07/13/16 – Nasser Arrabyee – The Scott Horton Show

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All right, y'all, Scott Horton Show, scotthorton.org for the archives, more than 4,000 interviews now going back to 2003, scotthorton.org, sign up for the podcast feed there and follow me on Twitter at Scott Horton Show.
Introducing Nasser Araby.
He is an independent journalist out of Sana, Yemen, and he runs a news organization called Yemen Alon, which is yemen-now.com, yemen-now.com.
Welcome back to the show, Nasser.
How are you, sir?
Fine, fine.
Thank you very much for your interest, Scott.
I'm very happy to have you on the show, sir.
Feel very privileged to have a source inside Yemen, a reporter there in the country to talk about the war there.
First things first, the humanitarian situation, I know we discussed before how the U.N. numbers mean nothing to you.
What's your best estimate of the death toll and the humanitarian situation in the country right now?
Well, the humanitarian situation is still deteriorating, and in terms of how many victims, they are now about 50,000 killed and injured, exactly about 11,000 injured, 11,000 killed, and about 31 injured.
This is according to the local human rights groups who are very interested in these things, which means it's very, very high and much higher than what the United Nations is talking about.
Almost twice as much, is what they're saying.
And of course, we're talking about now, it's been, what, 16, 17 months of war?
Last time we spoke, you said that the ceasefire didn't really mean anything, the airstrikes continued.
Is that still the case?
Yes.
This is what I told you about two months ago, and this is what I wrote about at the very beginning, or 10 days before the Kuwait talks started, and I wrote a lengthy article about this, and I said that nothing, nothing would happen from any U.N. talks on Yemen if Saudi Arabia is still fighting.
If Saudi Arabia is still misleading the world about its role in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia is fighting Yemen, Saudi Arabia is killing Yemenis, Saudi Arabia is bombing Yemenis with banned weapons, with cluster bombs, and with every banned weapon, unfortunately, and they talk that Saudi Arabia is helping Yemen.
The U.N. and the U.S. and U.K., and they are blindly, unfortunately, supporting Saudi Arabia.
And the biggest evidence I have this time is the big scandal that happened in New York when U.N.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that Saudi Arabia is blacklisted as the killer of Yemeni children, and after hours, only hours, he apologized, apologized because he, Saudi Arabia, backed by U.S. and U.K., threatened him, and threatened the 200 countries of the world that he must remove Saudi Arabia from the blacklist, and he removed it.
This is the human, the biggest human scandal that we have ever seen, as humans, everywhere.
U.N. said Saudi Arabia is the killer of Yemeni children, war criminal, and then it said no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
This is big evidence that Yemen is now a victim of this problem, a victim of this misleading and misinformation of what's happening.
Saudi Arabia is killing Yemeni and paying money.
Okay, so Nasser, talk to me a little bit about the state of the blockade.
Is there any kind of increase in trade, in humanitarian goods, or just, you know, food and water and medical resources at all?
It's very, very little, because there is a big pressure.
We can't deny the pressure of the free people of the world, because we have, you know, we have a lot of free people from all over the world who support us, and who exercise big pressure on Saudi Arabia to lift this blockade.
But the reality is this blockade is still there.
It is still there, blockade in the sea, blockade in the air, blockade on the ground.
So they are blockading Yemen.
Saudi Arabia is blockading deliberately, as a kind of, as a means, as a tool of killing, as a tool of fighting.
And this is a big violation of the humanitarian laws and international laws and human rights laws and everything.
But unfortunately, Saudi Arabia is imposing this blockade.
But as I told you, there are, for example, this Eid, the ships that carried the fuel for the electricity in Hudaydah, the hottest coastal city, it was able to enter and to give this fuel for the electricity, after a big pressure from all over the world.
So I should say this.
And now, you know, the audience, of course, needs to also appreciate that it's not just those who are killed in the bombings.
But it's also the what they call the excess deaths, the people who died, who normally would not have the excess rate of deaths, of things that would otherwise seem like natural causes, more or less, like someone dying of an infectious disease, when really, they could have fought it off, except for the fact that they're suffering from such malnutrition that now they can't.
Or they can't get to the hospital in time, because there's a giant bomb crater in the road, or some kind of, you know, external to a direct attack, and yet still part of the war.
And we don't know those numbers yet.
We'll find out in a few years, the excess rate of death of the Yemeni civilian population during this time.
But you can bet it's going to add up to a hell of a lot more than 31,000 injured and 11,000 killed.
Yes, this is a very, very, very important question.
If Saudi Arabia killed so far thousands of people by of Yemenis, women and children sleep in their houses, until now, by bombings, by directly bombing their houses, it's actually, Saudi Arabia is killing millions by starving, by starving them.
I mean, they are being threatened by hunger, and by illnesses, by diseases, as you said, yes, because of the blockade.
And because of the, of destroying the food factories, the infrastructure in general, the infrastructure factories, and the economic, and everything in the country, deliberately.
And of course, this is now reported by the international organization, that Saudi Arabia is deliberately destroying the infrastructure of Yemen, and the factories of Yemen, hospitals of Yemen, schools of Yemen, and farms of Yemen, everything in Yemen, deliberately, as a kind of fighting.
They want to triumph, they want to achieve a victory by this way, and this is a big shame on humanity.
Okay, so now, I mean, we need to emphasize again here, Nasser, the responsibility of the American government for this, even though it's not in our media.
People should know, and William Hartung, the military expert, confirmed this on the show last week, that the Saudi military is absolutely helpless without the United States to run all of it for them.
They don't even fight in their own army, other than to fly their fighter jets, and even then, they need the Americans to hold their hands, to target for them, to pick their targets for them, to type in the coordinates, to refuel their planes, as they fly their sorties, and back again, and this is entirely America's war, and I can't emphasize this enough, according even to the New York Times, official account of the discussion inside the White House, they said the White House needed, this is a quote, the White House needed to placate the Saudis as the administration completed a nuclear deal with Iran, Saudi's archenemy, and that fact alone, I'm reading directly from the New York Times now, that fact alone eclipsed concerns among many of the president's advisors that the Saudi-led offensive would be long, bloody, and indecisive.
To placate the Saudis over the Iran deal, they said, okay, you have carte blanche to bomb Yemen for as long as you feel like.
Yes, what is even more, Scott, what is even more than placating Saudi, is bombing Saudi.
Unfortunately, U.S. leaders, Obama specifically, we don't know why, is bombing Saudi, Wahhabi regime to the extent that they feel they would even use their nuclear bombs, any nuclear weapons, against any enemy, Yemen or whatever.
This is the problem, this is very dangerous, that Saudi, that this Wahhabi regime, which is the spirit of ISIS, feels like this towards the United States, towards the most powerful in the world.
This is very dangerous to U.S., that Saudi, Wahhabi regime, feels that it is being bombarded by the U.S. administration to do whatever it wants, because it has money or whatever.
And this is what it is doing in Yemen.
So, it is using the American weapons, it is using the American cluster bombs, it is using everything, and it is reassured that U.S. would give them all the military assistance, including the nuclear weapons, unfortunately, against Yemen or whoever.
This is very dangerous, and this is very dangerous to U.S. and Arab world and every country in the world.
Why Obama is doing this to Yemen and to the world?
Why Obama is supporting the Wahhabi, the Saudi, Wahhabi regime, which is the spirit of ISIS?
As everybody in the world knows, what happened in San Bernardino and in Orlando is a very recent example of ISIS attacks against the United States.
And this ISIS is Saudi, Wahhabi regime, Saudi, Wahhabi money, Saudi, Wahhabi ideology.
This is very dangerous.
Why Obama is doing this?
It is sort of like, as long as we don't do a full-scale invasion like Bush Jr. did in Iraq War II, then anything less than that is not so bad.
Same kind of thing with the nukes.
We might bomb you for the next 10 years, but as long as we don't use nukes to do so, then basically it will be seen as permissible.
Speaking of which, can you give me any kind of estimate of where the battle lines are now in Yemen?
For example, how much land and what territory the Houthis control in their alliance with Saleh?
What territory Al-Qaeda and or the Islamic State control, etc.?
Well, battles are still going on in Yemen, especially now after the Kuwait, the UN sponsored talks in Kuwait stopped.
And this is what Saudi wanted, because Saudi Arabia wanted this to happen, wanted to thwart the talks.
And for land here under the control of Al-Qaeda ISIS, it is almost all the South.
Almost all the South.
South is in complete chaos or under the ruling of Al-Qaeda ISIS.
Al-Qaeda ISIS is ruling the South, taking control over the schools, mosques and hospitals and all kinds of social services of the people.
Although Saudi-backed militants or Saudi-backed forces or whatever you can call them, they are there in Aden, in Mukalla, but who is ruling?
Al-Qaeda ISIS.
For Al-Houthi in the North, Al-Houthi is taking control over all the North, including the capital Sanaa.
And it is very stable here, very stable and no even security problems because they are taking control very strong.
And this is the only thing that is happening in the North is only the bombing, the Saudi bombings from the air, from the airplane.
So they are bombing all the time.
Only, for example, yesterday they bombed a driller, a water driller or a digger that was digging water for people to drink here in east of Sanaa, about 30 kilometers from where I am talking to you now.
They are crazy.
They even want to kill people from thirst.
They want to keep people thirsty.
They want to kill people of thirst.
They want them to die of, as I told you, starvation or of thirst.
So this is what Saudi is doing.
And Saudi Arabia started to threaten UN once again now.
They are threatening UN to, they are saying that they would withdraw, they would stop the talks in UN in Kuwait because UN is not doing well as they want.
Although UN did not achieve anything so far, but Saudi Arabia is not satisfied.
Saudi Arabia is not satisfied with UN.
So Saudi Arabia threatened UN many times.
Three times last month when UN blacklisted Saudi Arabia as war criminal or as children killer.
And they threatened them with three big threats.
Saudi Arabia threatened to cut the money and it threatened also to issue fatwas.
This is very dangerous.
To issue fatwas, that is the religious decrees, that UN is kafir, which means that all Arab and Muslims and the countries would fight UN because it is kafir.
This is what Saudi Arabia said or threatened.
And also they said they would, Saudi Arabia said they would form a UN.
I mean, very foolish threats from Saudi officials when Saudi was blacklisted as children killer.
So the Ban Ki-moon had to backtrack to reiterate.
They had to back, to hold back or to stop their blacklist or to remove Saudi Arabia from the blacklist.
Unfortunately, although they, after they were, they declared that it is, it is in the blacklist.
So this is very dangerous thing what Saudi Arabia is doing.
And by the way, the Yemeni children, the Yemeni children, when they discovered that UN removed Saudi Arabia from the blacklist, they organized a very interesting campaign here in Yemen.
It is still going until now.
It is campaign for money raising or for fundraising for UN because they know that Saudi, that UN removed Saudi from the blacklist only because Saudi had money.
So the Yemeni children said we would give UN money from our, from our, the money of our pockets and the money of our games and toys and candies.
So we will pay money for Saudi, for UN so that it can protect us or so that it can protect itself from Saudi Arabia.
So again, very, very, very bad things happening here because of Saudi foolish policy against Yemen and because of American support for this policy or Saudi policy.
Boy, isn't that something?
The poorest kids in the world, basically the most desperate children in the world raising money for Ban Ki-moon so that he can stave off the influence of the Saudi princes.
That's smart.
That was a smart idea for them to do just for the sarcasm in it.
And now, so let me ask you one more thing.
And I know this is really hard, probably even for Yemenis to keep track of, but America is helping the former dictator, Saleh, bomb al-Qaeda in Yemen for a long time, which only seemed to make them grow bigger and more and more powerful all this time.
Then they helped overthrow Saleh and install this guy Hadi in power.
Now Saleh is allied with his other old enemies, the Houthis, and America has been fighting for the last almost year and a half on the side of the Saudis as the de facto air force of al-Qaeda and or the Islamic State in their war against the Houthis that's taking place at the same time.
And yet, I'm getting to the point here, and yet there are reports in the media that the CIA is now starting again to ramp up their drone strikes against al-Qaeda.
So we're flying as al-Qaeda's air force, but we're also flying our drone air force against them at the same time as well.
And I just wonder if you can confirm that.
Have you heard that there's an increase in special forces or CIA targeting of al-Qaeda or Islamic State targets in the country lately?
Yes, I would confirm this.
And yes, the drone attacks recently were more than ever before here in Yemen.
And this is only because the misleading and the misinformation of Saudi Arabia and their allies here in Yemen or in the region.
Because they say that they want only to fight al-Qaeda.
And actually, they do not fight al-Qaeda.
Saudis don't fight al-Qaeda.
And Americans fight al-Qaeda by drones, yes, but they don't achieve anything now because al-Qaeda and ISIS is expanding hugely and very much in the places where they say it is liberated or it is Saudi-controlled or Saudi-ruled or whatever.
I'll give you a very good example of Taiz, the central Yemen, Taiz, which is in the north.
Now it is divided into two parts, the city, not only the province, but also the city is divided between Houthi and al-Qaeda and ISIS.
And this al-Qaeda and ISIS is being backed by Saudi Arabia, by weapons, by airplanes, by everything.
Only yesterday this al-Qaeda and ISIS stormed a school in Taiz while they were celebrating.
Just girls and boys were celebrating a graduation or whatever in a school, and they stormed them by clashing costs and they shot to the air to disperse them because they said it's a kind of mixing or boys and girls should not be together in one place.
And this, of course, was reported to all over the world what the people, what the Saudi-backed forces in Taiz is doing to the children of Yemen.
They are storming them.
They are terrifying them.
They are, I mean, something that is unbelievable that is happening.
And this is what Saudi Arabia wants.
This is what Saudi Arabia wants here in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia is blindly backing, supporting Saudi Arabia.
So even if Obama administration kills one al-Qaeda, ISIS leader by drone, unfortunately they are create 1,000 at the same time by supporting Saudi Wahhabi regime in the ground.
This is a stupid thing.
Drones are now only making terrorism now here in Yemen.
It was making terrorism.
It was helping Qaeda, not hurting Qaeda.
But now it is even more and more because they are striking, they are hitting by drones in some place while Qaeda and ISIS is doing something in somewhere else which is very safe, which is very secure.
Because it is under the banner of Saudi forces or Saudi militants or Saudi-backed forces or whatever you can call.
And they should know this.
They should ask themselves what is happening in Taiz.
Who is ruling Taiz?
Who is Saudi Arabia supporting in Taiz?
I want anyone, any American to investigate what is happening in Taiz.
Who is Saudi Arabia supporting in Taiz?
Who is Saudi Arabia supporting in Yemen?
I mean, it is not a secret.
Saudi Arabia is supporting Qaeda-ISIS leaders who are in Riyadh now.
Now wait a minute.
Let me ask you something here.
Let me ask you something here Nasser.
Can you hear me?
We have three of them listed by U.S. Treasury Department as global terrorists.
And we have three of them listed by U.S. as global terrorists.
They are based in Riyadh and they are appointed by Saudi-backed government as governors here in Yemen just to lead those militants, just to lead these operators in the ground.
So it is crazy what is happening in Yemen.
It is crazy.
And Obama administration is blindly supporting Saudi Arabia blindly.
All right.
Now Nasser, let me ask you real quick.
In Syria, Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are really rivals.
But I think last time we talked, you said that Al-Qaeda in Yemen has basically just become the Islamic State.
Can you clarify about those two different groups there?
Yes.
Unfortunately, the researchers in U.S. and in many other places, they are fabricating some terms and some initials and they believe them.
For example, AQAB and ISIS and these things.
In Yemen, it doesn't work, unfortunately.
They should know the reality.
In Yemen, it is one thing.
In Yemen, there is no two groups here.
In Yemen, it is one thing.
Al-Qaeda and ISIS is one thing.
At least for the time being.
At least for now.
At least.
I mean, there is no fighting.
There is no clash at all between them.
As I told you, ISIS is the new one.
ISIS is the best now.
ISIS is the one that is looked or viewed as the new and it is better for the young people.
The young people who want to join Al-Qaeda, who want to join these groups, they prefer ISIS.
Why?
Because they see, they look at it as perfect now, as more perfect than Al-Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda, for example, or the leaders of Al-Qaeda, most of them were killed, unfortunately.
They accuse them, I mean the young people, the young people who get radicalized, who become extremists for many, many, many reasons.
Social, political, economic, and a lot of things.
I can't talk now.
So, they get radicalized all of a sudden and then they choose ISIS.
They prefer ISIS.
Why they choose ISIS?
Why they prefer ISIS?
Because they think that it is the right group.
It is closer to Allah.
It is more right.
It is more, I mean, they think that it is not penetrated by Americans or by what they call, by kafirs.
So, in Yemen, it is one thing.
No two groups.
At least for now.
And I call the researchers to come to Yemen to realize this.
Alright, listen, thank you so much for coming back on the show, Nasser.
I really appreciate it.
You stay safe there.
Thank you very much.
Okay, bye.
Alright y'all, that is Nasser Araby.
His website is yemen-now.com.
Google translate it for you.
Yemen-now.com.
And just put his name in Google News.
You can read quite a few pieces from the last six months or so.
Nasser Araby from Sana'a, Yemen.
And hey, so that is this episode.
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Hey, I am Scott Horton here.
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