U.S. military training of human rights abusers

"Special operators, for example, carried out a JCET in Saudi Arabia in December 2011. The next month, Army Green Berets began a 60-day JCET while Saudi security forces clashed with demonstrators seeking an end to sectarian discrimination. The Saudi government said the demonstrators were armed but according to a State Department report, protesters claimed that “security forces responded to stone-throwing youths by firing indiscriminately” at them. In February 2012, elite U.S. troops kicked off a new JCET, practicing advanced marksmanship and close-quarter battle techniques while also focusing, according to the Pentagon documents, on “principles and procedures of human rights.” At the same time, however, Saudi security forces reportedly killed two activists and wounded as many as 50 people. Nevertheless, the JCETs continued. In 2013 the U.S. conducted four months of missions in the kingdom while the State Department held that there were, again, “some reports of human rights abuses by security forces,” including torture and violence directed at demonstrators."