09/25/16 – Nasser Arrabyee – The Scott Horton Show

For Pacifica Radio, September 25th, 2016.
I'm Scott Horton.
This is Anti-War Radio.
Alright y'all, welcome to the show.
It is Anti-War Radio.
I'm your host, Scott Horton.
Here every Sunday morning from 8.30 to 9 on KPFK 90.7 FM in LA.
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Introducing Nasser Araby.
He's a reporter based out of Sana'a, Yemen, reporting on the horrible war there, the American-Saudi war going on for the last year and a half.
His website is yemenalan.com.
Welcome back to the show, Nasser.
How are you doing?
Thank you very much, Scott.
Thank you for your interest.
Yeah, I really appreciate you joining us to talk about this stuff.
And I always either start out or end our interviews with an apology to you on behalf of the Americans who do care about this stuff.
And there are some, if not many of us.
And we definitely have to start with the apology on the show today.
Well, sort of, on behalf of those in government who are waging the war against you.
Bob Corker and John McCain in debating and defeating a measure led by Senator Rand Paul to try to halt the latest arms sales to the Saudis.
Senator Bob Corker and Senator John McCain made the case that if the Houthis were to be victorious and win the Yemen war, that they would close the Straits of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, revealing the fact that the chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and at least the former chairman of the Armed Services Committee and supposedly the man who is the greatest expert among the U.S. hawks in the Senate, John McCain, have no idea where Yemen even is.
And they support America's war.
They demand America's war.
They fight for America's war in the Senate to prevent an impossibility that they misunderstand is a real threat because they don't even know where the country that they're bombing is.
And I just don't know how to come up with a way to tell you how sorry I am that that's why you and your neighbors and your countrymen are being slaughtered is because of nonsense.
I mean, they might as well be trying to keep the Mongolians out of the Persian Gulf as far as that goes.
So, I'm sorry, Nasser, I just don't know what to tell you, man.
This is how the empire rolls.
We're bombing so many countries that the people in charge of bombing, they don't even know where or why anymore.
Thank you very much, Scott.
Let me start with saying that Yemenis are disappointed by the vote of the Senate this week for the arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Despite the efforts exerted by many senators like Chris Murphy and Rand Paul and many others, we know very much that it's a matter of ignorance.
We know that the Senate or many senators, the majority maybe, do not know, as you said, where Yemen is.
And this is the most dangerous thing to the American people.
If the Senate voted for the arms sales to Saudi Arabia out of knowledge, I would be happy.
We would be happy.
But the problem is that we know that they don't know why they are voting for this.
This is the most dangerous thing.
So, I think now the danger to America is the same.
The danger to American people is the same as it is to us.
Because this deal of arms and many others are going to be used by terrorists, unfortunately.
They don't know this fact.
I hope that they could read if they know what Wahhabi regime means.
Wahhabi regime means Qaeda, ISIS.
They don't know this.
And when they talk about Iran, it is very, very funny.
It is very funny.
Because Iran is very far from Yemen.
I mean, if there is anything with Iran, if there is anything, if they want to close, as they said, the hormones, they can close it.
I mean, we have nothing to do with these things at all.
I mean, killing people day and night by U.S. arms and by cluster bombs has nothing to do with these things.
People are being killed by American women.
Yemeni, I mean, civilian women and children are being killed every day.
And everybody here says that America is doing this.
They don't say Saudi Arabia is doing this.
Because they know, everybody knows that Saudi Arabia would not have done all these things without the American wealth.
One of the senators said that everyone killed here, everyone killed in Yemen, Obama had imprint or U.S. has imprint in it, in this killing.
This is charismatic.
And this is right.
I want senators to read why this American is saying this.
If they are doubting, if they doubt about this, they can verify.
They can make sure.
They can know the fact.
The fact is that Obama is killing Yemeni people for nothing.
This is dangerous.
This is war crime.
This is dangerous to humanity, to American people.
How American people want to have peace while their leaders are killing people like this?
So this is a problem.
It's a problem of ignoring.
They don't know where Yemen is, unfortunately.
And they vote, they hand over weapons to terrorists.
This is their problem.
Yeah, well, and I mean it's a miracle that Rand Paul is finally getting it together and starting to take some brave stands now that he's not running for president anymore.
And really even tried to stop the Saudi arms sale in the name of the Yemen war.
And he's actually, Nasser, I don't know if you've seen, but Rand Paul has gone on TV and said some important things, too.
Like, well, are we really trying to put al-Qaeda in power in Sana'a?
Because that's what could happen if the Houthis fall.
Who is left to replace them except al-Qaeda?
Now, there's just no one else in all of American public discourse at that high of a level who is talking like that at all.
So, there's really this one senator, and by the light he's shining, it just shows how dark the shadow is in the rest of Washington, D.C., and in the rest of American popular media, where no one even knows there's a war against Yemen.
No one's discussing the war against Yemen.
It's not even, they don't even lie about it because they don't even talk about it.
And, yeah, you're right.
When you say that's our problem, and that this is, you know, for Americans, that we do this at our own peril, as Rand's father would say, going around the world killing people and thinking that we can just get away with it and never suffer consequences from it, we will be surprised, and we will, in fact, suffer, just as we make others suffer.
It's just true.
It doesn't excuse terrorist attacks against us or anything.
It's just the laws of physics.
Exactly.
I think, I think if Obama cared for the Americans, and if Obama cared even for Saudi, for the Saudi regime or for Saudi people, or if they say they are threatened or something like this, he could stop the war and see what is the fact.
Now, the problem is that he just lets these terrorists kill people, and he keeps telling people that they want to restore their legitimacy or to reinstate the government or something like this.
Twenty months now of killing, war crimes, and destroying everything is not a logical thing to reinstate or to restore legitimacy.
This is something that is not logical.
And there is one more thing.
The people here now in Yemen is believing more and more that the United States wants to occupy Yemen because it keeps supporting the Saudis with arms and with everything.
And not only by, not necessarily by Saudi or by American troops, but by Qaida, Qaida ISIS.
So people are asking why?
Why?
Why?
Why America is saying that Qaida ISIS is its enemy and at the same time they are supporting it?
Because it's now very clear.
I mean, these people in the Senate, do they know?
Do they know that they are supporting Qaida ISIS?
Do they know that their government is lifting some of these ministers or of these government members, they are lifting them as global terrorists?
So they should know.
They should know.
I mean, there are at least three ministers in Riyadh who are wanted by the United States, by the Treasury Department, as global terrorists.
And they are leaders, not only, they are leaders.
They are leading the operations in Yemen, operations of Qaida ISIS.
And they can see videos, they can see whatever they want to see.
They don't know what they are doing.
The drones here now is in the interest of Qaida ISIS, not against them.
Drones now are helping Qaida ISIS, not hurting them at all.
For example, today they hit by the drones here in Mareth.
They said they hit some Qaida people.
And unfortunately, because now the intelligence is not clear and the information is not clear to them, and the drones are not effective anyway.
But nowadays they are in the interest and in favor of Qaida ISIS.
Because Qaida ISIS are everywhere, publicly, everybody knows them.
As I told you, their leaders are in Riyadh.
And they simply say that Qaida is Sunni.
So no problem with that.
Saudi Arabia is saying Qaida is Sunni.
So no problem with that.
The problem is with Shia, with Houthis.
This is the problem that is not here.
I told you many times, now I am defending my country, not because I am Shia.
I am not Shia, I am secular.
I am not Shia, I am not Sunni.
I am secular, publicly, here in Yemen.
So the problem is that we are being killed by the United States with Saudi hands, unfortunately.
So the problem is that they are not solving the problem.
They are making it worse and worse and worse.
So why the senators don't do any kind of search, or any kind of verification or investigation to see what is there?
Why Saudi Arabia refused the investigation?
What is happening?
For example, the big war crimes like what happened yesterday in Qaida, in the West.
About 130 civilians were killed asleep.
Asleep in their houses.
In their houses and shops.
Now they say it's a mistake or this and that.
But Saudi Arabia also refused any kind of investigation.
Why they do all these things?
They kill people deliberately.
Not by mistake.
Deliberately because they feel to do anything in the front.
In the front, in the south of Saudi Arabia.
So every time they feel to do anything with the Yemeni fighters in the south of Saudi Arabia, they just directly come and kill anyone they see.
Anyone.
In the water wells or in the market or hospital or school or wherever they want.
They just want to kill.
To kill people.
And this is America who kills Yemen in the eyes of the Yemeni people here.
Why the senators don't care about their people?
About the American people?
Because it's their responsibility.
Why they are not concerned of this hatred?
They should be concerned about their country.
About their people.
About the safety of their people.
Because the anti-America sentiment is rising high and high and high.
Because America is killing people.
Not anyone else.
This is what the people are saying here.
So if the senators care about their country, about the American people, they would solve this problem.
At least.
But now they don't do anything.
They just see that Saudi Arabia is one of our strongest allies.
Very strongest allies.
They want, and unfortunately this Wahhabi Saudi regime, wants all the senators to convert to Islam by force.
Islam of Qaeda.
Otherwise they would be beheaded.
They would be killed.
So this is something that is known to the Wahhabi ideology.
So I mean it is very dangerous.
They should do something about their government.
About the administration of Obama and Clinton.
Because Obama and Clinton is endangering the American people.
And the security, the national security of America.
By killing people in Yemen this way.
Well, it's also worth pointing out that after 20 months, it's absolutely clear that Saudi, America, UAE, which actually does share the Straits of Hormuz with Iran, that they have no hope of victory.
They're not anywhere closer to reinstalling Hadi and power in Sana'a than they were 20 months ago.
And yet there's hardly any push.
There's really no push whatsoever for some kind of ceasefire and negotiated settlement to end this thing.
The policy apparently still is help the Saudis win, even though they're just not going to.
They can't.
Yes, yes.
This is very important point.
They think, they would feel, they would keep feeling all the time.
Because Yemenis are defending themselves.
And they would not give up.
But the Americans, the senators should know that because America and Saudi know that they would not do anything, they couldn't do anything with their bombs and with their cluster bombs and all kinds of weapons, they did something very dangerous that nobody over history has done.
What is it?
The bank.
They want now to bomb the central bank of Yemen.
They want to bomb it.
They want to destroy it.
They told Hadi to issue a decree to shift it or to move it to the south, to where al-Qaeda is.
Where Hadi can't even secure himself.
Hadi cannot even secure himself in his palace.
Now he wants to move the central bank from Sana'a to Aden.
What is this central bank?
Central bank is paying the salaries of the people of Hadi.
And everyone in Yemen and this central bank is doing, is working professionally and neutrally for 20 months now.
And when they saw that this bank did not stop by itself, they wanted to stop it.
They wanted to bomb it.
They want to kill every Yemeni now by this decree.
So I want the senators to know, I want the senators to ask Obama why they want to bomb the central bank of Yemen.
Why they want to starve the Yemenis.
One more point.
When the world bank, when Hadi told the world bank to stop the central bank in Sana'a with an official letter, the chief of the world bank said why?
Because it's working professionally for 20 months and they are paying the salaries for the two sides.
So why should we stop them?
Why should we freeze them?
So when the world bank refused to do anything to the central bank of Yemen, now they referred back to Obama to stop it or to bomb it with their drones or with the H-16.
Is there any bigger war crime than this?
And at the same time, we are not desperate.
I am now, I am talking to you.
I have no salary from my government.
I have no salary from Saudi.
But I am donating my central bank with $500 from my savings.
And millions of Yemenis are now donating.
They want to keep the bank functioning.
They want to keep the bank functioning.
And we want to see what the UN is going to do.
What Obama is going to do.
And we want to know what the humanity would do with these things.
I mean, it's a crime against everyone in this planet.
Not only in Yemen.
If this happens.
They want to do it because they failed by the women.
Look, I want the senators to know all these things.
If they agree, this is something else.
But I am sure they don't know what's happening in Yemen.
I am sure as Yemenis.
I know the Americans.
I have been in America.
I lived with Americans.
I know how the Americans are.
Think of others.
Of the other people everywhere.
But the senators are blindly supporting Kaid Isaac.
I mean, the killers of Americans.
The killers of human beings.
And this is what they should know.
Right.
And listen, audience, you should know that it is just, in case you don't, because it's not on TV.
But if you look, you'll find that it is simply not controversial whether this is, in fact, an American war.
It's American tankers refueling the fighter bombers.
It's American intelligence officers who are helping pick the targets.
This is according to the Los Angeles Times, to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post.
The official story admitted absolutely, no question, is that this war could not be happening.
It physically could not happen without the United States helping hold the Saudis' hands all the way to their targets, day after day, time after time, and never even mind all the diplomatic cover that the U.S. provides in the United Nations, etc., the permission to go ahead and do something like this.
We're the empire.
Saudi Arabia is the satellite state.
And this entire rap is on Barack Obama.
And his military, his CIA, 100%.
Yes, the point also I want to raise here, it's not a matter of logistic support, as they say, as the senators say in the Senate, refueling and intelligence and these things.
It is not only this point.
It is America, it is Obama's will.
The Saudi war in Yemen is Obama's will.
Obama wanted to blockade the Saudis over the Iranian nuclear deal.
But is it fair to blockade Saudis with 30 million in Yemen to kill all these people?
I mean, this is something that is not reasonable at all.
Obama is becoming crazy.
What legacy is he going to have now?
It's even worse in Syria than any place.
Because in Syria there is an army, there is government.
But now they say here it's just militants, it's purely militants.
And they kept bombing them, bombing us for 20 months with all kinds of weapons and all kinds of blockades.
And now the central bank, this is something not reasonable.
The Americans should do something.
The American people should do something to do something over their government.
Because it's a crazy thing.
And by the way, the footnote there, the proof of that, it's the New York Times official history.
Again, quiet support for Saudis entangles U.S. in Yemen.
New York Times.
And just do your word search for placate.
And that is it.
As Mr. Araby just said, when it comes down to it, bottom line, what is the costless belly in Yemen is we want to placate the Saudis because they're mad that we did a nuclear deal with Iran, which actually helps secure Saudis' security from Iran's nuclear program, but it threatens their position in the American imperial order in the Middle East.
And so we said, okay, bomb Yemen then, if it'll make you feel better.
Thank you very much for clarifying this.
Placating is written in the New York Times, and it is something that is information that is leaked from the White House itself.
Exactly.
Obama wants to placate the Saudis when they kept saying why you are doing this with Iran.
Yes, it's a problem like this.
But 20 months of war and war crimes, 20 months now, is this placating?
I think this is not placating.
We also feel that there is empathy and sympathy from the United States people, from the people.
We know this very well, very well.
But at the same time, it's one fight.
It is one battle.
It is a battle against evil, against terrorism, because there is ignorance.
There is also blackout, and Saudi Arabia is trying to cover everything they are doing.
Unfortunately, even inside Geneva, I counsel for human rights.
They are misleading people there to say there is no problem, there is no war crimes.
We are just fighting Houthi people.
But we are sure that we will keep talking.
We will keep defending our country with all the free people of the world.
Until the truth is known to everyone.www.scotthorton.org www.twitter.com See you next week.