(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Yemeni protesters are now urging Saudi Arabia to refrain from interfering in Yemen's affairs amid Yemenis' efforts to form a transitional council.
We have conducted an interview with Wayne Madsen, an investigative journalist in Washington, for more on the issue.
Q: The Yemenis are denouncing the outside intervention in their country, to start off with the Islamic Saudi Arabia for their interference. Can you please tell us what you think the Saudi role is in this case in which supposedly at this point Ali Abdullah Saleh's being there receiving treatment?
Madsen: Well, I think the Saudis to a great extent along with the United Arab Emirates and the other [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council nations, are interested in maintaining some sort of status quo in Yemen. We now have reports and many of these news reports I think are based more on propaganda emanating from Washington and London and also Saudi Arabia more than anything else that al-Shabab fighters from Somalia somehow are getting into Yemen to fight against the government and we have these constant references to al-Qaeda being active against the Yemeni government.
Of course this all tends to build up sympathy for the Saleh family which of course is still controlling the situation, at least from the government side, in Yemen through President Saleh's son who has shown no interest in stepping down and leaving power.
So I think what we have playing out in Yemen is an interest by the Saudis who are acting as surrogates for the United States to maintain some sort of status quo which will ensure first of all that there is no autonomy for the Houthi rebels in the northern part of Yemen and absolutely no reinstatement of independence for the former People's Democratic Republic of Yemen also known as South Yemen.
Q: Well, of course when you talk about the status quo there, some may suggest that the news that the United States is building a secret CIA airbase suggest that there is a long term US commitment there. If you can tell us what you think about that and also the government of Yemen has allowed for the JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command, to conduct limited strikes in Yemen.
Madsen: Yes, I have noticed that The Washington Post in its report and other newspapers' reports did not give the location of the CIA base that is launching the drones but we know from the past that the CIA has used a base in Djibouti across the Red Sea to launch those attacks which is really the closest friendly territory to Yemen.
Anything launched from Oman or the [Persian] Gulf region would be just too far away for drones to operate from. So it is clear that the base is being used as Djibouti and that there had been a lot of improvements funded by the CIA and Pentagon of the US military base in that country which we took over of a French military base to conduct these operations in both the Horn of Africa and in Yemen. So it is claimed that it is a secret but it is the most poorly-kept secret I can think of here in Washington D.C. that this base is in Djibouti.
Q: Would Yemen be one of the 5 countries, if you put Pakistan into that, that the US would be engaged in a war?
Madsen: Well, I think we have been engaged in a low-leveled special operation, covert war, in Yemen for quite some time. I think what we are seeing with the independence of South Sudan as the possibility that the US will be engaged in not only wars in Yemen but also possibly in Somali with the US giving drones now to Uganda and Burundi for Somali operations and also possibly be involved in the covert operations on behalf of South Sudan and places like Abyei province and also possibly even in Darfur.
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