THE SET-UP: Well, we have our first “Gate” of Trump’s second Presidency.
Signalgate has quickly morphed into an oxygen-sucking debate over procedures and protocols. Trump’s team deployed the “hoax” defense and attacked Jeffrey Goldberg as “scum.” They claimed nothing classified was shared and assured us Elon Musk is investigating the “glitch” that “somehow” invited Goldberg into the chat. It was a classic end-run from the Trump playbook. Two election wins later, they really have no compelling reason to do anything but lie.
Goldberg responded with an early morning release of additional text messages from the thread in question. Of course, those messages added fuel to the ad nauseam debate over what should or shouldn’t be classified. If nothing else, the messages highlighted the cavalier way Trump's NatSec team conducted themselves in a chat room. There is just enough “there” there to justify at least a few more newscycles spent gobsmacked by the impunity of an Administration that came to power on the power of its President’s utter shameless … but my attention was drawn to this message from Hegseth's frat-chat war party line:
"The first target – their top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.”
That’s interesting. I have questions…
Is the US at war with Yemen? Or the Houthis? Has Congress declared war?
Has Trump's regime offered a legal framework or justification for this attack?
I ask because that message implies that the United States is currently killing noncombatants in an undeclared war.
I would like to know more about the calculus they are using when deciding to "collapse" a building that may have been home to more than just "their top missile guy" and his "girlfriend."
I would like to know if there are other collapsed buildings and, if so, how many?
I want to know what the cut-off is for acceptable "collateral" deaths when deciding to collapse a building. I would like to know more about the rules of engagement under Trump and the Drunken Lethality Enthusiast he put in charge of the Pentagon.
Trump loosened those rules the first time ... how much looser are the rules this time?
Yes, the shamelessness of the lying is infuriating (and insulting) ... and yes, the sophomoric smearing of Jeffrey Goldberg is a craven attempt at misdirection ... but I also don't want to get trapped in a partisan ping-pong game that simply takes for granted the right of the United States to deprive people of their lives without ever having to explain itself or consider the implications that will, almost without fail, eventually come back to haunt us. - jp
TITLE: US strikes will not stop Red Sea shipping attacks, Houthis warn
https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2025/03/26/houthis-say-us-strikes-will-not-stop-them-as-yemen-is-bombed/
EXCERPTS: Yemen's Houthi rebels have said they will not be defeated by continued US attacks.
The group's heartland of Saada and Amran were hit 17 times by the US overnight on Tuesday and into Wednesday, the rebels said. Warplanes carried out “aggressive air raids … causing material damage to citizens' property”, they added. There were no further details given of deaths or injuries.
Mahdi Al Mashat, chairman of the Houthis' Supreme Political Council, told US President Donald Trump that the entire duration of his term in office would not be enough to stop their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. “Your decision to attack our country to dissuade us from supporting Gaza will not succeed, and will not stop until the aggression stops and the siege is lifted,” he said in a statement addressed to Mr Trump.
“Your entire presidential term will not be enough to dissuade us.”
The Houthis claimed solidarity with the Palestinian people by attacking international shipping routes after the start of the Israel-Gaza war. The rebels had paused their campaign when a ceasefire in Gaza took effect in January, however, they resumed attacks when the truce was broken by Israel.
“The reckless decisions of US President Donald Trump have no legitimacy at all and are a desperate attempt to protect the Zionist enemy and support its crimes, aggression and siege against the Palestinian people,” Mr Al Mashat said.
On March 15, the US announced another military offensive against the Houthis, promising to use overwhelming force until the group stopped firing on vessels in the shipping routes of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Washington said Houthi leaders had been killed in the first day of strikes that the rebel-run health ministry said took the lives of 53 people. Since then, rebel-held areas in war-torn Yemen have been struck on almost a daily basis, but the Houthis have vowed their attacks on shipping would not stop.
Houthi leaders say they will escalate attacks in response to the US campaign. “Now we see that Yemen is at war with the US and that means that we have a right to defend ourselves with all possible means, so escalation is likely,” Jamal Amer, the Houthi foreign minister, told Reuters from Sanaa on Monday.
It comes as Yemen marked a decade since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in the conflict.
TITLE: U.S. Airstrikes Alone Can’t Dislodge the Houthis
https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/03/25/yemen-houthis-airstrikes-russia/
EXCERPTS: Yemen is not an easy country to handle. Ali Abdullah Saleh—who after 22 years as Yemen’s president briefly allied himself with the Houthis, only to be ignominiously killed by them in 2017 after seeking reconciliation again with Saudi Arabia—once compared ruling Yemen to “dancing on the heads of snakes.” The nation has always been a victim of its extraordinarily fraught circumstances, from its civil war, tribalism, and secessionist movement to its war against al Qaeda and the Islamic State to its battle with famine and disease. The Houthis’ growing ties to China and Russia introduce an equally complex set of thorny calculations among key players in the region, including Moscow itself.
In March 2024, the group told China and Russia that their ships could sail through the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea without being targeted in exchange for political backing at bodies such as the U.N. Security Council. In addition to this diplomatic backing, the Houthis have also provided and received military and economic support from Russia and China.
According to the Wall Street Journal, two Houthi officials traveled to Moscow last August to discuss the purchase of $10 million worth of automatic weapons from Viktor Bout, the so-called “Merchant of Death” whom the United States released in a 2022 prisoner exchange. During the trip, representatives for the Houthis, who have also received targeting data from Russia for some missile launches, also discussed the possible purchase of Kornet anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft weapons.
This advanced conventional weaponry could improve the Houthis’ ability to target international shipping and help the group’s leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, make good on his promise to hit Israel-linked maritime targets as far as the Indian Ocean en route to the Cape of Good Hope.
According to a former U.S. special envoy for Yemen, Russia now has personnel on the ground in Sanaa and is planning to reopen its embassy in Aden this year. With the fate of Russian bases in Syria still in flux and an agreement now underway to build a Russian naval base on Sudan’s Red Sea coast, growing military cooperation between Russia and the Houthis would allow Moscow to further project power in the region. For their part, as of late November 2024, Houthi officials had facilitated the travel of Yemenis to Russia, where they were forcibly sent to fight on the front lines in Ukraine.
In spite of its growing ties to the Houthis, Russia must simultaneously maintain positive relations with Saudi Arabia, especially in the context of OPEC. Saudi-Israeli normalization seems an unlikely prospect in the near term, especially if the latest calls for “resettlement” of Palestinians outside Gaza and Riyadh’s reactions are any guide. Yet the Houthis might be tempted to play spoiler by targeting Saudi and/or Israeli interests, putting them at odds with Russia’s efforts to maintain productive relations with both regional heavyweights.
The United States has reactivated its own “maximum pressure” campaign, which sought unsuccessfully to force Tehran to renegotiate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or abandon it altogether, and has asked Russia for help in negotiations with Iran.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have staked their economic transformation on huge artificial intelligence investments with leading U.S. companies, including data centers and related infrastructure. That gives the Houthis a whole new set of potential targets.
Many of the JCPOA’s critics pointed to its failure to curb Iranian support to terrorism and regional groups, yet wanting to halt Iran’s nuclear progress and support to proxies, the United States now finds itself asking for help from Russia as it simultaneously provides support to Iran and the Houthis—playing the role of arsonist and firefighter, as some have observed. If diplomacy with Iran fails and the United States or Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear program, the Houthis will almost certainly be a part of Iran’s asymmetric response, and Russia will have to decide whether it can afford to stay neutral.
TITLE: Signs U.S. Massing B-2 Spirit Bombers In Diego Garcia
https://www.twz.com/air/signs-u-s-massing-b-2-spirit-bombers-in-diego-garcia
EXCERPTS: A significant force of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers looks to be currently wending its way to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. Satellite imagery shows at least three C-17 cargo planes and 10 aerial refueling tankers forward-deployed in the last 48 hours to the highly strategic British territory, which has been used as a staging point for U.S. strikes in the Middle East on multiple occasions in the past. The build-up comes amid a new surge in U.S. strikes targeting the Houthis and growing warnings to Iran from the Trump administration over support for the Yemeni militants and Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Major movements of C-17s and tankers to the Indian Ocean island, as well as to Hickam in Hawaii and Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, look to have started last week, according to online flight tracking data and information from the international Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS).
Separately, Politico reported last week that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had extended the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman‘s current Middle Eastern deployment and directed another carrier strike group, led by the USS Carl Vinson, to join it in the region. Online flight tracking data and air traffic control recordings have pointed to a recent deployment of Air Force F-35A Joint Strike Fighters to the Middle East, as well.
Overall, what has been observed so far with regard to Diego Garcia represents a force package that is significantly larger than what has typically been associated with routine Bomber Task Force deployments globally, as well as exercises, in recent years.
A deployment of just four B-2s, representing 20 percent of the Air Force’s total fleet of the stealth bombers, to Australia in 2022 was seen as sending a significant signal to China and other potential adversaries, as well as to America’s allies and partners across the Indo-Pacific region. Two years earlier, six B-52s went to Diego Garcia in another show of force in the wake of the U.S. military killing Qasem Soleimani, then head of the Quds Force external operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in neighboring Iraq.
The Indian Ocean island was notably used as a primary launchpad for bomber strikes in the opening phases of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2001 and Operation Iraqi Freedom in that country in 2003. Bombers continued to fly combat missions from the Indian Ocean base for some time afterward.
It is very important to note here that Diego Garcia, unlike bases in the Middle East or aircraft carriers operating in the region, is largely out of the reach of the missiles and drones available now to either the Houthis or Iran. Iran’s current longest-range ballistic missiles are generally assessed to have maximum ranges around 1,242 miles (2,000 kilometers). At its shortest, the distance between the Indian Ocean island and Iran is some 2,358 miles (3,795 kilometers).
Diego Garcia’s general location relative to various potential hotspots only adds to its strategic significance. The island’s lagoon is also used to host a U.S. Military Sealift Command Prepositioning Ship Squadron full of military vehicles, ammunition, and other materiel for rapid deployment in the event of any of a host of contingencies.