Journalismus
16.9.2015 – The Intercept
Ein scharfes BBC-Interview zeigt, wie Journalismus sein sollte
Einer dieser Loyalisten des saudischen Regimes, der konservative Abgeordnete Daniel Kawczynski, war Freitag abends bei BBC Newsnight zu Gast und wurde vom Moderator James O-Brien erbarmungslos zurUnterstützung des saudischen Kriegsim Jemen befragt. Und zur Unterstützung durch die britische Regierung und die privaten Rüstungsfirmen des Landes.
Der BBC kann man zu Recht alles mögliche vorwerfen, aber dieses Interview war ein Musterbeispiel dafür, wie Journalisten Politiker und andere Mächtige befragen sollten. Das ganze Interview ist sehenswert, O’Brien pocht mehrmals darauf, dass Kawczynski zu den Kriegsverbrechen des saudischen Regimes (das er unterstützt) Stellung bezieht. Aber ich möchte hier einen ganz bestimmten Punkt betrachten.
Jedes mal wenn er über die Kriegsverbrechen gefragt wird, die seine Regierung mit Waffen und anderem Gerät beliefert, ignoriert Kawczynski das Thema und will stattdessen wissen, warum die BBC nicht über die bösen Houthis berichtet
Nach seiner Anmerkung, dass die BBC über Gewalt der Houthis berichtet habe, erklärt O’Brien einen Kernpunkt seiner Ausrichtung auf saudische Verbrechen:
„Es dreht sich nämlich bei dieser Untersuchung darum, ob Waffen von britischen Firmen womöglich bei der Ausübung von Kriegsverbrechen Saudi Arabiens beteiligt waren…die Houthis sind nicht unsere Verbündeten und nicht unsere Kunden. Daher ist es nicht im Sinne des öffentlichen Interesses, wenn britische Journalisten an dieser Stelle untersuchen, ob Houthis dies oder jenes getan haben. Wir verkaufen Waffen an Saudi Arabien.“
Die Erklärung O’Briens enthält einen wichtigen Punkt: Hauptaufgabe eines Journalisten sollte es sein, Missbrauch im eigenen Land und bei seinen Verbündeten offenzulegen und zu kontrollieren. Wie O’Brien sagt, dem „öffentlichen Interesse“ ist wesentlich besser gedient, wenn man auf die schlechten Taten der eigenen Regierung schaut und nicht auf die Taten fremder Regierungen, für die man nicht verantwortlich ist und auf die man wenig oder keinen Einfluss hat.
Das sollte offensichtlich sein – ein Grundsatz. Aber das Gegenteil ist der Fall: der weitaus größte Teil der Berichterstattung in den Medien des Westens – und für die außenpolitische Berichterstattung in den USA generell – klingt in etwa so: „heh, schaut mal, was unsere Feinde, die da drüben, wieder alles anstellen!“
grundsätzlich ist es die Aufgabe der Journalisten (und in dem Zusammenhang auch der Bürger), das Hauptaugenmerk auf die schlechten Taten der eigenen Regierung zu richten, nicht die der anderen. Folgendes Zitat von Noam Chomsky, dem man jahrzehntelang vorhielt, zu viel Zeit mit den schlechten Taten der eigenen Regierung und Gesellschaft zu vertrödeln, bringt es auf den Punkt:
„Meine eigenen Bedenken richten sich hauptsächlich gegen jenen Terror und jene Gewalt die mein eigenes Land verursacht, und das aus zweierlei Gründen. Erstens, weil wir die Hauptquelle der internationalen Gewalt sind.“
„Aber mehr noch aus einem wichtigeren Grund, nämlich, ich kann etwas dagegen tun. Und wenn die USA anstelle als Hauptquelle nur für zwei Prozent der Gewalt auf der Welt verantwortlich wären, dann wäre ich für diese zwei Prozent verantwortlich. Das ist eine einfache moralisches Einschätzung. Das heißt, der moralische Wert der eigenen Aktion hängt von den erwarteten und vorhersehbaren Folgen ab. Es ist ein Leichtes, die Grausamkeiten anderer zu verurteilen. Das hat in etwa den gleichen moralischen Stellenwert wie die Verurteilung von Grausamkeiten die im 18. Jahrhundert stattfanden.“
Dieses hervorragende Interview des BBC-Gastgebers ist ein exzellentes Beispiel für die Tugenden eines widersprechenden Journalismus. Darüber hinaus zeigt es deutlich, wie wertvoll Journalismus ist, wenn er die schwierigsten Sachen anpackt: nämlich, auf die schlechten Taten der eigenen Seite hinzuweisen und jene zur Verantwortung zu ziehen, die im eigenen Land an der Macht sind sowie ihrer engsten Verbündeten – ein Hinterfragen der ach so geliebten und verehrten Glaubensgrundsätze der eigenen Gesellschaft – von Glen Greenwald
https://propagandaschau.wordpress.com/2015/09/16/glenn-greenwald-ein-scharfes-bbc-interview/
Original English version:
Hostile BBC Interview of a Saudi Loyalist Shows Prime Journalistic Duty: Scrutiny of One’s Own Side
This superb interview by this BBC host is an excellent illustration of the virtues of adversarial journalism. Even more significantly, it demonstrates why journalism is most valuable when it is devoted to what is most difficult: namely, focusing on the bad acts of one’s own side, holding accountable those who wield power in one’s own country and those of its closest allies, challenging the orthodoxies most cherished and venerated by one’s own society – by Glen Greenwald
Allgemein
16.9.2015 – Bild
Im Jemen tobt Krieg – und keiner schaut hin
Der Jemen stürzt immer weiter in Krieg und Chaos. Nach fünf Monaten Krieg sei das Land so zerstört wie Syrien nach fünf Jahren, resümierte Peter Maurer, Präsident des Internationalen Komitees des Roten Kreuzes (IKRK), nach einer dreitägigen Jemen-Reise im August.
In den vergangenen Tagen haben sich die Kämpfe noch intensiviert, heftige Luftschläge trafen die Hauptstadt Sanaa, Tausende Soldaten sind als Bodentruppen in das Land gekommen und starteten die größte Offensive seit Kriegsbeginn. Doch niemand interessiert sich für den Krieg im Jemen – von Antje Schippmann
http://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/menschenrechtskolumne/der-vergessene-krieg-42538382.bild.html
Kommentar: Die große Überraschung! Für „Bild“ in der Tat ein sehr erstaunlicher Artikel! Sehr objektiv und für Bild überaus ausführlich schildert die Autorin hier den Jemenkrieg, für Leser, die davon noch nichts gehört haben. Das ist nach fast 6 Monaten Krieg sicher in Deutschland auch noch die Mehrheit – und das dank der Medien, die davon ja kaum berichtet haben, auch „Bild“ selbst. Und da erteilt sogar Wenzel Michalski, Deutschland-Direktor von Human Rights Watch, den Medien Absolution. „Die Menschen im Jemen haben das Pech, dass ihr Leid medial von den Konflikten in Syrien und im Irak überschattet wird“, sagte Wenzel Michalski. „Irgendwann ist die Aufnahmefähigkeit der Öffentlichkeit erreicht, Zuschauer stumpfen ab und sind überfordert – ‚schon wieder ein Konflikt in der Region‘.“ Das ist, gelinde gesagt, Quatsch. Es ist nicht so, dass die Öffentlichkeit hierfür nicht aufnahmefähig wäre – es wird schlichtweg fast nichts darüber berichtet. Und das hat seine Gründe. Wer die Dinge etwas verfolgt hat, kennt sie.
16.9.2015 – Süddeutsche Zeitung
Der vergessene Krieg im Jemen
Der Jemen wird mit einem erbarmungslosen Krieg überzogen - von den Golfstaaten.
Mehr als 5000 Menschen sind bereits gestorben, die Hälfte von ihnen sind Zivilisten.
Die Welt muss jetzt ihrer Verantwortung den Jemeniten gegenüber gerecht werden.
Die furchtbare Ironie: Die Golfstaaten, die reichsten Länder der Welt, verschwenden ihre Öl-Milliarden darauf, das ohnehin ärmste Land der arabischen Welt in die Vormoderne zurückzubomben - ohne damit ihren vorgeblichen politischen Zielen näherzukommen.
Die fast vollständige Blockade Jemens zu Land, zu See und in der Luft zusammen mit dem pausenlosen Bombardement haben sich inzwischen zu einer völkerrechtswidrigen Kollektivstrafe gegen die Bevölkerung ausgewachsen. Immer wieder treffen die Luftangriffe zivile Ziele.
Dabei ist der Einfluss Teherans auf die Huthi-Rebellen und die Unterstützung für sie vernachlässigenswert gering im Vergleich zu den schiitischen Milizen in Syrien, Libanon und im Irak.
Kein Wunder, dass die Menschen sich als Opfer einer von den USA unterstützten Aggression Saudi-Arabiens sehen. Im Norden ist dies der fast einhellige Blick auf den Konflikt, egal wie die Menschen zu den Huthi stehen. Es ist kaum vorstellbar, dass Präsident Hadi nach Sanaa zurückkehrt - er selbst weiß am besten, dass er das mit dem Leben bezahlen würde. Und seine Schutzherren in Riad sind sich darüber ebenfalls im Klaren.
Im Süden kämpfen zwar Milizen sunnitischer Stämme mit Hilfe von Soldaten aus den Emiraten entschieden gegen die Huthi. Wenige jedoch kämpfen für Hadi. Sie verfolgen ihre eigenen Ziele. Einige wollen die Abspaltung des Südens, andere haben wirtschaftliche Motive. In diesem Chaos grassiert Bandenkriminalität wie im "befreiten Aden", al-Qaida und Ableger desIslamischen Staats machen sich breit. Die Golfstaaten nehmen es in Kauf, im Interesse des Westens kann der Staatszerfall jedoch nicht sein. Mühsame Fortschritte im jahrelangen Kampf gegen die Dschihadisten werden zunichte gemacht.
Manche westliche Staaten bedauern nun, dass sie der von Saudi-Arabien geführten Koalition per UN-Resolution einen Freibrief gegeben haben. Sie taten das vor allem deshalb, weil die USA die sunnitischen Golfstaaten beschwichtigen wollten, die über den Nuklear-Deal mit Iranerbost sind.
Es ist höchste Zeit, dass die Welt jetzt ihrer Verantwortung den Jemeniten gegenüber gerecht wird. Es muss politischer Druck aufgebaut werden, um eine dauerhafte Waffenruhe, Friedensgespräche ohne unrealistische Vorbedingungen und ein sofortiges Ende der strangulierenden Blockade zu erreichen. Die Bundesregierung könnte dazu einiges beitragen, indem sie einen sofortigen Stopp aller Waffenlieferungen an die Golfstaaten und ihre Verbündeten verkündet – von Paul-Anton Krüger.
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/arabische-halbinsel-der-vergessene-krieg-im-jemen-1.2648591
Kommentar: Gute Analyse des Autors, der schon mehrmals für die SZ über den Jemen geschrieben hat.
15.9.2015 – Words in the Bucket
HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN ABOUT YEMEN?
Yemen has been bombed for the past 5 months and its citizens are stuck in a war that does not belong to them – by Irina Asaftei
A summary of the conflict with special regard to war crimes and humanitarian crisis
http://wordsinthebucket.com/have-you-forgotten-about-yemen
Humanitäre Lage
15.9.2015 – United Nations Radio
Yemen crisis worsening as 30 civilians die every day
Fighting in Yemen claims 30 lives a day and injures nearly 200, the UN said Tuesday, while also warning that the country's humanitarian crisis continues to worsen.
Kulturgüter
15.9.2015 – History News Network
Saudi coalition bombs a historic site in Yemen and destroys it
Destruction of Baraqish in Yemen. This just received from the President of the American Institute of Yemeni Studies (AIYS) -- from an email list by Lamya Khalidi, it is she that I am quoting below:
"I can confirm that at the site of Baraqish, the Saudi coalition bombarded the temple of Nakrah which had been completely restored by the Italians and of which nothing remains, the temple of Athtar, the city wall of the site and the Italian mission's dig house. For those who don't read Arabic the photos should suffice."
http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/160629
Kriegsereignisse
16.9.2015 – Longwar Journal
Gulf states continue to pay price in Yemen despite advances
The Saudi-led coalition against Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels and their pro-Saleh supporters in Yemen continues to experience losses in both southern Saudi Arabia and inside Yemen. While the coalition has been able to retake several cities and towns in southern Yemen, the Houthi rebels continue to be successful in taking out coalition armor, as well as some positions inside southern Saudi Arabia.
Houthi rebels, through their official satellite channel Al Masirah TV, have released several videos in the past detailing the destruction of Saudi and Emirati vehicles in Yemen and in southern Saudi Arabia. [SeeThreat Matrix report, Gulf states pay price for intervention against Houthis in Yemen.]
Al Masirah continues to release videos showing Houthi attacks against the coalition. Footage released yesterday shows Houthi rebels and pro-Saleh supporters targeting coalition troops, including Saudis and Emiratis, in Marib province. Several armored vehicles are shown being destroyed, while several coalition troops are seen retreating from the battlefield. A second video shows an ambush on more Saudi and Emirati armored vehicles in Marib.
Despite making gains against the Houthis in Marib and in Aden, the Gulf states are paying a price for their intervention in Yemen. The UAE has lost the most troops in combat since its establishment in 1971. The coalition continues to see armored vehicles and even US-supplied Abrams tanks captured or destroyed in both Yemen and Saudi Arabia. And while the coalition is focused on combating the Houthis, the intervention has also had the effect of strengthening al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) – by Caleb Weiss
16.9.2015 – Columbus Dispatch
Airstrikes in Yemen kill 54, including kids, civilians, Houthis say
Strikes by Saudi-led coalition aircraft killed at least 54 people in attacks across Yemen on Tuesday, including four children, the Houthi-run Sabanews.net news agency and residents said.
Residents said the airstrikes targeted two houses in Ans in Dhamar province, one of which belonged to a supporter of the Houthi group that the Saudi-led coalition is trying to dislodge from Yemen.
Sabanews.net said 13 other civilians were killed in airstrikes in the northern Saada province, a Houthi stronghold.
Airstrikes also killed 13 people in attacks on roads and bridges in al-Mahawit province, northeast of the capital Sanaa, and 10 more in the nearby Hajja province, Sabanews.net said.
15.9.2015 – Southfront
YEMEN MAP OF WAR – SEP. 15, 2015: SAUDI-LED COALITION ADVANCES TO CAPTURE AL JAWF AND SA’ADA
T he US-backed Saudi coalition advances to capture al Jawf and Sa’ada. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the Islamic State in Iraq and al Sham continue to increase territorial control and recruitment.
September 10, Saudi-led coalition forces launched a new operation to secure Ma’rib and started to prepare to mount operations in al Jawf and Sa’ada. Local sources also reported that several Emirati armored vehicles were transferred from Hadramawt to Ma’rib, signaling a further shift in coalition interests toward Ma’rib of al Jawf and Sa’ada.”
Hadi’s withdrawal from the talks and the Saudi-led coalition actions in the Ma’rib region indicates that the Saudi Arabia and its partners are determined to continue the hot war in Yemen. The next targets of the US-backed forces are al Jawf and Sa’ada. In the case of success, the Saudi-led coalition will launch an offensive in the direction of Sana’a.
AQAP portraits itself as a key part of the anti-al Houthi coalition and seeks to participate in Yemen’s post-conflict government. For instance, AQAP senior member Khalid Batarfi asserted that AQAP’s support for the anti-al Houthi coalition and the Hadhrami Domestic Council should justify the mujahideen’s inclusion in local governance projects in a September 4 interview. Thus, AQAP terrorist networks will likely become a legitimate part of the “post-Houthi” Yemen (in case if Saudi Arabia will win).
ISIS increased recruitment and a military strength in al Bayda. The ISIS Wilayat Hadramawt media office released a photoset that featured ISIS militants conducting different military training exercises. In fact, the ISIS media outlets produce a lot of propaganda content to increase its soft power in the region.
http://southfront.org/yemen-map-of-war-sep-15/
15.9.2015 – The National UAE
Yemen forces tighten siege on Marib
Yemeni loyalist forces, backed by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, tightened their grip on Marib on Tuesday, repelling fresh attempts by the insurgents to bring in reinforcements.
The third day of a campaign to liberate Yemen’s capital saw the pro-government forces tighten their siege of the rebel-held Sirwah district of Marib province, and advance in some areas to within 40 kilometres of Sanaa province, military officers said.
With the rebels pinned down in Sirwah, which lies west of the capital, coalition war planes repelled attempts by the Houthis to bring in reinforcements through Marib’s south-eastern border with Shabwa province, which they still control.
The loyalist ground forces, comprising Yemeni troops and tribal fighters and coalition troops mainly from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, have established control in the east and west of Marib province, while coalition warplanes are patrolling the north, where UAE engineers are leading operations to clear thousands of mines laid by the rebels.
Yemeni Brigadier General Murad Turaiq said pro-government fighters had cleared mines and captured areas around Sirwah and Hareeb including Hailan mountain and the areas of Al Ateef, Al Makhdarah, and Al Masaryah hill – by Mohammed Al Qalisi
http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/yemen-forces-tighten-siege-on-marib
Kommentar: Sprache im Sinn der pro-saudischen Propaganda: Yemeni forces und Yemeni loyalist forces, liberate Sanaa.
15.9.2015 – AFP via MSN (Film)
Yemen government begins major military push in Marib
Yemeni fighters loyal to exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi took part in a training session at a military camp in Al-Aber some 270 kilometers east of Marib city, where about 12,000 soldiers have been assembled..
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/yemen-government-begins-major-military-push-in-marib/vp-AAekPKs
Kommentar: Ein typischer Soldaten-Propagandafilm. „Yemen government“ ist hier natürlich die Hadi-Exilregierung.
25.8.2015 – Lifemap
Schöne Karte des Houthi-Machtbereichs am 25. August.
UNO
16.9.2015 – Associated Press
UN envoy announces new Yemen peace talks next week
Warring parties in Yemen have agreed to take part in new peace talks in the region next week, the U.N. envoy for Yemen announced Thursday.
Special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed welcomed the commitment of the embattled government, the Shiite Houthi rebels and Yemen's former ruling party, the General People's Congress, to attend the talks. He said in a statement that he will announce a venue and date in the coming days – by Edith M. Lederer
http://www.fox10tv.com/story/30003832/un-envoy-announces-new-yemen-peace-talks-next-week
Kommentar: Das ist albern, die UN macht sich zum Affen der Saudis. Auch nächste Woche wird die Hadi-Exilregierung wieder alle Gespräche ablehnen, bevor nicht die Huthis die UN-Resolution 2216 umgesetzt hätten, was ihrer Kapitulation entspräche.
15.9.2015 – UN News Center
UN officials condemn ‘virtual silence’ about escalating violence in Yemen
Two senior United Nations officials today condemned “the virtual silence” about the increasing impact on civilians of the escalating conflict in Yemen, and urged leaders from all sides to refrain from manipulating religious identities for political purposes.
“Unless there is a serious commitment of the parties to find a political solution to the conflict that will end the violence and ensure humanitarian access to all populations, without discrimination, the situation is likely to degenerate further,” warned Adama Dieng, the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, and Jennifer Welsh, the Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=51883#.VflpwhHtlHw
Exilregierung Hadi
16.9.2015 – Frankfurter Allgemeine
Ministerpräsident kehrt aus dem Exil zurück
Die jemenitische Exil-Regierung wagt den Schritt zurück in die Heimat: In der befreiten Hafenstadt Aden traf an diesem Mittwochmorgen der vertriebene Ministerpräsident ein – mit sieben Ministern im Gefolge.
Mit ihrer Heimkehr wollten die Regierungsvertreter auch die Rückkehr zu einer gewissen Stabilität signalisieren, hieß es. Zuvor hatte es Medienberichte gegeben, wonach Mitglieder des Terrornetzes Al Qaida die Kontrolle über Teile der Stadt übernommen hätten. Aden soll als vorläufige Hauptstadt dienen, bis die Houthis auch aus Sanaa vertrieben worden sind. In der kommenden Woche will das Kabinett erstmals tagen.
16.9.2015 – Deutsche Welle
Yemen's PM ends exile, returns to Aden
Yemen's prime minister is back in Aden after months of working in exile from neighboring Saudi Arabia. The government is trying to re-establish authority as it battles the Houthi rebels for control of the country.
Yemeni Prime Minister Khaled Bahah was accompanied by several government ministers when he arrived in the southern port city of Aden on Wednesday.
"The return marks the start of the government's exercise of its tasks to run the country's affairs and restore legitimacy," a security official told German press agency DPA.
http://www.dw.com/en/yemens-pm-ends-exile-returns-to-aden/a-18717535 siehe auch http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/09/16/-Yemen-s-Prime-Minister-Khaled-Bahah-return-to-Aden.html und http://www.dpa-international.com/news/international/yemens-exiled-prime-minister-returns-to-aden-a-46636879.html
Huthis
14.9.2015 – Middle East Eye
From protester to politician: The rise of a Houthi revolutionary
The movement has come from obscurity to power, but as the Saudi-led war continues, could they return to their base in Saada?
The Houthis had committed intermittent fighting against the government since 2004, including the unilateral military operations Saudi Arabia had waged against the Houthis along its border with Yemen in 2009, when the country was still led by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a long-time autocrat and US ally. –
The Houthi, were not happy, publicly rejecting the Gulf initiative [ro replace president Saleh by his vice-president Hadi in 2012] by even though it achieved the removal of their arch-enemy Saleh. Instead, they saw the move as a conspiracy by Saudi Arabia and the United States - the initiative’s main supporters – to hijack Yemen’s revolution, especially when so many among the military elite, notably members of the Islah (Muslim Brotherhood) party which had supported the six wars against the Houthis, had been allowed to keep their positions and privileges. Despite Saleh’s downfall, the Houthi leadership felt not enough change had taken place.
In 2013, to the surprise of many observers, both locally and abroad, the Houthis emerged as key players in the National Dialogue Conference (NDC), an initiative involving representatives from across Yemen’s diverse communities. The goal was to set the country on a new path by adopting a new constitution and organising democratic elections. As a GCC initiative, however, the NDC was funded by the Gulf monarchies and, of course, supported by the US. As such, through their participation in the dialogue, the Houthis seemed to signal their implicit approval of the Hadi power transfer, despite their public disavowals and condemnations of it.
Throughout 2013, the Houthis’ popularity surged significantly amongst the Yemeni public. This was not because of their religious ideology but rather, the growing perception they “brought something new to the table,” as well as an increasingly alarming political vacuum. Support for the Houthis rose markedly, especially as the transitional government was seen to be failing to respond to the people’s needs.
In the five years since Saleh’s downfall, the Houthis have grown into a broad national political movement.
Supporters were hopeful they could tackle rampant corruption and restore the stability that had eluded Yemen since the Arab Spring. However, while the Houthis did confront corrupt politicians and practices as part of their “revolutionary committee campaign”, they had also lost the Yemeni economy billions through mismanagement and bad economic decisions.
[In March 2015], To my question about the Houthi alliance with Saleh, Ali [Ali Al-Emad, a Houthi leader] responded with a rehearsed answer: the GPC was a political party and, as such, was willing to ally itself with any party that had Yemen’s best interests at heart. I persisted: “but Saleh waged six wars against you!” But the Houthi narrative had changed: it was no longer Saleh who had waged those six wars against them but the Islah party, through its influential control of the army faction in charge of the fighting against them. The denial was remarkable but hardly likely to fool anyone. After all the Houthis knew, better than anyone, that their swift ascent and expansion would have been impossible without Saleh’s endorsement and support.
Today, the Houthis continue their quest to keep a very tight grip on all institutions across Yemen. The tighter the grip, however, the more of people’s loyalty they are allowing to slip through their hands.
While their military prowess is unquestionable, having the military skills for winning battles in the streets of Sanaa is no substitute for the political and organisational skills needed to run a country once the guns fall silent. The Houthis, so adept at the art of battle, have shown themselves completely out of their depth when it comes to the hard struggle of politics and governance. As they face the real prospect of a swift and disastrous collapse, they risk bringing a whole country down with them.
During my recent visit to Yemen, in September 2015, I became aware of the stark shift in public feeling towards the Houthis across the country. People who had once been staunch supporters because they believed in their long-term aspirations had become disillusioned by their seeming lack of political foresight and vision.
As someone put it to me at a late-night qaat-chewing session as Saudi jets flew overhead in Sanaa: “We liked them when they came in and made the petrol prices go down, but now we have to deal with the Saudi airstrikes, the anti-aircraft fire from the Houthis, and everything, including fuel, is so expensive… we no longer want the Houthis - or Hadi for that matter - we just want things to go back to how they were before the revolution.”
This was hardly an isolated view; almost everyone I spoke to in Sana’a was tired of the war, so tired they were now perfectly willing to consider the return of Saleh – by Nawal Al-Maghafi
http://worldaffairsjournal.org/content/analysis-protester-politician-rise-houthi-revolutionary
Politik der USA
15.9.2015 – World Socialist Web
Speaking before the Human’s Rights Council in Geneva, the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, called for an investigation into allegations of human rights violations by “all parties” in the ongoing conflict in Yemen.
In deliberately neutral terms, Prince Zeid pressed for both sides to show “far greater concern for the protection of civilians” in Yemen. According to the official UN tally, more than 2,000 civilians have been killed and another 4,000 wounded since March, when a Saudi-led coalition began raining bombs down on the country.
If the High Commissioner truly desires to bring to justice the culprits responsible for the mass suffering being inflicted on the population of Yemen, they will not be hard to find. He could start by calling for the indictment of US President Barack Obama and his administration on war crimes charges for their role in facilitating the onslaught fronted by the Saudis.
The Obama administration has routinely relied on the filthy and blood-soaked Saudi monarchy to serve as its gendarme on the Arabian Peninsula, enforcing American imperialist interests with the utmost brutality. With the full support of the Obama administration, the Saudi monarchy sent its military into neighboring Bahrain in 2011 to crush mass protests and prop up the US-backed dictatorship of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
Earlier this month, Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, welcomed with open arms Saudi beheader-in-chief, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, to the White House, where they held friendly discussions about a number of issues important to US interests in the Middle East, including the ongoing assault in Yemen.
The coalition of US puppets led by Saudi Arabia have deployed their American-supplied jet fighters, dropping American bombs guided by American intelligence, in an effort to reinstate the government of President Abdrabuh Monsour Hadi.
The Obama administration has not only provided Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners with bombs, military intelligence and other logistical support in its air campaign. American refueling planes have been flying daily missions to ensure that coalition warplanes can keep pounding targets throughout the country around the clock. American advisers are vetting targets and working alongside Saudi officers in an operations center in Riyadh, which is overseeing military operations in Yemen.
To coincide with the Saudi monarch’s visit to the US, it was announced that the Pentagon had reached a deal to sell Saudi Arabia one billion dollars’ worth of bombs, refilling the stockpiles which have been drawn down by unrelenting airstrikes against the Yemeni population.
Any one these devastating attacks, if they had been carried out by Russia, China or Iran, would have provoked non-stop headlines and media outrage. Politicians would have gone on televisions to weep crocodile tears over the civilian casualties and demand that something be done to bring those governments to account.
Obama, the onetime candidate of hope and change, has not only continued but expanded the imperialist interventions initiated by the Bush administration. In the last seven years, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia have all been subject to one or another form of American military intervention, inflicting death and destruction, while forcing millions of refugees to flee for their lives into Europe and elsewhere.
The brutal assault on Yemen exposes the grotesque hypocrisy of those who cry out for supposedly “humanitarian” interventions against governments which are not fully under the thumb of American imperialism. Over the last fourteen years, the so-called war on terror, “human rights” and the promotion of democracy have all been exposed as mere pretexts for establishing the hegemony of the US over the Middle East and its vast energy reserves – by Niles Williamson
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/09/15/yeme-s15.html = http://rinf.com/alt-news/newswire/obamas-war-crimes-yemen/
Politik von Saudi- Arabien
16.9.2015 – Huffington Post
Saudi Arabia's Reach in Yemen: Fighting for Regional Dominance
The war by Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies against Houthi rebels in Yemen has become a debilitating sectarian conflict that has reduced large parts of the impoverished country to rubble and potentially destabilising the region. The kingdom has framed its approach in stark sectarian terms that has sparked intolerance towards minorities, first and foremost Shiites, who are depicted as pawns of an expansionary Iran.
Saudi Arabia fears that its influence, based on its oil reserves and the administration of Islam's most holy cities, constitutes but a window of opportunity. Its greater assertiveness and sectarianism amount to a determined effort to exploit that opportunity to cement its place in the Middle East and North Africa's geopolitics.
Saudi Arabia's unprecedented military assertiveness is a key pillar of its defence doctrine as described by Nawaf Obaid, a Saudi scholar with close ties to the kingdom's political elite. The doctrine aims to counter, in Obaid's words, the three foremost threats to the kingdom: "regional instability, a revanchist and/or nuclear Iran, and terrorism".
The more aggressive stance of Saudi Arabia is part of the attempt by the kingdom to avert the force of nature by using its financial muscle to counter the revolutionary ideology of Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. It has done so by globally propagating its austere, intolerant vision of Islam that generated more extreme, violent interpretations adopted by groups like Islamic State and Al Qaeda that challenge absolute monarchical rule cloaked in an Islamic veneer.
Military victory in southern Yemen may prove difficult to translate into sustainable political achievement.
Long-standing Saudi interference in Yemeni politics is a key ingredient in Yemen's mix of complex problems and is complicated by widespread Yemeni resentment of the humanitarian and civilian cost of the Saudi military campaign. The battle for northern Yemen may moreover prove to be more difficult than the one for the south given its complicated topography as well as greater popular support for the rebels.
The kingdom may find that a less intolerant, more inclusive approach, coupled with greater sensitivity to popular political, social and economic aspirations, apart from a greater willingness to cooperate with regional rivals, offers better hope for stability and security. It is a tall order in a world in which the name of the game is attempting to shape the Middle East and North Africa in ways that ignore facts on the ground and are geared towards regime survival at whatever cost – by James Dorsey
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-dorsey/saudi-arabias-reach-in-ye_b_8144974.html
Saudische Propaganda
16.9.2015 – Arab Times
Liberation Of Yemen Tied To Protection Of Holy Mosques
PAST experiences answer questions which surface from time to time. Our experiences with the regime of the Mullahs from 1979 to date include several synopses and responses to an intuitive question asked today by a number of comptrollers who do not wish to see the other half of the cup filled.
This question is about Yemen, the existence of allied forces in Sana’a and the secret behind the fierce confrontation to put an end to the expansionist Iranian project which revolves around culture.
The slogan ‘export of revolution’ which Khomeini proclaimed 36 years ago was not only political in nature, but also a cultural slogan because it is related to the essence of understanding Islam by Muslims.
Since 1501, the Persians have been working to blend their understanding of Islam with their culture. They forced upon the faithful the rites which did not abide by the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and He — the Prophet — banished them.
Moreover, these rites failed to find a place in the Arab culture except where the Persians had penetrated the societies that were influenced by the slogan which called for exporting their revolution.
Therefore, a conflict of interest had surfaced between the Arab and Persian cultures over the past centuries. This conflict led to the emergence of a number of groups that took Islam as their title in spite of the fact their Islam was nowhere near the reality.
One of these groups the so-called ‘Ansarullah’ or the Houthis of Yemen which promoted the Persian project forced the GCC countries, led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to put a stop to the Persian expansionist project which came knocking at the Arab doors through the southern flank.
Quick action was the only viable solution because the Houthis had not only turned down every reasonable Gulf initiative to protect Yemen’s internal front but revolted against these initiatives.
However, their rejection of GCC goodwill gestures did not come as a surprise because the group was organically connected to the regime of the Mullahs in Tehran — the goal was to give the Iranian regime a strong foothold in Sana’a from where to control the Two Holy Mosques. This was expected to be the icing on the ‘cultural’ cake.
This necessitated the formation of an alliance not only to protect Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and other GCC states, but also to protect the Two Holy Mosques.
Therefore, the fall of Yemen in the hands of Iran was more dangerous than its existence in any other Arab country particularly Lebanon where Hezbollah is thriving due to destructive crises – by Ahmed Al-Jarallah
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/liberation-of-yemen-tied-to-protection-of-holy-mosques/
Kommentar: Ein bizarrer Propagandaartikel, in dem ausgerechnet ein Vertreter der Saudis [!!!] jemand anderem religiöse Intoleranz vorwirft – und hierfür gleich bis ins 16. Jahrhundert zurückgreift. Dann erklärt er gleich auch noch einen 500 Jahre andauernden „Kulturkampf“ zwischen Persern und Arabern, die Huthis sind mal wieder der Arm des Iran – und die Angriffe der Saudis und ihrer Verbündeten auf den Jemen wird zum Verteidigungskrieg erklärt – und dann wird noch richtih dick aufgetragen. Es reicht nicht einmal der Unsinn vom „Verteidigungskrieg“, nein, es muss auch gleich um die Verteidigung der heiligen Moscheen in Mekka und Medina gehen. Zwar hat niemand die Moscheen angegriffen – aber egal, wenn es so schöne Propaganda ist. Die einzigen, die in Mekka und Medina fast alle historischen Bauten plattmachen, sind obendrein die Saudis selber.
Politik der Golfstaaten
16.9.2015 – Fiscal Times
Arab solidarity, fear of Iran bring hi-tech Gulf troops to Yemen desert
"Me, I don't know very much about Yemen, but Sheikh Mohammed knows much more and we must do our duty," said Salem [a UAE soldier in Yemen], referring to the ruler of Dubai who is also the prime minister of the UAE.
"I know Yemen's an important country and next to all of ours. Whatever happens here we can't ignore - it will spread to Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. Iran won't stop until it spreads its Persian empire over everywhere here," said Salem, a bearded youth wearing a camouflage head wrap and designer sunglasses.
Armed with high-tech Western weaponry, Gulf Arab soldiers are fighting with newfound determination against what they see as the expanding influence of Iran, their non-Arab and Shi'ite Muslim arch-foe, in a war that has ravaged Yemen for six months.
Mindful of similar sectarian-fueled conflicts fragmenting other Arab states such as Iraq and Syria, the Gulf Arab and Yemeni fighters see their common cause in Yemen helping to revive a sense of Arab solidarity.
The losses [45 UAE soldiers killed by a Houthi strike] have deepened the sense of personal engagement in the war among the Gulf troops.
"We're not going to forget our blood. It's now a personal thing for the soldiers, (even though) we came to support the Yemenis," said Brigadier General Ali Seif al-Kaabi, commander of UAE forces in the area – by Mohammed Mukhashaf and Noah Browning
Kommentar: Ganz auf der Linie der saudischen bzw. VAE-Propaganda. Witzig der Hinweis auf den „sectarian war“ in der arabischen Welt, gegen den die VAE „a sense of Arab solidarity“ wiederbeleben wollen. Ausgerechnet! Es sind vor allem die Saudis, die überall in der islamischen Welt die konfessionellen Kriege damit anheizen, dass sie ihren wahabitischen Steinzeitislam überall durchdrücken wollen und Muslime anderer Bekenntnisse bekämpfen. Auch im Jemen waren es vor allem die Saudis, die die konfessionellen Gegensätze hochgepuscht haben.
Terrorismus
16.9.2015 – Jihadwatch
Yemen: Islamic jihadists torch Roman Catholic church in Aden
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/09/yemen-islamic-jihadists-torch-roman-catholic-church-in-aden
16.9.2015 – Aljazeera
Yemen: The truth behind al-Qaeda's takeover of Mukalla
Following al-Qaeda's seizure of the Yemeni coastal city months ago, a council was formed to govern the city.
Exploiting the chaos engulfing Yemen, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has established itself as a major power broker in the rugged desert region of Hadramout, as the war-torn country's exiled government and its GCC allies remain occupied in a conflict with Houthi fighters.
Since seizing the coastal city of Mukalla in mid-April, the armed group has asserted itself as a defender of Sunni Muslims threatened by the Shia Houthi fighters, and as a modicum of stability in a bitterly divided tribal region.
Providing residents with basic services, such as drinking water, electricity, and fuel, AQAP has partnered with local tribes to form the Hadramout National Council (HNC) - a militia which protects banks, local government buildings, and schools, while administering its own form of justice amid the collapse of a central authority.
However, critics say the HNC, founded mainly by religious figures, is nothing short of a front for AQAP as it continues to consolidate and expand its territory.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, HNC Secretary-General Abdul-Hakeem bin Mahfood, says AQAP, whom he referred to as the "Sons of Hadramout", are a crucial partner for peace – by Saeed Al Batati
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/yemen-truth-al-qaeda-takeover-mukalla-150914101527567.html
Drohnenkrieg
16.9.2015 – Daily Collegian
Drone strikes in Yemen challenge American identity
Everyone wants to be the good guy. As a country, our historical identity is directly defined by our resistance to oppression.
We began as the humble and feisty underdog, championing freedom against whoever may have stood in its way. Over time and a few World Wars we became, in our eyes, the sheriff, the protector. We love to look in the mirror and see a hero.
The citizens of Yemen see us a bit differently. The country has been targeted by the United States as a hideout for remnant al Qaeda leaders.
We hear that civilian deaths such as these are accidents; an unintentional and tragic result of misinformation. So with heavy hearts, our military will continue to attempt strikes such as this.
At what point is collateral damage unacceptable? Is it enough to say “we’re very sorry we missed” and not actually stop?
We aren’t the good guys here. In the minds of the families of the deceased, we are a faceless explosion that was aiming for the bully down the street. We are just another enemy bringing terror to their homeland.
They do not sympathize with our efforts to destroy those who have hurt us: We’re hurting them, and they miss their loved ones.
We as American citizens are guilty in some fashion if we look away from this. We might not authorize the strike or drop the bomb, but it is being done in our name.
Protecting the American people is the supposed underlying reason for all of it, and if we tune out, we are passively supporting how we are being protected.
We may be good people, but we can do bad things – von Jimmy Madden
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/opinion/columnists/article_e6d86d5a-5bea-11e5-aa1a-aba9b9237f75.html
Kommentar: Als guter Amerikaner sieht er sein Land natürlich positiv. Das ist natürlich legitim. Der letzte Satz des Beitrags offenbart freilich das Dilemma des Autors: Bei dem riesigen Umfang an „bad things“, die dieses Land in den letzten 70 Jahren und bis heute zu verantworten hatte, kann von „good people“ leider nicht mehr die Rede sein.
15.9.2015 – NTV
US-Drohnen töten im Jemen mehr Zivilisten als Al-Kaida
Amerikanische Drohnenangriffe haben im Jemen im vergangenen Jahr mehr zivile Opfer gefordert als Angriffe der Terrororganisation Al-Kaida. Darüber berichtet unter anderem das Magazin "Vice"
Laut UN-Angaben wurden im Jemen vom 1. Juli 2014 bis zum 30. Juni diesen Jahres 40 jemenitische Zivilisten bei Drohnenangriffen getötet.
Die UN machen die Terrormiliz Al-Kaida im gleichen Zeitraum für 24 zivile Opfer im Jemen verantwortlich.
Jemen und die öffentliche Wahrnehmung
16.9.2015 – Common Dreams
The Yemen Tragedy and the Ongoing Crisis of the Left in the United States
Article in full
After months of horrific scenes of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean where literally thousands of human beings were dying at sea, European public opinion was finally mobilized to respond to this movement of people. However, the anguished expressions of concern from the general public and government leaders in Europe was a far cry from the response that met the first wave of migrants that was largely African.
In response to that migration, European authorities openly talked of launching military attacks on the boats in Libya to stop the “flood” of these “illegal” immigrants into Europe, even after experts cautioned them that military attacks would result in even more deaths at sea.
What changed? The racial composition of the majority of the migrants shifting away from Sub-Saharan Africans to refugees from the various conflict zones of Iraq and Syria, captured in the image of the globally disseminated image of Aylan Kurdi, the Kurdish child from the devastated city of Kabani. But even more importantly, European and U.S. propaganda could exploit this flow of humanity from Syria politically.
This example is pertinent to the discussion here because it raises two issues related to Yemen: first, the ease in which public opinion is influenced by Western propagandists (I include both the official state entities responsible for psy-ops directed at the public and the corporate media that largely collaborates with these efforts because of shared ideological positions and worldviews), and secondly, how humanitarian concerns are selectively manipulated to prepare and justify military attacks from the U.S./EU/NATO axis of domination.
In Yemen, six months of relentless and seemingly indiscriminate bombing by the repressive Whabbaist dictatorship of Saudi Arabia has cost the lives of over four thousands human beings, who according to the United Nations and major human rights organizationshave been primarily civilians.
Along with this wanton murder, the Saudi government and its allies from the contemptuous gang of corrupt Arab monarchies known as the Gulf Cooperation Council benefit from the diplomatic cover and military support from the equally contemptuous U.S. state. Together, they have created a humanitarian catastrophe in one of the poorest nations on the planet.
Yet, for the majority of the people in the U.S., the carnage in Yemen simply does not exist because it has not been in the interests of the rulers to draw the attention of the American people to it.
Therefore, the U.S. public is unaware that the U.S. is participating in the naval blockade of a country that imports 80% of its food by sea. They don’t know that the bombing, blockade, and massive displacement has resulted in widespread famine with more than78% of the population now in need of humanitarian assistance. They never read the report from Peter Maurer, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who said that “Yemen after five months looks like Syria after five years."
And while U.S. propagandists are preparing the people for an even more direct intervention into Syria, using the absurd pretext that somehow the imposition of a “no fly zone” is an appropriate response to the humanitarian concerns of refugee flows from Syria to Europe, the humanitarian emergency created by the war in Yemen is largely uncovered and outside the bounds of polite conversation in the U.S.
This conspiracy of silence has translated into impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity. It has meant that the central role played by the U.S. in this criminal assault occurred without any opposition from mainstream politicians or most radicals and leftists in the U.S.
Do Non-European Lives really Matter to White Leftists?
The political reaction to the killing spree in Yemen that now eclipses the murderous assault on Gaza by Israel, has not only been met with indifference but many leftists and radicals in the U.S. have given their support to Bernie Sanders who said very clearly that under his administration the Saudi’s would be given even more latitude to carry out military operations in the Middle-East. The Sanders’ position is that the Saudi’s needed to get their “hands a little dirty.” For Bernie and his supporters, the mischief that the Saudi government and private individuals have been engaged in across the region financing groups like ISIS wasn’t dirty enough.
After years of drone attacks from the U.S., the end of the agony of the people of Yemen is nowhere in sight. These attacks targeted weddings, funerals, first responders to an initial drone attack and so-called signature strikes where an anonymous person is murdered because he fits the behavior profile of a “terrorist.” After pounding the country into rubble with six months of terror from the sky, the Saudi’s are now involved in ground operations in Yemen that will only increase the death toll and the humanitarian disaster.
This is the world that a President Sanders promises—continued war crimes from the sky with drone strikes and Saudi led terror in support of the Western imperial project.
This is not to suggest that everyone who might find a way to support Sanders is a closet racist and supporter of imperialism. I know plenty of folks of all backgrounds who “feel the Bern.” There is, however, an objective logic to their uncritical support that they cannot escape and which I believe represents the ongoing crisis of radicalism in the U.S. and Europe.
The Sanders’ campaign, like the Obama phenomenon before it, does not offer a program or strategic direction for addressing the current crisis and contradictions of Western capitalist societies. Instead, it is an expression of the moral and political crisis of Western radicalism. This crisis – which is reflective of the loss of direction needed to inform vision, and fashion a creative program for radical change – is even more acute in the U.S. than Western Europe. Yet, what unites both radical experiences is a tacit commitment to Eurocentrism and the assumptions of normalized white supremacy.
In their desperate attempt to defend Sanders and paint his critics as dogmatists and purists, the Sanders supporters have not only fallen into the ideological trap of a form of narrow “left” nativism, but also the white supremacist ethical contradiction that reinforces racist cynicism in which some lives are disposable for the greater good of the West.
And as much as the ‘Sandernistas ’ attempt to disarticulate Sanders “progressive” domestic policies from his documented support for empire (even the Obamaite aphorism “The perfect is the enemy of the good” is unashamedly deployed), it should be obvious that his campaign is an ideological prop – albeit from a center/left position – of the logic and interests of the capitalist-imperialist settler state.
The silence of the left on Yemen is not a trivial matter. The fact that so many white leftist supporters of Sanders can politically and psychologically disconnect his domestic program from his foreign policy positions that objectively support U.S. and Western neoliberal hegemony means that not only have they found a way to be comfortable collaborating with imperialism, but that they have also decided that they can support the implicit hierarchy that determines from an imperial perspective that lives in the White West matter more than others.
What this means for those of us who are internationalists and believe in the equal value of all life is that we have to question the sincerity of individuals who claim that black lives matter while supporting someone who clearly believes that Israeli lives matter more than Palestinian and Yemeni lives. And that the pro-democracy fighters in Bahrain should be subjected to the policing and murderous assault by the gangster regime in Saudi Arabia.
It means that if today leftists in the U.S. can find a way to reconcile the suffering of the people of Yemen and Gaza and all of occupied Palestine for the greater good of electing Sanders, tomorrow my life and the movement that I am a part of that is committed to fighting this corrupt, degenerate, white supremacist monstrosity called the United States, can be labeled as enemies of the state and subjected to brutal repression with the same level of silence from these leftists.
And since tomorrow has already happened in the past with the repression of the Black Liberation Movement, when it happens again we will not be surprised – but this time we will be ready – by Ajamu Baraka
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/09/16/yemen-tragedy-and-ongoing-crisis-left-united-states
Grotesk: Blick der Weltwirtschaft auf Jemen
16.9.2015 – Trading Economics
Yemen | Economic Forecasts | 2015-2050 Outlook
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/yemen/forecast
Kommentar: Auch wenn die prognostizierten Zahlen nur bis 2020 reichen: Angesichts des Krieges sind solche Vorhersagen völlig absurd; Kaffeesatzlesen wäre noch realitätsbezogener, gerade im ehemaligen Kaffeeland Jemen!
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