Armies of Liberation

Gulf news: In June, Abu Al Feda a/k/a/ Rashad Mohammad Saeed a/k/a Abul Fida’a negotiates directly with Yemeni President Saleh and Ghalib al-Qamish, the head of the PSO, who promise not to restrict the movements of released al-Qaeda in exchange for no attacks in Yemen.

He pointed out to promises from authorities to solve the problems facing him and his colleagues after their release. So far, the Yemeni authorities say they have released about 315 Al Qaida suspects for lack of evidence against them.

“It was also agreed to cancel measures imposed on those who are released, like house arrest, the monthly signing of official register and taking permission if you wish to go another province in Yemen,” he said. “The youth should be allowed to travel wherever they wish in the country and outside the country if they get visas like normal citizens.”

He also said those who lost their jobs because of imprisonment would be returned to their jobs. “I and my brotherly youth will be committed not to do anything that may undermine the security or damage the public interests of society,” he said.

News Yemen describes Abu al Feda as a major figure in Al-Qaeda and former Taliban leader: In October, Abu al Feda affirms the truce is still holding: “The Yemeni government will not enter open confrontations with Mujahideen after the incident”. He said that Yemen was the best country to deal with Mujahideen (combatants) when it has adopted the dialogue method.

In 2000, Abu al Feda sponsors Jose Padilla for training in Afghanistan. The form used is identical to that filled out by the Lackawanna crew in 2001 including Gaber Albanna who of course is currently in the wind.

CNN, February 2006

Prosecutors say the sponsor listed on the form, Abu Al Feda, is the same name on a piece of paper Padilla had when he returned to the United States.

Prosecutors also say a cooperating witness who went to an al Qaeda camp will testify that he filled out an identical form.

CNN has learned that witness is Yahya Goba, one of the so-called Lackawanna Six, the group of six Yemeni-American men who spent the summer of 2001 in al Qaeda camps and are now serving seven to 10 years in prison for providing material support for a terrorist organization.

A seventh man who went with the group, Jaber Elbaneh, was among a group of terrorist suspects who escaped from a Yemeni jail two weeks ago.

Informed sources note that Abu al Feda is working officially in the PSO as colonel, has direct contact with the president, and has significant authority among the Jihadist groups. That’s pretty much what the news articles say as well.

Padilla’s trial is scheduled to begin January 22, 2007. (Read on …)

Because of course there are benefits that acrue when one is seen as cracking down on terrorism.

ABC Radio Australia

MARK COLVIN: The Government has released more information on three Australians arrested in Yemen on terrorism charges.

The three men were among a group of eight foreigners arrested two weeks ago for allegedly smuggling weapons to Islamic militias in Somalia. The men are believed to have converted to Islam earlier this year and were in Yemen for religious study.

Yemeni authorities say they’re suspected of being linked to al-Qaeda. (Read on …)

What a thorough article from The Gulf News:

10/26/2006 06:23 PM | By Duraid Al Baik, Foreign Editor

Presidential and local elections held in Yemen last month revealed a great political and social division over how to run Yemen following a 28-year single party monopoly.

However, Yemenis unanimously agree that the reasons behind Yemen’s setbacks are not all political.

They believe social norms are also to be blamed for the backwardness of the country in many aspects.

Politicians from the ruling party and the opposition gave identical reasons for the “illness” of Yemen. Qat and corruption are behind the social crisis in Yemen, they said. (Read on …)

on tourist marriages, COCA reports ect

NY

The Committee of Justice and Endowments in the Parliament postpones following up the issue of the tourist marriage, the phenomenon which has become the focus of local and Arab newspapers and space channels.
Official report revealed that the committee did nothing about the issue since it has been assigned by the Parliament to inspect facts about the issue especially in Ibb.
The report said that the committee had not achieved five other tasks including the inspection of financial and administrative violations reported by the Central Organization for Auditing and Controlling (COCA) for the years 2003 and 2004.

Arrests orchestrated by the CIA, now that makes sense.

(Update: no they deny it.)

From the Australian paper The Age:

SMALL groups of young Australian men are going to Yemen for jihadi training, according to law enforcement sources concerned the country has replaced Central Asia as a destination for Australian extremists.

A law enforcement source said Yemen was attracting radical local Islamists for religious and military training because of the counter-terrorist crackdowns in nations such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. “Yemen is the new wild west,” the source said.

His claim came as Yemeni intelligence officers interrogated three Australian men accused of smuggling guns to Islamic militants in Somalia and having links to al-Qaeda.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has yet to make contact with the men, who were arrested two weeks ago alongside a Dane, a German, a Briton and a Somali man.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer confirmed yesterday that two of the men — brothers aged 18 and 21 — were born in Australia, while a third was born in Poland and gained citizenship in the 1980s.

The family of two of the three Australians say the two brothers were set up by Australian security agencies and had been “hassled” by ASIO before they left the country.

Sydney lawyer Adam Houda said he had been contacted by the family of the two brothers, describing them as devout, law-abiding Muslims who had only recently gone to the Yemeni capital of Sanaa with their families to further their religious instruction.

“They wouldn’t be out of place in Byron Bay,” he said of the two brothers, who he said were of Anglo-Saxon background.

“The family is very, very upset and they believe there is no doubt the Australian Government is responsible … they used to get hassled in Australia by ASIO and some people intervened when they were flying out of the country.”

The arrests are believed to have been orchestrated by the CIA. There were suggestions yesterday the men could be whisked away to Guantanamo Bay to be interrogated.

But terrorism expert Clive Williams, a visiting fellow at the Australian National University, doubted the men would be sent there.

“I’d be doubtful the Americans would want them at Guantanamo Bay because they’re trying to wind it down anyway. I’m not sure if the Americans would want more problems at this stage,” he said.

Unconfirmed information from security sources suggests that some of the three men have links to the Ayub brothers, the two Indonesian men who set up a Jemaah Islamiah cell in Australia in the late 1990s.

More from the New York Times (Read on …)

Article from the Yemen Observer . I like this paragraph in particular:

Yemen’s electricity generating and distribution capacity is currently vastly deficient in meeting the public’s electrical needs. Less than one-third of households in Yemen have access to electricity from the national power grid. In rural areas, only 13 percent of the population does. Most cities have regular rolling blackouts. Yemen’s electricity shortage, in addition to harming the quality of life, has a negative impact on economic development, and foreign investment. Yemen’s electrical requirements will grow substantially as Yemen’s population of 20 million is expected to double in less than 25 years.

Another interesting factoid: On normal days, the electricity demand peaks for about two hours, whereas during Ramadan it peaks for eight hours, said Abdul-Mo’ti al-Junaid, general manager of the Public Electricity Corporation in Sana’a. “The availability of power we can offer could not run over 650 megawatts, while the power demand is more than 770 or 780 megawatts. This creates a shortage of about 100 megawatts.

I think its overstated but the two thwarted attacks don’t reflect well on the security issue.

18 Oct 2006 10:38 CEDT OPIC Concerned By Total-Led Yemen LNG Terror Risk-Sources

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, or OPIC, is concerned that a Total SA (TOT)-led Yemen LNG gas project it’s in talks to back financially, could face a USS Cole-type of attack, people familiar with the project’s risk assessment have said.

However, none of the people said the risk appeared to be enough to deter OPIC from supporting the project.

A spokesman for Yemen LNG said “we can confirm that security is a priority for Yemen LNG and the project has in place a security plan… in liaison with the Yemeni authorities.”

Concerns are surfacing as Yemen last month foiled an attempt by suicide bombers to blow up two oil installations with explosives-laden cars in near-simultaneous attacks, days after al-Qaida threatened to strike facilities in the Persian Gulf. However, the first liquefied-natural-gas, or LNG, exports won’t start before early 2009, according to Yemen LNG’s Website.

Spokespeople for OPIC and Total confirmed the U.S. public finance institution was in talks to back the $3.7 billion Yemeni LNG project. They declined to comment further. OPIC backs projects either through loans or political risk insurance.

People familiar with the assessment said OPIC has been concerned that terrorists could attack an LNG tanker departing from the project’s terminal, in a pattern similar to the USS Cole bombing. The U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer USS Cole was attacked on Oct. 12, 2000 in a suicide attack while it was harbored in the port of Aden. The explosion killed 17 sailors. Another person was killed in the attack on a French oil tanker, the Limburg, two years later.

But one person said the risk was actually seen as stronger along the coast of Somalia, where an Islamic movement has seized large parts of the country.

A 2004 study by Lockheed Martin Co.’s Sandia National Laboratories, for the U.S. Department of Energy, show that the super-cooled gas -if ignited- could create a massive aerial fire if ignited and released. The thermal hazard may then spread over 1,600 meters around the area of spill. Yemen LNG’s Website also lists, among other issues, the risk of loss of livelihoods from fishing but adds it prepared projects to benefit fishermen.

CitiGroup (C) is currently advising Yemen LNG to raise financing, a spokesman said. The Total spokesperson said Yemen LNG is also in talks for a financing plan from credit agencies Nippon Export and Investment Insurance, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, France’s COFACE and the Korea Exim Bank.

Yemen LNG’s shareholders include: the Yemeni government, represented by Yemen Gas Co., with 16.7%, Total, also the operator with 39.6%, Hunt Oil Co. with 17.2% and South Korea’s SK Corp. (003600.SE), with 9.55%.

More on Yemen LNG here.

How nice she’s getting the international coverage she deserves:

YT:

The Yemeni Nadia al-Saqqaf is Editor-in-Chief and a woman. This makes her a rare exception in the Arab world. Although repression in Yemen is increasing, she remains optimistic.

Her father died in 1999 in a car accident. Since her brother wanted to continue his studies, Nadia al-Saqqaf was left to run the family business. She became one of the few female editors-in-chief in the Arab

world, publishing the bi-weekly Yemen Times, an independent English-language newspaper in the capital Sana’a. “A newspaper with a mission,” says al-Saqqaf (29) “accurate and constructive”:

a newspaper that is not only criticizing the government, but also furnishes solutions. “My father founded the Yemen Times to raise Yemen into becoming a good world citizen.”

In June 2006, Al-Saqqaf was in The Hague, the Netherlands by invitation of Free Voice to attend the launch of a program for journalists in the Middle East and North Africa: Investing in the Future. According to Al-Saqqaf it is not possible to reform societies in a short period of time. “But we can ensure that journalists work more professionally.”

Free Media award

In May 2006, the Yemen Times was awarded the Free Media Award by the International Press Institute (IPI) in Vienna. According to the jury, the newspaper is functioning in a part of the world where governments prohibit independent media that offer a platform for the opposition. In doing so, a climate of fear and self-censorship is created. Nonetheless, the Yemen Times, says IPI, succeeds to report “accurate and timely about the developments in Yemen”.

The Yemen Times, says al-Saqqaf, “is patriotic when it comes to issues concerning the promotion of tourism and investments, the development of the country.” At the same time, the newspaper does not back away from issues like corruption amongst the public authorities, “but in a constructive way”. (Read on …)