Armies of Liberation

Without notice, but censorship is expensive they say.

YT According to al-Jabri, the increased prices on local calls and internet is suggested to avoid any loss, as the government of Yemen suffer from big burdens which never exist in other countries, mainly the cost of preventing undesired sites.

Al-Nada weekly quoted Lawyer Mohamed Naji Allaw as saying: “From an ethical perspective, the General Corporation of telecommunications was supposed to announce to subscribers what it was about to carry out. It raised the cost of local calls and the internet by 50%, contrary to what the government promised to offer citizens cheap telecommunication services.

NY Dr. Bilqees Abu Usbu’, a political science teacher at Sana’a University said that the main factor behind weakness in Yemeni parties is lack of coordination between their leaders and bases and lack of attention by the leaders to the need to coordinate with their public “not only during election times, but throughout the year.”

She added that “such meetings are part of a civil society movement that comes from the base and tends to climb upwards. They resemble an important turning point in the efficiency of the opposition not only on a national level, but on a pan-Arab level as well. It is the first time that leftists, nationalists, and Islamists meet in one alliance that continues to strengthen in the grassroots level after decades of rivalry and enmity.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Mohamed Al-Dhahiri, another political science instructor at Sana’a University noted that such initiatives consolidate democracy within the opposition parties themselves as well as in the country as a whole. “But this also shows that those parties have formed this alliance for the sake of maintaining balance and not because they have a solid and concrete action and organizational plan.” he said.

Rule One: Mobilize your base.

A peaceful sit-in protesting unpaid wages sounds like a reasonable way to express dissatifaction. So of course the 150 workers get surrounded by 200 police, who then also beat the journalists. What was it Condi said about a town square?

AJN: Yemeni police have beaten an Arab satellite channel news crew covering a strike by textile workers, leaving a cameraman with three broken ribs and internal bleeding.

About 150 workers at a textile factory in the capital, Sanaa, were on Saturday striking for unpaid wages at their workplace, not far from a home of President Abdullah Saleh when the violence occurred.

About 200 police surrounded the journalists and beat Mujib Swailih, a cameraman for the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya network.

Hamud Munasil, the head of the Al-Arabiya office in Sanaa, said Swailih’s injuries were serious. Najib al-Sharibi, a correspondent for the Saudi government-run Al-Ekhbariya satellite network, also suffered minor injuries.

“Mujib Swailih was beaten with truncheons several times” by police deployed in force around the sit-in before being taken to a police station where the cameraman “was insulted”, one of the station’s employees said.

Dubai-based Al-Arabiya denounced what it said was “a hostile mobilisation campaign towards journalists, particularly correspondents from foreign media, targeted by defamation in government newspapers” in Yemen. Yemeni police were not immediately available for comment.

Yemeni newspaper editor Jamal Amir said in August that he had been abducted and beaten by armed men claiming to act on behalf of military officers and wanting to know about his sources.Journalists have reported a concerted campaign of abuse and harassment by the government in recent weeks.

Al-Thawra, the government-run daily newspaper, has carried editorials over the past several days accusing reporters of being “agents of foreign intelligence networks” that seek to hurt Yemen’s image by claiming that it harbours terrorists.

There is a pattern of trashing the journalists. Are they just trying to turn the public against them and thereby diminish the impact of the reports, or has Saleh slipped into a paranoid delusion where everyone is out to get him?

Update: “The attack against Suwailih, whose ribs were smashed and who suffered from internal bleeding, proves that those policemen attempted manslaughter.” Munassar said. The second victim, Al-Akhbariya’s correspondent in Sana’a Najeeb Al-Shara’abi, said “if it were not for the swift action taken by the protesting workers in holding the policemen back, Suwailih may have been killed at the spot”, stressing that the attack was ‘vicious’ and unexplainable.

Update: Police brutality common:

Farhan said he was subject to torture and humiliation by the investigation officer, and was taken by two soldiers to the roof of the police station only to be beaten up again. When questioned about those claims, the police officer admitted that Farhan “only received three slaps on the face because he was too philosophical and instigating.”

NY: Al-Houthi said that “three of our colleagues who were imprisoned before the 2004 war were released”, noting that those whom he described as “heroes” were “healthy young men when they were imprisoned, but ended up impaired –when they were released- due to the brutal torture to which they were exposed while in prison.”

But the nightshift duty officer of the same police station said he could not provide any information because of “superior orders not to talk to non-governmental media”.SC :“This mode of behavior is utterly unacceptable under any circumstance”, said a spokesman for Al Arabiya. Furthermore, Al Arabiya demands that the relevant authorities in Yemen initiate a transparent investigation into this outrage and provide names of the culprits who must be held accountable for their actions. Accountable? No Yemeni officials are ever accountable.

An analysis of the 2003 Parliamentary elections in Yemen: MEI

The elections mainly served as a continuation of a self-inspired process to democratize the government but more so to consolidate and empower the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh, which has been in place since 1979.

In the recent elections the Al-Islah party fared well and came out as the main rival party to the GPC. Yet, Dr. Carapico asserted, the regime’s support of the United States in the War on Terror has created little resentment towards the GPC and did not have a substantial effect on domestic politics in Yemen or on the elections even though local Yemenis did not support the recent US war on Iraq.

The rise of Al-Islah can be traced back to the origins of the present regime, when in an effort to combat the socialist left who were considered the main threat at the time, the government along with individuals and the government of Saudi Arabia aided and supported the Islamic right. During the civil war that took place in 1994 between the former rulers of South Yemen (People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen) and the GPC, the anti-Communist ideology of the so-called Afghan-Arabs (who had just fought the Soviets in Central Asia) was used to combat the socialists at home.

Dr. Carapico specifically noted though that it would be gravely incorrect to equate all the Islamists in Yemen to Al-Qaeda. Right wing politics in Yemen covers a whole spectrum of positions of which militant Islamism is only one fringe. In fact, both the ruling party and other parties such as Al-Islah feel threatened by the armed underground terrorist group in Yemen, known as Al-Qaeda. The bombing of the USS Cole was viewed by all parties in Yemen as an attack against their own government and society, as much as an attack against the United States.

The regime plays a significant role in the elections by its control and responsiblility for distributing funds to all political parties, giving the ruling party an advantage by its control over funds. The General People’s Congress is also able to utilize government run TV and radio stations to promote its leading candidate and to subvert opposition.

Update: The convict has told the primary and appeal courts that he had killed Omar for his alleged public secular opinions.

OP

A leader in the Socialist Party, Jaralleh Omar, was murdered in 2002. The death penalty for his murderer was upheld but a broader investigation has been thwarted. Even Amnesty International protested that there was strong indications of involvement by regime figures, and they called for a thorough investigation.

NY: The Supreme Court in Sana’a upheld the capital punishment verdict against Ali Al-Sa’awani, the murderer of the Yemeni Socialist Party’s Assistant General Secretary Jarallah Omar, according to Al-Qadaia newspaper.

Prominent lawyer Dr. Mohamed Al-Mikhlafi, who is the chairman of the committee to that follows up the case of Jarallah Omar’s assassination, told News-Yemen that the Supreme Court upheld the verdict of the First Instance and Appeal courts, but ignored the demands of Omar’s lawyers to investigate the motives and the accomplices behind the murder. “The Supreme Court even ignored the Appeal Court’s orders to interrogate those who were accused of being part of the crime but whose interrogation was not complete.” he said.

Al-Mikhlafi, who also heads the legal department of the YSP, Said the Supreme Court’s decision comes in agreement with the approach of the authorities, right from the moment of Omar’s assassination. “This was a move to hide the truth and conceal the real political motives behind the crime, which everyone knows is a political assassination. It is clear that this resembles a deliberate attempt to protect the organization that is behind this crime.” He added.

Furthermore, Al-Mikhlafi criticized the way the Supreme Court issued its decision, which he described as “sneaky”. He said the committee was surprised to know about the verdict through the ‘Al-Qadaia’ newspaper, which is published by the Ministry of Justice.

Update: Based on the government’s recent decision, “dealing with any broker operators in arms will be prohibited.” The paper added that the “purchasing any military equipment in the future will only be through direct deals between Yemen and the producing country.”

The source warned that “any arms dealer who imports weapons to the country will be in direct violation of the law and shall be prosecuted and criminalized.”

The government’s step came after the United States government and the North Atlantic Alliance stopped three deals that were already made by individual Yemeni arms dealers in the name of the Yemeni government with some European countries in the last four months.

OP

So there’s a few positive announcements coming from Yemen recently, but announcements don’t pay the rent.

- Cut spending on the diplomatic missions, which is a fat cats heaven currently and thus draining the public budget, so far after much fanfare, one mission has been closed: Romania

- Disallow Saleh’s loyalists from holding two government jobs at once, no-shows. I don’t know how that’s progressing but many many people in the opposition are excluded from any governmental, civil service, and military positions. So this would mean, if it takes effect, more jobs for the loyalists.

- Permit the local Councils to be fully elected and more seats in the Shura council, again very good in theory, until we factor in that its basically a one party state. So the loyalists instead of being appointed will be “elected.” In the last Parliamentary election, they were giving out pre-marked ballots, trucking in voters, not allowing secret voting, buying votes with a bag of flour, and this was determined to be “free and fair.” Not to mention state domination of the broadcast media when a large percentage of the population is illiterate.

Now we have the new breaking development that the Yemeni military will stop buying and selling weapons through intermediaries: From my friend Faris Sanabani, the weasel, former advisor to the president, currently the editor of the government owned YO:

The source added that the strict measures are to include banning the purchase of arms for defense and interior ministries through middlemen. All arms purchases are to be restricted to direct country-to-country deals….

Al-Aghbari said that the government had canceled third party licenses, whereby local businessmen or companies would purchase weapons abroad for the government, and any leftover or excess stock would be sold to citizens through dealers.

So this is basically an admission that the Yemeni government previously had been buying and selling weapons on the black market. Gee that sounds familiar. And now they are going to stop.

Talk is cheap. We do need to keep in mind that Saleh is the guy who called democracy “the rescue ship of all regimes” just before he began tearing into the opposition and independent press and bombing and kidnapping the political opposition.

al-Thoury, the Socialists paper, not publishing this week. Its a punishment for something in last weeks paper. Two weeks before going to meet President Bush, Saleh is blatantly censoring his political opposition. And Yemen’s democracy is….slowing a little more?

Update: So they moved al-Khaiwani and now they trying to push the editor out of the Socialists newspaper, al-Thoury: NY:

In a statement to News-Yemen, Khalid Salman said that the decision to sack him and the whole editorial board could only be taken by the Central Committee of the YSP as part of its responsibility to guide the media campaign of the party….

Salman added that this attempt is in the scope of a totalitarian mentality that “rejects the other view and is an attempt to apply a strict condition for dialogue by suppressing the remaining margin of press freedom.” He added that for a bilateral GPC-YSP dialogue to succeed, there needs to be a “broader margin of freedom of expression.”

Salman stressed that the ruling party seems committed to sabotage the mission of Al-Thowry Weekly by firing its editor-in-chief, which would result in an unbalanced dialogue in favor of the ruling party.

Update: WB to cut funding by 34% due to corruption, lack of transparency and good governence.

The MSM (New York Times) reports on corruption in Yemen. Well thats very nice. I think its an important topic.

SAN’A, Yemen (AP) — Taxi driver Mohamed Abdul Karim swears under his breath as he swings past the giant, multimillion dollar mosque being built to honor Yemen’s president.

”I don’t make enough money to feed my family every month, and we go and spend millions of dollars on another mosque,” said Abdul Karim, who earns about $100 a month. ”This corruption has to stop.”

The mosque, boasting five towering minarets and a reported $35 million price tag, is being funded by wealthy supporters of Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen’s leader of 27 years.

Although it is not paid for from state coffers, the huge expenditure still angers many in Yemen, the Middle East’s poorest nation and one of the world’s most corrupt. Paying bribes is a part of everyday life in Yemen, for anything from obtaining medical treatment to getting permission to do business.

The World Bank is growing tired of the corruption, too. Earlier this month, the agency said it would reduce by 34 percent its upcoming three-year loan assistance package to Yemen, starting July 2006, because of a lack of government transparency and good governance.

(Read on …)

is the title of an article about me by Adbulkarim al-Khaiwani in the Yement Times.

(Update: I posted a notice of al-Khaiwanis really beautiful article at Dean’s, Steven’s, and Rusty’s websites, more “Westerners who back Yemeni journalists.” These are big bloggers and I really want to build on the name recognition al-Khaiwani has here in the US already. Because its not over. So its very nice of the boyz to let me borrow their websites whenever I want. )

Original post:
This is the editor I made the petition for in March, everybody helped me circulate it-see Coalition of the Willing on the sidebar. Even Chris Muir made him a cartoon. Its been quite a bumpy ride since he was released.

Its so nice of al-Khaiwani to write a defense of me. I really am getting badly trashed by the government papers there. I think it might be worse than I know. They don’t like my articles on Yemen like this one that details the regimes criminal activities, or this one that outlines the regimes brutal treatment of journalists.

What he’s referring to in the article is the regimes efforts to contact me, which I rebuff. I dont want to talk to them at all. And the editor of the Yemen Observer, the famous Faris Sanabani, who is a government weasel, is writing in Arabic in the local papers that Im a liar or something. Thats in addition to the articles in English in the Yemen Observer saying Im a Yemeni man or an extremist funded by the socialists or a hedgehog. Which is funny, very funny. I know the articles Im writing are true. And thats good enough for me.

Also I’m not writing these articles for consumption inside Yemen, everyone inside Yemen knows its true that theres massive theft, brutality, and total control. I am writing for the Western people who have the misunderstanding that Yemen is reforming, decentalizing power, and enabling expression of the popular will. Believe me, its not. Its moving in the other direction. So Im exposing them. They attack me. al-Khaiwani defends me. This is becoming a pattern. Like when when he exposes them, they attack him, and I defend him. Thats another pattern. Here’s al-Khaiwani’s article:

Many official newspapers and others affiliated to the ruling party launched a fierce attack against the American writer and Journalist Jane Novak. The observer of current matters in the Yemeni scenario knows the secret of such an attack against Ms. Novak who publishes regular columns reflecting the Political situation in Yemen and the different types of harassments Yemeni journalists and opinion leaders of free speech are subjected to.

No freedom loving person can bear the current government-led malice against the development of democracy in Yemen, and being Yemenis we have the confidence that democracy in Yemen will eventually move in a safer direction. The stance taken by Ms. Novak to defend the press freedom and protect the life of journalists and human rights activists confirms her continuous aspirations for a more prosperous future for Yemen.

In spite of that, Government Newspapers such as The Yemen Observer, which is directly affiliated to Presidential office took lead in the attack against the U.S. writer and alleged that Ms. Novak isn’t a mere journalist but a political analyst who is interested in the Yemeni affairs and she has an electronic site and write for several papers in the U.S. and other countries including Yemen.

Has the Yemen Observer forgotten that it published nearly seven articles for Ms. Novak, one of them was titled ‘Yemen in the spring’? The question, which has been raised, is that how is it possible for the President’s journalist Mr. Sanabani to meet a Zionist writer.

Our colleague Mr. Sanabani still remembers that during his visit to the U.S. in last June, he asked a friend of Novak to give him her telephone number in order to make calls with her. She refused to give her number. Al-Mithaq paper, which circulates the accusation against the western journalist, does not actually know that information and it never learned of another attempt made in the office of Yemen’s permanent representative. So this is a heavy accusation for the local consumption.

Now, it is time we should turn to the writer and reason behind the accusation. Jane Novak is a U.S. political analyst who is interested in the issues of Yemen and Saudi Arabia, particularly after the 9/11 attack on the U.S. On Yemen she wrote numerous articles.

During my imprisonment last year, she adopted my case and defended me as a prisoner of opinion. She closely observed numerous issues in Yemen and wrote about democracy, journalism, human rights, Sa’ada events and terrorism and her interest in the Yemeni issues qualified her to give lectures in Colombia University. As a journalistic writer, Novak’s articles are characterized by professionalism, objectivity and authenticity.

Novak’s recent report on the situations of journalists and journalism is clear-cut evidence of her efforts devoted for such issues. All what has been mentioned was also indicated by some international organizations and correspondents without borders and discussed by different media means.

Being an independent political article, Jane is an effective voice having its strong reverberation in different parts of the world. After their failure to attract Novak to their side, the Yemeni authorities turned to terrorize journalists, harm the reputation of Novak and prevent the circulation of her articles in the country in order not to let the Yemeni journalists know the westerners who back them.

It is really a fact which reveals how the Yemeni authorities treat the other opinion. The attack against Novak is neither the first nor the last of its kind since this writer has a special opinion about the corruption and indiscipline in Yemen.

I would like to expressed my sincere thank and gratitude to Jane Novak, for her interest in Yemen and other issues related to freedoms and human rights, among them is adopting my case and defending me as a prisoner of opinion.

The best decision I ever made was defending this guy as a prisoner of opinion. And he’s still being heavily targeted. They took his paper and now they are pressuring the other papers not to publish his columns. He’s quite a principled and courageous guy. Does anyone remember the first issue after al-Shoura re-opened after six months of being banned: he came out swinging, with some hard reporting. The regime has all the power, but what wimps, what weaklings they are unable to stand words, truths, criticisms, opposition. This is the regime that will arrest your relatives and kidnap your kids if you speak out, if you refuse to bow. Well they better get used to me. I dont bow. I dont think anyone else should have to either. RIP Rosa Parks.

(AKI) - The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for an end to the trafficking of children from Yemen to neighbouring Saudi Arabia, where more than 60 percent are then beaten, abused or robbed, the Arabic newspaper Al-Watan reports. In a new report, prepared with the help of the Yemeni Social Affairs Ministry, UNICEF says that 81.8 percent of children were trafficked with the approval of their parents, and against the will of the children in 59.3 percent of cases.

UNICEF puts this phenomenon largely down to poverty and the poor quality of life in Yemen, where 66.5 percent of the children’s families live on less than 108 dollars a month. It also says that more than 60 percent of the children trafficked abroad from Yemen are from families with eight or more members. Almost half of the families surveyed for the report said their living conditions improved after they sent their children to Saudi Arabia.

Even though most Yemeni children in Saudi Arabia are forced to beg to make money, they contribute up to 80 percent of their family’s income in some cases, the report says.

Got to love the blogsphere. HT to Mike at Top Dog for pointing out that command of CENTCOM had changed to Franks in July. Check out Mike’s blog for more and updated information of Able Danger including the 9/11 aspect.

So when Zinni says this: In other words, I made the requests. Those requests were approved by the Joint Staff for what forces I would get, he is talking about prior instances. And this The refueling of that ship in Aden was my decision. he must mean by chosing Aden in the first place.

(via Mike)Q: It also sounded, from what we heard from Admiral Gehman and General Crouch, that no one was going to be looking at the question of whether or not — whether there was a mistake or a bad judgment made in sending the USS Cole to Aden to refuel; that there would be no review of the decisions leading up to that. Am I wrong about that?

Quigley: Well, I heard — I don’t remember who asked the question before, but, boy, I heard General Tony Zinni spend a lot of time in testimony before the Congress, a couple of weeks ago, addressing that very issue. So I —

Q: But General Zinni wasn’t in command at the time the Cole was ordered into the port of Aden.

Quigley: No, that’s true; that’s true. But he has not been gone from command of the Central Command very long. He was very much aware of the policies in his former region of the world, and I think very supportive of the rationale and motivation for the engagement policy that we have.

link dump: FreedomHouse: Unwilling to endanger tribal and Islamist support for his regime, Saleh resisted American pressure to rein in these groups following the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden harbor, but relented in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, when U.S. officials warned that Yemen was a potential target of military action.

Also from Freedom House: In December, Islamists assassinated the deputy leader of the YSP, Jarallah Omar, and killed three Americans at a missionary hospital in Jibla. (They dont mention but everybody knows, even Amnesty International, that theres strong indications of regime complity in Omar’s murder and only a very superficial investigation was carried out. Wheres the UN on that? If its Lebanon, it counts, but a trail of bodies of Yemeni leaders doesnt count.)

original post

1) Able Danger issued two warnings about the Cole going to Aden. One was 12 days before and the second was two days before. This Fallis also issued several requests within DIA to issue an official alert immediately prior to the bombing.

Did General Zinni (correction: Franks) recieve these warnings? One article says he got Fallis’ warning and supressed it, another says DIA refused to issue an official alert. Its unclear who recieved the Able Danger alerts. In Zinni’s congressional testimony, he says he had no indications, no warnings, that any potential terrorist activity was impending.

2) Zinni in his congressional testimony asserts repeatedly the extremely cooperative nature of the Yemeni regime in the investigation. Others have characterized it as uncooperative initially and duplicitious later on. And a Saudi military told a CIA person that the regime was covering up information on the bombing.

3) In his congressional testimony, Zinni asserted that the Yemeni regime was notified 12 days prior and force protection was the regime’s responsibility. Yemeni president Saleh said publically on numerous occasions that he recieved no notice and had no force protection assembled.

4) Zinni repeatedly testified to the authenticity of Saleh’s overall committment to fighting terrorists and as one indicator, pointed to the fact that Saleh would invite Zinni to meet with him on a personal level whenever Saleh was in the US. Subsequently several of the murders and their associates have been released, re-educated, escaped, and found dead in Iraq suicide bombing.

SANA’A, Oct 24 (Saba) - A Word Bank official said Tuesday that Yemen’s anti-money laundering probes haven’t hunted any case, a sign that the country’s finance processes are indeed clean.

The measures are stringent, as the country follows suit of well-experienced countries and learns from the IMF-inspired schemes. The IMF and donors, in their verification, found Yemen to be no friendly for frauds of this sort, he added.

Yemen’s personnel working in money-laundering are well-trained.
Besides, Yemen has improved its fraud combat schemes as a key facet of the battling against the scourge of terror.

So they didnt catch anybody so that means theres no one to catch. Okaay. Lets go back to the port deal. The WB issued a report that one main way to develop Yemen’s economy was to develop the port of Aden as a direct competition to the port of Dubai. Aden is on international shipping routes and Dubai is 1600 miles away. So the regime in a very flakey deal awards the consession to…Dubai, which submitted a lower bid then Kuwait. And the Dubai promised a very low number of container berths while their own development of berths will be ten times higher. And the World Bank signed off on it. What is that?

More: Money Laudering

Update: Strategy Page has addressed the issue of appeasment previously. Theres quite an assortment of articles here in the archives. W/A

A response to James Dunnigan writing at Strategy Page: “Why Moslem Countries Cooperate Against al Qaeda”

James Dunnigan, a quite astute, well respected, leading analysist recently assessed the Yemeni regime as authentically cooperating in the WOT as evidenced by the recent capture of Mubkhit Salih al Kuabi, a top al-Qaeda operative working for Zarchawi who was planning attacks on US interests. Also Mr. Dunnigan rightly points out that criminal enterprises are a regional problem and a function of lax law enforcement. Mr. Dunnigan writes:

Yemen, despite having an ongoing civil war with Islamic conservative Shia tribes on the Saudi border, plus many Sunni Arab Yemenis being big fans of al Qaeda, has made progress crippling terrorist operations in their territory. The recent arrest of al Qaedas senior man in Yemen, Mubkhit Salih al Kuabi was a major operation. More attacks on American ships were planned by al Qaeda, and al Kuabi was sent to make it happen. Apparently, the intelligence efforts of several Arab countries, including Jordan and Saudi Arabia, were used to identify and locate al Kuabi (who was working for Iraqi al Qaeda leader al-Zarqawi.)

Al Kuabi turned out to be a very senior guy, very well connected, and very useful once interrogators got to work on him. Yemen plays down this cooperation with other Arab countries, mainly because the Sunni Arab leaders of those nations fear the popular appeal of al Qaeda and their suicide bomber “martyrs.”

Sunni Arabs don’t like the idea of democracy in Iraq, and would really like the Sunni Arab minority there to be back in power. Al Qaeda wants that as well, but they want a Sunni Arab religious leader running the show. Al Qaeda also wants to take all the current Arab leaders and behead them. This is part of al Qaeda’s appeal to the average Arab. This is also the reason for the energetic efforts by Arab governments to wipe out al Qaeda.

Bahrain, however, publicly admitted that they had signed a deal with Yemen to share information on terrorism, and organized crime. That’s another problem in the area. Criminal gangs have long benefited by lax law enforcement in the region, especially if the gang boss developed friends in government, and was a big tipper. Controlling organized crime is right up there with suppressing Islamic terrorism, for Gulf Arab governments.

But it’s not just Arab leaders who have serious problems with terrorists and gangsters.

My response: The main characteristic of Yemeni President Saleh is he is an appeaser. He accommodates the tribes, al-Qaeda, President Bush, the criminal gangsters, and neighboring countries in a juggling act that’s been going on for decades. One of Saleh’s unique talents is his ability to manipulate information in ongoing propaganda campaigns tailored to placate each of his major constituents.

The fact that foreign intelligence located and identified al-Kuaibi required Saleh to respond in an overtly cooperative manner. But that cannot be taken as a mark of his sincerity or commitment to fighting al-Qaeda. The regime in many ways is systematically cooperative with al-Qaeda and enables their stability rather then disrupts it.

In the State Department’s report Patterns of Terrorism (2003), State notes that 10 of the Cole bombers escaped, a not infrequent occurrence. They remain at large except for two reportedly killed in suicide bombings in Iraq. Additionally, the re-education provided by Judge Hittar has been repudiated by one of its graduates, bin Laden’s driver, as a mechanism of expediting the release of al-Qaeda. He indicated the understanding with the regime is attacks are not permitted in Yemen, but outside is acceptable. State’s problem with Hittar’s program was that the US was unable to interrogate several detainees prior to their release. Jailed al-Qaeda often receive preferential treatment while incarcerated, including leading prayer services. A third issue noted by State was the deliberate effort to mislead the US by reporting a major terrorist as killed in a raid by security forces, although he is alive and has not since been recaptured. Thus the regime is physically shielding the terrorists from the international community, a practice that continues to date.

The regime also shields their finances, and 143 of 144 terrorist affiliated bank accounts in Yemen have not been frozen as required by the UN. The UN circular identifying those accounts was not circulated to Yemeni banks in 2004. No action has been taken to restrict the activities of UN identified “Major Terrorist” Sheik al-Zindani. Similarly, major al-Qaeda facilitator General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar is given a free rein by his half bother, President Saleh, to pursue his activities. A flood of terrorists have streamed into Iraq who have graduated Yemeni training camps, carry Yemeni documents, and are funded by Yemeni well wishers. Of over 20 Yemeni suicide bombers, two were Cole escapees. And some Yemeni terrorists are reported killed numerous times.

Furthermore it is uncontestable that the regime is pushing extremist ideology through society, in the mosques and schools, quickly excommunicating anyone who objects. Afghan Arab preachers are trucked into the mosques, schools closed include moderate Zaidi and Shaifi, not extremist institutions. Students from al-Iman university were tasked to teach at governmental summer school.

The criminal activity certainly is a product of lax law enforcement on the part of Saleh. But when illegal weapon transfers are repeatedly made by Yemeni Air Force transports, to give Saleh a total pass on criminal activity is very generous. When Saleh is profiting from the diesel smuggling along with his friend Tawfeeq Abdulraheem , and the drug smuggling is facilitated by his close family member, there must come a point of responsibility. When governmental institutions regularly disburse counterfeit money, it indicates more than a passive association with criminal enterprises. Corruption and criminal enterprises are deeply entrenched in the Yemeni economy to the detriment of any future prospects for the nation and provide quite of bit of terrorist financing.

So while it is fair to say that Yemen has a problem with terrorists and gangsters, the fact remains that many of the main supporters of terrorists and partners of gangsters are members of the regime and the inner circle of President Saleh, who continues to profit and facilitate their activities. We cannot say the recent capture of a top al-Qaeda operative is an indication of authentic cooperation, but may be another of Saleh’s appeasements designed to placate the international community and maintain the facade of partnership. Similarly, intelligence sharing with Bahrain may only go as far as necessary to maintain the impression of cooperation. The model of “rehabilitate and engage cooperatively” that is successful in Pakistan seems to have failed in Yemen, as President Saleh is neither rehabilitated nor cooperative.

SANA’A – Saudi security forces have said today that an explosion on farmland in the Saudi Arabian area of Najran the day before yesterday was caused by a mortar rocket launched from inside Yemen.

The Saudi newspaper Al-Watan reports a high level source in the region of Najran as saying that a joint investigation involving teams from both countries are continuing their investigation to discover the source of the bomb.

The mortar is said to have been launched from over a distance of 25 kilometres from within Yemeni territory.

No, everything is fine, nothing to see, keep moving.

Translation by the Yemen Times of a local paper regarding the US Ambassador’s backtracking from a statement that democracy slowed in Yemen:

This backing down by the American ambassador from his statements has harmed his reputation among the public. They revealed weakness of his credibility among the domestic public opinion and extended to his country’s reputation which is naturally not good. Those opposing the American policy found in it a material to say this superpower is giving priority to its small security interests to the people’s big interests of the people of Yemen.

It has added a new argument to those of the government aimed at inspiring despair into the citizens hearts in that the United States is not serious in raising the slogan of political reforms in countries of the Arab region and those reforms are merely a card of pressure Washington uses against Arab rulers to realize intentions having no relation to democracy or human rights or victory of values of freedom.

It was dissappointing, considering the utter lack of functional democratic institutions in Yemen, to hear the praise again of Yemen the Model, especially when so many Yemenis are badly targeted by the regime for saying the truth that its not a democracy at all but closer to a kleptocracy.

Related: Corruption Index , and ill health.

We can safely say the Pakistani model of rehabilitiation and engagement has failed, and further backfired, in Yemen.

- escaped terrorists. lots including the cole bombers

- re-educated terrorists released without debriefing by the US

- murder of Jarallah Omar, socialist leader, indications of regime complicity per Amnesty international, fatwa-ed by Zindani

- unwilling to close UN identified terrorist bank accounts

- alqaeda praises Yemeni president Saleh

(Read on …)

These data mining Able Danger guys issued a second warning about the Cole two days before it arrived at Aden. Shaffer, the one going on the record, is getting trashed by DIA. WND

Congressman Weldon: you are going to hear the story that they also identified the threat to the USS Cole 2 weeks before the attack, and 2 days before the attack were screaming not to let the USS Cole come into the harbor at Yemen because they knew something was about to happen.

(So this does not square with the 9/11 commission-who refused to hear testimony about Able Danger- and their outline on the Cole.)

Congressman Weldon in his congressional testimony says that DIA is actively blocking the investigation and badly trashing Tony Shaffer, the one who came forward about Able Danger:

some nameless, faceless bureaucrat who is fearful that the information will finally come to light, that the DIA just did not get it.

Back in 1999 and 2000, they did not have a clue. They had millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars, and could not do what a 20-member team did in being able to identify Mohammed Atta before the 9/11 attacks. DIA does not want that to come out, Mr. Speaker. They do not want that to come out. Heaven forbid the Defense Intelligence Agency, with hundreds of millions of dollars, would have a 20-member team do what they could not do because they were using new technology and new software. They do not want that to come out. That is why that Deputy Director, when he was at that meeting, said, I do not want to see this. Do not show it to me. And that is why today that Deputy Director is trying to ruin the career of Lieutenant Colonel Shaffer.

They are bringing allegations of theft related to an incident where Shaffer stole some pens to give out when he was 15, and this was a self reported incident when Shaffer applied for his security clearence. And a lot of other harassment. Now thats scary, the DIA turning on you. And Shaffer, who was apparently very good at his job then, is just trying to do the right thing now. There are a lot of people who corrorborate him. So the military cuts the health insurance on his kids. Quite freaky.

Mr. Speaker, do you know, Wolf Blitzer on CNN told my staff that a Department of Defense employee told him that Lieutenant Colonel Shaffer was having an affair with one of my employees. How low can we go, Mr. Speaker? How low can we go to allow this Defense Department to try to ruin the reputation and the personal life of a lieutenant colonel with a Bronze Star? To Wolf Blitzer, Mr. Speaker.

(more with Weldon)

Lets reveiw what we know about the Cole: The bombers were issued official travel documents by the Yemeni government. Also weapons permits. At least one bomber used to work for the Aden police. Hassani said “Saleh had dispatched his interior minister and political security minister from Sanaa, the capital, for Aden at midnight, hours before the bombing occurred, casting suspicion on the decision. ” Able Danger identified Aden as very hot two weeks before the bombing. And issued a second warning to keep the Cole out of Aden two days before it arrived. Zinni and Congress never contemplated regime complicity. Eight of the bombers “escaped” custody and two were later reportedly killed in suicide bombings in Iraq. Two weeks before the bombing Zinni notifed the Yemeni government that the Cole would be coming to Aden, something Saleh has publically denied. Then there’s Fallis.

UKN: Kie Fallis, a Defense Intelligence Agency counterterrorism analyst, had issued a report before the disaster, warning of the danger of just such an attack in Yemen. As it turned out, the report was suppressed by senior DIA officials, and by Bodine and Gen. Anthony Zinn, who decided to allow the Cole to enter the Port under the lowest grade of security permitted in the Middle East — though they were both aware of the warning. Fallis quit in protest the day after the bombing.

Leading editor “It was clear from the start that the accessories to the attack would be tried, convicted and executed, but that the people inside Yemen who financed it, and used their power to facilitate it, would never be brought to book,” he said, adding, “that’s the way things are done here, and the Americans were naïve to imagine that it could ever have been any other way.”

PPC: “We categorically deny that any threat information has been suppressed in the case of the USS Cole, Yemen or Aden, nor would we ever suppress such information.” Mr. Fallis, however, never claimed the information was suppressed; he correctly stated that an appropriate official warning based on it never was produced. He recounted to several investigators how he had made it clear to at least five DIA intelligence officials that al Qaeda and Iranian-backed terrorists were planning deadly attacks.

NRO: Instead of destroying bin Laden’s terrorist infrastructure and capabilities, President Clinton phoned twice phoned the president of Yemen demanding better cooperation between the FBI and the Yemeni security services.

ZINNI: They were cooperative and helpful in my time. I cannot recall any instance where they did not cooperate or they did not provide the security as we had requested. I’ll have to go back through my notes, but I don’t recall any instance where they were not.

Why were Yemeni authorities being so uncooperative? The New York Times (in a full-page article 11/1/00) suggested several possibilities.

A. Inexperience or confusion about the Yemenis regarding modern investigative techniques - the explanation favored by the State Department.

B. Touchy pride about having outsiders operate on their turf - the equivalent of a toddler’s “I can do it myself.”

C. Fear that an investigation might reveal Yemeni links to terrorist organizations.

This whole thing stinks. From every angle. There were two ignored warnings and no recognition of any possibility of regime complicity. And Zinni is so adament that Saleh is committed to fighting terrorism because Saleh calls Zinni to visit him whenever he comes to the US. And DIA is currently targeting one of its own analysists. Nifty. The State Department can’t decide if Yemen’s democracy is stopped, slowing, or progressing, so they say all three. And Saleh is coming to meet Bush in two weeks when there is a real possibility that Yemen used chemical weapons against its own people recently. Just nifty, really.

Gertz analysis, Congressional Testimony Fallis, WND resignation, CRO intell timeline, Kidnap victim

Dang Meanwhile, FBI head investigator John O’Neill believes that al-Quso is holding back important information from his Yemeni captors and wants him interrogated by the FBI. However, O’Neill had been kicked out of Yemen by his superiors a week or two before, and without his influential presence, the Yemeni government will not allow an interrogation. Al-Quso is finally interrogated days after 9/11, and he admits to meeting with Alhazmi and Almihdhar in January 2000. One investigator calls the missed opportunity of exposing the 9/11 plot through al-Quso’s connections “mind-boggling.” [PBS Frontline, 10/3/02] In April 2003, al-Quso will escape from a Yemeni prison and apparently remains free. [Associated Press 4/11/03]

Former CIA agent Robert Baer is advising a prince in a Persian Gulf royal family, when a military associate of this prince passes information to him about a “spectacular terrorist operation” that will take place shortly. He is given a computer record of around 600 secret al-Qaeda operatives in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The list includes ten names that will be placed on the FBI’s most wanted terrorists list after 9/11. He is also given evidence that a Saudi merchant family had funded the USS Cole bombing on October 12, 2000, and that the Yemeni government is covering up information related to that bombing.

Saleh may have known about the bombing in advance, obstructed the investigation and enabled the escape of the bombers who were later were complicit in 9/11. Theres several links between the Cole bombers and 9/11. The ones that are arrested “escape” and two wind up as suicide bombers in Iraq. But lots of dead terrorists are actually alive in Yemen. Currently Saleh’s enabling terrorists go to Iraq to kill our troops and Iraqi civilians. And the baffling part, this is our good ally in the WOT. Whats the deal here? Really, some one tell me what Cheney said to our boy Ali at the airport in 2002. What is Bush going to say to him in the White House in two weeks.

An aptly titled report by the US State Dept. 2003:

There were no reported terrorist attacks against Western targets in Yemen in 2003. The Government of Yemen made a number of key al-Qaida-related arrests in 2003, but it raised concerns with its release of extremists without full disclosure of information and its inability to recapture escaped USS Cole suspects. The United States and Yemen continue joint counterterrorism training and cooperation, and there has been significant progress on standing up the Yemen Coast Guard….

In October 2003, despite repeated statements that AAIA leader Khalid Abd-al-Nabi was dead, Yemeni officials revealed that he was not killed in the confrontations between the hardline Islamic group and a Yemeni army antiterrorism unit. Instead, al-Nabi surrendered to the Yemeni authorities, was released from custody, and is not facing charges for any of his activities. Earlier in 2003, authorities arrested al-Qaida operative Fawaz al-Rabi’I (a.k.a. Furqan) and al-Qaida associate Hadi Dulqum. …

The escape of 10 prisoners — including several suspects in the USS Cole bombing of October 2000 — from an Aden jail in April was a setback to bilateral counterterrorism efforts. Although Sanaa responded quickly, dismissing two senior security officers and several prison guards, eight of the escapees have not yet been apprehended….

In the latter part of 2003, senior government officials, including President Saleh, publicly announced the detainees’ release — some of whom may have ties to al-Qaida and other extremist groups — because they reportedly had renounced violence. The public announcement of the releases preceded the sharing of information with the US Government, which has now identified specific concerns with several of the individuals released and is working with the Government on the issue….

Al-Qaida is attempting to reconstitute an operational presence in Yemen. Other international terrorist groups with a presence in Yemen include remnants of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya.

Well thats a little duplicitious of the Yemeni government, huh? Pretending to the US that an al-Qaeda guy is dead but actually releasing him. The “escaping” and “rehabilitating” is bad enough, but reporting that somebody’s dead in order to hide him from the US? Habitually.

Fatwa-ed: Journalist Nabil al-Soufi still fatwa-ed by Zindani for reporting on the dispute with the US regarding his classification as a terrorist.

Child Trafficking: Nevertheless, he added, there is no written law that prohibits the crime or prescribes punishment. “We try offenders for child abuse in accordance with the childhood law, as there is no law that explicitly forbids actual child trafficking, so deterring penalties need to be imposed.”

Drugs seized: soon to be destroyed.

Oil: It exported some 40 million barrels of oil during the period at an average price of about $46.42 a barrel compared with 41m barrels at an average price of $34.49 during the same period in 2004, amounting to $1.41bn, the bank said.

Aden: Memories of the RAF

Yemen Times major articles 1978-2000

Transparency International: Yemen 103, UNDP: Yemen 151 , more stats

Prayer Time disputed, results in job loss: The time table was sent to endowment office to be circulated to all mosques, with an order to monitor those who disobeyed. Sheikh Al-jafry did not circulate it, as the timetable contradicted another one that was issued by some Sofi clerics. The Governor was offended by this behavior and ordered his discharge….The decision concerning the Athan time has become a problem to the people in the governate, because of the diversity in creeds and religious ideologies.

Child Trafficking: Seven attempts of smuggling nearly 250 children had been stopped during the first week of Ramadan. The security source said that in each attempt of smuggling they found over 30 children. “12 children did not know the motive for their being trafficked to the Saudi territory as they are still under six years of age. Other children had some understanding of the reasons behind the smuggling, which was conducted with the knowledge of the parents,” the source added.

Female mortality: Among the 18,000 maternal deaths in the region each year, 7,800 occur in Yemen, 3,000 in Egypt, and 1,600 in Morocco. Overall, a leading cause of death among women of reproductive age is pregnancy-related illness.

Argiculture losses: The losses, due to the increase in the price of diesel, are estimated at between YR 25.8 and 34.5 billions….The number of landowners is 1.1 million, with agricultural land covering 1.13 hectares, of which 430,722 hectares are dependant on wells for their water supply.

Begging: Most beggars have no other source of income. They form a new poverty-stricken community that contributes to the increase of illiterate children with no access to health care services. Hopes of eradicating beggary diminish with rising unemployment. Unconfirmed studies estimate there to be nearly 1.5 million beggars in Yemen.

The port: Aden was once one of the world’s main ports for shipping and transshipment warehousing. About 7,000 vessels a year used its facilities in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

The port Dubai development plans

Yale: Contrary to the prevalent view in the West that all of Arab world is an undemocratic desert, there are two oases: Lebanon and Yemen. Their experiences, however, underscore the challenges of sowing the seeds of democracy in the Middle East. …The only way that North Yemen, ruled by the centrist General People Congress, and South Yemen, governed by the Socialist Party, could unify in 1990 was by being a multi-party democracy. Whereas its multi-party parliamentary elections in 1993 went unnoticed by the Clinton administration, they inspired many leading Saudi citizens to demand such a poll in their country. King Fahd’s dictatorial regime came down hard on these dissenters while Washington looked on passively. Democracy indeed can spread across borders, but it will falter unless bolstered by external support.

ibb construction, aden construction

Centcom: civil affairs

PEPS: Oil production blocks by foreign company

Parliament Speaker: democracy going well

IMF: Yemen balance sheet

State Department Country Background

UN Register of conventional arms

Food: Generally, the local production covers around two thirds of the Yemeni economy needs of food as there are major commodities that are not grown locally and therefore all Yemen’s needs of them are imported, such as rice and sugar.

For Yemeni Coastguard to Monitor the Coast.

The project is about 24 million. Yemeni officials say they need more than $700 million to ensure complete control over the country’s 1600 mile coastline.

I can’t even comment. I’m burnt out.

So its a little funny, Saleh won’t hand over Zindani who the UN and US have classified as a “Major Terrorist” and financier. He wont even freeze his bank accounts (but then again technically Zindani is Saleh’s sheik **correction**no he’s not, thats Sheik al-Ahmar, woops).

But Saleh is asking Saudi Arabia to extradite this guy al-Asnag because he founded a democratic, non-violent reform movement.

Its spread by mosquitos.

YT: Media sources said that Hisham Al-modaie, a 14 year child, died in the Republican Hospital last Tuesday, following his contraction of dengue fever, which has lately spread in several of the districts of Taiz governorate.

Sources attribute dengue spread to the failure of the cleaning project to spray insecticides especially in Cairo District and other areas of the town.

In stead of that Ali Al-Domaini Head of the branch of medical syndicate, Manager of the Military Hospital, died of dengue last week, the general sanitation manager still denies that there is dengue fever. Many people held the manager accountable for their contraction of the disease, because of the carelessness of his department.

Within the last ten days, three people died of dengue while tens of people are still suffering the disease. Last June, Rahidah town in Taiz witnessed a number of dengue cases and more than twenty people had died.

So they deny it exists and refuse to spray.

In the vast landscape of so much tragedy and suffering in Yemen, sometimes odd things irk me, not enough dialysis machines is one.

A U.N. report on development has criticized Yemen’s high military spending compared to its low output for development and services.

(Yemen to buy Russian military choppers (June 15, 2005) — Yemen and Russia are finalizing a deal for 12 Russian-made K-52 helicopters at a cost of $150 million, reports said. The daily Rai News Web site … > full story)

The report released Monday night by Flavia Panseri, the representative of the U.N. Development Program in Sanaa, indicated that Yemen’s spending on health constituted a mere 1.3 percent of its gross national product compared to more than 7 percent for military expenses.

“That means Yemen is investing valuable resources outside development fields with the justification that security should be boosted in order to help beef up the sector of tourism as well as oil,” Panseri said. The last arms deal made by Yemen at the end of 2004 cost $1 billion according to international reports.

Panseri called on the Yemeni government to speed up the process of human development, noting that development had been very slow and had declined in certain instances. An estimated 47 percent of the Yemeni population of 20 million live below the poverty line.

I have some World Bank report on the blog that says military expenditures as a function of total expenditures is about 25%, with 13% hardware (weapons) and 12 % salaries. So let us ask the question, what does the Yemeni regime do with all these weapons year after year?

Update: I get a quick lesson from Steven Den Beste (wow) over at Dean’s:

Pure chlorine is extremely easy to make. In fact, it was the first chemical weapon used in WWI; the Germans took tanks of chlorine to the front line, and when the prevailing wind favored them, opened up the tanks to let the chlorine drift downwind towards the enemy. Since chlorine gas is heavier than air, it tends to sit on the ground and to collect in trenches.

As poisonous gases go, it’s not very effective, and that’s why everyone developed “better” ones later. But it is greenish/yellow in appearance.

When it comes in contact with water, it has a tendency to convert into hydrochloric acid. When that happens in the lungs of victims, the result is severe lung damage possibly leading to death. In a victim’s eyes it can cause blindness. But it can happen on someone’s skin, too, for instance if they’re sweaty, and in that case can cause skin burns.

Based on what I saw in the linked article, I don’t see any reason to assume that the claimed attack used anything more elaborate than pure chlorine gas.

Not that that makes it any better, mind, but it also isn’t very sophisticated. Any country in the world with a modern water supply system in any of its cities already has the ability to produce chlorine gas, which is used as a sterilizing agent for the water.

So his analysis is matching the victims injuries reported in the papers and by al-Houthi and largely the physical description of the cloud by my witness. The use of chlorine as a weapon is clearly prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention Yemen ratified in 2000 below.

OPCW

1. Each State Party to this Convention undertakes never under any circumstances:

(a) To develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile or retain chemical weapons, or transfer, directly or indirectly, chemical weapons to anyone;

(b) To use chemical weapons;

(c) To engage in any military preparations to use chemical weapons;

(d) To assist, encourage or induce, in any way, anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Convention.

2. Each State Party undertakes to destroy chemical weapons it owns or possesses, or that are located in any place under its jurisdiction or control, in accordance with the provisions of this Convention.

For the purposes of this Convention:

1. “Chemical Weapons” means the following, together or separately:

(a) Toxic chemicals

2. “Toxic Chemical” means:

Any chemical which through its chemical action on life processes can cause death, temporary incapacitation or permanent harm to humans or animals. This includes all such chemicals, regardless of their origin or of their method of production, and regardless of whether they are produced in facilities, in munitions or elsewhere.

1. Each State Party shall, in accordance with its constitutional processes, adopt the necessary measures to implement its obligations under this Convention. In particular, it shall:

(a) Prohibit natural and legal persons anywhere on its territory or in any other place under its jurisdiction as recognized by international law from undertaking any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Convention, including enacting penal legislation with respect to such activity;

(b) Not permit in any place under its control any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Convention;

Seems pretty clear cut to me. So if its true that the Yemeni regime, our ally, used chlorine as a means of warfare against the Houthis and civilians, then they are in violation of international law. We could clear all this up very easily if Saleh would reopen the region which has been blockaded for more that a year.

Update: Mustard gas, ammonia, and chlorine are corrosive chemicals that may be used in a chemical-biological incident. They are designed to injure skin, eyes, and nasal mucosa, producing severe pain and incapacitation. If these chemicals are inhaled, life-threatening pneumonitis may also occur.

More: Chemical weapons are composed of compounds that have been artificially constructed, as opposed to compounds that exist naturally in either an inorganic or organic state. In chemical facilities around the world, disabling and deadly compounds (such as phosgene, chlorine, and mustard gas) are engineered for use almost exclusively against human beings. Unlike nuclear weapons and many traditional or conventional weapons, chemical weapons (in a manner analogous to the neutron bomb) destroy people rather than property, though clean up can be a significant problem. Chemical weapons are heavily weather dependent; for example, rain can dilute them or wind can disperse them.

Choking Agents: In its pure form, chlorine is a greenish-yellow gas with a pungent odor….Inhaled chlorine causes labored breathing and the buildup of fluid in the lungs. High exposure results in death.

Chlorine is corrosive to the skin, causing burns.

Chlorine can cause frostbitten skin and eyes.

Signs and symptoms of chlorine include among others:

Central nervous system General excitement or restlessness, lightheadedness, headache

Cardiovascular system Rapid heart rate, increased rate of respiration
Skin Redness, erythema, and chemical burns to the skin from dose-dependent exposure to liquid, cyanosis, dermatitis
other Excess salivation, muscle weakness, rales

So of course the thing that I want to know about this weaponized gas the Yemeni military used in Saada, is what is it and where did they get it. Did they make it or buy it? Its been refered to several times in the Yemeni media as chlorine gas, but I dont know who determined thats what it was or why. Also I heard there was another one that burned the skin, maybe some type of blister agent. I have no clue.

CNS A US congressional task force report alleges that in mid-1991, chemical weapons and “about 400″ Scud missiles were transferred from Iraq to Yemen and Sudan. The report states that due to pressure from Saudi Arabia on Yemen, all of the missiles were sent “soon afterwards” from Yemen to Sudan. The report was said to be based on unidentified European and Israeli intelligence sources… A White House official said on 2/16/98 that the United States has “no credible evidence” to support the allegations. European intelligence sources likewise said they had no evidence to support the charges.

Just for future reference, and no I dont think I found Saddams WMD. (But Saleh and Saddam were always very buddy buddy. Saleh is the one Arab leader who stood with Saddam during Gulf 1. )

Maybe its from North Korea, in June a North Korean official visited Yemen to finalize some trade arrangements. The US intercepted some skuds in 2002 going from North Korea to Yemen, but it was legal so we let it go.

BTW Yemen ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2000.

Now seriously, the Yemeni military used the gas. Some top Yemeni military people are linked to al-Qaeda. Isn’t the big threat supposed to be al-Qaeda getting chemical weapons? So what about this nexus of al-Qaeda and chemical weapons in Yemen?

Update: two posts up Steven Den Beste describes chlorine’s appearence and effect, which matches pretty well with my witness and al-Houthi’s description in his email.

by Adel Al-Dhahab

In 2004 and 2005, there have been two significant military campaigns in Saadah, Yemen, that have been one of the strongest and most expensive in the nation’s history. The government and other concerned parties agree that the targeted groups belong to the Zaidi sect of Islam and to the Hashemite race. The government overwhelmingly claims that there are foreign powers behind the anti-government forces. Some opponents claim the government was running a genocide campaign. The particular group concerned is Believed Youth, which was led by Shiite scholar Hussein Bader Aldeen Alhouthi and after his death in September 2004, has been led by his father, Bader Aldeen Alhouthi. Extensive research found that these government campaigns were not aimed at a group of criminals, but rather a group of activists vying for change. Furthermore, it was found that there was a disproportionate abuse of power by the government.

Assessment of the government’s campaign based on laws and facts
First, the Yemeni government claims that Alhouthi’s group was planning a terrorist strike. There is no evidence that an actual attack ever took place, only accusations. By looking at the United States’, the European Union’s, and the U.N. Security Council’s list of terrorist organizations of the world, it is easy to see that Alhouthi’s Believed Youth is not listed. To give further proof, the United States’ 2004 human rights report also doesn’t mention that Alhouthi or Believed Youth are linked to terrorism in any way.

Secondly, the government was unable to produce a convincing argument stating that Alhouthi was the one who incited the war. Government explanations constantly contradict each other so it would be difficult to buy the argument that Alhouthi was responsible for starting the war. To add to the government’s culpability, a research of Yemeni newspapers found that none of the nation’s independent papers confirmed that Alhouthi had something to do with starting the war.

The question that must be asked is whether Alhouthi should surrender himself to the government. The logical answer is no because several human rights reports confirm that courts are subjected to much government influence in Yemen, and judges are harassed. Turning himself in would make no sense since there is great reason to believe that the judicial system cannot guarantee Alhouthi a fair trial.

Since this conflict was both a political and religious conflict, it is important to determine what the stand of the union of religious scholars would be. They agreed with the government. However, this is not something out of the ordinary, since the union is not really an independent party, and there is a long history of them siding with the government and praising the president.