We can have a picture like this for the Senate vote on the 502B Resolution on Pharaoh Bibi's restrictions on aid that are deliberately causing famine in Gaza.
WCK = BFD. Everybody in Washington knows who this is. Everybody in Washington knows what this means. Jeremy K, who is ex-USAID, ex-Obama, ex-Biden, now head of Refugees International, is tweeting about it. It's like the school bus of Yemeni kids, like Khashoggi. They can't get away with the lies so easily this time. Everybody in Washington knows who World Central Kitchen is. The boss of WCK is regularly on CNN; he is beloved in Washington.
In 2018, when the MbS Saudi regime blew up the bus of Yemeni kids on a field trip and claimed it was a legitimate military target, it mattered more in Washington because the Sanders-Lee-Murphy Yemen War Powers Resolution was already hanging fire in the Senate. There was a "therefore, what?" already on the table in Washington. "Therefore, pass the Yemen War Powers Resolution." When the tree fell in the forest, the echo-amplification chamber was ready.
In 2018, when Pompeo=Raytheon did the fake Young-Shaheen certification that the Saudis were limiting civilian casualties in Yemen after the MbS Saudi regime blew up the school bus of Yemeni kids on a field trip and claimed it was a legitimate military target, it mattered more in Washington because the Sanders-Lee-Murphy Yemen War Powers Resolution was already hanging fire in the Senate. There was a "therefore, what?" already on the table in Washington. "Therefore, pass the Yemen War Powers Resolution." When the tree fell in the forest, the echo-amplification chamber was ready.
In 2018, when the MbS Saudi regime assassinated a Washington Post columnist who was a resident of Virginia and was seen as a regularly consulted elite expert on the MbS Saudi regime inside the DC Beltway (and whose last WaPo column before his assassination was a J'accuse against the MbS Saudi regime on the Yemen war), it mattered more in Washington because the Sanders-Lee-Murphy Yemen War Powers Resolution was already hanging fire in the Senate. There was a "therefore, what?" already on the table in Washington. "Therefore, pass the Yemen War Powers Resolution." When the tree fell in the forest, the echo-amplification chamber was ready.
There is something already on the table in the Senate now. Uncle Bernie's 502Bibi Resolution. It can be re-introduced. The text can be revised to accommodate whoever needs to be accommodated to get more co-sponsors and more votes. It could focus on aid access in the wake of the Bernie-Van Hollen letter and the WCK killings. Part of the beauty of 502B compared to WPR and AECA is that it's a blank canvas. They can put whatever they want. In the first round - may Hashem be so merciful as to get us to the second round - they don't have to specify which military aid they're going to go after, or argue that that particular military aid is the worst military aid, most implicated in illegally killing civilians. "Do you agree that U.S. military aid to Pharaoh Bibi should be conditioned on human rights?" That's what the vote is. If we can't get to 51 on that, there's no need to get bogged down in the details of what weapons correspond to illegally killing which civilians, now or in the future. If we can get to 51 on that, then we can talk about what to prohibit.
502B isn't privileged in the House. AECA isn't privileged in the House. But WPR is. Under House parliamentarian precedents, to be privileged there is no burden of proof on the sponsors to prove that the Pentagon is doing things that the Pentagon claims it is not doing, about which the Pentagon has lied like a rug in the past, as it lied about mid-air refueling of Saudi warplanes in the middle of their Yemen bombing runs. The sponsors only have to follow the form of past WPR. But our case is certainly strengthened if we can show current WPR violations in mainstream press. I didn't bother to keep track at the beginning (October) of the Gaza WPR violations being reported in mainstream press because I figured, if the current courage test is to say "ceasefire," (or "cessation of hostilities") then we're not ready for WPR.
But we're at a very different juncture now. And here are two smoking guns that Admin is violating
Section 8c of the War Powers Resolution of 1973.
CPC can call the question on this anytime they want. They can even do it when the House is "in recess." They can do it during a "pro forma session." [This trick doesn't work in the Senate.]
Furthermore: WPR can focus on Rafah. We can make Congressional Democrats vote on whether they agree with the publicly stated "red line" of the Biden Administration (which the Biden Administration so far refuses to enforce with restrictions on U.S. weapons transfers, according to Jewish Insider.)
====
[...]
Growing concerns about US intelligence sharing
When it comes to intelligence sharing with Israel, the US has offered the Israeli government a significant amount of processing capacity, according to two sources familiar with the matter — essentially, computing power that allows Israel to sift through mass amounts of intercepts, imagery and other raw intelligence to extract meaningful trends or insights.
In theory, the intelligence community is not allowed to share information with partners that would be used to violate the international laws of armed conflict, and US officials insist that they are not giving Israel what’s known as “targeting intelligence”; in this case, intelligence used to target precise Hamas fighters or positions.
[...]
But several sources familiar with US sharing efforts who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity said that is a distinction without a difference. Once the US provides a piece of intelligence to Israel, it has no control over how Israel combines it with other information, and there’s nothing to stop Israel from using that information to target Hamas operatives, the sources said.
[...]
“Absent stronger oversight, it is impossible to discern how allies and partners are using U.S. intelligence in military operations,” Steven Katz, a former Army officer currently working as a civilian in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, wrote in a piece on the national security blog Just Security, advocating for greater congressional oversight of intelligence sharing.
“In certain cases, the IC may be providing indirect support through intelligence sharing for partner operations conducted in a manner inconsistent with U.S. law and policy,” he said.
The State Department has a process in place to investigate reports that civilians have been killed by US weapons wielded by other nations, according to Katz, but no law exists requiring the intelligence community to track how US intelligence-sharing may contribute to civilian deaths.
A provision in an annual intelligence bill now before Congress would require the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to submit an annual report to Congress detailing civilian casualties caused by foreign government operations in which US-shared intelligence played a “significant role.” But that bill has yet to be passed.
===
It cannot be stressed enough: this is covered by Section 8(c) of the War Powers Resolution of 1973, and we already set this precedent on Yemen. Everybody who co-sponsored the last version of the Yemen War Powers Resolution - which includes the House Democratic leadership, Jeffries, Clark, etc. - signed off on the true assertion that intelligence sharing for airstrikes is covered by Section 8(c) of the War Powers Resolution of 1973. Therefore, CPC could call the question on this any time they want.
====
U.S. and Israel’s ‘Unprecedented’ Intelligence Sharing Draws Criticism
As deaths mount in Gaza, some question whether American-provided information is adding to the humanitarian crisis
By Warren P. Strobel and
Nancy A. Youssef
Updated March 31, 2024 2:45 pm ET
===
It is instructive to read the CNN and WSJ articles together and come to the following obvious conclusion: the Pentagon is lying, as it lied about refueling the Saudi warplanes bombing Yemen. Therefore, the CPC can Call the Question on this any time they want.
In 2017, the Pentagon stopped lying about refueling the Saudi warplanes bombing Yemen when Khanna office demanded a classified briefing. That was the basis of the "compromise resolution" backed by Jim McGovern and House leadership that replaced Yemen WPR (which Paul Ryan House leadership would not allow a vote on, using the threat of rules-manipulation-tricks to block it, like we're going to attach the rule blocking it to hurricane relief or something about the wolves, which they subsequently did). The "compromise resolution" did not prohibit the refueling, but affirmed that it was happening and was a War Powers violation because Congress had never authorized it. That set the stage for consideration of the Sanders-Lee-Murphy Yemen War Powers Resolution in the Senate: at least we're all proceeding now from the same set of declassified facts, this is happening, it's covered by WPR, Congress never authorized it, so it's fair game for WPR.
Where we stand now: this is in mainstream press. So we can treat it as a fact. The CPC has all they need to move. Biden's name is mud now with the #Uncommitted people. Prove to the #Uncommitted people that progressive Democrats in Congress aren't sockpuppets of Biden. Prove to the #Uncommitted people that progressive Democrats in Congress can move Biden. That is "at scale." That is equal to the occasion.
