Yemen: Hostage Luke Somers Killed During Rescue Attempt – Along With 8 Unarmed Civilians

(archived from December 6, 2014)

by Scott Creighton

UPDATE: According to the official story told by unnamed officials, those 8 civilians are now al Qaeda:

“At least nine al-Qaida militants were killed in an initial drone strike, another security official said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity” Huffington Post

Also of note, the raid took place this morning, one day before the other hostage was reported to be released. That hostage died as well.

“But an aid group helping negotiate Korkie’s release said he was to be freed Sunday and his wife was told that “the wait is almost over.” Huffington Post

The timing of the raid, just one day before that release, was spurred by a report from a Yemeni security official who claims he had word that Luke would be killed today.

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It hardly seems like a story worth reporting on anymore. “At least” eight civilians killed during a U.S. commando raid in Yemen. The headline at the New York Times focuses exclusively on the American hostage, Luke Somers, who also died as a result.

The left is busy running around protesting the militarization of police departments and the deaths of a couple unarmed men here in the states and feeling very good about themselves while they do it… while in the meantime, the military continues to rain hell down on unarmed civilians across the world and there isn’t a peep out of the fake left anymore.

 

According to the story, Luke Somers was a freelance photojournalist working in Yemen when he was abducted late last year. The group that took him is supposedly part of a movement that wants our puppet dictatorship out of power in the country and an end to the brutal austerity of free-market neoliberalism.

Luke’s family released a video pleading for his return. In it, his brother stated “Luke is only a photojournalist, and he is not responsible for any actions the U.S. government has taken,”

According to witnesses who were there when the rescue raid took place, it must have looked like something out of Apocalypse Now with scores of helicopters flying into the little village unloading up to a hundred U.S. commandos looking for Luke.

A Yemeni tribal leader who said he was a witness to the raid, in the southern province of Shabwa, said that two Al Qaeda militants and at least eight civilians were killed during firefights as U.S. commandos raided several homes…

… The tribal leader who said he witnessed the raid, Tarek al-Daghari al-Awlaki, said helicopters and as many as a hundred troops descended on the village, Wadi Abadan. The U.S. forces deployed concussion grenades as they raided four houses in the village, he said.

“The shooting caused panic,” Mr. Daghari said. “Nine of the dead are from my tribe. Two of the dead are known to be members of Al Qaeda.” He said that two wounded civilians, a woman and a child, were taken to a nearby hospital. New York Times

There was once a time in this country when fatality numbers like these (2 fighters, at least 8 civilians and women and children rushed to a hospital) would have been unacceptable to the morally upstanding members of the left. Specifically, that time was between 2000 and 2008. Then came the CHANGE followed by SILENCE.

Suddenly everyone is worried about the militarization of the police. Can’t have our cops treating us like we treat the rest of the world, now can we?

There are conflicting reports about how exactly Luke Somers died and no word as of yet about the fate of the other two hostages who were being held with him.

But, once again, we have put boots on the ground in yet another country and their civilian population has paid a staggering price for it. Or at least, 8 families of those killed did.

They’ll be no protest. Al Sharpton wont say a word. Just a few more dead poor people in a nation far far away in the name of our “national interests”.

It should be noted that Luke Somers did a lot of work for al Jazeera and reported on the growing anti-American movement in Yemen.

It should also be noted that al Qaeda is a CIA fabrication designed to give the U.S. sufficient probable cause to get involved militarily in nations that we wish to either support or destabilize. The same is true in Yemen. al Qaeda is there for the express purpose of demonizing the growing resistance to our brutal puppet dictator.

When you look at it in that context, the conspiracy theorist in you can’t help but start to wonder.

Below are just some of the photos Luke took in Yemen. You can find more, here.

 

 

(An elderly man joined the largely youthful anti-government protesters on Sixtieth Street in Sanaa. Apr 22, 2011)

 

(Crowds cheering Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakul Karman in Sanaa. Oct 7, 2011)

 

(About two hundred feet from President Hadi’s residence, a speaker urged the assembled crowd on with demands that corrupt officials be immediately removed from positions of power. Dec 7, 2012)

The decision by Houthis to hold a public celebration of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday was a departure from tradition in Sanaa, where the day has generally been observed by citizens in mosques or homes. Jan 24, 2013

So Luke was over there putting a human face on the suffering of the Yemeni people under the rule of our puppet dictator and he was kidnapped off the side of the road by al CIAda and killed, along with at least eight civilians, under questionable circumstances during the raid to free him.

Does that about sum it up?