Letters from an American - May 10, 2024

Episode Date: May 11, 2024

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May 10th, 2024. On October 31st, 2020, former Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon, who had left Trump's administration in 2017, explained to a group of people that, knowing that votes for Biden would accumulate throughout the evening as mail-in ballots were counted, Trump planned simply to declare victory on election night, seizing the presidency and claiming that any results to the contrary were an attempt to steal the election from him. At 10 or 11 o'clock, Trump's going to walk in the Oval, tweet out, I'm the winner, game over, suck on that, Bannon was recorded as saying. That prediction was pretty much what happened, but Trump did not succeed in seizing the presidency. Next came plans to overturn the election results, and Bannon was also involved in those.

was also involved in those. Then, famously, on January 5, 2021, he predicted on his podcast that the next day, all hell is going to break loose. Not surprisingly, the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol wanted to talk to Bannon. It subpoenaed him in September 2021 for testimony and documents. When he refused to comply, a jury found him guilty of contempt of Congress in October 2022. A judge sentenced him to four months in jail, but allowed him to stay out of jail while he appealed. Today, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld his conviction. He will not be jailed immediately. He can still appeal to a higher court. Another White House advisor, Peter Navarro, appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court to overturn his own conviction for contempt of Congress after he, too, refused to

answer a House subpoena for testimony and documents. The Supreme Court denied his appeal, and Navarro reported to prison on March 19, 2024. He has asked a federal judge to let him serve the remainder of his sentence on supervised release, so far without lock. Former federal prosecutor and legal analyst Joyce White Vance wrote, Bannon is effectively out of appeals. He can delay a little bit longer, asking for the full court to review the decision on bank and asking SCOTUS to hear his case on cert, but neither one of those things will happen. Bannon is going to prison. Lack of information was at the heart of Bannon and Navarro's cases. It was also at the heart of the State Department's report to Congress about whether Israel's strikes on Gaza have

complied with international and U.S. law. National Security Memorandum, or NSM-20, which Biden signed on February 8, 2024, was designed to make sure that there are adequate safeguards and accountability when countries who have access to U.S. weapons use them. the Secretary of State to obtain certain credible and reliable written assurances from foreign governments receiving defense articles and transmit that information to Congress. Issued today, the report covered seven countries in active conflict, Colombia, Iraq, Israel, Kenya, Nigeria, Iraq, Israel, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia, and Ukraine, and explored whether they were using U.S. government-funded defense articles in accordance with international humanitarian law and whether they were not arbitrarily denying, restricting, or otherwise impeding U.S.-backed humanitarian assistance in areas where the country was using those U.S.-backed humanitarian assistance in areas where the country was using those U.S. defense articles. The report noted that it's hard to collect accurate information in a war zone. Often the information has to come from participants or

third parties, and sometimes that information comes only from the country the U.S. is supplying with weapons. It also noted that the human rights-based Leahy laws prohibit the U.S. from supplying weapons to a foreign military unit if the Departments of State or Defense have credible information that the unit has committed a gross violation of human rights, including torture, rape, extrajudicial killing, or enforced disappearance. The report concluded that Colombia appears to be in compliance. Iraqi security forces have been credibly alleged to be violating international law, but the U.S. does not supply those units. Those it does supply have received U.S. training on compliance with international humanitarian law, and Iraqi

leadership is working closely with the U.S. to professionalize. It has not restricted humanitarian aid. Kenya has repeatedly violated international human rights law, but it is working to come into compliance and has not misused U.S. weapons. Nigerian forces routinely use excessive force and torture. They are expanding the legal advice in the professionalizing army, and there are no credible reports of U.S. materiel used in ways that are inconsistent with international law. Somalia has violated humanitarian law and human rights law, arbitrarily killing and torturing people and committing sexual violence. The U.S. supplies the counterterrorism Danaab Brigade of the Somali National Army and works closely with it. The

State Department assesses that the brigade has not used U.S. weapons in any violations of humanitarian or human rights law. That leaves Israel and Ukraine. The report begins by noting that in the October 7th attack on Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists killed an estimated 1,200 individuals, wounded more than 5,400, and took 253 hostages, including U.S. citizens. Hamas, it notes, does not follow any portion of and consistently violates international humanitarian law. Then it takes on the numbers of Palestinians killed and injured, saying that the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health, which international organizations generally deem credible, deem credible, estimates that 34,700 Palestinians have been killed. Another 78,200 have been wounded, a significant percentage of whom are reported to be women and children.

The Gaza Ministry of Health does not differentiate between Hamas fighters and civilians, but Israel says that about half of the 34,700 killed were Hamas fighters. The State Department says that we do not have the ability to verify this estimate. It also notes that the conflict has displaced the vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza and resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis. The State Department notes that the U.S. government has emphasized Israeli compliance with international humanitarian law and that Israel has institutions and processes charged with upholding those laws. Israel has been conducting assessments, including criminal investigations, into alleged violations of international humanitarian law. The next paragraph, though, says that when asked, Israel shared some information that gave insight into Israel's procedures and rules,

but that information was incomplete. Among other things, Israel has not shared complete information to verify whether U.S. defense articles covered under NSM-20 were specifically used in actions that have been alleged as violations of international humanitarian law or international human rights law in Gaza or in the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the period of the report. However, the authors concluded, because certain Israeli-operated systems are entirely U.S. origin, for example, crude attack aircraft, they are likely to have been involved in incidents that raise concerns about Israel's international humanitarian law compliance. The report goes on to say that while it is difficult

to determine whether specific U.S. weapons have been used improperly, there have been sufficient reported incidents to raise serious concerns. Given the nature of the conflict in Gaza, with Hamas seeking to hide behind civilian populations and infrastructure and expose them to Israeli military action, as well as the lack of U.S. government personnel on the ground in Gaza, it is difficult to assess or reach conclusive findings on individual incidents. difficult to assess or reach conclusive findings on individual incidents. Nevertheless, given Israel's significant reliance on U.S.-made defense articles, it is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered under NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its international humanitarian law obligations

or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm. The State Department says it is not aware of U.S. weaponry being misused. It also said that it has had deep concerns about action and inaction by Israel that hampered humanitarian aid efforts and that, while that aid still is insufficient, we do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance. The report also assessed that Ukraine had occasionally violated international humanitarian law and international human rights law, torturing those suspected of collaborating with Russia, for example. The Ukraine government has

committed to adhere to the rule of law. It has apparently not used U.S. weapons in those violations and has facilitated U.S. humanitarian assistance. Music composed by Michael Moss.