It matters little who sits in the Oval Office, the blood continues to flow in the Middle East, and America’s “exceptional” hands remain soaked in it. In the latest report from Yemen, news has emerged of the deaths of 9 women and 1 child in the latest act of U.S.-approved Saudi barbarism.
Reuters reports:
Warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition struck a house north of Yemen’s capital where a crowd of mourners was gathered, residents said on Thursday, killing nine women and a child and injuring dozens.
The Saudi-led coalition said it was investigating reports of civilian casualties in the area.
The air strike hit the house of a local tribal leader in Ashira, a village north of Sanaa, on Wednesday night, a resident told Reuters. Mourners had gathered there to offer condolences after a woman died.
“People heard the sound of planes and started running from the house but then the bombs hit the house directly. The roof collapsed. Blood was everywhere,” a second resident of Ashira, who gave his name as Hamid Ali, told a Reuters cameraman.
“We are aware of media reports that Houthi rebels are claiming that Yemeni civilians were killed in an air raid overnight near Sanaa,” the coalition said in statement.
“There has been fighting between Yemeni armed forces and rebels in this area in recent days. We are investigating the reports.”
In October the alliance of mainly Gulf Arab states was heavily criticized after launching an air strike on a funeral gathering in Sanaa that killed 140 people, according to one U.N. estimate.
The White House said at the time it might consider cutting its support to the Saudi-led campaign which has been providing air support for Hadi’s forces in a civil war that has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced millions.
This heinous campaign in Yemen is nothing new, of course. The slaughter had been occurring with Presidential approval during the Obama administration as well, but the media happily ignored it. As CounterPunch noted earlier this week:
The manipulation of news and the distortion of reality are the most powerful weapons in the hands of power. They can make a whole reality disappear. Yemen’s, for example. The Saudi “coalition,” backed by the US and Britain, began bombing Yemen on 23 March 2015. Since then, 3.2 million Yemenis have been displaced, half the people suffer from malnutrition, 10,000 civilians have been killed (that’s 13 civilians per day), 2 million youngsters cannot attend school, nearly 15 million people (55 percent children) have no access to basic medical care.
Yet, we heard nothing of this immense suffering. The US and Britain, in fact, profited from the war in Yemen. The Obama administration sold on the world’s weapon market $200 billion worth of arms, the largest US weapons’ sale since WW II–over $100 billion to Saudi Arabia alone. Britain’s contribution to Saudi Arabia’s arsenal was $3.2 billion in the last year alone. The United States and Britain continue to provide intelligence and logistical support to the Saudi-led coalition, which intervened on the side of Yemeni President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who fled to Saudi Arabia in the midst of his people’s civil war.
Meanwhile, how is the new administration dealing with the reckless Saudi slaughter? For starters, Trump’s new CIA chief was recently seen giving Crown Prince Muhammed bin Nayef the George Tenet medal for his contributions to the fight against terrorism.
The Independent reports:
A royal next-in-line to Saudi Arabia’s throne has been given a top honour by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for his contributions to fighting terrorism.
Crown Prince Muhammed bin Nayef was presented with the George Tenet medal by CIA director Mike Pompeo during the new chief’s first overseas visit to Turkey over the weekend, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
The medal was awarded in recognition of Prince bin Nayef’s “excellent intelligence performance, in the domain of counter-terrorism and his unbound contribution to realise world security and peace“.
As well as bestowing the honour, Prince bin Nayef and Mr Pompeo discussed security with Turkish officials in what has been widely seen as a reaffirmation of ties between Riyadh and Washington DC since US President Donald Trump took office last month.
The prince told SPA that “no attempt will succeed in driving a wedge between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the US”.
Indeed, if the 9/11 attacks didn’t drive a wedge (see: The 28-Pages Are Way Worse Than I Thought) I don’t know what will. We’re way beyond 1984 at this point.
I can think of a lot of words to describe this sort of foreign policy, but “exceptional” isn’t one of them.
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In Liberty,
Michael Kriege
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well, that’s two of the ugliest men i have ever seen
maybe the trophy is for that
or maybe for brutal murder
terrorism?
seems to me so-called terrorists are u.s. funded
or actual rebels against unscrupulous dictators
which would make a lot of u.s. citizens at risk
WIkileaks 8-17-2014 HRC email should be mentioned here, in that it directly states,(in Hillarys own words no less), that the Saudis and Qataris are “covertly supporting and financing ISIS”.
Pertinent to say the least.