the 2003 Treaty of Accession was signed by 10 countries, admitting them for European Union (EU) ascension. After Malta and Cyprus, eight of the ten new EU nations (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) were former communist countries. The signing of the treaty in Athens marked the first time that former members of the Soviet Bloc joined the EU.

Learn more about EU expansion from the organization's website.

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