http://www.radio4all.net/program/88344Podcast for Program: Andrew Cockburn on US-Saudi slaughter in YemenWed, 14 Sep 2016 12:31:07 +0000240http://www.radio4all.net/program/88344Andrew Cockburn, author of “Acceptable Losses: Aiding and Abetting Saudi Slaughter in Yemen” (Harper’s 9/16) provides background for Saudi war on Yemen with US multi-level support, weapons, intelligence, naval blockade, political cover and compares with coverage of Syrian war, noting that civilians focus of Saudi bombing as well as hospitals, noting 3 attacks on Medicines Sans Frontiers causing it to abandon No. Yemen. He explains background of Houtis and how Saudis and how they and US came, mistakenly, to view them as Iranian proxies. He traces US-Saudi alliance back to Saudi funding for mujahedeen in Afghanistan that became al-Qaeda, for the Contras; monarchy’s major weapons purchases and role in US economy, how Saudi overt militarism erupted with emergence of Prince Mohammed bin Salman; how its Wahabi interpretation of Islam adopted by Al Qaeda and ISIS which uses Saudi textbooks in its schools. Re Syria, he points to US support for Al Qaeda franchise, al-Nusra front, and hostility in US press and Pentagon towards new Russia-US negotiated ceasefire agreement.Jeff BlankfortWed, 14 Sep 2016 12:31:07 +0000