Crackdown in Yemen

We’re being set up again. This time in Yemen. And it’s the democracy movement in Yemen who will pay the price. A few weeks ago, media covered the military muscle flexing in Yemen (ostensibly celebrating the 1990 unification of North & South Yemen) interrupted in rehearsal by a soldier blowing himself up along with 90 other soldiers. Media proclaimed al-Qaeda responsibility & said al-Qaeda had taken advantage of the Yemen uprising to grab territory in the southern provinces by invading cities, “getting close to their dream of their own Caliphate” & threatening shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden & the Red Sea. Reports said the new dictator, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, had stepped up the fight against al-Qaeda, particularly with the use of US drone strikes & even more US military advisors. Obomba & his counter-terrorism tsar, John Brennan, offered condolences & even more terrorist aid. After the fishy suicide bombing, an official of Hadi’s regime proclaimed: "Yemenis must stand together in the face of this deadly terrorist threat. We will celebrate our unity tomorrow with the blood of our martyrs on our hands and faces." Oh, so now the martyrs are 90 soldiers used to enforce military rule & not the thousands of democracy activists murdered & incarcerated under the Saleh & Hadi regimes!? This all signals a military crackdown on the uprising & it’s no coincidence Hadi ordered bulldozers to clear “Change Square”, the area in Sana’a occupied for over a year by protestors demanding prosecution of the old dictator, Ali Saleh, & justice for the murdered. Nobel peace laureate, Tawakkul Karman, kept her tent in place in Change Square but has not denounced the military assault on democracy. Her political association with the US could explain her silence. Here a democracy protestor moves out before bulldozers & soldiers mow him down. (Photo by Yahya Arhab/EPA)