On September 12, Secretary Pompeo certified to Congress that the Saudi-led coalition, which includes the United States and the United Arab Emirates are "undertaking demonstrable actions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure." The statement came within hours of a coalition airstrike on a bus station that left 27 civilians dead.
The certification was in compliance with a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the US' defense spending bill, which forced the State Department to curtail its support for the war on Yemen if it could not assure that the Saudi coalition was taking measures to limit civilian casualties.
Whitney Webb, staff writer for MintPress News, and Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Non-Violence, joined Radio Sputnik's Loud & Clear to discuss.
Raytheon's stocks dropped by more than 3 percent after the leaked memo was reported on, journalist Dan Cohen discovered.
"Interestingly, some reports have indicated that the leader of that group in the State Department that Pompeo actually listened to is headed by a former Raytheon lobbyist," Webb said.
Some 16,000 people have been killed in the Yemen war, and the United Nations believes millions to be at risk of starvation in 2018. With continued US support, experts believe that the crisis will only worsen.