934: Houthis in Yemen | Out of the Loop

934: Houthis in Yemen | Out of the Loop

[00:00:00] Jordan Harbinger: Special thanks to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of The Jordan Harbinger Show.

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[00:00:07] Ryan McBeth: Who's pulling the strings? Iran's goal here is to get the Houthis to shut down the Red Sea. Iran can't afford an aircraft carrier. Iran can't afford battle groups. Iran can't send multiple divisions of troops overseas, but they can fund terror and they can fund proxies. And if you can fund a proxy that will do that stuff for you, then maybe you don't need an aircraft carrier. Iran is pulling the strings.

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[00:01:28] All right, today, another installment in our Out of the Loop series. This one on Yemen and especially the Houthis Rebels. We don't have time to cover all of Yemeni history or what's going on there, but essentially Yemen is a giant mess. You've probably heard about the ships, the cargo ships. That are being hit with random missiles from Houthis Rebels. We're going to talk about why Houthis rebels are shooting cargo ships with missiles, why they're landing helicopters on them and hijacking them, why they're launching missiles over Saudi Arabia and Israel, why Yemen and Saudi Arabia are in conflict.

[00:01:58] We're talking today with my friend Ryan McBeth. You might recognize him from the episode we did about Hamas just a couple of months ago. Here we go, out of the loop Yemen with Ryan McBeth.

[00:02:12] First of all, thanks for agreeing to do the show again. I know you're super busy flying all over the place now. Now your Substack is so big, you're kind of a big deal around here.

[00:02:21] Ryan McBeth: I guess, I don't feel like a big deal, but Substack actually invited me out to their offices in San Francisco, where I talk to them about how they could do video better.

[00:02:31] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. Tell me a little bit about what you're doing on, I know this is like a shameless plug, but it is interesting. It's Substack iss like a, what would you describe it? Like if you're a journalist and you don't work for a major newspaper, you can write stuff that's good and people can subscribe to you and you get distribution without just having to like scream into the void. It is giving people voice that they maybe wouldn't have gotten to have otherwise.

[00:02:51] Ryan McBeth: You're absolutely correct. That's basically what Substack is. It allows people who are independent journalists to put out what they call newsletters. Well, that's a very '90s kind of term, right? But recently, Substack pivoted into video, and one of the problems that I get on YouTube is that YouTube, they've changed a lot of their policies to the point where you can barely show anything anymore.

[00:03:15] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah.

[00:03:15] Ryan McBeth: If there's violence or even a little bit of nudity, that can be questionable. Or even just talking about sensitive subjects because you know, what are they trying to do, they're trying to sell makeup, right?

[00:03:26] Jordan Harbinger: Mm-hmm.

[00:03:27] Ryan McBeth: They're trying to sell —

[00:03:28] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah.

[00:03:29] Ryan McBeth: — Ridge wallets, you know, probably shouldn't.

[00:03:32] Jordan Harbinger: No, that's fine. They used to sponsor the show and you can find their code on our website at jordanharbinger.com/deals. Uh, it probably doesn't work anymore, but you could try it.

[00:03:40] No, the thing that I find disturbing about YouTube, and we won't go too far down this rabbit hole because we have a show to do, but like I did a show with Mosab Hassan, Yousef, the Green Prince of Hamas. It got one point, I don't even know, three million views and counting, of course, it got demonetized and I was like, why? And the answer is because it showed graphic depictions of violence. Wait, how did two dudes talking on a webcam show graphic depictions of violence? Oh, it didn't. But a bunch of a-h*les who like didn't like that guy's message, just reported it. Got it. Demonetized.

[00:04:12] Ryan McBeth: You're absolutely right. There is brigade that's involved. You know, my video about the 101st Airborne got demonetized for violence.

[00:04:19] Jordan Harbinger: Mm-hmm.

[00:04:20] Ryan McBeth: Even though we're shooting blanks on these exercises. So, you know, there there's not a lot you can do, but Substack is kind of the saving grace because people can watch for free, or if you want, give me five bucks.

[00:04:30] Jordan Harbinger: Mm-hmm.

[00:04:31] Ryan McBeth: And I've built an audience around that and people trust the intelligence and also it allows people to, let's say you're in the military, when I do an intelligence assessment, I put all of my receipts up online. So any PowerPoints that I do, any satellite footage. So if you're a soldier and your first sergeant says to you, "Hey, I need you to give me an intelligence successor on the Houthis tomorrow, you can either run around like a chicken with your head cut off, or you can go on to Ryan McBeth Substack, ryanmcbeth.substack.com, type in Houthis and boom, now you have a PowerPoint. Now you have a briefing and they have all this awesome stuff that you can use and it saves you a lot of time.

[00:05:08] Jordan Harbinger: There you go. Yeah. So it's a little bit of a plug, but I mean, the reason you're here is because of your Substack, so it's only fair.

[00:05:13] Speaking of Houthis, I would love to learn more about this because I know Yemen's a mess. I know a few people who've been there and they can't go there anymore, or they've left there and they can't go back anymore. And I have asked many cab driver in New York City about whenever they're from Yemen, I mean, it's just like, uh, take me to the airport and back because I want to hear about Yemen and a lot of them surprise, surprise, don't have a lot of love for the Houthis. Some of them do. So it's obviously not just a very black and white obvious situation. Like I never talked to anybody who was like, ISIS is great, right?

[00:05:47] So there's obviously a little more nuance here, but the Houthis, aside from being in the news here and there about the Yemen war with Saudi Arabia and all this stuff, now they are suddenly taking over cargo ships in the, what is it? The Red Sea?

[00:06:01] Ryan McBeth: That's correct.

[00:06:01] Jordan Harbinger: And I'm thinking, wait a minute, these guys are like. I envision them living in corrugated metal huts and now they're landing a helicopter on a moving ship. What's going on here?

[00:06:09] Ryan McBeth: Not, not quite. So the Houthis Rebellion basically started in 2014, but if you want to get technical, we can go all the way back to the year 632, which was the year the Prophet Muhammad died. This really does go back that far. So essentially the Prophet Muhammad passed away in the year 632. There were two schools of thought. There was one school of thought that the caliphs literally a ruling council, they should be the rifle heirs of Islam. And then other people thought that Ali, who was the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, Ali should take over.

[00:06:48] It should be a lineage of the prophet Muhammad. The people who believed in the caliphs, they became the Sunni Muslims. The people who believed in Ali became the Shia Muslims. And there was this group called the Zaydis. Well, there was a gentleman named Ali ibn Zayd, who was the son-in-law or the great, great-grandson of Ali. And he actually went to the colleagues in Saudi Arabia, and I think it was in the year 740. He said to the caliphs like, "I think you guys are corrupt. This isn't right. We think that the true inheritor of Islam should be someone from Muhammad's family." They disagreed there was a civil war and he was killed.

[00:07:34] So the Houthis are actually from a small tribe in the northwestern part of Yemen, and they call themselves Zaydis and they have a strong anti-corruption bent to them. They hate it when they see corruption.

[00:07:51] Jordan Harbinger: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:52] Ryan McBeth: And they are Shia Muslims and Shia represents roughly 10 to 20 percent, depending on who you talk to of the Islamic world.

[00:07:59] Jordan Harbinger: Is that Iran also?

[00:08:01] Ryan McBeth: Iran is mostly Shia.

[00:08:03] Jordan Harbinger: Okay.

[00:08:03] Ryan McBeth: That's correct. And some small parts of Southern Saudi Arabia or Shia as well. Iraq is, at least the southern part of Iraq is mostly Shia. And you know, a lot of people when they look at Shia and Sunni Islam, they make the mistake of equating it to Catholics and the Protestants fighting. And that's not quite true because for the longest time, Sunni and Shia, they would live peacefully, side by side with each other. They would intermarry. So what we're seeing now isn't necessarily a conflict between Sunni and Shia. It's a conflict between Saudi Arabia who wants to maintain power in Iran, who is a growing power. So I ran, kind of corrupts that Shia ideology to get people to do their bidding.

[00:08:50] Jordan Harbinger: Okay, so, but why Yemen? Because when I think, okay, I'm Iran, I'm Saudi Arabia. I want to maintain or gain power in the region. I'm going to go after one of the poorest countries in the entire world that's completely fallen apart and I'm going to die on that hill.

[00:09:03] Ryan McBeth: It's not the hill that you're dying on, it's the Bab al-Mandab Strait. If we look at Yemen, I'm trying, you know, I know a lot of people are listening to this, not viewing it.

[00:09:13] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah.

[00:09:13] Ryan McBeth: Think of Yemen as a Hershey bar and you turn Yemen 30 degrees and that's roughly Yemen. They're at the bottom of the Arabian Peninsula. Oman is to their right or it's to their east and Saudi Arabia is to their north, to the west is the Red Sea, and to the south is the Gulf of Aden. Right in the middle between Djibouti and between the tip of the bottom left of the Hershey bar that we turn —

[00:09:41] Jordan Harbinger: I'm desperately resisting making a joke, desperately

[00:09:44] Ryan McBeth: — 30 degrees.

[00:09:45] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah.

[00:09:45] Ryan McBeth: — is the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and that is a crucial part of world commerce. I believe it was 30 percent of world sea traffic transits that strait.

[00:09:58] Jordan Harbinger: Wow.

[00:09:58] Ryan McBeth: So it's a very strategic location. So if Iran can influence actors that can influence the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, now you have control over a significant part of global commerce.

[00:10:11] Jordan Harbinger: I see. It's almost like Yemen is kind of a, like Turkey, how we put up with so much crap in NATO from Turkey because well, they control the bosphorus and we really don't want them to let the Russian Navy through so to the Black Sea. So we're kind of, kind of let them harbor Hamas terrorists and like just not dredge up drama because we want them to let Sweden into NATO and play ball with us.

[00:10:34] Ryan McBeth: Absolutely. It's a highly, highly strategic location. If Iran can control that area, then Iran can dictate terms to the rest of the world. And right now, the Houthis movement, it's been going for quite a while. It was actually started by a guy named Hussein al-Houthi and taken over by his brother Abdul al-Houthi after Hussein al-Houthi died. And this was sort of like a political anti-corruption movement among the Zaydi tribe.

[00:11:03] Jordan Harbinger: Mm-hmm.

[00:11:04] Ryan McBeth: And once Yemen fell into a civil war after the Arab Spring, the Houthis, which were well-funded and well motivated. They're highly motivated soldiers. They took over a good part of Western Yemen, and if you imagine taking a bite out of the corner of that Hershey bar to the bottom left of that Hershey bar, that's essentially the area they control, which is roughly 30 percent of the population of Yemen.

[00:11:31] Jordan Harbinger: I know you mentioned the Gulf of Aden. Did we not have a US ship that was bombed in a harbor in Yemen? This might be totally unrelated, but maybe it's not.

[00:11:40] Ryan McBeth: It is sort of related. So that was the USS Cole. At least 17 sailors were killed in that bombing, and it used to be the Gulf of Aden, or actually the City of Aden was a stop for the US military. The US military would use that as a refueling station. I believe it was in 2000.

[00:11:57] To kind of rewind a little bit, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the Saudis, of course, they built up their military because they thought that they were going to be invaded next. The government of Yemen under Ali Saleh, they basically, they didn't side with Saudi Arabia.

[00:12:16] And so Saudi Arabia got extremely angry at Yemen and they kicked a lot of the Yemenese workers out of Saudi Arabia. And again, the Zaydis, they don't like corruption. They thought that Saudi Arabia was being corrupt, that they were under Western influence. They were under US influence. And so that kind of started this animosity and that level of animosity and poor government control allowed organizations like Al-Qaeda to function well in Yemen.

[00:12:47] And so if you always see US ships going into the port of Aden and there's not a lot of security around those US ships, why not put an explosive on a small boat, push that right up to the dock and blow that right up in front of the coal, which is exactly what they did.

[00:13:03] Jordan Harbinger: You mentioned that the Houthis, we call them the Houthis rebels, right? So that I assume means they're different from the Yemeni government, who is what? Allied with the United States and Saudi Arabia. I'm confused on that too.

[00:13:15] Ryan McBeth: Sort of there. It's extremely confusing. If we actually go back in time a little bit, there used to be two Yemens. So if you take that Hershey bar, there used to be a Republican Yemen. That was sort of in the left west corner of the country and the right west corner was the Democratic Republic of Yemen, which was mostly a communist.

[00:13:37] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah, I was going to say Democratic Republic sounds like they have a very, whenever you do that, that means you are very restrictive, like North Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea or of Korea is like whatever you want to out yourself, is it a completely totalitarian regime, you got to add Democratic in front of your name just so people know that you're lying about that.

[00:13:56] Ryan McBeth: Absolutely. They were mainly supported by the Soviet Union and when the Soviet Union fell, they basically lost a lot of their funding. So there was a little bit of oil in the Democratic Republic of Yemen and there were ports and terminals in the Republic of Yemen. So the two countries decided to unify into one Yemen. It lasted about four years until there was a major civil war there. So that kind of descended into chaos. And there were several smaller civil wars since.

[00:14:27] It was Al Saleh who was the president of Yemen who was in power during this entire time. In fact, he was in power all the way up into roughly 2012 in the Arab Spring.

[00:14:41] Jordan Harbinger: Okay. Thank you for that. And now Iran is also engaging in a Proxy War with Saudi Arabia. You mentioned they're rising power and they're doing this what, via among other ways probably via Yemen, via the Houthis. Is that accurate?

[00:14:56] Ryan McBeth: The Proxy War is occurring because Saleh left power Hadi took power. The militia didn't like Hadi, so they tried to push him out. Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia wanted to reinstate Hadi into power because he was a Saudi ally, and Iran started funding the Houthis militia so they could have influence over Iran.

[00:15:25] Jordan Harbinger: Okay, and so this is Iran fighting a Proxy War with Saudi Arabia, who's fighting an actual war in Yemen against the Houthis, because aren't we selling a ton of weapons to Saudi Arabia to then load onto to F-16s that we also sold them and then shoot missiles at Houthis from those planes, et cetera?

[00:15:41] Ryan McBeth: For the most part, yes. Not just, well, Saudi Arabia doesn't actually have F-16s. They have F-15s and they have Eurofighters, and they have Typhoons, which are sold to them from England, from the United Kingdom. And actually one of the big issues that we've seen is that the United Kingdom sold cluster bombs to the Saudi military, which were then used somewhat indiscriminately against not only Houthi rebels, but against civilians.

[00:16:06] Jordan Harbinger: Yikes.

[00:16:07] Ryan McBeth: By this constant war, what we've seen is a good portion of Yemen has descended into famine. And the other thing that actually a lot of people don't talk about is the production of a drug called khat. And this is a natural plant. In Yemen, it is very common that you, you work until lunch and then after lunch you and your friends, you have a long lunch and you chew khat. And khat is this sort of stimulant. It's very popular in Yemen. It's popular in Saudi Arabia.

[00:16:37] Jordan Harbinger: I tried it. It's absolutely disgusting. Have you tried it?

[00:16:39] Ryan McBeth: I have never tried khat.

[00:16:41] Jordan Harbinger: It is disgusting. It's not only vile, but also it's incredibly addicting and I think it's reasonably expensive.

[00:16:48] Ryan McBeth: Well, it is and it's very profitable. So a lot of Yemeni farmers have stopped growing things like fruit, and I believe 90 percent of their agricultural production today is khat. I

[00:17:01] Jordan Harbinger: mean, to be fair, who needs to eat when you're all effed up on khat?

[00:17:05] Ryan McBeth: So supposedly, that's one of the reasons that u the rebels are such good fighters. They take khat and it turns them into supermen. And these guys, they want to go fight.

[00:17:14] Jordan Harbinger: I guess the problem arises when you want to do something boring, like raise a successful family and you can't feed them. Only eating and drinking khat. So you need food for that as well.

[00:17:25] Ryan McBeth: You're absolutely right. And one of the, one of the issues that the HHI rebels have had, they've had a cholera outbreak. Now, it's very easy. Everyone wants to be a rebel until you actually have to rule.

[00:17:35] Jordan Harbinger: Mm-hmm.

[00:17:36] Ryan McBeth: So there was a massive cholera outbreak relatively recently, I believe it was in 2016 in Houthis-controlled areas because they weren't taking out the trash, they weren't providing clean water or sanitation. It's really easy to take over a government. It's not so hard to provide services to your people once you actually do so.

[00:17:54] Jordan Harbinger: Right. It's not so easy to do that. Yeah, exactly. It's far easier to blow something up than to go, "Hey, we need to rebuild that dam and that water treatment plant." It's usually, "No, we actually need to buy more ammo to blow up some more stuff instead."

[00:18:06] Ryan McBeth: Or they get that ammunition from Iran.

[00:18:11] Jordan Harbinger: You are listening to The Jordan Harbinger Show. This is Out of the Loop on Yemen with Ryan McBeth. We'll be right back.

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[00:21:21] Now back to Out of the Loop with Ryan McBeth.

[00:21:26] So Saudi Arabia bombing the crap out of these guys with cluster munitions and other things sold to them from the west, which is not great. It's a real, are we the baddies moment, I suppose. But they're also not doing that well because Houthis, I don't know what it is, if they're getting kick ass weapons from Iran or whatever, but Saudi Arabia is kind of wet in the bed when it comes to beating them because this has been going on for a long time. And if they have F-15s, then Houthis are launching sort of whatever kind of rockets. What's the problem here?

[00:21:53] Ryan McBeth: There's a number of problems and a lot of it goes back to kind of how the Saudi Arabian military is structured, but the Saudi Arabian military, what you have are they like to buy a lot of toys.

[00:22:03] Jordan Harbinger: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:03] Ryan McBeth: When you take a look at Saudi Arabia, it is a coastline that's roughly 1600 miles long on both sides of Saudi Arabia. You'd think they'd have a great Navy, right? I think they got seven frigates, about 20 or so patrol boats or corvettes. Some smaller boats and you would think like, oh, you know, we should invest in Navy, but you can't really show off a frigate to your friends, right?

[00:22:26] Jordan Harbinger: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:27] Ryan McBeth: So you buy fighter planes. Fighter planes are cool and most of the pilots in Saudi Arabia are part of the ruling families.

[00:22:34] Jordan Harbinger: Right.

[00:22:34] Ryan McBeth: Now, how you got to tell a ruling family no? No, you know, we want your son to be a ship captain or serve on a ship, not a fighter pilot, right? So they put a lot of their money into toys, into F-15s, into eurofighters, into the tornado. And they didn't really concentrate on the simple stuff like giving night vision devices to all their soldiers.

[00:22:56] Jordan Harbinger: Mmm.

[00:22:56] Ryan McBeth: So Saudi Arabia, they do have, at the low level, they have highly motivated soldiers. But they don't really know how to use them, and those soldiers aren't as well equipped as their Air Force. Well, if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

[00:23:10] Jordan Harbinger: Right.

[00:23:11] Ryan McBeth: So we're going to use the Air Force to hammer the heck out of the Houthis. But unfortunately, you can't bomb an ideology. You have to go in with infantry and stop them. And they were in, the Saudis, were in a coalition with the UAE, Sudan, Egypt, a couple, I believe Syria was part of that coalition at one point. For the most part, it's the UAE and it is Saudi Arabia and the UAE has actually done much better on the ground. A lot of that is due to the leadership in that country, they're a little more serious about having a good ground force.

[00:23:42] Jordan Harbinger: Wow. You definitely don't think, well, one, I should say, I don't think of the UAE as a military force. You know, I think of Dubai and I'm like, oh. It's like if you told me Las Vegas had a kick ass special forces group, I would be, I wouldn't even know what to do with that.

[00:23:54] Ryan McBeth: No. They have a fairly good military and they have a lot of foreign contractors that come in and they teach them Blackwater when, whatever name they call themselves now, I think they were Xe for a while and they're Academi. I don't know what Blackwater calls themselves now, but they all call themselves Blackwater. They often teach in the UAE, and so they have a pretty good ground force. But Saudi Arabia, like I said, they push a lot of their money into their Air Force, and you just, like I said, you can't bomb an ideology.

[00:24:24] Jordan Harbinger: So they're not doing well in Yemen and the Houthis seem to be gaining some steam. One of the earliest things that I'd seen from them in a few years, because I didn't follow the war super closely, was they just started shooting missiles over Saudi Arabia at Israel. So why are they doing this? Are they just sort of like solidarity with my Muslim brothers or what? Because I don't know if I would, I mean, look, I'm not a rebel army commander, but it seems like a really bad idea to pull someone else into the conflict who also has an effective military by shooting over another country that's already bombing me.

[00:24:58] Ryan McBeth: You would think that, but who's pulling the strengths?

[00:25:00] Jordan Harbinger: Right.

[00:25:00] Ryan McBeth: Iran is pulling the strings. Now, they're getting these missiles, both cruise missiles, drones, and ballistic missiles. They're getting those from Iran, and I believe Iran's goal here is to get the Houthis to shut down the Red Sea. If you shut down traffic in the Red Sea, maybe there will be world pressure on Israel to stop what they're doing in Gaza.

[00:25:24] Iran can't afford an aircraft carrier. Iran can't afford battle groups. Iran can't send multiple divisions of troops overseas, but they can fund terror and they can fund proxies. And if you can fund a proxy that will do that stuff for you, then maybe you don't need an aircraft carrier.

[00:25:42] Jordan Harbinger: That makes some sense. I suppose it's probably cheaper. What is this part of asymmetric warfare like? When you hack something, you're just like also, hey, we'll fund this proxy military with stuff. Because we don't need to really suffer the cost if they die and we can just basically arm these guys and train them. Are they going to Iran to train or does Iran send people there to train them like Green Beret style?

[00:26:05] Ryan McBeth: It goes, it goes both ways. Iran will send people over, they'll send people to Iran. Another thing that the Houthis have as a capability is cyber warfare. Iran has launched cyber attacks against Saudi Arabian oil interests, tried to shut down terminals, or tried to shut down pipelines, or tried to shut down production centers. They performed those actions with Houthis rebels and with teams in Iran coordinating together.

[00:26:31] Jordan Harbinger: Hmm.

[00:26:32] Ryan McBeth: So we have this dual pronged cyber capability.

[00:26:35] Jordan Harbinger: It's interesting. You don't think of a rebel army going all in on cyber especially. It must not be as ragtag as people assume a lot of rebel armies are, right? I'm not thinking these aren't like dudes in the jungles of Laos with flip flops.

[00:26:48] Ryan McBeth: No. No. These are some pretty motivated people. And Yemen had colleges.

[00:26:53] Jordan Harbinger: Mm-hmm.

[00:26:54] Ryan McBeth: So I guess if you took the Zaydis sect of Shia Islam, they're almost like the Jesuits. They actually believe in political action and education. They're not like a rebel, ragtag militia. They are people who believe in education and political action to fill a goal. And for them, their goal is to have an Islamic state in all of Yemen.

[00:27:17] Jordan Harbinger: What about Oman next door? I feel like Oman, you hear good things about it. Aren't they a little concerned that their next door neighbor is basically a crack house? If we're going to keep the neighborhood analogy.

[00:27:27] Ryan McBeth: I'm sure they are, but Oman really doesn't have the military to deal with that. And honestly, a lot of the smuggling routes that aren't through the Gulf of Aden, they go through Oman. If you're an official in Oman and someone offers you a couple of thousand dollars to look the other way, as a weapon shipment gets pushed through your country, what are you going to do?

[00:27:45] Jordan Harbinger: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:46] Ryan McBeth: The other way weapons are getting in is Iran will actually send to freighter to Somalia, and then when it gets close to Somalia, small boats will come out from Yemen. They'll pick up the weapons and equipment and they'll bring that right back. So, you know, if you look at an inspection bill of lading from Iran and you stop them on the high seas and say, "Hey, I want to see what's on this ship." "Oh, all this stuff is going to Somalia." When no other ships are around, bring out small boats, offload them, and they go right over to Yemen.

[00:28:17] Jordan Harbinger: Wow. Although it seems also bad if Iran is selling weapons to Somalia, but maybe they're, are they allowed to do that? I guess they are, right? International trade. It's something, something.

[00:28:26] Ryan McBeth: It's international trade, right?

[00:28:28] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah.

[00:28:28] Ryan McBeth: And as long as it's not against UN embargo, then yeah, you're absolutely allowed to do that.

[00:28:36] Jordan Harbinger: And the US Navy's not interested in being like, you can't ship these weapons over there.

[00:28:40] Ryan McBeth: The US Navy does intercept Iranian shipments, but they're all so busy.

[00:28:45] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah.

[00:28:46] Ryan McBeth: You know, the US Navy has a limited number of ships, and it's a really big ocean, and every once in a while you'll see the Navy will put out a report. The Department of Defense will put out a report and they'll have the deck of a destroyer covered with AK-47s. This is what we recovered that was going into Yemen. So they're doing what they can to stop the flow of alarms, but it's a big ocean. There's a lot of ships. And you also have Oman smuggling arounds.

[00:29:13] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. When I see those, it looks to me like when Customs in border patrols, like, "We seized three tons of cocaine," and the cartels are like, "Yeah, that was what we sent in before lunch on that Tuesday, and you got it. Good job guys."

[00:29:26] Ryan McBeth: And it can also be a situation where, you know what, let's tip the US Navy off. There are these weapons on this ship and meanwhile and other ship is going through with even bigger weapons or with rocks.

[00:29:35] Jordan Harbinger: Right. Oh, that's interesting. Hadn't thought about that. Pretty slick.

[00:29:38] So recently the Houthis took over a ship and this is a cargo ship. What was particularly interesting about this was they landed a helicopter on the ship, so it's not just like they popped out of boxes and got these totally unaware guys on a ship and get on a container ship. I mean, they pulled off a special forces operation, which shows me that Iran had definitely trained these guys, the pilot and the operators. But why take over a cargo ship? What's the point? What was on there?

[00:30:07] Ryan McBeth: Well, so that cargo ship operation was absolutely fascinating to watch the soldiers who actually landed on the cargo ship, they weren't exactly surgical. They made some mistakes during that actual takeovers. They're pointing their weapons at each other. I know one guy hit their weapon against a wall by accident. So they weren't the best of the best, but they were pretty good at pulling this off.

[00:30:33] Also, don't forget that during this civil war, about 60 percent of the Yemeni military went over to the side of the Houthis. So you have pilots, and those pilots have training. Actually one of the planes that they had, or one of the helicopters they had was an Mi-17, the helicopter that actually landed on that ship. And that's a relatively new Russian helicopter, at least newer than the MIA, which it superseded.

[00:31:00] So yeah, that could have come from Iran. There could have been training from Iran, but it's certainly possible that the Yemenese military owned that particular Mi-17 and used that against the ship. If you're a good helicopter pilot, you can land on a ship.

[00:31:16] Jordan Harbinger: Hmm.

[00:31:16] Ryan McBeth: It's just a matter of going, all right, well I have to keep moving forward 'cause the ship is moving at 17 knots. So I got to keep moving at 17 knots and slowly descend. That descent was very deliberate. If you watch, you know, that guy lined it up to the stern of the ship and that ship, they just waited until they were right over the correct spot and they landed. So that was a fairly slow descent. If that was the US Navy, it probably would've been a lot faster, a lot more dynamic, but these guys, they definitely did have practice when they did that, but it's not that hard for a helicopter pilots to land them a ship.

[00:31:51] Jordan Harbinger: Then why do it? Because this wasn't, at first I was like, oh, they took over an Israeli cargo ship. Because, of course, all the Reddit headlines were that, and then it was like, oh, well it's not exactly Israeli, but it's an Israeli company. Well, it's not exactly an Israeli company. It's a company that has Israelis working for it. Well, actually they don't, they were from Japan or something, but an Israeli guy invested in one. Actually, he was just on the board. And I'm like, way to be as removed from the actual country. You think you're targeting? As possible. So I almost, I was thinking like, did you not know that? It's like attacking some company because one of their investors is Israeli and it's like, well, you sure showed them. I mean, it's a completely pointless move from the sound of it.

[00:32:32] Ryan McBeth: Well, from the politics of it, it made its goal, right? By creating headlines of saying we are fighting an Israeli ship. So it's easy to create that level of disinformation, but why did they do it? Well, they did it because of Lloyd's of London, right? Every time they take over a ship, the price of insuring ships going through the Red Sea increases.

[00:32:51] Jordan Harbinger: Mmm.

[00:32:51] Ryan McBeth: Now, the cost of global shipping increases because of what they're doing now, that's world governments putting pressure on Israel saying, "Hey, you need to knock off what you're doing in Gaza because this is costing us money."

[00:33:04] Jordan Harbinger: The only problem with that logic that I see is the Houthis were fighting before the Gaza thing started. So even if it was like, okay, we're going to stop as long as the fighting in Gaza stops, how do we know that? And also, maybe it's easier to put pressure on other countries and arm them up against the Houthis than it is to get Israel to stop doing what it's doing. So how do they know that calculation's going to work in their favor? Because it seems like it could just as easily result in world pressure going, "You know what? I was going to let these Houthis guys do their thing, but now that they're making my Amazon Prime more expensive, send a bunch of rockets and missiles to whoever's fighting those guys because they're pissing me off."

[00:33:40] Ryan McBeth: Well, if you weigh the calculation, it's because war is hard.

[00:33:43] Jordan Harbinger: Mm-hmm.

[00:33:43] Ryan McBeth: And there are very few countries that have the kind of expeditionary military capability that could actually make a difference. That region of the world. Essentially it's the United States, Great Britain, France, to a lesser extent, Russia. And they're not going to do anything. And maybe China, they might have the expeditionary capability to actually put troops on the ground and stop the Houthis from doing what they're doing. And actually, I said in one YouTube video I did that if China were smart, if China really wants to take over Taiwan —

[00:34:14] Jordan Harbinger: Mm-hmm.

[00:34:14] Ryan McBeth: — they should probably get some practice at shooting down incoming anti-ship.

[00:34:18] Jordan Harbinger: Mm-hmm.

[00:34:18] Ryan McBeth: So it would make a lot of sense for China to send a bunch of destroyers into the Red Sea and help out in the coalition shooting down these Houthis missiles. But they probably won't do that because China is allied with Iran, and Iran is alive with the Houthis, and even though it affects Chinese shipping, they might be willing to roll the dice with that.

[00:34:39] Jordan Harbinger: I was just going to say, if a country is being hurt by more expensive shipping, China is at the top of the list of countries that needs international shipping to be cheap, safe, and plentiful. So their allies over there in Yemen slash Iran are doing them no favors by making the insurance costs go through the roof.

[00:34:57] Ryan McBeth: Yeah. Well, they're playing the long game, right?

[00:34:59] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah.

[00:35:00] Ryan McBeth: They're playing the long game on this.

[00:35:01] Jordan Harbinger: So then in terms of other expeditionary military forces, doesn't the US or maybe even other countries, isn't there a base in Djibouti, which I know is not like right there, but isn't there a base in Djibouti that's a bunch of special forces and maybe even from different countries? I know some friends were stationed there. I don't know much about that place.

[00:35:17] Ryan McBeth: Absolutely. So there's Camp Lemonnier, and that is in Djibouti. There's an airfield there. It's a navy base. Ships can dock there and they have an airfield there. And there's a number of countries that are in Camp Lemonnier. And actually several miles away, there's actually a Chinese base as well.

[00:35:33] Jordan Harbinger: Hmm.

[00:35:34] Ryan McBeth: Djibouti invited the United States in, we set up a base there and the only, the old Camp Lemonnier and we improved it. Then they gave leasing rice to China at a base, I think about eight or 10 miles to the northwest of that base, which made a lot of Americans mad, but what are you got to do? It's their own, you know, Djibouti is their own country. They can choose to give leases to whoever they want.

[00:35:55] Jordan Harbinger: Sure, yeah. I'm just imagining two bases with a bunch of antennas pointed at each other now.

[00:35:59] Ryan McBeth: That's essentially what that Chinese base is and what I understand, they are extending their runways and ability to harbor more ships. But any kind of action against the Houthis Rebels will probably come out of that base in Djibouti Camp Lemonnier, or from aircraft carriers or you know, perhaps from Saudi Arabia if they allow us to do so.

[00:36:23] Jordan Harbinger: This is The Jordan Harbinger Show with our guest Ryan McBeth. We'll be right back.

[00:36:27] This episode is sponsored in part by Nissan. These days, too many people have to settle for the next best thing, especially when it comes to choosing a car. But at Nissan, there's a vehicle type for everyone, for every driver who wants more. Whether you want more adventure, more electric, more action, more guts, more turbocharged excitement, Nissan is here to make sure you get it. Because Nissan is all about giving people a whole spectrum of thrills to choose from with the diverse lineup of vehicles, from sports cars, to sedans, to EVs, pickups, and crossovers. With Nissan's diverse lineup, anyone can find something to help them reach their more. In my life, I'm always looking for more — more stories that resonate, more people who defy odds, more lessons that provoke thought and ignite change for the better. And that's why I love that Nissan wants to help people find their more, more freedom, more adventure, or even just more fun. So thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of The Jordan Harbinger Show and for the reminder to find your more. Learn more at nissanusa.com.

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[00:39:38] Now for the rest of my conversation with Ryan McBeth.

[00:39:43] The Houthis have been shooting those missiles towards Israel. I know, I think it was Saudi Arabia shot down a couple of them, which makes sense because it's over their airspace, which I would not really want those flying through my airspace, even if I were neutral, let alone at war with the country that shot them. What about the US? I know we have ships all over that area. Are we not trying to also shoot down those missiles?

[00:40:02] Ryan McBeth: We are, and we're actually doing an excellent job. There is a US Navy destroyer, an early bur class destroyer called the USS Kearny. These people are absolute heroes. They have been patrolling the Red Sea and they have been shooting down Houthis missiles that are either headed toward Israel or headed towards ships in the Red Sea, as well as Houthis drones. They have been shooting them down on an almost a weekly basis.

[00:40:24] Jordan Harbinger: Wow.

[00:40:24] Ryan McBeth: These people have done a phenomenal job. I actually sent them a bunch of T-shirts from my Department of the Boat People collection on Bunker Branding as a reward for a job well done. I am so impressed with the professionalism and the ability of the sailors on the USS Kearny.

[00:40:44] Jordan Harbinger: So how does this play out in the coming years if we have Houthis that maybe, are they an effective stalemate with Saudi Arabia, or is it, is there some progress here? They're being armed by Iran. It doesn't look like they're going to go away anytime soon. They're fighting against Israel or they're launching missiles at Israel. I mean, what happens now?

[00:41:02] Ryan McBeth: So there is a basic stalemate right now. You have the Saudi sponsored government of Yemen, which is fighting. You also have the Southern Transitionary Council, which is another group in Southern Yemen. That is basically funded by the UAE and they're fighting and sometimes they're on the side of the Saudis and sometimes they're not. And you have the Houthis Rebels who control the capital city of Sanaa, but not quite much else outside of that bite of the Hershey bar. So they're mostly a stalemate and they keep throwing rockets at each other and getting bombed by Saudi Arabian planes. And they might take a, they might take a towel and that towel gets taken back. At one point the Houthis Rebels pushed as far as Aden, and they were pushed back out again. So they're mostly out of stalemate right now.

[00:41:51] Jordan Harbinger: So do we really think that they will stop fighting if, let's say there's a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, are they going to stop launching rockets at Israel? Or you think that's a bluff or just a nonsense?

[00:42:03] Ryan McBeth: That's a very good question because once you kind of get the taste for power, it's really tough to give that up.

[00:42:09] Jordan Harbinger: Mm-hmm.

[00:42:09] Ryan McBeth: So if the Houthis recognize that, yeah, we can have complete hegemony over the Red Sea and over the Gulf of Aden and anybody who passes by us, perhaps they need to pay us a tax.

[00:42:21] Jordan Harbinger: Well, it's like piracy, right? Like, oh, we want a tax. Actually, I'm just going to take the whole ship and hold it for ransom.

[00:42:27] Ryan McBeth: I don't know if they would stop. I don't know if they would stop unless they get a lot of concessions from Saudi Arabia and perhaps they're recognized as the true official government of Yemen. That you might see them stop. But like I've said, once you get a little taste for power, it's kind of tough to give that up. So if ships are passing the Red Sea and they have to be fearful of you, that isn't necessarily capability that you might want to give up for nothing.

[00:42:55] Jordan Harbinger: This is a little bit of a scary situation because they seem to be very capable of causing havoc in the area and are being armed by Iran — surprise, surprise — and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. So that concerns me quite a bit.

[00:43:10] Ryan McBeth: It should concern you and this is a very volatile region of the world, and this is a region of the world where a good portion of shipping passes through and there are a lot of good options other than putting boots on the ground and now you're fighting a rebel group that wants to be there, that knows the terrain. And I don't know if the United States, or even if the rest of the world is in the mood for another ground war where US troops can get killed.

[00:43:34] Jordan Harbinger: I doubt it. Yeah, I doubt it. Can I ask you for a quick, quick Hamas updates because I know it's totally off topic, and I did not ask you to prepare this at all, but what do you think they're flooding those tunnels, Israel's flooding those tunnels with seawater under Gaza? That sounds like it might work. I don't know. I mean, I know Jack Squad, my war experience is Call of Duty, which I'm terrible at already, so I don't. I don't know what to make of that.

[00:43:59] Ryan McBeth: So it's a short-term solution that's going to create a long-term problem. There is an aquifer under Gaza that also extends into Israel. It's literally the Gaza aquifer. Now, much like the Colin Powell Pottery Barn rule, "If you break it, you buy it." And by flooding those tunnels with sea water, which you're going to get, is damage to the aquifer. And so now you're going to have a brackish aquifer. And now Israel is going to be on the hook for providing fresh water to Gaza for many, many years to come If they destroy that aquifer, which it looks like that's what they're doing. So it is in a very efficient way of getting Hamas militants out of the tunnels. But in the long term, it's going to create more problems with providing fresh water and desalinization.

[00:44:48] Jordan Harbinger: Isn't the aquifer, I read that, it's already like 90-plus percent polluted with chemicals and sewage. So is it just harder to clean up salt than it is sewage and chemicals? Or is it just like, I mean, it almost seems like it doesn't matter at this point. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it's like, "Well, this is already polluted." "Yeah, we're polluting it more."

[00:45:06] Ryan McBeth: Usually destroying public infrastructure is a bad idea. I mean —

[00:45:09] Jordan Harbinger: Yes, agree.

[00:45:10] Ryan McBeth: Let's not try to, let's not try to make the situation any worse.

[00:45:13] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah, right. No, I get that. But I also totally understand why they're doing it, I guess, right. In the short term, getting these guys out of those tunnels makes a lot of sense. It's terrible that it's going to create an even bigger environmental problem in the future, but —

[00:45:25] Ryan McBeth: Well, in the short term, the Palestinians and Gaza don't vote. So if you are an elected official inside Israel, which is going to get you votes by destroying Hamas with fewer Israeli casualties.

[00:45:38] Jordan Harbinger: Right.

[00:45:39] Ryan McBeth: And then maybe you have to clean up an aquifer for the next 50 years. But heck, you know, I'm not going to be in office.

[00:45:45] Jordan Harbinger: That's a problem for future Jordan. I don't envy that guy.

[00:45:48] Ryan McBeth: That's a problem. That's what for future whomever, right?

[00:45:51] Jordan Harbinger: Right. Not even me. Yeah. I'll be retired by then. So good luck, future person. I hope you have good tech to help clean that up.

[00:45:57] Ryan McBeth: Absolutely.

[00:45:57] Jordan Harbinger: That's the mindset. Is it true that this is really effective so far? I mean, I saw this video the other day where all these sort of, like, I always get in trouble on the show for fat shaming, so that's not what this is. But there's some pretty well-fed-looking Hamas guys with their shirts off sitting on the ground. I mean, now, it's like, where did all the supplies go? Well, they obviously had no problem eating during this conflict. What am I looking at? Or is this just disinformation?

[00:46:19] Ryan McBeth: You're talking about the pictures of captured Hamas.

[00:46:22] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah.

[00:46:23] Ryan McBeth: Militant with most of their clothes off.

[00:46:25] Jordan Harbinger: That's what they say it is. I don't even know. I'm always, now I question everything that comes out of that region. Because you know, half the time they're like, this is actually a different country and it's not a conflict. It was a soccer match and you're looking at, and it, so who knows? But yeah, look, it appears to be a bunch of captured Hama soldiers with decent-sized racks, if you will, sitting on the ground in their underwear.

[00:46:46] Ryan McBeth: Well, one of the things you tend to see in some Arab countries is you tend to see a lot of obesity as you enter your 40s. I think a lot of that is because they drink very sugary tea. You know, like constantly, there are a lot of overweight, middle-aged men in Iraq and everyone had diabetes.

[00:47:02] Jordan Harbinger: Yikes.

[00:47:03] Ryan McBeth: That might not be food that they're, they're eating. It might just be their, their diet. It's a heavily carb-based diet, a lot of rice, a lot of bread, and you're drinking sugary tea all day.

[00:47:12] Jordan Harbinger: I mean, it's my favorite food for sure. So I can see how it happens.

[00:47:16] Ryan McBeth: One of the things the Israelis do, and I've actually made videos about this, where I've criticized this practice that the Israelis strip people down to their underwear when they get captured and then they send 'em off without clothes on or with just their underwear on.

[00:47:31] Jordan Harbinger: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:32] Ryan McBeth: That's very dehumanizing —

[00:47:33] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah.

[00:47:34] Ryan McBeth: — to do. I know why they're doing it, and they're doing it because the Israeli officers who are the colonels and the generals, now were second lieutenants in the early two thousands back when there were suicide bombings constantly in Israel. So they remember those days and they want to prevent any Hamas militant from possessing a suicide vest and killing some Israelis.

[00:48:00] They remember that. There is a method to this madness in the US Army. We probably wouldn't do that, or I know we would not do that. We would treat them like prisoners. And we did search and would allow them to put their clothes back on. If you take a look at the Geneva Conventions, if you consider somebody, even a non-state actor who's taken up arms, they are supposed to get similar protections. However, I believe the Israelis are looking at some of these militants as terrorists, which don't necessarily get Geneva Convention protection. So that might be why they're, they can get away with taking off all of their clothes.

[00:48:34] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah, I wouldn't want suicide vests and grenade in the underwear type stuff to, I know it's dehumanizing, but I also 100 percent understand the safety concerns here. So it's not easy, not an easy choice.

[00:48:46] The disinformation thing is very interesting because, of course, I saw this in many news outlets and I saw your video on Substack and then I was on Reddit and it was like, look at this. Rumor has it, all these men were summarily executed by Israel moments after this photo was taken. And I was like, there's no evidence of that other than this random person on Twitter who just made that up. And then was like, it's Srebrenica 2.0, which is a massacre that happened with his Serbs went after civilian. And I'm like the, not really. These are combatants as far as we know Srebrenica was a bunch of non-combatants that were under UN protection.

[00:49:18] Like there's so many different things that's false, and the comments were like, of course, the Nazis are at it again, I mean, everyone just ate it up and I thought, holy moly, not one critical brain cell in the whole bunch here.

[00:49:31] Ryan McBeth: That is the basis of DIP or deceptive imagery persuasion. It's where you take an image and you twist that image to the narrative that you want. That is something that we saw with Russia where Russian supporters would show an image and say, "Look, illegal cluster bombs are being used by Ukraine." And, oh, well, that's a smart munition. But the average person might not know about the five S's. The five S's and the T — search, segregate, safeguard, speed, and silence, and the T is tag. You tag any prisoners that you get after you search and segregate them, speed them to the rear, keep them quiet. So the average person might not know what you do when you actually encounter a prisoner. So it's very easy to take a picture and twist that.

[00:50:20] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah, it's very interesting to look at the di, the DIP, the deceptive imagery, what is it?

[00:50:24] Ryan McBeth: Deceptive imagery persuasion.

[00:50:26] Jordan Harbinger: Oh, okay. That's a good acronym. Except for the fact that I couldn't remember it. It makes a lot of sense. We're going to see a lot more of that in this conflict than others.

[00:50:33] Ryan, thank you so much. I know that we went way off topic, but I really appreciate your expertise.

[00:50:38] Ryan McBeth: Thank you, Jordan. I love coming on the show.

[00:50:42] Jordan Harbinger: You're about to hear a preview of The Jordan Harbinger Show with Yasmine Mohammed, who grew up under the tyranny of radical Islam.

[00:50:49] Yasmine Mohammed: This religion forces people to just get stuck in time. It is the root of so many of the evils that are happening in these countries. This is why we can't progress. We always hear about how the caliphate is coming, how the Islam will rule the world, how Muslims will get rid of the infidels. We're going to kill off all the Jews. And Muslims are going to control this whole world, and the whole world will go back to Allah the way it should be. Everybody on the planet will be praying to Allah. These people are indoctrinated into a belief system that turns them into monsters. It erases their humanity. It tells them your basic humanity and what you believe to be right and wrong. You must ignore and you must follow what you are told to do.

[00:51:43] This is happening in your backyard, and if you don't care about what's happening in Afghanistan or what's happening in Pakistan, what's happening in Saudi Arabia? Then care about what's happening on your own soil, at least. Terrorism is the art of fear and the only way to defeat terrorism is to not be afraid. In the face of these people that are telling you, you are not allowed to have free expression, you are not allowed to have free speech, you are not allowed to have an opinion. You say, okay, watch this. Watch my opinion. Watch my free expression, express itself.

[00:52:17] Jordan Harbinger: For more about Yasmine's harrowing story and her escape, check out episode 748 of The Jordan Harbinger Show.

[00:52:27] Man, what a mess. I would love to have seen Yemen before the current conflict, and maybe I'll be able to visit someday when it's not one of the most dangerous places in the world. I guess, hey, if you're looking for a business idea, Houthis Insurance Company that insures your ship doesn't get hit by the rebels because you paid them off in advance, I'm not sure that as a sustainable model might require a few connections.

[00:52:47] It seems like China. Should be on this. I mean, China relies on shipping and they are hitting a lot of ships that are flag, sure the ships flagged Norway, but who made those goods? Where are those goods coming from? They're coming from China. So this is going to raise prices for a lot of folks, including people who are operating with China. This might result in the global coalition telling these guys to knock it off. I guess we'll see how this plays out.

[00:53:10] All things Ryan McBeth will be in the show notes at jordanharbinger.com, or you can ask the AI chatbot on the website. Transcripts are in the show notes as well. Advertisers deals, discount codes, ways to support the show, all at jordanharbinger.com/deals. Please consider supporting those who support the show.

[00:53:26] Don't forget about Six-Minute Networking over at sixminutenetworking.com. I'm at @JordanHarbinger on both Twitter and Instagram. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn.

[00:53:35] This show is created in association with PodcastOne. My team is Jen Harbinger, Jase Sanderson, Robert Fogarty, Millie Ocampo, Ian Baird and Gabriel Mizrahi. Remember, we rise by lifting others. The fee for this show is you share it with friends when you find something useful or interesting. The greatest compliment you can give us is to share the show with those you care about. And if you know somebody who's interested in what's going on in Yemen, likes current events, geopolitics, definitely share this episode with them. In the meantime, I hope you apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you learn, and we'll see you next time.

[00:54:06] Again, special thanks to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of The Jordan Harbinger Show.

[00:54:10] Dr. Drew Pinsky: Hey, Dr. Drew here, and I invite you to hang out with me on the Dr. Drew Podcast. I have the great pleasure of interviewing extraordinary people. I learned something every pod, and I'm sure you will too. Hang with me. I get the pleasure of speaking to folks like Ryan Holiday. You guys know him. Turned out I have a little bit to do with how he got involved in stoicism. We get deep into stoicism. Gleb Tsipursky and I talk about distortions, cognitive distortions, and how they are affecting all of us today, particularly these days. Robert Greene, of course, Ryan Holiday's friend, and his amazing insights. Sean Carroll, we talked about the basics of physics in a way that everyone can understand it, and it's not just me nerding out with my colleagues and professional friends. Talked about a world peace. I got to really know him during the podcast, an extraordinary guy. As well as the comedian, Brian Simpson himself, once homeless at a certain time. Now, a brilliant comedian with a lot to offer. We cover the gamut. Hang out with me on the Dr. Drew Podcast. We get into it all, and trust me, it'll expand your understanding, it'll improve your life, and you'll be glad you hung out with us.