Armies of Liberation

(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.

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.)

Yemeni President Saleh announced he would not present himself as a candidate for the 2006 presidential elections after 27 years in power. Some Yemenis are skeptical:

Sent : Tuesday, July 19, 2005 4:43 PM
To : arabtimesnewspaper@hotmail.com
Subject : The president is not running! What a joke

Dear Arabtimes,

These days joke wherever you go in Yemen: “I am not going to run for next year’s presidency elections!!!”
One of the jokes is that the president said what he said without realizing it (he was under the influence of chewing QAT).

A joke; I swear to everybody that it is a joke, but not a laughable one. People like the president and the entire presidents in the Arab world are not going to stop at any thing to keep in control, and to keep in power. They do not care about our feelings and emotions.

Feelings and emotions!! What the hell am I talking about?! It seems also that I am under the influence. These people do not care about anything other than themselves. They do not care about our basic needs, and I expect them to care about our feelings and emotions! What a joke?!, and again not a laughable one. It seems that it is not enough for them the pain and suffering that we are subject to on daily bases and it is caused by them, they want also to play with our feelings and emotions too. (Read on …)

I cant blog 9/11. Not last year either.

Photo from the Barking Moonbat where there’s more, via Speed of Thought where there’s a round-up:

Photo Montage here, I should HT somebody but I cant remember how I got there. The montage has quotes. I’ll take this one:

In the huge mass of evil as it rolls and swells, there is ever some good working toward deliverance and triumph. ~ Carlyle

The first year, the parents read the names. The second year, it was the children. This year its the brothers and sisters.

A good article in the Daily Star:

Those who are pleased with the election argue that it represented step-by-step movement forward toward greater democracy and pluralism, and that such gradual, incremental steps are the most logical way to proceed in the region. There is some sense to this argument, but its main drawback is that we’ve been hearing the same argument for several decades now in various Arab countries, and we seem to be collectively stuck at the stage of initial transformation from autocratic to democratic governance. Countries that have held elections in recent decades include Yemen, Kuwait, Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and several others – but nowhere has there been a substantive advance toward democratic governance. One gets the impression that this is a process that revolves around an endless journey, rather than the destination….

This flawed election would be useful as a step toward change only if it represented the beginning of a sustained process of transformation in other aspects of Egyptian political life, such as the media, Parliament, civil society and civilian control of the military-security establishment. There is no real sign of any of that to date other than a somewhat more lively press. The burden of proof is on the Mubarak government to show that it really is prepared to make changes and move toward a mode democratic political system, and I see no signs of that happening.

Rather, the Egyptian election only seems to accentuate a wider problem that afflicts presidencies throughout the Arab world these days. In most Arab countries that are not monarchies, presidents often serve for 25 years or more at a stretch, usually anchoring their perpetual incumbency in the rule of the armed forces and security systems. Two other troubling dimensions of Arab presidencies have appeared in recent years; one is the tendency of fathers to pass on rule to their sons; the other is the tendency of the international community to isolate, pressure or ostracize Arab presidents because their policies are deemed beyond the realm of a reasonable global consensus.

Related: Rather than ignore the domestic abuses of an important ally, the State Department stood up for the dissident. On January 31, a State Department spokesman called on the Egyptian government to reconsider Nour’s arrest.[6] During Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Abdul-Gheit’s February 15, 2005 visit to Washington, the question of political reform in Egypt “reared its head … everywhere,”[7] according to a report in Al-Ahram. Displaying her displeasure at Nour’s treatment, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cancelled a visit to Egypt.[8]

Then there’s this: (Nour) published a book advocating liberalism over Islamist politics, Yawmiyat Suhufi Mushaghib (The Memoir of a Troublemaking Journalist),[1] and began efforts to form his own liberal party.

Whereas in Yemen, as political oppostion we have Zindani and al-Houthi who actually make Saleh look moderate. Al-Houthi is a candidate for president. I wonder what his campaign slogan is going to be? This is from Islah’s 3rd conference final statement:

It called upon the Arab and Islamic nations to support the Palestinian people’s resistance and struggle for getting their legitimate rights, mainly the creation of an independent and viable Palestinian state, and the full ejection of the Israeli occupation out of the Palestinian soil….The conference highly hailed the Iraqi people’s enthusiasm and keenness on preserving their homeland’s unity, sovereignty, and independence; and called for the Arab and Islamic countries to offer morale and material support for the Iraqis so that they could liberate their homeland from the Anglo-American usurpers.

So theres little for the West to hang its hat on there. The JMP statement after the London bombings was uninspiring. On the other hand, Saleh is a tyrant, a tyrant who understands US and European priorities, but a tyrant nonetheless. The acceptence or rejection of “reasonable global consensus” is what defines political players internationally and partially determines levels of support.

So if Saleh is rejecting the concept of human rights, and the oppostion is rejecting an absolute concept of civilian immunity, which is the stronger argument? Internal terror vs. external terror, hmmm, if internal terror really does create external terror, then internal human rights should have a higher global priority. This approach would enforce one priority, human rights, while mitagating the other (external terrorism). Conversely, to focus on cooperation as the higher value would enforce one priority while exacerbating both (human rights abuses and external terrorism).

And considering these dictators are so brutal and the level of distress among tens of millions throughout the Middle East, perhaps thats the best choice ideologically as well as pragmatically in those situations of a opposition hostile to western interests and the global consensus. On the other hand, the level of support for targeting civilians is a factor as well. There are those who agree in theory with the concept of targeting civilians as legitimate resistance and then there are those who enable it. Still a liberal party would simplify matters greatly or even one cognoscente of the fact that there is a global consensus. But then again, how much popular support would that muster in Yemen?

Update: Condi keeps pushing: (Read on …)