Obama signed Executive Order, gags press coverage of Yemen

Few know that we have been bombing (droning) the hell out of numerous countries in Africa beside Libya and Egypt. Obama has decreed two Executive Orders that should have raised the hackles on our heads at the time,  many of our embassies are under attack now and little reported. My earlier posts for the back story:, Our Boy-King says Good-bye to Yemen’s Saleh,   U.S. declassifies military attacks in Yemen and Somalia.,  Special Forces being deployed to protect the security of Yemen. This one is even better State Dept using diversity visas to encourage immigration to U.S. form terror ridden Yemen

But this should hit the news because of the E.O. of Obama.

An Executive order seeks to punish U.S. citizens even for “indirectly” obstructing dictatorial rule in Yemen.Executive Order 13611

First the news:

Turmoil Over Video Spreads to Yemen  New York Times

Witnesses said Yemeni security forces had tried to disperse a crowd at the fortified embassy compound. But protesters broke through an outer perimeter protecting the embassy, clambering over a high wall and setting fire to a building. They were forced to retreat after trying to plunder furniture and computers.

The protests came hours after a Muslim cleric, Abdul Majid al-Zandani, urged followers to emulate the protests in Libya and Egypt, Sana residents said.

On Sept. 26 at the United Nations, Yemen’s president Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi of Yemen, who was swept to power by an uprising demanding democratic rights, gave a speech that demanded curbs on freedom of expression that insults religion.

“These behaviors find people who defend them under the justification of the freedom of expression,” he said. “These people overlook the fact that there should be limits for the freedom of expression, especially if such freedom blasphemes the beliefs of nations and defames their figures.”

Now, An Executive order seeks to punish U.S. citizens even for “indirectly” obstructing dictatorial rule in Yemen

Salon:

There seems to be little question that the Obama administration is devoted to imposing dictatorial order on Yemen through the use of force and liberty abridgment. As Scahill previously reported, Obama has played a direct personal role in the ongoing imprisonment of a Yemeni journalist who committed the crime of documenting the large number of civilian deaths from a U.S. cluster bomb attack on his country as well as exposing the joint lies of the Yemeni and U.S. Government. The latest U.S. drone strike in Yemen yesterday, even according to Yemeni officials, killed more civilians than alleged “militants.” The bombing campaign in Yemen now increasingly resembles the one conducted in Pakistan, though Yemen saw more drone strikes this month than any previous month in Pakistan.

Our imperial president decreed another executive order that should be making headlines, but of course, merely moves forward his agenda of limiting free speech. In a wonderfully written piece by Salon, the tale is told as to the objective of Obama’s edict. It is well worth the full read, and gives the past Supreme Court decision that gives him the boldness to do this.

What’s most amazing about all of this is how covert it is. What percentage of Americans even know that the Obama administration is continuously bombing and killing civilians in Yemen, or that American soldiers are now on the ground there in an advisory capacity?

Here is the live link to the E.O.: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/05/16/executive-order-blocking-property-persons-threatening-peace-security-or–

President Obama issued an executive order last May giving the Treasury Department authority to freeze the U.S.-based assets of anyone who “obstructs” implementation of the administration-backed political transition in Yemen.

The unusual order, which administration officials said also targets U.S. citizens who engage in activity deemed to threaten Yemen’s security or political stability, is the first issued for Yemen that does not directly relate to counterterrorism.

In other words, the U.S. Government will now punish anyone who is determined — in the sole discretion of the U.S. Government — even to “indirectly” obstruct the full transition of power to President Hadi. But what if someone — a Yemeni or an American — opposes Hadi’s rule and wants to agitate for a real election in which more than one candidate runs? Is that pure political advocacy, as it appears, now prohibited by the U.S. Government, punishable by serious sanctions, on the ground that it “obstructs” the transition of power to Hadi? Can journalists who report on corruption or violence by the Hadi regime and who write Op-Eds demanding a new election be accused, as it seems, of “threatening Yemen’s political stability”?

As it does with most U.S.-compliant dictators in the region, the Obama administration has since been propping up Hadi with large amounts of money and military assistance, but it is now taking a much more extreme step to ensure he remains entrenched in power — a step that threatens not only basic liberties in Yemen but in the U.S. as well.

Jeremy Scahill, who has reported extensively from Yemen over the last year, reacted to the news of this Executive Order this morning by writing: ”This Executive Order appears to be an attack on Americans’ 1st Amendment Rights and Yemenis’ rights  Full story oover at Salon

You might want to check out this E.O. as well:

Our earlier post: Obama waives prohibition on child soldiers: While Michelle is worried about our kids and their exercise and caloric intake, her husband dearest signs an Executive Order for Africa to send their kids to war. Water boarding bad, killing kids good. Typical Progressive logic. The President has taken it upon himself to waive the sanctions against countries using child soldiers. The Child Soldier Protection Act was originally passed in 2008 by Congress-but he just waives it.

”I hereby determine that it is in the national interest of the United States to waive the application to Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Yemen of the prohibition in section 404(a) of the CSPA”. So children, it’s off to war you go.

Executive Order :

It was not a theoretical question: Mr. Obama has placed himself at the helm of a top secret “nominations” process to designate terrorists for kill or capture, of which the capture part has become largely theoretical. He had vowed to align the fight against Al Qaeda with American values; the chart, introducing people whose deaths he might soon be asked to order, underscored just what a moral and legal conundrum this could be.

If you’ve ever wondered why those drone strikes in Pakistan are so good at avoiding civilian casualties, wonder no longer:

It is also because Mr. Obama embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties that did little to box him in. It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent…

[I]n interviews, three former senior intelligence officials expressed disbelief that the number [of civilian casualties] could be so low. The C.I.A. accounting has so troubled some administration officials outside the agency that they have brought their concerns to the White House. One called it “guilt by association” that has led to “deceptive” estimates of civilian casualties.

Read more: NYTimes.com H/T: Trench Press