02/06/17 – Nasser Arrabyee on the US/Saudi war against the Houthi government in Yemen – The Scott Horton Show

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All right, you guys, this is Scott Horton Show.
Check out the archives at scotthorton.org and follow me on Twitter, oh yeah, libertarianinstitute.org as well.
Follow me on Twitter at Scott Horton Show.
All right, introducing Nasser Arabi.
He is a reporter based out of Sanaa, Yemen.
He's previously written for the New York Times, for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and other reputable sources like that.
And he's become a regular guest on this show, covering the now almost two-year-old U.S. and Saudi war against the new Houthi government in Sanaa, Yemen.
And there's, of course, been a lot of very important recent developments.
And Nasser has some context for you that I think is going to blow your mind, unless you already know it.
Welcome back to the show, Nasser.
How are you doing, sir?
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Scott.
Oh, and I meant to say it's Yemen Now, Yemen Alon, Yemen Now, if people want to look that up online as well, A-L-A-A-N.
Okay, so listen, Donald Trump had his first big JSOC raid in Yemen, and it was not against the Houthis.
It was in that Saudi war.
It was the other side of the war.
It was against AQAP, I guess, as they call it.
And it's widely been regarded as a disaster because they lost an Osprey.
They lost the life of one American Navy SEAL.
A young American girl was killed.
Many young children were killed, actually.
I guess I'll get exact numbers from you, but at least one of them was Anwar al-Awlaki's daughter.
Barack Obama, of course, killed Anwar al-Awlaki, the American citizen, al-Qaeda propagandist, and then killed his son in what they say was an accident, collateral damage, and a strike against somebody else.
But now they've killed his daughter, too.
They say that this was just incidental, that she happened to be there.
But of course, Donald Trump did say that he was going to deliberately target the families of terrorists.
So I don't know how that's going to shake out.
Anyway, so, but the thing is, I know that from the Yemeni point of view, the little American girl killed was not the center of the whole thing.
You guys, that's just the American point of view on the story.
So I wanted to get a little bit of your point of view on what happened there.
Nasser, what do you think?
Thank you very much.
In fact, Trump operation, or the Trump commando operation, was a complete failure and a disaster to him and his administration, unfortunately.
It was not against al-Qaeda at all, although the people were, of course, some of them were al-Qaeda, yes.
But the leader, the leaders of these people, are based in Riyadh, in Saudi capitals.
They are sending money and weapons, American weapons, almost every week to these people.
The leaders of these people killed by Trump are based in Riyadh.
They are sending money and weapons every week.
And I have their names.
I'll give you just one of seven.
The one is Naif al-Qaisi, who is appointed by Saudi Arabia as governor of Al-Bayda.
This is the place where Trump operation took place.
So the governor of Al-Bayda is Naif al-Qaisi, who is a global terrorist.
And he is governor of Al-Bayda.
Saudi Arabia is calling him governor of Al-Bayda.
But Qaeda-ISIS is calling him the ruler of the state of Al-Bayda.
So Trump could have asked Saudi regime to hand these men, rather than endangering and risking his people, his navy soldiers, his money, his helicopters, and all these things.
And above all, the scandal, the scandal of that happened after this, because they were discovered and they were in a clash with them.
And the story is very long, and it is published in the American media now.
Everybody knows it.
But it was a very big scandal to Trump and to the American navy.
I mean, they just helped now the Qaeda and ISIS much, much, much, much more by that operation.
If Trump wanted to kill them, there were many options to kill them.
The first is to ask Saudi regime to hand them, because they are in contact with them.
The leader, as I told you, is the governor, the so-called governor.
And they could also, they could fire them from the sky by drone, like every time.
They could have done any other things.
But why they have done all that and killed all that children and all that women asleep and all that things?
Why?
So it was a big, big, big failure, and it helped al-Qaeda much, much, much more.
And the head of al-Qaeda confirmed this.
And I mean, the hatred now is rising to American administration and to Americans, unfortunately, because it was, you know, it was very, very brutal.
And it was not, it seemed that it was not blunt, although it was blunt for months and months from the time of Obama.
But the failure came at the last minute, maybe the last minute because they were tipped off or because they were discovered before they did everything they wanted.
All right.
Now, so there's a few follow-up questions here I want to get to and make sure I understand you right and just clarify.
This guy Naif al-Kaisi, we talked about this on Twitter a little bit, and you had showed some screenshots in this discussion on Twitter of the page at the Treasury Department website.
When you say this guy is a global terrorist, that's not your characterization of him.
You're saying this is a guy that's listed by the American Treasury Department as a backer of al-Qaeda in Yemen.
And you're saying, yeah, that's right.
He is the boss of the exact group of al-Qaeda guys that the SEALs went to attack.
And so you're saying, ironically, yeah, they could have just picked up the phone and said, hand these guys over because they ultimately work for us.
Let me just tell you some facts now, facts, please.
I didn't say it now.
Saudi Arabia, in its Arabic media, say the U.S. operation killed the leaders of the resistance, the leaders of the army that is fighting al-Houthi.
And in the English, they say al-Qaeda leaders.
This is just one example from media.
Let me give you one more document.
One of these who are in Saudi Arabia, who are listed, Zandani, he said, after the operation, in a post, in a Facebook post, I have it, he said that Abdul Raouf al-Zahab was working with the army of Yemen, fighting Houthi.
He was army.
He was fighting Houthi.
He and his people were fighting with the army, and they were members of the army.
And he confirmed what we say publicly and easily and, you know, without anything that is not understood at all.
So they say that for the people who now the administration of Trump is supporting as legitimate, unfortunately, as legitimate, the so-called legitimate government of Yemen, they are saying that these people are army.
They are the army of the legitimate government, the so-called legitimate government, because it is not legitimate.
So this is what we want the American audience to understand.
Only Trump now would be more blind than Obama, unfortunately, especially in fighting terror.
OK, now, on on Twitter, you said that there were seven of these guys.
Previously, you had said that there are three these guys, meaning listed by the U.S. Treasury Department, accused terrorists or financiers of Al-Qaeda who are part of this, the Hadi government, basically, as you said, the so-called legitimate government of Yemen that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are working to reinstall in power in the capital city of Sanaa there.
But, you know, correct me if I'm wrong.
I don't think that there's really an article like this.
I think this is what we really need, Nasser, is for you to write an article called, you know, the seven Al-Qaeda guys America's fighting for in Yemen or something, just make it really clear and do the profile of all seven of them.
If you ask me, if you ask me, I would tell you that all the government are terrorists.
But I am saying now, by the American standard, right, by the American classifications, not by me.
So seven of them are already listed.
Seven of them are already listed.
Naif is only one.
I mentioned him because now he's the ruler of the state of Al-Bayda, the ruler of the state of Al-Bayda, as Al-Qaeda ISIS called him.
What are their other names?
The governor of Al-Bayda, the governor of Al-Bayda, as Saudi calls him.
Who are the other ones?
Go ahead and tell us their names too.
That's very good.
The second one is Abdul Wahab al-Humaykhani.
And I think I sent all of them in Twitter also with the pictures, with the documents of the U.S. Treasury Department.
So the second one is Abdul Wahab al-Humaykhani, who is also from Al-Bayda.
And he's the one who was sent by Hadi to Geneva as his representative to Geneva talks.
So Abdul Wahab al-Humaykhani is the second.
The third one is Hassan Abkar.
The only one who is fighting here in Yemen is Hassan Abkar.
He's fighting here in the northeast of Sana'a, in al-Jawf, with the border with Saudi Arabia.
He's fighting.
He's Yemeni, and he's from al-Jawf, but he's now fighting here.
We know that.
He's not in Riyadh.
He's brave.
He's not like the people in Riyadh.
He's fighting here.
We know him.
But he's the last one that was listed by U.S. State, by U.S. Treasury Department.
The third one is one called Abdullah al-Ahdal from Hadhramaut.
So now we have three.
Two are brothers called al-Amqi from Hadhramaut, two, al-Amqi, Mohammed Saleh al-Amqi, Saeed Saleh al-Amqi, and Mohammed Saleh al-Amqi, so two brothers.
So now we have five.
The sixth is Zandani, the spiritual leader of Osama bin Laden, and he's still the spiritual of the Brotherhood party who is now in Riyadh, the party and its people and its leaders.
And this one is still in Riyadh with his sons.
So six.
The seventh one, I think they are now seventh, yes, they are seventh, if I am not wrong.
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All right.
Yeah, well, yeah, I don't think we quite got to seven there, but you definitely need to, if you could write this up as an article in English, one that can be passed around well and show where, you know, linked to the treasury.
I thought, I felt that we needed to say something like this, but I would do, I take your advice and I would do it.
But for the, for the names and the photos and the documents, it's already posted in my tweets and very easy to refer to the, it's very easy to refer to the, to the U.S. Treasury Department.
They are there.
Right.
Yeah.
I'm going to try to follow up on this the best I can.
Although I'm not really promising anything, but I want to try to find, you know, yeah, my own independent cooperation of all this.
I'll take your advice and I'll write about them.
Yeah.
Cause I, you know, this is when I wrote, when I wrote a lengthy article about the three, they were only three at the time.
They were only three.
And I wrote a lengthy article for the Carnegie.
Oh, right.
Yeah.
And how long ago was that?
The Carnegie piece?
I, it's I think one year now, about one year now, not, not.
Yeah.
I mean, I saw a lot of bylines when I was searching, I saw some articles that you'd written for the New York Times about Al-Qaeda back in 2011 and 2012.
I guess back then you never thought we'd be fighting a war for them.
Yes, yes, yes.
It is, it is very, what's happening now in Yemen is very, very strange now.
Very strange.
You know, I followed it.
I followed the story.
I've been following the story since for 17 years now, since the USS, USS Cole was bombed.
Now I am, I see that history is repeating itself, unfortunately by it, but it would be worse, even worse and worse.
The people, when they wanted to bomb the USS Cole, at the time they were, they overslept and they only killed 17 U.S. sailors, but this time now USS Cole is back in Yemen.
I think it will be a big problem because now the legitimate government, the so-called legitimate government, the whole government is Qaeda, and they would, they would manage, I mean, they would do very dangerous thing, but Trump does not know, because Trump is busy with the Saudi money, unfortunately, the Saudi investment, unfortunately.
Nasser, is Yemen even going to survive this as a single country, or it's going to split back apart again?
What is difficult to understand now for the American audience, because of the, of the Saudi cavalry, the Saudi huge machine, media machines, unfortunately, or media machinery, is that Houthi is just some rebels backed by Iran.
This is not right.
Houthi now is all Yemen, south and north, Houthi and Saleh is all Yemen, and I kept talking with you many times with, in this show, and I told you about the missile, the missile, the missile, the ballistic missiles, and I told you about Mecca last time, and how Saudi exploited that missile that was fired to Mecca, they incited against us that we are against Mecca, and today that the ballistic missile of today was fired to Riyadh, 1,300 kilometers from here.
So it was fired to Riyadh.
This is the new locally modified ballistic missile that was fired today.
This is the detriment of Yemen now.
And of course, the army today also in its statement said that there are a lot of surprises and we believe them very much.
So you're saying, in other words, that the Houthi forces combined with the Saleh and the army factions still loyal to him, that they very well can control the whole country, they can defeat the Houthi and Saudi forces and drive them out of the country and hold the country together?
Yes, if there is no Saudi Arabia, there is no resistance at all.
I mean, there are some people who are incited, who are misunderstood, who talk about Sunni and Shia and this and that.
This is, you know, this can happen in any place when there is a problem, because unfortunately Saudi Arabia is feeding only this sectarianism here.
So if there is no Saudi Arabia, if there is no all this fighter jets and this bombing, we could return at least to the normal state or to where we were last time when they bombed us.
But now, we know that Saudi, backed by America and Britain, so they are destroying Yemen, they are killing every day and destroying everything.
But of course, at the end, at the end, we would not surrender at all, we would resist, we would fight, because they are wrong, they are completely wrong.
Yeah, well it doesn't look like there is any end in sight to it.
When the, supposedly it was the Houthis, I guess it was the Houthis, who successfully fired a missile at a Saudi frigate, and the Trump administration spokesman characterized this as Iran attacking an American ship, when it wasn't an American ship and it wasn't Iran.
Unfortunately, and Saudi Arabia unfortunately said that it's only a terrorist act, terrorist free boats, they said, free boats, it is not, it is land, sea missile.
But they, they, Saudi couldn't believe and they don't want to believe this.
The frigate was just, just a test, also like the test of today in Riyadh.
It was just a test.
But also now Saudi could mislead all the media in the West and everywhere, foreign policy and New York Times and many, many, many media were saying only that it is a terrorist act or terrorist or suicide, they said, suicide boats.
It is not this at all, because it is documented, it is documented minute by minute.
Well, I mean, in the footage, in the footage, you can tell the explosion takes place up at near the top of the ship, not down at the waterline.
So that's pretty much your answer right there.
But now, so let me ask you, though, about support by Iran.
We know even Barack Obama, the president himself admitted that Iran had warned the Houthis to please don't take the capital city of Sanaa, because if you do, the Saudis are going to freak out and attack.
So that would be a bridge too far.
And the Houthis ignored Iran's advice and did so anyway.
Of course, we know that the anti-Iran factions in America are perfectly happy to accuse Iran of basically being behind the Houthis as though they're just, you know, Hezbollah or even closer to Iran than that, controlled by Iran.
On the other hand, and that's obviously a lie.
But on the other hand, it does make sense that the Iranians would want to check Saudi power by helping the Houthis, at least to some degree.
Not that I'm saying that's been proven to me, but it seems at least plausible.
So I wonder if you could address the role of Iran in this war, because after all, the war's gone on for two years now.
Nasser.
The fact you said now is that Iran advised Houthi, this is right, because they know it, they accuse Yemen of being backed by Iran.
And they said it is dangerous.
Do you know why?
Because they were talking about the nuclear weapon at the time, and they know how nervous Saudi was at the time.
But Houthi then, Houthi understood, Houthi took the advice of Iran and the advice of everyone.
But unfortunately, Saudi imposed the war on us because of the green light of Obama.
Obama gave the green light to them to do something they want because they were angry because of the nuclear deal.
And they said, OK, you can go for one week or two weeks or so.
But unfortunately, Saudi Arabia imposed the war on us just to fight Iran, because they didn't like the nuclear weapons and they didn't like–they wanted to do this.
So Saudi Arabia is killing Yemenis just to anger Iran, unfortunately.
And this is the problem from the very beginning.
All right.
Well, but so that does then raise the question, though, about how does this hurt Iran to attack the Houthis?
In other words, is it right then that the Houthis really do work for Iran in the way that Hezbollah is sort of an Iranian statelet in Lebanon?
I mean, media, as I told you always, Iran is exploiting what's happening.
There is similarities.
There is media and political support.
This is–this can't be denied at all.
For the Houthi group, if we talk about Houthi group, Houthi group, Zaydi, Shiite, and these things, this can't be denied at all.
But no one can prove that there is a single polite in Yemen now from Iran, single polite, Saudi Arabia, and Trump and Hadi talking about ships of weapons.
This is not right.
And the attack, our attack, the missile attack on the frigate three days ago or on the 13th of January–last week, let me say–they talked about Iran, and they said they heard someone talking Persian language and these things, and they said about three boats and all these things to let people understand that Iran is there.
Iran is behind this attack.
No, Iran is not behind this attack.
Yemenis are behind this attack.
But Saudi Arabia gets embarrassed after two years of bombing with the most advanced weapons, and we now, Yemenis, target its warships, its frigates, and now its capital.
So Saudi Arabia doesn't want to talk about this at all.
They keep talking about Iran, Iran, Iran, Iran.
Yeah, well, and we know Gareth Porter has done a great job debunking the stories that claim that these ships that were seized, intercepted, were even meant for the Houthis at all.
And, of course, as you previously mentioned, the former dictator took a major faction of the army with him, the former president Saleh, and went and joined in an alliance with his old enemies, the Houthis.
And so, you know, and plus, I guess Yemen is a fairly well-armed society anyway.
I've never heard that there was a lack of arms to be had on the Yemeni black market, you know.
So it doesn't seem like they need any Iranian guns in the first place.
Yes, they, the army spokesman only today said that there are the boats, there are women, the boats and arsenals that are not used yet, and this is a fact.
We know, as Yemenis, we know this.
We know where the money went, all the Yemenis went.
They said now, the people in Riyadh said that Saleh has stolen $60 billion, and Saleh now has no, even $1.
But all this money went in buying weapons, because he knows what Saudi Arabia, this is not the first war between us and Saudi Arabia, unfortunately.
He knows what it means if there is a war with Saudi Arabia, so he bought weapons, and now the weapons are being used by Yemeni fighters and Yemeni tribesmen and the Yemeni army.
And now, one more question here about the relationship between al-Qaeda and the Hadi government.
Did they really support him, or they just are both fighting on the same side against the Houthis and Saleh?
This is a very good question, and I said it many times, a good question for your audience.
Now, they say now it's only Sunni and Shia.
This Shia, that is the Yemenis, like me, I'm a secular, and they call me now Shia, because I'm talking with Houthis.
So they said Shia is kafir, he's like Americans, he's like any infidel, he must be killed.
So now everyone with Hadi is not talking in politics.
They are not talking about politics at all.
They are talking about Shia, or Fars, or Rawaf, or Iranians, or enemies, these things.
So they are inciting in this way.
If you come, when it comes to politics, they are completely different from each other.
We know.
But this is the only thing that makes them unified.
The lie, the big lie, the Saudi lie, unfortunately.
And they are, they don't talk about this at all.
They don't talk about, I told you, it's only when they talk to the media in the West, they say, hide the leaders.
But locally, they say, publicly, they say they are resistance, they are Mujahideen, they are army, they are legitimate government, they are this and that.
Nobody can say anything here, locally.
Unfortunately, this is the picture.
And now, is it the case, too, I mean, we were talking about this raid here against AQAP guys, but is the Saudi air war, which we all know is backed by the United States, is that still continuing in the north of the country and in the capital?
The airstrikes, you mean, or what?
Yeah, yeah, the air war under the new Trump administration.
Has that taken a pause at all, or it's just business as usual?
There is no day passes without bombings here in the outskirts, in the northern outskirts of Sana'a, for example, where I am.
Every day, before you called me, there were airstrikes.
Every day, there are airstrikes, especially after when there is something like this.
Today, as I told you, there was a ballistic missile.
Everybody is talking, in Yemen, in Saudi Arabia, everywhere.
They are talking about new ballistic missiles in Riyadh, and they are bombing and hovering all the time in Sana'a, not let alone in the battles, I mean, the places where there are clashes.
I'm talking about the places like Sana'a.
They hover all the time.
They bomb here and there and everywhere.
Just last week, they killed here, close to my place.
They bombed a house.
Yes, at the time when the Frigate was hit.
They came to Sana'a, and they hit a house, and they killed everyone, seven members of the house, father, mother, daughters, and brothers, everyone.
All right, Nasser.
Well, listen, I know you got to go, but I really appreciate your time again on the show, and I'll definitely be talking with you again soon.
Thank you very much, because I'll take your advice and write some lengthy article, as you told me, and thank you very, very much for your interest.
Of course, the story of Yemen is very, very complicated and very long, but we do what we can.
Yes.
No, really, yes, I hope you do.
I promise I'll do everything I can to help publicize it, run it on antiwar.com and whatever else I can, so please let me know.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
All right, well, thank you.
Best of luck to you.
Bye-bye.
All right, you guys, that again is Nasser Araby reporting out of Sana'a, Yemen, about America's war for and against al-Qaeda, for and against the Houthis at the same time there, still in February 2017.
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