Armies of Liberation

This is an article from Rolling Stone magazine about a Yemeni jihaddi, and it traces his life story from Yemen to Afghansitan to Kosovo and Britian back to Yemen. I have to read the article again, but this was interesting:

By this time, however, the nature of the insurgency had changed. Al-Zarqawi had succeeded, for the moment, in taking over the homegrown resistance. Many of Saddam’s former secret police and Republican Guard were now integrated into cells with jihadists like Khalid. The leadership of Al Qaeda had financial resources and strategic expertise that the Iraqis lacked, and the foreign fighters were more willing to die than the local Sunnis — and more willing to kill civilians.

Disturbed by the killings, Khalid began to rethink the role of jihad in his life. Would his faith really justify killing his British neighbors in their own country? Would he ever be able to live a normal life? Hearing about Yemenis he knew who had disappeared into the gulag at Guantanamo, he feared he could end up in prison for life, a fate he considered worse than death.

The doubts intensified after he returned home to Yemen and was arrested earlier this year. “Enough is enough,” his father implored. “It’s time to settle down and stop this stuff.” After Khalid was released from prison, he and a group of other Afghan Arabs — the blanket term for those who fought or trained in Afghanistan — were summoned to a meeting with Ali Abdullah Salih, the president of Yemen, who was trying to contain the jihadists. In private, Salih called them “my sons” and said he had been pressured by the Bush administration to crack down on them. He also did something seldom acknowledged in the war on terror: He offered to pay them off to stop fighting.

“We will help you get jobs, get married,” Salih told the men. “Write down your name and what you want.”

Amnesty International greatly deplores the execution of Fuad ‘Ali Mohsen al-Shahari, who was executed by firing squad in Taiz this morning. A lawyer and former member of the opposition Socialist Party, he had been on death row for over nine years. He was sentenced to death for murder in 1996 at the end of a grossly unfair trial.

The execution was carried out despite many appeals by Amnesty International and others, including the European Union, and Yemen’s own Human Rights Ministry, one of the country’s leading judges and Yemeni human rights groups.

Fuad al-Shahari was sentenced to death in November 1996 when he was convicted of the murder of Captain Mohammed al-’Ameri, a security official and member of the ruling General People’s Congress Party, during a gun battle earlier that year. After his arrest, Fuad al-Shahari was held incommunicado for one month during which, he alleged, he was tortured and forced to confess to the killing, which he denied committing. This “confession” – four different versions were said to have been included in the charge sheets - reportedly formed the basis for his conviction. The court failed to investigate his allegations of torture and prospective defence witnesses were said to have been deterred from appearing to give evidence by the presence of armed men in the court.

Despite this, the Court of Appeal upheld the death sentence in May 1999. A further appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court in March 2004, though by the Commercial Division not by the Criminal Division of the court that would normally consider such cases. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh ratified the death sentence on 6 September 2005 after the Attorney General’s office reported that it had reviewed the case on the President’s instructions but found no procedural errors.

This morning, two hours before he was executed, lawyers acting for Fuad al-Shahari sought to obtain a court injunction to prevent his execution, in accordance with Article 529 of Yemen’s Penal Code. The Code provides that in such cases, execution should be deferred pending the court’s consideration of the defence petition, but in this case the execution proceeded as planned.

Fuad al-Shahari’s involvement in the largely southerner-dominated Socialist Party, which fought and lost a bitter civil war in 1994 against the northern-based General People’s Congress, together with the unfair nature of his trial, has long given rise to concerns that the case against him may have been politically-motivated or influenced by tribal factors.

Confession under torture? Defense witneses deterred? Appeal denied? When the country’s own HR minister objects, you know something is up.

Summary from IFEX, a very good organization which documents the struggle for and the repression of freedom of expression all countries.

IFEX members are raising the alarm over a worsening clampdown on Yemen’s press, where several journalists have been violently attacked, opposition newspapers closed and editors prosecuted for investigating corruption or other sensitive issues affecting senior officials.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says there have been four violent attacks on journalists in the past five months, including the stabbing of freelance journalist Nabil Subaie on 12 November 2005 in the capital, Sanaa.

Subaie regularly writes for the opposition newspapers “Al-Thawri”, “Al-Shoura”, “Al-Nida’a”, and “Al-Tajammu” and recently criticized President Ali Abdullah Saleh for appointing several family members to key government positions.

On 4 November, Mujeeb Suwailih of the pan-Arab news channel Al-Arabiya and Najib al-Sharabi of the Saudi Arabian satellite channel Al-Ekhbariya were attacked by Yemeni security officers while covering a strike by textile factory workers in Sanaa. Suwailih suffered internal bleeding, three broken ribs and severe bruising on his legs.

Other journalists attacked included Jamal Amer, editor of the weekly “Al-Wasat”, and Haji al-Jehafi, editor of the weekly “Al-Nahar.”

CPJ says none of the assaults have been properly investigated by Yemeni authorities. Two of the attacks have been linked to security officials.

Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) says two newspapers and four journalists have also been banned in the past 10 days, including opposition newspaper “Al-Tajammu”.

On 27 November, a court ordered the publication suspended for “sectarianism” and “attacking Islam’s image” in a September 2004 article likening Yemen’s current political situation to the political turmoil in 1968. Editor Abdul Rahman Abdallah and reporter Abdul Rahma Saeed, who wrote the article, were each fined the equivalent of US$260 and barred from being published for a year.

Meanwhile, a new media law about to be passed by the government could signal an end to Yemen’s free press, warns ARTICLE 19. The group says the proposed Press and Publications Law contains provisions that will have a chilling effect on freedom of expression, including restrictions on the content of what may be published, and mandatory licences for print media.

Visit:

- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/protests/05ltrs/Yemen16nov05pl.html
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15713
- ARTICLE 19 Analysis of Proposed Press Law: http://tinyurl.com/dje6y
- Freedom House Report: http://tinyurl.com/d2eow
- IPI: http://www.freemedia.at/Protests2005/pr_Yemen03.11.05.htm
- Drug Smuggling and the Yemeni President: http://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/2162.cfm
- Has the President Changed His Mind on Reform?
http://www.cpj.org/op_ed/Campagna10mar05.html

ADNKI:

After months of ceasefire, clashes have broken out again between Shiite rebels loyal to the late radical cleric and former MP Hussein al-Houthi and government security forces in the northern Yemeni province of Saada. Eight policemen died in the fighting, US-backed Radio Sawa reports….

However, the fighting began again on Monday when, after several months of hiding in the mountains on the border with Saudi Arabia, rebel fighters gathered in the market of the village of al-Khafti and shouted anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans. The security forces then surrounded the village and a gunfight broke out, forcing the militants to flee.

Police have now significantly stepped up security at roadblocks and surrounded the province in search of those who killed the eight officers. The outbreak of violence comes after several sheikhs in the area went to the police in the last few days, asking them to arrest rebel militants who had been in al-Khafti for some time.

Paul Garwood again:

But many complain that Yemeni authorities are not committed to combatting qat because the crop is such a moneymaker for senior officials and influential tribal leaders.

“Yemenis always avoid talking about it, because behind it is a big group of people running qat businesses and making millions,” said Dr. Hashim el-Zain, country director for the U.N.’s World Health Organization.

So far, there is little progress….

The plant is grown and used legally in Yemen, where its production is a major source of employment and income - particularly for powerful tribes with vast tracts of land.

For the benefit of Yassen who has been coming around and harassing me for months and apparently hasn’t figured this out yet.

IN terms of the format here and at most other blogs from the US, and I think internationally, in general,

If you see something indented in a box like this, it means I’m quoting someone else. Anything in a box is a quote from another person, and the symbol is called a block-quote.

If you see some words red, like this, it is the hyperlink to take you directly to the source of the quote.

From the Carnegie Endowment:

Even after the setback at the Forum for the Future in Bahrain, US officials were muted in their criticism of the rulers they finance. For the sake of stability in the region, the US is willing to pursue a dichotomous policy. It keeps on defining democratisation as its priority but refuses to condemn those that obstruct its democratisation agenda, namely the Muslim potentates Washington trusts with ensuring stability.

The US government repeatedly makes the mistake of defining as “moderate” those authoritarian Muslim rulers who fulfill America’s foreign policy goals. These strategic American allies are not the force for ideological moderation that would change the Muslim world’ s longer term direction. Authoritarian governments in the Muslim world do not want democracy as that would amount to the potentates giving up their power. It is the democratic movements opposed to governments in the Muslim world who are likely to be the real engines of social and political change in the Middle East and South Asia.

American officials must recognise the contradiction in their simultaneous support for democracy and dictatorial Muslim regimes. For example, Mali is the only Muslim country described by Freedom House as “free” based on its adherence to all criteria for freedom, democracy and respect for human rights. But Mali is not a major recipient of western aid whereas Egypt and Pakistan , characterised by Freedom House as “not free” or “partly free”, are.

While the governments drag their feet on reform, ordinary Muslims continue to take brave steps to prove that despite all odds civil society in the Muslim world has both vision and the potential to initiate real change.

Read the Rest.

No I haven’t been bought. This is the title of an op-ed in NewsYemen by Nabil al-Soufi, who from what I can tell is an independent thinker. And he makes the (valid) point that President Saleh did many important things during his rule. A primary achievement was to establish both the mechanics of democracy (although they are not functional now) and to encourage the broad based consensus for democracy among the Yemeni people.

Further, and I know this first hand, Yemen’s press was and perhaps still is the freest in the Middle East, providing a political space unavailable in other neighboring countries. The brutal and repressive atacks on Yemeni journalists now is an attempt to shrink that sphere of dialog.

The political party system is another positive legacy of the Saleh era, although the ability of some parties to consistently represent and articulate the concerns of the broader membership and society at large is hampered by concerns of self-interest and, in some cases, self-preservation. al-Soufi aptly describes the narrow scope and agenda of some of the parties:

Another achievement of President Saleh was without doubt, allowing the formation of political parties.

Nevertheless, partisanship remains an evil in our country because it retains a culture of marginalization of others. All parties fiercely defend their entities, their rights and their alliances only. Furthermore, political parties in Yemen have sadly not yet developed a culture or policy of service to others.

Coming back to our subject, Saleh, the President, was extremely liberal and open-minded in dealing with the idea of forming and managing political parties. The political community in Yemen also seemed ready to accept a reality with new political parties and demonstrated a unique ability in establishing legitimacy for political parties and their objectives.

Hence, there were very few obstacles that hindered change towards a multi-party system jam-packed with partisanship. This had indeed facilitated Saleh’s mission.

Another achievement of Saleh is unity, according to al-Soufi. Some scholars have described the policy of the central government toward the South not as a democratic partnership but rather as “annexationist” (internal colonialism).

al-Soufi says: Under Saleh’s rule, unity was not established on clashing ideologies, even if those ideologies had a unionist vision. Saleh was able to build a united country based on respect of the other side. Without Saleh’s vision of mutual respect, unity would not have been established unless one side wrecked the other. Again the vision of a government policy of mutual respect, like the visions of a policy of democracy and a free press, is a noble one that has yet to be translated into action by the regime.

The decade-long deployment of these concepts (democracy, a free press, multi party system, and unity) if only on an ideological level without their authentic or maximal physcial embodiment is what is driving the tide of rising expectations in Yemen and the popular demand for real reform. So for this Saleh deserves credit.

I’m glad this al-Soufi wrote this article because he is rational and unbiased and I can listen to him without twitching. He makes a valid point and provides both the broad context and a specific baseline to the turmultuous political scene in Yemen. So read the whole thing. Its a good article that covers more ground than what is summarized here.

Yemen’s Arms Race With No One (from Strategy Page)
November 28, 2005: No one really noticed, but Yemen has been buying more and more weapons over the last decade. In 2006, it plans to spend $885 million on the military. The big spurt came between 1998 and 2003, when defense spending tripled. Yemen is not awash with oil wealth, and only has a population of some 15 million. Yemen is the second poorest nation in the Arab world, but is number three in terms of the percentage of its income it spends on weapons.

You rarely hear about Yemen’s arms build up, except for the time a shipment of North Korean SCUD missiles was intercepted at sea. When it was found that the missiles were headed for Yemen, an American ally in the war on terror, the ship was allowed to go on its way. Yemen’s allies have tried to convince the Yemeni government to switch spending priorities. Yemen is at the bottom of the world ranking of what countries spend on things like education and health.

Why the arms build up down there? No one is sure, and the government just says it has to look after its national security. Part of the problem is unruly tribes along the Saudi Arabian border, factionalism within the country, Islamic terrorism, plus long standing border disputes with Saudi Arabia, and a belief, common among many Yemenis, that it’s not really fair that Saudi Arabia should have all that oil. For thousands of years, Yemen was the prosperous part of Arabia (because it’s the only part that gets any decent rainfall), while what is now Saudi Arabia was a howling wasteland. Yemenis have never had a comfortable relation with the desert nomads to the north, and the oil wealth up there has not improved matters.

Yemen is buying mostly Russian stuff (and has been for decades), or Chinese and North Korean copies. This is done partly because it’s easier for government officials to skim some of the money for themselves. The Russians and Chinese know how to speak corrupt.

Well Mr. Dunnigan (he’s an excellent anayst), some people think they might be reselling the arms purchased by the Yemeni military. Recently the Yemeni government promised to stop buying through brokers and reselling the “excess” to individuals and groups. Its been confirmed the Yemeni Air force has transported some weapons shipments. And of course, it is not reassuring that the weapons used by al-Qaeda in the attack on the US consulate in Saudi Arabia were traced by to the Yemeni military.

Also I have to find the link again but I think China is Yemen’s number one export partner with something like 46%, must be the oil.

Excerpt from Imperial Grunts, NYT.

The next person I saw as soon as I arrived in Yemen, again courtesy of Adolph, was Brig. Gen. Ali Muhsen Saleh al-Ahmer. Gen. Ali Muhsen, half brother to President Saleh (they shared the same mother), was said to be the second most powerful man in Yemen after Saleh himself. Ali Muhsen controlled an armored division that protected the capital. He had the reputation of being a buttoned-down, capable organizer, close to the fundamentalist Islah movement, as well as to gun-running sheikhs and perhaps to some in al-Qaeda, too. It was Ali Muhsen who helped Saleh get support from the radical “Afghan-Arabs” (Yemeni veterans of the Afghan war against the Soviets) when his regime was threatened by civil war in the mid-1990s. But American pressure following September 11, 2001, had been so severe that both Ali Muhsen and Saleh felt they had no choice but to accommodate President George W. Bush. The Americans made a deal with this former “bad guy”: giving Ali Muhsen’s regiment a chunk of the American military aid package was the only way that Washington could do business in Yemen.

(Read on …)

This post bumped up. Why you ask? Because this paper has been suspended for six months. The court obliged the pair to pay 50 thousand Yemeni rials each to the Public Treasure of the State and suspended them from work for an entire year. It also shut down the newspaper and banned its distribution for 6 months. And the official reason relates to an article written about events in 1968, not this one below written about events today and the collusion by Yemeni military officals with al-Qaeda.

Original Post 11/23:

Al-Tajamo’ opposition paper (Aden) of the Unitary Congregation party:

According to the families of Yemeni suicide bombers killed in Iraq, they were trained in suicide bombings and had logistical support from top military commanders who are known for their association with the Jihad movement.

One family member reported that his brother (who later died in Iraq) recieved two weeks of training in Aden with the knowledge of security officials. From Aden and Abyan alone, nearly 100 fighters are thought to have gone to Iraq with 22 known to be killed. They were trained inAden, Abyan and Sanaa, the paper reported.

The paper cited an informed source that safe houses were established in Sana’a to house the fighters from other governates until their travel arrangements are finalized. An individual called “Ba Rahma” from Shabwa runs one of the safe houses in Sana’a. The source said that many of the Aden Abyan Army had joined Zarqawi’s group in Iraq.

hmmmm now which military commanders are known for their support of Jihaddis (besides Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, I mean) And exactly how are the jihadiis procuring all those offical Yemeni travel documents?

Let’s not forget that Iraqi officials recently issued an interpol request that Yemeni officials extradite Saddam’s nephew who they claim is a mastermind of terrorism activities in the Northern section of Iraq, providing fighters, financing, ect. (Which ties into the statement by a regime official in a newspaper that al-Qaeda affiliated elements of the Yemeni military had established training camps in Yemen for fighters to go to Iraq.)

Also a leader of the Aden Abyan Army, Haidrah Abubakr, also known as Abulashaath, recently said “we know that we were imprisoned again only to be used against those opposing the regime.” Abulashaath said that the government had failed to deliver many of its promises given to Aden Abyan Army members based on a dialogue arranged by prominent Islamic scholar Hamud Al-Hitar.

Recently bin Laden’s bodyguard said that all they had to promise Hittar in the dialog was not to fight in Yemen, (so they go to Iraq and Chechnya). Lets also recall the State Department Patterns of Terrorism report noted that the Yemeni officials notifed the US that AAA leader Khalid Abd-al-Nabi was dead, but no. The Yemeni officials later admitted they let him go.

Hey, it worked in India with Ghandi and in the US with Dr. Marin Luther King, there’s no reason it can’t work in Yemen. Poland’s Solidarity movement had Lech Walensa who articulated the peoples demands to the people and the world, and unified the nation under one banner. But a lot of the dialog in Yemen is directed at the government, not the people.

(YT) Over six thousand teachers from the capital secretariat and the Sana’a governorate joined in the sit in along with members from the General Syndicate of the educational professions and syndicate of vocational and training education. The protesters also call for the amendment of the flaws of the entitlements of jobs in the new law….

Other governorates which also witnessed sits-in. Hadramot, Taiz, Dhamar each having at least 2000 protesters.

Good Article in the AP. This is the same guy that wrote the last good article in the AP.

Yemen Press Now Takes Repeated Beatings

By PAUL GARWOOD
The Associated Press

SAN’A, Yemen (AP) - The masked attackers pushed reporter Nabil Sabaie to the ground on a main thoroughfare, stabbing him in both arms and firing warning shots to keep onlookers away.

Yemeni journalists once were some of the Arab world’s freest. But recently they have faced a rash of mysterious beatings, arrests and other forms of intimidation as the government cracks down on the media ahead of next year’s presidential elections.

The campaign includes plans to introduce tougher press laws that leave the door open for reporters to be sentenced to death.

Yemeni officials complain that many of the country’s journalists are unprofessional and recklessly report on issues based on hearsay and rumor.

“The press have been writing anything they want,” said Social Affairs Minister Abdulkarim Al-Arhabi recently. “The arrests of journalists is not good at all and shouldn’t happen, but the press and the entire country is much better off if they reach a level of professionalism.”

But government critics say the crackdown is aimed at stopping critical reporting, including on the issue of whether President Ali Abdullah Saleh will honor his pledge to step down next year after 27 years in power.

Newspapers in recent months have stepped up reports on Yemen’s rampant corruption, identifying ministers and other officials allegedly involved in stealing state money. They also have increasingly scrutinized Saleh, his family and the country’s powerful military.

According to one local press watchdog, at least 100 journalists have faced various forms of harassment this year, ranging from beatings and arrests to kidnappings and a letter-bombing that wounded a newspaper editor who wrote about a tribal leader’s alleged private prison.

“There has been a 90 percent increase in various attacks against journalists this year compared to 2004,” said Mohammed Saada al-Odaimi, president of Yemen’s Center of Training and Press Freedoms Protection. He said the government reduced press freedoms “after being angered by the work of journalists.”

(Read on …)

No I don’t think so. Im starting to think I put a hole in the net.

So I’m scanning through the Yemen Times’ translations of editorials in the local press and come across this from al-Mithaq, the major paper of Ali Saleh’s ruling party, the GPC.

So on the now infamous al-Jazeera show I said 25% of the Yemen’s buget is allocated to the military and there’s systematic weapons smuggling, there are also large quantities of diesel being smuggled, basic services (water, education, health care) are nearly non-existant, and bin Laden’s body guard released from prison said theres a deal with the government not to attack in Yemen, but outside Yemen is permissable. And there are al-Qaeda sympathizers in the military.

So this article says because the Foreign Minister invited me to Yemen, all the viewers would know what I said wasn’t true. This is their counter argument, a strong counter argument according to this article, come to Yemen and see for yourself.

Writer Yahya al-Nouri writes in comment on recent statements of Jane Novak screened by al-Jazeera satellite channel lately and talked on the Yemeni American relations. He says no doubt Ms Novak was victim of the false information that regretfully some have recruited themselves to supply her with. She has certainly affirmed ha she has completely departed from the simplest rules of impartiality, professionalism and transparency in commenting on the Yemeni political event. That situation made her to appear shaken. If that was the cause for her falling in that situation because of her little knowledge about the image of Yemen, the Yemeni foreign minister Dr AbuBakr al-Qirbi, who participated in part of the program of al-Jazeera, extended an invitation to Ms Novak to visit Yemen and see closely all data, changes and transformations that Yemen is witnessing. Thus, the Yemeni foreign minister has offered a correct example to rectify the state of wrong information that affected the views of Ms Novak. No doubt, this invitation has had its impression on observers who found out hat the invitation represents a strong argument and limitless confidence in the Yemeni discussion. Some observers have deemed that now the ball is in the court of Ms Novak to prove her credibility as researcher committed to the profession in dealing with the Yemeni affair.

And they’re still calling me a tool. And saying I get my information from the opposition not the IMF reports. Meanwhile I do not take well to *anyone* telling me what to do. It’s a character flaw but few things annoy me more.

Am I supposed to write this guy back regarding the invitiation? Maybe an open letter to the Foreign Minister, that might be fun but I don’t want to play their game. Its very funny though that they would apply the issue of transparency to me, when I have footnotes for everything, and not see the irony of the lack of transparency in the accounting of the public’s money. Do you know there’s several figures for Yemen’s foreign debt, depending on which set of books you use? But this whole thing is getting old fast. The issue is the election and the legal wranglings going on now to prevent an authentic expression of popular will, including this astounding crack down on the journalists which takes the form of both violence and judicial persecution.

Arab News: A Yemeni preacher convicted of murdering a top opposition politician in December 2002 was executed in Sanaa yesterday, prison officials said.

Ali Ahmad Jarallah, 28, was executed by firing squad at the central prison in the capital Sanaa, they told Arab News. “A police officer shot four fatal shots from a Kalashnikov rifle into Jarallah’s back,” one official said.

A Yemeni court sentenced Jarallah in September 2003 to death for shooting dead Jarallah Omar, the assistant secretary-general of the Yemeni Socialist Party. The sentence was upheld by an appeals court and President Ali Abdullah Saleh affirmed the verdict last week.

Jarallah, a prayer leader at a mosque in the city, shot Omar several times at close range during a congress for Al-Islah party in Sanaa on Dec. 28, 2002. He was arrested on the spot.

Jarallah told the primary court that he killed Omar because of his stance against the Shariah. “I killed a man who fought against God’s law,” he shouted after the verdict was announced on Sept. 14, 2003.

In a statement last week, the lawyer for the murder victim’s family objected to the sentence being carried out until further investigations were made into his accomplices. Amnesty International has objected to the narrow scope of the investigation saying a broader investigation should be carried out to exclude the possibility of collaboration with some leading figures. But now that the main perpetrator is dead, it will be a little more difficult.

NY: 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.

I was just digging around and found one more for the little brothers list.

AI, 2004: Fourteen-year-old Mohammad Sa’id al-Zaidi was allegedly subjected to psychological torture after he was detained by security officers outside his home in Sana’a on 5 August. He was held with adult prisoners in an underground location until his release on 2 September. Mohammad al-Zaidi was reportedly arrested to try and force his brother, Hassan al-Zaidi, to hand himself in to the authorities. Hassan al-Zaidi, a journalist with the Yemen Times newspaper, had written articles criticizing the government.

How sleezy, really the Yemeni people and any people deserve better than this: retribution by targeting the youngest in the family, intimidating others by showing the heartache available as punishment for writing (writing) about the government. A child in an underground prison for a month, because his brother is a journalist? This is a pattern. And it is deplorable.

Update on Ibrahim al-Saiani (14) rounded up during a raid targeting other family members, he is very ill and disabled, has been branded a terrorist, and is held without medical treatment. AI: The health of 14-year-old Ibrahim al-Saiani is reported to have deteriorated in custody: he has begun to lose his memory, his hands tremble and he is unable to speak clearly. He was physically incapacitated when arrested and is just withering away in jail.

More attacks on free speech:

(YT/NY) In one of the harshest court verdicts issued recently against the press, the Western Court of Sanaa sentenced yesterday the Al-Tajammu opposition newspaper to closure for six months, banned its Editor-in-Chief and one of its writers from writing for a year and fined them a total of YR 300,000 (about USD 1,500).

The newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief Dr. Abdulrahman Abdullah Ibrahim and its writer Abdulraman Saeed protested the verdict, which journalists describe as ‘another indication of the oppression that the opposition press is exposed to’.

Related: (Article 19) The proposed media law drafted in response to concerns about freedom of expression in Yemen is an instrument of legal censorship, exclusion, intimidation, financial retribution, and harassment.

(YT/NY) The Joint Opposition Platform parties have revealed today their reform program initiative for ‘comprehensive national reform’ and said they could consider having one single candidate for presidency depending on the circumstances in the coming months….

The initiative recommended a number of radical reforms including constitutional amendments that would limit parliamentarians’ term to 4 years and the president’s term to 5 years and would limit his authority drastically.

It also called for transforming the regime to a parliamentary system where the parliament is the strongest and ultimate power, which could easily approve and dissolve governments and decide on critical issues.

The opposition called in its initiative to totally separate the three executive, judicial, and legislative branches and build a completely impendent judiciary that is based on qualifications and strong immunity that would prevent any side from manipulating it.

Furthermore, the initiative called for separating the army from the executive branch and giving it an independent entity under the joint supervision of the executive and legislative branches to ensure it remains out of any partisan influence.

The initiative focused on economic, political, and social reforms to eliminate all negative phenomena such as lack of law and order, corruption, mismanagement, poverty, oppression, illiteracy, and other problems.

Here’s another analysis at the Yemen Times>

Thats the title of the current issue of Yemen Episodes, The President and the Donkey.

1. It is confirmed that internal relations between the little dictator of Yemen and his leading supporter, Sheik Abdullah Al-Ahmar, have reached a point of no return. Sheik Al-Ahmar, realizing at last the seriousness of the ill-intentions of Ali Abdullah Saleh, has decided to distance himself from close coordination with Saleh and his men. Further, Al-Ahmar took a swift move to bridge the gap which isolated him from other tribal chiefs and leading figures of political opposition parties. In addition, reports from Yemen suggest that the economic and social impact of the war in Saada which caused huge destruction and took the lives of thousands from both sides, continues to represent a constant threat and challenge to the fate of the one man show government prevailing in Yemen.

2. Sheik Al-Ahmar is at present occupied to restore his influence on his tribe of Hashid and continues to make efforts to entice other tribes to rally behind him. To this effect, the arrogance of the self-centered dictator is providing the opposition groups unlimited opportunity to accelerate demands for a peaceful hand-over of power to a fully elected government. The public announcement made by President Saleh a short time ago, stating that he will not stand as a presidential candidate next year, is proper grounds for the opposition groups in Yemen to accelerate pressure within and outside Yemen to disqualify the dictator’s candidacy.

3. The regime is increasingly isolated in its domestic environment, surrounding regional states, its bilateral relations with international financial agencies, and leading democracies have equally worsened. Consequently, a change in the system of government in Yemen is not merely a ray of hope, but is becoming inevitable.

4. It is evident that the visit of the dictator to DC is a total failure.

Read the rest.

You know the attacks on me bother me not at all, but this editorial in the Yemen Observer gets me kind of annoyed.

Background: The Yemeni Journalist Syndicate is broken into two factions: the government weasels and the independent/opposition journalists. The head of the YSJ, Hafiz Bukari, resigned in protest of the lack of redress with regards to the multitude of attacks on non-governmental journalists within the past months (kidnapping, beating, stabbing, stealing their cell phones, stealing their computers, court appearences, being banned from writing, the list is so long).

So of course the Yemen Observer (Faris, the President’s media advisor) editorial (V8I36) is going to diss Hafiz: Things grew even worse when the syndicate’s Secretary-General threw his resignation into both the faces of his friends and opponents, as if to declare his failure to deliver what he had promised to the voters who had elected him. No, I don’t think it was his failure that was the problem here.

And then, as usual, blame outside influences: The majority of the conflicts within the YJS board came from outside the syndicate, especially when politicians volunteered to advise the young leaders. Soon however, that ‘advice’ turned to orders, accepted by the young members who were only too keen to improve their own position by boosting their connections to the parties. The young leaders would have been better off avoiding politics and party membership as the main incentive for their work. (That’s really funny coming from a government weasel like Faris, Saleh’s drone.)

I think the stats are over 7% to about 1.5%. The healthcare situation is deplorable.

(YT/NY) The study carried out Dr. Nasser Al-Awlaqi of Sanaa University and published by Al-Thawabit magazine revealed that Yemen traced Oman and Jordan in the budget allocation for military equipment and arms, which received this year USD 885.5 million, while it allocated a much lower amount to other vital sectors such as health which gets less than 1.5% of the budget putting Yemen at the bottom of all Arab countries in health spending and in the sufficiency of doctors as it has a ratio of 22 medical doctors for every 100,000 Yemeni citizens.

The study said that the Yemeni government tripled its budget allocation for the military during 1998-2003 in an unprecedented move by an Arab country, while it ranked the second least Arab country in the UN Human Development Index after war-torn Somalia.

This IMF Report also documents the tripling of military expenditures, in you’re in the mood for a 65 page PDF file filled with charts.

If not there’s also this 2004 democracy assessment done for the US government. I’m starting to see where they get their impressions. That one’s about 85 pages PDF.

In keeping with our PDF theme, theres always Jamestowns 2004 Issue devoted to Yemen.

It sounds very good but I’m a little cynical having seen so many big reform plans announced that are not implemented. There’s still only one embassy closed after *that* big round of announcements. But if nothing else, this announcement will fuel the tide of rising expectations in Yemen.

YT/NY: The statement said the meeting tackled the mechanism to executing some drastic reform measures in ‘the democratic, regulatory, judicial, economic, financial, and administrative sectors’ and also in ‘combating corruptions plus strengthening press freedoms and adjusting the press and publication law’.

The cabinet, which has been holding daily meetings since the return of Saleh from his tour, announced yesterday that it has developed ‘a list of extensive reform measures’ that would be incorporated in the program of the upcoming General People’s Congress assembly meeting to take place in Aden mid December.

Among the major focal points raised in the statement was the concentration on real practical mechanisms to apply urgently needed reforms in various aspects and to activate apparatuses that would hold the government responsible and monitor its performance.

The meeting also approved the establishment of an independent national commission to combat terrorism that would be composed of governmental bodies along with some civil society organizations.

The meeting also resulted in the formation of a supreme independent technical committee to monitor bids and tenders and to improve transparency in the process of approving tender and bid operations. It will also help in ensuring neutrality in the phase of selecting the winning companies or contractors based on technical conditions and standards that would guarantee the most appropriate prices and highest quality ‘to save public wealth from unnecessary expenses’ and ‘to implement projects based on the highest of standards’.

The meeting also approved a number of amendments to laws of the judicial branch to help secure the financial and administrative independence of the judiciary based on the constitution and to eliminate potential manipulation or pressure by the executive branch and to cope with international standards particularly in commercial courts to secure the interests of investors by ensuring that court cases are dealt with in a swift, professional, and effective manner by honest, qualified and well-trained judges.

Update: Anti-corruption body to be set up. But once additional cases are identified, will any one be brought to trial, not the low level people but the real theives?

The Yemeni government wigged out after I was on al-Jazeera. Wigged. Out.

This article is not an attack article but it discusses the barrarge of Yemeni governmental media attacks on me. The title is A Front Called Novak:

After more than one week of the battle of the government and the govern party’s press that has launched a campaign against what they pretend is a foreign enemy who is going to root out the country; it is the American journalist Jane Novak.

It is normal that the speech of Jane Novak to Al-Jazeerah has cause all this outrage and reaction of the Yemeni regime, however the regime through it media was vulgar and not was aware of the fact that it gives more evidence and proofs to what was Jane saying .

They launched to attack Jane’s personal affairs and replaced the objectivism with swearing and cursing.

From the Thawrah, the government newspaper, to the Congress Party’s newspaper ( Al-Methaq) and between them, all the government and the websites newspapers even the small bulletins and independent journals which they use the public money all of them have nothing to say only talking about Jane Novak the describing her as a conspirator, Zionist, traitor, unemployed and the owner of a bad website and lying sources.

The governmental media insists that all the opposition’s parties and their newspapers are involved with this American Journalist at mobilising foreigner’s forces against Yemen aiming to destroy the legitimate regime.

Despite the fact that Jane is an independent Journalist they insist on describing her activities as an expression of the American and Zionism strategic and enmity policy.

It seems that this speech is not a boyish speech and not all those auditors write with personal motives or because of the lack of professionalism but it is the official policy and method of the president Saleh at dealing with his oppositionists inside and outside the country.

The personal press consultant of the president Saleh (Fares Alsanabani) who used this method by attacking Jane’s private affairs (on the al-Jazeera show) is an example. All these mentioned newspapers used the same method even that Al-Methaq (the ruling General Congress Party’s newspaper) has invented a personal accusation that Jane has romantic relationship with one of the Yemeni oppositionist .

Novak also has written surprisingly at her website about the regime media ways of attacking even her personal website.

Vulgar? Personal Attacks? Swearing and Cursing? A Romatic Relationship? bwahahahaha The very best is “owner of a bad website.” I can’t stop laughing.

Maybe its the woman thing, but they just can’t wrap their heads around the idea that no one is directing me, not for love or money. For a long time, the accusation was that I was a Yemeni man in disguise. That’s been pretty well debunked. Maybe its better if they think I have some organization behind me, but I’d love to see the Yemeni officials’ faces the day the reality sinks in that its one woman, all by herself (well, with a blogosphere and a solid editor), who is bringing them so much grief by speaking the (well-documented) truth.

I think I’ll set the time on this post to 3 AM so they can continue to say that I work all night. Aw screw it, I’m gonna ‘lanch myself from the Boyz and Girls instead. I get by with a little help from my blogfriends.

Update: HI!!!! What a sleezy regime huh? But this is nothing compared to what they do internally to the Yemeni people who speak out- the reformers, the political opposition, and the journalists who are facing an unprecedented wave of violence and repression. Its brutal.

Also I failed to note this article is at al-Shoura’s website, where al-Khaiwani is the editor. Its very ironic that after we made the petition for his release from jail, its turning around that the guy winds up defending me, like in his article Stop Atacking the American Journalist (written before the al-Jazeera show and this new onslaught). Like he doesn’t have enough headaches.

This Thanksgiving I am grateful for:

My family

My friends (including my blog friends and my Yemeni friends)

My RIGHTS

(NYT) Two United States oil companies, taking an unusual tack, filed arbitration proceedings this week against the government of Yemen for expropriating an oil-producing block with output worth more than $1 billion a year.

A venture owned by the Hunt Oil Company and Exxon Mobil sought arbitration before the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, a rare instance of oil companies taking action in an international forum against a sovereign nation.

Last week, the Yemeni government said that a government-owned company would replace the American companies’ venture, the Yemen Exploration and Production Company, or Y.E.P.C., as the operator of the area, known as Block 18….

“Since 2004, Y.E.P.C. has invested millions of dollars at the direction of the Yemeni government,” said Michael Goldberg, a partner in the Houston law firm of Baker Botts, which is representing the venture. “Up until Nov. 15, we fully expected that they would honor the contract. The government of Yemen had no right to take over this operation, and although we did not want to file an arbitration, they gave us no choice.”

The Yemeni decision to replace the Hunt venture with a government-owned company may be linked to the recent surge in oil prices. With production averaging over 75,000 barrels a day, revenues from Block 18 would total $1.6 billion a year, at $58.71 a barrel, Wednesday’s closing price on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

More here and also here.

With this new big source of revenue to divert, it seems less likely Saleh will stand down for the presidential elections.

Consolidating the Voter Registration and Verification Committees in the hands of the Ruling Party:

(YT)Politicians hold the view that such a stance of the HCER leads to crisis with the opposition parties which had originally formulated 5620 field committees as per the law. Therefore, the HCER declaration has shocked the opposition parties that are planning to take a unanimous decision and confront it.

But the existance of 400,000 minors who are registered voters is not rectified:

On another front, The HCER acknowledged the existence of 400 thousand minors who have been enlisted on the election registers. However, it has not undertaken any rectifying measures to delete minors from the list despite claims by the opposition parties to modify the elections register as early as possible.

Then theres always the tactic of making the press law yet more repressive:

(YT) Mr. Al-Bukari indicated that the main reason behind his resignation is upcoming endorsement of a draft media law that will eventually destroy the freedom of the press which is currently at its infancy. Mr. Al-bukari believes that the new media law will make journalist’s rights more vulnerable, and will not protect journalists of any violations of their professional, human and constitutional rights.

But the imprisonment of vocal opponents is a standard tactic:

(YT) I personally express concern over what is happening to my brother who is a prisoner of opinion, and I request all international organizations to take quick action against the illegal and arbitrary practices against humanity and human rights taking place in Yemen”.

Cleric Yahya Al-Dailami demanded that the legal authorities stop harassing Zaidi people because of their belonging to the Zaidi sect, he also claimed that was subject to assault by the authorities in the Sana’a Central Prison.

(Judge Luqman is still in prison as well as others who spoke out against the regime’s targeting of the Zaidis.)

Then there’s the dismissal of the oversight role of Parliament (its not completely co-opted by the ruling party’s determination to hinder accountability):

(YO) He (Jubari) said that MPs had little information, and that the Minister of Oil’s reluctance to respond to Parliament had weakened the council’s role…Jubari also claimed that oil prices had reached $60 a barrel, not $23 as the government had stated….

He (Al-Ansi) also questioned the government’s violation of Parliament concerning the sale of LNG without ensuring that domestic reserves were secure….

Other MPs demanded that the reports from specialized committees concerning violations committed by the government be included. They include reports on salary and wage law, the sale of liquid natural gas (LNG) and sales tax.

YT: Haidan district in Saada witnessed sever fighting with Alhouthi insurgents and the government forces, resulting in polluting the area with mines, explosive and other hazardous materials. Social personalities in the area which witnessed the conflict demanded a formation of a specialized committee to collect the mine and other explosives left over by the army. These are left scattered in mountains and valleys, endangering the lives of many people and children in the area.

M&C: Yemen after Saleh By Mark N. Katz

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) — Ali Abdallah Saleh, Yemen`s long-serving president, recently met with President Bush at the White House.

Saleh ruled North Yemen from 1978 to 1990, and then united Yemen from 1990 to now. Now 63 years of age, he could rule Yemen for many years to come. He has said, however, he will not seek re-election next year. But even if he changes his mind (as many think he will), his long rule obviously cannot last forever.

(Read on …)

Update: Conflicting reports of whether they are free or not, but its moving in that direction. If not already, hopefully soon they will have been safely recovered. “My brother is 30km away and being brought over to us now by authorities. As soon as he is here, I will personally hand over the tourists,” al-Dhaman said by telephone.

Original Post:
Why? Tribal justice is better than no justice at all. I am not condoning kidnapping at all but when the civil justice system is a tool of repression, personal retribution, and intimidation, there is no law except the law of power.

There’s a 12 year old kid in jail for a month as a result of a dispute between adults. His relatives say he was jailed as retribution and have offered money and to exchange his father for him. (12, remember we are talking 12 years old.)

Two Swiss tourists (Bruno and Katrina Bayer) were kidnapped today in Mareb and are being held until the child is released from jail. In a cell phone call, they say they are well treated. Pray for their safety and that the regime doesnt try to rescue them like in 1998. (various news websites including News Yemen and al-Sahwa)

Other children recently kidnapped by the regime included Ibrahim Mohammed Al-Mutawakkil , the 13 year old little brother of a human rights worker- this kid was imprisoned for three weeks as retribution against his brother, and the 14 year old little brother of Intisar al-Siani. This boy is brain damaged and very ill, still in jail I think. He’s unable to dress himself without the help of his family- the regime labels him a terrorist.

All the publicity comes when Western tourists are kidnapped in the tribal regions but not when Yemeni children are kidnapped by the regime.

Also recall the report in the YT that noted that many of the adults in prison are there as hostages of influential people. That’s no less disgusting.

no one will notice:

The public budget for 2006 was declared last Wednesday to be one trillion and 180 billion Yemeni rials, which resembles an increase of about 41% compared to last year. It will still remain a draft budget until approved by the parliament by the end of this year.

Also: Smuggled drugs, costly.

The Central Bank, lots of dirty stuff going on there.

US classified Major Terrorist, once a spiritual advisor to bin Laden and currently spiritual advisor to Ali Mohsen, Zindani (who recently fatwa-ed Nabil al-Soufi and who developed the theory of the legitimacy of targeting civilians for Zarchawi) is now trashing Mohammed Qahtan (recently of the death threats) because Qahtan said that it was possible a woman could rule better than Zindani. Qahtan was speaking theoretically but Zindani is insulted. (Read on …)

Well, back to work. Yemen is not anything close to a democracy without an independent judiciary and a free press and a healthy opposition. These are what define democracy and prevent an abuse of power and holds officials to account.

The non-governmental journalists are under siege by the security forces (who kidnap them, steal their computers, occupy their offices, beat them up until they’re hospitalized, and then run the numbers on their cell phones) and the judicary which fines them, closes their papers, hauls them into court, and threatens them with imprisonment. The targeting of journalists is escalating and severe. Other methods of censorship include refusing to print the papers and issuing clone papers (newspapers that closely resemble other papers) in an effort to misinform the Yemeni public.

One conclusion we can draw from this is the regime has a lot to hide from the people.

The latest target is al-Thoury, the paper of the Socialist party. The paper has been fined and its journalists suspended from writing for defamation of public officials. (Meanwhile one function of the media is to act as a watchdog on public officials. Another is to present the peoples grievences in an open forum to society.)

Sawt al-Shoura wrote an article about how our friend al-Khaiwani was targeted in prison by the prison officials. Remember he was beaten several times. So it has been suspended (this is after they stole the computers which also happened to Sami Ghaleb as well as numerous other non-governmental newspapers.)

Meanwhile as we have seen, the governmental media performs the function of launching personal attacks against individuals in an effort to deflect the conversation from legitimate issues and discredit its opponents.

[19/11/2005] (NewsYemen ) Nov 19, Sanaa – A first Instance court in Sanaa issued a verdict today to fine the opposition newspaper Al-Thowri about YR one million (about USD 5,500) and ban two of its journalists from writing for six months.

The verdict also said that the newspaper will have to issue an apology on the last page for three successive editions to two government officials based on defamation charges. The two journalists who received a suspended sentence of banning from writing, Fikri Qassim and Salahaddin Al-Dakkak, expressed outrage at the sentence, calling it a violation of their human rights.

Meanwhile, another weekly newspaper Sawt Al-Shoura’s Editor-in-Chief Abdullah Ali Sabri also stood trial today in a case filed by the Deputy Minister of Interior Mohamed Al-Qawsi, who insisted on trying Sabri again after he was acquitted from the same charges filed by the Ministry of Interior in June. Al-Qawsi pressed charges for ‘personal damage’ caused by articles published by the newspaper.

Sawt Al-Shoura, which is currently suspended after its equipment were stolen earlier this year, had published a news story saying that Al-Qawsi issued written orders to prison staffers to intimidate journalist Abdulkareem Al-Khaiwani while in prison for a verdict in another defamation lawsuit filed by the government against him.

There are several lawsuits against opposition newspapers still pending and are looked at by different courts in Sanaa. Among them is a case raised by journalist Mohamed Al-Maqaleh for an article he wrote for Al-Thowri urging President Saleh to give away some of his authority. His case will be looked into next Saturday. The newspaper also expects hearings in four more cases next Wednesday.

Opposition newspapers have been the target of various lawsuits by government officials or bodies in the last few years. In some cases, verdicts were issued to fine or even close down newspapers and ban journalists from writing. In a few cases, journalists were ultimately imprisoned for their writings criticizing the head of the state or the regime.

Journalists and international pro-press freedom organizations have complained of the lack of independence in the judiciary, whose highest supreme council is headed by the president. This had consequently resulted in verdicts in favor of the government in the majority of cases filed against journalists.

Related: this is some examples of how the “reforming” regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh attempts to discredit its opposition, journalists, reformers, and anyone articulating a legitimate grievance: it calls them unpatriotic, working against the national interest, creating strife, and agents of foreign powers.

Note the article in the government paper outright calls the opposition stupid. One of the few things the regime is good at (besides smuggling and stealing) is hurling insults. (Read on …)

Amazing, just amazing. The Yemeni governmental media is trashing my blog.

So I wrote an article (Y20) entitled Yemen’s Criminal Enterprise detailing the crimes of the Yemeni regime. (And the Yemeni newspaper, al-Thoury, was suspended for a week for publishing it in Arabic.)

Then I was on al-Jazeera and spoke in my normal forthright manner about the situation in Yemen. (See