Government watchdogs with jurisdiction over the State Department and Pentagon are preparing to publish the results of multiple investigations scrutinizing the Biden administration’s provision of U.S. weapons to Israel for its military campaign in Gaza, and “several” related inquiries are either underway or planned, their offices told The Washington Post.
Biden’s arms transfers to Israel under internal investigation
Inspectors general for the Pentagon and State Department are preparing to disclose multiple reports after complaints that they had done little to scrutinize the U.S. weapons surge.
By John Hudson
September 18, 2024
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.
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’s military tactics and the enormous civilian death toll in Gaza. The investigations come as some of Washington’s closest allies, including Britain, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium, have restricted military equipment transfers to Israel because of legal and political concerns that the weapons could be used to commit war crimes.
Neither the White House nor the Israeli Embassy in Washington provided comment.
After Hamas’s 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’s arsenal comes from the United States.
The State Department’s Office of the Inspector General “will 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,” said Mark Huffman, a spokesman for the office.
Meanwhile, “several other projects related to U.S. security assistance for Israel are pending public announcement” by the Defense Department’s inspector general, said the office’s spokeswoman, Mollie F. Halpern. The Pentagon watchdog also is planning to publish the results of a probe of President Joe Biden’s 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.
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’s arms policy.
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 “are 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,” according to a copy of the undated letter obtained by The Post.
“Yet we have seen no action to date from the Inspectors General,” the letter states. “This stands in stark contrast to the robust efforts to review and assess U.S. support to Ukraine.”
Spokespersons for the inspectors general overseeing the Pentagon, State Department and USAID all defended their offices’ oversight efforts.
The State Department’s 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’s sanctions policies in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza; its “strategic response” 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 “benefiting terrorist groups.”
The Pentagon inspector general’s office also said it has “several ongoing and planned projects related to Israel and Gaza.” Parts of the investigations could be redacted depending on classification levels, and some of those reports are expected to come out later than the State Department’s.
Internal critics of the government’s 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-wrote the Feds United for Peace letter expressed disappointment that none of the inspectors general committed to examining “whether leadership circumvented laws and intentionally ignored evidence, or worse, manipulated evidence, in order to facilitate what amounts to illegal arms transfers.” This official spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk to the media.
Harrison Mann, a former U.S. Army officer who resigned in May in opposition to U.S. policy in Gaza and works with Feds United for Peace, said credible oversight was more important than ever.
“Principals 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,” he said.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller rejected any notion that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has misled the public about Israel’s actions.
“We welcome differing perspectives from our workforce on the policies the United States pursues, but this claim about the actions of senior officials couldn’t be further from the truth,” he said. “We 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.”
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin believes Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas but he has been “very clear” to his Israeli counterpart “on 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.”
The United States has delivered more than 50,000 tons of missiles, bombs, artillery and other military equipment to Israel since Oct. 7, Israel’s Defense Ministry said last month. In late June, U.S. officials told The Post that Washington had 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.
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.
That law says “no assistance shall be furnished” 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.
“The 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,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former senior Biden administration official and now president of Refugees International.
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.
“The IG is asking from inside the tent and so they’re going to have an easier time getting the straight, factual answers than anyone asking from outside,” Konyndyk said.