We all know that wars are fought not for principles of morality, defending democracy, or freeing "the people", but for the gain of those in power, the controlling of resources for big corporations, and dominance in resource rich territory. Anybody who can't see this, just isn't paying attention. Sometimes the manoeuvring remains shrouded in illusion and the fog of lies, sometimes it comes out quite quickly, but it is always a struggle to get the facts accepted.
The Saudi lead massacre in the Yemen is one of those charades that the light of truth falls on while it is still in operation. The whole Yemeni slaughter is no more than bombing a clear path for a Western/Saudi backed oil pipeline to by-pass the Strait of Hormuz, and be free from Iranian influence.
We will support organisations like al-Qaeda, one day, then bomb them the next, depending how the powerful can use them.
Massive attack
In an official
statement after the April operation, the Saudi-led coalition said that
“more than 800 al-Qaeda elements” had been killed in the military
confrontation. Mainstream media outlets parroted the coalition claim. The Wall Street Journal referred to a successful “offensive” marking a “new direction for the coalition.” And Reuters described the operation as a “lighting advance” that “routed the militants” from their stronghold. In
the official narrative, on the day Saudi-led Yemeni and UAE troops
moved to the outskirts of Mukalla, local Islamic clerics and tribesmen
were enrolled to mediate al-Qaeda’s withdrawal. AQAP subsequently “fled
westwards” in the wake of the frightening military advance.
A statement from the Saudi embassy in Washington said: Saudi
forces are also on the ground alongside the UAE forces in Mukalla… it
is a Saudi-led Arab Coalition that is fighting AQAP alongside the US
military contingent on the ground. New details about the alleged
US and UK-backed assault emerged on Wednesday from an interview with
the Commander of the Saudi-led Yemeni forces behind the Mukalla
operation.
In the Al Jazeera interview, Major General Faraj Salmeen al-Bahsini painted a Hollywood-esque picture of a: big
number of [AQAP] fighters… destroyed first by the coalition’s warplanes
and then by [our] forces on the ground. None of the al-Qaeda fighters
was able to flee these camps.
Al-Bahsini said that the total number of AQAP fighters killed was “probably” much higher than the 800 originally claimed. The general described: precise
air strikes by the coalition’s warplanes on [AQAP’s] key positions,
gatherings, ammunition depots and centres-of-command rooms.
There
were also, he said, bold coalition navy attacks on hundreds of fighters
who were fleeing the city on boats and vessels bound for the Horn of
Africa.
Not to mention: special commandos who attacked
al-Qaeda from the sea The commandos bravely secured the Dhabah oil
terminal from the AQAP barbarians, before rapidly defusing hundreds of
landmines.
Except they didn’t.
Attack? What Attack?
Independent on-the-ground sources have denied there was any such attack. Veteran BBC journalist Iona Craig, who has reported extensively from Yemen, said
that the coalition statement was “ridiculous”, as AQAP had already
deserted the city before the alleged military ‘rout’: There weren’t even
800 fighters left there. There was no fighting inside the city because
al-Qaeda had already left. She described
the 800 figure as “a lie that’s not even plausible.” Craig had been in
Mukalla a month before the military operation. She said that Saudi-led
forces had been secretly negotiating with AQAP for the previous two
weeks “to let fighters leave”. Far from being ‘routed’, al-Qaeda “had
been given free passage out of the city” by their Saudi benefactors.
There
were sporadic clashes on roads leading into Mukalla, but none within
the city itself. She also said that coalition airstrikes were hitting
targets that had already been repeatedly bombed.
Mohammed al-Yazidi, a Mukalla-based writer, said during the operation that locals were surprised at the “prompt and bloodless exit” of AQAP from the city.
Hisham al-Omeisy, a Yemeni political analyst, similarly reported that there was “no real battle” as AQAP fighters had left the city
within twelve hours. Yet, he said: Coalition capitalise, claim huge
battle killed 800. In other words, the Saudi ‘victory’ against AQAP in Mukalla was achieved without a single fire-fight in the city.
The US and UK collude in Saudi pipeline plan While
under al-Qaeda’s control, Hadramawt had remained curiously free from
Saudi aerial bombardment since the beginning of the war. The province is
central to a long standing Saudi plan, supported by the US and UK, to
install an oil and gas pipeline route through Yemen to the Gulf of Aden.
The idea is to bypass Iranian influence via the Strait of Hormuz.
Regional oil supplies must currently pass through the Strait to reach
world oil markets.
The pipeline plan is mentioned
in a top secret 2008 State Department cable from the US embassy in
Yemen to the Secretary of State: A British diplomat based in Yemen told
PolOff [US embassy political officer] that Saudi Arabia had an interest
to build a pipeline, wholly owned, operated and protected by Saudi
Arabia, through Hadramawt to a port on the Gulf of Aden, thereby
bypassing the Arabian Gulf/Persian Gulf and the straits of Hormuz.
Ousted Yemeni President Abdullah Saleh had originally supported the project, but eventually became its chief opponent.
The full article is a must read HERE:
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