... Wie die Saudis Freunde gewinnen – Saudische Lobbyarbeit in den USA – Die ewigen Kriege der USA – und mehr
October 31, 2018: Yemen on fire – No money, no food – Yemen, Khashoggi and the West – Saudis pressed UN to good publicity – Crown Prince Salman and the house of Saud – How the Saudis win friends – Saudis lobbying in the US – America’s endless wars – 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
cp2a Allgemein: Saudische Blockade / General: Saudi blockade
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
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
cp12a Katar-Krise / Qatar crisis
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms Trade
cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner
cp13c Wirtschaft / Economy
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp15 Propaganda
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
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
(** B H)
Feed hungry children in Hajjah province of Yemen
Around 2.9 million women and children are acutely malnourished in Yemen.
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.
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)
Feed hungry children in Hajjah province of Yemen
Around 2.9 million women and children are acutely malnourished in Yemen.
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.
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)
Film: Yemen war: 12 million Yemenis could soon be on the brink of famine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wqOgyjeKrw
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
(** B K P)
YEMEN ON FIRE
Abstract
Yemen, as a unitary state, has long ceased to exist. Since unification in 1990, the state has been the playfield for those willing to have power and control over resources. The Houthis, an initially egalitarian movement sounding the grievances of Zaydis, has turned into an authoritarian and repressive insurgent group, as is the case for most of its kind. Not having sufficient political background and culture of compromise, the group has opted for using force to seize the state and for further territorial expansion based on its only capital, the military force. In the current situation, Houthis lack legitimacy, political agenda and human capital to run whole Yemen. In face of coalition intervention and increasing mass of its forces, the group has started to lose territory in an increasing rate. The Coalition, on the other hand, acting to restore order of Hadi government, has seen divergent interests of the Coalition partners, trying to create a sphere of influence at the expanse of Hadi control. The reckless targeting of civilian targets has maimed infrastructure in the country and questionable methods implemented has put the country in disarray. The country is currently labeled as the the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis.” Taking into account former demands of Houthis for secession, and similar demand by STC in South, a united Yemen seems hard, if not impossible to form in the post conflict era which we have started to see coming. This paper is an attempt to delve into background and causes of the crisis in Yemen, focusing on how crisis evolved and what prospects we should expect for future. The report contributes to the extant literature especially with assessments on the kinetic aspects of the war, which plays a defining role in the evolvement of the events.
Introduction
The world has been witnessing gradual grinding of Yemen since 2014. First, its location was engraved in our minds and then the reports on the dire situation exacerbating each and every day filled media outlets. Accordingly, the country, in most cases dubbed as the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis” shoulders every type of misfortune on top of the civil war it is experiencing currently. Arguably, these reports do not change the status of Yemen as one of the least understood places on Earth.
Attributing causes of the catastrophic conditions within the country to the final uprising by Houthis, a group of minor political importance until 2000s, is misleading. Often cited regional rivalry or cold war between Iran and Saudi Arabia fills only a portion of the holistic picture and the catalogue of causes.
Especially since 1990, the country has become a hotbed for unrest in different waves and level of intensities. A better interpretation would be that the crisis is primarily an extension of internal competition over who controls the state, hence the resources and penetration of great powers lest jihadi terrorist networks that took root in the country find fertile grounds to further flourish and spread in the vacuum of power. Any insight disregarding the fact that Yemen has never achieved to become a full-functioning state in Weberian sense and the power structure within Yemen run the risk of missing the point. (Clausen, 2018) – by Onur Sultan
https://www.behorizon.org/yemen-on-fire/
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In Yemen, plenty of food but few have the cash to buy it
Yemenis are on the brink of what the UN says could be the worst famine in history, not because of a lack of food but mass, dire poverty as the value of the rial has plunged
Tens of thousands of public servants have not been paid since September 2016 when the Saudi-led backed Yemeni government relocated the central bank headquarters from the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa to the southern city of Aden.
In the port city of Mukalla, which is under the control of the Yemeni government, the situation is as bleak as other areas. Thousands of internally displaced people live in miserable conditions. The number of beggars in the streets has increased considerably over the last couple of years. Relief workers say people now knock on doors or call fellow citizens to ask for help.
“People are suffering silently. There could be a famine, as people cannot afford to buy food,” Omer Bashan, a local aid worker, told Asia Times.
The humanitarian situation has been exacerbated by rapid devaluation of the Yemeni currency. The rial traded at 215 to the dollar in 2015 when the war began but it has dropped to almost 700 now. This plunge of the currency pushed the prices of basic food items through the roof. Some public servants who receive their salaries on time complain that their wage has lost more than half of its value as the government has not approved any increase since the beginning of the war.
When the public servant Ashraf Omer was employed in 2008, his salary was 45,000 rials and worth $210. Now, it is 52,000 but worth only $75. “My salary evaporates within an hour,” the 38-year-old teacher told Asia Times at his simple house.
To keep his family of 11 members afloat, Omer was forced to find another job. He has had to scrap expensive food like meat from his monthly shopping list and put an end to family picnics.
“In the past, we used to buy bags of rice, sugar and milk,” he said, adding that he now buys flour, milk and rice by the kilo and on credit.
As people struggle to cope with deteriorating living standards, the Yemeni government appears unable to prevent the currency from falling further. But it announced that it would provide local traders with “subsidized dollars” so they can continue to import essential goods.
Residents, traders and government officials are stuck in the same dilemma, saying the country is not suffering a shortage of food, but a lack of cash.
“There is food security, but people cannot afford to buy it due to the fall of the currency,” Faris Bin Hilabi, a local wheat trader, told Asia Times, adding that excessive bureaucracy by the central bank has hindered traders from receiving the “subsidized dollars” on time.
For Ahlam and Ashraf, if their tight financial situation persists, they will be forced into even greater misery.
“I would rather skip meals or drinking water than go out and beg people for money,” Ahlam said – by Saeed Al Batati
http://www.atimes.com/article/in-yemen-plenty-of-food-but-few-have-the-cash-to-buy-it/
My comment: This is from “liberated” Southern Yemen.
(** B K P)
Khashoggi versus 50,000 Slaughtered Yemeni Children
No doubt, it was a horrible murder that took place in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
To soften the blow, for business purposes, some European countries would like to argue that it may not have been a premeditated assassination, but possibly a mortal “accident”, which would of course change the premises and lessen the punishment – and weapon sales could continue. It’s all business anyway.
Europe has no morals, no ethics no nothing. Europe, represented by Brussels, and in Brussels by the non-elected European Commission (EC), for all practical purposes is a mere nest of worms, or translated into humans, a nest of white-collar criminals, politicians, business people and largely a brainwashed populace of nearly 500 million. There are some exceptions within the population and fortunately their pool of ‘awakened’ is gently growing.
Back to the real issue: It took the horrendous murder of a famous Saudi-critical and Saudi-national journalist, for the Europeans to react – and that, mind you, grudgingly. They’d rather follow Donald Trump’s line, why lose 110 billion dollars-worth of arms sales to the Saudis, for the murder of a journalist. – After all, business is business. Everything else is a farce.
For three and half years, the Saudi’s have waged a horrendous war on Yemen.
The European, along with the US, have been more than complicit in this crime against humanity – in these horrendous war crimes. Imagine one day a Nuremberg-type Court against war crimes committed in the last 70 years, not one of the western leaders, still alive, would be spared. That’s what we – in the west – have become. A nest of war criminals – war criminals for sheer greed. They invented a neoliberal, everything goes market doctrine system, where no rules no ethics no morals count – just money, profit and more profit. Any method of maximizing profit – war and war industry – is good and accepted. And the west with its fiat money made of hot air, is imposing this nefarious, destructive system everywhere, by force and regime change if voluntary acceptance is not in the cards.
And we, the people, have become complicit in it, as we are living in luxury and comfort, and couldn’t care less what our leaders (sic-sic) are doing to the rest of the world, to the so-called lesser humans, who live in squalor as refugees, their homes and towns destroyed, bombed to ashes, no schools, no hospitals, and to a large extent no food – yes about 70 million-plus refugees are everyday on the move, most of them from the west-destroyed Middle-East. Why should we worry? We live well. To the contrary, these refugees they could steal our jobs. Let them not invade our luxury havens. Rather keep bombing their countries into rubble.
Yemen, strategically highly sought-for, should, of course, not be governed by the Houthis, a socialist-leaning group of revolutionary Muslims which is part of the Shia Zaidi, a branch of the Shia Imamiya of Iran.They finally became sick and tired of the decades-long Washington manipulation of their government. And who better than the stooges of Saudi Arabia to do the dirty job for Washington? – And, yes, they don’t have to do it alone. Weapon supplies comefrom all over Europe, mainly the UK, and France, also Spain, and for a while also from Germany – and well, neutral Switzerland.
No matter that tens of thousands of children are killed, that according to the Human Rights Commission, up to 22 million Yemenis (out of about 30 million population), are in danger of severe famine, and that includes at least 8 million children – children who have for the most part no more access to schools, health services and food – an entire generation or more without education, a well-planned and premeditated gap in society, as is the case in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. By killing and depriving children of basic needs, the west is creating a widening gap of educated people, of people that can and would otherwise fight for their countries, for their societies. But – they are gone. That makes it so much easier for the west just to take over – their strategic position, their natural resources and suck empty the social safety funds accumulated by their labor force.
Isn’t that a thought for the illustrious populace who live in western luxury, to lean back in their fauteuils and think about?
And while we wonder why Saudi-slaughtered Yemenis does not raise a fuss in the western media, but the Saudi killing of a journalist does, all-the-while our linear IMF provided projections increase western GDP by fantastic numbers by 2030.
But it takes the Khashoggi killing that might stop – if only temporarily, and if only we are lucky – the Saudi war machine. The population of Yemen is unimportant. Why?
Why does it take the assassination of a journalist – granted, a horrendous and grisly murder by his own country’s government – no matter how controversial Jamal Khashoggi was, he has been writing for our western MSM, for the truth tellers, such as the Washington post and the NYTimes. That may have helped making him more important than 50,000 slaughtered and maimed Yemeni children – more important in the sense that only through his abject murder, the European – maybe – will react and ‘sanction’ the Saudis.
But even that is not sure – as the Transatlantic Master Trump, has many trumps up his sleeve, that he may offer or coerce the EU puppets into following his heinous example and spare Riyadh from any punishment, especially as far as weapons are concerned. After all its business. Dead children are just that, dead Yemenis, a generation less to worry about – by Peter Koenig
https://countercurrents.org/2018/10/27/khashoggi-versus-50000-slaughtered-yemeni-children/ = https://dissidentvoice.org/2018/10/khashoggi-versus-50000-slaughtered-yemeni-children/
(** B H P)
Saudis demanded good publicity over Yemen aid, leaked UN document shows
The UN aid agency, Ocha, was pushed to accept extensive terms attached to $930m from Saudi Arabia and UAE
Saudi Arabia demanded that aid agencies operating in Yemen should provide favourable publicity for Riyadh’s role in providing $930m (£725m) of humanitarian aid, an internal UN document reveals.
Although many donors seek publicity in return for grants, the extent of the Saudi demands are highly unusual.
The document, entitled Visibility Plan, covers the terms of the 2018 humanitarian budget for Yemen, and shows the extent to which the UN aid agency, Ocha, was put under pressure to accept the PR strings attached to money given both by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The two countries provided nearly one third of the total UN humanitarian budget for Yemen for this year.
Future grants distributed by Ocha to agencies should be tied to the amount of beneficial publicity given to Saudi Arabia, the documents advises. It also calls for Ocha to seek favourable publicity for the Saudi humanitarian effort in Yemen in newspapers such as the New York Times and the Guardian.
The document also sets out how all agencies receiving Saudi aid must share a summary of their publicity around the funding. The agreement adds: “We consider it very important to ensure that our dear fellow Yemenis are all aware of our donations. More emphasis should be placed on strengthening the local visibility plan by engaging local media … so that donors get deserved recognition and not to be overshadowed by the recipient’s agencies’ visibility.”
The UN, the plan sets out, will convene events at UN headquarters focusing on the humanitarian response in Yemen, and the impact of all donor funding. These events will acknowledge the roles of all donors including Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The agreement also requires agencies receiving the aid to document Saudi- and UAE-supported activities in photographs and video material in Yemen.
The document then sets out 48 specific steps UN agencies have agreed to take this year to publicise Saudi activity covering five different UN aid-linked agencies, including the UN Development Programme, Ocha, the World Health Organization and Unicef.
The leaked documents also show the pressure the two countries have brought to bear on the UN to raise their profile as charitable donors.
One demand states: “One would expect from Ocha or [a] recipient agency to publish articles in recognised daily newspapers such as the New York Times or the Guardian, highlighting our contribution.”
Although the documents show that Ocha resisted some of the Saudi demands, the agency complied with a Saudi request that “a specialised person is recruited by Ocha to be the focal point to ensure the implementation plan by all recipient agencies and to consolidate reports”. – by Patrick Wintour
and also https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-arabia-uae-ocha-1052555137
and as an example
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Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock: Note on the humanitarian situation in Yemen
In the meantime, we have raised a record amount of funding for our humanitarian appeal in 2018 – $2.1 billion from our generous donors towards the UN coordinated response plan. Thank you, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, United States, Kuwait, the United Kingdom, and all our donors.
Most of these funds come as large, unconditional, rapid, unearmarked, cash contributions.
All of our donors recognize that alleviating suffering in Yemen is a moral priority and a humanitarian imperative
(** B P)
Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is ‘chief of the tribe’ in a cowed House of Saud
Now well more than a year into the job, the new crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, enjoys nearly absolute power in the kingdom, directly controlling foreign and domestic policy, the security forces, and the economy.
In doing so, Mohammed has replaced “cautious” royal leadership with “impulsive interventionist politics,” as one Western intelligence agency predicted in late 2015, warning that his rapid ascent would lead to trouble at home and abroad.
But what is happening within Saudi Arabia is far less transparent. Will Mohammed stay or go? Will his power be somehow curtailed by his father, the king, or as part of a royal consensus to dilute it? Or will he, and the kingdom, weather the storm without significant damage?
Since Mohammed came to power, the “deference of the older members” of the royal family to him has been surprising, said one former senior official of a regional government friendly to Saudi Arabia. “They’ve treated this 33-year-old kid as if he’s chief of the tribe. It’s very unusual,” he said. This person is one of a number of current and former officials of the Saudi and other governments who agreed to discuss matters inside the kingdom only on the condition of anonymity to preserve relations or protect their own security.
But most, along with nongovernment experts, said the situation was no surprise, pointing out that the wide and complicated family power structure, along with the opaque consensus that long ruled in Saudi Arabia, is long gone.
“My sense is that the royal family is probably cowed, or at least cowed enough, and no longer able to coalesce around a powerful figure [to replace Mohammed], even if one existed,” said Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.
“It’s much too late,” Sayigh said. “Much of their institutional fiefdoms have already been dismantled” and “enfeebled.”
A Middle Eastern intelligence official argued that, despite his flaws, Mohammed — widely known as MBS — has brought Saudi Arabia into the modern world, that he is sincere in fighting terrorism and that his continuance in power is important for the stability of the Arab world.
Madawi al-Rasheed, a Saudi who is a visiting professor at the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics, vehemently disagreed. “MBS needs to be sacked, and [even] this is not enough, unless King Salman pledges to change the political system into some kind of accountable government,” she said.
“In the past, other princes were strong and they worked by consensus, [although] the oppression was exactly the same,” Rasheed said. “Now the elders have died or disappeared or [been] detained or humiliated, so MBS works as an individual. Whether he has a good personality, a bad personality, a murderous personality is not important. What is important is that he is not restrained by any structure, any institution or any members of his family.”
Mohammed, said a Saudi official unsympathetic to the crown prince, “has taken Saudi Arabia hostage. He has made some major miscalculations. . . . This is not a man who will be a long-term reliable partner to the U.S. or the rest of the West.” –By Kevin Sullivan, Karen DeYoung, Souad Mekhennet and Kareem Fahim
(** B P)
How Saudi Arabia Wins Friends
In the aftermath of the Khashoggi murder, the kingdom has fallen back on the old tactic of wielding its oil wealth to buy loyalty.
Since Prince Mohammed’s rise to power, the Saudis have pursued a more aggressive and militarized foreign policy, but they have also fallen back on a tactic honed over decades — wielding their oil wealth to buy loyalty in the Arab world and beyond.
Amid the international uproar over Mr. Khashoggi’s murder, Saudi leaders pressed friendly and dependent Muslim governments to publicly support the kingdom. Longtime Saudi allies in the Persian Gulf, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain expressed support, as did several Arab governments dependent on Saudi aid: Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and the ousted government of Yemen.
When the kingdom finally conceded that its agents killed Mr. Khashoggi, a Saudi Foreign Ministry statement expressed appreciation for “the wise positions of countries that preferred to wait on investigation procedures and evidence; avoiding unfounded speculations and allegations.” King Salman and Prince Mohammed made it clear: Once the dust settles, Saudi Arabia will remember its friends and punish its enemies.
In addition to conducting checkbook diplomacy, Saudi Arabia controls a vast media empire that reaffirms its foreign policy and attacks its critics. Saudi leaders finance rivals against politicians in the Muslim world that fail to toe the kingdom’s line, and they spend tens of millions of dollars lobbying Western governments and supporting prominent think tanks, universities and cultural institutions that help shape the kingdom’s image in the West.
The Saudi leadership’s leveraging of checkbook diplomacy, and threatening to withhold trade and investments, is directed not only at the Arab and Muslim worlds. Over the past year, Prince Mohammed halted trade and economic deals with Germany and Canada in retaliation for their criticism of Saudi actions, including the Saudi-led war in Yemen and the arrests of women’s rights activists.
Those Arab states that did not express outright fealty to the kingdom have remained largely silent on the Khashoggi killing, underlining their fear of angering Saudi rulers.
The Saudis use their control over the annual Hajjpilgrimage to Mecca as another means of rewarding friends and sidelining enemies in the Muslim world. Each year, the Saudi government sets quotas on the number of pilgrims from countries around the world who can receive Hajj visas, based on the percentage of Muslims in each country. The kingdom also allocates preferential blocks of Hajj visas to favored international politicians and allies.
Saudi Arabia’s allies and clients realize the danger of crossing Prince Mohammed, who has shown the world that he can be reckless and ruthless. Those who stay in the prince’s good graces hope that he will reward fealty, especially since he has positioned himself to rule for decades as Saudi Arabia’s next king – by Mohamad Bazzi
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The Saudi Lobby: How the kingdom wins in Washington
The brutal murder of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Arabia consulate in Turkey has placed newfound and long overdue scrutiny on Saudi Arabia’s infuence operation in the United States. In the wake of Khashoggi’s death, politicians have called for a reevaluation of U.S-Saudi relations, high-profle lobbying frms have cut of ties with the Kingdom, and the amicable relationship between the Saudi Arabian government and Washington hangs in the balance. However, Saudi money and infuence have become entrenched in Washington politics and are unlikely to disappear after Khashoggi’s death. For years, Saudi Arabia has employed an army of American lobbyists and public relations professionals to cultivate a positive Saudi image in the United States and steer U.S. foreign policy as they see fit.
In order to investigate the Saudis’ pervasive campaign for infuence, the Foreign Infuence Transparency Initiative, a program of the Center for International Policy, analyzed records fled by frms registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to represent Saudi clients in 2017. This report reviews all of the political contributions made by foreign agents at these frms, all of the political activity these frms reported doing on behalf of their Saudi clients, and, critically, the intersection of these political activities and campaign contributions.
From these 2017 FARA flings we found: • Spending of approximately $27 million by Saudi Arabia on FARA registered frms; • More than 2,500 political activities done on behalf of Saudi Arabia by those frms; • More than $2 million in campaign contributions from these frms; • Nearly $400,000 in campaign contributions from these frms to Members of Con gress these frms had contacted on behalf of Saudi interests; • Twelve instances in which that contact and contribution occurred on the exact same day.
The timing of many of these political contributions coincides closely with key Congressional events involving Saudi Arabia, including the Justice Against State Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) votes and votes to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Yet, within our current campaign fnance system such contributions are perfectly legal.
This report not only reveals the intersection of extensive political activity and contributions made by FARA registered frms working on behalf of Saudi interests, but also quantifes the enormity of Saudi infuence in America. And, today, that infuence remains extraordinary. Despite the brutal murder of Khashoggi, and the Saudi government’s attempted cover up, more than two dozen frms are still registered under FARA to represent Saudi Arabia. If the fndings in this report are any indication, the Saudi lobby in Washington is most likely feverishly contacting Congressional ofces to stymie legislation that would punish Saudi Arabia for their actions, and they’re likely making campaign contributions to those same Members of Congress.
Introduction
2017 was a turning-point for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the United States. After years of an increasingly souring relationship with President Barack Obama’s administration—including passage of the Iran nuclear agreement, despite strong opposition from Saudi Arabia—the Kingdom saw an immense opportunity in the election of President Donald Trump. After all, Trump’s companies had been doing business with Saudi royals for at least twenty years, and during his Presidential campaign he launched eight new companies linked to a hotel project in Saudi Arabia.
With such strong ties already in place, the Kingdom wasted no time expanding its already massive infuence operation in America. Before Trump even took ofce in early 2017 three new frms had already fled paperwork under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to represent Saudi interests—the McKeon Group, headed by Howard “Buck” McKeon, the recently retired Republican Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee; the CGCN Group, with deep ties to conservative Republicans; and, to bolster Democratic support, the Podesta Group, headed by Tony Podesta, brother of long-time Democratic operative and former chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, John Podesta.
https://www.ciponline.org/images/uploads/actions/Saudi_Lobby_How_the_Kingdom_Wins_in_Washington.pdf
and on this matter a more abridged article: https://www.voanews.com/a/campaign-contributions-coincide-with-pro-saudi-lobbying-in-washington/4631656.html
(** B K P)
WHY AMERICAN LEADERS PERSIST IN WAGING LOSING WARS
As America enters the 18th year of its war in Afghanistan and its 16th in Iraq, the war on terror continues in Yemen, Syria, and parts of Africa, including Libya, Niger, and Somalia. Meanwhile, the Trump administration threatens yet more war, this time with Iran. (And given these last years, just how do you imagine that’s likely to turn out?) Honestly, isn’t it time Americans gave a little more thought to why their leaders persist in waging losing wars across significant parts of the planet? So consider the rest of this piece my attempt to do just that.
Let’s face it: profits and power should be classified as perennial reasons why U.S. leaders persist in waging such conflicts. War may be a racket, as General Smedley Butler claimed long ago, but who cares these days since business is booming? And let’s add to such profits a few other all-American motivations. Start with the fact that, in some curious sense, war is in the American bloodstream. As former New York Times war correspondent Chris Hedges once put it, “War is a force that gives us meaning.” Historically, we Americans are a violent people who have invested much in a self-image of toughness now being displayed across the “global battlespace.” (Hence all the talk in this country not about our soldiers but about our “warriors.”) As the bumper stickers I see regularly where I live say: “God, guns, & guts made America free.” To make the world freer, why not export all three?
Add in, as well, the issue of political credibility. No president wants to appear weak and in the United States of the last many decades, pulling back from a war has been the definition of weakness. No one — certainly not Donald Trump — wants to be known as the president who “lost” Afghanistan or Iraq. As was true of Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon in the Vietnam years, so in this century fear of electoral defeat has helped prolong the country’s hopeless wars.
Washington’s own deeply embedded illusions and deceptions also serve to generate and perpetuate its wars. Lauding our troops as “freedom fighters” for peace and prosperity, presidents like George W. Bush have waged a set of brutal wars in the name of spreading democracy and a better way of life. The trouble is: incessant war doesn’t spread democracy — though in the twenty-first century we’ve learned that it does spread terror groups — it kills it. At the same time, our leaders, military and civilian, have given us a false picture of the nature of the wars they’re fighting. They continue to present the U.S. military and its vaunted “smart” weaponry as a precision surgical instrument capable of targeting and destroying the cancer of terrorism, especially of the radical Islamic variety. Despite the hoopla about them, however, those precision instruments of war turn out to be blunt indeed, leading to the widespread killingof innocents, the massive displacement of people across America’s war zones, and floods of refugees who have, in turn, helped spark the rise of the populist right in lands otherwise still at peace.
Lurking behind the incessant warfare of this century is another belief, particularly ascendant in the Trump White House: that big militaries and expensive weaponry represent “investments” in a better future — as if the Pentagon were the Bank of America or Wall Street. Steroidal military spending continues to be sold as a key to creating jobs and maintaining America’s competitive edge, as if war were America’s primary business. (And perhaps it is!)
Those who facilitate enormous military budgets and frequent conflicts abroad still earn special praise here. Consider, for example, Senator John McCain’s rapturousfinal sendoff, including the way arms maker Lockheed Martin lauded him as an American hero supposedly tough and demanding when it came to military contractors. (And if you believe that, you’ll believe anything.)
Put all of this together and what you’re likely to come up with is the American version of George Orwell’s famed formulation in his novel 1984: “war is peace.”
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176487/tomgram%3A_william_astore%2C_the_pentagon_has_won_the_war_that_matters/ = https://southfront.org/why-american-leaders-persist-in-waging-losing-wars/
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics
(** B H)
YEMEN CHOLERA
Contaminated water, trash build-up aggravating Yemen's cholera epidemic
Contaminated water supplies used in farming and at home as well poor sanitation brought about by a build up of garbage on the streets of Yemen's capital are feeding the cholera outbreak in the war-torn country, a medical source told epa-efe.
Doctor Amal Al Surhi, who leads an epidemiological specialist team in the Sana'a area, spoke to epa-efe alongside Fatima, a mother of three who lost her baby son earlier in the month in an epidemic that the World Health Organization described as one of the worst outbreaks in recent history.
According to Al Surhi, a barely functioning sewage treatment plant in the north of the city was one of the main reasons for the spread of cholera.
"Now it pumps wastewater to agricultural areas nearby where about 35 percent of the vegetables are available to the capital’s population," Dr Al Surhi said.
The doctor said contaminated water sold to residents from tankers as well as an accumulation of trash in the streets were contributing to the spread of the disease.
"I have asked the municipal services to lift garbage piles, but they say there are no salaries for cleaners and a lack of operation budget for municipal vehicles due to the intensifying war," he said.
Children are particularly vulnerable to the disease, with under five-year-olds representing 30.5 percent of the total suspected cases, according to WHO figures.
My comment: Crucial for the destruction of sewage systems and water facilities: The Saudi coalition air raids, which thus are largely responsible for this heavy increase of cholera: the destruction of many medical facilities, rodas, briges, transport facilities by air raids, the Saudi blockade supported cholera even more.
(* A H)
Medical source: 60 suspected cases of cholera during one month and 20 cases of cholera in less than a week in Zenjebar district in Abyan governorate.
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1057014212600328193
cp1b Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah / Most important: Hodeidah battle
(* B K)
Arab Coalition Strike Kills 150 Houthis Near Hodeidah
A strike by the Arab coalition fighting Houthis in Yemen killed 150 rebels near the port city of Hodeidah, a spokesman for the Saudi-led forces said Tuesday.
The missile and bomb attack hit a Houthi training camp, Col. Turki Al-Malki said.
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201810311069368336-yemen-coalition-strike-hodeidah/
(* B H)
Film: More than 550,000 Fleeing Hodeidah in Yemen Suffer Survival Crisis
More than 550,000 have fled their homes in Yemen's port city of Hodeidah and surrounding areas amid escalating fighting, and these internally displaced persons are suffering severe survival crisis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSQgYGQYYbo = https://www.france24.com/en/video/20181030-more-550000-flee-homes-fighting-intensifies-yemen
(* A K pS)
Yemen’s army advances against Houthis on outskirts of Hodeidah
Yemen’s national army forces gained advances on their battlefield positions against Houthis on several fronts in the country’s western coast, where the militia have suffered dozens of deaths and injuries, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Monday.
“The fighting spread throughout the past two days, with the support of coalition fighters in Yemen, to the south of the city, including the neighborhoods north of the airport and to the surroundings of the University of Hodeidah,” said a field source.
The sources added that the Yemeni forces advanced against the militia in the area east of the entrance to the city of Hodeidah, attacking Houthi positions.
Coalition jets raided the positions and reinforcements of the Houthi militia with approximately 15 airstrikes east of the city, which resulted in the death of 30 militia forces and dozens of injuries.
“The militia tried to attack the town of Hayes from the east, but national army forces forced it to retreat after fierce fighting that lasted for several hours,” the source said.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1396246/middle-east
(* A K pS)
Arab coalition to send 10,000 troops to liberate Hodeidah from Houthis
Military preparations are underway to end civilian misery in key port city
The Arab coalition in Yemen on Tuesday deployed 10,000 additional troops to the rebel held port of Hodeidah, ahead of a new offensive, Yemeni government officials told The National.
"Preparations and military endeavours are underway to put an end to people's misery that are caused by the Houthi rebels," Hamza Ali Kamali, member of the Yemeni government delegation to Geneva, told The National.
Military operations have been renewed during the last two days in the vital port city aiming to push back the rebels, but they still hold parts of Hodeidah and the capital Sanaa.
"We have received military equipment from the legitimate forces and the Arab coalition to start a new offensive in the Hodeidah front and the Yemen west coast to regain the port," Mr Al Kamali said.
My comment: “Military preparations are underway to end civilian misery in key port city” is absurd and self-contradictory.
and
(* A K)
Saudi-led coalition sends thousands of troops towards Yemen port
The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen has sent more than 10,000 new troops towards a vital rebel-held port city ahead of a new assault, Yemeni government officials said Tuesday.
The pro-government coalition deployed the reinforcements to the Red Sea coast ahead of a new offensive on Hodeida "within days", a military official told AFP.
He said they would also "secure areas liberated" from the Iran-backed Huthi rebels, and that forces from Sudan, part of the coalition, had moved in to "secure" areas around the city.
Huthi rebels have for the past 10 days been stationing fighters on rooftops of buildings in Hodeida city, government military officials told AFP.
The adjacent port is the entry point for three quarters of imports to the impoverished country, which is teetering on the edge of famine.
(* A K)
Coalition forces besiege Hudaydah on three sides
Pro-Yemeni forces supported by the Saudi-led Arab coalition advanced into east Hudaydah, the Red Sea port controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, according to pan-Arab Saudi media sources, which said the city is "besieged on three sides".
The reports cannot be independently verified on the ground and pro-Houthi media sources deny the reports.
Saudi state news agency SPA and pan-Arab Saudi broadcaster Arabiya confirmed that pro-Rihaydh Yemeni forces have captured some of the hills east of Hudaydah, which is already besieged in the south and west, on the coast.
(A K pH)
5 Saudi aggression hit Hodeidah
The US-Saudi aggression warplanes waged five airstrikes in Hodeidah province, a local official told Saba in Monday.
The air raids targeted citizens' farms in al-Marwah.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news512756.htm
(B K pH)
Film: children of victims of fragments of aggression in the West Coast 29-10-2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1gWGjaBZOw
cp2 Allgemein / General
(* B K P)
Der vergessene Krieg im Jemen: "Die saudischen Militärs gehören vor ein internationales Tribunal"
Dreh- und Angelpunkt der humanitären Katastrophe ist Hudeida. Über die Hafenstadt wickelte der Jemen in Friedenszeiten einen Großteil seiner Lebensmittelimporte ab, im Krieg wurden Hilfsgüter für die notleidende Bevölkerung angeliefert.
Doch um die Stadt zu "befreien", die seit 2013 unter Kontrolle der Rebellen steht, greift die von Saudi-Arabien und den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten (VAE) geführte Kriegskoalition erbarmungslos an. Seither stocken die Lieferungen.
Vor allem die Bombardements durch die saudi-arabische Luftwaffe seien für die Opfer verantwortlich, sagt Achim Schlott vom Vorstand der Deutsch-Jemenitischen Gesellschaft in Frankfurt.
Er spricht von "Kriegsverbrechen, die überwiegend von den saudischen Kräften begangen werden" und von "bis zu 50.000 Toten". Seine Schlussfolgerung: Die saudischen Militärs "gehören eigentlich vor ein internationales Tribunal."
(* B K P)
Saudi role in devastating Yemen war comes under new scrutiny after Khashoggi murder
In Saudi Arabia’s version of its war in neighboring Yemen, the Saudi-led coalition carefully chooses targets for its airstrikes. The rapidly rising civilian death counts reported by the United Nations and humanitarian groups are highly exaggerated. So are the accounts of an impending famine caused by war. And the coalition is in no way interfering with humanitarian aid or with assistance to Yemen’s beleaguered economy.
But now that narrative is wearing thin, critics say.
The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi this month by Saudi agents — and Saudi Arabia’s repeated denials of any knowledge of his fate — is raising new concerns about the Saudi account of how it is waging its devastating military campaign in Yemen.
“It’s thrown open the doors of doubt to the entire Saudi version of the war in Yemen,” said Elisabeth Kendall, a Yemen scholar at Oxford University. “It is no longer able to just tell the world what it wants it to think without the world now being suspicious and skeptical.”
As these doubts multiply, they are raising questions anew about whether the Trump administration can trust what Saudi Arabia is telling U.S. officials about its conduct of the war in Yemen, especially its role in civilian casualties and human rights violations. Administration officials rely on the Saudi information in urging U.S. lawmakers to allow more weapons sales and other military assistance to the kingdom.
Last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis certified to Congress that the Saudi-led coalition was making “every effort to reduce the risk of civilian casualties.” A senior White House official, speaking in Cairo last week, said the pair “did consult with a variety of sources” and were certain in their conclusion.
Those “sources” include the Saudis themselves, who are the only ones that investigate civilian casualties caused by air strikes. And only in a handful of cases has the Saudi-led coalition found they had killed civilians, contradicting information collected by the U.N. and humanitarian groups.
In most cases where there are reported civilian deaths, there are no subsequent investigations. Saudi officials have regularly said civilian casualties are accidental, calling them collateral damage in strikes against carefully selected military targets
“It no longer looks like an accident, just like Khashoggi was not an accident,” said Kendall – By Sudarsan Raghavan
My comment: The West does not WANT to look at the Yemen war, the reason is the geopolitical interest of the international (especially US) elite and the billions made by arms sales.
(B E H P)
Is it possible to create 250k jobs in #Yemen - That is more jobs than perhaps the number of combatants on all sides of the conflict?
https://twitter.com/Wesamqaid/status/1057348298544214016
THIS. Best type of aid to provide is to help communities help themselves. Revive the economy and needs will gradually be addressed. Many can't afford food or medicine bcz of lack of income.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/1057393793752879104
(B P)
France's Publicis keeping Saudi business for now: chairman
Communications giant Publicis Groupe (PUBP.PA) will continue to work for Saudi Arabia while “monitoring the situation”, Chairman Maurice Levy said on Tuesday, despite Riyadh’s acknowledgement that dissident Jamal Khashoggi was the victim of a premeditated murder at its Istanbul consulate.
The French group’s Qorvis Communications business has a long-standing contract to handle public relations and government affairs for Saudi Arabia.
Even before the latest Saudi admission, other firms including U.S. lobbyists Glover Park Group, BGR Group and the Harbour Group had severed business ties with the kingdom.
My comment: Keep in mind that propaganda mouthpieces of those leading wars have blood on their hands themselves.
(? B K P)
Audio: The Lawfare Podcast: U.S. Policy and the Crisis in Yemen
To shed light on the complicated dynamic of the conflict, on October 25, the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution hosted a panel discussion on U.S. policy in Yemen, featuring Brookings senior fellows Daniel Byman and Bruce Riedel, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Dafna Rand, and Arabia Foundation senior analyst Fatima Abo Alasrar. They talked about the U.S.’s role in the conflict, the extent of the humanitarian crisis, and how the dire conditions on the ground can be alleviated.
https://www.lawfareblog.com/lawfare-podcast-us-policy-and-crisis-yemen
My comment: Bruce Riedel is a sincere voice, Fatima Alasrar is a Saudi propagandist, Arabia Foundation is Saudi-paid.
(* A P)
Terrorist and insurgents inserted on Yemen payrolls, Britain warns
Alistair Burt, the British foreign office minister for the Middle East, has warned that efforts to stabilise Yemen are being complicated by the deliberate inclusion of "insurgents and terrorists" on lists of public sector salaries.
Efforts to pay civil servants and other government employees is a top priority for mediators and humanitarian organisations seeking to increase money in the economy and stave off food shortages and the country's descent into near starvation.
Donor countries have sought to provide funds to both the Yemen government and the Houthi-run ministries in Sanaa so that public servants can draw salaries.
"There is a new and added complication in speaking to the UN over the weekend – not everybody on the list is necessarily all they seem.
"There are those on the lists who may be insurgents and who may be terrorists and nobody is going to hand over taxpayers money to just pay salaries to these people. This is a new complication done by those who seek to abuse these lists."
Mr Burt also dismissed suggestions that a UN Security Council resolution should be passed that demands a ceasefire in the Yemen conflict.
My comment: Certainly. The connections between parts of the Hadi government and Al Qaeda fighters in the ranks of the pro-Hadi and pro-UAE militia are well-known. – But this Alistair Burt is a disgusting backer of the Saudi / UAE side in this war, supporter of arms sales, ansd the last sentence quoted here simply is unmasking. All he further tells of peace in Yemen is hypocritical bubbles, the rest of what he said is blaming the Houthis and Iran, and not those who have Al Qaeda on their payroll.
And
(* B P)
Why Is Washington Backing Al-Qaeda and ISIL in Syria And Yemen?
The US-led war on Syria has admittedly required Washington to partner up with “moderate militants” in pursuit of its colonial and aggressive foreign policy goa
Though completely clear and globally condemned, this de facto alliance with terrorists and extremist groups, even ISIL, is necessary to facilitate the more long-term goals in the Middle East. This includes regime change in Iran.
That explains why the US is turning a blind eye to Al-Qaeda and ISIL and their crimes, and why President Trump says there will be no arms sales ban for Saudi Arabia despite the fact that its rulers were behind the grisly murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.
US troops are protecting ISIL and starving tens of thousands of people at Al-Tanf to admittedly train anti-government forces in quest for its regime change fantasies in Syria. Yet, this is not the only case of Washington's detrimental and lethal presence in the country. The United States' military forces have established a much wider presence along Eastern Syria to the North-East.
The same foreign policy game is being played in Yemen. The US-backed, Saudi-led war on the impoverished nation is benefiting Al-Qaeda. Washington and its allies have been fighting the Ansarullah (Houthi) movement that has been the only force fighting the Al-Qaeda terrorists in the country, while the Saudi-backed militants of Mansour Hadi have admittedly been working with Al-Qaeda in a number of regions to fight off Ansarullah popular movement. Again, the US helps Al-Qaeda in Yemen to prolong the war, justify occupation, protect Israel and Saudi Arabia, plunder Yemen’s energy resources, and fight the Iranian influence in the Peninsula.
Long story short, the United States and its regional allies are aiding ISIL and Al-Qaeda, which did attack the West and the region. But they justify such deadly ignorance on the pretext of containing Iran in the region - a country that hasn’t attacked its neighbors for more than two hundred years and is at the forefront of the war on terror in Syria.
Meaning, the US-led warmongers are supporting various terrorist groups for their regime change fantasies, and under international law they are complicit in war crimes and crimes committed against humanity by their terror proxies or due to their direct and indirect protection and support for internationally recognized terrorist groups.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13970808000639
Remark: From Iran – anyway, to reject this will be difficult.
(* B K P)
Hybridizing Security: Armies, Militias and Constrained Sovereignty
Defence sectors in several Arab countries have undergone significant transformation leading to the hybridization of security governance, leaving them with forms of sovereignty that are both constrained and constantly contested.
Defence sectors in several Arab countries have undergone significant transformation as a result of the armed insurrections and civil wars, external interventions, and paralysis of political systems that have incapacitated their central states. In Iraq, Lebanon, Libya1, Syria, and Yemen, mixes of regular, national armed forces – or their fragments and remnants – and armed non-state actors – including state-sponsored militias or others that have acquired quasi-official status – are increasingly engaged in complex patterns of de-confliction, coexistence, and cooperation embedded within a wider context of persistent competition among them and of geopolitical rivalry between an array of external backers. A direct consequence has been the hybridization of security governance in these counties, leaving them with forms of sovereignty that are both constrained and constantly contested.
(* B K P)
Patchwork Security: The New Face of Yemen’s Hybridity
Hybridity is a permanent dynamic of the Yemeni defence sector. However, due to the rise of new military actors, the intertwining of political, local and tribal loyalties has undergone a further deep reformulation since the complete breakdown of the transitional process in 2014 and the start of the Saudi and Emirati-led military intervention in 2015. The reconfiguration of power relations in Yemen has resulted in a hybridized military marked by three emerging features. First, a growing hybridization between formal and informal military actors, generating loose and unstable alignments or alliances. Second, Yemen’s defence sector has shifted from a national system based on the neo-patrimonial army to a pattern characterized by multiple and competing "state" umbrellas with militias at the center of military hybrid structures. Third, hybridity and patronage still remain salient dynamics of the Yemeni defence sector, though performing through different mechanisms.
MILITARY ACTORS AND SHIFTING ALIGNMENTS
Currently, three "governments" exist within Yemen’s territorial boundaries: the internationally recognized executive led by interim president Abd Rabbu Mansur Hadi, based in Aden after the 2015 Huthis’ coup in Sana’a, where the Northern Shia insurgents established a parallel government, given the tactical alliance with former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
In 2017, the Southern secessionists self-proclaimed the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Aden: allied with president Hadi against the Huthis (who are supported by Iran), the STC can rely on its own defence sector, predominantly constituted by militias backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and then institutionalized by Hadi in 2016, thus turning into state-legitimized forces[1]
HYBRIDIZATION: MILITIAS BECOME DEFENCE PILLARS
The reconfiguration of power relations has resulted in growing hybridization between formal and informal military actors, triggered by the crumbling of the official armed forces in 2011 and the presence of three “governments” claiming for authority on the Yemeni territory. Looking at the defence sector in frontlines as well as in security governance, two simultaneous processes can be isolated. From one hand, remnants of the former regular armed forces confer legitimacy on non-state militias, turning them into regular security actors (the “regularization process”); on the other hand, segments of the former official armed forces act as auxiliary forces of the militias (the “ancillarization process”)[2]. Former president Saleh’s loyalists represented the regular security sector of the past regime: but in 2014-2017, most of them sided with the Huthi rebels.
SECURITY GOVERNANCE: A "PATCHWORK" SCHEME
Given the presence of three “governments” in Yemen, security governance is now managed thanks to ground-up arrangements: informal forces fill the vacuum left by the army, or share governance with its remnants. There isn’t a top-down security order in Yemen today, because of the great localization of security, but rather many, adjacent security orders, built upon hybridization between formal and informal military groups, thus depicting a “patchwork security” scheme. Patchwork security means that fractured states, as Yemen, opt for locally-based security agreements and not for overall, national frameworks
EXTERNAL PENETRATION MORE RISKY THAN HYBRIDITY
The involvement of external actors in Yemen’s military is definitely more perilous than hybridity in the armed forces: foreign states play, for power politics, with conflicting political identities and local ambitions, thus magnifying the Yemeni defence sector’s fragmentation trend – by Eleonora Ardemagni
https://www.ispionline.it/en/pubblicazione/patchwork-security-new-face-yemens-hybridity-21523 = http://carnegie-mec.org/2018/10/30/patchwork-security-new-face-of-yemen-s-hybridity-pub-77603
My comment: Interesting, apart from the fact that the author simply adopts the propaganda story of serious (military) Iranian (and even Hezbollah) support for the Houthis (which also by no means would be crucial for her reasoning.
(* B P)
Die schlechteste Vertuschung aller Zeiten
Der Tod eines Menschen ist eine Katastrophe, der Tod von Millionen ist Statistik.” Die Josef Stalin zugeschriebene Einsicht in die menschliche Psyche wurde an der medialen Ungleichbehandlung des Khashoggi-Falls und des brutalen Hungerkriegs im Jemen wieder einmal deutlich. Während Donald Trump nur “die schlechteste Vertuschung aller Zeiten” tadelte, hockte sein Finanzminister diese Woche schon wieder bei Mohamed Bin Salman auf dem Sofa. Auch beim “Davos in der Wüste”, der vom Kronzprinzen eröffneten Investmentkonferenz, läuft alles prima. Die westlichen CEOs, die aus “symbolischen Gründen” – so die saudischen Agenturen – abgesagt hätten, hätten einfach niederrangige Stellvertreter geschickt. Die Kopf-Ab-Dynastie der Al Sauds ist einfach zu reich und zu wichtig, um dort einen regime change zu erzwingen, MBS aber, den de facto regierenden Kronprinzen Mohamed bin Salman, könnte der Khashoggi-Mord zwar nicht den Kopf, aber den Job kosten.
Seine perverse Blockade von Lebensmittellieferungen in den Jemen, wo laut UN-Angaben 8,4 Millionen Menschen hungern, sollte aber dafür sorgen, dass der sympathische “Modernisierer” und die Feudaldiktatur Saudi-Arabien im “Werte”-Westen weiter in den Schlagzeilen bleiben. Immerhin haben Deutschland und auch die EU-Kommission mittlerweile angekündigt, Waffenexporte nach Saudi-Arabien zu stoppen. Auch Knochensägen sollte man den barbarischen Wüstensöhnen vielleicht nicht mehr liefern. Dass von diesen Embargo-Ankündigungen noch viel übrig bleibt, wenn die Aufregung über den zerstückelten Journalisten verflogen ist, darf bezweifelt werden. England und Frankreich haben sich schon gegen einen Waffenboykott ausgesprochen und die USA werden ebenfalls weiter liefern. Der Krieg im Jemen und die verhungernden Millionen sind für den “Werte”-Westen keine Katastrophe. Sie bleiben Statistik…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXYL_8EMFXk
http://aufdecken.ihbarci24.com/category/gina-haspel/
(* B H)
Jemen: „Wir kleben großflächige Pflaster“
Der Generalsekretär von Care Deutschland, Karl-Otto Zentel, war kürzlich als einer der wenigen Deutschen vor Ort. Im Interview der Katholischen Nachrichten-Agentur (KNA) spricht er über die Lage im Land und über die Grenzen der humanitären Hilfe.
K-O Z: Der Krieg, der inzwischen mehrere Jahre andauert, hat sämtliche Reserven aufgezehrt. Die Währung ist im freien Fall, die Gehälter sind nicht entsprechend gestiegen. Im Norden des Landes werden viele Regierungsangestellte, etwa Lehrer und Gesundheitspersonal, gar nicht bezahlt. Zudem gibt es etwa zwei Millionen Binnenvertriebene, die in vielen Camps auf sich allein gestellt sind. Die Armut nimmt zu, tagsüber suchen Menschen auf Müllhalden nach Nahrung. Der öffentliche Sektor funktioniert nicht, dadurch sind etwa die Entsorgung von Müll und Abwasser nicht gewährleistet. Auch die Hilfswerke kommen an die Grenzen dessen, was sie leisten können.
Durch den Währungsverfall sind die Preise extrem gestiegen. 90 Prozent der Nahrungsmittel müssen importiert, also mit harten Währungen auf dem Weltmarkt gekauft werden. Zudem ist unsicher, wie lange die Zulieferwege noch offen sind. Ärzte berichten erstmals davon, dass Menschen verhungern.
Im ländlichen Raum unterstützt Care mit “Cash for work” Projekte, die die Kommunen auswählen. Das schafft ein Einkommen und verbessert die Lebensbedingungen. Ein Beispiel ist die Wasserversorgung: Wir arbeiten mit Speicherbecken, fassen Quellen, sichern Brunnen und legen Wassernetzwerke an.
Insbesondere in den Städten leben viele Vertriebene: Menschen, die absolut nichts mehr haben. Hier verteilen wir Bargeld, Nahrungsmittel, Hygienepakete – kurzfristige Nothilfe-Maßnahmen. Trotzdem steigt momentan die Zahl der Cholera-Fälle, zum dritten Mal in Folge.
Im Norden funktioniert keine staatliche Schule mehr, weil Lehrer nicht mehr bezahlt werden – und selbst ums Überleben kämpfen.
Wir haben uns monatelang bemüht, eine Jemen-Reise von Journalisten zu unterstützen – keine Chance. Es wird alles getan, um eine Berichterstattung zu erschweren. In der Folge ist der Jemen, verglichen etwa mit Syrien, fast unsichtbar, obwohl dort 14 Millionen Menschen akut von einer Hungersnot bedroht sind. Bei vielen entlegenen Gebieten weiß zudem niemand, wie es dort wirklich aussieht, weil keine Informationen hinaus gelangen.
https://www.islamische-zeitung.de/jemen-wir-kleben-grossflaechige-pflaster/
und Interview mit SR:
https://www.sr.de/sr/sr2/themen/politik/20181030_interview_zentel_lage_jemen100.html = https://www.sr-mediathek.de/index.php?seite=7&id=66809
(* B K P)
Der wahre Grund des Jemen-Kriegs?
Was steckt wirklich hinter diesem Krieg? Zu welchem Sinn und Zweck wird er geführt? Um welche Interessen geht es bei diesem Völkermord? Und um die Interessen von wem?
Einen Kollateralnutzen hat der Kashoggi-Mord immerhin: Auch der Völkermord im Jemen findet nunmehr eine etwas größere Aufmerksamkeit. Sogar die spezielle Art dieses Verbrechens gegen die Menschlichkeit wird nicht länger prinzipiell verschwiegen. Wer sich für diesen Krieg interessiert, der kann sich zum Beispiel anhand zweier breit angelegter Artikel in der NYT vom 20. und 26.10.2018 recht gut informieren.
Die primär von den USA gelieferten und mit-gelenkten Präzisionswaffen der Saudis treffen in unverhältnismäßig hohem Maße die Zivilbevölkerung; die Zerstörung der Produktion und der Lieferwege der für ein Überleben notwendigen Nahrungsmittel führen, wie die UN es ausdrückt, zur "größten humanitären Katastrophe unserer Zeit";
und die Waffen der eher unsichtbaren ökonomischen Kriegsführung sind nicht weniger mörderisch: Die von Sanaa nach Aden verlegte Zentralbank des Jemen druckt auf Anordnung der Saudis so viel Geld, dass für die Ärmeren auch das letzte Minimum des Ersparten so gut wie nichts mehr wert ist. Selbst wenn es noch Nahrung zu kaufen gäbe, der Großteil der Bevölkerung in den von den Huthis regierten Gebieten des Nordens inklusive der alten Hauptstadt Sanaa - und in denen leben circa 80 % der jemenitischen Gesamtbevölkerung - kann sich den Kauf von Nahrung nicht mehr leisten. Millionen Jemeniten (Menschen) sind vom Hungertod bedroht. Kinder sterben wie die Fliegen. Der Krieg gegen den Jemen, und das hört man in dieser Deutlichkeit dank des Kashoggi-Mordes nun erstmals sogar bei uns, ist auch "a war on the economy" (a.a.O.).
Beide Aspekte machen diese Art der Kriegsführung nach allen geläufigen Kriterien zu klaren Kriegsverbrechen. Die Größenordnung dieser Verbrechen schreit zum Himmel. Wo bleibt also der Ruf nach einer Humanitären Intervention? Wenn sich solche Interventionen überhaupt rechtfertigen lassen sollten - wo klarer denn hier?
Meine Frage ist eine andere. Eine ganz einfache - und bisher nur allzu selten gestellte: Was steckt denn wirklich hinter diesem Krieg? Zu welchem Sinn und Zweck wird er geführt? Um welche Interessen geht es bei diesem Völkermord? Und um die Interessen von wemBis ich vor ein paar Tagen auf einen Artikel von Hanan al-Hakry in der ägyptischen Zeitung Al Ahram Weekly (No. 1415, 25.10.2018) mit dem Titel Yemen's Vast Potential gestoßen bin, dessen kurzes Addendum im 14. Absatz (von insgesamt 15) mir, wenn es denn wahr wäre, diesen ganzen Krieg auf einen Schlag in einem völlig anderen Lichte erscheinen läßt:
"It should also be added that a massive reserve of oil has been discovered in the area of Al-Jauf near the border with Saudi Arabia. It is estimated to be larger than the fields of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE put together."
Ist diese Tatsachen-Behauptung zutreffend? Wenn ja, dann wäre der Jemen - bislang zweifellos "das ärmste aller arabischen Länder" - seinem Potential nach eines der reichsten Länder der Erde. Mein bisheriges Unverständnis, weshalb sich die von den Saudis angeführte Koalition der Reichen (neben Saudi-Arabien, Kuweit, die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate, Bahrain, Katar, unter Beteiligung von Ägypten, Jordanien, Marokko, Sudan und Senegal - und mit entscheidender Unterstützung von Seiten der USA, England, Frankreich, Spanien und Deutschland) überhaupt auf einen Krieg gegen ein Land einlässt, in dem es so gut wie nichts zu holen gibt, würde somit schlicht und einfach auf einer falschen Prämisse beruhen. Der arme Nachbar ist nicht arm; in seinem Boden ruhen größere Schätze als im Boden der drei genannten Golfstaaten Saudi-Arabien, Kuwait und den Emiraten zusammen.
Ist dem so? Wenn ja, so müsste und sollte unser bisheriges Narrativ vom armen Jemen ab sofort revidiert werden - falls die Bodenschätze im Jemen dem Jemen gehören.
Das sehen die Herrscher Saudi-Arabiens - aber auch weitere Regierungen - offenbar anders. Jedenfalls gibt es Berichte darüber, dass sich Saudi-Arabien und die USA schon vor langem darüber verständigt haben sollen, dem Jemen selbst eine umfassende Ausbeutung seiner eigenen Öl- und Gas-Vorkommnisse nicht zu gestatten. Es dürfte klar sein, dass sich die Huthis an dieses Verbot nicht halten bzw. nicht halten würden. Also muss deren Herrschaft mit allen Mitteln beendet werden. Wenn nötig, so auch mit Krieg.
https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Der-wahre-Grund-des-Jemen-Kriegs-4205930.html
Mein Kommentar: Der Abbau dieses Öls ist noch Zukunftsmusik. Ich glaube nicht, dass es schon für diesen Krieg eine so zentrale Rolle spielt.
(* B P)
Film: First Report of Association of Abductees' Mothers Documents Cases of Murder and Torture.. Watch the story
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1056995466515279873
(B K)
Just got off conference call where someone tried to authoritatively stress #Yemen war's "death toll is 10K according to UN." NO. That's an outdated, misleading, and a bullshit figure. Real number unkown but much higher, and that's NOT including collateral deaths (hunger/disease)
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/1056979897846022147
Comments: It’s been 10K since the first year of the war almost. It’s too annoying when people quote this figure. It’s not exaggeration to say the real number is 10 times that including secondary causes.
https://twitter.com/argsv/status/1057038602058846209
56,000 and that's an underestimate.
https://twitter.com/MartHumphreys/status/1057023795028992000
The UN acknowledged already in Jan 2017 that the 10K figure was a gross underestimate, as it "does not include those recorded by hospitals and health centres as having died, which is likely to be most of the combatants on both sides of the conflict."
https://twitter.com/a_carboni/status/1057003480668426247
Exactly, the 10K death toll has stopped changing since end of 2015, beginning of 2016. Saying more than 10K does not reflect the number neither. Because more can mean 10.1k or 100K. The only thing that can reflect the number is stopping this outrageous war!
https://twitter.com/Reemcita/status/1057114337217667072
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Stop the war: on Saudi-led attack and 'pre-famine' conditions in Yemen
The Saudi-led attack in Yemen must cease, and with it the humanitarian crisis
While Saudi Arabia is struggling to salvage its image in the aftermath of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside its consulate in Istanbul, another human rights crisis triggered by its actions confronts the kingdom.
The international community, which has rightfully criticised Riyadh over the Khashoggi case, failed to act while Yemen was being methodically destroyed. This war has to stop. If Saudi Arabia has geopolitical concerns about Iran’s growing influence, it should address them directly with Tehran, not by punishing the people of Yemen. It must immediately cease the bombing campaign, lift the blockade and allow food and medicine supplies into Yemen. This will clear the way for talks between the Yemeni government and the rebels. The obvious lesson of the last three years of this disastrous conflict is that there is no military solution to the Yemen crisis. The sooner this is heeded, the better it will be for Yemen’s people.
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/stop-the-war/article25363778.ece
cp2a Saudische Blockade / Saudi blockade
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Over 8 Million Citizens in Yemen at Risk of Starvation Due to US-Saudi Siege
As US-Saudi Aggression closed Yemen’s vital port city of Hodeidah, Amnesty International has accused them of possible war crimes over interference with deliveries of food, fuel, and aid.
More than 8 million people in Yemen are at risk of starvation and aid groups fear the battle for Hodeidah port, which receives most of the aid and commercial supplies shipped into Yemen, could have widespread and fatal consequences. Doctors in the capital Sana’a said in reports that pharmacies across Sana’a were already struggling with a critical shortage of specialized drugs, would be unable to treat cancer, diabetes and renal failure patients if the US-Saudi siege continued.
International aid groups say they have not been able to deliver medical and humanitarian assistance to the people in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, due to Riyadh’s ongoing war in the country. Becky Abdullah, an official with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Yemen, told Press TV in an email that the ongoing Saudi-led military campaign has made it difficult for humanitarian groups, including NRC, to reach out to displaced people in need.
“We experience restrictions on our movements and the ongoing violence makes it difficult to provide lifesaving assistance. While trying to assist other Yemenis in need, our staff on the ground are deeply concerned about their own families and friends”, Bakr Abdullah said. The Saudi-led war continues to affect civilians in Yemen in the worst possible way. “Attacks on civilians are on the rise and the ongoing conflict, economic deterioration and collapse of public services and infrastructure have left over 22 million Yemenis in need of aid and protection”, Bakr added.
Thousands of Yemenis are left with no safe means of transport outside the country as a result of ongoing closure of Sana’a International Airport. Equally, many civilians are prevented from traveling to seek medical help outside of Yemen due to the blockade, which costs the lives of many.
Abdullatef Abu-Taleb, the director of the Al-Thawra hospital in Sana’a, said that the dialysis center of the medical center is in dire need of medical supplies.
“We are in dire needs for spare parts for maintenance operations of the dialysis devices”, he said.
http://geopoliticsalert.com/yemen-starvation-siege
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
(B H)
Film: Anood Al-Hakami.. one of several victims of US-Saudi Coalition crimes in #Yemen
https://twitter.com/OyonAlYemen/status/1056960407917785089
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UK could save 'a generation' with fund to pay Yemeni doctors and teachers - aid official
Britain should create a fund to enable doctors and teachers in war-torn Yemen - many of whom have not been paid for two years - to do their jobs, a senior aid official said on Tuesday.
Jan Egeland, a former United Nations aid chief who now heads the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), called on British lawmakers to save lives by ensuring that critical Yemeni public sector workers remain in their posts.
“I’d really like to see a UK initiative to untangle the payment of salaries to health workers – nurses and doctors - I’d also add teachers,” Egeland told British parliamentarians.
“It’s not rocket science to get a trust fund up and running to give salaries to all of these public workers.”
Egeland said he visited a hospital ward for malnourished children in the capital, Sanaa, last year, which only had two young patients because of staff shortages.
“All of the nurses and doctors left ... They hadn’t been paid for a year,” he said, adding that the ward was closed after the two children had been treated.
Egeland said non-payment of medical staff was having a “devastating effect” on the delivery of healthcare as Yemen’s cholera outbreak - the worst in the world - is worsening.
Egeland said it was vital to stem the collapse of Yemen’s education system, with about 1 million children displaced.
“Teachers haven’t been paid for a year, two years ... We are losing a generation here,” he said, adding that some classes are overflowing with 200 children and two-hour school days.
“Children out of school are extremely vulnerable for sexual violence, violence in general (and) for recruitment via extremist groups,” he said.
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Yemeni teacher turns his home into school for 700 students
Outside the home of Yemeni teacher Adel al-Shorbagy the queue of children lining up for education keeps getting longer.
Almost 700 come daily to his house which he converted into a school in the government-held city of Taiz, which has been at the center of a three-and-a-half-year civil war that has left millions on the brink of famine.
Al-Shorbagy opened the school following the outbreak of war saying he had nowhere to send his own children. However, 500 boys and girls aged between six and 15 signed up for lessons in that first year.
“All the schools closed down and we had a problem that our kids were on the street,” Al-Shorbagy told Reuters.
“We opened this building as a community initiative. It was my national and humanitarian duty towards my neighborhood.”
Inside the house, facilities are basic, with exposed brick walls and big gaps where windows should be. Ripped curtains are used to divide up space for classrooms.
Undeterred, the eager children find any space they can on the floor, with barely any room to move, let alone write. They share donated books and follow what one of the 16 volunteer teachers writes on a broken white board.
Classes include math, science and English, with Al-Shorbagy saying he follows the pre-war Yemeni curriculum.
Despite the ramshackle setting and lack of facilities, the school is oversubscribed in a country where education has been decimated and accessible, free school options are limited.
Remark: This already had been reported earlier.
(B H)
Photo: Ali Al-Hajaji & his wife Mohammedia Mohammed poor parents from #Yemen, they have lost their son to the hunger, now they are fighting to not lose the second son,
10s of 1000s of families in #Yemen
On brink of losing their beloved ones due to famine & diseases.
https://www.facebook.com/freeyemenforever/photos/a.685484058464886/743489899330968/?type=3&theater
(* B H)
Yemen crisis: Three stats that reveal the scale of world's worst humanitarian crisis
Children are "so malnourished they don’t even have the energy to cry."
Here are three statistics that shed light on the situation on the ground in one of the Arab world's poorest countries.
130: THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN UNDER 5 WHO DIE EACH DAY FROM HUNGER AND DISEASE
A total of almost 50,000 kids are believed to have perished from such causes during 2017, with a similar number expected this year, according to Save the Children and the U.N.
Save the Children spokesman Bhanu Bhatnagar called the situation in Yemen "a stain on the world’s conscience."
UNICEF's operation in Yemen estimates there are 1.8 million children currently facing malnutrition, including 400,000 who are severely malnourished and at risk of death if not urgently treated. More than 8 million children are cut off from regular access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene services.
Bhatnagar says the fighting that is raging in Yemen is killing an "entire generation of children," who are bearing the brunt of the violence.
"Thousands are so malnourished they don’t even have the energy to cry," he said.
"An official famine declaration would only confirm what we already know: Children are already dying from starvation," said Frank McManus, the International Rescue Committee's country director in Yemen. "Famine, by definition, means it’s too late.”
1 MILLION: THE NUMBER OF CHOLERA CASES
Against the backdrop of the conflict, Yemen has suffered from the largest cholera outbreaks in recent history.
The World Health Organization says there have been 1.2 million cases of suspected or confirmed cholera in Yemen since April 2017, including over 154,000 cases this year.
18,000: THE NUMBER OF AIR RAIDS A 3-YEAR-OLD CHILD IN YEMEN HAS LIVED THROUGH
The independent Yemen Data Project has tracked the number of air raids since the start of the war — more than 18,000 since spring of 2015.
Save the Children says that means a child in Yemen who was born as the conflict broke out has lived through an average of about 14 air raids per day 8with photos9
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Warten auf Hilfe im Jemen: „Die Kinder sterben als Erste
Ein Baby schreit vor Hunger. Wie so viele Kinder bekommt es nicht genug zu essen. CARE-Helfer Otto Zentel war vor kurzem im Jemen und hat unvorstellbares Leid gesehen. „Jetzt ist es akute Unterernährung, die gerade Kinder extrem trifft, weil sie die geringsten Reserven haben. Und das sind dann die Ersten, die sterben“, sagt Zentel in diesem Interview mit der Deutschen Welle.
CARE gehört zu den wenigen Hilfsorganisationen, die im Jemen lebensrettende Hilfe leisten.Bitte spenden Sie!
CARE-Helfer Zentel hat in den Städten Menschen gesehen, die auf Müllhalden nach Essbarem suchen. Die UN berichtet, dass in einigen Gebieten Blätter die einzige verbliebene Nahrung sind. Mehr darüber hören Sie in dieser Reportage von Inforadio.de.
Die hygienischen Zustände sind katastrophal, weil die Infrastruktur zusammengebrochen ist. „Auf den Straßen steht knöchelhoch das Abwasser“, sagt Zentel.
CARE unterstützt Familien mit Lebensmitteln und Bargeld und stellt sauberes Wasser bereit. Wir reparieren Wasserstellen und verteilen Hygiene-CARE-Pakete, um die Übertragung von Krankheiten wie Cholera zu verhindern. Bisher hat CARE im Jemen zwei Millionen Menschen mit Hilfe erreicht.
https://www.care.at/news/news/hunger-im-jemen-die-kinder-sterben-als-erste/
(A H)
Film: Humanity Giving Organization HUGO: Humanity giving organization - Hugo distributed Food Baskets for 21 needy family, Every basket Cost us 25 $ every basket consists of: 25kg Wheat, 10 Kg Rice,5kg Sugar, 3 liters Oil, 25gr Tea, 6 pieces of Pasta.
this what we could do and with your support we will continue .
https://www.facebook.com/humanitygiving/videos/2189802764574942
(* B H)
I couldn't hold back my tears watching this video.
https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/1056925526630297600
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Cash Learning Partnership: CTP in Challenging Contexts: Case Study on CTP and Risks in Yemen 2015–2018
The purpose of this case study is to draw out learning and recommendations for humanitarian actors about risk management for CTP in complex and volatile settings, by examining closely the massive scaleup of CTP in Yemen between 2015 and 2018.
The main conclusion is that, despite seemingly enormous obstacles, primarily in the form of operational and contextual threats, humanitarian actors in Yemen were largely able to mitigate the risks this represented. This was achieved through a combination of effective and ongoing risk analysis and risk monitoring, solid collaboration, adaptation, and a high-level of risk transference to, and sharing with, the private sector. There were also specific enablers that included the historic presence of, and familiarity with, large-scale CTPs in Yemen and the infrastructure and experience to support this; supportive and encouraging institutional donors (especially for unconditional cash transfers); and, in some cases, supportive and enabling management approaches, which involved being willing to take a leap of faith to grow CTP in response to immense humanitarian need and despite the risky operating environment.
The Yemeni context is very volatile, complex and high risk, but, nevertheless, it was concluded that CTP was highly appropriate for, and suited to, the Yemeni context, and in some ways perceived as less risky than other related in-kind modalities. Historically, in Yemen, CTP has been a very common modality for some time, providing support to vulnerable populations – particularly for emergency livelihoods support – from humanitarian agencies as well as from the Yemeni government. It is well understood, accepted, and perhaps even expected, by large sections of the population, as well as by the authorities. Thanks mainly to the history of CTP in Yemen, the existing infrastructure to support and scale up CTP, and the focused attention that humanitarian actors have been giving to risk mitigation, this immense scaling up of CTP has been possible. CTP has been very effective in reaching highly vulnerable and remote populations needing emergency humanitarian assistance.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/ctp-challenging-contexts-case-study-ctp-and-risks-yemen-2015-2018
(B H)
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: Yemen: Organizations 3W Operational Presence (September 2018)
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-organizations-3w-operational-presence-september-2018
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
(B H)
UN High Commissioner for Refugees: UNHCR Jordan Factsheet - October 2018
12,967 Yemeni refugees in Jordan
https://reliefweb.int/report/jordan/unhcr-jordan-factsheet-october-2018
(B H)
NHCR Somalia Factsheet - 1 - 30 September 2018
With conditions improving in some parts of the country, Somali refugees continue to return from countries of asylum. UNHCR statistics indicate that over 121,000 people have voluntarily returned from ten countries of asylum since 2014. The countries include Kenya, Yemen, Djibouti, Libya, Tunisia and Eritrea.
11,923 refugees from Yemen in Somalia, 13,171 Somalians had returned from Yemen in 2014–2018.
https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/unhcr-somalia-factsheet-1-30-september-2018
(B H)
East, Horn of Africa and Yemen - Displacement of Somalis: Refugees, asylum-seekers and IDPs, showing host countries with more than 1,000 Somalis | as of 30 September 2018
257,107 Somalians in Yemen
(* B H)
Film: More than 550,000 Fleeing Hodeidah in Yemen Suffer Survival Crisis
More than 550,000 have fled their homes in Yemen's port city of Hodeidah and surrounding areas amid escalating fighting, and these internally displaced persons are suffering severe survival crisis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSQgYGQYYbo
(* B H)
Critical UNHCR aid reaches over 150,000 displaced Yemenis
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
Amid rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Yemen, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has stepped up its efforts to ensure that tens of thousands of displaced Yemenis have immediate access to cash support. In a country where three out of four Yemenis require some form of aid and protection and where food and fuel prices have increased by 25 and 45 per cent respectively this year alone, this assistance is a life-line for the most vulnerable families, helping them to meet their urgent needs while in displacement.
More than two thirds of an estimated 2.7 million internally displaced people (IDPs) have been living in displacement for more than two years.
During October alone, UNHCR cash-interventions have reached more than 22,000 vulnerable families (approximately 150,000 people) across 14 of the worst affect hosting governorates. Families benefitting from this assistance have either fled fighting to areas of perceived safety, returned to their homes after internal displacement, often finding their homes damaged or destroyed. Many of vulnerable communities hosting IDPs are also struggling to survive.
The funds are released based on an in-depth household assessments by UNHCR’s partners operating across the country, often in hard to reach areas. Selected families receive cash to cover their immediate protection needs, for example life-saving medical treatments or subsidies that help families avoid evictions and secure a roof over their heads. This assistance is befitting the local economy, as families buy essential goods in local stores and pay for services.
UNHCR is working with Al-Amal bank to distribute cash directly through a so-called Hawala system which is operational and reliable despite the conflict in Yemen.
Given the increasingly protracted nature of the humanitarian crisis, as well as the dire economic situation in Yemen, UNHCR cash assistance is a life-line for many families. So far in 2018 UNHCR has distributed almost US $33 million cash assistance.
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
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Yemen is sovereign, won’t accept American diktats: Foreign minister
Yemeni Foreign Minister Hisham Sharaf has censured the latest remarks by US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis about the need for the establishment of a semi-autonomous region in the conflict-stricken Arab country, stating that the Yemeni nation welcomes any initiative that does not undermine national principles.
“Yemen is a sovereign country. We do not take orders from anyone, and do not accept the loss of our national sovereignty,” Sharaf told Arabic-language al-Masirah televisions network on Tuesday evening.
He added that Yemenis are defending their motherland and will not allow their sovereignty to be undermined in any way.
“Our missiles are meant to safeguard Yemen’s security. We had not attacked anyone prior to the onset of the Saudi-led military aggression,” Sharaf pointed out.
He stressed that the Pentagon chief’s comments about a political case confirms that Washington views Yemen through a military perspective.
“There would have been no aggression against Yemen in case the United States of America and Britain had not supported the Saudi regime,” Sharaf said.
Meanwhile, a member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Houthi Ansarullah movement said the latest comments by the US defense secretary clearly show that Washington and its regional allies are seeking to divest the Yemeni people of their sovereignty.
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USCIRF Calls on Yemen to Release Persecuted Baha’is
The accused include eight women and a teenage girl and the penalty for many is death
Tenzin Dorjee, Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), today expressed increasing concern over the mounting persecution of Baha’is in Yemen by the Houthi-controlled government.
“I am gravely concerned for the safety of members of Yemen’s Baha’i community,” said Chair Dorjee. “This persecution on the basis of religious identity is unconscionable and must stop immediately. USCIRF calls for the unconditional release and dropping of all charges against members of Yemen’s peaceful Baha’i community.”
On September 15, 2018, the Houthi-controlled Specialized Criminal Court in Sana’a, Yemen issued an indictment against 22 Baha’is alleging apostasy and espionage. The accused include eight women and a teenage girl. The penalty for many of these charges is death. Five Baha’is remain in detention. On October 11, Abdullah al-Olfi, spokesman for the Baha’i in Yemen, was also detained and released three days later.
In January 2018, USCIRF noted with deep concern that since 2017, the larger Baha’i community in Yemen had faced a proliferation of mass arrests, raids on homes and offices, forced closure of community organizations, and hostility from officials.
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
(A P)
A brother of a Cabinet minister appointed as assistant to health attaché at Yemeni embassy in India
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160370
and
(A P)
appointment of a son of a Minister in government as assistant to medical attaché in Malaysia
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160345
My comment: Hadi government corruption.
(A P)
Tribal people sabotage oil wells in Shabwah due to power outages
A member of the electricity committee in Wadi Balharith in Shabwah said to, "Al-Masdar online ", that residents of the "Sabotage" an oil well in the district of Osilan in Shabwah, to pressure the company "Jannahunt " Oil to operate electricity for the directorate.
He explained that the operation was carried out in well 23 in the Dahba area, in the Balharith Valley in the district of Osilan north of Shabwah.
He pointed out that the electric current was interrupted three days ago on the wadi areas in the district of Osilan, without the company doing any solutions to restore the current.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160360
(A E P)
The central bank says it closed 60 exchange shops in Aden that do not carry business licenses
The central bank of Yemen said on Tuesday that it had closed more than 60 illegal exchange shops and did not carry work permits.
The central bank, in a statement a copy obtained by the "AL-Masdar online", said that the banking campaign carried out a number of raids in the field and the periodic campaigns of bureaux and exchange shops in the province of Aden who do not have official permits.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160357
(A P)
Military police in Marib seize arms shipment on their way to the Houthis
Military police in Marib city, east of the capital Sana'a, on Monday evening, seized a consignment of smuggled weapons on their way to militants of the al-Houthi group.
A spokesman for the Military police branch in Marib, Brig. Gen. Naji Munif, was quoted as saying that one of the points of the military police forces on the road between Sanaa and Marib seized a shipment of assorted weapons on their way to the Houthis.
He said the shipment contained heat rockets, RPG shells and Kalashnikov weapons, as well as machine guns and large quantities of ammunition of various kinds.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160335
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-24902
(A P)
The head of government and a number of ministers arrive in Aden
Prime Minister Dr. Maeen Abdel Malek, accompanied by a number of government ministers, arrived in the southern city of Aden on Tuesday to inaugurate the government's work in rebuilding and improving the service and economic conditions.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160337
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-24904
(A P)
Abdulmalik after his arrival Aden: The government will focus on the files of economy, administration and reconstruction
The Prime Minister Dr. Maeen Abdul Malik said that the government's program will focus on addressing the imbalances in the management and economic systems, and activating the regulatory bodies in all state institutions, "
The head of government, "Abdul Malik ", and a number of ministers arrived in the interim capital of Aden on Tuesday for his first visit to the city after his appointment as a substitute for Bin Dagher.
"Abdul Malik, " said that one of the Government's priorities is economic and service reforms, reconstruction, rehabilitation of infrastructure and normalization of conditions in the liberated governorates, which can only be achieved with the mutual support and cooperation of all parties.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160352
My comment: he has little to no power, not even in the capital city of Aden.
(A)
Balqees Channel says that her correspondent in Marib was subjected to kidnapping attempt and the syndicate condemns
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160346
(A P)
Yemeni political parties demands PM to achieve radical changes
Leaders of Yemeni political parties met today Monday with Prime Minister Maeen Abdul-Malik, urging him to achieve radical changes which Yemeni people aspire for.
In the meeting held in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, they further demanded him to impose security and stability in the liberated areas.
Leaders of the parties affirmed that any peace agreements must be based on the GCC-brokered initiative, the National Dialogue Conference’s outcomes and the UN resolutions on Yemen.
They further expressed their support for the Prime Minister, reiterating their positions in supporting the legitimate leadership's and Saudi-led Arab Coalition's efforts to put .down the Houthi militia's coup and eliminate its implications.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-24886
Saudi puppet president’s parroting supporters repeating his claims by the word.
(A P)
Articles propagating the work of the separatists Southern Transitional Council and its militia
Southern Transitional Council Starts Providing Affected Citizens of Laban Hurricane with Urgent Aids
Security Belt of Al-Mahfed Attacks the House of one of Al-Qaeda Leaders and Finds Land Mines in it.
Presidency of the Southern Transitional Council Holds its Regular Meeting and Discusses Recent Developments in the Political and Security Arenas,
Department of Human Rights Holds a Seminar in Celebration of the World Day of Nonviolence
(A P)
Sheikh @HaniBinbrek, Vice President of the Southern Transitional Council to France 24: the southern transitional council and the people of the south aim to restore the southern state after the failure of the unit
the existence of two neighboring countries living in peace better than a failed state, And the 2015 war created a new reality.
the legitimacy has not done its duty as it should, and the rights of the people North in the south will remain and preserved.
https://twitter.com/Mukalla_Now_EN/status/1056981707562336256
(A T)
Government forces officer survives assassination attempt in Taiz
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160294
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
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Yemen war: US unveils blueprint for ceasefire and peace talks
James Mattis says Saudi Arabia and its Emirati allies are ready to negotiate, with UN special envoy brokering a deal
The Trump administration has given details of a UN-brokered peace plan aimed at ending the war in Yemen, beginning with a ceasefire within 30 days and talks to be held in Sweden.
The US defence secretary, James Mattis, told an audience in Washington that Saudi Arabia and its Emirati allies were ready for a deal, and that the talks between the Saudi-led Coalition and the Houthi rebels were being arranged by the United Nations special envoy, Martin Griffiths.
The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, issued a statement about three hours later, proposing specific terms for a ceasefire.
Pompeo did not name the venue for the talks, but Mattis said it would be Sweden. The fact that the secretary of state issued a late-night statement shortly after the defence secretary, with fewer details, raised the possibility that Mattis had not coordinated his disclosures with others in the administration.
Since the failure to hold talks in September, Griffiths has unveiled a new peace plan built on confidence-building measures including reopening the airport in the capital, Sana’a, prisoner swaps and payment of civil service salaries.
The former head of US disaster relief assistance, Jeremy Konyndyk, suggested the administration was beginning to panic about what could happen in Yemen, and the growing congressional opposition to US backing for the Saudi coalition, especially after the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
“UN envoy Martin Griffiths was in DC last week and his briefings must have turned some heads within the administration. They’re moved quickly to give him some running room,” Konyndyk said in a series of tweets. “No administration wants a famine on its watch – and particularly one that would be so closely tied to the White House’s Saudi policy.”
Burt told MPs on Tuesday that the UN Envoy Griffiths opposed a UN resolution on Yemen being tabled, but it is understood that Griffiths would support a resolution being tabled within weeks, around the time he is due to brief the UN.
Diplomats are reluctant to draw the connection in public, but acknowledge Saudi Arabia has been weakened by its role in the murder of the Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, and so is newly vulnerable to Western pressure to conciliate in Yemen.
The US defence secretary did not say what action the US administration would take if the warring parties did not agree a ceasefire or attend the talks.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/30/yemen-peace-talks-james-mattis-saudi-arabia-houthi
My comment: What Pompeo, Mattis and Burt said at cp9, cp10. – Actually, Western actors who by themselves are warring parties in Yemen, think they could play the role of peace brokers and shape the future of Yemen, without participation of the Yemenis themselves.
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
Siehe / Look at cp1
(* B P)
Mohammed bin Salman Is the Next Saddam Hussein
In the 1980s, the United States embraced a brutal Middle Eastern tyrant simply because he opposed Iran. Washington should not repeat the same mistake today.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is reportedly shocked over the backlash to his government’s killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. In a recent phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, according to the Wall Street Journal, his confusion over official Washington’s furor “turned into rage,” as he spoke of feeling “betrayed by the West” and threatened to “look elsewhere” for foreign partners.
Saudi Arabia’s indignation at the United States would not be the first time an autocratic U.S. ally in the Middle East has assumed it could act with virtual impunity due to its alignment with Washington in countering Iran. Indeed, the Saudi prince’s meteoric rise to power bears striking similarities to that of a past U.S. ally-turned-nemesis whose brutality was initially overlooked by his Washington patrons: former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Years before Saddam became Washington’s chief foe, he enjoyed significant support from the United States and other Western countries.
This ended after he decided to invade Kuwait in 1990.
Mohammed bin Salman’s gradual and brutal consolidation of power, marked by the detention and torture of his domestic rivals, evokes the “nation-changing assault on dissent within Iraq’s ruling party in 1979 by a young President Saddam Hussein,” Toby Dodge, a consulting senior fellow for the Middle East at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Bloomberg last year. “The concentration of power in one youthful, ambitious and unpredictable pair of hands is worrying now as it was then.” Washington’s steadfast support of Saddam during the 1980s not only enabled his rampage against his own people and neighboring countries, but also eventually threatened U.S. security interests.
Today, the Trump administration’s reflexive support of Mohammed bin Salman is heading in the same direction as Washington’s ill-fated support of Saddam Hussein.
Washington’s backing of Riyadh today even has the same justification: countering Iran. Trump has endorsed the crown prince’s purge of his domestic rivals and has given him carte blanche in his botched endeavors to rout Houthi rebels in Yemen while massacring civilians, turn Qatar into a vassal state, unseat the Lebanese prime minister, and punish Canada over a human rights complaint.
In the wake of Khashoggi’s killing, Trump administration officials have shamelessly warned that punishing the kingdom could jeopardize the escalating pressure campaign against Iran. A desire to bleed Iran shouldn’t once again overshadow a growing threat to the region: an unchecked, ambitious Saudi crown prince who has already presided over the decimation of Yemen and the butchering of a prominent journalist in his quest to consolidate absolute power.
and
(* B P)
MbS: The New Saddam Of Arabia?
As Mohammad bin Salman (MbS) has terrorized his opponents at home and abroad, fear has spread within the Saudi kingdom. Has he become the new Saddam of Arabia? As Iraq’s Saddam Hussein did in the 1980s, MbS is cementing his power domestically and regionally through fear and economic largesse under the guise of fighting Iran, Islamic radicalism, and terrorism.
Much like the tyrant of Baghdad did in Iraq, MbS has crushed his domestic and regional opponents. Both of them have enlisted the support of foreign powers, especially the United States and Britain, to buttress their hold on power in their territories and expand their reach internationally. They both spoke the language of “reform,” which appeals to Western audiences, and both demonized Iran as a promoter of regional instability and a source of evil internationally.
They both used chemical weapons against their opponents—Saddam against his Kurdish citizens and against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war; MbS against civilians in Yemen. Saddam threatened and later invaded his neighbor Kuwait. MbS has waged a vicious campaign against his neighbor and fellow Gulf Cooperation Council member Qatar and threatened to invade it.
Saddam and MbS also cynically donned the mantle of Sunni Islam in their hypocritical claims against the so-called Shia Crescent and its main proponent Iran. Saddam’s “Republic of Fear” seems to be slowly morphing into a “Kingdom of Fear” under MbS.
In his “city-busting” campaign during the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam committed horrible atrocities against civilians in Iranian cities in the 1980s. Thirty years later, MbS is committing equally horrible crimes against innocent civilians in Yemen. The famine and starvation that MbS’s war has wrought on Yemeni children is arguably more calamitous than what Saddam did in Iran. Sadly, both Saddam and MbS have relied on American military, intelligence, and political support in the execution of their bloody wars.
Saddam killed thousands of people and arrested and executed hundreds of his opponents, including journalists, academics, and peaceful dissidents. MbS has used the same playbook. The “premeditated murder” of Jamal Khashoggi—a Saudi citizen, a U.S. permanent resident, and a Washington Post journalist—starkly illustrates MbS’s campaign against his critics.
Both autocrats used their foreign ministers to weave a pro-regime narrative, mainly for Western audiences, to exonerate their rulers from the war crimes they committed. Tariq Aziz, Saddam’s foreign minister, regaled Western media with his outlandish interviews about Saddam and his service to the West in fighting Iran and Islamic radicalism. Adel al-Jubeir, MbS’s foreign minister, has given frequent interviews presenting the war in Yemen as a Saudi defensive action against “evil” Iran and minimizing the horrible human tragedy that Saudi airstrikes have caused. Only a few days ago, al-Jubeir described the global reaction to the Saudi murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul as “hysteria.”
Several examples highlight Mohammad bin Salman’s dystopian decent into bloody autocracy and regional chaos – by Emile Nakhleh
https://lobelog.com/mbs-the-new-saddam-of-arabia/
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EXCLUSIVE: Saudi dissident prince flies home to tackle MBS succession
Prince Ahmad bin Abdulaziz, the younger brother of King Salman, has returned to Saudi Arabia after a prolonged absence in London, to mount a challenge to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman or find someone who can.
The septuagenarian prince, an open critic of bin Salman (MBS), has travelled with security guarantees given by US and UK officials.
“He and others in the family have realised that MBS has become toxic,” a Saudi source close to Prince Ahmad told Middle East Eye.
“The prince wants to play a role to make these changes, which means either he himself will play a major role in any new arrangement or to help to choose an alternative to MBS.”
The source said that the prince returned “after discussion with US and UK officials”, who assured him they would not let him be harmed and encouraged him to play the role of usurper.
Apart from those western guarantees, Ahmad is also protected by his rank.
Prince Ahmad’s return will only increase the pressure on bin Salman, who is at the centre of a standoff between Saudi Arabia and Turkey after Khashoggi was murdered in his country’s consulate in Istanbul.
On record
Before the Khashoggi affair, Prince Ahmad’s opposition to his nephew was a matter of public record. He has challenged him openly on three occasions:
First, in the summer of 2017, when the king's brother was one of three members of the Allegiance Council, a body of senior royals tasked with choosing the succession, to oppose bin Salman’s appointment as crown prince.
Prince Ahmed pointedly did not give an oath of allegiance to his nephew when he was made King Salman's heir.
Fraught with risk
Prince Ahmad’s return to Riyadh is fraught with risk.
He is believed to have the support of significant figures in the family who now believe after the Khashoggi affair that the crown prince is permanently tainted in the West and toxic to the reputation of the family as a whole.
A Saudi dissident prince in Germany, Prince Khaled bin Farhan, told MEE in May that princes Ahmad and Muqrin bin Abdulaziz could both restore the reputation of the family, which has been destroyed by King Salman’s “irrational, erratic and stupid” rule.
“There is so much anger within the royal family,” Prince Khaled said. “I took this information and appealed to my uncles Ahmad and Muqrin, who are the sons of Abdulaziz and are highly educated, well versed and able to change things for the better. I can say that we are all behind them and support them.”
Among other Saudi exiles in London and Istanbul opinions differ. Some call Prince Ahmad too weak a figure to wrought change in the kingdom.
Others say that he has personal motives for wanting to see the back of bin Salman, having been passed over for the position of crown prince himself.
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HRW stellt 10 Fragen an Bin Salman
Laut dem heutigen Bericht der Nachrichtenwebseite ‚Al-Khaleej Al-Jadeed‘, forderte HRW in einer Erklärung bin Salman auf, über Fragen, wie der Krieg im Jemen, Verhaftungen von Aktivisten der Zivilgesellschaft und Akademikern, Festnahme von Prinzen und Kaufleuten, und die Lage von Frauen und Nicht-Muslimen in diesem Land sowie der Mord an dem Journalisten und Regimekritiker Jamal Khashaghi Stellung zu beziehen.
Unter Verweis auf die flagrante Verletzung der Menschenrechte im Jemen fragte die internationale Organisation in ihrer ersten Frage Bin Salman, warum die Koalition unter der Führung Saudi-Arabiens ihre militärische Operationen im Jemen fortsetzt.
Die zweite Frage befasste sich mit Frauenrechtsaktivisten in Saudi-Arabien, wonach Riad im Mai letzten Jahres eine massive Anti-Frauenrechtsbewegung ins Leben rief und mehr als 13 Frauenrechtsaktivisten in Saudi-Arabien festnahm.
Weiter fragte HRW, weshalb Saudi-Arabien die friedlichen Aktivitäten einiger Frauenrechtsaktivisten im Ausland verhindert? Es hieß weiter, dass das Zeugnis der saudischen Funktionsträger auch vor dem Mord an Khashoggi überfüllt mit Fällen war, in denen sie Aktivisten im Ausland zum Ziel nahmen.
Die Festnahme von über 300 saudischen Prinzen und Händlern war die nächste Frage dieser Organisation.
Die Human Rights Watch fragte Bin Salman ferner zu folgenden Themen: Warum brauchen Frauen immer noch eine Erlaubnis von ihren Ehemännern für ein Visum und zum Verlassen des Landes? Warum wurden zivile Aktivisten wegen friedlicher Aktivitäten zu mehr als 10 Jahren Haft verurteilt? Warum hält Saudi-Arabien die Angeklagten für Monate oder sogar Jahre vor dem Prozess in Haft? Warum richtet Saudi-Arabien Menschen hin, die sich nach internationalem Recht keine schwere Straftat begangen haben? Und warum ist die Kritik am König Salman und Bin Salman gleichbedeutend mit Terrorismus? Und warum gewährt Saudi-Arabien Anhängern anderen Glaubens keine Religionsfreiheit?
http://parstoday.com/de/news/world-i44290-hrw_stellt_10_fragen_an_bin_salman
Remark: English original from HRW: https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/10/28/10-questions-saudi-crown-prince-needs-answer
cp8a Jamal Khashoggi
Siehe / Look at cp1, cp2
(A P)
Saudi prosecutor discusses Khashoggi case with Turkish intelligence: Demiroren agency
Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor held talks overnight with Turkish intelligence officials over the investigation into the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Demiroren news agency said.
My comment: This man is at Istanbul not for prosecuting and investigating, but for whitewashing and concealing.
(* A P)
Jamal Khashoggi case: All the latest updates
UN rights chief says international investigators must be given access to evidence and witness testimonies.
Tuesday, October 30
UN rights chief calls for international participation in Khashoggi inquiry
Erdogan: No point in protecting culprits in Khashoggi murder
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Saudi Arabia's chief prosecutor to find out who ordered the murder of Khashoggi, and not spare "certain people" in his investigation.
"Who sent these 15 people? As Saudi public prosecutor, you have to ask that question, so you can reveal it," Erdogan said, referring to the 15-man team suspected of being behind the crime.
"Now we have to solve this case. No need to prevaricate, it makes no sense to try to protect certain people," he told reporters in Ankara.
Turks receive testimonies from 18 Saudi suspects
Saudi prosecutors have handed over the testimonies by the 18 suspects in the killing of Khashoggi to Turkish officials, a source in the Turkish Attorney General's office told Al Jazeera.
Monday, October 29
Khashoggi's fiancee speaks at London memorial, calls for justice
Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi's fiancee, has addressed a memorial for the slain journalist in London.
The event in the British capital was attended by politicians, journalists and activists.
Turkey 'unsatisfied' following meeting with Saudi prosecutor: sources
Sources have told Al Jazeera that Istanbul's chief prosecutor's office was left "unsatisfied" following a meeting with Saudi Arabia's top prosecutor over Khashoggi's killing.
Saudi and Turkish prosecutors meet
HSBC chief: Khashoggi case likely to have only 'limited impact' on Saudi economy
HSBC's Chief Executive, John Flint, said Saudi Arabia is unlikely to see any significant impact on its trade and investment flows following Khashoggi's killing.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/jamal-khashoggi-case-latest-updates-181010133542286.html
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Turkey presses Saudi to say who sent Khashoggi killers: Erdogan
The Turkish lawyer looking into the death of Jamal Khashoggi has asked Saudi Arabia’s prosecutor to disclose who sent the team involved in the journalist’s killing, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.
Saudi prosecutor Saud Al Mojeb held talks with Istanbul’s prosecutor on Monday and Tuesday about Khashoggi’s death in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, which has escalated into a crisis for the world’s top oil exporter.
“Yesterday, our prosecutor told the Saudi prosecutor that the prosecution could be carried out in Turkey since the location of the crime is Istanbul,” Erdogan told reporters at Turkey’s parliament.
“Our prosecutor asked who sent the group that came here and said that this needed to be looked at,” Erdogan said. “Saudi officials need to reveal the local cooperators. Let us know whoever this person is and we will find them.
“We cannot leave this issue unsolved, we need to solve it now. There is no point in procrastinating or trying to save some people from under this.”
Saudi prosecutor Mojeb held talks with Istanbul’s chief prosecutor, Irfan Fidan, at Istanbul’s main court house for a second time on Tuesday before heading for the consulate where Khashoggi was killed, Turkish broadcaster NTV reported.
On Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called on Riyadh to conclude the investigation as soon as possible.
“The whole truth must be revealed,” he said.
(* A P)
Khashoggi fiancee hits at Trump response, warns of 'money' influence
The fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi on Monday criticized President Donald Trump’s response to his killing, urging him to set aside U.S. trade interests in the push for truth, and demanded Riyadh disclose more details to bring those who ordered it to justice.
His fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, told an audience on a visit to London she was disappointed with Trump’s approach.
“I am disappointed by the actions of the leadership in many countries, particularly in the U.S.,” she said.
“President Trump should help reveal the truth and ensure justice be served. He should not pave the way for a cover-up of my fiance’s murder. Let’s not let money taint our conscience and compromise our values.”
When asked who was ultimately responsible for the killing, Cengiz told Reuters in an interview in Turkish: “This took place inside a Saudi diplomatic mission ... In such circumstances, the Saudi Arabian authorities are responsible for this.”
(* A P)
U.N. rights experts urge Saudi Arabia to halt six imminent executions
United Nations human rights experts called on Saudi Arabia on Monday to halt the imminent execution of six men sentenced to death for activities related to the 2011 Arab Spring.
They said that since the Saudis were all under age 18 at the time, imposing the death penalty on them would violate international law, including a treaty protecting children ratified by the kingdom.
The charges against the six men are based on “criminalization of the exercise of fundamental rights, including freedom of assembly and expression”, the U.N. experts said in a joint statement which gave scant details.
“They were allegedly tortured and ill-treated, forced to confess, denied adequate legal assistance during trial and never had access to an effective complaint mechanism,” it added.
The men were tried in a Riyadh specialized court that handles terrorism-related issues and there is no known appeals process, a U.N. human rights official told Reuters.
A Saudi source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that his understanding was that the men would not be executed, in line with recent changes to Saudi law.
(* B H P)
REVEALED: Hundreds of Rohingya imprisoned ‘indefinitely’ in Saudi Arabia
Detainees describe Rohingya developing mental health conditions due to their prolonged detention
Hundreds of Rohingya men, women, and children have been held indefinitely for several years without charge inside a detention centre in Saudi Arabia.
Many members of the persecuted group came to Saudi Arabia after 2011 on fake passports to flee persecution in Myanmar and earn a living - but they were swept up in a series of crackdowns against undocumented workers, Middle East Eye can reveal.
During a four-month-long investigation, MEE has spoken to former and current detainees, alongside Rohingya living in Saudi Arabia, Bangladeshi refugee camps and activists, who confirmed that hundreds are being detained in the Gulf kingdom.
Current detainees and those who fled to Bangladesh told MEE that many had spent between one to six years stuck inside the Shumaisi detention centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, unable to leave, and incarcerated for an indefinite period.
Among the detainees are children, alongside men and women of all ages.
Abu Ubayd, whose name was changed to protect his identity, is currently locked up in the centre. Using a smuggled phone, he explained the situation inside the detention centre.
“Everyone who is here just wants to leave. We feel frustrated and claustrophobic just being here,” Ubayd told MEE. “Lot of people are locked up here because they came on fake passports, but what do you expect us to do.
“The Myanmar government refuses to give us any form of documentation let alone a passport.
“It feels so claustrophobic just being here for so long, unable to leave, and not able to live the basic freedom of feeling the wind running through our hair.”
cp9 USA
Siehe / Look at cp1
Khashoggi’s Killing Should Be a Nuclear Red Flag
The Saudis can’t be trusted to enrich uranium and reprocess spent fuel.
If the Saudi government’s prevarications about Jamal Khashoggi’s murder teach us anything, it should be that there are limits to how far the U.S. can trust Riyadh. In particular, America shouldn’t trust Saudi Arabia with nuclear technology.
The Obama administration’s nuclear agreement with Iran allowed Tehran to possess and develop nuclear power and uranium-enrichment technology and expertise. President Trump rightly scrapped the Iran nuclear deal. But last fall, in its desire to improve relations with Riyadh, the administration began negotiating a deal with Saudi Arabia that would grant it similar nuclear privileges.
Washington needs to temper its confidence in certain regional partners that share U.S. concerns about Iran. Like Cold War allies, America’s Arab friends are on the front lines. But because of their political systems, their primary goal is maintaining an authoritarian grip on their populations. Their interests and America’s will thus, at times, diverge. Their actions, such as the killing of Khashoggi, can also significantly undermine the strategic and moral case the U.S. makes against Iranian aggression.
Consider, too, the risk of regime change if there is nuclear power in Saudi Arabia. Nuclear reactors operate for 40 years or more and are far more dangerous than any conventional arms sales. In the 1970s, the U.S. considered selling the shah of Iran 23 reactors. That would have been a colossal mistake. Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, have publicly threatened to violate the Kingdom’s Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty commitment not to acquire nuclear weapons if they believe Iran is acquiring them. The U.S. has never negotiated a nuclear cooperation agreement with a country threatening to get nuclear weapons.
The United Arab Emirates, a Saudi neighbor and ally, agreed to allow intrusive international nuclear inspections and to forgo enriching uranium and reprocessing spent fuel as part of its 2009 nuclear cooperation agreement with Washington. Riyadh has refused to make such pledges.
Enriching and reprocessing could bring Riyadh within weeks of making bombs.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/khashoggis-killing-should-be-a-nuclear-red-flag-1540753005?mod=e2tw
My comment: Of course, this is obvious. Just the Trump administration did not realize this.
(* B P)
Amid global uproar, some US colleges rethink Saudi ties
U.S. colleges and universities have received more than $350 million from the Saudi government this decade, yet some are rethinking their arrangements in the wake of the killing of a journalist that has ignited a global uproar against the oil-rich nation.
The Associated Press analyzed federal data and found that at least $354 million from the Saudi government or institutions it controls has flowed to 37 American schools since 2011. Much of the money was provided through a scholarship program that covers tuition for Saudis studying in the U.S., but at least $62 million came through contracts or gifts from the kingdom’s nationally owned companies and research institutes, the AP found.
Those benefiting the most from Saudi contracts include Northwestern University, which has received $14 million from a top Saudi research center since 2011, and the University of California, Los Angeles, which accepted $6 million from the same institute, known as the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, Saudi Aramco, has channeled $20 million to American universities, including $9 million to Texas A&M University and $4 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A national chemical company known as SABIC steered another $8 million to U.S. schools.
Although some of the contracts halted before last year, questions surrounding Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi’s death at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul have spurred some schools to reconsider current or future deals.
https://apnews.com/4d56411af6a8490e8030eacab4401571
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Is Journalist-Murdering Saudi Arabia Your Next Cell Phone Provider? Why You Should Worry
Case in point: Saudi Arabia is currently hosting the Future Investment Initiative (FII), known as “Davos in the Desert.”
The story made its way west to Silicon Valley, in part because of the massive Saudi investment in SoftBank’s venture capital division. SoftBank has become a new, big player in Silicon Valley venture capital circles because of a $100 billion fund raised by its founder. Of that $100 billion, $45 billion comes from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF)—chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
That makes SoftBank and Bin Salman significant business partners, to the point of one employee stating: “We are married to the Saudis.” It also means the pressure has increased on SoftBank in the wake of the Khashoggi murder. SoftBank’s COO Marcelo Claure dropped out of this week’s three-day event, but in a way, the damage had already been done. SoftBank’s share price has collapsed 16 percentsince the Khashoggi news first broke; the company’s recently announced second fund is now in jeopardy; and one investor, Amir Anvarzadeh of Asymmetric Advisors in Singapore, even removed SoftBank from his list of recommended stocks.
The scrutiny of SoftBank may not be over. Consider: SoftBank is by far the largest shareholder of Sprint, the fourth-largest mobile provider in the United States. SoftBank isn’t just an investor in Sprint; it is the investor, with a controlling interest of 85 percent of Sprint stock. And at present, Sprint is putting the finishing touches on a merger with T-Mobile, which would give SoftBank four of the 14 seats on the new company’s board and a 27 percent stake overall.
https://observer.com/2018/10/t-mobile-sprint-merger-softbank-saudi-arabia/
(A K)
Map: US Special Operation Command C146A Wolfhound from Djibouti turn off the transponder over the Gulf of Aden probably heading #Yemen
https://twitter.com/GDarkconrad/status/1057191737465229312
(* A P)
US-Regierung fordert Ende der Kämpfe im Jemen
Die US-Regierung hat ein Ende der Kämpfe im Jemen gefordert.
Beide Seiten des Konflikts müssten die Waffen ruhen lassen und auch die Angriffe mit Raketen und Drohnen einstellen, hieß es in einer am Dienstag verbreiteten Erklärung von Außenminister Mike Pompeo. Auf einer Tagung in Washington sagte Verteidigungsminister James Mattis zudem, innerhalb der kommenden 30 Tage müssten alle Seiten Schritte hin zu einem Waffenstillstand und Verhandlungen unternehmen.
https://de.reuters.com/article/usa-jemen-idDEKCN1N50J7
und
(* A P)
USA fordern Waffenstillstand im Jemen
Die Raketen- und Drohnenangriffe aus den von den Huthis kontrollierten Gebieten nach Saudi-Arabien und in die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate müssten aufhören, teilte US-Außenminister Mike Pompeo mit. Es seien jetzt Friedensbemühungen nötig, sagte US-Verteidigungsminister Jim Mattis auf einer Tagung in Washington. "Wir wollen alle auf Grundlage eines Waffenstillstandes am Verhandlungstisch sehen." Er gehe davon aus, dass Saudi-Arabien und die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate, die am Jemen-Konflikt beteiligt sind, dazu bereit seien.
Darauf folgend müsse die von Saudi-Arabien geführte Koalition ihre Luftangriffe auf alle bevölkerten Gegenden im Jemen stoppen, fügte er hinzu. Pompeo forderte, dass unter Leitung des UN-Sondergesandten Martin Griffiths substanzielle Beratungen im November in einem dritten Land stattfinden müssten, um die dem Konflikt zugrundeliegenden Probleme und die Entmilitarisierung der Grenzen zu behandeln. Darüber hinaus müsse beraten werden, alle schweren Waffen gesammelt unter internationaler Beobachtung zu stellen.
https://www.dw.com/de/usa-fordern-waffenstillstand-im-jemen/a-46096498
Mein Kommentar: Immerhin. Freilich: Die USA spielen die Rolle des neutralen Beobachters und Friedensstifters, dabei sind sie Kriegspartei, unterstützen massiv eine Seite. Ohne diese Unterstützung wäre der Krieg von wesentlich kleinerem Maßstab. Hier tobt sich die Heuchelei der US-Führung wieder einmal aus; und es zeigt sich auch einmal wieder, wie sehr die USA beanspruchen, die ganze Welt, einschließlich der interne Angelegenheiten anderer Länder,, zu bestimmen und zu kontrollieren.
(A P)
US State Dep.: Ending the Conflict in Yemen
Statement by Secretary Pompeo
The United States calls on all parties to support UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths in finding a peaceful solution to the conflict in Yemen based on the agreed references.
The time is now for the cessation of hostilities, including missile and UAV strikes from Houthi-controlled areas into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Subsequently, Coalition air strikes must cease in all populated areas in Yemen.
Substantive consultations under the UN Special Envoy must commence this November in a third country to implement confidence-building measures to address the underlying issues of the conflict, the demilitarization of borders, and the concentration of all large weapons under international observation.
A cessation of hostilities and vigorous resumption of a political track will help ease the humanitarian crisis as well.
It is time to end this conflict, replace conflict with compromise, and allow the Yemeni people to heal through peace and reconstruction.
https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2018/10/287018.htm
My comment: What a crazy hypocrisy. Simply stop fueling the war by being a warring party yourself and by supporting one side of this war.
Comment: If he really wants to end the war so a political solution can be found, all he has to do is to stop re-fueling Saudi planes. Without their US supplied planes and bombs, they would not be able to continue this atrocity.
https://twitter.com/Samsafavi1/status/1057491272913612800
Comment by Samuel Oakford: Pompeo's Yemen statement tonight is one of the most significant since US support began in 2015. It's also carefully worded, w/ Houthis stopping cross border attacks, and only then Coalition stops bombing populated areas. Question is why now? Why wait until so many are starving?
There are many considerations, including diplomacy (UN-led or bilateral), that may not be completely public, and the timing of which this Trump admin shift could be a function. Nevertheless it's the case that a famine could be declared in Yemen shortly.
(not to mention longstanding Congressional pressure, of course, which may have shifted further post-Khashoggi.)
https://twitter.com/samueloakford/status/1057441679664398336
My comment to comment: I am not this optimistic.
Comment by Shireen Al-Adeimi: The United States has been actively at war in #Yemen since 2015, yet @SecPompeo & @StateDept are acting like concerned, neutral observers by urging "all parties" to end the war. Why not announce an end to the US' role in the war instead?
https://twitter.com/shireen818/status/1057451720660410368
Comment: Stop refueling the #Saudi coalition bomber planes tomorrow, if you're serious. Otherwise you're not
https://twitter.com/mkearley2008/status/1057408285735677952
Comment by Peter Salisbury: What looks like some of the strongest language on #Yemen we’ve seen coming out of DC since the war began from Mattis and Pompeo today. Both clear in saying Houthis need to move first. Interesting language from Mattis on ‘local autonomy’
https://twitter.com/peterjsalisbury/status/1057439759616954369
Comment to comment: Why you always Americans and the west forced us and tell us what to do or to choose we are the Yemen people and we ask you please leave us alone we don’t want your help we don’t like howthes so please stop pretending that you’re helping enough is enough Let us solve our problems
https://twitter.com/alhadi0007/status/1057491887051935747
(* A P)
Mattis: Khashoggi killing, support for Saudis in Yemen are 'separate' issues
Defense Secretary James Mattis said Tuesday that he considers U.S. support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen’s civil war to be a separate issue from the ongoing crisis over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“The murder of Khashoggi is, I would separate it out from the Yemen situation,” Mattis said at the United States Institute of Peace. “That stands unique, by itself. The president said we want to get to the bottom of it. We will get to the bottom of it.”
Mattis’ comment suggests cutting off U.S. support for the Saudi coalition in Yemen is not on the table for potential U.S. responses to Khashoggi’s death.
Still, Mattis called for Yemen peace talks within the next 30 days, the first time a U.S. official has publicly issued such a timeline.
“The longer term solution, and by longer term I mean 30 days from now, we want to see everybody around a peace table, based on a ceasefire, based on a pullback from the border and then based on ceasing dropping of bombs that will permit the [U.N.] special envoy Martin Griffiths — he’s very good, he knows what he’s doing — to get them together in Sweden and end this war,” Mattis said.
and also https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mattis-calls-for-ceasefire-in-yemen-within-the-next-30-days/
also thread https://twitter.com/JackDetsch_ALM/status/1057386065311551488
My comment: Hypocrisy is climbing to new absurd hights. The same in Britain: cp10 below.
And
(* A P)
Yemen: US defence secretary calls for ceasefire and peace talks
James Mattis says Saudi Arabia and its Emirati allies are ready to negotiate, with UN special envoy brokering a deal
Mattis was being questioned about the civilian casualties from the Saudi-led coalition’s aerial bombing campaign, and US influence on Riyadh to curb the rising death toll. He replied that US planes refueled less than 20% of coalition warplanes and argued the US and Nato air forces had set a high standard for limiting civilian casualties, suggesting that it was unfair to expect the Saudis and Emiratis to attain the same level of accuracy. But the defence secretary insisted the Saudi military chiefs were making an effort.
“The commander of the Royal Saudi air force has been going from base to base... looking pilots in the eye and explaining there is never a reason to drop [bombs] if they don’t think they can hit the right target,” Mattis said.
But he added: “Improved accuracy of bombs is still a war. So we’ve got to move towards peace, and we can’t say we are going to do it some time in the future. We need to be doing this in the next 30 days. We have admired this problem for long enough.”
He added: “I believe the Saudis and the Emirates are ready and in fact had the Houthis not walked out of the last round Martin Griffiths had going, we would probably be on the way there right now.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/30/yemen-peace-talks-james-mattis-saudi-arabia-houthi
My comment: Hypocrisy and imperialist reasing at its best, ridiculizing itself.
Comment: In a vanity speech, J.Matt proves that he still has no clue about Yemen and Yemenis. We didnt attack anyone,the world attacked us &didn't interfered in anyone's affairs; U think after all sacrifices,steadfastness of Ur committed crimes Yemenis will accept to be divided as U wish?
https://twitter.com/Maddllock2/status/1057389066193383425
and
(* A P)
At the Manama security conference, Matisse spoke about the part of the details of the settlement being prepared in Yemen, which is based on dividing Yemen into areas with autonomy after a gradual process of disarmament.
"I think the first part of the equation is to ensure that the border is demilitarized so that people do not feel that they have to put armed forces along the border," the US secretary said. There must be no more customs and border police there to speed up the flow of goods and people go and come legally.»
"Secondly, I believe that disarmament is in a long, gradual schedule. I'm saying we don't need rockets to go anywhere in Yemen anymore. No one will invade Yemen. We will return to the United Nations-backed government, giving the traditional areas to its indigenous people, so that everyone is in their areas, there is no need to control other parts of the country, and let the diplomats work to give their magic touches now. But that should start as I see along these two lines. "
In his speech, Matisse points out that Yemen is divided so that the areas currently under the control of the Houthis are self-governing, especially the "Province of Azal" while the rest of the liberated areas are divided between the government and the southern transitional council as well as Saleh's followers.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160329
My comment: The US claims to control the internal development of all countries on this planned, Yemen included. – “No one will invade Yemen“: they already did. – „We will return to the United Nations-backed government“: We take side in this conflict, we are a warring party. – And quite a lot simply sounds ununderstandable to me.
And
(* A B P)
« Matisse vision».. Is it a springboard for resolving Yemen's crisis?
US Defense Secretary James Mattis has put forward new ideas to end the war in Yemen launched by the Saudi-Emirati alliance, at a time when the international rejection of the escalating civilian casualties, including children, from the coalition airstrikes, and amid mounting international pressure on Saudi Arabia against the backdrop of the killing Journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In his intervention at the security conference in Manama, Matisse said that the cessation of the war in Yemen depended on the creation of demilitarized zones and the removal of heavy weapons,
meaning the ballistic missiles launched by the Houthis towards the kingdom.
The US secretary called on the al-Houthi group to cooperate with the UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths for its own benefit, noting that the Houthis will receive an autonomous region "so that they can synergize and make their voices heard to the world and then they will not need Iran."
New Vision
According to observers, Matisse's points may push for a halt to the war, but he meets the wishes of the Houthis controlling the capital, Sana'a, and the largest number of provinces since September 2014 following their coup d'état against the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Although Matisse's vision divides Yemen among several parties, Saudi Arabia barricaded itself from the Houthi missiles, which reached 200 rockets, resulting in 112 deaths, according to statistics from the coalition spokesman, Colonel Turki al-Maliki, earlier.
The situation on the ground after four years of war supports Matisse's vision, as the forces of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi have halted their progress toward Sanaa, and the fighting on the outskirts of Hodeidah (western part of the country) has subsided since last June , while the clashes in Taiz calmed down and each party controlled its areas.
The biggest gain is for the UAE, which has effectively controlled the coastline, ports and southern oil provinces, while the most prominent loser is President Hadi and his cabinet ministers, who live in exile in Riyadh.
But a US state Department official said the United States ' stance on the Yemeni crisis has not changed.
"We continue to support the efforts of the UN envoy to renew the peace talks and find a political solution in Yemen, while prolonging the Iranian regime and supporting and expanding the conflict in Yemen," he told Al-Jazeera.
New exit
But what is going on in the backstage is a revival of former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's initiative in 2016, a Yemeni foreign ministry source told al-Jazeera net.
The Kerry initiative includes three main items: the formation of a Government of national unity, the withdrawal of militants from cities and institutions, and the handing over of heavy weapons to a third party.
Under the terms of the initiative, Hadi would be appointed as his deputy by the Yemeni parties ' agreement, thus conferring his full constitutional powers, with the entry into force of a comprehensive cease-fire throughout the country and the formation of a Government of national unity from all sides.
But the source, who preferred anonymity, cautioned against reviving the Kerry initiative and said, "We adhere to the three references of the Gulf initiative, the outcomes of the National Dialogue Conference and Security Council resolution 2216, to achieve sustainable peace."
However, a source in the UN envoy's office said the government's demands were not possible, as the regional parties sought to push for a compromise, which concerned Saudi Arabia, adding that the UN envoy holds initial ideas for the rapprochement of the parties.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160326
My comment: from a pro-Hadi website. All this is just old wine in new bottles – and a sign how far US imperialism goes by interfering into other countries internal politics. The US claims to control the world.
(* B P)
‘Stop starving people as instrument of war.' One Republican’s blunt message to Saudis — and Trump
Sen. Todd Young is an ex-Marine and staunch conservative not known for bucking President Donald Trump or the Republican party line. Except on one very controversial issue: Yemen’s horrific civil war.
Or more precisely, America’s support for a deadly bombing campaign in the Arab nation that has created the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
What drew Young’s attention was not just the death toll from errant military strikes. It was the famine that truly alarmed him – a man-made catastrophe that has put more than 8 million Yemenis on the brink of starvation.
“It offends my sensibilities – and I know it offends the sensibilities of all Americans – that there are countries in this day and age that are using food as a weapon of war,” Young told USA TODAY.
“And it further offends my sensibilities … that the United States has partnered with these countries,” he said.
Young is no bleeding-heart peacenik, nor is he a libertarian-leaning isolationist. He’s a methodical, clean-cut defense hawk who trained as a rifle platoon commander in the Navy after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy.
Ask him why he’s so interested in Yemen, and you’ll get more power-point presentation than passionate soliloquy.
“This is a national security issue,” Young notes, explaining that the militant Islamic group known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is headquartered in Yemen. “And starving people – denying them basic humanitarian assistance – leads to radicalization. We don’t want to create more terrorists.”
Senate Democrats and humanitarian aid groups say Young has proven to be a surprising and effective ally in their efforts to mitigate the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Yemen.
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/10/30/why-sen-todd-young-became-leading-critic-saudi-led-war-yemen/1738004002/ = https://eu.indystar.com/story/news/world/2018/10/30/why-sen-todd-young-became-leading-critic-saudi-led-war-yemen/1738004002/
(* B P)
A Partner We Can’t Depend On
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia long ago revealed his true character in impulsive and vicious actions.
The crisis in United States-Saudi relations precipitated by the brazen murder of Jamal Khashoggi raises a critical question that the Trump administration plainly wants to avoid: Can the United States continue to cooperate with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman? The young prince’s almost certain culpability in Mr. Khashoggi’s killing underscores his extreme recklessness and immorality, while exposing him as a dangerous and unreliable partner for the United States.
No astute observer should be surprised to discover that Prince Mohammed is capable of such action. Yes, we may be shocked by how heinous Mr. Khashoggi’s murder was, and by how blatant the many lies told by the Saudis have been. Of course, many Americans, from Silicon Valley to the editorial pages of our leading papers, were snowed by the crown prince’s promises of reform and the deft marketing of his leadership. But, for those willing to see past his charm offensive, Prince Mohammed had already revealed his true character through numerous impulsive and vicious actions.
The deadliest exhibit is the war in Yemen
At home, the crown prince has locked up civil society activists.
As this litany of lunacy shows, Prince Mohammed is not and can no longer be viewed as a reliable or rational partner of the United States and our allies. If we fail to punish him directly and target only those around him, the crown prince will be further emboldened to take extreme actions. If we do punish him, which we must, Prince Mohammed, petulant and proud, is equally likely to behave more irresponsibly to demonstrate his independence and exact retribution against his erstwhile Western partners. Either way, the Trump administration must assume that Prince Mohammed will continue to drive his country and our bilateral relationship over the proverbial cliff.
Absent a change at the top, we should brace ourselves for a future in which Saudi Arabia is less stable and more difficult to govern. In this scenario, the potential risks to American security and economic interests would be grave. The United States was wrong to hitch our wagon to Prince Mohammed, but we would be even more foolish to continue to do so.
We should start by leading the push for an impartial international investigation into Mr. Khashoggi’s killing.
Next, we should terminate all military support for the misbegotten Yemen campaign and pressure the Saudis to reach a negotiated settlement. We should immediately suspend all American arms sales to the kingdom and conduct a careful, comprehensive review of any future deliveries, halting all but those we determine, in close consultation with Congress, advance United States national security interests – by Susan E. Rice, former national security advisor to the Obama administration and US ambassador to the UN
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/opinion/khashoggi-mbs-saudi-arabia-susan-rice.html
My comment: By the New York Times. There certainly is a lot of truth here. But realize how this article stays in the frame of US imperialism, covered as US “security interests”, which is obviously bullshit. There are NO real US “security interests” 7,000 miles away from US territory. But look who the author is, another Obama follower who now discovers his/her disgust of the Yemen war they themselves have made starting.
Comment by Gareth Porter: Susan Rice's effort to defend #Obama administration policy toward the #Saudi war on #Yemenis is even more shameful, because, the Obama administration covered for Saudi Yemen crimes repeatedly during 2015-16 --"out of deep loyalty to our allies", it said.
https://twitter.com/GarethPorter/status/1057465342975533056
(* A P)
US pushing Saudi Arabia to end GCC crisis, Yemen war: Bloomberg
International pressure on Riyadh continues to mount following assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The US is ratcheting up pressure on Saudi Arabia to restore relations with Qatar, Bloomberg has reported, as the kingdom comes under increasing international scrutiny for its role in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Washington's thrust is aimed at resolving the more than year-long political and economic isolation imposed on Qatar by Saudi Arabia and three other Arab states, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing three unnamed sources said to be familiar with the US efforts.
According to one of the sources contacted by Bloomberg, US President Donald Trump's administration is also pushing for Saudi officials to resolve the ongoing war in Yemen, a conflict which has sparked the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
and
(* A P)
U.S. Raising Pressure on Saudi Arabia Over Qatar and Yemen, Sources Say
The U.S. is raising pressure on Saudi Arabia to wind down its political and economic isolation of Qatar, according to three people familiar with the effort, as the kingdom finds itself under scrutiny over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
President Donald Trump has said little about Saudi Arabia’s role in the death of the U.S. resident and onetime Saudi insider-turned-critic since being briefed last week by CIA Director Gina Haspel. But the administration wants to see Saudi Arabia resolve the Qatar crisis and take similar steps toward its widely criticized war in Yemen, according to one U.S. official who, like the other people cited in this story, asked not to be identified.
My comment: This is just nothing. The US will continue to support the Saudi war in Yemen.
(* A P)
Koch Brother Joins Fight to Stop America’s Involvement in the Yemen War
Congressional opponents of the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led war just got a big boost from an unexpected source.
A heavyweight right-wing financier has thrown in with a left-right coalition to end the U.S. military’s involvement in the Saudi-led war on Yemen, one of the world’s most devastating humanitarian catastrophes, The Daily Beast has learned.
The Charles Koch Institute, bearing the brand of one of the most influential sources of conservative political money, is backing an effort spearheaded by progressive California Democrat Ro Khanna to demand either an end to non-counterterrorism aid to the Yemen war or a direct congressional vote authorizing it.
“Given divergent strategic interests and very different values, the United States has long needed to modify our relationship with Saudi Arabia. Riyadh’s callous prosecution of a war in Yemen that undermines our interests and the heinous murder of Khashoggi both underscore this,” said the Charles Koch Institute’s vice president of research and policy, William Ruger. “A realistic foreign policy often requires difficult trade-offs when security needs and values collide. But in this case, they are in harmony such that we can safely change our approach.”
In addition to the arguments they’re making about Yemen itself, the rightward edge of the coalition is pressing Republicans on stopping the American end to a war that has never been authorized, let alone declared, by Congress, and framing it as a matter of core conservative principles. “Anybody who cares about the constitution should vote for this,” said Sarah Anderson, who handles foreign policy for FreedomWorks.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/koch-brother-joins-fight-to-stop-americas-involvement-in-the-yemen-war
(* B P)
Exclusive: Defense firms see only hundreds of new U.S. jobs from Saudi mega deal
Every time President Donald Trump mentions the $110 billion arms deal he negotiated with Saudi Arabia last year, he quickly follows up, saying “It’s 500,000 jobs.”
But if he means new U.S. defense jobs, an internal document seen by Reuters from Lockheed Martin forecasts fewer than 1,000 positions would be created by the defense contractor, which could potentially deliver around $28 billion of goods in the deal.
Lockheed instead predicts the deal could create nearly 10,000 new jobs in Saudi Arabia, while keeping up to 18,000 existing U.S. workers busy if the whole package comes together - an outcome experts say is unlikely.
A person familiar with Raytheon’s planning said if the Saudi order were executed it could help to sustain about 10,000 U.S. jobs, but the number of new jobs created would be a small percentage of that figure.
My comment: Why jobs manufacturing arms for Saudi Arabia are called “defense jobs”?? What do arms exports to Saudi Arabia have to do with defense??? This is propaganda by wording.
(* A P)
Will the War Powers Resolution Rise from the Grave?
Just in time for Hallowe’en, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced on October 15 that he would attempt to resurrect the corpse of the War Powers Resolution. Sanders, along with Senator Mike Lee (R-Ut.) and Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), had introduced Senate Joint Resolution 54 on February 28 in an attempt to end US involvement in the war on Yemen. The resolution descended into legislative Purgatory on March 20, when it was tabled by the Senate, 55-44.
Over in the House of Representatives, eleven Democrats led by Representative Ro Khanna of California introduced their own War Powers Resolution (House Concurrent Resolution 138) on September 26. The House War Powers Resolution is in the form of a privileged resolution. This means that the House resolution cannot be tabled, but must be voted on one way or the other, up or (more likely) down.
Both the House and Senate resolutions aim to end US assistance to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in their war on the people of Yemen. US assistance makes the war possible.
The War Powers Resolution: A History of Failure
The Trump Administration has met Congressional attempts to invoke the War Powers Resolution with the legal equivalent of a raised middle finger. Acting DoD General Counsel William S. Castle issued a memoon February 27 defending the legality of US assistance to the Saudi-led coalition. Castle wrote that the War Powers Resolution could not shut down US assistance because the War Powers Resolution only applies to “hostilities.” The US isn’t engaged in hostilities in Yemen because there are no US forces on the ground. Furthermore, the president has all the legal authority he needs to assist the Saudis and Emiratis. That authority comes from the president’s Article II Commander in Chief power. Congressional attempts to rein in the president’s power to make war violate the Constitution’s separation of powers.
Utah Republican Mike Lee, who co-sponsored the resolution, shot back that “It stretches the imagination, and it stretches the English language beyond its breaking point, to suggest the U.S. military is not engaged in hostilities in Yemen.”
You can believe Trump if you like. Me, I think that Trump is throwing Arabian sand in our eyes. What matters to Trump is not American jobs, but his Saudi Arabian business connections, the massive profits going to arms sellers, and Yemen’s massive oil reserves.
The War Powers Resolution is not going to rise from the grave. What is much more likely is that the pumpkin-haired ghoul in the White House, together with the Saudis and the Emiratis, will continue to drive a stake through Yemen’s heart – by Charles Pierson
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/30/will-the-war-powers-resolution-rise-from-the-grave/
(* B P)
The Folly of MBS
What should come first in international politics: values or interests? For the West, this dilemma has been thrown into sharp relief by the murder of the self-exiled Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
At first, it was hard for Western leaders not to be seduced by MBS and his ambitious reform agenda. Finally, there was someone to lead the Sunni world in its hegemonic struggle with Iran.
But MBS soon showed himself to be far from perfect. He took unnecessary risks by escalating his war in Yemen, and now has a significant amount of civilian blood on his hands.
The message of the Khashoggi murder is no less clear: Dissidents and opposition figures should know what awaits them if they continue to criticize the new regime. Dreaming of democracy in the Arab world is fine, so long as one understands that reform will come only from the top.
Whether MBS’s behavior is driven by impulsiveness, immaturity, his close relationship with America’s First Family – particularly President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner – or all of the above, there can be no doubt that he has gone too far
Moreover, the sheer barbarity of the murder was not just shocking, but also shockingly naive. It should have been obvious that the Saudi consulate in Istanbul would be wired with surveillance devices.
Until now, MBS has considered himself above the law. In addition to enjoying the tacit protection of the Trump court, he knows that the world is still heavily dependent on Saudi oil.
But MBS was wrong to assume that he would never be challenged on that issue. The business imperative of maintaining good ties with the Kingdom still stands. Yet the tables have turned: Saudi Arabia is now more dependent on the US than vice versa.
Trump, meanwhile, must now clean up the political mess that he and his family have created for themselves by forging warm personal ties with foreign despots – by Dominique Moisi
My comment: You might agree to quite a great part of this article, but keep in mind: This “Project Syndicate” is closely connected to George Soros, and it’s just the anti-Trump faction of the US elite speaking here.
(* A B K P)
‘Extraordinarily Important’: Top USGeneral Defends Saudi Relationship, Yemen War
‘I think it is better if we are engaged,” CENTCOM commander Gen. Joseph Votel says in an interview.
The top U.S. general in charge of troops in the Middle East defended America’s ties to Saudi Arabia and said on Monday that military relations between Washington and the kingdom are not changing, as public outrage over the murder of Washington Postcolumnist Jamal Khashoggi and the war in Yemen recedes from recent headlines.
“There’s no change with any military relationship we have with Saudi Arabia. From the military perspective, I characterize the relationship as strong, deep, and I think a beneficial one for us. They have been a – they’re an extraordinarily important security partner in the region,” said Gen. Joseph Votel, the top commander of U.S. troops in the Middle East, told Defense One on Monday.
“Obviously, we’re well aware of some of the concerns that have been expressed by the Saudi-led coalition’s conduct in how they’ve conducted operations in Yemen,” Votel said.
He added that the U.S. will continue to work with the Saudis to improve their performance by sharing best practices and experiences. Votel was careful to say the U.S. military’s level of support for Saudi Arabia was for civilian policymakers to decide and the military to execute, but that it was critical to American interests and security.
“Saudi Arabia is an extraordinarily influential and important leader of the Arab world within the region,” he said. “And for that particular reason, other partners in the region often look to Saudi Arabia for a lead, for leadership, direction, and how they approach broader security concerns. So, a nation that plays that role in the region is important to us because it contributes to the interests that we have in the region: of addressing terrorism and preventing it from coming to our shores, of promoting stability in the area, of promoting freedom of navigation.”
“And so having a relationship with them and as well as with others in the region is important. And this isn’t a new relationship. This goes all the way back to 1945 when President Roosevelt met with the Saudi king at the time,” said Votel.
“From a security standpoint, I always think it’s better to be engaged than to not be engaged. And that’s kinda what I think we’re doing here,” he said.
“This threat that has been posed by the Iranian support to the Houthis,” Votel said, “is viewed as unacceptable by the Saudi-led coalition.”
My comment: Nothing changes, whatever is going to happen. Business as usual. “be engaged” – what an euphemism!!
(* B K P)
An American Team Won a World Series Another American Team Helps Saudis Slay Yemeni Children for $
100,000 Yemeni children must die so Americans can have jobs at Lockheed Martin and Boeing making warplanes and missiles for Saudi Arabia. The President as much as said so.
The 3rd World must demand justice for her kids! Rev. Jeremiah Wright's, cry "God bless America? No, no, God damn America for her crimes against humanity!" And American film maker Michael Moore's "sick and twisted violent people that we've been for hundreds of years, it's something that's just in our craw, just in our DNA. Americans kill people, because that's what we do. We invade countries. We send drones in to kill civilians."
Michael Moore's film 'Bowling at Columbine' showed graphically how American kids are aware of their parents directly or indirectly being involved in the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction constantly producing violent death on the level of genocide in multiple countries at the same time.
Question for all of us on Earth, But Especially People of the Bombed and Plundered Third World. Is There Nothing Anyone Can Do??
No Justice YET Demanded in The Third World of Americans Taking the Lives of Millions of Kids In Invasions and Bombings
Politely Silent Non-White Third-World People Wait Their Turn While White First-World Soldiers-Kill?
(B K P)
To the Editor
The U.S., Saudi Arabia and Yemen
A reader says if the president won’t act, then Congress must.
Re “Trump’s Hard Choices on Saudi Arabia” (Op-Ed, Oct. 23):
James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state, writes that Saudi Arabia presents challenges to the Trump administration in balancing United States ideals and interests. But on the critical issue — the war in Yemen — there is no fundamental conflict between our ideals and interests.
It neither serves our interests nor credits our ideals to fuel this war, inflaming extremism, authoritarianism and cross-gulf tensions while deepening our responsibility for humanitarian catastrophe. If, as seems likely, the president won’t act, then Congress must.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/opinion/letters/saudi-arabia-yemen.html
(A)
Film: Sisters From Fairfax Found Dead in Hudson River
Rotana Farea, 22, and Tala Farea, 16, were Saudi nationals from Fairfax, Virginia, and police are working to determine why their bodies were found bound together in New York's Hudson River
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
(* A P)
Khashoggi case 'could affect UK support for Saudi actions in Yemen'
Middle East minister rejects calls by aid agencies for UK to demand unilateral ceasefire
The outcome of the investigation into the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi could potentially impact on British support for Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the war in Yemen, the UK’s Middle East minister has said.
Speaking on Tuesday, Alistair Burt told the House of Commons it was “not an illegitimate question” to ask whether the inquiry would reveal something of the character of the regime in Riyadh and that this would have a bearing on the war in Yemen, which Saudi Arabia entered in 2015.
In an often stormy session of the international development select committee, Burt stood his ground despite warnings from aid agencies that Yemen was heading towards one of the worst famines in history and claims he was not using British diplomatic influence at the UN to end the civil war between the Saudi-backed government and Houthi rebels.
He rejected impassioned calls by aid agencies and former senior diplomats for the UK to use its influence to demand a unilateral ceasefire and the full deployment of humanitarian aid.
A London meeting of the Elders, the most senior group of former UN diplomats, called for the UK to encourage the UN to take urgent, credible action to lift the humanitarian blockade. The group, chaired by the former UN climate change special envoy Gro Harlem Brundtland, also demanded an end to arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Burt repeatedly insisted the UK was not a party to the conflict and blamed the Houthis for the failure of talks organised by the UN envoy in Geneva.
His claim drew a furious response from the Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who told Burt: “We arm the Saudis. We maintain the air force. We have British soldiers embedded in the control centres. We command the war flight paths. We train Saudi pilots in Wales – the only thing we don’t do is press the button to drop the bomb.
“Can we just not be honest? We are party to this war. We have decided to cosy up to a regime that dismembers its own civilians in consulates of Nato allies.”
Burt responded, saying: “We are not party to the conflict, we do not control any flight paths, the coalition is acting in defence of a legitimate government.”
My comment: Hypocrisy climbing to even still higher mountains. – And blatant lies: Really nothing at all “could potentially impact on British support for Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the war in Yemen”.
And further details here:
(* A P)
Tory MP says ending Saudi arms sales will not save Yemeni lives
ENDING arms sales to Saudi Arabia will not save lives in Yemen, a Foreign Office minister has claimed.
In a sometimes charged appearance before the cross-party International Development Committee, Alistair Burt insisted the UK is not party to the bloody conflict.
He also defended the Saudi response to civilian deaths and questioned the media focus on the actions of the Gulf kingdom.
And while a trio of experts from the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam and the Oxford Research Group called on the UK to end arms sales to its big-money client, Burt dismissed suggestions that this could help end the suffering, saying: "Ending arms sales wouldn't do that."
Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told the committee the UK must change its policy on the matter.
Burt said Saudi Arabia is at risk from Iranian interference in the conflict, in which the Saudi-led coalition is backing the recognised government in a battle against Houthi rebels.
Agencies say atrocities are being carried out on both sides but coalition airstrikes are said to be responsible for destroying hospitals, housing and schools, as well as causing mass deaths at weddings and in the recent hit on a bus full of school children.
Burt said that incident was an error that the Saudis had investigated.
Defending his government's actions, Burt said: "We have a duty to do everything we can to bring the conflict to an end."
and also https://www.rt.com/uk/442683-uk-saudi-arms-yemen-khashoggi/
and here:
(* B P)
Britain ‘complicit’ in Yemen famine, Tory ex-cabinet minister warns amid calls to end arm sales
UK-supported Saudi coalition ‘killing civilians and bombing own aid supplies,’ MPs told
A former cabinet minister has said Britain is “complicit” in creating a famine in war-torn Yemen because of its support for the Saudi-led coalition, amid growing calls for the UK to halt its sales of arms to the group.
Andrew Mitchell, who was international development secretary in David Cameron’s government, has urged foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt to reassess the government’s stance on the issue.
Mr Mitchell said: “Has our new Foreign Secretary had a chance to review the position of the British Government at the United Nations in respect of the Yemen? Will he move from a position of supporting the Saudi coalition, where Britain is complicit in creating a famine, to one of constructive neutrality to secure a ceasefire and meaningful constitutional negotiations, as the UN special representative Martin Griffiths is consistently urging and trying to secure?”
At an International Development Committee meeting on the situation in Yemen, Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warned Mr Burt: “Millions will end up in horrific famine – the worst famine for a generation, unless there is enormous change, and we would look to UK action in a number of areas.”
“On the Saudi side there are three countries that have influence – not 190 countries, the members of the UN. It’s the US, the UK and France… You need to take initiatives.”
One of the key actions must be for the UK to stop selling the Saudi coalition arms, he said.
“What must change is the UK, US and France saying, ‘we are your main arms salesman, we are your main intelligence and strategic partners, we demand a ceasefire. Stop the air raids, stop the campaign and stop the offensive’," he said.
Marwa Baabbad of the Oxford Research Group, who appeared alongside Mr Egeland also called for an “immediate” end to arms sales, saying in the case of the Saudi coalition supported by Britain “we are seeing air strikes resulting in the deaths of civilians”, and had even bombed water sources provided by the UK.
“The coalition has bombed our own aid?” Mr Russell Moyle asked.
“Yes”, Ms Baabbad replied, and her answer was immediately supported by Dina El-Mamoun, the head of advocacy and policy in Yemen, for Oxfam. “I echo that very strongly”, Ms El-Mamoun said.
(A P)
Film: 42% of the British public don't know this war is currently taking place. Do you know about this "forgotten war"?
https://twitter.com/MiddleEastEye/status/1056599041457434625
(A P)
Film: Emily Thornberry: The Saudi Crown Prince
Yesterday (Oct. 22) in Parliament, I talked about the parallels between the Khashoggi murder and the air strikes against civilians in Yemen, both of which belong squarely at the door of the Saudi Crown Prince. You can watch my full statement below
https://www.facebook.com/142202379163151/videos/733185963702705/
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
(* B P)
Pakistan: What’s the deal?
WHEN Imran Khan returned home last week with a handout of $6 billion from Saudi Arabia, he boasted that he would mediate (between the latter country and Iran) to end the war in Yemen. A tall claim indeed by the prime minister, who had publicly expressed his ‘desperation’ for a financial bailout on the eve of the visit.
Khan went to ‘Davos in the Desert’ ignoring the international outcry over the brutal killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi hitmen in Turkey, allegedly on the orders of the powerful crown prince. The prime minister was rewarded. There are no strings attached to this generosity, we are told. But does it give any leverage to an indebted nation to push its benefactor to end a brutal war?
Yemen is a victim of Saudi aggression. The tragic war has killed thousands of people and pushed millions to the brink of starvation. It is not that the Iranians are completely disconnected from the conflict, but Tehran is not the instigator. So the prime minister’s desire to play arbiter in the conflict is nothing more than wishful thinking.
It is hard to believe that such a generous Saudi financial package has no costs. Surely, it is not for the first time that Riyadh has given us financial support. One of our closest allies, the kingdom has come to our rescue a number of times in the past. But the munificence this time has been extraordinary, raising questions about such bounty.
(A P)
French foreign minister: sanctions against Saudi Arabia possible
France doesn’t rule out any sanction against Saudi Arabia if its authorities are found to have been involved in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Wednesday.
My comment: This is just to lull the public, France will not do anything, read further:
(* A K P)
Yemen war must stop, French defence minister says
Yemen's war must stop, France's Defence Minister Florence Parly said Tuesday, toughening Paris' stance as photographs of starving children trigger outrage around the world.
"It is more than time that this war ended and it is also important -- even France's priority -- that the humanitarian situation must improve and that humanitarian aid can get through," Parly told BFM television and RMC radio.
"This military situation is an effective dead-end so this war must stop. That's a priority."
Like other Western nations, France has come under increasing pressure over its arms supplies to the kingdom since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul this month.
French President Emmanuel Macron insisted last week that sales of weapons to Riyadh -- France's second biggest customer after India -- have "nothing to do with Mr Khashoggi".
"One shouldn't mix everything up," Macron said, blasting calls to halt arms sales over the killing as "pure demagoguery".
My comment: This is when hypocrisy is getting absurd.
(* B K P)
Why is Saudi Arabia still getting Canadian-made weapons?
Stephen Maher: Politicians have failed to act, even in the face of the sickening slaughter in Yemen. The killing of Khashoggi might change that.
In the click-driven media environment in which we find ourselves, war crimes in distant, horrible places do not grab the public’s attention, consumed as we all are with the daily carnival of inanities from Donald Trump.
Because of that, and because Saudi oil money has so much influence in the capitals of the West, there has been little pressure on western governments to stop selling the weapons the Saudis are using to murder civilians in Yemen.
The Saudis provide the oil and money, in quantities that are difficult to fathom. The Americans, and their allies, provide political cover and huge quantities of arms.
We sell the Sauds armoured cars, sniper rifles, aircraft parts, drones and ammunition, $500 million worth of military equipment last year.
Maintaining the exports in the face of the humanitarian catastrophe requires secrecy, silence and misdirection.
During the 2015 election campaign, for example, Justin Trudeau called the armoured vehicles we sell the Saudis “jeeps.” Stephen Harper called them “military transport vehicles.” John Manley called them “fancy trucks.”
Funny that all three men would make the same mistake.
The $14-billion deal, negotiated while Harper was in office, provides for 928 armoured vehicles, including 119 heavy assault vehicles, with 105-mm guns mounted on turrets, the kind of weapons that can take out tanks.
The fact that they are being used in the war in Yemen is the kind of uncomfortable truth that we could ignore, at least until the Saudis flew a team of killers to Turkey to torture and murder Khashoggi, unwittingly creating the world’s weirdest thriller, transfixing news consumers around the world.
Trudeau has been reluctant to act, no doubt for the very good political reason that thousands of manufacturing jobs in hard-pressed southwestern Ontario, and many more across Canada, depend on selling arms to Saudi Arabia. If we must turn a blind eye to the horrors they produce, so be it.
Under pressure, last week, he warned that cancelling the deal could cost us $1 billion, and resorted to blaming Harper for signing a deal that includes a non-disclosure agreement that prevents him from discussing its terms.
But while Harper is responsible for the contract, it was Trudeau’s government that signed the export permits, and his government that kept the weapons flowing while the Saudis and their allies slaughtered Yemeni civilians.
https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/why-is-saudi-arabia-still-getting-canadian-made-weapons/
(* A K P)
Krieg und Demagogie
Als oberster Lobbyist der heimischen Waffenindustrie ignoriert der französische Staatschef Macron den Jemen-Krieg
Der Ort und der Zeitpunkt waren gut gewählt. Am Dienstag vergangener Woche erwischten Journalisten den französischen Staatschef Emmanuel Macron und seine Armeeministerin Florence Parly auf der größten Marineausstellung der Welt, dem »Salon Euronaval« in Paris. Doch ihre Frage, ob die Regierung wegen des getöteten saudiarabischen Journalisten Dschamal Chaschukdschi Waffenlieferungen an dessen Mörder aus dem dortigen Königshaus zumindest überdenken wolle, ließ der oberste Lobbyist der heimischen Waffenindustrie unbeantwortet.
Was er vom deutschen Nachdenken über ein eventuelles Einfrieren der Waffenlieferungen an Saudi-Arabien hält, sagte Macron dann doch ziemlich deutlich am vergangenen Freitag während seines Staatsbesuchs in der Republik Tschechien: »Das ist pure Demagogie«, ließ er Kanzlerin Angela Merkel, die CDU und ihre sozialdemokratischen Helfer von Prag aus wissen: »Das hat rein gar nichts mit Chaschukdschi zu tun. Man muss nicht alles durcheinanderbringen.« Das ist richtig, über den Tod des Journalisten empört sich gegenwärtig zwar – zu Recht – die ganze Welt. Das größere, von der europäischen und US-amerikanischen Waffenindustrie generierte Verbrechen spielt sich allerdings im Jemen ab.
Die wahhabitische Monarchie führt die Liste der arabischen Kundschaft Frankreichs an. Allein im vergangenen Jahr lieferten die Waffenschmieden des Landes der Diktatur am Golf von Persien Kriegsgerät im Wert von 1,6 Milliarden Euro – rund 11,1 Milliarden Euro waren es in den vergangenen zehn Jahren insgesamt.
Auf Merkels offenbar wachsende Bedenken wegen der Geschäfte mit arabischen Despoten angesprochen, ließ Macron die Journalisten auf der Euronaval wissen: »Ich kann nicht jedesmal reagieren, wenn irgendein (Staats)dirigent etwas sagt.« Und an die Fragenden gewandt: »Daher werde ich Ihnen nicht antworten.«
https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/342585.krieg-und-demagogie.html
(A K P)
Verdachtsfälle gegen Pilatus mehren sich
Gegen den Stanser Flugzeugbauer wurde wegen Geschäften mit Saudi-Arabien ein Meldeverfahren eingeleitet. Das Aussendepartement (EDA) hat inzwischen bestätigt, dass Pilatus auch wegen anderer Auslandsaktivitäten im Visier der Bundesbehörden ist.
Das als Söldnergesetz bekannte Bundesgesetz über im Ausland erbrachte private Sicherheitsdienstleistungen (BPS) verpflichtet Schweizer Unternehmen, diese einer Behörde im EDA mitzuteilen. Verletzungen der Meldepflicht können mit bis zu einem Jahr Freiheitsstrafe oder einer Geldstrafe gebüsst werden. Dem Zentralschweizer Flugzeugbauer wird konkret vorgeworfen, den Bund über einen Folgeauftrag eines 2014 bewilligten Deals zur Unterstützung der saudischen Luftstreitkräfte nicht informiert zu haben.
https://www.bluewin.ch/de/news/schweiz/vorwuerfe-gegen-pilatus-haeufen-sich-165586.html
cp12a Katar-Krise / Qatar crisis
Siehe / Look at cp9
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade
(* A K P)
REPORT: ISRAEL SOLD $250M. OF SOPHISTICATED SPY SYSTEMS TO SAUDI ARABIA
These are the most sophisticated systems Israel has ever sold to any Arab country.
Saudi Arabia and Israel held secret meetings which led to an estimated $250-million deal, including the transfer of Israeli espionage technologies to the kingdom, Israeli media reported on Sunday, citing an exclusive report by the United Arab Emirate news website Al-Khaleej.
Some of the spy systems, which are the most sophisticated systems Israel has ever sold to any Arab country, have already been transferred to Saudi Arabia and put into use after a Saudi technical team received training in operating them, the report added.
The exclusive report also revealed that the two countries exchanged strategic military information in the meetings, which were conducted in Washington and London through a European mediator.
Such cooperation would not be the first of its kind between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/10/29/578420/Israel-sells-Saudi-Spy-systems
cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner
(A K)
South Darfur receives bodies of 4 militiamen killed in Yemen
Bodies of four fighters from the government militia Rapid Support Forces (RSF) participating in the Saudi-led military alliance in Yemen have arrived in Nyala, capital of South Darfur State on Monday
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article66517
cp13c Wirtschaft / Economy
(A E P)
Marib authorities issue consolidated list of foodstuffs and basic items prices
The Marib authorities announced on Tuesday the issuance of standard prices for food and basic items, coinciding with the rise in the prices of food commodities in various Yemeni cities due to the collapse of the riyal.
The Office of Industry and Commerce in Marib province said it issued a list of standard prices for foodstuffs and basic items for wholesalers in the city and Valley directorates and obliged them to advertise them at the doors of shops within three days.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/160371
My comment: The Roman emperor Diocletian tried this about 300 AD; it did not work, and never worked all other times when it was tried.
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
(A T)
#AQAP #Yemen releases new #spy film: Demolishing Espionage 1 -Slicker than usual, 67mins -Dramatic footage of 2015 Mukalla jailbreak -Sobbing spies reveal that stoking rifts was higher priority than info for #drones -Exposes how spies are recruited -Refers to Raymi's ill-health (image)
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1057308511225417729
(A T)
#AlQaeda is still alive & kicking in #Yemen but in decentralized pockets. Yesterday, Ansar al-Shari'a in al-Bayda' claimed it ambushed & killed a security official in Haddah region, seizing "important & significant documents".
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1056969636737175552
cp15 Propaganda
(A P)
Yemen FM to Asharq Al-Awsat: Iran Sanctions Will Halt Arms Smuggling to Houthis
Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani predicted that the new round of sanctions against Iran, which will go into effect next week, will have a major impact on its expansionist agenda in the region.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the sanctions will help curb Tehran’s arms smuggling to the Houthi militias in his country.
My comment: This is propaganda bullshit. There is little arms smuggle from Iran to Yemen’s Houthis, and the Iran sanctions will not have any effect on Yemen.
(A H P)
Houthis Seize Wheat Shipments From WFP
Houthi militias have seized 51 tons of wheat from the World Food Program (WFP) in Hodeidah province, according to Yemen’s official Saba news agency.
“This act violates all international and humanitarian laws and contributes to the deterioration of the humanitarian situation and the suffering of millions of Yemenis,” said Chairman of the Higher Committee for Relief Abdul Raqib Fatah.
He also called on UN Humanitarian Coordinator Lisa Grande to put pressure on Houthi militias to release the 51 tons of WFP wheat stocks in Hodeidah province that is enough for 3.7 million people, according to WFP spokesman Herve Verheusel.
Fatah demanded “the need for the immediate release of wheat and stop of all acts that are related to the relief and humanitarian sides.”
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1443056/houthis-seize-wheat-shipments-wfp
My comment: As claimed by Saudi media. – This is a claim by the Hadi government, Fatah is minister of local administration (http://www.arabnews.com/node/1192111/saudi-arabia ). 52 tons of wheat = 51,000 kilo, this should be “enough for 3.7 million people”??? It’s 13 gramm per person.
(A P)
Should Saudi Arabia be blamed for the war in Yemen?
Blaming the kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi is fully justifiable, but blaming it for the war in Yemen is not.
But in Yemen, we have a different story. The war in Yemen is primarily Iran's war. It is part of a determined effort by Iran to project its influence throughout the region. It resembles the bombastic aspiration of the ruling mullahs to revive the ancient pre-Islamic Persian Empire. Saudi Arabia is crucial in such a scheme because of its religious significance, and because it is the most influential Arab country. Defeating Saudi Arabia will inevitably result in the collapse of the Gulf states and Egypt; thus facilitating the fall of the entire region under Tehran's influence.
Still, there is nothing new in the Iranian strategy.
https://en.annahar.com/article/889043-should-saudi-arabia-be-blamed-for-the-war-in-yemen
My comment: Anti-Iranian site from Lebanon. This claim is really odd. Yemen is no Iranian war – it is even much more an US and UK war than an Iranian war.
(A P)
Houthi snipers seem to let no day go without the life of at least one child or a more senior innocent person go with it. This has been the case for years but the international media covering Yemen have a mysterious but adamant inclination to turn a blind eye to it and report civilian casualties only from the Shia Islamic rebels' perspective.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-24885
(A P)
Saudi offers Yemen fuel aid as economy sags
A Saudi oil tanker carrying the first batch of petroleum products worth $60 million arrived at Yemen's Aden port Monday, to help power electricity stations and prop up the war-torn country's sagging economy, officials said.
The aid, meant to ease crippling power cuts, marks the latest economic assistance offered by the kingdom as Yemen -- already on the brink of famine -- reels from an economic downturn that has left many unable to afford food staples.
"A Saudi tanker reached Aden carrying the first instalment of oil derivatives such as diesel and mazut, worth $60 million," a Saudi government statement said.
"They are meant to be supplied to power stations in provinces liberated by the Yemeni government."
Yemen's central bank governor Mohamed Zemam told AFP the monthly aid will help the struggling government divert an average of $50 million per month that it currently spends on electricity to sectors such as healthcare and education.
The assistance comes after Saudi Arabia deposited $200 million in Yemen's central bank earlier this month to help stem a slide in the riyal.
The oil-rich kingdom, which leads a coalition supporting the beleaguered government in its fight against Shiite Huthi rebels, already deposited $2 billion in the central bank in January to support the Yemeni currency.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-6331453/Saudi-offers-Yemen-fuel-aid-economy-sags.html
My comment: AFP simply parroting Saudi „We are benefactors“ propaganda.
(A P)
Arab Coalition: Houthis Promote Sectarianism in Yemen Schools
The Saudi-led Arab coalition blamed on Monday the Iran-backed Houthi militias for the deterioration of the education sector in Yemen.
The Houthis are introducing sectarian curricula at schools, coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki told a press conference in Riyadh.
He also accused the Houthis of kidnapping teachers and sending students to Iran to indoctrinate them with sectarian ideology.
As a result of these practices, more than 4.5 million children have been deprived of an education and forced to join the battlefield, he continued.
My comment: Look at Saudi school books (almost identical to those of the IS) to learn what promoting “sectarianism” in schools really means. – There is a total blockade of the Houthi-held country, including Sanaa airport, how the Houthis should send students to Tehran? – The Houthis just are blamed for the breakdown of education – as if there would not be a Saudi aerial war which had destroyed several hundred schools, as if there would not be a never-ending war promoted by Saudi interference, as if there would not be a catastrophic economic policy by the Saudi puppet government which caused a stop to payment of public employees.
(A P)
More Saudi / UAE „We are benefactors“ propaganda
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1835273
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
(* A K pH)
Saudi coalition air raids day by day
Oct. 29: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/pb.551288185021551.-2207520000.1540903858./1166489583501405
(* B K)
Arab Coalition Strike Kills 150 Houthis Near Hodeidah
A strike by the Arab coalition fighting Houthis in Yemen killed 150 rebels near the port city of Hodeidah, a spokesman for the Saudi-led forces said Tuesday.
The missile and bomb attack hit a Houthi training camp, Col. Turki Al-Malki said.
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201810311069368336-yemen-coalition-strike-hodeidah/
(A K pH)
Saudi aggression targets transportation car in Hajjah
The air raid targeted transportation car carried vegetables in Beni Hassn in Abs directorate .
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news512646.htm
A Saudi airstrike targeted a truck loaded with vegetables in the province of Hajjah. In a preset time, it targeted a truck carrying bee cells (photos)
https://www.facebook.com/malik.alyemani.7/posts/187218542198618
(A K pH)
More Saudi coalition air raids recorded on:
Oct. 30: https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=3500&cat_id=1 Saada and Jizan p.
Oct. 29: http://www.sabanews.net/en/news512756.htm
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
(A K pS)
A woman was killed on Hebshi mountain and another woman was seriously injured by a #Houthi sniper in Alsafa area in #Taiz governorate (photo)
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1057356967801434112
(* B K pS)
#HumanRights report documented the death of more than 900 people killed by landmines planted by #Houthi militia in Yemeni governorates since the coup against the state.
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1057265867480797185
(A K pH)
Ballistic Missile,Zelzal1, Hits US-Saudi Mercenaries Camp in Aseer
Rocketry Force of the Yemeni Army and Popular Committees, on Tuesday, launched ballistic missile, Zezal1, at US-Saudi Mercenaries Camp in Aseer, a source in the Rocketry Force told Al-Masirah Net.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=3496&cat_id=1
(A K pH)
Civilian Wounded in US-Saudi Mercenaries on Bus، Al-Bayda
Two passengers were injured Tuesday by the US-Saudi mercenaries targeted a bus carrying passengers in Al-Bayda province.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=3498&cat_id=1
(A K pH)
Saada p.: Saudi missiles and artillery shells also targeted farms and houses of civilians on Baqim and Shida border districts, damaging properties.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=3500&cat_id=1
(A K pS)
Houthi indiscriminate bombing kills child in Taiz
Houthis on Monday bombarded populated areas of Taiz city, killing a child and wounding five civilians.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-24887
photo: https://twitter.com/BShtwtr/status/1057057710003417088
(A K pH)
Yemeni Air Force Downs US-Saudi Spy Drones in Jizan and West Coast
The Air Forces of the Army and Popular Committees downed, on Monday, a spy drone of the US-Saudi forces off Jizan and an advanced, large size, in the West Coast.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=3481&cat_id=1
Vorige / Previous:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-474-yemen-war-mosaic-474
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-474 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-474:
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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