Professor Isa Blumi joins me for part 2 of our series on Yemen. We pick up in the late 90’s after Ali Abdullah Saleh has come to power in a unified Yemen. Isa discusses Saleh’s strategy of sowing chaos all over the country in order to maintain absolute power. Isa talks about Saleh’s use of extreme violence, and his reliance on US power. We then explore how the so called Arab Spring played out in Yemen. We discuss the orchestrated nature of the movement, and how is sought to control the very real desires of the Yemeni public. Isa touches on people like Tawakkol Karman and her role as a US proxy during the Arab Spring. Isa brings us all the way to Saleh’s assassination and the current state of Yemen.
Later we talk about the role that Al Qaeda plays on Yemen as a bogey man. We discuss how the US used Yemen as playground for their eventual global drone program. We address the fight going on between Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Yemen. Isa also explains the political history of Ansar Allah (Houthis) and how they are not an Iranian proxy force.
This week professor Isa Blumi joins me for an in-depth discussion of the economic and geopolitical history of Yemen. We cover the period between the mid 1800’s all the way through to the early 2000’s. Isa talks about the forgotten history of Yemen through out the conversation. We discuss Yemen’s role as a bulwark against imperialism, from its earliest days fighting against the British East India company to American oil conglomerates. Isa talks about North Yemen’s role as a progressive nation that supported everyone from the George Habash to Che Guevara. We also discuss South Yemen’s Marxist history as well. Isa also talks about the deliberately obscured fact that Yemen is rich in oil, gas, and other natural resources. Isa describes how work and regional powers have long sough to subjugate and control Yemen’s immense wealth through economic and conventional warfare.
For this month’s episode Christoph and I start by taking a look at a very important aspect of Gladio B, the East Turkestan Project, and specifically the terrorist smuggling rings that are active in bringing Uyghurs to Turkey. We start by taking a look at the most recent example of this type of operation which was just discovered in Shanghai. Christoph breaks down how widespread these large and sophisticated human smuggling rings are. We also touch on how the ongoing battle between Erdogan and Gulen has affected the political debate about the Uyghur issue in Turkey. Christoph and I highlight this point by discussing the rare admission by World Uyghur Congress President Reba Kadir that there are in fact Turkish smugglers sending Uyghurs to Syria and Iraq, and the interesting response in the Islamist Turkish media calling Kadir an “infidel” and “American agent for sale.”
Next we move on to Azerbaijan and discuss the the most recent attempts by the South Caucus nation to crack down on foreign-funded media and NGO’s. This time we look at the recent closing of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) offices in Baku and the arrest and detention of RFE/RL journalists and staff. Christoph breaks down how this recent crackdown is being spun in the West as a geopolitical shift away from NATO and the West, and into the arms of big, bad, evil Russia. Christoph and I explain how even though the rhetoric of Azerbaijan may be hostile, behind the scenes, particularly with regard to NATO, everything is going splendidly. We finish out the segment by dissecting one aspect of the Azerbaijan issue that continues to flare up, the ongoing crisis in breakaway region Nagorno-Karabahk, and how this relates to Azerbaijan’s increased “anti-Western” actions.
In our next segment we move on to the other actor in the Nagorno-Karabahk region, the small South Caucus nation of Armenia. Christoph and I start by discussing Armenia’s recent entry into the Russian-led economic bloc, the Eurasian Economic Union. Christoph explains why Armenia chose to join the EEU despite Europe’s desires to the contrary. We discuss how Armenia is stuck in a difficult position when it comes to EEU, as Russia , which they depend on to militarily back up their de-facto control of Nagorno-Karabahk, is their sole protective ally in the world. Christoph relates how Armenia’s membership in the EEU has led to the closing of the National Democratic Institute, which signals a tacit defeat for the American Deep-State’s “democracy promotion” agenda. We finish out this section on Armenia by focusing on the recent brutal murder of a family of seven by a Russian solider in the city of Gyumri and how this complicates Russian-Armenian relations.
Closing out this episode of PGG Christoph and I update the listeners on the Tajik-Afghan border crisis and the pipeline politics of Russia and Ukraine. We also comment on the recent Charlie Hebdo killings by looking at it from a geopolitical perspective. Christoph and I discuss how bizarre it is – – casting the already dead Awlaki and the practically dead Zawahiri as the masterminds of the attack. I also give my take on the situation in Yemen and how the Houthi led takover of the nation might be part of a much larger plan to get former president Saleh back in power.
Porkins Policy Review 
