... Saudische Lobbyarbeit bei US-Wahlkämpfen – Rüstungsindustrie-Lobby beim US-Kongress – Die unsichtbare Propaganda der Washington Post – 10 Fragen, die der saudische Kronprinz beantworten muss – und mehr
October 29, 2018: Yemen: How to help – Children die as medicine prices skyrocket – Distress of Displaced People – The Economic war on Yemen – Yemen, Khashoggi and the West (in German) – Saudi lobbying of US election campaigns – Defense industry lobbying US congress – The Washington Post’s invisible propaganda – 10 questions the Saudi crown prince has to answer – and more
Schwerpunkte / Key aspects
Klassifizierung / Classification
Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics
cp1b Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah / Most important: Hodeidah battle
cp2 Allgemein / General
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
cp8a Jamal Khashoggi
cp9 USA
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms Trade
cp13b Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage
cp13c Wirtschaft / Economy
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp15 Propaganda
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
Klassifizierung / Classification
***
**
*
(Kein Stern / No star)
? = Keine Einschatzung / No rating
A = Aktuell / Current news
B = Hintergrund / Background
C = Chronik / Chronicle
D = Details
E = Wirtschaft / Economy
H = Humanitäre Fragen / Humanitarian questions
K = Krieg / War
P = Politik / Politics
pH = Pro-Houthi
pS = Pro-Saudi
T = Terrorismus / Terrorism
Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject
Einführende Artikel u. Überblicke für alle, die mit den Ereignissen im Jemen noch nicht vertraut sind, hier:
Yemen War: Introductory articles, overviews, for those who are still unfamiliar with the Yemen war here:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-einfuehrende-artikel-u-ueberblicke
Neue Artikel / New articles
(** B H)
Feed hungry children in Hajjah province of Yemen
Around 2.9 million women and children are acutely malnourished in Yemen.
The Hajjah Province in Yemen
The Governorate of Hajjeh is one of the poorest in Yemen. It is composed of 30 districts , with no easy roads to access these areas. Almost 2 million people live there . They are too poor to buy seeds to cultivate, water is difficult to access, no NGO is working on the ground due to the war and the difficulties to reach these remote villages. 2 or 3 hospitals with no medicine are not working properly. This Governorate is 5 or 6 hours far away from the capital Sanaa.
In the first six months of this year, Hajjah province, where Aslam is located, recorded 17,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition, higher than in any full year on record.
Malnourished children, who were previously treated, returned to clinics in even worse condition — if they make it back at all. And deaths happen in remote villages where people can’t reach the health units.
Aslam is one of the poorest districts in the country, with hundreds of small villages, some isolated in the high mountains. Its population of 75,000 to 106,000 includes both local residents and accelerating numbers of displaced people who fled fighting elsewhere.
In terms of hunger, Aslam isn’t alone. As there are other districts closer to war zones which may not be getting food aid at all. But Aslam did see one of the province’s highest jumps in the number of reported children suffering from severe acute malnutrition: From 384 cases being treated in January, an additional 1,319 more came in over the next six months, according to local health records. That comes to around 15 percent of the district’s children.
The number of people nationwide who would starve if they didn’t receive aid grew by a quarter over the past year, now standing at 8.4 million of Yemen’s 29 million people, according to U.N. figures. That number is likely to soon jump by another 3.5 million because the currency is losing value, leaving growing numbers of people unable to afford food, the U.N. warned this month.
Aim of Mona Relief in Hajjah
Mona Relief Organization aims through this campaign to helping malnourished children along with their families in that area with food aid baskets in an attempt to alleviate the suffering of people there. Our donors through this campaign will be updated about what we have done in the field by posting pictures and videos that taken during the food aid distribution.
Yemen Organization for Humanitarian Relief and Development (Mona), is a national Independent, non-governmental and non-profitable organization based in the capital Sana'a, Yemen. Mona Relief was established in May 2015 by the journalist Fatik al-Rodaini in Yemen.
Mona Relief has been carried out over 200 projects in Yemen since the war started in 2015.
Food Distributions in Hajjah, October 2018
We went to Hajjah this October 2018 where we the Mona Relief team did a fantastic work, and we are planning to do so again as soon as the campaign ends.
Some pictures of our Food Distribution in Hajjah (17th of October, 2018)
About Mona Relief Yemen
Mona Relief is a 100% Yemeni Organization based in Sanaa, Yemen. We are an internationally recognized by U.N. and other organizations. We carry out projects in accordance with Yemeni relative laws and regulations.
We are recognized by the many different communities across Yemen. All of our work is documented with pictures, videos and stories directly from within Yemen. We are completely independent and none of our work is politicized.
Mona Relief, a 100% Yemeni Organization based in Yemen took the initiative with this campaign. With as simple as 30 USD, you are able to feed a family for a whole month.
The organization activities are mainly focused in the field of humanitarian relief and development by motivating and organizing volunteer, charitable and humanitarian work.
BACK IT
Donation amount:
or Select a perk from the list
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/feed-hungry-children-in-hajjah-province-of-yemen#/
(* B H K)
Film: Did Saudi Arabia destroy Yemen?
The war in Yemen has raged for 3 years, killing thousands and leading to the world's biggest humanitarian crisis, with many considering Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, the architect. But how exactly is he involved?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S792UWwhk0M
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
(** B H)
Yemen’s Humanitarian Crisis: How to Help.
The unsettling images of emaciated children staring up from hospital beds drew strong reaction from readers this week when The New York Times published “The Tragedy of Saudi Arabia’s War,” an interactive article documenting the catastrophic effects of the civil war in Yemen.
Here are some ways people can help.
- Unicefworks with local authorities and nongovernmental organizations to provide emergency relief for children, and has operations in every governorate in Yemen. It provides health screenings, vaccines, malnutrition treatment, water and school supplies.
- Doctors Without Bordersoperates in 13 hospitals and health centers in the country. It also provides support to 20 public health programs throughout Yemen, where half of the medical facilities have closed because of the conflict. It operates in areas held by the Houthis.
- Save the Childrenprovides education and safe places for children. Up to 75 percent of schools in some areas of Yemen have been destroyed, according to the organization, which trains teachers and creates temporary learning spaces. Save the Children also provides cash and vouchers for food.
- The International Rescue Committeeprovides medical training, supplies and drugs to hospitals. The organization says it has reached more than a quarter million people in Yemen with health, nutrition, water and sanitation services.
Charity Navigator, a nonprofit watchdog group, has highly rated the following smaller aid organizations based on a number of criteria including accountability and transparency:
- Baitulmaal AHED provides food, clothing and medical supplies.
- Islamic Relief USA delivers food, clothing and medical supplies and provides health screening, farming support and business training.
- And the Zakat Foundation of America works through partnerships to provide food and water. The organization has also helped fund and train hundreds of local farmers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/world/middleeast/yemen-how-to-help.html
(** B H)
More Yemeni Children Die as Medicine Prices Skyrocket
Spiralling inflation in Yemen has nearly doubled the cost of feeding a family, while at the same time halving incomes.
Medicine prices have soared as well, with some people unable to buy any at all and others forced to buy and take less than they need, Al-Jazeera reported.
It comes after Yemen's health minister warned that more than eight thousand hemodialysis patients will lose their lives if the Saudi-imposed blockade on the country persists and medical supplies run out.
Patients with chronic kidney diseases have to undergo three sessions of treatment weekly, but the crippling siege has resulted in the scarcity of dialysis solutions, Dr. Taha al-Mutawakel told Al-Masirah television network in mid-October.
“Over the past four months, patients with renal failure were in need of a million sessions of dialysis; but we could not cover more than ten thousand sessions as we were in dire need of relevant solutions,” he pointed out.
Mutawakel further noted that Yemeni medical officials are doing their best to prevent the collapse of the health system in the crisis-hit Arab country.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13970805000425
(** B H)
Hilfe nur im Flüchtlingslager
Viele Vertriebene im Jemen suchen in provisorischen Lagern Schutz. Dort geht es ihnen oft schlechter als zu Hause – und sie fühlen sich von internationalen Organisationen im Stich gelassen.
„Ich wollte einen sicheren Unterschlupf finden für meine Familie. Die Kämpfe hatten schon unsere Nachbarschaft erreicht und wir hatten Angst, jeden Moment zu sterben“, sagt Abdu. Der 35-Jährige verkaufte seine Schafherde und mietete ein Auto, um nach al-Kadaha zu fahren.
Am ersten Tag war der Familie noch nicht klar, wie schlecht die Lebensbedingungen im Lager sind. Sie war froh, in Sicherheit zu sein. Doch gleich am nächsten Tag begann ihre Not. „Ich war schockiert zu hören, dass es keine überdachten Toiletten und Waschgelegenheiten gibt“, erinnert sich Abdu. Die Familien leben in instabilen Zelten und Hütten aus Holz und Plastikplanen, die keinen Schutz vor dem Regen bieten. „Wenn es regnet, nehmen die Leute ihre Decken und Matratzen und gehen in ein Haus in der Nähe des Lagers“, erzählt Abdu.
Die Lage der Familie verschlechterte sich von Tag zu Tag, vor allem als das Geld ausgegeben war und niemand sie mit Lebensmitteln versorgte. Einen Job konnte Abdu nicht finden, weil viele wie er in der Region auf der Suche nach Arbeit sind. „Ich musste meine Kinder zwingen, betteln zu gehen, sonst wären wir verhungert“, gibt er mit Bedauern in der Stimme zu. Die meisten Kinder in den provisorischen Vertriebenenlagern im Jemen gehen nicht zur Schule. Ihre Eltern sind zu arm, um Schulgeld zu bezahlen, und sie müssen betteln, um ihre Familien über Wasser zu halten.
Im Lager al-Kadaha seien zwar nationale und internationale Hilfsorganisationen tätig, bestätigt Abdu. Sie hätten einige Lebensmittel verteilt, doch viel zu wenige. Außerdem habe sich keine Organisation darum gekümmert, das Lager ordentlich aufzubauen und zu managen. Nach mehr als zehn Monaten in al-Kadaha beschloss Abdu deshalb im April, wieder nach Hause zurückzukehren – obwohl die Kämpfe noch anhielten. „Das ist trotzdem besser als das Leben im Lager, wo es nicht einmal die grundlegendsten Dienste für eine menschenwürdige Existenz gibt.“
Er ist froh, dass er seine frühere Arbeit als Schäfer wieder aufnehmen konnte.
Abdu ist nur einer von Tausenden, die sich trotz der andauernden Kämpfe für eine Rückkehr entschieden haben, weil die Lebensbedingungen in den Lagern so schlecht sind.
Das WFP unterstützt keine informellen Camps
Aidarous al-Haneq lebt mit seiner fünfköpfigen Familie in zwei kleinen Zelten im Lager al-Safia, 40 Kilometer von Taiz entfernt. Ihr Überleben ist abhängig von den Kindern, die betteln, und von den Gaben wohltätiger Jemeniten. „Hilfsorganisationen stellen uns Trinkwasser, Seife und Decken zur Verfügung. Aber sie helfen uns nicht dabei, ein ordentliches Lager mit Waschgelegenheiten aufzubauen“, beschwert sich al-Haneq. Die Lager sind schmutzig, die Kinder spielen in der Nähe der Toiletten unter freiem Himmel, die Frauen kochen im Freien in der Nähe der Schafpferche. Die Menschen fühlen sich dort nicht wohl, aber viele von ihnen haben keine andere Wahl.
Ein Vertreter des Welternährungsprogramms (WFP) sagt im Gespräch mit „welt-sichten“, seine Organisation unterstütze keine Vertriebenen in provisorischen Camps, weil diese nicht professionell gemanagt werden. Dasselbe gilt für andere internationale Hilfsorganisationen, wie einer ihrer Mitarbeiter, der der anonym bleiben will, bestätigt – von Nasser Al-Sakkaf
https://www.welt-sichten.org/artikel/35206/jemen-hilfe-nur-im-fluechtlingslager
(** B E K P)
The Economic War on Yemen
Declan Walsh reports on the famine conditions that threaten the lives of up to 14 million people in Yemen. Here he explains the devastating effects of the policies of the Saudi coalition and Hadi government on the economy.
Aid agencies warned that relocating the central bank and politicizing the last national institution would have disastrous effects on the civilian population, and those warnings have unfortunately been proven correct. The non-payment of salaries has been a guaranteed way to impoverish these employees and their families. Yemenis are faced with economic collapse and rising prices due to shortages and the falling currency. The rapid deterioration of the currency in recent months has exacerbated the crisis severely. The main causes of this catastrophe can all be traced back to the deliberate policies of the Saudi coalition, and as such the U.S. shares responsibility on account of our government’s unconditional support for the coalition.
Walsh also reports on the systematic targeting of food production and distribution that contributes to the starvation of the population.
The coalition’s attacks on food production and distribution show that their forces are deliberately striking civilian targets. Moreover, they are doing this with the intention of depriving people of both the livelihoods that these farms and fishing boats provide and denying the population access to the food that comes from them. The coalition’s targeting of Yemen’s food production and distribution has been known for some time, but this is one of the few times that it has been mentioned in a major American paper.
Yemen’s humanitarian crisis is the most important story in the world, but because its victims are poor and practically invisible to the rest of the world their stories are mostly unheard and then ignored even when they are told. For that reason, it is always good to see more reporting on Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, and this latest article in The New York Times should draw more attention to the plight of Yemen’s people because of the harrowing photos of starving children included in it. Unfortunately, the crisis is of such a magnitude and the need for relief is so urgent that much more will be required. Ending U.S. involvement in the war that has destroyed their country and starved its people is a necessary step in bringing a halt to the fighting, and I hope Congress will do that by voting for H.Con.Res. 138 and S.J.Res. 54. To prevent one of the largest modern famines from claiming the lives of millions of people, the governments responsible for sabotaging Yemen’s economy will have to reverse the destructive policies that have brought the country to its current state – by Daniel Larison
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-economic-war-on-yemen/
(** B H K P)
Drei Jahre Völkermord im Jemen und ein toter Journalist
So verabscheungswürdig das Verbrechen an dem Journalisten Khashoggi auch ist, so ekelhaft ist das Pharisäertum der deutschen und internationalen Öffentlichkeit. Jahrelang schon schlachten die Saudis mit ihren Verbündeten, Vereinigte Arabische Emirate, Kuwait, Bahrain, Katar, Jordanien, Ägypten und Sudan mithilfe logistischer und geheimdienstlicher Unterstützung der USA, Großbritanniens, Frankreichs und der Türkei, Marokkos und Belgiens abertausende Menschen im Jemen auf grausamste Weise ab, ohne das sich hier auch nur eine Stimme gegen diesen grausamen Krieg gegen ein ganzes Volk erhoben hätte.
Im Gegenteil: Im Jahr 2015 griff die sogenannte Weltgemeinschaft selbst auf Seiten Saudi-Arabiens in den Krieg im Jemen ein. Am 14. April 2015 verabschiedete der Weltsicherheitsrat die Resolution 2216. Ein Beispiel dafür, dass die UN immer mehr für die Eigeninteressen der finanzstarken Nationen missbraucht werden. Abstimmungsergebnisse werden erkauft oder ganz einfach durch Erpressung in die gewünschte Richtung gelenkt. Die Auswirkungen der Resolution 2216 im Namen der gesamten Menschheit schildert Dr Mégo Terzian, President of Médecins Sans Frontières France, am 29 July 2015:
"Kriegsverbrechen und schwere Versäumnisse führen dazu, dass die Bevölkerung nicht nur durch die verschiedenen Konfliktparteien doppelt belastet wird, sondern auch durch die vom Sicherheitsrat der Vereinten Nationen im April verabschiedete Resolution 2216. Von Jordanien vorgeschlagen und von den Vereinigten Staaten, Großbritannien und Frankreich aktiv unterstützt, bestand das erklärte Ziel der Resolution nach Kapitel VII der Charta darin, der Gewalt im Jemen ein Ende zu setzen, indem unter anderem ein Waffenembargo gegen die Houthis erlassen wurde. Die Militärkoalition erhielt somit einen Blankoscheck, um alle Infrastruktur die den Rebellen einen militärischen Vorteil verschaffen, wie Straßen, Flughäfen, Häfen und Tankstellen zu bombardieren und Beschränkungen für den Luft- und Seehandel aufzuerlegen, der rasch zur Isolierung des gesamten Landes von der Außenwelt führte. Es steht außer Frage, dass die Resolution das falsche Ziel gewählt hat, da sie weit davon entfernt war, "der Gewalt ein Ende zu setzen", stattdessen den Kriegswillen der verschiedenen Konfliktparteien angeheizt und den Würgegriff auf die Bevölkerung verschärft hat."
Die Folgen der Resolution 2216 schildert Dr. Mégo so:
"Überall im Land leidet die Bevölkerung unter einem ernsten Mangel, da Nahrungsmittel, Medikamente und Benzin immer seltener werden und das Überleben der Schwächsten bedroht. Bei fehlendem Brennstoff für Generatoren und Pumpstationen sind einige Krankenhäuser nicht mehr funktionsfähig und die Gewinnung von sauberem Wasser wird zunehmend problematisch. Menschen stehen stundenlang oder sogar Tage Schlange, in der Hoffnung, aus der Kampfzone fliehen zu können oder einen Verletzten oder einen Kranken in das nächste Krankenhaus zu transportieren. (...) Wie in Aden ist der Mehlpreis in einigen Gebieten um 70% gestiegen und Fleisch ist fast nicht existent. Daten von "Ärzte ohne Grenzen" in Khamir und Saada zeigen, dass 15% der Kinder unterernährt sind."
Aber nicht nur die Bundesregierung bringt den Jemeniten auf drastische Art und Weise die "westlichen Werte" bei. Die selbsternannten Hüter der Menschenrechte, der Freiheit und Demokratie sind alle vertreten und liefern was immer gewünscht wird und gut und teuer ist.
Während also eine Koalition aus neun Ländern unter Führung Saudi-Arabiens vor den Augen der Welt eindeutig Völkermord begeht indem sie ein ganzes Volk hinmetzelt und systematisch verhungern lässt, liefert die Bundesrepublik Deutschland den Schlächtern das dazu benötigte Werkzeug. Und keine Hand rührt sich, kein Journalist empört sich und kein Politiker erhebt seine Stimme.
Aber nicht nur die Bundesregierung bringt den Jemeniten auf drastische Art und Weise die "westlichen Werte" bei. Die selbsternannten Hüter der Menschenrechte, der Freiheit und Demokratie sind alle vertreten und liefern was immer gewünscht wird und gut und teuer ist.
Was, so mag man zurecht fragen, unterscheidet den Journalisten Jamal Khashoggi von den abertausenden toter Menschen im Jemen? Was macht ihn so viel besser, oder wichtiger, bedauernswerter, dass der Mord an ihm eine Welle der Empörung um die Welt schickt, während die gleiche Welt seit nunmehr dreieinhalb Jahren entspannt und mitleidlos zusieht, wie ein ganzes Volk, zugegeben armer Schlucker, aufs grausamste hingemordet wird?
Der US-amerikanische Autor David William Pear spricht von "belanglosen Toten". In einer Übersetzung ins Deutsche schreibt Pear auf der Online-Plattform "Rubikon":
"Belanglose Opfer sind zum Beispiel die 50.000 jemenitischen Kinder, die verhungert sind, weil Saudi-Arabien eine Totalblockade gegen den Jemen verhängt hat – einschließlich eines Embargos für Essen, Wasser und Medizin. Belanglose Opfer „sind wohl selbst schuld“ und werden von der internationalen Gemeinschaft sowie den Mainstream-Medien ignoriert. Belanglose Opfer haben keine Menschenrechte. Der Jemen ist eine humanitäre Katastrophe, die deswegen ignoriert wird, weil Saudi-Arabien mit den USA befreundet ist.Wenn Saudi-Arabiens Mohammad bin Salman (MbS) in den USA hergestellte Bomben aus von den USA hergestellten Flugzeugen wirft und ohne Unterschied jemenitische Männer, Frauen und Kinder ermordet, hört man aus den USA keinen empörten Aufschrei. MbS ist der neue Liebling der Neokonservativen, und Thomas Friedman verfasst Lobeshymnen über ihn, als sei es wirklich cool, im 21. Jahrhundert ein absoluter Herrscher zu sein."
Ergänzen sie jedesmal die drei Buchstaben USA mit Großbritannien, Frankreich, Italien, Deutschland, Kanada, Australien, westlich Werkgemeinschaft oder noch hochtrabender Weltgemeinschaft, dann haben sie die Erklärung.
Belanglose Opfer - wie Bauern auf einem Schachbrett. Mittel zum Zweck. Wer den Jemen besitzt, der herrscht über den Golf von Aden und mit der Meerenge von Bab al-Mandab den Zugang zum Roten Meer und damit über den Suez-Kanal, den kürzesten Weg von den Ölquellen der arabischen Halbinsel nach Europa.
Ein ermordeter Journalist, da läßt es sich trefflich erregen - kostet ja nichts. Derweil unterschreiben die blutverschmierten Hände neue Lieferverträge für teures Mordwerkzeug an die Mörder mit den Ölquellen – von Wolfgnag Jungmann
http://spiegelkabinett-blog.blogspot.com/2018/10/drei-jahre-volkermord-im-jemen-und-ein.html
(** B P)
Mohammed bin Salman and the West's ongoing moral bankruptcy
The focus of the moral outrage seems directed at Trump as much as MBS, as if US crimes do not go back a long, long way
As the Western-assisted war in Yemen was taking its toll on the starving civilian population, some might recall a New York Times columnist writing a particularly absurd love letter to the war's architect, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).
Think tanks and corporate media outlets in Washington and beyond had already been churning out pro-MBS propaganda well before this particular puff piece, and later - especially during the three week US tour by this "great reformer" - many more were to come. But Thomas Friedman was, as ever, in a league of his own, hailing an "Arab Spring" "led from the top down" by MBS. "Only a fool would not root for it", the columnist declared.
The ethically superior West
Saudi Arabia has a long history of Western-acclaimed reformist monarchs, such as late King Abdullah, King Salman’s predecessor, who actively enforced the ban on female driving and even reformed conceptions of fatherhood by starving four of his young daughters held under house arrest for well over a decade.
The solid tradition of continuity and reform under successive Saudi monarchs is also manifested in the unrelenting support for the many takfiri groups across the globe. Saudi Arabia is the second largest source of foreign fighters for the Islamic State group (IS) — roughly 2,500 have joined.
Western governments do not assist these reformist tyrants despite their despotism, but because of it. In their infinite wisdom, they recognise that their interests, as well as those of Israel, would not be well served through any other means of governance.
Support for ruthless entities, like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, has far-reaching benefits but appearances can still be kept up, with regime critics hosted in the West and human rights organisations issuing regular, ineffectual reports full of Eurocentric hypocrisy.
Meanwhile, there is little focus on the permanent feature of Western-sponsored crimes against humanity, war crimes, or genocide, but rather the emphasis is typically placed upon the responsibility of what is assumed to be an ethically superior "West" to show greater moral leadership in preserving and promoting its "values".
Everyone wins, as supposedly well-intentioned wars - as well as crippling and crushing sanctions - are justified, with the usual amounts of bloodshed, destruction, and repression. Jobs are created and massive profits are generated for shareholders.
For those Western-based and-or funded "critics" who carry out terrorist attacks in places like Iran or Turkey under alternative names, or those who are groomed in "cultural centers" to carry out suicide missions for "freedom” and "liberation" in countries such as Libya, Syria or Afghanistan, an altogether different and somewhat murkier category of "necessary evil" is assigned.
Well-paid think tankers, pundits, and Western-based spokespeople declare them to be freedom fighters that receive nominal support - "humanitarian" of course - from Western "sources".
When it eventually becomes apparent that "nominal" can actually mean "very substantial" and that their operations are often very brutal, the narrative is updated and we are told that supporting these people is a "necessary evil".
After all, they are fighting an even greater evil (usually code for Iran).
Many other leaders, senators, news programmes and media outlets also exploded with feigned outrage. [about the Khashoggi murder]. Apparently, they had suddenly discovered the genocide in Yemen, the Saudi army of online trolls, intrusive surveillance, religious extremism, and systematic brutality.
Curiously, the focus of much of this sudden moral outrage seems directed at Trump as much as MBS, as if the US's central role in the ongoing war crimes in Yemen and other regional catastrophes had magically manifested only following the election of the reality TV star.
Trump’s foolish attempt to cover-up this particular savagery is appalling, but the anti-Trump media and governmental establishment's years of indifference toward - and support for - far greater atrocities than the admittedly horrible murder of an innocent man, should see them found guilty alongside Mohammed bin Salman and the current American president.
As in George Orwell's Animal Farm, in which the pigs become indistinguishable from the humans, distinguishing between the Saudi regime and its Western enablers is virtually impossible – by Seyed Mohammad Marandi
(** B P)
Campaign Contributions Coincide With Pro-Saudi Lobbying in Washington
In May 2017, as it was stepping up its two-year military campaign in Yemen, Saudi Arabia faced the prospect of a cutoff in badly needed American bombs.
A bipartisan resolution introduced by three senators threatened to block the sale to Saudi Arabia of precision-guided munitions and other weapons, part of a $110 billion arms package that President Donald Trump had negotiated with Saudi leaders just days before.
To overcome the opposition, Saudi Arabia turned to a platoon of Washington firms that it employs to lobby members of Congress.
Among them was Marc Lampkin, a Republican lobbyist and managing partner at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, one of more than two dozen firms that represent Saudi interests in the United States. Over the course of several weeks, Lampkin, an ex-adviser to former House Speaker John Boehner, called or emailed the offices of several Republican senators more than 20 times to discuss the ”motion to disapprove the sale of precision-guided munitions,” according to filings made with the Justice Department.
One of Lampkin’s frequent targets was the office of Tim Scott, a Republican senator from South Carolina. On May 16, one of three times he called Scott’s office, Lampkin discussed the resolution with Charles Cogar, Scott’s legislative director, according to Brownstein’s federal lobbying records. Lampkin later reported donating $2,000 to Scott’s political action committee on the same day, May 16.
Less than a month later, Scott joined 52 other senators in voting to defeat the resolution, though he has voted against Saudi interests on at least one other occasion.
Transparency group
The episode is one of a dozen in which a lobbyist working for Saudi Arabia approached a member of Congress on behalf of the kingdom last year and contributed to the member’s political campaign on the same day, according to new research by Ben Freeman, director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative at the Center for International Policy.
U.S. law allows foreign governments and other entities to lobby members of Congress and U.S. government officials, but it prohibits foreigners from making contributions to American political campaigns.
Freeman’s findings, based on 2017 data, will appear in a research report on Saudi Arabia’s influence operations in the United States that he is releasing next week. Freeman discussed his findings with VOA ahead of the report’s release – by Masood Farivar
(** B P)
Defense Industry Campaign Contributions Threaten to Influence Senate Vote on Saudi Arms Deal
American democracy is shackled by the influence of money in politics. One of the arenas where the problem manifests itself most acutely is in Congress on questions of defense industry appropriations and arms exports.
The coming Senate debate on a section of the arms deal with Saudi Arabia can shine a light on another way in which the Congress can be captured by the defense industry. It will showcase how votes correlate with money given by the defense industry to congressional campaigns. Indeed, the coming show on the Senate floor will likely reproduce many of the same lines uttered and parts played by various lawmakers when the Senate last voted on an arms package for Saudi Arabia in September of last year. Thanks to a database on campaign contributions at the Center for Responsive Politics, we can also now peer into how different senators’ votes may be shaped by who contributes to them and how much.
That’s what happened last September thanks to a bipartisan group of Senators–Rand Paul, Chris Murphy, Mike Lee, and Al Franken–who forced their colleagues to vote on a $1.15 billion sale of Abrams tanks to Saudi Arabia. The final result was a lopsided 71-27 in favor of the arms deal. Senators who voted in favor of the deal did so despite credible evidence that the Saudis had used U.S. munitions in carrying out airstrikes against civilians in its war in Yemen.
So why did individual senators favor the deal? What motivated their vote?
Scholars have long told us that the political influence of the defense industry can shape the outcome of arms export decisions. In 1997, Jennifer Washburn wrote in a piece for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, “Using its formidable financial and political clout, the industry has grown expert in slanting U.S. policy decisions for its own financial gain—often to the detriment of human rights and global security.”
How might these general dynamics play out in the upcoming Senate debate? The specific sale to the Saudis back in September provides lots of guidance. One key is to look at each senator’s campaign coffers and how they split on the vote. I used raw data from the Center for Responsive Politics data, which includes contributions to campaign committees and leadership PACs. Tallying the numbers, I found that on average, senators voting against the arms sale received $21,484 per year in campaign contributions from the defense industry compared to senators voting in favor of the deal who received $33,716 per year. In other words, the defense industry paid an average of more than $12,000 per year to senators who voted in favor of the deal. Or in more stark terms, senators voting in favor of the arms deal received 57% more contributions on average per year from the defense industry than senators who voted against the arms deal.
Only a handful of senators who voted for the arms deal actually spoke out in its favor.
Money also pollutes other policy spaces that influence congressional votes.
Never disclosed in the Washington Post interview or in the Senate hearing was the source of funding for Feierstein’s Middle East Institute. According to its most recent public report, the Institute counts among its chief donors leading members of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen and major arms manufacturers. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait provide the highest level of support as “Platinum Sponsors,” and the UAE is also a donor. Raytheon, the manufacturer of the very weapons at issue in the Senate hearing, is a Gold Sponsor of the Institute. It is worth noting of course that the Middle East Institute is not unique in Washington. The defense industry and foreign governments pump money into many think tanks.
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Why I Can’t Read the Washington Post
Someone recklessly left a copy of a Washington Post lying around in this coffee shop, and I succumbed to morbid curiosity long enough to notice an article that begins:
“Major U.S. defense manufacturers say they will stand by the Trump administration regarding whether American-made weapons systems should be sold to the Saudi government, despite a global political backlash over the killing of a Saudi journalist and an ongoing humanitarian crisis at the hands of a Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen.”
How does one manufacture defense? What does selling weapons to Saudi Arabia have to do with defense or “U.S. defense” other than its role in generating hatred of the United States and causing people to believe they are in need of defense?
Who gives a flying fornication whether the people getting rich off the killing of tens of thousands of innocent kids and adults “stand by” their profiteering? I imagine that the manufacturers of guns for sale within the United States “stand by” every policy that allows their sale, too, but how is that news? Do pipe bomb builders “stand by” somebody mailing them around the country? Shoud I care? Have they been elected to anything? Do they have any legal right to allow or disallow their own barbarity?
Which major weapons manufacturer manufactured the bone saw or whatever was used to muder He-Whose-Murder-We-Should-Uniquely-Care-About? I’m guessing none of them. Rather, the contention is, as always, that one should have certain minor qualms about giving or selling someone the tools with which to blow up villages if and only if that someone also kills someone who matters and does so without using any bombs. I don’t buy it. Why aren’t we hearing whether the major bone saw manufacturers “stand by Trump” or not?
Nope. Sorry. The U.S. government has a demonstrated, longstanding, and virtually complete inability to judge the geopolitical results of arming countries and groups. Any actual vetting for “security” that related in any way to, you know, making the U.S. public secure, would inevitably find that pouring weapons into the Middle East has done the exact opposite consistently for decades. And there is no possible way to use bombs that respects human rights. The majority of the victims are always civilians, and the entirety always human. The bombs and other weapons are also being used to enforce starvation and disease epidemics, means of killing that are not typically counted as humanitarian when not facilitated by bombings.
Yes, again, we are enlightened by the report that the weapons dealers will deal any weapons they are allowed to. But we’re never informed of the Washington Post’s owner’s CIA and military contracts – by David Swanson
http://davidswanson.org/why-i-cant-read-the-washington-post/
(** B K P)
10 Questions the Saudi Crown Prince Needs to Answer
World Leaders, Journalists Should Demand Accounting for Rights Abuses
“Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal murder wasn’t just a mission gone wrong, but rather the result of Saudi Arabia’s wanton disregard for human rights and belief that the rule of law doesn’t apply to Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman and its other leaders,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The world should seize this opportunity to demand an end to and justice for Saudi Arabia’s serious rights abuses and harmful practices, many of which have been going on for decades.”
10 questions:
1. Why does the Saudi-led coalition carrying out military operations in Yemen continue to conduct unlawful attacks and fail to properly investigate and provide civilian victims redress?
The Saudi-led coalition has committed numerous violations of international humanitarian law, including apparent war crimes, and has failed to carry out meaningful and impartial investigations into alleged violations. The work of the Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT), established by the coalition in 2016, has fallen far short of international standards regarding transparency, impartiality, and independence. As of September 2018, the unit had cleared the coalition of wrongdoing in the vast majority of airstrikes investigated. While JIAT has recommended in a handful of strikes that the coalition provide “assistance” or take “appropriate action,” Human Rights Watch is unaware of any concrete steps the coalition has taken to implement a compensation process or to hold individuals accountable for possible war crimes.
2. Why did Saudi Arabia lock up prominent women’s rights advocates and when will it release them?
3. Why does Saudi Arabia target peaceful dissidents and activists abroad?
Prior to Khashoggi’s murder, Saudi authorities had a history of targeting dissidents and activists outside the country. Most recently, according to media reports, in March, security agents stopped Loujain al-Hathloul, a prominent activist, in the UAE, where she was studying, and quickly whisked her away to a plane that took her back to Riyadh. Agents returned her then-husband, Fahad al-Butairi, from Jordan under similar circumstances.
4. Why did the Saudi authorities detain over 300 princes, businessmen, and government officials beginning in November 2017, many of them at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, apparently outside of any clear legal process?
5. Why do women still need permission from a male relative to obtain a passport or leave the country?
Despite positive reforms in recent years, Saudi Arabia has not eliminated the male guardianship system. Under this system, ministerial policies and practices forbid women from obtaining a passport, marrying, traveling, or being released from prison without the approval of a male guardian, usually a husband, father, brother, or son. The government also does not sanction people or business, including individual employers or hospitals, if they continue to require guardian permission for women to work or access health care.
6. Why are activists like Raif Badawi, Waleed Abu al-Khair, and Mohammad al-Qahtani serving prison sentences of over 10 years for peaceful activism?
7. Why does Saudi Arabia sometimes hold criminal suspects in pretrial detention for months and even years without charge or trial?
8. Why is criticizing King Salman or Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman criminalized as “terrorism” in Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Arabia’s 2017 counterterrorism law includes vague and overly broad definitions of acts of terrorism, in some cases punishable by death. It includes criminal penalties of 5 to 10 years in prison for portraying the king or crown prince, directly or indirectly, “in a manner that brings religion or justice into disrepute,” and criminalizes a wide range of peaceful acts that bear no relation to terrorism.
9. Why does Saudi Arabia execute people for crimes that are not considered the most serious under international law?
10. Why does Saudi Arabia not allow public practice of any religion other than Islam and heavily discriminate against its Shia Muslim community?
https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/10/28/10-questions-saudi-crown-prince-needs-answer
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics
(A H)
ACTED responds to cholera emergency in Yemen
Following a rapid increase in cholera cases in Yemen, ACTED is distributing cholera-prevention hygiene kits and hygiene promotion trainings in remote communities in Sa’ada governorate.
https://www.acted.org/en/acted-responds-to-cholera-emergency-in-yemen/
(* A H)
Yemeni government launches cholera immunisation drive
Programme looks to immunise more than 250,000 residents
The Yemeni Ministry of Public Health and Population launched a new cholera immunisation programme that will target several cities across the country.
The five-day campaign will see 257,000 Yemenis over the age of one receive the cholera immunisation in an attempt to curb the spread of the waterborne disease.
As the second round of the immunisation programme, the campaign will run throughout the week and aims to provide immunisation to the residents of several areas in the south.
Medical teams from the Ministry of Health have been dispatched to visit 76,000 residences in those areas to administer the injections.
https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/yemeni-government-launches-cholera-immunisation-drive-1.785158
and https://twitter.com/WHOYemen/status/1056283407066558465
Remark: Hadi government.
(* A H)
Medical sources confirmed that 34 cholera cases have been recorded in a village in Almahwit governorate.
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1056277856509149185
My comment: One village alone! Many villagers affected (and dying) from cholera never will reach a hospital and never will be counted in any statistics.
(* A H)
#Diphtheria cases are on the increase in #Sana'a. Alsabeen hospital received 65 cases of diphtheria during a few days and 10 people died.
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1056187007779594240
cp1b Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah / Most important: Hodeidah battle
(A K pH)
Aggression’s Daily Update for Sunday, October 28th, 2018
In Hodiedah, the US-Saudi aggression targeted a Central refrigerator southern Kilo 16 and launched a raid western Al-Marawa'ah district.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=3468&cat_id=1
(* A H)
UN Department of Public Information: Regular Press Briefing by the Information Service, 26 October 2018 - Yemen – situation in Hodeidah
Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, read the following statement on behalf of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“It essential to keep all ports open and operational in Yemen without interruption so that adequate quantities of food, fuel and other supplies can reach the country. This is critical to efforts to prevent famine. Yemen depends on imports for 90 per cent of staple food and nearly all fuel and medicine. Hodeidah and Saleef ports remain open and operational. As of the morning of 26 October, five ships were unloading cargo at these ports, and 10 more are cleared to approach the ports. Although the ports have remained open and operational, existing and potential restrictions on imports have dampened commercial confidence, resulting in fewer vessels serving these ports overall. Should humanitarian and commercial imports through Hodeidah and Saleef ports stop or drastically decline for a prolonged period, famine would become likely in parts of Yemen.
Hervé Verhoosel, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said that there were also three WFP ships on their way. The port of Oman was being used as a secondary port. In addition, WFP had 52,000 tonnes of grains stored in silos near Hodeidah, but the security situation was such that the silos remained inaccessible. If the parties to the conflict made it possible to access the silos, the food could be used to feed two million people for one month. WFP appealed to all the parties to the conflict to allow humanitarian workers to carry out their activities to help civilians as a neutral party.
(A K pH)
Yemen new smart ballistic missile (short range, Badr1-P) in its first test,successfully hit and destroyed the headquarters of the command of the Sudanese mercenaries hired by Saudi-UAE invaders in the western coast of Yemen (photos)
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1056536188247568384
films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMeDVgu1X7s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x14XtT2ovs
(A K pS)
Houthis bomb Al Manther, Yemen with ballistic missile
The indiscriminate shelling has instilled fear and panic among locals.
http://wam.ae/en/details/1395302716498
(A K pH)
US-Saudi Aggression Continues to Kill Civilians in Hodiedah
US-Saudi Artillery shells targeted civilians in Hodeidah governorate, killing a child and injuring another one in Attohayta district.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=3459&cat_id=1
(* A K pS)
Fierce battles in southern Hodeidah result in deaths, injuries and mutual control (details)
Fierce battles continue for the fourth consecutive day between Houthi militants and government forces backed by Saudi Arabia-led fighter jets in the southern neighborhoods of the western city of Hodeidah, military and field sources said on Saturday.
The sources said in identical statements to Al-Masdar online, that the battles between the two sides, the heaviest since the arrival of the government troops to the southern outskirts of the city in mid-June, and that dozens of dead and wounded have fallen in heavy fighting.
However, the sources did not list the number of casualties on both sides but only indicated that the toll was significant.
The two sides were engaged in a reciprocal bombardment of heavy artillery and Katyusha rockets, as well as medium-and light-machine-gun confrontations, while the Arab coalition forces intervened with military and helicopter gunships and naval battleships, they said.
The sources indicated that the Apache fighters arrived for the first time in residential neighborhoods, where they chased the Houthi militants retreating in the Al-Rabsa neighborhood.
The fighting erupted last Wednesday, following a massive attack by the Houthis on government forces positions in kilo 10
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160194
(A K pH)
#Hodeidah: A child was killed and another wounded in slivers of projectile was launched by coalition’s militia on Rawiah area of al-Tuhayta district.
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.963391330380564/1978798755506478
cp2 Allgemein / General
(* A K P)
Interactive Map of Yemen War
(* B K)
The True Cost of the War on Yemen
Patrick Cockburn reports on the real death toll from the war on Yemen.
The revised death toll of more than 50,000 is admittedly an estimate, but it is much closer to being accurate than the oft-cited, outdated figure of 10,000. The figure of 10,000 killed was itself a conservative estimate at the time it was first made, and that was almost two years ago. The official death toll has remained essentially unchanged despite the obvious escalation in the fighting since then because no one has bothered to keep track of the fatalities. The low figure creates the impression that the war is not really that destructive, and it erases the Yemenis who have died in the war as if they never existed. The war and humanitarian crisis have been badly neglected, and the true cost of the war has been consistently misrepresented. It is important to have a more accurate assessment to correct these errors and to show that the war has caused much greater loss of life than most people realize.
The Yemen Data Project has been working with ACLED to determine how many people have died in the fighting
As Cockburn says, the revised figure doesn’t include those killed by preventable causes of hunger and disease. Approximately 50,000 children have died each year of this conflict from preventable causes, and the most recent estimate for the current year has been revised upwards to 66,000. Many deaths from starvation aren’t reported, so it is likely that the loss of life is even greater than this. The war has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, and if things continue as they are it is likely to claim millions more as a result of the largest famine in decades. That is the true cost of the war on Yemen, and this is what opponents need to cite when they are making their case to end U.S. involvement in this indefensible war.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-true-cost-of-the-war-on-yemen/
(* B K)
713 killed and wounded by mines in al-Jawf
Mines planted by the Houthi militia in al-Jawf province, northern Yemen, killed and injured 713 people in less than three years.
According to a report from the Human Rights office in al-Jawf, there were more than 713 cases of killing and wounding of civilians as a result of the Houthi mines planted in the province.
The report explained that Al-Jawf ranked fourth in terms of the number of mine victims
During the period from March 2016 to September 2018, the report documented some 183 murders and 308 victims of the wounds and amputation of their limps.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160251
(* B K P)
Australia, US facilitate Saudi war crimes in Yemen
Often cynically portrayed as Iranian puppets, the Houthis receive far less support than is generally assumed. And their movement is motivated less by love for the ayatollahs than by longstanding socio-economic grievances with successive Saudi-backed dictators, and their exclusion from a transitional government established after the 2011 revolution.
This inconvenient truth was ignored by the Saudi regime, which exaggerated the risk posed by a supposed Iranian proxy on its doorstep to justify a massive military intervention. As a result, Yemen now faces the largest humanitarian emergency on the planet.
The country’s social divisions – communal, cultural and religious – are becoming canyon-like with the geographical carve-up. The Houthis control the north and central regions, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula controls the south-east, and forces loyal to the United Arab Emirates control the area surrounding the strategically vital port of Aden – they are considering unilateral secession from the north.
In truth, “Yemen” no longer exists. Emaciated by decades of underinvestment, ruling class corruption and neoliberal attacks, the country has received a knockout blow from the Saudis and their allies.
This calamity is an indictment of the so-called global order. In particular, it is an indictment of the US and British governments, which have expanded their military sales to the Saudis: an example of the barbaric bipartisanship often displayed on issues of imperial foreign policy by Democrats and Republicans and by social democrats and conservatives.
https://redflag.org.au/node/6597
(* B K P)
Saudi Arabia forcing millions into starvation while world obsesses over murdered journalist
THERE is something deeply disturbing about the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Even for those with just a passing interest in global affairs, the gruesome dismemberment, the strange circumstances and the laughable excuses which surrounded the mysterious death made the world take a close look at Saudi Arabia.
However, while the Hollywood-like story wrapped us all up with anticipation, something much more disturbing was and still is unfolding south of the Saudi border.
While their children are starving to death and the country is plunged even further into anarchy, Yemenis can’t understand why we’re obsessing over the death of a journalist.
Even doctors are struggling to survive. They are forced to sell their gold, land or cars to feed their families.
One such medic, Dr Mekkia Mahdi at the health clinic in Aslam, an impoverished northwestern town that has been swamped with refugees said she could not understand the Western obsession with the Saudi killing of Khashoggi in Istanbul.
“We’re surprised the Khashoggi case is getting so much attention while millions of Yemeni children are suffering,” she told the New York Times. “Nobody gives a damn about them.”
He then showed the Times a seven-year-old girl with stick-like arms.
“Look,” she said. “No meat. Only bones.”
Despite all this, it took the death of one journalist to trigger world leaders to suddenly question buying oil from Saudi Arabia or selling the kingdom arms — and, even then, they have been slow to condemn the country or call for sanctions.
Many observers believe this is because of their financial reliance on Saudi gold.
Analysts say it is unlikely the Khashoggi killing will turn the spotlight on Saudi Arabia’s broader policies.
(* B H K)
Manche Leserinnen und Leser möchten da wegschauen
Mit drastischen Bildern ruft die «New York Times» zum Hinschauen auf. Der Krieg in Jemen soll uns mehr beschäftigen als Kashoggi.
Die Zeitung «New York Times» (NYT) zögerte, ob sie diese brutalen Bilder abdrucken soll. Die Redaktion veröffentlichte das obige Bild der 7-Jährigen, vom Hunger gezeichneten Amal Hussain schliesslich sogar auf der Frontseite. Es sei brutal, «aber brutal ehrlich». Das Bild lege das Grauen im heutigen Jemen offen. Die Leserinnen und Leser könnten jetzt entscheiden, ob sie weitere Bilder sehen und weiter lesen möchten oder nicht.
NYT-Reporter Declan Walsh und NYT-Fotograf Tyler Hicks haben sich im Oktober im Norden Jemens so gut es ging vor Ort umgesehen und mit vielen Flüchtlingen, Einwohnern und Helfern gesprochen. Unter dem Titel «Saudi-Arabiens tragischer Krieg» berichteten die beiden in der «New York Times» über einen «niederträchtigen Krieg». Das Land stehe vor einer «Hungerkatastrophe».
Am Schluss erklärt die «New York Times» nochmals, warum sie die schrecklichen Bilder veröffentlichte:
«Die Tragödie in Jemen ist keine Naturkatastrophe. Sie ist das Resultat von Führern anderer Länder, die für ihre politischen Ziele ein unerhörtes Leiden der Zivilbevölkerung in Kauf nehmen. Das Schicksal Jemens mit dem unermesslichen Leid kann man mit Worten allein nicht beschreiben. Die Bilder berichten brutal, aber ehrlich.»
https://www.infosperber.ch/Artikel/Politik/Jemen-Manche-Leserinnen-und-Leser-mochten-hier-wegschauen
(* B K P)
Jemenitischer Analyst: Saudi-Arabien hat sich im Jemen verrannt und wird Krieg nicht gewinnen
Im Interview mit RT Deutsch erklärt ein jemenitischer Analyst, warum Saudi-Arabien den Krieg in Jemen nicht gewinnen kann. Er skizziert die eigentlichen Gründe für den Krieg und warum Riad zunächst sogar die Huthis unterstützte, bevor sie heute vehement bekämpft werden.
RT Deutsch hat mit Mareb al-Ward gesprochen. Er ist jemenitischer Journalist und politischer Analyst
Leider sind die Saudis immer noch von zahlreichen Fehleinschätzungen besessen. Um ehrlich zu sein, ist nirgendwo zu bemerken, dass die Saudis ernsthaft den Kampf im Norden des Jemen zu irgendeinem Erfolg zu bringen, insbesondere nicht in Sanaa, der Hauptstadt. Insgeheim wissen sie, dass ihnen das gar nicht möglich ist.
Außerdem wollen die Saudis die der Muslimbruderschaft nahestehende Islah-Partei, obwohl sie ein effektiver Akteur unter den meisten anti-Huthi-Kräften ist, nicht vom Krieg gegen die Huthis profitieren lassen, da die schon viel zu viel von der Macht errungen habe. Theoretisch wäre die Islah-Partei sogar ein natürlicher Kooperationspartner der Saudis. Islah unterstützt im Kern sogar die von Saudi-Arabien gestartete Intervention im Jemen. Ohne eine Macht, die der von Islah im Norden des Landes entsprechen würde, ist ein Sieg für Riad in Sanaa schlichtweg unmöglich. Deshalb wurde auch jede Operation gegen den Osten von Sanaa gestoppt. Dort gibt es keinen Akteur mehr, der ohne die Islah-Partei das Vakuum füllen könnte. Die ideologische Engstirnigkeit von Riad, die eine Kooperation mit den Muslimbrüdern und den Stämmen nicht zulässt, führt unweigerlich zu ihrem eigenen Scheitern.
Seit der Ermordung des früheren Machthabers Ali Abdullah Salih Ende 2017 verfolgen die Saudis und Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate inzwischen einen neuen Plan. Sie begannen unter dem Kommando des Neffen von Salih, der Tatik heißt, neue Milizen mit einer großen Menge an modernen Waffen auszurüsten. Sie beauftragten ihn mit einer führenden Rolle bei der noch laufenden Offensive um die wichtige Hafenstadt al-Hudaida im Westen Jemens. Doch da beginnen schon die Probleme. Tatik erkennt Hadis Legitimität als Präsident nicht an und befolgt dessen Befehle nicht.
Meiner Meinung nach werden die Saudis zu keinem Zeitpunkt einen ernsthaften Kampf um Sanaa gegen die Huthis suchen. Sie fokussieren sich lieber auf ein vermeintlich einfacheres Ziel: auf Hudaida.
Die Kritik Saudi-Arabiens an der Intervention des Iran im Jemen ist im Grunde akzeptabel, aber sie ist einfach nur zu einer Rechtfertigung verkommen. Nämlich zum Vorwand für die unbefristete Verlängerung des eigenen Krieges wegen der Unterstützung Teherans für die Huthis. Es ist wahr, dass der Iran im Jemen eine Rolle spielt, aber die Angelegenheit liegt inzwischen Jahre zurück.
Ich kann durchaus verstehen, dass der Iran die Saudis im Jemen an seine Grenzen bringen will. Doch eigentlich sind es die Saudis selbst, die wegen ihrer eigenen Politik scheitern, ganz zu schweigen davon, dass Riad die Gelegenheit bewusst verstreichen ließ, die Huthis auszuschalten, als sie schwach waren. Nun schieben sie die Unterstützung Irans für die Huthis als Vorwand vor sich her, um ihre eigenen Aktivitäten im Jemen irgendwie weiter zu rechtfertigen. Ein Grund für den Verbleib im Jemen für die Saudis ist zum Beispiel der Bau einer Pipeline in al-Mahra, im Osten des Landes. Saudi-Arabien will künftig Erdöl exportieren, ohne die Straße von Hormus durchqueren zu müssen, die vom Iran kontrolliert wird.
Die Jemeniten fühlen sich von den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten verraten, die anfänglich ihre schützende Hand über sie hielten. Aber die Handlungen der Emiratis gleichen nun denen der Huthis. Die Emirate entführen Dissidenten, inhaftieren und foltern sie. Sie zerstören das politische Leben, indem sie Parteien und Gewerkschaften im Einklang mit ihrer Vision von Unfreiheit einschränken. Jemeniten fragen sich, warum die internationalen Medien dabei so selektiv mit den Aktivitäten der Emirate im Land umgehen können. International gab es keinerlei Aufschrei, als bekannt wurde, dass die Emirate Söldner beauftragten, um Politiker zu ermorden.
Der Frieden im Jemen ist noch weit entfernt, und diese Situation wird zumindest kurz- und mittelfristig noch andauern. Die Saudis und Emiratis kontrollieren die Intensität dieses Krieges mit ihren Geld und Waffenlieferungen. Die Islah-Partei ist eine reale Macht im politischen Leben des Jemen geworden und hat ihre Stabilität in mehreren Regionen des Landes bewiesen.
https://deutsch.rt.com/der-nahe-osten/78199-exklusiv-interview-erst-selbst-geschurt/ und Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGs-pUjr0lI
(* B H K)
1940 dead and wounded by Houthi mines in #yemen , #Taiz ranked first of mines victims 289 dead and the rest distributed to other Yemen cities .
https://twitter.com/Basha__/status/1056633873579327488
(A P)
Mediation succeeds in ending the 44-year-old vendetta in Marib
Two tribal sheikhs were able to end a case of vendetta between two tribes, which lasted for almost 44 years, in Marib province, east of the Yemeni capital Sana'a.
The controversy began in 1974, when two tribal gunmen called "Naji Mabkhout Kaalan, Saad Saleh Suwaida ", killed both "Abdallah Masoud Zabaa, Naji Ben Obeid Zabaa", because of a disagreement.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160224
(B P)
Film: Could Death of Journalist Khashoggi Save Thousands of Lives in Yemen?
Could the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi lead to Congress blocking a $110 Billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia? If so, tens of thousands of lives in Yemen might be saved. Lets give it a Reality Check
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnsAy6g1U0g
(B K P)
Yemen forsaken
While Khashoggi’s brutal slaying deserves to be condemned in the strongest terms, and the perpetrators brought to justice, another appalling operation directed by the Saudi crown prince — the ruinous war in Yemen — has not elicited similar global outcry.
This hypocrisy must end.
Just as the international community is demanding answers about Khashoggi’s assassination, similar questions need to be asked of Riyadh regarding the war in Yemen.
The over three-year conflict has brought nothing to Yemen apart from death and misery. It is time all belligerents were pressured to lay down arms and to come to the table to negotiate an end to this disastrous conflict, so that the Yemeni people can start rebuilding their lives.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1442077/yemen-still-invisible-as-khashoggi-murder-comes-to-light
(* B H K)
Yemen on brink of catastrophic famine orchestrated by Saudis
In addition to thousands of civilians in Yemen who have already died in a war between a Saudi-led coalition and Iran-backed Houthi rebels, less documented war tactics may also push the poorest Arab country into a catastrophic famine. Declan Walsh wrote in an interactive essay for The New York Times that the insidious warfare is waging a far greater human toll. Walsh joins Hari Sreenivasan.
HS: You know, when you talk about these airstrikes, there is such significant damage to the infrastructure. That means that goods and services can't go back across that road including food.
DW: So one of the great impacts of the airstrike campaign actually, the greatest destruction, is the way that it is destroying the economy of Yemen. Millions and millions of Yemenis unable to buy even basic foodstuffs for themselves.
HS: You point out that the Yemeni government bank is in almost control by the Saudis.
DW: Yeah, this was one of the most significant actions of the Saudi-led coalition over the past couple of years. They stopped paying the salaries of about 1 million civil servants. That means you potentially have 7 million people who were affected by that decision, who live in families who no longer have an income (with interview in film)
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/yemen-on-brink-of-catastrophic-famine-orchestrated-by-saudis
(* B K P)
When the Blood and Starvation of Yemen is Good Business
Saudi Arabia has been devastating and destabilizing one of the worlds poorest nations on the planet, Yemen, for the last 3.5 years and since I last wrote an article on Yemen almost 6 months ago, and hardly anything has changed with U.S. supporting sanctions and selling weaponry.
It’s not unlike the main stream media to completely ignore talking about Yemen or spread disinformation. However, when Yemen is talked or written about, you can be sure they insist that a small group of Yemen rebels has been reason enough for the U.K. U.S., the U.N. to sanction and starve an entire population for so called security purposes. This is nonsensical you say? Indeed.
Note: what the media call rebels, we might also call freedom fighters, for at least some Yemeni’s contest the Houthi’s are protecting what little sovereignty they may have left from complete control of Saudi Arabia and international forces. It has not been proven whether or not the Houthi’s are backed by Iran but even if they were, how can that legitmize genocide and bombing children for which there have been no consequences?
Interestingly enough, the defense and fish story reason for Saudi Arabian block aids, is to lockdown a few political leaders and individuals related to the Houthi rebellion, meanwhile, thousands of Yemeni’s suffer without medicine, clean water, and enough food. The sanctions, bombing hospitals, and schools has been legitimized even though they are complete war crimes against humanity and go against international humanitarian law.
It would seem the United Nations can issue sanctions on a country that they can also provide aid for with their sister organization, UNICEF. I consider this normal psychotic behavior of the upper crust society who funds bloodshed and funds aid at the same time, a bomb and feed war business model.
The United States had began by 2012 to believe that a few men in rebellious factions, the Houthi rebels, were threatening Yemens entire government. Imposing sanctions, including a general assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo, on Abdulmalik al-Houthi, who it called the Houthi leader, and Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh.
According the OFAC Sanctions, President Barack Obama issued Executive Order (E.O.) 13611 declaring a national emergency to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the action. It’s interesting to me that a very small nation and a small group within that nation could be such huge threat that the U.S. would need Saudi Arabia’s protection and war business.
Why does the U.S. constantly need to control how another country runs its own government? It’s important to remember that Yemen’s government is sovereign and is not up to anyone else how it should be run.
And of course, I won’t leave out the U.N.’s resolution 2216 sanction that catapulted Yemen being almost entirely sanction by land and air. Initially, Resolution 2216 was an economic sanction — Imposing sanctions, including a general assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo, on Abdulmalik al-Houthi, who it called the Houthi leader, and Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, son of the president who stepped down in 2011, the resolution called upon all Yemeni parties to abide by the Gulf Cooperation Council and other initiatives and to resume the United Nations-brokered political transition. How did this econonmic sanction on the Houthi’s rebel leaders turn into an entire blockade in Yemen? Or was it just a good excuse for trying to control Yemen’s government by putting the squeeze on the entire country?
Never let the U.N. parade around like good guys and gals because there is no doubt their pockets are filled to the brim and tongues are bloody. The U.N. masquerades as diplomatic peace makers of the world. They are not listening to the cries of Yemen nor respecting Yemens governance and right regulate itself – by Rebecca Andromeda
(* B P)
Khashoggi's murder comes as little surprise to war-weary Yemenis
While his inhumane murder has garnered international ire, it has further infuriated and awakened Yemenis, too, making the painful paradox of Saudi involvement in Yemen a little clearer every day. While the Kingdom claims to be fighting in Yemen to 'restore Yemeni democracy', it is busy brutally murdering one of its own, simply for words on a page.
Saudi Arabia has been pretending to support the republican ambitions in Yemen. But in this, there is a stark contradiction. How can a royal kingdom honesty claim to defend the values of a democracy or republican system?
Saudi Arabian citizens have never been to the ballot box to cast their vote and elect a ruler, while Yemen has had some experience with democracy over the past decades. Yemeni democracy has not been impeccable, but it has - to some extent - enabled citizens to express their opinions and have their say with regard to national issues.
In case they were in any doubt, the murder of Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi officials has confirmed to the Yemeni people the true nature of the Kingdom's leadership - preaching one thing but practicing another.
Under Mohammed bin Salman's rule, the Kingdom claims to want to help Yemen restore its legitimate republican government, but punishes anyone attempting to promote the sense of democratic freedom of expression, or basic human rights that it stands for.
Only by Saudi Arabia could a crime like premeditated murder, or the mass killing of innocent Yemenis be called a mistake.
Saudi warplanes target schools, hospitals and wedding halls in Yemen, and they shamelessly call such crimes "mistakes".
The callous attitude of Saudi Arabia in Yemen is no different to the nature of Khashoggi's murderer. Mohammed bin Salman, the chief architect of the war in Yemen, also presided over a regime that engineered the Khashoggi murder.
If disposing of an internationally renowned and innocent journalist comes easily and without accountability, it is no surprise that raining missiles and bombs from the sky on to millions of civilians in Yemen, comes even easier.
(* B K P)
A Famine in Yemen
The current crisis is the product of political choices, not simply cultural and historical forces.
Like practically all modern famines, this one is man-made, a product of politics.
Political choices matter.
Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world.
The proximate cause of Yemen’s current sufferings — or at least the great current contributor to their intensity — is war, the ongoing civil war between the Houthi insurgency, which is supported by Iran, and the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, which is backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi role is such that some critics currently describe the conflict as “Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen,” which is practically to say, Saudi Arabia’s war against Iran in Yemen, with a great deal of American logistical and intelligence support.
Yemen is culturally backward and isolated.
But those factors do not constitute an unalterable fate. Political choices matter.
Consider Yemen alongside its neighbor, Oman.
Political choices matter.
We can give the Yemenis food, and we should. The need is great, and the cost to us would be trivial.
But we can’t send over an aid ship full of property rights, the rule of law, cultural liberalism, and trade — or a boatload of peace, which provides the time and space for those things to grow. Still less can we send over the taste for those things, a lesson we keep failing to learn from our doomed nation-building adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Prosperity grows where there is peace. Our influence in Yemen right now is in the opposite direction, as we once again find ourselves shoulder to shoulder with a detestable ally in the notional service of a dodgy regime that is somehow still not the worst of the contestants in the field. It’s a question of ugly tradeoffs. Peace in Yemen would be desirable. So would maintaining our relationship with the Saudis and through them curtailing the influence of Iran in the region. We probably are not going to get both of those, and Yemen probably is not going to get peace irrespective of any decision taken in Washington. In a country where less than 3 percent of the land is suitable for crops, that means that famine will never be very far away.
Political choices matter – by Kevin D. Williamson
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/yemen-crisis-famine-political-choices/
My comment: Interesting, but for correction: Iran is NOT fighting and leading any war in Yemen. – No, it is not “desirable” at all “maintaining our relationship with the Saudis and through them curtailing the influence of Iran in the region”. This means siding with an even much more evil dictatorship than Iran had been in the last 25 years. The US simply should keep off from these conflicts.
(* B H K P)
„Die USA und Großbritannien könnten den Krieg beenden“
Mit dem saudischen Staatsmord an Jamal Khashoggi rückt der Krieg im Jemen wieder in das Rampenlicht. Die FR beantwortet die wichtigsten Fragen.
Wie ist die humanitäre Lage?
Was war der Auslöser für den Konflikt?
Welche Rolle spielt der saudische Kronprinz?
Mohammed bin Salman gilt als der Architekt des Feldzuges, der 60 Milliarden Dollar pro Jahr verschlingt. Militärisch herrscht ein Patt, auch weil die hochgerüstete Armee des Königreiches mit den Stammeskriegern der Huthis nicht fertig wird.
Welche Mitverantwortung hat der Westen?
Für Charles Lister von der renommierten Brookings Institution gibt es keinen Zweifel. „Wenn Washington und London König Salman heute Abend sagen, der Krieg muss enden, wäre er morgen vorbei“, urteilt der amerikanische Nahost-Experte. Denn der Löwenanteil der saudischen Waffen stammt aus diesen beiden Staaten.
http://www.fr.de/politik/jemen-die-usa-und-grossbritannien-koennten-den-krieg-beenden-a-1608655
(* B H K P)
Krieg hinter dem Schleier der Empörung
Mehrere Millionen Jemeniten sind auf der Flucht und leiden Hunger. Schuld daran ist besonders Saudi-Arabien, aber nicht allein. Wer eskaliert und wer kämpft gegen wen?
Das Entsetzen über den Mord am Journalisten Jamal Khashoggi im saudischen Konsulat in Istanbul hat nun auch ein Schlaglicht auf die Rolle Saudi-Arabiens im Jemen geworfen. Das ist einerseits zu begrüßen, denn der Krieg im ärmsten Land der arabischen Welt gehört zu den "vergessenen". Und es ist andererseits problematisch. Denn mediale Wellen der Empörung sind kurzlebig, sie teilen gern in Gut und Böse und verschleiern Konflikte eher, als sie zu erklären.
Nun erfüllt Saudi-Arabien in der Tat alle Voraussetzungen für die Rolle des bad guy, personifiziert durch Mohammed bin Salman, Kronprinz, faktisch Herrscher und enger Waffenbruder von Donald Trump.
Den entscheidenden militärischen Segen – auch das wird heute gern vergessen – gab damals US-Präsident Barack Obama. Um die paranoide saudische Monarchie nach dem Nuklearabkommen mit Iran zu besänftigen, sicherte Obama der saudischen Luftwaffe logistische Hilfe und Aufklärung zu, ohne die sie ihren Krieg im Jemen nicht lange hätte führen können.
Zentraler Schauplatz ist eine Hafenstadt
Die Fronten dieses Krieges sind längst nicht mehr die von 2015. An der drohenden Hungerkatastrophe sind auch nicht allein die Saudis schuld. Und anders als die deutsche Debatte derzeit vermuten lässt, sind Waffenexporte ins Königreich nicht das zentrale Problem der deutschen Außenpolitik.
Strategisch zentraler Kriegsschauplatz ist in diesen Wochen die Stadt Al-Hudaida am Roten Meer.
Zoomt man sich näher an die Hafenstadt heran, so erkennt man unter den Bodentruppen der saudisch geführten Koalition einen Akteur, der in diesem Krieg immer mächtiger, aber von westlichen Medien kaum beachtet wird: Das Militär der Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate (VAE). Mohammed bin Zayed heißt der starke Mann der VAE, Kronprinz des Emirats Abu Dhabi und Architekt einer zunehmend aggressiven und skrupellosen Außenpolitik, was ihm den Spitznamen "Scheich Underwood" eingebracht hat – eine Anspielung auf die US-Serie House of Cards.
Unterstützung für Sezessionisten
Inzwischen verfolgt Bin Zayed im Jemen seine eigene Außenpolitik – auch gegen saudische Interessen. Er hat Präsident Hadi zum Teil mit Gewalt an den Rand gedrängt, massiv in die Infrastruktur des Südens investiert und unterstützt Sezessionisten, die den Süden des Landes wie vor der Vereinigung 1990 mit dem Norden wieder zu einem unabhängigen Staat machen wollen. Der wäre dann in der Vision von "Scheich Underwood" Teil eines neuen emiratischen Einflussgebietes.
Die Huthis herrschen wie die Mafia
Auch die Huthi-Rebellen tragen Mitschuld an der dramatischen Versorgungslage. Sie herrschen über Sanaa und Teile des Nordens zunehmend diktatorisch und mafiotisch, beschlagnahmen profitables Land, erheben Zwangssteuern auf Lebensmittel und treiben so die Preise in die Höhe. Viele Märkte im Jemen sind weiterhin gefüllt mit Waren, aber immer weniger Menschen können sie bezahlen.
der politische Einfluss Irans auf die Huthis ist begrenzt und seine militärische Hilfe dürfte mickrig sein im Vergleich zu dem, was westliche Länder an die saudisch geführte Koalition liefern.
So gut wie alles, was diese seit 2015 auf den Jemen abgefeuert hat, stammt aus amerikanischer oder europäischer Herstellung.
Macrons Allergie gegen ein Embargo
Die Nebelkerze der Bundeskanzlerin – von Andrea Böhm
(* B P)
Der Jemen ist immer noch unsichtbar, da der Mord an Khashoggi ans Licht kommt
Die Ermordung des saudischen Journalisten Jamal Khashoggi hat eine diplomatische und öffentlichkeitswirksame Krise für Saudi-Arabien ausgelöst, aber für die Opfer des Jemen-Krieges kann sich wenig ändern.
Bemerkung: Dies ist eine sehr schlechte deutsche Übersetzung des folgenden englischsprachigen Artikels:
(* B P)
Yemen: The bigger Saudi lie
Yemen still invisible as Khashoggi murder comes to light
Saudi Arabia is now under nearly unprecedented scrutiny following the murder this month of Khashoggi, the former royal court insider-turned-critic who wrote a column for the Washington Post.
But analysts say it is unlikely the Khashoggi killing will turn the spotlight on Saudi Arabia's broader policies -- leaving Yemenis fighting to survive war, famine and a failed economy that may prove as fatal as the violence.
- Killing, maiming children -
"Saudi Arabia has been called out on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi more than they have been over the past years of the Yemen war," said Farea al-Muslimi, associate fellow at Chatham House.
"For a government, it's an easy public relations play -- even if you yourself have been involved for years in Yemen," Muslimi said.
But it is unlikely the crown prince -- whose country is also the world's top donor to Yemen -- will be called out for his role in the war there, analysts say.
"Jamal's murder is a clear-cut scenario... Western states had no immediate role in this," Muslimi told AFP.
"Yemen, however, is complex. There's no black and white. It requires thinking."
Europe and the United States supply over 98 per cent of weapons imported by Saudi Arabia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Khashoggi's role writing for one of the US' most high-profile newspapers gave his murder global prominence. But rights groups fear those trapped in a war in which Saudi Arabia plays a central role will remain relegated to the margins.
"Each victim of an unlawful Saudi coalition strike in Yemen is as worthy of concern as a Washington Post columnist," said Kristine Beckerle, Yemen researcher for Human Rights Watch.
"A groom and his wedding party. A child locked in jail. Villagers digging a well. Crowds shopping at a market. All killed or wounded in bombings by the Saudi-led coalition," she said.
"None of these apparent war crimes in Yemen were able to provoke the type of international outrage that the murder of Khashoggi has these past few weeks." – BY NATACHA YAZBECK (AFP)
http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/yemen-still-invisible-as-khashoggi-murder-comes-to-light/article/535589 = https://www.dawn.com/news/1442077/yemen-still-invisible-as-khashoggi-murder-comes-to-light
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/nothing-has-changed-for-yemen-war-victims (only parts)
(* B P)
Film: Why did the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi capture more attention than Saudi Arabia's devastating war in Yemen? DW's @ayakibrahim explains.
https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1056198275622207488
(* B K P)
The tragedies behind the statistics
His [Jamal Khashoggi] story has gained so much traction that it has forced thousands of people around the world, numerous international organisations and even the western mainstream media to call on their leaders to take action against the kingdom, including to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The calls have been so loud that they have already forced Germany to stop selling armaments to the kingdom, with Amnesty International calling on the governments of Theresa May, Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump to follow suit given the devastation that has been caused in Yemen, using weapons manufactured in their respective nations.
This is where one should take a second to pause and think.
Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen has been raging now for three and a half years. That's three and a half years of one of the richest country in the region bombing one of the poorest in the world.
During this time, among the many changing narratives, the main justification used by Saudi Arabia to begin the war, which was pushed into the mainstream by none other than the western media (among others), had been that the kingdom intervened in Yemen on behalf of its president—Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi—who had been forcefully overthrown. Just like the said justification has been long forgotten, so was it forgotten at the time and unquestionably now that Hadi's term as president of Yemen had ended in February 2014, according to the Gulf Cooperation Council agreement initiative pushed through by Saudi Arabia, before the war had even begun. Making the Saudi claim of intervening in Yemen upon the request of its president untrue from the get-go.
However, as the infamous Nazi General Hermann Goering had said, “Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship.”
So the truth is that the war in Yemen had always been about geostrategic interests.
Unfortunately for the Yemenis, the Yemeni archipelago of Socotra in the Indian Ocean is located some 80 kilometres off the Horn of Africa and is at the crossroads of the strategic naval waterways of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. This strategic waterway links the Mediterranean to South Asia and the Far East, through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
These facts, despite being well-known to western politicians, experts and media, are never mentioned. Even the war in Yemen itself rarely is. Perhaps because “tragedies” sell, “statistics” don't.
Generally speaking, what the Yemenis have been suffering for the past three and a half years is a nightmare that the average person rarely, if ever, has to hear or replay in their heads. Part of that is because it has failed to get as much media attention during the entirety of the conflict as the alleged grisly murder story of Jamal Khashoggi has, in only a matter of weeks.
If it had, perhaps the calls to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia would have come earlier and more voraciously—sparing the lives of who knows how many people. Because as I mentioned earlier, the statistics of how many individual tragedies have been caused in Yemen are still missing today – by Eresh Omar Jamal
(B K P)
Film by Nasser Arrabyee: Life of millions of Yemenis being starved to death intentionally by US-Saudi war criminals is WORTH ATTENTION of the world too! Not only #Khashoggi & his dismemberment by Saudi CLOWN prince SAW!
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1056183050462208002
(* B K P)
Katherine Zimmerman: #Yemen's humanitarian crisis is unprecedented and worsening. Blame falls on all sides of the war--the coalition, the #Houthis, the recognized government, militia and brigade commanders, the war-profiteers... Only way to reverse trend is to resolve the interrelated conflicts.
UN-led efforts at negotiating a resolution have failed. The #Houthis are stronger under current stalemate than they would be under a new central government. #Yemen's president is effectively tasked with negotiating himself out of power.
US should take more active role in #Yemen to shape actions of partners in Saudi Arabia and UAE, to help set conditions such that there might be a negotiated settlement of the war, which will be the way to begin lifting the country from crises.
https://twitter.com/KatieZimmerman/status/1055868495202795520
Comment by Hisham Al-Omeisy: Katherine is right on every single point within this thread beginning with fact that many #Yemen opposing factions carry blame for current conflict and humanitarian crisis. Also, foggines & lack of solid stats (eg. deaths) increases impunity, prolongs conflict, worsens disaster.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/1056168579756974080
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
Siehe / Look at cp1
(* B H)
Trapped by hunger, poverty and homelessness. Yemeni university professors are dying
With the determination and will of Sanaa University's history professor, Dr. Jamila Al-Rajawy, has withstood the biggest crisis in her working life.
This academic did not expect its monthly salary to stop without warning, and to leave and other university professors, the elite of society, face the ogre of poverty and the specter of hunger.
The salaries of state employees were cut from the repercussions of the transfer of the Yemeni government in August 2016, the headquarters of the Yemeni central bank from Sanaa to Aden.
With their salaries cut, hundreds of thousands of employees, including university professors, have drowned in the cycle of poverty and homelessness.
All staff at all levels and degrees of science and academia have narrowed their decent lives and many have been forced to coexist with destitution.
Elementary Teacher
Because of the need for the mother of Invention, the Yemeni academy was forced to look for a new source of income that would provide her with a decent living for her and her small family, and she used to work as a teacher for elementary school students in a private school.
Despite the age difference between university students and elementary school pupils, the educational and enlightening message was present in the mind of the Rajawy, who teaches elementary children.
Al- Rajawy did not mind to teach elementary students, a poet, writer, researcher and academic university, and to approach young students and teach them the history of old and contemporary Yemen.
Like other Yemeni people who have been harmed and forcibly entered the cycle of poverty because of the cutting of salaries and the high prices of the war, they resorted to selling their property to make up for their sustenance.
In her spare time, she was found in her library with historical, literary, religious, political and scientific books, and was active in communicating through her Facebook page with friends and her counterparts in the Arab world.
Al- Rajawy recently began to think about immigration so that she would not join four of her colleagues at Sanaa University and passed away because they did not find the price for medicine and treatment.
A black nightmare.
Because of the nightmare of cutting salaries, many academics and university professors have influenced immigration, while others have been displaced, some of whom have resorted to other businesses such as agriculture, construction and even the sale of Levantine corn in the market.
However, it is more painful for university professors to die from psychological and physical illnesses, including heart attacks, as a result of trauma, after they have been denied their financial rights in an oppressive and reparative way, according to the president of Sanaa University professors and teachers Dr. Mohammed Al Dhaheri.
Like other fellow academics, he suffers from virtual living. "From my personal experience I speak, many of us are starving and they are suffering silently, they do not dare to reveal their hunger and groan from their pains to escape the enemies and the compassion of Friends," he says.
Al-Dhaheri, who has refrained from talking to the press and media since 2014 due to the events of the war and its political and security implications, seems more determined to continue his role in his education message at the University of Sana'a, even without receiving his monthly salary for two years and more.
The head of the academic academics continues to repeat "the rest in Sana'a and that the bone of danger", and criticize occasionally and other parties to the conflict who have killed Yemen and decimated the planting and ploughing and before that human right, and tore down its social fabric and its intellectual and cultural heritage.
War leaders
Al Dhaheri describes the Yemeni reality saying, "In Yemen we have war leaders, not policy makers, lords with swords are renting their swords to the outside, while the majority of Yemenis and Yemenis are starving, and they are being killed by disease and poverty."
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160274
(A H)
13, 000 tons of U.S. aid for victims in Yemen
The US Agency for Development (USAID) on Monday announced the dispatch of 13,000 tons of food aid to the affected people in Yemen.
The consignment, which moved from the port of Houston to Yemen, contains 5,000 tons of flour and 8,000 tons of peas, the agency said in a tweet on its Twitter homepage.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160260
My comment: This really is blood food.
(B H)
OXFAM Yemen Humanitarian Response. 30th September 2018
Violence in Al Hudaydah
Education
Economy
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/oxfam-yemen-humanitarian-response-30th-september-2018
(* B H)
Yemen's infants face starvation as war rages on
Ahmed Hassan is only a few months old, but his emaciated frame twitches as he cries in pain when Yemeni doctors gently place him on a scale. He is starving.
In the next room, nurses make baby formula by the pitcher, filling syringes to ration a portion for each malnourished child who comes to Sabaeen Hospital in the rebel-held capital for emergency treatment.
Too weak to swallow, some babies are fed through feeding tubes that go through the nose directly into the stomach.
After being fed, some of them appear to feel a bit better, crawling over to play with other emaciated children in the clinic, tubes still taped to their faces.
"Life's become really very difficult... but we do our best, given the circumstances," said Umm Tarek, as her nine-month-old baby underwent treated for malnutrition.
"We're not from here, so we rent an old, old house for 10,000 riyals ($40) in Hiziaz," south of Sanaa, she told AFP.
"Then my baby got sick because we used to give him formula, but now we can't afford both the house and powdered milk anymore."
In the face of such dire circumstances, paediatrician Nashwan said medical staff do their utmost to save the children in their care.
"The cases that we get here at the hospital tend to be severe. At death's door, sometimes. We do our jobs, do everything we can to push them back to good health," he said.
"Some get well. Others die." (photos)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-6325503/Yemens-infants-face-starvation-war-rages-on.html = http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160253
(* B H)
Yemen’s Sanaa: ‘We export gas to the world yet don’t have it in our homes’
Yemeni citizens have complained about the continued gas crisis in the capital Sanaa which has been ongoing for more than two months, despite the vast abundance of the commodity in the province of Ma’rib – located to only about 173 km northeast of the city.
Sanaa and a number of Yemeni provinces controlled by the Houthis are suffering from a lack of domestic gas. Gas is used as fuel for vehicles and the remarkable rise in its prices on the black market has forced residents to use firewood for cooking and heating.
One Yemeni citizen, Ahmed Al-Falahi, condemned the continued lack of gas, telling the New Arab: “We have gas in Yemen and we export it to the world, but in Sanaa, we are deprived of it and we do not know why”. He pointed out that gas is available in Ma’rib province and is under the control of the Yemeni government.
Al-Falahi also pointed to “the absurdity of the availability of gas on the black market at high prices and its official lack in the sales centres”.
Another Yemeni citizen, Jalal Al-Mashriqi, denounced the rise in the price of cooking gas – which amounted to 12,000 Yemeni Riyals – as a “very high price”. He told the New Arab that he had been looking for a gas cylinder for more than two weeks but to no avail. He did not have the money to buy gas from the black market and pointed out that he was forced to use firewood instead.
Al-Mashriqi added: “Even the price of firewood has increased dramatically, with the average package price reaching 3,000 Riyals, while the large package reaches more than 6,000 Riyals”. He stressed that he gathered firewood from decorative trees planted in the streets and sidewalks.
The lack of gas has caused a rise in transportation costs, which increased by 100 Riyals, in addition to the amount allocated for bus fare in Sanaa.
For his part, a source from the Yemen Gas Company in Sanaa justified the causes of the gas crisis, citing the increasing demand from taxis, machinery, equipment and some factories which have resorted to using gas because of its low price compared to oil.
The source, who asked not to be named, told the New Arab that the high demand for gas has led to a shortage of availability
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
Siehe / Look at cp1
(B H)
UN High Commissioner for Refugees: Yemen: Contingency In-Country Stocks and Pipelines (as of October 2018)
https://reliefweb.int/map/yemen/yemen-contingency-country-stocks-and-pipelines-october-2018
(B H)
UN High Commissioner for Refugees: Yemen: Shelter/NFI/CCCM Monthly Dashboard for September 2018
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-shelternficccm-monthly-dashboard-september-2018
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
(A P)
Clashes widen between Houthi factions in Yemen’s Saada
Tension and armed confrontations widened between the militias of Abdul Malik al-Houthi and his uncle, Abdul Azim al-Houthi, a Zaidi cleric in several areas in the governorates of Saada, Hajjah, Amran and Sanaa with both rallying their bases in many regions of Saada.
Tribal sources in Saada confirmed that Abdul Malik al-Houthi militias are still holding dozens of wounded followers of Abdul Azim al-Houthi who were kidnapped from hospitals.
The sources confirmed that the followers of Abdul Azim al-Houthi accuses the militias of Abdul Malik al-Houthi of extremism and subordination to Iran, and the dissemination of Khomeini thoughts in Yemen at the expense of Zaidi doctrine.
Remark: As claimed by Saudi media.
(* A P)
Houthis create 70 new private detentions in Hodeida
Yemeni human rights activists have revealed that the Houthis created 70 new private detentions in the province of Hodeida, pointing out that some of them are inside the Psychiatric Hospital, inside mosques , farms and houses of officials.
Okaz newspaper quoted a former prisoner (Abu Mohammed ) as saying that he was detained by the Houthis for seven months on the ground of finding an app of a TV channel inside his
He explained that he was brutally tortured and only released after his family paid a ransom, asserting that he met hundreds of innocent people who were held inside Houthi prisons and were subjected to different sorts of torture.
He emphasized that some prisoners are detained inside mosques, schools, indicating that they put most detainees in areas which are not populated in order to avoid the knowledge of the prisoners’ destinations.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-24852
(A P)
Hajjah.. Houthis arrest 2 civilians for participation in protest against abductions
Al-Houthi militia arrested two civilians on Saturday for their participation in a protest in the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah to demand the release of civilians abducted earlier and held in prisons.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160219
(A P)
Houthis kidnap seven students on student trip to Hodeidah
The Houthi militia abducted seven students from al-Mahwit province who were on a recreational trip to Hodeidah province, western Yemen.
Sources told al-Masdar online that last Thursday the militia kidnapped seven students in the "Bab Al Naqah " area of the al-Hodeidah district entrance while heading for the city of Hodeidah on a recreational trip.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160220
(A P)
Yemeni Houthi rebels responds to Pakistan offer and stance over Yemen peace talks
Yemeni Houthi rebels, who are engaged in the fight against Yemeni government for past few years have responded over the Pakistan government claims and offers over peace talks and mediation.
Houthis have said that they are ready to cooperate with anyone who will try to end this war.
The rebels in a statement, according to Geo News, said that they will consider the option pitched by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Remark: For Pakistan, cp12.
(A P)
Yemen’s Houthis criticize Oman for Israeli premier visit to Persian Gulf Arab state
Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement has criticized the Sultanate of Oman for welcoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his unannounced visit to the Persian Gulf Arab country.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/10/27/578268/Yemen-Houthis-Oman-Israel-Netanyahu-Palestine
(A K P)
President reveals smart ballistic missile systems
President of the Supreme Political Council on Saturday revealed a locally-made new smart short-range ballistic missile system, Badr 1-p.
During his visit to the military manufacturing department of the Yemeni defense minister, the president said the smart missile system would change a map of the war led by Saudi-led coalition on Yemen.
In the visit, the missile force said the missile system, Badr 1- P, came after several experiments in the field which works with solid fuel and hits its target accurately
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news512543.htm
Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tIw-0TR3DQ = https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/videos/1739790142809662
Photos: https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1056207367942094851
Film: https://twitter.com/YemenPresidency/status/1056196188838486017 = https://twitter.com/YemenEdge/status/1056210475883679744
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
(A P)
Head of Government: State institutions are malfunctioning from the top to the lowest level
Prime Minister Maeen Abdelmalik said his government will focus its work in the coming period on reforming the administrative, financial and economic system of State institutions, and activating the regulatory bodies in all institutions to help restore state tools.
In a dialogue with Yemen's official channel, he added, "the government will prioritize in accordance with the requirements of the reality, where the administrative and economic imbalance will be addressed, and the government will be close to the citizen."
"We have a big problem in the economic structure, a contraction in Gross domestic product, which has reached 40% from the previous year, in addition to the depreciation of the exchange rate, the decline in oil production to 10% and, most importantly, the imbalance in state institutions from the top to the lowest level," he said.
"We will adjust the subject of revenues and expenses in the next phase, with the aim of increasing revenues according to economic controls and the general interest of the state," he said.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160266
My comment: This is the Hadi government’s own fault…
(A P)
The arrival of the Saudi ambassador to #Yemen Mohammed Al-Jaber on Monday to the capital Aden, The Saudi ambassador began his visit to the Al-Zeet port, where a Saudi ship docked yesterday loaded with oil derivatives in support of Aden electricity (photo)
https://twitter.com/Mukalla_Now_EN/status/1056884493183868928
(A P)
Photos: Military Parade of security units in #Taiz , #Yemen
https://twitter.com/Basha__/status/1056625041201418240
(A P)
A young man was shot dead by soldiers at a security point in Lahij
A young man was killed and another wounded on Saturday when soldiers fired on a passenger bus with a number of civilians on board at a security checkpoint in Lahij, South Yemen.
A local source told al-Masdar online that Wael Mohammed Abdo Abdallah, 30, was killed after a soldier at the al-Habbileen checkpoint in Tur Al-Baha, Lahj province, shot at the bus that Wael was traveling from Taiz province.
Another young man was shot and the rest of the passengers were in a state of fear and panic, most of them children and women, he said.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160218
(A P)
Prime Minister returns to Riyadh and Tuesday will move to Aden
The government source for Al-Masdar online said that after Tuesday, all the cabinet crew will travel collectively from Riyadh to Aden, the interim capital (south of the country), but did not explain whether the government's move to Aden is a final return or a temporary visit will end after days.
"The ministers received a communiqué from the Prime Minister that they will be transferred on Tuesday with the head of government to Aden," he said.
There are still a number of ministers barred from returning to Aden or even visiting them, including Minister of Youth and Sports Nayef al-Bakri
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160231
(A P)
Socialist party celebrates 40th anniversary with artistic and rhetorical ceremony in Taiz
On Saturday, the Yemeni Socialist Party celebrated its 40th anniversary, with an artistic and rhetorical ceremony in Taiz province, under the slogan "to fight together for a free, democratic and federal democracy."
Dr. Abdul-Qawi al-Mekhlafi, the first deputy to Taiz province, praised the national roles of the party across the national struggle, which he said was "crowned by the achievement of Yemeni unity, its distinctive positions in political action, and in particular the role of the party in the National Dialogue Conference, and the fight against militias Coup d'état, and his support for legitimacy with various political components. "
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160221
Remark: This party supports the Hadi giovernment.
(* A H)
Grapes of wrath: Deadly bootleg alcohol is flowing through Aden
At least 20 people have died after drinking poisonous wine, as black market alcohol flourishes in Yemen's second city
The port city of Aden has been struck by a spate of deaths as a result of homemade alcohol, which has flowed through the city since it came under the control of UAE-backed forces.
Poisonous wines, which local media have reported to contain deadly substances such as kerosene, have killed at least 20 people - including Tumbaki, a popular figure in the city - while dozens of others have been left in serious condition.
"During the last week, dozens arrived at the hospitals of Aden suffering from effects of poisoned wines. At least 20 died in hospitals and others died in their homes," said a doctor in the health office in Aden, speaking to Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
"There are more cases still arriving. Others came to hospitals before, but the majority arrived in the past week."
He said that most of the patients who suffered from the effects of poisonous wines arrived at hospitals in terrible condition, and many of them died, as doctors were unable to help.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/wine-trade-returns-aden-killer-1516044825
(A T)
Gunmen in Yemen shoot dead Aden's top anti-narcotics officer
Gunmen on Sunday shot dead the top anti-narcotics police officer in Yemen's southern port city of Aden, the latest shooting in a city rattled by a string of unsolved killings, security officials said.
They said the gunmen opened fire on the car in which Col. Fadl Sael was traveling along with two members of his security detail, instantly killing all three.
and https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-24853
photos: https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1056471915437658112
(A P)
Protests in the "Al Turbah " of Taiz condemn recruitment outside the framework of legality and warn against turning it into a battleground
Al-Turbahdcity, south of Taiz province, on Saturday witnessed two marches and a protest, in which hundreds of citizens took part to denounce what they called the militating the directorate and turn it into a battleground.
Protesters unfurl images of "martyrs of the Army and the Sons of the Directorate", banners denouncing military formations outside the framework of legality and state institutions, tearing up the national army, collusion with outlaws, and masquerading as popular resistance and heroism.
The protesters called on the legitimate government and the Arab coalition to respect the blood of those who fought in the region and sacrificed their lives to restore the state and fight the coup.
The protesters confirmed in a statement that the "Al-Masdar online" received a copy of it, that legality and the army one, threatened to escalate if they did not respond to their legitimate demands.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160199
(A P)
Lamlas: “Not Necessary for all Southern Components to be Part of the Council. What is Necessary is To Unify Their Visions and Goals”
Ahmed Hamed Lamlas, secretary general of the southern transitional council asserted that the council’s presidency formed dialogue commissions to line up the south. He added that it is not necessary for all southern components to be part of the council but what is necessary is to unify their visions and goals.
In a special interview with “ERAM News”, an Emirati news site, Lamlas said: “A commission was formed for political parties and organizations, second one was formed for governorates, syndicates and NGOs, a third commission was formed for dialogue with southern figures in authority while the fourth commission was for Sultanates, tribal leaders and southern prominent figures”
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
(A P)
Martin Griffiths to Al Arabiya: “A Political Solution is the sustainable response to the humanitarian situation in Yemen”
During his visit to Washington D.C., the Special Envoy of the Secretary General for Yemen, Martin Griffiths gave an exclusive interview to Al Arabiya TV Program “The Diplomatic Avenue”. Griffiths stressed the importance of working towards a political solution in Yemen, indicating that he is hoping to get the Yemeni parties to restart political consultations very soon.
The SE voiced the grave concern about the looming danger of famine in Yemen. He reiterated that while the dire humanitarian situation should be addressed separately from the political negotiations, “a political solution is the sustainable response to the humanitarian situation in Yemen.”
(A P)
A negotiating delegation from STC headed by Dr. @dr_Nasser_k, a member of the Presidency met in Amman with Mr. Martin Griffiths, the #UN envoy to #Yemen, The meeting discussed the envoy's efforts to resume consultations as well as the various developments on the southern scene.
https://twitter.com/Mukalla_Now_EN/status/1056859619400826881
Remark: STC: Highest body of southern separatists.
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
Siehe / Look at cp1
(A P)
Royal #Saudi Armed Forces to take part in a 20-day-long military exercise ‘#ArabShield -1’ in #Egypt along with the #UAE, #Kuwait, #Bahrain and #Jordan armed forces (photo)
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/1056870832348246016
(A P)
Film: #Saudi clansmen police arrests dozens in #Riyadh for attending #Halloween party
https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/1056723482921320449
(* B P)
Die Mittäter der Saudis im Westen
Saudi Arabien ist ein Blut-Regime mit westlichen Handlangern: Heiko Maas hat sich erst jüngst vor dem Königshaus verneigt. Es geht um Waffen, Öl und viel Geld.
Fundamentalistischer Islam, Terrorismus, Korruption, Frauenfeindlichkeit, öffentliche Enthauptungen, Amputationen, Steinigungen, Auspeitschungen, durch Folter erpresste Geständnisse und Beschuldigte, die dann einzig aufgrund dieser Geständnisse zum Tode verurteilt werden. Nicht nur Mord, Vergewaltigung, schwerer Raub, Drogenhandel sondern Hochverrat und Hexerei können mit dem Tode bestraft werden. Ehebrecher oder Homosexuelle müssen mit Gefängnis und Peitschenhieben rechnen. Es existiert kein allgemein codiertes Recht, sondern es herrscht eine mittelalterliche Auslegung des islamischen Rechts. Willkürliche und äußerst unterschiedliche Scharia-Urteile sind die Konsequenz.
Der Staat, von dem hier die Rede ist, ist nicht der Terror-Staat des IS (Islamische Staat), der für die entscheidenden westliche Werte lediglich Verachtung übrig hat. Es handelt sich um Saudi-Arabien, den ultraorthodoxen Gottesstaat mit absoluter Monarchie, der von deutschen Politikern auch gerne als „Stabilisator“ der Region bezeichnet wird – unser toller Partner.
Hauptsache, die Rüstungsgeschäfte laufen
Unverständlicherweise haben sogenannte Christ- und Sozialdemokraten nicht nur über Jahrzehnte Waffenlieferungen an das Regime in Riad genehmigt, sondern auch Produktionsgenehmigungen, die nicht wieder rückgängig gemacht werden können, erteilt. 2008 erhielt Saudi-Arabien die Lizenz, Sturmgewehre des Modells G36 zu produzieren, die eigentlich für den Eigenbedarf der Polizei und des saudischen Militärs gedacht waren. Nun sind diese Waffen allerdings im Jemen-Konflikt aufgetaucht. Für passende Munition ist ebenfalls gesorgt. Seit 2016 betreibt ein Joint Venture aus dem deutschen Rüstungskonzern Rheinmetall und dem südafrikanischen Unternehmen Denel eine Munitionsfabrik in Saudi-Arabien.
Bundesaußenminister Heiko Maas ist ein Heuchler
All das erklärt auch, warum der Obermoralapostel und seines Zeichens Bundesaußenminister, Heiko Maas, vor Saudi-Arabien zu Kreuze gekrochen ist. Er hat sich für die Aussagen seines Vorgängers und SPD-Parteikollegen Sigmar Gabriel („politisches Abenteurertum“, „brandgefährliche Entwicklung“) mit folgenden Worten bei einem Auftritt in New York entschuldigt:
“In den zurückliegenden Monaten hat es in unseren Beziehungen Missverständnisse gegeben, die in scharfem Kontrast zu unseren sonst starken strategischen Verbindungen mit dem Königreich Saudi-Arabien stehen. Und wir bedauern das aufrichtig”.
Spätestens nach dieser Aussage sollte es Herr Maas es tunlichst unterlassen, uns in irgendeiner Form in moralischen Dingen zu belehren.
Fazit
Wir müssen unverzüglich die irrsinnige Aufrüstung der arabischen Halbinsel stoppen.
https://www.geolitico.de/2018/10/28/die-mittaeter-der-saudis-im-westen/
(* B P)
Will the US and UK seek a palace coup against Mohammed bin Salman?
As pressure continues to mount over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Washington and London are weighing their next moves
As Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) comes under increasing pressure over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, policymakers in Washington and London have one overriding priority: to preserve the House of Saud, a military and economic ally in which they have invested so much. Yet, if Mohammed bin Salman cannot be retained, the UK and US will likely work to ensure some face-saving transfer of power to one of his relatives.
It has already been reported that members of the ruling family have begun discussing the possibility of replacing the crown prince. But there is also a little-known precedent for a Western role in the removal of a Saudi leader.
Preserving the House of Saud
Britain backed the 1964 palace coup for a particular reason: It viewed King Saud as incompetent and opposed to introducing the political reforms necessary to keep the House of Saud from being overthrown.
Echoes in Yemen
What also has echoes from the past is that in the mid-1960s, Britain was conniving with the Saudis in a war in Yemen that was as brutal as the present one.
The friend and ally
The British government has condemned Khashoggi’s killing and supports an investigation. But it is still referring to Riyadh as a “friend and ally” and emphasising its “important strategic partnership” involving the military and trade. But how likely is it that a Saudi leader with blood on his hands can really keep up the pretence to the Western public that things are improving in the region?
London and Washington may end up preferring a repeat of 1964: to put another "Saudi" in power. Yet, much better for Saudis and the world would be something altogether different, as recently argued by Madawi Al-Rasheed: allowing people the experience of participating in government and decision-making, including freedom of speech, in a gradual transformation of Saudi Arabia into a democratic system.
In this, London and Washington will need a revolution in their thinking to become part of the solution rather than remaining part of the problem – by Mark Curtis
https://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/will-us-and-uk-seek-palace-coup-remove-saudi-leader-932532708
(* B P)
McKinsey soll Königshaus beim Kampf gegen Kritiker geholfen haben
Mitten in der Affäre um den getöteten saudi-arabischen Journalisten Jamal Khashoggi veröffentlicht die “New York Times” eine Geschichte, die es in sich hat. Der Bericht der renommierten US-Zeitung legt offen, wie aktiv das Regime in Riad in sozialen Netzwerken ist – und wie es die von einer westlichen Beraterfirma gesammelten Informationen gegen Kritiker verwendet haben soll.
Der Enthüllung zufolge soll der US-Konzern McKinsey im Auftrag Riads einen Bericht erstellt haben, in dem die öffentliche Wahrnehmung der von Saudi-Arabien im Jahr 2015 angekündigten wirtschaftlichen Sparmaßnahmen diskutiert worden sein soll.
Die Zeitung, der eine Kopie des neunseitigen Berichts vorliegen soll, schreibt, dass die Maßnahmen laut McKinsey-Bericht vor allem in den sozialen Netzwerken diskutiert wurden und dort in der Summe negativ. Die Debatte auf dem Kurznachrichtendienst Twitter wurde demnach laut McKinsey von drei Personen bestimmt, die im Beraterreport offenbar genannt werden:
der Schriftsteller Khalid al-Alkami,
Omar Abdulaziz, ein junger Dissident in Kanada,
ein anonymer Nutzer namens Ahmad.
Nachdem der McKinsey-Bericht damals veröffentlicht wurde, wurde einer der drei Genannten nach Angaben der Menschenrechtsgruppe ALQST verhaftet, wie die Zeitung schreibt. Der Dissident Omar Abdulaziz sagte der Zeitung, die Regierung habe zwei seiner Brüder verhaftet und sein Handy gehackt. Zudem wurde der Twitter-Account von “Ahmad” demnach geschlossen.
cp8a Jamal Khashoggi
(** A P)
Bericht: Khashoggi wollte Saudi-Arabiens Chemiewaffen-Einsatz in Jemen enthüllen
Der ermordete Journalist Jamal Khashoggi war im Begriff, einige detaillierte Informationen über Saudi-Arabiens Einsatz chemischer Waffen im Jemen zu enthüllen, wie ein britisches Boulevardblatt am Sonntag berichtete.
Der ermordete Journalist Jamal Khashoggi war im Begriff, einige detaillierte Informationen über Saudi-Arabiens Einsatz chemischer Waffen im Jemen zu enthüllen, wie ein britisches Boulevardblatt am Sonntag berichtete.
Zudem habe Großbritannien schon Wochen vor der Tötung Khashoggis im saudischen Konsulat in Istanbul von den Plänen erfahren, so das Blatt weiter.
Laut Sunday Express habe „ein Mitglied des königlichen Kreises“ die Entführung von Khashoggi angeordnet.
In dem Bericht der Boulevardzeitung, der vom diplomatischen Redakteur Marco Giannangeli verfasst wurde, heißt es, dass die britischen Geheimdienste „zunächst darauf aufmerksam gemacht wurden, dass in der ersten Septemberwoche, etwa drei Wochen bevor Herr Khashoggi am 2. Oktober in das Konsulat kam, „etwas vor sich ging“, obwohl es mehr Zeit brauchte, bis andere Details bekannt wurden“.
„Diese Details beinhalteten primäre Befehle, Herrn Khashoggi zu fassen und ihn zur Befragung nach Saudi-Arabien zurückzubringen. Allerdings schien die Tür für alternative Abhilfemaßnahmen zu dem, was als großes Problem angesehen wurde, offen zu bleiben“, sagte die namentlich nicht genannte Quelle dem Boulevardblatt, unter Berufung auf Informationen des britischen Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
Das Government Communications Headquarters ist eine britische Regierungsbehörde, die sich mit Kryptographie, Verfahren zur Datenübertragung und der Fernmeldeaufklärung befasst. Die anderen Nachrichtendienste Großbritanniens, MI5 und MI6, benutzen vorwiegend nichttechnische Methoden zur Nachrichtengewinnung.
„Wir wissen, dass die Befehle von einem Mitglied des königlichen Kreises kamen, haben aber keine direkten Informationen, um sie mit Kronprinz Mohammad bin Salman zu verbinden“, zitierte der Artikel die Quelle weiter.
Der britische Geheimdienst MI6 habe die saudi-arabischen Kollegen gewarnt, die Mission abzubrechen, dies sei jedoch ignoriert worden.
„Am 1. Oktober wurden wir auf die Reise einer Gruppe nach Istanbul aufmerksam, zu der auch Mitglieder des GID, (dem saudi-arabischen Geheimdienst al-Muchabarat al-‚Amma as-Sa’udia) gehörten, und es war ziemlich klar, was ihr Ziel war“, sagte die Nachrichtenquelle der Boulevardzeitung.
Laut dem Artikel habe Khashoggi vorgehabt, „dokumentarische Beweise“ zu veröffentlichen, die belegten, dass Saudi-Arabien in seinem Stellvertreterkrieg im Jemen chemische Waffen benutzt habe, zitiert das Blatt einen namentlich nicht genannten Freund Khashoggis.
„Ich traf ihn eine Woche vor seinem Tod“, zitiert Sunday Express den Freund, einen „Wissenschaftler aus dem Nahen Osten“. „Er war unglücklich und er war besorgt“, so der Freund weiter.
„Als ich ihn fragte, warum er sich Sorgen machte, wollte er nicht wirklich antworten, aber schließlich sagte er mir, er werde Beweise dafür erhalten, dass Saudi-Arabien chemische Waffen benutzt habe“, zitiert das Blatt den Freund weiter.
und auch https://de.sputniknews.com/politik/20181029322787268-chaschukdschi-mord-saudi-arabien-chemiewaffen/
(** A P)
Khashoggi BOMBSHELL: Britain 'KNEW of kidnap plot and BEGGED Saudi Arabia to abort plans'
MURDERED journalist Jamal Khashoggi was about to disclose details of Saudi Arabia’s use of chemical weapons in Yemen, sources close to him said last night. The revelations come as separate intelligence sources disclosed that Britain had first been made aware of a plot a full three weeks before he walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Intercepts by GCHQ of internal communications by the kingdom’s General Intelligence Directorate revealed orders by a “member of the royal circle” to abduct the troublesome journalist and take him back to Saudi Arabia.
The orders, intelligence sources say, did not emanate directly from de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, and it is not known if he was aware of them.
Though they commanded that Khashoggi should be abducted and taken back to Riyadh, they “left the door open” for other actions should the journalist prove to be troublesome, sources said.
Speaking last night the intelligence source told the Sunday Express: “We were initially made aware that something was going in the first week of September, around three weeks before Mr Khashoggi walked into the consulate on October 2, though it took more time for other details to emerge.
“These details included primary orders to capture Mr Khashoggi and bring him back to Saudi Arabia for questioning. However, the door seemed to be left open for alternative remedies to what was seen as a big problem.
“We know the orders came from a member of the royal circle but have no direct information to link them to Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.
"Whether this meant he was not the original issuer we cannot say.”
Crucially, the highly-placed source confirms that MI6 had warned his Saudi Arabian counterparts to cancel the mission - though this request as ignored.
“On October 1 we became aware of the movement of a group, which included members of Ri'āsat Al-Istikhbārāt Al-‘Āmah (GID) to Istanbul, and it was pretty clear what their aim was.
“Through channels we warned that this was not a good idea. Subsequent events show that our warning was ignored.”
Asked why MI6 had not alerted its Five Eye intelligence partner, the US (Khashoggi was a US citizen) the source said only: “A decision was taken that we’d done what we could.”
However analysts offered one possible explanation for this.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1037378/Khashoggi-murder-news-saudi-arabia-chemical-weapons-use
and
(** A P)
UK Was Aware of Saudi Plot Against Khashoggi Weeks in Advance: Report
Saudi Arabia told the U.K. about their plan of abducting Khashoggi three weeks before the incident took place. The MI6 warned them against carrying out the said operation.
Intercepts by GCHQ of internal communications by the kingdom’s General Intelligence Directorate revealed orders by a “member of the royal circle” to abduct the troublesome journalist and take him back to Saudi Arabia. The report does not confirm or deny whether the order came from the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
They were supposed to abduct Khashoggi and take him back to Riyadh but could take other actions, if the journalist created problems.
“We were initially made aware that something was going in the first week of September, around three weeks before Mr. Khashoggi walked into the consulate on October 2, though it took more time for other details to emerge,” the intelligence source told the Sunday Express Friday.
“These details included primary orders to capture Mr. Khashoggi and bring him back to Saudi Arabia for questioning. However, the door seemed to be left open for alternative remedies to what was seen as a big problem. We know the orders came from a member of the royal circle but have no direct information to link them to Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Whether this meant he was not the original issuer we cannot say.”
The MI6 had warned their Saudi counterparts to cancel the mission. “On October 1 we became aware of the movement of a group, which included members of Ri'āsat Al-Istikhbārāt Al-‘Āmah (GID) to Istanbul, and it was pretty clear what their aim was.
“Through channels, we warned that this was not a good idea. Subsequent events show that our warning was ignored.”
Sunday Express also obtained an anonymous interview from a close friend of Khashoggi’s who revealed that the journalist was about to obtain “documentary evidence” of Saudi Arabia’s use of chemical weapon in its proxy war in Yemen.
(A P)
Turkey demands truth over Khashoggi killing as Saudi prosecutor visits
Turkey called on Monday for the full truth surrounding the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi to be revealed, as Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor held talks in Istanbul.
(* B P)
How Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Trump Are Coordinating a Plan to Get Away with Murder
The emerging Khashoggi cover-up is hazardous to the health of the United States.
As the mighty monsoon of information (and disinformation) known as the news cycle moves from the apparent assassination of Jamal Khashoggi to the attempted terror bombing of President Trump’s critics, the case of the murdered journalist may soon fade from the front pages and the news shows.
Many people in Washington and Saudi Arabia certainly hope so. Defense contractors are mobilizing to protect those oh-so-generous contracts with the Saudis. The Saudis are deploying their media assets in the Persian Gulf and the United Kingdom.
And now after three weeks of lies, leaks, and conspiracy theories, the autocratic heads of state in Washington, Riyadh, and Istanbul have coordinated their stories. President Trump, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), and Turkish president Recep Erdogan are all reading from the same sheet music.
The Saudis have abandoned the lie that Khashoggi left the consulate in Istanbul and discarded the cover story that he died in an accidental fistfight. They have settled on the talking point that his demise was “premeditated murder,” which at least has the virtue of plausibility.
Trump has pushed the idea of investigation onto Congress, which isn’t in session, and rarely challenges a president on foreign policy, much less a key U.S. strategic relationship. Jared Kushner is advising his father-in-law to stick with his friend MbS, using the cold-blooded argument that the relationship between the two countries is more important than the life of one man.
The challenge for the Trump administration: How to help MbS get away with murder?
Hussein Ibish, a pundit at a Saudi-funded think tank in Washington, sees a three-step fix, which is not at all flattering to the kingdom.
What is certain is the emerging cover story comes complete with a designated patsy to take the fall for MbS. It serves to create the appearance of justice while leaving MbS in charge of investigating himself. That may look cynical and ridiculous to the world, but it accommodates the interests of all three parties, at least for the time being.
The problem, says Bruce Riedel, a former Saudi analyst for the CIA, is the war in Yemen. Launched by MbS in 2015, the war was supposed to deliver a quick victory over the Houthi, a Shiite sect in Yemen, supposedly in league with Iran.
Three-plus years later, Yemen is a proverbial “quagmire,” a trusty metaphor in the lexicon of Washington euphemisms. Yemen is better described as a free-fire zone of war crimes, a man-made humanitarian catastrophe worse than Syria, and one in which the U.S. government is even more complicit.
The emerging Khashoggi cover-up is hazardous to the health of the United States in more ways than one.
(* B P)
The Trouble With Whitewashing Jamal Khashoggi’s Life to Bash Saudi Arabia
What a difference a political fallout makes. Qatari-owned Al Jazeera, which as recently as 2015 censored criticism of Saudi Arabia, now publishes articles attacking the Kingdom’s credibility.
In a piece published by Al Jazeera on October 20, 2018, an Arab-American writer questions whether Saudi Arabia represents Islam, and uses Jamal Khashoggi’s killing to argue that it may be time to challenge the idea that Saudi Arabia is synonymous with Islam.
While it is laudable to criticize Saudi Arabia for its cowardice in killing Khashoggi, making him a journalistic saint in order to try and wrest “Islam” away from the Saudis is problematic for two reasons. One, Khashoggi’s record simply does not justify elevating him in beatific ways. Two, any conversation about who ultimately represents Islam most authentically almost always diminishes Muslim religious minorities, and is an exercise that Sunni Muslims have largely had among themselves.
Khashoggi’s Record
The contradictions within Khashoggi’s views towards the Shia and Yemen ultimately reveal that he was not ideologically distant from MbS. In 2016, Khashoggi supported the execution of Shia leader Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. None of Khashoggi’s later op-eds explained why he stood for the execution of Nimr. In fact, none of Khashoggi’s later op-eds even confront the decades-long repression of the Shia communities in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. This omission is particularly notable since Khashoggi did have plenty to say in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood.
In 2016, Khashoggi explicitly supported MbS’s war on Yemen in an interviewwith Mehdi Hasan, including the use of cluster-bombs. The interview was particularly notable for Khashoggi’s repeated use of the word “we” when talking about Saudi Arabia.
Khashoggi’s later argument in the Washington Post seeking to end the war in Yemen is often cited by those sanctifying him as evidence that he had changed. Yet even that op-ed continued to parrot the notion that the Saudis went into Yemen to deal with Iran, when in fact, Saudi Arabia was simply acting out on its decades-long interference in Yemen. In fact, a straight-forward reading of Khashoggi’s op-ed makes it clear that his new-found objection to the war was neither coming from a humanitarian nor a moral place but was simply a recognition of the fact that the Saudis had lost and Saudi Arabia would have to take on debt to continue the war.
Ultimately, the entire debate as to whether Khashoggi was closer to Islam, or if it’s the Saudis who are closer, or if the Brotherhood is the best articulation of Islam, is predicated on a largely futile exercise in trying to claim ownership of some idealized version of “authentic” Islam – by Amel Ahmed
(B P)
Michael Clifford: Our silence is a betrayal of Khashoggi
It would seem that this country [Ireland] is perfectly comfortable in measuring any response to murder, war, or the erosion of human rights, according to what the British and Americans deem appropriate.
There may well have been a case to act according to that compass once upon a time. Notwithstanding their respective records of violence and subterfuge overseas, both of those countries did insist on adherence to a basic moral benchmark, in public at any rate.
Those days are gone. The USA is led by a bully, who draws his strength from conflict at home and abroad. His moral benchmark begins and end with his ego.
The UK, meanwhile, is cannibalising itself on English nationalism. The inevitable prospect of a post-Brexit world, in which the UK’s standing diminishes, will lead inevitably to a decline of any fidelity to global values.
And yet, it would appear, we, in this country, continue to look to those friends for guidance on how we should respond when despots act brutally, confident that they are immune from sanction.
(* A P)
In talks with Saudi minister, Mattis calls for transparent investigation in Khashoggi killing
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Sunday that he had met Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister and called for a transparent investigation into the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“We discussed it. You know the same thing we talked about, the need for transparency, full and complete investigation,” Mattis told a small group of reporters traveling to Prague with him.
“(There was) full agreement from foreign minister Jubeir, no reservations at all, he said we need to know what happened and it was very collaborative, in agreement,” Mattis added.
“Turkey, with the evidence that they have compiled, will ensure that there is more than one review of what is going on here and I’m certain the investigation will include the evidence that Turkey has put forward so far,” Mattis said in the press conference.
At the same conference, Mattis had sharp words for Saudi Arabia, saying that the killing undermined Middle Eastern stability and that Washington would take additional measures against those responsible.
(* B K P)
Khashoggi murder: Journalist planned 'to release details of Saudi chemical weapons use'
JAMAL Khashoggi was about to disclose details of Saudi Arabia’s use of chemical weapons in Yemen, sources close to him said.
Last night a close friend of Mr Khashoggi revealed that he was about to obtain “documentary evidence” proving clams that Saudi Arabia had used chemical weapons in its proxy war in Yemen.
“I met him a week before his death. He was unhappy and he was worried,“ said the middle eastern academic, who did not wish to be named.
“When I asked him why he was worried, he didn't really want to reply, but eventually he told me he was getting proof that Saudi Arabia had used chemical weapons. He said he hoped he be getting documentary evidence.
“All I can tell you is that the next thing I heard, he was missing.”
Recent unsubstantiated claims were made in Iran that Saudi Arabia has been supplying ingredients that can be used to produce the nerve agent Sarin in Yemen.
However, it is more likely that Mr Khashoggi was referring to phospherous.
Last month it was claimed that Saudi Arabia had been using US-supplied white phosphorous munitions against troops and even civilians in Yemen,
Though regulations state the chemical may be used to provide smokescreens, if used illegally it can it burn to the bone.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1037419/Khashoggi-murder-latest-saudi-arabia-news-killing
(* B P)
No More PR Stunt: There Is Moral Link between Khashoggi’s Grisly Fate and Yemen War
- Trump signs new sanctions against Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah
- FBI arrests man suspected in parcel bombs case in Florida
- Son of Saudi journalist Khashoggi allowed to leave Saudi Arabia
- Saudi Arabia, Bahrain designate Iran’s IRGC as terrorist organization
All these new headlines have one thing in common. They are public relations stunts, designed to distract attention from the growing global anger over the grisly murder of journalist Jammal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2.
They are also there because the grisly episode and its fallout are affecting Saudi Arabia’s global business and they are desperate to stop it. The cold-blooded killing of the Saudi journalist has sent shockwaves through the business world, leaving in limbo planned investments, partnerships and projects in banking, transportation and technology in Saudi Arabia. Business leaders have been distancing themselves from Riyadh.
These questions about the grisly episode and the Saudi regime's direct involvement should, but it is not clear if they will complicate the brutal regime’s efforts to court Western investment and diversify its economy in the long run. Although the long-term impact cannot be denied, some long-standing arms and energy deals will remain.
This makes the murder of Khashoggi not only one of the most shameful political assassinations of all time but one of the most embarrassing for the Western world. E
The brutal silencing of a man who had become a critic of the lack of progress in the loudly trumpeted reforms that were supposed to be modernizing Saudi Arabia tells its own story about the brutal nature of the regime. The true nature of the medieval regime has been exposed by the incident and the aftermath that Donald Trump has called “the worst cover-up in history”.
That says why Turkey is right to demand the extradition of 18 suspects in the Khashoggi killing from Saudi Arabia.
There is no other way to examine and investigate the killing as it took place "within the borders of Turkey", even though the consulate is considered Saudi Arabia's territory.
This is in no way an attempt to interfere in Saudi Arabia’s sovereign affairs, but this is not their business either, as the grisly episode was extra-judicial and on a human level, the whole world is angry and responsible to act. The journalist didn’t deserve his gruesome fate. Worst thing to do is for the international civil society to await a Saudi investigation results, condemn the culprits, and move on.
As it happens, there is a moral link between the grisly fate of Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia's purchase of Western-made weapons to murder men, women and children in Yemen. Unlike what some Western governments would like to suggest, they have blood on their hands, unless they take a joint stance on halting arms exports to Saudi Arabia. Only when all Western governments are in agreement, will this make an impression on Riyadh. Regrettably, this is yet to be the case.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13970805000814
(* B P)
Westliche Doppelmoral: Ermordeter Journalist sorgt für Kritk, tausende tote Zivilisten nicht
Die Ratlosigkeit im Westen beim Thema Saudi-Arabien ist quasi mit den Händen zu greifen. Der Fall Khashoggi macht so große Wellen, dass die westlichen Regierungen nun zumindest formell irgendetwas tun müssen. Die Frage ist, was sind sie bereit zu tun? Die noch wichtigere Frage ist, warum haben sie bisher nichts getan?
Es brauchte einen Mord an einem Journalisten, damit der Westen überhaupt irgendeine Reaktion auf die Taten des saudischen Regimes zeigt. So tragisch der Tod eines Menschen ist, fragt man sich aber doch, warum die tausenden toten Zivilisten, für die Saudi-Arabien im Jemen verantwortlich ist, zu keiner Reaktion im Westen geführt haben.
Um die westlichen Waffenlieferungen auf den Prüfstand zu stellen, brauchte es den Tod von Khashoggi. Das mag zynisch klingen, aber der Tod eines Mannes kann im Jemen vielleicht tausende Leben retten. Zumindest dann, wenn Khashoggis Tod eine Änderung der westlichen Politik bewirkt und vielleicht sogar massive Sanktionen beinhaltet. Aber es darf bezweifelt werden, dass der Westen wirklich bereit ist, mehr zu leisten als bloße Lippenbekenntnisse.
Gerade gestern konnte man im Spiegel wieder ein Beispiel für diese Doppelmoral lesen. Der Spiegel schrieb unter der Überschrift „Jemen - 14 Millionen Menschen von Hungersnot bedroht“ von der katastrophalen Lage im Jemen. Es gab dort zwar einige Sätze über die katastrophale Lage der Menschen in dem Krieg, aber keine Kritik an Saudi-Arabien.
Man muss sich wirklich fragen, warum die Saudis so eine Macht haben, dass im Westen Politik und Medien über die schweren Kriegsverbrechen und das unmenschliche Unterdrückungsregime in Saudi-Arabien hinwegsehen.
Man fragt sich wirklich, wie lange der Westen sich das noch ansehen will und welche Version schließlich vom Westen geschluckt wird. Aber trotz all dieser offensichtlichen Lügen, trotz der offensichtlichen Schuld Saudi-Arabiens kein Wort über ernsthafte Sanktionen.
(* B P)
Film: Messen mit zweierlei Maß bei Khashoggi und Skripal: Die Reaktionen des Westens im Vergleich
(* B P)
Der Fall Khashoggi: Was steckt dahinter?
So abenteuerlich die bisherige (und großenteils nicht durch Fakten belegte) Entwicklung der Affäre klingt, so wichtig ist es, Wirklichkeit und Fiktion auseinanderzuhalten – sowohl was das Opfer, als auch, was die Interessenslagen der verschiedenen Beteiligten angeht.
Nach allen vorliegenden Erkenntnissen gibt es kaum jemanden, der ein größeres Interesse daran gehabt haben könnte, Khashoggi auszuschalten als Mohammed Bin Salman. Und das auch noch aus einem weiteren Grund: Obwohl es dem Kronprinzen gelungen ist, seine Gegner innerhalb des Hauses von Saud weitgehend aus dem Weg zu räumen oder kalt zu stellen, kämpft er sowohl wirtschaftlich wie auch politisch mit erheblichen Problemen.
Warum aber spielen die amerikanischen Medien die Affäre so hoch, obwohl Saudi-Arabien der wichtigste Verbündete der USA im Nahen Osten ist?
Zum einen führt Präsident Trump seit seiner Amtsübernahme einen Feldzug gegen zahlreiche US-Medien, darunter CNN, die New York Times und die Washington Post, die sich im Besitz von Trumps Intimfeind, Amazon-Chef Jeff Bezos befindet. Diese Medien sehen nun die Chance, sich angesichts der Ermordung eines Journalisten als Vorkämpfer für einen demokratischen Journalismus zu präsentieren und ihrem Erzfeind Trump wenige Wochen vor den Zwischenwahlen in den USA zu schaden. Unterstützt werden sie dabei von den Demokraten, die hier die Chance wittern, ihre schlechten Umfragewerte der vergangenen Wochen aufzubessern.
Dass Trump selbst Mohammed Bin Salman sofort zu Hilfe geeilt ist, indem er dessen Aussagen, er habe mit dem Mord nichts zu tun, unkritisch unterstützte, dürfte kaum verwundern. Trumps erster Staatsbesuch nach seiner Amtsübernahme im Januar 2016 führte ihn nach Saudi-Arabien, wo er einen der größten Waffendeals der vergangenen Jahre einfädelte und keinen Zweifel daran ließ, dass er fest an der Seite Mohammed Bin Salmans steht. Zudem verbinden Trump wichtige Geschäftsbeziehungen zum saudischen Herrscherhaus, das zu den zahlungskräftigsten Kunden seines Bau-Imperiums zählt.
Wie wird es weitergehen?
Vermutlich wird die Affäre uns noch eine Weile begleiten und dann, wie so viele Affären, im Sande verlaufen. Die USA werden ihren wichtigsten Verbündeten im Nahen Osten jedenfalls mit Sicherheit nicht aufgeben. Die Weigerung einiger transnationaler Konzerne und der IWF-Chefin Lagarde, an einer Konferenz in Riad teilzunehmen, kann man getrost als PR-Mittel zum Aufpolieren des eigenen Rufes abhaken. Die Waffenlieferungen aus westlichen Ländern, inklusive Deutschland werden, wie die zögerliche und ausweichende Reaktion des Berliner Außenministeriums bereits andeutet, wohl auch zukünftig fließen.
Vor allem aber wird der Krieg im Jemen weitergehen – ein generalstabsmäßig geplanter Massenmord, in dem in den nächsten Wochen und Monaten Hunderttausende sterben werden, ohne dass jemand an ihrem Schicksal teilnimmt, weil sie im Gegensatz zu Jamal Khashoggi nicht das Privileg genießen, auf Grund ihrer Popularität ins Fadenkreuz der internationalen Diplomatie zu geraten.
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=46653#h03
(* B P)
Saudi and Israel Lobby on Same Page in Whitewashing Khashoggi Affair
After the Attacks of Sept 11, 2001, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia took a feather out Israel’s cap by investing hundreds of millions of dollars into legalized bribing of U.S. politician – a practice known colloquially in Washington as lobbying. What the mafia and organized crime syndicates do under the table, rogue states like Israel and Saudi Arabia are able to do out in the open.
With their pockets full, U.S. lawmakers gleefully hobnob with Saudi princes, hoping to secure more lucrative arms deals for U.S. defense contractors, who then put more money in the campaign coffers of corrupt U.S. Senators and Congressman. To help build the myth that these are civilized countries, various highly paid court scribes in the media, like New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, are then drafted in to tart-up the image by writing fluff pieces before dutifully repeating the same propaganda on mainstream television in the U.S. This is how the system of patronage and pay-offs works in Washington. It’s how Washington really works.
All bets were off however, following the apparent killing of exiled Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul. The incident has led to a rare outrage against the kingdom as lawmakers ponder the unthinkable – suspending arms sales, expelling the kingdom’s diplomats, and reconsidering the ‘special relationship’ between Washington and Riyadh.
Of course, Saudi has found a friend in another brutal regional neighbor, Israel, who is all-too familiar in fending off international outrage deriving from its own illegal and otherwise savage behavior, and more importantly, it knows exactly how to obfuscate and buy-off (and scare off, intimidate, and blackmail) any pesky U.S. politicians or prying mainstream journalists.
Indeed, the last Israel wants to see are sustained western demands for moral reciprocity and accountability in Middle East. The Kingdom could not have a better trainer in its corner.
With ever more gruesome details emerging about the slaying and dismemberment of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, fingers of blame are pointing squarely at Saudi Crown PrinceMohammad bin Salman.
.This is a huge problem for Israel and its lobby who see the Saudi de facto ruler – commonly referred to in English-language media by his initials MBS – as their key regional ally.
Indeed, Israel and Saudi Arabia are staunch allies, sharing an enmity towards Iran.
.The Saudi crown prince’s pro-Israel leanings and attacks on the Palestinians last spring greatly boosted his stock with Israel and its lobby…
(B P)
Film: Galloway: "Erdogan's doing dance of 7 veils...it's Macbeth on steroids"
"Erdogan's doing the dance of the 7 veils...Shakespeare couldn't have written this, it's Macbeth on steriods" says George Galloway who talks to In Question's Anya Parampil about Jamal Khashoggi.
https://www.facebook.com/RTUKnews/videos/543054056165667/
cp9 USA
(* B P)
Nation Hypnotized in Horror by Toy Bombs While Killing Civilians With Real Ones
Media headlines have been dominated for the last two days by the news that pipe bombs are being sent to Democratic Party elites and their allies.
And of course it is a good thing that nobody has been hurt by these devices.
It is a good thing that none of America’s political elites were targeted by the sort of explosive device that America drops on people in other countries every single day.
You know, the kind that actually explode.
It is good that Barack Obama was never sent anything resembling the 26,171 bombs that his administration dropped in the final year of his presidency, for example. It is good that neither the first US president to serve every minute of his administration under wartime, nor those who served as part of that administration like Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton, were targeted with the kinds of weapons which were deployed against impoverished people in other nations every single day for all eight years. People would have been killed and badly injured if anyone had been sent anything like those kinds of explosive devices, their bodies ripped to shreds like the countless civilians killed in the airstrikes which resulted from the Obama administration’s expansion of Bush’s so-called “war on terror”.
https://theantimedia.com/toy-bombs/
(* A P)
Experts Warn Against U.S. Withdrawal from Yemen Conflict Amid Saudi Criticism
'The implications of a withdraw is that we cede ground to the Iranians'
Regional experts are warning against knee-jerk calls to pull American support from the Saudi-led alliance battling Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen amid heightened congressional scrutiny of the U.S. relationship with the Gulf kingdom.
Several recent events, including the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and warnings of widespread famine in Yemen, have prompted appeals to the Trump administration to reevaluate its backing of Saudi Arabia, but experts caution that cutting U.S. aid would relinquish key territory to Iran.
"The implications of a withdraw is that we cede ground to the Iranians in their proxy battle across the Middle East, and Yemen, which is a strategic piece of real estate, effectively becomes Iranian-controlled," Jonathan Schanzer, the senior vice president at the Foundation of the Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Free Beacon. "You're looking at another Lebanon, at minimum, where chunks of the country are controlled by Iranian proxies with the ability to expand."
"The idea of closing down this war to improve humanitarian conditions in Yemen is not in and of itself a bad idea, but the notion that we need to withdraw our support to the Saudis without a backup plan or a sense of an alternative for fighting the Houthis, to me, seems like a mistake," he said. "There needs to be an alternative strategy to pushing back against the Houthis, otherwise this is one battle that is a victory for Iran and a loss for us in the broader conflict. Those are the implications."
My comment: A typical example of US mental imperialism. The US should take the natural right to interfere in all other countries internal affairs – if it’s by war and destruction, than let it be. It’s proclaimed fighting Iran would be an US interest (Why?? Iran is 7000 miles away from US territory, and Iran would sell oil to whoever would buy it), then everything what propaganda tells would have to do with fighting Iran – as a war in Yemen – should be supported. This is mentally ill, really.
The Foundation for Defence of Democracies, according to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_for_Defense_of_Democracies ): „Its political leanings have been described variously as nonpartisan, hawkish and neoconservative“, on the author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Schanzer
(A P)
Al-Ahmar meets US defense minister to discuss military support for Yemeni forces
US Defense Secretary James Mattis on Saturday confirmed his country's support on the military side and capacity building for Yemeni forces affiliated with the legitimate government.
The Vice-President met with Lt. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, US Defense Secretary James Mattis, on the sidelines of the regional security Summit in Bahrain's capital Manama.
According to sources from the "Al-Masdar online", Matisse said his country continues to support the legitimate government in ending the Houthi coup in Yemen.
For his part, Al-Ahmar said that the nature of the conflict in Yemen is based on "extremist ideological backgrounds espoused by the Houthi armed militia, supported and financed by Iran, which helped it to pounce on the state, persecute Yemenis and threaten regional and international interests.", according to Saba State agency.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160222
My comment: The US again demonstrate that they are a warring party in Yemen, and Mattis meets with an old important sponsor of Al Qaeda in Yemen – who tells him the well-known propaganda for the 346. time.
And
(A P)
Vice President discusses counter-terrorism efforts with U.S. Central Command commander
The Vice-President of the Republic, Deputy supreme commander of the armed forces, Lt. Gen. Ali Mohsen Saleh met Sunday with the commander of the US Central Command, Lt. Gen. Joseph Fotil, in the Bahraini capital of Manama.
During the meeting, he discussed military and security developments and ways to strengthen military cooperation and efforts to build the capacity of the Yemeni army and counter-terrorism efforts.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160241
(B P)
The United States of Brand Building
On bone saws, Khashoggi, and foreign policy
The algebra of deterrence (probability of getting caught x penalty = serious shit) is the only thing standing between any of us and a bone saw.
- Fucking. Bone. Saw.
The capital allocation reflects fiduciaries (our leadership) representing the 1%, who have given clear instructions: “If the brand survives, great… but we want our money out, now.” However, there is also a large cohort of people, from both parties, who believe the U.S. is a growth brand that warrants continued investment. Fiscal responsibility and moral leadership are expensive, and worth it.
As such.
The U.S. needs to suspend all arms sales, freeze assets, and impose sanctions against Saudi Arabia. The easiest way to validate this notion is to call on millions of neurons, informed by the history and code of the strongest brand in the world, the U.S. How to summon the neurons? Easy, think of two words: 1. Bone 2. Saw.
https://medium.com/s/no-mercy-no-malice/no-mercy-no-malice-brands-bone-saws-e99b41138a11
(* A P)
US Senator Rand Paul slams Saudi Arabia at Montana rally with Trump Jr
Paul calls kingdom a sponsor of terrorism, criticises its actions in Yemen and says he will push for Senate vote to block any arms sale to Riyadh.
US Senator Rand Paul has described Saudi Arabia as a sponsor of terrorism at a rally in Montana with Donald Trump Jr, criticising its involvement in the war in Yemen and declaring he would be pushing for a Senate vote to block any new arms sale to Riyadh.
Speaking at an event on Saturday for Senate Republican candidate Matt Rosendale, Paul said: "We have to think through this idea that everything is going to be blindly for Saudi Arabia, they're involved in a war in Yemen where tens of thousands of civilians are dying."
Paul pointed out to the audience, many of whom were Trump supporters, that 15 of the 19 hijackers behind the 9/11 attacks were Saudis, according to The Hill, a US newspaper.
"Anyone remember who attacked us on 9/11?" he said. "Why do we have worldwide terrorism? The Saudis fund it."
In response to Khashoggi's killing, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier this week announced moves against 21 Saudis either to revoke their visas or make them ineligible for US visas.
Dismissing the sanctions as ineffective, Paul, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: "I think sanctions are a way of pretending to do something.
"If you sanction the 15 thugs that the crown prince sent to [the consulate in Istanbul], you're sanctioning 15 thugs, and they'll just get 15 more thugs.
"Saudi Arabia will see that as a way of pretending. It's a way of acting tough without being tough."
Instead, Paul is intent on forcing a Senate vote to block arms sale to Saudi Arabia that Trump values at $110bn.
"Cutting off the arms sales will make them wake up," Paul told The Hill at the rally on Saturday.
"In fact, their air force would be grounded in two or three months if they didn’t have spare parts."
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-senator-rand-paul-slams-saudi-arabia-rally-trump-jr-209121360
(* B P)
Khashoggi killing undercuts support for Saudi war in Yemen
The furor generated by the apparent killing of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of a “hit team” of top Saudi officials could have some serious blowback for one of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s signature foreign policy initiatives: the increasingly troubling war in neighboring Yemen.
The fallout from Mr. Khashoggi’s death also could give the U.S. government and a rising number of private critics of the conflict an opening to pressure the kingdom to scale back its conflict with Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
But with Riyadh now reeling from accusations that the crown prince and his top aides had a hand in the death of the U.S.-based Mr. Khashoggi, who has not been seen since entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, Washington has leverage to increase international pressure for Saudi concessions to end the Yemen war, analysts say.
“We have the opportunity … to sit down with him and say, ‘We cannot go on like this,’” said Martin Indyk, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.
“Now is the time for Congress to take the big step and compel an end to this war,” former National Security Council official Bruce Riedel told a Brookings Institution briefing Thursday.
PR disaster
Meant as a challenge to Iran, the war has proved a propaganda coup for Tehran while snaring its regional rival.
“It is just a quagmire that is benefiting Iran,” Mr. Indyk told reporters in a teleconference last week.
Steven Cook, a senior fellow at the Council for Foreign Relations Middle East and African studies directorate, said Riyadh “went into Yemen to counter what they called the Hezbollah invasion” and prevent Iranian influence in the country, only to have Iran increase its presence in Yemen.
“Certainly, the balance of power is with the Iranians in the region,” Mr. Cook said. The U.S. and its allies need “to convince [Riyadh] it would be better for them to get out.”
U.S. lawmakers skeptical of the Saudi war in Yemen are wasting no time increasing pressure on the kingdom.
Rep. James P. McGovern, Massachusetts Democrat, is spearheading a bipartisan effort by nearly two dozen House lawmakers to suspend all arms sales and military support to Saudi Arabia, Defense News reported last week.
“With the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, it’s time for the United States to halt all weapons sales and military aid to Saudi Arabia. Our democratic values are on the line here — and we need to step up as a country and do the right thing,” Mr. McGovern said in a statement.
If the U.S. takes a harder line against the kingdom, it is unclear how the crown prince would react, Mr. Indyk said.
“I am not sure how he will calibrate his response, whether he will suck it up or decide to retaliate,” he said. However, “I do not think he can afford a confrontation with the United States.”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/oct/28/jamal-khashoggi-killing-hurts-saudi-war-yemen/
My comment: Unfortunately, US politics (foreign politics in special) never had anything to do with “our democratic values”: Think of Pinochet, Somoza, the Vietnam war, dozens of “regime changes” installing horrible dictatorships …
(* B P)
An extended discussion of the US-Saudi alliance shows Trump still has no idea what he’s talking about
The terrifying reality of uninformed government
The US-Saudi alliance is longstanding, economically and geopolitically consequential, and it’s been thrown into chaos since the likely assassination of reporter Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident and US resident.
This is Donald Trump’s biggest diplomatic crisis as president. And based on extended remarks on the US-Saudi relationship Trump gave to a pair of Wall Street Journal reporters in an interview published Wednesday, he’s running the show completely ignorant of even the most basic facts.
Oftentimes it’s pretty clear that Trump is lying about something, but so much of what Trump says about the Saudis is different. It’s so incoherent that it must be coming from a place of genuine confusion or ignorance. On a whole range of subjects from the disposition of the Iranian military to the volume of Saudi investment in the United States to even something as basic as the number of hijackers involved in the 9/11 plot, Trump gets facts wrong often with no apparent motive and with no demonstrated desire or capacity to learn on his part.
Trump is rambling and incoherent on Saudi Arabia and Iran
In a very strange discourse on the US-Saudi relationship as it pertains to Iran, Trump appears to be incapable of forming coherent sentences. That’s in part surely because the underlying idea he is trying to express — that Saudi Arabia does the United States some kind of favor by opposing Iran’s regional ambitions — is totally mistaken, as Trump himself seems to realize by the end of his meanderings in the Wall Street Journal.
Trump wildly overstates the economic value of Saudi Arabia
Trump wildly overstates the economic value of Saudi Arabia
Trump keeps miscounting 9/11 hijackers
Trump suddenly reverses himself on the whole alliance – by Matthew Yglesias
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/25/18019554/trump-wsj-interview-transcript
(* A P)
What Mattis Said in the Middle East
During a high-profile security conference in Manama, Bahrain, on Saturday, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met informally with Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel Jubeir, pressing the Kingdom official on the need for “a full and complete investigation” into the murder.
Although Mattis had offered a public warning from the podium earlier in the day, insisting that “the murder of [Khashoggi] in a diplomatic facility must concern us all,” he did not mention the Gulf kingdom by name and on Sunday morning, gave reporters a positive read-out of the brief meeting with Jubeir.
Mattis said he had received “full agreement from Jubeir” on the need for transparency and a complete investigation. “No reservations at all. We need to know what happened. It was very collaborative, in agreement.”
The U.S. will continue to offer targeting and other military support to Saudi Arabia in its campaign in Yemen while pushing for a negotiated end to the punishing war, Mattis said.
“We’ll continue to support the defense of the Kingdom,” he said. “We do not accept that there is any reason for a slow-down in the effort to bring this to a negotiated end.”
The careful emphasis on the importance of the investigation into Khashoggi’s death puts Mattis to a certain degree in lockstep with Riyadh—Jubeir on Saturday claimed Riyadh had been blamed for the killing before the investigation was complete—and highlights the central role the Kingdom plays in the Trump administration’s Middle East strategy.
https://www.defenseone.com/politics/2018/10/what-mattis-said-middle-east/152368/
My comment: Nothing should ever change, whatever really is going to happen. – And, once again, for US dummies as well: The Yemen war has nothing to do at all with “the defense of the Kingdom“.
(A K P)
Readout of Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis' Meeting with Bahrain King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa
Secretary Mattis underscored Bahrain's role in helping to expose regional destabilizing activity through weapons interdiction, and reiterated the need for renewed Gulf unity as a bulwark against these shared threats.
and by US Embassy to Yemen:
#SecDef Mattis: "In #Yemen, #Iran cont. to export missiles rockets & unmanned aerial systems to #Houthi militants in violation of #UN strictures. Over the past 18mons, #Houthis hv launched > thn 100 missiles at Saudi Arabia inclu civilian targets like the King Khalid Arpt"
https://twitter.com/USEmbassyYemen/status/1056244885995409408
Comment: The US is in violation of the Leahy Law for providing military assistance to a known human rights violator, Saudi Arabia.
https://twitter.com/YemenSource/status/1056251804290351104
(* B E P)
Wie Blackstone mit saudischem Geld eines von Trumps zentralen Wahlversprechen finanzieren wollte
Die amerikanische Private-Equity-Firma Blackstone hatte von den Saudis eine Zusage über 20 Mrd. $ für einen Infrastrukturfonds erhalten. Als Gegenleistung erhielten die Araber auch besondere Konditionen und Rabatte.
Das Vorhaben von Blackstone war in seinen Dimensionen spektakulär. Im Mai 2017 hatte das Private-Equity-Unternehmen angekündigt, einen Infrastrukturfonds von 40 Mrd. $ bereitzustellen. Die Hälfte des Geldes hatte der saudiarabische Staatsfonds (Public Investment Fund, PIF) zugesagt, den Rest sollten andere Investoren beisteuern. Mit diesem Kapital sowie zusätzlichen Krediten, so die damalige Mitteilung, sollte in Infrastrukturprojekte im Umfang von 100 Mrd. $ investiert werden, hauptsächlich in den USA. Die Erneuerung der veralteten Infrastruktur in den Vereinigten Staaten war eines der Versprechen von US-Präsident Donald Trump.
Mit der Ermordung des saudischen Journalisten Jamal Khashoggi und der internationalen Kritik an Saudi-Arabien erscheint der Milliardenfonds nun plötzlich in einem anderen Licht. Selbst der Blackstone-CEO Stephen Schwarzman hat seine Teilnahme an der Future Investment Initiative, einer Wirtschaftskonferenz in Riad, abgesagt. Dies, obwohl er (wie etwa auch Credit-Suisse-Chef Tidjane Thiam) im Advisory Board der Veranstaltung sitzt.
https://www.nzz.ch/wirtschaft/der-massgeschneiderte-deal-von-blackstone-mit-saudiarabien-ld.1430028
(A K)
US Special operation Command C146A Wolfhound from Djibouti turning off transponder over the Gulf of Aden probably heading #Yemen (map)
https://twitter.com/GDarkconrad/status/1056114849724485632
(A P)
Bahrain says 'Arab NATO' to be formed by next year
The alliance aims to include six Gulf countries and Egypt, though Saudi-led blockade on Qatar remains an obstacle.
Bahrain's Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa has said a planned Gulf security alliance, expected to include Egypt, will be formed by next year.
At a security summit in capital Manama on Saturday, Khalifa said the Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA), an initiative pushed by US President Donald Trump to confront Iran, will help the Gulf remain "a pillar of stability"
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/bahrain-arab-nato-formed-year-181027090924115.html
(A P)
Our dear friend @RashaJarhum was not able to join the #WomenPeaceSecurity work this week at the UN in NY because of the travel ban in place. We are sharing your message Rasha
https://twitter.com/Oxfam/status/1055848553074094081 referring to film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HulpTnQhWzs
(* B P)
Saudi Spy Met With Team Trump About Taking Down Iran
Mueller’s investigators examined a series of meetings between an Israeli social media strategist, the general blamed for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, and Trump adviser Michael Flynn.
Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, the Saudi intelligence chief taking the fall for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, hobnobbed in New York with Michael Flynn and other members of the transition team shortly before Trump’s inauguration. The topic of their discussion: regime change in Iran.
Mohammed bin Salman, the powerful Saudi crown prince, dispatched Assiri from Riyadh for the meetings, which took place over the course of two days in early January 2017, according to communications reviewed by The Daily Beast. The January meetings have come under scrutiny by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office as part of his probe into foreign governments’ attempts to gain influence in the Trump campaign and in the White House, an individual familiar with the investigation told The Daily Beast. A spokesperson for Mueller declined to comment.
The New York meetings were attended and brokered by George Nader, a Lebanese-American with close ties to leaders in the United Arab Emirates who is currently cooperating with Mueller’s team. Also present at the meetings was Israeli social media strategist Joel Zamel, who has been questioned by Mueller for his role in pitching top campaign officials on an influence operation to help Trump win the election—overtures that could have broken federal election laws.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/saudi-spy-met-with-team-trump-about-taking-down-iran
(* B P)
Saudi role in journalist’s alleged murder threatens CT defense contracts
Sikorsky and other U.S. defense contractors have been put in a tough spot by the alleged murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who disappeared in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul 17 days ago.
The lucrative market Sikorsky and other defense contractors developed in Saudi Arabia is threatened by calls from members of Congress for sanctions against the oil rich kingdom, which could derail the sale of billions of dollars of Sikorsky-made helicopters and Boing’s F-15 jet fighters, whose engines are made by Pratt & Whitney.
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
Siehe / Look at cp8a
(* A P)
Hunt faces grilling by MPs over support for Saudi-led war in Yemen
Foreign Office claims no link between Khashoggi murder and conduct of Yemen civil war
UK ministers will face intense pressure this week to explain continued support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen in the wake of the revelations about the premeditated murder of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by allies of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The Middle East minister, Alistair Burt, and the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, will be separately cross-examined about Britain’s relations with Saudi Arabia in the Commons, amid reports in British newspapers that UK intelligence may have known in advance that the Saudis were preparing to kill or capture Khashoggi.
The Foreign Office, in common with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, says there is no link between the Khashoggi murder and the conduct of the four-year civil war in Yemen, yet in reality ministers privately admit tolerance of the crown prince’s aggressive strategy is wearing thin.
My comment: They want to continue selling arms to Saudi Arabia, whatever will happen. Thus, when thousands of victims in Yemen did not matter, Khashoggi also should not.
(A P)
Yemen-UK common interests discussed in Manama
Vice President Ali Mohssen Saleh met Saturday with the United Kingdom Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa Alistair Burt on the sideline of "Al-Manama Dialogue Summit 14" for Regional Security.
The two sides discussed a range of topics and issues of common interest including cooperation and coordination between Yemen and the UK.
They also touched on UK supportive stances in supporting Yemen and legitimate leadership headed by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-24850
My comment: The UK is a warring party in Yemen; Mohssen is an old Al Qaeda supporter.
(A P)
University called on to cut ties with billionaire who offered Bentleys to Saudi bombers
EDINBURGH University has been called on to sever its financial ties with a Saudi billionaire who offered 100 luxury cars to the pilots in his country who bombed Yemen.
The Herald on Sunday can reveal that the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation, founded by the businessman of the same name, has bankrolled an Islamic study centre at the University with an endowment worth over £8m.
Critics yesterday called on the University to distance itself from Saudi money amid growing concerns over the state’s human rights record.
(* B K P)
UK government 'has blood on its hands' over Yemen conflict but poll shows 42% of British public do not know war exists
An MP has accused the government of having “blood on its hands” over the war in Yemen, but almost half of British people do not know the conflict exists.
Only 58 per cent of respondents in a YouGov poll identified the country, where at least 10,000 people have been killed in three years of bloodshed, as a warzone.
Keith Vaz, chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on Yemen, called the crisis a “forgotten war”.
“It’s very disturbing that despite everything that has happened there, interest is declining while the situation is getting worse,” the Labour MP told The Independent.
“The UK is involved but it is a blind spot. Somehow we need to make the public realise there will be blood on the administration’s hands.”
Mr Vaz pointed at the government’s continued licencing of weapons and military equipment to Saudi Arabia
“We feel our government is not doing anything,” Mr Vaz said. “I tried to meet Boris Johnson several times but in all the time he was the foreign secretary he never met me.”
He said that while David Cameron replied to letters on Yemen personally, Theresa May has delegated responses to a military attaché.
The APPG on Yemen has now contacted Jeremy Hunt with a call to support a United Nations resolution demanding a ceasefire allowing the passage of humanitarian aid.
Mr Vaz said: “We need the peace talks resumed or we cannot get a lasting settlement.”
My comment: This poll also shows the total failure of the media.
(* A P)
Film: Criminal, lying, genocidal UK Regime - May actually admits they support Saudi Arabia's genocide in #Yemen - using fake legitimacy of fugitive-ex-president Mansour Hadi to cover up UK's murderous imperialist project in Yemen, led by BAE. Remember May's husband is linked to BAE.
https://www.facebook.com/vanessa.beeley/videos/10158463594563868/
Comment: Well what was not said by the snake tongued Theresa May was that the GCC countries wrote the draft of UNSC Resolution 2216 and considered it a diplomatic triumph - Hadi's term expired in February 2014 and hence he was not considered within Yemen to be the legitimate president and hence his call to a neighbouring country to attack his own people is not valid - and in fact Hadi has since heavily criticised the occupation of the South of Yemen by UAE and did not approve the attack on Hodeida. Moreover if the controls on arms exports are as stringent as she claims then how bad to things have to get before we stop selling arms to a belligerent country. She did not answer the question on human rights nor on the death of Khashoggi and the provision of aid is a cover - a pretence of concern - to cover up the government's sins in its relations with Saudi Arabia.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10157109161503641
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
(B P)
Oskar Lafontaine: Orgie der Heuchelei
Die Saudis haben den Journalisten Jamal Khashoggi grausam ermordet. Jetzt erleben wir, wie heuchlerisch und verlogen es in der Weltpolitik zugeht. Der Kasper im Weißen Haus, der als US-Präsident für die täglichen Drohnen-Morde und für die Opfer verdeckter Kriege verantwortlich ist, hebt den Zeigefinger und denkt nicht im Mindesten daran, seinen 110-Milliarden-Rüstungsdeal in Frage zu stellen. Erdogan, der einen Krieg gegen die Kurden führt, verlangt mit geheuchelter Empörung, dass dieser Mord aufgeklärt werden müsse.
Und der deutsche Außenminister Heiko Maas muss sich im heutigen Feuilleton der „Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung“ vorwerfen lassen, dass er vor den Verbrechen der Saudis die Augen verschließt, wie viele andere „Diplomaten“, die ihre Waffen verkaufen wollen.
Die zutage tretende Heuchelei und Doppelmoral ist zum Kotzen. Die Welt weiß seit Jahren, dass die Saudis mit den vom Westen gelieferten Waffen im Jemen einen grausamen Krieg führen. Viele Menschen werden ermordet und Millionen sind vom Hungertod bedroht. Und dieses Wissen hat sie nicht an ihren ruchlosen Waffengeschäften gehindert. Angesichts dieser verlogenen Moral wird das Geschäft mit dem Tod schamlos weiterlaufen.
https://www.facebook.com/oskarlafontaine/photos/a.198567656871376/2010533715674752
(* B P)
Die Peene-Werft und der Fall Khashoggi
Nach dem Tod des regierungskritischen saudischen Journalisten Jamal Khashoggi stehen auch Deutschlands Waffenexporte nach Saudi-Arabien wieder auf dem Prüfstand. Mit besonderer Aufmerksamkeit verfolgt das die Peene-Werft bei Wolgast, die für die Monarchie Küstenschutzboote herstellt. […]
Der CDU-Wahlkreisvertreter im Bundestag, Philipp Amthor, gibt zu bedenken:
„Die Peene-Werft stellt, das muss man wissen, eben keine klassischen Kriegsgüter für den Jemen-Konflikt her, sondern Küstenschutzboote für Saudi-Arabien. Und dieser Auftrag ist ganz entscheidend für den Erhalt der Peene Werft. Deswegen sollten wir mit der notwendigen Sensibilität vorgehen.“
Für Amthors Parlamentskollegin Kerstin Kassner (Die Linke) ist klar: Auch Wolgaster Boote dürfen nicht geliefert werden. Ihre Frage bei der Bundesregierung habe ergeben, dass die Boote bewaffnet werden können und man nicht wisse, was tatsächlich damit geschehe. An einem Niedergang der Peene-Werft samt zahlreichen Zulieferern in der Umgebung wären übrigens der Bremer Mutterkonzern Lürssen und die Bundesregierung schuld, so die vorpommersche Bundespolitikerin.
(* B P)
Warum Deutschland weiter Waffen liefert
Laut Koalitionsvertrag wollte die Bundesregierung längst keine Rüstungsexporte nach Saudi-Arabien mehr genehmigen. Dass das Land dennoch Waffentechnologie aus Deutschland bezieht, liegt an mehreren Ausnahmeregelungen.
Das liegt vor allem an zwei Regelungen, die von der Bundesregierung nicht einfach widerrufen werden können. Für einen Großauftrag über 30 Patrouillenboote aus Mecklenburg-Vorpommern gilt eine Ausnahme. Die jetzige Bundesregierung hat sich darauf verständigt, den 2015 genehmigten Auftrag nicht zu stoppen und die Schiffe weiter liefern zu lassen.
Außerdem erhält Riad Rüstungsgüter, die von multinationalen europäischen Konzernen gefertigt werden; beispielsweise den Eurofighter.
https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/saudi-arabien-ruestung-101.html
(A P)
Neu (Die Linke): Keine weiteren Ausfuhrgenehmigungen für Waffenexporte
Der Linken-Obmann im Verteidigungsausschuss Alexander Neu fordert einen klaren Rüstungsexport-Stopp nach Saudi-Arabien. Deutschen Herstellern Verdienstausfälle zu erstatten, wäre kein Problem. Für die deutsche Volkswirtschaft hätte es ohnehin kaum Auswirkungen, Rüstungsexporte komplett einzustellen.
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/ruestungsexportbericht-neu-die-linke-keine-weiteren.694.de.html
(B P)
Klaus Kleinfeld: Der Berater des Blutprinzen
Seit einem Jahr ist Ex-Siemens-Chef Klaus Kleinfeld ein enger Berater des saudischen Kronprinzen Mohammed bin Salman. Die Tötung des Journalisten Khashoggi scheint daran nichts zu ändern.
Der Job, den Klaus Kleinfeld vom saudischen Kronprinzen angeboten bekam, war an Gigantomanie kaum zu übertreffen. Gleich eine ganze Stadt sollte der Ex-Siemens-Chef in der Wüste erschaffen: 500 Milliarden Dollar Budget, 26.500 Quadratkilometer, eine Baufläche so groß wie Hessen, komplett gespeist aus erneuerbaren Energien, mit einem Industriepark, in dem fast nur noch Roboter arbeiten.
“Neom” heißt das Phantasia von Ölprinz Mohammed bin Salman, zu deutsch: neue Zukunft. Das Jobangebot war verlockend für Kleinfeld, den einstigen Kosmopoliten und Dealmaker, der weder in der Korruptionsaffäre bei Siemens, noch in einer Schlammschlacht bei seinem späteren Arbeitgeber Alcoa eine gute Figur gemacht hatte. Im Oktober 2017 ging Kleinfeld in die Wüste, als Berater.
(A P)
Bundesregierung hält an Polizeieinsatz in Saudi-Arabien fest
Auch nach Tötung des Regimekritikers Khashoggi stellt die Bundesregierung das umstrittene Ausbildungsprojekt für den saudischen Grenzschutz nicht infrage. Es soll sogar noch ausgeweitet werden.
Nach Informationen von REPORT MAINZ will die Bundesregierung an dem umstrittenen Ausbildungsprojekt der Bundespolizei in Saudi-Arabien festhalten. Seit 2009 sind Beamte der Bundespolizei in Saudi-Arabien im Einsatz, um das Königreich bei der Modernisierung seines Grenzschutzes zu unterstützen. Die deutschen Beamten trainieren saudische Sicherheitskräfte in grenzpolizeilichen Taktiken.
https://www.swr.de/report/presse/bundesregierung-haelt-an-polizeieinsatz-in-saudi-arabien-fest
(* B K P)
Moral? Come on!
Warum die Bundesregierung trotz aller Forderungen nicht auf Rüstungsexporte in Krisengebiete verzichtet
Das Dilemma der Bundesregierung: Geopolitik (und nicht nur die) ist generell ein schmutziges Geschäft und meist geprägt von Skrupellosigkeit und fehlender Moral.
Die Bundesregierung und mit ihr die Mehrheit der Deutschen strafen solche offen zur Schau gestellte „Realpolitik“ meist mit Verachtung. Die Alternative wäre konsequentes Handeln. Generell keine Rüstungsexporte mehr in Kriegs- und Krisengebiete beispielsweise. Dazu aber wird es nicht kommen, siehe oben. Was bleibt, ist die moralische EmpörungWorin also könnte eine konstruktive deutsche Außenpolitik bestehen, über Saudi-Arabien hinaus? Zunächst einmal heißt es ehrlich sein und sich den gänzlich entgegengesetzten Umgang der Bundesregierung mit den Fällen Skripal und Khashoggi vor Augen führen. Warum diese Ungleichbehandlung? Weil Saudi-Arabien ein wichtiger Geschäftspartner und der weltweit größte Erdölexporteur ist, eng verflochten mit Politik und Wirtschaft vor allem in den USA. Russland dagegen gilt als geostrategischer Widersacher, wenn nicht als Feind. Jeder Anlass, jeder Vorwand, ihn zu schwächen, wird gern genutzt. Im Übrigen gilt: Solange Diktaturen prowestlich sind, haben sie erfahrungsgemäß nichts zu befürchten. Anders sieht es aus, wenn sie aufseiten Russlands und Chinas stehen, wie Iran und Syrien. Dann greift die Agenda des Regimewechsels, im Namen von Demokratie, Freiheit und Menschenrechten. Doch die „westliche Wertegemeinschaft“ ist eine Fiktion, wenn nicht Propaganda. Wichtiger ist die Frage: Wer vertritt welche Interessen? Und wie lassen sich Deals machen mit den jeweiligen Akteuren?
Machen wir uns nichts vor: Saudi-Arabien – generell der Nahe und Mittlere Osten – ist ein Hinterhof Washingtons. Auf das, was dort geschieht, hat Berlin keinen Einfluss. Auch Brüssel nicht. Umso weniger verständlich ist die deutsche Lust, sich trotzdem in Syrien und im Irak militärisch zu engagieren. Die nächste Krise zeichnet sich ab, mit Iran. Und Deutschland? Redet viel, ebenso wie die EU, die Fakten jedoch schafft Washington – von Michael Lüders
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/der-freitag/moral-come-on
(A P)
„Wir haben deutlich mehr Fragen als Antworten“
Herr Maas, klare Frage, die mit ja oder mit nein zu beantworten ist: sollte Deutschland Waffenlieferungen an Saudi-Arabien stoppen?
Es sind in der Vergangenheit im Verhältnis zu den Anträgen, die es gegeben hat, nur noch wenige Waffen nach Saudi-Arabien geliefert worden. Ich glaube, solange diese Untersuchungen andauern, solange wir nicht wissen, was da geschehen ist, gibt es keine Grundlage auf der positive Entscheidungen für Rüstungsexporte nach Saudi-Arabien zu treffen sind.
https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/newsroom/maas-tagesthemen-khashoggi/2151664
Anmerkung André Tautenhahn: Das ist eine verräterische Sprache: Außenminister Maas sagt sinngemäß, aktuell dürfe es keine Rüstungsexporte nach Saudi-Arabien geben. Laut Koalitionsvertrag sind diese Exporte aber gänzlich ausgeschlossen, da das Land Krieg im Jemen führt. Doch dazu sagt der Außenminister nichts, er wird allerdings auch nicht danach gefragt.
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
(A K P)
European Union: Statement by the Spokesperson on the attacks in Hodeidah, Yemen
The most recent strikes hitting Hodeidah in Yemen on 24 October once again claimed civilian lives, with at least 21 workers killed at a vegetable packaging facility. We express our condolences to the families and friends of all those affected.
A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in the country after four years of conflict, with massive, imminent and unprecedented famine threatening millions of lives, as outlined by the United Nations humanitarian coordinator earlier this week.
At such a crucial time for the people of Yemen, all parties to the conflict must urgently allow the supply of foods and essential goods to the country, respecting international humanitarian law.
Comment: Why don't they just ban weapons sales!!!!?????
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10157109119908641
(A K P)
Trudeau can’t blame Tories for keeping Saudi arms deal, former minister says
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shouldn’t be blaming Conservative predecessors for signing onto a $15-billion light armoured vehicle sale to Saudi Arabia that contains terms that make it tough to cancel, says the former Tory cabinet minister who helped shepherd the deal.
Ed Fast said that events in Saudi Arabia have changed significantly since 2014, when the light armoured vehicle (LAV) agreement was inked, with Riyadh now waging a widely criticized war in Yemen and standing accused of murdering dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi on foreign soil.
Mr. Fast, now an opposition Conservative MP, was international trade minister in 2014.
My comment: Just shutting up and passing next holidays at Hodeidah would have been more serious.
(A E P)
Norway fund plans to more than double investments in Saudi Arabia
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, plans to more than double its investments in Saudi Arabia after it is included in the fund’s reference index soon, Chief Executive Yngve Slyngstad said on Friday.
The fund currently has Saudi assets worth 6.9 billion crowns ($825 million), spread over 42 companies including banks, petrochemicals and healthcare firms.
Comment: This is the problem with social democracy; it still operates within an imperialist system predicated on mass death and exploitation of the Global South:
https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1056492043084722177
(B P)
Pakistan’s role in Yemen crisis
As Saudis were using their influence to require Pakistan to join the military coalition, a joint session of Pakistan’s parliament passed a resolution in 2015 announcing neutrality and calling for a political settlement of the Yemen crisis. The resolution was widely praised.
The most important aspect of the parliamentary resolution, however, was that it called for Pakistan’s neutrality ‘so as to be able to play a proactive diplomatic role to end the crisis.’ The resolution called for continued efforts for peaceful resolution of the Yemen crisis, and for bringing unity of Muslim Ummah in cooperation with the leaders of other Muslim countries.
The Yemen crisis provides a unique opportunity to bring the sectarian divide on the political table of the Muslim world, the place that offers the best prospects for a positive outcome.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/1835370/6-pakistans-role-yemen-crisis/
(A K P)
Pilatus-Präsident Oscar J. Schwenk über Saudi-Arabien: «Wir haben alles richtig gemacht»
Der Nidwaldner Flugzeughersteller Pilatus ist wegen eines Unterstützungsauftrages in Saudi-Arabien in die Kritik geraten. Verwaltungsratspräsident Oscar J. Schwenk sagt, man verfüge über alle nötigen Bewilligungen.
Nein, die Vorwürfe stimmen absolut nicht und sind völlig absurd. Deshalb haben wir uns bis anhin auch nicht geäussert. Wir kommentieren keine tendenziösen Falschmeldungen. Das sind politische Fehlbehauptungen, die uns einen gewaltigen Reputationsschaden eingebracht haben. Wir haben eine ausserordentliche Generalausfuhrbewilligung für Saudi-Arabien aus dem Jahr 2014, die für vier Jahre gültig ist. Laut dieser können wir nach Saudi-Arabien Flugzeuge verkaufen, den Support übernehmen, Software updaten oder Technologie im Rahmen des Unterhalts liefern.
Bemerkung: Zu den Schweizer Waffenlieferungen an die Saudis Yemen War Mosaic 473, cp12. Der Herr sollte seinen nächsten Urlaub in Hodeidah verbringen.
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade
(* A P)
Fuad Rajeh: Western countries have convinced the whole world they are just arms dealers! Can they deny this fact?!!!
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1056360432292761601
My comment: No.
(* A P)
Germany seeks common European response on Saudi arms sales over Khashoggi killing
Germany, which has pledged to suspend arms exports to Saudi Arabia over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, said on Saturday it expects the European Union to adopt a common position on potential limits to weapons sales.
“We agreed that when we have more clarity... we will try to find a unified European solution or reaction from all member states of the European Union,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, referring to the sale of arms to the kingdom.
She was speaking at a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at the conclusion of a four-way summit on Syria.
Macron said that any decisions that would be taken, including potential sanctions, must be made at the European level to ensure coordination.
My comment: As there will be no agreement (The UK, France, Spain want to continue arms sales), no common response will be found and nothing will happen.
(* B K P)
Saudische Soldaten schiessen mit Schweizer Waffen
Nach Syrien und Libyen nun auch der Jemen: In einem weiteren Konfliktgebiet sind Waffen aus der Schweiz aufgetaucht.
Schweizer Waffenkommen im Jemen-Krieg zum Einsatz. Ein Foto, das dem «SonntagsBlick» vorliegt, zeigt saudische Soldaten, die kurz nach einem Gefecht mit Sturmgewehren aus Schweizer Produktion posieren. Es wurde Ende letzten Jahres in der Provinz Jizan im Grenzgebiet zwischen Saudiarabien und dem Jemen aufgenommen. Dort kämpft die saudische Armee gegen die Huthi-Rebellen.
Bei den Waffen soll es sich um Sturmgewehre des Typs 552 handeln. Sie sind laut Bericht auch auf dem Schwarzmarkt im Jemen zu finden. Hergestellt wurden sie von der Swiss Arms AG in Neuhausen am Rheinfall SH und stammen aus einer vom Bund bewilligten Lieferung. 2006 segnete das Staatssekretariat für Wirtschaft den Verkauf von rund 100 Sturmgewehren des Typs 552 an die saudische Marine ab, wie ein Sprecher bestätigte.
und
(* B K P)
Saudis töten mit Schweizer Sturmgewehren
Dem SonntagsBlick liegt ein Foto von saudischen Soldaten vor, die kurz nach einem Gefecht mit Sturmgewehren aus Schweizer Produktion posieren.
Aufgenommen wurde das Bild Ende 2017 in der Provinz Dschazan. Im dortigen Grenzgebiet zwischen Saudi-Arabien und dem Jemen liefert sich die saudische Armee blutige Kämpfe mit den Huthi-Rebellen.
Bei den Waffen handelt es sich um Sturmgewehre des Typs 552-2, hergestellt von der Swiss Arms AG in Neuhausen am Rheinfall SH. Das Gewehr ist eine Kommando-Version des Sturmgewehrs 90, mit dem auch Schweizer Soldaten ausgerüstet sind. Auf ihrer Webseite wirbt die Swiss Arms: «Unsere Präzision für den entscheidenden Einsatz.» (Foto)
cp13b Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage
(B)
Film: The ancient city of Thula #Yemen on the @UNESCO Heritage Tentative List. @SFDYemen brings together expertise from culture & heritage & #WASH in preserving this relic. A beauty of #Arabia Thula is a working city built upon #Sabaean & #Himyarite legacies.
https://twitter.com/Wesamqaid/status/1056606984777162755 b
cp13c Wirtschaft / Economy
(A E P)
Government approves issuing of financial bonds worth 100 billion riyals
The Yemeni government has approved a request from the ministry to issue bonds, certificates of deposit and agency contracts in the amount of 100 billion riyals to cover the budget deficit from non-inflationary sources.
A meeting was held in Riyadh under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Dr. Moin Abdulmalik, for the bonds Committee, which discussed the request of the Ministry of Finance to issue bonds, certificates of deposit and agency contracts in the amount of 100 billion riyals to cover the budget deficit from non-inflationary sources.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160242
My comment: The worth of such bonds will go to zero, and they only will fuel inflation.
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
(A T)
#IslamicState claims its rocket destroyed a Houthi checkpoint yesterday in Za'j area of Walad al-Rabi' in NW al-Bayda'. I make this ISIS's 5th declared attack in #Yemen during October. 3 attacks targeted #AQAP. Only 2 have targeted Houthis. All were in al-Bayda'
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1056151851337506818
cp15 Propaganda
(A P)
Ghannouchi, Khashoggi and other goals
In the past two days, Rached Ghannouchi spoke before his supporters from the Tunisian Ennahda Movement, the special Tunisian version of the Brotherhood
His statements are clear and the investment is clearer. It’s by the same party via the same approach and aims to serve the same purpose. A shocking death is being fully exploited and used to invoke feelings of anger in politics and to gain supporters and harm rivals. The rivals here, according to the Muslim Brotherhood, are the Arab countries that reject their project.
It’s been several years since the collapse of the Brotherhood project, the so-called Arab Spring, which received western leftist support, of primarily President Barack Obama. People woke up and revolted against the Brotherhood’s plans especially in Egypt and against the Khomeini projects in Bahrain – projects that came under the pretext of the Arab Spring. Ghannouchi and his comrades in Tunisia tried to adapt with the changes.
Today, due to the pressure which Ennahda Movement is feeling on the internal and external levels, its leader is trying to ignite the spark again using the Jamal Khashoggi case, and he is trying to expand the network of allies in the Arab region and besieging states that oppose the Brotherhood project and primarily Saudi Arabia.
(* A P)
Secretary General of the Southern Transitional Council: Confidence of Prince Mohamed Ben Salman While Managing the Recent Crisis Proved His Ability in Leading the Kingdom Towards a Path of Modernization and Developments free of Radical Thinking
Ahmed Hamed Lamlas, secretary general of the southern transitional council described the performance of prince Mohamed Ben Salman, crown prince of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, while managing the recent crisis as a confident and competent one proving his ability to lead the kingdom towards future horizons of modernization, construction and development.
In a post on his official page on Face Book, Lamlas indicated the the Young Crown Prince proved that Saudi Arabia has a young competent leadership that is free of the chains of Muslim Brotherhood and their vicious radical ideas.
Lamlas launched a new hashtag at the end of his post expressing the deep relation between Yemeni Reform Party, the political arm of Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen, and Al-Houthis. The hashtag is “#Reform_Is_Ally_To_Al-Houthies”
My comment: Whow. This is by southern separatists, praising the Saudi crown prince. 100 % solidarity and flattery in the light of the Khashoggi affair. – And, combined with further smearing the internal foes of Islah Party. – The hashtag did not work on Oct. 28, 7:30 MET.
(A P)
BERNIE SANDERS DEFENDS, "DEATH TOAMERICA, CURSE THE JEWS" TERRORISTS
Bernie Sanders isn't aware of a single thing that happened in the outside world after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Here's a pro-Houthi editorial somebody probably wrote for Bernie and that he published as an op-ed in the New York Times.
(A P)
Iranian interference makes Yemeni dialogue challenging says Arab League head
In an interview with The National, Ahmed Aboul Gheit discusses resolving conflicts from Yemen to Palestine
External interests and heavy Iranian interference makes finding a solution to the Yemen conflict extremely difficult, says Secretary-General of the League of Arab States Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
Speaking to The National on Sunday from the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue, a major regional security conference in the Bahraini capital, the Arab League head says that “fierce Iranian interference in Yemen” makes negotiations challenging as it “has emboldened the Houthis in rejecting any diplomatic initiative or any political solution”.
Mr Aboul Gheit says he sees two viable routes to resolve the protracted conflict.
Getting the Houthis to the negotiating table “could possibly be through recognising their presence, not as a militant group [but] rather as a component in the Yemeni make up”.
The second option would be “to use all out force to defeat them for good.”
But, he points out, the second option has clear drawbacks. “This would be a dangerous option as it would be harsh on the Yemeni people”, he says.
Mr Aboul Gheit indicates that a mix of both measures may be necessary to break the current impasse.
My comment: This is propaganda. The Arab League is a Saudi mouthpiece. The Iranian role in Yemen is minor compared to the Saudi, UAE, US, UK role. – And it’s just a fairy tale the Houthis would have been unwilling to come to the negotiation table.
(A P)
Al-Qaeda in Khoura: Elimination and Hauling
With these successes, we can hear the voices of Muslim Brotherhood who are compassionate with their terrorist brothers hauling a cursing Shabwa Elites without knowing that their curses only increase troops’ motivation.
https://en.smanews.org/al-qaeda-in-khoura-elimination-and-hauling
My comment: Southern separatists’ propaganda smearing Islah Party by claiming it is linked to Al Qaeda.
(A P)
Saudi coalition “We are benefactors” propaganda
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/erc-ends-isolation-cyclone-hit-mukalla-villages
(A P)
Saudi / UAE “We are benefactors” propaganda
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160287
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
(* A K pH)
Saudi coalition air raids day by day
Oct. 28: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/pb.551288185021551.-2207520000.1540824318./1165891896894507
Oct. 27: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/pb.551288185021551.-2207520000.1540751094./1165194290297601
Oct. 26: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/pb.551288185021551.-2207520000.1540660541./1164538887029808/
Oct. 25: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/pb.551288185021551.-2207520000.1540660541./1164538603696503
Oct. 24: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/pb.551288185021551.-2207520000.1540660541./1164538357029861
(A K pH)
Aggression’s Daily Update for Sunday, October 28th, 2018
In Hajja, The US-Saudi aggression targeted a truck carrying Beehives in Abs district. In Sa'ada, the aggression launched 4 raids on Ketaf district
In Hodiedah, the US-Saudi aggression targeted a Central refrigerator southern Kilo 16 and launched a raid western Al-Marawa'ah district.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=3468&cat_id=1
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news512646.htm
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news512642.htm
(* B K)
Saudi Arabia Kills Yemeni Civilians with Another US-Made Raytheon Bomb
A bomb used by Saudi Arabia to attack civilians in Yemen has been identified as a US-made laser-guided bomb manufactured by military contractor Raytheon.
On October 24, US-supported Saudi forces launched a series of airstrikes on the major Yemeni port city of Hodeidah.
One of these airstrikes struck several cars in the city, reportedly killing three civilians, including a child.
Local journalist Hussain Albukhaiti published a photo of a bomb fragment recovered at the scene of the airstrike:
The bomb fragment has text written in English, which indicates that it was manufactured in the United States. The CAGE code on the fragment, 96214, clearly identifies it as a part made by Raytheon.
Analysts on social media traced the serial code on the fragment, and found it to be part of the wing assembly from a GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bomb.
The text says it was made “for use on MK82” — a reference to the unguided Mark 82 bomb designed by US military contractor General Dynamics. The GBU-12, which is manufactured by both Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, is based on the Mk 82, but is guided and has additional parts – by Ben Norton (with tweets, photos)
https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/10/26/saudi-arabia-yemen-us-made-bomb-raytheon/
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
Siehe / Look at cp1b
(A K pH)
Aggression’s Daily Update for Sunday, October 28th, 2018
In Sa'ada, Saudi missiles and artillery shells targeted the houses and fams of civilians in Baqim border district.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=3468&cat_id=1
(* A K pS)
"MSAM" snatch 11,000 and 785 mines planted by Houthis in Yemen
The King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian action for demining in Yemen ("MSAM ") project has been able to extract 11,000 and 785 mines planted by Houthi militants since the start of the project.
A statement issued by the project said that the mines were planted in a number of schools and houses, and the Houthis tried to conceal them in different forms and ways, killing a number of innocent people, including women and children, and injuring others with serious injuries or amputation.
Within three weeks of October, the project teams destroyed 5,000 and 156 mines, including 77 anti-personnel mines, 3,000 anti-retroviral mines, 1,817 improvised explosive devices and 146 unexploded ordnance.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160192
www.arabnews.com/node/1394991/saudi-arabia
and
(A K pS)
Film: When it comes to planting #mines and explosive devices, the #Houthi militia consider it a work of art with the aim of increasing the causality toll, especially from #civilians. In this context, a camouflaged explosive device was seized in the form of a "palm trunk" in #Hodeidah.
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1056290702869622784
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
(-)
Magnificent lakes form once again in Empty Quarter
Sporadic lakes in the Empty Quarter (Rub’ al-Khali) desert, the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, has formed magnificent scenes once again. These lakes have mostly formed in the parts between Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen.
http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/546570/SAUDI-ARABIA/Magnificent-lakes-form-once-again-in-Empty-Quarter
Vorige / Previous:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-473-yemen-war-mosaic-473
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-473 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-473:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose oder / or http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm
Der saudische Luftkrieg im Bild / Saudi aerial war images:
(18 +, Nichts für Sensible!) / (18 +; Graphic!)
http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm
http://yemenwarcrimes.blogspot.de/
und alle Liste aller Luftangriffe / and list of all air raids:
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