This is a terribly excessive and overreaching executive order:
President Obama plans to issue an executive order Wednesday giving the Treasury Department authority to freeze the U.S.-based assets of anyone who “obstructs” implementation of the administration-backed political transition in Yemen.
The unusual order, which administration officials said also targets U.S. citizens who engage in activity deemed to threaten Yemen’s security or political stability, is the first issued for Yemen that does not directly relate to counterterrorism.
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The order provides criteria to take action against people who the Treasury secretary, in consultation with the secretary of state, determines have “engaged in acts that directly or indirectly threaten the peace, security or stability of Yemen, such as acts that obstruct the implementation of the Nov. 23, 2011, agreement between the Government of Yemen and those in opposition to it, which provides for a peaceful transition of power . . . or that obstruct the political process in Yemen.”It covers those who “have materially assisted, sponsored or provided financial, material or technological support” for the acts described or any person whose property has already been blocked, as well as those who have acted on behalf of such people.
The administration's plan is to keep the unbearable situation in Yemen virtually unchanged. While Ali Abdullah Saleh is gone as president he also received immunity, has kept all his money and is still in the country. His relatives still hold key security positions. His successor, the former vice-president Hadi, is a mere Saleh puppet and in 2014 Saleh may again get elected.
When one opposes this plan, for example by pointing out that a vote with a ballot with only one person on it and no possibility to vote "No" is a fake election, one will now get accused of engaging in acts that obstruct the Saudi/GCC/U.S. plan for Yemen. Then ones asset can be seized by the mere whim of a bureaucrat.
When the GulfNews.com writes negatively about the plan, its domain, which is under U.S. jurisdiction, can now be seized. It will now have to be careful with publishing opinions like these:
Why is Yemen in that situation? It is because as many people, including Nobel Laureate Tawakkul Karman have pointed out at the time, the Gulf Cooperation Council peace deal extracted by the wily Saleh was a monumental mistake. That mistake was supported by the US, whose singular concern was Al Qaida, and accepted by the opposition parties led by the hapless Yemeni prime minister, and by president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, none other than Saleh's silent partner for decades.
And Princeton scholar Gregory Johnsen will have to watch for his bank accounts being frozen, because he believes that the Obama policy on Yemen, supporting the GCC deal, is a "catastrophic mistake" and writes against it.
What about his 1st Amendment rights? And how about the Yemeni's right of self determinations? Anyone opposing Hadi and Saleh will now get their credit card seized? That certainly is democracy promotion – Obama style.