Author: Dave DeCamp

Yemen’s Houthis rebels targeted the Najran Airport in southern Saudi Arabia, for the third time this week on Thursday. The Najran Airport reportedly houses a military base. The Saudi coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maki said the drone was intercepted, "An explosive-laden drone sent by the terrorist Houthi militia to target Najran airport – which is used by thousands of civilians daily – was intercepted and destroyed by the Saudi air force." The Saudis are known to target hospitals, markets, school buses and residential areas in their airstrikes in Yemen.

The Houthis TV station Al Masirah said the attack targeted a Patriot missile air defense system, they also said more attacks against Saudi targets would be coming. Last week the Houthis targeted an oil pipeline inside Saudi Arabia in what they said was "a response to the aggressors continuing to commit genocide."

Earlier this week the Saudis claimed they intercepted two Houthi missiles fired from Yemen, one of which supposedly heading for Mecca. The Houthis denied they targeted Mecca, "The Saudi regime is trying, through these allegations, to rally support for its brutal aggression against our great Yemeni people," Yahya Sarea, the groups military spokesman, said on Facebook.

Dave DeCamp is a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn NY, focusing on US Foreign policy and wars. He is on Twitter at @decampdave.

The Trump administration consider the Houthi Rebels in Yemen to be an Iranian proxy and have accused Tehran of sending arms to the group. Trump blamed Iran for the war in Yemen in a statement from November of last year, “the country of Iran, as an example, is responsible for a bloody proxy war against Saudi Arabia in Yemen". But the Houthis have been fighting their own battle against the Yemeni Government since 2004.

A WikiLeaks cable dated December 9^th 2009 from former US Ambassador to Yemen Stephen Seche in Sa’na, Yemen addressed to the CIA and the Secretary of State, makes a strong case against claims that Tehran was arming the Houthis at the time:

"WEAPONS SUPPLY ————– 12. (S/NF) Contrary to ROYG(Republic of Yemen Government) claims that Iran is arming the Houthis, most local political analysts report that the Houthis obtain their weapons from the Yemeni black market and even from the ROYG military itself. According to a British diplomat, there are numerous credible reports that ROYG military commanders were selling weapons to the Houthis in the run-up to the Sixth War. An ICG report on the Sa’ada conflict from May 2009 quoted NSB director Ali Mohammed al-Ansi saying, “Iranians are not arming the Houthis. The weapons they use are Yemeni. Most actually come from fighters who fought against the socialists during the 1994 war and then sold them.” Mohammed Azzan, presidential advisor for Sa’ada affairs, told PolOff on August 16 that the Houthis easily obtain weapons inside Yemen, either from battlefield captures or by buying them from corrupt military commanders and soldiers. Azzan said that the military “covers up its failure” by saying the weapons come from Iran. According to Jamal Abdullah al-Shami of the Democracy School, there is little external oversight of the military’s large and increasing budget, so it is easy for members of the military to illegally sell weapons."

Continue reading “WikiLeaks Cable From 2009 About Houthis and Iran”

Tensions between the US and Iran are ratcheting up as the War in Yemen rages on. National Security Advisor John Bolton warned the Iranians "we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces". The danger of this open-ended warning is the inclusion of the word "proxy".

Many consider the Houthis in Yemen to be a proxy of Iran, including President Trump himself. His November 2018 statement, in response to the criticism of US-Saudi relations after the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, said "the country of Iran, as an example, is responsible for a bloody proxy war against Saudi Arabia in Yemen, trying to destabilize Iraq’s fragile attempt at democracy, supporting the terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon, propping up dictator Bashar Assad in Syria (who has killed millions of his own citizens), and much more. Likewise, the Iranians have killed many Americans and other innocent people throughout the Middle East."

Continue reading “The Houthis Are Fighting Their Own Battle”

As the media focuses on the Mueller report and Attorney General William Barr, the Trump administration has been especially hawkish in their foreign policy. National Security Advisor John Bolton said the US is sending an aircraft carrier and a bomber taskforce to the Persian Gulf to be prepared for new threats from Iran. There are currently no US troops in Venezuela but since Juan Guaido, with a blessing from Mike Pence, declared himself president of Venezuela on January 23rd there have been several failed attempts to get Maduro out of power. Last month Trump vetoed a bill to end our involvement in the war in Yemen and the Senate failed to override it.

The Iran Deal was one of President Obama’s notable foreign policy achievements, so naturally Trump had to pull out of the deal after speaking out about it so much on the campaign trail. Since then Trump has put sanctions on the country with the intention of bringing the economy to its knees. Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday putting sanctions on Iran’s steel, aluminum, copper and iron sectors. This move came after Tehran announced it would be quitting portions of the 2015 nuclear deal, which the US withdrew from a year ago.

Continue reading “Where Is the Antiwar Movement in the US?”

The international humanitarian relief NGO Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres(MSF) released a report on the alarming number of Yemeni mothers and children dying from a lack of proper healthcare. They focused on two facilities where they provide free health services. The Saudi led coalition has targeted civilian infrastructure in their bombing campaign, according to the Yemen Data Project 33 airstrikes have directly hit hospitals from April of 2015 through January 2019.

The public health infrastructure has collapsed in Yemen since the war started in 2015, but MSF has increased its presence. MSF runs 20 health facilities, supports many more and employs 2,200 people in the country. One facility they focus on in the report is the Taiz Houban Mother and Child hospital in the Taiz governate, which was converted into a hospital from a hotel in 2015.

The Taiz Houban hospital alone has seen 860 deaths between 2016 and 2018. 17 mothers, 242 children and 601 newborns. 227 of these deaths were children or newborns who were dead on arrival. The other facility in the report, the Abs hospital in the Hajjah governorate, supported by MSF since 2015, recorded the deaths of 705 people. 19 mothers, 269 children and 417 newborns.

Continue reading “Doctors Without Borders Reports on Deaths in Child Hospitals in Yemen”

Far from Caracas a group of American activists have been defending the sovereignty of Venezuela from inside its embassy in Washington. The state department ordered all Maduro loyal staff to leave the building by April 24^th to make way for Guaido’s diplomats. Juan Guaido declared himself president of Venezuela on January 23^rd with full support from the United States but most Venezuelan diplomats and military officials have remained loyal to Maduro. According to Ariel Gold, National Co-Director of the antiwar activist group CODEPINK they have been maintaining a 24/7 presence at the embassy since April 14^th to prevent Guaido’s appointed diplomats from taking over the embassy.

"We’ve been working with the embassy staff ever since the coup began. As they started to reduce the staff we’ve had some educational events here then we finally made a decision that we should be there. And they said to us you are welcome, you are there with our permission." Gold told me over the phone Monday night from the embassy.

Continue reading “CODEPINK Activist Ariel Gold on Defending Venezuela’s Embassy”