Yemen’s Theater of the Absurd
CIA chief David Petraeus warns:
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has emerged as the most dangerous regional node in the global jihad.
But despite increased U.S. access, air strikes, and praise of Yemeni government cooperation, AQAP has continued to grow stronger.
What U.S. government statements fail to mention is that the Yemeni government has been paying, training, directing, providing safe haven to, and exporting al-Qaeda terrorists for two decades. For example, it freed 70 al-Qaeda operatives in March — not to mention other escapes, early releases, and pardons.
U.S. officials also rarely mention that since nationwide protests erupted in February, the Sana’a regime has slaughtered hundreds of Yemeni protesters and bombed dozens of villages. In order to restore stability, the United States and Saudi Arabia endorsed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) plan that offers the rulers prosecutorial immunity if they accepts a unity government and early elections. In effect, this backs the regime remaining in power despite demonstrations calling for its immediate ouster.
Despite the golden parachute he’s been offered, President Ali Abdullah Saleh repeatedly reneged on signing such a deal. In May, regime supporters besieged diplomats gathering for the alleged signing ceremony. Freed hours later, the U.S. ambassador downplayed the incident. On September 19, international interlocutors arrived in Sana’a to try again to finalize the agreement. That day, security forces opened fire, killing 93 protesters and injuring 700. Snipers and tanks also attacked in Taiz, Yemen’s second largest city.
The State Department urged “all parties” to “refrain from actions that provoke further violence” — as if the unarmed protesters were somehow responsible.
In a stunningly audacious move, President Saleh returned to Yemen days later, following a three-month exile in Saudi Arabia where he was recovering from injuries sustained in an attack on the presidential palace. Saleh said he came with “a dove of peace” — but regime forces began shelling the protesters at midnight, as snipers fired from roofs.
Fifty were killed that day.
The United States, UK, France, Saudi Arabia, the GCC, and UN all managed to react by once again endorsing the GCC plan without any criticism of Saleh.
The regime uses the al-Qaeda threat to mobilize international support for itself. Counterterrorist forces — headed by Saleh’s son and nephews and U.S.-funded, trained, and equipped — are a critical part of the regime’s defenses. (Obama officials say there is no evidence that specific U.S. trained units are complicit in murdering protesters.)
Then, when they’ve succeeded in suppressing the revolt, they try to convince the populace that the West “forced” them to use excessive military force, though of course they resisted as much as they could. It’s all America’s fault, and they make me ride around in a stretch limo, and live in this big palace.
“Despite the golden parachute he’s been offered, President Ali Abdullah Saleh repeatedly reneged on signing such a deal.”
Reminds me of when the Carter administration kept getting the shaft from the Iranians while they were holding our American embassy hostages. Every other day they were given hope and promises from the Iranians, just to have it taken away from them the next day. These people have been duplicitous hagglers for centuries. Anybody who is surprised at that should not have a job at the State Department. No, if you want something from them, they only respect force. And if you’re going to haggle with them for something, you need to be as sharp as they are and just as nasty. If not, go home and stay out of their country.
Hagglers? Let’s try extortionists. They will do or say anything to get what they want and then come back demanding more. They want nothing less than to rule the world and will stop at nothing to get what they want. The funny part is, though they are unanimous in their hatred of the west, when they do rule a country, they immediately start suppressing sects of their own that don’t quite match the ruling party’s idea of what their religion says. They fight among themselves almost as much as they do against the west. Is there any Muslim country in the middle east that does not support one terrorist group or another? They will lie, cheat, steal, make war (if they see weakness), anything to advance their ideals and Obummer is trying to make nice with such as these?
Meanwhile, the US continues to support the local branches of al Qaeda in the Balkans – as well as the al-Qaeda-affiliated Libyan rebels – while fighting against al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Go figure.