"Airstrikes, shellings precede Yemen truce; Groups rush in to aid millions trapped in war" by Ahmed Al-Haj Associated Press May 13, 2015
SANA, Yemen — Meanwhile, Iran said it was sending warships to protect an Iranian aid ship steaming toward a Yemeni port held by the rebel fighters, the Iranian state news agency said. The navy escort was denounced by the Pentagon as unnecessary and raised the possibility of a confrontation near the strategic Bab el-Mandab strait in the Gulf of Aden.
U.S. are already there and chasing down Iranian boats as I type. More alarming is the new missile defense system the Russians have sold them. Even Pakistan is bringing pressure to bear.
The Saudi-led strikes in Yemen came to a halt shortly before the new UN envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, flew into the capital, Sana, on his first official visit to the country.
No they haven't.
He told reporters he planned to meet with the warring parties, including the rebels known as Houthis, and ensure that the cease-fire holds. The cease-fire is meant to ease the suffering of civilians in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country.
******************************
The Saudis and allies are seeking the restoration of exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Meanwhile, a suspected US drone strike hit a car, killing three Al Qaeda fighters near Shabwa province, an area where the extremist group had been sending reinforcements. Witnesses and tribal elders said the vehicle burned and set off secondary explosions from ordnance it carried. They spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for their safety.
The conflict has killed more than 1,400 people — many of them civilians — since March 19, according to the United Nations. The country of some 25 million people has endured shortages of food, water, medicine, and electricity as a result of a Saudi-led naval, air, and land blockade.
I'm looking at war crimes here.
The UN refugee agency said it plans to airlift 330 tons of sleeping mats, blankets, kitchen sets, and plastic sheeting from stockpiles in Dubai. Separately, the UN World Food Program said it was ready to provide emergency food rations to more than 750,000 people.
Then everything is all right. UN obviously approves of the slaughter; otherwise, the Security Council would be in session and condemning it.
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Jesus! Looks like Gaza (which will come up a bit later)!
Related: Saudi airstrike hits Yemen rebel convoy, strains cease-fire
Strains ceasefire? How about breaking it?
Was going to start HERE as to the why I was originally going to be happy for the Houthis, whoever they are (more on that later), but I'd rather you take a brief and fascinating history lesson before beginning with this garbage:
"US fears chaos as Yemeni government falls; Rebels in control; Al Qaeda builds forces in south" by Shuaib Almosawa and Rod Nordland, New York Times January 23, 2015
SANA, Yemen — The US-backed government of Yemen abruptly collapsed Thursday night, leaving the country leaderless as it is convulsed by an increasingly powerful force of pro-Iran rebels and a resurgent Al Qaeda.
The resignation of the president, prime minister, and Cabinet took US officials by surprise and heightened the risks that Yemen — the Arab world’s poorest country — would become an even greater breeding ground for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has claimed responsibility for audacious anti-Western attacks — including the deadly assault on Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris this month.
How much for all that intelligence and spying? Missed it again, huh?
The resignation of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi brought full circle Yemen’s Arab Spring revolution, which ousted former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011 amid massive popular protests. Now Saleh, who has lately made himself an unlikely ally of the Houthi rebels who toppled the government, is poised to return to the forefront of Yemeni politics.
They are going to bring him back? Who benefited from all that anyway?
But some experts warned that the country might be hurtling toward partition — and civil war.
That's the neo-con war plan. Carve 'em all up.
The events in Yemen were not the week’s only death knell for accomplishments of the Arab Spring’s first year, 2011. In Libya, that country’s last remaining intact and functioning institution, its Central Bank with $100 billion in foreign currency reserves, fell to marauding militiamen.
What happened to the money?
“We are in uncharted territory now,” said Jamal Benomar, the UN envoy to Yemen, raising several possible perils, including the prospect that southern Yemen might break away. “It’s going to be very difficult days ahead,” he said.
Charles Schmitz, an analyst with the Middle East Institute and an expert on the Houthis, said that of all Yemen’s many political crises, Thursday’s was among the worst yet.
“We’re looking at the de facto partitioning of the country and we’re heading into a long negotiating process, but we could also be heading toward war,” he said.
I don't know, that's pretty well been charted.
US diplomats, military officials, and counterterrorism analysts were scrambling Thursday to assess the next steps in Yemen.
A senior State Department official said Thursday night that the staff at the US Embassy in Sana was being reduced “in response to the changing security situation.” As news of Hadi’s resignation broke earlier in the day, Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said, “We’re not in a position — and I don’t think any of you are, either — to assess what it means at this point in time.
“Our top priority in Yemen remains the counterterrorism effort, where we’ve been targeting Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula for a number of years,” said Psaki, using the name for Al Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate.
At the Pentagon, defense officials were also trying to gauge the murky chaos unfolding in Yemen.
“We are still trying to sort out recent events,” Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said in an interview Thursday. He added that “it’s too soon to tell what this is going to mean for counterterrorism.
“From a military perspective, the character of that fight may change, but the energy we apply to it won’t,” he added.
Although the Houthis, who are believed to be financed by Iran, are strongly anti-American, they are even stronger opponents of Al Qaeda. The Houthis are dominated by a Shi’ite Muslim sect, the Zaydis, while Al Qaeda is rabidly anti-Shi’ite.
While the Houthis now control the capital, Sana, and many parts of northern Yemen, Al Qaeda has been strongest in Sunni tribal areas in Yemen and has used Sunni anger at the swift rise of the Houthis as an effective recruiting tool — particularly in oil-rich areas of eastern and southern Yemen.
You change a few words and the agenda-pushing propaganda script reads the same.
The collapse of Hadi’s government began last week when the Houthis staged what his supporters called essentially a coup, surrounding the presidential palace and effectively putting the president under house arrest.
That means the agenda-pushing pre$$ opposed it.
Fighting flared between the Houthis and Hadi’s supporters but eased after an agreement was reached Wednesday that called for the Houthis to withdraw and the president to agree to governmental reforms that the Houthis had demanded.
When the Houthis did not withdraw, and apparently reneged on an agreement to release the president’s chief of staff, whom they had taken hostage, Hadi and his supporters said they had become little more than puppets of the Houthi forces and stood aside, daring them to seize power.
Hadi the hypocrite!
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The militants(?) are moving carefully even as thousands protest and talks stall, forcing a resumption of....
"US drone strikes resume in Yemen despite turmoil" by Ahmed Al-Haj, Associated Press January 27, 2015
SANA, Yemen — A US drone strike targeted Al Qaeda in Yemen on Monday, signaling Washington’s determination to keep fighting the militants despite political paralysis brought on by a Shi’ite power grab.
Yemeni tribal and security officials in the central province of Marib said the missile hit a vehicle carrying three men near the boundary with Shabwa province, an Al Qaeda stronghold. The strike killed two Yemeni fighters and a Saudi fighter, an Al Qaeda member said. A boy was also reported killed.
Despite the renewed drone campaign, Yemeni officials and analysts say an effective US-backed ground strategy against the Al Qaeda affiliate has been undermined by the rapid disintegration of the Yemeni armed forces, which has received millions of dollars in US military aid.
Just like in Iraq.
The prospect of a leaderless Yemen has raised concerns about Washington’s ability to continue targeting Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemeni branch is known. The group claimed responsibility for the recent attack on a French satirical weekly and has mounted several failed attacks on the US homeland.
No one on the ground is going to be able to stop those.
The drone strike was the first since Yemen’s US-backed president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, resigned along with his Cabinet on Thursday rather than agree to the demands by the Shi’ite rebels, known as Houthis, for more power. The Houthis continue to hold Hadi and his government ministers under house arrest, and what comes next is unclear.
Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren stressed Monday that the counterterrorism operation will continue, including training of Yemeni forces, though “they are curtailed in some cases.” He did not give details.
Other US officials said intelligence gathering has not been curtailed or shifted to other countries.
And although the Houthis chant anti-American slogans, one hopeful sign for Washington is that they are also staunch opponents of Al Qaeda.
You spelled that wrong. It's "Al-CIA-Duh," and this war nonsense is tiring.
Nevertheless, experts said that both ground operations and intelligence gathering will suffer in addition to the loss of a faithful partner in Hadi. Yemen’s president was a vocal proponent for the US war against Al Qaeda, saying at one point that he approved each strike at a time.
See you at the Hague.
“[Hadi] made it easy to cooperate with Yemeni military and intelligence. His loss is a major loss for [the] US side,” said Bill Roggio, the managing editor of Long War Journal, which tracks militant groups’ activities. Roggio added that the “upheaval will make it more and more difficult to get intelligence.”
They have a magazine called the Long War Journal? So do I, I guess.
So when is the next false flag to be blamed on Yemenis helped by Iran?
The Houthis, who seized the capital in September, say they want their fair share of power, which they feel they have been denied. Shi’ites make up one-third of Yemen’s population.
Critics say the Houthis want to retain Hadi as a figurehead president and that they want to rule the country from behind the scenes. They also accuse the Houthis of being a proxy of Iran, an allegation the rebels deny.
Oh, like what we got over here in AmeriKa.
Over the past several weeks, Houthi rebels overran the presidential palace, military camps, and air force bases and occupied security and intelligence offices in the capital, Sana.
It’s unclear how the Houthis’ takeover would affect the drone operation, a top Yemeni security official said. He said that the operation is led by American experts either inside the heavily fortified US Embassy in Sana or in the Yemeni military base housing US experts in Lahj province, both untouched by Houthis.
See what is important to the mass-murdering leaders and their mouthpiece media?
He added that Saudi — not Yemeni — intelligence is playing the vital role in recruiting informants and collecting information on the whereabouts and movement of Al Qaeda members.
The Saudi man killed in Monday’s US drone strike was identified by the Al Qaeda member as Awaid al-Rashidi, who he said was in his 30s and had been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for seven years, apparently on terrorism charges.
The two Yemeni Al Qaeda members killed in the strike were Abdel-Aziz al-Sanaani and Mohammed al-Jahmi from Marib’s tribe of Jahmi, the member said. Both Yemeni officials and the Al Qaeda member spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
A boy born in 2001 was also killed in the drone strike, said Baraa Shiban, a researcher for Reprieve, an international human rights organization that helps victims of drone strikes. Shiban posted the information on his Twitter account.
Under Hadi’s leadership, Yemeni armed forces carried out major military offensives against Al Qaeda militants, driving hundreds from cities they overran in 2011.
So what happened?
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Then the blame game begins. No reconsideration, talks suspended, the same old story:
"A senior member of Al Qaeda who acts as a media liaison for the militant group, attributed the drone strike to the US military."
As CIA-Duh threatens France based off the Chuck Hebdo false flag fake.
Then a BREAKTHROUGH:
"Houthi leaders portrayed the plan for a new government as the product of a consensus among Yemen’s political factions."
As suspected, it's the people of Yemen, sick of their U.S. puppet, and Al-Saleh-Duh is piggybacking on it. Playbook. This after the true uprising that forced the dumping of Saleh and a foisting of the fresh face of Hadi upon them.
"Leaders of the Houthi rebels said Saturday that they had appointed four key ministers from the government they ousted to a national security committee. The move appeared to be aimed at reassuring Western nations and regional powers such as Saudi Arabia that the militants could be trusted, particularly in the fight against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. A statement released through the government news agency said Houthis named 17 people to the Supreme Security Committee. Yemen has been without a government since Jan. 22 (New York Times)."
Looks to me like they have a government as negotiations resumed, then faltered. It was then that the US embassy was shut down-- a $ignal for war -- followed by the standard chastising from the U.N. President Hadi fled, declaring he was still the leader of Yemen (much in the way of his predecessor Saleh) as the new government threatened him with arrest. The crisis had reached a fever pitch. Talks were proposed. Fears of a broader war were only amplified by suicide attacks at mosques by a "previously unknown Yemeni affiliate of the Islamic State" -- as reported by the New York Times.
Thus the new government called for an offensive and seized parts of Yemen’s third-largest city, and in doing so sending people fleeing into the streets. The call for help went out amid the executions as the former president escaped by sea amid government advances in the south. The call for help was then answered.... by Saudi Arabia.
As the airstrikes began, the United States was informed that "this is all about Sunni vs. Shia, Saudi vs. Iran," and they had to pick a side:
"The Houthis represent a minority among Yemen’s mostly Sunni Muslims, but the group has gained momentum by forming an alliance with Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. He has helped enlist parts of the military and security services loyal to him....
Bad guy, but was our guy for so long!....
"The Shi’ite rebels, known as Houthis, have been joined by security forces loyal to the ousted president, Ali Abdullah Saleh — whose loyalists control elite forces and large combat units in Yemen’s military...."
And they just took some Saudi prisoners of war!
There were indications that the battle could grow to become a land war. Saudi state TV said Thursday that a ground offensive was being studied, but gave no further details. Egypt’s minister of foreign affairs, Sameh Shoukri, said in a speech to Arab foreign ministers that Egypt was willing ‘‘to send ground forces if necessary.’’
Thus it was that an Arab force was formed, "a gesture many analysts attributed in large part to their drive for more independence from Washington (it's the complete opposite! They are doing the bidding).
Meanwhile, the airstrikes continued. A refugee camp was hit, killing dozens. A missile strike at a dairy factory turned weapons cache and rebel hideout, I'm told, (yes, it was a baby formula plant in Iraq and a pharmaceutical complex in Sudan) killed 35. Another Saudi strike killed nine in one family, including five children. Amidst calls to halt the airstrikes resumed after a few hours, only proving the challenge of diplomacy. Six cities were bombed, but peace was coming because it's the only way!
"The continued airstrikes and combat between factions on the ground underline how a negotiated peace remains elusive in the Arab world’s poorest country, despite a Saudi announcement last week that coalition operations would scale down and shift to focus on diplomacy, humanitarian and counter-terrorism issues. ‘‘It’s like our homes have become a military target, they are killing us in cold blood,’’ said resident Tawfiq Al Maamari. ‘‘We left our homes with our children because the missiles are raining down on us without mercy.’’
It was then that Saudi Arabia proposed a 5-day cease-fire, in recognition that "the Houthis are more than a direct Iranian proxy force." The truce was to start on Tuesday, with a "five-day trial period for the “Houthis [to] come to their senses.”
Surprisingly, the new government agreed. The United Nations was brought in to try to negotiate a settlement. A weapons embargo was imposed. Aid flights landed. And then.... the new government said they shot down Moroccan F-16 that had a double-bed cabin with business-class catering and that offered nonstop flights to 46 international destinations.
Thus it was that Saudi airdrops of arms to Yemeni forces were needed because "Al-CIA-Duh" was expanding. They had taken a southern port city, an airport and oil terminal, and a massive weapons depot from the army. The US defense chief, Ashton Carter, warned of Al Qaeda gains in Yemen -- the risk of ‘total collapse’ proving that the US needs to maintain a sure hand in Yemen. At the same time, Saleh betrayed the new government, which vowed to never surrender amid further airstrikes that have now displaced 300,000, according to the internationally recognized government in exile:
"On Monday, the exiled government put the civilian death toll in the past month at 1,000 — nearly double the number that UN agencies previously announced. Airstrikes went on throughout Yemen on Wednesday. The runway to Sana’s airport was largely destroyed a day earlier. The fighting drags on despite all sides having expressed willingness to enter peace talks."
That said as Egypt prepares ground troops for an invasion, something that has not worked out so good in the past -- for either them or Turkey. You would have thought they had learned.
"In a separate development Monday, the Islamic State’s branch in Yemen released a video purportedly showing the killing of at least 11 Yemeni army soldiers, who it called ‘‘apostates,’’ in the southern province of Shabwa. The report it could not be independently verified."
I was wondering when they would show up.
Speaking of showing up:
Saudi Arabian king won’t attend meetings in US
I'm told the move indicates opposition to US-Iran talks, but as with the sultan of Oman, it is because of health reasons. Both are old and sick and sending next in lines, etc.
Most Gulf rulers to skip summit in US; observers fear ties are thinning
At "this week’s Camp David summit with President Obama, “they would prefer for the US to be the godfather and protector, but....”
First of, Obama doesn't like Camp David (he'd rather be golfing), but what an astoundingly and refreshingly true statement!! That is exactly the way the AmeriKan government acts! Like a crime boss!
And why do all the experts in the paper come from the usual cast of characters?
Gulf leaders gather in Washington to push Obama on Iran" by David E. Sanger New York Times May 14, 2015
My print copy was by someone named Julie Pace, and it was more than that.
"Wednesday, Obama hosted a White House dinner for the Saudi princes, as well as representatives from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. The parties planned to spend Thursday at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin mountains, discussing the nuclear talks and Tehran's reputed support of terrorism in the region. The Saudis are also particularly concerned about the situation in Yemen, where Houthi rebels with ties with Iran have ousted the U.S. and Saudi-backed leader. But when two days of talks wrap up on Thursday, it's unlikely much will have changed. The Gulf's skepticism of Iran is deep-seated and extends far beyond its nuclear pursuits. Obama, meanwhile, has invested too much in the Iran negotiations to let Gulf concerns upend his legacy-building bid for a deal.... The leaders also were discussing a range of challenges throughout the Middle East, including confronting the Islamic State and conflicts in Yemen, Syria, and Libya."
Let's stick with Iran first:
"An unusual alliance of Republican opponents of the nuclear deal and some of Obama’s strongest Democratic supporters demanded a congressional role as international negotiators work to turn this month’s nuclear framework into a final deal by June 30. The agreement almost certainly means Congress will muscle its way into nuclear negotiations that Obama sees as a legacy-defining foreign policy achievement."
It's not that unusual when you consider that AIPAC and Israel call the $hots in Congre$$.
"President Hassan Rouhani, speaking in a televised speech in the northern Iranian city of Rasht, said Iran wanted to end its isolation by fostering ‘‘constructive interaction with the world and not confrontation.’’
That's not what his boss says:
"In a separate development Sunday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran described such Western claims about its nuclear program as myth. ‘‘Americans, Europeans, and some apple polishers fabricated the myth of nuclear weapons to say that the Islamic Republic was a threat. No. The threat is America itself,’’ he told military commanders Sunday. Khamenei’s remarks are seen as an effort by Iran to toughen its position ahead of the next round of talks. Also last week, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, raised the prospect of unlimited Iranian atomic fuel enrichment if the final phase of talks does not achieve an agreement by the June 30 deadline, with all sanctions dropped. “The United States for their own domestic reasons, and that’s their right and prerogative, produced a fact sheet, which was not exactly what we adopted,” Zarif told Euronews, a France-based broadcaster."
The U.S. government and its propaganda pre$$ lied to me again?
Also see: Iranian leader challenges US on nuclear deal’s details
He says “if three months becomes four months, the sky won’t come falling down.” Except it might.
It's going to be a hard sell and he will have to stand firm. At least Obama is praising the deal and singling out critics:
"At the White House, Obama met with Jewish leaders. While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is intensely skeptical that international negotiators can reach a verifiable deal with Iran, which has threatened to destroy Israel, some American Jewish groups have backed the international negotiations."
That is rare indeed, and the talks appear talks appear set for new phase:
"White House builds effort to push nuclear deal with Iran" by Bradley Klapper and Deb Riechmann Associated Press April 28, 2015
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration moved on two fronts Monday to advance its nuclear diplomacy with Iran.
In Washington, lead US negotiator Wendy Sherman told a conference of reform Jews that diplomatic collapse would leave Iran perilously close to nuclear weapons capacity. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said a final agreement would in some ways be tougher than what the United States has outlined thus far.
At a United Nations conference on nuclear disarmament, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said ‘‘there is the potential for historic progress’’ toward a nuclear-free world if a deal is reached.
***************
Several of the world’s nuclear powers were meeting at the UN to discuss progress on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a landmark treaty on disarmament. Israel attended for the first time in two decades as an observer.
Have they signed it? Iran has.
Immediate concerns at the conference include the lack of progress in disarmament by the United States and Russia, which between them hold more than 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons. Experts estimate that 16,000 nuclear weapons remain around the world today.
Does seem a bit much, but I'm not disarming until Israel does.
‘‘I know as well as anyone that we have a long way to go’’ on the path to a nuclear-free world, Kerry said, acknowledging that ‘‘we know that we can cut back even further.’’
Whatever, John.
Related: The Boston Globe Missed This Nuclear Explo$ion
How could they, and did Kerry just fart?
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran will address the conference Tuesday. Speaking on behalf of developing countries Monday, he repeated the call for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, a popular goal of Arab states but one that has gained little traction in the past five years. He repeated the Non-Aligned Movement’s call for Israel to give up its nuclear weapons.
I just thought those things were noteworthy.
Republican presidential candidates are lining up to show their support for Israel.
That is why I don't see one worth voting for no matter how many are running.
House Speaker John Boehner privately acknowledged to a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition over the weekend that his party doesn’t command enough votes to override a presidential veto of any resolution disapproving of an Iran deal, Bloomberg News reported. Boehner’s spokesman, Michael Steel, didn’t dispute the report.
I didn't know he was also running for president.
At a breakfast meeting with journalists, Moniz, a former MIT physics department head, provided some new detail on the combination of technical limits that the United States says would keep Iran at least a year away from assembling enough fissile material for one nuclear weapon for at least a decade, and in a new twist, Sherman, the State Department’s undersecretary for political affairs, said if talks fail to produce a final deal, Iran would be two to three months from being able to produce enough material for a weapon.
Speaking to the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, she said the president would reconsider support for the bill if it is distorted by amendments....
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Time for a reality check:
"John Kerry’s reality check on Iran nuclear talks" by Scot Lehigh Globe Columnist April 28, 2015
CALL IT an international-relations reality check.
The US secretary of state stresses that the choice the United States faces won’t be between this (still tentative) pact and an even tougher deal. The choice will be this deal or no deal.
Where's Howie?
“Look, if Russia, China, Germany, France, and Britain, all of whom have nuclear programs, sign off on this, and all their experts say it’s a good deal, and Congress for political reasons wants to go kill it, they’re walking away,” Kerry says of the other parties to the negotiations.
And if they do walk away, Kerry said during a Sunday sit-down at his Beacon Hill home, that would spell the end of the international sanctions regime on Iran.
Huh?
“There will be no sanctions, because none of them will enforce sanctions if they think we had a reasonable deal, but only the Congress decides no,” Kerry said. In that circumstance, the United States won’t be able to keep the P5+1 nations (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) together for such an effort, Kerry says.
Then NO DEAL!
Which leads to the secretary of state’s bottom line. “The whole mythology I’ve heard, from [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to Republican members of the House and Senate — ‘Oh, just squeeze them to death, raise the sanctions’ — not gonna happen,” he concludes.
Woa!
Partisan critics and Republican presidential candidates may scoff, but what the Kerry-led effort has accomplished so far is impressive. The framework agreed to earlier this month was tougher, more comprehensive, and with a greater level of inspections than many had thought possible....
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Speaking of reality checks:
"Defense lawyer Leila Ahsan said Jason Rezaian faces charges of ‘‘conducting propaganda against the establishment,’’ “collaborating with hostile governments,’’ and ‘‘collecting information about internal and foreign policy and providing them to individuals with malicious intent.’’ Ahsan described the journalist as being in good spirits and health but said his continued detention alongside other inmates and a lack of access to outside media have taken a toll on his well-being. The Post’s executive editor, Martin Baron, said in a statement the charges are ‘‘ludicrous,’’ and ‘‘It is absurd and despicable to assert that Jason’s work first as a freelance reporter and then as the Post’s Tehran correspondent amounted to espionage or otherwise posed any threat to Iranian national security.’’
Is it?
"Reacting to the report that Rezaian will face espionage charges, Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron said, “Any charges of that sort would be absurd, the product of fertile and twisted imaginations.”
Now he is just mocking us, and it is apparently no deal-breaker.
Talk about devils:
"The alternative of military force. Former ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton says we should bomb Iran. But even the most optimistic bombing enthusiasts say it would only buy the United States two years. Iran would be united against us in unending hostility, with the power to hurt us in the Middle East, and after two years we would have to go back and bomb Iran again, and again, creating a sort of giant Gaza that has to be destroyed every two years — a policy that has not enhanced Israel’s security and certainly wouldn’t enhance ours ."
Yeah, someone else compared the Saudi-led strikes in Yemen to Israel’s bombing in the Gaza Strip; however, "in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, which has a stake in pushing back the Iran-backed Houthis, is, more or less, dictating US policy, even as New York Representative Eliot Engel lamented that the talks were not addressing Iran’s threat to destroy Israel. The true peril of the "conflict in Yemen is part of a larger one pitting Saudi Arabia against Iran, whose influence has spread across the Arab world since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq ousted its archenemy, Saddam Hussein."
Ooooops!
Or was it really by PNAC design?
Anyway, those guys are long gone (as if no one would recognize a red-headed Baathist cooperating with AL-CIA-duh, 'er, ISIS, and the claims he has been killed before but... blah, blah, blah, blah). Like they say, you know crap when you SITE crap.
Related: Thawing Out Into WWIII: Back Where It All Began
Just cleaning up a bit:
"Iraqi leader decries Saudis on Yemen role; Public dispute bares challenge for key US allies" by Michael R. Gordon New York Times April 16, 2015
Gordon was right there with Judy Miller.
WASHINGTON — In a remarkable clash between two key US allies over Iran’s role in the fight against the Islamic State, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq took the unusual step on Wednesday of publicly criticizing the Saudi air campaign in Yemen and then suggested that the United States agreed with him.
Shortly afterward, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, sharply rebutted the Iraqi prime minister, saying there was “no logic to those remarks.’’ He vigorously defended the three-week-old Saudi air campaign aimed at stopping the Houthi fighters battling for control of Yemen.
The comments from Abadi and Jubeir illustrate the challenges facing the Obama administration as it tries to hold together a diverse coalition, including Sunni Arab states and Shi’ite-dominated Iraq, against the Islamic State.
It is a difficult balancing act. The Saudi air campaign is in support of US-backed officials in Yemen and against the Iranian-backed Houthis. Yet in its fight against Islamic State in Iraq, Washington finds itself supporting an Iraqi offensive that has relied on Iran for logistical and military backing.
Did their level best to f*** it up, but....
Abadi, who is making his first official visit to Washington, spoke early in the day to a small group of reporters at Blair House, the guest residence for visiting dignitaries. Jubeir held a news conference at the Saudi Embassy a few hours later and made his remarks about Abadi in response to questions from reporters, some of whom had met with Abadi at Blair House.
Jubeir offered a highly positive picture of the Saudi campaign in Yemen, saying that the bombing had destroyed attack planes, helicopters, ballistic missiles, air defenses, and command elements. But he gave no precise figures.
OMG!
He dismissed as “false” reports that Saudi bombers had accidentally killed numerous civilians in some of their airstrikes, saying Saudi Arabia had taken measures to minimize risks to Yemeni civilians.
We hear the same f***ing thing from these murderous governments, and have throughout history!
The air campaign has also created fissures among the Houthis and loyalists to the former Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, Jubeir said. That has prompted some senior Yemeni officers — he did not say how many — to defect back to the government side, abandoning Saleh. “We’re beginning to see cracks in their leadership,” Jubeir said.
Which government would that be?
The ambassador dismissed Abadi’s claim that United States officials were worried about the goals and conduct of the air campaign, saying that no US official had complained to him about it.
The United States is flying Predator and Reaper reconnaissance drones over Yemen and transmitting the information to a 20-person American military coordination team divided among Riyadh, Qatar, and Bahrain, said a senior US military official.
Under the arrangement, Saudi Arabia gives lists of potential targets to the US analysts for vetting. “We are not choosing their targets, but upon request, we’re providing intelligence to help Saudi Arabia with their precision, effectiveness, and avoidance of collateral damage,” the official said.
But they are exercising their independence, blah, blah, blah.
For his part, Abadi said the fighting in Yemen had created huge humanitarian problems.
“There is no logic to the operation at all in the first place,” Abadi said. “Mainly, the problem of Yemen is within Yemen.”
The Iraqi leader met Tuesday with President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Secretary of State John Kerry. During his visit, Abadi also plans to meet with Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, congressional leaders, top executives from oil companies and banks, and the heads of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
He's a US puppet and Maliki wasn't.
The Obama administration has sought to reassure Saudi Arabia and Arab states that it is attuned to their security concerns, especially as it tries to complete a nuclear accord with Iran, their regional adversary.
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Related: Obama gives visiting Iraqi premier aid and an endorsement
Feel reassured yet?
Iraq’s prime minister says more support needed to ‘finish’ ISIS
In Baghdad on Monday, a car bomb parked near an outdoor market in a busy commercial area killed at least 10 civilians, Iraqi officials said. The pickup truck, loaded with vegetables and fruits, was parked in the southwestern, Shi’ite-dominated Amil neighborhood, a police officer said. The explosion also wounded at least 25 civilians, he added. A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. No group immediately claimed responsibility for Monday’s bombing.
I can't imagine who it could be.
"Iraq’s air force has been at its lowest point and currently relies on US planes to carry out airstrikes in the battle to dislodge militants from the north and west of the country. By July, Iraq had also received a total of 13 secondhand Russian Su-25 jets. In other developments, Iraqi police and officials said Thursday that a suicide car bomb went off overnight next to a crowd of Shi’ite pilgrims, killing eight and wounding 16," but "at long last be getting the first batch of F-16 jets it ordered four years ago."
Finally flew them in, huh?
Related: U.S. soldiers, back in Iraq, find security forces in disrepair
Must be why Yemen shot one down, and how many billions were wasted?
NDU:
"Yemen fighting mars truce as UN envoy pushes for talks" Associated Press May 16, 2015
SANA, Yemen — Fighting was underway across Yemen on Friday, the third day of a humanitarian truce, as Saudi artillery shelled border areas.
I never took the "truce" seriously. I've seen too many failed "peace talks" for far too long. Grain of salt garbage. It's for propaganda pre$$ reasons, that's all.
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Yemen’s conflict has killed more than 1,400 people — many of them civilians — since March 19, according to the United Nations. The country of some 25 million people has endured shortages of food, water, medicine and electricity amid a Saudi-led blockade.
Yemen is now Gaza. Jesus Christ!
The UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Johannes Van Der Klaauw, on Friday said the situation ‘‘remains extremely preoccupying and . . . the needs are still growing.”
He said the UN has brought more than 100,000 gallons of fuel into Yemen, but is struggling to get it to hospitals, water plants and other facilities.
How long before a Saudi airstrike, 'er, "terrorist attack" blows up a U.N. fuel dump?
Meanwhile, the UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has proposed peace talks in Geneva. Rebel spokesman Hamed al-Bokheiti said the Houthis are willing to hold talks in any ‘‘neutral’’ country.
On behalf of the Yemeni people.
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Nothing about Iraq or Iran today, although you best beware of any flights from the Middle East.
