I have a lot to say about J Edgar Hoover myself, but I wanted to get this
out. These are the leaders to celebrate, Black Panthers, Malcolm X, etc.
Forget about "we shall overcome" and MLK.
Newly unearthed documents have shed new light on the FBI's role in the
murder of the 21-year-old Black Panther leader Fred Hampton on December
4, 1969, when Chicago police raided Hampton's apartment and shot and
killed him in his bed, along with fellow Black Panther leader Mark
Clark. Authorities initially claimed the Panthers had opened fire on the
police who were there to serve a search warrant for weapons, but
evidence later emerged that told a very different story: The FBI, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office and the Chicago police had
conspired to assassinate Fred Hampton. FBI memos and reports obtained by historian and writer Aaron Leonard now
show that senior FBI officials played
key roles in planning the raid and the subsequent cover-up. "It was
approved at the highest level," says attorney Jeff Haas. We also speak
with attorney Flint Taylor. Both are with the People's Law Office and
were the lead lawyers in a landmark civil rights case over the deaths of
Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMYGOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!,
democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I'm Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
As Black History Month begins today, we look back at the assassination
of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in Chicago 51 years ago and how new
documents reveal more details about the FBI's role in the murder of the
21-year-old revolutionary.
Fred Hampton was killed December 4th, 1969, when Chicago police raided
his apartment and shot and killed him in his own bed. Black Panther
leader Mark Clark was also killed by police in that raid. Authorities
initially claimed the Panthers had opened fire on the police who were
there to serve a search warrant for weapons. Evidence later emerged that
told a very different story: The FBI,
the Cook County State's Attorney's Office and Chicago police had
conspired to assassinate Fred Hampton.
Now several hundred pages of FBI memos
and reports, obtained by historian and writer Aaron Leonard through a
Freedom of Information Act request, document that the director of the
FBI's Domestic Intelligence Division, William Sullivan, and the head of
the Extremist Section of the Domestic Intelligence Division, George
Moore, both played key roles in planning the raid and the cover-up that
followed.
For more on what these documents say, we're joined by Flint Taylor and
Jeff Haas, founding members of the People's Law Office in Chicago, who
were the lead lawyers in the landmark Fred Hampton and Mark Clark civil
rights case. Their new piece for Truthout is headlined "New Documents Suggest J. Edgar
Hoover Was Involved in Fred Hampton's Murder."
Jeff Haas, let's begin with you. You wrote a book about Fred Hampton.
Talk about what these new documents show and what you see as the smoking
gun of J. Edgar Hoover's direct involvement.
JEFFHAAS: Thank you, Amy.
Well, first of all, it's 51 years after the incident and 40-some years
after the trial. We had never gotten these documents before. But what
they showed was that Hoover and Sullivan and Moore were following Roy
Mitchell, a special agent in charge, very closely with regard to O'Neal.
And they were complimenting him and rewarding him from the moment he
gave the information and the floor plan to special agent Mitchell. They
were congratulating Mitchell on what a wonderful job he did with this
informant. Of course, Mitchell got the floor plan, gave it to Hanrahan's
police, and that's what led to the raid. The floor plan even showed the
bed where Hampton and Johnson would be sleeping.
So, we knew much of this. We knew O'Neal had gotten a bonus. We never
knew Mitchell got a bonus. And we never knew that Hoover and Sullivan
and Moore were starting to watch this in November, 10 days before it
happened. They were monitoring exactly what went on. And so it was
approved at the highest level. And during the trial, we had sought to go
up to Sullivan and Moore and Hoover, but the judge wouldn't allow us.
And we thought perhaps even John Mitchell and Richard Nixon were
involved. We didn't have these documents, so we couldn't uncover that.
This also shows that after the raid, the head of the FBI in Chicago met with and congratulated the informant, O'Neal, thanked
him for his information, which led to the success of the raid.
What's also interesting is, 51 years later, these documents still have
redactions. There's a specific redaction because an FBI agent had been called in front of a grand jury, and he was told, "If
you get asked any questions about blank," which is the FBI, "leave the grand jury and report to your higher-ups."
A year after the raid, the FBI role
and COINTELPRO had never been disclosed.
It was only about Hanrahan and the police. So it took us 13 years to
uncover that it was COINTELPRO, a
program whose objective was to disrupt, destroy and neutralize the
Panthers and, specifically, prevent the rise of a Black messiah, like
Fred Hampton, who could unify and electrify the masses. It was
this FBI program that led to the passing
of the floor plan and the 90 shots and Fred Hampton executed in his bed
at 2:30 in the morning on December 4th.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Now, Jeff, the documents also seem to indicate that there was a plan
to cover up the FBI's involvement in the raid. Could you talk about that
aspect of what you've uncovered?
JEFFHAAS: Yes. At the grand jury — this was a special state grand jury. Because
the Black community was so outraged and there was a lot of pressure,
they called a special grand jury, where they allowed the FBI agent who talked about who fired the guns, but they didn't allow
anybody to talk about the floor plan or the role of the informant,
William O'Neal, in setting up the raid and getting a bonus for it. So,
that was kept quiet. Matter of fact, if there hadn't been a raid at the
Media, Pennsylvania, FBI office, we
might never have learned about COINTELPRO.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And in terms of why it's taken so long and there's still redactions on
some of these documents— I mean, the assassination of President
Kennedy, there have been documents released from that. And here we have
one radical revolutionary in Chicago, and it's taken so long just to get
information about what actually happened.
JEFFHAAS: Well, yes. I think the cover-up continues, in the fact that many of
these pages contain redaction, including the information from O'Neal. So
there are things the FBI has still not
released, we think showing the involvement of higher-ups. We do have a
continuous rewarding of the special agent, Roy Mitchell, referring to
the success of the raid, how the raid was critical to the role of
the FBI. So, some of these documents are
new. But for the next year, Roy Mitchell got congratulated for how well
he had handled O'Neal and how important the information he'd gotten. And
they continuously internally called the raid a success, while externally
they were hiding it.
AMYGOODMAN: I want to bring Flint Taylor into this conversation, co-founder of the
People's Law Office in Chicago. You and Jeff were arrested for
protesting what you called in the piece "the outrageous rulings of the judge and the blatant misconduct of the
defense." Can you explain what this trial was, Flint?
FLINTTAYLOR: Well, this was a trial, 18 months on trial, Jeff and I and others in
our office, fighting to get these documents out, fighting to establish
the role of the FBI. And we had a judge
who was very similar to Judge Hoffman in the Conspiracy 8 trial, which
many people may remember. And he was dead set against us. He was
originally from Alabama. He was a racist. And he did not believe and
would not let us get at the evidence that the FBI was involved in this case. But we were developing this evidence along
with the Senate select committee, the Church Committee. So we were
exposing this evidence both in court and outside of court, and the judge
was getting more and more upset with us.
And so, when we protested the unfair rulings that he was making — he
was keeping us from putting Hoover in the case. He was keeping us from
putting John Mitchell and the others from Washington in the case. And he
was keeping us from getting the documents that showed the bonus to
O'Neal, the informant. All of this, we were fighting for, day and day
after day. And when we protested, both of us, at various times, were
held in contempt and sent to the federal lockup here in Chicago.
But we kept fighting it. The judge threw the case out after 18 months
of trial, believe it or not. He wouldn't let the jury decide the case.
We fought it to appeal, and we won a remarkable decision in the court of
appeals, defended it in the U.S. Supreme Court. And 13 years of
litigation and fighting to get the evidence out, we were ultimately able
to obtain one of the largest, if not the largest, police violence
settlement, for the families of Mark Clark and Fred Hampton and the
surviving Panthers, in the history at that time of the federal
courts.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Flint, for the younger members of our audience who really do not,
perhaps, understand the role and significance of the Black Panther Party
and, for instance, J. Edgar Hoover labeling them the greatest domestic
threat to the U.S. government, Hoover was aware, by then, although the
public found out later, that there had been polling done, secret polling
done, that showed that more than 25% of all African Americans at the
time supported the Black Panther Party. Could you talk about the party's
significance?
FLINTTAYLOR: The party was very significant. And its leadership was, as well. And
Fred Hampton was not only an up-and-coming leader, but a very
charismatic and dynamic leader. And the Panthers had a Ten-Point
Program. That program covered the waterfront with all sorts of
revolutionary and socialistic programs — a free breakfast program, for
example, a free medical clinic, for another example, a newspaper that
came out every week and talked about the atrocities of the police and
the government.
It was very much an anti-imperialist organization, fought against the
War in Vietnam, said people should not go to Vietnam, opposed mass
incarceration before there actually was that term, and also was very
strong in setting up and fighting for coalitions between Black, Hispanic
or — like the Young Lords — of course, you know about that, Juan — and
other organizations, revolutionary and radical organizations. And this
is another reason why Hoover feared the Panthers so much, because they
were bringing together all sorts of different radical and revolutionary
groups, groups against the War in Vietnam. And this was very threatening
to the government at that time, and they targeted, under the COINTELPRO program, which was focused to destroy the Black Panther Party, on Fred
Hampton and the Black Panthers, because they were so successful here in
Chicago.
AMYGOODMAN: We want to thank you, Flint Taylor and Jeff Haas, co-founding members
of the People's Law Office in Chicago, lead lawyers in the landmark Fred
Hampton, Mark Clark civil rights case. Their new piece, we'll link to, at Truthout, is headlined "New Documents
Suggest J. Edgar Hoover Was Involved in Fred Hampton's Murder."
Next up, we continue our look at the assassination of Black Panther
leader Fred Hampton in Chicago 51 years ago as told in a remarkable new
feature film premiering at Sundance Film Festival today. It's called Judas and the Black Messiah. We'll speak to its director, Shaka King. Stay with us.
YEMEN: Just think of all the good we do.(An women can drive now.)
A Critique of Pure Killing
By
Immanuel Cant
The times are indeed absurd.
Waffle-House shot up.Now this guy had been arrested at the White House recently saying that some pop star was stalking him.They took his guns away, but returned them to his dad who turned around and gave them back.The then went to the waffle house, naked, I hear, and killed four and whatever.Now they want to bring charges against the Dad.Why they hell didn't they just confiscate the guns in the first place?Maybe, since we invented the meat grinder, we could invent a gun grinder and just toss the things in there.
The FBI has told of counseling services for friends of the loved ones and consolations.Sort of "Cheer up, you still have your second amendment rights and look what we are doing in Yemen."
Toronto some idiot drives a van onto a sidewalk and kills 20, having to weave in and out to avoid cars that tried to block him.Since he wasn't an Arab, no problem.Just send your thoughts and prayers.
What has this got to do with Yemen?Well, Saudi Arabia spent about 20 billion dollars on military hardware from us and so we gave them out blessings.Even Oprah gushed over the new ruler as he allowed women to drive.Wow, what a force for progress!Liberation now.Meanwhile, they keep on bombing Yemen, mainly weddings, a favorite target, with our help and assistance.
Here are a couple of accounts of Yemen recently.We must remind you that at one time Obama hailed Yemen as his possible "Model for dealing with terrorism."I'm certain he never thought it would work out this way.At least I hope he didn't:
At least 20 people died Sunday when a Saudi-led coalition airstrike hit a wedding party in northern Yemen. Most of the dead were reportedly women and children who were gathered in one of the wedding party tents. The bride was among the dead. Medics and residents said more than 46 others—including 30 children—were also injured. The attack on the Yemeni wedding party was one of at least three airstrikes over the weekend that killed Yemeni civilians. A family of five died in an airstrike in the province of Hajjah. And 20 civilians died on Saturday when fighter jets bombed a bus near the city of Taiz. Earlier this month, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Yemen had become the world's worst humanitarian crisis. We speak to Shireen Al-Adeimi, a Yemeni doctoral candidate at Harvard University.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: At least 20 people died Sunday when a Saudi-led coalition airstrike hit a wedding party in northern Yemen. Most of the dead were reportedly women and children who were gathered in one of the wedding party tents. The bride was among the dead. Medics and residents said more than 46 others, including 30 children, were also injured. Video footage released by the Yemeni TV station Al-Masirah showed a young boy clutching his dead father, who was surrounded by rubble. The boy was shouting, "I swear I won't leave him!"
The attack on the Yemeni wedding party was one of at least three airstrikes over the weekend that killed Yemeni civilians. A family of five died in an airstrike in the province of Hajjah. And 20 civilians died on Saturday when fighter jets bombed a bus near the city of Taiz.
AMYGOODMAN: Meanwhile, Yemen's rebel Houthi movement said senior leader Saleh al-Sammad had been killed in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike last Thursday. The rebel group warned Sammad's killing was a crime that would, quote, "not go unanswered." Sammad is the most senior Houthi official to have been killed since the Western-backed coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015. More than 15,000 people have died since the Saudi invasion, while U.S.-backed, Saudi-led airstrikes have devastated Yemen's health, water and sanitation systems, sparking a massive cholera outbreak—about a million Yemenis are believed to have cholera—and pushing millions of Yemenis to the brink of starvation. Earlier this month, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Yemen had become the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES: Every 10 minutes, a child under 5 dies of preventable causes. And nearly 3 million children under 5 and pregnant or lactating women are actually malnourished. Nearly half of all children aged between 6 months and 5 years old are chronically malnourished and suffer from stunting, which causes development delays and reduced ability to learn throughout their entire lives.
AMYGOODMAN: To find out more about the situation in Yemen, we're going now to Boston to speak with Shireen Al-Adeimi, a Yemeni doctoral candidate at Harvard University. Her recent piece for In These Times is headlined "Trump Doesn't Care About Civilian Deaths. Just Look at Yemen."
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Shireen. Can you talk about what you understand happened with the Saudi bombing of the Yemeni wedding party, that resulted in at least 20 deaths, many of them women and children? Where did this happen?
SHIREEN AL-ADEIMI: Thanks so much for having me.
And what happened a couple of days ago in Yemen is not unusual. So, this happened in a northern province, in Hajjah, nowhere near the front lines. This, of course, was a civilian wedding. They struck the men's wedding first, the men's wedding party. And then, as rescuers were trying to attend to the injured, they went and, you know, bombed the women's part of the wedding. So this is a double-tap airstrike, that is very common in the Saudi-led war on Yemen.
Thirty-three were reported to have been killed, and several more injured, hundreds—sorry, tens have been injured. And, you know, 30 children are included in this list of people who were injured. This is a wedding. This is supposed to be the happiest day of people's lives. And instead, the bride was killed, the groom injured, and so many more guests ended up killed, as well.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Shireen, for people here who don't understand, since this is a war that Saudi Arabia is waging, how important is the American support, the U.S. support for this war?
SHIREEN AL-ADEIMI: So, starting with the Obama administration and continuing in through the Trump administration, the Saudis have enjoyed extensive support from the U.S. Army. Right from day one, March 26, 2015, when Saudi Arabia began bombing, the U.S. was right alongside, helping them with targeting, with logistics. They help maintain and update their vehicles. And most importantly, the U.S. refuels Saudi jets midair, jets that we've sold to them, jets that—you know, bombs that we've sold to them. But we also help operate them. So, as they're bombing civilian targets in Yemen, the U.S. Army helps refuel those jets midair. So, U.S. support of the Saudis is extensive.
And, you know, U.S. claims that we are there to help them with precision targeting, but the fact of the matter is, is that civilians have beared the brunt of this war. You mentioned 15,000 people have been killed. That's just the number of people who have been killed by airstrikes. We also help them maintain the blockade, that's killed 113,000 children in 2016 and 2017 alone, due to malnutrition and disease, because, you know, water is very limited in the country. Yemen used to import 90 percent of its food, and that's now become very difficult for people to afford or to find. And so, you know, many people are on the brink, but many people have already been killed and have lost their lives, because they just can't find food and water and medicine for preventable diseases like cholera.
AMYGOODMAN: Shireen, can you talk about Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, who has overseen the Saudi strikes on Yemen? Can you talk about his recent, what they called, "charm offensive" throughout the United States, from Washington to Houston to Hollywood? Talk about the significance of this. When President Trump met with him at the White House last month, he held up posters of recent Saudi weapons purchases from the U.S. and said, quote, "We make the best equipment in the world."
PRESIDENTDONALDTRUMP: Saudi Arabia has been a very great friend and a big purchaser of equipment and lots of other things. … Some of the things that we are now working on—thanks—and that have been ordered and will shortly be started in construction and delivered: THAAD system, $13 billion; the C-130 heli—airplanes, the Hercules, great plane, $3.8 billion; the Bradley vehicles, that's the tanks, $1.2 billion; and the P-8 Poseidons, $1.4 billion. … So, we make the best equipment in the world. There's nobody even close. And Saudi Arabia is buying a lot of this equipment.
AMYGOODMAN: Shireen Al-Adeimi, the posters that President Trump was holding, almost like a high school presentation, was a map of the United States. And as he talked about the weapons, these weapons were sourced to places in the United States, states in the United States. Can you talk about this, human rights groups warning about the weapons that the—the massive arms deal, that may make the United States complicit in war crimes committed in the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen?
SHIREEN AL-ADEIMI: Right. So, of course, Saudi Arabia doesn't manufacture its own weapons. They rely on countries like the U.S. and the U.K. and even Canada to supply them with the weapons needed to wage this incredibly destructive war on a country that really posed no threat to them. So, Yemen doesn't even have an air defense system. They've disabled that. And it's a country that's not even able to defend itself. So, they've been purchasing these weapons, totaling in the hundreds of billions of dollars, simply for the cause—for the sake of trying to assert control and dominance, and trying to win this war that's really unwinnable in Yemen.
But, you know, Trump was being transparent about why Mohammed bin Salman was in the U.S. And reportedly, Mohammed bin Salman was embarrassed by those posters. But Trump, essentially, was saying, "Well, yes, this is the relationship that we have with Saudi Arabia, one that's based on how much they can pay for our services." I mentioned all the logistical training and updating of aircraft and so on. Those total $129 million per month. And so we're making—really, we're making a lot of money. The U.S. is making a lot of money from their relationship with Saudi Arabia. Human rights groups, of course, have warned that these weapons are not being used for any reason other than to target civilians. And countries like Germany and the Netherlands have recently stopped selling weapons to the United Arab Emirates and the Saudi Arabians for this very reason.
But here, you know, Prince Charming, he was—you know, we protested his visit here in Boston at MIT. But places like MIT and Harvard, and people like Oprah and the Clintons and, like you said, President Trump, they've all met with him. And they've all—you know, he went unchallenged when he was doing interviews here in the United States. And he's not just anybody in the Saudi Arabian royal family. He is the architect of this Yemen war. He is the defense minister and crown prince. This war began under his command. And so, this is somebody who has caused extreme suffering in a country. The U.N. says that Yemen is the world's worst humanitarian crisis. He has caused this, and we're helping him perpetuate this, yet he was virtually unchallenged while in the United States.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Shireen, what about—obviously, the United States continues to justify its support under the continuing war on terrorism and also the attempts to hold back supposed Iranian influence on terrorist groups. What about the situation with ISIS and al-Qaeda and other international terrorist groups within Yemen? Could you talk about that, as well, and also the Iran issue?
SHIREEN AL-ADEIMI: Right. So, Congress has said, has declared that the role of the United States in Yemen, in helping Saudi Arabia in this war on Yemen, is not covered under that, you know, under fighting terrorism. So it's unconstitutional. It's unauthorized by Congress.
But like you mentioned, the U.S. is in Yemen on two different fronts. On the one hand, they are trying to target, you know, anybody suspected of being al-Qaeda or ISIS. And that's largely done through drone strikes, that began—or that really escalated under Obama's administration and have continued through Trump's administration. And then, the other front, which is unauthorized by Congress, is this support, this blanket support, of Saudi Arabia in its war on Yemen.
Now, you know, they've mentioned Iran as a cause, as a reason to intervene in Yemen. The fact of the matter is that, you know, there's very little evidence that Iran is interfering in any significant way in Yemen. Like I mentioned, there's a land, air and sea blockade that Saudi Arabia and the United States impose on Yemen. You know, Doctors Without Borders have trouble bringing their personnel, their medicine, their food, their doctors into the country. U.N. ships have trouble bringing food into the country. But we're somehow led to believe that Iran is able to smuggle missiles or other sorts of weapons to Yemen. So, for Yemenis, it's really absurd to think that they're fighting Iran in Yemen. There is no evidence of any Iranian soldiers or any Iranian generals on the ground in Yemen. Of course, the Houthis and Iran have some sort of relationship, but it doesn't—it's very limited, and Iran is not involved in Yemen in the same degree that Saudi Arabia has been claiming.
So, you know, Congress has tried to pull the United States out of Yemen, recognizing that it's unauthorized. Bernie Sanders recently introduced a bill in the Senate called S.J.Res. 54, which was eventually tabled in the Senate. They didn't even vote on it. But that was attempting to extricate the United States out of hostilities in Yemen and by invoking the War Resolutions Act.
AMYGOODMAN: And the significance of the—Yemen's Houthi movement saying that a senior political figure had died in an attack last Thursday, Saleh al-Sammad? Who is al-Sammad?
SHIREEN AL-ADEIMI: So, the Houthis, in partnership with the prior president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who maintain significant control in Yemen, they formed a political council that governed northern areas that they control. Now, the Houthis control a small portion of land, if you look at the map, but about 80 percent of the population live there. So they still maintain large control over the country, compared to what Saudi Arabia controls, which is, you know, land that they control along with ISIS and al-Qaeda and other groups. So, you know, they formed this political council as a way to govern.
And Sammad was the head of that political council. And so, you know, Saudi Arabia took him out in an airstrike. And there is video posted online yesterday of that attack. It's an assassination, essentially. And I don't know what comes next, you know? Here they are. There's no hope really for a peace process if leaders like that are going to be executed by Saudi Arabia. So, I'm really not sure what comes next.
AMYGOODMAN: Shireen Al-Adeimi, I want to thank you very much for being with us, Yemeni doctoral student at Harvard University. She's been speaking out about the role of the United States in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. We'll link to your piece in In These Times. It's headlined "Trump Doesn't Care About Civilian Deaths. Just Look at Yemen."
This is Democracy Now!
On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate rejected a bipartisan resolution to end U.S. military involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen within 30 days, unless Congress formally authorizes the military action. The vote was 44 to 55, with 10 Democrats joining the Republican majority to block the legislation and Arizona Senator John McCain not casting a vote. The U.S.-backed, Saudi-led airstrikes and naval blockade have devastated Yemen's health, water and sanitation systems, sparking a massive cholera outbreak and pushing millions of Yemenis to the brink of starvation. More than 15,000 people have died since the Saudi invasion in 2015. We hear part of Sen. Bernie Sanders' speech against U.S. involvement and speak with Al Jazeera's Mehdi Hasan and Medea Benjamin of CodePink.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEENSHAIKH: Earlier this week, the Senate rejected a bipartisan resolution to end the U.S. military involvement in Yemen within 30 days, unless Congress formally authorizes the military action. The bill would have forced the first-ever vote in the Senate to withdraw U.S. armed forces from an unauthorized war. By a vote of 55 to 44, senators voted against a procedural motion that would have advanced the measure. This is Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders speaking Tuesday before the vote.
SEN. BERNIESANDERS: Some will argue that American troops are not out there shooting and getting shot at, not exchanging fire, gunfire, with their enemies, and that we are not really engaged in the horrifically destructive Saudi-led war in Yemen. That's what some will argue on the floor today, that we're really not engaged in hostilities, we're not exchanging fire. Well, please tell that to the people of Yemen, whose homes and lives are being destroyed by weapons marked "Made in the U.S.A.," dropped by planes being refueled by the U.S. military, on targets chosen with U.S. assistance. Only in the narrowest, most legalistic terms can anyone argue that the United States is not actively involved in hostilities alongside of Saudi Arabia in Yemen.
And let me take a minute to tell my colleagues what is happening in Yemen right now, because a lot of people don't know. It's not something that is on the front pages of the newspapers or covered terribly much in television. Right now, in a very, very poor nation of 27 million people—that is, the nation of Yemen—in November of last year, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator told us that Yemen was on the brink of, quote, "the largest famine the world has seen for many decades," end of quote from the United Nations. So far, in this country of 27 million people, this very poor country, over 10,000 civilians have been killed, and 40,000 civilians have been wounded. Over 3 million people in Yemen, in a nation of 27 million, have been displaced, driven from their homes. Fifteen million people lack access to clean water and sanitation, because water treatment plants have been destroyed. More than 20 million people in Yemen, over two-thirds of the population of that country, need some kind of humanitarian support, with nearly 10 million in acute need of assistance. More than 1 million suspected cholera cases have been reported, representing potentially the worst cholera outbreak in world history.
NERMEENSHAIKH: So, that's Senator Bernie Sanders speaking on Tuesday before the Senate vote. Mehdi Hasan, could you comment on what he said, and also explain what Saudi Arabia is trying to do in Yemen and why the U.S. is supporting Saudi Arabia?
MEHDIHASAN: It's a good question, when you say, "Try and explain what Saudi Arabia is doing in Yemen." I think a lot of people would wonder, "Yes, what is Saudi Arabia doing in Yemen?" including a lot of Saudis now, who are wondering.
This war was declared in 2015. It was supposed to be done quickly, a Saudi-led coalition of Arab nations against, quote-unquote, "Houthi rebels," backed by Iran, allegedly. And this was the case where MBS, Mohammed bin Salman, at the time, wasn't the crown prince; he was a deputy crown prince and the defense minister, and he was pushing this war. It was going to be a quick, simple war—you know, the richest countries in the Middle East against the poorest country. And yet, three years later, still mired in this horrific war, with all of those humanitarian consequences that Bernie Sanders mentioned on the floor of the Senate. It's a disaster. It's been called an apocalypse by U.N. officials. It's been called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
And, you know, by all intents and purposes, it is a U.S.-Saudi war, Nermeen. It's not just a Saudi-led war. As Bernie Sanders pointed out, it's U.S. refueling Saudi jets, it's U.S. providing arms and bombs, it's U.S. providing intel to Saudi officials, diplomatic cover in international forums. And yet, Americans don't know enough about it, because the media doesn't cover it. And when it does cover it, it doesn't mention the Saudi role. And it's been a disaster. There's no end in sight. MBS said, in that 60 Minutes interview on Sunday, you know, "It's all the fault of the Houthis, and it's all the fault of Iran," and showed no signs of any prospect of bringing this horrific war to an end.
We rightly get agitated about what goes on in Syria and the bombing—the bombings in Aleppo and elsewhere. But that's a dictator who we are not arming, who we're not supporting. And yet, in Yemen, there's a war going on which has horrific humanitarian consequences, and that's a dictator, the Saudi dictators, who we do support and arm. So, I find the whole thing slightly absurd and morally grotesque. But, you know, the U.S. is not going to do anything.
To go back to the earlier question that we began the show with, MBS's visit is such a big deal because he's such a close ally of the U.S. And Donald Trump, remember, came to office claiming he was going to be a Saudi critic. People forget, when Donald Trump was running for election, he accused the Saudis of being behind 9/11. He said he might not buy oil from the Saudis. He attacked Hillary Clinton for taking money from the Saudis, because they were human rights abusers. And yet, since coming to office, he went to Saudi Arabia first. The first foreign visit he made was to Saudi Arabia. He now praises MBS and his father, the king, Salman. He welcomed him to the White House on Tuesday, and he said, "They've got lots of money. We want that money. We're going to have a great relation." For Trump, it's always about money. So, expect no change.
But although one—you know, one bit of good news: That vote, 55 to 45, I think it was, that's much narrower than previous, quote-unquote, "anti-Saudi" votes on Capitol Hill have been. On Capitol Hill, at least, there's far much more criticism of Saudi Arabia than there has been anytime that I can think of in recent memory.
AMYGOODMAN: You know, we just interviewed Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who—
MEHDIHASAN: Who's been great on this.
AMYGOODMAN: —joined with Sanders in pushing for this. Now, I wanted to ask you, Medea Benjamin—last year, the Trump administration approved the resumption of sales of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia. President Obama had frozen some of those weapons sales last year due to concerns about civilian casualties in Saudi Arabia's expanding war in Yemen. Now, Obama didn't cut off the support, but he did restrict it. Trump took those restrictions off. You have been deeply concerned about this vote. Can you explain what happened on the floor of the Senate?
MEDEABENJAMIN: Well, I want to give kudos to Bernie Sanders and Chris Murphy and Mike Lee, a conservative Republican, who introduced this resolution using a very unique angle, which is the War Powers Act, to say this is an unconstitutional war. It has never been voted on by Congress. Congress has not only the authority, but the obligation, to declare war. And this certainly does not fit under the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force that was passed after 9/11 to attack those associated—involved in the 9/11 attack or associated forces. So, it was a very good argument. And I think it's horrific that 10 Democrats defected and voted for this, and that so many—almost all of the Republicans have shown themselves to be the war party and to not want to take on their constitutional duty to declare war or not declare war, to allow President Trump to continue with this war in Yemen.
And so, I think we should go back and look at all of those who voted in favor of continuing this war, to tell them they have the blood of Yemeni people on their hands. And when we see those amateur graphs that President Trump held up to talk about all the weapons sales, and showed the states in which there were jobs being created by those weapons sales, showed them in red, think of them as the blood of the Yemeni people, that it's their deaths and their famine that's creating jobs in the United States, and then ask yourself about the morality not just of President Trump, but of this country and of our Congress, that will be delighted by the creation of jobs, on the backs of the people of Yemen, who are suffering the largest catastrophe, in the United States. What does this say about our country? What does it tell the rest of the world about the morals of the United States?
AMYGOODMAN: And to be clear, the man he's sitting with, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, even before he was crown prince—and he's taken over this power after arresting, what, hundreds of people in Saudi Arabia, a number of members of the Saudi royal family, right after Jared Kushner met with him in Saudi Arabia—he was in charge of this war, even before he was crown prince.
MEDEABENJAMIN: Well, that's right. This is his war. And that's why when anybody talks about him as a reformer, "No," you have to say, "he's not a reformer. He is a war criminal." And the shakedown that he presided over in Saudi Arabia is one of the most bizarre things, taking over 200 of the elites of Saudi Arabia and bringing them into this gilded prison in the Ritz hotel and then demanding that they turn over a lot of their assets to him, under his control, before they would be allowed to leave, and 17 of them hospitalized, one of them killed. And this is seen as part of his anti-corruption campaign.
This is the same crown prince who, when he was on a vacation in France, saw a yacht that he liked, that was owned by a Russian vodka financier, and bought it for over $500 million, who owns a château in France that's considered the most expensive house in the world, and that also bought a Picasso picture, the most high-priced painting ever sold in the United States—in the world. So, this is not Robin Hood. And he, himself, said on 60 Minutes, to be fair, that he is not Gandhi or Mandela. But he is a war criminal.
NERMEENSHAIKH: Yeah, and he also said in that interview that he has a great deal of personal wealth and, exactly what you said, that he's neither Mandela or Gandhi, and that this was—the way that he spent his money was entirely his own business. Let's just go to a clip of that, responding to a question about his own extravagant lifestyle.
PRINCEMOHAMMEDBINSALMAN: [translated] My personal life is something I'd like to keep to myself, and I don't try to draw attention to it. If some newspapers want to point something out about it, that's up to them. As far as my private expenses, I'm a rich person. I'm not a poor person. I'm not Gandhi or Mandela. I'm a member of the ruling family, that existed for hundreds of years, before the founding of Saudi Arabia. We own very large lots of land. And my personal life is the same as it was 10 or 20 years ago.
AMYGOODMAN: So, Mehdi Hasan, if you want to expand on this? And also, what has happened to the crown prince's mother? Where is she?
MEHDIHASAN: So, just on the interview clip you played, I love the idea that "I'm not Mandela or Gandhi." I don't think anyone was really going to confuse the crown prince of Saudi Arabia with Mandela or Gandhi, although some in the U.S. media—
AMYGOODMAN: Really? Even with the U.S. press?
MEHDIHASAN: Yeah, I'll add the caveat: Some in the U.S. media may want to portray him in that way. And the bar is so low when it comes to the Saudis. So, he becomes crown prince, and he allows women to drive. And people in the West say, "Wow! He's the emancipator of women," because he allowed women to drive, rather than asking, "Why was Saudi Arabia the only country in the world where women were not allowed to drive?" Why not ask the question, as Medea pointed out: The death penalty for adultery, which disproportionately affects women, for sorcery and witchcraft, which disproportionately affects women, when's he getting rid of that? No question from 60 Minutes about the death penalty. No questions about democracy or freedom or elections. The words didn't come up during the interview. They keep calling him a revolutionary. I've never come across a revolution where the dictator is still in power at the end of it. I thought that's the whole point of a revolution, is to get rid of the absolute totalitarian government. So it's bizarre to call this guy a revolutionary.
To take your point about his mother, there have been reports in the news that this is a crown prince who basically detained, quote-unquote, "kidnapped" his own mother, in order to prevent her from stopping him from taking over from his father. He is one of many children. Saudi kings tend to have a lot of children. He's one of many children to King Salman. King Salman, by most accounts, is really not in control of the kingdom. He may have dementia. He's kind of out of it. He's in his eighties. This guy, 32 years old, crown prince, basically runs the show now. He's been very, very efficient in terms of taking power. You've got to give him that. He may—he may have botched the war in Yemen, but he's been very good at asserting power at home. He got rid of his cousin, who was the crown prince, put him under palace arrest. He may have kidnapped his mother or detained his mother or hidden her away somewhere, so that she couldn't get involved in his kind of power takeover from his siblings. He locked up all these princes and business leaders, as Medea pointed out. Basically, it was a shakedown, to use her very appropriate phrase.
And now he's consolidated all this power, in himself, in the country, at this young age. But the problem is, he's not very good at doing what he does in terms of foreign policy. Let's see what he does on economic policy. He's great pals with Jared Kushner. Nermeen mentioned earlier about how they hung out 'til 4:00 in the morning the week before the purge. He and Jared Kushner are great pals. That's the connection to the Trump administration. And I always think they're very—they're very similar, Jared Kushner and MBS. They're both 30-something spoiled brats who are deeply overrated and mess up everything they touch.
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