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Clare Daly & Mick Wallace Go To Yemen: ‘It’s Heroism, Not Terrorism’
After speaking to a rally of over a million Yemenis, Clare and Mick report back on 'the most resilient people'
April 04, 2025
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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:

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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
"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.”

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 ...

00:01:24
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.

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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 ...

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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,

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In that crisp right-angle lie the secrets

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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,

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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,

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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.

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Trump’s Fake Peace Plan EXPOSED By Ex-UN Lawyer & Palestinian Analyst
Watch a free preview of our episode and subscribe for the full chat with Craig Mokhiber and Mouin Rabbani

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This week we’re speaking to two Useful Idiots return guests: Mouin Rabbani, co-editor at Jadaliyya and non-resident fellow at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, and human rights attorney Craig Mokhiber, who resigned from the United Nations over its failure to act on Gaza.

Useful Idiots: What is your response to Trump’s so-called peace plan?

Mouin Rabbani: Well, just to say it’s not a peace plan. It’s a proposal to achieve a ceasefire. If you look at the proposal closely, it doesn’t include any enforcement mechanisms, even for those elements that have been agreed. And most importantly, it doesn’t say anything about Palestinian rights. And therefore, if it’s entirely successful, it will at best take us back to October 6 [2023].

Craig Mokhiber: It’s not a peace plan. It’s not a plan for ending the conflict. It’s not a plan that responds to the genocide. It addresses none of the root causes of the situation in Palestine. It is absolutely lawless.

This was created in the dark back rooms of Washington. It makes no reference to international law, and some of the provisions of the plan actually violate international law. Things like conditioning humanitarian aid, implicit threats of collective punishment if Hamas doesn’t agree to something, the explicit denial of Palestinian self-determination, and restrictions on political rights for some Palestinians. It tries to return to a situation where Palestinians have to negotiate for their human rights with their oppressors. And it fails to seek any accountability for Israeli crimes, including genocide.

This ceasefire has been repeatedly violated already by Israel. They immediately destroyed the water treatment plant, they killed several Palestinian civilians, and blocked some of the aid that’s supposed to be coming in.

It is a certain relief in terms of the amount of bombs and bullets that are flying in Gaza, it allows some aid in, and it has allowed for some Palestinian prisoners to be released from horrific Israeli torture camps. But beyond that piece of that ceasefire agreement, there is nothing here to celebrate.

For the full interview with Craig and Mouin debunking terrible takes from Katie Miller and Kamala Harris and explaining the real reason why Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, please subscribe to Useful Idiots.

You’ll also get our Thursday Throwdown: Cory Booker’s Israel Panic Flub Turns Into An ‘Arrested Development’ Moment

Watch the full episode here:

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Cory Booker’s Israel Panic Flub Turns Into An ‘Arrested Development’ Moment
Plus, Aaron and Katie compare their latest debates on Piers Morgan

This week the Democrats have folded themselves end-over-end in a superfluous effort to prove to the public something that everyone’s known for some time: “We’re pushovers!”

On this Thursday Throwdown, Katie and Aaron are spotlighting two Democratic tools of the Zionist lobby: NJ Senator Cory Booker, who has received over $800,000 from the Israel lobby to vote at their will, and 2028 presidential hopeful Governor Gavin Newsom. Both were asked simple questions about Israel.

Booker was asked: “Do you think Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal?”

His answer: “I, I, I, again, these are these are questions that a lot of people think are the important litmus tests that are loaded and hot…I get these questions all the time that to me undermine my urgency… Here’s a here’s a yes or no for you: Do I think Netanyahu’s worse than Trump? Yes.”

After a mess of an answer, does he think you’re allowed to substitute a different yes-or-no question for the one asked? Is that how it works? But as if to make Booker’s answer sound intelligent, Gavin Newsom sunk even lower.

His interviewer says: “I will not vote for a candidate that takes $1 from AIPAC.”

Newsom’s response: “That’s interesting. I mean, it’s it’s interesting I haven’t thought about AIPAC. And it’s interesting you’re like the first to bring up AIPAC in years, which is interesting. Not, not relevant to the my day-to-day life. Which is just interesting. It’s interesting you say that…it’s just interesting.”

That response was… thought-provoking.

And we couldn’t help but see a parallel between these two joker Dems and a certain favorite Arrested Development moment:

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Secret Meeting Files PROVE 50-Year Media Conspiracy w/ David Sirota
Watch a free preview of our episode and subscribe for the full chat with David Sirota on why billionaire elites installed Bari Weiss at CBS

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

Useful Idiots fan-favorite David Sirota returns this week with a new book that dives into the dark money plot for elites to take full and final control of mainstream media. Subscribe for the full interview with David on Bari Weiss’s takeover of CBS News, the rise of tech oligarchs in America, and David’s message for disgruntled leftists.

Here’s a preview of our chat:

Useful Idiots: You have this great new book out called Master Plan: The Hidden Plot to Legalize Corruption in America. It’s really relevant to so much of what’s happening today when it comes to media conglomeration, but it’s also relevant to a scary lawsuit that’s being headed by Vice President JD Vance that could have a damaging effect on some of the last campaign finance laws in this country.

David Sirota: Master Plan tells the story of the fifty year secret plot to legalize corruption in a systematic way: deregulate the campaign finance system and make it nearly impossible to prosecute bribery. This plot started in the early 1970s with the Powell Memo, a memo written by Lewis Powell before he became a Supreme Court Justice. He was worried about corporations and oligarchs losing power, and he wrote this call to arms about how corporations, oligarchs, and the like had to invest in politics to make sure, essentially, that democracy didn’t continue to get ‘destroyed.’

There were secret meetings in which some of the most powerful people in the country laid out how they were executing the Powell Memo. There was an effort to take over media, which we’re now seeing culminating in the Paramount-Skydance takeover with Donald Trump and Bari Weiss.

Powell writes these memos that have never been seen before: he engineers a ruling extending constitutional protection for money as speech. Money is speech. Right now, as we speak, JD Vance is spearheading a low profile but huge case at the Supreme Court to try to give the now 6-3 conservative court an opportunity to eliminate all of the remaining limits on campaign contributions directly to candidates.

Useful Idiots: So what’s the playbook for selling all this to the public? As a victory for the working class? For freedom? JD Vance fashioned himself as being pro-working class, but I don’t see anything in his record that supports that. So is this just an effort to push this through and hope nobody notices? Or is there a massive propaganda campaign to get people to buy into this agenda?

David Sirota: I think their theory is: ‘We don’t care.’ There is no public-facing argument in the effort to deregulate campaign finance. They are making a straight up First-Amendment-legalistic-technical-argument to the Supreme Court, hoping the Supreme Court gives them what they want, because once they get what they want, then it unleashes unlimited spending for them.

I don’t think they’re going out to the public saying, ‘hey, we’re deregulating campaign finance. We’re making sure the anti-bribery laws can’t be enforced. We’re doing this for some higher purpose.’ They’re doing this expecting that the media and the public will not follow the ins-and-outs of campaign finance law and anti-bribery law, knowing that if they’re successful, it will give them more power under the law to spend as much money as they want, making the political discourse and public policy whatever it is they want.

Subscribe for the full interview with David Sirota. Order his new book Master Plan here.

And don’t miss this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Fmr Congressman Reveals What Happens at Closed-Door AIPAC Events

Thanks for supporting independent media, watch the full episode here:

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