Yemen President Taken Captive

Jaskalas

Lifer
Jun 23, 2004
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Shiite Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, are holding the Yemeni president captive.
U.S. sends Navy warships to Red Sea

More - http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/20/world/yemen-violence/
Houthis swept into the capital last year, sparking battles that left more than 300 dead in a month. In September, they signed a ceasefire deal with the government, and Houthis have since installed themselves in key positions in the government and financial institutions.
Sounds pretty bad for Yemen. I did not realize they had such trouble... that these "rebels" entered the capital last year and then slowly seized control of the government. Now that they have stormed the palace and taken their President captive, it's pretty clear that Yemen has fallen.

I bet this puts a kink in US drone strikes in the country.

Warships are sent in for our embassy, for protection of our personnel. I doubt we'll intervene in the coup. I mean... what would our response be? What should it be? I'm assuming we just sit back and watch at this point.

Just who are the Houthi rebels?
 

Subyman

Moderator <br> VC&G Forum
Mar 18, 2005
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I saw this as an alert on reuters yesterday but couldn't find anything else about it. Then reuters pulled the story and it went dark. Now the story seems buried everywhere. Maybe it was cleared for the state of the union address?

They have been fighting for the last 4-6 months and are now ready to usurp the leadership. The rebels are shi'ite muslims friendly with Iran. Here is more:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/21/us-yemen-security-president-idUSKBN0KU0OT20150121
 

Harabec

Golden Member
Oct 15, 2005
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Just to be clear...this is local politics that turned into armed conflict to determine the future of Yemen.

There's no good and evil in the story, just different sides mostly. Unlike the usual African way of slaughtering thousands just because, the fight here is against the regime and its people.

Let it play, in the end they'll move on. Hopefully the US does not make them into future terrorists by bombing them.
 

unokitty

Diamond Member
Jan 5, 2012
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dronewar_yem_771x574.png

...Let it play, in the end they'll move on. Hopefully the US does not make them into future terrorists by bombing them.

On 24 January 2013, the US have killed a huge number of people in Yemen &#8212; between 374 and 1,112 fatalities &#8212; in a covert drone war that is being put in overdrive. The so-called US war on terror looks increasingly like a war of terror, aimed at instilling panic fear among the civilian population by means of direct, deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, who make 16% of the killed, including a large percentage of children (20% of the total civilians)...
I agree... Getting involved in other peoples revolutions doesn't seem to have been productive for the US. In fact, its hard not to view much of what is happening as having an element of 'blow back' in response to drone, and similar, programs...

Uno
 
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rudder

Lifer
Nov 9, 2000
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Those poor Yemeni detainees released from gitmo won't have much of a country to return to. What kind of life could a radical Islamist have in his home country that has been taken over by radical Islamists.
 

TreVader

Platinum Member
Oct 28, 2013
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He's dead. Houthis is basically the mortal enemy of Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Al-Queda/Nusra Front.
 

TreVader

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Oct 28, 2013
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I'm not sure why anybody here would be upset. Houthis is indirectly an ally to the U.S. Because they are fighting IS and Al-Nusra front (aka al queda in Iraq). This president controls a country that has one of the highest per capita rates of terror and Jihad on earth.

I won't shed a tear for him.
 

Hayabusa Rider

Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
Jan 26, 2000
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I'm not sure why anybody here would be upset. Houthis is indirectly an ally to the U.S. Because they are fighting IS and Al-Nusra front (aka al queda in Iraq). This president controls a country that has one of the highest per capita rates of terror and Jihad on earth.

I won't shed a tear for him.



Well if you didn't notice we killed a bunch of people in Yemen a year ago. It's true we kill a bunch of people all the time in a lot of places. I guess if you are President that's being Presidential, but that's largely what caused all this mess to begin with. as far as being an ally you might want to read this.

The closest thing we have to an allies in that part of the world would be the Saudis and I don't trust them much. We attempt to manipulate groups it bites us in the butt more times than not. The sun never sets on our empire.
 

TreVader

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Oct 28, 2013
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"The Houthis, though, are no friends of the Sunni al-Qaeda militants. The group, which is believed to be backed by the Shi&#8216;ite leadership of Iran, has clashed with al-Qaeda in Yemen and criticized Hadi&#8217;s failure to quash Sunni extremism. The problem for the U.S.&#8217;s counterterrorism operations is that it also has no interest in an alliance with the U.S.; it has been equally critical of Hadi&#8217;s dependence on U.S. support, and it&#8217;s motto reads in part, &#8220;Death to Israel, Death to America.&#8221;


Hyabusa would you agree that our "foreign aid" efforts used over the last 20 years in propping up governments against insurgencies a la vietnam has caused us some problems and made us some enemies in the middle east?


Houthis is no friend to america but it is the enemy of our much more pertinent enemy, sunni islamic extremists. I suggest we butt out of the Yemen issue and let houthis and AQ-AP work it out between them.


The problem with US foreign policy is we walk in and take a very myopic view to our interests. It's basically "How can we strategically postition the US to be at the foremost position militarily and economically over the next 5 years", and that's as far as they think ahead.

Instead of viewing these states as things to exploit, smash, or prop up as we see fit it would serve us well to improve relations with the people. I think it would be hard to blame Shi'a Yemenites for hating america when their only experience with this country is seeing their own people bombed by robotic drones controlled 11,000 miles away at Dugway.
 

Omar F1

Senior member
Sep 29, 2009
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Just to be clear...this is local politics that turned into armed conflict to determine the future of Yemen.

I don't think so, we claim that it's part of the Iranian agenda to conquer the region.


Actually, I remember hearing multiple times back in 2014 about the Yemeni officials where they have kept intercepting a weapons shipments, which came from Iran.
Now it does make a sense.


Wow, that's completely ridiculous! whether it was Shi'aa, Sunnah or any other group.
 

Hayabusa Rider

Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
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Hyabusa would you agree that our "foreign aid" efforts used over the last 20 years in propping up governments against insurgencies a la vietnam has caused us some problems and made us some enemies in the middle east?


Houthis is no friend to america but it is the enemy of our much more pertinent enemy, sunni islamic extremists. I suggest we butt out of the Yemen issue and let houthis and AQ-AP work it out between them.


The problem with US foreign policy is we walk in and take a very myopic view to our interests. It's basically "How can we strategically postition the US to be at the foremost position militarily and economically over the next 5 years", and that's as far as they think ahead.

Instead of viewing these states as things to exploit, smash, or prop up as we see fit it would serve us well to improve relations with the people. I think it would be hard to blame Shi'a Yemenites for hating america when their only experience with this country is seeing their own people bombed by robotic drones controlled 11,000 miles away at Dugway.


Well that's what I'm getting at. The drones get sent if it's Bush or Obama. We try to manipulate no matter who is in power. It is in our established pattern of behavior to pursue "The White Mans Burden", and consequently no sane person in the region ought to trust us. We are the British Empire of old in the sense that not only are those elsewhere entitled to adopt our ways, but better damned well do so.

The West mucked up things after WWI and then when democracy and freedom might have broken out we and the British crushed it in the cradle to protect British Petroleum. That led directly to the conditions which spawned Bin Laden and 9/11. Even so, we never ever learn. The mindset never changes, just the magnitude of action and manipulation.
 

werepossum

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Jul 10, 2006
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Shiite just got real.
lol +1

Well that's what I'm getting at. The drones get sent if it's Bush or Obama. We try to manipulate no matter who is in power. It is in our established pattern of behavior to pursue "The White Mans Burden", and consequently no sane person in the region ought to trust us. We are the British Empire of old in the sense that not only are those elsewhere entitled to adopt our ways, but better damned well do so.

The West mucked up things after WWI and then when democracy and freedom might have broken out we and the British crushed it in the cradle to protect British Petroleum. That led directly to the conditions which spawned Bin Laden and 9/11. Even so, we never ever learn. The mindset never changes, just the magnitude of action and manipulation.
I don't think that's quite accurate WRT Yemen. We're striking the people who are working to strike us, irrespective of their allegiances. (Or maybe people who look like the people who are working to strike us, or people whose enemies told us they are the people who are working to strike us. Hard to say sometimes.) We do periodically announce our support for the president, but that's little more than lip service in return for his not screaming too loudly when we merge a Hellfire with one of his citizen's Toyota.

As for this bit o' news . . . Oh no, the really bad Islamic radicals are taking over from the, um, other really bad Islamic radicals . . .
 

Hayabusa Rider

Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
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lol +1


I don't think that's quite accurate WRT Yemen. We're striking the people who are working to strike us, irrespective of their allegiances. (Or maybe people who look like the people who are working to strike us, or people whose enemies told us they are the people who are working to strike us. Hard to say sometimes.) We do periodically announce our support for the president, but that's little more than lip service in return for his not screaming too loudly when we merge a Hellfire with one of his citizen's Toyota.

As for this bit o' news . . . Oh no, the really bad Islamic radicals are taking over from the, um, other really bad Islamic radicals . . .


Everyone is striking. We screwed the pooch three times in the last hundred years, well four if I count the "axis of evil" nonsense as separate.

We (being the West) purposefully created the situation leading to instability in the ME after WWI

We (being the US and the Brits) crushed democracy in the ME with "Operation Ajax" and directly led to events which resulted in 9/11. Why? For British Petroleum.

We (being the US) launched that insane war in Iraq, once again alienating just about everyone and convincing a large portion of the world that we lost it upstairs. He (being Bush) didn't understand the social dynamics of the region, including Iran as well as Iraq, and in one swell foop (I like the occasional Spoonerism) managed to insult a whole people who any idiot should have known are extremely patriotic. They might not like the extreme conservative governance, but those damned moderates wanted us to lie with that dog Bush? Well screw them. And then the people we least wanted in charge in Iran came to consolidate power in spite of their decline over time.

I mean seriously. I understand people get selected for office due to politics, but if they'd give us someone once in a while who at least thinks "Hey, what are the consequences of...", instead of waving a frigging flag and thinking of baseball, mom and apple pie, maybe things wouldn't always go to hell.
 

Pocatello

Diamond Member
Oct 11, 1999
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Well that's what I'm getting at. The drones get sent if it's Bush or Obama. We try to manipulate no matter who is in power. It is in our established pattern of behavior to pursue "The White Mans Burden", and consequently no sane person in the region ought to trust us. We are the British Empire of old in the sense that not only are those elsewhere entitled to adopt our ways, but better damned well do so.

The West mucked up things after WWI and then when democracy and freedom might have broken out we and the British crushed it in the cradle to protect British Petroleum. That led directly to the conditions which spawned Bin Laden and 9/11. Even so, we never ever learn. The mindset never changes, just the magnitude of action and manipulation.

What meds are you taking? "Democracy and freedom might have broken out". Please, even if it had, I would give it a month. If we should learn anything from the ME, it should be this, the most ruthless leader wins, kill all oppositions, kill their families, kill their pets, destroy their olive orchards, or palm groves. Any sign of weakness, he's dead, then they fight among themselves to be next ruthless leader. The West just don't understand how the ME work.
 

TreVader

Platinum Member
Oct 28, 2013
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Well that's what I'm getting at. The drones get sent if it's Bush or Obama. We try to manipulate no matter who is in power. It is in our established pattern of behavior to pursue "The White Mans Burden", and consequently no sane person in the region ought to trust us. We are the British Empire of old in the sense that not only are those elsewhere entitled to adopt our ways, but better damned well do so.

The West mucked up things after WWI and then when democracy and freedom might have broken out we and the British crushed it in the cradle to protect British Petroleum. That led directly to the conditions which spawned Bin Laden and 9/11. Even so, we never ever learn. The mindset never changes, just the magnitude of action and manipulation.

We certainly did muck things up, but it's not like we aren't mucking things up even more today. And we are definitely doing that now by bombing the SAA and Nusra at the same time. It's stupid.

The US Government has taken the postion that Assad is at fault for all of this wahabbism we see today. This is the position that the saudi clerks take. Problem is, Saudi Arabia is the source for the vast majority of the funding these terrorists recieve. They are working two angles on this war just like Obama is trying to do with Nusra, IS, and the SAA.

The Iranians, Hezzbollah, and the Alawites in Syria all take the postion that the issue is not Assad, but the wahhabists. Where are the wahhabists coming from? Saudi Arabia. LOL

So you end up in this weird confabulation of grudges and battles and alliances that really serves to confuse the shit out of american intelligence and America in general.

Personally, I take the postion that the Wahhabists are the problem. Assad commited atrocities but guess what, so do they! Assad's brutality is nothing special or new in the middle east. It was like that under Hafez too. At the very least, we should let these groups of people (Hezbollah and Iranians vs Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the Wahabbists) and let them work out their borders and differences amongst them. If we have to occupy Saudi Arabia because of some unprecedented IS advance then we will, and defend it. We should not be influenced by their policy, they do not have our interests at heard. At least Hezbollah and the SAA are in the trenches fighting ISIS every day. The fuck is israel doing with IS literally on their border? They are actually TREATING ISLANMIC STATE JIHADIS IN ISRAELI HOSPITALS! Supposedly, Bahgdadi himself was treated by israeli doctors, and sent back to Raqqa. o_O

The British Empire is a good analogy until you actually get down to the abuses commited. On the scale of human population at the time, the british killed and maimed an incomperably large number of people. Millions dead in the slave trade would be like hundreds of millions today. Apocalyptic.


Edit: I would just like to add that the Regime is the only thing protecting christians in Syria. There are no christians in the Islamic state. They either convert or are put to the death. Nusra has the same policy.
 
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Omar F1

Senior member
Sep 29, 2009
491
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I mean seriously. I understand people get selected for office due to politics, but if they'd give us someone once in a while who at least thinks "Hey, what are the consequences of...",
And now you're talking gold; If I do ....... then ....... could happen.
I whish, truly whish, if all the Arabic population would consider this before committing anything stupid, criminal, and religiously-forbidden act.
They could keep their stupidity and their heads under the ground, and we may witness another Iraq in the future, or worse.

Back to topic, both the president and MP have resigned.
God help the poor Yemeni people.


Assad's brutality is nothing special or new in the middle east
Then you have to search and read more on the topic.
We never heard of someone who had destroyed both his country and people like Basshar is doing since four years.
 

TreVader

Platinum Member
Oct 28, 2013
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Then you have to search and read more on the topic.
We never heard of someone who had destroyed both his country and people like Basshar is doing since four years.

You obviously don't know WTF you are talking about. Did you know that your unsupported statement does not, on its own, make any sort of argument against Bashar (and for your obvious Takfiri friends like Nusra and IS)?


Those that pronounce people Takfir or Kuffar in the hopes of causing more secretarian issues are supporting IS. If you support israel, you are supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham. There is no "buts" about it, the Israelis are purposely saving Takfiri lives in order to destabalize Syria so they can continue to do air strikes unmolested in syrian Air Space. Israel does not give a fuck that these people are terrorist. Israelis are terrorists too, and they have found GREAT friends in the Islamic state.

What you will see now that ISIS is starting to lose territory, is a desparate campaign of suicide bombings and the utter destruction of mosul including at least a few thousand civilian deaths. Israeli tactical help will increase until it become so obvious that Obama will tell Bibi to stop being so obvious about supporting terror, and life will move on.



You are the first person I've seen come out in support of Islamic State. Are you planning to move to Raqqa? Or do you just enjoy the idea of lots of arabs dying in terrorist attacks, and it matters not whether it's IS or Nusra or AQAP?


Fucking pathetic and you disgust me you piece of shit. I wonder if we have any other resident Jihadi supporters?
 
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norseamd

Lifer
Dec 13, 2013
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Actually, I remember hearing multiple times back in 2014 about the Yemeni officials where they have kept intercepting a weapons shipments, which came from Iran.

Yes this is true as far as I now but I am less worried about Shiites than I am Sunni Jihadists especially Wahhabists.