Armies of Liberation

Talking to young people about terrorism. Kudos to HOOD. It kind of reminds me of the gang prevention programs in the US. Or the DARE classes in US middle schools (Drug Use Resistance Education) which teach life skills, critical thinking and tactics kids can take to avoid using drugs. Its an important discussion that has to take place way before anyone is incarerated. Rehabilitation is important, but helping young people avoid a destructive lifestyle is a critical issue as well.

YO: How do you envision a terrorist? Such was the question posed by Khaled al-Ansi, the executive manager of the Hood organization for freedom and liberty, to his young students, members of a new committee of young people dedicated to fighting terrorism and extremism. A terrorist is a man who abuses his children, offered Abdul-Wahab Fadhel, one of the students. Anyone in authority who persecutes his people is a terrorist, added Jalal al-Baddai.

Saleem al-Ghailani, 23, a student in the Sana’a University law school, said that he cannot draw an image of a terrorist, but he has one in his mind. “If I was a painter, I would draw a picture of an ordinary person, whose mind and heart has been changed and snakes came out of his mouth.”

Alaa’ al-Aghbari, 24, also imagined an ordinary person, but with a gun. All of these definitions are correct, said al-Ansi, because terrorism is the act of frightening people with acts of violence. One student asked, “But why do they blame us for killing people if their countries invade ours?” Al-Ansi replied that it is illegal according to Islam to kill any person. “Why are we happy when we see a train in America destroyed and not when the same thing occurs in Egypt,” al-Ansi asked. “The ones who revealed the scandal of Abu Ghraib prison were free Americans.”

These seven youths are part of a committee dedicated to fighting terrorism and extremism; they will be responsible for raising awareness among the youth in the future. The committee was organized by the Democracy School, which trains youths to serve in various committees. The training course started by identifying terrorism on etymological and ideological grounds. Al-Ansi hopes that simply making his students aware of the issue of terrorism, and what motivates terrorists, can help prevent the spread of terrorism.

(Read on …)

Again. How retarded. At one point, the regime stooge media was saying opposition journalists are “a third sex.” Funny but not. Its nice the western media is giving Yemen more publicity. To western people, outrageous allegations against Yemeni journalists just prove how repressive the regime is and how much it has to hide, which is a lot.

New York, November 28, 2006—Yemen’s leading state-run newspaper Al-Thawra attacked independent editor Jamal Amer upon his return from the United States where he received the Committee to Protect Journalists 2006 International Press Freedom Award.

The daily ran a front-page article on November 26 suggesting that he was a U.S. agent and warning of possible legal action in response to his critical coverage of neighboring Saudi Arabia.

The article accused Amer and his independent weekly Al-Wasat of harming Yemen’s ties with Saudi Arabia and accused him of collaborating with U.S. intelligence. The attack appeared to be in response to Al-Wasat’s republication earlier this month of an article by former CIA case officer Robert Baer in Atlantic Monthly. Baer wrote that the ruling House of Saud was in danger of collapse.

The Al-Thawra article, titled “In whose interest the targeting of Yemeni-Saudi relations?” said that “The bad intention behind the publication of such an article and who is likely to benefit from it are no secret to anybody; particularly when we know that the editor of Al Wasat is currently visiting the USA and enjoying the care of …some Americans known for their closeness to the intelligence services.”

(Read on …)

Libyan socialite funds the re-organization of Baath Party in Yemen.

In 2006, the Yemeni Baath party split from the opposition coalition and supported President Saleh’s re-election bid. As the following article notes, Yemen recruited Iraqi military personnel in 2003. Later former Iraqi generals were noted particpating in offensives in the Saddah region alongside General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, paid tribesmen, Aden Abyan Islamic Army members and some Afghan Arabs. Reports last year indicated that subverted elements of Yemeni security forces had established training camps for Baathist insurgents. Saddam’s nephew, Omar Sabawi Ibrahim Hasan Al-Tikriti, is wanted by interpol for funding and directing the Iraqi insurgency in Mosul from Yemen. There’s a regular flow of Yemeni youth to Iraq. Some family members of suicide bombers report that they were trained with the assistance of high ranking Yemeni military and that there are safe houses are in Sanaa, which they listed.

SANNA: Libya is seemingly trying to build up momentum in Yemen after decades of “cold” relations. After the failed Nasserite coup against Saleh in 1978, said to be backed by Gaddafi, Libyan-Yemeni relations soured. Libya was also always on the side of ex- South Yemen in its series of wars with Saleh’s north.

President Saleh visited Libya just before elections and news reports indicated that Libya provided a million or two million dollars for his presidential campaigns. Libya was also reported to be supporting Hussein Al-Ahmar, the younger son of Parliament speaker Sheikh Abdullah , to form an opposition party in Yemen after quitting the GPC.

According to the official 26 of September, Said-el-Islam Al-Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader is in Sana’a to meet with President Saleh’s son, head of Yemen’s special forces including the anti-terrorism unit, Col. Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh to discuss “cooperation in the field of charity between the NGOs that they preside in their countries”.

Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh leads the Al-Saleh Welfare society, while Saif-el-Islam heads “Gaddafi Global corporation for Welfare Societies”. However Mareb press, Naba News and others reported Libyan mediation between authorities and Al-Houthi rebels of Sa’da. Reportedly Gaddadfi is carrying a letter regarding the topic from his father to the Yemeni president.

Exiled ex-parliamentarian Yahya Al-Houthi on Sunday accused Yemeni authorities of provoking more fighting and ignoring the prospect of a “Libyan mediation”. Al-Houthi told the indepndent Mareb Press in a phone interview that Gaddafi’s proposal included release of all prisoners and commitment to President’s amnesty”. Today the opposition and other media announced that all Houthi partisans imprisoned in Sa’da and Hodeida were suddenly released, although numerous amnesty declarations had previously failed to bring about this result.

Arab and Gulf media, and some Yemeni media, recently reported that Aisha Al-Gaddafi, the daughter of the Libyan veteran is funding the re-organization of Iraqi Baath party in Yemen with millions of dollars. Aisha, like her brother, is heading a welfare society of an unknown budget, but said to be immense.The new Baath is formed of those who left Iraq after the fall of Saddam, many of which were granted facilities in Yemen. It is said that the ex-head of Iraq women union (in Saddam’s time) who obtained political asylum in Sana’a, visited Libya twice for this issue. The new organization is reportedly confined to Sunni sect, and not even ex-Baathist Shi’as are allowed in. An unofficial report by Naba news said that Iraqis who entered Yemen in the past two or three years are around 26,000. News by Asharq Al-awsat Arabic London daily said that Yemen is trying to convince the Americans to allow the Baath party a role in Iraq after re-organization. Aisha is a very strong advocate of Saddam Hussein, and had visited him once. She also visited his daughter in Amman recently.

Some media sources said that Saudi Arabia had circulated to its friendly intelligence services in the region a list of names of “significant personalities” paid by Libya including Yemeni tribal figures who visited Libya more than once recently “to disturb security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.” A foothold in Yemen may be a way for Libya to confront Saudi Arabia.

five killed

almotamar.net - SANAA-Five persons were killed, among them three security men in clashes took place Tuesday morning in Sana’a between bodyguards of MP Mithhij Al-Ahmar son of sheikh Abdullah bi Hussein al-Ahmar speaker of the parliament and policemen.

A security source told almotamar.net that the clash took place while the police were on their duty inspecting and searching for weapons in the capital. The MP Mithhij Al-Ahmar refused to respond to those in charge with the search campaign and his bodyguards started shooting at the police patrol which led to killing three of them and two of the bodyguards and another police was wounded and was taken to hospital. The source said the security members seized two of the bodyguards of (al-Ahmar).

More

Demonstration

this is a letter to the editor at the YT:

We have a complaint regarding our building in Mukalla which was handed over to Yemen Economic Corporation without any legal judgment. Therefore, we appeal through your esteemed newspaper to President Ali Abdullah Saleh to compact the corruption with the terms of London Donors Conference and to return our building after the law said its word, but Yemen Economic Corporation does not recognize with the law.

(Read on …)

if they write anything critical and specific

Abdulhamid al-Sharabi, a reporter at Saba News Agency, filed a complaint with the Yemen Journalist Syndicate after he recieved a death threat by phone. The caller referenced an article al-Sharabi had published in the official al-Thawra newspaper. Al-Sharabi said “on Sunday I received a phone call from unknown person who intimidated me bluntly to be killed due to publishing an article.” According to al-Sharabi, “he threatened me saying, ‘you who wrote about people, you will be killed and dumped in the street like a dog.’ ”

Al-Sharabi’s article addressed citizens’ complaints regarding violations and irregularities at Sharab al-Rouna court. The article was entitled “From the Hallways of One of the Courts.” Al-Sharabi demanded YJS to act quickly on his case in order to protect his life.

17 YSP members reported detained

SANA’A, Nov. 29 — The Yemeni Socialist Party’s General Secretariat denounced illegal practices against its members who staged a sit-in Sunday in Aden governorate protesting an attempt to destroy the party’s premises in Al-Qallowa district of Aden governorate.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the YSP stated such arbitrary practices are continuation of practices by the state’s influential figures to target leaders and activists in the party, with attempts to control the party’s properties and documents.

On Monday, security forces in Aden governorate attacked a number of YSP members and activists who staged a sit-in with their backdrop their party’s premises under destruction. More than 17 people were reportedly detained and beaten at the site.

“Security forces hit and detained members of the party, including three people who are members in the party’s central committee,” said the YSP statement. Security forces beat protestors with the gun butts and cudgels, and then brought them to a local police station.

(Read on …)

Yemeni media sources report that security authorities thwarted an attempt to blast the Drug factory located in Madhbah (north of Sana’a). The opposition RAY News reprted late Sunday that a group of 6 men tried plant explosives but escaped after being noticed by security troops.

It quoted sources saying that specialized teams of counter terror forces managed to dismantle the bombs, saying that Qaeda connection is a possibility, and that the group is being pursued. The news service attributed the failure of the attempt to the extensive security measures around vital installations following Qaeda threats last month.

Akhbar Al-Yom daily gave more details saying that the attempt was made Friday morning and that explosives were placed by the internal side of factory’s wall . The explosives were about 60 Kg of high explosive TNT . They were noted by the factory’s military guards who shot at them which forced them to escape with a waiting Mercedes. As security troops arrived, they found a bag and a tape recorder left behind by the groups, but securities sources declined to tell the paper what was inside that bag or where investigations are leading.

The factory is of the Yemeni Drugs Company, affiliated to the Yemeni economic corporation. No official comment was published until this moment.

Many people respect Robin Madrid, rightly so. Interview with the YO:

Robin Madrid, former director of the Washington-based National Democratic Institute, left Sana’a earlier in November, after five years of passionate yet challenging work on NDI’s mission in Yemen. Madrid, 66, told The Washington Post last year that she hates seeing people suffering.

Therefore, she decided to bring about change in Yemen, working to improve the welfare of its people through preaching and monitoring democracy. Madrid worked as an invisible teacher of democracy, playing the role of broker between the ruling General People’s Congress and the Joint Meeting Parties. Beyond the democracy issue, she thought she could help the tribal-revenge torn areas in Al-Jawf and Marib governorates by getting them around a table to discuss, plan and create a civil society organization to tackle their issues.

(Read on …)

They really can’t take a joke.

SANA’A, Nov. 26 — Sana’a University’s General Union for Yemeni Students is calling for investigations into a death threat leveled at Yemeni pop singer Mohammed Al-Adhroei’ during a reception last week at the university’s Faculty of Commerce.

Head of the union, Ridhwan Masoud, said Al-Adhroei’ was threatened to be killed if he attended the celebration, to which the student union had invited him to perform a sketch.

Masoud recounted, “At the directive of Sana’a University President Khalid Tamim, several soldiers stopped me at the university gate and took me to Doctor Tamim, who refused the idea of hosting the pop singer.” Although surprised by Tamim’s position, he noted, “He is the president of the largest Middle Eastern university.”

According to Masoud, Tamim’s response was, “Al-Adhroei’ isn’t allowed to attend because he criticizes the state. If either you or Al-Adhroei’ attend, then we will fight.”

The union head went on to say that Tamim thereafter would hold university security responsible if the pop singer managed to attend the celebration, demanding strict measures be taken. “Upon hearing Tamim’s orders, a security official named Yahya Al-Azaki told me he’d kill Al-Adhroei’, repeating that sentiment three times,” Masoud pointed out.

Taking no action, Masoud headed for the hall where hundreds of students were awaiting the celebration. There, he was surprised to see approximately 40 heavily-armed soldiers with grenades and guns spread around the hall. “I asked the reason for their presence and one soldier replied that they were ready to fire should Al-Adhroei’ attend,” Masoud added.

(Read on …)

to faciliate the movement of Yemeni products to Syrian markets

Sana’a, Nov. 26 (Saba) - The minister of agricultural and irrigation Jalal Faqirah held talks on Sunday with Syrian counterpart .

In the meeting, they discussed joint cooperation between two friendly countries in the agricultural field and requirements of development.
Theyalso discussed the activities of Yemeni-Syrian joint technical committee, which will be held on 7-11 December in addition to an
exhibition of Yemeniand Syrian products.

The talks dealt with increasing commercial cooperation between the two countries and the possibilities of activating transportation
agreement which aims to remove any difficulties face Yemen products while moving to Syrian market.

following up on earlier reports:

M&C Sana’a, Yemen - Yemen has begun talks with Iraqi officials and their political rivals to convince them attend a reconciliation conference that Yemen is expected to host, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu-Bakr al-Qerbi said in remarks published Sunday.

The minister, whose comments were published by a state-run website, said the Arab League and Iraq’s neighbouring countries were involved in the discussions over the planned meeting.

‘All the Iraqi factions should take part in the conference,’ the minister said, adding that such a meeting is ‘badly needed’ to unify the Iraqi people and ‘avert a civil war.’

Al-Qerbi did not give a date for the proposed conference.

OK at first glance, Yemeni Prime Minster Ba Jammal’s speech appears to be the disjointed ramblings of a lunatic. Upon further examination, it seems Ba Jammal is attacking the opposition parties, undermining their legitimacy and right to oppose, describing political competition as a type of coup attempt. Wacky yes but unbridled power tends to corrupt peoples minds as well as their ethics.

PM Bajammal discloses attempted coup conspiracy
Sunday, 26-November-2006
Almotamar.net - SANAA -General People’s Congress (GPC)’s secretary general Abdulqader Bajammal disclosed Sunday a plot adopted by the opposition (JMP bloc) aimed at undermining the presidential elections in Yemen and to show them as if just a sham and decorative process. The prime minister pointed out that opposition parties have used a person to carry out the task on their behalf and whether that person succeeded or failed in his task they have a different thing in their minds.

Mr. Bajammal likened the dealing of the parties of the JMP with the electoral process to disguise parties people used to perform during the middle ages where they put on clothes and masks hiding their persons and reality from others, as a kind of deception.

Bajammal launched a severe attack on those parties, making it clear that their alliance was based on one question, that is the enmity against president Ali Abdullah Saleh and the GPC and more than that the entire political system. He described the policy and address of the opposition during the elections as depreciating the people, spreading lies and unrealistic sayings.

(Read on …)

Debka: Meshaal’s consent to finally travel to Cairo last week raised some hopes that he had come around to accepting a Palestinian unity government and discussing the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit. He soon dashed those hopes. Our sources learn he has left Cairo leaving behind a list of tough demands and headed for Yemen to lead a secret Hamas conference called to plot the next Palestinian-Israeli war.

(Read on …)

or not

SANA’A, Nov. 25(Saba)- The Primary Specialized Penal Court commenced, on Saturday, the trial of a suspect of counterfeiting official documents attributed to president Ali Abdullah Saleh and military intelligence.

During the court session, presided by judge Najeeb al-Qadiri, the court secretary read out the charges attributed to H.M.H. from 2004 to May 2006 during which he counterfeited a number of high level official documents.

The accusations decision pointed out that the 26 year-old defendant forged an official stamp carving on it director of intelligence office, with an alien name, issued letters to a number of groups to interfere with them and arrogated himself with different military ranks. The claim, for his part, made
clear that the list of the evidence contains the reasons and documents which the suspect has counterfeited to which he admitted.

Moreover, he added that the defendant deceived people in al-Mahabish district, Hajja governorate that he is in the position of an informer of the president and works for the Intelligence and National Security. Therefore, the claim asked the court to sentence the suspect to the toughestlawful and legal penalty since forging crimes are of extreme danger for it shakes people’s trust.

The defendant refuted to reply to the charges and confessions attributed to him until he appoints a lawyer to represent him in the
coming hearingon December 9.

SINGAPORE, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Yemen pulled out of the Asian Games soccer tournament because of a lack of cash to drug-test their squad following reports that players were addicted to a banned substance, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said.
Yemeni soccer chiefs withdrew the team on Thursday, citing insufficient funds to carry out dope tests ordered by the Yemen Olympic Council (YOC), the AFC said on its Web site.
The YOC had advised the YFA to consider pulling out following media reports that a number of players were using the banned drug khat, a leaf which has a stimulant effect when chewed.
Yemen were the second team to pull out after Turkmenistan’s withdrawal on Tuesday.
The qualification process will be changed to allow the two runners-up from the first round to advance to the next stage along with the group winners.
The Asian Games soccer tournament gets under way on Tuesday, three days before the official Games opening.

Recaptured after a few hours or two days.

Update 2: Ministry of the Interior denies escape occured.

Update: Reportedly recaptured.

Its not the second escape this year but the third. There was another seven in August who escaped jail, in between the 23 in February and this 13.

Sana’a - Thirteen men reportedly suspected of having links to al-Qaeda terrorist activities have escaped from a prison in north- western Yemen, a press report said Saturday.

The report by the Ray News website said the 13 were suspected members of al-Qaeda and that they escaped from a jail in the Hajja province, some 130 kilometres north east of the capital Sana’a. ‘Some of the escapees held Arab nationalities,’ said the report.

Interior Ministry officials confirmed the reported escape, but they told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the jail breakers were were not detained over terror-related charges. Five had been recaptured over the past two days, they added.

The officials said investigations were underway to find out how the detainees managed to escape. The men had been extradited by Saudi authorities after they infiltrated Saudi territory seeking better jobs.

It was the second jailbreak in Yemen this year after 23 al-Qaeda operatives escaped from an intelligence jail in Sana’a on February 3.

The men tunnelled their way out of the high-security intelligence prison. The mass escape embarrassed the Yemeni government and dealt a major blow to its efforts to pursue supporters of al-Qaeda.

Among the February escapees were 13 convicts in the 2000 bombing of the US destroyer USS Cole in the southern Yemeni port of Aden and the bombing of the French oil tanker.

Nine of the escapees have been recaptured or gave themselves up to the authorities, including six convicted in the oil tanker attack.

On September 15, two of the February jail breakers were among four suicide bombers who carried out attacks at two oil facilities in eastern Yemen, according to officials.

© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Also the report fails to mention that of the February escapees, eight of the eleven re-captured were subsequently released based on the personal guarantee of Sheikh Tarek Fadli.

Also of the 23, Fawaz al-Raibee and Mohammed al-Dailami were killed by Yemeni forces late September, two were killed in the thwarted suicide attacks and eight are still in the wind including Jabeer Elbanegh and Jamal Badawi. (Read on …)

Update: Freed by the attorney general after two hours.

The first of three verdicts in the cases of the newspapers that published the Mohammed cartoons. The following article was written by Mohammed al-Asadi who was imprisoned for several weeks on the same charges and who also has a verdict pending against him. The YO’s license was revoked in February, and it resumed publishing in May.

YO: Kamal al-Olufi, editor of the Al-Rai Al-A’am weekly, was imprisoned today, after Judge Hassan al-Akwa’a sentenced him to a year behind bars for insulting Islam and abusing the prophet.

The judge also ordered that the newspaper be shut down for six months, and that al-Olufi be banned from writing for the same period, upon completion of his prison sentence. Moreover, al-Olufi was also sentenced to pay for the publishing of the court verdict in all the newspapers in the country.

Al-Rai Al-A’am ran an image of the Danish paper Jyllands Posten’s homepage, on which with some of the cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed were visible. The Al-Rai Al-A’am was defending the prophet, and protested the Danish cartoons, according to its editor, Al-Olufi.

Defense lawyers Mohammed Naji Allawo and Khaled Al-Anesi described the verdict as a scandal. However, the lawyers of radical sheikh Abdul-Majid Al-Zindani, whose accusations against the press and various editors were rejected by the judge, were visibly happy and excited to hear the sentence. Zindani commissioned 21 prosecutors to prosecute newspapers and editors who republished images of the Danish cartoons.

Judge Al-Akwa’a’s announcement was received with mixed reactions. Some screamed “Long Live Justice!” and other voices cried out, “It Is Unjust!”

Smiling, the judge asked the head of defense team, after the conclusion of the session, “What do you think of my verdict?”

“It is wrong,” Allawo said.

The Yemen Observer and its editor-in-chief are scheduled to hear their verdicts in a similar case, by Judge Sahl Hamza in another Sana’a court on December 6.

Also at al-Shoura, the website of the last editor sentenced to a year in jail, my buddy al-Khaiwani.

(Read on …)

So if the GPC, which is a party, gets to offer a report on revisions to local adminstration laws, why doesn’t the JMP?

Almotamar.net - SANAA-The GPC General Committee has reviewed a report by the committee charged with revising and amending the local authority law. The committee has offered a report including the article intended to be amended and others that are to be added to it.

Sources at the General Committee told the almotamar.net that the articles to be amended are intended for enhancing role of the local authority, transferring of authorities, providing resources, articles pertaining to the executive body and the relationship with the central authority.

(Read on …)

Won’t Get Fooled Again Lyrics

We’ll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song (Read on …)

Update: Security officials refute claims of threat and term deployment as normal exercises. No threat say the French.

JP:

Authorities increased security and shut down a southern port in Yemen on Thursday fearing al-Qaida suicide attacks on government and foreign interests, government officials said.

An Interior Ministry official said that army was deployed Thursday around government institutions and foreign oil installations after authorities received intelligence that the terror group was planning to carry out suicide attacks in Yemen. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

In the capital, streets leading to government security buildings were blocked, and military jeeps carrying soldiers with machine guns were deployed near foreign embassies, ambassadors’ residents and foreign gas and oil companies.

A maritime official in the southern port of Aden said security officials ordered the port to shut down fearing al-Qaida attacks.

The maritime official, who also asked to remain anonymous because he was not allowed to talk to the press, said authorities received suicide attack threats early Thursday that targeted the Aden port. He said boats and ships movements were stopped beginning in the morning.

Yemen’s southern port of Aden had witnessed previous al-Qaida attacks including the Oct. 12, 2000 USS Cole bombing that killed 17 American sailors as their ship was refueling.

Two years later, two suicide bombers rammed an explosive-laden boat into the French oil tanker Limburg, killing a Bulgarian crew member and spilling 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden.

Yemen was long a haven for Islamic militants. But after the Sept. 11 attacks, the government aligned itself with the US-led war on terrorism. But many diplomats and outside experts have raised questions about Yemen’s cooperation and inability to control tribal areas.

Also checks on cars going into Sanaa, YO:

Massive security and army deployment was reported in Aden during the day and early evening Thursday, in the wake of a terrorist threat to sensitive local and foreign installations.

(Read on …)

SANA’A, Nov. 22 — For the first time, the Yemeni Parliament’s Committee for Public Freedoms and Human Rights has elected its chairperson against the will of Parliament’s presidency board.

(Read on …)

Or perhaps blowing up his car.

The editorial staff of the Yemen Observer tries to trash Khalid Salman, the defecting editor.

Update: On 30 November, Amnesty International condemned the death sentence passed on Ibrahim Sharaf al-Din by the Specialised Criminal Court. “He was tried in proceedings that fell short of international standards for fair trials,” said the London-based organisation. According to Amnesty, Sharaf al-Din was among 37 members of the Shi’a Zaidi community charged in connection with an alleged “plot to kill the President [Ali Abdullah Saleh] and senior army and political officers”.

Original post:

One death sentence and 25 get prison terms of three to ten years. The disparity between the regime’s efforts against the Houthis and al-Qaeda, both militarily and judicially, is striking.

almotamar.net - SANAA- The Specialized Penal First Instance Court has decided in its sitting held Wednesday death sentence against the first condemned member of the Sana’a Cell Ibrahim Mohamed Abdullah Sharafuddin. The court verdict read out by Judge Najib al-Qadiri, head of the court, also included sentences terms of imprisonment against thirty-two persons between three to ten years.

The court has thus condemned thirty-three persons of members of the group composing and armed gangs attacking military vehicles and targeting political, military, security personalities as well as government institutions and plans for attacking the American embassy and attempted assassination against the former American ambassador to Sana’a.

Convicted persons Ihab Abdulkarim Hadi al-Kuhlani, Abdulqder Ali Ahmed al-Hadi, Mohammed Ismael Al-Haimi, Abdullah Yahya al-Hakim, Hussein Abdullah Hadha, Aymen Ismael al-Haimi, Ahmed Ali al-Matari, Issam Mohammed al-Kibsi, Khalid Mohammed al-Kibsi, Zeibulabidinb Ali al-Murtadha, Amin Mohammed al-Mahaqiri and Aqil ahmed al-Shami are sentenced to 10m years imprisonment each.
Other seven of the Sana’a ce4ll members received eight years imprisonment for each and other six sentenced to three years for each.
The judgment considered as punishment the period spent in detention by other eight of the cell members. the court acquitted three members of the cell of the charged raised against them because of lack of enough evidence.

No mention of Intasar Al-Sayani although her 14 year old crippled, brain damaged brother, Ibrahim al-Saiani, was released in July after a year in jail. More from Yahoo:

A court Wednesday convicted 34 men of plotting attacks across Yemen, including one aimed at the U.S. Embassy, and it sentenced the leader of the Shiite rebel group to death.

The defendants were accused of being followers of radical Shiite cleric Hussein Badr Eddin al-Hawthi, who launched an uprising in early 2004. He was killed in September of that year, but his followers have continued their minority rebellion.

(Read on …)

BBC reports on the World Economic Forum Survey on gender equality.

The four areas covered by the report include economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment and political empowerment, as well as health and survival.

The country ranked lowest is Yemen.

Almotamar.net - SANA’A- A huge fire broke out today the ministry of higher education’s archive department. A discarded cigarette butt was thought to be the cause of the fire. Civil defense forces, along with six fire engines, rushed to the site to put off the fire.

Almotamar.net came to know from reliable sources that the fire has destroyed important documents that include investigations about financial and administrative corruption which was behind sending 500 students to study abroad illegally.

Minister of Higher Education Saleh Basurrah has already asked for carrying out investigations to look into forging documents with regard to sending students to study abroad on the light of a report released by the Central Organization for Control and Audit.

At present, nine suspects are tried on charges of forging documents that helped 560 students study abroad over the past years.

Update: probably arson

Other intimidation

Interpol involved in the investigation of the fraudulent students’ records.

Petrol accelerant: Almotamar.net - SANA’A- Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Dr. Saleh Basurrah revealed that the investigations results on the fire that broke out last week in the ministry’s premises showed that the fire was set because of petrol but not electric shock….The ministry last year discovered nine people suspected of forging official documents to send 560 students abroad for study, and referred them to justice.

While the UN uses with nice terminology like food insecurity, basically there’s lots of families starving in Yemen on a regular basis. Distorting the food supply like this only means more hunger when half the kids in Yemen are already physically stunted from malnutrition.

“One way to raise prices.” YO:
More than 3 million sacks of wheat flour were discovered hidden in four large warehouses belonging to five merchants in the suburbs of the capital Sana’a, said the general manager of the industry and trade office of Sana’a governorate, Abdul-Hakim al-Kumaim. The flour had been hidden so that the five merchants—who are considered the biggest traders of wheat and foodstuffs in Yemen—could monopolize the flour and create a crisis in supply that would enable them to keep jacking up flour prices.

(Read on …)

Editor Khalid Salman was hauled into court 13 times last year and most recently banned from working as an editor and fined a substantial sum. Some of the articles the YSP’s newspaper, al-Thoury, publishes are just a little too true and detailed.

Contrast this with the deferential treatment of the government stooge running the 26th September, newspaper of the Defense Ministry, who is still crying because Hamid yelled at him, and the Ministry of Justice advanced a formal request to lift Hamid’s parliamentary immunity in order to prosecute him on some bogus charges.

Yahoo news: Yemeni opposition newspaper editor Khaled Ibrahim Salman has sought political asylum in Britain, where he was attending an aid conference, an exiled opposition group has said.

“The Yemeni regime has deliberately violated the rights and freedoms of individuals and the press and emptied democracy of its content,” Salman, who edits the Ath-Thawri paper, was quoted as saying by the London-based Southern Democratic Assembly on Sunday.

“Which is why I’ve decided to withdraw from the delegation accompanying President Ali Abdullah Saleh and to seek political asylum in Great Britain,” it said. Salman was accompanying Saleh to London last week for an international donors conference for the poorest country on the Arabian peninsula, during which 4.7 billion dollars was pledged. Ath-Thawri is the journal of the opposition Yemeni Socialist Party, of which Salman is also a member of the central committee.

There was no immediate official Yemeni reaction to Salman’s move. Saleh, who has been in power for 28 years, won another term in office in September, although that poll was marked by freer criticism of the regime than previous votes.

Of course the regime has started trashing Salman: (Read on …)

I would have thought that when the donors granted Yemen 4.7 billion in development aid, one precondition would have been to cancel the the 2.3 billion (USD) purchase of Mig SMT fighter planes. Beyond military spending, there’s billions lost to corruption. COCA is a good organization. Unfortunately their findings are rarely acted upon, with few to no prosecutions of corrupt officials.

YO An official report filed by the Central Apparatus for Monitoring and Accounting uncovered violations committed by the leaderships of the Capital Secretariat in implementing a number of projects, with a total cost estimated at YR 8,705,988,674.

(Read on …)

soon to be released

SANAA, 19 November 2006 — Yemeni authorities will release the suspected second-in-command of Al-Qaeda in Yemen early next year after he serves his jail term of three years and one month, government officials said yesterday.

(Read on …)

The first trial was back in April. A Yemeni court has already ruled that joining the jihad in Iraq, basically murdering foreign nationals, security and law enforcement officals, does not violate Yemeni law:

(almotamar.net) - SANA’A- The Sana’a-based Penal Court’s Appeal Division today held a session to hear the petitions of appeals submitted by six out of 14 people charged with forming an armed gang to target Americans based in Yemen as well as security institutions.
The suspects’ advocate offered petitions of appeal with regard to the preliminary verdict, whereby he criticized the evidence on which the prosecution depended, adding the minutes were prepared at the political security and so procedures were illegal.
He said there is no evidence that the suspects have been involved in forming an armed gang. They only wanted to join Jihad in Iraq as they were moved by the massacres made there, he added.

(Read on …)

In an interview with Alquds Al-Arabi Arabic daily published in London, Sheikh Abdullah Alahmar, parliament speaker said that he supported election of president Saleh because the “demon you know is better than an angel you do not know” (in Arabic the Jinni you know is better than a man you do not know).

Alahmar is using this term for the second time, as he had already used it before elections when the name of the opposition candidate Faisal Bin Shamlan was presented to him when he was in Saudi Arabia.

‘”He said that people know what and who is Ali Abdullah Saleh.. at this stage, he is more able to hold responsibility than others. This is my stance from the beginning”, the sheikh told the paper.

As for the stiff opposition that the Sheikh’s son Hameed had shown to Saleh and his alignment with bin Shamlan , the Sheikh said “Hameed is a partisan.. he is a member of Islah party. His position was compliant to that of his party. He showed it openly and strictly.. this was snot surprising to me”.
“Partisanship is now rooted in Yemen and even among tribes.. it has some positive aspects, but also negative ones, which are more.. now fathers and son, brothers, and tribesmen are apart because of their partisan position”..

HE also criticized Arab leaders for their weak stance against the ” massacre committed by the Israelis in Gazza”

Presidency responds

A source at the presidency or the republic, published in official, ad then in all local media, said that ” the presidency regrets the use of this term by the Sheikh (the demon you you know..), which he is using for the second time. In his statement he explained his support for presidents’ election, but it is not polite to use such wording by a parliament speaker.. we shall not respond any further to such statements”, the source concluded.

from al-Motamar:

almotamar.net Elaf - SANAA- Elaf website disclosed Wednesday that Saudi Arabian authorities circulated to its security bodies a list carrying names of Yemeni personalities accusing them of terrorist acts and hostile activities against it in favor of an Arab country they said the personalities visited it several times.

Saudi authorities clarified those measures came at backdrop of information they got that those political and economic and sheikhs personalities travelled to Libya several times and held meetings with Libyan intelligence with the aim of planning for terrorists acts and activities hostile to the kingdom….It has pointed out that the list contains names of Yemeni personalities, some of whom weapon traders and sons of well-known sheikhs.

Exiled MP Yahya al-Houthi objects to Saudi Arabia treating Yemen as a vassel state:

Well-informed sources in Sana’a said lately that that the Saudi authorities have circulated a secret list containing names of Yemeni personalities mostly thought to have relations with the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and involved in terrorist operations and hostile activities. The sources, refusing to be identified, added that the Saudi authorities circulated the list among its security apparatuses especially in its southern governorates bordering Yemen, in addition to neighboring countries including Yemen, indicating the Yemeni authorities received a copy of the list.

The circulation of instructions stipulates to arrest any person trying to enter Saudi territories and Saudi Arabia can coordinate with the neighboring countries to have access to the wanted persons. The source said the instructions came in the wake of information Saudi Arabia obtained that there are persons who had traveled to Libya more than once and held meetings with Libyan intelligence authorities aimed at planning for terrorist acts and hostile activities hostile to the kingdom.

The source pointed out that among those names are senior Yemeni personalities, commercial and political, as well as sheikhs. I say this piece of news has no hidden implications and meanings of the Saudi haughtiness and arrogance towards the Yemenis it is also clearly proves Saudi interference with Yemen’s affairs. (read the rest)

Thats an interesting article from Yahya but not nearly as interesting as the interview he gave to the Yemen Times last year where he says the regime asked the Houthis to go fight in Iraq, and that the regime is supporting, facilitating and arming terrorists.

Yemen Times

“We came to know from historical events that violence begets violence,” said Al-Houthi

Unfortunately, the Yemeni authorities have been entangled in the Houthi crisis since the middle of last year. Everyone is looking after his own benefits, regardless of the peoples’ blood that is being shed.
Although they know very well that the planes, tanks, missiles and all destructive weapons which are being used, will not exterminate extremism, but furthermore, escalate it. Moreover, it could probably create an underground movement out of it. They also know that law and not violence is capable to re-establish social order again.

We wish that the authority will be credible enough to find a fair solution that takes the Houthi crisis from the confrontation to the law field and replace the bloodshed, death and destruction of property and public facilities to peace and justice. In an effort to resolve the problem, we contacted Yahia Badriddeen Al-Houthi brother of late Hussien Al-Houthi, founder of the (Believing Youth) who was killed by government forces last September. Yahia is an MP of the ruling party. Now he is living in Germany. He agreed to hold an exclusive interview with the Yemen Times. Now to the details:

Q1: What is your opinion of the conflicts that are going on in Saada between the authorities and the Believing Youth (Al-Shabab Al-Mum’en)?

A: The authorities’ practice in Saada and other governorates are a violation to Sharia, constitution, international laws, charters, and conventions. It is against Humanitarian eth