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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWTF?? Desperation for Americans in Yemen as U.S. refuses to mount rescue
A Michigan family with two toddlers and an infant was stranded in Yemen after being forced from its home by rebel gunmen. A California woman tried to flee through an arrangement with the embassy of Djibouti, but failed. A mother of four from New York also tried that route, at the State Department’s suggestion, only to hear the same reply: There would be no help.
These accounts are among dozens presented in a lawsuit filed Thursday by Arab and Muslim civil rights groups seeking to force the Obama administration into taking action to bring home U.S. citizens who are stuck in Yemen’s worsening conflict.
At least eight other countries – including Russia, China and India – have rescued their citizens, but the United States has refused to launch an evacuation effort. U.S. officials claim that Yemen, where a U.S.-backed, Saudi-led air campaign is pummeling targets, is too dangerous for U.S. personnel to risk their lives, though U.S. aircraft have refueled Saudi bombers for the last two days, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said.
The U.S. Embassy is shuttered, with all the diplomats and security guards taken to safety weeks ago. From Washington, the State Department directs remaining citizens to hotlines that don’t work and to foreign embassies that can’t help, leading many stranded Americans to summarize the Obama administration’s response as: Good luck.
“All day the question I ask myself is: Why is the United States not helping us?” said Sallah Elhushayshi, 21, of Brooklyn, who said he went to Yemen last year to get married and visit family. As he spoke by telephone from the city of Taiz, gunfire crackled in the background.
“Did you hear that? It’s a war now,” he said. “People are fighting, guns everywhere. We feel afraid. We have nothing. We’re worried about food and water every day. We feel hopeless, really.”
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/04/09/262695/desperation-for-americans-in-yemen.html#storylink=cpy
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delrem
(9,688 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)delrem
(9,688 posts)I'm so very sorry.
cali
(114,904 posts)Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)Perhaps the Brits can do something, discretely.
cali
(114,904 posts)msanthrope
(37,549 posts)Yemen's been AQAP'S playground for a decade now........and it's been extremely dangerous for any American to visit Yemen, except those that already have ethnic ties to a people there. NGOs haven't been able to operate there, save the Red Cresent, and they are limited.
Yemen isn't a tourist spot for Americans. It's been a dangerous place for a long time. While I hope something can be done for these citizens, one wonders why they didn't get out months ago, when the State Department warned them.
I've been evacuated. You go...as in...you get the fuck out when the Marines start suiting up.
newfie11
(8,159 posts)Married to Yemenis.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)U.S. Embassy Sana'a
Dhahr Himyar Zone,
Sheraton Hotel District
Sana'a, Yemen
All consular services, routine and/or emergency, have been suspended until further notice.
On February 11, 2015, due to the deteriorating security situation in Sanaa, the Department of State suspended embassy operations and U.S. Embassy Sanaa American staff were relocated out of the country.
All U.S. citizens who are able to depart Yemen for another country and are in need of emergency assistance may contact a U.S. Embassy or Consulate in that country. For U.S. citizen inquiries, you may send an email to YEMENEMERGENCYUSC@state.gov.
We urge U.S. citizens to defer travel to Yemen and for those U.S. citizens currently living in or visiting Yemen to depart. For more information, view our Yemen Crisis page.
The U.S. Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the high security threat level in Yemen due to terrorist activities and civil unrest. On February 11, 2015 due to the deteriorating security situation in Sanaa, the Department of State suspended embassy operations and U.S. Embassy Sanaa American staff have been relocated out of the country. All consular services, routine and/or emergency, have been suspended until further notice. The Department urges U.S. citizens to defer travel to Yemen and those U.S. citizens currently living in Yemen to depart when you are able to safely do so. This supersedes the Travel Warning for Yemen issued on February 11, 2015.
__________________________
Even here in Paris, American citizens received a no-go Yemen advisory.
I feel very sorry for the fear and anguish that these people are obviously experiencing.
BUT, YOU DO NOT TRAVEL TO REGIONS IN CONFLICT, UNLESS YOU'RE A WAR JOURNALIST!
KG
(28,752 posts)Adrahil
(13,340 posts).... And then end to be rescued.
I mean, WTF? They've been warned to get out for months.
In the end, I still think we should help them, but this kind of crap drives me nuts. More people will have to risk their lives for idiots who made bad decisions.
Pooka Fey
(3,496 posts)because being an American citizen is a privilege that you must pay for, no matter where you live.
Those other countries that rescue their citizens from war zones, like Russia, and also don't require their overseas residents to file a tax return yearly in a country they no longer live or earn money in... pay no attention to that.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/04/09/262695/desperation-for-americans-in-yemen.html#storylink=cpy
Lurks Often
(5,455 posts)Link: http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=85150
And what an ARG can do: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphibious_ready_group
I also know that the Theodore Roosevelt carrier task group is in the area as well.
In other words, a Marine infantry battalion, with air support from attack helicopters and carrier aircraft and helicopter and tilt rotor aviation support sufficient to evacuate a substantial number of people is in the area and not being used.
Sparhawk60
(359 posts)And how many Marines are you willing to get killed to rescue people who ignored Government warnings to leave? The State Department does not issue warnings just for the heck of it. It is usually a very serious situation that should not be ignored.
Maybe, just maybe, if we announced we would stop bombing Yemen, stop funding the violence, our citizens would not be in danger. I know it is old fashioned, but maybe we should give peace a chance, before we send in the Marines.
Lurks Often
(5,455 posts)My post was to point that yes, we do indeed have the necessary assets in the place to rescue Americans.
As to the rest, I've been a soldier and I accepted that part of the job was to protect American civilians, even the stupid ones who made poor choices.
I strongly suspect most of the Marines in that Amphibious Group feel the same way and are willing to place their own lives at risk to get those Americans out.
Pooka Fey
(3,496 posts)Some of these Americans were on short term academic or business assignments and got stuck over there when the airports and roads closed. The Russians, Indians, Chinese and the other 8 countries just evacuated their citizens rather than blaming them for needing help. Private military contractors in the area have offered to mount the operation in the place of the US military.
When we see the YouTube videos of captured Americans in Yemen being dressed in orange jumpsuits, forced down on their knees facing Rome and beheaded (or crucified) by the IS and Al Quiada factions fighting in the area, I dread the reactions and victim blaming I will see here on DU.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/04/09/262695/desperation-for-americans-in-yemen.html#storylink=cpy
Lurks Often
(5,455 posts)To be very clear, if I was in charge, we would be rescuing those Americans and I would use any and all force needed to do so.
However that isn't always the politically correct answer here and advocating such a position often elicits responses that include words like warmonger, you first, you sound like a Republican, war hawk and other variations on the above and I really didn't feel like dealing with the annoying and often childish responses such a response would have gotten today.
Pooka Fey
(3,496 posts)I think I understood you, I hope so or I can't say I understand English anymore -lol.
If I had a say in the matter, we would be rescuing those Americans. If Russia, India, and China can do it, I would like to believe the USA can do it too, considering that American taxpayers support a large military with a large military budget.
I thought long and hard about my post. I usually lurk too, but some things are just too hard to take. Watch how DU reacts to my last paragraph in my previous reply and you'll see you are much smarter than I am.
