DISPATCHES FROM MOON OF ALABAMA, BY "B"
This article is part of an ongoing series of dispatches from Moon of Alabama
THE REPULSIVES LINEUP, CRIMINALS ALL: (from left) Bolton, Pompeo, Trump, and Pence.
The pompous U.S. Secretary of State informed Congress that he will designate the Ansarallah movement in Yemen as Foreign Terrorist Organization. As Ansarallah, also known as the Houthi, is ruling over some 80% of Yemen's population such a designation will make aid deliveries to those people impossible:
The designation is to take effect on President Donald Trump’s last full day in office, a day before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Several aid groups pleaded on Monday for Biden to immediately reverse the designation. The Biden transition team has not yet expressed his intentions.
“Acting on day one cannot only be a figure of speech,” Oxfam America’s Humanitarian Policy Lead Scott Paul said. “Lives hang in the balance.”
Six years of war between a U.S.-backed Arab coalition and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have been catastrophic for Yemen. Most of its 30 million people rely on international aid to survive. The U.N. says 13.5 million Yemenis already face acute food insecurity, a figure that could rise to 16 million by June.
The threat of the designation has immediate consequences:
Yemen Solidarity Council @YSCouncil - 5:58 UTC · 11 Jan 2021
We are ceasing all operations in the United States for the time being, as well as putting a temporary halt to our intended plans for humanitarian fundraising.
Let it be known that the Trump Administration just criminalized foreign humanitarian aid to #Yemen.
The famine in Yemen is already acute:
[Seven-year-old] Faid weighs only 7 kg (just over 15 lb) and his tiny, fragile frame takes up barely a quarter of a folded hospital blanket. His family had to travel from Al-Jawf, 170 km (105 miles) north of Sanaa, through checkpoints and damaged roads, to get him there.Unable to afford Faid’s medication or treatment, the family relies on donations to get him treated. Mohammed says malnutrition cases are on the rise and impoverished parents are forced to rely on the kindness of strangers or international aid to get their children treated.
Missing in almost all reports about the ghastly State Department act is the fact that Congress can easily prevent that the terrorist designation becomes reality. The State Department's designation of the Houthi comes under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Paragraph 219 (8 USC 1189) a.3.B.ii of the law says:
Any designation under this subsection shall cease to have effect upon an Act of Congress disapproving such designation.
In April 2019 Congress voted to end all U.S. support for the Saudi/UAE war on Yemen:
The House voted 247 to 175 to send the resolution to the president’s desk, where it is likely to be met with a veto. Sixteen Republicans broke ranks and joined Democrats in the effort. The Senate passed the resolution last month, with seven Republicans voting in favor of it.
It is likely that a similar majority could be found now to stop the designation of Ansarallah. To immediately do this would only need some initiative from Congress leaders.
Unfortunately those leaders are currently busy with nonsensical stuff:
As the House prepares for impeachment, President Donald Trump faces a single charge — “incitement of insurrection” — over the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to a draft of the articles obtained by The Associated Press.
Lawmakers are set to introduce the legislation Monday, with voting mid-week. Pelosi’s leadership team also will seek a quick vote on a resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence and Cabinet officials to invoke the 25th Amendment.
The four-page impeachment bill draws from Trump’s own false statements about his election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden; his pressure on state officials in Georgia to “find” him more votes; and his White House rally ahead of the Capitol siege, in which he encouraged thousands of supporters to “fight like hell” before they stormed the building on Wednesday.
...
On impeachment, House Democrats would likely delay for 100 days sending articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial, to allow Biden to focus on other priorities.
The 'insurrection' (as noted in the 14th Amendment, Section 3) apparently relates to last Wednesday's short and seemingly unplanned intrusion into the Capitol building by some Trump supporters. But that was more pantomime or slapstick action than a serious operation against the state.
It followed after a Trump rally speech which, yes, spoke of a 'fight' but only in the sense that any other political rally is calling on supporters to fight for the cause. In the context of Trump's other remarks at the rally it becomes obvious that was a purely rhetorical not literal use of that word:
After this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down. We’re going to walk down any one you want, but I think right here. We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.
We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.
To construe an 'incitement of insurrection' out of request to people to make 'peacefully' and 'patriotically' their 'voices heard' is pure nonsense. There is no passage in his speech that can be construed as the opposite. There is no call to storm the building or to tackle the police.
This second attempt to impeach Trump is purely for show. It would have little real world consequences. Trump will leave his office nine days from now and Biden will move in. This impeachment is a political stunt which will only increase the rift within the U.S. electorate.
Congress should stop wasting its time with such nonsense. It should immediately take action to prevent the State Department's terrorist designation of Ansarallah from coming into force. That move would allow aid flow to continue and it would prevent a worsening of the famine
The Capitol building incursion needs further investigation. Even while there was a lot of chatter in open source media that some of the Trump supporters might get rowdy, there was astonishingly little done to prevent them from causing trouble. There are questions:
Why did the Mayor of Washington DC explicitly reject federal help before the Trump rally happened?
Mayor Muriel Bowser @MayorBowser - 18:53 UTC · Jan 5, 2021
To be clear, the District of Columbia is not requesting other federal law enforcement personnel and discourages any additional deployment without immediate notification to, and consultation with, MPD if such plans are underway.
Why was Capitol Police chief Steven Sund told to not call for timely backup by the National Guard?
In an interview with The Washington Post, Sund said he had asked House and Senate security officials ahead of time for permission to request that the D.C. National Guard be placed on standby in case he needed quick backup. But he said he was turned down.
“If we would have had the National Guard we could have held them at bay longer, until more officers from our partner agencies could arrive,” he told the Post. He said his superiors had been uncomfortable with the “optics” of formally declaring an emergency ahead of Wednesday’s demonstration.
There was also a well timed diversion of police forces with a pipe bomb placed near the Republican National Committee headquarter. This delayed the arrival of more police forces at the Capitol:
“There was definitely a higher sense of urgency” on police radio traffic as rioters breached the east side of the Capitol, said Ashan M. Benedict, the head of the Washington field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who was working with the Capitol Police at the nearby Republican Party headquarters, where a pipe bomb was found.
Mr. Benedict connected with a commander of the Capitol Police SWAT team who was inside the complex, who acknowledged that they needed immediate help but said he needed a moment to arrange the official request.
A.T.F. and F.B.I. teams were soon headed to the Capitol.
...
When Mr. Benedict and his deputy finally got into the building, it was madness, he recalled.
Who placed that diversion?
And who are the people who let all this happen?
Posted by b on January 11, 2021 at 18:51 UTC | Permalink
All captions by the editors, not the authors.
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"b" is Moon of Alabama's founding (and chief) editor. This site's purpose is to discuss politics, economics, philosophy and blogger Billmon's Whiskey Bar writings. Moon Of Alabama was opened as an independent, open forum for members of the Whiskey Bar community. Bernhard )"b") started and still runs the site. Once in a while you will also find posts and art from regular commentators. You can reach the current administrator of this site by emailing Bernhard at MoonofA@aol.com. 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Pro-Trump capitalists fire the first serious warning shot in Capitol
Posted by: killwallstreet | Jan 11 2021 19:16 utc | 1
since when has the usa, wall st, it's political class or anyone else in power in the usa been concerned for the welfare of others, in particular brown skinned people in faraway countries like yemen??? i don't recall.... you can watch how the posters here will focus on the distraction of trump and dems doing this endless fucking stupid dance, but you can bet no one will be expressing an interest in helping yemen... the usa is one sick nation and it is no where more apparent then in them wanting to designate ansarallah as a terrorist group... same shit from the same ignoramus's... thanks for drawing my attention to this latest bullshit b..
Posted by: james | Jan 11 2021 19:22 utc | 2
Totally agree. The circle-jerk politics is hilarious. Too bad it is also tragic and cruel. The Humpty Dumpty of US Society is not going back together again. Civil War 2.0 is here. Grab your musket and sword, twitter flamethrower and Facebook napalm. Civil War 2.0 will be televised, tweeted and live-streamed for all the world to see the result of bread and circuses to a propagandized population at the end of history.
Posted by: gottlieb | Jan 11 2021 19:24 utc | 3
It's another one of those wars where the US supplies weapons to both sides. They pretend that they were overrun by the rebels. This was done repeatedly in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Niger, Libya, and so on...
Posted by: Les | Jan 11 2021 19:28 utc | 4
Les @4, would not be surprised to learn that.
US attacks against the Houthis in Yemen seem to be bipartisan, and were happening under Obama in 2009/2010, going by an Eric Margolis article from January 3, 2010 that refers to "extensive covert U.S. military operations in Yemen."
"A military dictator, Ali Saleh, has held power since 1978. Saleh's U.S.-backed regime is accused of extensive human rights violations and deep corruption."
"neighbour Oman, a virtual colony of MI6, British intelligence."
"U.S. warplanes killed 50-100 Yemeni tribesmen fighting the American-backed regime."
"U.S. special forces, warplanes and killer drones have been active since 2001, assassinating Yemeni militants and anti-government tribal leaders."
So bipartisan since 2001, for at least two decades (Margolis started the article with the line "Welcome to the Afghanistan of Arabia.") if not longer if the US-backed dictator was in power since 1978 ...
Posted by: Canadian Cents | Jan 11 2021 19:47 utc | 5
"Let it be known that the Trump Administration just criminalized foreign humanitarian aid to #Yemen."
Hmm. Did it, really? If, say, an Iranian ship with humanitarian aid docks in a Yemeni port, is it going to be sunk by American submarine? Is a Japanese plane with humanitarian aid going to be shot down?
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Jan 11 2021 19:51 utc | 6
Yes, Pompeo's machinations are the dangerous moves by a genuine traitor--first his Taiwan stunt now this ploy aimed at the Houthi and supportive of the Saudis. Despite his numerous lies and felonies committed before Congress, I've seen zero calls for Pompeo's impeachment and removal where real damage is being done to the genuine interests of the US Public.
Fortunately, some have kept their eyes on the ball as with this Nomi Prins article:
"Now, for reasons you’ll soon understand, take a little trip back in history with me to the eve of Halloween, 1938, when Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre dramatized his adaptation of H.G. Wells’ 1898 sci-fi-meets-dystopia-meets-imperialism novel, The War of the Worlds, on the radio. As Martians “invaded” New Jersey (it had been London in the novel) with mayhem in mind, panic evidently ensued among some radio listeners who thought they were hearing perfectly real reports about an alien invasion of Planet Earth. Later accounts suggest that the media blew that reaction out of proportion (“fake news,” 1938-style?), yet people who tuned in late and missed the set-up about the fictitious nature of the program did indeed panic....
"Whatever the case, fear has been both a great motivator and an anxiety provoker when it comes to the media, whether in 1938 or today. At the moment, the focus is on economic and health-related fears in all-too-ample supply. It is also on the disconnect that exists between the real economic world that most of us live in and turbo-boosted stock markets. These distorted markets are the result of wealth inequality that once would have been unimaginable in this country. In a way, economically speaking, you might say that today we’re suffering the equivalent of an invasion from Mars." [My Emphasis]
I'd be far bolder if I were Prins and call them what they are: Neoliberal Parasites. The economic picture painted differs some from Dr. Hudson's but is just as dismal. And just who enabled the Parasites? Congress, with the Ds leading from the front with Trump happily signing.
The Ds had full control of Congress as Obama/Biden began their crime spree which that Congress duly abetted. We're faced with the same situation now and the same behavioral likelihood with a similar outcome. We ought to rename the D Party the Destroyer Party or something similar, for that's what they've been doing since 1993 implementing Clintonian Neoliberalism. I should note this bit from the Crooke essay I linked at the week in review thread:
"Of course centralisation of economic activity around big business represents the central plank to the Great tech Re-set. The latter is promoted as an unstoppable, supply-side ‘miracle’ which will transform productivity, and growth. Yet, this thesis seems is not supported by history."
Now just where have we heard that bolded term before?
Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 11 2021 19:54 utc | 7
I recall when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had Iraq's MEK (they were thrown out of Iran- and they still attack Iran to this day) removed from the Terrorist List because the U.S. could then give MEK assistance- money, Arms, etc. They met the criteria for a Terrorist Organization....but Israel is engaged in everything but name war against Iran...and Secretary Clinton was an "Israeli- firster." So it's "OK."
Not Right....but "Ok." The Houthi's are Yemenese- their own country. Their not wanting to be controlled by Saudi Arabia seems to be the only reason the U.S. doesn't like them.
Posted by: Michele Baillie | Jan 11 2021 19:55 utc | 8
@5, perhaps I should have written "were happening under Obama & Biden in 2009/2010" ...
Will our mainstream media here in Canada and the rest of the US vassal states even cover this latest US de facto sanction/blockade to further exacerbate a famine with millions of lives on the line?
I suspect they won't mention it all, however it's a pretty sure bet they will cover the so-called "coup" at the Citadel of Liberty and the show impeachment ...
Posted by: Canadian Cents | Jan 11 2021 20:08 utc | 9
usa position on yemen is as karlof1 notes - based on the ongoing supportive role the usa has towards ksa and uae where the money and oil is... they don't give an f these fiefdoms have no interest in the welfare of their own people... hey! at this point ksa and uae act just like the usa! fuck the people... the only difference is the usa mimics the concept of a democracy, whereas ksa and uae don't bother... and of course they are all buddy buddy with that special oasis in the middle east - bastion of democracy - israel, lol.. if you think of all the empathy israel shows palestine, you know how ksa and uae have good teachers in how to respond to their neighbours to the immediate south of them.. usa condones it all...
Posted by: james | Jan 11 2021 20:16 utc | 10
Trumpstein and Fatty Pompazz spending four years kissing Bibi's puckered-up bunghole in front of the world is beyond disgusting.
For all of the bitching Trumptards do about Obama, he's the only POTUS during my lifetime who had the stones to stand up even a little bit little to AIPAC and Israel when he told Bibi to FK off and signed the JCPOA.
Posted by: Boogity | Jan 11 2021 20:19 utc | 11
Boogity @11--
Yeah, and as soon as Obama signed and Congress ratified the goal posts began to be moved and the Outlaw US Empire reneged on its responsibilities under the treaty to appease Occupied Palestine. Face it dude, Obama was far and away a bigger criminal and traitor to the USA than Trump.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 11 2021 20:31 utc | 12