Clare Daly & Mick Wallace Go To Yemen: ‘It’s Heroism, Not Terrorism’

Useful Idiots

Politics • Comedy

After speaking to a rally of over a million Yemenis, Clare and Mick report back on 'the most resilient people'

Useful Idiots

April 04, 2025

Subscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:

Activists and former Members of the European Parliament Clare Daly and Mick Wallace return to the show a day after returning from a momentous trip to Yemen where they attended (and Mick spoke at) a Palestine Solidarity rally of over a million people. We discuss the US bombing campaign they witnessed first-hand in Yemen, the resilience of the Yemeni people, the history of terror against their people, and their attempt to block Israel’s genocide against Palestinians, which continues to be enabled by the West.

Katie Halper: Tell us what you were just doing in Yemen, what brought you there and what you observed.

Clare Daly: We're a bit overwhelmed still. We only came back yesterday. We were there on invitation at the National Conference on Solidarity with Palestine, the theme being You Are Not Alone. And this was the first time that they had international visitors in Yemen, in the midst of a US blitz. We were not disappointed, it was just from start to finish an absolutely incredible experience in terms of both the solidarity with Palestine but also the absolute resilience of the Yemeni people.

Mick Wallace: You'd struggle to find a people so determined and so united. It's hard to imagine that any state has opposed Western imperialism in quite the same way as Yemen has.

KH: Much like the situation in Gaza ‘starts on October 7’ for lots of people, what's happening in Yemen just ‘starts with the Houthis blocking ships’ and being ‘bad men’ and ‘terrorists.’ But why does Saudi Arabia, with U.S. support, want to destroy Yemen? And why did the U.N. give them permission to do so?

Mick: The Yemenis had done nothing to anybody other than the fact that [in 2011 the president] had been pushed aside and the assistant Hadi had been put in power with a program of introducing neoliberalism and facilitating Western investment and plunder. They wanted to raze the place blind and get control of yemeni assets and resources.

Yemen was one of the most self-sufficient food countries on the planet. And Hadi manufactured loans from the likes of the IMF and the World Bank with a view to changing how they did agriculture so that they would produce food for export instead of for themselves. And it was a disaster. Before long, people actually found themselves short of food. And they said no to this.

There was an insurrection and of course the insurrection wasn't to the pleasing of the West and so in March 2015 [the West] said ‘we have found it impossible to subdue these people so we'll do it the other way.’ That was with military might. It's what's normal for settler colonials, be it America, Europeans or Israel. And that's what happened. Sanctions and blockades still continue to this day. And it's an enormously difficult situation for people living there now.

KH: What do you think of the way that the Houthis [Ansar Allah] are portrayed as terrorists, given that, as you pointed out, they're actually the ones following the law when it comes to genocide?

Clare: Isn't it amazing? It's deliberately portrayed as marginal and as terrorist. But in actual fact, this government is one of very few internationally which is fulfilling its responsibility under the Geneva Convention, which says that the obligation on all signatories is not just to not commit genocide yourself, but to actively prevent and punish those who do. And the Houthi-led government in Yemen is one of the few doing that. Their actions are directly targeted at interfering with international shipping, which is on its way to enable genocide.

Meanwhile, the Israelis are targeting civilians and deliberately killing ordinary people and they're the ones enabled by the West but the Houthis are the ones who are demonized as terrorists. They've been incredibly restrained, they did not attack the ships when the ceasefire was in place and they only resumed the action when the ceasefire was broken with the implementation of the mass starvation again and targeted killing of civilians by the Israelis.

The Houthis clearly have the support of their people. We were on a march of over a million people. It happens every Friday. People come out, and bear in mind that these are now the victims of American bombings. every night, to say ‘we stand with Palestine.’

We had a meeting with the former prime minister. And he said, ‘look, it's very simple for us. We are not going to stand by. When children are being murdered and starved, we have an obligation to do something and we are going to do it.’ For us, that's heroism. That's not terrorism.

For our full interview with Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, where we discuss War in Ukraine and how the West is happy to use the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder, please subscribe to Useful Idiots. Your support keeps independent media strong.

Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: State Dept Blames Hamas For Israel Executing Rescue Workers

Thanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

Only for Supporters

To read the rest of this article and access other paid content, you must be a supporter

What else you may like…

Videos

Posts

Articles

Useful Idiots@UsefulIdiots

February 15, 2023

Sanctions Are a Form of Warfare

“Sanctions are a form of war. They’re economic warfare. And they destroy people’s lives.”

Joshua Landis (https://twitter.com/joshua_landis), Sandra Mackey Chair in Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, is one of the foremost experts on Syria. This week, as Syria, along with neighbor Turkiye, grapples with the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, Professor Landis joins the Useful Idiots to explain the deadly consequences that sanctions pile on to the damage.

“America likes to talk about all its precision bombing and hitting someone with a drone to avoid collateral damage,” Landis explains. “But sanctions? It’s all about collateral damage. Very little of it is targeted.”

But if you read corporate media outlets like the New York Times or Washington Post, you’d find a much different story. Both papers this week published headlines that were hastily changed when they realized they were being a little too truthful. See if you can tell the difference:

The ...

00:01:17

Useful Idiots@UsefulIdiots

February 14, 2023

"Shameful" New York Times Changes Headline to Protect Sanctions

“Sanctions are a form of war. They’re economic warfare. And they destroy people’s lives.”

The ...

00:01:24

Useful Idiots@UsefulIdiots

February 03, 2023

Free preview: Matt Taibbi Exposes Russiagate Bots

With Matt Taibbi’s Twitter Files and Jeff Gerth’s new in-depth reporting for CJR exposing the years of lies spread by Russiagaters, bitter attacks from outed journalists are rolling in.

Gerth and Taibbi, who come from the old style of journalism where you fact check your work and don’t accept government officials’ claims on faith, have each shown clear, indisputable evidence of disinformation campaigns pushed by corporate reporters. And since the so-called journalists can’t argue the facts, they dig themselves a deeper hole with more lies and name-calling.

Jeff Gerth has been working as a reporter for decades and published, in the very mainstream Columbia Journalism Review, a 20,000-word report on his findings, only to be called a liar and misdirecting magician in the most self-important article by Mother Jones’ David Corn (“The true media failure is that Trump got away with it and that articles like this one that you are now reading are still necessary.”) And possibly worse ...

00:54:34

David Wainscott @Genehackman

May 11, 2025

Emphasized "Dancing with 88

I have altered space here— to

a rupture in the silent fabric,

where every atom reclaims its song.

A change, seen on my 90° angle,

becomes the pivot of a daring ballet,

the precise intersection where fate unspools.

In that crisp right-angle lie the secrets

of all absorbed twilight and reborn dawns,

a moment where geometry becomes prophecy,

transmuting static lines into dynamic rhythms,

inviting the cosmos to twirl in unexpected arcs.

And then—

I find myself dancing with 88,

a numeral of resonance, a muse of mystery.

It whispers in binary beats,

each pulse a portal leading into

symphonies scribbled on the canvas of space-time.

This is no choreographed routine,

but a wild, liberated waltz

where dimensions bend and merge—

where the old order crumbles

under the heat of relentless transformation

and every step unearths a layer of being.

At that 90° juncture,

the universe unfolds like a secret map,

revealing uncharted realms in every fracture,

while 88 becomes the score for a cosmic ballet,

...

E. Novelo@ermilo

May 26, 2024

Has the Gaza Pier Been Beached? | Army Watercraft come ashore off Gaza and Israel

Tootsie9@Tootsie9

March 26, 2024

Good to be part of the community. I think that Aaron and Katie do a brilliant job in these hellish times when such great in - depth research and reporting are essential.

Useful Idiots@UsefulIdiots

November 21, 2025

Fmr Obama Speechwriter: "Genocide is Bad" Is WRONG Takeaway of the Holocaust

Plus, Katie and Aaron analyze Zohran Mamdani's upcoming meeting with Trump

If you haven’t seen this video yet, you’re in for a wild ride:

“It used to be that the media in America was American media,” begins former Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz in a speech to the Jewish Federation that is about as antisemitic as anything you’d find on the dark corners of the internet. “It generally didn’t express extreme anti-Israel views. But today we have social media. So you have TikTok just smashing our young people’s brains all day long with video of carnage in Gaza.”

Hurwitz attempts to spin this to argue that the problem isn’t the carnage, but that young people are seeing it. “And this is why so many of us can’t have a sane conversation with younger Jews, because anything that we try to say to them, they’re hearing through this wall of carnage. I want to give data and information and facts and arguments, and they are just seeing in their minds carnage. And I sound obscene.”

Yes. You do. But not as obscene as you will after saying this next part:

“Holocaust education is absolutely essential, but I think it may be confusing some of our young people about antisemitism. Because they learn about big, strong Nazis hurting weak, emaciated Jews. So when on TikTok all day long they see powerful Israelis hurting weak, skinny Palestinians, it’s not surprising that they think, ‘Oh, I know the lesson of the Holocaust is you fight Israel. You fight the big, powerful people hurting the weak people.’”

………………

Yes!

Only for Supporters

To read the rest of this article and access other paid content, you must be a supporter

Read full Article

Useful Idiots@UsefulIdiots

November 14, 2025

JD Vance Can't Stop Laughing at Trump's al-Qaeda Joke

The Useful Idiots Friday Free-For-All

This week Trump met with Syrian President al-Sharaa, formerly known as Mohammad al-Jolani, the former leader of al-Qaeda in Syria. And he treated the former US-labeled terrorist in the most American way: literally showering him in perfume and laughing at jokes together.

Because if you implement US regime change and support Israel in the Middle East, beheadings and 9/11s are just water under the bridge.

Also in this week’s Friday Free-For-All: Bari Weiss and John Fetterman accidentally spill the truth about antisemitism, Eric Trump says the least-relatable thing you’ve ever heard, and a reporter gets breathless interviewing the latest Kennedy boy.

Subscribe to watch it all here in our Friday Free-For-All:

Only for Supporters

To read the rest of this article and access other paid content, you must be a supporter

Read full Article

Useful Idiots@UsefulIdiots

November 07, 2025

Israel PANICS After Zohran’s NYC Win

Watch a free preview of our episode and subscribe for the full chat with Ross Barkan

Subscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:

*Don’t miss our new segment, the Friday Free-For-All: Elon Musk Short Circuits on Joe Rogan Over Zohran Mamdani*

In 2018, Ross Barkan ran for New York State Senate. His campaign manager was Zohran Mamdani.

This week, after an unprecedented surprise campaign, which began polling at 0% on announcement day, Zohran Mamdani pulled off an upset to become New York City’s next mayor. Ross Barkan explains how this happened, the forces and money working against Mamdani, and why this signals a tailspin for Israeli influence campaigns over US candidates.

Useful Idiots: The ADL has announced that they’re launching a comprehensive, citywide initiative to track and monitor policies and personnel appointments of the incoming Mamdani administration. And earlier, Jonathan Greenblatt said that Zohran wasn’t meeting with “the right Jews.” What is your response to the ADL’s effort against Zohran Mamdani?
Ross Barkan: It really backfired on them. They made this a referendum on Israel. And that helped Zohran.
Zohran himself did not make this election a referendum in Israel-Palestine. He did not talk about it in his campaign ads. He was not talking about it on the stump. It really was a locally-focused affordability campaign. And again and again, because he is pro-Palestine and has a long history in activism, he was attacked on it. And they lost the referendum bad.
They lost the primary by 13 points, they lost the general election by 9 points. Put into context the amount of money spent against him by the super PACs from the primary and general and you’re talking almost $60 million dollars, plus Cuomo’s own money. So they poured in $70 million dollars against him collectively and they were beaten.
Useful Idiots: Let’s look at what happens when Zohran takes office January 1st. Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed him, but yet she’s opposed a centerpiece of his campaign, which is a bit of a higher tax on the ultra wealthy to help fund some of his social programs: free buses, universal child care, and other measures. What kind of challenges is he facing on that front to actually push his agenda through?

Only for Supporters

To read the rest of this article and access other paid content, you must be a supporter

Read full Article

Available on mobile and TV devices