Armies of Liberation

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 ethics. Many reliable sources and lawyers described it as genocide and a crime against humanity. Here is a study from an international lawyer:
Yemeni authorities had violated the basic rights of the Houthi groups. It is considered by the international community to be serious violations. The crimes are categorized as follows: genocide and crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and terror crimes.
According to these criteria, the actions committed against the Houthies are considered to be a genocide, this is according to articles that are contained in convention of 1948, of the genocide combat and their punishments, especially articles (b) and (c), which describe genocide as all actions that are meant for destroying totally or partially an ethnic or religious group.
The eviction, exile or displacement are considered genocide if they aim at total or partial destruction, for a human group. The Cairo declaration of April 1992 confirms that eviction and displacement are genocide crimes. In short, all that happened in Saada, according to international agreements and conventions, in addition to specialized court martial is a crime against humanity, committed against the Houthis.

Q2: Why, in your opinion, did the government choose this time in particular to resume escalation of the crisis in Saada?

A: I have no clear idea of the motivation of the timing of the authorities for the offensive against Al-Khafji on 28 November 2005. The preparations for this offensive took place two weeks before it started. However, what I noticed is that it is synchronized with the Saddam’s trial, which the media began broadcasting. I thought perhaps by starting this war, they want to achieve two things:

First, to turn away the attention from a trial of a tyrant whom they have stood to his side for a long time. This happened during his war with Iran and when he invaded Kuwait. In 1990, the authorities mobilized the people to go to the streets in most Yemeni cities, demanding Saddam to attack the neighboring countries with chemical weapons. This was followed by the firing of the Saudis to the Yemeni workers who were misguided by their authorities to demonstrate in favor of Saddam inside Saudi Arabia. This happened while he was attacking Riyadh with missiles.

Secondly: This timing could be a cipher for the Yemenis in Iraq, with their fighting mates, to escalate their insurgency during the trial, so as to terrorize the judges, the witnesses and the investigators. This is aimed at preventing a death penalty and to deprive the Iraqi people of the enjoyment of this historical event. And by the way, many Arab countries are exerting efforts to undermine the process of change in Iraq so that it would not extend into their own countries. They do this even if it is on the expense of the stability and peace of the Iraqi people, if this could contribute to the continuity of their regimes. I noticed this at the Al-Quds conference in Sana’a, in which Some Iraqis praised the Yemenis fighting in Iraq. More over, they thanked them, to prompt them to volunteer and lead the same violent track in which their colleagues have killed hundreds of Iraqis in the streets, mosques and markets.

Q 3: In your view, what is behind the search for presumed terrorists?

A: If the authorities claim that they are looking for terrorists in Saada then this is untrue. It is an indication of the unrest of the government because of the terrorism issue. The terrorists are in Sana’a and not in Saada. They should first extradite those who are wanted by international courts and then look for other terrorists. If the authorities are honest, why did they attack our people in the market places and villages? Why don’t they give them photos, of those terrorists, and ask them for help? Surely, they would cooperate, to avoid the catastrophe that is incurred on them by those terrorists.

However, things are not as the government claims. It is only an escapist attempt to escape from its terror liabilities, to avoid handing over regional leaders. This explains why the war against us, in Saada, is escalated by the time the president returned from America. He faced the demands for handing terrorists. He tries to create confrontations with others to convince the American administration, but the Americans know what is happening. They also know such games, which are like tat of the fox that ate the sheep and threw the bones beside the sleeping wolf to hold him accountable for stealing the sheep. I also do not think that they are ignorant of the fact that the Yemeni fighters in Iraq have a connection with the Yemeni authorities. They know that they have facilitated their travel to Iraq. The committee for dialogue that is headed by Hitar is one of his escapist devices. They were convinced by this committee to go to Iraq.

I rightfully say that the authorities asked our followers to go to Iraq before and during the war. The pressure on them is due to their refusal to go there. I am ready to prove that in an appropriate time. If the authorities and the terrorists have any matters to settle with Americans in Iraq, our followers have nothing to do with that. The ones who have taken the American dollars should bear their responsibilities. As for the Afghani Arabs, they are under protection of the authorities. They are in the army, and they fought in Maran and some were killed there.

I believe that the Americans will not forgive its humiliation and the strikes against its people. They do not believe our authorities, but now they are playing with them the game of hide and seek. They will also not forgive those who send fighters to Iraq. Although most of the death toll is among Iraqi people, the Americans will not tolerate being defeated. The repentance attempts of visiting America will be fruitless because America knows that it is a preservative measure and it is not true as long as they did not hand over those who are wanted. They are also accused of increasing the number of terrorists in Yemen and in the African Horn region. The cases of weapons distributed to the Somalis and those, which were used in attacking the American Consulate in Jeddah, are good examples. Added to that, is the case of the Yemeni weapons in Sudan. They distributed weapons to ailing and starving people. I suggest that the authority should have saved our people from the expected destruction, by handing those who are wanted, and break relations with terrorist’s organizations. They should stop aids to them and close their overt and secret schools in order to save Yemen and its people. I also request the Allied Countries to find a quick resolve to the Yemeni terrorist’s case. They either pardon them or receive them. Leaving them as an undecided matter destabilizes the country and the people, because they often look for unreal excuses, cases and exits. Yemen became like a school of troublemaking students. This has its negative effects on the life of the Yemeni people.

Q 4 : Why are some lobby centers trying to undermine the presidents amnesty that he announced last September, what benefits will they gain?

A: Some of these lobbies are involved in terror. Others represent the environment that spawns terror. Those are the warlords, who benefit from war and the end of war means an end to their trade. It would have been a privilege if the President kept his word, on the resolution he announced on 25 September 2005. He would have saved his prestige among the international leaders. It was aired in all languages by all news agencies. It will be for the good of the Yemeni people, and all the wars that they fought were only sources for damage, poverty and diseases.

Q5: What in your opinion is the way out of your crisis with the Authorities?

A: If the President was keen to resolve the Saada crisis, it would have been an easy matter, but as I said before, we will say what is true if our point of view is being asked.

Q6: What is to become of the ideological call, which was founded by late Sheikh Hussein Bedridden Al-Houthi? Will it continue or is it going to diminish, as it is the case with some political ideologies?

A: My brother’s ideology is bound by its substantiality and its ability to convince people. This will be left to time.

Q7: How is your father cleric Bedridden Al-Houthi’s health? Is he in a safe place?

A: He is in a good health, and he is not in need of hospitals. Many of his followers are around him and ready to protect him, while he is moving from one country to another.

Q8: What questions were you expecting and was not asked?

A: My question is that why did not the partisan and independent media tackle our case and bring it to the public so that they could know our oppression. Why do not they criticize the authority, like the brave Al-Khaiwany?

Q9: Any last comment?

A: It is contained in my previous answers, with compliments

SANAA, 15 November (IRIN) – Analysts have said the Yemeni government must be serious in implementing reforms if it is to benefit from the aid pledges that are being made at an important donor conference being held in London on Wednesday and Thursday.

“Yemen is now at a crossroads and needs to help itself by achieving real reforms and fighting corruption,” said Abdul-Aziz al-Tareb, head of the Arab Group for Investment and Development. “Yemen is now facing a real challenge, especially as it has development money. It needs to prove its seriousness in achieving development, fighting corruption and improving its infrastructure and economy.” (Read on …)

DW: Peacekeeping | 16.11.2006
German Soldiers in Africa: Hunting for Smugglers and Pirates

Keeping an eye on ship movement

Based in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, these ships patrol the waters between the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, all the way to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. The mission has photographed and registered thousands of vessels, recorded their presence on maps, and radioed millions of questions….The aircraft are an important part of the mission. They photograph vessels in the area. The images are remarkably clear — good enough, in fact, to make out cooking pots on a gas stove.

These photographs are then sent to headquarters in Bahrain, and if the freight looks suspicious, there’s either a raid at sea, or the authorities at the destination harbor are informed….

The captain of the Schleswig-Holstein, Jan Otte, explained that the navy is not just looking for weapons, but also for drug smugglers and pirates. “These things are connected,” he said. “Organized crime which is linked to piracy is possibly linked with the structures that support terrorism.”

But there have been some achievements. A Spanish ship recently stopped a freighter on the way to Yemen carrying rockets from North Korea.

In addition, the ships involved in Enduring Freedom have saved several people who were shipwrecked. And a year ago, the Schleswig-Holstein accompanied the luxury cruise ship, the MS Deutschland (the “Dream Ship” in a German TV series) as it passed through the region. Just to help out in case they should meet with the notorious pirates of the Horn of Africa.

Wim Dohrenbusch (kh)

Half a story at most: what happened to the rockets?

Saleh hosted the Aden conference which brokered a deal among factions of the TGF. He orchestrated the Sanaa forum among Horn of Africa states. He recently offered to mediate between Hamas and Fatah, also the Islamic Courts and the TGF. From Arab Links:

Al-Quds al-Arabi publishes today, Thursday November 16, a statement by the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance, IPA (or Iraqi National Alliance, the umbrella group for the domestic resistance) that says Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Salah offered to host in Sanaa talks between the resistance and the Americans, a proposal which has been rejected by the resistance.

The statement says Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri deputized one of his people to go to the leadership of the IPA and discuss with them a variety of issues, including what transpired with respect to the Yemeni proposal. The IPA statement says the al-Duri delegate told them al-Duri had received a proposal from Ali Salah to host talks between America and the resistance in Sanaa, and that al-Duri had rejected the proposal, in keeping with the resistance position is that there will be no talks and no contacts with the Americans until they plainly and clearly agree to the prior demands of the resistance, which include a commitment to complete troop-withdrawal.

Also Iraq Pundit picks up the story from Al-Jeeran

According to this story, Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh offered to host a meeting in his capital with Izzat Al Douri, head of Iraqi National Alliance (the Baathist part of the insurgency), and U.S. officials. Al Douri didn’t turn up. But Al Douri – known to other Iraqis as “the iceman” because he started his brilliant career selling ice from a bicycle — is a living Iraqi punch line, widely regarded by other Iraqis as being dumber than ice. So why didn’t he show up? A likely Iraqi answer is that, if he’s not dead, he can’t find Yemen.

The Iraqi resistance wouldn’t need to send any one to Yemen; there are people with some authority already there, like Saddam’s nephew among others.

Update: Iraq denies- (Read on …)

an analysis at The Jamestown Foundation

Yemen’s Al-Iman University: A Pipeline for Fundamentalists?

By Gregory Johnsen

Sheikh al-Zindani
The recent arrests of 23 men, including four Europeans and three Australians, have once again raised questions about Yemen’s al-Iman University and its possible links to extremism. Initial reports suggested that the European and Australian suspects, who were accused of smuggling weapons to Islamist militias in Somalia, were students at al-Iman; this claim, however, was quickly denied by the university’s president and founder Sheikh Abd al-Majid al-Zindani (al-Sharq al-Awsat, November 1). Al-Zindani, who was listed as a “specially designated global terrorist” by both the United States and the United Nations in 2004, has often used this ploy to distance himself and the university from students suspected of terrorist activities [1]. This time, however, his claim was defended by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who paid a surprise visit to al-Iman on November 12 (Saba News, November 12). An analysis of the university itself displays how it is both an institution of higher learning and a pipeline for fundamentalist activity.

President Saleh’s Defense of al-Iman

Saleh’s recent comments marked the second time in three months that he has publicly defended the university against its critics. The first time was on August 21, when Saleh was the keynote speaker at the graduation ceremony of al-Iman’s third group of graduates. He claimed on that occasion that Western governments had been sending students to the university in an attempt to ascertain the university’s curriculum, but that they had “failed because the university taught only the Quran and Sunna” (al-Sharq al-Awsat, August 22). He said that this sort of behavior has caused the university’s students to “live in a corner of fear” from Western security infiltration (al-Sharq al-Awsat, August 22). Saleh went further in his November defense of the university, not only claiming that al-Iman did not produce extremists, but also praising al-Zindani as a “leading soldier in the Yemeni Revolution and an enlightened academic soldier” (al-Hayat, November 13). Saleh flatly denied the allegation that al-Iman produced terrorists. “That is a lie,” he said in his speech. “If this is a nest of terrorists, then what is the president of the country doing here?” (al-Hayat, November 13). (Read on …)

He does it so well.

Saleh: poverty pasture for terrorism
LONDON, Nov. 15 (Saba) – In his speech to donor meeting, Saleh stated that poverty is a “fruitful pasture to attract youth people
and then recruit them to commit suicides”.

We, in Yemen, like other countries, suffered from terrorism most recent of which was the attacks on oil facilities during last
September elections, Saleh said, pointing to the two foiled attempts in Marib and Hadhrmout.

We have to work with each other to stabilize peace and security in the region, and to establish a giant force with a considerable
resources and capabilities, Saleh added.

Saleh re-welcomed Gulf investments, particularly in strategic projects Yemen is in need for such as electrification projects.

When we talk about nuclear energy, we do not mean to be a nuclear state. We want to economically use nuclear energy for civil
and peaceful use. Such projects can be established in Emirates, SaudiArabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman or Yemen so that we would dispense with others’ help, Saleh concluded.

This we know is untrue. As a Harvard study demonstrated, the correlation is not between economic poverty and terrorism, but between political poverty and terrorism. The shortage of rights and freedoms, and the inability to participate and effectively influence one’s government are most closely associated with terrorism. Many terrorists are middle class, well educated and alienated from their host society. Their ability to accept the perversion of universal ethical standards and to murder children with a clear conscience is less a function of ignorance than indoctrination.

The overwhelming poverty and resulting humanitarian crisis in Yemen is dire. Authentic governmental reform, democratization and anti-corruption efforts would have a greater impact on minimizing both poverty and the threat of terrorism than the several billion dollars of promised donor funds.

SANA’A, Nov. 15 — In an exclusive statement to the Yemen Times, Member of Parliament and human rights activist Ahmed Saif Hashed strongly criticized the Yemeni Parliament’s presidency board, declaring that it deals with MPs like they’re in a military camp and not the people’s representatives.

“Parliament’s presidency board doesn’t deal seriously with issues put before the Yemeni Parliament for discussion,” Hashed asserted, “Further, it treats MPs like they’re in a camp and not elected by the Yemeni people.”

He noted, “Parliament hasn’t won a single case against the government since its establishment. Parliamentary authorities haven’t investigated any minister in the way such investigations should be handled. Instead, they give ministers opportunities to present their lame excuses and justifications; thus, they leave ministers unquestioned.”

Hashed added that there are no parliamentary norms to investigate government officials and that Parliament is “a décor with no soul.” (Read on …)

Receives death sentence

Almotamar.net - SANA’A- The Specialized Penal Court today approved the death penalty of Berkhan Akhredi Yar Hussein, a Pakistani national, on charges of bringing drugs to Yemen.
Chaired by Judge Saeed al-Qatta, the court sentenced Abdul-Rahman Fadh al-Rahaman Tawoos, who bears the Pakistani nationality, to 25 years in prison from the date of his arrest on charges of participating in bringing the drugs to Yemen.
The court upheld the first instant court’s judgment on Ziad al-Nahari, Ahmed al-Mahlasi, Ahmed al-Ahekam, who are sentenced to 5 years in prison each; while Yasser al-She’ri was acquitted.