VZCZCXRO5994
RR RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHDIR RUEHKUK RUEHTRO
DE RUEHYN #1680/01 2581410
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 151410Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY SANAA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2775
INFO RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SANAA 001680 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR NEA/ARP, NEA/PPD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINS PROP PGOV KPAO YM
SUBJECT: LATEST FRONT IN SA'ADA WAR: YOUTUBE 
 
SUMMARY 
 
 
¶1. In the sixth war between the ROYG and Houthi rebels, the 
fighting has spread to a new front: Youtube.  Houthis and 
their supporters have posted video clips online as part of a 
vigorous information campaign to publicize battlefield 
victories, allege ROYG atrocities against civilians and 
accuse Saudi Arabia of direct military involvement in the 
conflict.  The ROYG has responded with its own videos from 
Sa'ada, showing civilians condemning the Houthis and 
describing them as "murderous brigands."  Although 
propagandistic and difficult to verify, this video footage is 
drawing attention in the context of an information vacuum on 
the Sa'ada conflict, created by independent local and 
international media's lack of access to the conflict zone and 
official media's lack of credibility in reporting on the 
fighting.  Internet penetration in Yemen remains extremely 
low, but satellite television stations and newspapers have 
begun using these web videos as sources in their reports on 
Sa'ada, thus extending the videos' reach far beyond Youtube. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
HOUTHIS TAKE THE BATTLE ONLINE 
 
 
¶2. Houthi rebels have made web-based video content a central 
part of their information arsenal in the sixth Sa'ada war. 
Their media operation revolves around the website al-Minbar, 
a relatively sophisticated "news" clearinghouse of videos, 
stories and official statements from Houthi leaders.  The 
videos have migrated to Youtube, mostly via the Youtube 
channel SadahOnline, self-described as "the truth the way it 
is in reality.  Facts and scenes from the Sa'ada war, far 
from the propaganda and misinformation." 
 
¶3.  Many videos focus on Houthi military victories.  A 
September 12 video compiles footage of seized and burnt-out 
ROYG military vehicles with Houthi military training 
sessions, while a narrator urges Houthis and their supporters 
to attack the enemy and promises them victory.  A September 6 
video juxtaposes scenes filmed through the crosshairs of 
Houthi weapons with scenes of ROYG military vehicles bursting 
into flames.  An August 31 video shows a room crowded with 
shoeless uniformed men, allegedly ROYG soldiers captured by 
Houthi forces.  Individual soldiers then denounce the regime 
and apologize for "the heinous crimes that the authorities 
have committed against the women, children, and people of 
Sa'ada," including shelling the homes and farms of civilians. 
 
¶4.  A September 7 video shows explosives allegedly seized 
from retreating ROYG forces in Malahiidh that are emblazoned 
with Saudi markings.  (Note: ROYG sources later claimed that 
these weapons were remnants of Saudi military support for the 
royalists during Yemen's 1962-70 civil war. End Note.)  The 
narrator says, "This is the kind of assistance that Saudi 
Arabia provides to the Yemeni people.  We wonder if tools of 
killing and destruction were recommended by Allah among 
brothers." 
 
ROYG: WE TUBE TOO 
 
 
¶5. The ROYG, via official media, has fired back with its own 
videos from the conflict zone.  Almost every day during the 
Ramadan "prime time" evening hours immediately following 
iftar when many Yemenis are watching television, official 
Yemen TV has aired interviews with civilians in Sa'ada 
condemning the Houthis and describing the death and 
destruction that the Houthis have inflicted on their 
villages.  (Note: According to media contacts, local sheikhs 
are pressuring Sa'ada civilians to participate in these 
interviews.  However, the civilians' stories are believed to 
be mostly genuine.  End Note.)  This video footage has 
migrated to the website of Ministry of Defense mouthpiece 26 
September and also to Youtube.  Much of the footage is on the 
Youtube channel of al-Motamar, the mouthpiece of the ruling 
General People's Congress.  It ranges from President Saleh's 
August 19 speech in Sana'a vowing to put "the final nail in 
the coffin" of the Houthis, to Sa'ada civilians showing pots 
and pans from their kitchens riddled with Houthi bullets.  A 
September 4 video shows a Sa'ada civilian listing the names 
of family members killed in the fighting; the reporter asks, 
"And who killed them?" eliciting the response, "The Houthis." 
 Other civilians state that the Houthis closed down schools, 
forced children to fight on their side, and "beat people 
until their skin withered away and their bodies were awash 
with blood." 
 
TRADITIONAL MEDIA TAKES THE BAIT 
 
 
SANAA 00001680  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶6. Internet penetration in Yemen remains extremely low; there 
are only an estimated 300,000 internet users, representing 
roughly 1.5 percent of the population.  Few of the Youtube 
videos have more than 3,000 views and a dozen comments. 
However, international and independent local media -- barred 
by the ROYG from traveling to the conflict zone -- have 
picked up the videos and used them as sources in their 
reporting.  Al-Jazeera, Hizballah-affiliated al-Manar, and 
Iranian al-Alam TV stations have broadcast the Houthis' clips 
of captured ROYG tanks and military vehicles, as well as the 
clips of the alleged Saudi weapons; independent Yemeni media 
outlets al-Masdar, al-Tagheer, News Yemen and Mareb Press 
have also reported on the content of the Houthi videos and 
linked to them on their websites. 
 
COMMENT 
 
 
¶7. Most of the amateur video footage emerging from the Sa'ada 
conflict is propagandistic and difficult to verify.  It does 
little to shed new light on a conflict zone from which 
credible journalists have been almost entirely excluded. 
However, it does point to the increasingly sophisticated 
future of information warfare, even in this remote region 
where electricity and telecommunications services are scarce. 
 END COMMENT. 
SECHE