C.I.A. Building Base for Strikes in Yemen

[Judi Lynn]

Source: New York Times

C.I.A. Building Base for Strikes in Yemen
By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: June 14, 2011

WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency is building a secret air base in the Middle East to serve as a launching pad for strikes in Yemen using armed drones, an American official said Tuesday.

The construction of the base is a sign that the Obama administration is planning an extended war in Yemen against an affiliate of Al Qaeda that has repeatedly tried to carry out terrorist plots against the United States.

The clandestine American operations in Yemen are currently being run by the military’s Joint Special Operations Command, with the C.I.A.’s assistance and with the approval of Yemen’s fragile authoritarian government.

But with Yemen’s embattled government on the brink of collapse, Obama administration officials are concerned that a future government might not support American operations. By putting the operations under C.I.A. control, they could be carried out as a “covert action,” which can be undertaken without the support of the host government.





Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/world/middleeast/15yemen.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast

[Cali_Democrat]

1. The US is building a secret base in the Middle East to attack Yemen with drone missiles??

Didn't Obama win the Nobel Peace Prize? What gives?

[No Elephants]

5. As a member of the Nobel Committee hinted, the award to Obama was "aspirational."

They hoped it would inspire him to peace. It didn't do that. He knew when he got it that it wouldn't do that, so it went to charity.


It would have been more honest to refuse the award, but at least he didn't pocket the money, too.

[Vanje]

2. Godammit! nt

[Angry Dragon]

3. More Wars!!!!! YEA!!

This is better than putting money into this country

What I want to know is how many terrorists there are in the world so we know when we have killed them all so we know when we can bring the troops home

Then we can fly the drones over this country and look for illegals and drug runners.......................

[Judi Lynn]

4. They already use drones on the Arizona/Mexico border!

More drones to eye border but '06 crash still concern
'06 crash raised fears over pilotless planes
Sean Holstege
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 19, 2007 12:00 AM

Homeland-security officials will expand the use of drone aircraft, a key tool in the government's border strategy, despite a safety investigation highlighting a string of errors in the crash of a $6.5 million pilotless plane in Arizona last year.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection operates two Predator B drones near the Mexican border, both out of Fort Huachuca. By the end of next year, six will fly along the northern and southern borders of the U.S. Three will be in Arizona.

The agency said it will forge ahead with its plans to introduce more drones despite a National Transportation Safety Board finding this week that human error caused the April 2006 crash near Nogales. It was the first crash of a drone aircraft on domestic soil. The customs agency said it agreed with the findings but considers the drones essential. advertisement

"Nothing in this NTSB report will dissuade us from continuing to operate the Predator B program," said Douglas Koupash, executive director of Air-Marine Mission Support for the agency.

More:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1019drone1019.html?&wired

~ ~ ~
Arizona to Obama: We need Predator drones!
By Aaron Smith, CNNMoney.com staff writerMay 24, 2010: 1:04 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Unbowed by a raft of boycotts over her immigration policy, Arizona Gov. Janice Brewer has requested helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles from the White House to patrol the border region with Mexico.

Brewer, in a letter to President Obama, asked that the National Guard reallocate reconnaissance helicopters and robotic surveillance craft to the "border states" from other parts of the country.

More:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/24/news/economy/predator_arizona_border/index.htm

[palmtree guy]

25. we have one or 2

now in Texas, if I swim in my pool late at night you can see some kind of plane super high and it flies about a 10 minute oval, then moves on and then comes back in about 30 minutes, we live 6 miles north of the river and it flies along the river

[christx30]

27. That's the good thing

about being at war with TERRORISM rather than another country. There is no end until they say it has ended. Endless wars gives plenty of money to the defense contractors. You don't have to actually solve problems in this country like unemployment, health care, infrastrustrure, ect. You can just keep sending troops overseas to kill the "bad guys", while we here at home manufacture little American flags and yellow ribbons.

God Bless America


edited to add: we won't be making the flags and the ribbons. Those are now made in China.

[No Elephants]

6. Our bodies evolved. Our souls haven't. (Statement intended figuratively, not religiously.)

[inna]

7. they are out of control, and things are going to get much worse

Full Spectrum Dominance, all the way. We're entering a new era, in several different ways.

[Nihil]

8. I don't think the words "covert" and "secret" mean what you think they do ...

("You" meaning the official, not Judi)

> The Central Intelligence Agency is building a secret air base in the Middle East
> to serve as a launching pad for strikes in Yemen using armed drones

> The construction of the base is a sign that the Obama administration is planning
> an extended war in Yemen

> The clandestine American operations in Yemen are currently being run by the
> military’s Joint Special Operations Command, with the C.I.A.’s assistance
> and with the approval of Yemen’s fragile authoritarian government.

> By putting the operations under C.I.A. control, they could be carried out as a
> “covert action,” which can be undertaken without the support of the host government.


What part of "war criminal" doesn't Obama understand?

Which part of "illegal warmongering" doesn't this Nobel Peace Prize winner
think is only an optional crime?

There is no shame, no hint of understanding the extent of the wrongdoing
or of the blatant hatred of America that they are stirring up in the
Middle East by their actions.

Here's hoping that the American citizens at large remember this when the
next "terrorist" attack occurs and that they don't go all 'confused' about "why"
it did so (or why there will be so little sympathy for them this time around).

:shrug:

[bemildred]

16. "Secret" doesn't mean much of anything anymore.

It's sort of an expletive or warning is all it is, to the employees, that they will be punished if they talk about their work.

[Kaleko]

19. You mean the next false flag attack

hopefully won't leave American citizens all confused about who did it and why?

That's what an increasingly aware citizenry in other countries are hoping and praying for, I can tell you that.

[somone]

9. Bringing the untamed fire of freedom to the darkest corner of the world

as usual

[Solly Mack]

10. K&R

[Odin2005]

11. Exporting more FREEDUMB!!!

[blueclown]

12. These are the types of "wars" we should be in.

Unlike the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

[harun]

15. Yah the fruits of our covert war in Afghanistan in the 80's turned out swell.

:sarcasm:

[blueclown]

13. edit: double post

[Enrique]

14. Yemenis don't stand a chance against Obama's n-dimensional chess

But with Yemen’s embattled government on the brink of collapse, Obama administration officials are concerned that a future government might not support American operations. By putting the operations under C.I.A. control, they could be carried out as a “covert action,” which can be undertaken without the support of the host government.

[Gregorian]

17. A military industry based economy necessitates that economy to be at war.

So what would one expect of a country that puts the majority of it's tax revenues into war based industries? Peace? That stuff has to be used in order to keep the presses moving.

Now all we need to do is transform our military industry into productive activities. Teachers, researchers, workers. I'm not dreaming. We can't sustain this forever.

[Kaleko]

20. Amen.

[Enrique]

18. If I did this, I would resign

it's worse than Weiner.

[krabigirl]

21. +1000

[IamK]

22. I bet Obama is the only Nobel Peace Prize winner to be bombing in 5 countries...

Iraq
Afghanistan
Yemen
Pakistan
Libya

The committee is like WTF???

[hugo_from_TN]

28. Pretty sure that is a Peace Prize record

:rofl:

[Nihil]

29. Ouch. That'll leave a mark!

:spray:
:rofl:

Succinct and so accurate!

:applause:

[Kaleko]

23. kick

[inwiththenew]

24. A preemptive strike

It appears to be the American way now.

[JosefK]

26. Let's Have A(nother) War!

There's too many of us, There's too many of us...(lyrics courtesy of Fear)

Hitler did it all wrong.... You don't rid the world of people by doing it in secret. You might plan in secret, but you kill people in full view of everyone, even garnering their support beforehand so they can't complain. And you thought the Rightwing nuts' posters of Obama with Hitler's 'stache were off base? They were prescient!