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January 4, 2010
Obama's War on Yemen
By Stephen Lendman
Obama's War on Yemen - by Stephen Lendman
Besides waging direct or proxy wars on multiple fronts in Iraq,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, the Philippines, Sudan, Eastern
Congo, elsewhere in Africa, and likely to erupt almost anywhere
at any time, Yemen is now a new front in America's "war on
terror" under a president, who as a candidate, promised
diplomacy, not conflict, if elected.
In 2008, he told the Boston Globe that:
"The President does not have power under the Constitution to
unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does
not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation."
None exists, yet he's done the opposite and much more. He:
-- reinvented a "Cold War" with Russia;
-- is encircling it and China with military bases, and proceeding
with provocative plans to install interceptor missiles in Poland
(for offense, not defense) and advanced tracking radar in the
Czech Republic;

-- escalated war in Afghanistan;

-- appointed a hired gun assassin to lead it, General Stanley
McChrystal, infamous for committing war crime atrocities as
former head of the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations
Command (JSOC);
-- authorized death squad assaults to pursue it, including
extrajudicial assassinations, torture, and indiscriminate bombing
of Afghan communities without regard for civilian lives;
-- expanded the war into Pakistan and now to Yemen;
-- is militarizing Latin America using Colombia and the Dutch
islands of Aruba and Curazao to fly unmanned
surveillance/attack drones over Venezuela and perhaps
elsewhere in the region;
-- plans to use Colombian insurgents to commit "false positive"
border incidents blaming Venezuela as a pretext for a retaliatory
attack, supported, of course, by Washington as a way to target
and perhaps remove Hugo Chavez;
-- failed to subvert Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
reelection; continues destabilization tactics for regime change;
and may, preemptively without cause, attack Iran's nuclear
facilities;
-- ousted the democratically elected Honduran president,
installing a fascist regime to replace him;
-- supports the worst of Israeli war crimes and oppression
against Palestinians;
-- governs America under police state laws to resist unrest if it
arises in the wake of outlandish administration policies; and
according to some
-- plans a major false flag US attack to enlist popular support,
divert attention from the deepening economic crisis, and
provide a pretext for new fronts in the "war on terror" with
unlimited funding to pursue them at the expense of neglected
homeland needs.
Target Yemen
Journalist Patrick Cockburn calls Yemen:
"a dangerous place. Wonderfully beautiful, the mountainous
north of the country is guerrilla paradise. The Yemenis are
exceptionally hospitable....humorous, sociable and democratic,
infinitely preferable as company to the arrogant ignorant
playboys of the (rich regional) oil states."
Sana'a is the capital, home to the central government and
largest city, an ancient one dating back to the 6th century BC
Sabaean dynasty. However, it's power is limited, given the
strength of tribes, clans, and influential families in a society very
much a gun culture and prone to direct action.
On average, Yemenis own three guns per person in a nation of
21 million people, including one or more automatic weapons,
like an AK-47 as well as heavier arms. Yemeni Professor Ahmed
al-Kibsi once told a British reporter: "Just as you have your tie,
the Yemeni will carry his gun," and isn't at all shy about using it.
As a result, Cockburn says "Yemen has all the explosive
ingredients of Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan," so
entanglement there may become another quagmire, besides the
others in the region already. "It is extraordinary to see the US
begin to make the same mistakes in Yemen as it previously
made in Afghanistan and Iraq" - overextending and getting too
involved to exit.
William Hartung, Arms and Security Initiative director at the New
York-based New America Foundation, calls the Yemeni
government one of the most unstable in the world, so weapons,
training, and direct intervention may backfire if an anti-
Washington regime replaces it.
Cockburn says America doesn't "learn from past mistakes and
instead....repeats them by fresh interventions in countries like
Yemen." Perhaps not, however, since part of Washington's
scheme is to keep fighting, divert people from more pressing
issues at home, and enrich thousands of war profiteers with
public money, leaving future generations with the bill.
The UN says poverty in Yemen is widespread with about 45% of
the population living on less than two dollars a day. The New
York Times calls Yemen one of the world's oldest civilizations
and poorest Middle East country (ignoring Occupied Palestine),
"as well as a haven for Islamic jihadists:" to wit, the ubiquitous
Al Qaeda, a 1980s CIA creation always trotted out whenever
"war on terror" efforts need stoking and a convenient enemy to
be blamed.
According to The Times:
"Yemen gained new attention in 2009 from American military
officials, who are concerned about Al Qaeda's efforts to set up a
regional base there."
In December, US officials claimed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a
Nigerian citizen, traveled to Yemen, was trained by Al Qaeda,
obtained explosive chemicals (PETN), and tried using them to
blow up an Amsterdam-Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day.
According to Webster Tarpley in a December 29 Russia Today
interview, Abdulmutallab is a CIA "protected patsy (for the)
provocation designed to facilitate US meddling in (Yemen's) civil
war (pitting) the Saudi-backed central government against the
Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels," being bombed by US and
Saudi air strikes.
He was denied a UK entrance visa, wasn't on a No Fly List, paid
cash for a one-way ticket to Detroit, checked no luggage, had a
US visa but no passport, and was helped on board by a "well-
dressed Indian" to facilitate what appears to be a Washington
false flag plot using Abdulmutallab as a convenient dupe.
The Wayne Madsen Report adds more calling the airliner
incident a false flag operation "carried out by (the) intelligence
tripartite grouping of CIA, Mossad, and India's Research and
Analysis Wing (RAW)." Earlier they "worked together along with
former Afghan KHAD intelligence agents to assassinate former
Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto....to destabilize
Pakistan" for planned balkanization, the same scheme planned
for Afghanistan.
Madsen added that Abdulmutallab's PETN "was weak (exploding
like a fire cracker), technically deficient (and failed to go off
properly)."
What's at stake? At most, Yemen has four billion proved barrels
of oil reserves and modest amounts of natural gas, hardly a
reason for war. More important is its strategic location near the
Horn of Africa on Saudi Arabia's southern border, the Red Sea,
its Bab el- Mandeb strait (a key chokepoint separating Yemen
from Eritrea through which three million barrels of oil pass
daily), and the Gulf of Aden connection to the Indian Ocean.

Tarpley believes Washington is:

"play(ing) Iran against Saudi Arabia so as to weaken both the
pro-Moscow Ahmadinejad government in Iran, and also those
Saudi forces that are fed up with their status as a US
protectorate. The US is openly now sponsoring a regroupment of
Al Qaeda in Yemen, including by sending fighters direct from
Guantanamo. The new CIA-promoted synthetic entity is Al
Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsule (AQAP), a gaggle of US patsies,
dupes, and fanatics which is claiming credit for the
(Abdulmutallab) incident."
Washington's usual tactics are at work:
-- create a false flag incident;
-- heighten fear through the complicit media;
-- ride to the rescue with popular support;
-- keep oil prices high;
-- boost market opportunities for security equipment
manufacturers;
-- weaken civil liberties through new police state measures;
-- erode Iranian and Russian influence; and
-- gain greater control over the region's southern portion, the
entire Middle East and all of Eurasia.
Coming next may be another enlisted or unwitting stooge to
take down an airliner, blame it on Iran, Yemeni rebels, or Al
Qaeda and provide an excuse for greater intervention, mass
slaughter and destruction in another country, then on to the
next one as part of an offensive to expand regional war and
destabilization toward the ultimate goal of global "full spectrum
dominance.
At Washington's behest, the Saudis began bombing and using
tanks against Yemen in early November. So far, hundreds have
been killed or wounded and thousands displaced. In addition, a
rebel group called the Young Believers claims US jets launched
multiple attacks in Yemen's northwest Sa'ada Province. Britain's
Daily Telegraph also reports that US Special Forces (meaning
death squads like in Afghanistan) are training Yemen's army,
and likely operating covertly on their own.
On December 29, Iran accused Washington, the UK, and other
western countries of fomenting the week's anti-government
protests. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Hahmanparast
claimed a complicit minority in the country was involved with
outside support, saying:
"This is intervention in our internal affairs. We strongly condemn
it," after president Obama praised "the courage and the
conviction of the Iranian people (and condemned the
government's) iron fist of brutality."

Iranians have long memories of US meddling. In 1953, CIA

operative Kermit Roosevelt, grandson of Theodore Roosevelt
and Franklin's cousin, engineered a successful coup ousting
democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq
(the country's most popular politician) after he nationalized the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company following a dispute about revenue
sharing. Now it's all about terrorism, Islamic extremists, and the
ubiquitous Al Qaeda as convenient excuses Washington uses to
threaten or attack anywhere.
It's no wonder that legitimate commentaries accuse America of
fanning the flames of war with rhetoric, new troop deployments
to Afghanistan, and General McChrystal naming the country's
major insurgent group threats as the Qjetta Shura Taliban, the
Haqqani Network (closely aligned with the Taliban), and the
Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG, linked to Afghanistan's Hezbi
Islami Party) - the latter two former CIA assets in the 1980s, and
the Taliban an ally before 9/11.
They're now claimed to be active in Pakistan and mortal
enemies in America's "war on terror," about to consume Yemen
in Washington's fury, helped by headlines like the December 29
Times Online saying:
"Hundreds of al-Qaeda militants planning attacks from Yemen,"
according to its Foreign Minister, Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, appealing for
help to equip counterinsurgency forces.
"Of course there are....al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen and some
of their leaders," he said. "We realize the danger. They may
actually plan attacks like the one we have just had in Detroit."

On December 30, The New York Times published a Reuters

report headlining, "US Seeks to Boost Yemen For Expanded Al
Qaeda Fight," saying America plans:
"to expand military and intelligence cooperation with the
government of Yemen to step up a crackdown on al Qaeda
militants believed to be behind a failed plot to blow up a US
passenger jet," according to unnamed US officials.
President Obama vowed "to use every element of our national
power to disrupt, to dismantle, and defeat the violent extremists
who threaten us - whether they are from Afghanistan or
Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia, or anywhere where they are
plotting attacks against the US homeland."
Without elaborating, Pentagon spokesperson Bryan Whitman
said "We are going to work with allies and partners to seek out
terrorist activity, al Qaeda....This is not new."
Increased US-Saudi attacks and military aid are part of the effort
- up from $4.6 million in FY 2006 to $67 million in FY 2009, and
according to the Wall Street Journal, citing an unnamed senior
Pentagon official, to as much as $190 million in FY 2010.
Included also are unknown black budget amounts, greater
numbers of US Special Forces on the ground for training and
covert death squad activities, and stepped up air attacks.
Whitman explained that Yemen is now America's second largest
recipient of overt counterterrorism aid, after Pakistan, a sign of
the area's importance to Washington. US Special Forces
operated there in 2002, and according to The New York Times,
the CIA sent in many counterterrorism operatives in 2008 along
with other US forces for overt and covert purposes.

Reports in the US and foreign media suggest larger scale US-

backed Yemeni attacks are imminent, and according to CNN,
citing two unnamed senior US officials:
"The US and Yemen are now looking at fresh targets for a
potential retaliation strike. The effort is to see whether targets
can be specifically linked to the airline incident and its
planning....the agreement would allow the US to fly cruise
missiles, fighter jets or unmanned armed drones against targets
in Yemen with the consent of that government," that's, of
course, gotten and will proceed with or without it.
Inflammatory US media reports and commentaries now promote
war by portraying Yemen as a hotbed of terrorism, citing
ubiquitous Al Qaeda forces creating chaos throughout the
country, and saying unless America acts, conditions will worsen
and spread.
According to The New York Times on December 27:
Washington "has quietly opened (a) largely covert front against
Al Qaeda in Yemen," using CIA operatives and Special
Operations commandos, according to an unnamed Agency
official. Writers Eric Schmitt and Robert Worth call the country:
"a refuge for jihadists, in part because (the) government
welcomed returning Islamist fighters who had fought in
Afghanistan during the 1980s. (These) militants have made
much more focused efforts to build a base in Yemen in recent
years, drawing recruits from throughout the region and
mounting attacks more frequently on foreign embassies and
other targets."

Washington has close relations with Field Marshall Ali Abdullah

Saleh, Yemen's ruling despot. From 1978 - 1990, he was
president of the Yemen Arab Republic, and since then headed
the united Republic of Yemen. During the Cold War, America
backed the Islamist regime in the North against southern
secular nationalists aligned with the Soviets. In the country's
1994 civil war, former Yemeni Afghan fighters helped Saleh
secure the power he still holds.
Washington recruited him for its expanded regional wars. They
cause great loss of lives, wider instability, an unsustainable
expense, and leave vital homeland needs unmet, but are a
bonanza for the war profiteers fueling them and others to follow
for a sure-fire stream of blood money.
What's Next?
Up the ante in Afghanistan and Pakistan, entanglement in
Yemen, then perhaps confront Iran with White House
spokesman Robert Gibbs saying on November 27:
"Our patience and that of the international community is limited,
and time is running out. If Iran refuses to meet its obligations,
then it will be responsible for its own growing isolation and
consequences." Apparently a "package of consequences" are
planned, according to another unnamed official.
Air attacks may be one of them with New York Times support.
On January 10, chief diplomatic correspondent, David Sanger,
reported on US - Israeli talks over the past year about possibly
striking Iran's nuclear sites as well covert sabotage efforts "to
undermine electrical systems, computer systems and other
networks on which Iran relies."
Like Judith Miller's press agent role for the Pentagon in the run
to the Iraq war, Sanger is a notorious Pentagon and State
Department conduit, so his reports read more official
propaganda than legitimate journalism - a longstanding Times
pro-war, pro-business, anti-labor bias going back decades, and
very evident now.
On December 23, The Times gave Alan Kuperman, Nuclear
Proliferation Prevention Program director at the University of
Texas, op-ed space to headline, "There's Only One Way to Stop
Iran," and he doesn't suggest diplomacy.
He says Obama should welcome Iran's rejection of his nuclear
deal because it "did not require Iran to halt its enrichment
program," even though it's in full compliance with the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) giving Washington and other
nations no right to stop it.
Yet Kuperman insists Iran will likely divert its surplus higher-
enriched fuel to weapons, and President Ahmadinejad "initially
embraced the deal because he realized it aided Iran's bomb
program."
However, "peaceful carrots and sticks cannot work, and an
invasion would be foolhardy, (so Washington) faces a stark
choice: military air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities or
acquiescence to Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons."
IAEA inspections show no proof of a secret nuclear weapons
program, and former IAEA director general, Mohamed ElBaradei,
said in February 2009 said "many other countries are enriching
uranium without the world making any fuss about it."Five days
before he retired on November 27, he told Reuters:

"We have no indication that there are other undeclared facilities

in Iran. I want to be very clear about that." He also urged
patience because Iran posed no imminent threat, and said
"people should stop threatening the use of force because that
simply....creates a justification or pretext for countries....to go
underground because (they're) threatened."
He stressed that the IAEA found no evidence that Iranians had
technology needed to assemble a nuclear warhead or that
they're even trying.
Kuperman isn't convinced and accuses Iran of "suppl(ying)
terrorist groups in violation of international embargoes. (So, if it)
acquire(s) a nuclear arsenal, the risks would simply to too great
that it could become a neighborhood bully or provide terrorists
with the ultimate weapon, an atomic bomb."
Never mind that America's 2002 and 2006 National Security
Strategy (NSS) and 2001 Nuclear Policy Review authorize the
development of new type nuclear weapons, and the right to use
them in first-strike preventive wars under the doctrine of
"anticipatory self-defense."
Iran threatens no one, but Kuperman recommends military
strikes anyway, regardless of the law, whether they'll succeed,
and no matter the potentially horrific consequences, including
inflaming the whole region, disrupting oil supplies, harming
world economies when they're most vulnerable, and making
America more hated than ever.
Still he says:
"Postponing military action merely provides Iran a window to
expand, disperse and harden its nuclear facilities against attack.
The sooner the United States takes action, the better."
In other words, two fronts aren't enough so add Yemen. Then
make it a foursome with Iran, the sooner America does it the
better, and The New York Times promotes this view after
expressing caution in its January 3 editorial headlined, "No
delusion of bombing Iran" and saying:
"Fortunately, President-elect Barack Obama says his approach
to Iran will include 'a new emphasis on respect and a new
emphasis on being willing to talk....' "
This approach "may or may not work," says The Times. "But it is
a road that (should be tried and) should have been taken years
ago."
Not now apparently or earlier, in fact, as Times writers play an
indispensable role feeding misinformation to the world and
supporting imperial wars with the rest of the dominant media.
They'll have plenty to say as a new Yemen front unfolds and
maybe an Iran one to follow.
Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for
Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be
reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to
the Lendman News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday -
Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions
with distinguished guests on world and national issues. All
programs are archived for easy listening.

http://republicbroadcasting.org/Lendman
Author's Bio: I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small
businessman concerned about all the major national and world
issues, committed to speak out and write about them.