Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com & WikiLeaks – 2016-11-27 01:50:08
WikiLeaks’ ‘Yemen Files’ Reveal Scope of US Involvement in Yemen War
WikiLeaks’ ‘Yemen Files’ Reveal Scope of US Involvement in Yemen War
Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com
(November 25, 2016) — WikiLeaks has released a new collection of 500 internal documents today from the US Embassy in Sanaa, the latest in a long series of leaks the group has obtained over the years. The documents detail US involvement in Yemen in the lead up to and during the Saudi invasion.
Dubbed the “Yemen Files,” it covers emails from 2009-2015, covering Secretary of States Hillary Clinton and John Kerry’s terms. The files include considerable details of US arming and training of Yemeni military forces in the build up to the Saudi invasion.
Of course, the US also backed Saudi Arabia in their invasion, leading WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to note that most of the bombs that have fallen on Yemen over the course of the war were American made.
Though the US was very public in supporting the invasion by the Saudis at the time, they’ve since moved away from such public endorsement, urging ceasefires and trying to present themselves as at least relatively neutral on the matter
Yemen Files
WikiLeaks
(November 25, 2016) — Today, Friday 25 November, WikiLeaks releases the Yemen Files.
The Yemen Files are a collection of more than 500 documents from the United States embassy in Sana’a, Yemen. Comprising more than 200 emails and 300 PDFs, the collection details official documents and correspondence pertaining to the Office for Military Cooperation (OMC) located at the US embassy.
The collection spans the period from 2009 until just before the war in Yemen broke out in earnest during March 2015. This time period covers both Hillary Clinton’s term as Secretary of State (20092013) and the first two years of Secretary John Kerry’s tenure.
Julian Assange said: “The war in Yemen has produced 3.15 million internally displaced persons. Although the United States government has provided most of the bombs and is deeply involved in the conduct of the war itself reportage on the war in English is conspicuously rare.”
Yemen is of significant strategic interest as Yemen controls a narrow choke-point to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal through which 11% of the world’s petroleum passes each day. In addition, Yemen borders Saudi Arabia (to the north) and Oman (to the east) and has access to the Arabian Sea, through which another 20% of the world’s petroleum passes from the Strait of Hormuz (including the oil of Saudi Arabia and Iran).
Saudi Arabia seeks to control a port in Yemen to avoid the potential constriction of its oil shipments by by Iran along the Strait of Hormuz or by countries which can control its other oil shipment path along the Red Sea.
The Yemen Files offer documentary evidence of the US arming, training and funding of Yemeni forces in the years building up to the war. The documents reveal, among other things, procurement of many different weapon types: aircraft, vessels, vehicles, proposals for maritime border security control and Yemeni procurement of US biometric systems.
A US presence remained in the country until February 2015, when the US closed its embassy due to the continuing unrest between different factions in the country. The war broke out a month later.
View the Yemen Files here
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