Advisory: Press Conference to Denounce Todd Young-Jeanne Shaheen Bill to Starve Yemeni Children
For Immediate Release
Peace Action – Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain – CODEPINK – Just Foreign Policy
March 12, 2018
Contacts:
Paul Kawika Martin, Peace Action, pmartin@peace-action.org
Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK, medea.benjamin@gmail.com
Robert Naiman, Just Foreign Policy, naiman.uiuc@gmail.com
Washington – Peace and human rights groups opposed to U.S. participation in the catastrophic Saudi war and blockade in Yemen will hold a press conference on Monday March 12, 2018 at noon in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office building to announce their opposition to the Todd Young-Jeanne Shaheen bill that would continue U.S. participation in the war indefinitely, to call on Young and Shaheen to withdraw their bill, to call on Young and Shaheen to withdraw their threat to substitute the Young-Shaheen bill in place of the Sanders-Lee-Murphy bill to end U.S. participation in the war, and to call on Young and Shaheen to pledge to oppose any effort to substitute the Young-Shaheen bill for the Sanders-Lee-Murphy bill on the Senate floor.
After the press conference, the groups will go to Shaheen’s office and then to Young’s office to press their demands. The groups will deliver petitions signed by New Hampshire and Indiana residents in support of their demands.
The Young-Shaheen bill would allow U.S. participation in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen to continue if Secretary of State Rex Tillerson “certifies” to Congress that the Government of Saudi Arabia is undertaking “(1) an urgent and good faith effort to conduct diplomatic negotiations to end the civil war in Yemen; and (2) appropriate measures to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Yemen by increasing access for all Yemenis to food, fuel, and medicine.”
Rex Tillerson works for Donald Trump. Donald Trump and Saudi dictator Mohammed bin Salman are bosom buddies. Mohammed bin Salman is the chief architect of the Saudi war in Yemen. Donald Trump’s employee Rex Tillerson will make the Young-Shaheen certification faster than you can say “Saudi oil money” – even if the Saudi government doesn’t do a single thing differently in the future than they have done in the past.
A vote for the Young-Shaheen bill would be a vote to continue U.S. participation in the Saudi war in Yemen for another year exactly as it is today. A vote for the Young-Shaheen bill would be a vote to continue starving Yemeni children to death for another year exactly as they are being starved to death today.
We call on Jeanne Shaheen and Todd Young to withdraw their horrible bill to keep starving Yemeni children to death, to pledge not to offer it as a substitute for the Sanders-Lee-Murphy bill; and to pledge to oppose any effort to offer it as a substitute for the Sanders-Lee-Murphy bill.
Who: Peace Action – Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain – CODEPINK – Just Foreign Policy
What: Press conference to denounce Todd Young-Jeanne Shaheen bill to continue starving Yemeni children for another year, followed by petition delivery to Shaheen and Young offices demanding that they withdraw the bill and pledge to oppose any effort to substitute it on the Senate floor for the Sanders-Lee-Murphy bill to end U.S. participation in the war
Where: Atrium of Hart Senate Office Building, then Shaheen’s office and Young’s office
When: Noon, March 12, 2018