truthout--2020-09-17--Trump’s Properties Billed Taxpayers $1.1 Million for Secret Service Rentals

Properties owned by President Trump have billed the U.S. Secret Service at least $ 1.1 million in rental stays and other charges since he took office more than three years ago , according to The Washington Post .
The Post obtained documentation outlining the expenditures from the Secret Service to Trump Organization properties after it filed a public-records lawsuit with the agency .
The Secret Service is tasked with following and protecting Trump wherever he goes , but it also provides security detail to his family members .
If he or they stay at one of his properties , agents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Trump ’ s properties charge the agency for their stay , which is then paid off with taxpayer funds .
Although Trump relinquished control of his company when he assumed the presidency , he remains the sole beneficiary of all of his properties , meaning he directly benefits from the Secret Service payments to them .
In one example , during the Passover holiday earlier this year , Trump ’ s daughter Ivanka Trump stayed at his Bedminster property in New Jersey , even though traveling there was in defiance of coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Washington , D.C. , at the time ( the order in New Jersey , however , did exempt federal employees ) .
Charges to the Secret Service to rent out a cottage near where Ivanka Trump and her family were at exceeded $ 20,000 for that stay alone .
The new documents also demonstrate that the Trump Organization may have overcharged the Secret Service for their stays .
The Bedminster property , for instance , charged $ 567 per night for the three-bedroom cottage that agents rented , while other rentals in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , according to the Post .
The Secret Service frequently rents out spaces at Trump Organization properties in order to prepare ahead for the president ’ s arrival .
But because Trump doesn ’ t make travel plans too far in advance , it ’ s hard for the agency to know when he will be at one place or another , resulting in the Secret Service renting out places for several months at a time .
This practice has meant that the agency is often paying Trump Organization properties often without Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ staying there .
“ We always had space reserved at Bedminster weeks before the president arrived , just in case , ” a former Trump official said .
“ If he came in the Oval [ Office ] on , let ’ s say , on a Wednesday and said , ‘ I want to go this weekend , ’ you have to be ready.
” At one point , the Secret Service rented out space at his Bedminster property for 200 nights , yet no member of the Trump family actually ended @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that time .
The Secret Service , however , isn ’ t the only government agency to have utilized Trump ’ s properties , nor to use taxpayer dollars to pay for staying at them .
According to reporting from CNN in March , a number of federal agencies had spent at least $ 1.2 million of government funds that went directly to the Trump Organization .
Eric Trump has defended his father ’ s use of his own properties , arguing in October 2019 that the federal government was actually getting a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ If my father travels , they stay at our properties for free , ” Eric Trump said last year .
“ So everywhere that he goes , if he stays at one of his places , the government actually spends , meaning it saves a fortune because if they were to go to a hotel across the street , they ’ d be charging them $ 500 a night , whereas , you know we charge them like $ 50.
” That statement was determined to be a lie , as several reports @ @ @ @ @ @ @ providing discounts to federal agencies like the Secret Service .
Trump benefits from his properties in other ways .
Even though he failed in his push to have his Doral Resort host the next G7 summit , it was estimated that he received more than $ 1 million in free advertising .
Trump properties have also received tens of millions of dollars in campaign expenditures by the Republican National Committee and his own reelection campaign .

Properties owned by President Trump have billed the U.S. Secret Service at least $1.1 million in rental stays and other charges since he took office more than three years ago, according to The Washington Post.
The Post obtained documentation outlining the expenditures from the Secret Service to Trump Organization properties after it filed a public-records lawsuit with the agency.
The Secret Service is tasked with following and protecting Trump wherever he goes, but it also provides security detail to his family members. If he or they stay at one of his properties, agents are tasked with staying there as well. Trump’s properties charge the agency for their stay, which is then paid off with taxpayer funds.
Although Trump relinquished control of his company when he assumed the presidency, he remains the sole beneficiary of all of his properties, meaning he directly benefits from the Secret Service payments to them.
In one example, during the Passover holiday earlier this year, Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump stayed at his Bedminster property in New Jersey, even though traveling there was in defiance of coronavirus stay-at-home directives from both that state and Washington, D.C., at the time (the order in New Jersey, however, did exempt federal employees). Charges to the Secret Service to rent out a cottage near where Ivanka Trump and her family were at exceeded $20,000 for that stay alone.
The new documents also demonstrate that the Trump Organization may have overcharged the Secret Service for their stays. The Bedminster property, for instance, charged $567 per night for the three-bedroom cottage that agents rented, while other rentals in the area typically charge a much lower rate, according to the Post.
The Secret Service frequently rents out spaces at Trump Organization properties in order to prepare ahead for the president’s arrival. But because Trump doesn’t make travel plans too far in advance, it’s hard for the agency to know when he will be at one place or another, resulting in the Secret Service renting out places for several months at a time. This practice has meant that the agency is often paying Trump Organization properties often without Trump or any of his family members actually staying there.
“We always had space reserved at Bedminster weeks before the president arrived, just in case,” a former Trump official said. “If he came in the Oval [Office] on, let’s say, on a Wednesday and said, ‘I want to go this weekend,’ you have to be ready.”
At one point, the Secret Service rented out space at his Bedminster property for 200 nights, yet no member of the Trump family actually ended up staying there at any point during that time.
The Secret Service, however, isn’t the only government agency to have utilized Trump’s properties, nor to use taxpayer dollars to pay for staying at them. According to reporting from CNN in March, a number of federal agencies had spent at least $1.2 million of government funds that went directly to the Trump Organization.
Eric Trump has defended his father’s use of his own properties, arguing in October 2019 that the federal government was actually getting a good deal for doing so.
“If my father travels, they stay at our properties for free,” Eric Trump said last year. “So everywhere that he goes, if he stays at one of his places, the government actually spends, meaning it saves a fortune because if they were to go to a hotel across the street, they’d be charging them $500 a night, whereas, you know we charge them like $50.”
That statement was determined to be a lie, as several reports have concluded the Trump Organization was not providing discounts to federal agencies like the Secret Service.
Trump benefits from his properties in other ways. Even though he failed in his push to have his Doral Resort host the next G7 summit, it was estimated that he received more than $1 million in free advertising. Trump properties have also received tens of millions of dollars in campaign expenditures by the Republican National Committee and his own reelection campaign.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.


truthout--2020-09-17--Historians Blast Barr for Comparing Stay-at-Home Orders to Slavery

Attorney General William Barr compared social distancing rules instituted to halt the spread of coronavirus to chattel slavery in the United States , resulting in a torrent of criticisms from lawmakers , commentators and historians .
“ You know , putting a national lockdown , stay-at-home orders , is like house arrest .
It ’ s — you know , other than slavery , which was a different kind of restraint , this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history , ” Barr said during a forum at Michigan ’ s Hillsdale College on Wednesday .
Barr @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actions and opinions as attorney general during the event , including intervening in a number of high-profile cases within the Department of Justice ( DOJ ) .
Historian Gerald Horne , who holds the Moores Professorship of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston , spoke to Truthout about Barr ’ s comments , describing his words on Wednesday as “ outrageous ” and “ laughable , if they weren ’ t so despicable , ” and a “ ridiculous view of U.S. history.
” “ I guess he ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Japanese Americans during World War II , ” Horne said .
“ I assume he ’ s never heard of the mass deportation of eastern Europeans following World War I. I assume that he ’ s not familiar with the history of lynching with the complicity of U.S. authorities.
” Horne said that social distancing rules were vastly less intrusive than numerous actions the U.S. and state governments have taken over the last century — including attacks on workers seeking to unionize in the 1930s , the killings of students protesting the Vietnam @ @ @ @ @ @ @ national guardsmen , and the numerous laws over the years restricting the reproductive rights of women .
Barr himself has acted in ways that violate the civil liberties of Americans , Horne added .
He cited Barr ’ s use of the Justice Department to intervene in a defamation case on behalf of the president , as well as his recent legal threats toward Black Lives Matter activists on “ spurious grounds that they ’ re seeking to engage in sedition and/or overthrow the U.S. government.
” The Attorney General has used his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ defend the permissibility of Trump accepting foreign aid to win elections .
Barr has also used his office to suppress investigations into Trump , and pursue inquiries of his political rivals .
Barr also ordered authorities to attack peaceful protesters in front of the White House to ensure Trump could walk to a church for a photo op of him holding a bible .
“ Mr .
Barr needs a refresher course on the basics in U.S. history , ” Horne said , concluding that Trump ’ s attorney general may also need @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in law school .
Speaking on CNN ’ s “ New Day ” program Thursday morning , House Majority Whip James Clyburn ( D-South Carolina ) called Barr ’ s comparisons of social distancing rules to slavery “ ridiculous ” and “ god-awful.
” “ It is incredible , the chief law enforcement officer in this country , would equate human bondage to expert advice to save lives , ” Clyburn said .
“ Slavery was not about saving lives , it was about devaluing lives.
” Others on social media expressed similar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comparison this week .
“ This statement is senseless and whitewashes the brutality and violence of our nation ’ s greatest sin , ” said Kristen Clarke , president and executive director of the Lawyers ’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law .
Others noted a number of other events in U.S. history that Barr was conveniently forgetting .
“ Japanese Internment ?
Jim Crow ?
Indian removal ?
Patriot Act ?
Border cages ?
” suggested epidemiologist and public health expert Abdul El-Sayed .
“ For this administration , there ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people ] of color.
” Historian and Pulitzer-prize winning author Jon Meacham also spoke out against Barr ’ s statement , noting that Barr was seemingly ignorant of a number of enduring consequences of the institution of slavery .
“ If you think that this is akin to slavery , you obviously never suffered under the burden of slavery in real time or in its longtime system of segregation and the denial of the suffrage and voting rights that grew out of it , ” Meacham said .

“Mr. Barr needs a refresher course on the basics in U.S. history,” historian Gerald Horne said.
Attorney General William Barr compared social distancing rules instituted to halt the spread of coronavirus to chattel slavery in the United States, resulting in a torrent of criticisms from lawmakers, commentators and historians.
“You know, putting a national lockdown, stay-at-home orders, is like house arrest. It’s — you know, other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history,” Barr said during a forum at Michigan’s Hillsdale College on Wednesday.
Barr also defended a number of his controversial actions and opinions as attorney general during the event, including intervening in a number of high-profile cases within the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Historian Gerald Horne, who holds the Moores Professorship of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, spoke to Truthout about Barr’s comments, describing his words on Wednesday as “outrageous” and “laughable, if they weren’t so despicable,” and a “ridiculous view of U.S. history.”
“I guess he’s never heard of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II,” Horne said. “I assume he’s never heard of the mass deportation of eastern Europeans following World War I. I assume that he’s not familiar with the history of lynching with the complicity of U.S. authorities.”
Horne said that social distancing rules were vastly less intrusive than numerous actions the U.S. and state governments have taken over the last century — including attacks on workers seeking to unionize in the 1930s, the killings of students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State in 1970 by national guardsmen, and the numerous laws over the years restricting the reproductive rights of women.
Barr himself has acted in ways that violate the civil liberties of Americans, Horne added. He cited Barr’s use of the Justice Department to intervene in a defamation case on behalf of the president, as well as his recent legal threats toward Black Lives Matter activists on “spurious grounds that they’re seeking to engage in sedition and/or overthrow the U.S. government.”
The Attorney General has used his position as head of the DOJ to defend the permissibility of Trump accepting foreign aid to win elections. Barr has also used his office to suppress investigations into Trump, and pursue inquiries of his political rivals. Barr also ordered authorities to attack peaceful protesters in front of the White House to ensure Trump could walk to a church for a photo op of him holding a bible.
“Mr. Barr needs a refresher course on the basics in U.S. history,” Horne said, concluding that Trump’s attorney general may also need to be reminded of what he learned in law school.
Speaking on CNN’s “New Day” program Thursday morning, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-South Carolina) called Barr’s comparisons of social distancing rules to slavery “ridiculous” and “god-awful.”
“It is incredible, the chief law enforcement officer in this country, would equate human bondage to expert advice to save lives,” Clyburn said. “Slavery was not about saving lives, it was about devaluing lives.”
Others on social media expressed similar sentiments regarding the attorney general’s comparison this week.
“This statement is senseless and whitewashes the brutality and violence of our nation’s greatest sin,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Others noted a number of other events in U.S. history that Barr was conveniently forgetting.
“Japanese Internment? Jim Crow? Indian removal? Patriot Act? Border cages?” suggested epidemiologist and public health expert Abdul El-Sayed. “For this administration, there’s a different standard when it affects [people] of color.”
Historian and Pulitzer-prize winning author Jon Meacham also spoke out against Barr’s statement, noting that Barr was seemingly ignorant of a number of enduring consequences of the institution of slavery.
“If you think that this is akin to slavery, you obviously never suffered under the burden of slavery in real time or in its longtime system of segregation and the denial of the suffrage and voting rights that grew out of it,” Meacham said.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.


truthout--2020-09-17--US Cops Are Treating White Militias as “Heavily Armed Friendlies”

A video from the uprising in Kenosha , Wisconsin , shows police giving water to a group of armed white men .
One officer uses his vehicle ’ s loudspeaker to tell them , “ We appreciate you guys .
We really do.
” Soon thereafter , one of the group , 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse , shot three protesters , killing two .
Among the many effects of the ongoing wave of protests against police violence and racial inequality , one of the most striking is the increasingly overt cooperation between the police and armed right-wing groups , surpassing anything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Portland , Oregon , stood by while Proud Boys and militiamen , some brandishing guns , attacked anti-fascist protesters ; when the Proud Boys retreated , the cops fired tear gas .
In Albuquerque , New Mexico , after a pro-police political candidate fired into a crowd of protesters , armed militiamen with the New Mexico Civil Guard formed a protective circle around him — and then police formed a protective circle around them , and tear-gassed the protesters .
Calling over the police radio , one officer described the militia as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lives Matter protests in Chicago , police were seen casually chatting with white men with bats , maintaining a border between historically segregated areas .
The cops later described them as “ neighborhood people just trying to protect the neighborhood.
” In Philadelphia , as men with clubs wandered the streets menacing passersby during anti-racist demonstrations , police told neighbors who called 911 that they should be grateful the men were there to protect the area .
John Shirley , the constable in Hood County , Texas , posted a “ Call to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to help protect local businesses .
In Oregon , Curry County Sheriff John Ward fed baseless rumors of an “ antifa invasion , ” warning that “ 3 buss [ sic ] loads of ANTIFA protestors are making their way ” to small towns in the area .
He followed with a prediction/invitation : “ I am sure we have a lot of local boys too with guns who will protect our citizens and their property.
” Weeks later , as wildfires raged across Oregon , a Clackamas County deputy was recorded blaming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ militia patrol on the option to use force .
This cozy relationship with right-wing militias and racist mobs can not be explained by the ( very real ) prejudices of individual cops , nor by the ( equally real ) attempts of white supremacists to infiltrate police agencies .
It has to be understood as an institutional feature of policing .
Vigilantes , lynch mobs , militias , paramilitaries and death squads all belong on the same spectrum as sheriffs ’ posses and police .
Whatever may separate them in terms of legality @ @ @ @ @ @ @ terms of political orientation .
In each case , the distinguishing characteristic is the use of violence in the defense of a threatened racial hierarchy .
Following the Civil War , police were often participants , or even leaders , of the extralegal violence intended to return African Americans to enslavement .
They continued to play this role well into the 20th century .
In the Detroit riot of 1943 , as Black and white crowds battled one another , driven by false rumors of a Black man raping a white woman , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , while aggressively beating and shooting Black people at random — killing 17 Black people , but no whites .
In an article titled “ The Gestapo in Detroit , ” NAACP attorney and later Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall argued that such a performance was typical : “ [ N ] early all police departments limit their conception of checking racial disorders to surrounding , arresting , maltreating , and shooting Negroes .
Little attempt is made to check the activities of whites.
” During the 1950s and 1960s , in addition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dogs and fire hoses against civil rights demonstrators , the police were also often involved in illegal violence directed against the movement .
That includes some of the most notorious cases of Klan violence from the period , such as the Mother ’ s Day attack on the Freedom Riders , and the murder of three young civil rights workers during Mississippi Summer .
In the first , Police Chief Bull Connor and Red Squad detective Tom Cook met with Klan leaders , promising that the police would give them at least 15 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ without interference .
In the second case , Deputy Cecil Price arrested the three civil rights workers , drove them to a deserted area , and handed them over to Klansmen who shot and killed them .
It doesn ’ t take protests to bring these dynamics to the surface .
Following Hurricane Katrina , New Orleans was full of men with guns — police , sheriff deputies , National Guard troops , private mercenaries and vigilante militias .
Armed amateurs patrolled in pickup trucks and set up roadblocks to prevent Black people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vigilante stated frankly that they shot anyone “ darker than a brown paper bag.
” The police were indifferent , and possibly complicit .
They refused to take action when Black residents complained of being threatened .
And Henry Glover , a Black man who had been shot by white vigilantes , disappeared after he went to the police station for help .
His charred remains were discovered a few days later .
It is not only racial panic that cements the bond between the police and the far right , but an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ such , which also produces hostility against the left .
In Los Angeles in the early 20th century , the police deputized members of the American Legion ’ s “ law and order committee ” and together raided meetings of the Industrial Workers of the World .
During the Palmer Raids of 1919 , the Justice Department ’ s efforts to round up and deport radicals were aided both by local cops and by the American Protective League , a volunteer organization devoted to combating espionage , apprehending draft dodgers and spying on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a Klan offshoot called the Black Legion beat and sometimes murdered suspected radicals , bombed their offices and burned their homes ; the group counted a hundred police officers among its members .
During the late 1960s , the Legion of Justice conducted a series of burglaries , beatings and arson attacks on behalf of Chicago ’ s Red Squad .
In San Diego , the Secret Army Organization — a group led and armed by an FBI informant — assaulted Chicano activists , trashed the offices of radical newspapers and attempted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ similarly implicated in North Carolina ’ s Greensboro massacre of 1979 , when members of the American Nazi Party and the Ku Klux Klan attacked a demonstration organized by the Communist Workers Party , killing five and injuring 10 more .
At the time of the attack , uniformed police were mysteriously absent .
Covert agents , however , were very much there : Eddie Dawson , who later said that he was “ in charge ” of the assault , was a paid informant for the Greensboro Police Department ( and , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He recruited the Klansmen , arranged the meeting with the Nazis and supplied them with a map of the march route , which he had received from his police handlers .
Bernard Butkovich , a Bureau of Alcohol , Tobacco , Firearms and Explosives agent who had infiltrated the Nazi Party , provided the guns .
As right-wing militants have come to view themselves as insurgents against the existing order , and as police have adopted the rhetoric of diversity and inclusion , the relationship between the cops and the militant right has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remains a permanent bias in the police approach to the activities of the right compared to those of the left .
There are obvious double standards in the official response to extremism and violence —and even in what activities the police consider “ extremism ” or describe as “ violence.
” That is not to say that the alignment between law enforcement and the far right is automatic , or absolute .
The police can move against the right wing when they decide to : For instance , soon after two men associated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ killing two law enforcement officers , and shooting several others , Attorney General William Barr announced a task force to investigate the Boogaloo Boys ( and , incongruously , antifa ) .
Within a few weeks , two more Boogaloo Boys were caught selling illegal weapons in an FBI sting .
The crackdown echoes federal efforts against the militia movement in the ‘ 90s , following the Oklahoma City Bombing .
Then , too , when the government pursued right-wing terrorists , its efforts tended to focus narrowly on prosecutable crimes , whereas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same period sprawled broadly across the relevant movements and often took on an explicitly ideological tone .
Likewise , in the ‘ 60s , the FBI did eventually undertake a covert campaign to infiltrate and disrupt the Klan , known as COINTELPRO-WHITE HATE — but 98 percent of its counterintelligence files from the period concerned leftists .
The Klan was only targeted following direct orders from President Lyndon Johnson .
And , as author and sociologist David Cunningham argues , the Bureau pursued “ distinct overall strategies ” against the right and left @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s violent tendencies , ” while attempting “ to eliminate the New Left altogether.
” Between the police and the organized right there exists an elective affinity , whereas between the police and the organized left there is always a structural antagonism .
The defining feature of right-wing politics is its resistance to egalitarianism , while the core function of policing is the defense of existing inequalities .
This sometimes puts them at odds — especially when the right threatens the stability of the overall system or directs violence against the police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on more or less the same side , especially when both are mobilized to defend a system of stratification that they see being threatened .
In contrast , the defining feature of the left is its pursuit of ever-greater equality and justice , which inevitably puts it into conflict with both the insurgent right and counterinsurgent police .
The left , the right and the police are together engaged in what Matthew Lyons has long characterized as a three-way fight .
But the triangle they form is not equilateral .
The police and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forces — whereas the left always faces two adversaries .

Part of the Series The Road to Abolition
A video from the uprising in Kenosha, Wisconsin, shows police giving water to a group of armed white men. One officer uses his vehicle’s loudspeaker to tell them, “We appreciate you guys. We really do.” Soon thereafter, one of the group, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, shot three protesters, killing two.
Among the many effects of the ongoing wave of protests against police violence and racial inequality, one of the most striking is the increasingly overt cooperation between the police and armed right-wing groups, surpassing anything we have seen in decades.
Cops in Portland, Oregon, stood by while Proud Boys and militiamen, some brandishing guns, attacked anti-fascist protesters; when the Proud Boys retreated, the cops fired tear gas. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, after a pro-police political candidate fired into a crowd of protesters, armed militiamen with the New Mexico Civil Guard formed a protective circle around him — and then police formed a protective circle around them, and tear-gassed the protesters. Calling over the police radio, one officer described the militia as “heavily armed friendlies.”
During Black Lives Matter protests in Chicago, police were seen casually chatting with white men with bats, maintaining a border between historically segregated areas. The cops later described them as “neighborhood people just trying to protect the neighborhood.” In Philadelphia, as men with clubs wandered the streets menacing passersby during anti-racist demonstrations, police told neighbors who called 911 that they should be grateful the men were there to protect the area.
John Shirley, the constable in Hood County, Texas, posted a “Call to Action,” asking the Oath Keepers to help protect local businesses. In Oregon, Curry County Sheriff John Ward fed baseless rumors of an “antifa invasion,” warning that “3 buss [sic] loads of ANTIFA protestors are making their way” to small towns in the area. He followed with a prediction/invitation: “I am sure we have a lot of local boys too with guns who will protect our citizens and their property.” Weeks later, as wildfires raged across Oregon, a Clackamas County deputy was recorded blaming antifa for the fires and coaching a militia patrol on the option to use force.
This cozy relationship with right-wing militias and racist mobs cannot be explained by the (very real) prejudices of individual cops, nor by the (equally real) attempts of white supremacists to infiltrate police agencies. It has to be understood as an institutional feature of policing.
Vigilantes, lynch mobs, militias, paramilitaries and death squads all belong on the same spectrum as sheriffs’ posses and police. Whatever may separate them in terms of legality is secondary to what they share in terms of political orientation. In each case, the distinguishing characteristic is the use of violence in the defense of a threatened racial hierarchy.
Racist Continuities
These recent incidents only continue a well-established historical pattern.
Vigilantes, lynch mobs, militias, paramilitaries and death squads all belong on the same spectrum as sheriffs’ posses and police.
Following the Civil War, police were often participants, or even leaders, of the extralegal violence intended to return African Americans to enslavement. They continued to play this role well into the 20th century. In the Detroit riot of 1943, as Black and white crowds battled one another, driven by false rumors of a Black man raping a white woman, the police barely discouraged the white mobs, while aggressively beating and shooting Black people at random — killing 17 Black people, but no whites. In an article titled “The Gestapo in Detroit,” NAACP attorney and later Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall argued that such a performance was typical: “[N]early all police departments limit their conception of checking racial disorders to surrounding, arresting, maltreating, and shooting Negroes. Little attempt is made to check the activities of whites.”
During the 1950s and 1960s, in addition to their overt use of clubs, dogs and fire hoses against civil rights demonstrators, the police were also often involved in illegal violence directed against the movement. That includes some of the most notorious cases of Klan violence from the period, such as the Mother’s Day attack on the Freedom Riders, and the murder of three young civil rights workers during Mississippi Summer. In the first, Police Chief Bull Connor and Red Squad detective Tom Cook met with Klan leaders, promising that the police would give them at least 15 minutes in which to attack Freedom Riders without interference. In the second case, Deputy Cecil Price arrested the three civil rights workers, drove them to a deserted area, and handed them over to Klansmen who shot and killed them.
It doesn’t take protests to bring these dynamics to the surface. Following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was full of men with guns — police, sheriff deputies, National Guard troops, private mercenaries and vigilante militias. Armed amateurs patrolled in pickup trucks and set up roadblocks to prevent Black people from crossing through white neighborhoods. One vigilante stated frankly that they shot anyone “darker than a brown paper bag.” The police were indifferent, and possibly complicit. They refused to take action when Black residents complained of being threatened. And Henry Glover, a Black man who had been shot by white vigilantes, disappeared after he went to the police station for help. His charred remains were discovered a few days later.
Allied Against the Left
It is not only racial panic that cements the bond between the police and the far right, but an antipathy to the idea of equality as such, which also produces hostility against the left. In Los Angeles in the early 20th century, the police deputized members of the American Legion’s “law and order committee” and together raided meetings of the Industrial Workers of the World. During the Palmer Raids of 1919, the Justice Department’s efforts to round up and deport radicals were aided both by local cops and by the American Protective League, a volunteer organization devoted to combating espionage, apprehending draft dodgers and spying on immigrants.
There remains a permanent bias in the police approach to the activities of the right compared to those of the left.
Decades later, in Michigan, a Klan offshoot called the Black Legion beat and sometimes murdered suspected radicals, bombed their offices and burned their homes; the group counted a hundred police officers among its members. During the late 1960s, the Legion of Justice conducted a series of burglaries, beatings and arson attacks on behalf of Chicago’s Red Squad. In San Diego, the Secret Army Organization — a group led and armed by an FBI informant — assaulted Chicano activists, trashed the offices of radical newspapers and attempted to assassinate antiwar organizers.
Police were similarly implicated in North Carolina’s Greensboro massacre of 1979, when members of the American Nazi Party and the Ku Klux Klan attacked a demonstration organized by the Communist Workers Party, killing five and injuring 10 more. At the time of the attack, uniformed police were mysteriously absent. Covert agents, however, were very much there: Eddie Dawson, who later said that he was “in charge” of the assault, was a paid informant for the Greensboro Police Department (and, previously, for the FBI). He recruited the Klansmen, arranged the meeting with the Nazis and supplied them with a map of the march route, which he had received from his police handlers. Bernard Butkovich, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent who had infiltrated the Nazi Party, provided the guns.
Asymmetrical Warfare
As right-wing militants have come to view themselves as insurgents against the existing order, and as police have adopted the rhetoric of diversity and inclusion, the relationship between the cops and the militant right has naturally shifted. And yet, there remains a permanent bias in the police approach to the activities of the right compared to those of the left. There are obvious double standards in the official response to extremism and violence —and even in what activities the police consider “extremism” or describe as “violence.”
The defining feature of right-wing politics is its resistance to egalitarianism, while the core function of policing is the defense of existing inequalities.
That is not to say that the alignment between law enforcement and the far right is automatic, or absolute. The police can move against the right wing when they decide to: For instance, soon after two men associated with the Boogaloo movement were arrested for killing two law enforcement officers, and shooting several others, Attorney General William Barr announced a task force to investigate the Boogaloo Boys (and, incongruously, antifa). Within a few weeks, two more Boogaloo Boys were caught selling illegal weapons in an FBI sting. The crackdown echoes federal efforts against the militia movement in the ‘90s, following the Oklahoma City Bombing. Then, too, when the government pursued right-wing terrorists, its efforts tended to focus narrowly on prosecutable crimes, whereas investigations into environmentalists and anarchists during the same period sprawled broadly across the relevant movements and often took on an explicitly ideological tone.
Likewise, in the ‘60s, the FBI did eventually undertake a covert campaign to infiltrate and disrupt the Klan, known as COINTELPRO-WHITE HATE — but 98 percent of its counterintelligence files from the period concerned leftists. The Klan was only targeted following direct orders from President Lyndon Johnson. And, as author and sociologist David Cunningham argues, the Bureau pursued “distinct overall strategies” against the right and left, aiming “to control the Klan’s violent tendencies,” while attempting “to eliminate the New Left altogether.”
Between the police and the organized right there exists an elective affinity, whereas between the police and the organized left there is always a structural antagonism. The defining feature of right-wing politics is its resistance to egalitarianism, while the core function of policing is the defense of existing inequalities. This sometimes puts them at odds — especially when the right threatens the stability of the overall system or directs violence against the police — but more often it puts them on more or less the same side, especially when both are mobilized to defend a system of stratification that they see being threatened. In contrast, the defining feature of the left is its pursuit of ever-greater equality and justice, which inevitably puts it into conflict with both the insurgent right and counterinsurgent police.
The left, the right and the police are together engaged in what Matthew Lyons has long characterized as a three-way fight. But the triangle they form is not equilateral. The police and the right sometimes conflict and sometimes join forces — whereas the left always faces two adversaries.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
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truthout--2020-09-17--US Cuts Aid to Yemen While Fueling War and Famine

The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is deepening amid the pandemic and cuts to international aid from the United States and its allies , leaving millions of Yemenis facing famine after years of a brutal U.S.-backed , Saudi-led bombing campaign that has devastated the country .
CNN ’ s senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir says what is happening in Yemen is not a natural disaster but a “ man-made catastrophe ” directly tied to U.S. policies .
Elbagir says , “ Not only is the U.S. profiting from the war by selling weapons to the UAE and Saudi Arabia , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on civilians .
We also feature her exclusive CNN report , “ Yemen : A Crisis Made in America.
” This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : More than nine months into the coronavirus pandemic , the United Nations is warning millions in Yemen , South Sudan , northeast Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo now face famine due to the compounding crises of economic devastation , violent conflicts and lack of access to humanitarian aid .
U.N. official Mark Lowcock @ @ @ @ @ @ @ relief has pushed already-precarious populations to the brink of starvation .
In Yemen , where 80 % of the population depends on humanitarian aid , the United States , Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates have all slashed aid to the country .
This comes as the U.S.-backed , Saudi-led coalition continues to bomb Yemen , where millions face hunger , disease and extreme poverty in what ’ s been called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world , even before the pandemic .
In a moment , we ’ ll talk about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nima Elbagir .
She was named the 2020 Royal Television Society Television Journalist of the Year .
She ’ s a senior international correspondent for CNN .
But first , we ’ re turning to her report for CNN called “ Yemen : A Crisis Made in America.
” NIMA ELBAGIR : In this packed children ’ s ward in the main Abs Hospital in the north of Yemen , anxious mothers vie for attention as Dr. Ali Al Ashwal does his rounds .
This little girl is named Hafsa .
Her mother @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , all malnourished .
But Hafsa is the only one they can afford the medicine for .
DR. ALI AL ASHWAL : [ translated ] How is he today ?
NIMA ELBAGIR : This mother of an 8-month-old tells Dr. Al Ashwal her little boy can no longer lift up his head .
He ’ s too weak .
His little belly is painfully swollen , a telltale sign of acute malnutrition .
DR. ALI AL ASHWAL : [ translated ] This is a tragedy .
A family of 10 are all squeezed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ children , in three years , dead from malnutrition .
NIMA ELBAGIR : Rows and rows of hungry children , their bodies so stripped of fat that every move is agony .
Hard to believe , but these are the lucky ones .
These are the children whose parents can afford the car journey to the hospital .
DR. ALI AL ASHWAL : [ translated ] These are all the patients we admitted .
One , two , three , four , five , six , seven , eight , nine , 10 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 cases , just on the first day of September .
NIMA ELBAGIR : Even for Yemen , this is not the norm .
Every day brings dozens more patients .
DR. ALI AL ASHWAL : [ translated ] And here you have death , just one day after we admitted her .
NIMA ELBAGIR : And more death .
This patient died this week , a 1-year-old called Fatma .
It ’ s very hard to keep track of exact figures for child deaths , because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t even make it to the hospital .
All the doctor knows is that things are getting worse .
DR. ALI AL ASHWAL : [ translated ] In August and September , our cases have spiked very clearly , most likely because of the withdrawal of support from the NGOs and other centers having to close due to lack of funding .
NIMA ELBAGIR : Why is that ?
That lack of funding that Dr. Al Ashwal was talking about .
Eighty percent of the 30 million population in Yemen is reliant on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Ansarullah Houthi-controlled north .
The Houthis , seeking to control the flow of aid , placed restrictions on U.N. agencies in areas under their control .
In March , the U.S. suspended much of its aid to the north , citing concerns over Houthi misappropriation .
Two other key donors — the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia — have also drawn down .
The U.S. , UAE and Saudi Arabia have all slashed their Yemen aid spend , the U.S. spend dropping from almost a billion to 411 million , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that , with only 22.8 million actually received .
The UAE has given zero dollars to the U.N. ’ s 2020 Yemen appeal .
CNN was able to obtain access to a confidential internal U.N. briefing document .
U.N. agencies have confirmed to us its contents .
In the aftermath of the drop in foreign aid , the U.N. has shuttered almost 75 % of its programs .
In previous CNN investigations , we traced serial numbers on armaments in Yemen back to arms deals between Saudi Arabia , the UAE and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has profited from the chaos of the war in Yemen .
And aid agencies tell us that the aid drawdown threatens to wreak even more havoc .
Mushiraya Farah pushes her disabled son in a wheelchair .
Mushiraya used to receive support through a U.N.-funded program .
Now she can ’ t even afford to get her son , Asim , to hospital .
Malnutrition has left Asim mentally disabled , and she has to choose between feeding him or paying for treatment .
She carries him through the little alley that leads @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and other displaced families have erected makeshift shelters .
Up until a few months ago , she tells us , Asim was like any little boy .
But after the family were displaced from their home by fighting , now they live here .
MUSHIRAYA FARAH : [ translated ] I have no help .
I just pray to God .
NIMA ELBAGIR : The aid suspension has driven the people of the Houthi- controlled north into deeper isolation .
Yemen ’ s north could already be in famine , and we might @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : That ’ s the CNN exclusive , “ Yemen : A Crisis Made in America , ” as we turn now to London , where we ’ re joined by the journalist who produced that report .
Nima Elbagir is an award-winning senior international correspondent for CNN .
She was named the 2020 Royal Television Society Television Journalist of the Year .
She also won an Alfred duPont-Columbia and George Polk Award .
In 2018 , she also received the International Center for Journalists Excellence in International Reporting Award for her work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democracy Now !
This is a powerful report , “ Yemen : A Crisis Made in America , ” as you talk about the United States , Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cutting off aid to Yemen , largely , yet continuing , as you report , on this report and earlier ones , to find U.S. weapons on the ground in Yemen .
Talk about the connection .
NIMA ELBAGIR : Well , it ’ s a very clear and — it ’ s a very clear connection .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ When the war launched five years ago , the U.S. backed the Saudi-led invasion after the Houthis overthrew the legitimately — the legitimate , internationally recognized government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi .
What complicated the issue is , even after the Obama administration found that the Saudis and the coalition were not taking into account the impact on civilians or their deployment of U.S. weaponry , and they suspended it , when the Trump administration came in , they immediately overturned that suspension .
So , there was a foreknowledge of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ways that U.S. support entrenched this conflict .
But for years now , we ’ ve seen another pattern start to come together , which is , not only is the U.S. profiting from the war by selling weapons to the UAE and Saudi Arabia , who are both partners in the coalition , they also — the inspector general who was forced out from the State Department found , continuing to not take into account the impact on civilians of that deployment of U.S. armaments by the UAE and by Saudi Arabia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of this extraordinary , controversial action , and then we start to see — we start coming across these numbers that are starting to drop .
The UAE in 2017 gave zero dollars to the U.N. humanitarian assistance program , even though it was an active member of the coalition .
Saudi Arabia gave a billion , but only really after the U.N. , at the end of last year , had come back and pushed and said Yemen is slipping into famine .
So , there was all this work and all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , shaming of the U.S. and the UAE and Saudi Arabia to force them to put — to put right what they had made wrong on the ground in Yemen .
And then , in March , Secretary Pompeo , the secretary of state , decides that they are going to suspend aid to those Houthi-controlled areas .
And , yes , the Houthis are obstructing aid , and it is extraordinarily egregious , but the Houthis are not the only one .
This is a war in which food and starvation have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that ’ s when we saw the drop , and that ’ s when we saw the numbers .
And what really spurred our reporting was that even the U.N. has not been able to access these areas to get a measure , a metric , of whether Yemen truly is in famine .
And I don ’ t know if you know this , Amy , but famine is very much a scientific metric point , where it ’ s two out of every 10,000 people dying from hunger every day .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ can ’ t afford to even come to the hospital , they are dying at home alone and uncounted .
So the world can ’ t even respond in the ways that it would if we were able to say there was a famine .
It was a very difficult report to pull together , because we were trying to pull this all remotely from London because of the coronavirus and the difficulties of traveling .
But I hope that we managed to get across the key message here , which is this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ natural disaster .
This is a man-made catastrophe in which our governments are complicit .
NERMEEN SHAIKH : Well , Nima , you mentioned that a large number of people , the majority of people , in Yemen — and in the report you say so , as well — that the ones who make it to the hospital are the lucky ones .
And in this piece , you document the ruinous state , conditions in these hospitals .
So , could you talk about what has happened to the currency , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not only food and drinking water effectively unaffordable , but also fuel , and how important fuel is to keep these medical facilities going and to keep many people , including children , alive ?
NIMA ELBAGIR : So , in addition to the drawdown on their aid contributions , the U.S. has also been backing a five-year-long blockade by the Saudi-led coalition .
What that means , effectively , is that most of the commercial vessels that were bringing food , that were bringing goods from the outside world to Yemen , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that key point in Hodeidah in the south that is so heavily contested .
So that means fuel , if you can find it , is incredibly expensive .
And in a way , even more torturously , there is food , but because the currency has spiraled and been devalued so many times and there is so little work available , people can not afford it .
We were in Yemen in January last year , before it even got this bad , and I think one of the most heartbreaking things @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through markets that are full of food , and you see the people selling the food , the vegetables , the grains .
They themselves are almost skeletal .
And the food is rotting , because no one can afford to buy it .
And one of the stories we heard in the hospital , that we didn ’ t air but we included in our digital write-up , which was genuinely , I think , one of the worst things I ’ ve ever heard , is that the impact of that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t have fuel .
And now because the U.N. can not afford to sustain the hospitals and they ’ re having to focus on just really life-saving measures , they ’ re not buying them fuel .
So , when the electricity goes out , the equipment , the oxygen equipment , the breathing equipment that is keeping the most malnourished and the sickest children alive , that stops .
And because there ’ s no electricity , there are no monitors to raise the alarm that that stopped .
And one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was — his voice was breaking .
And he said that he had found children suffocated to death , because while they ’ re running around trying to tend to everyone in these overcrowded hospitals , if you turn your back for a moment on a child in a different room and the power goes out , that child dies .
And what is so difficult , and yet so extraordinary , is these people continue to come to work .
They turn up every day , knowing that they do not have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and yet they continue to try .
NERMEEN SHAIKH : Nima , can you talk about — the Trump administration has not only cut funding to Yemen , the Trump administration also announced earlier this year that they would cut funding to the World Health Organization .
So , could you talk about the work that the World Health Organization does in Yemen , has done in Yemen , and how its work will be impacted by these cuts ?
NIMA ELBAGIR : Well , this has absolutely been a double whammy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Organization runs a lot of the malnutrition clinics , but it also runs all of the programs that are designed to battle transmittable diseases , such as the coronavirus .
So , they are the ones paying the doctor and nurses ’ salaries , because the Houthi-led government in Sana ’ a can ’ t afford to , but they ’ re also the ones at the frontline of the fight against the coronavirus .
It is impossible , it is absolutely impossible , to get any sense of the numbers of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , separately to the number of the people that have died from malnutrition .
But because of this — I keep saying “ aid drawdown , ” and it makes it sound so clinical .
It is essentially , because of this strangling of the aid that gets through to the people in Yemen , it has meant that not only are they dealing with malnutrition , because the World Food Program has halved the aid that these people receive , so not only are you getting half rations and it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ means that people are getting food every other month .
So you have to plan one meal a day .
Parents are not eating so that children can eat .
But then , if you have the horrible misfortune of coming down with the coronavirus , there are no facilities that are able to support any kind of — I mean , we don ’ t have a cure for the coronavirus , but even just to keep people comfortable .
So , one of the things that we did to get a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to gravediggers .
And even they don ’ t have the numbers .
All they can tell us is that the actual legitimate , government-licensed cemeteries are full .
So now people are bribing gravediggers to find plots of land in places where other people can not or will not venture , in dangerous parts of these cities , so that at the very least they can try and at least claw back some dignity in burying their loved ones , effectively , rather than leaving them to rot in a mortuary somewhere @ @ @ @ @ @ @ want to go to a briefing that Mark Lowcock , the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs , gave on Tuesday to the U.N. Security Council .
He called out the oil-rich Gulf states for turning away from the situation in Yemen .
AMY GOODMAN : That ’ s the U.N. Under-Secretary-General Mark Lowcock .
So , Nima Elbagir , if you can talk about — it ’ s even wrong to say the Gulf states have turned away from Yemen .
They have not turned away from Yemen .
They are constantly bombing Yemen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ President Trump stood with the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates , and , of course , we know Saudi Arabia leads the bombing , bombs provided by the United States .
And part of the deal didn ’ t actually have to do with the Palestinians , that was signed off on at the White House .
It had to do with the United States selling the UAE F-35 fighter-bombers .
Can you talk about the significance of , once again , these weapons deals to hunger and the devastation of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it sends a message , doesn ’ t it ?
It sends a message not just in Yemen , but it sends a message around the world , that you can do what you want to do as long as you — as long as you sign up for our key concerns .
And a number of U.S. diplomats have described to me conversations that they ’ ve had with the UAE and with Saudi Arabia , and essentially the subtext of the conversation was , “ Well , we have signed — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with Israel .
And we know that this is a key priority for the Trump administration .
So , what more do you want from us ?
” What we know about Yemen is that Yemen was a national security risk to the United States .
It was home to the most effective franchise of al-Qaeda , al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula , who at one point got very far in a plot to put a bomb on a plane and send it to the United States .
That was always given as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United States needs to continue to be engaged in Yemen .
What has happened with allowing key U.S. allies , like the UAE and Saudi Arabia , to do what they have done in Yemen is that this hunger and this conflict has allowed not just al-Qaeda , but ISIS to become resurgent in Yemen again .
Just this last week , there were a number of pretty effective ISIS and al-Qaeda attacks .
The U.S. is measurably less safe because of what their allies have done in Yemen .
But one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that so many of us that are covering foreign affairs are looking at really closely , is that the ICC , the International Criminal Court , has now said that the chief prosecutor , Fatou Bensouda , can begin to look into U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan .
And that is precedent-setting , because given what the IG report , the unredacted version , shows about the U.S. ’ s disregard for civilian casualties perpetrated by their allies with their bombs , there is a real conversation that is beginning about whether the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cases of war crime prosecution on Yemen .
And it ’ s a pretty incredible case that is being discussed .
And yet , any time that you bring this formally in on record to the State Department or to Trump administration officials , they say , “ Well , this is about American manufacturers , about American workers being able to make money out of American bombs being dropped in Yemen.
” And what we have seen with the engagement that we have found , not just for this piece , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ ve done , is , actually — and , actually , I take heart from this — is that so many of our audience , whether it ’ s in America or around the world , don ’ t believe that .
They don ’ t believe that money should be made over the deaths of innocent civilians halfway around the world , in a country that was already a humanitarian disaster even before this ill-thought-through intervention .
AMY GOODMAN : Nima , we just have 30 seconds , but we can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , where you are from , and your coverage of the women-led Sudanese uprising , but also Lowcock warning about the first famines of the coronavirus era hitting , among other places , Yemen and your own country of Sudan .
NIMA ELBAGIR : Again , this goes back to foreign policy malfeasance on the part of the Trump administration .
This is an administration that continued talks to normalize with a sitting dictator in Sudan while demonstrators were being shot down in the streets .
It is incredibly disheartening to see people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down so badly by the United States .
It really is .
AMY GOODMAN : Nima Elbagir , I want to thank you so much for being with us , award-winning senior international correspondent for CNN , based in London , whose Yemen report earlier this week is called “ Yemen : A Crisis Made in America.
” When we come back , we go to the Greek island of Lesbos , where 13,000 migrants have been left homeless after a fire destroyed one of Europe ’ s largest refugee camps .
Stay @ @ @

The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is deepening amid the pandemic and cuts to international aid from the United States and its allies, leaving millions of Yemenis facing famine after years of a brutal U.S.-backed, Saudi-led bombing campaign that has devastated the country. CNN’s senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir says what is happening in Yemen is not a natural disaster but a “man-made catastrophe” directly tied to U.S. policies. Elbagir says, “Not only is the U.S. profiting from the war by selling weapons to the UAE and Saudi Arabia,” but it is also ignoring the impact on civilians. We also feature her exclusive CNN report, “Yemen: A Crisis Made in America.”
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: More than nine months into the coronavirus pandemic, the United Nations is warning millions in Yemen, South Sudan, northeast Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo now face famine due to the compounding crises of economic devastation, violent conflicts and lack of access to humanitarian aid. U.N. official Mark Lowcock said a lack of funding for humanitarian relief has pushed already-precarious populations to the brink of starvation. In Yemen, where 80% of the population depends on humanitarian aid, the United States, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates have all slashed aid to the country. This comes as the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition continues to bomb Yemen, where millions face hunger, disease and extreme poverty in what’s been called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, even before the pandemic.
In a moment, we’ll talk about the crisis in Yemen with Sudanese journalist Nima Elbagir. She was named the 2020 Royal Television Society Television Journalist of the Year. She’s a senior international correspondent for CNN. But first, we’re turning to her report for CNN called “Yemen: A Crisis Made in America.”
NIMA ELBAGIR: In this packed children’s ward in the main Abs Hospital in the north of Yemen, anxious mothers vie for attention as Dr. Ali Al Ashwal does his rounds. Related Story Op-Ed | Politics & Elections COVID-19 Is Exposing the Violence of US Foreign Policy as Virus Spreads COVID-19 has begun to wreak its havoc in Iraq, Syria and Yemen – nations harmed by U.S. wars and economic sanctions. Truthout This little girl is named Hafsa. Her mother tells the doctor Hafsa has five brothers, all malnourished. But Hafsa is the only one they can afford the medicine for. DR. ALI AL ASHWAL: [translated] How is he today? NIMA ELBAGIR: This mother of an 8-month-old tells Dr. Al Ashwal her little boy can no longer lift up his head. He’s too weak. His little belly is painfully swollen, a telltale sign of acute malnutrition. DR. ALI AL ASHWAL: [translated] This is a tragedy. A family of 10 are all squeezed into one room. Four of her children, in three years, dead from malnutrition. NIMA ELBAGIR: Rows and rows of hungry children, their bodies so stripped of fat that every move is agony. Hard to believe, but these are the lucky ones. These are the children whose parents can afford the car journey to the hospital. DR. ALI AL ASHWAL: [translated] These are all the patients we admitted. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 cases, just on the first day of September. NIMA ELBAGIR: Even for Yemen, this is not the norm. Every day brings dozens more patients. DR. ALI AL ASHWAL: [translated] And here you have death, just one day after we admitted her. NIMA ELBAGIR: And more death. This patient died this week, a 1-year-old called Fatma. It’s very hard to keep track of exact figures for child deaths, because so many of the children don’t even make it to the hospital. All the doctor knows is that things are getting worse. DR. ALI AL ASHWAL: [translated] In August and September, our cases have spiked very clearly, most likely because of the withdrawal of support from the NGOs and other centers having to close due to lack of funding. NIMA ELBAGIR: Why is that? That lack of funding that Dr. Al Ashwal was talking about. Eighty percent of the 30 million population in Yemen is reliant on aid, the majority of whom live in the Ansarullah Houthi-controlled north. The Houthis, seeking to control the flow of aid, placed restrictions on U.N. agencies in areas under their control. In March, the U.S. suspended much of its aid to the north, citing concerns over Houthi misappropriation. Two other key donors — the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia — have also drawn down. The U.S., UAE and Saudi Arabia have all slashed their Yemen aid spend, the U.S. spend dropping from almost a billion to 411 million, Saudi from over a billion to half that, with only 22.8 million actually received. The UAE has given zero dollars to the U.N.’s 2020 Yemen appeal. CNN was able to obtain access to a confidential internal U.N. briefing document. U.N. agencies have confirmed to us its contents. In the aftermath of the drop in foreign aid, the U.N. has shuttered almost 75% of its programs. In previous CNN investigations, we traced serial numbers on armaments in Yemen back to arms deals between Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the U.S., proving that the U.S. government has profited from the chaos of the war in Yemen. And aid agencies tell us that the aid drawdown threatens to wreak even more havoc. Mushiraya Farah pushes her disabled son in a wheelchair. Mushiraya used to receive support through a U.N.-funded program. Now she can’t even afford to get her son, Asim, to hospital. Malnutrition has left Asim mentally disabled, and she has to choose between feeding him or paying for treatment. She carries him through the little alley that leads to the half-finished building site where she and other displaced families have erected makeshift shelters. Up until a few months ago, she tells us, Asim was like any little boy. But after the family were displaced from their home by fighting, now they live here. MUSHIRAYA FARAH: [translated] I have no help. I just pray to God. NIMA ELBAGIR: The aid suspension has driven the people of the Houthi- controlled north into deeper isolation. Yemen’s north could already be in famine, and we might not even know it.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s the CNN exclusive, “Yemen: A Crisis Made in America,” as we turn now to London, where we’re joined by the journalist who produced that report. Nima Elbagir is an award-winning senior international correspondent for CNN. She was named the 2020 Royal Television Society Television Journalist of the Year. She also won an Alfred duPont-Columbia and George Polk Award. In 2018, she also received the International Center for Journalists Excellence in International Reporting Award for her work.
Nima, we welcome you to Democracy Now! This is a powerful report, “Yemen: A Crisis Made in America,” as you talk about the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cutting off aid to Yemen, largely, yet continuing, as you report, on this report and earlier ones, to find U.S. weapons on the ground in Yemen. Talk about the connection.
NIMA ELBAGIR: Well, it’s a very clear and — it’s a very clear connection. It’s an incredibly egregious one. When the war launched five years ago, the U.S. backed the Saudi-led invasion after the Houthis overthrew the legitimately — the legitimate, internationally recognized government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi. What complicated the issue is, even after the Obama administration found that the Saudis and the coalition were not taking into account the impact on civilians or their deployment of U.S. weaponry, and they suspended it, when the Trump administration came in, they immediately overturned that suspension. So, there was a foreknowledge of the involvement and the impact and the ways that U.S. support entrenched this conflict. But for years now, we’ve seen another pattern start to come together, which is, not only is the U.S. profiting from the war by selling weapons to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, who are both partners in the coalition, they also — the inspector general who was forced out from the State Department found, continuing to not take into account the impact on civilians of that deployment of U.S. armaments by the UAE and by Saudi Arabia.
We fast-forward two or three years of this extraordinary, controversial action, and then we start to see — we start coming across these numbers that are starting to drop. The UAE in 2017 gave zero dollars to the U.N. humanitarian assistance program, even though it was an active member of the coalition. Saudi Arabia gave a billion, but only really after the U.N., at the end of last year, had come back and pushed and said Yemen is slipping into famine. So, there was all this work and all this investment and all this, frankly, shaming of the U.S. and the UAE and Saudi Arabia to force them to put — to put right what they had made wrong on the ground in Yemen. And then, in March, Secretary Pompeo, the secretary of state, decides that they are going to suspend aid to those Houthi-controlled areas. And, yes, the Houthis are obstructing aid, and it is extraordinarily egregious, but the Houthis are not the only one. This is a war in which food and starvation have been weaponized by both sides. And that’s when we saw the drop, and that’s when we saw the numbers.
And what really spurred our reporting was that even the U.N. has not been able to access these areas to get a measure, a metric, of whether Yemen truly is in famine. And I don’t know if you know this, Amy, but famine is very much a scientific metric point, where it’s two out of every 10,000 people dying from hunger every day. In Yemen, because so many people can’t afford to even come to the hospital, they are dying at home alone and uncounted. So the world can’t even respond in the ways that it would if we were able to say there was a famine.
It was a very difficult report to pull together, because we were trying to pull this all remotely from London because of the coronavirus and the difficulties of traveling. But I hope that we managed to get across the key message here, which is this is not — this is not a natural disaster. This is a man-made catastrophe in which our governments are complicit.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, Nima, you mentioned that a large number of people, the majority of people, in Yemen — and in the report you say so, as well — that the ones who make it to the hospital are the lucky ones. And in this piece, you document the ruinous state, conditions in these hospitals. So, could you talk about what has happened to the currency, the Yemeni rial, that has made not only food and drinking water effectively unaffordable, but also fuel, and how important fuel is to keep these medical facilities going and to keep many people, including children, alive?
NIMA ELBAGIR: So, in addition to the drawdown on their aid contributions, the U.S. has also been backing a five-year-long blockade by the Saudi-led coalition. What that means, effectively, is that most of the commercial vessels that were bringing food, that were bringing goods from the outside world to Yemen, have not been able to dock at that key point in Hodeidah in the south that is so heavily contested. So that means fuel, if you can find it, is incredibly expensive.
And in a way, even more torturously, there is food, but because the currency has spiraled and been devalued so many times and there is so little work available, people cannot afford it. We were in Yemen in January last year, before it even got this bad, and I think one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve witnessed personally is driving through markets that are full of food, and you see the people selling the food, the vegetables, the grains. They themselves are almost skeletal. And the food is rotting, because no one can afford to buy it.
And one of the stories we heard in the hospital, that we didn’t air but we included in our digital write-up, which was genuinely, I think, one of the worst things I’ve ever heard, is that the impact of that blockade has meant that the hospitals don’t have fuel. And now because the U.N. cannot afford to sustain the hospitals and they’re having to focus on just really life-saving measures, they’re not buying them fuel. So, when the electricity goes out, the equipment, the oxygen equipment, the breathing equipment that is keeping the most malnourished and the sickest children alive, that stops. And because there’s no electricity, there are no monitors to raise the alarm that that stopped.
And one doctor who spoke to us, who was — his voice was breaking. And he said that he had found children suffocated to death, because while they’re running around trying to tend to everyone in these overcrowded hospitals, if you turn your back for a moment on a child in a different room and the power goes out, that child dies. And what is so difficult, and yet so extraordinary, is these people continue to come to work. They turn up every day, knowing that they do not have what it takes to save these children, and yet they continue to try.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Nima, can you talk about — the Trump administration has not only cut funding to Yemen, the Trump administration also announced earlier this year that they would cut funding to the World Health Organization. So, could you talk about the work that the World Health Organization does in Yemen, has done in Yemen, and how its work will be impacted by these cuts?
NIMA ELBAGIR: Well, this has absolutely been a double whammy for Yemen, because the World Health Organization runs a lot of the malnutrition clinics, but it also runs all of the programs that are designed to battle transmittable diseases, such as the coronavirus. So, they are the ones paying the doctor and nurses’ salaries, because the Houthi-led government in Sana’a can’t afford to, but they’re also the ones at the frontline of the fight against the coronavirus. It is impossible, it is absolutely impossible, to get any sense of the numbers of the people that have died from the coronavirus, separately to the number of the people that have died from malnutrition.
But because of this — I keep saying “aid drawdown,” and it makes it sound so clinical. It is essentially, because of this strangling of the aid that gets through to the people in Yemen, it has meant that not only are they dealing with malnutrition, because the World Food Program has halved the aid that these people receive, so not only are you getting half rations and it’s reaching half the people, but it means that people are getting food every other month. So you have to plan one meal a day. Parents are not eating so that children can eat. But then, if you have the horrible misfortune of coming down with the coronavirus, there are no facilities that are able to support any kind of — I mean, we don’t have a cure for the coronavirus, but even just to keep people comfortable.
So, one of the things that we did to get a sense of this is we started speaking to gravediggers. And even they don’t have the numbers. All they can tell us is that the actual legitimate, government-licensed cemeteries are full. So now people are bribing gravediggers to find plots of land in places where other people cannot or will not venture, in dangerous parts of these cities, so that at the very least they can try and at least claw back some dignity in burying their loved ones, effectively, rather than leaving them to rot in a mortuary somewhere.
AMY GOODMAN: Nima, I want to go to a briefing that Mark Lowcock, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, gave on Tuesday to the U.N. Security Council. He called out the oil-rich Gulf states for turning away from the situation in Yemen.
MARK LOWCOCK: Several donors, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, who have a particular responsibility, which they have discharged in recent years, have so far given nothing to this year’s U.N. plan. It is particularly reprehensible to promise money, which gives people hope that help may be on the way, and then to dash those hopes by simply failing to fulfill the promise. More than 9 million people have been affected by deepening cuts to aid programs, including food, water and healthcare. Continuing to hold back money from the humanitarian response now will be a death sentence for many families.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s the U.N. Under-Secretary-General Mark Lowcock. So, Nima Elbagir, if you can talk about — it’s even wrong to say the Gulf states have turned away from Yemen. They have not turned away from Yemen. They are constantly bombing Yemen. In fact, on Tuesday, President Trump stood with the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, and, of course, we know Saudi Arabia leads the bombing, bombs provided by the United States. And part of the deal didn’t actually have to do with the Palestinians, that was signed off on at the White House. It had to do with the United States selling the UAE F-35 fighter-bombers. Can you talk about the significance of, once again, these weapons deals to hunger and the devastation of Yemen?
NIMA ELBAGIR: Well, it sends a message, doesn’t it? It sends a message not just in Yemen, but it sends a message around the world, that you can do what you want to do as long as you — as long as you sign up for our key concerns. And a number of U.S. diplomats have described to me conversations that they’ve had with the UAE and with Saudi Arabia, and essentially the subtext of the conversation was, “Well, we have signed — the UAE has signed a peace deal with Israel. And we know that this is a key priority for the Trump administration. So, what more do you want from us?”
What we know about Yemen is that Yemen was a national security risk to the United States. It was home to the most effective franchise of al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who at one point got very far in a plot to put a bomb on a plane and send it to the United States. That was always given as the excuse for the reason why the United States needs to continue to be engaged in Yemen.
What has happened with allowing key U.S. allies, like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, to do what they have done in Yemen is that this hunger and this conflict has allowed not just al-Qaeda, but ISIS to become resurgent in Yemen again. Just this last week, there were a number of pretty effective ISIS and al-Qaeda attacks. The U.S. is measurably less safe because of what their allies have done in Yemen.
But one of the things that is really interesting, that so many of us that are covering foreign affairs are looking at really closely, is that the ICC, the International Criminal Court, has now said that the chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, can begin to look into U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan. And that is precedent-setting, because given what the IG report, the unredacted version, shows about the U.S.’s disregard for civilian casualties perpetrated by their allies with their bombs, there is a real conversation that is beginning about whether the U.S. is opening itself up for further cases of war crime prosecution on Yemen. And it’s a pretty incredible case that is being discussed.
And yet, any time that you bring this formally in on record to the State Department or to Trump administration officials, they say, “Well, this is about American manufacturers, about American workers being able to make money out of American bombs being dropped in Yemen.” And what we have seen with the engagement that we have found, not just for this piece, but also for the previous investigations that we’ve done, is, actually — and, actually, I take heart from this — is that so many of our audience, whether it’s in America or around the world, don’t believe that. They don’t believe that money should be made over the deaths of innocent civilians halfway around the world, in a country that was already a humanitarian disaster even before this ill-thought-through intervention.
AMY GOODMAN: Nima, we just have 30 seconds, but we cannot leave without asking you about Sudan, where you are from, and your coverage of the women-led Sudanese uprising, but also Lowcock warning about the first famines of the coronavirus era hitting, among other places, Yemen and your own country of Sudan.
NIMA ELBAGIR: Again, this goes back to foreign policy malfeasance on the part of the Trump administration. This is an administration that continued talks to normalize with a sitting dictator in Sudan while demonstrators were being shot down in the streets. It is incredibly disheartening to see people who have risked so much be let down so badly by the United States. It really is.
AMY GOODMAN: Nima Elbagir, I want to thank you so much for being with us, award-winning senior international correspondent for CNN, based in London, whose Yemen report earlier this week is called “Yemen: A Crisis Made in America.”
When we come back, we go to the Greek island of Lesbos, where 13,000 migrants have been left homeless after a fire destroyed one of Europe’s largest refugee camps. Stay with us.