WEBVTT 0 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:00.470 Today, 1 00:00:00.520 --> 00:00:02.900 I want to show you how America's hidden war 2 00:00:02.900 --> 00:00:06.390 inside Yemen started as this hunt for individual terrorists and 3 00:00:06.390 --> 00:00:09.550 then 25 years later has morphed into a fight over 4 00:00:09.550 --> 00:00:12.060 two of the most important shipping routes on Earth. 5 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:16.270 It's created a kind of sum of all fears nightmare scenario inside the Pentagon 6 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:18.360 that even Tom Clancy would have looked at and said, 7 00:00:18.560 --> 00:00:18.670 alright, 8 00:00:18.720 --> 00:00:19.680 that's too far. 9 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:20.390 So today I. 10 00:00:20.650 --> 00:00:25.340 To go beyond those news headlines using newly declassified government documents, 11 00:00:25.450 --> 00:00:26.600 court-released records, 12 00:00:26.690 --> 00:00:32.130 and WikiLeaks cables to trace how US forces' black ops missions inside of Yemen 13 00:00:32.369 --> 00:00:35.200 became extremely good at solving tactical problems 14 00:00:35.370 --> 00:00:38.110 while their strategic problems kept getting larger 15 00:00:38.330 --> 00:00:40.920 and where that fight ultimately goes from here. 16 00:00:41.390 --> 00:00:42.830 In January 2010, 17 00:00:42.990 --> 00:00:44.180 General David Petraeus, 18 00:00:44.310 --> 00:00:45.660 head of CENCOM at the time, 19 00:00:45.830 --> 00:00:49.290 sat down with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh 20 00:00:49.290 --> 00:00:52.490 to discuss how America's secret war against al-Qaeda 21 00:00:52.900 --> 00:00:54.660 inside of Yemen was going to work. 22 00:00:54.970 --> 00:00:56.180 Because just days earlier, 23 00:00:56.350 --> 00:00:58.820 an al-Qaeda operative trained inside Yemen 24 00:00:58.990 --> 00:01:03.320 had tried to explode and bring down a civilian airliner over Detroit 25 00:01:03.540 --> 00:01:04.540 with a bomb hidden. 26 00:01:04.690 --> 00:01:05.260 In his 27 00:01:05.470 --> 00:01:06.150 underwear. 28 00:01:06.360 --> 00:01:09.180 So President Obama then approved intelligence support 29 00:01:09.320 --> 00:01:11.270 for Yemeni ground operations. 30 00:01:11.520 --> 00:01:13.580 And so General David Petraeus 31 00:01:13.720 --> 00:01:15.590 proposed going a step further by 32 00:01:15.590 --> 00:01:18.710 placing American personnel closer to the operations 33 00:01:18.910 --> 00:01:23.160 with live intelligence feeds from US surveillance aircraft overhead. 34 00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:24.380 They really said, 35 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:24.730 uh, 36 00:01:24.880 --> 00:01:25.970 let's do GWAT, 37 00:01:26.120 --> 00:01:27.880 but with less people and worse Wi Fi. 38 00:01:28.490 --> 00:01:30.770 Weeks earlier in December 2009, 39 00:01:31.050 --> 00:01:34.280 missiles had come raining down on a town in southern Yemen. 40 00:01:34.530 --> 00:01:38.530 The attack was intended to hit an alleged al-Qaeda terrorist training site. 41 00:01:38.700 --> 00:01:39.790 What happened instead 42 00:01:40.090 --> 00:01:42.410 became one of the most controversial strikes there. 43 00:01:42.660 --> 00:01:44.950 A Yemeni parliamentary investigation 44 00:01:45.170 --> 00:01:48.790 later concluded that over 40 local residents were killed 45 00:01:49.090 --> 00:01:51.360 along with 14 members of al-Qaeda. 46 00:01:51.800 --> 00:01:52.920 President Saleh 47 00:01:53.080 --> 00:01:55.790 acknowledged civilian casualties and told General 48 00:01:55.790 --> 00:01:58.120 Petraeus the famous line on accountability, 49 00:01:58.590 --> 00:01:59.820 mistakes have been made. 50 00:02:00.070 --> 00:02:00.660 And so, 51 00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:05.060 this is where they discuss changing how future American strikes would work. 52 00:02:05.320 --> 00:02:06.370 But according to documents, 53 00:02:06.520 --> 00:02:09.880 President Saleh drew a very specific boundary, 54 00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:10.370 saying, 55 00:02:10.440 --> 00:02:10.750 quote, 56 00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:12.270 you cannot enter the operation. 57 00:02:12.710 --> 00:02:16.380 area and you must stay in the joint operations center 58 00:02:16.780 --> 00:02:19.850 because having healthy boundaries are important in your personal life 59 00:02:20.040 --> 00:02:22.180 just like they are in your geopolitical life. 60 00:02:22.390 --> 00:02:24.440 What happened was Saleh's concern 61 00:02:24.660 --> 00:02:27.010 was that American help might backfire. 62 00:02:27.230 --> 00:02:29.090 The cable here that was leaked 63 00:02:29.260 --> 00:02:32.310 says that he was worried that American casualties on the ground 64 00:02:32.490 --> 00:02:33.070 would expose. 65 00:02:33.350 --> 00:02:35.570 Or damage their secret arrangement. 66 00:02:35.820 --> 00:02:39.480 Then General Petraeus proposed changing the airstrike method. 67 00:02:39.740 --> 00:02:42.830 Instead of relying on cruise missiles like that last strike, 68 00:02:43.180 --> 00:02:47.600 American fixed-wing aircraft could remain outside Yemeni territory 69 00:02:47.860 --> 00:02:49.840 waiting for actionable intelligence 70 00:02:50.250 --> 00:02:53.770 before flying in and dropping precision guided weapons. 71 00:02:54.180 --> 00:02:56.900 Saleh apparently liked this idea far better, 72 00:02:57.020 --> 00:02:59.570 and here's where we get the most revealing sentence 73 00:02:59.570 --> 00:03:02.090 that I could find in the entire leaked document. 74 00:03:02.320 --> 00:03:04.180 It sucks when you try to apply for something like a 75 00:03:04.180 --> 00:03:06.700 car or an apartment and your credit score isn't there yet. 76 00:03:06.790 --> 00:03:07.190 Trust me, 77 00:03:07.230 --> 00:03:09.390 I know how much it sucks and it takes months to fix. 78 00:03:09.590 --> 00:03:11.500 And that's why you need to start now before 79 00:03:11.500 --> 00:03:13.270 it even becomes an issue in the first place. 80 00:03:13.430 --> 00:03:14.540 And that's where I found Kick. 81 00:03:14.600 --> 00:03:16.130 It gave me a 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00:04:03.860 Saleh said, 109 00:04:03.950 --> 00:04:04.360 quote, 110 00:04:04.590 --> 00:04:06.980 We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, 111 00:04:07.220 --> 00:04:08.090 not yours. 112 00:04:08.380 --> 00:04:11.350 His own Deputy Prime Minister Rashad al-Amini 113 00:04:11.590 --> 00:04:11.900 then. 114 00:04:12.040 --> 00:04:12.670 He joked 115 00:04:12.870 --> 00:04:15.860 that he had just lied to Yemen's parliament by telling 116 00:04:15.860 --> 00:04:19.870 lawmakers that the bombs used in previous strikes had been American-made 117 00:04:20.029 --> 00:04:21.899 but deployed by Yemen. 118 00:04:22.160 --> 00:04:24.790 This is a bizarre peek behind the curtain 119 00:04:24.950 --> 00:04:27.650 of how the highest levels of power operate 120 00:04:27.790 --> 00:04:30.730 and how the fighting inside of Yemen evolved. 121 00:04:30.990 --> 00:04:35.140 The political scientist Robert Putnam calls this a two-level game. 122 00:04:35.520 --> 00:04:36.680 And what that means is 123 00:04:36.840 --> 00:04:39.500 Saleh was negotiating with Petraeus on 124 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:42.580 the table with effectively playing another game 125 00:04:42.640 --> 00:04:44.230 with his parliament at the same time, 126 00:04:44.320 --> 00:04:45.260 the two levels. 127 00:04:45.560 --> 00:04:48.000 So the policy had to work internationally, 128 00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:51.100 while also on a domestic level with his own population, 129 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:54.220 which is how you get the sophisticated diplomatic strategy of 130 00:04:54.400 --> 00:04:56.180 you bomb and we take credit for it. 131 00:04:56.520 --> 00:04:58.430 Amnesty International later said that 132 00:04:58.430 --> 00:05:01.300 the leaked cable corroborated its investigation 133 00:05:01.440 --> 00:05:05.740 into attacks where US made Tomahawk cruise missiles had been documented. 134 00:05:06.080 --> 00:05:08.260 Amnesty said that the evidence pointed to 135 00:05:08.360 --> 00:05:13.390 the US military carrying out the strike while Yemen publicly took responsibility. 136 00:05:13.640 --> 00:05:17.800 The same cables show just how integrated the relationship already was. 137 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:20.290 US security assistance from Yemen 138 00:05:20.440 --> 00:05:24.480 was increased to $150 million by 2010, 139 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:26.180 and a huge portion of it 140 00:05:26.320 --> 00:05:30.540 will be used for training Yemeni Special Operations Aviation regiment 141 00:05:30.840 --> 00:05:33.910 alongside US Special Operations trainers. 142 00:05:34.200 --> 00:05:35.390 So when I call it a hidden. 143 00:05:35.530 --> 00:05:37.030 Or secret war in Yemen, 144 00:05:37.280 --> 00:05:38.500 this is what I mean. 145 00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:41.630 Yemeni forces were providing the geopolitically 146 00:05:41.630 --> 00:05:43.670 acceptable face for the whole operation, 147 00:05:43.960 --> 00:05:46.070 while America provided the firepower. 148 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:47.060 They essentially 149 00:05:47.320 --> 00:05:50.860 put a fake mustache on the war and called it plausible deniability. 150 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:51.860 But this is the 151 00:05:51.970 --> 00:05:54.380 first major turning point in our story. 152 00:05:54.520 --> 00:05:56.300 The American government had figured out 153 00:05:56.440 --> 00:05:58.120 how to fight inside Yemen 154 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:01.580 without openly owning the war in the Middle East this time. 155 00:06:01.840 --> 00:06:04.830 And they said no lessons were learned from the Iraq war. 156 00:06:05.340 --> 00:06:06.050 Looking back, 157 00:06:06.260 --> 00:06:09.510 this is the moment America created the basic model that it would 158 00:06:09.700 --> 00:06:11.100 keep using in Yemen 159 00:06:11.270 --> 00:06:12.820 for the next 1520 years. 160 00:06:13.030 --> 00:06:14.760 Washington wanted to keep pressure 161 00:06:14.940 --> 00:06:19.570 on that organization without deploying another Iraq invasion sized army. 162 00:06:19.740 --> 00:06:22.730 But we'll just keep this one small isn't a strategy that 163 00:06:22.730 --> 00:06:25.260 ever seems to go particularly well in the Middle East. 164 00:06:25.660 --> 00:06:26.490 America would go on. 165 00:06:26.570 --> 00:06:29.310 To construct an extremely sophisticated machine 166 00:06:29.470 --> 00:06:31.890 for finding and killing individual terrorists, 167 00:06:32.140 --> 00:06:35.480 but it had not solved the underlying political problems 168 00:06:35.630 --> 00:06:38.100 producing instability in Yemen in the first place. 169 00:06:38.330 --> 00:06:41.340 Civilian casualties and secrecy surrounding the strikes 170 00:06:41.590 --> 00:06:44.210 gave anti-American groups material to work with 171 00:06:44.390 --> 00:06:47.730 and damaged the legitimacy of America's Yemeni partners. 172 00:06:48.280 --> 00:06:50.500 Because sometimes it's easier to bomb things 173 00:06:50.680 --> 00:06:53.260 than figure out the underlying causes of the problem. 174 00:06:53.680 --> 00:06:55.090 America's Yemen War 175 00:06:55.200 --> 00:06:56.730 actually had a secret name. 176 00:06:56.880 --> 00:06:58.800 Part of America's hidden war in Yemen 177 00:06:58.940 --> 00:07:00.750 had a name that almost nobody knew, 178 00:07:00.960 --> 00:07:02.660 not even members of Congress, 179 00:07:02.920 --> 00:07:04.290 Operation Copper Dune. 180 00:07:04.750 --> 00:07:08.360 The name surfaced because Washington Post reporter Craig Whitlock 181 00:07:08.470 --> 00:07:11.580 obtained thousands of pages of military records, 182 00:07:11.710 --> 00:07:12.930 construction documents, 183 00:07:13.070 --> 00:07:13.910 and accident 184 00:07:14.050 --> 00:07:14.810 investigations 185 00:07:15.030 --> 00:07:17.580 from an American base called Camp Lemonade. 186 00:07:17.830 --> 00:07:21.370 Camp Lemonade sits directly across the water from Yemen and Djibouti. 187 00:07:21.550 --> 00:07:24.330 The paperwork itself wasn't even classified, 188 00:07:24.550 --> 00:07:26.170 but what it accidentally exposed 189 00:07:26.190 --> 00:07:28.610 was the infrastructure supporting operations that 190 00:07:28.920 --> 00:07:29.080 very 191 00:07:29.210 --> 00:07:30.510 Much were classified. 192 00:07:30.690 --> 00:07:31.120 It's like 193 00:07:31.290 --> 00:07:33.750 knowing something is there because you can see its shadow. 194 00:07:33.990 --> 00:07:35.080 By 2012, 195 00:07:35.210 --> 00:07:40.110 there was a heavily secured JSOC or Joint Special Operations Command compound 196 00:07:40.450 --> 00:07:43.210 holding 300 special operations personnel 197 00:07:43.410 --> 00:07:45.260 from the Navy SEALs and Delta Force, 198 00:07:45.450 --> 00:07:49.720 whose job it was to plan raids and coordinate missions inside Yemen. 199 00:07:49.770 --> 00:07:51.030 You had one job 200 00:07:51.210 --> 00:07:52.310 and you did it a lot. 201 00:07:52.490 --> 00:07:57.260 This is when the Pentagon Expands the operation and sends 8 Predator drones there, 202 00:07:57.520 --> 00:08:00.650 transforming the base into a full-time drone hub. 203 00:08:00.840 --> 00:08:03.580 Officials complained that they were literally running out of 204 00:08:03.580 --> 00:08:06.150 room to park all of their killer drone aircraft. 205 00:08:06.400 --> 00:08:09.780 Military accident records describe a JSOC major 206 00:08:10.030 --> 00:08:12.230 known only by his alias Frog. 207 00:08:12.430 --> 00:08:15.420 During a power failure when phone lines went out at the base, 208 00:08:15.640 --> 00:08:17.860 Frog physically walked out of his class. 209 00:08:18.410 --> 00:08:19.000 compound 210 00:08:19.130 --> 00:08:21.230 to tell the Predator groan crews 211 00:08:21.520 --> 00:08:22.540 what they needed to do. 212 00:08:22.610 --> 00:08:26.230 And buried inside letters requesting additional funding 213 00:08:26.450 --> 00:08:27.840 was Copper Dune. 214 00:08:28.050 --> 00:08:31.390 This was all part of the machinery behind the campaign that would eventually 215 00:08:31.690 --> 00:08:34.419 kill the American-born AQAP leader 216 00:08:34.570 --> 00:08:36.870 Anwar Ali in 2011. 217 00:08:37.049 --> 00:08:40.710 But civilian casualties and secret agreements with Yemen's government 218 00:08:40.850 --> 00:08:42.400 fueled anger over sovereignty. 219 00:08:42.830 --> 00:08:46.690 And Brookings researchers argued that the strikes widened the space 220 00:08:46.830 --> 00:08:49.130 where anti-American messaging could operate. 221 00:08:49.230 --> 00:08:53.140 It wouldn't be long before they started pushing the envelope from airstrikes 222 00:08:53.270 --> 00:08:54.460 to ground warfare. 223 00:08:54.550 --> 00:08:55.650 And in 2013, 224 00:08:55.870 --> 00:08:58.090 American photojournalist Luke Summers 225 00:08:58.230 --> 00:09:00.780 was kidnapped off the streets of the capital of Yemen 226 00:09:00.990 --> 00:09:03.130 by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. 227 00:09:03.310 --> 00:09:06.820 It took a year before American intelligence finally located, 228 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:09.280 What they believed was the hostage site, 229 00:09:09.430 --> 00:09:12.100 a cave buried in the mountains of eastern Yemen. 230 00:09:12.430 --> 00:09:17.140 JSOC put together a risky rescue mission that would be deep behind enemy lines. 231 00:09:17.310 --> 00:09:20.690 24 operators from Devgrew SEAL Team 6 232 00:09:20.870 --> 00:09:24.900 flew deep inside Yemen alongside Yemeni counterterrorism forces 233 00:09:25.070 --> 00:09:26.500 under the cover of darkness. 234 00:09:26.710 --> 00:09:29.100 They landed away from the target and moved toward 235 00:09:29.100 --> 00:09:31.390 the cave on foot using night vision goggles. 236 00:09:31.890 --> 00:09:33.970 The assault force surprised the enemy guards, 237 00:09:34.140 --> 00:09:35.940 killed the militants defending the site, 238 00:09:36.100 --> 00:09:37.890 and stormed inside the cave. 239 00:09:38.180 --> 00:09:38.690 Inside, 240 00:09:38.780 --> 00:09:41.760 they found 8 hostages alive and rescued them, 241 00:09:41.940 --> 00:09:42.400 but 242 00:09:42.700 --> 00:09:43.330 Luke Summers, 243 00:09:43.380 --> 00:09:43.920 the American, 244 00:09:43.980 --> 00:09:44.760 wasn't there. 245 00:09:44.990 --> 00:09:46.130 And the clock was ticking. 246 00:09:46.260 --> 00:09:50.420 President Obama approved another risky rescue mission almost immediately after 247 00:09:50.680 --> 00:09:52.320 because their intelligence indicated 248 00:09:52.570 --> 00:09:55.360 that the enemy were preparing to execute the hostage. 249 00:09:55.740 --> 00:09:57.550 Within about 72 hours. 250 00:09:57.810 --> 00:09:58.400 At 10 a.m. 251 00:09:58.570 --> 00:10:00.110 local time on December 6, 252 00:10:00.290 --> 00:10:01.310 2014, 253 00:10:01.490 --> 00:10:04.230 a platoon of 40 American special operators 254 00:10:04.450 --> 00:10:07.850 flew toward an enemy compound in Yemen aboard Ospreys. 255 00:10:08.070 --> 00:10:11.020 They intentionally landed miles away from their target 256 00:10:11.170 --> 00:10:12.130 and their objective 257 00:10:12.330 --> 00:10:14.010 so that no one would hear them coming. 258 00:10:14.290 --> 00:10:14.720 From there, 259 00:10:14.770 --> 00:10:18.340 they infiltrated across rough terrain on foot for hours. 260 00:10:18.570 --> 00:10:18.990 Eventually, 261 00:10:19.010 --> 00:10:19.550 the team 262 00:10:19.740 --> 00:10:20.010 was only 263 00:10:20.220 --> 00:10:22.160 About 300 ft from the compound 264 00:10:22.460 --> 00:10:24.220 when something goes horribly wrong. 265 00:10:24.600 --> 00:10:26.910 Exactly what happened remains unclear to this day, 266 00:10:27.080 --> 00:10:29.590 but accounts range from a barking dog to a 267 00:10:29.590 --> 00:10:32.470 fighter walking outside at exactly the wrong moment. 268 00:10:32.680 --> 00:10:33.230 Whatever happened, 269 00:10:33.280 --> 00:10:35.030 the element of surprise was lost, 270 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:36.630 gunfire erupted, 271 00:10:36.880 --> 00:10:39.740 overhead surveillance watched as al-Qaeda fighters 272 00:10:39.920 --> 00:10:42.750 ran into the building where Summers was being held. 273 00:10:42.930 --> 00:10:44.330 The SEALs started fighting their 274 00:10:44.470 --> 00:10:45.780 way through the compound. 275 00:10:45.950 --> 00:10:48.970 They killed several militants and they reached the hostages 276 00:10:49.190 --> 00:10:50.050 within minutes 277 00:10:50.190 --> 00:10:53.010 and inside the team found Summers and another hostage, 278 00:10:53.110 --> 00:10:53.810 Corky, 279 00:10:54.030 --> 00:10:54.910 both shot 280 00:10:55.100 --> 00:10:56.170 but still alive. 281 00:10:56.510 --> 00:10:59.220 They immediately evacuated all of them on helicopters. 282 00:10:59.470 --> 00:11:01.820 Medics worked on both men during the flight out. 283 00:11:02.050 --> 00:11:05.470 Corky died during the evacuation while Summers survived to reach 284 00:11:05.810 --> 00:11:08.580 USS Martin Island where he died during surgery. 285 00:11:08.930 --> 00:11:09.520 At this point, 286 00:11:09.650 --> 00:11:11.670 the hidden war graduated from 287 00:11:11.890 --> 00:11:15.170 finding individuals to being a strategic level concern, 288 00:11:15.400 --> 00:11:16.530 because in 2014, 289 00:11:16.650 --> 00:11:18.960 that's when Houthis captured the capital of Yemen. 290 00:11:19.320 --> 00:11:22.220 And then they started taking over critical port cities 291 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:24.780 and the Yemeni government started to collapse. 292 00:11:25.040 --> 00:11:27.980 Parts of the Houthis' stated problem with America 293 00:11:28.280 --> 00:11:30.180 was their interventions in the Middle East. 294 00:11:30.400 --> 00:11:33.820 And their goals are plastered on their flag where it says God is great, 295 00:11:34.040 --> 00:11:34.790 death to America, 296 00:11:34.960 --> 00:11:35.750 death to Israel, 297 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:37.670 and curse upon the Jewish people, 298 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:39.070 victory to Islam, 299 00:11:39.240 --> 00:11:40.000 end quote. 300 00:11:40.400 --> 00:11:42.190 In 2015 as the Houthis advanced. 301 00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:43.990 The US embassy shutdown 302 00:11:44.170 --> 00:11:47.590 and 100 American special operations personnel were evacuated. 303 00:11:47.750 --> 00:11:50.480 Along with that went years of relationships with the 304 00:11:50.480 --> 00:11:53.680 Yemeni soldiers and informants just up in smoke. 305 00:11:53.930 --> 00:11:57.320 Political scientists would call this a critical juncture, 306 00:11:57.570 --> 00:12:00.630 one of those short periods where the old system breaks apart 307 00:12:00.730 --> 00:12:05.160 and decisions made during this chaos shape everything that will follow. 308 00:12:05.480 --> 00:12:09.800 America's original Yemen strategy required a government that it could work by, 309 00:12:09.920 --> 00:12:11.270 with and through on the ground. 310 00:12:11.320 --> 00:12:13.280 And so in this context, 311 00:12:13.640 --> 00:12:15.270 America's command in the region, 312 00:12:15.400 --> 00:12:16.110 CENTCOM, 313 00:12:16.280 --> 00:12:17.500 submits a proposal 314 00:12:17.690 --> 00:12:21.110 asking for the green light to expand their ground raids in Yemen. 315 00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:22.540 The American people did not 316 00:12:22.640 --> 00:12:24.930 want another occupation in the Middle East 317 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:27.300 after how smoothly the last two had gone. 318 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:29.710 So everyone gave high fives around the Pentagon, 319 00:12:29.880 --> 00:12:31.880 came up with the official strategy in Yemen. 320 00:12:32.080 --> 00:12:32.950 It would rely on. 321 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:35.830 Black ops and CIA paramilitary officers, 322 00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:36.740 which brings us 323 00:12:36.840 --> 00:12:39.270 to the Yakala raid on January 29, 324 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:40.580 2017, 325 00:12:40.760 --> 00:12:44.270 when two dozen US Navy SEALs from SEAL Team Six 326 00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:48.110 and Emirati commandos are dropped into Yemeni Mountains 327 00:12:48.110 --> 00:12:49.870 by helicopters in the middle of the night. 328 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:53.020 Their mission is tactical sensitive site exploitation 329 00:12:53.160 --> 00:12:56.390 to grab terrorists' hard drives and computers before they could 330 00:12:56.390 --> 00:12:59.130 clear their browser history of whatever terrorists are into. 331 00:12:59.360 --> 00:13:03.460 Details of what exactly Went wrong at this point remain heavily disputed. 332 00:13:03.640 --> 00:13:05.910 But Yemeni officials later claimed that al-Qaeda 333 00:13:05.910 --> 00:13:08.530 had somehow anticipated the raid in advance, 334 00:13:08.760 --> 00:13:10.900 and they set up an ambush for the SEALs. 335 00:13:11.080 --> 00:13:15.210 The SEAL team was spotted on their approach and a firefight broke out in the village. 336 00:13:15.370 --> 00:13:18.150 The assault force took fire from multiple directions, 337 00:13:18.280 --> 00:13:19.330 and according to CENCOM, 338 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:21.480 the SEALs pushed deeper into the compound 339 00:13:21.720 --> 00:13:24.790 while the firefight expanded through the surrounding buildings. 340 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:25.420 Then 341 00:13:25.640 --> 00:13:28.430 Chief Petty Officer William Ryan Owens was hit. 342 00:13:28.850 --> 00:13:31.390 The 36 year old SEAL was severely wounded. 343 00:13:31.570 --> 00:13:34.040 The team called in close air support and friendly 344 00:13:34.040 --> 00:13:37.570 aircraft overhead started firing down into the militant positions. 345 00:13:37.730 --> 00:13:39.590 The operators gathered intelligence 346 00:13:39.730 --> 00:13:42.050 while aircraft held off the enemy forces. 347 00:13:42.290 --> 00:13:44.060 Then the extraction went wrong. 348 00:13:44.210 --> 00:13:47.770 A marine Osprey flew in from the USS Martin offshore. 349 00:13:48.010 --> 00:13:48.360 One of the. 350 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:50.020 The aircraft made a hard landing, 351 00:13:50.150 --> 00:13:51.350 badly damaging it. 352 00:13:51.610 --> 00:13:53.820 They call in an airstrike on that helicopter 353 00:13:53.820 --> 00:13:56.170 to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. 354 00:13:56.430 --> 00:13:57.910 The SEALs were extracted, 355 00:13:58.190 --> 00:14:00.300 but Owens later died from his wounds. 356 00:14:00.390 --> 00:14:02.500 14 enemy fighters were reportedly killed, 357 00:14:02.550 --> 00:14:04.450 and the Pentagon later acknowledged that 358 00:14:04.670 --> 00:14:05.270 civilians, 359 00:14:05.480 --> 00:14:06.180 including children, 360 00:14:06.270 --> 00:14:08.070 had been killed on the mission as well. 361 00:14:08.400 --> 00:14:10.580 And the person at the top of al-Qaeda in the region, 362 00:14:10.920 --> 00:14:12.110 Qassim al-Rimi, 363 00:14:12.200 --> 00:14:15.060 who may have possibly been a key target on the mission, 364 00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:17.110 was still alive and free. 365 00:14:17.280 --> 00:14:20.890 The Pentagon argued that the intelligence taken from the compound was vital. 366 00:14:21.080 --> 00:14:23.620 The details of the mission remain heavily disputed, 367 00:14:23.760 --> 00:14:25.870 but it demonstrated something much larger. 368 00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:28.470 America could reach almost anywhere in Yemen, 369 00:14:28.660 --> 00:14:30.950 but understanding what was happening once they got 370 00:14:30.950 --> 00:14:32.790 on the ground was far more difficult. 371 00:14:33.200 --> 00:14:34.270 By 2017, 372 00:14:34.440 --> 00:14:36.700 America's post-collapse Yemen strategy 373 00:14:36.880 --> 00:14:40.190 had become an entire network of special operations missions, 374 00:14:40.560 --> 00:14:43.920 most of which the public and Congress knew almost nothing about. 375 00:14:44.500 --> 00:14:48.780 One of the strangest operations involved a giant C-17 Globemaster 376 00:14:48.970 --> 00:14:52.370 flying into Yemen on a secret air mission in 2017. 377 00:14:52.620 --> 00:14:54.640 The aircraft belonged to the 62nd 378 00:14:54.820 --> 00:14:57.730 Airlift Wing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. 379 00:14:58.020 --> 00:15:00.720 Its crew flew under the call sign Reach 865, 380 00:15:00.740 --> 00:15:03.240 commanded by Captain James Jensen. 381 00:15:03.380 --> 00:15:06.020 And according to the Air Force award citation, 382 00:15:06.360 --> 00:15:09.710 Preserved in the latter ACLU court filing, 383 00:15:09.950 --> 00:15:12.140 they flew into Yemen for an aeromedical 384 00:15:12.140 --> 00:15:15.170 evacuation while dealing with degraded communications, 385 00:15:15.390 --> 00:15:16.590 contested airspace, 386 00:15:16.830 --> 00:15:21.340 and 6 Emirati soldiers whose medical condition on the ground was rapidly changing. 387 00:15:21.750 --> 00:15:24.780 They got the Emirati troops that were wounded aboard and 388 00:15:24.780 --> 00:15:27.630 they flew them out to safety for better medical care. 389 00:15:27.750 --> 00:15:29.570 But the timing raised some eyebrows, 390 00:15:29.780 --> 00:15:30.820 because at the same time, 391 00:15:31.070 --> 00:15:32.450 US Special operations 392 00:15:32.740 --> 00:15:34.570 were involved in a black ops mission 393 00:15:34.910 --> 00:15:36.420 named Yukon Specter. 394 00:15:36.600 --> 00:15:37.110 In 2000. 395 00:15:37.140 --> 00:15:40.680 17 Navy Marine briefing specifically lists support for 396 00:15:40.680 --> 00:15:44.550 US special operations engaged in Operation Yukon Specter 397 00:15:44.730 --> 00:15:47.070 and the Shawab offensive. 398 00:15:47.450 --> 00:15:50.480 Exactly what Yukon Specter involved remains classified 399 00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:52.520 and undisclosed publicly to this day. 400 00:15:52.850 --> 00:15:55.520 And American forces absolutely were operating on 401 00:15:55.520 --> 00:15:57.430 the ground in Yemen around this period. 402 00:15:57.650 --> 00:15:58.880 In August 2017, 403 00:15:58.930 --> 00:16:01.160 the Pentagon acknowledged that a small number of 404 00:16:01.160 --> 00:16:04.230 US troops were supporting the UAE Yemeni offensive 405 00:16:04.570 --> 00:16:07.160 against the AQAP in Shawab. 406 00:16:07.370 --> 00:16:08.240 And by December, 407 00:16:08.410 --> 00:16:12.840 CENCOM publicly said that US forces had conducted multiple ground operations 408 00:16:12.970 --> 00:16:14.790 and more than 120 strikes. 409 00:16:14.920 --> 00:16:16.260 Inside Yemen that year. 410 00:16:16.510 --> 00:16:18.780 So the unresolved question is pretty interesting. 411 00:16:19.110 --> 00:16:21.100 Exactly what operation had wounded those 412 00:16:21.100 --> 00:16:24.200 Emirati soldiers badly enough that Washington DC 413 00:16:24.370 --> 00:16:26.930 was willing to risk sending out a C-17 414 00:16:27.070 --> 00:16:29.010 all the way into Yemen to pull them out. 415 00:16:29.180 --> 00:16:32.530 The public only learned about this mission the following year 416 00:16:32.700 --> 00:16:34.810 because the Air Force gave the crew an award, 417 00:16:34.950 --> 00:16:36.900 so otherwise we never would have even known. 418 00:16:37.520 --> 00:16:40.340 Sometimes the easiest way to discover a secret operation is to just 419 00:16:40.560 --> 00:16:42.310 wait until somebody gets a plaque for it. 420 00:16:42.520 --> 00:16:44.510 An investigation by The Intercept later 421 00:16:44.510 --> 00:16:47.280 uncovered another classified Pentagon program in Yemen 422 00:16:47.440 --> 00:16:48.760 called Yukon Hunter. 423 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:51.470 Retired CENCOM and Special Operations commander, 424 00:16:51.680 --> 00:16:53.380 General Joseph Votel 425 00:16:53.800 --> 00:16:57.470 confirmed it was a so-called 127 ECO program, 426 00:16:57.640 --> 00:17:00.080 an authority that allowed US commandos to. 427 00:17:00.170 --> 00:17:00.440 Arm, 428 00:17:00.610 --> 00:17:00.880 train, 429 00:17:01.060 --> 00:17:01.340 fund, 430 00:17:01.410 --> 00:17:02.830 and provide intelligence 431 00:17:02.970 --> 00:17:04.200 to foreign forces, 432 00:17:04.329 --> 00:17:09.230 and then send those forces on US directed missions against enemy targets. 433 00:17:09.569 --> 00:17:12.550 One former defense official described the foreign fighters as 434 00:17:12.790 --> 00:17:16.040 filling gaps where American manpower wasn't enough. 435 00:17:16.290 --> 00:17:18.200 Between 2017 and 2020, 436 00:17:18.490 --> 00:17:20.270 American commandos ran at least 437 00:17:20.490 --> 00:17:22.920 23 separate 127E programs. 438 00:17:23.040 --> 00:17:24.069 Programs worldwide, 439 00:17:24.300 --> 00:17:26.750 costing over $300 million in total. 440 00:17:26.940 --> 00:17:30.170 But exactly who Yukon Hunter partnered with in Yemen, 441 00:17:30.420 --> 00:17:31.370 where they operated, 442 00:17:31.460 --> 00:17:34.250 and who they targeted remains classified to this day. 443 00:17:34.510 --> 00:17:36.370 Even many members of Congress apparently 444 00:17:36.370 --> 00:17:38.640 had little visibility into those missions. 445 00:17:38.900 --> 00:17:41.740 Congressional oversight was apparently also operating under 446 00:17:41.930 --> 00:17:43.620 stealth technology itself. 447 00:17:43.900 --> 00:17:45.900 But the takeaway was that the second version. 448 00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:49.060 Of America's hidden war in Yemen looked very different. 449 00:17:49.310 --> 00:17:53.580 But perhaps the darkest part of black ops inside of Yemen 450 00:17:53.730 --> 00:17:56.930 was a partnership that was happening in the shadows at the same time. 451 00:17:57.150 --> 00:18:00.840 Associated Press investigative reporter Maggie Michael and her team 452 00:18:01.070 --> 00:18:04.660 documented a network of at least 18 different clandestine 453 00:18:04.660 --> 00:18:08.700 prisons and detention centers across southern Yemen in 2017. 454 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:12.820 They were run directly by the United Arab Emirates and Yemeni forces. 455 00:18:13.040 --> 00:18:16.750 The AP found detention centers hidden inside military bases, 456 00:18:16.950 --> 00:18:17.660 airports, 457 00:18:17.910 --> 00:18:18.480 seaports, 458 00:18:18.670 --> 00:18:19.580 private villas, 459 00:18:19.640 --> 00:18:21.100 and even a nightclub. 460 00:18:21.310 --> 00:18:24.180 So not your normal prisons with a classified spin. 461 00:18:24.350 --> 00:18:27.530 Yemen's war had reached the classic stage of every war 462 00:18:27.760 --> 00:18:30.570 where even a nightclub could have an interrogation department. 463 00:18:30.790 --> 00:18:33.530 Hundreds of men suspected of links to al-Qaeda, 464 00:18:33.870 --> 00:18:34.980 AQAP. 465 00:18:35.120 --> 00:18:35.880 Or ISIS 466 00:18:35.990 --> 00:18:37.490 had disappeared into this system, 467 00:18:37.830 --> 00:18:39.130 sometimes without charges or 468 00:18:39.270 --> 00:18:41.380 even their families being told where they were. 469 00:18:41.510 --> 00:18:44.370 And I don't shed any tears for possible terrorists, 470 00:18:44.590 --> 00:18:48.220 but it was a lot like the CIA's secret prison system of GWAT, 471 00:18:48.550 --> 00:18:50.540 just reduxed and sequeled. 472 00:18:50.840 --> 00:18:53.740 Former prisoners described beatings with wires, 473 00:18:53.940 --> 00:18:55.580 months of blindfolded confinement, 474 00:18:55.630 --> 00:18:58.570 and people packed into filthy tiny shipping containers. 475 00:18:58.870 --> 00:19:01.100 One horrific technique became known as the grill. 476 00:19:01.470 --> 00:19:04.420 Where prisoners said detainees were tied to a rotating 477 00:19:04.420 --> 00:19:07.290 spit and exposed to fire like a roasting pig. 478 00:19:07.630 --> 00:19:11.190 Senior US defense officials acknowledged that American personnel 479 00:19:11.350 --> 00:19:13.380 had interrogated detainees in Yemen, 480 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:16.140 supplied questions to the Emirati interrogators, 481 00:19:16.310 --> 00:19:20.660 and received transcripts of the interrogations performed by their partners. 482 00:19:20.860 --> 00:19:22.820 The officials strongly denied this in the 483 00:19:22.820 --> 00:19:25.490 United States and said that Americans did not 484 00:19:25.630 --> 00:19:26.690 participate in this 485 00:19:26.910 --> 00:19:27.220 knowingly. 486 00:19:27.590 --> 00:19:29.580 And that they witnessed no wrongdoing, 487 00:19:29.630 --> 00:19:32.540 but multiple sources told AP that some of the 488 00:19:32.540 --> 00:19:35.850 detainees had been taken aboard ships where foreigners, 489 00:19:35.990 --> 00:19:37.870 allegedly including Americans, 490 00:19:38.060 --> 00:19:39.630 conducted interrogations. 491 00:19:39.830 --> 00:19:43.820 And this shows just another layer of America's hidden campaign in Yemen. 492 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:47.330 The United States had helped build a regional intelligence system 493 00:19:47.550 --> 00:19:51.990 where Emrati and Yemeni partners passed intelligence back to Washington DC. 494 00:19:52.190 --> 00:19:53.430 This helped the goal of. 495 00:19:53.480 --> 00:19:54.450 Creating reach 496 00:19:54.620 --> 00:19:58.110 without requiring those thousands of American troops on the ground. 497 00:19:58.270 --> 00:19:59.670 But from this point forward, 498 00:19:59.750 --> 00:20:02.330 what happened in Yemen mattered to the US government 499 00:20:02.470 --> 00:20:04.910 even if every member of al-Qaeda 500 00:20:05.030 --> 00:20:07.370 magically somehow choked and died tomorrow, 501 00:20:07.630 --> 00:20:11.060 because the Houthis created a completely new problem set, 502 00:20:11.150 --> 00:20:13.440 and they actually controlled territory and 503 00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:15.680 administrated it like an actual government. 504 00:20:15.870 --> 00:20:19.460 Iranian support was improving their ballistic missiles and attacks. 505 00:20:19.950 --> 00:20:20.890 In the Houthis, 506 00:20:21.030 --> 00:20:22.140 and most importantly, 507 00:20:22.270 --> 00:20:25.290 the Houthis were sitting beside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, 508 00:20:25.410 --> 00:20:27.610 a hostile Iranian proxy force 509 00:20:27.710 --> 00:20:29.210 off Yemen's western coast 510 00:20:29.470 --> 00:20:31.980 could threaten American allies in Saudi Arabia, 511 00:20:32.230 --> 00:20:33.140 pressure Israel, 512 00:20:33.310 --> 00:20:36.770 and eventually interfere with commercial traffic moving between 513 00:20:36.790 --> 00:20:38.910 Asia and Europe through the Red Sea. 514 00:20:39.110 --> 00:20:43.330 That meant that the United States had a new interest in Yemen without even 515 00:20:43.430 --> 00:20:45.620 finishing their original counterterrorism war. 516 00:20:45.990 --> 00:20:47.180 For most of the war on terror, 517 00:20:47.350 --> 00:20:51.140 American special operators went into Yemen to hunt al-Qaeda. 518 00:20:51.350 --> 00:20:56.020 Then the Houthi ballistic missiles started screaming across the Saudi capital. 519 00:20:56.230 --> 00:20:57.740 By November 2017, 520 00:20:57.830 --> 00:21:01.460 the Houthis had been firing missiles toward the Saudis for over a year. 521 00:21:01.790 --> 00:21:03.610 Now they were hitting the King Khalid 522 00:21:03.870 --> 00:21:05.140 International Airport, 523 00:21:05.390 --> 00:21:08.350 forcing the Saudis to intercept them with Patriot batteries. 524 00:21:08.550 --> 00:21:11.670 The Saudi crown prince then pushed Washington for more help. 525 00:21:11.890 --> 00:21:12.930 In dealing with the matter, 526 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:14.260 even if it was covert. 527 00:21:14.490 --> 00:21:15.830 So in December 2017, 528 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:18.310 a dozen US Army Green Berets were 529 00:21:18.310 --> 00:21:21.190 deployed to Saudi Arabia's southern border with Yemen 530 00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:22.980 with no public announcement. 531 00:21:23.160 --> 00:21:25.560 The American operator's job was to help the Saudis 532 00:21:25.560 --> 00:21:28.750 locate Houthi ballistic missile launch sites inside Yemen. 533 00:21:29.110 --> 00:21:31.460 But they wouldn't go across Yemen through the border, 534 00:21:31.620 --> 00:21:32.060 wink wink, 535 00:21:32.080 --> 00:21:32.980 nudge nudge. 536 00:21:33.190 --> 00:21:35.140 Senator Tim Kaine called it a deliberate 537 00:21:35.140 --> 00:21:37.530 blurring between training mission and combat, 538 00:21:37.830 --> 00:21:39.970 because the congressional authorization in America 539 00:21:40.270 --> 00:21:42.540 was only used to fight al-Qaeda and didn't 540 00:21:42.540 --> 00:21:44.490 authorize fighting the Houthis at the time. 541 00:21:44.630 --> 00:21:47.090 The fight was turning into a power struggle over 542 00:21:47.220 --> 00:21:47.810 Iran, 543 00:21:48.070 --> 00:21:49.650 balancing with Saudi Arabia, 544 00:21:49.790 --> 00:21:51.230 and control over the Red Sea. 545 00:21:51.390 --> 00:21:52.110 This is basically. 546 00:21:52.180 --> 00:21:54.580 What political scientist Barry Bruzin 547 00:21:54.830 --> 00:21:57.120 calls a regional security complex. 548 00:21:57.380 --> 00:22:01.460 What that means is Yemen's civil war had become impossible to contain 549 00:22:01.900 --> 00:22:02.770 inside Yemen 550 00:22:03.010 --> 00:22:07.250 because every major actor saw its own security tied to what happened there. 551 00:22:07.500 --> 00:22:11.130 Saudi intervention pulled Iran deeper into supporting the Houthis, 552 00:22:11.220 --> 00:22:14.790 which made Yemen part of a larger Saudi-Iranian competition 553 00:22:14.980 --> 00:22:16.310 and Iranian missile 554 00:22:16.450 --> 00:22:19.770 technology sent there then made the Houthis relevant to Israel, 555 00:22:20.050 --> 00:22:22.250 while their position next to the maritime shipping 556 00:22:22.370 --> 00:22:24.640 made them a problem for American naval power. 557 00:22:24.770 --> 00:22:27.530 So the theory of regional security complex 558 00:22:27.850 --> 00:22:30.390 predicts that a local civil war like this 559 00:22:30.650 --> 00:22:34.150 starts connecting security problems across the entire Middle East. 560 00:22:34.490 --> 00:22:35.560 By 2018, 561 00:22:35.650 --> 00:22:38.280 the Houthis were becoming a strategic level threat. 562 00:22:38.660 --> 00:22:41.600 Yemen suddenly became a geopolitical important country 563 00:22:41.980 --> 00:22:46.280 to America when the Bab el-Mandab Strait or the Gateway of Tears 564 00:22:46.460 --> 00:22:47.170 was threatened. 565 00:22:47.300 --> 00:22:48.760 And by 2022, 566 00:22:49.130 --> 00:22:52.570 years of Saudi bombings had failed to destroy the Houthis, 567 00:22:52.700 --> 00:22:55.440 and the war had largely settled into a stalemate. 568 00:22:55.700 --> 00:22:57.250 Then in April 2022, 569 00:22:57.420 --> 00:23:00.600 a UN brokered truce sharply reduced the fighting 570 00:23:00.700 --> 00:23:02.120 and opened the door to direct. 571 00:23:02.530 --> 00:23:04.120 Saudi Houthi negotiations. 572 00:23:04.330 --> 00:23:08.190 So Saudi Arabia started leaning harder on the carrot instead of the stick, 573 00:23:08.400 --> 00:23:09.310 and in 2023, 574 00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:12.340 Saudi Arabia announced over $1 billion 575 00:23:12.560 --> 00:23:14.020 in economic support 576 00:23:14.230 --> 00:23:16.660 for Yemen's internationally recognized government, 577 00:23:16.840 --> 00:23:18.070 helping pay salaries, 578 00:23:18.420 --> 00:23:19.510 support food security, 579 00:23:19.640 --> 00:23:21.580 and keep basic services running. 580 00:23:21.840 --> 00:23:22.590 At the same time, 581 00:23:22.840 --> 00:23:26.400 separate negotiations with the Houthis included proposals to pay. 582 00:23:26.480 --> 00:23:29.870 Public sector salaries inside Houthi controlled territory. 583 00:23:30.100 --> 00:23:32.760 After years of trying to bomb their way to a solution, 584 00:23:32.980 --> 00:23:36.160 the Saudis started testing if a very large checkbook 585 00:23:36.380 --> 00:23:37.640 might have better range. 586 00:23:37.940 --> 00:23:39.920 But as is often the case in the Middle East, 587 00:23:40.170 --> 00:23:42.090 the peace only lasted for a moment. 588 00:23:42.340 --> 00:23:46.340 After Hamas launched the October 7th attacks on Israel in 2023, 589 00:23:46.620 --> 00:23:48.800 the Houthis declared war on Israel because, 590 00:23:49.040 --> 00:23:49.290 well, 591 00:23:49.480 --> 00:23:50.290 you saw their flag. 592 00:23:50.600 --> 00:23:53.830 The Houthis started launching missiles and drones at Israel 593 00:23:53.830 --> 00:23:56.860 and announced a blockade of the Bab el Mamdab Strait 594 00:23:57.120 --> 00:23:59.190 to all cargo affiliated with Israel, 595 00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:01.590 demanding that it stop its war in Gaza. 596 00:24:01.800 --> 00:24:05.140 Nearly 15% of global trade passed through the Red Sea 597 00:24:05.450 --> 00:24:06.510 before the blockage, 598 00:24:06.760 --> 00:24:09.330 and the Houthis went after cargo ships left and right. 599 00:24:09.600 --> 00:24:13.380 Europe's trade in particular was threatened with a full 40% of its trade 600 00:24:13.520 --> 00:24:14.230 with Asia. 601 00:24:14.590 --> 00:24:15.810 Going through the Red Sea, 602 00:24:15.950 --> 00:24:18.570 where it has to cross the Babel Mandab eventually. 603 00:24:18.830 --> 00:24:22.460 They caused a 1.3% decrease in the entire global trade. 604 00:24:22.870 --> 00:24:24.450 The Houthis were practicing what 605 00:24:24.450 --> 00:24:27.900 political scientist Thomas Schelling calls compliance 606 00:24:28.030 --> 00:24:28.480 or 607 00:24:28.620 --> 00:24:29.970 coercive diplomacy. 608 00:24:30.120 --> 00:24:33.970 The Houthis were imposing costs on shipping to force outside governments 609 00:24:34.140 --> 00:24:36.000 to change behavior elsewhere. 610 00:24:36.340 --> 00:24:39.010 US intelligence warned that a secret maritime 611 00:24:39.010 --> 00:24:41.160 weapons pipeline at this point was moving 612 00:24:41.340 --> 00:24:44.450 new types of advanced attack drones and missile components 613 00:24:44.660 --> 00:24:46.490 from the Islamic Republic of Iran. 614 00:24:46.770 --> 00:24:50.440 To the Houthis in Yemen that were using it to target this civilian shipping. 615 00:24:50.630 --> 00:24:51.880 So by 2024, 616 00:24:52.070 --> 00:24:54.280 SEAL Team Three was assigned the mission of 617 00:24:54.280 --> 00:24:57.960 interdicting flows of illegal Iranian arms to Yemen. 618 00:24:58.170 --> 00:25:00.780 The problem is that the Arabian Sea is enormous 619 00:25:00.930 --> 00:25:04.690 and weapons smugglers generally don't submit their itinerary to Google Maps. 620 00:25:04.970 --> 00:25:06.720 Then on the night of January 11th, 621 00:25:06.850 --> 00:25:07.860 2024, 622 00:25:08.090 --> 00:25:10.280 their surveillance spotted something suspicious. 623 00:25:10.520 --> 00:25:13.910 A stateless Tao was moving through the sea near Somalia. 624 00:25:14.040 --> 00:25:16.290 A Tao was a traditional wooden sailing vessel, 625 00:25:16.360 --> 00:25:17.980 and SEAL Team 3 was deployed, 626 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:20.030 operating from the expeditionary sea base, 627 00:25:20.080 --> 00:25:21.190 the USS Polar. 628 00:25:21.410 --> 00:25:23.580 They chased the ship down in helicopters. 629 00:25:23.720 --> 00:25:26.390 The mission was a VBSS operation 630 00:25:26.520 --> 00:25:27.150 or a visit, 631 00:25:27.240 --> 00:25:27.600 board, 632 00:25:27.800 --> 00:25:28.750 search and seizure, 633 00:25:29.020 --> 00:25:31.350 which is military language for climbing onto somebody 634 00:25:31.350 --> 00:25:33.190 else's boat in the dark while armed. 635 00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:34.110 They were right. 636 00:25:34.620 --> 00:25:35.540 It was bingo. 637 00:25:35.740 --> 00:25:38.520 The ship was carrying Iranian-made ballistic missile parts, 638 00:25:38.700 --> 00:25:40.600 including propulsion and guidance equipment 639 00:25:40.770 --> 00:25:42.400 that was intended for the Houthis. 640 00:25:42.620 --> 00:25:45.050 The SEAL's boarding team seized the cargo, 641 00:25:45.220 --> 00:25:46.080 detained the crew, 642 00:25:46.300 --> 00:25:48.110 and sank the unsafe vessel. 643 00:25:48.300 --> 00:25:50.730 And there's actual public domain Centcom photos of 644 00:25:50.730 --> 00:25:52.970 the intercepted Dow in the boarding aftermath. 645 00:25:53.100 --> 00:25:55.440 But the mission cost 2 American lives. 646 00:25:55.790 --> 00:25:58.940 Chief Special Warfare Operator Christopher Chambers, 647 00:25:59.150 --> 00:25:59.980 37, 648 00:26:00.230 --> 00:26:03.770 was attempting to climb from the team's combat craft onto the Dow 649 00:26:03.900 --> 00:26:05.210 when he fell into the sea, 650 00:26:05.390 --> 00:26:06.500 and Nathan Ingram, 651 00:26:06.550 --> 00:26:07.100 27, 652 00:26:07.270 --> 00:26:10.030 immediately jumped in after him trying to save his teammate. 653 00:26:10.310 --> 00:26:13.330 Both men were carrying heavy combat equipment and within a minute, 654 00:26:13.630 --> 00:26:15.390 both had disappeared beneath the water. 655 00:26:15.630 --> 00:26:16.780 Recovery efforts were unsuccess. 656 00:26:16.920 --> 00:26:17.520 Successful, 657 00:26:17.750 --> 00:26:21.300 and the Navy investigation later concluded that their deaths were preventable. 658 00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:25.260 It found major gaps in conflicting guidance involving flotation equipment, 659 00:26:25.380 --> 00:26:26.420 and strategically though, 660 00:26:26.640 --> 00:26:29.080 the SEAL team had exposed something important. 661 00:26:29.360 --> 00:26:34.620 America was now trying to find Iran's supply chain hundreds of miles away and cut it 662 00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:38.070 before those weapons ever reached the battlefield in Yemen 663 00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:40.230 to threaten that global shipping. 664 00:26:40.520 --> 00:26:43.990 The hidden war had expanded from Yemen's mountains to Iran. 665 00:26:44.390 --> 00:26:48.570 And hunting Iranian weapons before they reached Yemen was only one part 666 00:26:48.670 --> 00:26:52.000 of how the mission was expanding because by the end of 2024, 667 00:26:52.270 --> 00:26:53.580 even JSO's role, 668 00:26:53.780 --> 00:26:55.490 Joint Special Operations Command 669 00:26:55.670 --> 00:26:56.960 had changed dramatically. 670 00:26:57.310 --> 00:26:58.340 By 2024, 671 00:26:58.630 --> 00:26:59.180 Joint Special 672 00:26:59.460 --> 00:27:01.400 Operations Command was put in charge of much 673 00:27:01.400 --> 00:27:03.600 of the air campaign against the Houthis. 674 00:27:03.810 --> 00:27:06.870 This is an extremely unusual assignment for JSOC 675 00:27:07.130 --> 00:27:09.080 because we're talking about the organization that's 676 00:27:09.080 --> 00:27:11.170 associated with Delta Force and SEALs. 677 00:27:11.370 --> 00:27:14.430 They transferred control of operations over the air of Yemen. 678 00:27:14.780 --> 00:27:17.240 To JSOC in December 2024, 679 00:27:17.460 --> 00:27:19.320 and their first major move was 680 00:27:19.420 --> 00:27:22.060 handing JSOC control of Reaper drones 681 00:27:22.290 --> 00:27:23.650 that were operating over Yemen. 682 00:27:23.860 --> 00:27:27.410 Then President Trump launched Operation Rough Rider on March 15, 683 00:27:27.540 --> 00:27:28.640 2025, 684 00:27:28.900 --> 00:27:31.930 and the unusual arrangement with JSOC continued. 685 00:27:32.100 --> 00:27:35.340 JSOC was the one deciding which Houthi targets would be hit, 686 00:27:35.700 --> 00:27:38.090 when and how the aircraft would deliver effects, 687 00:27:38.270 --> 00:27:39.810 and that division of labor is. 688 00:27:40.270 --> 00:27:41.800 Pretty untypical and strange. 689 00:27:41.990 --> 00:27:45.140 And apparently some people inside the military thought it was a bad idea. 690 00:27:45.310 --> 00:27:45.690 For 691 00:27:45.870 --> 00:27:46.980 about 3 decades, 692 00:27:47.150 --> 00:27:49.470 major US air campaigns across the Middle East 693 00:27:49.710 --> 00:27:53.340 had normally been run through conventional air component commanders. 694 00:27:53.550 --> 00:27:56.740 So Rough Rider may have been the first Middle East campaign 695 00:27:57.030 --> 00:27:57.860 of that size. 696 00:27:58.160 --> 00:27:59.310 Run by JSOC. 697 00:27:59.760 --> 00:28:03.180 After more than 50 days and over 1000 targets struck, 698 00:28:03.470 --> 00:28:07.780 Washington DC said the campaign had significantly degraded Houthi capabilities. 699 00:28:08.050 --> 00:28:10.300 Yet the group's top leadership survived, 700 00:28:10.520 --> 00:28:12.950 and Houthis remained capable of attacking Israel. 701 00:28:13.200 --> 00:28:13.550 In the end, 702 00:28:13.600 --> 00:28:15.790 the two sides signed a ceasefire agreement. 703 00:28:16.110 --> 00:28:19.490 And this is where the war goes from being about individual people 704 00:28:19.650 --> 00:28:22.630 to strategic questions about who controls the coastline 705 00:28:22.750 --> 00:28:24.780 and who can threaten the Bab al-Mandab 706 00:28:24.990 --> 00:28:27.180 and whether Iran can project power through 707 00:28:27.180 --> 00:28:29.270 one of the world's critical trade routes. 708 00:28:29.550 --> 00:28:31.460 And while all of this attention shifts. 709 00:28:31.800 --> 00:28:32.620 To the Houthis, 710 00:28:32.940 --> 00:28:35.900 there is evidence that America's older hidden war in Yemen against 711 00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:40.100 al-Qaeda may have continued underneath the new one against the Houthis. 712 00:28:40.240 --> 00:28:40.660 Officially, 713 00:28:40.680 --> 00:28:43.180 the United States has not publicly acknowledged a single 714 00:28:43.180 --> 00:28:46.990 airstrike against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula since 2020. 715 00:28:47.470 --> 00:28:51.430 You could reasonably assume that chapter of the war in Yemen had mostly ended, 716 00:28:51.670 --> 00:28:54.420 but local reporting suggests something a little stranger. 717 00:28:54.630 --> 00:28:56.180 Deputy director at New America, 718 00:28:56.270 --> 00:28:57.100 David Sterman, 719 00:28:57.310 --> 00:28:59.660 went back through Yemeni local media and found 720 00:28:59.660 --> 00:29:03.160 a series of attacks in 2025 and early 2026 721 00:29:03.390 --> 00:29:06.290 that were attributed locally to the United States military. 722 00:29:06.710 --> 00:29:07.740 On May 23, 723 00:29:07.870 --> 00:29:08.620 2025, 724 00:29:08.700 --> 00:29:12.580 a drone strike killed 5 or 6 AQAP members. 725 00:29:12.830 --> 00:29:16.700 Then the reports kept coming in that dozens more airstrikes followed, 726 00:29:16.990 --> 00:29:20.970 taking out negotiators between the Houthis and the al-Qaeda terrorists, 727 00:29:21.150 --> 00:29:23.660 these two different terrorist organizations fighting. 728 00:29:23.780 --> 00:29:24.350 Each other, 729 00:29:24.570 --> 00:29:27.820 which raises the fascinating possibility that Washington DC 730 00:29:28.010 --> 00:29:31.070 had very little interest in seeing two of its enemies 731 00:29:31.370 --> 00:29:33.230 suddenly negotiate and become friends. 732 00:29:33.500 --> 00:29:35.040 It's the opposite of peer mediation. 733 00:29:35.130 --> 00:29:37.700 They did airstrikes of peer sabotage, 734 00:29:38.130 --> 00:29:40.940 killing the negotiators to stop them from reaching peace. 735 00:29:41.330 --> 00:29:43.550 So 25 years after the United States 736 00:29:43.810 --> 00:29:45.960 started hunting al-Qaeda inside Yemen, 737 00:29:46.220 --> 00:29:50.280 the old hidden war may have continued and just stopped issuing press releases. 738 00:29:50.850 --> 00:29:55.330 More than 100 Americans have moved back into the fight in Yemen in 2026. 739 00:29:55.650 --> 00:29:58.390 American military personnel are once again moving back 740 00:29:58.530 --> 00:30:02.820 into almost the exact same kind of advisory slash combat role in the region. 741 00:30:03.020 --> 00:30:06.320 CNN revealed in September that up to 200 US 742 00:30:06.320 --> 00:30:09.800 military advisors are now physically inside Saudi Arabia, 743 00:30:10.090 --> 00:30:12.150 working alongside Saudi forces 744 00:30:12.290 --> 00:30:14.990 in a newly established joint forces command, 745 00:30:15.330 --> 00:30:17.190 supporting operations against the Houthis. 746 00:30:17.500 --> 00:30:18.490 By advising, 747 00:30:18.770 --> 00:30:22.400 I'm not talking about teaching Saudi soldiers how to properly fold the map, 748 00:30:22.770 --> 00:30:26.350 because the Houthis have suddenly pushed down Yemen's Red Sea coast, 749 00:30:26.570 --> 00:30:28.870 seized the strategic island of Perim 750 00:30:29.290 --> 00:30:31.320 directly inside the Bab el-Mandab Strait and 751 00:30:31.320 --> 00:30:33.950 launched new attacks inside Saudi territory. 752 00:30:34.440 --> 00:30:35.180 At the same time, 753 00:30:35.360 --> 00:30:37.520 Saudi Arabia's east-west oil pipeline, 754 00:30:37.600 --> 00:30:41.500 the emergency route carrying more than 5 million barrels a day across 755 00:30:41.690 --> 00:30:43.270 the block Strait of Hormuz, 756 00:30:43.520 --> 00:30:45.630 was knocked offline by attack drones. 757 00:30:45.850 --> 00:30:50.500 So the Saudis are now facing pressure on both their infrastructure moving oil west 758 00:30:50.720 --> 00:30:52.190 and a maritime chokepoint. 759 00:30:52.660 --> 00:30:54.690 That oil eventually has to sail through. 760 00:30:54.940 --> 00:30:55.320 Basically, 761 00:30:55.490 --> 00:30:58.290 both emergency exits are getting crowded at the same time. 762 00:30:58.500 --> 00:31:00.280 And you might be wondering why America 763 00:31:00.280 --> 00:31:02.370 hasn't just started bombing the Houthis again, 764 00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:03.720 because technically, 765 00:31:03.740 --> 00:31:08.020 Washington and the Houthis have their own ceasefire from May of 2025. 766 00:31:08.240 --> 00:31:12.530 The deal never required the Houthis to stop fighting Israel or Saudi Arabia, 767 00:31:12.860 --> 00:31:14.570 so as bizarre as it sounds, 768 00:31:14.780 --> 00:31:16.960 the Houthis can attack America's allies 769 00:31:17.100 --> 00:31:18.900 and grab strategically important territory. 770 00:31:19.530 --> 00:31:22.430 Without automatically breaking the agreement with America. 771 00:31:22.690 --> 00:31:25.400 Modern warfare comes with terms and conditions. 772 00:31:25.610 --> 00:31:26.120 And for now, 773 00:31:26.210 --> 00:31:29.350 the American government appears reluctant to tear that deal up. 774 00:31:29.540 --> 00:31:34.630 Attacking the Houthis would mean that they would bomb more ships beside the Saudis, 775 00:31:34.810 --> 00:31:38.120 and it would stretch US airpower thinner from the war in Iran. 776 00:31:38.370 --> 00:31:41.400 The media says that the American operations in Yemen are only 777 00:31:41.400 --> 00:31:45.200 providing intelligence and targeting support for Saudi strikes inside Yemen. 778 00:31:45.570 --> 00:31:47.360 They provide a system that allows Saudi 779 00:31:47.360 --> 00:31:49.550 officers to watch the battlefield in real time 780 00:31:49.650 --> 00:31:52.000 compared to the Pentagon's Maven system. 781 00:31:52.260 --> 00:31:52.530 So, 782 00:31:52.620 --> 00:31:54.960 slightly more involved than a PowerPoint presentation. 783 00:31:55.090 --> 00:31:57.360 This is now a very familiar model in Yemen. 784 00:31:58.030 --> 00:32:00.130 Political scientists sometimes separate 785 00:32:00.310 --> 00:32:03.020 proximate causes from permissive causes. 786 00:32:03.220 --> 00:32:06.060 The proximate cause of America's intervention in Yemen 787 00:32:06.270 --> 00:32:07.810 has continued to change. 788 00:32:07.950 --> 00:32:09.980 It was an al-Qaeda plot to bomb an airliner, 789 00:32:10.010 --> 00:32:11.010 it was a kidnapping, 790 00:32:11.230 --> 00:32:12.890 and it was a hostage situation, 791 00:32:13.030 --> 00:32:15.780 but the permissive cause has stayed the same. 792 00:32:16.150 --> 00:32:19.410 America had the regional bases and local partners 793 00:32:19.590 --> 00:32:21.540 that allowed them to intervene in Yemen. 794 00:32:22.010 --> 00:32:25.600 Political scientists sometimes call all of this path of dependence. 795 00:32:25.850 --> 00:32:28.980 What it means is once a country spends years building bases, 796 00:32:29.090 --> 00:32:30.550 intelligence relationships, 797 00:32:30.720 --> 00:32:31.530 legal authorities, 798 00:32:31.570 --> 00:32:33.270 and specialized units around 799 00:32:33.570 --> 00:32:34.790 one way of fighting, 800 00:32:35.010 --> 00:32:38.560 those tools become easier to reuse instead of abandon. 801 00:32:38.850 --> 00:32:42.590 Operation Copper Doon might disappear and presidents might change, 802 00:32:42.810 --> 00:32:44.160 even enemies might change. 803 00:32:44.330 --> 00:32:48.430 But that same machinery remains available and becomes more 804 00:32:48.690 --> 00:32:50.680 tempting to use compared to diplomacy, 805 00:32:50.770 --> 00:32:51.200 let's say. 806 00:32:51.590 --> 00:32:53.760 So when Yemen produces another crisis, 807 00:32:54.180 --> 00:32:57.240 America keeps reaching for that same toolbox. 808 00:32:57.580 --> 00:32:59.090 That's path dependence. 809 00:32:59.300 --> 00:33:01.690 And the question today is whether Washington DC is 810 00:33:01.690 --> 00:33:04.750 once again being pulled deeper into the exact conflict 811 00:33:04.900 --> 00:33:08.720 that it has now spent decades trying to fight from the shadows. 812 00:33:09.020 --> 00:33:09.490 To learn more, 813 00:33:09.620 --> 00:33:12.460 check out this episode here on American Black Ops in Africa. 814 00:33:12.580 --> 00:33:14.210 I think you'll find it very insightful. 815 00:33:14.300 --> 00:33:15.320 I'm Chris Cappy. 816 00:33:15.500 --> 00:33:16.810 I'll see you in the next transmission.