UAE Presidential Guard Commander Mike Hindmarsh receives an award (UAE armed forces)
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Rori Donaghy
Wednesday 23 December 2015 09:30 UTC
Last update: Saturday 26 December 2015 12:25 UTC
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Topics: YemenCrisis
Tags: UAE, Yemen, Mercenaries
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An Australian citizen is the commander of an elite UAE military force deployed in Yemen as part of the Saudi-led coalition, which human rights groups accuse of war crimes.
Mike Hindmarsh, 59, is a former senior Australian army officer who is publicly listed as commander of the UAE’s Presidential Guard.
The Presidential Guard is a unit of marines, reconnaissance, aviation, special forces and mechanised brigades, according to the US State Department website.
Hindmarsh oversaw the guard’s formation in early 2010 shortly after he took up his estimated $500,000-a-year, tax-free job in Abu Dhabi, where he reports directly to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
The Presidential Guard has been lauded for playing a key role in the Saudi-led coalition seeking to reinstall the exiled Yemeni government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.
The coalition was formed in March to push back the rebel Houthi movement, which Arab Gulf states view as being backed by regional rival Iran.
Presidential Guard troops have been in Yemen since 4 May, and were reported to have played a key role in the recapturing of port city Aden by local Hadi-allied forces on 17 July.
Human rights groups including Amnesty International have called for a suspension of arms exports to members of the Saudi-led coalition after reporting what they described as “damning evidence” of war crimes in Yemen. There is no evidence to suggest that Hindmarsh is responsible for the alleged war crimes claimed by rights groups.
At least 5,700 people – about half of them civilians – have been killed since the coalition launched its campaign. Yemen was already suffering a serious humanitarian crisis before the coalition's entry into the war; however, the country’s situation has since grown increasingly grave, with more than 80 percent of the population of 24.5 million needing humanitarian assistance.
The Australian connection
While the Arab coalition fighting in Yemen is widely described as being led by Saudi Arabia, one Gulf official told Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity that the external ground forces were in reality being steered by the UAE.
More than 10,000 coalition troops have been sent to Yemen and, while no official numbers have been released, it is believed that at least 1,500 Emirati troops are taking part in ground operations.
The best trained and equipped coalition troops are likely to be those from the UAE Presidential Guard, which was the only Arab force to undertake full military operations in Afghanistan, where they fought alongside American soldiers.
A defence website has estimated that there are around 5,000 soldiers in the Presidential Guard.
It was announced in 2014 that the UAE was to pay the US Marines $150mn to train the guards. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed was reported to have ordered the force to be instilled with a “warrior ethos”.
Overseeing the development of this elite force has been Hindmarsh, who had a distinguished career in the Australian army before moving to Abu Dhabi.
Hindmarsh served in his home country’s military between 1976 and 2009, during which time he received 11 awards and took part in tours that included deployments to the Middle East.
Mike Hindmarsh (UAE Armed Forces)
After first heading up the Australian SAS between January 1997 and January 1999, he moved on to command Australian Special Forces between October 2004 and January 2008, before leading Australian forces in the Middle East from March 2008 until January 2009.
Hindmarsh was based in Baghdad and oversaw the moving of Australia’s regional base to the UAE after their withdrawal from Iraq. Local media reported that during this time Hindmarsh had “dealings at the highest security levels with senior officials and the UAE military”.
Since then Australian troops have been based at the Minhad Air base, and earlier this year then Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that 600 Australian troops would be sent to the UAE as part of the wider fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.
After moving back to Australia from the Middle East, Hindmarsh took up a new role in March 2009 heading up the Army Training Command at Victoria Barracks in Sydney for a salary of $230,000 a year.
However, in October 2009 it was announced that the Australian government had approved Hindmarsh retirement from the army to take up a new role commanding the UAE Presidential Guard.
Military expert Michael Knights said Hindmarsh's role in the guard, reported on Twitter, was a “smart” move by the UAE.
“All GCC (Gulf) states should be doing this. Don’t just buy the best equipment, buy talent too,” he wrote, referring to the Gulf state's huge investment in military hardware.
It would appear that the UAE has followed the principle of bringing in experience to develop the Presidential Guard, as a quick search through LinkedIn throws up numerous results of experienced soldiers - mainly from Australia - who occupy senior roles in the elite force.
Among those working in Abu Dhabi is Peter Butson, a former Australian soldier and intelligence corps officer who since February 2014 has been an adviser to the Presidential Guard.
Scott Corrigan, a former special operations commander in the Australian army, has been a specialist adviser to the Presidential Guard since January 2013. Kevin Dolan is an evaluator for the guard and was previously a warrant officer in both the Australian and British armies. Steve Nichols is another former senior commander in the Australian army who is now in his fifth year as a senior adviser to the guards.
It is not known how many Australians work for the UAE army; however, local media reported at the time of Hindmarsh's appointment that there were "dozens" working in "leadership, training and mentoring roles".
While Australians appear to dominate the foreign contingent of commanders in the Presidential Guard, there are other nationalities who are advising and training the force.
Dizzy Dawson, a former manager at the UK’s Ministry of Defence and an ex-Royal Marine officer, is a senior security adviser to the guard; and American Robert B Cross Sr headed up the UAE Presidential Guard Institute as part of the US Marine Corps training programme.
Responding to critical comments about the UAE employing mercenaries, military expert Knights tweeted: “It is the same business whether for your original state or a new one. A good general can end a war faster, save lives.”
Knights added that employing foreign mercenaries “was a fairly traditional part of conflict before the age of nationalism”.
Mike Hindmarsh speaks to a room of Emiratis (UAE Armed Forces)
Mercenaries killed in Yemen
Some mercenaries have been killed in Yemen. The Houthi-run Saba News reported on 8 December that six Colombians and their Australian commander were killed in fighting around the flashpoint southeast province of Taiz.
Saba News updated their report on 9 December to say 14 foreign mercenaries had been killed – including two Britons and one French citizen on top of the Australian and Colombians – although this claim is unconfirmed.
Colombian mercenaries were first reported to have been fighting in Yemen in October, when about 100 former Colombian soldiers were said to have joined coalition troops, with about 800 in total planned to be sent in to back up pro-Hadi forces.
The Colombians are believed to have been recruited to fight in Yemen by the UAE. The New York Times reported in 2011 that experienced Colombian troops had been offered high salaries to join a secretive UAE force established in response to the Arab Spring uprisings.
It is not known if the Colombians fighting in Yemen are linked to the Presidential Guard; however, both the secretive force established in 2011 and the guard report directly to Mohammed bin Zayed.
Many reports have referred to the Colombians as being employees of Blackwater – a controversial American military company whose guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007. However, as former Guardian Middle East editor Brian Whitaker has written, the contractor who set up the UAE force is a company called Reflex Responses.
Reflex Responses, which is also known as R2, has denied that Erik Prince, the former Blackwater chief, is behind their company.
Presidential Guard recruitment
While the Colombian and Australian mercenaries remain largely behind the scenes, the UAE Presidential Guard is far from secretive, at least in its recruitment strategies.
The guard has been promoted as a symbol of national strength, rooted in pride at how strong the UAE has become since its establishment in 1971.
The UAE has engaged in military action across the region, including in the Saudi-led coalition and the US-led coalition fighting against the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq and Syria.
Abu Dhabi has independently launched air strikes in Libya – to the surprise of American officials – and been described as a “potent ally” for the US.
This developing sense of military strength is on full display in a 2011 promotional video for the Presidential Guard. Men in military fatigues singing nationalistic songs are interspersed with images of the country’s rulers and shots of the UAE’s military hardware.
A recruitment presentation posted online in October 2013 said the guard is at the “heart of the nation”. The presentation said recruitment should be targeted at men and women between the ages of 16 and 29 who are at a “crossroads” in their lives.
The guard has a Facebook page and Twitter account. Recruitment has been publicly advertised, projecting Emirati members as proud citizens protecting their country.
The Presidential Guard has not only sought to expand its numbers but its members experience has also been used to train young men completing their national service.
Mandatory national service was introduced by the UAE in June 2014. All men aged between 18 and 30 who completed secondary education must serve nine months, while those who did not must serve for two years. National service is voluntary for women, and those who sign up are trained for nine months.
A way of completing national service is to train with the Presidential Guard, according to the LinkedIn profile of one Emirati.
Some national service conscripts have been sent to fight in Yemen. However, this was stopped in September after 45 Emirati troops were killed in a Houthi attack.
Emirati families told MEE in August that they were shocked their sons had been sent to Yemen, as they had no conflict experience.
At the time, military expert Knights said the rationale behind sending national service conscripts to Yemen was likely to bring untrained troops experience as part of a nation-building exercise.
There is no official death toll of the number of UAE troops killed in Yemen.
'Ally with the Muslim Brotherhood'
There is no sign of the war in Yemen coming to an end. Peace talks between opposing sides ended in Switzerland at the weekend with little progress, while fighting continues on the ground.
According to one Gulf official, the UAE should build more pragmatic alliances on the ground in Yemen if they want the war to end soon.
The official, who spoke to MEE on condition of anonymity, said that the war could be over “in two to three weeks” if the Emiratis agreed to ally with Islah, the Muslim Brotherhood affiliate in Yemen.
“But they won’t because they have this problem with the Muslim Brotherhood,” the official said.
The UAE has led a region-wide assault on the Muslim Brotherhood, including labelling the group as terrorists domestically and supporting the Egyptian army in overthrowing Egypt's first elected president Mohamed Morsi, who is a Brotherhood leader.
Abu Dhabi has refused to work with Islah, and Emirati officials have blamed the Brotherhood for the failure to drive Houthi rebels out of areas including Taiz province.
Emirati disdain for the Brotherhood has gone so far that Abu Dhabi is said to have aided and abetted the Houthis' takeover of Yemeni capital Sanaa in September last year, in order to undermine the role played by Islah in the country's governance, senior sources told Middle East Eye at the time. Now, 15 months later, the Emiratis are mired in a battle to push back the Houthis, but are wary of empowering their Brotherhood foe.
The Gulf official said: “It is time for the UAE to prioritise the lives of Yemenis and ally with Islah. Their men are being killed by the Houthis and there is a clear way to end this.”
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/mercenaries-charge-uae-forces-fighti ng-yemen-764309832#.dpuf _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
UN should address Saudi rights violations in Yemen: Journalist
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/01/28/447732/Yemen-UK-Saudi-Arabia-r ights-violations-Tony-Gosling/
Thu Jan 28, 2016
Press TV has interviewed Tony Gosling, an investigative journalist in London to ask for his take as to a UN report about the Saudi human rights violation in Yemen and the UK’s justification for selling weapons to the kingdom.
What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Certainly, the UK government is now in quite an awkward position because it insists that it sells arms to states which do not carry out human rights violations, but clearly these Saudis are.
Gosling: Yes, you are quite right. And today in the Houses of Parliament here in London, the prime minister, David Cameron, was talking about how the British are the ‘strictest in the world when it comes to dishing out arms licenses’ and that ‘President Hadi’s government in Yemen is a legitimate regime.’ He does not actually mention, he never mentions, that when he stood as president, Hadi was the only candidate; there was no real election. And also he does not mention the fact that in 2014 over in Syria, we had another election where President Assad was legitimately elected with some competition against him in fact. And so this total hypocrisy going on here in Britain and I think actually the British people themselves are getting more and more skeptical about whether or not to believe what Cameron and Hammond are saying because actually you are quite right; there is a horrific load of human rights violations. Just today I noticed 15 more airstrikes on the capital and I wonder whether a UN resolution should not be presented, which would give anti-aircraft missiles, anti-aircraft equipment to the Yemenis to stop this carnage.
Press TV: So with all these media coverage, where do we go from now? Will the UK government maybe act and stop its arms sales to Saudis?
Gosling: I can tell you what is happening here in Britain. It is both the public and the opposition, it was raised by the leader of opposition, actually Yemen today in the House of Commons, [that] are piling the pressure and, slowly but surely, mentioned it in our main BCC, News Night program as well. So this is in parliament and in the national mainstream media. The pressure is beginning to come onto Cameron and Hammond to stop some of these arms licenses.
There is not any real…in Britain, very good understating of where Yemen is, what is happening, but that is slowly changing. And slowly but surely, we are realizing actually President Hadi, who Cameron calls a legitimate president, is actually just the puppet of the West, and people have had enough of him. You know this is a genuine popular uprising by the Houthis and they basically say ‘look, what we really want is another election with another candidate that represents ordinary people.’ Surely, that is what the UN should be pushing for and all civilized countries around the world want to see that.
Now, why this is happening from the Saudi royal family? I think it is becoming a very fragile regime. Obviously, it is a royalty; there is no proper elections over there and it is worth noting that there are some rather strange activities going on over in Saudi Arabia. I mean for example the Saudi royal family, Salman bin Abdul Aziz, his defense minister, is sponsoring a remote-viewing conference. I do not know how this goes down in Islam, but over in this part of world most people look upon this kind of thing so that you can supposedly see your way around the world and see what is going on in the opposite side of the world. This is the stuff that went out with the ark; this is actually on the verge of madness and that is where the Saudis it seems to coming from with this attack on Yemen which must be stopped immediately from wherever, probably the UN. But I would imagine that the Americans will probably block some kind of resolution at the UN which would allow some kind of air defenses to be brought to Yemen to stop these air attacks and I am absolutely ashamed as a British person that British arms companies are profiting from the arms, the munitions that have been used to kill innocent people. 8,000 now dead, 25,000 injured and millions made homeless in these acts of aggression. The UN has got to pull its finger out.
The aftermath of a Saudi-led air strike in Sana, Yemen, on Sunday.
KHALED ABDULLAH / REUTERS
By RICK GLADSTONE FEBRUARY 14, 2016
Human Rights Watch released a report Sunday providing new indications that Saudi Arabia has fired American-made cluster munitions, banned by international treaty, in civilian areas of Yemen, and said their use may also violate United States law.
The report included photographs from Yemen purporting to show unexploded but potentially lethal remnants of American cluster weapons, suggesting that they had failed legally required reliability standards.
If confirmed, the report could put new pressure on the United States over support for its ally Saudi Arabia in the Yemen conflict. The Americans have sold arms and furnished training and expertise to a Saudi-led coalition that has faced widespread criticism for what rights groups call an indiscriminate bombing campaign against Yemen’s Houthi rebels in nearly a year of fighting.
“Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners, as well as their U.S. supplier, are blatantly disregarding the global standard that says cluster munitions should never be used under any circumstances,” Steve Goose, the arms director at Human Rights Watch, said in the report.
Human Rights Watch and other groups have previously accused Saudi Arabia of using cluster munitions in Yemen, including in a Jan. 6 strike in Sana, the capital, and have criticized the United States as an accomplice.
In a Jan. 12 letter to President Obama, Megan Burke, the director of the Cluster Munition Coalition, a disarmament group, urged him to “demand that Saudi-led coalition members stop using cluster munitions,” and said the United States “should investigate its own role in the recent strikes.”
John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, said in a statement Sunday night: “We have seen the Human Rights Watch report, and are reviewing it. Obviously we remain deeply concerned by reports of harm to civilians and have encouraged the Saudi-led coalition to investigate reports of civilian harm.” Saudi officials did not comment, but have denied ordering the use of cluster munitions in Yemen.
Cluster munitions contain submunitions, or bomblets, that disperse widely and kill indiscriminately. Many bomblets can fail to explode, posing a threat to civilians. A 2008 treaty bans the weapons, but major arms suppliers, including the United States and Russia, have not signed it.
Sensitive to the criticism, the United States has severely restricted exports of cluster munitions and has sought to improve technology to minimize collateral damage. Under a 2009 law, only cluster munitions with a failure rate of 1 percent or less can be exported, and they can be used only against “clearly defined military targets,” not “where civilians are known to be present.”
Iran has condemned Britain for supplying arms to Saudi Arabia in its on-going war on Yemen.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi made the remarks in response to claims made by a British government minister about Iran’s involvement in the Yemen crisis. Qasemi slammed the claims as baseless, saying London should instead explain its inhumane arms sale to Riyadh. He said British weapons are being used by Saudi Arabia in the killing of innocent civilians in Yemen. British MP Tobias Ellwood has claimed that Iran is selling weapons to the Ansarullah fighters in Yemen.
Why why why why why...?
Riyadh's Dirty Secret: Saudi Arabia Thirsty for Yemeni Oil, Gas Reserves
POLITICS 17:56 06.04.2016
Why does Saudi Arabia continue to bomb Yemen back into the Stone Age? The crux of the matter is that Yemen has oil reserves, while Riyadh is steadily running out of the commodity, American political analyst Phil Butler explains.
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160406/1037584835/saudi-arabia-yemen -gas-oil.html
In addition, Yemen lies at the Bab el-Mandab, a key checkpoint for maritime transit of oil, with 3.4 million barrels of oil passing through it each day.
In one of his previous analytical reports for New Eastern Outlook, Phil Butler called attention to the fact that Saudi Arabia's oil wealth is doomed to falter:
"Given the nature of the country's [Saudi Arabia's] oil reserves, and almost unlimited production for decades, it's possible the Saudis could simply be running out of gas," the American analyst stressed.
In this context, it is hardly surprising that Riyadh has recently adopted an assertive and even aggressive foreign policy approach towards its neighbors.
"Running out of the last of the nation's only saleable resource, the Saudi royalty have put their country into a mess, the potential for revolution there being acute, should the people discover the real predicament. This is why we see an 'all in' Saudi aggressive stance, on Syria, with Iran, and especially where Yemen is concerned. While Washington think tank evangelists try and play the tensions off as Sunni-Shiite religious friction, new oil reserves are the truth of these matters," Butler writes.
If Riyadh was not planning to increase its production capacity, why did it rush to install new rigs, especially offshore ones, which are 7 times more costly to run, Butler asks. The analyst believes that Saudi Arabia has been lying for decades about its actual oil capacity.
To stay on top, Riyadh has to maintain control over oil reserves beyond its borders, particularly in Yemen. The Western establishment is assisting Saudi Arabia, and with "reason": in November 2005 the Republic of Yemen expropriated its oil basins — the Marib Al-Jawf Block — from Hunt Oil Company and ExxonMobil affiliates.
"And big oil hates countries taking back their resources," Butler remarks.
That is why neither the Obama administration, nor European governments are rushing to help the Yemenis being bombed and shelled by Riyadh: all of them have their own vested interests in the Middle East.
"So the picture puzzle of Yemen chaos should be complete for you now," Butler concludes. _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
Yemenis walk amidst the rubble of a house after it was hit by a Saudi-led coalition air strike (AFP) Sunday 14 August 2016 08:15 UTC
Saudi-led air strikes on a school in a rebel-held province of northern Yemen have killed 10 children and wounded 28 others, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Sunday.
"We received 10 dead children and 28 wounded, all under the age of 15, who are victims of air strikes on a Koranic school in Haydan," in Saada province, said MSF spokeswoman Malak Shaher, adding the attack took place on Saturday.
Shaher told AFP that MSF had received the children at a field hospital near the school before they were transferred to a public hospital.
Houthi rebels posted pictures and videos on Facebook of dead and bloodied children wrapped in blankets.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said warplanes "targeted" children at the Jomaa bin Fadhel school, in what he described as a "heinous crime".
The United Nation's children agency, UNICEF, confirmed the attack warning that "with the intensification in violence across the country in the past week, the number of children killed and injured by air strikes, street fighting and landmines has grown sharply."
"UNICEF calls on all parties to the conflict in Yemen to respect and abide by their obligations under international law," it said.
"This includes the obligation to only target combatants and limit harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure."
Saudi Arabia reacted angrily to a decision in June to blacklist the coalition after a UN report found the Arab alliance responsible for 60 percent of the 785 deaths of children in Yemen last year.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon had accused Saudi Arabia of threatening to cut off funding to UN aid programmes over the blacklist, a charge denied by Riyadh.
'.....When the failure of the negotiations was obviously imminent, Houthi and Yemeni army forces re-invaded Saudi Arabia. For 200 km of the Saudi-Yemeni border from the Red Sea to inland eastwards Yemeni forces initially invaded at 6 locations 5-20km deep. Video showed them in sight of the Saudi city Narjan, with half a million inhabitants, shelling the electricity station and military barracks. Laughably a joint statement from the governments of the UK, USA, Saudi Arabia and UAE demanded that:
the conflict in Yemen should not threaten Yemen’s neighbours.
A joke. A Saudi invasion of Yemen is fine with them, to respond in kind is not?
The Saudis renewed their air attacks on the capitol Sanaa and other Yemeni cities. Military targets in Sanaa had already been bombed at least twice. The current attacks make no sense and are a pure terror campaign.
Two days ago a Saudi double airstrike hit a school near the northern Yemeni city of Saada:
Doctors Without Borders wrote that the “final number of injured from Haydan school is 28 & 10 deaths. All between 8-15 years old ..."
The Saudis denied that a school had been hit. They claimed that the 8 years old, undernourished children were in a military training camp. They have learned from their new Zionists friends. The chutzpah in their response to the school bombing reports was strong:
"We would have hoped MSF would take measures to stop the recruitment of children to fight in wars instead of crying over them in the media."
An important bridge on the main supply route to Sanaa, over which 90% of its food comes in, was destroyed by a Saudi attack. Today a Saudi airstrike hit a well known hospital in Hajjah. At least 31 civilians, including hospital personal, were killed and many more wounded.
The Saudi king used the occasions to hand out a month's extra salary as war bonus to all "active participants" on the Saudi side.
The Saudis blackmailed the United Nations, with silent U.S. approval, to not accuse Saudi Arabia of any of its atrocities and crimes with regards to its war. They threatened to stop all payments to all UN programs. The relevant UN reports are "cleaned" before being published. No longer will you see any UN comments on "Saudi airstrikes". Atrocities are now void of any origin....'
'...he U.S. and UK continue to support Saudi Arabia in their slaughter of Yemenis. The U.S. provides targeting intelligence and air refueling. Since April 2015 the U.S. air force refueled Saudi and allied planes bombing Yemen over 5,500 times. The U.S. delivers huge amount of bombs and weapons. Since Obama came into office the U.S sold Saudi Arabia weapons and ammunition for a cool $111 billion. Seven percent of the sales price is a commission that flows directly into Pentagon coffers. Generals involved in these deals end up in very posh industry jobs. For the U.S. weapon industry, the Pentagon and U.S. generals involved, the Saudi killing of Yemenis is extremely profitable.
But the Saudis are losing the war. Not only is it very expensive to hire all the mercenaries and U.S. specialists to maintain (and man) Saudi weapons but the material loss of expensive weapons is quite big. Over 50 main battle tanks have been lost to Yemeni attacks. Many more infantry carriers and other vehicles have gone up in flames (vid). Long videos show the Houthi winning nearly every engagement. They are way better soldiers than the Saudis.
On the political side the Yemenis outmaneuvered the Saudis and the long ago ousted Hadi proxy government. Late July the Houthis and the former President Saleh and his supporters, once the Houthi's enemies, formalized their alliance with the formation of a common "supreme political council". But to have real legitimacy the alliance needed some formal acknowledgement by the Yemeni people. It has now managed to gain that.
Despite Saudi bomb attacks on Sanaa the parliament was called into session. Out of 301 members 26 have died. The total remaining is 275, a legal quorum is half of that (138). On Saturday 142 parliament member attend the session and unanimously voted to form a new government.
The Chinese news agency Xinhua was the only one with decent reporting on the ground:
"The Council of Representatives unanimously recognizes, ratifies and blesses the formation of the Higher Political Council to rule the country from it's geographically far north to Aden in the south, and from east to the west of Yemen's official borders," Parliament Speaker al-Raiee and the attending MPs voted with "Yes" as showed by the state TV.
The president, vice-president, and members of the Higher Political Council performed their constitutional oath in the parliament. Today the Houthi dominated Supreme Revolutionary Committee under Mohamed Ali Al-Houthi stepped down as de-facto ruler of Yemen. It had ruled Yemen since February 6 2015. Power was handed over to the newly formed Higher Political Council which is an alliance of Houthi politicians with the GPC party of former president Saleh. The former president Hadi, in Saudi exile, is also a member of the GPC. But his time is now certainly over. He is unlikely to be ever seen again in Sanaa.....' _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Tony Gosling, an investigative journalist from Bristol, about Tehran’s response to a British lawmaker’s allegation that Iran was giving weapons to Ansarullah fighters in Yemen.
Press TV: How do you feel about Britain's accusations towards Iran of course and how Iran has responded?
Gosling: Well, let’s first have a look at who's making these accusations. Remember, of course, we've got a new government here with Theresa May as the prime minister who hasn't been elected actually by the Conservative Party. Hundred fifty thousand members never got a chance to have a say in who is going to be the new leader. But Tobias Elwood MP who's made these accusations is actually an American. He's a New Yorker. This is the state where we are now in Britain - we have US Tory MPs. He's a former army captain in the British Army and he's been saying the Yemeni children are being killed and well of course he's right. He's making a fuss about that but yet at the same time he's signing off licences and supply of aircraft and bombs and munitions to kill those children. So, there's a deep hypocrisy at the heart of the British Foreign Office with Tobias Elwood in charge.
Press TV: Indeed, and certainly it is the scandal, isn't it, the supplying of arms to a regime like Saudi Arabia, whether or not we take into account even its role in Yemen just the fact that is a dictatorship.
Gosling: Well, that's true and we never get any real reference to some monarchy - and that there is no elections in Saudi Arabia - in the British press; very little. Well, there was actually on Channel 4 News last week a very good report on the Yemen conflict. Let's just take stock of that because Médecins Sans Frontières have said there's 45,000 people now being wounded, 6500 people have been killed in Yemen.
The main problem there now is that you've got something like eight million people who have been displaced and there is no actual proper healthcare system. The infrastructure including the healthcare networks and the food networks have been bombed by the Saudis with the help of the British and there's millions of displaced. So, also ISIS is thriving now in Yemen where it wasn't before. I mean you've got the US and Saudi backed-Hadi, President Hadi, who's not got the support of the Yemeni people. What really needs to happen I think is an immediate election.
So, let's just make sure that whoever is trying to rule Yemen in these terrible times actually has the backing of the people, because Hadi clearly doesn't. And there are many people including the Houthis who are just fed up with the US and British continuing attempts to influence affairs in the Middle East. I think it's time for the British to just get out along with the Americans.
Press TV: Do you think the UK is ready to live with the consequences of supporting the Saudis in their war in Yemen or and then providing arms to terrorists for example in Syria as well?
Gosling: What is part of the problem is the economy is in its death throes here in Britain. So, the government and the military's industrial complex are absolutely desperate to find people to sell arms to. There's more constitutive easing. Yesterday, 60 billion pounds has been injected in by to the economy to try to keep it alive by the Bank of England where it goes towards negative interest rates, zero growth; in fact the growth would be probably negative in Britain if it wasn't for the drugs trade and prostitution which are now being included in the figures. And they’re also now talking about abolishing cash.
Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6060 Location: East London
Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 9:52 pm Post subject:
Saudi Arabia is bombing my country, Yemen. It’s the country where I was born and raised, where all my memories are from. Now, I’m watching it vanish. The US must stop selling weapons to Saudi Arabia. There are thousands of people who are being injured or killed, including women and children who are being affected the most.
Now, the US is planning to sell Saudi Arabia another massive batch of $1.15 billion worth of weapons. Although the State Department has approved this sale, Congress will have 30 days to block it after they’re back from summer break next week.
Here are 4 things you can do right now to help stop the weapons deal and to show solidarity with the people of Yemen!
Call or meet with your Senators! Set up a meeting with their office, or call the Capitol switchboard and ask to be connected to their offices, (202) 224-3121. Tell them to support Senators Chris Murphy and Rand Paul, who are taking the lead on opposing this horrific deal. Mark your calendar for the national call-in day on September 7!
Watch & share videos from Yemen! CODEPINK has launched a series of videos called Voices from Yemen. It’s first-hand accounts from my friends in Yemen about their experiences. Share our videos on your Facebook page to help lift up the voices of Yemenis!
https://www.facebook.com/codepinkalert/videos
As Senator Chris Murphy said, if you talk to Yemeni Americans, they will tell you this isn’t a Saudi bombing campaign, it’s a US bombing campaign. The Saudi government wouldn’t be able to carry out these atrocities without US support. Please take action today.
In solidarity,
Bushra Al-Fusail, CODEPINK
Donate Now _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2016 12:37 pm Post subject:
The ground-sea missile which destroyed the wave-piercing catamaran is an extremely sophisticated weapon, the like of which has never yet been seen on any battlefield. It was not fired by the Houthis, nor by the partisans of ex-President Saleh, who do not possess weapons of this order, but by Russia, which has been secretly present in Yemen since the summer.
Can a World War still be avoided?, by Thierry Meyssan
http://www.voltairenet.org/article193570.html
By Thierry Meyssan,Voltaire Network
Events around the Syrian crisis are accelerating, and reveal the depth of the conflict between the Atlantist camp and the Russo-Chinese block. After having observed the growing risk of a generalised war – conventional or even nuclear - Thierry Meyssan analyses the manœuvres of the United States and Russia’s responses to them.
Voltaire Network | Beirut (Lebanon) | 7 October 2016
After the destruction of the pride of the Emirati Navy on 1 October, the armies of the Gulf petro-dictatorships are hesitating to continue the war with the Syrian Arab Republic on their own. It is clear to everyone that the ground-sea missile which destroyed the wave-piercing catamaran is an extremely sophisticated weapon, the like of which has never yet been seen on any battlefield. It was not fired by the Houthis, nor by the partisans of ex-President Saleh, who do not possess weapons of this order, but by Russia, which has been secretly present in Yemen since the summer.
The idea of a coordination of jihadists with their local allies alone, without the intervention of the United States, is all the more difficult to imagine since the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Qatar has consistently sabotaged the previous stages of the war.
Washington is therefore seriously considering the only remaining option – direct military confrontation.
The United States have solicited the 64 States and the 3 international institutions which have joined their so-called anti-Daesh Coalition in order to launch an attack against Damascus. In practise, only Canada, France, Holland and the United Kingdom are present. The idea is to fire cruise missiles on Damascus and Lattakia, and to bomb the Syrian Arab Army. This project was announced to members of NATO during the Atlantic Council of 27 September. It was supported by Senator John McCain in the Wall Street Journal.
This operation implies the reorganisation of the on-going preparations for the liberation of Mosul in Iraq, currently occupied par Daesh. Everyone already knows that the real objective of this Coalition is not as announced, but is directed at changing the occupant in Mosul. It is not aimed at putting genuine Iraqi representatives in power, nor its historical inhabitants, but only Sunni Iraqis, in order to create a «Sunnistan». The Coalition has not bombed Daesh, but did not hesitate to annihilate - «by accident» - a militia composed of Shia volunteers who had come, unlike the Coalition, to deliver the city from obscurantism. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave the game away by declaring to the newspaper Sabah that once Mosul was liberated, the city would belong to its inhabitants, «... and only Sunni Arabs, Turkmen and Sunni Kurds can stay». In other words, the Coalition proposes to finish the job that Washington had handed to Daesh. Its true objective is to endorse the ethnic cleansing practised by the jihadists, notably the expulsion or the massacre of Christians and Yazidi Kurds, in order to create a religiously homogeneous state. Just as we have already announced several times, Daesh will have to migrate from Mosul to al-Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, the same way that they evacuated Jarabulus faced with the Turkish army, without putting up a fight.
Reacting to the project for the bombing of the Syrian Arab Republic, Russia revealed the installation in Syria of air defence batteries supplied with S-300 and S-400 missiles. According to Russian experts, these weapons are not only capable of destroying any aircraft in flight, including stealth aircraft, but also cruise missiles. Since this situation has never occurred on the battle-field, nobody knows whether or not the statement is true. But over the centuries, the Russians have never lied about the performance of their weaponry.
This announcement raised a huge stir in Israël, since their experts are now persuaded that it was Russian weapons that shot down one of their aircraft and damaged another when Tsahal violated the cessation of hostilities on 13 September, during Aïd. The Israëli chief of staff declared that Israël had lost airborne dominance both in Syria and in Lebanon.
The United States responded by ordering the jihadists to bomb the Russian embassy in Damascus. Russia announced the arrival in the Mediterranean of three new warships, while its aircraft carrier – expected in July – was already en route.
Aware of the risk of a nuclear war, France sent its Minister for Foreign Affairs to Moscow, who presented a project for a resolution concerning Aleppo, which he intends to register with the Security Council. This might be a way for the West to extricate itself from the confrontation without losing face. As I have not yet read the document, I can not comment on this project. However, the French Press is currently overflowing with articles about the crisis of Aleppo, all based on false ideas. Currently, the Western part of the city houses between 1.4 and 1.5 million inhabitants who are partisans of the Republic, and the Eastern part houses between 25,000 and 30,000 people. The ratio therefore concerns a population which is between 46 and 50 times greater, and not equal, as it has been suggested. It was the jihadists who shot the inhabitants of East Aleppo when they attempted to flee during the Aïd cease-fire. It was they who burned the humanitarian convoy of the Syrian Red Crescent, destined for the civilian populations they were holding hostage in Aleppo. After having offered the possibility for all residents of East Aleppo, whether civilians or combatants, Syrian or foreigners, to leave the city during Aïd, the Syrian army and its Lebanese, Russian and Iranian allies launched an operation against the jihadists at the risk of also killing the civilians whom the jihadists were holding as hostages. This was done in application of Resolution 2249 of 20 November 2015, which asks UNO members to «... put an end to the acts of terrorism committed in particular by the EIIL, also known as Daesh, as well as by the al-Nusra Front and all other individuals, groups, businesses and entities associated with Al-Qaida ».
Published on 1 Oct 2016
Yemeni forces have targeted and destroyed an Emirati military vessel in a rocket attack near the Red Sea port city of Mokha, al-Masirah TV says. The C-802 is the export upgraded version of the Chinese anti-ship missile YJ-8 (Chinese: 鹰击-8, literally "Eagle Strike"; NATO reporting name: CSS-N-8 Saccade).
The USS Mason came under missile fire from within Houthi-held territory, according to the Pentagon.
Spencer Ackerman in New York @attackerman Thursday 13 October 2016 06.58
The United States has launched its first strike on Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen in retaliation for days of attacks on a navy warship, becoming an active combatant in a brutal war led by Washington’s ally Saudi Arabia.
The Pentagon announced late on Wednesday that it struck and destroyed three radar sites controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi movement in Yemen. The sites were described as being involved in two missile attacks over the past four days on the destroyer USS Mason, operating out of the Bab al-Mandeb waterway between Yemen and east Africa.
There was no immediate word on any casualties from the US attack on the radar sites, which the Pentagon noted came with the direct authorization of Barack Obama.
“These limited self-defense strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships, and our freedom of navigation,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said US Navy destroyer USS Nitze launched the Tomahawk cruise missiles around 4am local time (0100 GMT).
“These radars were active during previous attacks and attempted attacks on ships in the Red Sea,” including the USS Mason, one of the officials said, adding the targeted radar sites were in remote areas where the risk of civilian casualties was low.
A Houthi military official denied the fighters had fired at US vessels. “Those claims are baseless,” the official said, according to rebel-controlled Saba news agency.
While the US has conducted lethal attacks in Yemen against al-Qaida forces throughout Obama’s presidency, killing civilians as well as US nationals, Wednesday’s reprisal strikes were Washington’s first against the Houthis. They raised the prospect of deeper US involvement in what many in the region and Washington see as a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Houthi missiles have also struck deeper into Saudi Arabia and on Monday were reported to have struck the Taif airbase near Mecca.
The US has supported the Saudis with aerial refuelling and highly controversial arms sales but the Obama administration has recently attempted to distance itself from the Yemen conflict. After Saudi airstrikes on Saturday targeted a funeral and left 140 dead the White House rebuked Riyadh, saying that its aid to a war begun in March 2015 was “not a blank check.”
That was before a US navy ship came under fire from territory controlled by the Houthis. Missiles fired at the Mason did not damage the ship but left many in Washington wondering if the US would be drawn deeper into the conflict following an apparent decision by the Houthis or their Iranian patrons to target the Mason.
Earlier on Wednesday Admiral John Richardson, the chief of US naval operations, had praised the Mason crew and suggested retaliation for the missile strikes was imminent.
“These unjustified attacks are serious but they will not deter us from our mission. We are trained and ready to defend ourselves and to respond quickly and decisively,” Richardson said. _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
We only have the US word that Houthis attacked the US ships; they have denied it (remember the 'Gulf of Tonkin LIE')?
'.......Up to now, the Obama administration put limits on its support for the Saudi-led coalition, providing intelligence and Air Force tankers to refuel the coalition’s jets and bombers. The American military has refueled more than 5,700 aircraft involved in the bombing campaign since it began, according to statistics provided by United States Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East.......'
I wonder what the US would do if a Foreign nation provided 5,700 aerial refuellings to a Foreign nation attacking the US???? _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 12:26 am Post subject:
The US just bombed Yemen, and no one's talking about it
Moustafa Bayoumi
We need answers from the candidates on how they would deal with a deadly conflict in one of the Middle East’s poorest countries. We’re not getting them
Fire and smoke rise after a Saudi-led airstrike hit a site believed to be one of the largest weapons depots on the outskirts of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, 14 October, 2016.
Fire and smoke rise after a Saudi-led airstrike hit a site believed to be one of the largest weapons depots on the outskirts of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on Friday. Photograph: Hani Mohammed/AP
Saturday 15 October 2016 16.57 BST Last modified on Sunday 16 October 2016 17.39 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/15/us-bombed-yemen- middle-east-conflict
What if the United States went to war and nobody here even noticed? The question is absurd, isn’t it? And yet, this almost perfectly describes what actually happened this past week.
While many Americans, myself included, were all hypnotized by the bizarre spectacle of the Republican nominee for president, a US navy destroyer fired a barrage of cruise missiles at three radar sites controlled by the rebel Houthi movement in Yemen. This attack marked the first time the US has fought the rebels directly in Yemen’s devastating civil war.
The Trump show has managed to bump all serious and necessary policy debates not just off the table but out of the room
The cruise missile salvo ramps up the already significant US military involvement in deeply divided and desperately poor Yemen. While it’s true that the US has launched drone strikes on al-Qaida targets in Yemen for years, sometimes killing civilians and even US citizens, this particular military engagement has the potential to drag the US straight into a protracted and escalating conflict. And, as everyone knows, America has an uncanny ability to enter protracted and escalating military conflicts.
Yet we’ve heard absolutely nothing about this from our presidential candidates.
If we investigated, we would find that the Pentagon justified this attack as retaliation. Last week, missiles were fired on two separate occasions at another navy destroyer off of Yemen’s southern coast. Those missiles fell harmlessly into the water, but they were enough of a provocation that the navy responded with its own bombardment.
But we would also find that immediately prior to those incidents, on Saturday 8 October, a 500lb laser-guided US-made bomb was dropped on a funeral procession by the US-sponsored Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels who, the Saudis say, are backed by Iran. This bomb killed more than 140 people, mostly civilians, and wounded more than 525 people. Human Rights Watch called the incident “an apparent war crime”.
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Boris Johnson and John Kerry call for ceasefire in Yemen
That heinous attack led to a strong rebuke from the US, which has sold the Saudis $110bn worth of arms since President Obama assumed office, and recently approved the sale of $1.15bn more. The US also supplies the Saudis with necessary intelligence and logistics to prosecute its war. According to Reuters, the US government is also deeply concerned that it may be implicated in future war crimes prosecutions as a result of its support for the Saudi-led coalition.
This worry might explain why National Security Council spokesman Ned Price stated that “in light of this and other recent incidents, we … are prepared to adjust our support so as to better align [the Saudi-led coalition] with US principles, values and interests, including achieving an immediate and durable end to Yemen’s tragic conflict”. Sounds good. Then again, the US bombed Houthi positions days later.
What is happening in Yemen and how Saudi Arabia's airstrikes are affecting civilians - explainer
Read more
The situation in Yemen is already catastrophic and largely out of view. Since the conflict began 18 months ago, more than 6,800 people have been killed. Both rebels and the regime have committed atrocities, though most of the dead are civilians and most have been killed by Saudi-led airstrikes. Almost 14.4 million people are now “food insecure”, according to the UN’s World Food Program, and 2.8 million people have been displaced. In 2015, there were 101 attacks on schools and hospitals. After two Doctors Without Borders hospitals were bombed resulting in 20 deaths – one in Taiz on 2 December 2015 and the other in Abs on 15 August this year – the humanitarian group was forced to withdraw from its six hospitals in northern Yemen. And the latest news is a cholera outbreak.
The Trump show has managed to bump all the serious and necessary policy debates not just off the table but out of the room. Presidential foreign policy discussions, for example, are now basically limited to who hates Isis more, who said what 13 years ago, and who believes Vladimir Putin is in charge of a roomful of hackers.
'Signs are ominous! On Thursday Oct 13, US Tomahawk cruise missiles destroyed pro-Iranian / anti-Saudi Houthi rebels’ radar sites in Yemen, “retaliating after failed missile attacks this week on a U.S. Navy destroyer”, U.S. officials claimed. Washington has again complained about Houthi missile attacks on a US naval ship on Saturday, Oct 15. Meanwhile, Iran has deployed two warships off Yemen threatening to further escalate tensions after the US missile attacks. It’s most likely – if not inevitable – that the US military machine is going to invade Yemen, Syria, and finally, Iran.
One believes the allegation against the Houthi rebels is a part of the US design to stage another Gulf of Tonkin type false flag operation to justify another US-sponsored long-drawn war in the region a` la Vietnam and Iraq. We know the North Vietnamese “attack” on a US naval ship on August 4, 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin – that never happened – was an American fabrication to justify a full-fledged invasion of North Vietnam, in the name of protecting Southeast Asia from “communist aggression”. It was very similar to Saddam Hussein’s non-existing Weapons of Mass Destruction that prompted the illegal US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
While Americans are engrossed in Donald Trump’s vulgar and offensive comments on women, and allegations about his sexual misconduct with multiple women in the past, seemingly the US Administration is busy teaching the pro-Iranian Houthi rebels a lesson, with a view to intimidating and eventually invading Iran! It’s least likely that Houthi rebels who have been simultaneously fighting the pro-Saudi Yemeni regime and Saudi Arabia itself, would open another front against America, which has the most powerful and reckless military in the world.
Now, what the Houthi insurgency or rebellion is all about! This sectarian and class rebellion against the autocratic Yemeni government began in 2004. By 2015 the Zaidi Shiite Houthis captured around half of the country, including the capital, San’a. Shiite Houthis in southern Saudi Arabia also joined the rebellion. What was originally a class movement of Houthis (slightly less than half of the Yemeni population) turned into a civil war, and the Saudi and Iranian interventions in Yemen turned the rebellion into a proxy war between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran. The US is solidly behind the Saudi monarchy. Some Sunni Muslims have also joined the Houthis in their struggle to overthrow the autocratic President Mansour al-Hadi. By now around 7,000 people have been killed and around 40,000 injured
Seemingly it’s almost inevitable that the US is going to turn its proxy war against the Houthis through Saudi Arabia into a direct US-Houthi confrontation, as a prelude to invading Syria and Iran. Since Iran is a common enemy of some of Washington’s staunchest allies in the region, especially Israel and Saudi Arabia, it can’t stomach a Saudi defeat at the hands of Houthi fighters, or any pro-Iranian forces, at all. The US military intervention in Yemen and Syria – if not Iran – is likely to happen while Obama is the lame duck President after November 8, or soon after hawkish Hillary Clinton enters the White House in January. All polls indicate she’s going to trounce Donald Trump. Then again, as President Eisenhower implied in a speech, there are lobbies more powerful than the President to drag the country into unnecessary wars.
In his televised farewell speech from the White House on January 17,1961, Eisenhower singled out the Military-Industrial Lobby – an informal alliance between US military and the defence industry, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy – as the mastermind behind all post-WWII conflicts in the world. Interestingly, the unedited version of his speech also included “Congressional Lobby” as the third most important contributory factor behind US-sponsored wars. His warning against the Military-Industrial Lobby was particularly significant. One who had famously served as the commander of the Allied forces during WWII knew the human, material, and moral cost of modern warfare. He visualized the potential danger the Lobby posed to freedom and democracy, in the long run. He was candid, desperate, helpless, and sincere in appealing to his own people:
“We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
Arundhati Roy has also raised two very interesting questions in this regard: “Do we need weapons to fight wars? Or do we need wars to create markets for weapons?” In 2007, General (ret.) Wesley Clark spelled this out in the most unambiguous terms that the US would invade several countries in the Middle East at the dictates of the powerful Military-Industrial Lobby. He exposed Pentagon’s hidden agenda of invading “seven countries in five years” – all Muslim-majority in Africa and Middle East, including Iran – just for the sake of it (for the rich dividends or “profits” of war). So, there’s no room for any imagination about what’s on the cards.
So, one may surmise with a little bit of skepticism and tons of worries and anxieties about the suffering of innocent civilians in Yemen, Syria, and eventually Iran, both at the hands of pro-US Saudi troops, and members of the US armed forces. It’s not that relevant here if Iran would disintegrate like post-Saddam Iraq, or would become a resolute adversary, or even become a winner against America like Vietnam. It would be too trite an assumption that Russia would remain a casual observer of the joint US-Saudi (and possibly Israeli) invasion of Iran. As Eric Zuesse, investigative historian and author of books on the Holocaust, and the Iraq War, believes if elected, Hillary Clinton would “do this again”, invade Syria (and possibly Iran) as she did it in Libya. He is also positive about Russia taking an active role on behalf of the victims of any such invasions in the near future.
Last but not least, let’s hope the new leadership in the US would take lessons from the past: America hasn’t won a single war since Korea, but its illegitimate armed interventions in scores of countries in the East and West during the last seven decades were directly responsible for millions of deaths of unarmed civilians in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Let’s hope peaceniks like Bernie Sanders would prevent the hawks in the next Administration from invading any country, including Iran, Syria, and Yemen. What former Defense Secretary Robert Gates told fellow Americans at the Eisenhower Library last year is very pertinent to this discussion:
“Does the number of warships we have, and are building, really put America at risk, when the U.S. battle fleet is larger than the next 13 navies combined — 11 of which are our partners and allies? Is it a dire threat that by 2020, the United States will have only 20 times more advanced stealth fighters than China? These are the kinds of questions Eisenhower asked as commander-in-chief. They are the kinds of questions I believe he would ask today.”
The writer teaches security studies at Austin Peay State University. He is the author of several books, including his latest, Global Jihad and America: The Hundred-Year War Beyond Iraq and Afghanistan (Sage, 2014). Email: tajhashmi@gmail.com '. _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
Alex Emmons
January 12 2017, 5:35 p.m.
FOR 21 MONTHS, a coalition of nations led by Saudi Arabia has been relentlessly bombing Yemen, using U.S.- and U.K.-produced weapons and intelligence in a war that has devastated Yemen and killed well over 10,000 civilians.
There is abundant evidence that the high civilian death toll in Yemen is the result of deliberate — not accidental — strikes by Saudi Arabia. During its air campaign, Saudi Arabia has bombed endless civilian targets — including homes, farms, markets, factories, water infrastructure, hospitals, and children’s schools — and has even gone so far as to use internationally banned cluster weapons, which are designed to inflict damage over a wide area and often remain lethal years after being dropped.
But when secretary of state nominee and former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson was asked about Saudi Arabia’s use of cluster weapons during his confirmation hearing Wednesday, he declined to answer, and suggested that the way to discourage Saudi Arabia from hitting civilians in Yemen is to provide them with additional targeting intelligence.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., asked Tillerson during his confirmation hearing: “Saudi Arabia has been utilizing cluster munitions in Yemen. Much of the world has said these are terrible weapons to use, because they have a range of fuses and they can often go off months or years after they’ve been laid down. These are the cluster bombs, you’re familiar with them. They’ve also been targeting civilians. How should the U.S. respond to those actions?”
Tillerson replied: “Well I would hope that we could work with Saudi Arabia perhaps by providing them better targeting intelligence, better targeting capability to avoid mistakenly identifying targets where civilians are hit, impacted, so that’s an area where I would hope that cooperation with them could minimize this type of collateral damage.”
“How about with regard to the use of cluster munitions?” the senator asked.
“Well I’d have to examine what our past policy has been. I don’t want to get out ahead, if we’ve made commitments in this area, I don’t want to get out ahead of anyone on that,” Tillerson concluded.
Merkely clearly saw Tillerson’s response as an example of how the U.S. gives Saudi Arabia a pass due to its oil reserves. “We’ve often been reluctant to put as much pressure on states that we are dependent upon for oil, than in situations with states where we’re not dependent on oil,” he noted.
But Tillerson’s response went beyond deferring to the Saudis — it showed either a callous disregard for civilian lives lost or striking ignorance about what is going on in the region. And the latter is less likely, considering that before becoming CEO, Tillerson oversaw Exxon’s operations in Yemen and negotiated extensively with the Yemeni government for natural gas concessions.
The United States already provides targeting intelligence — and that has not stopped Saudi Arabia from bombing civilian targets. In fact, there are indications that the Saudi Arabia may be using U.S. intelligence to intentionally target civilians. Obama administration officials told the New York Times in August that the U.S. provides Saudi Arabia with a “no-strike” list of critical infrastructure, and that Saudi Arabia has violated it. On August 14 for example, coalition warplanes destroyed a bridge to Sanaa, Yemen’s capital city, that U.S. officials had designated for them as “critical to responding to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.”
The Obama administration has actually reduced intelligence sharing in response to Saudi Arabia’s apparent disregard for civilian life. In December, after publicly rebuking Saudi Arabia for bombing a funeral home, the Obama administration cut back its targeting support the Saudi coalition and stopped a shipment of guidance systems that convert bombs into precision-guided munitions.
The move was a tacit acknowledgment that Saudi Arabia is not killing civilians by mistake, but intentionally targeting them with U.S. technology and intelligence. Obama administration officials even anonymously told Reuters that their decision was motivated by “systemic, endemic” problems with Saudi Arabia’s targeting decisions.
The Obama administration also put a hold on a transfer of CBU-105 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia in May, but has been reluctant to condemn their use publicly. In June, Pentagon opposed a Congressional measure that would have stopped the transfer of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia.
“Instead of ‘providing them with better intelligence,’ Rex Tillerson should call for a cut-off of all U.S. arms and military support to Saudi Arabia,” said Sunjeev Bery, the Middle East Advocacy Director for Amnesty International USA, in an email to The Intercept. “The Saudi Arabia-led military coalition has been merciless in its bombardment of civilian communities across Yemen. In its war against the Houthis, Saudi Arabia and its allies have shown utter disregard for civilian life, killing and injuring thousands — and displacing millions.”
In August, Textron Industries — the last producer of cluster weapons in the U.S. — announced that it would phase out the production of CBU-105 bombs. Textron explained the move in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying that sales of the weapon relied on “both executive branch and congressional approval,” and that “the current political environment has made it difficult to obtain these approvals.”
“Last year, U.S. cluster bomb manufacturer Textron announced that it was getting out of the business,” said Bery. “It is time for the U.S. government to do the same. The U.S. should sign the international treaty banning cluster bombs and join the 100 nations that have already ratified the treaty.”
Saudi Arabia began bombing Yemen in March 2015, months after Houthi rebels overran the capital city Sana’a and deposed the Saudi-backed leader, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The U.S. has been a background partner in the war since the beginning, by supplying the bombing coalition targeting intelligence and tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons, and flying refueling missions for Saudi aircraft.
Throughout his administration, Obama has sold $115 billion in weapons to the Saudis, more than any other president.
Justin Carissimo New York @JstnMchl 15 hours ago
President Trump sings an executive order in the Oval Office on January 30, 2017 in Washington, DC. Andrew Harrer/Pool/Getty
President Trump ordered his first military raid on January 29 with one secret objective—to capture or kill an al Qaeda leader and recruiter who ultimately survived the strike.
Military officials told NBC News on Monday that the operation targeted 38-year-old Qassim al-Rimi, who leads al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and is considered the third most dangerous terrorist in the world. On Sunday, al-Rimi released an audio message taunting the president.
"The fool of the White House got slapped at the beginning of his road in your lands," he said in the message, military sources confirmed to NBC that the message is authentic.
President Trump ordered the raid, his first military operation as commander-in-chief, on a suspected Al-Qaeda camp in Yemen’s Bayda province. The operation resulted in the deaths of Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens and up to 30 civilians, including 10 women and children, according to medics at the scene. Three other US service members were also injured.
It’s currently unclear how al-Rami avoided capture or death and if he was present at the raid’s location at all.
Former President Barack Obama had drafted and reviewed plans for the raid but held off because his advisors wanted to launch the operation on a moonless night, the New York Times reports. US military officials are now claiming that the Trump administration approved the counterrorism operation without sufficient “intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations.”
In the days following the raid, US Central Command issued a statement saying that an investigation team had "concluded regrettably that civilian non-combatants were likely killed" with children among the casualties.
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White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that the raid was a "successful operation by all standards” but it was difficult to call the operation a complete success considering a Navy SEAL had been killed.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 1:43 pm Post subject:
Documents presented to the court also revealed the full extent of Britain’s military relationship with Saudi Arabia:
More than 100 civil servants and armed forces personnel are based in Saudi Arabia to “ensure the supply of modern military aircraft, naval weapons and training”.
British personnel and officials are based in the Saudi-led coalition’s operational headquarters, where the conflict in Yemen is overseen and air strikes are planned.
The defence attache at the British Embassy in Riyadh regularly visits the coalition's operational headquarters. The officer who currently holds this role is a one-star general rank. The only British defence attache more senior in rank is based in Washington.
The British Royal Air Force has a permanent liaison officer of group captain rank based in Riyadh.
UK military personnel provide logistical and technical support and training to the Royal Saudi Armed Forces.
UK liaison officers are also based at the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defence, the Royal Saudi Air Force headquarters.
UK officers have “knowledge of targeting guidance” given to Saudi forces operating in Yemen.
UK government denies it ignored advice over Saudi arms sales
#ArmsTrade
Documents revealed in High Court detail close nature of military ties between London and Riyadh
The British government used its “considerable insight” into the actions of the Saudi Arabian military to make its decision to continue arms exports to the kingdom, a London court heard on Wednesday.
James Eadie QC told the High Court that in considering whether to halt the sales of weapons to Saudi Arabia in February 2016, government ministers used significant “understanding and knowledge" of Saudi processes to make a “considered analysis”.
But the government's lawyer also appeared to defend Saudi strikes on hospitals and school buildings by saying they could serve as “arms dumps” and could in some circumstances be considered “dual-use” targets, making air strikes legitimate.
According to evidence presented by the government, ministers discussed arms exports to Saudi Arabia at the "highest levels," and relied on expert evidence from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Ministry of Defence (MoD) officials to reach their conclusions.
READ: UK government 'ignored advice and continued Saudi arms sales'
Eadie is defending the government against a judicial review brought by Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT). The group, which has campaigned against arms sales since 1974, is hoping the case will lead to the suspension of UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
The court hearing on Wednesday also saw the release of a number of documents focusing on the close ties between the British military and the Saudi forces engaged in the ongoing conflict in Yemen.
In spite of human rights fears over Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign in Yemen, Britain has exported £3.3bn ($4.1bn) of weapons to the kingdom since 2015, including fighter jets and munitions.
On Tuesday lawyers for CAAT argued that Sajid Javid, the then-business secretary with decision-making responsibility for arms exports, had ignored the advice of his own arms control expert. They presented an email to the court from Edward Bell, the policy head of the Export Control Organisation. It detailed how Bell had told Javid that his “gut tells me we should suspend”.
The court also heard that officials within the MoD had removed a column in a tracking system dedicated to recording violations of international human rights law (IHL).
Defending the government's position, Eadie told the court that officials and ministers at the then Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), which had decision-making power over arms exports, made their decision after rationally examining the evidence and the so-called “consolidated criteria” for arms exports.
READ: Saudi weapons sales face landmark review in British court
“The relevant question for the secretary of state is whether there is a clear risk that the items to be licensed might be used in the commission of serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL). That has been the question consistently addressed by the secretary of state,” he said in his written submission to the court.
Eadie also told the court that Javid, who is now minister for communities and local government, had sought assistance from senior civil servants at the FCO and MoD, as well as then foreign secretary Philip Hammond. Since the case was brought, the role of approving arms exports has been transferred to the new Department of International Trade. He also said officials examined Saudi Arabia's IHL record, its public statements and its willingness to engage in dialogue to make the decision to continue exports.
Arms traders not 'auditors of foreign states'
The government’s legal team rejected demands that civil servants must fully investigate each and every allegation of IHL violations. “It is difficult to think those who set criteria for arms sales intended to set themselves up as auditors of foreign states’ conduct of conflict,” Eadie said.
In a defence of Saudi Arabia, he also said the evidence showed that the country is “not a state flagrantly and wantonly violating IHL. It knows the eyes of the world are on it.”
To the dismay of campaigners, he said hospitals and school buildings that were targeted by the Saudis could serve as “arms dumps”. He said they could in some circumstances be considered “dual-use” targets, making air strikes legitimate.
Damage reportedly caused by a Saudi air strike that hit a school in Yemen (Reuters)
Documents presented to the court also revealed the full extent of Britain’s military relationship with Saudi Arabia:
More than 100 civil servants and armed forces personnel are based in Saudi Arabia to “ensure the supply of modern military aircraft, naval weapons and training”.
British personnel and officials are based in the Saudi-led coalition’s operational headquarters, where the conflict in Yemen is overseen and air strikes are planned.
The defence attache at the British Embassy in Riyadh regularly visits the coalition's operational headquarters. The officer who currently holds this role is a one-star general rank. The only British defence attache more senior in rank is based in Washington.
The British Royal Air Force has a permanent liaison officer of group captain rank based in Riyadh.
UK military personnel provide logistical and technical support and training to the Royal Saudi Armed Forces.
UK liaison officers are also based at the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defence, the Royal Saudi Air Force headquarters.
UK officers have “knowledge of targeting guidance” given to Saudi forces operating in Yemen.
Sensitive evidence to be heard in private
The remainder of the judicial review, which ends on Friday, is due to be held in secret to protect sensitive government sources. These are expected to include MoD surveillance satellite images of bomb sites in Yemen as well as top-secret intelligence reports.
Lord Justice Burnett and Justice Haddon-Cave will also examine the full text of a UN report to the Security Council, which includes Britain.
The report was partially leaked to Reuters last month and British ministers were compelled to hand it over to the court. According to Reuters, the report shows that the Saudi-led coalition has carried out attacks in Yemen that “may amount to war crimes”.
The report found that in eight out of 10 cases examined there was no evidence that air strikes had targeted legitimate military objectives.
The MoD’s own figures show it has tracked or is tracking 251 allegations of violations of international humanitarian law by Saudi forces in Yemen.
The case continues.
Second hour: Investigative reports: former UN Yemen worker Dr Judith Brown looks at this week’s revelations about extensive UK civil service and armed forces (over 100 personnel assisting Saudi war criminals with training, planning air strikes and ‘targeting guidance’) involvement in Riadh’s ‘proxy war’ crimes against the Yemeni people. Yemen civil war: 10,000 civilians killed and 40,000 injured in conflict, UN reveals. Interview with Fuad Rajeh, a Yemeni journalist in Jordan at the moment: Trump’s recent criticised operation in Yemen where 25 civilians including a baby were killed – Yemen on the verge of famine, United Nations asks for $2.1 billion; why did war break out? What is life like in Yemen now? number of Yemeni children at risk of starving to death triples since March – says UNICEF – blockades on food; how to sort situation out? Interview with Dr. Judith Brown about war in Yemen: some areas better than others – Tribes and Al Qaeda – UK government denies it ignored advice over Saudi arms sales – in Middle East Eye; Boris Johnson urged UK to continue Saudi arms sales after funeral bombing – Letters between foreign secretary and Liam Fox reveal UK weapons exports were under review following the bombing of a funeral in Yemen – British helping Saudis and then helping Yemenis; why war started in Yemen and state of affairs now. PMQs Eric Pickles – Theresa May defies Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with vow of support for Iran nuclear deal. Lord Rothschild discusses cousin’s crucial role in ‘miracle’ Balfour Declaration. – Verified: Alex Jones on the payroll of a ‘very, very important nation and a very, very important leader’. Stop the War coalition – SWP – why are they so anti-Russian? Interview with Mehrnaz Shahabi about Iran’s missile testing and Vanessa Beeley who has recently returned from Syria. Russia arrests four ‘American spies’ Sergei Mikhailov and Dmitry Dokuchaev (FSB) plus Ruslan Stoyanov (Kaspersky), working as top cybersecurity officials – Prepare for cyberwar with PREFABS – R = Real privacy – use GNU PG or PGP encryption
https://politicsthisweek.wordpress.com/2017/02/10/bcfms-weekly-politic s-show-presented-by-tony-gosling-65/ _________________ www.lawyerscommitteefor9-11inquiry.org www.rethink911.org www.patriotsquestion911.com www.actorsandartistsfor911truth.org www.mediafor911truth.org www.pilotsfor911truth.org www.mp911truth.org www.ae911truth.org www.rl911truth.org www.stj911.org www.v911t.org www.thisweek.org.uk www.abolishwar.org.uk www.elementary.org.uk www.radio4all.net/index.php/contributor/2149 http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf
"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic poison which alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
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Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6060 Location: East London
Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 8:28 pm Post subject:
The second link doesn't work. _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
'DID YOU KNOW that the Trump administration almost went to war with Iran at the start of February?
Perhaps you were distracted by Gen. Michael Flynn’s resignation as national security adviser or by President Trump’s online jihad against Nordstrom. Or maybe you missed the story because the New York Times bizarrely buried it in the midst of a long piece on the turmoil and chaos inside the National Security Council. Defense Secretary James Mattis, according to the paper, had wanted the U.S. Navy to “intercept and board an Iranian ship to look for contraband weapons possibly headed to Houthi fighters in Yemen. … But the ship was in international waters in the Arabian Sea, according to two officials. Mr. Mattis ultimately decided to set the operation aside, at least for now. White House officials said that was because news of the impending operation leaked.”
Get that? It was only thanks to what Mattis’s commander in chief has called “illegal leaks” that the operation was (at least temporarily) set aside and military action between the United States and Iran was averted.
Am I exaggerating? Ask the Iranians. “Boarding an Iranian ship is a shortcut” to confrontation, says Seyyed Hossein Mousavian, former member of Iran’s National Security Council and a close ally of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Even if a firefight in international waters were avoided, the Islamic Republic, Mousavian tells me, “would retaliate” and has “many other options for retaliation.”
Trita Parsi, head of the National Iranian American Council and author of the forthcoming book “Losing an Enemy — Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy,” agrees. Such acts of “escalation” by the Trump administration, he tells me, “significantly increases the risk of war.”.........' _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
Theresa May denies the Met are looking into Yemen war crimes
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5h984i_uk-police-may-probe-saudi-war -crimes-report_news _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
Yemen conflict: Al-Qaeda seen at coalition battle for Taiz
22 February 2016
From the section Middle East These are external links and will open in a new windowShare Related TopicsYemen crisis
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-35630194
Ansar al-Sharia fighters near Taiz, Yemen
Image caption
Safa AlAhmad was told by Ansar al-Sharia fighters participating in the battle not to film them
The BBC has found evidence in Yemen that troops from a Saudi-led coalition force and al-Qaeda militants are both fighting Houthi rebels in a key battle.
On a visit to the frontline near the city of Taiz, a documentary maker filmed jihadists as well as UAE-supported pro-government militiamen.
The coalition of 10 mostly Sunni Arab states is backing Yemen's government in its war against the Shia rebels.
But it denies co-operating with Sunni extremists also opposed to the Houthis.
The coalition's member states consider al-Qaeda a terrorist organisation, and the jihadist network's local affiliates have attacked coalition forces and Yemeni government personnel.
At least 6,000 people have been killed in Yemen since March 2015, when the coalition launched a military campaign to defeat the Houthis and allied army units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and restore the government.
'Spreading the message'
Pro-government forces have been battling the rebels for control of Taiz, about 205km (123 miles) south of the rebel-held capital Sanaa, for months.
The Houthis control all routes into and out of the city, and are besieging a Sunni Islamist-dominated alliance of local forces holding the city centre, while coalition-led forces are attacking the rebels on several fronts to the south and west.
Pro-government militiamen walks past an armoured vehicle near the Yemeni city of Taiz
Image caption
The coalition has provided armoured vehicles to pro-government forces
Taiz has suffered huge destruction as a result, and the UN says some 200,000 civilians are trapped inside the city without critical medical supplies or food.
During a visit to the frontline outside Taiz late last year, documentary maker Safa AlAhmad spoke to pro-government militiamen attacking Houthi fighters on a key hilltop with the support of troops from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who were providing tactical advice.
While there, Ms AlAhmad was warned by one group participating in the battle not to film them.
She was told they were members of Ansar al-Sharia, an affiliate of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and that they were angered by the presence of a woman.
Map of Yemen
Ms AlAhmad said it appeared that AQAP - which has exploited the chaos and seized parts of southern Yemen, including the port city of Mukalla - had sent fighters to Taiz to increase the group's influence and spread its message.
Several reports of coalition forces and AQAP militants battling the Houthis in the same areas in southern Yemen have emerged over the past 11 months, despite the jihadists' long-standing violent opposition to governments of coalition-member states, who are allied with the US.
Some have alleged that the Yemeni government is avoiding direct confrontation with AQAP, which in turn has avoided attacks on government targets.
The Houthis have claimed that Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies are more concerned with checking the influence of Shia power Iran, which has denied providing military support to the rebels, than combating al-Qaeda.
Related Topics
United Arab EmiratesYemenal-QaedaSaudi ArabiaYemen crisis _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
Yemen is currently experiencing a widespread cholera outbreak, with the total number of cases now exceeding 100,000, according to a joint statement released Thursday by the World Health Organization and UNICEF.
The total number of suspected cholera cases reached 101,820 as of Wednesday, according to the statement, and 791 people have died. Children under the age of 15 account for 46% of the cases.
The cholera outbreak is compounded both by ongoing famine and violent internal conflict between those loyal to Yemen President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi's government and rebel groups.
A man is treated for suspected cholera infection in May at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen.
Source: Hani Mohammed/AP
"The cholera outbreak is making a bad situation for children drastically worse," Dr. Meritxell Relano, UNICEF Yemen representative, said in the statement.
"Many of the children who have died from the disease were also acutely malnourished," Relano said, adding that "today, life for children in Yemen is a desperate struggle for survival, with cholera, malnutrition and the relentless violence constantly sounding a death knell at their doorsteps."
What is cholera?
Cholera is transmitted though water or food that has been contaminated by feces. Its symptoms include sudden acute diarrhea, which the WHO said can become fatal within hours in severe cases. Seventy-five percent of cholera-infected people show no symptoms, but can continue to spread the disease though their feces for seven to 14 days.
Cholera is commonly treated with rehydration, but lack of access to potable water and sanitation can make outbreaks much riskier. That's the case in Yemen, where years of military conflict have severely impacted the country's infrastructure and cut off access to clean water and medical supplies. Health and sanitation workers haven't been paid in over eight months, according to the statement.
In April, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres urged world leaders to take action to "facilitate the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian aid by air, sea and land" to Yemen, warning that without international cooperation, the devastation in Yemen would only worsen.
'An unprecedented report from the corporate press claims U.S. forces have participated in extreme torture and abuse of detainees accused of affiliation with Al Qaeda in Yemen — including “the ‘grill,’ in which the victim is tied to a spit like a roast and spun in a circle of fire,” the Associated Press finds.
A network of secretive prisons in southern Yemen provide the backdrop for the alleged barbaric acts allegedly carried out by forces from the U.S. and United Arab Emirates — many of those detention facilities remain hidden in plain sight.
That some of the covert prisons sit inside military bases might not be much of a shock, but others are located in ports, an airport, private villas, and even a nightclub — and all, according to the AP, remain untouchable by the embattled Yemeni government.
Whistleblower Edward Snowden weighed in on the new revelations, tweeting,........'
'......American officials unsurprisingly balked at the accusation troops have participated in the astonishingly heinous behavior described in the AP’s report.
Reports the AP:
“Senior American defense officials acknowledged Wednesday that U.S. forces have been involved in interrogations of detainees in Yemen but denied any participation in or knowledge of human rights abuses. Interrogating detainees who have been abused could violate international law, which prohibits complicity in torture.
“The AP documented at least 18 clandestine lockups across southern Yemen run by the United Arab Emirates or by Yemeni forces created and trained by the Gulf nation, drawing on accounts from former detainees, families of prisoners, civil rights lawyers and Yemeni military officials. All are either hidden or off limits to Yemen’s government, which has been getting Emirati help in its civil war with rebels over the last two years.”
Notably, this is the first ‘official’ acknowledgment the United States participates in interrogations inside the borders of Yemen.
Forces transported some detainees to an Emirati base in Eritrea, according to Yemen Interior Minister Hussein Arab.
Unnamed and unverifiable U.S. defense officials told the Associated Press ‘senior U.S. military leaders’ have been aware of alleged torture taking place in Yemen for some time — but have investigated the charges, and apparently found nothing amiss, as U.S. troops, they claim, were never present during detainee torture.
Perhaps beyond tellingly, neither the AP nor the anonymous officials elucidated on whether the lack of U.S. troop presence during the alleged grilling alive of detainees meant senior military leaders indeed discovered forces from other nations roasting people alive and said nothing, or that the torture allegations were completely baseless.
Those defense officials further
“told AP that American forces do participate in interrogations of detainees at locations in Yemen, provide questions for others to ask, and receive transcripts of interrogations from Emirati allies.”
Torture this horrific, if proven true, harkens immediately back to Bush-era implementation of barbaric human rights violations by the CIA — which included waterboarding and other acts the agency, itself, knew to be utterly inefficacious — which temporarily halted adherence to the law and all semblance of ethics under the premise of extracting information from detainees following the attacks of 9/11.
“We always adhere to the highest standards of personal and professional conduct,” chief Defense Department spokeswoman, Dana White, told the AP on perusal of its report. “We would not turn a blind eye, because we are obligated to report any violations of human rights.”
In a statement, the UAE government also balked, insisting,
“There are no secret detention centers and no torture of prisoners is done during interrogations.”
“The UAE was one of the countries involved in the CIA’s torture and rendition program,” reminds New York University Professor of Law Ryan Goodman. “These reports are hauntingly familiar and potentially devastating in their legal and policy implications.”
To repeat, the U.S. Department of Defense must report violations of human rights — yet the vagueness of the claim senior military brass investigated allegations of excruciating torture, but would only offer that U.S. troops had not been present. Without further explanation, that detail could indicate a troubling sin of omission — in short, a failure to report violations of human rights........' _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
'14 people sentenced to death on protest charges in Saudi Arabia have been prepared for execution and could face beheading within hours. They include a disabled man and two sentenced to death as juveniles.
Munir Al-Adam was born with impaired sight and hearing. In their efforts to extract a "confession" from him, Munir's captors tortured him so badly that he was rendered completely deaf in one ear. Mujtaba'a al-Sweikat was just 17 when arrested at the airport on his way to take up a place at university in the US. He was burnt with cigarettes and tortured so savagely that his shoulder was broken. He was denied medical care and sentenced to die on the basis of the forced "confession".
The world must tell the new Saudi Prince that these 14 executions are unacceptable and cannot be allowed to go ahead.
Can you sign our petition and call on King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed to stop these executions?' _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
Saudi-backed airstrike on crowded market kills at least 25 in Yemen as bombing death toll soars above 70 in last 48 hours
Witnesses and security officials confirmed children were also killed in the strike
Government troops advancing along Red Sea have been battling rebel Houthis
Their goal is to reach strategically-important Hodeida - Yemen's 2nd largest port
By ALEX GREEN FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 20:50, 26 December 2017 | UPDATED: 11:44, 27 December 2017
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5213657/Saudi-backed-market-ai rstrike-kills-25-Yemen.html
A Saudi-backed airstrike has struck a crowded market in Yemen killing at least 25 - as the death toll from bombings in the last 48 hours soars to more than 70.
Yemeni witnesses and security officials confirmed a number of children had also been killed in the attack and that Tuesday's strike in the western province of Taiz wounded at least 30 others.
Both witnesses and officials asked to remain anonymous because they had not been authorised to speak to media and their feared retribution.
International rights groups accused the coalition of bombing civilian gatherings, markets, hospitals and residential areas across Yemen since the beginning of its air campaign against Iran-backed rebels, known as Houthis, in March 2015.
Government troops and coalition forces have been advancing along the Red Sea coast, seizing the town of Khokha earlier this month.
The stated goal is to reach Hodeida, Yemen's second largest port and a key entry point for aid to the country.
The UN has warned the port faces 'the largest famine the world has seen for many decades'.
But the coalition has met strong resistance from the Shiite Huthis, who control the capital Sanaa and most of northern Yemen.
On Monday a deadly air raid in Sanaa hit the guard house at a memorial to Egyptian soldiers killed in Yemen in the 1960s, according to a witness who served as a first responder.
Yemeni witnesses and security officials confirmed a number of children had also been killed in the attack +5
Yemeni witnesses and security officials confirmed a number of children had also been killed in the attack
The guardian of the memorial Ali Mosleh al-Rimi and his wife were killed, along with his four daughters and another relative, Moussaed al-Himi said.
Himi, who helped evacuate the bodies, said two other family members were wounded.
Rebel media put the number of dead at 11.
'I saw everything with my own eyes,' Himi said, adding that multiple missiles had hit the house, which was left badly damaged.
Witnesses say the Saudi-led coalition carried out air raids killing 11 civilians in Saada [AFP]
Date of publication: 29 December, 2017
Comment: There is no way of knowing the number of dead from Yemen's civil war, but it is likely to be much higher than official estimates, writes Sophia Akram. Tags: Yemen, humanitarian disaster, cholera, air strikes, Saudi-led coalition
10,000 people have died as a result of the war in Yemen, over 5,000 of them have been civilians.
Except we've been hearing that statistic for close to a year now, one that was conservative to begin with. Now, after 1,000 days in conflict have passed, it's time to get real about the true impact of the war as it goes far beyond 10,000 and here's why.
Getting accurate information from Yemen's war zone is undoubtedly difficult. In fact, statistics often come from those health centres that count their dead, but there are many other hospitals and facilities that don't.
Casualties include combatants and civilians - victims of direct aggression, though many others have fallen foul of the conflict and the actions of the Saudi-led coalition and Houthi forces, even if they weren't directly caught up in the fighting or branded as collateral damage.
Many have perished due to starvation, or a lack of access to healthcare and medical aid.
In December 2016, UNICEF reported that a child dies every 10 minutes from preventable diseases such as diarrhoea, malnutrition and respiratory tract infections. And the UK-based NGO, Disasters and Emergencies Committee's recent report put the number of deaths from preventable causes at 10,000.
Read more: Missiles may be the weapon of the weak, but they expose political weaknesses
As a cholera outbreak swept Yemen this year, the last count in July 2017 found 2,177 deaths associated with it.
Many more, however, are currently staring death in the face. Suspected cases reached 862,858 (as of that last count) and 5,000 new cases were being detected daily.
Famine is threatening to take hold of the country, throwing millions more into food insecurity. The UN security chief has said millions will die, and this will be a direct man-made result of the war.
Under siege
In response to attacks by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, which backs President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, Houthi forces fired a missile towards the airport of Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia announced a new blockade on all Yemen's air, sea and land ports, locking in 27 million people and locking out 500,000 metric tonnes (MT) of food and fuel, and 1,476 MT of aid. Saudi Arabia reopened some ports, but the main ports Hodeidah and Saleef, which serve two-thirds of the population, have remain closed, only opening for limited humanitarian assistance.
Bowing to international pressure, Saudi Arabia recently announced that Hodeida port will now open for at least 30 days.
But to date, the blockade has put a huge strain on the availability of food in markets, and the rise of fuel prices makes it more difficult to deliver humanitarian assistance. As well as supply, demand is compromised through unpaid salaries, a cash crisis and the increase in basic food prices from import delays through the ports and road taxes.
In addition, crucial civilian infrastructure has been destroyed, including health centres, markets, and water and sanitation infrastructure, increasing vulnerability to disease.
According to the Yemen Data Project - an independent initiative to collect and disseminate data on the war in Yemen - out of 15,489 attacks, around one-third are known to have hit non-military targets (4,509). There are still 4,803 attacks for which the target is unknown.
But for those that have been identified, only 5,883 (around one-third of all attacks) were directed at military or security targets, and 294 were targeted at political or tribal figures.
Of the remainder:
1,422 hit residential areas.
625 hit transport infrastructure.
386 hit farms.
342 hit educational facilities.
256 hit government compounds.
225 hit civilian vehicles.
215 hit private businesses.
183 hit market places.
164 hit communications infrastructure.
112 hit oil and gas structures.
103 hit water and electricity structures.
71 hit factories.
69 hit cultural/heritage sites.
68 hit medical facilities.
62 hit food storage/transportation.
58 hit sports facilities.
44 hit mosques.
36 hit parks/resorts.
18 hit media targets.
13 hit premises of the international community.
13 hit social gatherings.
11 hit banks.
9 hit other state resources.
4 hit IDP camps.
As well as the obvious gross crime of hitting civilians, these attacks have damaged or destroyed infrastructure that is key to the survival of Yemeni civilians.
This data focuses on the aerial bombardments in Yemen from March 2015 to August 2016, including data on all air raids conducted by the Saudi Arabia led coalition. Of the 30,405 known air raids, 7,464 definitely took place against 4,509 non-military targets. But of the 15k plus attacks, in 1,474 cases we do not know whether there were air raids or not.
For every damning number we do know, there is an invisible number that is incredibly difficult to find.
For every damning number we do know, there is an invisible number that is incredibly difficult to find
The effect on civilians however, is indisputable. International humanitarian law dictates that only military objects can be targeted in war. There needs to be a full-scale UN commission of inquiry into human rights abuses by all sides in this conflict.
Indeed, there is much more to the death toll than we hear of, and repeating '10,000' over and over again does nothing but dilute the true scale of devastation to the country.
Sophia Akram is a researcher and communications professional with a special interest in human rights particularly across the Middle East.
By Mark Nicol Defence Correspondent For The Mail On Sunday
22:30, 25 Nov 2017, updated 15:16, 26 Nov 2017
...
Up to 50 UK military personnel teaching soldiers who will be deployed to Yemen
Thousands of civilians have been killed in bombing raids hitting the country
Charity Unicef predicts that 150,000 children could die by the end of 2017
The British Army is secretly training Saudi Arabian troops to fight in Yemen, where the country has been accused of committing crimes against humanity, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Up to 50 UK military personnel have been teaching battlefield skills to soldiers who will be deployed in the so-called ‘dirty war’.
Thousands of civilians have been killed in bombing raids and an estimated one million children are facing starvation and serious illness as a result of the conflict.
The Army’s involvement is part of Britain’s ‘shameful complicity’ in the suffering, according to Tory MP and former Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell.
Salem, five, is one of the thousands of children affected by the conflict in Yemen. The five-year-old suffers from malnutrition and Unicef predicts that 150,000 children could die by the end of 2017 +5
Salem, five, is one of the thousands of children affected by the conflict in Yemen. The five-year-old suffers from malnutrition and Unicef predicts that 150,000 children could die by the end of 2017
The training mission – codenamed Operation Crossways – came to light only after the Army released photos and information by mistake.
The United Nations is investigating the situation in Yemen, describing it as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Some 10,000 people have died since the conflict between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and rebels supported by Iran began in 2015.
Recently a Saudi blockade of Yemen’s ports brought the country to the edge a famine, with the charity Unicef predicting 150,000 children could die by the end of 2017.
Last night, Mr Mitchell demanded that the UK Government provide answers in the Commons about Britain’s role in Saudi military operations.
He said: ‘The UK has been shamefully complicit in Saudi’s role in Yemen, which has clearly included breaches of the Geneva Conventions.
'I have no doubt Parliament will require an explanation of this training mission in view of the high level of concern about the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Yemen.’
Operation Crossways involved troops from 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 Scots) teaching ‘Irregular Warfare’ (IW) techniques to officers from the Royal Saudi Land Forces Infantry Institute.
IW is a collective name for specific tactics used by conventional armies to defeat terrorist groups.
In Yemen, Saudi soldiers are fighting against an Iranian-backed paramilitary force known as the Houthi rebels.
SNAP BRITISH ARMY DIDN'T WANT YOU TO SEE: Saudi troops preparing to fight in Yemen – shown in the light blue map in the middle of the board – look on as a British Army trainer taking part in Operation Crossways gives instructions on conducting an ‘irregular warfare’ mission +5
SNAP BRITISH ARMY DIDN'T WANT YOU TO SEE: Saudi troops preparing to fight in Yemen – shown in the light blue map in the middle of the board – look on as a British Army trainer taking part in Operation Crossways gives instructions on conducting an ‘irregular warfare’ mission
Due to the concern surrounding Saudi Arabia’s military operations in Yemen, Operation Crossways was never supposed to be made public.
It came to light only after a mission summary and photographs were inadvertently posted on 2 Scots’ Facebook page earlier this month.
In one picture a British instructor is seen standing in front of a map showing Yemen and the surrounding region as he explains a possible attacking strategy.
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The MoD attempted to launch a cover-up after the MoS brought the images to the attention of defence officials.
Within 20 minutes of a reporter contacting the MoD, the images and the summary had been removed from the Facebook page.
Last night, former head of the Royal Navy, Lord West, demanded transparency over the UK’s role in training Saudi troops.
Aid arrives in war-torn Yemen after weeks of blockades
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He said: ‘Given the sensitivities surrounding Saudi Arabia and Yemen at the moment it would be better to be open about what we are doing. Our training will hopefully save lives.’
A serving senior British Army officer who chose to remain anonymous added: ‘There will be serious concern that this mission has leaked out given the sensitivities of Saudi’s role in the Yemen conflict.’
The MoS can also reveal the British training mission has involved Explosive Ordnance Disposal officers from the Royal Logistic Corps teaching Saudi troops how to defuse roadside bombs.
The UK has been heavily criticised for selling billions of pounds of military equipment to Saudi Arabia, in particular as British-made bombs are understood to have been used in the Saudis’ aerial bombardment of Yemen.
The MoD said: ‘The UK is not training the Saudi Armed Forces in irregular activity but is providing courses in how to counter it.’
Our complicity in this biblical horror is shameful writes ANDREW MITCHELL, former international development secretary
It is a proud achievement that, in the aftermath of two terrible world wars, our leaders created the Geneva Conventions, a historic set of rules to govern conflict.
Yet even this month, as we mark the sacrifice of our soldiers, that rules-based international order is crumbling.
And in Yemen, it is being fatally undermined by our own allies.
As wreaths were being laid in the UK to mark Remembrance Sunday, Yemen was enduring yet another day of a brutal blockade that risks plunging the country into the world’s largest famine. It has been imposed by Saudi Arabia.
The blockade – enforced after Houthi rebels fired a missile towards Riyadh, the Saudi capital – has now been in place for more than 20 days, cutting off half a million tons of food and fuel to a starving population, barring delivery of desperately needed medical supplies, and grounding UN humanitarian flights carrying aid workers to their lifesaving missions.
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Saudi Arabia's Defence Minister, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, pictured in Moscow during a meeting with Vladimir Putin +5
Saudi Arabia's Defence Minister, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, pictured in Moscow during a meeting with Vladimir Putin
Ever more urgent pleas from the UN and humanitarian agencies to fully lift the siege fall on deaf ears. Despite Saudi protestations, it is increasingly hard to deny that this constitutes collective punishment of an entire population.
This is a crime under international law – and as an ally and major arms supplier to Saudi Arabia, the UK is shamefully complicit.
The impact of the blockade could not be more grave. Yemen is a country ravaged by medieval diseases and on the precipice of a biblical famine.
The Saudi pledge to open some ports to urgent humanitarian supplies does not come close to feeding a population reliant on commercial imports for 80 per cent of its food.
Every hour, 27 children are diagnosed as acutely malnourished: that’s 600 more starving children every day. Fuel shortages mean at least seven cities have already run out of clean water and sanitation; hospitals have shut down due to a lack of running water and fuel for generators.
As vaccines run out, one million children are at risk of diphtheria, known as The Strangling Angel of Children.
The imagery on our television screens seems from a bygone era: emaciated children; tiny babies in incubators, their tenuous hold on life dependent on fuel for hospital generators that is fast running out.
Preventing the supply of weapons to Houthi rebels fighting Yemen’s internationally recognised government is a legitimate aim, mandated by UN Security Resolution 2216. But this cannot justify the ongoing strangulation of Yemen and its people.
A UN panel of experts found no evidence to support Saudi claims that their obstruction of civilian goods is stopping missiles being shipped to the Houthis by Iran.
Such an obstruction is illegal under the international system. The UK’s silence in the face of these clear crimes against the people of Yemen not only shames us, it implicates us.
This is a war waged by British allies using British weapons: we have supplied Saudi Arabia with almost £4 billion of weapons and military support in recent years.
As the ‘penholder’ on Yemen, responsible for leading action at the Security Council, we bear a special responsibility – political as well as moral – to lead the international response to end this conflict.
Yet the British government has declined to call this what it is: an illegal blockade. While the Government was right to condemn the attempted Houthi missile attack on Riyadh airport, where is the British condemnation of 1,000 days of intensive Saudi bombing of Yemen? On the first day of my recent visit to the capital, Sana’a, the city was attacked six times by bombers from the Saudi air force.
Throughout the conflict, our ‘quiet diplomacy’ has failed to curb outrage after outrage perpetrated by our allies in pursuit of what the UN Secretary General has called a ‘stupid war’.
The current blockade does not just risk the senseless death of millions. By tightening the noose around a starving population, Saudi Arabia is feeding the propaganda machine of the opponents it aims to vanquish.
More than collective punishment, then, it is self-harm on a grand scale. The Houthis have publicly vowed revenge, blaming Saudi aggression that ‘shuts down all doors for peace and dialogue’.
Saudi Arabia’s borders can ultimately be made secure only by having a stable Yemen. But as it wreaks relentless havoc on its own neighbourhood, it cannot be surprised when the Yemenis refuse to toe the line.
Every action of the Saudis currently serves the narrative of Saudi’s enemies who want it to be seen as the aggressor to win support of the general population.
Prolonging the conflict serves the purpose of those who profit from war and wish to undermine stability in the region: including Iran and extremist groups.
When I was in Yemen, I saw signs in the street in Arabic and English declaring ‘America and Britain are killing Yemeni children’.
The time for UK leadership is now. We must demand an urgent ceasefire, an immediate and unconditional end to the blockade, and a return to reinvigorated, inclusive peace talks.
A new Security Council resolution is long overdue: it is widely recognised that Resolution 2216 is an anachronism that constitutes a barrier to a peace process.
The cost of our inaction is measured in Yemeni lives. The clock is ticking: a child dies every ten minutes. Yemen is also a time bomb threatening international peace and security.
The abrogation of our responsibility to denounce these crimes and use our leverage to stop them condemns millions of Yemenis to death. Shying away from demanding compliance by all to the international rules-based order that we helped take root also weakens a strained system that keeps British citizens safe.
We must use every inch of our leverage – diplomatic, political and economic – to demonstrate to our allies they have more to gain from peace than a fruitless military strategy that is exacerbating the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe, and undermines the international rules-based order that keeps us all safe. _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
More secrecy won’t protect Yemeni or Saudi Arabian civilians — or the British citizens at work behind the front line
By Mike Lewis
Global Research, May 02, 2018
Medium 30 April 2018
Region: Europe, Middle East & North Africa
Theme: Intelligence, Militarization and WMD
print 25 10 1 39
Featured image: Royal Saudi Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon (by RA.AZ, CC BY-ND-SA 2.0)
Some birthdays are not for celebrating. Last month Yemen’s civil war slipped into its fourth year. It’s a war without obvious good or bad guys: Security Council investigators have documented violations of international humanitarian law by all sides. UN human rights officials nonetheless claim that the “leading cause” of civilian casualties are airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition, which backs Yemen’s President Hadi against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and allied supporters of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The coalition’s air operations may not be any more indiscriminate or lacking in precaution than Houthi artillery and missile attacks, but are certainly more powerful and widespread.
What is Britain’s involvement in a war the UK government itself calls the world’s largest humanitarian crisis? Limited, if ministers are to be believed.
Throughout the Yemen conflict, Saudi Arabia has remained by far Britain’s leading arms export customer. Half of all UK exports of weapons and military equipment from 2013 to 2017 went to the Kingdom (up from 28% in 2007–11). Most were for the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF), 151 of whose 324 combat aircraft are British-supplied, along with weapons, ground systems, parts and spares.
Faced with inevitable legal and political criticism, the UK government insists that it isn’t responsible for — and cannot even necessarily know — how UK-supplied weapons are used after they have been shipped. Last July the High Court agreed (though activists are now applying to appeal that decision).
The reality of the UK’s relationship with the Saudi military challenges this ‘flog and forget’ theory of arms control. Under a sequence of formal agreements between the UK and Saudi governments since 1973, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and its contractors supply not only military ‘hardware’, but also human ‘software’. Around 7000 individuals — private employees, British civil servants and seconded Royal Air Force personnel — are present in Saudi Arabia to advise, train, service and manage British-supplied combat aircraft and other military equipment.
Ministers have nonetheless assured Parliament that these support staff are strictly hands-off:
“there is no British involvement in the coalition in targeting or weaponizing aircraft to undertake missions [in Yemen]”.
Likewise they insist that neither UK military personnel nor contractor personnel “are involved in the loading of weapons for operational sorties, nor are they involved in the planning of operational sorties”.
Documents and testimonies we’ve gathered paint a more complicated picture. Over the past eighteen months, with the support of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, Katherine Templar and I have sought to map these British and British-employed personnel in Saudi Arabia, trying to understand their work and their experiences. Though their existence is hardly a secret, their precise numbers and functions have long remained obscure. The UK-Saudi agreements that govern their work are classified ‘UK Confidential/RSAF Secret’ and are closed from public release until 2027. Even UK ministers say
they “do not have full visibility of the prime contractor’s manpower footprint in Saudi Arabia, the detail of which forms part of the commercial arrangements underpinning the delivery of much of the contracted support and is therefore sensitive.”
We’ve interviewed technicians, managers and officials from every level of this UK-Saudi ‘footprint’, backed up by individuals’ written CVs and formal job descriptions. If they are no longer physically loading bombs, as ministers insist, they’re still required to do almost everything else. A mix of UK company employees and seconded RAF personnel have continued to be responsible for maintaining the weapons systems of all Saudi Tornado IDS fighter-bombers, a backbone of the Yemen air war. They also work as aircraft armourers and weapons supervisors for the UK-supplied Typhoon fighters deployed at the main operating bases for Saudi Yemen operations, and provide deeper-level maintenance for Yemen-deployed combat aircraft.
These roles are underpinned by UK military commitments to Saudi Arabia that have never been disclosed to public or parliament. Our report discloses one of them, from a UK-Saudi agreement named ‘Al Yamamah’, which details how the UK will supply and support Saudi Arabia’s Tornado fighter-bombers. MOD officials have confirmed that this secret 1986 agreement continues in force “as long as the programme lasts”, despite more recent accords. (When in 2006 the UK’s Guardian newspaper obtained an earlier, less detailed agreement which had been released “by mistake” to the National Archives at Kew, the MOD removed the files overnight, and claimed their release “severely dented [Saudi] confidence in the [UK’s] ability to protect sensitive information”).
Prime Minister’s Office file PREM 19/3076 released to the National Archives during 2017 (Crown Copyright, reproduced under Open Government Licence v.3.0)
A similar inadvertent indiscretion seems to have been repeated: though the files containing the ‘Al Yamamah’ agreement remain withheld from public view, a bundle of unrelated Downing Street files, recently placed unnoticed in the National Archives, contains key extracts of the agreement.
As these papers show, the agreement requires that “United Kingdom civilian and military personnel will remain available in Saudi Arabia for preparation, including arming and support, of the [Tornado fighter-bomber] aircraft during an armed conflict” in which Saudi Arabia is involved, though these personnel may not “participate” in the conflict directly. The clause makes no reference to the authorisation or lawfulness of such a conflict.
British diplomats were concerned about the implications of this commitment from the start, lobbying within Whitehall during negotiations for the clause to be removed. “At worst”, the Foreign Office’s Middle East Department wrote to the MOD’s defence sales division, “this [clause] could expose HMG to accusations that they were involved in an undercover role in any number of types of unlawful military adventures; at best, it might threaten to compromise British neutrality in armed conflicts between third States.” Papers elsewhere in the National Archives show that the commitment was removed from a draft version of the agreement circulated within Whitehall six weeks before signature. It nonetheless seems to have been re-inserted into the final agreement at the last minute.
Extract of the 1986 UK-Saudi ‘Al Yamamah’ Memorandum of Understanding, included amongst papers in file PREM 19/3076 in the UK National Archives (Crown Copyright reproduced under Open Government Licence v3.0)
It’s difficult for the UK government to argue that it cannot know much about how its arms supplies are used, when it is helping the Saudi armed forces to use them. Our research doesn’t judge the rights or wrongs of the war in Yemen. But Britain’s day-to-day involvement with these weapons systems gives it a duty of precaution to help prevent civilian harm from those weapons. The government also has a duty of care for the thousands of British citizens at work in Saudi Arabia in quasi-military roles, fulfilling UK MOD contracts but as employees of private companies, without some of the legal and physical protections of military personnel or public servants. Most of the individuals we spoke to described their time in Saudi Arabia as amongst the most professionally and financially rewarding experiences of their lives. But we also spoke with whistle-blowers left unprotected under Saudi Labour Law, and even deprived of their British passports while working (a practice which seems now to have ended). We met contractors who described occasional physical jeopardy, from Scud missiles to unexploded ordnance. And we interviewed technicians anxious about the legal ramifications of their work within a foreign military machine at war.
The legal protection of these British citizens may be bound together with the physical protection of Yemen’s citizens. How the UK government navigates its obligations to protect both groups depends partly on whether other UK-Saudi agreements contain similar commitments to support Saudi combat operations, including the 2005 ‘Al Salam’ agreement covering UK support for the Saudi Air Force’s Typhoon fighters, and a new ‘Military and Security Cooperation Agreement’ signed in September 2017. (Both remain secret).
Nonetheless the government has clearly declined so far to exercise one option: to activate the ‘suspend’ clause in the Al Yamamah MOU. This all-or-nothing clause, also reproduced in the papers sitting unnoticed at the National Archives, allows the UK government “in the case of the outbreak of war… after consultation with the Saudi Arabian government…[to] suspend the arrangements provided for in the MOU”, removing UK re-supply and support for these weapons systems until the end of the conflict.
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