Bloomberg: WH and State Department "Dismissive" About Plight of Americans Stranded in Yemen; Suggest That Being There Is Their Own Fault

That may or may not be true, and it may be true that rescuing a large group of people, scattered all over the country, is too dangerous for both the rescuers and the rescuees.

But the tone. The tone of "dismissal."

The WH and State Department do not care about US citizens stuck in Yemen; they only care about having to answer questions about their lack of action. That is, they only care about themselves, as they only cared about themselves during the Benghazi attack; those killed in Benghazi were not important as human beings, but merely as headaches and complications for Obama and Hillary.

And so too now are US citizens in Yemen. The Administration reacts with its typical mix of hostility, defensiveness, and blame-shifting when asked about yet another of their failures.

Americans Trapped in Yemen? U.S. Says 'Good Luck'

16 APR 22, 2015 6:00 AM EDT

By Josh Rogin

...

Yet, the tone from White House and State Department spokespeople when asked by reporters about the lack of action has often seemed dismissive; the official response has been to point to previous State Department travel warnings about the dangers in Yemen, which seems like blaming the U.S. citizens for being there in the first place. Many of these people are Yemeni immigrants or the children of immigrants who returned to see their families.

"We are giving Americans opportunities -- information about opportunities, I should say -- to use other methods of leaving Yemen, and that's why we have been very clear since the mid-1990s that people should not travel to Yemen," State Department acting spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters Monday.

A reporter pointed out that one of the State Department’s absolute highest responsibilities is protecting U.S. citizens abroad.

"Absolutely," Harf responded. "That's why we have been telling them not to go to Yemen."

The actual information that the State Department has been sending U.S.-citizens in Yemen has been spotty, vague and unhelpful, according to Ayoub. Random alerts have pointed Americans to travel great distances for opportunities to leave the country without any assurances they would be successful when they get there.

"The U.S. government has been informed that there is another Indian naval ship that will leave from Hodeidah on April 12, arriving in Djibouti on April 13," an April 11 emergency message for U.S. citizens stated. "We have been told that U.S. citizens are welcome and should get to Hodeidah as soon as possible. Unfortunately we have no information on who to contact to board this ship."

Ayoub said one recipient of this alert was a 12-year old girl who lived six to eight hours away from the destination. With no means to make the journey through an active war zone, she was unable to take the State Department’s advice.

It seems that the department’s excuses for not directly rescuing Americans in Yemen are disappearing quickly. Not only is there a temporary ceasefire between the Saudi-backed government and the Houthis, there’s even a new U.S. Naval flotilla in the Gulf of Aden, including an aircraft carrier, to assist in any rescue operation.

Incidentally, when the capital was overrun a couple of months ago and US diplomatic and military personnel were under direct threat, the Administration squashed the story and demanded the media not report on it, when US personnel were possibly in harm's way.

Of course, the media then continued to not report on it.

This is an incompetent, disastrous presidency, but full of ego and narcissism and venom, and they get very angry when it is pointed out that their estimates of their own competencies does not match physical reality.

posted by Ace at 02:42 PM

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