CODEPINK Press Release, September 1, 2015
Contacts: Medea Benjamin (415)-235-6517, Stanley Heller (203)-934-2761
A New Coalition Calls for the End of the U.S.-Saudi Alliance
When: Friday, September 4 @ 10:30am & 12pm
Where: White House (10:30am) & the Ritz Carlton: 1150 22nd St NW, Washington, DC 20037 (12pm)
Washington, DC--As Saudi Arabia’s King Salman comes to Washington for a September 4 White House visit, a new coalition of human rights organizations is calling on the United States to end its alliance with the absolute monarchy.
The Coalition to End the U.S. Saudi Alliance denounces the kingdom for its severe domestic human rights abuses and its disastrous Yemen war. It demands that the U.S. stop wasting the enormous amount of money that our military spends supporting Saudi Arabia and its collaborators in the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The founding groups in the Coalition are the Institute for Gulf Affairs, CODEPINK, the Middle East Crisis Committee (Connecticut) and Peace Action (Massachusetts).
The Coalition has started a website—“End the U.S.-Saudi Alliance”—found at www.SaudiUS.org. It is launching a petition calling on the President and Congress to close all American bases in the Persian Gulf and bring home the U.S. military NOW!
Ali Al Ahmed, the Director of the Institute of Gulf Affairs, reports that “Four years ago Princeton professor Roger Stern said the U.S. had spent $8 trillion on military measures in the Persian Gulf over the last four decades. There is no reason to go on spending billions of dollars a year to defend monarchies with horrific human rights records that routinely attack or interfere in neighboring countries.
“Horrific punishments from beheading to lashings are routinely carried out by the Saudi government,” says Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK. “The kingdom’s repression of women is notorious worldwide. It’s time to break the cozy relationship between our government and the Saudi regime.”
“Nearly 5,000 people have been killed in the Saudi-led attack on Yemen. The U.S. is openly coordinating our ally’s air raids. This is participation in war crimes and we demand its immediate end,” said Stanley Heller, Executive Director of the Middle East Crises Committee.
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