The Biden administration has been flooded with nearly 500 reports of US weapons being used by Israel to kill civilians unnecessarily, but no action has been taken, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
By refusing to act, the State Department is in violation of its policy that was started in August 2023 as a response to concerns over US weapons being used by Saudi Arabia and the UAE to kill civilians in Yemen. The policy, known as the Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance (CHIRG) process, directs US officials to investigate incidents and recommend action within two months.
According to the Post report, not a single of the nearly 500 reports have reached the “action” stage. US officials have said the CHIRG process has become functionally irrelevant because senior officials in the State Department are dismissive of any non-Israeli source.
Mike Casey, a former State Department official who resigned in July, said senior State Department officials often dismissed the credibility of Palestinian sources, eyewitness accounts, nongovernmental organizations, the Palestinian Authority, and the United Nations.
Sources told the Post that at least one-quarter of the cases had been dismissed in the first of three investigative stages because they were deemed not credible or officials thought US weapons weren’t used. The rest of the cases have reached the “verification stage,” but that has only involved asking Israel about the cases, giving the Israeli government the chance to make excuses for its own crimes.
“We ask the [government of Israel] about the cases: Did you forewarn? Why did you hit this school or safe road or safe zone?” a former official said.
More than two-thirds of the cases remain unresolved as they are pending a response from the Israeli government. State Department spokesman Matt Miller had made clear throughout the past year that the US has been deferring to Israel when asked about atrocities being committed with US weapons.
On Tuesday, Israeli strikes on a residential building in northern Gaza’ Beit Lahia killed at least 109 Palestinians, including more than two dozen children. In response, Miller claimed the US was “deeply concerned” about the “horrifying incident” but only said the US would ask Israel about the attack and didn’t call for an investigation or suggest any US action would be taken. “We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask what happened here,” he said.
The US is in violation of multiple foreign assistance laws by continuing to supply weapons to Israel as it intentionally blocks food aid to a starving Palestinian population and slaughters women and children on a daily basis. A group of American healthcare workers who volunteered in Gaza have estimated the US-backed Israeli bombing campaign and siege has killed at least 118,908 Palestinians, including over 60,000 who have starved to death.
The US has spent at least $22.76 billion on supporting the genocidal campaign in one year, including $17.9 billion on direct military aid and $4.8 billion on military operations to support Israel in the region.
In-Action is a sin.
Where is our efforts of diplomacy?!….
"Our"? Don't include me in this "our"! I never gave the USG permission to mass murder THOUSANDS of innocent defenseless people. Neither did MILLIONS of aware USA citizens! A small clique of warmongering criminals is in charge of this genocide and "diplomacy" to them is unmentionable!
The validity of this argument hinges on the answer to the question whether the US is a democracy. This would be a Chomskyite criterion to establish culpable consent of the population.
I suspect a good deal of the American population, much like the Europeans have given up on the idea that they do. It would explain the unbridgeable divide between the parallel universes in which the populace and the party elites live out their separate realities everywhere in the West. Perhaps the charade has surpassed its expiration date. The death of the belief in democracy lagged a good time behind the corpse it dragged along with it. It's over.
Do you suggest, then, that the mainstream US population "goes along to get along"; or perhaps, ignores the charade of "democracy" so long as there's a game on TV, a pizza in the freezer, halfway reasonable gas prices, and the illusion of comfort ?
I tend to think that's so – that the citizens of MOST countries where ( $$ >> principles ) in governance, just let it go so long as it "doesn't impact ME".
I think the closest we've come to actual "civil disobedience" or unrest against selfish Authoritarian policies from government, came recently during The Virus Of Unspecified Origin. But that was limited; the majority happily traded liberty for "safety" and got to bully other people into conformity.
Just not sure what "critical mass" or tipping-point event must occur where harsh reaction to the failure of capitalism-democracy becomes automatic or an emergent property of society brought to such a state.
I think that Vietnam era draft performed miracles to wake up population to reality.
It would belp if we acually demand constitution be followed and no money approved for wars without declaration of war,
However — all wars not declared by US should be treated as extra cost , and people should be asked to pay a separate tax for such expenses.
Otberwise, they are spending social security money, and claim later we do not have enough to fund it!
All we need is some clean accounting. Even if we think it is not affecting us — all these military exoenses around the globe is mortgaging our future – our old age dignity, health care, education, infrastructure.
How much longer can these morans claim that Russia is responsible for our water, electricity systems breaking down? Our railroads, dams, bridges?
We are engaging in magical thinking — if we close our eyes, the problem does not exist!
Oh, can you imagine ! War taxes levied for each conflict ? That’d be amazing, I like the idea a lot.
If I’m not mistaken, Germany paid off the last of its WW1 reparations in the early 1990s. Picture the expenses incurred by AUMF 2001 paid off by direct taxation just after Halley’s Comet returns.
I totally understand. If we stop it now, how can we explain why we didn't stop killing civilians in WWII, in Korea, in Vietnam, in… Sorry guys. The list is way too long for my arthritis.
How can we justify participating in genocide today, by reminiscing over all past could haves and would haves?
Thomas Massie
@RepThomasMassie
“There was no time in history where the people who were censoring free speech were the good guys.”
@RobertKennedyJr
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.”
@RonPaul
I hope Trump has the brains to surround himself with people like Massie.
Don’t count on it. I’m guessing more David Friedmans and Jared Kushners.
I'm not. I keep seeing Tom Cotton whispering sweet nothings in his ear.
“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.”
― Voltaire
Overwhelmed? Seriously? Propaganda. Not overwhelmed enough to stop supplying Israel with the weapons it uses to kill civilians. So as usual, complicit in the slaughter of Palestinian civilians.
Ahhh, the legal system dreamed of by philosophers for thousands of years, since the time of Hammurabi.
Disregard circumstances and evidence. Ask the perpetrator of a crime if they are guilty. Then automatically believe their claim of innocence.
It's like I'm stun-locked in the Dubya Bush early-mid 00's era.
This is probably the dumbest title for an article that Antiwar.com has ever published – or maybe one step below that "How Washington Can End the War In Ukraine" title also today. Who thinks these things up?
Of course, Biden "hasn't taken any action"! Did you expect any? Does a year of directly supporting genocide not clue you in? The US supplies 70%+ of Israel's military capability. Does that not clue you in?
The only thing Biden hasn't done is directly come out and say, "We're gonna kill all the women and children!" – just like he did once before during one of the Israeli conflicts. Look it up.
Biden Once Called for Israel to Defend Itself, Including Killing Women and Children: Report
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/biden-once-called-for-israel-to-defend-itself-including-killing-women-and-children-report/
Now do you have a clue?
Nobody is as blind as the one who does not want to see. A year of generic genocide now followed by a thorough block by block genocide in Northern Gaza. Starvation AND daily drone notification to population to move or ve killed, As they have nowhere to go, as all roads are destroyed, and no vehicles available, oeople are disoriented. Every medical facility left is bombed, desparate pleas by medical staff falling in deaf ear. Little chilgren with nobody left to take care of them roam amuds therubble.
We should congratulate ourselves. This is a feat not achieved recently in the full view of mankind. All other countries should be congratulated too. They are all standing by watching the unspeakable. This blood soaked land will not bring Israel any hapiness.
Four hypotheticals (this is not a prediction; it’s a suggestion):
Hypothetical Number One: Donald Trump wins the election.
Hypothetical Number Two: Joe Biden, who is a lame duck with nothing better to do, and who can act with impunity/immunity, and without an immediate successor whose success he needs to worry about, for more than two months, decides to do some light reading.
Hypothetical Number Three: Biden comes across something interesting, and calls Anthony Blinken.
Hypothetical Number Four: Anthony Blinken calls Israel Katz and says “hey, Joe was browsing the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, and came across Section 620M. It seems that ‘no assistance shall be furnished under this Act or the Arms Export Control Act to any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.’ So, you know, he called me, and I couldn’t lie to him. You’re cut off. No more weapons … oh, I’m required by that same law to inform you, which I have now done, and to assist you in taking measures to bring the responsible members of the security forces to justice. So yeah, the first measure would be getting all of your troops out of Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem. Once that’s done, let’s touch base on how to proceed with arrests, trials, etc. so maybe you can start getting your welfare checks again. Have a nice day!”
The Israel lobby has mostly abandoned the Democrats now anyway, so a clean break and four years to talk that up — even while Trump undoes it — seems like smart politics to me.
International courts are already coming for Israel and its leaders.
They will also come for the US, which is now isolated in the world, just everybody vs Israel and the US. Such was the most recent vote in the UN.
This will complete the destruction of the US position in the world. It did not need to be this way, but Biden's arrogant overreach compounded the decades of mishandling.
All the US needed was some of what it had in abundance at the beginning of the Cold War, but it had none, none at all for decades now. The internal wastage that tore down the USSR did in that sense also wreck the US.
The US could have carried on for a long time yet, but now it is just a question of how many of its leaders will live long enough to get the Pinochet treatment.