Tulsi Gabbard: End our alliance with Saudi Arabia

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard says the Kashoggi murder should be an impetus to end the US-Saudi alliance and US arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Tulsi has been an outspoken critic of Saudi Arabia's pernicious role in the world, especially Syria and Yemen, for years.

We need to hear from Tulsi Gabbard more often.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1810/18/cg.01.html

JAKE TAPPER: Joining me now is Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. She is a major in the Army National Guard and serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Congresswoman, good to see you, as always. Saudi sources telling "The New York Times" that the regime plans to pin the blame on a high-ranking intelligence official with close ties to MBS who they say this intelligence official didn't have the appropriate authority to act. Do you buy it?

REP. TULSI GABBARD (D), HAWAII: We have heard different versions of statements coming from the Saudi government as the coverage has really exploded around what actually happened to Mr. Khashoggi. I think this is really an impetus, this should an impetus for you, for those in the media, for those in the public to challenge this administration, to challenge many members of Congress who claim that Saudi Arabia is a close ally. This should challenge us to look at the facts of Saudi Arabia's record, beyond what has happened to this journalist, things like Saudi Arabia being a theocratic dictatorship, Saudi Arabia being this number one exporter of the extreme Wahabi Salafist ideology that is fueling terrorist groups and like ISIS and al Qaeda, to the tune of billions of dollars a year, Saudi Arabia waging, continuing to wage the centuries-old sectarian war, the Sunni-Shia war, in which part of that war, they are funding, financing, providing weapons and support to terrorist groups like al Qaeda in places like Syria, and also waging a genocidal war in Yemen that has killed tens of thousands of Yemeni civilians and children. And creating what the U.N. has called the worst humanitarian crisis in a generation, with eight million people who are starving and sick because of this Saudi-U.S. coalition's blockade in Yemen. So this should force this tougher conversation here and to be confronted with the facts that Saudi Arabia, in fact, is not our ally. Their interests do not align with ours.

TAPPER: I have a question about the larger U.S.-Saudi relationship in a second, but before I do can, I do want to drill down just on the Khashoggi incident, if we can. Sources telling CNN the president's son-in-law and top adviser, Jared Kushner, has cautioned the president to proceed cautiously before making any decisions on what to do. What do you think of that, and what do you think about Secretary Pompeo saying the Saudis need more time in their investigation into what happened?

GABBARD: Well, I think these are all just examples of how this president is not putting the well-being of our country first and frankly is instead kind of behaving like the businessman that he is, as though this country is a corporation. The problem is, he is a businessman without a conscience. So he's thinking and he's talked about how, well, we don't want to ruin our relationship with Saudi Arabia because of this $110 billion arms deal and all the money that that will make, but not looking at what the consequences of these decisions are, not looking at the atrocities and this genocide that Saudi Arabia is waging in Yemen today. [16:10:01] So when you look at all of these kind of different hedging and excuses and things that are coming forward, it points, again, to this stark fact and reality that this so-called alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia really shouldn't exist at all, because our interests are not aligned.

TAPPER: Now, you have called for the U.S. to suspend its involvement and support of this Saudi-led war in Yemen, where thousands, if not millions of individuals, innocent people have been killed or are under the threat of starvation right now. Beyond that, what actions do you want the Trump administration to take in the wake of Khashoggi's death?

GABBARD: Well, first of all, we need to end this Saudi-U.S. alliance, period. We need to stop selling them these precision-guided missiles, these weapons and these arms that they are using to kill civilians in places like Yemen. We need to end our U.S. military support in Yemen. And this is something that I want to talk about a little bit, because there has not been much focus placed on what the United States' role has been in partnering with Saudi Arabia in Yemen, something that began in 2015 under the Obama administration, continuing now through the Trump administration, where our U.S. military are refueling Saudi bomber planes. They are dropping U.S.-made bombs that we have supplied to them. We are providing them with intelligence and targeting support, as has been reported by this administration, and, therefore, very complicit in this genocidal war that Saudi Arabia is waging in Yemen. As you said, it's causing millions of Yemeni people to starve and suffer, what -- to speak of the innocent civilians and children to the tune in the tens of thousands who have been killed because of this war. This must end now. We have legislation introduced within Congress. We are trying to push and force a vote on this to end that support for Saudi Arabia in this war in Yemen now.

TAPPER: Let me ask you a question, because you got a lot of criticism after you met with Bashar al-Assad in Syria. You came here. We talked about it. And one of the arguments you made is, look, this guy is the leader of Syria, whether we like him or not. We need to work with him in order to stop the bloodshed in Syria. We need to work with him to stabilize that country. What do you say to a critic who says it sounds like you have different standards for Assad than you do for the Saudis?

GABBARD: I think you're misquoting my position and my statements on this. My position on Syria, as well as countries like Iraq and Libya, has been that it is not in our interest in the United States to continue to wage destructive and costly regime change wars that are not only costly for us, the American people, but that in each of these instances has made the lives of the people in those countries far worse off. And we can go into detailed examples within these three countries where we have and continue to wage these regime change wars. That's one situation that I continue to push strongly for us to end this destructive United States policy. And Yemen is a different situation, where we're actively working in concert with Saudi Arabia in waging a genocidal war against the civilians of Yemen.

TAPPER: Yes. No, I...

GABBARD: This must end now.

TAPPER: Yes, I didn't mean -- I meant more like the idea that we need to work with -- I'm not talking with Yemen right. I mean, the idea that we need to end the relationship with the Saudis, but it's OK to have a relationship with Assad just to end that war, just the realpolitik of that.

(CROSSTALK)

GABBARD: No, no, I will just interject here, Jake, because that's not at all I'm saying.

TAPPER: OK. Please explain.

GABBARD: My position has been, we need to be willing to have the conversation with people who may be adversaries or dictators, people like Kim Jong-un in North Korea, if we are serious about the pursuit of peace, if we're serious about trying to alleviate the suffering of people in those countries. This is a very -- that's a very different statement than saying we need to end our alliance with Saudi Arabia. I'm not saying we don't have a conversation with them.

TAPPER: Got it.

GABBARD: I'm saying we need to stop using our U.S. military to do what Saudi Arabia wants. We need to end this alliance that actually has been counter to serving the interests of the American people and our national security.

TAPPER: I get the distinction. I just wanted to understand it better, and I appreciate your time doing that.

GABBARD: Sure.

TAPPER: Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, thank you so much for your time.

GABBARD: Thanks, Jake.

Tulsi says "end" the alliance, Bernie says "redefine the relationship." Both say end our support for Saudi Arabia's war against Yemen.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/opinion/bernie-sanders-saudi-arabia-war-yemen.html?smid=tw-nytopinion&smtyp=cur

Great interview!   Here is the video:

https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2018/10/18/lead-rep-tulsi-gabbard-live-jake-tapper.cnn

Not sure if mentioned yet, but I think Nikki Haley resigned because she heard about the murder and learned Trump would do little or nothing.   Timeline seems to match up.

dave said:
Not sure if mentioned yet, but I think Nikki Haley resigned because she heard about the murder and learned Trump would do little or nothing.   Timeline seems to match up.

 Based on what evidence?  Haley was fine with the murders in Yemen and Israel; why would the offing of one journalist bother her?

nan said:

dave said:
Not sure if mentioned yet, but I think Nikki Haley resigned because she heard about the murder and learned Trump would do little or nothing.   Timeline seems to match up.

 Based on what evidence?  Haley was fine with the murders in Yemen and Israel; why would the offing of one journalist bother her?

 "One man's death is a tragedy. Millions of deaths is a statistic"

Stalin

LOST said:

nan said:

dave said:
Not sure if mentioned yet, but I think Nikki Haley resigned because she heard about the murder and learned Trump would do little or nothing.   Timeline seems to match up.

 Based on what evidence?  Haley was fine with the murders in Yemen and Israel; why would the offing of one journalist bother her?

 "One man's death is a tragedy. Millions of deaths is a statistic"
Stalin





It's not the death that would bother her. It's the political consequences.

 Perhaps.  I think she wants to run for President and she is popular, sadly cause she is awful.

She will never get my vote.  I liked her at one point.  But then she joined Trump.  I will never support any candidate who has supported Trump.  It means they have no boundaries that they will not cross.

Max Blumenthal was the only reporter to get inside the closed-door speech of Nikki Haley at the far-right Council for National Policy. She's no moderate.

https://harpers.org/blog/2018/10/nikki-haley-at-the-council-for-national-policy/

paulsurovell said:
Max Blumenthal was the only reporter to get inside the closed-door speech of Nikki Haley at the far-right Council for National Policy. She's no moderate.
https://harpers.org/blog/2018/10/nikki-haley-at-the-council-for-national-policy/

 She is horrible and extreme and thinking we need to be at war with Iran and putting gay people and people who cheat on their spouses to death.  Also likes killing Palestinians.  Also probably a puppet of Sheldon Adelson and friend to evangelicals. Do not know what the New York Times was thinking.

Though Saudi Arabia had also exploited its membership on the Human Rights Council to shield itself from scrutiny, Haley had hardly anything to say in her speech about the theocratic monarchy. This September, the Saudi government and the United Arab Emirates tried and failed to stop a UN Human Rights Council resolution to extend an investigation into their military assault on Yemen. Their faltering war to oust the Houthi militia from control over the northern half of the country has turned Yemen into the site of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, spawning an epidemic of cholera and plaguing large segments of the population with malnutrition. Haley has gone to excessive lengths to abet the Saudi–UAE military effort, partnering with officials from both countries to brand Iran as the lone source of the crisis.

Last December, inside a hangar at the Joint Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, Haley stood in front of the charred remnants of a ballistic missile fired by the Yemeni Houthi militia at Saudi Arabia’s King Khalid Airport, and pointed to this stage prop as evidence of Iranian backing for the Houthis. (A UN panel that investigated the missile found “no evidence as to the identity of [its] broker or supplier.”) Seated in the front row were the Saudi and Emirati diplomats, who apparently assisted Haley’s presentation by providing the missile hulk to Washington. She went on to join the Saudis and only eleven other nations in opposition to a UN Human Rights Council resolution condemning the “imposition of the death penalty as a sanction for specific forms of conduct, such as apostasy, blasphemy, adultery and consensual same-sex relations.” (Since the apparent assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi columnist for the Washington Post, which has created an international firestorm, Haley has made no statement.)

Haley avoided mentioning her special relationship with Saudi Arabia at the CNP, focusing instead on her relentless one-woman campaign to protect another Middle Eastern country from scrutiny for its serial human rights abuses. The state of Israel had been condemned in scores of UN resolutions over the years, she complained, while Iran had been reprimanded just nine times. Withdrawing from the Human Rights Council was the least America could do to uphold its duty to protect Israel, she said, inspiring gales of applause from the crowd. She earned more roars of approval when she touted the Trump Administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a move that drove a nail into the coffin of the US-led process to establish a Palestinian state. The applause reached its peak when Haley boasted of the pivotal role she played in cutting off American aid to millions of destitute Palestinian refugees through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). I looked over at Gaffney, the veteran anti-Islam activist, and saw an ecstatic grin cross his face as Haley described the cuts.

A diplomat who was present for several meetings with members of Trump’s foreign policy team over UN-related matters told me that Haley formed a personal vendetta when the General Assembly voted to condemn Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. “The US will be taking names,” Haley rumbled before the December vote, vowing to punish nations that defied her boss. She then moved in to strangle the UNRWA, pushing for heavy cuts in US funding to the agency. In doing so, she appeared to be courting support from one of the most influential donors to the Republican Party. Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire confidant of Netanyahu who contributed $5 million to Trump’s inauguration, had been the largest donor to the 527 political organizations that Haley formed while serving as South Carolina’s governor, with $250,000 in 2016. Her legacy of pro-Israel rabble rousing at the United Nations virtually guaranteed that Adelson’s beneficence would continue and will likely expand if she embarks on a presidential run.

Haley’s choice of aides at the United Nations offered another indication that she saw the high-profile diplomatic post as a springboard to the White House. Her top advisor at the United Nations was not a foreign policy expert but a veteran Republican consultant from her home state named Jon Lerner. A former adviser to Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a neoconservative darling, Lerner identified his mentor as Arthur Finkelstein, the notoriously cutthroat Republican operative who advised Netanyahu’s 1996 run for Israeli prime minister and helped him cobble together his 2013 right-wing governing coalition.

Haley’s lonely fight against Israel’s enemies was calculated to appeal not only to the Likudnik GOP donors who saw the self-proclaimed Jewish state as their fortified home, but also to the evangelicals who viewed the country as a landing pad for the Messiah. These included Tim LaHaye, a CNP veteran who coauthored the best-selling Left Behind series: Armageddon fantasy novels that identify the UN secretary-general as the Antichrist. If the admiring treatment Haley received from the CNP was any indication, she could count on support from rapture-ready pastors across the country, along with the flock of grassroots Republicans they shepherd to the polls each election day.

paulsurovell said:
Max Blumenthal was the only reporter to get inside the closed-door speech of Nikki Haley at the far-right Council for National Policy. She's no moderate.
https://harpers.org/blog/2018/10/nikki-haley-at-the-council-for-national-policy/

 Thanks for that link.

I especially liked his description of the right-wing looney-toons he encountered upon entering (including some serious ranting about the "Deep State").

I arrived at the conference after a panel on “the Deep State,” featuring James O’Keefe, the co-creator of the infamous ACORN video, and Tim Fitton, Judicial Watch president, had concluded. As I settled into a seat near the back of the Westin’s Grand Ballroom, a who’s who of the evangelical far right filed into the spacious auditorium. To my right sat Carol Swain, the African-American Vanderbilt University political science professor who blamed a “devil’s brew” of identity politics and multiculturalism for the mainstreaming of white nationalism. Ginni Thomas, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife, was greeting old friends a few rows away. Nearby, I spotted Star Parker, a self-proclaimed former “welfare cheat,” who named her book Pimps, Whores and Welfare Brats and recently branded the Democrats “the party of the Antichrist.” Frank Gaffney, who has raised millions to conduct an Islamophobic crusade and who helped orchestrate Trump’s Muslim travel ban, strode into the ballroom, where he was set to deliver a panel later on alongside a collection of Cold War-era hardliners. One of the few Catholics present amid the evangelicals was Frank Pavone, a fanatically anti-abortion priest who once filmed himself placing an aborted fetus on an altar while imploring followers to vote for Trump. And then there was Kenneth W. Starr, the former independent counsel and author of the lascivious Starr Report (which was in part drafted by Brett Kavanaugh) arriving at the CNP to hawk his new memoir of the Clinton investigation.

(Emphasis added).