Government watchdogs with jurisdiction over the State Department and Pentagon are preparing to publish the results of multiple investigations scrutinizing the Biden administration\u2019s provision of U.S. weapons to Israel for its military campaign in Gaza, and \u201cseveral\u201d related inquiries are either underway or planned, their offices told The Washington Post.<\/p>\n
The forthcoming inspector general reports, which are not yet public, follow complaints from within the U.S. government that the export of billions of dollars in arms to Israel has violated laws prohibiting the transfer of American military assistance to governments that have committed gross human rights violations or blocked the movement of humanitarian assistance.<\/p>\n
The Biden administration has acknowledged the likelihood that Israel has used U.S. weapons in Gaza in violation of international law, but says continued arms transfers are justified for the defense of the country. Israel maintains that Palestinian casualties are the fault of Hamas, which operates near civilian areas in the densely populated enclave, and denies restricting aid access.<\/p>\n
The inspector general inquiries represent one of the last internal checks on an administration intent on surging weaponry to Israel despite criticisms of the country\u2019s military tactics and the enormous civilian death toll in Gaza. The investigations come as some of Washington\u2019s closest allies, including Britain, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium, have restricted military equipment transfers to Israel becuase of legal and political concerns that the weapons could be used to commit war crimes.<\/p>\n
Neither the White House nor the Israeli Embassy in Washington provided comment.<\/p>\n
After Hamas\u2019s cross-border attack that killed about 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7, Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The vast majority of Israel\u2019s arsenal comes from the United States.<\/p>\n
The State Department\u2019s Office of the Inspector General \u201cwill soon be publishing the results of an inspection of the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which provides policy and program oversight of security assistance and military sales to Israel,\u201d said Mark Huffman, a spokesman for office.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, \u201cseveral other projects related to U.S. security assistance for Israel are pending public announcement\u201d by the Defense Department\u2019s inspector general, said the office\u2019s spokeswoman, Mollie F. Halpern. The Pentagon watchdog also is planning to publish the results of a probe of President Joe Biden\u2019s floating pier, a defunct method of delivering aid to Gaza that cost hundreds of millions of dollars before being rendered inoperable by rough seas. The inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) recently published its own report on the pier, saying experts had warned in advance that choppy waters could pose challenges and that the project itself would detract from diplomatic efforts to secure more reliable land routes for aid.<\/p>\n
The inspectors general offices disclosed to The Post their plans to publish these reports while also acknowledging receipt of a letter from dozens of federal employees spanning more than 30 agencies who accused the watchdogs of failing to conduct proper oversight of Washington\u2019s arms policy.<\/p>\n
The employee coalition, Feds United for Peace, said it was aware that the inspectors general had received information from government whistleblowers indicating U.S. officials \u201care knowingly violating domestic and international law, as well as Administration policies and procedures, in order to continue providing U.S. weapons to Israel for its war on Gaza,\u201d according to a copy of the undated letter obtained by The Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cYet we have seen no action to date from the Inspectors General,\u201d the letter states. \u201cThis stands in stark contrast to the robust efforts to review and assess U.S. support to Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spokespersons for the inspectors general overseeing the Pentagon, State Department and USAID all defended their offices\u2019 oversight efforts.<\/p>\n
The State Department\u2019s watchdog said it was reviewing vetting practices related to the Leahy Laws, legislation that prohibits the U.S. government from providing military assistance to individuals or security force units that commit gross violations of human rights with impunity. It also said there are plans to audit the department\u2019s sanctions policies in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza; its \u201cstrategic response\u201d to threats posed by Iranian-backed groups; and humanitarian assistance to the West Bank and Gaza, including the safeguards in place to prevent U.S. assistance from \u201cbenefiting terrorist groups.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pentagon inspector general\u2019s office also said it has \u201cseveral ongoing and planned projects related to Israel and Gaza.\u201d Parts of the investigations could be redacted depending on classification levels, and some of the those reports are expected to come out later than the State Department\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Internal critics of the government\u2019s watchdogs are skeptical that the upcoming reports will hold the Biden administration to account on the most sensitive issues related to U.S. policy toward Israel. One official who co-authored the Feds United For Peace letter expressed disappointment that none of the inspectors general committed to examining \u201cwhether leadership circumvented laws and intentionally ignored evidence, or worse, manipulated evidence, in order to facilitate what amounts to illegal arms transfers.\u201d This official spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk to the media.<\/p>\n
Harrison Mann, a member of Feds United for Peace and a former U.S. Army officer who resigned in May in opposition to U.S. policy in Gaza, said credible oversight was more important than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrincipals at the State Department, DOD, and Intel Community appear to have deliberately turned a blind eye to a clear pattern of violations of international humanitarian law and the laws of armed conflict, and avoided investigating countless credible allegations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller rejected any notion that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has misled the public about Israel\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome differing perspectives from our workforce on the policies the United States pursues, but this claim about the actions of senior officials couldn\u2019t be further from the truth,\u201d he said. \u201cWe regularly brief Congress with accurate, timely information, and we work tirelessly to ensure the actions we take both comply with the law and advance the national security interests of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin believes Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas but he has been \u201cvery clear\u201d to his Israeli counterpart \u201con the importance of civilian safety and security, as well as the need to allow civilians in Gaza unfettered access to humanitarian aid and medical services.\u201d<\/p>\n
The United States has delivered more than 50,000 tons of missiles, bombs, artillery and other military equipment to Israel since Oct. 7, Israel\u2019s Defense Ministry said last month. In late June, U.S. officials told The Post that Washington has transferred at least 14,000 of the highly devastating MK-84 2,000-pound bombs and 6,500 500-pound bombs. A month earlier, Biden decided to pause one shipment of 2,000- and 500-pound bombs, less than 1 percent of the weapons sent to Israel since the war began. The administration has since resumed shipment of 500-pound bombs.<\/p>\n
In their letter, the coalition of federal workers called on the government watchdogs to evaluate whether U.S. arms transfers to Israel violate existing laws and regulations, such as the Foreign Assistance Act.<\/p>\n
That law says \u201cno assistance shall be furnished\u201d to any country that directly or indirectly restricts U.S. humanitarian assistance, an action the United Nations and numerous independent aid groups have accused Israel of carrying out repeatedly over the course of the 11-month war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe White House has made every excuse in the book for the behavior of the Israeli government when it comes to the obstruction of aid, and there is a degree of frustration that those decisions are being driven more by politics than by law,\u201d said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former senior Biden administration official and now president of Refugees International.<\/p>\n
An inspector general has a formal role in the government and is better equipped than humanitarian groups or journalists to demand answers from U.S. officials, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe IG is asking from inside the tent and so they\u2019re going to have an easier time getting the straight, factual answers than anyone asking from outside,\u201d Konyndyk said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Government watchdogs with jurisdiction over the State Department and Pentagon are preparing to publish the results of multiple investigations scrutinizing the Biden administration\u2019s provision of U.S. weapons to Israel for its military campaign in Gaza, and \u201cseveral\u201d related inquiries are either underway or planned, their offices told The Washington Post. The forthcoming inspector general reports, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}