Armies of Liberation

Sudan’s Appeal Rejected:

The suit alleges the Sudanese government and Osama bin Laden co-owned a bank and a company. Also, the country allegedly let al-Qaida run a terrorist training camp within its borders and allowed an al-Qaida member to ship crates of explosives from Sudan to Yemen, where the USS Cole bombing occurred, Judge Doumar said….

“These facts not only satisfy the [Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act’s] definition of ’material support or resources,’ but suggest the existence of a joint enterprise or partnership. If these allegations do not suffice to establish ’material support or resources’ for the purpose of jurisdiction, it is difficult to imagine what can,” Judge Doumar said.

He also ruled that the complaint’s allegations satisfied the terrorist exception because they claimed that Sudanese officials acted within the scope of their duties when providing material support to al-Qaida.

I wonder how much the reward is for the person who comes up with my phone number? pfffff Everybody wants to know my “real name” (duh, its jane), my location (hello?) and who my sources are. Middle East Transparent publishes the articles with the complete footnotes: those are my sources. I’m on troll four and its only 10:30.

By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published September 26, 2005
Basam Alouni

Abd Allah Ahmed al-Numan, Yemeni opposition activist, has announced that he is working with Yemeni political opposition leaders to form a conference that will call for an overhaul of the governemnt in Sana’a-Yemen, according to United Press International.

” I am visiting London to meet with Yemeni opposition groups, and
the exiled Yemeni community in Britania. There is a an interest
forming to meet with whomever is concerned about the Yemeni
affair ,whether they be in the British governemnt, or the
parliament. There are no specifics on this matter.” al-Numan said. al-Numan reserved disclosure of whom he maybe meeting with in the UK.

He adds: “Two months ago I nominated myself to run for next Yemeni
president election. Since then I have made constant contacts and
been communicating with Yemeni opposition groups in and outside
Yemen, the USA, Europe, Saudia, and Gulf States, and had found lots
of support.”

al-Numan denies if he recieves support from Arab, regional or
foreign states. He says ” My base is Yemen, and I will not resort to
no one but Yemen and the Yemeni People only.”

al-Numan has been nominating himself to run in the next Yemeni
presidential election since July 2005, soon as President Saleh
announced his intended abandonment of his office in 2006.

al-Numan also says:”We are working to announce a new opposition
assembly that combines all Yemeni forces into a coalition. One that
calls for change in Yemen. There has been on going presentations to
form a coalition that integrates all Yemeni oppossition factors into
one whole regardless of where they are inside or outside Yemen.
There is the 1970 constitution as an authoritative reference that
possibly could be called the ancestors constitution. There must be a
separation of executive, legislative, and judicial powers in Yemn.
Because all of these branches of powers are in the custody of the
president.” (Read on …)

The New Press Law, worse than the old press law: Sami Ghalib, Editor-in-Chief of al-Nida and a member of the YJS confirmed to the Yemen Times that the draft law never cancels the penalty of imprisonment for publication issues and does make the YJS membership mandatory for all pressmen.

(The government stooges who write the propaganda in the official newspapers are also members of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, and the title of the YT article is “Exploiting Disputes Within the YJS.”)

In less than eight months, over 79 journalists and opinion writers were summoned to appear before court to be interrogated and investigated for what they had written. The victims included 72 publishers and chief and managing editors of independent, party-affiliated, opposition and state-run newspapers.

The report stated: “The al-Thawri (socialist) opposition newspaper scored the highest numbers of interrogations, trials and other legal actions sued against it. Presently, its editor-in-chief is being tried along with a number of reporters over publishing 13 articles on different issues, one of them allegedly included humiliation against the Statesman. 4 lawsuits are filed against al-Wahdawi opposition newspaper and the same number of cases is sued against al-Nihar independent paper.

“Other independent papers, among them al-Wasat, al-Asima, al-Rased, al-Lewa, al-Sharq, al-Haq, al-Bilad, Saut al-Shura and al-Fursan are being quizzed,” the report said. “The security authorities shut down in the middle of last June the head-office of al-Ibhar independent paper, suspended any printing of it and fined one of its reporters.”

Also the new law doesnt address the issue of the monopoly on broadcast media. And somehow Saleh will spin the new, more oppressive law as reform, maybe get another congressional commendation.

YES!!!!! (yes, yes, yes) These are some of the big boys, the heavy hitters, the elder statesmen, and they subordinated their individual agendas and joined together for a democratic Yemen.

These opposition leaders and movements overseas formed a coalition to press for a “New Yemen” through democratic processes and peaceful means, for an end to Yemen’s isolation, a constitutional democratic system, and an end to corruption.

Dr. Abdullah Al-Ashag, an ex-minister of foreign affairs issued a statement: “We are an organizational framework of different political affiliation that agreed on common goals to rescue our homeland from its deteriorating political, social , economic, and security decline…”

The group includes Ex-President Ail Nasser Mohammed, Abdullah Noman, and Abdussalam AL-Hakemi. “Democracy cannot be achieved with the military in power,” Al-Asnag said. “We aim for peaceful change, direct and free elections,” as well as stable and cooperative relations with regional, Arab and world countries.

Main Objectives of the movement

1- Forming an interim national unity government to supervise and run elections.
2- Elections should be made under the supervision of the EU and donor countries.
3- Formation of National Defense Council under the interim government to supervise all military, security and other armed forces.
4- No constitutional amendment are to be made at the current stage.
5- Building a true democratic foundation.
6- Full commitment to the international declaration of Human Rights.
7- Resisting all calls for violence in and out of Yemen, confront violence and its sources.

On the local level, the movement said that it will :

1- Eliminate all security and army check points.
2- Choose qualified military personnel from all governorates for leadership positions.
3- Reinstate all officers and soldiers dismissed after 1994 war to service.
4- Encourage comprehensive reconciliation among all Yemeni tribes.

(For anyone late to the game: Saleh has been in power for 27 years, the government is almost completely corrupt, the people are starving. There is a presidential election next year. Saleh said he wouldn’t run for reelection, but he said that before the last election which he won with 96% of the vote. But Yemen is about to move from dictatorship to democracy all by itself. Watch.)

Internally people and groups are coming together to stand for democracy and democratic principals: 28 civil society organizations, professional syndicates and individuals (mainly journalists) announced the formation of the “Civil Society Coalition” to work for freedom and democracy, and to work for establishing a democratic society in Yemen. Their first activity was to issue a press release on press freedoms, condemning the recent wide scale violations. The oppositon parties within Yemen are working through the mechanism of the Joint Meeting Parties to achieve a greater consensus. Individuals throughout society are speaking out and taking a stand. Stay tuned, big things are afoot.

*Also* this opposition plan to regain civilian control of the military will aid the US because thats where much the support for al-Qaeda and the Baathist fighters going to Iraq comes from, so changing the leadership and subjecting it to oversight is a very good idea. Also the weapons smuggling is a function of top military commanders.

YO: Of the estimated 3,000 foreign fighters (in Iraq), the largest number – about 20 percent – comes from Algeria, followed by Syria and Yemen with about 18 percent and 17 percent, respectively, said the report issued Monday. About 15 percent come from Sudan, 12 percent from Saudi Arabia, 5 percent from Egypt, and the rest from other countries.

The report, written by Nawaf Obaid and Anthony Cordesman, was a contrast to accounts contending that Saudis make up a large proportion of foreign fighters in the insurgency that has persisted since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in March 2003.

This 17% is by nationality, not origin of training. One time I wrote something about breaking the pact of evil from Iraq to Yemen and replacing it with a pact of democracy from Yemen to Iraq. I meant peacefully, without military intervention, by actively supporting the democracy advocates in Yemen of which there are many.

SP: There are many al Qaeda sympathizers in the Yemeni military and government as well. These sympathizers have been discreetly aiding Iraqi Baath Party officials who have fled Iraq, and now Syria. There has also been some active, but covert, support for the terrorists operating in Iraq. Cracking down on this is not easy, even with FBI and CIA agents stationed in Yemen. The problem is that the Yemeni government is a jumble of tribal and family relationships. Even if you know an official is helping terrorists, you can’t go after him if he is well connected. Unless, of course, such support for Islamic terrorists becomes public, thus embarrassing the culprit, and making him vulnerable to removal from office, or worse. There’s also a lot of corruption in the government as well, so it’s often the case that you can’t step on a terrorist supporter because you are doing business with him on some dirty deal.

This is a good assessment.

Wow, Saleh pardons everybody including Lugman (outspoken Zaidi judge sentenced to ten years), Al-Dailami (outspoken Zaidi cleric sentenced to death), Muftah (ditto, ten years), and the Houthis in prison and on the run.

Arab News: SANAA, 26 September 2005 — Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced yesterday a general amnesty for hundreds of Zaidi rebels who fought the army in the north of the country in April and ordered their release. In a surprise move, he also announced compensation for the exiled Zaidi family which ruled the country until the 1962 revolution.

“I declare an amnesty for those detained over the support for Hussein Al-Houthi and his father,” Saleh said in a speech marking the 43rd anniversary of the revolution which ended 44 years of Zaidi rule in Sanaa….

Government officials said the amnesty included mosque preachers Yahya Hussein Al-Dailami and Muhammad Ahmad Muftah who were sentenced by a Sanaa court on May 29 to death and 10-year-jail term respectively for supporting Al-Houthi’s rebellion.

Also to be pardoned is the judge Muhammad Ali Luqman, who was sentenced last October to 10 years in jail on the same charge, the officials said.

Good news from Yemen.

Update: also the rioters.

Al-Sahwa net (9/24) – Yemeni foreign ministry categorically dismissed news reports that the Yemeni territory is being used as a “transit” by the Arab Mujahidin (fighters) infiltrating into Iraq to fight the US troops as totally groundless.

The ministry said that Yemen was still taking the necessary steps to prevent those elements from sneaking into the Iraqi territories.

Yemen has been for long exerting substantive efforts to fight terror as a goodwill gesture towards the US plagued by terrorism that posed a serious threat to its security and stability.

No the Yemen government has long been appeasing the US with propaganda ploys designed to feign sincerity. In addition to transit, we can add training, equipping, and financing. Did I mention there’s a lot of politically moderate, intellectually brilliant, democratically inclined reformers in Yemen? Did I mention those are my troops in Iraq?

Ask the fox to guard the henhouse, why dontcha. Saleh goes to Saudi Arabia.

Elaph, an Arab news website, quoted a Saudi government source as saying that Saleh’ visit managed to “save the day between Yemen and Saudi Arabia in the last minute”.

“The Saudis were very furious as the latest battles with terrorists in Saudi Arabia revealed that all weapons and explosives used by the Qaeda fighters were bought and smuggled from Yemeni arms markets. Confessions of those arrested shown that they use Yemen as a source of arms and transfer them over the border.”

“The Saudis who became convinced that Yemen is unable to control the borders decided to raise the issue of Yemeni borders (open for arms and drugs smuggling) internationally, which caused the Yemeni president to fly hastily to Saudi Arabia to “solve” the issue”.

Unable or unwilling to stop arming al-Qaeda and smuggling drugs? What I can’t believe is the Saudis, who seem a bright bunch, are asking the guy who’s profiting from all this for his help. According to ad-Diplomasi, the link is here somewhere, Saleh has 20 billion dollars in German banks. And the Saudis believe him when he says he’ll end the smuggling? Maybe he’ll turn the weapons flow in another direction for a while. But thats not really solving the problem is it? Did I mention there’s an election soon?The Arab news reports Saudi Arabia did contact Interpol.

oh my, I cant stop laughing. Faris is calling me a neocon hedgehog.

Its the fourth article in a week attempting to trash me in response to my latest article. The others are a little further down.

Hedgehogs in Yemen
By Observer Staff
Sep 24, 2005 – Vol.VIII Issue 38
In a now famous essay written about Russian novelists, the literary critic Isaiah Berlin divided the world into foxes and hedgehogs. Foxes, he said, knew many small things. Hedgehogs knew one big thing. A certain kind of reporter—the kind resembling a hedgehog—has been writing about Yemen lately. This reporter arrives at the airport with his One Big Thing trained and ready to ride. He leaves a few days later, unaware that reality has contradicted his Big Thing at every turn.

The American Jane Novak is a curious cousin of this Hedgehog. She doesn’t bother with the airport. She delivers her opinions from New Jersey on the east coast of the United States. Another reporter, the Wall Street Journal correspondent Yaroslav Trifomov, visited Yemen with his Big Idea four years ago. His book, FAITH AT WAR: A JOURNEY ON THE FRONTLINES OF ISLAM, FROM BAGHDAD TO TIMBUKTU has just been published in the United States.

The one thing these two writers have in common is their belief that Yemen is essentially Iraq – Iraq, that is, as conservative American commentators saw it before the war. As everyone now knows now, their views were unhampered by first hand observation and other useful tools in assessing political conditions. Nevertheless this view, that Yemen is Iraq, is the one they’ve fallen in love with.

Still, their articles deserve a hearing. Both writers find something of a police state in Yemen. Both writers find that religious freedom and press freedom and individual liberty are not cherished here as they are in the US. What is the evidence for such charges? In Trifomov’s case, there is a friend’s report of being followed in a museum by a policeman. In Novak’s case, the evidence is the arrests of journalists Khaled Al-Hammadi and Jamal Amer. Never mind that both journalists were freed several hours after being taken into custody. Never mind that far graver problems than the unfortunate plights of the two journalists exist in Yemen and that these plights bear no comparison to Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Novak focuses on her one Big Idea in her most recent article, and tries to track it down.

Novak’s article found outlets in both local Yemeni and international publications. Some may have been unaware of the writer’s underprivileged position to comment on Yemeni internal affairs, others not.

At the end of her piece she makes a plea: if the US cares about human rights, she says, it should consider getting tough with Yemen.

It is the kind of talk that has sent shivers down the spines of many an impoverished nation in recent years.

No it sends shivers down the spines of the corrupt government officials apparently. Thus this week I am a Zionist, militaristic Abu Ghraib encouraging, anti-Arab, neocon hedgehog. All because I think the Yemeni people should have their full rights and an empowered democracy. This is the third article trashing me in English in the YO, in one I was labeled an extremist and the other called me a Yemeni man from al-Arabait, possibly funded by the CIA or the Yemeni Socialists.

Update: Dan has a photo of a real hedgeowitz, a neocon hedgehog. Thanks Dan!

Although I focus a lot on the villians, there are an astounding amount of couragous, uncorruptable, determined, and heroic people in Yemen fighting each in their own way for their country. Meet Faisel Abu Rais, honest politician who resigned in protest from Parliament and the ruling party and set something in motion thats still just at the beginning:

Parliament unanimously rejected last Tuesday the resignation of Member of Parliament Faisel Ameen Abu Ras.

Abu Ras attributed his resignation to an inability to carry out his duties satisfactorily due to outside interference. He described the government as a “government of mass destruction” and said that the only way to improve the situation was to hold a vote of no-confidence in the government. “This government,” he said, “is the most corrupt in the history of modern Yemen. Corruption has become inherent.”

Abu Ras continued in his utter condemnation of government practices by saying it had doubled the suffering of the people, increased poverty and unemployment, and brought the number of crushing policies to an excruciating level.

He also alleged government involvement in dubious deals and that it had turned the country to feudalism and permitted individuals and their private interests to hold control over certain areas.

The welfare of the public, Abu Ras said, is bottom of the list of government priorities, claiming it had sold off land and sea resources, leading to a future of no hope. “The government is selling everything off as if it were its own property, and is selling lies and deceit over the complete failure of reform programs,” he said.

Abu Ras, of the ruling People’s General Congress party (PGC), also attacked the parliamentary leadership, describing it as “illegitimate”, and accused it of conspiring with the government in the latter’s corrupt projects which encouraged the government to exploit Parliament to the full.

“There have been conspiracies between the parliamentary leadership, and some leaders of parliamentary factions have overlooked and approved issues without the knowledge of the parliament,” he added.

“The situation is catastrophic and if it is not dealt with will grow rapidly worse,” Abu Ras said, addressing the MPs. “We here are in possession of all our rights, but we have forgotten the rights of the public and our hands are marked with the oppression of our people who are the victims of Parliament’s tardiness in taking action against those guilty of corruption. (Read on …)

Saba: During the visit, the (Yemeni) delegation would discuss with Sudanese officials in Agriculture and Investment ministries the ways of enhancing mutual cooperation between the two countries in agriculture and investment terms.

In remarks to Saba, Mothana said the Sudanese government gifted Yemen two areas to make investment projects in agriculture field, the first area is in al-Jazeera state and the other in Sanar state.

What? Yemen is investing in Sudan’s agriculture and not its own? What did the Sudan gift to Yemen? And does this involve shipping? And did the 1.2 million people in Darfur get any food yet?

Also Saleh backs Iran’s nuclear program.

The court document, but theres another one already on the blog from one of the Yemeni papers: Newsmax, 8/26/2004:

Defense lawyer Abdul Aziz al-Samawi read out an official letter by former Interior Minister Hussein Arab, who was removed in April 2001, instructing security authorities to give “safe passage to Sheik Mohammed Omar al-Harazi with three bodyguards without being searched or intercepted. All security forces are instructed to cooperate with him and facilitate his missions.”

Al-Harazi is one of the names used by Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the sixth defendant and the alleged mastermind of the suicide attack that killed 17 American sailors….

“This document confirms that there is a breach in the Yemeni security system. This system has been infiltrated for a long time by terrorist elements, because of old relations,” (Afghanistan) said political analyst Mohammed al-Sabri.

Another analyst, Jamal Amer, (the recently kidnapped journalist) said al-Nashiri’s possession of such a letter “proves that there is a link between security authorities and these groups.”

very good article on al-Hurra

If al-Hurra has corrupted Washington, how can it reform the Arabs?

Reform is a major issue for the benevolent forces in the region and international powers which hope to realize the good things in life for Arab peoples as an assurance to help them avoid the frustration and despair that motivate suicide and terrorism and negatively impact Western countries and countries of the region alike. I believe that the desired reform will not be achieved without mutual effort by the forces of reform and the superpowers that now wish to tie their interests to the welfare of the Arab citizen after long decades of being tied to the interests of dictatorial regimes pursuing a mirage of fragile stability which was never achieved.

Arab reformers realize full well, as do the powers in the West that support them, that the current conflict in the region is first and foremost a struggle of ideas and that the very notion of reform encounters a full-scale attack from both those who embrace the ideology of provocation and terrorism and from dictatorial regimes. The establishment of the al-Hurra channel, which broadcasts in Arabic, was supposed to give a strong push to Arab reformers given that they would have a forerunner in the media with which to plunge themselves into the intellectual battle with great confidence no less than that of the world superpower that had moved to launch the channel.

Unfortunately, however, and by no means an overstatement, Arab backwardness has achieved an overwhelming victory in the heart of the American capital which is no less serious than that achieved by terrorism in its attack on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. As someone in Washington put it: “Mohammed Ata steering a Boeing 747 airplane caused great damage, but to a lesser extent than the damage which has arisen from handing a budget of 100 million dollars for an institution the size of al-Hurra over to one person who does not accept advice and relies solely on his own moods to make decisions.” I do not blame him for this in any way at all. Rather, I blame the American administration that handed a project over to him which he manages as if it were personal property or a gas station with which to supply foreign companies with fuel rather than a television station with which to provoke thought and stimulate minds. (Read on …)

This one is also in the official paper al-Wahda. What happened here is one of the trolls emailed me that I’m an opposition journalist, so I wrote back with a link to a 2003 article I published in the Saudi paper the Arab News, just to clarify the issue for them, because they are such idiots. This article says (suddenly, shockingly, light bulb) people should read what I wrote about non-Yemen topics.

In this one I am anti-Arab which is a little funny. It says I am known for my bent against the Palestinians. It says I am a liar and I called Palestinians killers. I’m almost tempted to pull out that 2003 article that calls for civilian immunity for both Palestinian civilians and Isreali civilians.

So thats very good. I pulled off a hat trick this week, and not one of them says I’m a Yemeni man in disguise. Maybe Yemeni people should know what I wrote about non-Yemen topics because I spent the last two years advocating for the rights, protection, and empowerment of Sudanese, Bangladeshi, Iraqi, and yes Palestinian people. I have written about free speech, religious pluralism, and civilian immunity from both terrorists and governments. I’ve only been heavily focused on Yemen for six months.

Also from this week in the Yemeni governmental newspapers:
Why the Zionist Novak Works Against Yemen

Jane Novak and the Abu Ghraib Culture

Update: This one The Oppositon Novak was published in the May 22 newspaper of the ruling party. The Abu Ghraib one was published by the governemental one, al-Wahda.

This is what I get for writing an article about the use of the Yemeni official media as a tool of personal destruction. Note the web address of this paper is www.alwahda.gov.ye

The article says roughly that I have the same culture as the US military who tortured prisoners at Abu Ghraib. If I had valor, I would trash my own government (like most US journalists).

(This is coming from a government that routinely arrests children as retribution, tortures prisoners, and systematically rapes the women prisoners.)

It is one of three articles published by the official media inYemen this week that disparages me.

AKI: A German citizen living in the southern Yemeni region of Hadramawt who has been accused of promoting Christianity among the local people has had his house set on fire and his car blown up. Security sources in the capital Sanaa, cited by the London-based Arab newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi said the man is head of the Social Cooperation Association for the Middle East in the Hadramawt area.

The attack took place near the city of Mukallah. The man who was not identified in the report also received a letter threatening him and his family and telling him to leave the region. “Today we have set fire to your car and your house, but tomorrow we will kill your children if you do not leave Mukallah,” the letter is reported to have said.

Also in an effort to end sectarian differences, various well established forms of Islam are essentially outlawed, but if you’re a wahabbi, you’re ok. If you’re not a wahabbi, you will be soon.

SANA’A, Sept. 22(Saba) – Official sources in the Interior Ministry denied the allegations reported by some media saying that a cell was captured in France and confessed that Arab militants use Yemeni and Egyptian lands to pass through to Iraq.

The Yemeni lands has never been a transit point for militants to Iraq, the sources stated pointing out that that information lack accuracy and based on no true basis.Yemen took strict and efficient measures to preventsuch militants from moving to Iraq or any other country.

And all the violence in the riots was caused by sabatours in military uniforms.

DOD: Coming from Yemen you have the al Qaeda. Down into Somalia you have the al Qaeda network and associated movements….

We’ve expanded our mil-to-mil activities in Yemen….

So, it is a battle for the hearts and minds….

Q Yeah. Just the last thing. I’m sure you’re aware a lot of the suicide bombers that you’re seeing in Iraq, some are from Yemen, some are from Sudan. Are you hearing about recruiting in your area for that kind of activity?

GEN. GHORMLEY: I’m seeing — I’ve heard nothing of — I don’t know what’s going on in Somalia. We’re not in Somalia. I have no charter to go in there. So what’s happening down there, I don’t know. I know that there’s a great amount of concern about it, especially with the — coming from Yemen south into Somalia.

I know of no recruiting. I have heard of the transnationals coming up through Sudan and then on into Saudi Arabia and across….

Q Bret’s other question about terrorism moving into your area — are you concerned about increasing fundamentalism in the schools, in the madrassas in any particular areas that — and is there anything that you can do about increased fundamentalism at that level?

GEN. GHORMLEY: I have no true fundamentalistic madrassas in the area that I know of. I know that, from the reports that I get, that mosques are springing up rather rapidly in Mogadishu. But I don’t know about the number of madrassas that that would involve or would include.

Q But not in your — in the areas where you do operate?

GEN. GHORMLEY: No. I don’t know of any severe radicalism in the areas that I operate.

Not good. Ill have to find the article links about the Afghan Arab preachers being trucked into mosques even in Sanaa and the people being held at gunpoint for the services. And while al-Iman university is not a madrassa, it does deserve some attention as do many other institutions.