{"id":365315,"date":"2018-06-13T21:55:48","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T20:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/bipartisan-letter-calling-on-pentagon-to-withhold-us-support-for-disastrous-assault-on-yemens-major-port\/"},"modified":"2018-06-13T21:55:48","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T20:55:48","slug":"bipartisan-letter-calling-on-pentagon-to-withhold-us-support-for-disastrous-assault-on-yemens-major-port","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/bipartisan-letter-calling-on-pentagon-to-withhold-us-support-for-disastrous-assault-on-yemens-major-port\/","title":{"rendered":"Bipartisan Letter Calling on Pentagon to Withhold US Support for Disastrous Assault on Yemen’s Major Port"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WASHINGTON, DC (June 13, 2018) <\/b>\u2013 US Representatives Mark Pocan (D-WI), Justin Amash (R-MI), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Walter Jones (R-NC), and Ted Lieu (D-CA)<\/b> this week led a bipartisan letter<\/a> calling on Secretary of Defense James Mattis to stop a disastrous military assault by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Hodeida, Yemen\u2019s major port city. In the letter, Members called for the US to reject providing logistical, military, and diplomatic support for the Saudi-led coalition\u2019s operation, as well as disclose the full scope of the US involvement in the Saudi-led war.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge you to use all available means to avert a catastrophic military assault on Yemen\u2019s major port city of Hodeida by the Saudi-led coalition, and to present Congress with immediate clarification regarding the full scope of US military involvement in that conflict,\u201d wrote the Members. \u201cWe remind you that three years into the conflict, active US participation in Saudi-led hostilities against Yemen\u2019s Houthis has never been authorized by Congress, in violation of the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are concerned that in the midst of a Senate effort to exercise its constitutional authority to end unauthorized hostilities \u2013 including US targeting and refueling assistance for Saudi-led airstrikes against Yemen\u2019s Houthis \u2013 the Pentagon may have concealed key information from members of Congress regarding the full extent of on-the-ground US military participation in the Saudi coalition-led war,\u201d continued the Members.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call on you to immediately disclose the full extent of the US military role in the Saudi-led war against Yemen\u2019s Houthis, including the use of special operations forces; disclose any role that the Pentagon is currently performing, has been asked to perform, or is considering performing regarding an attack on the port of Hodeida; and issue a public declaration opposing this impending assault and restating the Administration\u2019s position that Saudi Arabia and other parties to the conflict should accept an immediate ceasefire and move toward a political settlement to resolve the conflict,\u201d Members wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn light of a possibly disastrous offensive on Hodeida, we remind you that under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, Congress alone has the power to declare and authorize war, and the War Powers Resolution allows any individual member of Congress to force a debate and floor vote to remove US forces from unauthorized hostilities,\u201d concluded the Members.<\/p>\n

The Saudi-led war against Yemen\u2019s indigenous Houthi rebels, now over three years old, has created \u201cthe worst humanitarian crisis in the world,\u201d according<\/a> to international relief agencies, leaving<\/a> 17.8 million Yemenis, or 60 percent of the population, food insecure, and 8.4 million a step away from famine. The port city of Hodeida, already under a Saudi-imposed blockade, receives 80 percent of the country\u2019s food imports, and experts…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, DC (June 13, 2018) \u2013 US Representatives Mark Pocan (D-WI), Justin Amash (R-MI), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Walter Jones (R-NC), and Ted Lieu (D-CA) this week led a bipartisan letter calling on Secretary of Defense James Mattis to stop a disastrous military assault by Saudi Arabia and the United […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2519,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-365315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}