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.

(Zindani) claimed the President and the Parliament to hold the government accountable for being remiss in defending its citizens, mainly the issuance of a UN resolution to freeze his money and present reports on his activities.

Yemen (Saleh) has not complied with the UN resolution to freeze Zindanis account or 142 others.

Update: “The Republic of Yemen has sent a letter to the US administration asking it to drop charges against Sheikh Abdul-Majid Al Zindani,” said the agency.

The US Treasury Department added Al Zindani, 55, in February 2004 to the list of people suspected of supporting terrorist activities, dubbing him as “a loyalist to Osama bin Laden and supporter of Al Qaeda.”

It accused him of recruiting for Al Qaeda training camps and playing a key role in the purchase of weapons on behalf of the terror network and other terrorists.

Yemen, however, insisted in its official letter that “most of the information upon which the US charges were based might have been taken from intriguer partisan newspapers,” said Saba.

Those intriguer partisan newspapers, ggrrrr.

Just for anyone late to the game, Zindani is a US classified Major Terrorist *and* a leader in Yemeni Parliament and a prominent business man running a large fisheries company with good growth but little profit.

Troll, desperately seeking information on Jane Novak, appeals to the public in the Yemen Times Forum.

SANAA - Hundreds of Yemenis demonstrated outside the parliament in Sanaa on Monday calling on MPs to endorse a draft law banning the carrying of firearms in cities.

The protesters, mostly rights activists, held placards denouncing the practice of carrying firearms in main city streets across Yemen.

“No to weapons … No to violence,” read one placard. Others read: ”Let us make Yemen a weapon-free land” and “Let knowledge be our weapon.”

The legislation was approved by the cabinet four years ago and has yet to be ratified by the parliament controlled mainly by MPs of tribal backgrounds.

The article fails to mention the Saleh’s GPC has an overwhelming majority in Parliament and Saleh empowers the tribal authorities and undermines civil authority.

Related: MP guards turn their guns on Arabia photographer and correspondent

AW On the route would-be terrorists follow to Iraq, the source said, “There are a number of ways of traveling to Iraq. Some leave Saudi Arabia legally using their own passport and then travel to Syria, or visit and Arab country before heading to Syria. Those wanted by the authorities cross illegally into Yemen first.” Generally, “A young man decides he wants to fight in Iraq, illegally enters Yemen, travels to Syria, and is subsequently smuggled across the border into Iraq.” The source emphasized, “The Syrian authorities are fully cooperating. The same can be said of the Yemeni government with whom we exchange information on suspected militants.”

Where is the training camp along this route?

I hadn’t even looked at the Cole before this thing with Able Danger:

YT 2001 Investigations so far revealed that one of the key terrorists, Ali Mohamed Al-Ahdal, 29, used to work in the personal status department of Aden Police. He joined Islamic Jihad in 1991 and used to train in weapons usage at one of the Islamic military camps in Lahj.

Now I’m happy. The president of Yemen called me a Zionist.

The newspaper of the ruling party (headed by Presidient Ali Abdullah Saleh), al-Mithaq weekly, ran an article about me on the backpage entitled “Why the Zionist Novak Works Against Yemen.”

I was waiting for Zionist. So far in Yemeni newspapers I have been called a Mason, a Yemeni man in disguise, a Hashimite, working for the CIA, working for the Socialists, residing in al-Arabait, and a Docile Student of a Monkey Monk.

I guesss my buddy Ali didnt like the last article as much as everyone else in Yemen, the one where I discussed his absolute power, kidnapping of journalists, use of the official media as a weapon of personal destruction in Yemen and propaganda for the West, the sham of reform, and the massive corruption in the military. In that article I urged the US to take a stronger stand on the side of the Yemeni people as they struggle for democracy. So he called me a Zionist. I’m happy to know he finds me annoying.

Cross posted at The Politburo Diktat and Dean’s World, just to be more annoying.

Thats almost as good as the Government of Mass Destruction. YO:

Abdul-Ghani Abdul-Qader, of the Socialist Party, described Yemen as a country run by a single party, and hence a single vision. “We are an emerging democracy,” he said. “A true, comprehensive democracy cannot exist unless there is equality among citizens and a fair distribution of resources.”

“The public has lost confidence in elections,” Mohammed Al-Sabri, of the Nasserite Party said. “People do not trust elections to bring about real change. After the 1998 riots, the President called upon parties to study the situation, but in 2005 he called on the tribal leaders. This was a dangerous move.” Al-Sabri believes that tribal influence should be kept to a minimum. Parliament was weak, he said, and with the voice of diplomacy absent, people resort to violence. Parliament has been unable to confront corrupt officials, which is why people took to the streets violently, according to Al-Sabri.

Many participants suggested that there can not be democracy without security. Political analyst Dr. Abdullah Al-Faqih refuted claims that democracy exists in Yemen. “We have an unproductive tyrant regime,” he said. “If someone criticizes it, he exposes himself kidnapping, something which many journalists have experienced.”

Mohammed Saleh, better known as “Muhsin”, of the socialist party, said that a weak opposition means absolute strength of the authority. “The opposition should introduce a practical vision in their political address,” he asserted. “We should forget the past and its terminology which only hinders the progress of the nation in every aspects.”

Fadhl Al-Aqil, of the Federation of Yemeni Workers, said that the current government was unconcerned with the security and economic needs of the people. “We will take legal action against the government unless it reviews workers’ conditions nationwide in the new Salaries and Wages Strategy,” Al-Akil said.

How cool, Parliament Demanding Its Function:

Azam Salah, chairman of the Workforce Committee, confirmed that the law of wages and salaries contravenes the constitution by 80%, citing the squeezing of job bands from 20 into 15.

MPs Yassir Al-Awadhi and Nasir Arman of the ruling GPC party, deplored the government’s performance and its approach to laws. They labelled it worse than all previous governments. The government violated the constitution by bringing in laws without referring first to the council.

Arman demanded that the government “respect the law, the constitution and Parliament, instead of inventing inaccurate excuses for its misconduct…”

Al-Basha said that the minister “treats MPs the way he treats contractors, whom he pays four times the contract value”, an outright accusation of financial corruption….

During the minister’s interrogation last Monday, MPs found 80% of the public works ministry’s projects to contravene the law of tenders, and demanded his resignation.

The Minister of Health and Population, Mohammed Al-Noami said that malaria affected 60% of the population of Yemen. “Its eradication is not easy, it entails enormous resources and public and government cooperation….”

MP Abdullah Al-Udeini demanded the retention of financial grants for people with cancer and kidney failure, until the government built enough local hospitals offering treatment for the illnesses. (ed: Theres a very big shortage of dialysis machines in Yemen. Lots of construction projects, no medical facilities.)

Related: Security members (PSO) practice acts of attack and plunder of citizens’ possessions in Ibb.

Shiites: So the 12er Shia are the Iranian version and they issued a statement backing Saleh and declaring no connection to Houthi who is a Zaidi radical and not representative of most Zaidi people. (Read on …)

Iranian and Hizballah agents – as well as al Qaeda buyers – are using their contacts with local gangs of arms traffickers in Serbia, Slovakia, Montenegro, Croatia and Kosovo, to fill Palestinian stores with new weaponry. The arms are shipped out of ports in Montenegro and Croatia to Yemen and Sudan, thence to Sinai and into the Gaza Strip, unchecked by Egyptians or Palestinian security.

Debka.

The Yemeni Interior Minister announced that the government arrested “sabatours in military uniform” during the July riots who confessed to trying to implicate the government on charges of using force against the demonstrators.

It makes so much sense: if you are an opposition person, the first thing you do when an anti-government riot breaks out is grab your spare military uniform and go out and use force against the people who are protesting in your cause, in an effort to make the government look bad.

Arrested: 2245
Killed Civilian: 31
Killed Military: 12
Injured Civilian: 168
Injured Military: 302
(government figures)

These Able Danger people were good. So not only did the 9/11 Commission leave out that Able Danger identified Atta, the Commission’s section on the Cole is very sketchy as well and doesnt include that Able Danger issued a warning about Aden three weeks before the Cole bombing. The 9/11 report also doesnt include the information that Yemeni governmental travel documents for the Cole bombers were admitted as evidence into Yemeni court during trial. ( I have to find that link on the court documents, its here on the blog somewhere.) And what was it Hassani said, oh yes, upper level Yemeni officials were complicit in the bombing. And oddly enough, the latest hit and run victims in Yemen are Hassanis underlings (2).

NYP: Members of a secret Pentagon intelligence unit known as Able Danger warned top military generals that it had uncovered information of increased al Qaeda “activity” in Aden harbor less than three weeks before the attack on the USS Cole, The Post has learned.

In the latest explosive revelation in the Able Danger saga, two former members of the data-mining team are expected to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee next week that they uncovered alarming terrorist activity and associations in Aden weeks before the Oct. 12, 2000, suicide bombing of the U.S. warship that killed 17 sailors.

Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s former liaison to Able Danger, told The Post that Capt. Scott Phillpott, Able Danger’s leader, briefed Gen. Peter Schoomaker, former head of Special Operations Command and now Army chief of staff, about the findings on Yemen “two or three weeks” before the Cole attack.

“Yemen was elevated by Able Danger to be one of the top three hot spots for al Qaeda in the entire world,” Shaffer recalled.

Shaffer and two other officials familiar with Able Danger said contractors uncovered al Qaeda activities in Yemen through a search of Osama bin Laden’s business ties.

The Pentagon had no immediate comment.

So there was a report of a lot of terrorist activity issued in three weeks before. Zinni , who was the ultimate decision maker was unaware of the warning, and made the decision about 12 days prior to the bombing to send the Cole to Aden. Apparently he had a lot of confidence in the sincerity of the Yemeni government’s commitment to fighting terror.

SEN. LEVIN: And who was responsible for force protection?

GEN. ZINNI: The force protection in the port is the responsibility of the Yemeni government…

According to the 9/11 report, the Cole bombers had no prior knowledge of the arrival of the Cole, Hassani disputes that. Zinni doesn’t seem to even contemplate it.

I want to say, in every visit, I was seen by the president. As a matter of fact, when the president came to Washington, he asked me to come to Washington to visit him. His interest in our military-to-military relations, his interest in our helping him develop this capability of counterterrorism was direct and personal.

Lovely guy that Saleh.

Could you tell us — excuse me — who is responsible once the decision has been made to commence refueling stops or port visits in a particular country for making these specific arrangements for the visit in terms of fuel, pilots, services and the like?

GEN. ZINNI: First of all, it is done under the conditions of the contract that is set. It is done with — it includes our embassy working with us. I think in this case you’ve probably seen that the military attache was down there coordinating this, was actually aboard ship, I believe, when the incident occurred. It is done with the port authority, and the government of Yemeni officials; their security forces.

YT 2000: (Saleh) added that Americans made a mistake when they entered the port with such a large size and greatly valuable destroyer without guarding or notifying the Yemeni side to provide such protection.

YT 2003 The US newspaper reported that al-Hitar said “the government had not investigated the allegations against Sheikh Abdul Majeed al-Zindani to confirm whether he did issue such a religious order, or fatwa, targeting the warship Cole,” adding, “People suspected in the Cole case have said they acted according to a fatwa by Sheik Abdul Majeed.”

YT 2001: Yemeni observers consider the actions of Abyan Army as a message directed to the Yemeni government falsifying the continuous statements of the Ministry of Interior that this group is no longer active and that its entity as an Army is no longer valid as most of its members are either imprisoned or executed. It is worth mentioning that the (Abyan) army also tried many times to request the government to stop arresting their members and affiliates and instead offer them positions in the Yemeni army.

AN 2002: The London- based al-Sharq al-Awsat said yesterday it had received a statement through Ansar al-Sharia (al-Sharia partisans) in London in which Aden - Abyan army claims responsibility for blowing off the French oil tanker in Dubba port at the coast of Hadramout in Yemen.

(I wonder if the Yemeni goverment has shut down those 143 terrorist affiliated bank accounts yet?)

Saleh has pardoned and was to pay al-Houthi and Al-Razami, released 150 prisoners (with another 250 pending), and was to make restitution for widespread damages to civilian areas. al-Houthi agreed to stop chanting and stop fighting. Apparently the deal broke down, with conflicting reports about who reneged. Having cost already 56 billion riyals, with a conservative estimate of 6 billion YR in payments to sheikhs and mediators, the continued fighting benefits somebody. Also weaponry and armaments that are reported as used up can be restocked with new weapons purchases from overseas.

This hurricane has once again brought to mind the manifestations of racial discrimination among the American people

Kind of ironic that Zarqawi is talking about racism in the US as he declares total war on the Shiites. the organization has decided to declare a total war against the Rafidite Shi’ites throughout Iraq, wherever they may be.

He is for pluralism and equal rights of ethnic minorities, but religious pluralism is punishable by death. There are only two camps – the camp of truth and its followers, and the camp of falsehood and its Shi’ites. Seems a little discriminatory.

Looks like his popularity is shrinking: This is a call to all the Sunnis in Iraq: Awaken from your slumber, and arise from your apathy.

Memri.

I dont even have to get snarky on this one:

Sanaa, 15 Sept. (AKI) - The Yemeni government has recalled 38 diplomats working around the world for a re-shuffle designed to boost the country’s image abroad. Yemen’s foreign minister Abu Bakr al-Qarubi was quoted by the Saudi newspaper Arab News as saying the shake-up was to “rejuvenate” the diplomatic corps, but it also comes just four months after the country’s former ambassador to Syria requested political asylum in Britain.

Ahmad Abdullah al-Hassani told media in London that the Yemeni authorities had tried to assassinate him because he was part of the opposition movement in South Yemen. A former commander of Yemen’s navy, al-Hassani says he believes many officers from the Yemeni army, police and secret services are members of groups linked to al-Qaeda. However, officials in the Yemeni government have sought to discredit him, saying he is an “opportunist” and even branding him “mentally unstable”.

A Mason, an apostate, vice ridden? (I couldn’t help it.) There was also a big announcement that the diplomatic corps would be cut, as much public money goes to these cushy positions for the in crowd. Its a great idea. Lets see if it actually happens. I want to see who stays and who goes. I think the US ambassador is a relative of Saleh and the UN rep is also a family member.

The articles themselves written by a variety of journalists are very spot on. Its just the editorials that make me choke.

Staff Editor regarding the Egyptian elections: If there are mistakes or errors along the electoral road, these mistakes should be thought of as normal, particularly since the race in question is for the highest office in the land.

No. This makes no sense. Since it is for the highest office, we should lower our expectations about its authenticity? Sounds like he’s paving the way for the upcoming Yemeni presidential elections which may include widespread vote buying and voter intimidation as occurred in the Parliamentary elections in which pre-printed ballots were distributed to the voters and there was no privacy during the balloting process.

Related: Interview with Mr. Faris Al Sanabani, “a leading personality of Yemeni journalism, founder, publisher and chief-editor of Yemen Observer.”

Q: What is your opinion about Yemen’s image in the world and about world’s propaganda against Yemen? How do you see Yemen yourself?

A: Yemen is at the moment undergoing transformation it is a democratic country in the Arab world; women are ahead comparing to the neighboring countries. We have female Minister, Doctors, even pilots. Yemenia Airline has a female pilot. Women in Yemen have the right to vote, may be elected and are currently members of parliament.

As far as the press is concerned. We do not have any censorship it is fairly easy to get a license to print a newspaper and we have more than 240 publications in the country.

(No Faris that’s not quite correct. It’s a dictatorship, at best an oligarchy. There’s I think one woman in Parliament, one pilot, one minister, and women are considered worth half a man when it comes to blood money. The press is not free. And its difficult for an independent newspaper to get a license. )

Published in al-Wasat in Arabic by Jamal Amer, the editor who got kidnapped and tortured by the regime in late August, an incident discussed extensively in the article.

Also at Front Page Magazine and in the Yemen Times and originally by World Press.org

There are also articles about the article at al-Shoura and al-Thoury (the socialists paper) among others.

YO: The average share of women employed in the non-agricultural sector did not exceed 7 per cent .

One in ten children died before their fifth birthday

Maternal mortality ratios were more then 800 per 100,000. More than a third of women giving birth still did so without professional support.

Health services covered 50 per cent of population. 35 per cent of the population was infected with malaria, while health minister estimates it to 60 per cent.

Only 35.9 per cent of the population had access to safe water.

Between 50 and 80 per cent of the population had access to essential medicines.

Impunity: It worth mentioning that thousands of corruption cases, which are costing millions are discovered each year. Though they are brought to prosecution they are never tried, because some influential individuals interfere and stop them. No official was ever tried during the last decade with the exception of the theft cases of small officials who have no one to protect them.

Nasty Judge

Water and Sewers: The outstanding problem is due to imbalance in setting priorities for the implementation of some infrastructure projects, mainly water supply system and sewage system. The previously mentioned two projects could not be constructed separately in different periods of time. While there is water supply system, there should be a sanitary sewage system.

Honest MP: “Being corrupt, Bajammal’s Government pursues the policy of silencing the public opinion and its achievements are reflected in the sale of wealth without monitoring or self-accountability. It converted the country into an unprotected area for corrupt people who exploit the situation for serving their personal interests at the expense of the national development,” said Abu Ra’as.

Tribal conflict: The strategic report released by the Yemeni Center for Strategic Studies stated the consecutive Yemeni governments spoiled the Yemeni tribal entity and aimed to marginalize its forces by inciting conflicts within parties and tribal communities.

In Yemen, the newspapers are often associated with various branches of government and political parties. The 26 September newspaper is the mouthpiece of the Yemeni military. In this translation by the Yemen Times, the 26 September newspaper says opposition journalists are creating a crisis in the country and are unpatriotic:

In this context, one can bring forth many examples of some local party organ newspapers and news websites, which only find themselves at the bottom of instigations causing crises… They rather offend the entire homeland. The same criterion could be applied to some correspondents of Arab and foreign media.

Related: The Yemeni military recently abducted Khaled Al-Hammadi, a journalist who reported about corruption in military maintanence money, and took the numbers off his mobile phone. (Not to be confused with the recent kidnapping of editor Jamal Amer.)