U.S. carrier moving off coast of Yemen to block Iranian arms shipments

[TheSanityAnnex]

:wow
WASHINGTON — The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is moving toward the waters off the coast of Yemen to prepare to intercept any potential Iranian shipments of weapons to the rebels fighting the U.S.-backed government of Yemen, a Pentagon official said Monday.

Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said the carrier and ships supporting her had been in the Persian Gulf. They moved to the waters near Yemen because of increased instability there, he said.
The Roosevelt is also tracking a convoy of Iranian ships headed to the Gulf of Aden, said a Defense official speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the Iranian vessels. The Iranians have been supporting Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The Pentagon has been tracking the progress of the Iranian ships since last week, the official said.
The Navy is prepared to intercept the ships, according to a second Defense Department official who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Moving the Roosevelt is viewed by the Pentagon as significant but not necessarily a prelude to conflict.
The Houthis are Shiite Muslims, while the Yemeni government has been dominated by Sunni Muslims.
Iran, which is also primarily Shiite, has been backing the Houthis, while Sunni nations, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are supporting the government.
The guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy is accompanying the Roosevelt, the Navy said.

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/pentagon/2015/04/20/us-warship-sent-to-block-iran-weapons-off-yemen/26082847/?hootPostID=1660099b1706bf4474bfdfc00cff4351

[boutons_deux]

Thanks, Regugs/BigOil, for destabilizing the Middle East.

[DMX7]

Thanks, Regugs/BigOil, for destabilizing the Middle East.

So bitter. You just hate freedom.

[boutons_deux]

So bitter. You just hate freedom.

yep, and Obama is Muslim terrorist, and rightwingnuts are intelligent, well-informed, critical thinkers.

[TeyshaBlue]

lol @ destabilizing a chaotic shit hole.

[boutons_deux]

lol @ destabilizing a chaotic shit hole.

TB :lol you and your people made the shithole deeper, wider, stinkier, much more toxic THANKS!

[TeyshaBlue]

lol cognative dissonance.
lol facile moonbat

[boutons_deux]

lol cognative dissonance.
lol facile moonbat

The Greatest Boutons Stalker TB :lol nothing to say

[Nbadan]

I wonder if the US will blockade Saudi weapons going into Yemen too....

[spursncowboys]

I wonder if the US will blockade Saudi weapons going into Yemen too....

Why?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/world/middleeast/sale-of-us-arms-fuels-the-wars-of-arab-states.html

Is foreign policy have to be so simple for you that an enemy should get allowed the same amount of weapons as our allies? Why? To be fair? Is that what we are a class of fourth graders?

[CosmicCowboy]

I'd love to see the Iranians try to start shit with the carrier group. That would be a monumental ass kicking.

[spursncowboys]

I wonder if the US will blockade Saudi weapons going into Yemen too....

I'm guessing you wouldn't have wanted us to give weapons to Taiwan? because we don't give weapons to Burma. No weapons to S. Korea because we don't allow co.'s to sell to N. Korea, huh?

[TeyshaBlue]

The Greatest Boutons Stalker TB :lol nothing to say

lol facile coward. Still nothing to say.

[TeyshaBlue]

I wonder if the US will blockade Saudi weapons going into Yemen too....

Pretty much have to.....

[spursncowboys]

Can't fight the ISIS group killing entire ethnic groups of christians because we didn't help Muslims killed in the Crusades!

[Nbadan]

Why?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/world/middleeast/sale-of-us-arms-fuels-the-wars-of-arab-states.html

Is foreign policy have to be so simple for you that an enemy should get allowed the same amount of weapons as our allies? Why? To be fair? Is that what we are a class of fourth graders?

..because those weapons have at times fallen into the hands of a particular group that likes to cut Christian heads off?

[Nbadan]

.....only America is allowed to ship arms to allies! Maybe it is the Iranian ships simply trying to prevent America from shipping more arms to ISIS?

[Nbadan]

Military sources said that a number of regional special forces officers and officers at U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) argued strenuously against supporting the Saudi-led intervention because the target of the intervention, the Shia Houthi movement — which has taken over much of Yemen and which Riyadh accuses of being a proxy for Tehran — has been an effective counter to Al-Qaeda.

Michael Horton, a Yemen expert close to a number of officers at SOCOM and a consultant to the U.S. and U.K. governments, picked up on this debate. Within days of the Saudi intervention’s start, he said in an email that he was “confounded” by the intervention, noting that many in SOCOM “favor the Houthis, as they have been successful in rolling back AQ and now IS from a number of Yemeni governorates” — something that hundreds of U.S. drone strikes and large numbers of advisers to Yemen’s military had failed to accomplish.

Later, in a telephone interview, Horton expanded on that. “These constant reports that the Houthis are working for the Iranians are nonsense, but the view is right out of the neocon playbook,” he said. “The Israelis have been touting this line that we lost Yemen to Iran. That’s absurd. The Houthis don’t need Iranian weapons. They have plenty of their own. And they don’t require military training. They’ve been fighting Al-Qaeda since at least 2012, and they’ve been winning. Why are we fighting a movement that’s fighting Al-Qaeda?”

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/4/17/us-generals-think-saudi-strikes-in-yemen-a-bad-idea.html

[Winehole23]

I'd love to see the Iranians try to start shit with the carrier group. That would be a monumental ass kicking.Itching for war? Unsurprising...

[Winehole23]

taking the Houthis as Iranian proxies is simplistic as hell...

[Nbadan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xigpnlRuMgE#t=24


SANAA, Yemen — Saudi-led airstrikes hit weapons caches held by Iran-backed Shiite rebels, touching off massive explosions Monday in Yemen’s capital that killed at least 19 people and buried scores of others under the rubble of flattened homes.

The Navy, meanwhile, has dispatched the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt toward the waters off Yemen to join other American ships prepared to intercept any Iranian vessels carrying weapons to the rebels, U.S. officials said.

After the coalition airstrikes, mushroom clouds rose over the mountainous outskirts of Sanaa, where the arms depots are located. The Fag Atan area has been targeted several times since March 26, the start of the air campaign against the rebels known as Houthis.

“It was like the doors of hell opened all of a sudden,” said Mohammed Sarhan, whose home is less than 1 mile from the site. “I felt the house lift up and fall.”

Read more: http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/world/yemen_196677

[CosmicCowboy]

Itching for war? Unsurprising...

Not really...just don't think it would hurt negotiations to remind the Iranians that the US is still a badass in conventional warfare. We aren't geared for this IED guerrilla shit in Afghanistan but if you fuck with a carrier group prepare to get your ass kicked.

[spursncowboys]

taking the Houthis as Iranian proxies is simplistic as hell...
Are you saying Iran is not funding, arming and training them?

[spursncowboys]

Itching for war? Unsurprising...
Do you disagree with his assessment of Iran trying to attack an US Carrier?

[boutons_deux]

Iran won the Repug/BigOil War-for-Iraqi-Oil

Thanks, Repugs, for the HUGE PILE OF SHIT YOU MADE OF THE MIDDLE EAST.

[spursncowboys]

.....only America is allowed to ship arms to allies! Maybe it is the Iranian ships simply trying to prevent America from shipping more arms to ISIS?
Do you realize the strategic value of Yemen?
You keep trying to switch it around in everyone of your posts. That America has the same ill views as a mullah-led fascist country. Who's responsible for a large percentage of American deaths in Iraq. Who's never shown one foreign policy action that involved peace, or defense. Who's open about genocide of an entire group of people.
Further 90% of intelligence has said the opposite of your views, but you pick the minority. For the only reason-that they agree with you.
America fights dictators. Iran tries to instill dictators. Don't see anything similar with the two countries.

[spursncowboys]

If we don't sell to Saudia Arabia, China will. Because liberals allowed Iran to become what it is, there is a weapons race which will have nukes involved the minute countries think Iran will have one. This is a perfect example of one war with Iran now would stop 20 in the future.

[boutons_deux]

"Because liberals allowed Iran to become what it is"

:lol Holy shit, you're full of shit.

It was Repug Eisenhower's CIA that overthrew Mossadegh, installed the corrupt dictator Shah to keep the US/UK oil flowing for 25 years until the Iranian revolution.

Iran was supposed to be the watchdog, proxy for USA's hegemony over the Middle East oil, much like Repugs cultivated, armed Saddam in the 90s.

[MultiTroll]

lol cognative dissonance.
lol facile moonbat
confimation bias lol

[TeyshaBlue]

Non Sequitur lol

[hater]

I wonder if the US will blockade Saudi weapons going into Yemen too....

boom

[hater]

Are you saying Iran is not funding, arming and training them?

equivalent to saying Saudi is funding, arming and training ISIL tbh

[Wild Cobra]

Thanks, Regugs/BigOil, for destabilizing the Middle East.

When was the Middle East Stable?

[Wild Cobra]

"Because liberals allowed Iran to become what it is"

:lol Holy shit, you're full of shit.

It was Repug Eisenhower's CIA that overthrew Mossadegh, installed the corrupt dictator Shah to keep the US/UK oil flowing for 25 years until the Iranian revolution.

Iran was supposed to be the watchdog, proxy for USA's hegemony over the Middle East oil, much like Repugs cultivated, armed Saddam in the 90s.






So, Operation Ajax, was a propaganda campaign. much like out\r politicians use against each other today. Right?

[boutons_deux]

So, Operation Ajax, was a propaganda campaign

:lol what?

[Infinite_limit]

Is this not an Act of War?

[boutons_deux]

tell Mossadegh his overthrow, coup by the CIA's Ajax was just "propaganda" :lol

[spursncowboys]

equivalent to saying Saudi is funding, arming and training ISIL tbh
Ok Alex Jones. tbh No one calls them ISIL but BHO. But I guess if you think arming means dropping bombs on them, then yeah they are arming them.

[hater]

Ok Alex Jones. tbh No one calls them ISIL but BHO. But I guess if you think arming means dropping bombs on them, then yeah they are arming them.

Prince Bandar Bush. He's the grandfather of ISIL

Look it u up

[spursncowboys]

Prince Bandar Bush. He's the grandfather of ISIL

Look it u up

Exactly

[spursncowboys]

Oh my goodness

[Nbadan]

Saudi-led coalition declares end to Yemen campaign
Source: AFP


Riyadh (AFP) - A Saudi-led coalition declared an end Tuesday to its military campaign four weeks after launching air strikes against rebels in Yemen, saying their threat to Saudi Arabia and its neighbours had been removed.

The coalition has "ended Operation Decisive Storm based on a request by the Yemeni government and President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi," its spokesman, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri, told a press briefing in the Saudi capital.

However, he said the coalition would continue to impose a naval blockade on Yemen and target any movements by the Huthi Shiite rebel forces.

A coalition statement said that the next phase of operations was aimed at resuming the political process in Yemen, delivering aid, and "fighting terrorism" in the country, home to a deadly Al-Qaeda franchise.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/saudi-led-coalition-declares-end-yemen-campaign-183439291.html;_ylt=AwrC1C3pmDZV0VwAPm7QtDMD;_ylu= X3oDMTByOHZyb21tBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYw Nzcg--

Considering their stated objectives it would appear that the Saudi coalition was a failure or close to it. Remember the talk of an imminent ground invasion? The Houthis still control the capital and the ex President remains in exile. This was no victory for them as much as their military boasts of victory. Feels more like they embarrassed themselves w/the military campaign.

Their only smart move is to try to back out before they wind up in a quagmire.

[m>s]

Hahahaha run pussies run

[Winehole23]

Is this not an Act of War?only if there is an aggrieved state capable of waging war. it more looks like there's a struggle over the warm spot on the throne.

[CosmicCowboy]

[B]Saudi-led coalition declares end to Yemen campaign
Source: AFP



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/saudi-led-coalition-declares-end-yemen-campaign-183439291.html;_ylt=AwrC1C3pmDZV0VwAPm7QtDMD;_ylu= X3oDMTByOHZyb21tBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYw Nzcg--

Considering their stated objectives it would appear that the Saudi coalition was a failure or close to it. Remember the talk of an imminent ground invasion? The Houthis still control the capital and the ex President remains in exile. This was no victory for them as much as their military boasts of victory. Feels more like they embarrassed themselves w/the military campaign.

Their only smart move is to try to back out before they wind up in a quagmire.

I suspect it was US pressure that stopped it. Gotta protect that precious nuke 'agreement" with Iran at all costs.

[m>s]

Saudis pussed out! Just like USA is gonna do when confronted by big daddy Putin!!!

[m>s]

I suspect it was US pressure that stopped it. Gotta protect that precious nuke 'agreement" with Iran at all costs.

they pussed out because the USA said they wouldn't step in and they know one on one vs Iran they are fucked. Iran was recently making fun of their military. And they USA won't intervene because a war with Iran would be the straw that broke the camels back

[cheguevara]

dumb ^

Saudi stopped the bombing because they were killing tons of civilians and would probably get accused or war crimes.

[m>s]

USA can't invade Iran because if s300, electronic warfare capabilities, mountainous terrain, and regional allies.


And they know it.

[m>s]

dumb ^

Saudi stopped the bombing because they were killing tons of civilians and would probably get accused or war crimes.


Lmao right because otherwise Saudis shitty forces would storm Yemen lmao

itsbobvious that they are saving face and avoiding getting drawn into a quagmire

[Winehole23]

“The United States, which has provided extensive support to the Saudi-led coalition, has been surprisingly discreet on whether a U.N. mission should be dispatched to investigate crimes in Yemen,” said Philippe Bolopion, the U.N. and crisis advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. “This stands in sharp contrast to U.S. support for international inquiries and missions in Syria, North Korea, Libya, Sri Lanka, and Eritrea.”


I appreciate the point Mr. Bolopion is making here, but I doubt that he is actually surprised by U.S. reluctance to investigate the crimes of its own clients. It is typical for the patron of abusive client regimes to want to avoid scrutiny of their conduct because the patron already suspects what an investigation will turn up, and the patron wants to avoid the embarrassment of having its clients’ wrongdoing publicized. Elsewhere in the report, the reason for the shameful U.S. position is clarified:



One senior U.N.-based official said the American delegation is “deeply skeptical about what the Saudis are doing in Yemen.” But “they will not piss them off” because of concerns that it will drive the longtime allies even further apart.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-saudi-led-coalitions-crimes-in-yemen/

[Winehole23]

The U.S. position is essentially that we know the Saudi-led war is folly, but we’re not going to risk the good opinion of our despotic friends by saying so.

[hater]

They own half our banks of course we can't piss them off

[Winehole23]

More than 5,700 people, including at least 2,577 civilians — 637 of them children — have been killed in the eight months Saudi Arabia has been bombing Yemen,according to the United Nations (http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=52588#.Vky993arTIU). The UN expects the actual toll to be even higher because many of the dead or injured never reach medical facilities and so go unrecorded.http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-11-30/us-help-saudi-arabia-obliterating-yemen

[Winehole23]

Things are getting even worse (http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/medical-aid-group-withdraws-north-yemen-attacks-41487652) for the civilian population of Yemen as Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announces that it is pulling its staff and medical personnel out of northern Yemen following the latest bombing of one of their hospitals there earlier this week:



Doctors Without Borders announced on Thursday that it’s withdrawing from northern Yemen due to what the international aid group called “indiscriminate bombings and unreliable reassurances” from the Saudi-led coalition that’s fighting Shiite rebels in the country.


The group, known by its French acronym MSF, said an attack on a hospital it supported in the area on Monday had killed 19 people and wounded 24 — a higher death toll after some of the wounded had died. Earlier, 11 were reported killed.


“The airstrike on Abs Hospital was the fourth and the deadliest attack on an MSF-supported medical facility during this war, while there have been numerous attacks on other health facilities all over Yemen,” the Geneva-based group said in a statement.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/in-response-to-indiscriminate-saudi-bombing-msf-evacuates-northern-yemen/

[Winehole23]

The fact that the Obama administration has allowed the Saudis to continue committing war crimes should be a full-fledged scandal. Officials should be resigning over this and shouting from the rooftops. Instead, for months, we’ve heard almost nothing from the administration beyond a couple boilerplate, lukewarm expressions of “concern” as the death toll has mounted over a year and a half. Finally, after prodding from reporters last week, the US state department condemned the bombing of a Doctors Without Borders (AKA Médecins sans Frontières) hospital that killed at least 15 people. But then, the state department spokesman refused to say whether the US would stop supplying the Saudis with the weapons they are using.

[Winehole23]

The humanitarian catastrophe (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-23/yemens-children-die-from-bullets-bombs-and-hunger/7777316) in Yemen continues to worsen:

According to the UN, a shocking one in three children under five in Yemen is now severely malnourished .


And if getting food to those in need is not already hard enough, [B]last week the Saudi coalition bombed the last bridge linking the port to the capital [bold mine-DL].


“Seven hundred thousand children need specialised support in terms of nutritional support. Of that 700,000 people, we’ve only got enough support for 70,000, so that’s 10 per cent,” the UN’s Jamie McGoldrick says with frustration.

“So, who knows what’s happened to the other 600,000 plus?”


It can be difficult to fathom the scale of the humanitarian disaster in Yemen. The country’s infrastructure has been devastated, its health system is in ruins, more than three million people (http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=54725) have been displaced internally, and half the country’s population is on the verge of famine or close to being so. 14 million people are considered “food insecure.” In terms of the sheer number of people at risk from starvation and preventable diseases, Yemen is now pretty clearly the worst humanitarian crisis on earth (http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/yemen-the-worst-humanitarian-crisis-in-the-world/), and it has reached this point in just the last seventeen months since the Saudi-led intervention began. The blockade imposed by the Saudi-led coalition is most responsible for making the crisis as bad as it is.


The victims of the coalition’s blockade often go unnoticed by the outside world, and there is scant awareness of the responsibility that the coalition and its Western backers have for creating this calamity.

[TDMVPDPOY]

i dont think US new strategy in wars is to win them anymore, war is money to them now...they dont need to get their hands dirty, just continue to sell arms on credit, as long that country continues to purchase or make those monthly interest payments, US laughing all the way to the bank..win/lose usa gains in any outcome

[Winehole23]

“It is not that common for the ICRC to donate morgues,” said Kamal. “The fact that we now do is telling of the size of the human tragedy in Yemen.”https://theintercept.com/2016/08/25/the-death-toll-in-yemen-is-so-high-the-red-cross-has-started-donating-morgues-to-hospitals/

[Winehole23]

UNICEF (http://www.unicef.org/mena/UNICEF_Yemen_Humanitarian_SitRep_May_2016%281%29.p df) reported in May that more than 21 million people – nearly 90 percent of Yemen’s population –are in need of humanitarian assistance. Fourteen million people lack sufficient food, with more than 320,000 children under 5 years old at risk of severe malnutrition.

[hater]

Xenocide at the hands of Saud and with Us help (Obama and Kerry with blood.on their hands)

Despicable

[Winehole23]

we give the Saudis war materiel and intelligence, then denounce them for using it as intended:


Saudi-led warplanes struck a funeral at a community hall in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, the country's Houthi-run administration said on Saturday, but the coalition denied any role in the attack. More than 140 mourners were killed, according to local health officials cited by the United Nations, in an attack that prompted a strong rebuke from Washington, a key Saudi ally.


Jamie McGoldrick, a UN official in charge of humanitarian efforts in the country, said more than 525 were injured.


The death toll was 82, according to Ghazi Ismail, the administration's acting health minister. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers was not immediately clear.



Ismail said the air strike occurred in the southern part of the city, where a wake was taking place for the father of the administration's interior minister, Jalal al-Roweishan, who had died of natural causes on Friday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-airstrike-idUSKCN1280OR

[Winehole23]

graphic pictures of the results, not for the faint of heart:

https://twitter.com/ranaharbi/status/784789367126650880

[hater]

Xenocide at the hands of Saud and with Us help (Obama and Kerry with blood.on their hands)

Despicable