Yemen and other Atrocities

THE ABSURD TIMES

Yemen. Trump vetoed the bill, Biden just passed it.

Holocaust Anyone?

By

Czar Donic

Before we start with our very important stuff, we have to announce that the Absurd Times will attempt to reclaim it's video platform soon. One day I got a very strange note from, or purporting to be from, You Tube informing me of some changes I did not understand but interpreting as meaning that Donald Trump was in the process of taking over our channel. In addition, try as I did, I have not been able to figure out again the process on Facebook. Even Blogspot has become more puzzling. All of this had been change in the process of "improvement", and that word is now as ominous as "reform". Yahoo Mail has innovated a new form of improvement. Unless you give them the money they want, they will only let you read half of any letter sent to you at a time. Well, of course have have not received any money from Donald Trump, nor do I forsee that happening.

So, we have done several things in order to make things better. First, we have refurbished our equipment so that our site will be more accessible (we bought a new mike). In addition, we have adjusted things so that human interference will be less likely (people are becoming hard of hearing) to interfere. We will let you know when the telecasts begin.

Meanwhile, you are watching the Road Runner or the trial on TV, so I'll cover the rest. Dubai sent a shit, er ship, into otbit around Mars.

Once this impeachment trial is over and done with, if it ever is, we will try to explain it to a rational audience and in such a manner as those of you overseas can understand it. Right now, there is simply too much nonsense going on with it.

MAIN STORY

We had decide to skip the impeachment (he will not be convicted, no matter what) and move on a bit to other matters.
Below is one of those. However, people in other countries are fascinated (that's a polite term for it) by this impeachment of Trump – who has been impeached twice as many times as he has been elected. When this thing is over, we will explain what had been going on as it seems perfectly insane overseas.

The main point is that Biden has decided to cut of the arms to Saudi Arabia that are used to exacerbate the hunger, killing, death, and maiming in Yemen:

In a landmark decision, judges at the International Criminal Court say the body has jurisdiction over war crimes committed in the Palestinian territories, opening the door to possible criminal charges against Israel and militant groups like Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the international tribunal's decision "pure anti-Semitism" and rejected its claim of jurisdiction, as did the United States, while Palestinian officials and human rights groups welcome the news. Human rights lawyer Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, says the decision restores "the independence and the credibility of the ICC." We also speak with Katherine Gallagher, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights and a legal representative for Palestinian victims in front of the ICC. She says the court's ruling is "a landmark decision" that provides "some measure of accountability" when war crimes are committed in Palestinian territories. "There are just an array of violations that have been going on for years," Gallagher says.

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Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I'm Amy Goodman.

The International Criminal Court has ruled it has the authority to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes in the Palestinian territories. Israel and the United States criticized the decision. Israel is not a member of the ICC, but the Palestinians joined the court in 2015. Israel has argued the court has no jurisdiction over the Occupied Territories because Palestine is not an independent state. But the ICC judges rejected that argument. The ruling comes two years after the ICC's chief prosecutor found that, quote, "war crimes have been or are being committed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip," unquote. On Saturday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki welcomed the ICC's decision.

RIYAD AL-MALIKI: Israel has been always been treated above the law. There is no accountability when it comes to Israel. Now no one, including the United States of America, could really provide protection to Israel. You know that always when we go to the Security Council, the United States of America is the one who really shields Israel from any criticism and prevents us from getting whatever sanctions needed against Israel. Today, United States of America cannot do anything to protect Israel. And as a result, Israel has to be treated as a war criminal.

AMY GOODMAN: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the International Criminal Court, accusing it of engaging in, quote, "pure anti-Semitism." Meanwhile, the Biden administration said it had, quote, "serious concerns" with the ICC's ruling. The court's decision could also result in war crimes probes targeting Hamas and other Palestinian factions.

Part of the ICC's probe is expected to look at Israel's 2014 assault on Gaza, in which 2,100 Palestinians died. Gaza resident Tawfiq Abu Jama lost 24 members of extended family in the assault. He spoke Saturday.

TAWFIQ ABU JAMA: [translated] When I heard about the decision, I was very happy about it. But I doubt that the world countries and the world courts will be able to take the occupation to trial. We hope the decision is true and it will actually take them to trial and bring justice for the children that were killed in the wars.

AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Gaza City, where we're joined by Raji Sourani, the award-winning human rights lawyer and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, past winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award and the Right Livelihood Award.

Welcome to Democracy Now! It's great to have you with us. Raji, can you start off by responding to the International Criminal Court's decision?

RAJI SOURANI: It's a great decision, Amy. It's a decision who made history, for not the Palestinians only, not the Palestinian victims only, but for victims across the globe. I think, with this decision, we can assure that the independence and the credibility of the ICC restored, and the blanket of fear, which was spread all over the court due to Trump executive order, has been erased. So, now ICC can function independently and according to the legal obligation it has.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what will this mean for Israel, for IDF and for the Palestinians?

RAJI SOURANI: That Israel, for the first time ever in history, will be in the most important court on Earth, being charged of war crimes, crimes against humanity and persecution for Palestinian civilians. And it will be held accountable, hopefully, at least in five cases: one, the blockade on the Gaza Strip; and the second on the settlement policies; and, three, on the offensive on the Gaza Strip 2014; the pillage; and the Great March of Return. Israel will face charges, and it should be held accountable on it.

AMY GOODMAN: On Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, denounced the International Criminal Court's decision.

PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: When the ICC investigates Israel for fake war crimes, this is pure anti-Semitism. The court established to prevent atrocities, like the Nazi Holocaust against the Jewish people, is now targeting the one state of the Jewish people.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that's the Israeli prime minister on Saturday. Today, he walked out of his own corruption trial. Raji Sourani, your response?

RAJI SOURANI: A, I think this court, it's not political. And this is our main, I mean, theme on this, all what we wanted as the Palestinian — as representative of Palestinian victims: the rule of law. We don't want a political court. And that's, I mean, what ICC showed. The ICC was threatened by Trump, by Pompeo and by the Israeli prime minister himself. And that was the political dimension.

The second point, why Israel afraid of court of law? This is the most important court on Earth. It's the crème de la crème of the human experience. And all what it wants to do, to bring accountability to those who are suspected of committing war crimes. Israel do have the crème de la crème of lawyers, judges, scholars, jurists. Why they don't go there and defend themselves? This is not a Palestinian court. This is an international court with international judges, and, most important, that it's independent and it's professional.

We, the Palestinians, we are in need, in bad need, to bring justice and dignity for the people. And we need the ICC for that. And at the same time, ICC needs the Palestinians, because it should restore its credibility and independence. That's all what we want: rule of law.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to get your response, Raji, to State Department spokesperson Ned Price. So, this is the Biden administration, not the Trump administration, issuing a statement Friday expressing, quote, "serious concerns" about the ICC's ruling. He said, "As we made clear when the Palestinians purported to join the Rome Statute in 2015, we do not believe the Palestinians qualify as a sovereign state, and therefore are not qualified to obtain membership as a state, or participate as a state in international organizations, entities, or conferences, including the ICC." So this is the Biden administration.

RAJI SOURANI: It seems the American administration mix up between two things: between the court and the American administration. The American administration, it's not the court. The court is the ICC, and the judges are ICC judges. So, U.S. do have had clear-cut position. Since day one of the ICC, they refuse to sign and ratify Rome Statutes. They refuse to be part of the ICC. So they didn't join it. Israel didn't join, as well, the ICC from day one. U.S. and Israel among the states who didn't join that. That's why it's very hard to accept, Amy, the American administration argument.

Trump administration made an executive order, hold accountable not only the prosecutor and its aides, not the judges, those who are functioning at the ICC, but also the American lawyers who can help in bringing any accountable, by imprisoning them, by fining them. Now, what I want to say in this regard, that Biden administration, if they don't cancel the executive order of Trump, they will commit a great and a grave mistake. Second, we understand why this American position like this, because U.S. committed crimes in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Syria and different parts of the world, and they can be held accountable for the same reasons Israel will be held accountable for.

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Raji Sourani, the famed international human rights lawyer, in Gaza City. We're also joined by Katherine Gallagher, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, legal representative for Palestinian victims in front of the International Criminal Court. Katherine, if you could respond to the ICC's decision and the Biden administration's response that it has grave concerns, and who it is you represent before the ICC?

KATHERINE GALLAGHER: Sure. And good morning, Amy. And it really is a privilege to be on this morning with Raji Sourani. This is a landmark decision. And I think no one should be mistaken in recognizing that the ICC has moved to open this investigation, moved to end impunity for crimes committed on the territory of Palestine, because of the hard work, the decades-long hard work, and professionalization of people like Raji Sourani, of Palestinian human rights organizations like his, PCHR, Al-Haq, Al-Dameer, Al Mezan, Defense for Children International Palestine. All of these groups have worked for decades documenting abuses and ensuring that the international community knows about them, hears about them, and ultimately gives some measure of accountability.

In terms of what this decision practically means, it means that the prosecutor can proceed to open investigations on the complete territory of Palestine, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. I have the privilege to represent Palestinians from Gaza, from the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and from the diaspora, in putting forward a submission urging the court to recognize its jurisdiction over Palestine. And I've urged that the prosecutor open an investigation into the crime against humanity of persecution. This is one of many crimes that Israeli officials — and I think it's important to emphasize that the ICC looks at individual criminal responsibility, not state responsibility. The Palestinians I represent have been denied their rights to life, to be free from torture, to family unity, to access healthcare, to freedom of movement, to rights to livelihood. There are just an array of violations that have been going on for years. And now the ICC, the International Criminal Court, is on the threshold of opening an investigation into crimes that go back to 2014.

I was disappointed, definitely, on Friday evening, when the U.S. State Department spokesperson under the Biden-Harris administration came out against this historic ruling. It's notable that just the day before, the State Department put out another press release regarding the ICC in the case of the announcement of the Ongwen verdict. This is a case that the United States had given some technical support to during the Obama-Biden administration. So, what we're seeing here, as Raji said, it's not the ICC that is playing politics; it is those outside the ICC. They've put tremendous political pressure on the court, on other member states of the court, and we've seen already today and over the weekend Israel saying that it's going to turn to allies in the European Union and others to give some kind of political protection, which is deeply disappointing.

This is an independent court, and it should be able to operate independently. But the fact that the Biden administration, the Biden-Harris administration, is continuing the Trump line so far of objecting to investigations by the ICC and, most critically, keeping the ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on a sanctions list and keeping in place, as Raji mentioned, an executive order that not only could lead to further sanctions of those who support investigations of Israeli officials, or Americans or others for crimes committed in Afghanistan, but it can also provide civil and criminal penalties against anyone who supports those investigations by the prosecutor. So, that could include U.S. citizens and certainly Palestinian citizens. So this work is not without risk, but it is critically important that it proceed. And we really do call upon the Biden administration to lift the executive order. I would like it if it supported the investigation. It doesn't need to do that. At minimum, it needs to stop obstructing justice.

AMY GOODMAN: And on this issue, finally, Raji Sourani, what you want to see investigated by the International Criminal Court? And if the chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is replaced, can another chief prosecutor overturn this?

RAJI SOURANI: Well, I hope that Bensouda take decision soon, this week or the week after, and decide about opening the investigation and to appoint her team to proceed with that. This is something. I mean, we, as representative of victims, who see all these war crimes and atrocities have been committed against our people, we look to their eyes. We know them by names. And we know the members of the family. We know the suffering, I mean, they passed through. And me personally, I invested 43 years of my life to wait for this day, to see the ICC decide on opening their investigation against the Israeli suspected war criminals. So, we hope and we are full of optimism that this will proceed smoothly in the court. And we invest our best professionally to bring justice, dignity to the Palestinian victims.

I hope that a new prosecutor will be elected soon. There was quite a lot of hassle around this aspect. It was supposed to be elected last December. It didn't work, and it was delayed. And they opened the candidacy again. I hope soon they will be able to select and elect a new prosecutor to replace Bensouda when she leaves the office at the due time. I am full of hope that the prosecutor, the coming prosecutor, will act as Bensouda, which was great example for us, for somebody who represent the legal cultures of the world, to act, with their responsibility, with their independence, with their professionalism, to bring justice for victims across the globe.

The World Health Organization estimates there have been 51,312 confirmed cases and 522 deaths from COVID-19 in Gaza since reporting began in July 2020, and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees warns the Gaza Strip's health system could collapse if the number of cases continues to rise. We get an update from Raji Sourani, human rights lawyer and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, on how Gaza has been impacted by COVID-19 as an ongoing blockade has destroyed its health infrastructure. "Our equipment is unable to deal with the emerging situation," Sourani says.

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Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Raji, we have to leave in a minute, but I wanted to ask you about the situation of COVID in Gaza right now. According to the World Health Organization, there have been over 51,000 confirmed cases, 522 deaths from COVID since reporting began in July 2020. That's in Gaza alone. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees has warned Gaza Strip's health system could collapse if the number of cases continue to rise. We just covered what was happening in the West Bank, with Mustafa Barghouti, who had COVID, not being able to get vaccines. What's the situation in Gaza?

RAJI SOURANI: We are like any other part of the world, having this pandemic. And it was easy, I mean, to come to Gaza. We have it. There is quite a lot of people who are victim of this pandemic.

But what Gaza unique at, that Gaza an occupied place, Gaza subject to criminal, illegal, inhumane blockade, no movement for goods or individuals. Accordingly, we are having completely destroyed health infrastructure, our hospitals in very bad conditions, our equipments unable to deal with the emerging situation. The Israelis are not allowing, 'til this moment, the proper equipments and medicine to come to Gaza. This is what makes Gaza unique.

That's why the occupation should be held responsible — and they are responsible — on the pandemic, especially, Amy, in the Gaza Strip as an occupying force. They should allow, without any condition, the equipments and the medicine to come through. And they are responsible, as well, about the vaccine distribution to the occupied people of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. They are responsible, as well, on the welfare and the pandemic situation in the prisons. Palestinian prisoners are in very critical conditions. The Israeli prisoners took the vaccines, the Palestinians not. The Israeli people took the vaccine, and Palestinian not. Israel will be the first country in the world vaccine-free — sorry, pandemic-free. So, if Netanyahu talk about the anti-Semitic act, this is 100% racist behavior, unprecedented behavior. Israel occupying Occupied Palestinian Territories, and they are totally responsible, according to international law, precisely the Geneva Conventions, on the well-being of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

AMY GOODMAN: Raji Sourani —

RAJI SOURANI: And that's what — yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you so much for being with us. And all health to you, human rights lawyer, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, and also to Katherine Gallagher, Center for Constitutional Rights and legal representative for Palestinian victims in front of the International Criminal Court.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

YEMEN, iSRAEL, TRUMP

THE ABSURD TIMES

Not much time or energy for this, but it should get out.  1) Isreal voted to make Hebrew the only offical language ande designate certain areas, previously Palestinian, Jewish.  Officially a Jewish State.  2) Interview on Yemen and what we are doing there.  Flag done by a previous illustrator I once tought that illustration was too much and the other just Yemen as it looks now, courtesy of our bombs.

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The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen is incredibly difficult to cover on the ground, with many obstacles for journalists hoping to access the capital Sana'a and other areas affected by the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition bombings. We speak with a reporter who smuggled herself into northern Yemen to report on the widespread famine and devastation there in an exclusive three-part series for "PBSNewsHour." Special correspondent Jane Ferguson is a Beirut-based special correspondent. Her pieces are titled "Yemen's spiraling hunger crisis is a man-made disaster," "American-made bombs in Yemen are killing civilians, destroying infrastructure and fueling anger at the U.S." and "Houthis deny U.S., Saudi claim that they are Iran's puppets."

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We spend the rest of the hour in Yemen, where Houthi rebels say they're prepared to hand over the crucial port of Hodeidah to the United Nations, if U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition halt military operations there. Last month, tens of thousands of civilians fled the city when coalition forces launched an all-out offensive there. The U.N. warned the offensive would severely exacerbate the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen, which is already experiencing the world's worst cholera epidemic, with more than a million people afflicted, and with millions more on the brink of famine. This is U.N. humanitarian coordinator Lise Grande.

LISE GRANDE: Most of the eight-and-a-half million people that we describe as being pre-famine, the reality of their life is that when they wake up in the morning, they have no idea if they will eat that day. No idea. Eight-and-a-half million people are in that category. The U.N. estimates that by the end of the year, if there is not an end to this war, another 10 million Yemenis will be in that same situation. That's 18 million innocent civilians who are the victims of this war. And that's why all humanitarians are saying, "Enough is enough. There has to be a political solution, and the parties to the conflict have to sit at that table and agree on how to stop this."

NERMEEN SHAIKH: That's a clip from PBS NewsHour's exclusive three-part series by correspondent Jane Ferguson, who recently smuggled herself into northern Yemen to report on the widespread famine and devastation there.

JANE FERGUSON: The only way into rebel-held Yemen is to smuggle yourself in. And for me, that means to be dressed entirely as a Yemeni woman, with a full face veil, just to get through the checkpoints. I traveled across the embattled front lines to see what's actually happening inside what the United Nations is calling the world's worst humanitarian disaster.

AMY GOODMAN: We'll speak with PBS correspondent Jane Ferguson, now in Beirut, about what she saw in Yemen. But first we're going to her report. It was part two of her three-part exclusive PBS series. This pieceis called "American-made bombs in Yemen are killing civilians, destroying infrastructure and fueling anger at the U.S."

JANE FERGUSON: Inside rebel territory in Yemen, the war rains down from the sky. On the ground, front lines have not moved much in the past three years of conflict. Instead, an aerial bombing campaign by the Saudi-led and American-backed coalition hammers much of the country's north, leaving scenes like this dotted across the capital city, Sana'a, and beyond. A few weeks before I arrived, this gas station was hit. Security guard Abdul Al Badwi was in a building next door when it happened. He says six civilians were killed.

Why did they target here?

Can't explain why they would have targeted something like this.

Elsewhere in the city, a government office building was recently hit. Another pile of rubble, another monument to the civilian deaths of this war.

When this building was hit, it was mostly clerical workers in offices who were injured. And you can still see their blood smeared all over the walls as they were evacuated after the airstrike.

In 2014, Yemeni rebels called Houthis seized the capital and much of the rest of the country. The Houthis are supported by Sunni Saudi Arabia's archrival, Shiite Iran. So, the next year, the Saudis mobilized a coalition of Arab militaries to defeat the group. The aerial bombing campaign has not managed to dislodge the rebels, but has hit weddings, hospitals and homes.

The U.S. military supports the Saudi coalition with logistics and intelligence. The United States also sells the Saudis and their coalition partners many of the bombs they drop on Yemen. In the mountains outside the capital, we gained exclusive access to the site where the Houthis store unexploded American-made bombs, like this 2,000-pound Mark 84 bomb made in Garland, Texas. It landed in the middle of the street in the capital, we are told. One of the men here told me where each was found around Sana'a.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: [translated] One month ago, it landed near the Shaharah Bridge, next to the central bank of Yemen. It didn't explode.

JANE FERGUSON: He also showed me the fin of a Mark 82 bomb used to guide it to its target.

Back in the city, the Houthis also let us see a storage site with the remains of American-made cluster bombs. Cluster bombs are among the most deadly to civilians, filled with baseball-sized smaller bombs that scatter over a larger area. Any that don't explode stay where they fell, primed, and often wounding civilians like land mines. The Houthis have also targeted civilians, throwing anyone suspected of opposing them in jail.

I traveled deep into Yemen's countryside to find out more about how the bombing campaign is affecting peoples' lives there. This is what I found: a Doctors Without Borders cholera treatment center completely destroyed by an airstrike the day before. It was just about to open its doors to patients. The war has made it harder for people to access clean running water, leading to the worst cholera outbreak in modern history. Now, every time the rains come, people fall ill.

Cholera is a seasonal disease here in Yemen, and that's why the aid organizations are getting ready for the worst of the cholera season coming up. This facility was brand-new.

No one was killed here, but the loss of the precious medical facility, filled with life-saving equipment, is devastating.

LISE GRANDE: It's quite clearly a contravention of humanitarian law. There is no question about that.

JANE FERGUSON: The United Nations warns the Saudi-led coalition on the location of thousands of humanitarian facilities across the country, requesting they don't bomb them.

Lise Grande is the U.N. Development Program coordinator in Yemen.

LISE GRANDE: If you look at the total number of requests that we have in and the total number of violations, there have been few violations compared to the requests. But when those violations occur, they are serious indeed.

JANE FERGUSON: In a refugee camp closer to fighting along the Saudi border, people told me they were attacked by warplanes in the last camp they lived in. In 2015, Mazraq refugee camp was bombed by coalition jets. Radiyah Hussein lost a grandson in the attack and walked for days to get here.

RADIYAH HUSSEIN: [translated] They attacked the camp with three missiles in one day, and then we ran away.

JANE FERGUSON: On the road to the refugee camp, several bridges had been bombed. Anger towards America is growing in rebel-held areas of Yemen. Most people here, whether they support the Houthis or not, know that many of the bombs being dropped are American. It provides a strong propaganda tool for the Houthi rebels, who go by the slogan "Death to America."

Dr. Ali Al Motaa is a college professor. He did his doctorate in the U.S., but is a strong Houthi supporter.

DR. ALI AL MOTAA: The missiles that kill us, American-made. The plane that kills us, American-made. The tanks, Abrams, American-made. You're saying to me, "Where is America?" America is the whole thing.

JANE FERGUSON: Despite desperate efforts to end the fighting in Yemen, the violence is getting worse. The Saudi-led coalition launched an attack on Houthi-controlled Hodeidah city last month. The city is home to hundreds of thousands of Yemenis, and aid organizations warned that the attack could kill many civilians. As the bombs began to fall, these people fled to the capital, Sana'a.

DURA ISSA: [translated] My house is a traditional house. And when the bomb landed, the gate was blown off, and the roof was gone.

JANE FERGUSON: Dura Issa's house was hit. Her family got out alive, but she is now homeless, trying to care for her severely disabled son.

DURA ISSA: [translated] I don't know where to stay tonight. We don't have money for a hotel. We cannot afford it. We left in a hurry, scared. We left everything.

JANE FERGUSON: Ahead of the battle, the coalition warned civilians to get out.

MOHAMMED ISSA: [translated] The coalition announced on the TV that we have to leave. They didn't tell us anything. They just told us to go out. The Houthis made trenches. My house is next to the sea, and the battles are there.

JANE FERGUSON: Millions of Yemenis are just like him, living in fear of the battle raging near their homes, or an airstrike killing them and their families. Both the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition have disregarded innocent civilian life in this war. Every bomb that falls on a hospital, office building or home causes more unease about where they came from.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Jane Ferguson, reporting from Yemen for the PBS NewsHour. When we come back, we'll go to Beirut, Lebanon—Jane has come out of Yemen, which she smuggled herself into—and speak directly with her. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: "Yemen Blues" by Yemen Blues. This is Democracy Now! I'm Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We're spending the rest of the hour in Yemen. We're joined in Beirut by Jane Ferguson, special correspondent for PBSNewsHour.

AMY GOODMAN: Jane is just back from Yemen, where she spent nearly a month reporting this remarkable three-part series for PBS NewsHouron widespread starvation in Yemen, American financing of the Saudi-backed coalition there, and Houthi rebels. Her recent piece in The New Yorker is headlined "Is Intentional Starvation the Future of War?"

Jane, welcome to Democracy Now! I mean, the bravery of you even going into Yemen, which particularly shows what the Yemeni people face, explain how you got there. And then, this piece we just aired, where you talk about the U.S. support for what's happening, how you found this evidence?

JANE FERGUSON: Getting into Yemen itself is not as complicated, or not even close to as complicated, as getting into northern Yemen. Journalists from some outlets, including American outlets, have been granted visas and allowed to board flights into the south of Yemen. That's the area that the Saudi-led coalition controls, and that's into the capital of the south, which is Aden. And you can fly in there. And I was able to get a visa to get to Aden after a couple of attempts, and board a flight to Aden. And from there, as you would have seen in that report, I basically had to drive north. You can drive north across the front line. Yemenis themselves, civilians, are moving back and forth. But you have to go through dozens of checkpoints. I wasn't able to film them, obviously, for the piece, as I was smuggling my way up. But it took sort of several cars and on various routes to be able to get up there, disguised as a Yemeni woman.

And, you know, once I got there, I had to work with a Yemeni team, because I could only really smuggle myself up. I couldn't bring my cameraman and have him passed off as a believable Yemeni woman. So, I worked with a Yemeni team when I was in Sana'a, journalists and friends that I've known for some time. Now, it's worth pointing out that news organizations all around the world, and particularly American news organizations, have been trying to access Sana'a, and they very much so want to report from Houthi-controlled areas, but journalists are banned. The Saudis control the airspace, and they ban journalists and human rights researchers from boarding the U.N. flights. Only U.N. flights land in Sana'a, in the capital, that is Houthi-controlled. And so, journalists, for a long time, from various news organizations, all the major networks in the U.S., have been trying to access those areas, but they've not been permitted to go. So, you know, it really is a case of whoever can smuggle their way up there. And that's extremely challenging logistically, because then you end up with one staff member up there and not a support team.

So, when I was there, you know, as you've pointed out, a major focus on the reporting is the fact that this is a war that perhaps not so visually on the ground the United States is involved in, but behind the scenes the United States is supporting this war. They are supporting the Saudi-led coalition. And when the Saudi-led coalition formed in 2015, it was Barack Obama then president of the United States, obviously. He brought in support. He supported the coalition's efforts, not with boots on the ground, but certainly with the logistics that was mentioned there. Some of those logistics include things like refueling Saudi jets. In between bombing raids, if they can be refueled midair by United States Air Force jets, that helps them, makes the process much more efficient. Also the sale of weapons, over $100 billion worth of U.S. weapons agreed in sales to the Saudis, often agreed by Obama, but then confirmed by President Trump.

There's also various logistical and intelligence support. And this is really where, you know, the Yemenis that I spoke to were coming from in terms of why they saw this as a United States war. And when I would put this question to them, even privately, off camera, to people who didn't wish to speak on camera because they were not supporters of the Houthis or the coalition, they would say, you know, "We know, we feel very much so like this is a United States war." And also when you're on the ground there, like I said in my report, the Houthis are able to use this as a very strong propaganda tool, because they're able to couch this war in terms of a jihad, a religious war, against not only foreign invaders like Saudis, but they will say, you know, whenever they're trying to recruit fighters, that this is a war against foreign invaders who are fighting against Islam.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Jane, one of the weapons that the U.S. has sold to the Saudis, as you witnessed and discussed in your piece, are cluster bombs. Could you talk about what you learned about the effects of these bombs? I mean, this is a weapon that is banned by 102 countries. Explain what the effects of cluster bombs are.

JANE FERGUSON: Well, a cluster bomb, effectively, when it's dropped, it explodes just before it hits the ground. And it can contain anything from dozens to up to hundreds of smaller bombs. They're around about the size of a baseball, and they are just miniature bombs primed to explode. And they spread out over a wider area. They can be particularly deadly for civilians, especially in countries where people live in, you know, non-brick or non-concrete homes. So, areas where people live in mud homes or wattle homes, straw huts, they can be particularly dangerous in those situations. But they also are—they have a particularly poor fail rate, where, if they land, not all of the small munitions will explode, and so they will remain primed on the ground. And they can be picked up by a child. They can randomly explode much, much later. And that's why cluster bombs are seen as such a deadly weapon, because they can act like mines, as well as an explosive that spreads itself out.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, Jane, your piece also ends with a remarkable and horrific statistic, that an estimated 130 Yemeni children died every day in 2017 from extreme hunger and disease. Now, you point out in this piece, as well as your piece in The New Yorker, that this is a man-made disaster, that there is, in fact, food in Yemen. It's just that people no longer have the means to buy that food, because millions of workers have been put out of work or are simply not being paid. Can you talk about that?

JANE FERGUSON: Sure. This is the real toll of the war. Of course, civilians are dying in these airstrikes, but not in anywhere near to the numbers of people who are falling ill and dying from the humanitarian crisis that has been caused by this war. Of course, you know, you'll hear the statistic, "Yemen is the world's worst humanitarian disaster," but that's really just a phrase. And it was—you know, one of the reasons I wanted to go into rebel-held Yemen was because no one really understands what that looks like. What does that mean to a viewer?

And what it means is a third of the country, an entire third, over 8 million people, on the brink of starvation, meaning they're not getting enough nutrients. They cannot afford to buy enough food to feed themselves and their families sufficiently. And, you know, the statistics on the deaths of children are particularly startling, and that's because, of course, as anywhere in the world, children are the most susceptible to falling ill from malnutrition. They can die of starvation. They can also, and more often is the case, die of infectious diseases, because their bodies have become so weak. And so, when I traveled to various hospitals and went to the children's wards, which are very—pretty much now just malnutrition wards, you'll see absolutely terrifyingly thin children. And you'll see a small trickle of them every single day. A lot of parents can't afford to bring their children to clinics or hospitals in rural capitals, because the cost of fuel has gone up, which means a bus ride will be more expensive.

And the reason that this is man-made, and the reason that every NGOand humanitarian organization has pointed out that this is man-made, is that it is caused by the war. There hasn't been a weather pattern or a particular natural disaster. There is plenty of food getting into Yemen. Now, what is happening is that the food prices are higher than they should be. They're higher than they were before. That's partly because of the Saudi-led coalition's blockade on the area. They're allowing food in, but it's restricted, and it's a slow process, and it's an expensive process, because the ships that import the food, they get held up for weeks at a time, they have to be inspected, and so that process is particularly difficult. Yemen imports the vast majority of its food. It has done since long before this war. So those prices going up have also been coupled with the fact that the economy, certainly in the north, but also really all over Yemen, is on its knees, if not has collapsed, essentially. You'll see people have just lost their jobs, and so it doesn't really matter how much food there is in the supermarket, and it doesn't really matter how expensive it has become, because if you have absolutely no money, then you're really—you're not going to be able to buy it anyway. And that's why Yemenis are hungry. They're hungry because of the economic collapse. And the economic collapse is as a direct result of this war.

AMY GOODMAN: Jane Ferguson, I wanted to go back to your third exclusive piece for the PBS NewsHour on Yemen, where you report on the Houthi rebels. This is a clip from your series. This is Salim Moghalis, a member of the Houthis' political wing, who told you they took the missiles from Yemen's military arsenal when they captured the capital Sana'a.

SALIM MOGHALIS: [translated] The Yemeni people and army have missiles from the past. And the army and experts were able to improve and upgrade these missiles, which is necessary. We are able to produce all sorts of arms, so they can upgrade the old weapons to have longer ranges.

JANE FERGUSON: Beyond the politics, this war has created the world's worst humanitarian disaster. Millions are on the brink of starvation, and the worst cholera outbreak in modern history rages on.

After three years of war, people here are weary of the airstrikes and the blockade, but they also tell us they believe America could end it. In Sana'a's market, people are hopeful for an end to the crisis soon.

ABU MOHAMMED: [translated] Since America has the biggest position in the U.N., it should have pushed for political and economic resolutions to the conflict. Look, now the people are almost dead. Poverty, hunger, disease, death, injuries, and on top of all that, the warplanes are hitting us.

JANE FERGUSON: Meanwhile in Washington, efforts by some to end the U.S.'s support for the Saudis continue.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: Vote yes, vote no. Do not vote to table this resolution.

JANE FERGUSON: A bipartisan group of senators, including Vermont independent Bernie Sanders, failed to get a resolution passed in March which aimed to limit the White House's authority to get involved in this war.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: We think that, in fact, this war is unauthorized, and it is in fact unconstitutional. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution is pretty clear. It's the United States Congress that declares war. The president cannot do what he wants unilaterally. The president does not have the authority.

JANE FERGUSON: President Trump enjoys warm relations with the Saudis, especially the country's powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. The White House is currently pushing for further arms sales of precision-guided missiles to the kingdom. Some fellow Republicans argue the Saudis deserve America's support in this war. Idaho Republican James Risch sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

SEN. JAMES RISCH: The Iranians are in there, and they are causing the difficulty that's there. If the Iranians would back off, I have no doubt that the Saudis will back off. But the Saudis have the absolute right to defend themselves.

JANE FERGUSON: To others, it's not America's job to defend a nation that doesn't reflect its values.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: I don't know that I have ever participated in a vote which says that the United States must be an ally to Saudis' militaristic ambitions. You know, this is a despotic regime, which treats women as third-class citizens. There are no elections there. They have their own goals and their own ambitions.

JANE FERGUSON: American support for Saudi Arabia is a major propaganda tool for the Houthis, who frame their war here as a form of jihad against the U.S., a religious battle. But it's a battle that neither side is winning, regardless of who America helps. Instead, the conflict is defined most clearly by those who are losing—the civilians—struggling to live with its consequences. For the PBSNewsHour, I'm Jane Ferguson in Sana'a, Yemen.

AMY GOODMAN: And Jane Ferguson is with us right now, back in Beirut, special correspondent for the PBS NewsHour. The power of what you're saying there, that the people who are losing right now is what counts, the massive hunger, the cholera epidemic. Jane, the fact that journalists rarely go to the north, the way you smuggled yourself in, with the Saudis not allowing that, because you see the effects of their bombing, and you see the actual bombs, and you make that connection to the U.S. Your final comment, in the minute that we have?

JANE FERGUSON: I would point out that, exactly as you say, this is a war which has had a terrible toll on the people of Yemen. And that's a toll that is unmatched anywhere in the world. Nowhere in the world has a statistic like one-third of an entire country's population is on the brink of starvation. There are attempts going on right now to broker more serious peace talks, and there is a way to end this war, if all sides negotiate in good faith and are truly willing to make the compromises necessary. And so it is possible that Yemen could see peace before the end of the year, if there is enough political will there.

AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you very much, Jane Ferguson, speaking to us from Beirut, Lebanon, just returned from Yemen, where she did this remarkable three-part series for the PBS NewsHour. To see the three-part series, you can watch it at pbs.org/newshour.