November 12, 2012

The Places Where America’s Drones Are Striking, Now on Instagram

Technology has countervailing effects. We can send a battle by air to a land we have never set foot in, laying previously unimaginable distance between us and our wars. But at the same time we can see on a device in our pocket a satellite picture of these places so remote. Maybe, Bridle writes, the instant connectivity of our world can be a platform not just for faster information, but for deeper empathy for people who live a world away.

See more. [Images: Dronestagram]

4:11pm
(Notes: 712)
  
Filed under: Drone Internet Instagram Violence Pakistan Yemen 
May 29, 2012
State Department Human Rights Report Ignores U.S. Role in Abuses Late last week — 89 days past its legal deadline — the State Department released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2011. The new, user-friendly interface allows you to find and read individual country chapters much more quickly and easily (and might explain the delay). For all its flaws, the report remains a must-read for its reporting and candor. It serves as a generally honest counter to the rosier assessments of U.S. partners and allies’ human rights practices. From my vantage point of trying to understand the Obama administration’s policies and practices of target killings, the report is also notable for what it does not include; namely, any mention of U.S. involvement in or responsibility for such operations. Read more. [Image: Reuters]

State Department Human Rights Report Ignores U.S. Role in Abuses

Late last week — 89 days past its legal deadline — the State Department released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2011. The new, user-friendly interface allows you to find and read individual country chapters much more quickly and easily (and might explain the delay). For all its flaws, the report remains a must-read for its reporting and candor. It serves as a generally honest counter to the rosier assessments of U.S. partners and allies’ human rights practices.

From my vantage point of trying to understand the Obama administration’s policies and practices of target killings, the report is also notable for what it does not include; namely, any mention of U.S. involvement in or responsibility for such operations.

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

9:46am
(Notes: 102)
  
Filed under: World news Human rights News Yemen Pakistan Drones Middle East War 
September 30, 2011
"

The imam’s role in the September 11 attack remains a painful, unanswered question for many Americans. In the years since, Awlaki has waded ever deeper into the waters of Islamic radicalism, openly joining forces with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a Yemen-based offshoot of Osama bin Laden’s group, in 2010.

U.S. Rep. Pete King recently opened a new investigation into Awlaki’s involvement with the plot, hoping to shake loose details that could clarify what the American imam knew and when he knew it.

There’s good reason to take a fresh look. The case that Awlaki was involved in September 11 is not complete and not definitive, but it most certainly deserves a tough examination. What follows, based on hundreds of pages of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and the 9/11 Commission, is not the last word on Awlaki’s connection to the plot; consider it an opening argument.

"

—

J.M. Berger outlines Anwar al-Awlaki’s ties to the 9/11 hijackers. The American-born al Qaeda cleric was killed in a drone strike in Yemen yesterday.

Read more at The Atlantic

9:17am
(Notes: 36)
  
Filed under: international news al qaeda yemen 
June 9, 2011
U.S. Is Exploiting Chaos in Yemen to Attack Militants

Analysts have long speculated that the destabilizing uprising in Yemen could strengthen the hand of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, an affiliate based in the country’s south that the C.I.A. considers a grave threat to the U.S. But, according to a New York Times report today, the U.S. has also taken advantage of the power vacuum in recent weeks to escalate its strikes against those very militants. The Times only points to two examples—American jets killing the Qaeda operative Abu Ali al-Harithi and other suspected militants and civilians on Friday, and anunsuccessful drone strike at the radical American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki last month—but adds that the attacks come after a nearly year-long pause in the covert campaign.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire

9:30am
(Notes: 14)
  
Filed under: yemen international news 
June 3, 2011
Crisis in Yemen An anti-government protester flashes the victory sign through a gap in his national flag raised by other demonstrators during a demonstration demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sanaa, Yemen, on Saturday, March 5, 2011. [AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen] See more stunning photographs at In Focus

Crisis in Yemen

An anti-government protester flashes the victory sign through a gap in his national flag raised by other demonstrators during a demonstration demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sanaa, Yemen, on Saturday, March 5, 2011. [AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen]

See more stunning photographs at In Focus

1:59pm
(Notes: 76)
  
Filed under: yemen international news photography in focus 
May 18, 2011
Yemen’s Crackdown on Protesters Escalates to Air Strikes, Risking War With forces loyal to President Saleh killing at least 170 and the opposition movement gathering more high-profile defectors, both sides could escalate the country’s political conflict into all-out civil war Read more at The Atlantic [Khaled Abdullah Ali Al Mahdi/Reuters]

Yemen’s Crackdown on Protesters Escalates to Air Strikes, Risking War

With forces loyal to President Saleh killing at least 170 and the opposition movement gathering more high-profile defectors, both sides could escalate the country’s political conflict into all-out civil war

Read more at The Atlantic

[Khaled Abdullah Ali Al Mahdi/Reuters]

8:48am
(Notes: 52)
  
Filed under: yemen international news 
May 13, 2011

What Four Miles of Yemeni Protesters Looks and Sounds Like

11:35am
(Notes: 52)
  
Filed under: yemen international news 
May 5, 2011
Stifling Yemen’s Revolution: After three months of protests and street battles in cities throughout Yemen, opposition leaders announced on Monday, April 25, that they were prepared to sign a negotiated settlement with the regime. The agreement, brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), is supposed to usher in a transitional government that would be a mutually agreeable compromise between the current government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the opposition movement, which includes a variety of marginalized political groups. Reports of the settlement eagerly declared that the “political crisis” in Yemen was near its end. It’s not over. Not even close. Read the rest of the story at The Atlantic.

Stifling Yemen’s Revolution:

After three months of protests and street battles in cities throughout Yemen, opposition leaders announced on Monday, April 25, that they were prepared to sign a negotiated settlement with the regime. The agreement, brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), is supposed to usher in a transitional government that would be a mutually agreeable compromise between the current government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the opposition movement, which includes a variety of marginalized political groups. Reports of the settlement eagerly declared that the “political crisis” in Yemen was near its end.

It’s not over. Not even close.

Read the rest of the story at The Atlantic.

11:05am
(Notes: 13)
  
Filed under: International Yemen Protests News Middle East Ali Abdullah Saleh 
April 4, 2011
U.S. Abandons Yemen's President; More Anti-Regime Protesters Killed

As protests enter their third month in Yemen, the United States has abandoned its longtime support of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, an ally in the region for counter-terrorism operations. The news comes as security forces in the country reportedly massacred 15 anti-government protesters.

Until last week, the U.S. had supported Saleh “because he was considered a critical ally in fighting the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda,” the New York Times reported. But now the Obama administration has deemed Saleh’s rule “untenable,” and work is underway to ease him out of power.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire

[Edit: Title fixed. Thanks absinthedisco]

8:47am
(Notes: 13)
  
Filed under: international news yemen politics 
March 29, 2011
thepoliticalnotebook: On Saturday, Yemen’s state newspaper, Al Jamahiriya, photoshopped a photo of regime supporters to make it look twice as big. Photo caption reads: “On the Friday of Tolerance.”  From Marwan Almuraisy’s Facebook page (link in Arabic), found via @SultanAlQassemi.

thepoliticalnotebook:

On Saturday, Yemen’s state newspaper, Al Jamahiriya, photoshopped a photo of regime supporters to make it look twice as big. Photo caption reads: “On the Friday of Tolerance.” 

From Marwan Almuraisy’s Facebook page (link in Arabic), found via @SultanAlQassemi.

(Source: thepoliticalnotebook, via dorkery)

11:37am
(Notes: 303)
  
Filed under: news international yemen 
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