Globe Trot: Obama arms sales and Yemen’s war

YEMEN: The Obama administration approved $1.3 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia last year, despite warnings from legal advisers the sale could implicate the United States—and U.S. military personnel—in war crimes over the Saudi-led air assault on Yemen. Typically, secretaries of defense and state and the director of intelligence sign off on such arms sales, and at that scale and with this tightly controlled White House, with presidential assent. Emails obtained by Reuters under the Freedom of Information Act indicate President Obama wanted the deal to allay Saudi concern over his Iran nuclear agreement.

On Sunday, a U.S. destroyer near the Suez came under fire from Yemeni rebel missiles (ironically, Iranian-made weapons), forcing it to engage defense systems. The attack took place after a Saudi airstrike hit a funeral hall in the capital, killing more than 140 people.

HAITI: Hurricane Matthew’s devastation in photos, with post-hurricane relief now underway.

SYRIA: Leading presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump gave perhaps their best shot at a serious policy discussion on Syria during last night’s debate, but the pair fell short on coherence. Pressed by a moderator, Clinton did not say she’d consider a no-fly zone, something she argued for during her tenure as secretary of state, simply vowing no U.S. boots on the ground. Trump said President Obama crossed his own red line on Clinton’s watch as secretary of state (wrong) and said the majority of airstrikes by Syrian and Russian forces target ISIS (also wrong).

The Trump videotape controversy successfully overwhelmed media coverage of WikiLeaks’ release of thousands of illegally obtained emails of Clinton adviser John Podesta. Among what seem most damaging (best to read them yourself in this charged atmosphere) are Clinton speech transcripts she refused to release that call for “open borders,” and damaging indications she authorized arms shipments to terrorist-linked groups in Syria and Libya.

For insiders, “open borders” has become movement language referring to an EU-like policy allowing free movement across, say, all of North America, or dropping border control altogether.

Pastor and author Tim Keller on the need for “confident pluralism.”

TURKEY: Nine years later, the five men who tortured and murdered three Christians in Malatya are in jail, but Christians aren’t feeling more secure.

I’m following a report of two Americans jailed under Turkey’s new and draconian “state of emergency” laws. If you have information or U.S. Embassy contacts, email me.

INFIDELS UPDATE: Over the next month I’ll be putting together an update for the paperback edition of They Say We Are Infidels and hope to include a few tidbits (at your suggestion) here along the way. Insaf Safou made a successful trip to Turkey this summer, despite the coup, gathering with Iraqi refugee women for counseling and teaching. And while the rest of us try to just spell “Aleppo,” Armenians are delivering aid to the besieged city at huge risk. Armenians escaped the Ottoman genocide a century ago by resettling in Aleppo, and the now-independent country’s consul in Aleppo told journalists Syria provided wheat and other necessities during its 1990s crisis over the Soviet breakup, so “Armenia will continue to send aid to the Syrian people.”