Flashback: President Barack Obama banned the sale of precision-guided military technology to the Saudis in 2016 after the coalition hit a funeral hall and killed 155 people. Per CNN, that ban "was overturned in March 2017. The bomb responsible for hitting a bus and killing dozens in Yemen last week, including children, was made by U.S.-based Lockheed Martin and sold to Saudi Arabia through a State Department-sanctioned arms deal, according to CNN. Why it matters: The attack that left a reported 40 children dead and dozens injured gripped the international community, leading the UN to call for an investigation. The U.S. has maintained that its involvement in the war between the Saudi coalition and the Houthi rebels in Yemen is to the extent of information sharing and refueling of aircrafts. But CNN says the latest strike has led to growing questions "about whether the U.S. bears any moral culpability." The details: CNN came to its conclusionby working "with local Yemeni journalists and munition experts." The bomb that was used was found to be a "500-pound...laser-guided MK 82 bomb" from Lockheed Martin. Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich declined to confirm CNN's report, saying the U.S. "has worked with the Saudi-led coalition to help them improve procedures and oversight mechanisms to reduce civilian casualties." A State Department official told Axios: "We cannot independently verify what may have been found on site, and we refer to the Saudis for the details of their procurement and stockpile management. The United States has called upon all parties to take appropriate measures to mitigate the risk of civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure." https://www.axios.com/report-bomb-t...ade-3f52ec89-7422-41df-bcd0-160546abf90a.html
The default excuse by the Saudis: "the enemy was hiding w/the kids". Methinks their message is: "yeah, we'll even bomb your kids, so surrender".
One of the Trump cultists wanted to know how Obama stood up to Saudis, this is how by not selling weapons they can use indiscriminately against civilians.
Actually, thats not true. In July of 2016 Obama signed Executive Order 13732. That mandates an annual report from the DNI summarizing all civilian casualties in our various efforts around the globe. I looked to see if Trump had rescinded it, as far as I can tell he hasn't. So there should have been a report by May 1st of 2018. https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-07-07/pdf/2016-16295.pdf
I'd read (a few months back) that the mandatory report was late and not coming soon. Did a quick google to see if that had changed and found nothing. edited: " http://thehill.com/policy/defense/3...ing-mandated-civilian-casualty-reports-report The Trump administration reportedly will not follow an Obama-era executive order that requires it to release a yearly report on the number of civilians and enemy fighters killed by U.S. anti-terrorism strikes. The report, due Tuesday, was first set up by former President Obama in 2016 as a way to provide more transparency on drone strikes in the Middle East. “The executive order that requires the civilian casualty report is under review” and could be “modified” or “rescinded,” a White House spokesman told The Washington Post. "
It seems it was released late. I expect the optics of it were too bad for Donny to actually suppress it. https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/01/politics/us-military-report-civilian-deaths/index.html Estimated 499 civilians killed, 169 injured with 450 cases "yet to be assessed".. As expected the real numbers are certainly far higher. "Outside groups have said that the number of civilians killed in the ISIS fight is much higher than the coalition's figures. "(The Department of Defense) acknowledges that there are differences between DoD assessments and reports from other organizations," the report said, saying "these differences result from a variety of factors" including the use of "different types of information and different methodologies to assess whether civilian casualties have occurred."" These days is you could have Martians land and there would be no headline ink left after the Trump shit-show. Important matters are not getting their due attention.