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http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/foreign-policy/7801-obama-steps-up-
secret-us-war-in-yemen  or http://tinyurl.com/44t73c3

Obama Steps Up Secret US War in Yemen
Written by Alex Newman   
Thursday, 09 June 2011 09:42

The Obama administration is intensifying its illegal secret war in Yemen as 
armed rebellions against the U.S.-government-backed dictatorship of Ali 
Abdullah Saleh (left) threaten to overthrow the regime. But while the 
mainstream press has been cheering on the unlawful military campaign, 
experts warned that it could easily backfire.
Witnesses said multiple civilians were killed in an American air strike 
late last week supposedly targeting suspected militants � an unavoidable 
consequence of jet fighter and drone attacks that will almost certainly 
stir up more anti-U.S. sentiment. And the secret bombing campaign has 
actually been stepped up in recent weeks on orders from the White House, 
according to military officials cited in various news reports.

What lawful or constitutional authority Obama believes he possesses to wage 
secret wars is unclear. Congress has not even authorized the strikes, let 
alone declared war. But officials claimed the purpose of the attacks was to 
kill militants, some of whom the government alleges could be linked to al 
Qaeda.

U.S. forces have also been unsuccessfully firing missiles in recent weeks 
supposedly aimed at an American citizen believed to be hiding in Yemen � a 
cleric named Anwar al-Awlaki. Despite the fact that al-Awlaki was meeting 
with top U.S. military officials immediately following the September 11 
attacks, Obama purported to authorize the U.S.-born Imam�s extrajudicial 
assassination after the cleric became a suspected supporter of terrorism.    

In late 2009, as The New American reported, the U.S. government began 
waging an intense, secret aerial-bombing campaign in Yemen, firing a 
barrage of cruise missiles at villages in the nation�s Northern region. 
"The American air force committed massacres ... and used all types of 
military weapons to destroy villages and houses and schools and public 
facilities and to kill civilians," a rag-tag band of anti-regime rebels 
said in a statement at the time, noting that U.S. forces were committing an 
�appalling massacre� with help from the Saudi Arabian dictatorship.  

The U.S. administration also more than doubled direct �security� aid to the 
brutal Yemeni despot in 2010, not even including covert assistance, 
development funds and the formerly secret bombing campaigns. Incredibly, 
earlier this year Obama sought to increase direct military assistance from 
$150 million � almost half of the Pentagon�s direct annual handouts 
worldwide � to $250 million. Protests against the dictatorship began 
shortly after the proposal was made.

But despite the unprecedented amounts of American weaponry and money, the 
dictatorship ruling Yemen is on shaky ground and may collapse in the near 
future. Multiple tribes and factions have already taken up arms against the 
regime. Government forces continue to defect as troops loyal to Saleh have 
been forced to surrender vast swaths of territory to rebels. And protesters 
are demanding Saleh�s regime be prosecuted after handing over power for its 
myriad crimes.

The dictatorship has responded to the demands with brute force � murdering 
unknown numbers of unarmed protesters and killing even more militants. But 
the strategy doesn�t appear to be working.

Several top members of the ruling elite in Yemen have already been forced 
to flee. Saleh, who styles himself a �president� despite ruling with an 
iron fist for more than three decades, escaped to Saudi Arabia over the 
weekend after being injured in an attack on his compound in Sana�a, the 
capital. The Prime Minister and other top officials escaped, too, leaving 
the �Vice President� temporarily in charge of the regime.

American attacks will presumably continue in the meantime. U.S. diplomatic 
cables released by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks revealed that during 
the American bombing campaigns over a year ago, the Yemeni dictator 
conspired with U.S. officials to take credit for the attacks. �We�ll 
continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours, � the Yemeni dictator is 
quoted as saying in the cable, which describes a meeting early last year 
between U.S. General David Petraeus and dictator Saleh.

Analysts now believe the Arab strongman was using the U.S. military to 
murder his political rivals, claiming the militants were �al Qaeda.� And 
fears continue that the various armed factions vying for power in Yemen - 
socialists, Islamists, tribesmen, democracy advocates and others � could 
transmit false information to American agents in an effort to have their 
opposition targeted by U.S. forces.

White House officials have waffled on the administration�s public position 
about Yemen. Several spokespeople including U.S. terror czar John Brennan 
have condemned the regime for its violent repression. An official White 
House statement even urged the dictator to step down.

Meanwhile, however, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department cited by the 
New York Times on June 8 urged the dictatorship �to seize the moment and 
move forward� in quashing the rebellions and assorted militants. Some 
experts have accused the administration of having a �non-existent� policy 
toward Yemen. But it is indeed unclear exactly what Obama�s official public 
stance is supposed to be at the moment.

The administration continues pointing to the supposed danger posed by al 
Qaeda in Yemen. But U.S. and international forces are still arming and 
training various senior leaders of the organization and its affiliates as 
part of the United Nations-backed campaign to oust Libyan dictator Muammar 
Gaddafi, another former U.S. ally in the terror war.

No matter what is really going on, however, critics say the 
unconstitutional American involvement in the region will end badly. 
Variously backing and then turning against dictators, rebels, terrorists, 
activists and others will not only accelerate the U.S. government�s 
financial ruin, it will make America less safe.  




-- 
"Without America there is no "Free World"."

The reason that Progressivism-Socialism-Communism always fail, is that you 
eventually run out of other peoples' money.

Obama and the Democrats: continuing the Cloward-Piven "Progressive" 
socialist agenda of borrowing, taxing and insanely spending the country 
into collapse and global socialism.

To be a good democrat, you have to believe that businesses create 
oppression and governments create prosperity.

"The one thing that's being pushed in this country, is the motto: The 
harder I work, the more I owe society. The less I work, the more society 
owes me. We  can't be a great country with that motto." - Charles Payne.

All forced-collectivist societies can be roughly divided between the Makers 
( producers of goods and services ) and the Takers ( moochers and looters 
who get the government to initiate force against the Makers by proxy, to 
supply their alleged needs. )