Peace Prize President Kills 23 Children and 17 Women in Order to Protect the Assets of the IMF and World Bank

by Scott Creighton

***UPDATE*** Thousands of Yemen’s citizens took to the streets yesterday to protest the killing of innocent civilians.  while… Adm. Mullen applauded the attack. 

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Think your president still represents “change”?  Still think he’s “The Greatest Man of Our Generation“? 

While all the news media focuses us on the ridiculous debate of whether or not the Obamacare bill is good for Americans (it isn’t, not by a long shot), another story, a truly remarkable one,  is already starting to slip away down into the memory hole as if it never happened. 

Last Thursday, quietly and with zero fanfare, the Peace Prize winning president of the United States (possibly while actually wearing his Peace Prize around his neck to bolster his “progressive” street cred) signed the order to unleash the dogs of war against two separate locations in Yemen.  Their “target”, a “suspected Al-Qaeda member”, was not harmed.  However, many civilians were harmed.  Many of them were killed and maimed in the attacks.

President Obama late last week ordered cruise missile attacks on two locations in Yemen, which “U.S. officials” say were “suspected Al Qaeda hideouts.”  The main target of the attacks, Al Qaeda member Qasim al Rim, was not among those killed, but: “a local Yemeni official said on Sunday that 49 civilians, among them 23 children and 17 women, were killed in air strikes against Al-Qaeda, which he said were carried out ‘indiscriminately’.”  Glenn Greenwald

A few blogs and newspapers briefly covered the story then dropped it (“Nothing to see here folks. Move On.”).  But the “Quick Forget Factor” to save Obama’s Peace Cred isn’t the most significant part of the story. For that, we have to look a little deeper. For that, we have to ask the question “Why?”.  Why is it that Barak Obama chose to kill at least 49 civilians in a little country most people in America couldn’t find on a map.  Would he, once again, try to justify it by claiming Al Qaeda will use Yemen as a platform to launch attacks on America?  Would he, once again, raise the unholy specter of 9/11; the “end all be all” of every single illegal act the U.S. imperialism train has perpetrated since that fateful day? 

No. What they did this time, is actually worse.

This time, in quite succinct language, the administration was a little more straight forward in their explanation, if not still just a tad vague.

One of the targeted sites was a suspected al Qaeda training camp north of the capital, Sanaa, and the second target was a location where officials said “an imminent attack against a U.S. asset was being planned.”  ABC News

So what is “a U.S. asset” and why is it worth the lives of 49 Yemen civilians, 23 of whom were children?  For the answer to that, let’s consult the website of a U.S. asset operating in Yemen… Kuwait Energy.

All U.S. assets aren’t owned exclusively by U.S. companies or citizens.  In fact, there are many U.S. assets that are held off-shore for various reasons. Take Halliburton, for example. In a very unpopular move, Halliburton (Dick Cheney’s old company and the recipient of various no-bid, cost-plus, sweetheart deals work out by old “shot-gun Dick” himself) left the good-old U.S. of A. for a bit of a safer environment… The United Arab Emirates.  But Halliburton is still considered a “U.S. asset” of course.

Kuwait Energy was formed in 2005 and in Sept. of this year, they received a $50  million dollar World Bank loan.  For those of you who don’t know what the World Bank is, in a nutshell, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were created by the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944 and has been used in the past several decades to force crippling neoliberal “structural reforms” on nations who are forced to borrow money from them.

Critics argue that the so-called free market reform policies which the Bank advocates are often harmful to economic development if implemented badly, too quickly (“shock therapy“), in the wrong sequence or in weak, uncompetitive economies.^[20][21]

In Masters of Illusion: The World Bank and the Poverty of Nations (1996), Catherine Caufield argued that the assumptions and structure of the World Bank harms southern nations. Caufield criticized its formulaic recipes of “development”. To the World Bank, different nations and regions are indistinguishable and ready to receive the “uniform remedy of development”. She argued that to attain even modest success, Western practices are adopted and traditional economic structures and values abandoned. A second assumption is that poor countries cannot modernize without money and advice from abroad.

A number of intellectuals in developing countries have argued that the World Bank is deeply implicated in contemporary modes of donor and NGO imperialism and that its intellectual contribution functio to blame the poor for their condition. Wiki

 So what, you ask, does all this have to do with “the terrorists” Scott?  What does Kuwait Energy have to do with al Qaeda and President Obama bombing children to make the world safe for democracy?

Simple; Kuwait Energy is an extension of the World Bank and the IMF, which has been slamming the people of Yemen for over a decade with their “structural reforms”, thus creating pockets of resistance (ie. “insurgents”) of poor and unhappy people who don’t like being the collateral damage of the IMF’s “free-market” reforms.  How do I know this?  Kuwait Energy boasts about it on their website. That’s how.

In early 1995, the government of Yemen launched an economic, financial and administrative reform program (EFARP) with the support of the World Bank and the IMF, as well international donors. The First Five-Year Plan (FFYP) for the years 1996 to 2000 was introduced in 1996. The World Bank has focused on public sector management,including civil service reform, budget reform and privatization.

The World Bank is active in Yemen, with twenty-two active projects in 2004, including projects to improve governance in the public sector, water, and education.  Kuwait Energy website

What that translates to is the World Bank and the IMF privatized the education system and the water in Yemen, handing them all over to private, for-profit companies.  Then along comes Kuwait Energy to help pick apart another of their natural resources, oil and natural gas production.

Kuwait Energy has several production projects already up and running in Yemen and 4 major exploration blocks designated to them under conditions of the World Bank and the IMF.  Funny how that works, ain’t it?  The countries come to the IMF and World Bank for help and they are then forced to hand over major resources to companies that the World Bank and the IMF finance.  Great work when you can get it, huh?

Obama kills kids for this

Snaking through the deserts and the cities of Yemen, hiding right there in plain sight, is the real reason President Obama oked the use of massive military might against the upstart civilians fighting to regain a bit of control of their nation. Or one of them.

 It would be unfair of me to simply focus on the oil and natural gas “reforms” forced by the World Bank and the IMF without also pointing out that as recently as Nov. 10th of this year, the World Bank agreed to another $80 million dollars to be pumped into Yemen’s privatization plans.  These also could be considered “U.S. assets” as well.

The World Bank (W.B.) plans to increase its assistance to Yemen from $120 million to $200 million, announced Shamsahd Akhtar, the W.B. Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, on Sunday in her meeting with Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Mujawar.

In a separate meeting with the Governor of the Central Bank of Yemen (CBY), Ahmed al-Samawi, Akhtar voiced the World Banks readiness to support Yemen and the CBY in their efforts to reform the banking system throughout the country.  YOB Server

That’s right.  The World Bank and the IMF are in the process of a critical “restructuring” process of Yemen’s banking system. To be honest, those changes started immediately after the IMF got their dirty fingers into the Yemen pie.

There are no restrictions on the transfer of foreign currencies abroad, as the Republic of Yemen has accepted Article VIII of the International Monetary Fund in December 1996.  Central Bank of Yemen website

Now, according to the governor of the Central Bank of Yemen, the IMF is looking to make even more changes to their banking structures so of course it wouldn’t do to have those darn “terrorists” messing up the plan.

$50 million IMF bucks to Kuwait Energy this year and an additional $200 million commitment from the IMF and World Bank for a grand total of 1/4 billion dollars being floated into the nation of Yemen. That’s a lot of “U.S. assets” wouldn’t you say?

So, President Obama pulled the trigger on 49 innocent civilians last week.  He did so, not in order to prevent another 9/11. Not to prevent another anthrax attack. He did it to make the country safe for the assets of the U.S. investor class, the IMF, and the World Bank.

And I promise you, if his behavior for the past 11 months is any indication, he won’t lose one nights sleep over it.