Yemen Background by Reuters

It's rare for the corporate media to provide context for their news. It's even more rare for an entire article to be devoted to background. Reuters has don that in the case of of the conflicts in Yemen.

I don't know enough about Yemen to critique Reuters' piece, but here are a few highlights and my efforts to read between the lines

Reuters' International Crisis Group, in London, inform us that

The Houthis, like most tribesmen in Yemen's northern highlands, belong to the Zaidi sect of Shi'ite Islam, whose Hashemite line ruled for 1,000 years before the 1962 revolution.

It's worth noting that the U.S. offered of arms and equipment to Saudi Arabia, 1961, and the U.S. hosted a state dinner for King Saud in 1962. It's also worth noting the North Yemen civil war of 1962 - 1970. A military coup, seeking to over throw the royal dynasty and install a republic, was initiated by Nasser's Egypt, who had a variety of motives including including confronting imperialism in general and challenging British colonialism in the South Yemen port of Aden (the port where the USS Cole was bombed). Egypt was backed by the USSR.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia, with U.S. backing, supported the long-ruling royalists. I believe monarchy was closely aligned with the Houthis tribesmen... who are now being associated with "rebels" in the Reuters piece, as follows:

The conflict [is] with the northern rebels, who complain of social, religious and economic discrimination in the southern Arabian state [of Yemen].

And, as often is the case, the Yemen government of Ali Abdullah Saleh is using the "war on terror" to paint the rebels with a broad brush:

After the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, Saleh declared support for Washington's "war on terror," in part to enlist U.S. support against the Houthis, whom Yemeni officials accuse of having links to al Qaeda, Iran or Lebanon's Hezbollah.

My take, without deep research, is that the North Yemen "rebels" have legitimate grievances and President Saleh is probably a new, more modern "monarch"... yes, he was in the military until becoming president of North Yemen in 1978 (Saleh was suspected in the assassination of the previous president). He continued in the presidency after North and South Yemen were united in 1990... in other words, Saleh is a strong man, although like any good democracy, there are elections in Yemen.[3]

So, there you have it.

Sources:

1. Reuters, Factbox: Roots of Yemen's conflict with northern rebels, January, 2010.

2. US Presidential Papers Concerning Saudi Arabia 1941–1962.

3. Wikipedia.

And if you Think Israel is Carefully Chosing Targets...

Think again...

Reuters Cameraman Killed by Israeli Tank
April 2008

Psssst... Do Something

• Contact the Broadcast Media
  
• Contact the Newspapers
  
• Contact the US Senate
  
• Contact the House of Representatives

Sources:

Remember this News Story

According to a reporter with Reuters, The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report says Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and it remains on hold.

Tehran's decision to halt its nuclear weapons program suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005.

Will this news story be forgotten by the Corporate media if Bush presses to attack Iran sometime in the future? Not if we hold them accountable.

CLICK to Contact The Media and tell them you'll be watching them in the future if Bush tries to play the mushroom cloud card to justify attacking Iran.

Sources:

Reuters, Report contradicts Bush on Iran nuclear program, Matt Spetalnick, December 3, 2007.

The "R" Word

Recession. We'll be lucky to simply have a recession.

Those who were old enough in the late 1970s and 80s remember Japan. So smart, selling high quality small cars while the US auto makers kept selling huge gas guzzlers. Japan had so much money pouring in that it was buying up US real estate and business icons.

You haven't heard a lot about Japan since then. That's because they've been in a "Japanese-style economic stagnation, which eventually evolved into a deflationary recession." Japan has been in this condition for well over a decade.

Before it's fall from grace, Japan had a trade surplus. Japan was, and remains, a power house auto maker. The US is neither. It has outsourced blue and white collar jobs that are not coming back, has a historic level of debt held by Japan, China, Saudi Arabia and other foreign countries, and is on the brink of expanding its military adventures beyond the Iraq quagmire into Iran. In other words, a "fall from grace" of historic proportions has been teed up for the United States. It reminds one of the saying, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall."

At a Reuters Finance Summit in New York, James Dunne, chief executive of Sandler O'Neil & Partners, said:

I think that the risk of a recession is greater than people realize.

Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald company of 9/11 notoriety agreed:

I think there is a serious risk to the economy.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan thinks there is a one-in-three chance of a recession in the near future.

John Duffy, chairman and CEO of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, gave a more colorful answer when asked where the U.S. economy is headed over the next year or so:

In the toilet.

Returning to the point I've raised above, the question is not whether we're going to have a recession, but how severe. Charles Peabody, partner at New York-based research firm Portales Partners LLC raised the reference to the "Japan-style" melt down and said:

We're moving into a recession, and over time -- the length of which is difficult to predict.

Sources:

Reuters, Wall Street firms see recession nearing, John Poirier, November 6, 2007.

Media Critique: Clinton and Obama on Nuclear Weapons

The good news is that the establishment media piece addresses a policy issue. The bad news is that they belittle it as a "flap."

"Obama, Clinton in new flap, over nuclear weapons"
by Steve Holland, Reuters, August 2, 2007

Wow, Reuters is actually reporting on different policy positions of Hillary Clinton and Barrak Obama, and it's being picked up establishment media sources.

Obama ruled out the use of nuclear weapons to go after al Qaeda or Taliban targets in Afghanistan or Pakistan, prompting Clinton to say presidents never take the nuclear option off the table...

So, why does the editor have to belittle this serious policy issue by calling it a "flap"? I don't know, but thought I'd pose the question to a Reuters editor. You can to:

CLICK to Contact Reuters

On the content of this matter, Clinton has the policy wrong. She's conflating cold war policy with the hyped perpetual "war on terror," which doesn't apply. In the cold war days, nuclear weapons remained on the table with the USSR, because of the basic reality of deterrence. She's trying to be presidential, and only succeeding to be superficial.

Reuters Factbox: Security Developments in Iraq

If you want to get a glimpse of the scope of how badly Iraq is unraveling, just google "Factbox Iraq" and a Date; it's an eye-opener. Below is the Factbox tally for a typical day in Iraq:

* MAKHMOUR - Fifty people were killed and 70 wounded when a suicide truck bomb exploded near the local office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Makhmour, near Arbil, 350 km (220 miles) north of Baghdad, Governor Duraid Kashmula of Nineveh province said.

* BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed four people and wounded 10 others near al-Wathba square in central Baghdad, police said. Another police source said the cause of the blast was a roadside bomb.

* MAHMUDIYA - Gunmen killed six people and wounded eight others in Mahmudiya, about 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

* BASRA - Iraqi and British forces detained six people and discovered a weapons cache during a raid in Basra, 550 km (340 miles) south of Baghdad, the British military said. One militia member was shot during the operation.

* KIRKUK - One person was killed and another wounded in a rocket attack in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

* BAGHDAD - U.S. forces detained 35 suspected insurgents during raids targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leadership in Baghdad, Falluja and Tarmiya, the U.S. military said.

* SUWAYRA: A translator working for multinational forces was shot and killed at Suwayra near Madaen, 45 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

* WAHDA - Two people were killed and two wounded when a gunman opened fire in a market in Wahda, 25 km (15 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - The bullet-riddled bodies of 17 people were found in different districts of Baghdad on Saturday, police said.

MAHMUDIYA - Gunmen attacked a flour mill, killing five workers and wounding four in the town of Mahmudiya, about 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

NAJAF - A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded four policemen at midnight in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL - Gunmen killed a doctor near his clinic on Saturday in the northern city of Mosul, police said.

Sources:

Factbox: Security Developments in Iraq, Reuters, May 13, 2007.