Obama's abysmal track record in Yemen

Aug 2013 - President Barack Obama and Yemen's president, Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi after speaking to the media in the Oval Office of the White House. Photo courtesy/AP

*As US President-elect Donald J. Trump's win takes over the news, current US President Barack Obama's destructive legacy in Yemen must not go unnoticed. 

The Obama administration's foreign policy toward Yemen has been damaging and has largely contributed to the ongoing frenzied blood spill in the country. His policies inflicted devastating chaos on many levels in Yemen, for which the country is paying a heavy price.

In fact, Obama's record in Yemen is so dismal it even trumps his predecessor, Bush.


A failing 'War on Terror'

When Obama took office in 2009, analysts were hopeful that a realist American president would have a better vision for considering Yemen's local context, and fixing Bush's myriad failures in the global "War on Terror" in Yemen.

Bush's doctrine was characterised by his blind idealism in promoting democracy and security, and a dismissal of efforts to address the main drivers of violent extremism in Yemen. His pragmatic alliance with ousted Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh and his corrupt regime was a major failure in US policy in Yemen.

While Yemen was sliding down the ranks of the UN's Human Development Index, Saleh exploited that alliance to serve his own military interest, in the name of fighting terrorism.

In 2001, Bush's administration presented Saleh with an aid package worth up to $400 million, as part of US counter-terrorism operations, without investigating how Saleh's rule contributed to insurgents in Yemen. Bush's policies failed to comprehend Saleh's deceit in using the anti-terrorism card over advancing the social and economic growth of the country.

Former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and President George W. Bush meet in the Oval Office in 2001.

Obama's foreign policy in Yemen was in many ways an extension of Bush's. Despite his realism, it would have even more devastating consequences. Not only did Obama's approach pursue Bush's anti-terrorism strategy, he also made sure to expand the militarization strategy.

Obama's policy - like Bush's - perceived Yemen as a land of terrorism, neglecting warning calls from the country's civil society and grassroots organisations that Yemen was increasingly becoming a land of poverty, illiteracy and poor governance. This, they warned, represented the perfect conditions for terrorist groups to thrive and recruit.

Nonetheless, Obama too failed to comprehend Saleh's deceit and manipulation through the language of anti-terrorism.

Consequently, under Obama, the US doubled its security support to Yemen, to more than $150 million in 2010, including a proposed $45 million for equipping and training Yemeni special anti-terrorism forces. In spite of that, Obama's approach to Saleh's "War on Terror" was ineffective, with no real gains; it simply allowed Saleh to milk more military aid for no great significant purpose. Recent global terrorist attacks with links to Yemen are just a few examples to demonstrate that.


Worse than Bush

Part of Obama's extension of Bush's policy was the stepped up drone strikes campaign in Yemen. Under Obama, there has been a hike in drone strikes in Yemen and other countries, at nearly nine times more than the level authorised by Bush.

These drone strikes have killed more civilians than combatants - leading to growing anti-American sentiment. While clearly such a military strategy has become counter-productive, Obama's creativity reached its peak with his secret "kill-list" which included names in Yemen. Those in the worst hit areas understand that the real "terrorism" is carried out by US military jets that have been colonising Yemen's skies and terrorising innocent civilians. 

The 2011 uprising and Obama

When the 2011 uprising broke out, Obama's US policy in Yemen faced a crisis: How would the US handle losing a close ally in the War on Terror, in Saleh? It was time for Obama's realism to find new priorities in US policy in Yemen.

In parallel to his cautious endorsement of the protests, he was obsessed with silencing critical reporting of the flaws in his counter-terrorism drone strikes in Yemen. He intervened to keep a Yemeni journalist in jail, who revealed the drone strike crimes against women and children. This has exposed Obama's hypocrisy in supporting press freedom around the globe, but not in Yemen.

As the protests grew, the Obama administration had another setback in Yemen. During the 2011 uprising, Obama's foreign policy in Yemen was ill-made and was key in shaping an ill-formed model for a failing political transition.

He endorsed a power-transfer deal to Saleh, made by the Gulf Cooperation Council that guaranteed impunity to a dictatorship. This was a recipe for disaster, confirmed by the bloodbath we see in Yemen today. Nonetheless, the administration attempted to boast about their success in forging the "Yemen-model" of US counter-terrorism policy.

Obama at war in Yemen

Not long after the myth of the Yemen-model, the war broke out, pointing to the failures of US policy in Yemen. Today, Obama must be held responsible for leading the country to where it is today. He has contributed to the reckless expansion and militarization of Saleh's forces, and the co-enabling of killing through its support for the Saudi-led coalition.

Despite the calls of human rights groups to independently investigate war crimes committed in Yemen, Obama has continued to authorise arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The most outrageous truth, though, is that under Obama US-made and internationally banned cluster bombs were used by US ally, Saudi Arabia, in Yemen against civilian areas.

And yet, Obama has failed to even rhetorically address this. As remnants of bombs dropped above Yemenis' heads read made by the US, Yemenis now more than ever, believe Saudi Arabia's war is an American one, too. The slaughter of Yemeni civilians with cluster bombs might well be Obama's bloodiest legacy in Yemen.

Obama's dismal failure in Yemen reflects the failure of a realist assessment of national interests. Would Trump provide a glimmer of hope in Yemen? That remains to be seen. In the meantime, Yemenis see Obama as worse than any other American president.

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*This article was first published on NewArab.com on 18th of Nov. 

Women’s access to the Yemen peace talks

"The latest round of peace talks between the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels is slated to begin in Geneva next week. The two parties will negotiate a cease-fire agreement to end the recent nine-month conflict that has devastated the Gulf state—one of the world’s most impoverished and worst scoring countries in terms of gender equality, even before the Houthi insurgency broke out last March. Each delegation will consist of 12 members. A week from the start of negotiations, however, delegations have yet to be finalized, in part because the UN has insisted that women be added to the presently all-male delegations. Houthi officials barred Dr. Shafiqa al-Wahsh, a prominent Yemeni women’s rights leader, from traveling to preparatory meetings. Al-Wahsh is just one of many women’s advocates trying to make inroads to the peace talks: in October, 45 women representing different political parties and ethno-religious factions met with the UN Special Envoy to Yemen for a workshop on the effect the war is having on women and to discuss avenues for women’s participation in formal peacebuilding processes." -blogs.cfr.org

Yemenis for Peace Need Your Support

 *Yemen is in a desperate need for peace and your support is needed. "Yemeni men, women, and children are living through the worst and most violent period of their recent history," reads a recent petition created by 23 Yemeni intellectuals in support of the soon-to-begin second round of peace talks in Geneva part of UN mediation efforts accompanied by a truce. Yemenis understand that they must seize the chance and pressure warring parties to have an end to the ongoing tragedy of million of Yemenis, and they urgently need your solidarity.

The petition states as well, "during the past few months, more than 6 thousand Yemenis were killed and over 26 thousand injured, with the majority in both cases being civilians. Since March, more than 2 million Yemenis have been displaced from their homes; more than six million Yemenis have been left on the brink of famine. More than 20 million Yemenis--80% of the population--are in desperate need for water, food, fuel, medical supplies, education, and security. Every day, more and more fall victim to military operations, terrorist attacks, or crime caused by the absence of security."



Ten months since the Yemen war began and neither side has achieved a decisive military victory, only leaving the country in a downward spiral. Yemeni-British journalist, Nawal Al-maghafi sharply describes the conflict nature and says, 'the problem with the war in Yemen right now is that it has became a conflict of pride. Neither side is willing to step down because of a pride; and that's what makes it really dangerous. This why we need a third party and that's why I keep going on and on about the US, the UK and Europe, and their positive involvement in the resolution of this war. We need actors like that to really put pressure on both parties to follow through with the UN resolution 2216."

Having said that, the petition considers you as a key player that can make a difference in prevailing peace immediately in Yemen. The petition 'calls on people in Yemen, the region and the world at large to put more pressure on their representatives, officials, and governments to participate in serious actions to end the ongoing bloodshed in Yemen'.

The ongoing conflict has sparked a catastrophic humanitarian crisis and the country is at risk of slipping into famine, according to a recent UN report. The coming peace talks could be a real opportunity to have an end to this disastrous conflict. All efforts must be exerted to stop the approaching man-made famine in Yemen. You may sign the petition here.

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*This blog post was originally blogged on the Huffingtonpost.com, published on Dec. 11, 2015

With US help, Saudi Arabia is obliterating Yemen

"The bomblets fell all around Gomaa and her granddaughter. One hit the tree branches above them while several others exploded next to them. Three-year-old Hasna, named after her grandmother, was thrown off the swing as shrapnel flew into her leg. The elder Hasna was also hit, with shrapnel slicing through her right thigh and left ankle. "So many fell on us," the grandmother, who is in her 50s, later said. "If you saw it you would have wondered how we are still alive." .... ", reports Sharif Abdel Kouddous from Yemen.

Yemen war: The conflict everyone wants to forget

A graffiti work by Yemeni artists, Murad Subay, commemorating the 15 children killed in Bani Hawwat area, in Sana’a, where air strikes destroyed more than seven houses, another 27 civilians were killed as well. May 18, 2015.

*Things are bad in Yemen; even worse than bad. Nine months since the Yemen war began and the impact of the violence does not only continue to rip the country apart but it has also sent the majority of the population into destitution.

While the return of President Hadi and his prime minister to Aden gives the illusion that there will be an end to the current unresolved multi-front fighting in other parts of the country, the suffering of Yemenis continues to be incomprehensible.

The human cost of the war so far is immense, as the Saudi-led coalition air strikes and the Houthi-Saleh alliance’s aggression have in inflicted horrendous atrocities across the country. The ongoing conflict has resulted in over 32,000 casualties, with 5,700 people killed, including 830 women and children, alongside a sharp rise in human rights violations, according to the latest UN report.

Even more tragic is the civilian deaths, or what the Saudi-led coalition likes to call collateral damage, during wedding parties. More than 160 people including women and children were killed in air strikes that hit at least two separate wedding parties. Despite the fact that nowhere has been safe in Yemen, over 2.3 million have tried to escape the escalating violence and have become internally displaced since late March of this year.

In a country like Yemen that imports 90 percent of its food, fuel, medicine and other vital goods from foreign suppliers, food has been used as a war weapon. It’s not only that the coalition’s naval blockade of Yemen’s main ports has been leaving 80 percent of Yemen’s population facing a humanitarian disaster, but the Saudis have also made sure that whatever relief operation are carried in Yemen need to be barred from delivery to Houthi-controlled areas, according to a UN reporter. With such tactics, the ongoing war is devastating Yemen; 82 percent of the population, that’s 21.2 million people, are in need of some kind of humanitarian assistance.

Amidst the worsening humanitarian catastrophe earlier this month, two rare cyclones made a landfall on Yemen's southern coast killing 26 people and affecting thousands of families. In light of the severity of needs, a black market in all rare commodities is flourishing; only those who can afford the skyrocketing prices can shop there. Using donkey carts for transportation and solar energy to compensate electricity scarcity have become the new norm in Yemen, as the people are trapped in an escalating conflict and navigating alternative methods of survival.

With that said, one would expect the world and the international community to rally to help Yemenis in their ordeal, and yet Yemenis’ cries fall on deaf ears. I realised this when a Yemeni friend called me once she arrived to Jordan after she escaped the violence in Yemen. She shared her shock with me in realising that nobody cares about the situation in Yemen. “When I was in Yemen and isolated from the rest of the world because of the fighting, I thought that the world was doing something to rescue us, but when I managed to get out of the country and see outsiders’ reactions to the Yemen war, I saw how nobody cares about us,” she said.

There are two main reasons behind the general indifference towards the war in Yemen. One is how the media coverage is highly dominated by the two main warring parties’ mouthpieces - whether the Saudi-affiliated or the Iranian-affiliated media, giving a false impression that the Yemen war is primarily sectarian.

The relatively independent local press inside the country is under fire and mostly silenced. Thus, the dominant media narrative about the Yemen war has a sectarian language that does not reflect the major political dispute. This influences the international public understanding about the Yemen war and greatly dehumanises Yemenis.

The other reason is the Yemen war has become a lucrative business for great powers and ordinary countries alike. Saudi Arabia is the UK’s largest foreign customer of weapons and the US State Department recently announced its approval of a new $1.29 billion arms deal for Saudi Arabia.

Soldiers from several countries such as Colombia and Sudan have found opportunity for recruitment in Yemen war. Many seem to benefit from the war in Yemen, and it’s of their great interest that this war continues. Of course, that is at the expense of Yemeni lives.

Yemenis’ ordeal is summed up in Thucydides’ saying: “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” With global apathy toward the war in Yemen, Yemenis know that they are alone in facing a double-faced evil. One of the world’s poorest nations stands helplessly against the Saudis’ power-machine and the Saleh-Houthi alliance’s aggression.

The world’s apathy over the atrocities in Yemen makes its people feel abandoned and, more painfully, makes them realise how Yemenis’ blood counts for nothing. It’s difficult to comprehend how the world can fail to acknowledge that this situation is beyond a tragedy; it is a shame on humanity.

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*I originally wrote this piece for the Middleesteye.net, published on Nov. 25, 2015

Back & forth about Yemen & Iran

It's been three months since my last hair cut, so I go to my favorite hairdresser. I always go there since I've been living in Gothenburg. She is an Irani lady, the sweetest hairdresser one can get. She asks me random questions about my home country, Yemen while she starts playing with my hair. We chat back & forth; back about Yemen & Iran. I tell her how much I love Persian language & that I would like to speak Persian one day. She laughs. I tell her, 'I can say; Khobi & Merci' and that I love listening to the legendary Persian singer, Dariush. I tell her how much I love his name. I can tell she is glad for she has been smiling. Then she interrupts her smile & flips her face to a serious one & says these following words: isn't there a war in your country, Yemen? We carry on the talk and I explain some stuff about the war to her. Few minutes later, she finishes doing my hair. I pay & start to leave. She thanks me & follows me to the door. She surprises me & opens her arms wide and hugs me & says: I wish best of luck to Yemen, may peace prevail soon. She hugs me tight & I hug her tighter back. I say thanks & before I leave I say: you'd better make sure your country stays out of my country! Her face freezes and silence prevails for two seconds. Feels like the longest two seconds in the world. Then I give her some relief & say: I'm joking, joking. Laughter rules on; then, I walk out. I get my phone out of my jeans pocket. I plan to write down about this beautiful and funny incident but I go to Twitter & I read Russia & Turkey might start World War III. I get worried then I think, fuck it! I think, if the war will start tomorrow, at least let me tell this story & then, really, fuck it!

World Press Freedom Day: Yemenis’ Words & Lives Under Fire

Picture by Malin Crona

Reporters without boarders' office in Sweden has awarded the imprisoned Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi the World Press Freedom award yesterday in Stockholm. I took part in a panel discussion part of the award ceremony along with a number of Swedish journalists. I'm posting here a text I prepared for the session that could shed light on parts of the press freedom condition in Yemen that's affected by the war's cruelty. 

World Press Freedom Day: Yemenis’ Words & Lives Under Fire

May 3, 2015 – There is so much going on in Yemen as I speak, and talking about the right to free press might be considered totally irrelevant. Yemen is at war and Yemenis are struggling to have the right to peace and life. The war has been waged almost six weeks ago after a coalition of 10 Arab countries headed by Saudi Arabia started operating a campaign of airstrikes against military targets in Yemen and simultaneously there is a fierce internal armed fights between several domestic factions. As the war is taking place, a great deal of citizens’ rights are violated and no doubt the right to free information and freedom of expression are violated as well. Actually, it’s hard to know where to start in analyzing the current condition of press freedom in the country in the light of the ongoing war. Nonetheless, here is my attempt.



2014, in particular has been a chaotic and harsh year for free press in Yemen and it continues to be so as the ongoing multi-facets conflicts are taking place in the country. Yemeni journalists are facing mounting dangers in practicing their job and facing grave threats to their own lives in the light of the ongoing violence and the authoritarian style of leadership shown by the new ruling power now at the hands of the Houthi’ militia group, who came to power, or still fighting to have full power, since their coup against president Hadi and his government carried in september last year. Generally speaking, before the coup, press in Yemen could be described as partisan press: journalism outlets usually worked along with political party lines. Today, the press is heavily used as a tool for propaganda and instigation of animosity and hatred). Having said that, Clearly, the war’s implications would also have a grave impact on how the press’ future would look like.


In the wider view over the current condition for media in Yemen: it is important to note that Following Yemen’s Uprising in 2011, there was a relatively boom in the field of media in the country: Despite widespread illiteracy, by last year, Yemen had around 90 newspapers published weekly or more often and the state's monopoly on broadcasting had been broken; there were several privately-owned Yemeni TV channels (some of them based outside the country) plus a number of radio stations. As elsewhere, there had also been a rapid increase in citizen journalism, including often well-made videos posted on YouTube(1). And investigative journalists –represented as watchdogs of democracy– they were doing courageous reporting where they were becoming as whistleblowers of corruption cases linked to powerful governmental institutions and exposing powerful governmental and non-governmental figures.


This progress was an expansion to the merits media managed to seize after the promising media booming that was reminiscent of north-south unification developments during the 1990s: when we witnessed a convergence of government-owned and officially-approved publications being joined together. (This was also at the time when Yemen became the first country in the Arabian peninsula to hold competitive parliamentary elections under universal suffrage.)(2) Something to note also, which has been a trouble, during that post-unification era, there was a growing wave of media outlets being dependent on a certain political party or political personality or group – there has been little of truly independent media because it couldn’t finance itself; someone had to back it.


Now going back to the harsh condition of media in Yemen starting since 2014, as I mentioned earlier, and how it’ll continue to be so as it got affected by the ongoing war: in my opinion there have been two major events that took place since September of last year that are gravely affecting press in Yemen:

1) On the 21st of September, last year, the coup d'état carried out by a group of militias, called Ansar Allah, headed by Abdelmalek al Houthi represented a major setback to the overall security and political stability, and any democratic process for that matter in the country. Citizen’s rights and freedom of information in particular have been awfully violated. Many journalists have been the targets of threats, physical attacks or abduction by Houthi rebels. Rebels have also stormed many media outlets. Most importantly, following the coup, The rebels have been controlling official buildings, including the state radio and TV.

2) The second major event is the current war that erupted on the 26th of March, causing damage and destruction; and the war’s casualties include killing dozens of civilians, among them children and also media workers. The impact of the violence has left so far, more than one thousand death toll, more than five thousands injuries, more than three hundred thousand of IDPs, and more than two hundred thousand of refugees, and 7.5 million people are affected. In addition, there has been destruction of civilians’ houses, cities’ infrastructure and buildings; which includes a number of media houses. In this particular period, since the start of the war, State-owned Yemen Net, the largest internet service provider in the country, has continued to block websites over their coverage of the Saudi-led war against Houthi rebels. A number of local search news sites were blocked in late March, websites of the regional news networks Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya were also blocked for sometime. Few newspapers stopped publishing due to the lack of services like electricity and fuel. Also the access to twitter via the web was blocked (people only managed to access twitter via mobile apps) for sometime.


So this is all happening while the rebels are now in control of the capital Sana’a and its government offices, including the ministry of communications and information.

The matter is, media is only the edge of the restrictions made by Al Houthis. The real problem is that dozens of political activists, political figures, civil society activists, NGOs members, have been restricted by al Houthis’ censorship and aggression. Just last week, there has been a list of names(3) made to summon some figures who are active in the media to be held for interrogation by al Houthis’ men. Basically, Houthis want to prevent the flow of information so their ideas only can dominate.

Nonetheless, I would like to highlight an interesting aspect of the role of social media in the course of this war. I have experienced living a war during Yemen’s civil war in 1994, I was nine at that time but I remember how it was difficult to have an access to information, news and reports about what was going on. Internet did not exist at that time and we depended heavily on international radio channels as local ones were shut down for some reason or another and still those international radio channels were poorly aired – it was difficult to be informed from reliable media outlets about what was going on.


But, the role of social media in this war has been extremely impressive. The war is indeed tweeted and facebooked and youtubed and even instagrammed. There is a significant rise of citizen journalism that goes back to during the Yemen’s Uprising in 2011. I myself was among those Yemenis who turned towards the cyberspace as an alternative means to report news or express ourselves, and communicate with the international media and audiences. Citizen journalism was indeed part of the re-making of media not only in Yemen but in most of the Arab Spring’s countries. We, Yemeni citizen journalists at the beginning of 2011, were a handful of people, but today, there is no specific statistics how many social media users are in Yemen but I assure you we are countless. That might be attributed to the increase in the internet usage among Yemen’s 26 population over the past four years: in 2011 it was estimated that only 3% had access but today it is estimated that more than 15% people are using the internet.


This has both negative and positive aspects; since the internet is like a double-edged sword that has benefit and liability. Besides that Social media plays a role among citizen journalists, it is also used to a great extent, in my opinion, to spread hatred, to dehumanize people and to mislead. That makes the necessity of verification and affirming the credibility of the content being spread a very important issue. This all makes truth at stake during the current turbulent time.


Essentially, free press today in Yemen suffers from a counter-revolution era following the uprising in 2011. It’s a historical time for Yemen and definitely that includes the press. The new leadership is increasingly trying to control as much as media as they can, and even to control the digitalized media on the web which is hard to do. It is not clear how all those developments are going to shape the press future. But, no doubt, It is a difficult period for media while paradoxically at the same time there so much more opportunity the digital media can offer to produce a lot more of free information, but you can't do that in the context of being politically active inside the country. I must stress as well, there are some independent media outlets and workers, some of them do courageous work, despite being drained-out and ill-financed, they are still challenging the new emerging authoritarian rule in Yemen. I think it is extremely important to support these voices in any way possible and amplify their messages. Supporting free press starts with supporting independent media workers.


Lastly, I urge you all to join Yemeni people calling for an end of the violence that is causing a humanitarian catastrophe. Besides the increasing number of war’s casualties, airports in Yemen have been destroyed, borders with Yemen have been shut and many countries have been refusing Yemenis’ visa entry and there is a severe shortage of food and fuel as the country is in a state of being sieged – Yemen has become a large prison - it’s a living catastrophe. We request your solidarity because silence is a war crime too.

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1-http://www.al-bab.com/blog/2014/october/yemen-media.htm#sthash.Dcss25ig.TEvP5XFM.dpbs

2-http://www.al-bab.com/blog/2014/october/yemen-media.htm#sthash.Dcss25ig.TEvP5XFM.dpbs

3-https://twitter.com/hamzaalkamaly/status/593104132271185921

Swearing & War

One viber call after another with my folk in Sana'a, and the swearing increasingly gets so creative. I can't remember when was the last time I've heard/spoke this amount of swear words over one single week. Psychologically, it's very relieving to swear when you're angry. Can't confirm that, since I'm no psychologist, but I can see how we, family, friends and I, feel so good after we fire those swearing words at each other as we describe the situation in Yemen.


"Those motherfuckers airstrikes, those dickheads militias, those assholes, those fucking bastards, those fucking little piece of fucking shit..etc," are among a long list of swearing words coloring my viber-conversations with my peeps. (Let your imagination translate that into Arabic!)


I never used to swear in front of my mother, of course, out of respect. Today, she's in Sana'a updating me with her day-to-day miserable experiences with the daily air strikes, over our constant viber calls – today, I find no shame at all to describe political issues for her with my cursing.


Mom:  why Houthis talk as if they're winning?
Me:  it's the same lame fucking rhetorics used when you're about to be defeated. Remember when Saddam's officers used to swear the Americans during the Iraq War in 2003? And what happened next? The Americans invaded Iraq and fucked it up.


Later on, I get another viber call from my friend Bushra​ in Sana'a:

Bushra:  those %$#@(
Me:  indeed.
Bushra:  know what, Afrah? I hate to swear with demeaning words about women's sensitive stuff. I'm feminist afterall.
Me:  true. But look at it in this way: in our fucking conservative society, the fact that you, as a female, are swearing is by itself a political and feminist statement. It means you are saying to males: why it's acceptable that you can swear and I can't, ha? Know what I mean.



And that's how we try to stay fucking sane in this war. Basically, the situation is so unbearable that only swearing gives you some ease. That sank in on my mind after watching the Lebanese movie, 'West Beirut' a year ago. The movie depicts a period of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. The best parts in the movie are the swearing parts, which are put in a compilation video.


I've enjoyed watching the movie, but this clip is really fucking awesome.