Developing- Matthew Miller Essentially Admits the US State Department Broke the Law

Gaza, Israel, Starvation, and US Arms Sales

Secretary of State Antony Blinkin testified to Congress on May 10, 2024, that the State Department had determined that Israel was not blocking humanitarian aid from the United States to Gaza. Blinkin had previously been informed in writing by USAID in April 2024 that Isreal was doing exactly that. At issue was a provision in Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act that forbids sales of US weapons to countries that block humanitarian aid from the United States.

On September 24, Propublica published the information on the USAID report to Antony Blinkin. Israel Deliberately Blocked Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, Two Government Bodies Concluded. Antony Blinken Rejected Them

Two days later, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) called for Blinkin to “resign now.” Washington Examiner:

Days later, the secretary told Congress, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.”

Blinken “lied,” Tlaib wrote on X on Thursday morning. “People went hungry, and some died. He needs to resign now.”

Propublic’s report and calls from Congress for Blinkin’s resignation have forced the Biden Administration to take late action. The cowardly Biden Adminsitration did not make an announcement that they were considering halting US arms sales to Israel, however. Instead a letter from Antony Blinkin and Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense, was “leaked” to media. The complete letter is at the bottom of the article.

Let’s take a look at some comments from State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller yesterday, October 15, where he essentially admitted that the State Deparment knew that Israel was blocking US humanitarian aid to Gaza. The link contains the compete transcript of Miller with video.

US State Department Press Briefing – October 15, 2024

QUESTION: And you have – all right. Well, let’s start with – let’s start with this warning to the Israelis about improving humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza. What can you tell us about this?

MR MILLER: A few things. So first, the Secretary did write along with his – along with Secretary of Defense Austin to the Defense Minister of Israel Yoav Gallant and the Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer on Sunday to make clear our concerns about the levels of humanitarian assistance that have been making it into Gaza. This was a letter we considered to be a private diplomatic communication that we did not intend to make public from our side, but now that it is public, I am happy to confirm it and speak to it to some extent.

Why wouldn’t the State Department want to make public that they had asked Israel to stop blocking humanitarian aid? I suppose that’s a rhetorical question.

Miller said Israel made “changes.” That means they knew Israel was doing something wrong in the first place. Full stop.

MR MILLER: I think you have to put this letter in the context of our ongoing and long-lasting communications and concerns about the levels of humanitarian assistance that have made it to Palestinian civilians. If you go back to April, the Secretary wrote at the time to Minister Gallant to make clear that we had seen the levels of humanitarian assistance plateau, and then after they plateaued start to decline, and made clear that – at the time – that the levels were unacceptable, and that we needed to see Israel implement changes.

They did make changes. The changes that they made caused humanitarian assistance to increase.

This to me is an acknowlegement that the State Department knew that Israel was blocking humanitarian aid.

So the Secretary, along with Secretary Austin, thought it was appropriate to make clear to the Government of Israel that there are changes that they need to make again to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today.

What are the consequences if Israel continues their starvation Genocide program? Miller dodged the question over and over. Of course it is the provision in law that forbids US arms sales to Israel under these conditions. Miller wouldn’t dare say it, because the State Department has been working to provide arms to Israel the entire time, and it means that they broke the law under Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act.

QUESTION: And the consequence if they don’t do that is what?

MR MILLER: So I’m not going to speak to that today. Obviously, we made clear when we released our report that was mandated under National Security Memorandum 20 that there are provisions under U.S. law that require us to make certain certifications, and to make those certifications we have to see that Israel is not arbitrarily denying humanitarian assistance making it into Gaza. When the Secretary made his conclusions under that report in April, he did so based on the changes that we had seen them put into place and the increased levels of humanitarian assistance. But of course, that – those levels of humanitarian assistance have to be sustained.

QUESTION: Yeah, but – but what’s – what’s the consequence?

MR MILLER: There are implications under U.S. law, under policy, that I’m not going to speak to here – largely because we hope that Israel makes the changes that the Secretary outlined in the letter. We have seen Israel make changes before, and when they make changes, humanitarian assistance can increase. And we have seen Israel just in the past few months work with humanitarian organizations to implement a polio vaccination campaign inside Gaza. So we know that it’s possible to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza. We know it can be done. We know that the various logistical and bureaucratic obstacles can be surmounted, and so it is incumbent upon the Government of Israel to surmount those challenges and get assistance in.

QUESTION: When you say that there are implications to it, obviously under U.S. law that’s assistance. Is there specific assistance that have come under scrutiny over this?

MR MILLER: So I don’t want to deal with any hypotheticals. You are right that it’s just a – it’s just a plain reading of U.S. law, if you look at the provisions of U.S. law, that we are required to conduct assessments and find that recipients of U.S. military assistance do not arbitrarily deny or impede the provisioning of U.S. humanitarian assistance. That’s just the law. And we of course will follow the law.

But our hope is that Israel will make the changes that we have outlined and that we have recommended, and that the result of those changes will be a dramatic increase in humanitarian assistance. Ultimately we are focused on the bottom line here, it’s just it.

Despite Miller’s dodging of questions about consequences under US Law, the October 13 Letter from Blinkin and Austin to War Criminal Yoav Gallant specifically stated:

“The Department of State will need to conduct … (an) assessment under Section 620i of the Foreign Assistance Act in order to provide additional Foreign Military Financing assistance to Israel.”

My take on the letter is that it was likely on the initiative of the Department of Defense and the President and Vice President, under increasing pressure to end Israel’s Genocide in election season. The State Deparment signed off on it, but by doing so, essentially signed a guilty plea to multiple crimes.

Blinkin can and should be charged with the crime of lying to Congress, but it could get far worse than that. The ICC could charge Blinkin and others at the State Deparment with their role in facilitating war crimes. Not only were they complicit in the starvation of Palestinians, they lied in order to facilitate illegal arms sales to Israel- arms which were also used to commit Genocide.

Although the US is not a member of the ICC and their would be no method of arrest available to the ICC, it could certainly trigger a large investigation by Congress that could result in charges being referred to the Department of Justice against Blinkin, Miller, and others in the State Department.

Charles Wright