Forty pro-democracy demonstrators have been killed outside the university in Sanaa by the US sponsored Yemeni regime this morning, with over two hundred shot. The Clinton/Obama plan for US allies to crush the democracy movement against their Gulf allies, while the whole media is diverted to the “pro-democracy” military demonstration in Libya, proceeds apace.
Allowed HTML - you can use:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>
The best lesson to be learned to dictators all over the world from all these is that if your country posses oil, or gas, or any other kind of natural recourse, you need to make sure that all these is made available to US and European companies to use and abuse. Otherwise, when your people turned against you, you will not only be given no support but will not be allowed to shoot at them (at least not for a long time). And if you comply with all the above than not only you will be given bullets, tanks, machine guns, solders, but also media cover and full support and understanding.
No who tells that colonialism is dead?
Of course. Neocolonialism is alive and kicking, very, very hard. What the Yemeni regime has done is utterly horrendous. Will we see no-fly zones over there or Bahrain? Will there be sanctions, will the leaders' accounts be frozen? Of course not. We will hear platitudes and the selling of high-calibre weapons to the oppressors.
The difference between Yemen and Libya is that Libya's government has lost control, and was on the cusp of full scale genocidal war before foreign intervention. The Yemeni government still controls the cities, and the protests have not escalated into full scale conflict. How many people have died in Yemen? certainly less than 100. In Libya? Over a thousand, and there is the very real promise from Qadhafi himself to murder tens of thousands more. If the situation in Yemen deteriorates to this point and the Yemeni government acts in the way Qadhafi has, then the international community will be forced by the example of their intervention in Libya to do the same in Yemen.
Certainly what your source said a few days ago has played out word for word. At that time, and still now, I don't know what's worse: the blind eye in Bahrain/Yemen, or the hunger to get stuck into Libya(n resources)? Which cold-bloded oppertunistic calculation should we be most worried about?
Craig, I've just sent the following message to the Deputy PM's Office:
Nick, your government's principled position on protecting Libyan civilians rightly ignores Gadaffi's claims of Al-Quaidda interference.
However, it is undermined by the total lack of similar action against the massacre of pro-democracy civilians in Yemen at the University of Sanaa & the Anschluss taking place in Bahrain.
When is the UK going to be consistent in its approach to this issue of states committing crimes against its own people? Those in Bahrain & Yemen etc. are no less deserving of the same sort of support we are giving the Libyan people.
Is this because a deal has been done with those countries to get them to support the NFZ policy? Do you support this double standard or will you have the bottle to be consistent in the application of the principle?
I'm free most evenings & all day Mon/Tues next week. Perhaps you'd care to debate the issue in public somewhere local? You can even bring a second if you want.
Dave Hansell
Local, by the way is Sheffield. I don't for a minute think he would risk such an open debate but on the off-chance I would be in the market for a second.
Yemen expert Gregory D. Johnsen's Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/gregorydjohnsen
The MO of the 'unidentified gunmen' carrying out this massacre in Sanaa is eerily reminiscent of the massacre inflicted on the routed red shirts in the grounds of a buddhist temple in Bangkok last May.High velocity rifles, fired from rooftops, aimed at demonstrators hostile to the incumbent 'pro-western' government.
It'll be interesting to see whether, as with the Bangkok massacre last year, our 'liberal interventionist' leaders quickly forget about this dreadful incident.
I wouldn't compare Yemen with Thailand. The conflict in Thailand is simply local elites fighting over who gets the most pie, I don't think western policy enters into it at all. The Red Shirts (new money) and the Yellow Shirts (old money) are whipping up the poor / middle class in order to serve the leaders greed. I would state that the Red Shirts have done more for the poor than Yellow, but it has nothing to do with morality, it is simply that the Red's support base is the poor, so they need to maintain their support. The leaders of both groups are disgusting people.
I would also argue that it was the Reds that started the shooting. When the army moved in to break up the BKK protest camp, Seh Daeng (the Red General) had pre positioned snipers and ordered them to target the military commanders who were giving orders to the government troops. This was totally unexpected by the government troops and they collapsed quickly and had to withdraw. The Reds crowed about the success of their snipers among themselves, but their official line was that they had not used snipers. It was completely unsurprising when Seh Daeng himself was shot dead by a sniper while giving an interview to a western journalist. Anyone who knows Thai culture knew that the army would never allow Seh Daeng to get away with firing on army commanders. Live by the sword and all that. The horrible thing about all the conflict is that apart from Seh Daeng, virtually all the victims on both sides are average/poor people who have been used by their leaders.
And now, the King of Saudi Arabia, His Wondrous Majestic Otherness, after 86 years of (his) life on earth, has decided to give some pennies to development projects and to raise the salaries of public employees. Gosh! Will the casinos of Manama, stuffed to the gunwales with ladies of the night and frequented by the Saudi Royal Princes, survive this fiduciary monarchical revolution? The cops – see link – look pretty well-fed, though. Looks as though they would have difficulty chasing after anything much faster than a tortoise. When the tortoises rise up, the world trembles. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011…
And here is a good piece by Esam Al-Amin. It is very early to evaluate matters, but what has been occurring in Egypt is encouraging. The revolutionaries will have to keep up the pressure to keep the momentum going. There is an important referendum in Egypt this weekend. I have been in contact with people in Egypt who were and are involved from Tahrir Square onwards and they are working hard. http://www.counterpunch.org/amin03182011.html
I have been astonished at the power of the most recent propaganda barrage. To anyone with a brain, the situation in Libya is fishy to say the least. But people – intelligent, lefty people – are buying the bullshit, hook line and sinker. Most disturbing, for me, has been The Guardian. It really does look like left-liberal outlets are the ones who are used and manipulated to disseminate propaganda, to the extent that I wonder – in all seriousness, being of rational disposition – if some of their hacks are linked to the security services. Craig is right, the focus is on Libya, whilst all sorts of things go on elsewhere. I think the US is scared and their actions come from a place of deepest cynicism, a place where Obama seems quite comfortable. And these rebels? What can you say. A proper newspaper would explain a little about who they are; The Guardian has not even tried to do so, and has merely parroted propaganda. It's time to kick my Guardian habit, it's not good for me.
I came to a similar conclusion a decade ago.
MONARCHY SHOULD BE ABOLISHED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.
PEOPLE DONT HAVE TOILETS AND THESE MONARCHS ARE SHITTING ON GOLD PLATED TOILETS !
Hey, the CIA does it:
Operation Mockingbird: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbir…
The Dark Road in Yemen; Gregory D. Johnsen; 3/19/11 http://bigthink.com/ideas/31657
Clinton's jacked in a 2nd term.
Dave Hansell
Bravo-I’ve sent a similar post to Obama’s office- Craig has his finger on the ME pulse and I am enjoying targeting those in positions of influence with his ‘show stopper’ insight. The muted response to this suggests a ‘cat has got their tongues’ – diversion is of course deception but the magicians are out of tricks!