Maybe have to end the day's posts here, that's all. Been no pause in the war despite all the talk.
"UN urges peace talks and urgent aid delivery to Yemen" Associated Press June 26, 2015
UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council urged all parties in conflict-racked Yemen on Thursday to eventually negotiate a sustainable peace and to immediately facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the impoverished nation where the risk of famine is growing.
A press statement approved by all 15 council members endorsed Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s call for a humanitarian pause in the fighting. The UN special envoy on Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, warned the council Wednesday that the country is ‘‘one step’’ from famine.
UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien said Thursday that the collapse of basic services and shortages of food and fuel have had a ‘‘devastating impact’’ across the country.
‘‘More than 21 million people — that’s 80 percent of the population — now need humanitarian assistance,’’ he said.
Thank Obummer. He didn't like the Yemenis booting out their fresh-faced U.S. puppet.
The Security Council urged all parties to consider the pause in fighting as a first step toward a cease-fire.
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Related: Saudi Slaughter in Yemen
Let's pick up where we left off:
"Fighting was reported Saturday in multiple Yemeni provinces on the fourth day of a humanitarian truce between a Saudi-led coalition and Shi’ite rebels, security and tribal officials said. The five-day truce has been repeatedly violated. Officials reported fierce fighting in the southern city of Aden, the western city of Taiz, and the province of Marib (AP)."
"Airstrikes signal end of Yemen cease-fire; Saudi-led alliance hits rebels again" by Ahmed Al-Haj Associated Press May 18, 2015
SANA, Yemen — With no extension announced, a five-day humanitarian cease-fire in Yemen ended Sunday night, and airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition targeting Shi’ite rebels resumed.
The cease-fire, which expired at 11 p.m., hadn’t halted all fighting in Yemen between the rebels, known as Houthis, and those opposing them.
Yemeni security officials and witnesses say Saudi-led coalition airstrikes targeting Shi’ite rebels resumed Sunday night in the southern port city of Aden.
The planes hit rebel positions and tanks in several neighborhoods of Aden, the officials said. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, and the witnesses requested anonymity because they feared reprisals.
Earlier Sunday, hundreds of Yemeni politicians and tribal leaders began talks in Saudi Arabia on the future of their war-torn country, though the Houthis were not taking part.
Then they aren't really talks, are they, unless talking to yourselves and nodding agreement.
The Houthis have rejected the main aim of the talks — the restoration of Yemen’s exiled president — and the location of the negotiations in Saudi Arabia.
Yup, Houthis rejected peace, got it.
The absence of the Houthis means the national dialogue is unlikely to end the violence, which saw the rebels seize the capital, Sana, in September and ultimately oust President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
The UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, opened the meeting in Riyadh by calling on all parties to ensure that the shaky cease-fire leads to a lasting truce.
Oh, it's under U.N. auspices?
‘‘I call on all parties to refrain from any action that disturbs the peace of airports, main areas, and the infrastructure of transport,’’ said Ahmed, who delivered the speech on behalf of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
He says this as the Saudi coalition (U.S. helping) is resuming bombing it never stopped.
Since late March, Saudi Arabia has led airstrikes against the Houthis and allied military units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The air campaign is aimed at weakening the Houthis and restoring Hadi, who fled the country in March in the face of a rebel advance.
‘‘This conference taking place today is in support of politics and community, and rejects the coup,’’ Hadi told the gathering.
Booooo!
But they recognize Egypt's!
He urged a return to the political road map through which Saleh stepped down after more than three decades in power following a 2011 Arab Spring-inspired uprising.
Related: Arab Spring Benefited Israel
In this case, the Yemeni people protest was real, one of the truly pure ones. The U.S. attempted a switcheroo, getting rid of the stale Saleh for Hadi. Didn't work.
Saleh’s ouster and the road map was backed and overseen by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which is based in Saudi Arabia, as well as the United Nations and the United States.
Among those taking part in the conference were members of Saleh’s former ruling party.
Yemen’s conflict has killed more than 1,400 people — many of them civilians — since March 19, according to the UN.
The Saudis should be ashamed of themselves.
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And the death toll grows:
"1,820 people killed and 7,330 wounded since March 19. UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said aid groups estimate that more than 545,000 people were displaced between March 26, when the airstrikes began, and May 7, as part of a larger struggle for regional influence, the main aim of the talks — the truce appears to have allowed the Houthis and their allies to deploy more troops to the southern city of Aden. In Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, street battles were fought throughout the cease-fire. Medical officials there said more than 41 civilians have been killed and 230 wounded over the past month."
I find it incredibly sad that Yemenis must be pawns in the larger game of global domination.
This is murder:
"Yemen’s capital sees heaviest airstrikes since truce expired" by Ahmed Al-Haj Associated Press May 20, 2015
SANA, Yemen — The Saudi-led coalition on Tuesday carried out the heaviest airstrikes on the Yemeni capital since a five-day truce with Yemen’s Shi’ite rebels expired earlier this week, hitting weapons depots in the mountains surrounding Sana and sending dozens of families fleeing their homes in panic.
At the same time the U.N. guy is blah-blah!
The bombardment began shortly after midnight Monday, with airstrikes targeting rebel-held military depots in the mountains of Fag Atan and Noqom, where missiles, tanks, and artillery are kept, the residents said. There was no immediate word on casualties.
The coalition has repeatedly struck the two sites since launching the air campaign against the Iranian-backed rebels, known as Houthis, on March 26. But Tuesday’s assault was the heaviest since Sunday’s expiration of a five-day humanitarian truce, which was repeatedly violated.
By sunset, a fresh wave of airstrikes sent fire and smoke rising from the mountains around the capital, Sana. Dozens of families living close to the bombed sites hurriedly loaded their belongings onto vehicles and left.
Missiles hit several Houthi positions on Tuesday in their strongholds in the northern provinces of Saada and Hajjah, as well as a gathering of fighters allied with the Houthis in the city of Ibb, south of Sana. The rebels and their allies were also hit in the western city of Taiz and the southern city of Aden, near its airport, as well as in the eastern province of Marib.
Airstrikes also targeted a house owned by ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh in the Sana suburb of Sanhan, flattening it. Saleh’s whereabouts are not known; his loyalists in the country’s fragmented army have joined ranks with the Houthis. That alliance paved the way for the rebel takeover of Sana in September and boosted the rebels’ ability to advance into southern cities in an effort to expand territorial gains.
Fearing more airstrikes, residents in areas such as in Sana’s al-Dajaj district have left.
Meanwhile, the Houthis fired Katyusha rockets at the Saudi border region of Najran from Saada, according to tribesmen in the region. Nearby, the adjacent border area of al-Jouf province experienced heavy clashes between Houthi fighters and tribesmen believed to be backed and armed by Saudi Arabia. The battles are meant to open a new front line with Saada to distract the Houthis from shelling Saudi territories, the tribesmen said.
The Houthis are fighting back, huh? Amazing given the Saudi air assault.
What this looks like is the Saudi attempt to get a ground invasion going and getting their asses kicked.
Houthis and their allies have for weeks been trying to take over Aden, the strategic port city on the Arabian Sea, and the truce has apparently given them time to deploy more troops for that purpose. Fighters loyal to internationally recognized President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, now in exile in Saudi Arabia, hold the city.
A senior military commander in Aden said the rebels and their allies have approached the city from three sides and now control several large sections of Aden. Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced and pro-Hadi fighters have been given three days to surrender their weapons, he added.
The residents, tribesmen, and Yemeni officials spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals by the Houthis.
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Related: Yemeni rebel leader backs new UN peace talks in Geneva
"Yemeni politicians say UN peace talks indefinitely postponed.... The setback came as Saudi-led warplanes on Monday pounded Shi’ite Houthi rebel positions in the capital and across the country. Heavy fighting also continued in the city of Dhale, witnesses and military officials said."
"Yemen peace talks postponed as foes request more time" by Edith M. Lederer Associated Press May 27, 2015
UNITED NATIONS — The talks were meant to end weeks of fighting and Saudi-led airstrikes against an Iran-backed Shi’ite rebel group known as the Houthis, creating a humanitarian crisis in the Arab world’s poorest country.
Despite the UN appeal for all parties to attend the talks without preconditions, the exiled government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi had reiterated its demand that Houthi rebels first pull out of cities and towns seized in recent months, including the capital, Sana.
The Houthis backed the talks and said they would participate. Houthi rebel leader Abdul-Malek al-Houthi had described talks as the only solution to the war, a view backed by the UN chief. Houthi boycotted a recent conference hosted by Saudi Arabia, demanding that peace negotiations be held in a neutral country.
The talks, announced last week, were the first major initiative of the new UN special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who this month held meetings in Yemen with rival political players.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asked Ahmed to redouble his efforts with all parties and countries in the region ‘‘with the aim of producing a comprehensive cease-fire and the resumption of peaceful dialogue and an orderly political transition,’’ said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
Ban noted the escalation in fighting following a five-day humanitarian pause that ended last week and urged all parties ‘‘to be mindful of the suffering of Yemeni civilians’’ caused by a delay in returning to peace talks, the spokesman said.
The fighting never ended; it's just BS put out by the war-promoting pre$$ at the war continues. You fooled?
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"Saudi-led airstrikes kill at least 45 preparing to fight in Yemen, rebels say" by Ahmed Al-Haj Associated Press May 28, 2015
SANA, Yemen — Saudi-led airstrikes hit a headquarters for police commandos in Yemen’s capital Wednesday, killing at least 45 people gathered there to prepare to fight against forces loyal to the country’s exiled president, Shi’ite rebels said.
Hey, truce is over.
Hundreds had been gathered at the site, close to Sana’s presidential palace, to receive weapons while others waited in the grass and under trees before the strike, three men there told the Associated Press. There also were militiamen there from the ranks of the Shi’ite rebels, known as Houthis, many of them wearing traditional Yemeni clothes, they said.
The bombs and missiles demolished at least three buildings in the complex, damaged armored vehicles, and set weapons depots ablaze, many having explosions for at least an hour afterward.
The Houthi-controlled Health Ministry said in a statement that the strikes killed at least 45 members of the security forces and wounded at least 286. The main Houthi satellite news channel gave a similar death toll, saying it was expected to rise.
The three men, along with security officials describing the attack, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.
Across the country Wednesday, the ministry said violence killed another 96 people and wounded 276, without breaking down civilian casualties.
Witnesses said jets also bombed a naval base in the western Hodeida province controlled by the Houthis. Saudi and allied jets also bombed the northern Houthi strongholds of Saada and Hajjah, witnesses said.
The attacks are part a military campaign launched March 26 to try to restore internationally recognized President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, now living in exile in neighboring Saudi Arabia. The strikes target the Houthis and their allies, which include forces loyal to ousted President Ali Abdullah.
You mean "former" U.S. client Saleh?
In a new report Wednesday, World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan said that Yemen’s conflict has killed up to 2,000 people and wounded 8,000, including hundreds of women and children. She did not specify how many of the dead were civilian.
Recent UN estimates have said that at least 1,037 civilians, including 130 women and 234 children, have been killed in the fighting.
The war, as well as a Saudi-led air and sea blockade of the country, also have caused widespread shortages of fuel, water, food, and medical supplies.
They are getting closer to Israel all the time.
Earlier this week, the international humanitarian group Oxfam warned that some 16 million people in Yemen don’t have access to clean water. Half a million people have been displaced across the country.
And in another month the U.N. will chime in.
Journalists also have been a target following the Houthis seizing Sana in September, taking over government institutions and ministries.
Oh, I see. Houthis must be bad!
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Related: American journalist is freed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels
"Saudi Arabia shoots down Scud missile from Yemen; Attack indicates Shi’ite rebels still have firepower" by Abdullah al-Shihri Associated Press June 07, 2015
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — In a potentially major escalation of the months-long war, Yemeni rebels fired a Scud missile into Saudi Arabia early Saturday. The attack suggests that despite more than two months of airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition, Yemen’s Shi’ite rebels, known as Houthis, still have the military firepower to threaten cities inside Saudi Arabia.
I know. The tone I was getting was "we're winning!"
According to the official Saudi Press Agency, two missiles launched from a Patriot missile battery shot down the Scud before dawn near the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait. The agency did not report any casualties in the attack, the first use of a Cold War-era Scud by the rebels since Saudi-led airstrikes targeting the Houthis began in late March.
But they will have to order up some more from Raytheon!
Yemen’s state news agency SABA, now controlled by the Houthis, said the rebels fired the Scud. The Houthis are allied with military and security forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Khamis Mushait is home to the King Khalid Air Base, the largest such facility in that part of the country. Saudis on social media reported hearing air raid sirens go off around the city during the attack.
Are you sure it wasn't a drill?
The Yemeni military was widely believed to possess around 300 Scud missiles, most of which fell into the hands of the rebels. In April, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Saudi Brigadier General Ahmed Asiri, implied that the Scud arsenal in Yemen had been seriously degraded as a result of the airstrikes.
‘‘As coalition forces, we confirm that all Houthi capabilities were targeted, foremost their ballistic missiles,’’ Asiri said at the time.
On Saturday, Asiri told the Saudi-owned Al-Hadath news channel that coalition forces have destroyed ‘‘most of’’ Yemen’s Scuds.
Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, a professor of political science at United Arab Emirates University, said the attack was a way for the Houthis and their allies to signal that they still have fight left despite months of airstrikes. The Emirates is a member of the Saudi-led coalition.
Might even be winning for all we know.
The Saudis and Western powers accuse the Houthis of receiving military support from Shi’ite power Iran as part of a larger proxy war between the Sunni kingdom and the Islamic Republic across the Mideast. Tehran and the rebels deny the allegations, though Iran has acknowledged sending humanitarian aid to the Houthis.
Saudi Arabia leads a coalition targeting the rebels in airstrikes in support of Yemen’s exiled president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Those strikes have targeted arms caches and Scud missile sites around the country.
The coalition responded to Saturday’s attack by targeting and damaging the Scud launcher, which was located south of the Houthi stronghold city of Saada, according to SPA.
Yemeni security officials said coalition planes launched at least six airstrikes early Saturday against a Houthi convoy heading toward Saada. Airstrikes also hit a convoy in Amran province, which Houthi and tribal officials said was transporting livestock. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
More dead souls on Saudi scalp.
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"Saudi airstrikes kill 22 in Yemen" by Ahmed Al-Haj Associated Press June 08, 2015
SANA, Yemen — Saudi-led airstrikes before dawn Sunday targeted the headquarters of Yemen’s armed forces in the rebel-held capital, killing at least 22 people, officials said.
They said the dead were mostly soldiers and the airstrikes damaged several nearby homes. Residents said at least three airstrikes hit the headquarters, a short distance from the city’s center.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.
Associated Press video showed flames rising from the badly damaged complex as a man trapped under the rubble cried out for help. Soldiers carried the wounded and the dead away.
The Saudi-led coalition began launching airstrikes March 26 against the Iranian-backed Shi’ite rebels, known as Houthis, and their allies in the military and security forces. The Houthis seized Sana in September and later captured much of northern Yemen before moving south in March.
Their southern advance forced the internationally recognized president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, to flee to neighboring Saudi Arabia.
Sunday’s airstrikes came a day after the Houthis fired a Scud missile into Saudi Arabia, a dramatic escalation of the conflict. The attack indicated that despite more than two months of coalition airstrikes, the rebels still pose a threat to Saudi cities.
Think about that for a minute: the "rebels" fire one Scud and it's a dramatic escalation. The Saudis bomb for three months and it's ho-hum.
God am I sick of this Jewish war slop.
The official Saudi Press Agency said two missiles launched from a Patriot missile battery shot down the Scud before dawn Saturday near the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait. The agency did not report any casualties in the attack, the first use of a Cold War-era Scud by the rebels since the airstrikes began.
Meanwhile Sunday, the Saudi-funded al-Hadath satellite news channel broadcast video of a column of armored vehicles and tanks heading toward the kingdom’s border with Yemen, saying the vehicles would reinforce troops already there. The coalition previously has said it could send ground forces into Yemen, something it so far has yet to do.
But it's an option -- even as the U.N. talks peace(?).
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"Egypt delayed flight to UN peace talks, Yemen rebels say" Associated Press June 15, 2015
Wish I could say I was surprised!
SANA, Yemen — A delegation of Yemen’s Shi’ite Houthi rebels departed for Geneva on a UN-chartered plane Monday to take part in peace talks after a delay in Djibouti that the rebels blamed on Egypt, a member of the Saudi-led coalition that has been targeting them with airstrikes since March.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the plane left Djibouti at 7:10 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive in Geneva early Tuesday.
Houthi leader Zeifullah al-Shami had earlier said the delegation might return to Yemen’s rebel-held capital, Sana, after Egypt refused to allow it to land at Cairo airport, a charge officials there denied. But he later said the plane was able to take off en route to Geneva after Oman intervened diplomatically.
The Houthis missed a Geneva meeting Monday with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was returning to New York. Ban met separately with representatives of the ousted government and ambassadors of 16 countries that are monitoring developments in Yemen.
I mean, really. This is bullish**!!
Shami had blamed the United Nations for the delay, saying it was responsible for the travel itinerary of the plane and should do more to ‘‘stop the aggression targeting the country.’’
The delegation, which also includes loyalists of the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, a Houthi ally, and representatives of other political groups, left Sana on Sunday. The talks are aimed at ending months of fighting; a Saudi-led coalition launched an air campaign against the Houthis and their allies nearly three months ago.
The UN secretary general has pressed for a halt to the fighting later this week at the beginning of Ramadan, the Muslim month of dawn-to-dusk fasting.
After his meeting with some of the delegations, Ban said he had ‘‘emphasized the importance of having another humanitarian pause, at least two weeks.’’
Oh, we are BACK TO THAT AGAIN!
‘‘I’m urging them that, particularly during this Ramadan — which is a period for peace for people, and praying for peace — they must stop,’’ he told reporters.
Meaning all these "terror attacks" all over the place must be false flag frauds!
Btw, my print copy ended it there.
Such a pause won’t be enough in itself to get aid to all needy Yemenis ‘‘given the obstacles to access and the scale of destruction,’’ Ban said. He called for the warring factions to go further, agree on local cease-fires and withdraw fighters from cities.
A previous five-day pause was violated repeatedly, and aid groups said it was hardly sufficient to reach millions in the Arab world’s poorest country.
Yemen’s conflict pits the Houthis — who seized the capital, Sana, last year — and military units loyal to Saleh against an array of forces, including southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Islamic militants and loyalists of exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
So Al-CIA-Duh and ISIS™ are on "our" side?
The Saudi-led coalition began launching airstrikes against the Houthis and their allies on March 26, shortly after Hadi fled a rebel advance on the south. Riyadh views the Houthis as a proxy of Shi'ite Iran, which supports the rebels but has denied arming them.
The talks in Geneva are expected to last two or three days. The UN has said that they will start off as proximity talks — in which mediators meet separately with the various factions — with the hope of eventually getting everyone to sit around the same table.
While the war goes on.
‘‘The parties have a responsibility to end the fighting and begin a real process of peace and reconciliation,’’ Ban said, arguing that ‘‘the region simply cannot sustain another open wound like Syria and Libya.’’
Inside the country, however, there were few signs of the violence abating, with airstrikes continuing in the capital and several other cities, including the southern port of Aden, central Taiz, and Houthi stronghold Saada.
And you wonder why I can't stand the gasbag Moon?
The Houthis said they consolidated control of Jawf province bordering Saudi Arabia and plan to move forces to the frontier.
Shami said the move followed heavy fighting with tribes and forces loyal to Hadi, especially in the provincial capital, Hazm, leaving dozens of civilians dead.
Houthi-run television showed dozens of bodies lying in the streets of Hazm, while doctors and eyewitnesses backed up reports of the deaths.
That I believe.
Security officials who spoke anonymously as they weren’t authorized to brief journalists said that the Saudi-led air campaign has been bombing the city since the Houthis took it over a day earlier, with airstrikes again picking up Monday morning.
They said ground fighting with heavy weapons raged on in several areas, including Marib province, killing at least a dozen civilians.
Meanwhile in the eastern city of Mukalla, the officials said Al Qaeda’s local affiliate and its allies stormed the historic Rawdah mosque, detaining young people who had been singing and chanting against the extremist group, which seized the city earlier this year.
In Geneva, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein said he was ‘‘gravely concerned’’ about the high number of civilian casualties from the conflict.
‘‘Indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks are being used on densely populated areas,’’ he said in a statement. ‘‘Such attacks must be thoroughly investigated, and greater protection of civilians must be ensured by all sides.’’
As the U.N. wrings its hands, wrings it hands.
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So now we know why the rebels failed to board the plane even though they eventually got there.
Meanwhile....
"Fighting continues in Yemen as Houthi rebels enter peace talks" by Martin Benedyk and Ahmed Al-Haj Associated Press June 17, 2015
GENEVA — Fighting in Yemen raged on Tuesday, with dozens reported killed even as the country’s Shi’ite Houthi rebels arrived in Geneva for UN-brokered peace talks. UN figures reported an increasing number of civilians killed in a conflict that is showing little sign of abating.
The Geneva talks are aimed at ending months of fighting that prompted a Saudi-led coalition to launch an air campaign against the Houthis and their allies nearly three months ago.
Still, neither side has shown desire to compromise even as dozens died in renewed fighting in the southern city of Aden.
Following initial meetings with the UN envoy, delegate Ghaleb Mutlak said that the rebels are trying to achieve a truce for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and that their delegation is willing to stay in Switzerland as long as it takes to end the bloodshed.
Good luck.
UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said nothing will be settled unless the two sides can be persuaded to sit down together, but that just getting them both to Geneva was a “great achievement.”
“We should not underestimate the significance of this event,” he told reporters after meeting with the Houthi delegation. “It is the important start toward the return to a political process. Let us be realistic, it will be a difficult path, but the important issue is that we start addressing the crisis.”
That is why I'm not taking peace talk cover seriously.
Meanwhile on the ground, heavy combat shook the cities of Taiz and Marib, while airstrikes from the Saudi-led coalition hit rebel positions in the capital, Sanaa, as well as Hajjah, Saada, al-Jawf, and Shabwa province.
The rebel delegation from Sanaa set off Sunday but arrived a day later than expected on Tuesday morning. They blamed the delay on Egypt, claiming they weren’t given permission to fly over its airspace, although Cairo denied the charge.
It’s unclear how long the talks — at least initially involving mediators shuttling between the parties, rather than face-to-face encounters — will last.
I suspect not long.
UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said the start of Ramadan on Wednesday may affect whether the delegations stay in Geneva.
That is where my print copy ended.
‘‘It is a golden opportunity to try and resolve this crisis,’’ Fawzi said. ‘‘Whether they will agree to extend their stay beyond the beginning of Ramadan is anybody’s guess.’’
Yemen’s conflict pits the Houthis — who seized Sanaa last year — and military units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against an array of forces, including southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Islamic militants and loyalists of exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Deja vu!
The delegation from Sanaa includes loyalists of Saleh and representatives of other political groups.
UN figures released Tuesday underlined the urgency of finding a solution. Between June 11 and June 15, 50 civilians were killed — among them 18 children — and a further 111 were wounded, the UN human rights office said. That brings the total number of civilians killed since March 26 to 1,412, with 3,423 wounded, it added.
UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, said at least 279 children have been killed and 402 wounded since March 26, compared with 74 killed and 244 wounded in all of 2014. UNICEF said children are being used by armed groups to man checkpoints or carry arms.
Speaking at an emergency session on Yemen at the headquarters of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, Hadi reiterated his position that the talks must focus on implementing UN Security Council Resolution 2216, which calls on the rebels to lay down their arms, give up captured territory and cease actions undermining the exiled government.
When they start implementing them against Israel get back to me.
Mohamed Abdallah Alzuberi, a Houthi delegation official, said in Geneva that ‘‘there can be no consultation with those who are not legitimate.’’
‘‘As a political power inside Yemen, we have agreed that the (current) head of the government is not part of the dialogue, as we are the ones who should be choosing the head of the government,’’ he said.
Because they represent the people of Yemen.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pressed for a halt to fighting at the start of Ramadan, the Muslim month of dawn-to-dusk fasting, as he launched the talks Monday.
‘‘Our ambition is for a truce to happen over Ramadan, but a truce isn’t enough. We want to solve the problem and stop the aggression,’’ Alzuberi said.
On Monday, the exiled government’s foreign minister, Riad Yassin, said such a limited cease-fire ‘‘has to run parallel to the withdrawal of Houthi militias and those of Saleh from all cities and governorates of Yemen.’’
Meanwhile, security and medical officials said a passenger bus carrying families fleeing the violence in Aden was hit by an airstrike killing more than two dozen civilians. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists.
Houthi leader Abdul-Malek al-Houthi lambasted the war as a ‘‘grave aggression’’ that was killing women and children and destroying the country to serve the interests of Saudi Arabia, the US, and Israel.
Now I know why this had to be clipped. He knows!
‘‘They want this country to be under their hegemony, and they want instability to keep the country under their control,’’ he said in a defiant speech broadcast on Houthi-run Al-Masirah television.
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Sorry, but I am not very optimistic going forward:
"Explosion destroys ancient cultural heritage site in Yemen capital" New York Times June 13, 2015
NEW YORK — A protected 2,500-year-old cultural heritage site in Yemen’s capital was obliterated in an explosion early Friday, and witnesses and news reports said the cause was a missile or bomb from Saudi Arabia-led warplanes. The Saudi military denied responsibility.
I'm sure it was ISIS™.
The top antiquities-safeguarding official at the United Nations angrily condemned the destruction of ancient multistory homes, towers, and gardens by the explosion, which also killed an unspecified number of residents in a neighborhood in Sana’s Old City area.
They care more about property than people!
“I am profoundly distressed by the loss of human lives as well as the damage inflicted on one of the world’s oldest jewels of Islamic urban landscape,” said the official, Irina Bokova, director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Oh, okay.
“I am shocked by the images of these magnificent many-story tower-houses and serene gardens reduced to rubble,” she said in a statement posted on the UNESCO website.
Photographs from the scene and witness accounts posted on social media said the attack destroyed at least five houses and caused irreparable damage to the area, registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Saudi Arabia has led a coalition of Arab states bombing Yemen for more than two months in a concerted campaign against the Houthi, an insurgent group allied with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival.
How many more things can be left to bomb, or are they just going over the target list again?
Hours after the destruction in Sana’s Old City there was no confirmation of its cause. A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri, was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying the coalition did not carry out an attack, and suggesting a rebel ammunition storehouse might have exploded. Houthi fighters quoted in local news outlets denied having anything to do with the destruction.
The Old City destruction came two days before UN-backed talks are scheduled to convene in Geneva to find a solution to the Yemen crisis.
Back tho those again.
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Related:
"An Islamic State-claimed car bomb exploded outside a mosque in Yemen’s capital Saturday, killing at least two people and wounding six amid the country’s raging civil war, authorities said. The bomb targeted the Qabat al-Mahdi mosque, where Shi’ite rebels known as Houthis and others pray, security officials said (AP)."
War is really heating up, huh?
"Dengue fever taking toll in Yemen" Associated Press June 18, 2015
WTF? WHO let it loose?
SANA, Yemen — Thousands of people have been diagnosed with dengue fever in southern Yemen, where fighting has raged for months between Shi’ite rebels and their opponents, international organizations and health officials said Thursday.
The top health ministry official in the southern city of Aden, al-Khadr Al-Aswar, said at least 5,000 people have been diagnosed with the mosquito-borne virus. He said mountains of uncollected garbage, along with untreated sewage and heat, have contributed to the spread of the disease.
The World Health Organization said last week that at least 3,000 suspected cases have been reported since March, with three people dying. Dengue causes fever, headaches, and skin rashes. Potentially lethal cases, mainly in children, involve abdominal pain and difficulty breathing, according to the WHO.
The fighting in Yemen pits the Shi’ite rebels, known as Houthis, against an array of forces, including southern separatists, Sunni militants, and loyalists of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Yeah, I got that.
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Time to get out of Yemen:
"1,200 inmates flee Yemeni prison" Associated Press July 01, 2015
SANAA, Yemen — Some 1,200 inmates fled a prison in Yemen on Tuesday after guards deserted their posts amid fierce fighting between Shi’ite rebels and their opponents, officials said.
A security official said the jailbreak in the southwestern city of Taiz came after its main prison was caught in crossfire between southerners fighting for autonomy or outright independence and the rebels, known as Houthis, who are backed by army units loyal to a former president.
Makes you wonder if the Houthis are in deep covert cooperation on this whole thing with the southerners fighting for independence the true rebels.
It was the third jailbreak since a Saudi-led air campaign against the rebels began on March 26. The Iran-backed rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, last September and control much of the country’s north.
Yup. You say it enough it becomes true, right?
Some 300 inmates, including a top militant leader, were freed from a prison in Mukalla after Al Qaeda militants captured the southern port city in April. The Houthis allegedly freed inmates from a prison in the southwestern city of Dhale.
Terror attack on AmeriKa on the way then, right?
Saudi-led airstrikes meanwhile targeted convoys carrying militiamen sent to reinforce the Houthis and allied forces in the eastern province of Marib, where the rebels are battling Sunni tribesmen, officials said.
They said Saudi-led warplanes also bombed the northern cities of Saada, Jouf, and Amran along with weapon depots and armored vehicles in a rebel-controlled police camp in the central Bayda province.
They didn't hit or kill anything?
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While in the neighborhood, I thought I would pause at these places:
"Bahrain opposition leader gets 4-year sentence" Associated Press June 17, 2015
MANAMA, Bahrain — A Bahraini court sentenced the country’s leading Shi’ite opposition figure to four years in prison Tuesday amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent in the tiny island kingdom.
Sheikh Ali Salman, a key figure in the 2011 uprising against the Sunni monarchy, was convicted of insulting the Interior Ministry, which oversees police, inciting others to break the law, and inciting hatred against naturalized Sunni citizens, many of whom are of South Asian descent and serve in the country’s security forces.
So much for free speech in Bahrain.
However, the court found Salman not guilty of the most serious charge he faced, which was inciting violence and calling for the overthrow of the monarchy, which carried a potential life sentence. His lawyer, Abdullah al-Shamlawi, said Salman can appeal.
Salman, 49, is secretary-general of the Al Wefaq political opposition group and was arrested in late December. The charges stem from speeches he made between 2012 and 2014.
Al Wefaq says his words were taken out of context. His group criticized the verdict.
‘‘Keeping Ali Salman in jail means delaying any political solution to come and reflects the government’s rejection to a political solution,’’ Al Wefaq member Khalil Marzooq said.
Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, sees near-daily protests backed by the country’s Shi’ite majority, who demand greater say in the government.
And yet they are rarely reported in my pre$$, and I think you can see why.
Al Wefaq is among Bahrain’s most vocal and organized opposition groups. The group, which boycotted last year’s parliamentary elections, is demanding greater power-sharing between lawmakers and the monarchy, release of political prisoners, and a prime minister chosen by elected officials.
How dare he!
Salman’s case has attracted international attention, including criticism from Shiite powerhouse Iran. The European Union warned his arrest could jeopardize the already-difficult security situation in Bahrain. The US has urged that he be tried in a just and transparent way.
The government accuses the opposition of repeatedly rejecting offers to hold a national dialogue.
Do I have to explain?
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"Woman who killed US teacher in Abu Dhabi mall gets death sentence" Associated Press June 30, 2015
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A court in the United Arab Emirates has handed down a death sentence to a woman convicted of murdering a US teacher with a butcher knife in the bathroom of an upscale Abu Dhabi mall, the state news agency WAM reported Monday.
Attacks against foreigners are rare in the UAE, which is home to the popular tourist destination of Dubai and where expatriates far outnumber Emirati citizens.
Police said at the time of the attack in December that the attacker had targeted her victim based on nationality alone in an attempt to create chaos in the country.
Smells like another false flag.
She had also planted a bomb outside another American’s house that was discovered before it detonated.
The attacker was identified as Emirati national Alaa Bader Abdullah al-Hashemi, a 30-year-old mother of six, said The National newspaper. International media were not allowed inside the courtroom.
The attacker wore the full black garment and face veil traditionally worn by women in the Persian Gulf area.
You need to strip. Screw the religion.
Ibolya Ryan, 47, who had three children, had been living in Abu Dhabi with her 11 year-old twins and had taught at an elementary school in Colorado before moving to the UAE.
Odd coincidence.
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Then it struck me: amongst all the Saudi airstrikes, not a mention of any U.S. drones!!
"Lawsuit filed over US drone attack; Families say goal is accountability" by Scott Shane New York Times June 09, 2015
WASHINGTON — The families of an anti-Al Qaeda cleric and a police officer killed in a US drone strike in Yemen in 2012 have filed a lawsuit, asking the federal court in Washington to declare that the strike was unlawful.
The lawsuit, which seeks no monetary damages, is described by the complainants as an attempt to break through the secrecy surrounding drone strikes and to have the court impose some public accountability for mistakes made in the program.
It cites President Obama’s decision in April to disclose that a separate US strike, on a Qaeda compound in Pakistan, had accidentally killed two hostages — an American and an Italian.
See: The Weinstein of Drones
Can you hear the whoosh-bang?
The lawsuit, filed Sunday night, notes that Obama said at the time that the hostages’ “families deserve to know the truth” and the United States was willing “to confront squarely our imperfections and to learn from our mistakes.”
Related: Obama clears way for hostages’ families to pay ransom
Says he let you down along with the rest of us.
The lawsuit asks for the same consideration for the families of Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber, the cleric, and Waleed bin Ali Jaber, his cousin, the sole traffic police officer in their village of Khashamir.
“There is a simple question at the heart of this claim,” the suit says. “The president has now admitted to killing innocent Americans and Italians with drones; why are the bereaved families of innocent Yemenis less entitled to the truth?”
Because Yemenis are the "enemy."
The lawsuit was filed by Faisal bin Ali Jaber, an engineer and the brother-in-law of the cleric and the uncle of the police officer, with the assistance of the international human rights group Reprieve.
John O. Brennan, formerly Obama’s counterterrorism adviser and now the director of the CIA, said in 2013 that he believed the United States should publicly acknowledge mistaken strikes. But it has happened only once, when the Western hostages were killed in Pakistan.
Yeah, right!
Independent legal experts said the suit faced long odds.
“Although this particular drone strike was by all accounts one of the darker moments in the US targeted killing program, it’s hard to be optimistic about this suit’s chances for success,” said Stephen I. Vladeck, a professor of law at American University.
Easy to be pessimistic like me, though!
The suit challenges the legality of the strike under the Torture Victim Protection Act and the Alien Tort Statute. But Vladeck said the torture law does not usually allow claims against US officials, and a federal appeals court has dismissed parallel claims from Iraqi and Afghan detainees who said they were tortured in US custody.
I will be getting to the torture a bit later.
The drone strike in question has drawn considerable attention as a case study in what can go wrong when missiles are fired by operators thousands of miles away based on incomplete intelligence.
Oooops!?
The lawsuit adds new details to the account shared by Jaber when he visited Washington in 2013 and met with members of Congress and the Obama administration.
Salem bin Ali Jaber, 40, a father of seven who lived with his family in the coastal city of Mukalla, had come to the village of 3,000 people to give a sermon. Faisal was back home in the village to celebrate a wedding.
Salem’s sermon rebutted Al Qaeda’s religious justification for the killing of Yemeni government officials and civilians.
That is why the U.S. got mad at him.
Five days later, three young strangers drove into the village looking for Salem. Family members put them off, fearing that they were Al Qaeda members angry about the sermon, but Salem agreed to meet them. Waleed, the police officer, offered to go along for protection.
As the five men talked, four Hellfire missiles killed them all.
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"Al Qaeda in Yemen leader reported killed in US drone strike" by Scott Shane New York Times June 16, 2015
WASHINGTON — Yemeni officials and extremists said Monday that Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the leader of Al Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate and recently the second-ranking official of the entire terror network, has been killed in a US drone strike.
The officials said that Wuhayshi died of injuries suffered in a drone strike last week outside Mukalla, a Yemeni coastal town in the province of Hadramout where Qaeda fighters have tried to take control of local governance. Militants said on Twitter that Qassim al-Raymi, the group’s military leader, had succeeded him.
US officials said they could not confirm the reports, a day after the fate of another militant leader targeted in an American military airstrike in Libya was uncertain.
For that you have to return to the Mediterranean.
Wuhayshi, a Yemeni citizen, took over Qaeda’s Yemen branch in 2009 after its then-leader was killed by a US drone. He had been involved in the terrorist organization since 1998.
I'm always amazed at how much the war pre$$ and government know about Al-CIA-Duh, al-nUSrA, ISIS™, what have you.
The United States considered Wuhayshi one of the most- wanted terrorists in the world and had offered $10 million for information leading to his capture or killing.
Wuhayshi was Osama bin Laden’s secretary for years in Afghanistan. He was arrested by Iranian authorities after leaving Afghanistan in 2001 and then turned over to Yemen, where he was imprisoned until he escaped with other prisoners in 2006.
The Pentagon said it believes the earlier airstrike in Libya killed an Islamist militant leader responsible for the deaths of dozens of Westerners in North Africa, though the military was still conducting an assessment and could not confirm that the attack had succeeded.
The Libyan government said on Sunday night that Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian militant leader, was killed in the earlier strike. But Colonel Steven H. Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said Monday that the military was “still conducting the post-strike assessment to determine whether our intended target was eliminated.”
I'm sure they will raise the ghost out of the grave again. What average Amerikan is going to notice? They just hear an unpronounceable name.
Still, when pressed on what the initial reports indicated, Warren added, “We do assess that it was successful, but we haven’t finalized.”
Initial assessments of airstrikes have often proven wrong, and over the years the military has grown increasingly cautious about declaring its targets dead until it has what commanders feel is definitive proof. Still, even people whom the military has confirmed were killed in its attacks have later been found alive.
Like six of the alleged 9/11 hijackers!
So who stole their identities and framed them?
The attack was carried out Saturday evening by a pair of F-15E Strike Eagles, Warren said. The aircraft used what he described as “precision munitions,” bombs, to strike a building in eastern Libya.
They have claimed that in every war!
Belmokhtar led an attack on a gas plant in Algeria in 2013 that killed 38 civilians, including three Americans.
The group he has led has taken on a number of permutations and some of his former fighters have more recently joined the Islamic State, though Belmokhtar has remained loyal to Al Qaeda.
I love good fiction.
Major Mohammed Hegazi, a military spokesman from Libya’s internationally recognized government based in the east, said the airstrike killed at least 17 people. Among those killed were three foreigners — a Tunisian and two unidentified foreign militants, he said.
But "we" got the guy we wanted -- I think, hope, whatever.
Hegazi said no Libyan civilians were believed to have been killed.
Uh-huh.
A Facebook page associated with Libya Dawn, the Islamist militia backing the Tripoli-based government, denied that the airstrikes targeted Al Qaeda al-Qaida and instead said they targeted Islamists who are ‘‘Libya’s revolutionaries . . . considered the safety valve for the revolution.’’ It said US warplanes were allied with the forces led by General powerful Gen. Khalifa Hifter and backing the internationally recognized government.
That's the U.S. puppet who is trying to hold on.
The east-based government hailed the US raid as a ‘‘piece of the international support that it has long requested to fight terrorism that represents a dangerous threat to the regional and international situation.’’
It added that the government would like more help fighting terrorism, including the Islamic State group, which controls Sirte, west of Ajdabiya, and is spreading to the west and south.
OMG!!!!
The former loyalist stronghold of Khadafy is now an ISIS™ base!
In other words, ANY WHO STAND against the U.S. and its agenda are "terrorists!"
Militants have taken advantage of Libya’s chaos, with fighters flowing into the country’s vast ungoverned spaces.
Yeah, whatever.
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No break for the narrative:
"Yemeni militant leader is killed" by Kareem Fahim New York Times June 17, 2015
BAGHDAD — Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen released a video statement Tuesday confirming the death of its leader, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, in a US missile strike last week. His death was also confirmed by the Obama administration Tuesday.
PFFFFFFFFT!
Wuhayshi, 38, who had led Al Qaeda operations in Yemen since 2002 and was also the global extremist network’s second-ranking leader, was killed along with two other operatives, the statement said. The group said that its military commander, Qassim al-Raimi, had been chosen as Wuhayshi’s successor.
“Let it be known to the enemies of God that their battle is not only with one person or figure, no matter how important,” a senior Al Qaeda operative, Khaled Batarfi, said in the statement. “To the infidel America: God has kept alive those who will trouble your life and make you taste the bitterness of defeat.”
Blah, blah.
The Al Qaeda statement apparently resolves uncertainty about the fate of Wuhayshi, but the result of an attack over the weekend on another prominent militant was in doubt.
(Blog editor just laughs)
Over the weekend, US F-15s carried out an airstrike in Libya against Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who planned an attack on an Algerian gas plant in 2013 in which 38 foreign workers died. It was unclear whether the missiles had hit their target.
The White House statement called Wuhayshi’s death “a major blow to AQAP, Al Qaeda’s most dangerous affiliate, and to Al Qaeda more broadly.” The term stands for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Wuhayshi oversaw “the group’s plotting against the United States, US interests in the Arabian Peninsula, and those of our allies in the region,” and was responsible for the “deaths of innocent Yemenis and Westerners, including Americans,” the statement said.
Wuhayshi’s death, the statement added, “removes from the battlefield an experienced terrorist leader, and brings us closer to degrading and ultimately defeating these groups.”
Yeah, "we" are winning.
Despite the recent deaths of Wuhayshi and several other senior leaders, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has grown more formidable in Yemen over the last few months, capitalizing on the civil war there to capture territory and forge new alliances with Sunni tribes to fight the Houthis, a Shi’ite rebel group that controls large parts of the country.
Then they are plotting WITH the United States, aren't they?
In early April, Al Qaeda seized control of Al Mukalla, Yemen’s fifth-largest city, reportedly capturing millions of dollars from the vaults of the central bank. The city, which is in a remote coastal area, has remained relatively untouched by the spreading civil war.
Now this IS FUNNY!
The militants’ high profile in Al Mukalla — where they interact openly with residents, and regularly patrol the streets — may have made them more vulnerable. The editor of a local news website, who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal, said they had likely been “infiltrated” by spies.
Ya' think?
At least three senior militants, including Wuhayshi, have been killed in recent weeks while sitting by Al Mukalla’s seaside. A resident of the city who said he witnessed the drone strike that killed Wuhayshi on June 9 said that three militants — he did not recognize any of them at the time — got out of a black pickup truck and sat in a picnic area by the water. At sunset, the men went to pray at a nearby mosque. After prayers, the witness said he heard “two big, consecutive explosions.”
A picture is worth a thousand typed words.
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The NYT will try to answer that question:
"Documents shed light on drone strikes; Intelligence data detail rationale, what can go wrong" by Scott Shane New York Times June 25, 2015
WASHINGTON — Early in 2012, worried that suicide bombers might pass through airline security undetected, US counterterrorism officials ordered a drone strike in Yemen to kill a doctor they believed was working with Al Qaeda to surgically implant explosives in operatives, according to British intelligence documents.
I just busted a gut laughing!
The documents, previously undisclosed, include details about how terrorism suspects are targeted in drone strikes and how strikes can go wrong at times.
Only once!
The documents also show how closely the National Security Agency has worked in Pakistan and Yemen with its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters.
So those governments all guilty as well, huh?
Britain has carried out drone strikes only in war zones in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. But the documents raise the possibility that in addition, British intelligence may have helped guide US strikes outside conventional war zones.
Drone strikes carried out by the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command have received fresh scrutiny after President Obama disclosed in April that a strike had killed two Western aid workers held hostage by Al Qaeda in Pakistan.
Kill a Jew working for the CIA and see what happens?
In that case, intelligence officers targeting the Qaeda compound had no idea the hostages were there, illustrating how incomplete or faulty information has led to civilian deaths in the drone campaign.
Just once, Brennan said.
Last week offered two more examples of the uncertain outcomes of airstrikes.
Uh-oh.
A prominent Algerian terrorist, widely reported as dead in a Pentagon strike by F-15s, now appears to still be alive.
(Blog editor laughs!)
And it took several days after a strike in Yemen for US officials to learn that an attack had killed the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who was also the No. 2 leader of Al Qaeda’s global terror network.
Blah-blah.
The British documents were provided by Edward J. Snowden, the former NSA contractor, to The Guardian, the British newspaper and global website, and shared with The New York Times.
Then it is timely propaganda, nothing more.
Press officers for the NSA and the CIA declined to comment. The Government Communications Headquarters said in a prepared statement that while it would not comment on intelligence operations, “We expect all states concerned to act in accordance with international law and take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties when conducting any form of military or counterterrorist operations.”
Why nothing on Manning's leaks, and why the drib-drab from Snowden? Why not release them all and let bloggers work on them for years? Unless.... part of the show!
An internal newsletter for the British agency identifies the doctor killed in a drone strike in Yemen on March 30, 2012, as Khadim Usamah, whom it describes as “the doctor who pioneered using surgically planted explosives.”
I couldn't help but giggle.
The newsletter calls Usamah, who appears to have never been identified publicly before, a member of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the branch of the terrorist organization based in Yemen. It says he was killed along with a second Al Qaeda member.
The strike came at a time of especially intense concern inside the Obama administration about the persistent efforts of Al Qaeda in Yemen to use commercial aircraft to mount an attack on the United States.
The chief bomb maker of the Arab peninsula branch, Ibrahim al-Asiri, was also experimenting with designing explosives that a suicide attacker could carry undetected through conventional security checkpoints.
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Related:
"Documents on 2012 drone strike detail how terrorists are targeted" by Scott Shane New York Times June 24, 2015
WASHINGTON — Early in 2012, worried that suicide bombers might pass through airline security undetected, US counterterrorism officials ordered a drone strike in Yemen to kill a doctor they believed was working with Al Qaeda to surgically implant explosives in operatives, according to British intelligence documents.
The documents, previously undisclosed, include details about how terrorism suspects are targeted in drone strikes and how strikes can go wrong at times. The documents also show how closely the National Security Agency has worked in Pakistan and Yemen with its British counterpart, Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ.
Britain has carried out drone strikes only in war zones in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. The documents raise the possibility that in addition, British intelligence may have helped guide US strikes outside conventional war zones.
Drone strikes carried out by the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command have received fresh scrutiny after President Barack Obama disclosed in April that a strike had killed two Western aid workers held hostage by Al Qaeda in Pakistan. In that case, intelligence officers targeting the Al Qaeda compound had no idea the hostages were there, illustrating how incomplete or faulty information has led to civilian deaths in the drone campaign.
Last week offered two more examples of the uncertain outcomes of airstrikes. A prominent Algerian terrorist, widely reported dead in a Pentagon strike by F-15s, appears to still be alive. And only several days after a strike in Yemen did US officials learn that an attack had killed the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who was also the No. 2 leader of Al Qaeda’s global terror network.
The British documents were provided by Edward J. Snowden, the former NSA contractor, to The Guardian, the British newspaper and global website, and shared with The New York Times. Press officers for the NSA and the CIA declined to comment. GCHQ said in a statement that while it would not comment on intelligence operations, “We expect all states concerned to act in accordance with international law and take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties when conducting any form of military or counterterrorist operations.”
An internal newsletter for the British agency identifies the doctor killed in a drone strike in Yemen on March 30, 2012, as Khadim Usamah, whom it describes as “the doctor who pioneered using surgically planted explosives.” The newsletter calls Usamah, who appears to have never been identified publicly before, a member of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the branch of the terrorist organization based in Yemen. It says he was killed along with a second Al Qaeda member.
The strike came at a time of especially intense concern inside the Obama administration about the persistent efforts of Al Qaeda in Yemen to use commercial aircraft to mount an attack on the United States. The chief bomb maker of the Arab peninsula branch, Ibrahim al-Asiri, was experimenting with designing explosives that a suicide attacker could carry undetected through conventional security checkpoints.
I know you already saw that from a different article, but...
In August 2009, Asiri dispatched his younger brother, Abdullah al-Asiri, to Saudi Arabia with a bomb that by most accounts was inserted in his rectum. He detonated the explosives when he met with the Saudi counterterrorism chief, Mohammed bin Nayef, but the bomb killed only the younger Abdullah al-Asiri.
That really is shoving the propaganda up your ass!
On Dec. 25, 2009, a young Nigerian equipped by Ibrahim al-Asiri with explosives hidden in his underwear, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, made it through airline security and onto a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. But when he tried to blow up the flight as it approached Detroit, the bomb only ignited and burned Abdulmutallab, who was swiftly subdued by other passengers.
Time to change those and get a new pair.
Some intelligence officials expressed concern after that failed attack that Asiri had recruited one or more surgeons to experiment with implanting a bomb with no metal parts into the abdomen of a suicide bomber. There is no known case in which such an attack was carried out, but the British documents suggest that intelligence officials believed Usamah was part of an effort to develop such plans when he was killed.
Good thing they killed him just in time.
Some of the British agency’s documents suggest, though they do not explicitly state, that it provided intelligence for that strike in Yemen and other US strikes. That would be no surprise, since intelligence cooperation between the United States and Britain has long been close, particularly in the area of signals intelligence, or eavesdropping. The documents discuss the British agency’s employees who work at an NSA station in Fort Gordon, Georgia, and at a large NSA center in England called Menwith Hill Station.
You eating up this sh** or what?
British officials rarely speak publicly about cooperation with the program of targeted killings. In a formal answer to a parliamentary inquiry last year about whether Britain was participating in unmanned aerial vehicle strikes in Yemen, the British defense minister, Mark Francois, replied in writing that “UAV strikes against terrorist targets in Yemen are a matter for the Yemeni and US governments.” The answer did not explicitly deny a British role, but certainly suggested there was not one.
Then why are they now?
US drone strikes are supported by a majority of the public in the United States but opposed by the British public.
Says who?
A poll last year by the Pew Research Center found that 52 percent of Americans backed the strikes, with 41 percent opposed. In Britain, 59 percent were opposed, while 33 percent approved of the strikes.
Oh, stink poll.
When are we going to get one regarding the unpopularity of this president?
Opposition to the strikes is often based on reports of civilians killed unintentionally. While proponents argue that missiles fired from unmanned aircraft are the most precise way to eliminate terrorists, intelligence agencies often do not have enough detailed information about who is in a strike zone to be certain that all are militants posing a threat to the United States or to Americans overseas.
But they only hit civilians once!
The British agency’s documents underscore the central role of eavesdropping and the tracking of electronic signals in identifying suspects and in determining their exact location. Such sophisticated technology may improve the odds of finding and hitting the intended target.
But they can't find the terrorists and are screaming warnings at you, yup!
But the British documents also hint at the flawed conclusions that signals intelligence can produce.
For example, a smartphone carried by a target can be easily tracked by the NSA or its British counterpart, and can contribute to what the agencies call “PID,” or positive identification. But phones can, of course, be passed from person to person, leading to mistaken identifications.
“Of significant note,” the British agency’s October 2010 guide to targeting says with careful understatement, “is whether the handset is identified as single user or multi-user.” The guide has a reference to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, indicating that it was written to assist in strikes there.
With such uncertainties in mind, agencies try to identify targets by both voice and physical appearance, the document says. It also describes attempts to determine a suspect’s “BDL,” or bed-down location.
Some suspects are more “Comsec aware” than others, the guide says — in other words, some of them pay more attention to communications security, aware that counterterrorism agencies may be tracking their calls.
Thus any that do not or any communications claimed to be picked up by spying agencies, bullshit!
The guide talks about a suspect “detaching” from communications — for example, ending a call or turning off a mobile phone — and notes the obvious: that someone who is talking on the phone will “detach” when hit by a missile.
“Immediately after a strike it should be possible to detect whether the target detached at time of strike,” the guide notes. “This is a good indication that the correct target has been struck.”
Printed and web Globe missed all that.
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Now about the torture:
"Six Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo sent to Oman" by Charlie Savage New York Times June 13, 2015
WASHINGTON — The United States has transferred six lower-level detainees from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where each had been held for more than 13 years, the military announced early Saturday.
The departures, to Oman, were the first from the prison since January and reduced the inmate population there to 116.
The six men are all Yemenis and had been held since early 2002 in indefinite detention without trial under the laws of war. In January 2010, a six-agency task force unanimously recommended that they be transferred, if security conditions could be met in the receiving country. But because of the political upheaval and security chaos in Yemen, they remained stranded until now.
The break in the six-month lull of transfers does not appear to signal the start of any flurry of releases.
According to officials familiar with Guantanamo policy, no additional transfers are imminent, and the weekend releases were not the result of a new decision but rather a leftover piece of a deal negotiated last year, when Oman agreed to accept 10 men. Four Yemeni detainees were resettled in Oman in January.
Still, the six transfers represent a milestone for the administration: When President Obama took office in 2009 — and vowed to close the prison within a year, a policy goal that he has failed to achieve — there were 242 detainees at the prison. After this transfer, fewer than half of that number remain.
Yeah, let's all give him a big round of applause for another broken promise.
Obama’s plan to close the detention facility, which he has criticized as costly and a potent symbol for anti-American propaganda, involves bringing the remaining detainees into the United States for trial or continued wartime detention in a different prison.
I guess indefinite detention and torture is AmeriKan.
Many Republicans and some civil libertarians oppose that plan. Congress has outlawed bringing any detainees onto domestic soil.
Yeah, Congre$$ is just as complicit in the war crimes.
The latest transfers come as Congress is debating the annual defense authorization bill, which continues the ban on bringing detainees onto domestic territory, as well as a series of restrictions lawmakers have imposed on transfers.
War machine got their money.
The House has passed a version of the bill that would tighten limits in a way that could in effect stop any more releases, including blocking the departure of the 51 men waiting on the transfer list, about 43 of whom are Yemeni.
All for guys who didn't do anything other than exhibit signs of torture.
The Senate is considering a bill developed by the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, John McCain, Repubican of Arizona, that would instead call for an up-or-down vote in both chambers of Congress on whether to approve an administration plan for moving the remaining detainees to a prison on US soil.
McCain gonna put it on a fast track.
It is not clear what circumstances would generate sufficient political support in Congress, especially among the Republican majority in the House, to approve any such plan.
None?
The Senate bill would also let the military temporarily bring a detainee into the United States for medical treatment. The cost and difficulty of transporting specialized medical equipment and doctors to the prison has been an issue of recurring concern as the detainee population ages. The House bill contains no such provision.
The detainees get better health care than you or veterans.
Both bills, however, would impose a ban on transferring any detainees to Yemen.
Under both the Bush and the Obama administrations, executive branch officials have been reluctant to repatriate Yemenis because of the continuing upheaval there. As a result, the bulk of the remaining detainees on the transfer list are Yemenis.
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Tit for tat?
"Two in Yemen called US spies, slain" Associated Press June 18, 2015
SANA, Yemen — Al Qaeda militants in Yemen killed two men accused of spying for the United States and hung their bodies off a bridge Wednesday, a day after the jihadi group announced the death of its leader in a US drone strike.
Witnesses said gunmen in the city of Mukalla read out charges before shooting the two men, one of whom was accused of guiding a drone that killed commander Nasr al-Ansi and a media liaison, Muhannad Ghalab, in April.
Al Qaeda supporters posted pictures online that showed the two men blindfolded on a sandy beach, said to be the site of a previous drone strike. Another picture showed a body in bloody clothes lashed to a pole, dangling off a bridge.
Who knows if they are real or more staged and scripted propaganda?
The killings came a day after Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemeni affiliate is known, confirmed that its leader, Nasir al-Wahayshi, was killed in a US drone strike last week.
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Time to pause the posts until tomorrow.
NDU:
"More than 45 killed after airstrike hits Yemen market" Associated Press July 07, 2015
SANA, Yemen — A massive airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition targeting rebels in Yemen hit a local marketplace Monday, killing at least 45 civilians, security officials and eyewitnesses said.
More than 50 civilians were wounded in the strike in Fayoush, north of the southern port city of Aden, the officials said.
‘‘I came right after the explosion and saw dozens of dead strewn about,’’ resident Abu-Ali al-Azibi said. Other witnesses said vendors’ stalls were burning after the airstrike in the predominantly agricultural area.
The officials, who said they do not identify with either the rebels, known as Houthis, nor the camp of the exiled president, said airstrikes against the rebels continued across the country, with nine provinces and the capital hit.
The fighting in Yemen pits the Houthis and troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh against southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants, and loyalists of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is now based in Saudi Arabia.
The conflict has left 20 million Yemenis without access to safe drinking water and uprooted more than 1 million people from their homes, the United Nations said.
Last Wednesday, the United Nations declared its highest-level humanitarian emergency in the country, where over 80 percent of the population needs assistance.
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I was looking for condemnation of the slaughter.
Also see: Fly4Me gets FAA approval, launches ‘Uber for drones’
