[act-ma] NOV 1: Emergency Rally to end U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia

[Cole Harrison]

Emergency Rally to end U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia
November 1 @ 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm ~ South Station
[image: Trump boasts of arms sales to Saudis - with crown prince Mohammed
bin Salman]

*Yemen is Massachusetts’ War!*

*Demand End to US Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia*

*Thursday, November 1,    5pm – 6pm*

*Standout at South Station, downtown Boston*

We’ve called Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman the “Butcher of Yemen”.
And with the unfolding story of the murder and dismemberment of dissident
Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the world has learned just how accurate
the term “butcher” is.
[image: UNICEF Backpacks]
<http://masspeaceaction.org/home/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Backpacks.jpg>

Scattered throughout the area of the Saudi attack on a Yemeni school bus
August 9 were blue UNICEF backpacks belonging to the students. We will set
up a display of backpacks at South Station in memory of the children.  If
you have any children’s backpacks, please bring them!

*The past two weeks have seen a dramatic shift in mainstream attitudes
toward our relationship with Saudi Arabia. The murder of Jamal Khashoggi is
reverberating throughout power circles in the U.S., and has shaken the very
basis of a consensus around the U.S.-Saudi alliance*.

For the first time, U.S. weapons sales, particularly by Massachusetts-based
Raytheon Corporation, are being seriously questioned, as the rage around
the grisly murder of Washington Post journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal
Khashoggi has opened the door to unprecedented questioning of the
U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen.

The Boston Globe published two articles this week questioning Raytheon’s
sale of arms to the Saudis. The President of MIT
<http://news.mit.edu/2018/letter-mit-faculty-engagement-saudi-arabia-1022>
published
a letter which questions whether the Institute should continue ties with
Saudi Arabia, and the Harvard Crimson
<https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/10/25/harvard-saudi-ties/> posted
a hard-hitting article on Harvard’s ties to the Saudi dictatorship.

Now is the time for us to seize the moment and turn the present tumult
against U.S.-Saudi collaboration: in attacking Yemen, in tearing up the
Iran nuclear deal, and in promoting devastating sanctions and even war with
Iran. In short, we need take advantage of this opening — as long as it
exists — to break up Trump’s love affair with the Saudis, and with Raytheon
and the other companies that thrive on war.


[image: CNN map of Yemen showing bombings of civilians using Raytheon and
Lockheed munitions]
<http://masspeaceaction.org/home/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Yemen-CNN-Raytheon-Lockheed.jpg>

CNN map of Yemen showing bombings of civilians using Raytheon and Lockheed
munitions

The Saudi-led war in Yemen is biggest humanitarian crisis in the world, and
the US is providing the weapons
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=bZTcinoZNLNJuBUoZjBwFwBOU3pEsJQA>,
intelligence, and aerial refueling of the bombers. Jamal Khashoggi himself
described the Saudi-led war in Yemen as a “cruel war”
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=I%2BsaSqSPOjptG0vRnKiTRABOU3pEsJQA>,
yet the violence continues; a recent airstrike killed 10 civilians on
October 13
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=QhXMszBKpYnrgERnA50mtABOU3pEsJQA>.
The Saudi-led bombing campaign, paired with an ongoing blockade of Yemen’s
borders and ports, has choked the country’s access to food, fuel and
medical supplies, contributing to widespread famine and disease. The Saudis
are intentionally harming and killing the people of Yemen. The answer is to
end the US support for the Saudi intervention in Yemen.

A resolution to end the U.S. role in the Yemen war, H.Con.Res.138, was
introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) with the support of Massachusetts Reps.
Jim McGovern, Joe Kennedy III, and Mike Capuano. *Ask the rest of our
Massachusetts Representatives to cosponsor this legislation*
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=vPfJUqVaYtjLeSIKeOqlTABOU3pEsJQA>
*.*  Additionally, Jim McGovern has introduced a bill to cut off arms
supplies and military assistance to the Saudi regime over the Khashoggi
murder.

Yemen can’t wait!  Please ask your Member of Congress
*to cosponsor both of these bills to end US support of the Saudi-led war in
Yemen and arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=fn5L1Q7HydTraHfov8%2B0ufEI8GT0YJ0J>
Join
us at South Station on November 1!*
[image: Protest at Raytheon BBN in Cambridge, Aug 2018]
<http://masspeaceaction.org/home/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/pic-1.png>

Protest at Raytheon BBN in Cambridge, Aug 2018

[image: Raytheon Antiwar Campaign]
<http://masspeaceaction.org/home/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/RaytheonCampaign.5groups.logos_.withsp.jpg>

-- 
*"Not one step back"*

Cole Harrison
Executive Director
Massachusetts Peace Action - the Commonwealth's largest grassroots peace
organization
11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138
617-354-2169 w
617-466-9274 m
www.masspeaceaction.org
Facebook: facebook.com/masspeaceaction
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