ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (Analysis) — Since the beginning of the war against Yemen in March of 2015, Saudi Arabia has received most of the negative press for its war crimes — and rightfully so. Saudi airstrikes have targeted homes, schools, hospitals, markets, and other vital civilian infrastructure, resulting in over 13,000 civilian deaths.
Analysis — US Defense Secretary James “Mad Dog” Mattis has refuted claims that the US is preparing for war on Iran after US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley led a bizarre press conference in which she stated that Iran has armed Houthi fighters in Yemen and thus violating the terms of the JCPOA (aka Iran nuclear deal).
Haley did not provide any evidence to substantiate her claims, claims which are logistically impossible given the Saudi led blockade of Yemen which predates the JCPOA by nearly four months.
As I wrote at the time:
The Iranian government issued a statement Thursday denying that a presentation earlier in the day by the U.S. represented proof that they’d been sending arms to the Shia Houthis in Yemen in a bid to resist the U.S.-backed Saudi invasion, saying it was a ‘fabrication.”
JP Sottile of NewsVandal.com joins me in the first hour to discuss the decline of the US empire. We begin by discussing the continued decline of the US media. JP and I touch on the the ways in which the US media (particularly TV) has become ever more enamored with the cult of celebrity. We discuss the ways in which the TV talking heads will obsess over a single tweet by Trump while actual real news is happening all around us. JP and I speculate over the reasons for this trend, and why the media loves to distract us with “news items” about presidential tweets.
Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been killed near the country’s capital of Sanaa. His death was confirmed by his political party, the General People’s Congress, according to Al-Jazeera.
Video footage of a body resembling Saleh has been circulating on social media. One image depicted how armed men used blankets to transport his corpse from the back of a pickup truck, Al-Jazeera reported.
The Saudi-led coalition is waging total war on Yemen in a bid to defeat the guerrilla group, the Houthis or the Helpers of God. The Houthis took power in Sanaa in fall of 2014 and consolidated it in early 2015. By March-April, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammad Bin Salman, now the crown prince, had ordered air strikes on the country that have continued to this day. These strikes have been indiscriminate, hitting schools, hospitals, apartment buildings and key civilian infrastructure like ports, bridges and roads. Any one of these strikes is a war crime.
One day after Saudi Arabia and Kuwait ordered their citizens to evacuate Lebanon – a move many suggested telegraphed an imminent “military intervention” – the mainstream media has begun building the case for a new mid-east war, one which will involve Iran and Hezbollah (and potentially Russia, not to mention other Shia Muslims) on one hand, and Saudi Arabia and Israel on the other.
Amid international calls for an independent inquiry into Saudi war crimes in Yemen, the Kingdom has investigated itself and found it has done nothing wrong.
U.S. and Saudi troops engage in a joint training exercise in Saudi Arabia. The Pentagon announced last Friday that, for the first time, U.S. boots are officially on the ground on Yemen. (U.S. Army Photo)
