The US Military Staged A Mock Drill On US Soil In Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act

The US military staged a mock drill in violation of 130+ years of the Posse Comitatus Act that bars domestic forces from active use on US soil.

The Imperial Mind

American rage at Pakistan over the punishment of a CIA-cooperating Pakistani doctor is quite revealing

BY GLENN GREENWALD

Americans of all types — Democrats and Republicans, even some Good Progressives — are just livid that a Pakistani tribal court (reportedly in consultation with Pakistani officials) has imposed a 33-year prison sentence on Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani physician who secretly worked with the CIA to find Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil. Their fury tracks the standard American media narrative: by punishing Dr. Afridi for the “crime” of helping the U.S. find bin Laden, Pakistan has revealed that it sympathizes with Al Qaeda and is hostile to the U.S. (NPR headline: “33 Years In Prison For Pakistani Doctor Who Aided Hunt For Bin Laden”; NYT headline: “Prison Term for Helping C.I.A. Find Bin Laden”). Except that’s a woefully incomplete narrative: incomplete to the point of being quite misleading.

What Dr. Afridi actually did was concoct a pretextual vaccination program, whereby Pakistani children would be injected with a single Hepatitis B vaccine, with the hope of gaining access to the Abbottabad house where the CIA believed bin Laden was located. The plan was that, under the ruse of vaccinating the children in that province, he would obtain DNA samples that could confirm the presence in the suspected house of the bin Laden family. But the vaccine program he was administering was fake: as Wired‘s public health reporter Maryn McKenna detailed, “since only one of three doses was delivered, the vaccination was effectively useless.” An on-the-ground Guardian investigation documented that ”while the vaccine doses themselves were genuine, the medical professionals involved were not following procedures. In an area called Nawa Sher, they did not return a month after the first dose to provide the required second batch. Instead, according to local officials and residents, the team moved on.”

That means that numerous Pakistani children who thought they were being vaccinated against Hepatitis B were in fact left exposed to the virus. Worse, international health workers have long faced serious problems in many parts of the world — including remote Muslim areas — in convincing people that the vaccines they want to give to their children are genuine rather than Western plots to harm them. These suspicions have prevented the eradication of polio and the containment of other preventable diseases in many areas, including in parts of Pakistan. This faux CIA vaccination program will, for obvious and entirely foreseeable reasons, significantly exacerbate that problem.

As McKenna wrote this week, this fake CIA vaccination program was “a cynical attempt to hijack the credibility that public health workers have built up over decades with local populations” and thus “endangered the status of the fraught polio-eradication campaign, which over the past decade has been challenged in majority-Muslim areas in Africa and South Asia over beliefs that polio vaccination is actually a covert campaign to harm Muslim children.” She further notes that while this suspicion “seems fantastic” to oh-so-sophisticated Western ears — what kind of primitive people would harbor suspicions about Western vaccine programs? – there are actually “perfectly good reasons to distrust vaccination campaigns” from the West (in 1996, for instance, 11 children died in Nigeria when Pfizer, ostensibly to combat a meningitis outbreak, conducted drug trials — experiments — on Nigerian children that did not comport with binding safety standards in the U.S.).

When this fake CIA vaccination program was revealed last year, Doctors Without Borders harshly denounced the CIA and Dr. Afridi for their “grave manipulation of the medical act” that will cause “vulnerable communities – anywhere – needing access to essential health services [to] understandably question the true motivation of medical workers and humanitarian aid.” The group’s President pointed out the obvious: “The potential consequence is that even basic healthcare, including vaccination, does not reach those who need it most.” That is now clearly happening, as the CIA program “is casting its shadow over campaigns to vaccinate Pakistanis against polio.” Gulrez Khan, a Peshawar-based anti-polio worker, recently said that tribesman in the area now consider public health workers to be CIA agents and are more reluctant than ever to accept vaccines and other treatments for their children.

For the moment, leave to the side the question of whether knowingly administering ineffective vaccines to Pakistani children is a justified ruse to find bin Laden (just by the way, it didn’t work, as none of the health workers actually were able to access the bin Laden house, though CIA officials claim the program did help obtain other useful information). In light of all the righteous American outrage over this prison sentence, let’s consider what the U.S. Government would do if the situation were reversed: namely, if an American citizen secretly cooperated with a foreign intelligence service to conduct clandestine operations on U.S. soil, all without the knowledge or consent of the U.S. Government, and let’s further consider what would happen if the American citizen’s role in those operations involved administering a fake vaccine program to unwitting American children. Might any serious punishment ensue? Does anyone view that as anything more than an obvious rhetorical question?

There are numerous examples that make the point. As’ad AbuKhalilposes this one: “Imagine if China were to hire an American physician who would innocently inject unsuspecting Americans with a chemical to obtain information for China.  I am sure that his prison term would be even longer.” Or what if an American doctor of Iranian descent had done this on behalf of the Quds Force, in order to find a member of the designated Iranian Terror group MeK who was living in the United States (one who, say, has been working with Israel to help assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists and wound their wives, or one who was trained by the U.S.), after which Iranian agents invaded his American home, pumped bullets in his skull and shot a few others (his wife and a child) and then dumped his corpse into the Atlantic Ocean? Or take the case of Orlando Bosch, the CIA-backed anti-Cuban Terrorist long harbored by the U.S.; suppose a Cuban-American doctor sympathetic to Castro had injected American children as part of a fake vaccination program in order to help Cuba find and kill Bosch on U.S. soil; he’d be lucky to get 33 years in prison.

In fact, the U.S. Government tries to impose the harshest possible sentences on Americans who do far less than Dr. Afridi did in Pakistan. The Obama administration charged former NSA official Thomas Drake with espionage and tried to imprison him fordecades merely because he exposed serious waste, corruption and illegality in surveillance programs — without the slightest indication of any harm to national security. Right now, they’re charging Bradley Manning with “aiding the enemy” — Al Qaeda — and attempting to impose life imprisonment on the 23-year-old Army Private, merely because he leaked information to the world showing serious war crimes and other government deceit (something The New York Times does frequently) which nobody suggests was done in collaboration with or even with any intent to help Al Qaeda or any other foreign entity. Given all that, just imagine how harshly they’d try to punish an American who secretly collaborated with a foreign intelligence service — who created a fake vaccine program for American kids — to enable secret military action on U.S. soil without their knowledge.

But of course none of these comparisons is equivalent. It’s all different when it’s done to America rather than by America. That’s the great prize for being the world’s imperial power: the rules you impose on others don’t bind you at all. I’m quite certain that none of the people voicing such intense rage over Pakistan’s punishment of Dr. Afridi would voice anything similar if the situation were reversed in any of the ways I’ve just outlined. Can you even imagine any of them saying something like: yes, this American doctor injected American kids with ruse vaccines in order to help the intelligence service of Iran/Pakistan/China/Cuba conduct clandestine operations on U.S. soil without the knowledge of the U.S. Government, but I think that’s justified and he shouldn’t be punished.

If you read or watch any accounts of life in the Roman empire, what you will frequently witness is someone being severely punished for an act against a Roman citizen. That was the most severe crime and the one most harshly punished: one could do any manner of bad things to non-citizens, but not so much as raise a hand to a Roman citizen.

Watch how often that formulation is used in our political discourse: he tried to kill Americans, people will emphasize when justifying all sorts of U.S. government actions. In other words, there are ordinary, pedestrian crimes (like this one, from today: “An American drone fired two missiles at a bakery in northwest Pakistan Saturday and killed four suspected militants, officials said, as the U.S. pushed on with its drone campaign despite Pakistani demands to stop. This was the third such strike in the country in less than a week”). But then there is the supreme crime: he tried to kill Americans! It’d be one thing if this outrage were honestly expressed as self-interest (we give massive aid to Pakistan so they should do our bidding), but instead, it is, as usual, couched in moral terms.

That is the imperial mind at work. Its premises are often embraced implicitly rather than knowingly: American lives are inherently more valuable; foreign lives are expendable in pursuit of American interests; the U.S. has the inalienable right to take action in other countries that nobody is allowed to take in the U.S. (just imagine: “An Iranian drone fired two missiles at a bakery in the northwest U.S. Saturday and killed four suspected militants, Iranian officials said, as Iran pushed on with its drone campaign despite American demands to stop. This was the third such strike in the country in less than a week” or “Thirty five women and children were killed by a Yemeni cruise missile armed with cluster bombs which struck an alleged Marine training camp in Texas”).

These self-venerating imperial prerogatives are the premises driving the vast bulk of American foreign policy and military discourse. It is certainly what’s driving the spectacle of so many people pretending that the punishment of Dr. Afridi is some sort of aberrational act which the U.S. and other Decent, Civilized Countries would never do.

* * * * *

Two related points:

(1) NPR emphasizes what appear to be the genuine due process deficiencies in the punishment imposed on Dr. Afridi, though he certainly is receiving more due process than those informally and secretly accused of Treason by the U.S. Government and given the Anwar Awlaki treatment, or accused of Terrorism and targeted with a U.S. drone or locked for a decade or so in a cage without charges of any kind.

(2) Zaid Jilani, formerly of Think Progress, asks a really good question about the Hollywood Election Year film depicting the bin Laden raid being produced by Sony Pictures with the help of the Obama administration: “Will the movie feature Pakistani kids tricked into getting fake vaccines? Probably not.” If the film does mention this, I’d bet it will be to marvel at and celebrate the James-Bond-like ingenuity of the CIA.

This is a cross post from salon.com

This Is Syria’s “Kuwaiti Moment,” Comparable To Their Infamous Incubator Baby-Bashing Provocation

[American drone strikes in Pakistan have easily matched these reported numbers on Syrian child casualties and even exceeded them.  One reported strike on a madrassa in 2006 killed between 70-80 students, most of them were non-combatat children (SEE: Pakistan school raid sparks anger).]

Syria crisis: Houla child massacre confirmed by UN

UN’s Maj-Gen Robert Mood: “Deaths were an unacceptable attack” Amateur footage contained within this clip purportedly shows a mass burial

UN observers have counted at least 90 bodies, including 32 children, after a Syrian government attack on a town.

UN mission head Maj-Gen Robert Mood told the BBC the killing in Houla was “indiscriminate and unforgivable”.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said he would seek a strong international response to the “appalling crime” – France and the Arab League have also condemned the massacre.

Syria’s government has blamed the deaths on “armed terrorist gangs”.

This is one of the bloodiest attacks in one area since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.

Activists say some of the victims died by shelling, while others were summarily executed, or butchered by the regime militia known as the “shabiha”.

France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and the Arab League also condemned Friday’s assault.

Mr Fabius said he was making immediate arrangements for a Paris meeting of the Friends of Syria group, which includes Western and Arab nations, but not Russia or China, who have blocked previous attempts to introduce UN sanctions.

Fighting in Syria has continued despite the deployment of some 250 UN observers monitoring a cease-fire brokered by UN envoy Kofi Annan – a ceasefire which the BBC’s Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon says is now “pretty fictional”.

The UN says at least 10,000 have been killed since the protests began.

UN ‘refused to come’

Mr Hague said he would be calling for an urgent session of the UN Security Council in the coming days.

Arab League head Nabil al-Arabi called the assault a “horrific crime” and urged the Security Council to “stop the escalation of killing and violence by armed gangs and government military forces,” the Reuters news agency reports.

The opposition Free Syrian Army says it can no longer commit to the ceasefire unless the Security Council can ensure that civilians are protected, the AFP news agency reports.

Horrific video footage has emerged from Houla of dozens of dead children, covered in blood, their arms and legs strewn over one another. It is unverified, but our correspondent says such images would be difficult to fake.

International media cannot report freely in Syria and it is impossible to verify reports of violence.

A team of UN observers visited the town on Saturday and afterwards Maj-Gen Mood said they could confirm “the use of small arms, machine gun[s], artillery and tanks.”

But he did not say who was behind the killings.

“Whoever started, whoever responded, and whoever carried out this deplorable act of violence should be held responsible.”

Our correspondent says local people are angry that the observers failed to intervene to stop the killing.

Abu Emad, speaking from Houla, said their appeals to the monitors failed to produce action.

“We told them at night, we called seven of them. We told them the massacre is being committed right now at Houla by the mercenaries of this regime and they just refused to come and stop the massacre.”

The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) said more than 110 people died. The SNC’s Ausama Monajed told the BBC the regime was selecting vulnerable towns to “teach the entire country a lesson”.

“It is beyond humanity what we have seen,” he said.

Activists called a day of mourning on Saturday.

The BBC’s correspondent Paul Wood and cameraman Fred Scott report from the rebel stronghold of Rastan

Meanwhile, in a letter to the Security Council, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the Syrian opposition controlled “significant parts of some cities”.

He said that “established terrorist groups” could have been behind some of the recent bomb blasts in Syria judging from the sophistication of the attacks.

He said the situation remained “extremely serious” and urged states not to arm either side in the conflict.

Earlier this month, a bombing in Damascus left 55 dead in an attack which the government blamed on al-Qaeda. The attack came amid mounting fears that the terrorist group was taking advantage of the conflict to gain a foothold.

On Thursday, a UN-mandated panel said Syrian security forces were to blame for most abuses in the conflict, which has continued despite the presence of the UN observers.

Mr Annan’s six-point peace agreement ordered a cessation of violence on 12 April. While casualties appeared to fall after the truce, the fighting quickly resumed to previous levels.

Russian Religious Relics Transferred To Chapel On Russian 201st Mil. Base In Dushanbe

“They are the spiritual support of our troops on the eve of such a serious test ( “Peace Mission – 2012.”  ). “ 

[Why do Russian troops in Tajikistan need such a spiritual empowerment before these anti-terrorism war games?]

SCO anti-terrorist exercises held under the auspices of Sv.Matrony, power transferred to Tajikistan

Ferghana

May 25, 2012

The relics of St. Matrona of Moscow were delivered to 201 Russian military base stationed in Tajikistan , according to ITAR-TASS . In the summer of Tajikistan must pass anti-terrorism exercises SCO “Peace Mission – 2012.” It is reported that the patron saint Matron will exercise participants.

As said in the press service of the Central Military District, “the power of Matrona of Moscow directed to the church-chapel, located on a military base. They are the spiritual support of our troops on the eve of such a serious test. “ On the occasion of delivery of the relics in the church, the chapel served a prayer service and Akathist, during the day all orthodox military and civilian personnel can connect to touch the relics.

The SCO includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the status of observer organizations are Iran, India, Mongolia and Pakistan. Will all participants to patronize Matron exercises, participants, or Muslim or Buddhist appoint other patron saints, is not specified.

The international news agency “Fergana”

End of Turkmen gas bluff

26/05/2012 Innocent Adyasov Western investors, receiving illegal ways of the technical documentation for the development of “super-giant” fields “South Iolotan-Osman,” questioned the estimates of Turkmen specialists. Russia has gone virtually unnoticed event that can radically affect the fate of alternative pipelines bypassing Russia and greatly increase the chances of the “South Stream”.Western investors, receiving illegal ways of the technical documentation for the development of “super-giant” fields “South Iolotan-Osman,” questioned the estimates of Turkmen specialists. The field “Southern Yoloten-Osman” in the last year acquired the status of “super-giant.”(November 18, 2011, Turkmen President signed a decree ordering the name field Southern Iolotan-Osman, Minar and its surrounding field gas field “Galkynysh”). Turkmen authorities before the event liked to refer to the results of an “independent audit of gas reserves” held by the British company Gaffney, Cline & Associates, the optimal estimate of the field was 6 trillion cubic meters, which put the “Southern Yoloten-Osman” in its size at the fifth or fourth in the world. Before its opening all of the proven natural gas reserves in Turkmenistan did not exceed 3 trillion cubic meters. Recently, estimates have been confirmed by British experts state corporation “Turkmengeologiya”, which tested three new exploration wells in the field. Soon, however, revealed that the gas reserves are overestimated by several times. And the inflated results were confirmed by the auditors of Gaffney, Cline & Associates simply because they did their calculations are not based on independent analysis of the results of drilling, but on the basis of data obtained by the Turkmen specialists. Turkmen authorities are now trying to find the source of information leakage, but it is clear that for the development of the above deposit will have to conduct a new and truly independent examination. Experts have long doubted the possibility of producing gas from the field at low cost. Thus, the Russian expert Sergey Pravosudov pointed out that the gas from South Iolotan contains large amounts of hydrogen sulfide, which significantly increases the cost of its production. According Pravosudova, “this is about the same gas as the Astrakhan deposit in Russia, where the reserves are more than two trillion cubic meters. Production there – instead of 70-100 billion cubic meters of gas per year produced a total of 15 billion, because it is very expensive gas, it is very deep, at a depth of more than four kilometers.Even if all the favorable conditions of the project once implemented and Turkmen gas to Europe will fall by NABUCCO, or some other project, this gas is very expensive, at least, it will not be cheaper than the Russian, and probably even much more expensive ” . In addition, it is the largest Turkmen gas field is actually “laid” Ashgabat Chinese investors.China’s CNPC, along with “Turkmengas” – the main operator of the South Iolotan. According to experts, China’s investment in the development of this field may be more than five billion dollars. Beijing has confirmed that he was ready to take all of the export volumes of Turkmen gas by the mid 2012 shipments will increase to 30 billion cubic meters by 2015 to expand the capacity of Turkmenistan – Uzbekistan – Kazakhstan – China to 65 billion cubic meters. At the same time, South Iolotan together with the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz regarded the EU as its main resource base for the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline and NABUCCO. In the framework of the “Shah-Deniz 2″ Azerbaijan will deliver 10 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe. At its peak, as the first stage of this gas field, the amount of stock which amounts to 1.2 trillion cubic meters, it was supposed to produce about 8.6 billion – nine billion cubic meters of gas. It is not extracted volumes were pre-contracted by Turkey, Greece and Georgia. It is expected that the peak production of the first stage of “Shah-Deniz” was supposed to go next year. But those plans went awry – in 2011 began in Azerbaijan godkov severe downturn in oil and gas. According to the SSC of the country, the amount produced in Azerbaijan in 2011 crude oil amounted to 45.4 million tons, up 10.7 percent less than in 2010. Last year it was produced only 25.7 billion cubic meters of gas, which is 2.5 percent less than in 2010. In general, the GDP of the oil sector of Azerbaijan in 2011 declined by 9.3 percent over the previous year. The fall in production and affected the “Shah-Deniz”.This is confirmed by data published by the operator of the project – the company «BP-Azerbaijan». According to these data, in the last year of the contract area, “Shah Deniz” managed to get just 6.67 billion cubic meters of gas, which is 222 million cubic meters less than in 2010. Over the past year has also dropped the amount of condensate production: it produced 1.8 million tons of condensate (14 million barrels), against 1.9 million tonnes in 2010. That is not in Central Asia or Azerbaijan are no free resources for NABOCCO (China intends to contract not only the main exports of Turkmen gas, but all the volumes of gas exports to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan). As is known, the minimum required for the pipeline NABUCCO 30 billion cubic meters of gas annually. Under these circumstances, greatly increase the chances of the Russian project “South Stream”, which was clearly slipping in recent years. But Russia will have to find the free volumes of gas for this project because a monopoly on the transit of Turkmen in Moscow and the whole Central Asian gas, unfortunately, a thing of the past.

Source :: news agency REGNUM

Taliban Are Pak Army “Irregular Forces,” NOT Pashtun Nationalists

Taliban are Pak Army proxies, not Pashtun nationalists – VI

By Farhat Taj

If Pakistan stops backing Taliban commanders, Pashtuns will not protest

There are three groups of Pashtuns fighting the US/NATO and Afghan security forces in Afghanistan – the Peshawar Shura led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the North Waziristan based Haqqani Network led by Jalaluddin Haqqani, and the Quetta Shura led by Mullah Omar. All three of them are closely linked with the military establishment of Pakistan.

A section of Hekmatyar’s party has already given up violence and is part of the current Afghan government and parliament. Many of the remaining prominent party leaders are frustrated with Hekmatyar’s rigid stance and have privately said they are willing to give up violence for a peaceful political process.

Hekmatyar’s son in law Ghairat Baheer has recently met Afghan President Hamid Karzai to speed up the process of peaceful political settlement in Afghanistan. The group is therefore likely to have a role in Afghanistan’s future political set-up. But that cannot be said about the other two groups.

The Haqqani Network is led by Jalaluddin Haqqani, but its operations are controlled by his son Sirajuddin Haqqani. The group has attacked US, NATO and Afghan forces, and is also accused of attacking Afghan civilians and development workers sent by India to help rebuild the Afghan infrastructure. The US accuses Pakistan of supporting the Haqqani Network and using it as a tool in Afghanistan.

Peshawar Corps Commander Lt Gen Khalid Rabbani said last month that Pakistan Army had conducted more than 1,000 military operations in FATA in 2009 and 2010. Pakistan’s Air Force chief had reportedly said in Dubai that more than 10,600 bombs have been dropped on FATA since 2008. But no leading Taliban commanders have been captured or killed in FATA during this period. Those in FATA who are critical of the military establishment say Taliban are not captured or killed, but handed over to leaders of the Haqqani Network.

And while most of the media attention is on Waziristan, a lot of jihadi activities are taking place in the Pashtun belt in Baluchistan. NATO commanders have repeatedly described the area as major command centre for expanding cross-border attacks on the US/NATO and Afghans forces. The Quetta Shura have also been accused of targeted killings of Pashtun tribal leaders and clerics who advocated against Taliban militancy in Pashtun villages in Afghanistan.

Mao Tse-tung once said that guerrilla freedom fighters must live among their people as fish swim in the sea. History shows that almost all genuine guerrilla fighters have come back to fight the foreign aggression amid their people with their help after necessary training abroad. If the Afghan Taliban are so confident of the Pashtun public support in Afghanistan, why don’t they go back to Afghanistan and fight the US/NATO forces with the public support? Why do they sneak in, strike and run back?

In fact Afghans, both Pashtun and non-Pashtun, accuse Pakistan and more specifically the Punjabis of nurturing the insurgents in Afghanistan. Many of the Pashtun in FATA also accuse Pakistan Army of backing the Taliban or not supporting local anti-Taliban forces. Just because the Pakistani media is not showing Pashtun anger does not mean it does not exist on the ground.

The Pashtun nationalists and generally all other anti-Taliban Pashtun from all socio-economic statuses and statures in Afghanistan and Pakistan are well known people in their communities. Their names, faces, addresses, and tribal or family affiliations are there for the whole world to see. They stand firmly on their native soil in the face of Taliban atrocities. Contrary to this, most of the Taliban commanders and foot soldiers do not even show their masked faces in public. The Pashtun people do not even know who is behind those masks – Punjabis, Arabs, Uzbeks, culturally uprooted Muslim immigrant terrorists from the Western countries, or Pashtun outlaws?

Most of the Pakistani Taliban also do not operate in the areas they claim to belong to or represent. The popularity of Mullah Omar, the Haqqanis, Gul Bahader, Mullah Nazir and Mullah Faqir is a myth perpetuated by incompetent researchers. The same analysts had said Mullah Fazlullah was popular in Swat. But the locals welcomed his ouster. Now that he is gone, nobody is protesting. And if Pakistan stops backing other Afghan and Pakistani Taliban commanders, no Pashtuns will protest.

Syria, Yemen and America’s Quest for Imperial Dominance:

Syria, Yemen, & America’s Quest for Imperial Dominance

Neo-Imperialism by Faux-Democracy, Terrorism, & Propaganda.

At the G8 summit last week, President Obama and other officials in his administration, began utilizing the talking point of Yemen being a model to be emulated in Syria. Ostensibly, they were referring to the “peaceful” transition of power in Yemen as an example of what they would like to see in Syria.

However, the comparison goes much deeper than simply this superficial connection. The truth is that Yemen represents, in more ways than one, the blueprint that the US imperialist ruling class would like to see applied to the escalating conflict in Syria.

Puppet Regimes and Faux Democracy

The “transition” of power in Yemen, from Saleh to Hadi, is a prime example of the hypocrisy of US policy, touting it as a victory for democracy while concealing the obvious fact that it was the creation of a puppet regime.

Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has been presented as the legitimate leader of Yemen, despite the fact that he was the U.S. choice to govern that country. His legitimacy depended on the myth of a democratically elected regime; the US propagates this myth wantonly, pretending that people won’t remember that Hadi ran unopposed in February.

If the purpose of democracy is to create forms of governance accountable to the citizenry and to establish a government that is truly representative of the people’s desires, then it would be an outright lie to call the Hadi administration anything close to a democracy.

In fact, as recent developments in Yemen have shown, his regime is nothing more than a puppet government, put in power by the United States in order to allow the CIA and other shadowy entities free reign to use drones, Special Forces, and other covert operations in what is supposedly a sovereign nation.

Not only is Hadi, the former vice President under Saleh, not democratically elected, he is the antithesis of progress in a country that was on the front lines of the Arab Spring. The people who marched through the streets of Sanaa and other cities across Yemen did so with the intention of effecting change in a country which, in the eyes of many, was seen as a backwards dictatorship.

However, despite all the rhetoric about hope, change, and progress from the US State Department and the White House, President Obama and his minions, including John Brennan (counter-terrorism advisor and frequent representative of Obama in Yemen), immediately lent their support to Hadi. The betrayal came as no surprise to any informed observer as the United States was only interested in its own strategic interests in the region.

US Tactics and the Geopolitical Imperative in Yemen

US interest in Yemen is certainly not rooted in altruism or a desire to promote democratic ideals. On the contrary, it is the application of a long-standing geopolitical strategy to control international trade through the Mandab Strait and Suez Canal, access to African raw materials, and most specifically, block the expansion of Chinese economic influence in both the Middle East and Africa.

For these reasons, the United States has a keen interest in both Yemen and Somalia, desperate to maintain chaos in those countries so as to prevent stable, nationalist leaders from emerging. In so doing, Washington once again shows itself to be an imperialist aggressor, interested only in maintaining and expanding the empire.

The tactics of this strategy are myriad. First and foremost, the US, in accordance with long-standing policy dating back to the Carter administration, uses the red herring of “Islamic extremism” and terrorism, to justify any actions it deems necessary for the advancement of its own agenda. In places like Afghanistan and Yemen, the enemy is Al-Qaeda which must be fought with US military might, while in Libya and Syria, Al-Qaeda is an ally fighting against the oppressive regimes of Gaddafi and Assad. This duplicity should come as no surprise since Washington’s foreign policy is based on expanding US hegemony rather than promoting any ideals.

The second aspect of America’s imperialist strategy is the fomenting of ethnic, tribal, and other sectarian conflicts. In doing so, Washington is able to prevent the emergence of any form of nationalism that, by definition, would stand in opposition to US imperialism. One must simply look across the Mandab Strait for an example of this strategy: Somalia.

A nation of strategic and geographical importance, Somalia has been effectively destroyed by US policy over the last twenty years, having been transformed from a proud nation to a loose collection of tribal groups dominated by repugnant warlords with no regard for national identity.

In Yemen, we’ve seen this strategy employed vis-à-vis the Huthi rebellion, the propagandistic use of tribal groups as proxies of Saudi Arabia, Iran, or whomever the US wants to demonize, and countless other examples of these sorts of divisive tactics. In this way, the imperialists are able to keep Yemen fragmented, using it as a pawn on the geopolitical chessboard.

A Connection Between Yemen and Syria?

With all this talk about Yemen, the question might be, “So, what’s this got to do with Syria?” The answer to this question can be found in an analysis of the social movements of the two countries. In Syria, just as in Yemen, there is a real, pro-democracy opposition that took to the streets in hopes of forcing reforms. Both movements began with high-minded ideals and sought to end what they perceived to be the outdated rule of dictatorial leaders.

However, unlike Yemen, Syria has been under assault by West-sponsored, foreign mercenary terrorists who have usurped the title of “opposition”, thereby making the real opposition into a mere irrelevancy on the international stage. The United States and its proxies in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel, and elsewhere are responsible for this reprehensible turn of events.

And so, when the Obama administration claims that the Yemeni model is the best course of action in Syria, what they mean is that their tactics of subversion through terrorism are simply a means to an end. Just as in Yemen, the United States seeks to topple Assad and install a puppet government, one that would be comfortable under the thumb of the imperialist ruling class.

The US has no interest in protecting the rights of the ethnic and religious minorities or the real opposition (namely the National Coordinating Committee and the Popular front) in Syria, just as they had little interest in furthering the democratic aspirations of the people of Yemen. Rather, Obama and those who control him, seek regime change in Syria in order to use that nation as a geopolitical chess piece against Iran, Russia and any other nation unfortunate enough to be deemed an “enemy” of the United States.

Eric Draitser of StopImperialism.com

This this article was first published at Land Destroyer