US Drones Killed Her Family, Does Anyone Care?

"Nada", a young girl who survived the US military strike on the community of al-Majalah in Yemen, in a film still from “Dirty Wars”

She walked out and gazed at the clear blue sky,

Dreading to hear the humming noise or spot the killers that fly.

Her eyes searched, filled with tears,

Painful memories mixed with fears.

The tragedy happened when she was only three.

Yet the cries, the fire, the horror she can still hear, feel and see.

Missile strikes burnt her house and obliterated her entire family.

She was the only survivor who managed to flee.

Her caring father and loving mother are no longer there.

Brothers, sisters, even cousins she played with all vanished, how was that fair?

She has become a lonely orphan with a heartbreaking stare,

Nothing left for her but anguish and nightmares; more than a child can bear.

She wondered, US missiles and drones strikes kill indiscriminately causing pain and despair,
Claim to target "terrorists" which her family wasn't, but does anyone care?

Can anyone stop them, speak out against them, does anyone dare?

This is the story of many families in Yemen for you to share.

Thank you for reading it and for the time you can spare,

to speak up for them and show them WE CARE. 

Yemen’s Turbulent Transitional Year

2011 was a year of revolution in Yemen, characterized by massive peaceful marches that were seldom met with security forces’ brutality, subsequently leading to the ouster of Ali Abdullah Saleh after a 33-year rule. In exchange for immunity Saleh, transferred power to his deputy of 18 years Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, through a Gulf brokered deal, backed by the U.S , the U.N and the international community. On February 27th Hadi was appointed as president after a one man election.

Many Yemenis were discontented with this settlement yet after a long year of  bloodshed, clashes and interrupted services they were eagerly longing for peace, security and stability and hoping for a smooth political transition. The year 2012, was far from that, it  was a year of turmoil in Yemen. This year Yemen witnessed an unprecedented numbers of assassinations, kidnappings, car explosions, suicide bombings, attacks on electricity cables and gas pipelines, a deterioration of both the economic and humanitarian conditions, besides an increase in US drone attacks.

Throughout the year more than 60 Yemeni intelligence officers and military commanders were killed across the country, mostly in Sana’a and Aden, either by a car explosion or by unknown gunmen on a motorcycle. Although most of the killings were attributed to al-Qaeda, yet futile government investigations did not result into any findings.

The fragile security and lawlessness in Yemen led to an increase in kidnappings. In March, a Saudi diplomat, Abdallah al-Khalidi was kidnapped. A Swiss woman teacher was also captured in March in the portal city of Hodeida, both are still missing until today. In April, a French Red Cross aid worker was abducted and later released unharmed. In an unprecedented deterioration in Decemeber, an Austrian man and a Finnish couple were also kidnapped in broad daylight in the city center of the capital Sanaa.

Several attacks on the cables in the main electric supply station in Mareb left Yemen in the dark for several hours, sometimes days until the cable was repeatedly repaired. Tribal militia-men were suspected to be behind these recurrent attacks yet the government was too weak and the military too divided to secure those lines. The last month of December also witnessed the eighth attack on the LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) pipelines since the first sabotage on the line in October 2011. Repeated attacks this year limited the production of the gas and crippling the economy further. According to the Petroleum and Minerals Minister Hisham Abdullah, Yemen lost more than $4 billion (3.1 billion euros) in revenues since February 2011 due to such attacks.

The prolonged political crisis, lack of services, economic instability, rise in prices and unemployment were all factors which led to deepening the food crisis further which had already existed prior to the events of 2011. According to a recent report by UNICEF Yemen, about 60 percent of Yemeni children were chronically malnourished and about 15 percent – 257 thousand children under the age of five – suffer from acute malnourishment.

A sharp increase in US drone attacks  was also noted this year, it rose  to 53 from 18 in 2011. Not surprisingly since Yemen’s President Hadi himself, during his last visit to the US, praised these strikes and claimed their effectiveness. Yet many Yemenis  condemn them and  consider them a violation to Yemen’s sovereignty. Contrary to what the US administration wishes to believe these attacks have created animosity towards the US. Many Yemenis and Yemen experts have written extensively how the increase in US strikes has had an adverse reaction and has helped al-Qaeda grow in size.  Gregory Johnsen, who wrote ‘The Last Refuge”, a book on Yemen and al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, in a recent interview  said “Essentially what the U.S. is doing is bombing suspected AQAP targets in Yemen in the hopes that AQAP doesn’t bomb the U.S.,”  he added “In my view, this is neither sustainable nor wise. We have seen AQAP grow incredibly fast in a remarkably short amount of time, expanding from 200-300 fighters in 2009, when the U.S. bombing campaign began, to more than 1,000 fighters today. That is more exacerbating and expanding the threat than it is disrupting, dismantling and defeating it.” Many Yemenis question why haven’t suspected targets been captured and prosecuted instead of being remotely eliminated, often killing civilians in the process. A further increase in drone strikes in 2013 is expected unless there is a miraculous change in the US counter-terrorism policy or Yemen's puppet government takes a firm stand and condemns these attacks. 

One of the main demands of the popular youth revolution was the dismissal of Saleh’s relatives and former henchmen from top military and security command positions and the restructuring of the military. Hence President Hadi’s decrees to dismiss Saleh’s nephew, Yehya Saleh, head of the counter-terror unit and central security forces and to disband the Republican Guards headed by Saleh’s eldest son Ahmed and the First Armored Division headed by Ali Muhsin and reshuffling them into the central command of the defense ministry and restructuring the army into four components: ground forces, navy, air forces and border guards were widely celebrated and supported. Yet that jubilation did not last long,  to the dismay of many, reports emerged that both Ahmed Saleh and Ali Muhsin would be offered senior positions in the new military restructure. “Fortunately, Brigadier General Ahmad Saleh seems to have agreed to be given the command of a military region in an institutional reshuffle,” said an editorial. The popular demand to purge the Salehs and Ali Muhsin from any military positions was apparently disregarded once more. This will certainly be a slap in the face to the revolution and will further anger the youth who marched again this year from Taiz to Sanaa (270km), commemorating the martyrs and reviving the demands of the first life march in 2011, which include removing these notorious leaders.

Yemen is currently preparing for a six-month National Dialogue Conference which had been faced with challenges and setbacks resulting in it's postponement several times. After a participating quota for the political parties and groups was finally reached, the conference is due to start sometime early next year, despite reports that some Southern secessionists are still boycotting the Dialogue. Although the UN envoy, Jamal Bin Omar before heading back to New York , reportedly, “urged all Yemeni parties to avoid any acts that may hinder the national dialogue and the progress of the political process in Yemen” yet the ousted president appears determined to participate in the upcoming National Dialogue. A press statement from the office of Ali Abdullah Saleh the head of the General People’s Congress, posted on the official website  of the GNC party announced “ the leader (Saleh), will head the body of representatives of the GPC to the national dialogue conference.” Only in Yemen would an ousted president be granted an immunity and be allowed to participate in a national dialogue that would shape the future of the country and outline it’s new constitution. Speculations as usual about Saleh's upcoming trip and the destination he is headed to (Oman, KSA, Italy?) are currently surfacing once more in Yemen.

The volatile security situation that has plagued Yemen over the past year was
mainly to the weak military structure,  and the divided and opposing military factions spearheaded by Ahmed Saleh and Ali Muhsin. Any military restructure that has these two leaders in it will recreate the same bloody scenario. Yemen’s security and stability requires their final removal from any military position and hence severing any loyalties to either side. The removal of Saleh from Yemen, and prohibiting him from playing any political role that can further destabilize the country is a crucial and crystal clear necessity now, which the GCC plan should have initially incorporated. The GCC, UN and the international community have an obligation now to rectify this grave miscalculation and hold Saleh and his loyalists accountable for Yemen’s instability in the past year and impose strict sanctions on them, not just empty threats. Yemen mostly needs the prompt delivery of the $6 billion that was pledged at the “Friends of Yemen” conference which is necessary to assist in it’s development through sustainable long term income generating projects and not in the form of short term aid.

The path is still long and arduous for Yemen, yet it’s youth are still peacefully calling for change and are determined to continue demanding what they originally set out to achieve - equal rights, liberty, freedom from oppression and a dignified life, which the team in SupportYemen had conveyed in this video at the beginning of the revolution:

Why US Drone Attacks Should Stop in Yemen and Elsewhere!

Both the International law and US constitution prohibit killing outside of armed conflict without due process, "except as a resort to avert a concerete, specific, imminent threat of death or serious physical injury", yet the United States continues the use of drone strikes in "targeted killings" of "suspected" terrorist overseas that "might" be plotting against it without due process of law. This has caused the unaccounted deaths of hundreds in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan and widespread anger.

The first known US drone strike approved by Obama in Yemen was in Ma’jalah, Abyan, on 17 December 2009, killing 41 local residents, including 14 women and 21 children, and 14 militants ــ alleged  Al Qaeda members ــ only one of which was confirmed to be connected to Al Qaeda. A Yemeni investigative journalist remains in prison until today for "un-covering" this story. 

A policy shift, approved in April 2012, allowed the C.I.A. and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command to strike militants in Yemen who may be plotting attacks against the United States, without necessarily knowing their identities. Thus, both the the CIA and Pentagon have been carrying drone strikes in Yemen and have separate kill lists of unconfirmed "suspects". According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism 116 drone strikes have been carried out in in Yemen since May 2011, of those attacks only 39 were confirmed by officials to be carried out by the United States. Hence, hundreds of deaths by drone strikes are unaddressed, unacknowledged and unaccounted for and many of those killed were not confirmed to be actual militants.

This year alone there have been more than 200 deaths from the strikes in Yemen. Last week a misdirected U.S drone strike killed 13 civilians, including 3 women (one of them reportedly a 10 year old girl) causing widespread anger among Yemenis as have many other strikes before.  Yemenis have protested against the strikes and so have activists on twitter who launched a #NoDrones campaign in May 2012 to express their anger towards the strikes and to demand the U.S administration to halt them. They have renewed their campaign against U.S drone strikes using the same hashtag #NoDrones.

Yemenis hold both the U.S administration and Yemeni government accountable for the loss of the civilian lives, a.k.a "collateral damage" and the killings of "suspected" militants without any proof or fair trials. Both are partners in these unlawful attacks, the former for justifying and executing the strikes and the latter for allowing them to do so.

This is what Obama said defending drone strikes:

This is what 27 leading experts in foreign policy, diplomats, security specialists, scholars, and U.S policy experts, calling for a broader approach on U.S policy towards Yemen, recommended in their letter to President Obama:

• Change the primary face of the U.S government in Yemen to alter the perception that U.S interest and attention are solely dominated by counterterrorism and security issues.
• Reevaluate the strategy of drone strikes with the recognition that it is generating significant anti-American sentiment.
• Work with Friends of Yemen to provide humanitarian aid for the more than 10 million Yemenis going hungry daily.
• Increase economic and governance aid to support democratic institution-building, so that it represents a greater proportion of overall assistance compared with military assistance
• Support the restructuring of Yemeni security towards a unified command hierarchy under Yemeni civilian leadership.

Robert Grenier, recently retired Director of the CIA Counter-Terrorism Center, wrote, “One wonders how many Yemenis may be moved in the future to violent extremism in reaction to carelessly targeted missile strikes, and how many Yemeni militants with strictly local agendas will become dedicated enemies of the West in response to U.S military actions against them.” 

And this is what Yemenis had to say: - “Dear Obama, when a U.S. drone missile kills a child in Yemen, the father will go to war with you, guaranteed. Nothing to do with Al Qaeda,” a Yemeni lawyer warned on Twitter. 
-  “I will join even Satan if I have to in order to get revenge for my wounded 7 year old son,” said one angered father from Jaar who preferred to remain anonymous.  
- "Indeed, the drone program is leading to the Talibanization of vast tribal areas and the radicalization of people who could otherwise be America’s allies in the fight against terrorism in Yemen," said Ibrahim Mothana, a democracy activist.  
- Salim al-Barakani, a businessman who's two brothers — one a teacher, the other a cellphone repairman — were killed in a U.S. strike in March said "these attacks are making people say, ‘We believe now that al-Qaeda is on the right side.’ ” 
- Mohammed al-Ahmadi, legal coordinator for Karama, a local human rights group said “every time the American attacks increase, they increase the rage of the Yemeni people, especially in al-Qaeda-controlled areas.”  
- “There is more hostility against America because the attacks have not stopped al-Qaeda, but rather they have expanded, and the tribes feel this is a violation of the country’s sovereignty,” said Anssaf Ali Mayo, Aden head of Yemen's al-Islah Islamist party. 
- "This is seen from the fact that US strikes are seen as an invasion, an occupation and a breach of sovereignty," said a citizen journalist.  
- Local activist Nasr Abdullah told CNN, ‘I would not be surprised if a hundred tribesmen joined the lines of al Qaeda as a result of the latest drone mistake. This part of Yemen takes revenge very seriously.’  
- Listen to what Yemenis said in this HuffPostLive video. More had been said by Yemenis and others in this storify, and this too.  And this is what Pakistanis had to say about the U.S drone strikes:

A USAID official boasted about the U.S being the largest provider of humanitarian aid, in the last Yemen donor conference held in Riyadh. Yet, what Yemen needs most besides aid is for the drone strikes to end. There is nothing human in the use of drone strikes to "fight terrorism" in Yemen. U.S drone strikes continue to destabilize the country further, instill fear in the civilans who can be possible targets, breeds resentment towards the U.S, and increases militants in Yemen and thus terror. In fact al- Qaeda has been growing in numbers since the U.S strikes intensified in Yemen, they were estimated to be 300 members in 2009 and despite the ongoing drone strikes and constant reported killings of al- Qaeda militants and "suspected' militants, they are now reported to be more than 700, i.e  more than double the initial figure. This clearly indicates, as many experts have stressed, that the U.S counter terrorism policy in Yemen needs to be seriously examined and consequently re-evaluated. 

In summary : "U.S drones have not only resulted in death and destruction, but have also been counter productive to the counter-terrorism efforts, because with each casualty, militants groups gain more members."

Related links: Interactive Map: America's War in Yemen Drone Death in Yemen of an American Teenager  : (Birth Certificate)  Families of Americans Killed by Drones to File Suite :  (The Complaint) In Yemen. U.S. Airstrikes breed anger and sympathy for al-Qaeda   How Drones Help Al Qaeda US War on Yemen: Invisible Casualties US War on Yemen: The View From the Ground 29 Death in 8 Days as U.S Puts Drones On Over Drive The Failed US Policy in Yemen Dodging the drones: How militants responded to the covert US campaign It is uncertain whether America's drones have their intended effect A new analysis finds five ways drones strikes in Yemen are hurting American interests Video: How Drone Strike Help Al Qaeda Drone strikes threatens 50 years of International Law, says UN rapporteur Obama's 'kill list': Short term CT efforts undermine U.S Long-term goals  Obama's Drone Surge in Yemen Ignored at Home

The Failed US Policy in Yemen

The US-Yemen relationship has become a hot topic recently, especially after former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the man whom the US relied on and strongly supported in it's fight  against "Qaeda" recently stepped down. According to Ibrahim Sharqieh, a conflict resolution expert at the Brookings Doha Center who writes extensively about the conflict in Yemen, "in the past, over 90 percent of U.S. financial support went to support security and military institutions to fight al-Qaeda". The Saleh regime, opened Yemen's land, air and sea for US strikes against Al Qaeda by exploiting it's threat, taking advantage of US counterterrorism policy as a cash cow for its own survival and at times even fed the US misleading intelligence to combat its political opponents. Jeremy Scahill, an investigative journalist and national security correspondent for the Nation who writes often about Yemen, points out in his last piece in the Nation "for years, Saleh allowed the United States to regularly strike against AQAP in Yemen, and US Special Operations forces built up the specialized units, run by Saleh’s family members, that were widely seen as US surrogates'. He adds "rather than fighting AQAP, these US-backed units—created and funded with the explicit intent to be used only for counterterrorism operations—redeployed to Sanaa to protect the collapsing regime from its own people." 

Yemeni journalist Shayi was the first journalist to allege US involvement in authorizing dropping of cluster bombs on civilians in Yemen, he was detained and sentenced to 5 years as a result. Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Philip Luther pointed “there are strong indications that the charges against ‘Abdul Ilah Shayi’ are trumped up and that he has been jailed solely for daring to speak out about US collaboration in a cluster munitions attack which took place in Yemen", in December 2009. Days after  he was sentenced in January last year, former president Saleh granted the journalist a presidential pardon, but a phone call from President Obama has managed to keep him in jail until today.

Many analysts agree that the US policy in Yemen has predominantly been viewed from the terrorism prism, but one doesn't need to be an expert to notice that it has not been successful so far and has in fact backfired on the US. The use of drones on Yemeni soil to kill "suspected" al Qaeda leaders, the unjustified killing of a teenager and many other innocent civilians commonly referred to as "collateral damage" and the illegal detention of a journalist, has fostered more animosity towards the US.
Furthermore US's rethoric in supporting democracy in Yemen has been reflected differently in its actions towards the revolution, backing Saleh's corrupt regime and hosting him in the US under the pretext of "medical treatment" enraged many Yemenis. Mr. Gerald M. Feierstein's, US's Ambassador in Yemen, provocative statements against the youth and against the "Life March", calling for an end to the uprising in the military institution, and his last interview with journalist Tom Finn raised a lot of concerned question marks regarding the long awaited military reform and created more anti-American sentiments leading to a march demanding the ambassador to leave Yemen and the burning of the US flag.

The majority of Yemenis do not consider the US Ambassador an "honorary Yemeni citizen" but rather a detested "foreign diplomat" for many reasons besides those mentioned above. His personal relationship with the Salehs and the general feeling among Yemenis that he is the man currently running the show in Yemen, only adds complexity to the already complex US-Yemeni relationship.

US clearly needs to re-evaluate its counter-terrorism policy in Yemen by addressing the socio-economic underlying causes that produce terror. Rather than focusing it's aid solely in the fight against al "Qaeda" and continuing with the drone attacks which kills innocent people, alienates, angers and aggravates the general Yemeni public, giving extremists a motive to join militant groups, Sharqieh recommends that both the United States and Gulf states should change their trend in foreign aid in Yemen. They should "give aid that will provide genuine comprehensive development, helping job delivery, building transparent state institutions and work to fight corruption within them." He adds, "this would be the ultimate solution to dealing with terrorism and other security problems; dealing with the underlying causes that produce terror." 
Finally the message to US Deputy National Security Advisor, John Brennan, is loud and clear violence only breeds more violence, its about time to make a change in the US policy in Yemen, and elsewhere, by trying to make friends rather than creating more enemies. 

Related Links:

America's Dangerous Game (Video)
Washington's War in Yemen Backfires
An American Teen-Ager In Yemen
Yemeni journalist jailed after alleging US involvement in missile attack
Yemen: Shaye Commences hunger Strike
Detained Journalist On Hunger Strike To Press For Release
Butt Out: US Ambassador to Yemen Interferes With Protests
US has 'direct interest' in Shaye's case
Yemen: A story of lost foreign aid and future gains?
Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan press roundtable
Tom Finn Interview with US Ambassador to Yemen Gerald M. Feierstein
A New President and an "American Sheikh' Deal With Post-Saleh Yemen
Recipe for Failure: American Strategy toward Yemen and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
The civilian massacre the US neither confirms nor denies
Yemen - reported US covert actions since 2001
Yemen : Anger at Expansion of US Drone War
Why The U.S Is Aggressively Targeting Yemen