Tag Archives: saudi

Featured, Foreign Policy, Government Accountability

Report: Thousands of Yemeni Children Without an Education Due to Saudi Bombing Campaign

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On Friday, Amnesty International released a new report which examined five airstrikes in Yemen conducted by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition between August and October 2015. The airstrikes targeted five schools and resulted in the deaths of five civilians and injured 14 others, including four children.

The Saudi government has been leading a coalition of Arab nations fighting in Yemen’s civil war since March 2015. Due to online rumors, the schools were reportedly suspected of being used for storing weapons. However, the report, ‘Our Kids are Bombed’: Schools Under Attack in Yemen‘, found no evidence that any of the schools had been used for military purposes.

Although students were not inside the schools during the attacks, the bombing has caused extensive damage to local infrastructure. The bombings severely disrupted the education of more than 6,500 children who attend schools in Hajjah, Hodeidah and Sana’a governorates.

On the eve of peace talks in Switzerland, Amnesty International is calling for an independent investigation into the attacks and for full reparation to the victims and their families.

“The lack of investigations by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, and those who provide them with arms and other support, into a growing list of suspected unlawful attacks suggests a chilling apathy for the devastating consequences this war has wrought on civilians in Yemen,” said Lama Fakih, Senior Crisis Advisor at Amnesty International.

The report states that UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) has found at least 34% of children in Yemen – around 1.8 million Yemeni children – have not been to school since the air strikes first began in March 2015.

Amnesty International also points out that the United States State Department recently approved an arms transfer worth $1.29 billion to Saudi Arabia, weapons which AI claims are used in unlawful killings of innocent civilians such as the school attacks.

“It is simply appalling that the USA and other allies of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition have continued to authorise arms transfers to members of the coalition, despite the clear evidence that they are not complying with the laws of war – international humanitarian law. All such transfers must halt immediately,” said Lama Fakih.

While the United States government and taxpayer continue to fund the global War on Terror and the resulting proxy wars, there are people trying to survive and thrive under the constant threat of bombs raining death from above.

“Right now we are living in fear and terror. Today I saw a plane and I was very afraid and terrified,” said a 12-year-old girl quoted in the report who attended a school in the Red Sea port Hodeidah that was destroyed by bombing in August.

Government Accountability, Politics

Oklahoma Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Alleging Saudi Involvement in 9/11 Attacks

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Last week Zacarias Moussaoui had a lawsuit thrown out by U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-Lagrange because of a filing error. The Oklahoman reports that the judge dismissed the suit because Moussaoui did not pay a $400 filing fee and failed to ask for the fee to be waived.

Moussaoui is serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole for his involvement in the planning of the 9/11 attacks and connections to Osama bin Laden. In 2005 Moussaoui said he was supposed to pilot a plane into the White House. Since his arrest Moussaoui has sought to expose what he says is funding from Saudi Arabia’s royal family.

In February, Moussaoui released a statement from prison detailing the role of Saudi Arabia’s royal family in financing terror attacks, including the 9/11 attacks. He also claimed that Saudi Arabia did not cut ties to al-Qaeda members in 1994. Moussaoui says he created a database of al-Qaeda donors and remembers some of the names.

The Saudi Embassy has denied any involvement in the 9/11 attacks and claimed the 9/11 Commission found the Saudi government and officials were not involved.

Moussaoui sent a complaint to the Oklahoma federal court in October 2014, asking the judge to let him testify about what he knows. He claims he met with the Saudi prince at the University of Oklahoma in February 2001 to take flying lessons.

Moussaoui also asked the judge to grant him an attorney so he can sue the Obama Administration, who he claims is attempting to prevent him from testifying on behalf of the 9/11 victims family members in their suit against Saudi Arabia. Moussaoui said he is trying to expose a “bigger conspiracy” related to 9/11. Despite these attempts, Judge Miles-Lagrange dismissed the lawsuits based on the filing error. Federal judges in Colorado, Florida and Texas have also refused his requests.

The Saudi Connection

In early April TruthInMedia reported that Saudi Arabia asked a New York City judge to reject another lawsuit from the families of the 9/11 victims. Lawyers representing Saudi Arabia filed papers in a Manhattan federal court claiming that no evidence exists linking the nation to the attacks. The family members of the 9/11 victims point to testimony from Moussaoui.

Lawyers representing the Saudi Kingdom called Moussaoui’s comments “colorful but immaterial hearsay statements.” Moussaoui was previously found to be a paranoid schizophrenic by a psychologist testifying in his trial.

In late March the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a report that attempts to discredit a previous report that hinted at connections between a Saudi family in Prestencia, Florida and the 9/11 hijackers. The FBI 9/11 Review Commission told Congress that a 2002 report from the FBI “was poorly written and wholly unsubstantiated.”

An agent with the bureau originally found that the Saudi family left in a hurry two weeks before 9/11, leaving behind cars, furniture, clothes, and other items. The information was revealed in a 2010 Freedom of Information Act request which found that an unidentified family member was a student at the same flight school that two of accused 9/11 hijackers attended.

The FBI 9/11 Review Commission largely ignored any evidence of Saudi involvement. The New York Post notes, “The review panel highlighted one local FBI report generated from the investigation that said Abdulaziz and Anoud al-Hijji, the prominent Saudi couple who “fled” their home, had “many connections” to “individuals associated with the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001.”

The is only the latest attempt to hold the Saudi royalty accountable. A previous lawsuit from the families was rejected when a judge found that Saudi Arabia was protected because of sovereign immunity. The decision was reversed by a federal appeals court and the families continue their fight.

Despite the denials from Saudi officials, former Senator Bob Graham said he is convinced the Saudi government funded “at least some of the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks.” Graham is the former co-chairman of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into the attacks. He recently told the New York Times that he was not giving up his pursuit of finding out who was funding the 9/11 attacks.