Armies of Liberation

from the Yemen Times:

SANA’A, July 18 — As part of a series of tough sentences against media, the Capital’s Southwest Court banned Al-Thawri weekly Editor-in-Chief Khalid Salman from occupying the highest post of any newspaper for one year.

The court also suspended Al-Thawri reporter Nayef Hassan from working for one year, beginning from the verdict’s date. Sued by Press and Publication Prosecution and the Ministry of Defense, the two journalists also were fined YR 5,000 each.

In a statement, Al-Thawri’s defense team expressed concern over the ruling, labeling it “unfair” and saying it violates constitutional provisions and laws.

The statement confirmed that the case has just begun, as the court held only one hearing in the absence of the Defense Ministry’s lawyer, which caused the trial to be adjourned to another time.

No trial was held due to the judge suspending court hearings in protest against an attack he was subjected to while discussing another case. According to Al-Thawri’s statement, the judge had to set another time for the case and ordered Prosecution to announce the parties involved in the case, but such hasn’t happened.

“After five months, we’re shocked to hear the verdict via the newspapers,” the statement read.

Regarding the ban on Salman, the statement noted, “Such a verdict should have been issued by administrative bodies instead of the judiciary, as the latter usually prevents any journalist from working without specifying the post.”

Al-Thawri’s defense team confirmed that it will appeal the verdict, urging concerned parties and human rights groups to stand in solidarity with the newspaper, which has faced more than 12 verdicts during the year.

Salman considered the court’s verdict to be part of a curfew on journalism and said, “[This is] evidence of the judiciary being controlled by the executive and security authorities.”

Nasr Taha Mustafa, the new president of Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS), said that he did not know about the case of Salman and Hassan and that he plans to discuss the case at the upcoming meeting of the YJS council, Al-Shoura Net reported.

More

Corruption scandal at Aden Oil refinery

The Central Organization for Audit and Control has uncovered a corruption scandal involving Aden Oil refinery’s general manager and his deputy, including the unmerited purchase of 11 private vehicles at a cost of YR 62 million to be held by the two officials, as well as the sale of over 4.7 million gallons of oil allocated for local consumption in the international market without referring to the Ministry of Finance’s oil sales unit. Among other violations was payment of rent for the Yemeni Embassy premises in London, which is the property of Yemen.

On TV, Yemeni President Saleh reiterates his call for envoking the mutual defense treaty, governmental financial support of Palestinians and a transit corridor for youth to travel freely to join “the forces of resistance.”

YT: “Arabs mustn’t be transformed into police to protect Israel, which never considers any international legitimacy decisions. Likewise, we mustn’t care about any international conventions that allowed Israel to use force against innocent people,” Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said in an interview Al-Arabiya Television aired Saturday, reacting to Israel’s military action against Lebanon and Palestine.

He added that all parties, both Arabs and non-Arabs, must respect international legitimacy.

“It’s the right of Arabs to resist occupation in southern Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. Why do the international community and the European Union allow Israel to defend itself? It’s every nation’s right to struggle for independence and liberation and it’s the right of Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians too to fight occupation forces that are backed by several nations,” Saleh went on.

The Yemeni leader continued, “Our support for our brothers is legal. We must back Palestinians without fear, as this has nothing to do with fanaticism or partiality.”

Saleh also stressed the necessity of activating an agreement on joint Arab defense. He noted that Arabs constitute a unified nation, that Palestine is part of this nation and that homes struck in Palestine belong to Arabs.

“Activating the joint defense agreement is due to force Israel to bear in mind that it is in a real confrontation with Arabs. But if the situation continues unchecked, Israel will continue its aggression against Arabs and violate international legitimacy,” Saleh said.

Mentioning Arab nations’ commitments to pay their financial obligations to Palestine, Saleh clarified that if the joint defense agreement succeeds, Arab nations can fulfill their financial obligations to Palestinians via the Arab League and open the borders for youth to resist the occupation; then Israel will be forced to change its policy.

Regarding domestic affairs, Saleh likened governance in Yemen to a person dancing on the heads of serpents; if he’s not on high alert, they will bite him. “We dialogued with elements of terrorism and returned them to the right track,” he commented.

Speakers at protests echo the same themes:

Meanwhile, the protestors renewed their calls for Arab leaders to “open the doors for jihad.” “We demand borders be opened for us to join our brothers in Palestine and Lebanon. What’s the value of life if we keep watching them die day and night?” noted Ali Al-Harazi, who concluded his speech by blaming the neighboring countries of Lebanon and Palestine. Some participants at the demonstration also raised banners with slogans reading, “No dignity for Arabs without jihad” and “Jihad protects the nation’s dignity.”

Parliament donates YR3.5M to the resistance.

From the Yemen Times:

Having averaged an annual 6.9 percent growth rate during 2000-2005 – significantly higher than the average 4.3 percent growth rate – the construction industry emerges as a lively driver of non-oil based economic growth, with a potential annual growth reaching 14 percent.

After agriculture and manufacturing-based industries, the construction industry is Yemen’s third largest employer, employing more than 7 percent of the workforce, with a steady growth rate exceeding almost all other industries in Yemen. However, the critical issue is that despite such growth, there’s been almost no development in the construction process itself.

Despite immense development in the science and knowledge of the construction process itself, construction in Yemen remains expensive, inefficient and utilizing outdated technology, thus making the industry extremely vulnerable, both in the medium and long terms.

A recent academic paper by scholars Basel Sultan and Stephan Kajewski from Australia’s Queensland University indicated that obstacles to construction industry development range from initial feasibility and design study to cost management and the construction process itself. This indicates that considerable capital and time is wasted in the construction process, thereby resulting in a shortened lifespan of poorly designed buildings requiring redevelopment or demolition, especially if the materials used were questionable and the construction practices proved substandard, thereby resulting in a magnitude of problems throughout the building’s lifespan.

The article also anticipates that competition from multinational contractors will benefit the industry.

IOL N° 526

Nephew of president Ali Abdallah Saleh, 37-year-old Omar Saleh al Ahmar is the rising star of the fight against terrorism in Yemen. From the same generation as the son of the president, Ahmed Saleh, with whom he is very close, al Ahmar set up a new service, the National Security department, in 2003. It took on special importance following the escape of 24 Al Qaeda militants from prison in Sanaa in February. Irate, the Americans lost confidence in general Ghaleb al Qimch, who headed the Political Security department (IOL 522) and put their money instead on Saleh. Speaking perfect English, Saleh has cultivated close ties with the local CIA and FBI offices. Born in the village of Al Ahmar, which is also the birthplace of the president, Saleh graduated from the Sanaa military college. He then joined the Republican Guard before moving over to special forces units commanded by his cousin, Ahmed, in 2002.

I thought it was 23 escapees, and is al-Ahmar the name of Saleh’s village?

IOL N° 522

The powerful boss of Yemen’s Political Security Agency, general Ghaleb al Qimch, has managed to retain his post even through the central prison from which 23 Islamic radicals escaped on Feb. 3 falls under his authority. But Yemen president Ali Abdallah Saleh fired the director of political security for the Sanaa region, general Said Alewa, while the number three man in the Political Security agency was also dismissed along with dozens of lesser officials.

Alewa was replaced by general Sadiq al Mutawakkil and the no. three man was succeeded by general Riad Ali Al Ahmar. As for Al Qimch, he probably owed his political survival to his close relationship with the president’s son, colonel Ahmed Saleh, and the tight ties he established with the CIA and FBI since 2002 when he successfully carried through investigations into the attack against the U.S. destroyer USS Cole and the French tanker Limburg.

Saleh felt forced to act against the others because of strong protests by the Americans after the jail break-out, and particularly by ambassador Thomas Krajeski, who sent a letter to the Yemeni foreign ministry denouncing what he saw as complicity between certain anti-terrorist officers and the Islamic radicals. The Americans weren’t happy, either, that four of the fugitives who finally gave themselves up did so after a lot of haggling with tribal chiefs. However, Saleh intends to stand for re-election in the presidential election in September and has to tread carefully with the Islamists.

To smooth matters over with the Americans he sent his armed forces chief-of-staff, gen. Mohamed Ali Al Qassimi to Washington in mid-March. Al Quassimi managed to extract a promise from the U.S. to raise Washington’s allocation for the training of Yemeni coast guards and special forces from $20 million annually to $23 million.

Well that’s spiffy. To update the IOL article a bit, eight of the nine who turned themselves in were then re-released:

SANAA, Yemen, June 2 (UPI) — Yemen has released eight al-Qaida prisoners who surrendered to the police after they escaped with 15 others from the central intelligence prison in February.

Opposition daily al-Thawra quoted an informed source as saying Friday that the inmates were released 15 days after they turned themselves in to the authorities upon the personal guarantee of Sheikh Tarek Fadli, a former senior official of the ruling General Congress Party and the founder of a key Islamic group in Yemen.

The release was based on the fact that no court rulings were issued against the prisoners, due to lack of evidence of their involvement in terrorist attacks.

Also see NewsYemen.

Also good:

SANA’A, July 19(Saba)- Republican Decree, numbered 89 for year 2006, was issued here on Wednesday approving the executive bylaw for
fighting money laundering.

The law, including 44 articles, identified legal punishments against persons who practice money laundering and duties of the financial
corporations to fight it.

The fifth and sixth chapters of the bylaw included concepts of cooperation with international concerned organizations and means of exchanging information in addition to the extradition of non-Yemeni money laundering criminals and the process of investigations.

More at News Yemen.

The SCER’s refusal to open up the voter rolls for inspection by the JMP’s lawyers casts great doubt on the legitimacy of the upcoming presidential election. It also casts a shadow on Yemen’s prior parliamentary elections. The Parliament could be illegitimate. While international observers documented some substasntial fraud, in general the consensus was “free and fair.” Yet the voter rolls are off limits for examination despite the “principles agreement” which leads to the possibility that there’s more fraud than anyone imagined.

YO: The five main opposition parties refused to take part in the subcommittees of elections before obtaining certain guarantees as the Supreme Committee of Elections and Referendum (SCER) hinted that it might work without them.

The SCER has threatened to use schoolteachers to form subcommittees for administrating the upcoming September elections if the opposition alliance, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), did not submit their names for appointment by the July 18 deadline.
“We’ll use teachers to cover the portion allotted to the JMP for the subcommittees, which is 46%,” said Abdu al-Janadi, chairman of the media sector of SCER.

Al-Janadi pointed out that the SCER had asked the Ministry of Education to provide a list of teachers who meet the conditions, whether from provinces or districts, to use them instead of the names of the JMP.
“The SCER can not delay any further or it will be responsible for allowing a constitutional vacuum,” he said.

He said that the SCER approached the teachers only after a long series of discussions and debates with the JMP.
Dr. Mohammed al-Sayani, chairman of technical section of SCER, said that the SCER had sent CDs to the parties showing the proportion of each according to the agreement of principles signed last month between GPC and JMP with each having 54% and 46% respectively.
The GPC submitted its list of names to the SCER earlier this month.
However, the JMP refused to submit the names without guarantees provided for by the agreement of principles signed with the ruling GPC in June 18th.

“The position of the JMP is very clear, it refuses any steps being taken by the SCER without the implementation of the guarantees agreed upon,” said Ibrahim al-Hayer, the official in charge of elections for the Islah party.
Al-Hayer accused the SCER and the GPC of violating the principles agreement “since the first day it was signed.”

“The JMP clarified its position towards the elections when they decided to participate on the basis of the principles agreement, unfortunately however, the agreement was not implemented except for the addition of the two members to the SCER,” he said.

“Even more, these two members have not started their work yet in their positions at the SCER, and don’t even have offices to work in,” he added.
“So, why has the SCER demanded the submission of the names before implementing what was agreed upon by the parties,” he wondered.

More from the Yemen Times:

JMP denounced SCER’s adherence to the old system, which poses a threat to the elections’ impartiality and legitimacy. JMP pointed out that the agreement of principles intended to correct the violations committed by SCER, which in turn is meant to conform to this agreement.

Additionally, JMP expressed their rejection of selective dealings with the agreement, as the agreement should be dealt with as a whole. According to the press release, correcting the electoral register and correcting the administrative status of SCER are the most important requirements.

Also, newly-added members should be allowed to perform their tasks. Furthermore, all SCER resolutions should be subject to discussion and they should be approved according to law and constitution, in a manner that expands the range of pubic participation and leads to free and impartial elections whose results will be defended by all.

This is a quite a step forward and could be real progress toward accountability and transparency. The question becomes what does the NOFC do with the information. The current corruption commission does a good job unraveling and documenting corruption, but there’s never any consequences. Maybe this will rememdy that oversight. The jail penalty for publicly wrongly charging officials with corruption seems another restriction on the journalists though. We’ll have to see how the whole thing plays out in reality. From the YO:

The Parliament has approved in a recent meeting the Financial Disclosure Law that had just been amended by the constitutional committee of the parliament. The law stipulates that holders of government positions declare any and all properties that they, their spouses and minor children might have to the National Organization for Fighting Corruption.

It mandates that these declarations be made within sixty days of the date of issuance of the law. As for future, newly appointed officials to whom the law applies, they will have to make their declarations within sixty days from the date of their taking their post. People who have wrongly charged officials with fraud as a way of harming their reputation are subjected by the law to a severe fine and a jail term of not more than three-years.

Officials who are found to have used their positions for illegal gains are obliged to return what they embezzled and to serve a jail term of not more than five years. Those who give misleading declarations will serve one year, while failing to declare one’s property on time without justification is a violation punishable by no more than six months in prison, and dismissal in case of failing again after warning. A jail term not exceeding one year is meted out to any organization member who discloses the financial declaration data of any government official as a privacy violation offence.

The law is applicable to people in high government positions including: The president of the republic, the vice president, members of the parliament, the Cabinet, Higher Judiciary Council, Judicial Authority, Prosecution, Shura, Supreme Commission for Elections; the director of the presidency of the country and the deputies; the presidents and deputy presidents of universities; directors of administrative units; secretaries general of local councils; the Chief of Staff and the deputy chiefs; the heads of diplomatic missions; the advisors to the president of the republic and to the prime minister; the secretaries general of the presidency, the parliament, the Shura and the elections commission; the presidents and deputy presidents of the Controlling and Audit Organization; the Central Bank of Yemen; the executives of the public funds; directors of departments of the Defense Ministry; the Interior Ministry; the Staff of the armed forces; the general managers of the ministries and banks and other public institutions as well as the general managers of financial departments and purchase and sale managers in public and corporate sectors

from Yahoo News Bush was referring to the UN unaware the microphone was on: “See the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this sh*t, and it’s over,” Bush told Blair as he chewed on a buttered roll.

Fox: “The root cause of the problem is Hezbollah and that problem needs to addressed,” Bush said.

He said there are suspicions that the instability caused by the Hezbollah attacks will cause some in Lebanon to invite Syria back into the nation.

“Syria’s trying to get back into Lebanon, it looks like to me,” Bush said.

From SABA:

Who is to halt this Israeli arrogance?
By Ali Abdullah Saleh

Everyone feels pain conscientiously as he sadly follows the scenes of murders, devastation and a vicious aggression perpetrated by Israel with unabated arrogance and an excessive use of military force against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples.

As thickly as a result of Israeli brutal offense, hundreds of innocent victims include children, old men and women are being killed. It is a destruction of Lebanese and Palestinian infrastructure and economic development under international silence and double standards in application of international legitimacy resolutions and a decline of the values and human rights concepts.

If Israel justifies its barbaric aggression under the pretext of releasing its three soldiers captured by the Lebanese Hizbullah and Palestinian resistance.

Its acts inhumanely and illogically exceeding in fact the pretext of releasing three soldiers in order to implement its own agenda against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples and the Arab nation and the region generally by a means of mixing securities regionally and internationally.

We find that Israel wages an open war and unleashes its terrible war machine, committing massacres under the pretext of freeing three of its soldiers while its prisons are packed with thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners, including Palestinian ministers and legislators elected through democratic vote.

No hesitatingly, Israel detains anyone and robs his dignity and human rights in flagrant defiance of all norms and convictions of international organization concerned with human rights.

Undoubtedly, the Israeli escalation against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples poses the region in front of serious threat to the security and stability foundations. Moreover, this escalation makes the region entering into unknown fate and worst disasters.

It is the role of international community and the eight major countries to take moral and humanitarian responsibilities to stop the Israeli aggression and forcing Israel to submit to peace process and obey the will of the international community and resolutions that related to the Arab-Israeli conflict, especially when Arab have chosen the path of peace confirmed by the Arab initiative presented by the Custodian of the two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz, which has been endorsed at Beirut summit.

The Arab initiative has prompted the factual basis for a just and comprehensive
peace in the region and it stressed on the importance of ending the Israeli occupation of Arab territories and establishing the Palestinian state with al-Quds as its capital to be gateway to devote real factor of security, stability and a peaceful coexistence in the region.

Otherwise, the situation in the region will remain unstable and inflammatory because of the continuation of the policy of aggression and arrogance that dispels all efforts in to combat terrorism and creating climates that encourage the growth of phenomenon of terrorism and extremism in the region and the world.

If we recognize that the growing frustration and despair among the peoples, particularly among the young Arabs and Muslims as a result of the Israeli atrocities and arrogance and the absence of the international justice and the policy of double standards in the application of the international resolutions, we will know the reasons that create extremism and lead to recruiting young people by the terrorist groups and push them to carry out terrorist acts that destabilize the world.

The Republic of Yemen, realizing the serious consequences of the current crisis, has called for an emergency Arab summit in Cairo because such summit is badly needed and it is an imperative move to help containing the dangerous deteriorations that the Israeli assaults against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples have brought about.

Moreover an extraordinary Arab summit is required to offer Arab leaders the needed opportunity to take a unified stand against challenges facing Arab nations.

The Arab summit also could help Arab leaders taking a unified action to address the problems in the Arab arena, including the situations in Iraq, Somali and Darfur of Sudan.

UPI: In a front-page commentary carried Tuesday in government daily al-Thawra, Saleh wrote that liberating the three soldiers abducted in Gaza and south Lebanon is just a pretext by Israel to carry out its hidden agenda against the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples — as well as the whole Arab nation — “by reshuffling regional and international cards.”

With the strikes and counter-strikes across the Israel/Lebanese border, Yemeni public opinion is inflamed against both Israel and the US and this is one of the more coherent expressions of that sentiment, from the Yemen Mirror, this article was written by Mohammed al-Assadi:

Paying the Price of Being Moderate

Who is the terrorist Israel is looking for? This is the millionth time this question has been raised. Is it the perpetrator or the victim? Is it those who kidnapped two soldiers or those who confiscated a country and imprisoned thousands of people? Is it those who resist with a stone or those who kill women and children and destroy infrastructure and civil compounds with rockets and F16?

It is an imbalanced world with irony and paradoxes and plenty of injustice. It seems that the consecutive Israeli governments are competing who will score a higher record by killing innocent Palestinians, Lebanese and sometimes internationals. Is it really a competition? With a racist ideology like the Zionism, anything is possible.

Today is day seven of the crisis and Israeli atrocities are on the rise. The Lebanese infrastructure is totally destroyed. The country is being destroyed while the world watches, hesitating to say NO to Israel’s excessive abuse of power. Though it looks like a massive showing off of their superior strength, the Israeli defense failed several times to resist little Hizbollah’s counter attacks.

US President, George W. Bush said on Sunday that Israel had “every right to defend itself” against attack from militants backed by Iran and Syria but must be “mindful of the consequences.” Mindful!? Thank you Mr. Bush for your humanity and kindness! The Israelis are no different from your Marines in Iraq. Rest assured, Mr. Bush, that we take with a grain of salt your words, that “every nation has the right to defend itself.” This means that Lebanon has the right to defend itself as well. Syria too has the same right. Likewise, Iran has the same right. Please stand by your words.

Israel and the LEADING democracy and defender of human rights, the USA, sent another clear message for us the moderate Muslims and Arabs. We are really outraged and feel that what is happening in Lebanon, the country of beauty and peace, is a repetition to what’s happening in Palestine and Iraq. We are not so far. The heat of the flames reaches us at the southern tip of Arabian Peninsula. It goes even beyond.

We have been convincing our new generation of the need for democracy, understanding and tolerance. We have been arresting who you force us to call ‘terrorists,’ assisting you in killing some and taking others to your secret detentions. We always like to be your partner, but you always show us how inferior we are, and what little respect you have for us.

What shall we tell our children today after the many barbaric attacks in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and elsewhere? Would they believe us if we told them that you are our ally? Do the United States and Israel give us the opportunity to remain moderate?

If it is agreed that terrorism is an act of violence targeting innocent civilians by those who feel victimized and mistreated, then what do you call what you, Israel and the USA, are doing? Our brothers, sisters and children in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq are being destroyed day and night by your sophisticated weapons.

Is it reasonable or humane to destroy a country, kill hundreds and thousands of its people and assault the sovereignty of an independent state? Do you think that it’s justice that rules the situation now? Aren’t you practicing real terrorism, which ultimately instigates counter terrorism? You are really attacking us twice. This is the price of trusting you and remaining moderate too long.

* Mohammed Al-Asaadi is a Yemeni journalist. He is the founder and director of the Yemen Mirror website.

Update: Demonstrations, More.

al-Sahwa:

National organization for defense about rights and freedoms (Hood) demanded investigation with parliamentarian who was charged with threatening lawyer, Mohammed Ali Al-Sari.

At a letter addressed to attorney general, it load security authorities the responsibility of protect the lawyer. It refers that the lawyer was received a call by parliamentarian who threatened him of killing if he continues his professional assignment against case who pleads for against this representative .on another letter to chief of political security ,it disclosed that it received statement of family of citizen shafeek Khamees informed them that political security detained him on 28/6/2006 , it demands for releasing him according to constitution regulations.

al-Sahwa:

Parliamentarians and economists consider the campaign of government against corruption represents late admission of dangerous conditions country reached to.

They suspect the truth of this campaign, considering it as electoral propaganda to deceiving people.

Member of “Representatives against corruption” committee, Aidrous Al-Naqeeb said that fighting corruption does not come through posters or propaganda manifestoes , but it demands practical policy including accounting corrupts and bringing them to trail.

About timing this campaign Al-Naqeeb said that he isn’t trustful for this campaign that synchronizes with presidential election.

“We were pleased when the president announced that he will not be umbrella for corrupts , but we were shocked when he changed his mind”, he added .

Moreover, he said that the president now, is before difficult exam , so he must prove that he is not umbrella for corruption through planned measures.

On his part , chief of economical department of Islah party, Ali al-Wafi expressed his surprising that how can corrupted machinery fight corruption.

Update: Last week I managed to find Thara’s English page and copied the following article. Today the account is suspended. (Here is the cache page . ) The ME reformers cannot catch a break anywhere it seems. This was the Arabic site for Thara which seemed much more current and this was the English Thara site:

How long will female emancipation movements remain,

in a climate of accusation?

Yahya Al-ous

Over a century has passed in the development of the concept of freedom for women, but the accusations this concept, and the movements for the freedom of the Arab woman face, are still common, because these movements are not born of Arab or Islamic culture. They are accused of being no more than a tool in the hands of Western power to deal with the crises in Arabic and Islamic culture, a whore used more and more to provoke the Islamic religion.

Despite the fact that these movements have developed and spread through the body of Islamic society even though they are not, in the view of their enemies, a normal or legal product of this society. Even today, this perspective is still prescient, despite the fact that Arab societies, in the framework of the Islamic contract, arrived at the question of female emancipation by way of a corpus of state legislation which was constructed inside the framework of intellectual Islamic organizations in these countries. So how did the beginning come about, and under what circumstances?

The closing years of the nineteenth century witnessed a certain phenomenon which is called the call for the emancipation of women. This occurred in the shadow of a period of regression in Arabic culture whose intellectuals were at that time observing in the West, a method to get rid of what Arabic culture was suffering from because of it. In Egypt, the first indications of the appearance of currents of thought were developing out if the issue of female emancipation.

These currents were fumbling towards an understanding of the vast difference between the situations of Western
women, and Arab women and the circumstances they were labouring under. This led to the birth of the announcement of female emancipation, an announcement which is and always has been a point of disagreement between the supporters
of female emancipation and the leaders of extremist religious thought, for over a century now. (Read on …)

Some Arab regimes including Saudi Arabia and most of the GCC countries criticized Hezbollah for attacking Israel without the authorization of the Lebanese government. On the other hand, the Yemeni regime backed Syria’s position and called for invocation of the collective defense treaty, ie- all out war, and financial support of the resistance:

From the New York Times:

With the battle between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah raging, key Arab governments have taken the rare step of blaming Hezbollah, underscoring in part their growing fear of influence by the group’s main sponsor, Iran.

Saudi Arabia, with Jordan, Egypt and several Persian Gulf states, chastised Hezbollah for “unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible acts” at an emergency Arab League summit meeting in Cairo on Saturday.

The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said of Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel, “These acts will pull the whole region back to years ago, and we cannot simply accept them.” Prince Faisal spoke at the closed-door meeting but his words were reported to journalists by other delegates.

The meeting ended with participants asserting that the Middle East peace process had failed and requesting help from the United Nations Security Council.

It is nearly unheard of for Arab officials to chastise an Arab group engaged in conflict with Israel, especially as images of destruction by Israeli warplanes are beamed into Arab living rooms. Normally under such circumstances, Arabs are not blamed, and condemnations of Israel are routine….

Hanna Seniora, a Palestinian analyst with the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, lauded the Arab opposition to Hezbollah on Sunday. “For the first time ever, open criticism was heard from countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan against the unilateral actions carried out by radical organizations, especially Hezbollah of Lebanon,” wrote Mr. Seniora, who favors coexistence with Israel and opposes radical Islam. “It became clear and beyond doubt that the most important Arab countries did not allow their emotions to rule their judgment.”

“Who’s benefiting?” asked a senior official of one of the Arab countries critical of Hezbollah who was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. “Definitely not the Arabs or the peace process. But definitely the Iranians are.” There may be no material proof of Iran’s involvement in the conflict, the senior official added, but all indications point to an Iranian role…..

A number of Lebanese have also publicly complained about Hezbollah, saying its attack on Israeli soldiers last Wednesday was carried out unilaterally and has drawn the country into a conflict it did not seek.

At the Arab summit meeting on Saturday, Syria’s foreign minister, Walid Moallem, lashed back at the critics of Hezbollah, The Associated Press reported, demanding, “How can we come here to discuss the burning situation in Lebanon while others are making statements criticizing the resistance?”

The countries supporting Syria included Yemen, Algeria and Lebanon.

More on Yemen and Hezbollah from MN: Yemen along with Syria unequivocally backs Hezbollah: : Similar divisions surfaced during the talks Saturday at the Arab League, said several representatives who took part in the meeting but asked not to be quoted by name because the discussions are supposed to remain confidential. They said officials split into three camps over how to address the crisis. Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Algeria showed strong support for Hezbollah. American-allied nations such as Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and the Persian Gulf states, meanwhile, consider the group responsible for much of the violence. Countries such as Morocco, Sudan, Libya and Oman didn’t blame Hezbollah, but urged it to work more closely with the Lebanese government.

From the Daily Star Foreign Minister, all Arab states should cut ties with Israel: But for states like Yemen, the crisis should force countries like Egypt and Jordan to cut all ties with the Jewish state. “We must take swift steps with sincere intentions to solve the Arab-Arab differences which create an obstacle to reaching a unified Arab position,” Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi said, calling on all Arab states to “end any cooperation with Israel.”

From the official news agency SABA: Saleh calls for activation of mutual defense treaty: – President Ali Abdullah Saleh called on Wednesday for holding an Arab emergency summit, demanding for activating the treaty of the Arab common defense to face the Israeli aggression against Palestine and Lebanon. ” If we activate the treaty of Arab common defense that represent the unification of the Arab nation as one family and the Palestinian blood is Arab blood and the Lebanese and the Syrian bloods are Arab blood” Saleh said in an interview with Alarabia TV. Channel.

From the YO: MP calls for financial assistance to resistance, to dismiss US Ambassador and return all US finds and cancel programs: Yemeni MPs have called for making a law to allocate a portion of oil revenues in support of the Arab resistance against the Israeli occupation. In addition, they called for dismissing the US ambassador in protest of the US support to Israel against Palestine and Lebanon.

To underscore this sentiment, millions of people are planning to stage a demonstration and a march starting from Al-Saba’een Field to the US embassy. The Deputy Speaker of the Parliament suggested that each MP should designate 100,000 YR, for a total of 30,500,000 YR, in aid of the Palestinian resistance instead of mere demonstrations that usually achieve little or no result.

The Parliament held a meeting on Saturday to discuss the Israeli trespasses against the Palestinians and Lebanese. At that meeting, many MPs, who usually keep silent about most of the local issues, presented their views while those usually active presented respected proposals. MP Ali Ashal, a representative of Islah party, and Sakr al-Wajeeh, proposed the law that would allocate part of the oil revenues and the state budget, or any other available sources to Palestinian aid.

Sultan al-Atwani, general secretary of the Popular Unionist Nasserite Party called for dismissing the US ambassador, Thomas Krajesky from Sana’a. Furthermore, he called for ending cooperation with all international agencies under the umbrella of the United States, regarded as the main supporter of the Zionist entity. This comes as a result of the US veto of the Security Council’s resolution that criminalizes Israel’s acts and demands an end to the mass killing of the Palestinian people.

From the Kajeel Times Saleh Proposes Summit, 6 agree: Six of the 22 members of the Arab League favour holding an Arab summit on the violence between Israel and Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said on Monday.

The response falls short of the two-thirds majority needed for a summit to go ahead but more governments could sign up for a summit in the days to come, a league official added. The six members are Algeria, Egypt, Qatar, Sudan, Yemen and the Palestinians. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh made a formal request for a summit last week.

From NY: Parties support resistance. Yemeni political parties strongly condemned the Israeli aggressions against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples. The General People’s Congress (GPC) described the Israeli attacks as “stimulating Arab and Islamic feelings and peace advocators all over the world”, asking for immediate intervention by the international community to obligate the Israeli government to stop using weapons against unarmed citizens, institutions and infrastructure in Lebanon and Palestine, to respect the international resolutions and withdraw from Arab occupied lands.
Opposition parties also announced their support for peoples in Palestine and Lebanon “in their fight for their right of survival and defeating occupier.” The Joint Meeting Parties called Arab and Islamic nations and their forces to standby the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance and to offer them moral and material support to conquer the Israeli arrogance supported by America. They called Arab capitals that contain embassies for Israel to close such embassies. They described allowing those embassies to open in Arab countries as “swindling martyrs.”

A US ally on the WOT, Saleh also has warm relations with Syria’s Bashir Assad and claimed to have delivered a letter from Assad to Bush in November. Ties between Yemen and Iran have been deepening bilaterally with several high level meetings and assorted trade and financial agreements established. Yemen supports Iran’s right to nuclear technology. One of Saleh’s campaign pledges is to gain nuclear technology to build power plants, and the regime has sugested regional cooperation in nuclear development.

While public statements by Saleh and regime officials may be in part pre-election posturing designed for domestic consumption, the regime consistently has supported external “forces of resistance.” In December, Yemen hosted the al-Quds conference and attendees included leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iraqi Muslim Scholars Association. Hamas and Hebollah maintain offices and fund raising for Hamas is common. Many Iraqi Baathists are in Yemen, some of whom have aided the insurgency in Yemen, including Saddams nephew wanted by Interpol for directing terrorist acts from Yemen. A Yemeni court recently noted that waging jihad in Iraq is not illegal according to Yemeni law, but rather is “a duty.” Other assorted jihadists in Chechnya, Sudan, Somalia have recieved some unofficial support fromYemen. Violence in Yemen in discouraged and Saleh has a series of agreements and accomidations with Yemeni militants not to attack within Yemen.

Amnesty Saleh style: Regime bombs mountain where al-Houthi followers are; those Houthis who returned to their villages arrested and systematic attack on the religion as a whole continues.

YT: A campaign aimed at banning teaching Zaidi doctrine still is ongoing. The Chief of Security in Sa’ada phoned one such teacher, Ali Masaoud, to tell him to stop teaching in Al-Masaoud area. The mediation wasn’t successful, but did lead to calming tensions there. Information indicates that the ban was made according to high-level directives. In this regard, Zaidi books were confiscated in an official campaign aimed at drying up Zaidi thought and heritage.

This confescation of literature is in the context of replacing Zaidi preachers with Salifi ones over the last year, and closing Zaidi schools and charities. Zaidism is not an extremist sect and is often described as moderate in that it permits interaction, discussion and reinterpretation of dogma. In that Zaidism requires followers to judge leaders’ performances, it contains the underpinnings for an Islamic legitimization of democracy. In 2002, the UN noted the teachings of Iman Ali Talib as a guideline to counter extremism.

The following is an article by Tawkkol A. Karman that was published in the Yemen Mirror:

Such was the play performed by the President and his party during the past eleven months! Ours is a multi-gifted President, and should not he be a president, he could have added considerably to the cinema industry, and been one of Hollywood’s and otherwise most brilliant stars!

There were moments in which we believed him to be serious about what he had pledged to do. He was not forced to lie, so why does he insist on doing just that? We believed him to be smart enough to consider that opportunity as a decisive time to step down, not as a means to cut his losses, but for the sake of an unrivalled glory.

His regime has driven the nation to the brink of an abyss, and now what would he and we wait but for a total big collapse! We believed him to realize all that, in view of his being familiar with everything that is happening. We thought that he would turn a deaf ear to what hypocrites were saying about the ship Master, who should not jump ship, about the “must” leader who should stand his ground, about the man of the phase who should finish the journey!

The so-called ship has a thousand holes in its hull and the big collapse is about to happen. And the “must leader” is a phrase that had been said many times to ousted President Syad Barri. These facts are known to the President both in figures and in details owning to his position, and thus he had decided to quit now for his own good firstly, secondly… tenthly while heeding nobody. He is concerned by this more that corruption Mafia, so why should he let them decide what he should do when he knows well that they would not do what they were doing for the sake of Allah!

He was in a position that would allow him to obtain unprecedented glory. All titles would have been granted to him unanimously and generously. Intellectuals and writers in Yemen and outside would have spared no good description to bestow upon him including adjectives of greatness and genius that have never been thought before.

All the flaws and failures that had distinguished his reign would be ignored and his lame deeds would be turned into great feats, blessings and graces.

All those who had picked holes in his performance would feel guilty over their outrageous acts. They would remember with regret how he did do good when they did bad, how they did misbehave and he forgave, how they did incite the world against the man to kill or exile him and how he would beg the world to keep the wolf from the door and keep us all safe and sound!

We said to ourselves that the President’s intelligence and insight would not fail to make him accomplish the miracle of moving from a transient glory to a perpetual one provided he would have said an honest “Enough” that should have been in reality, not as a figure of speech.

But he would not do that!! He did not spare himself the bleak end!

After his act, will there be ever any idiot in the world who could believe a single word to be said by Saleh? Has not he dealt a coup de grace to every promise he had made and every agreements he had ever patronized or said?
He had said, “What I promised is not a farce and I will not be an umbrella for the corrupt.” A day later, we said that this was not a farce, it was sheer madness! Could we say that he went to the Sabeen Square to perform another act? We are deeply regrettable for this! In the Sabeen Square, he said to the audience, “You came without being invited by anybody.” He said to the people who had been bribed in advance into coming before the military and government vehicles transported them from all directions! He insisted that had not been for the weeping of the children, he would not have gone back on his word, and had it not been for the wailing, he would not have remained an umbrella that shelters and is sheltered by the corrupt!

Mr. President, whom do you wish to believe you, us, them, or the free people of the world who were kept awed for eleven months during which they were following news of the President who had broken the rule!

He spoke of the children’s weeping to whom he responded, but look how he insisted on degrading childhood when he ordered them to be taken from schools and kindergartens, crammed into buses and brought to him to scream that they sacrifice their lives and blood for him in that wearisome play and pathetic scandal.

Isn’t he aware of the magnitude of the childhood suffering in a country where smuggling children abroad has become a disgusting phenomenon and involved hundreds of thousands of youngsters in a heinous exploitation that is run by networks of which some are official? Many times as much children are involved in labor force in order to earn bread for families the President was said to their sole bread-winner!

Mr. President, where has your been compassion for children at a time when your country is full of homeless ones who sleep on pavements and are deprived of medicine, food and the opportunity for a secure future?

Alas! The President has forfeited himself and us the chance to pardon him. However, he won’t forfeit us our demand for him to be prosecuted. How could he give away billions liberally while his salary does not exceed YR 150,000? Where did he and his children and clan who roll in power and money get the farms, estates, factories and castles?

To prosecute him for the unprecedented financial corruption during his reign that has wasted the present and future of a people who could have been way better with him!

To prosecute him in accordance to national legislations that do not prescribe, and international laws that view corruption as a crime against humanity and obligate the Interpol to track down the corrupt so that one day these might return what they had looted!

He has left himself and us no choice and a catastrophe may follow. Yes, that is what we know and expect to happen!

And Somalization might come next. This is likely, too, and we have often warned of it. But what he must know, what they must know, and what we know is that should such a misfortune happen, it would but last for months or even days and that our people and their active movements will remain as the safety valve, and after that, no force could prevent the occurrence of the hard calling to account for anybody who has acquired what is not theirs during this President’s auspicious reign.

To tell the truth, I’m in no way sorry that he has taken back what he had promised; rather I’m ashamed of my being a Yemeni; a shame that will linger for a while.

He was about to bask in glory he doesn’t deserve. This is the law of life where premises indicate consequences, and where reform is impossible to come from the corrupt. Allah said once in Koran to a person who was way more powerful and more resourceful, “What! Now. When hitherto thou hast rebelled and been of the wrong orders?”

Ali Abdullah Saleh, who, as he himself admitted, has nursed sleaze during his reign! And in his reign, Yemenis have paid dearly for every day that passed in hunger, pain and misery in return for him and his corrupt relatives and the other corrupt who protect him and are protected by him to get away with mansions, bank accounts and luxury.

We are determined to oust him peacefully without resorting to anyone. His thunderous fall is imminent and soon he will hear someone tell him, “Escape. Lo! I am of those who give thee good advice.”

* Tawkkol A. Karman is the Chairwoman of the Women Journalists Without Chains WWW.WOMENPRESS.NET . This article was published on al-Thawri weekly under the title Escape. Lo! I am of those who give thee good advice

YO: The recent parliamentary hearing degenerated into chaos and was adjourned after MP Ali Ashal accused the presidential board of acting as an “umbrella for corruption.” Ashal also objected to the absence of the Prime Minister from the meeting, and his failure to answer questions posed nine months ago.

The meeting was adjourned for ten minutes after MP Azam Ali Salah (GPC), called for Ashal to be thrown out of the meeting, thus prompting an exchange of insults and accusations of corruption directed both at the opposition and the GPC.

MP Shakr al-Wajeeh (GPC) addressed Azam and said to him, “The Prime Minister is corrupt and if you were a man you would throw him out or rather throw out the government as a whole.” Ashal then said that, “Those who are corrupt should be brought to the Parliament and made to defend them selves against these accusations, so that we can prove to the nation their crimes.” (Read on …)

Al-Shawa:

Districts at Hajjah, Abyan and Raimah provinces threaten to boycott upcoming election as protest against deteriorating of conditions and non-executing the government projects which it (the government) promised to achieve previously. Politicians consider resorting to boycott as escape of true confrontation. Districts ( kushar, Washhah, karah and Bakeel Al-Mere) in Hajjah threaten to boycott local and presidential coming elections.

A letter was addressed to ruling party branches, a copy of which Sahwa net received, they charged, government head and secretary-general of ruling party ,the responsibility of boycott the election if the government doesn’t response to their demands. The same was happened at demands Raimah governorates.

Update: The path of a new road was moved to the benefit of those old “influential persons.”
News Yemen: The dialogue between the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER) and the legal team including lawyers form the General People’s Congress (GPC) and the Joint Meeting Parties (JMPs) came to dead end, reliable source told NewsYemen.

The leader in the Nasserite Union Party, Yasin Abdul-Razaq, who is also member of the legal team, said that SCER refused to give the team a copy of the electronic voters’ registration and to let them check the past cases referred to justice. The legal team, which includes a number of lawyers, was formed according to the principles agreement signed between GPC and JMPs last June.

NY Legal gteam unable to check voters lists: Sources said that the refusal of SCER’s technicians to allow the legal team check up the voters’ lists “undoubtedly proves that there is horrible thing behind the curtains which the SCER does not want to be known”. JMPs said the ruling party and the commission seek to hide something in the voters’ lists.

Charged with forging documents and harboring a fugative:

NY The Sana’a Penal Court acquitted here on Saturday four out of 23 accused of falsifying official documents, passports and identity cards and ruled other in jail.
Two defendants were freed for inadequate evidences and two were freed after the court considered the term they spent in jail to be in lieu of punishment.
Meanwhile, the court sentenced the other 19 to three years and few months in jail.
The 23 men were charged of forging official documents, identity cards and passports as well as concealing some wanted over the bomb of USS Cole and also a Saudi wanted by Saudi authorities.

YM: A Yemen special court sentenced Saturday 19 suspects to imprisonment terms and acquitted two more of terror charges.
According to the State Security Court, chaired by Judge Najeeb Al Qaderi, 17 of them must serve three years and two months, and two others must serve three years and four months from the date of arrest. The court acquitted two and decided that the period spent by the two others was enough as punishment for them. The men were arrested in different dates inside and outside Yemen over the last few years.
After the judge had recited the verdict, the prosecutor said he would appeal.
On June this year, these 23 men were put on trial for charges that they possess weapons and explosives, housing Al Qaeda elements, and forging documents, identification cards, and passports to travel to Iraq for jihad. Also AFP,

Related: Persons under 35 years of age prohibited from travel without authorization: “Yemeni authorities took preventive security procedures to prevent traveling combatants to Iraq. Security sources told NewsYemen that the Yemeni airports were ordered by security authorities to hold back under 35 travelers both to Syria and Jordan, except who have permission, to avoid making Iraq their next destination.”