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 …)

SHABWA, Oct. 29 — Security authorities in Shabwa governorate have arrested two people in connection with attacking the French oil company C.G.G., which operates in the governorate. The arrest operation took place after tribesmen from Bani Al-Hareth, Al-Nasiatin and Al Isehaq tribes attacked the French company and opened fire on its workers killing three and injuring six.

Brig. Abdurrahman Hanash, Chief of Shabwa Security Department, said police are hunting other suspects involved in the attack. The department intensified security measures around the company and put a stop to the tribal masses that assembled last Thursday. Hanash said security authorities in the governorate took firm security procedures to prevent reoccurrence of such attacks.

Chief of Shawba Security Department said the incident occurred because Bani Al-Hareth, Al-Nasiatin and Al Isehaq tribes insisted the company workers have to be from their tribes. The tribesmen ignore the fact there are technicians from different areas, but they assembled at the company and attacked, but security guards prevented them from storming the company.

As the tribesmen opened fire security guards returned fire. Different media reported that the deaths include one of the attackers, a company worker and one of those applying for work in the company.

(Read on …)

CP:

Ramzi Binalshibh, an admitted al-Qaida planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, tried four times to join the terrorist hijackers who flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001 and has acknowledged his goal of killing as many Americans as possible.
Now the Yemeni man is seeking the help of the U.S. court system to address his complaint that he has been wrongfully imprisoned and treated unfairly by the U.S. government. He filed a legal challenge in federal court in Washington on Oct. 10, asserting his rights to contest his detention and requesting that a court-appointed lawyer represent him free of charge.

In so doing, Binalshibh brought to life the two arguments at the heart of the recent, furious debate over stripping such habeas corpus rights from so-called enemy combatants: the administration’s position that alleged terrorists like him do not deserve access to U.S. courts, and his opponents’ assertion that the American justice system is a model for the world precisely because it accords such basic rights to all.

And parts of the regime are supporting the TFG, so its almost like a mini Yemeni proxy war fought out in Somalia, among all the other proxy wars being fought there.

SANAA, 28 October 2006 — Three Australians and a Dane have been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle weapons to Somalia, a security official said late Thursday.

All four have been studying at the Islamist Iman University, which is run by Sheik Abdul-Majid Al-Zindani. The United States lists Al-Zindani as an Al-Qaeda supporter.

The security official refused to give more details and spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release information to media.

However, a Danish Foreign Ministry official confirmed the arrest of the Dane but refused to identify him. “All I can say is that a Danish national has been arrested according to our information,” said Uffe Wolffheckel of the Foreign Ministry’s Consular Service.

Danish media said the suspect is a 23-year-old male who converted to Islam and moved to Yemen two months ago with his wife and child.

The arrests are part of a state security campaign launched last month against members of an Al-Qaeda cell. The security official said among more than 12 suspected militants arrested in the campaign, six were believed to be linked to the Sanaa cell.

One of the detainees, Ibrahim Abdullah Al-Sinhi, also known as Abu Dujana Al-Misiki, confessed that he was assigned to carry out an attack with an explosive-laden car on Sanaa international airport, the security official said.

Yemen is believed to be a frequent route for smuggling arms to Somali factions.

Al-Eman issues denial.
(Read on …)

Nice oped about the Bangladeshi winner of the Nobel Prize

Between the Owner of ‘Grameen’ and Bin Laden
by Jamil Ziabi Al-Hayat – 16/10/06//

There is a difference between an investor and a destroyer, a bomber and a constructor, between those who respect human rights and preserve human integrity, and those who kill innocent people cold-bloodedly, spreading fear, panic and poverty among human beings, causing people to lose sleep, and destroying their lands. I thought about these dissimilarities when the Bangladeshi Muslim Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize. He is the founder of the ‘Grameen Bank’, established to help the poor, in an effort to bring civilizations, religions and human beings closer to one another, so that they can live in peace. At the opposite end of the spectrum, there is what Osama bin Laden does. He is still hiding from one cave to another, planning how to blow up, destroy and kill; he has introduced the idea of suicide bombers, has founded a terrorist organization, and he does not differentiate between killing a child, a widow, or an elderly.

The World Nobel Peace Prize is awarded annually to those whose work contributes to the achievement of world peace and coexistence. This year, it has introduced us to a kind of person who uses his money, ideas and time to help fighting poverty, and assist people, preserve their rights, and protect them. The Bangladeshi banker Yunus has founded the ‘Grameen Bank’. This is considered the first bank in Bangladesh to have started operating based on a micro-credit system to help the poor. It provides financial loans to the poorest people, especially women, and charges them with small interests that encourage the poor to take these loans. The objective is for them to be able to set up their businesses and implement their private projects, which move them from the circle of poverty to a state of capability and self-reliance. Yunus is the peaceful person who has utilized his ideas and money to fight poverty, to affirm that eradicating it is an important pivot of achieving global peace and security, and to prevent terrorist organizations from infiltrating into poor families, enlisting their children, pushing them into terrorist arms, and violating world security.

Also, the charity work carried out by the Saudi businessman Muhammad Abdul Latif Jameel is in line with what Yunus is doing. These activities are now widespread among the Saudis and the Arabs through the ‘Abdul Latif Jameel’s Fund for Community Service’ and soft loans, in order to fight poverty, and to set up small projects for those in need, so that they can help themselves and realize their dreams. Many women have turned from simple sellers on a sidewalk into shop owners, and into producers integrated in society!

We can draw a comparison. On the one hand, what al-Qaeda does: it adopts Islam as a slogan, and operates in words and deeds in its name. Its leader is Osama bin Laden, who uses his money and capabilities to beguile youth, and to push them into the folds of terrorism, so that they will eventually explode themselves, kill innocent people, and spread fear and terror. On the other hand, there is what Muhammad Yunus and Muhammad Abdu Latif Jameel are doing with their money and capabilities in order to fight poverty, and to contribute to security, stability and international peace. Pure Islam and the real Prophet’s message are represented by what is implemented by Yunus and Adu Latif Jameel, and not by bin Laden, al-Zawahiri and those like them, who devastate the world with corruption and terrorism. Getting the poor out of poverty, rescuing them from the ordeals of time and their difficult lives, giving them hope, a future, well-being and development, making them able to produce, develop, contribute to peace and stability, and do their part in helping other poor: this is the real face of Islam, with no violence or killing innocent people.

What terrorists do increases the number of poor, widows and orphans; spreads fear, terror and poverty; hampers development projects and destroys infrastructure. On the contrary, the award Yunus has obtained is a confirmation that Islam is a religion of peace and security, whereas bin Laden and al-Zawahiri’s ideas are the fruit of evil and sick minds.

A proper human being is one who thinks like the owner of Grameen Bank. After winning the Nobel Peace Prize, he said he would use the money he received from the award, which is estimated at 1.7 million dollars, to look for more inventive ways to help the poor to dispose of their misery, and to provide them with soft loans. Undoubtedly, world peace and security need more of the likes of Yunus, who are ready to use their money and ideas for the sake of mankind and to help it through social solidarity, and by setting up charity businesses, to which Islam exhorts. On the contrary, there is no need for terrorism, for blowing up people, and turning them into bombs that terrorize mankind, inflame wars everywhere, spread poverty, disease and penury, and widow women and orphan children, like al-Qaeda does.

YO:

The Yemeni Foreign Minister, Abu Bakr al-Qirbi called on Somalia’s interim government and Union of Islamic Courts, which currently controls most of the country, to stop fighting and solve their disputes through dialogue. “The best way to solve the problem between them is not by carrying arms and fighting each other, but through dialogue aimed at agreement on what is best for the Somali people—not for the government, and not for the Islamic Courts, but for Somalia and the Somali people,” al-Qirbi told the Yemen Observer in an exclusive interview. (Read on …)

Many many prominent people have been killed in car crashes in Yemen.

NY: The editor-in-chief of Annas newspaper, board chairman of the Annas Foundation for Press, Hamid Shehra was killed in a car accident in Hodeidah Tuesday evening.
Mr. Shehra, who was driving his car coming back from Mecca, was accompanied with his family including his wife and four sons who were injured and moved to a hospital in Hodeidah for treatment.
Mr. Shehra, who was born in 1973, is the founder of Annas Foundation for Press and Naspress.net in addition to his paper Annas weekly. He is also a famous author and has a book entitled “Masra al-Ebtisama” (The Smile Murder).
The Islamic Islah party expressed sympathy with Shehra’s family and said “Islah lost one of the most outstanding professionals and skilled authors, not only in Islah, but in Yemen as a whole. He was a distinguished school for press in Yemen and has true participations in making changes in the press reality in the country. He was a good example of honesty and making sacrifices”.

Update: back tire blew up. If he was a few hundred meters from the border, how was he going fast enough to get killed?

YT: The journalist died in a traffic accident last Wednesday in Al-Khasham Area, Hodeidah governorate, only a few hundred meters from Haradh’s Customs Point situating near the Yemeni-Saudi borders.

The back wheel of Shuhrah’s car blew up as the journalist was driving back to Yemen from Mecca after performing Omrah.

The accident instantly killed Shuhrah and injured his wife and four children, Malek, Mohamed, Ahmad and Mustafa, who were transferred to a Hodeida hospital.

Then they towed the car hundreds of miles away.

OK its not just me: The first thought to come to my mind when I heard about his death is that he was assassinated. He died in a car accident just like my father. However, the circumstances indicate that it was likely an unlucky act of fate. It is quite sad to see him leaving at this stage, when so much is yet to be done.

I don’t know. It would be nice if it was true. International orgs estimate about 42% of the people live on under $2.00/ day. Some people use the 1$/ day rate to estimate poverty levels. This article doesn’t say which standard it is. Also the Yemeni Central Statistical Organization estimates unemployment at 11% and international estimates are much higher there too.

YO: Last year saw a dramatic reduction of poverty in Yemen, says a new report. The poverty rate fell from 41.8 percent in 1998 to 35.5 percent in 2005. The 2005 progress report on poverty reduction strategies shows that the urban poor have been the primary beneficiaries of this drop, as the general poverty indicators fell in urban areas by 39 percent, but only fell by 9 percent in the rural areas, said the head of a poverty-monitoring unit in the Ministry of Planning, Abdul-Hakeem al-Sharjabi in a symposium on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty held last Tuesday in Sana’a city.

The one-day symposium was organized by Ministry of Planning in cooperation with the United National Development Program and a group of civic organizations. In the symposium, Dr. Yahya al-Mutawakel, Deputy Minister of Planning & International Cooperation said that the UN Secretary General confirmed the commitment of donors to their obligations to fulfill the first goal of the Millennium Development plan, which is to halve poverty by 2015.

“It is a collective responsibility to do this, by setting up a real partnership among the government, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector,” he said. Since 1990s, the government of Yemen has adopted strategies for development and combating poverty. It began fighting poverty by drawing up plans, including a five-year plan and strategy for poverty reduction. The government has tried, through its policies, to reduce the poverty rate, especially in rural areas. The government looks at contributions from civil society organizations, as well as from the private sector, in its efforts to eliminate poverty.

1 is the best and 168th goes to North Korea:

AllAfrica.com: Yemen (149th) slipped four places, mainly because of the arrest of several journalists and closure of newspapers that reprinted the cartoons. Journalists were harassed for the same reason in Algeria (126th), Jordan (109th), Indonesia (103rd) and India (105th).

But except for Yemen and Saudi Arabia (161st), all the Arab peninsula countries considerably improved their rank. Kuwait (73rd) kept its place at the top of the group, just ahead of the United Arab Emirates (77th) and Qatar (80th).

Yemen extracts benefits from the West, notably the US, in return for its cooperation in global anti-terror efforts. Likewise Yemen’s efforts at democratization, especially the improved conduct of September’s presidential election, should result in an increase in badly needed donor funds. However, in the aftermath of the election, the Yemeni regime has begun discrediting, arresting and harassing opposition leaders, activists and voters. In one bizarre case, the regime has alleged a human rights activist is linked to al-Qaeda, casting doubt on the sincerity of both Yemen’s democracy promotion and its efforts against terrorism. (Read on …)

26 Septemper (sic)

26 Sep.net has been informed from judicial sources that specialized Criminal Court in Sanaa will issue judgment in the case of Al-Hawthi cell in Sanaa in the next mid-November, the defendants in this case 37 people after the prosecution added accused Hamid al-Naimi to the list included three of the defendants who previously brought charges of planning to assassinate the American ambassador and attack the American embassy in Sanaa (Read on …)

Nifty.

Still cant find Saddam’s nephew either.

(update: another interview)

In an exclusive interview, a prominent Iraqi Baathist says that the Baathist resistance in Iraq is preparing a major offensive for January 2007, and that as long as the United States refuses to open an unconditional dialogue with the Baathists, the armed resistance and its allies, there will be no respite from the withering attacks that have left more than 85 U.S. troops dead this month alone. (Read on …)

a do-over

SANA’A, Oct. 18 — The Appeal Court in Lahj told the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum to repeat local council elections in one of the voting centers in Al-Had District, Yafe’e, within 60 days.

The main committee in the district and the supervisory committee in the governorate announced earlier that the local council candidate of Joint Meeting Parties at the governorate level, Ali Mohamed Saleh won 5034 votes, compared to 4734 votes for his closest rival.

The verdict was issued following a vote result challenge filed by the local council candidate of General People Congress against the JMP candidate’s victory.

The commission for elections is expected to call on Yemeni voters in 5 districts and 80 voting centers to revote in the complementary elections in these districts and centers where the poll process was suspended during the election.

The Election Law stipulates that complementary elections must be conducted in any voting centers or districts where the vote result was cancelled or the poll process suspended within three months following the date of cancelling the vote result.

(Read on …)