FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle at illinois.edu
Boyle is a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law and author of Tackling America’s Toughest Questions. He said today: “The U.S. blockade of Yemen is illegal. A naval blockade is an act of war and the administration has no authorization from the U.S. Congress or the Security Council for this.”
GARETH PORTER, porter.gareth50 at gmail.com, @GarethPorter
Porter is an investigative journalist and author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare. He recently wrote the piece “Houthi arms bonanza came from Saleh, not Iran” for Middle East Eye.
“As the Saudi bombing campaign against Houthi targets in Yemen continues, notwithstanding a temporary pause, the corporate media narrative about the conflict in Yemen is organized decisively around the idea that it is a proxy war between Iran on one side and the Saudis and United States on the other.
“USA Today responded like Pavlov’s dog this week to a leak by Pentagon officials that it was sending the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt to the waters off Yemen, supposedly to intercept Iranian vessels carrying weapons to the Houthis. It turned out that the warship was being sent primarily to symbolize U.S. support for the Saudis, and the Pentagon made no mention of Iranian arms when it announced the move. But the story of the U.S. Navy intercepting Iranian arms was irresistible, because it fit so neatly into the larger theme of Iran arming and training the Houthis as its proxy military force in Yemen. …
“According to Pentagon documents acquired under the Freedom of Information Act by Joseph Trevithick, the Defense Department had delivered about $500 million in military hardware to the Yemeni military from 2006 on. … A significant part of that weaponry and equipment was scooped up by Houthi fighters on their way into Sanaa…”
ROXANNE DUNBAR-ORTIZ, rdunbaro@pacbell.net, @rdunbaro
Dunbar-Ortiz is author or editor of seven books, including the recently-released An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. Commemorations for the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide begin Friday. While many are criticizing the Turkish government for not acknowledging the Armenian genocide, she said today: “The United States has not acknowledge Armenian genocide either, nor any other genocide in the past except the Holocaust. The U.S. finally signed the Genocide Convention 40 years after its writing, in 1988, but even then taking exception to most of the key elements that would apply to the United States’ genocidal policies and actions against the Indigenous Peoples it invaded and colonized who still exist under U.S. colonial institutions. The U.S. historical profession remains complicit in this denial, dismissing the work of Native American historians and other scholars.”
