Armies of Liberation

World News: Large rally in Dhale provincve
Tuesday 25 March 2008 / Mareb Press

Thousand of people participated yesterday on a rally on the occasion of the first anniversary of southern movement demanding to return their blunder properties and improve their situations.

The rally attended by thousands of people from Hudhramout, Abyan, Shabwa and Aden governorates and Radfan was organized by the Retirees Association in Dhale province.

The demonstrators raised the orange flags of the South before the Unity and chanted for revolution “Towards liberating the south”

Dr. al-Matari, member of preparatory committee of the rally, said the issue of southern people has become a reality that can not jump over and the demands of the southern people are to restore the the state of southern state.

He announced that London-based satellite channel London and Radio will start transmitting soon.

The rally issued a statement in which they hold what they called Sana’a regime the responsible for frustrating the unity.

The statement demanded Sana’a regime to return all their blundered properties and to compensate the southern people.

The statement a copy of which obtained by Mareb Press called the International Community to interfere to stop the killings and arbitrary detentions against some southern activists.

wOOt

The evidence against al-Khaiwani is pnly CD’s of war photos, interviews and notes about the Saada war.

AFP : The courtroom was packed with dozens of lawyers, rights activists and other supporters who turned up to express solidarity with Khiwani.

The defence team also rejected charges against Khiwani on the grounds that authorities had eavesdropped on his telephone calls without an order from the prosecution.

“The law does not permit eavesdropping except through an order issued by the prosecution … and for a specific telephone call with the aim of preventing a crime,” said Hayel Salam, who heads the defence team…The court adjourned the case until April 8.

I have a tee shirt that says, “Ali Saleh is scared of a blog.” And apparently he really is. In a rather Stalinist reaction to growing civil unrest, Yemen blocked 1126 Yemeni blogs.

Maktoobblog.com, one of the most popular Arab blogging platform, has been recently blocked in Yemen. The OpenNet Initiative testing has confirmed yesterday, through technical investigation, that the blog hosting service has been blocked by Yemennet ISP, a service of the government’s Public Telecommunication Corporation (PTC):

ONI technical investigation verified that the service has been blocked by Yemennet, Yemen’s government-run ISP. Access is blocked to the entire domain maktoobblog.com, effectively to every blog hosted by the service. Interestingly, users who attempt to access the site receive a network error message instead of the standard blockpage, which is served when users attempt to access sexual content.

This significant blocking is expected to hinder Internet users in Yemen from blogging and reading blogs because maktoobblog.com is home of one of the largest blogging communities in the Middle East and North Africa.

People get the network error message for this blog too. My article on internet censorship appeared at the Yemen Times earlier this month.

al-Sahwa:

March 25, 2008- Khalid Abdul-Nabi , leader of the so-called Aden-Abyan Armey has accused Yemen’s security of targeting him .He along with his escorts were subjected Monday to an ambush which left one of his escort wounded in Joar city.

In a statement to Alsahwa.net, he said that 5 policemen riding a military vehicle shot fire on him, considering the incident an attempt by the authorities to assassinate him.

His escort, Najib Hafsa , was wounded and transferred to an a hospital in Aden city. It is worth reclaiming that this the second attempt the leader of Aden-Abyan leader is subjected to. He was targeted last February in his own farm.

Yemen seizes illegal drugs ship

[24 March 2008]

SANA’A, March 24 (Saba) -A well-informed sources said that Yemeni coastguards seized on Monday at the Arab Sea a ship carrying about 1600 kg hashish in Yemen’s regional waters.

The sources said to Saba that the Coastguards Authority is currently investigating with a Pakistani crew of the ship.

The sources added that the coastguards of Aden Gulf had seized two big ships on aboard 32 Arab persons were practicing irregular fishing in Yemen’s regional waters.

Pakistani nationals

DOD said part of the reason the Gitmo detainees are still there is the lack of measures to monitor them upon their return. Also torture is prevelent in Yemeni jails.

Guantánamo Attorneys Say Detainees Will Not Be Tortured if Returned to Yemen
Sunday 16 March 2008 / Hood online

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – March 12 – Today, more than 30 attorneys from the United States who represent Yemeni men held at Guantánamo issued a statement saying they do not believe the detainees would be tortured if returned to Yemen, and called for all of the Yemeni detainees to be released and repatriated. (Read on …)

PRI

SAN’A, Yemen (AP) – A Yemeni Interior Ministry official reports six people have been killed and five injured in a fight between tribesmen over land.
The official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, says that the violence broke out Sunday and continued through Monday between the Abdullah and Bani-Ali tribes north of the capital San’a.
Tribal mediators are working to calm the furor.
Clashes between the heavily armed tribes in this impoverished nation are frequent and most men carry firearms despite an official government ban.

Of course Saleh was in on it.

CIA website

Possible Yemeni Breaches of UN Sanctions

2001: Government of Yemen Offers to supply Military Goods to Iraq
Recovered documents refer to the Yemen Ambassador meeting with the Iraqi military to discuss a list of guaranteed military materials. According to the documents, the President of Yemen gave his blessing to support the effort to supply military goods to Iraq.

A letter from the Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashem Ahmed dated 23 March 2001 speaks of a meeting with the Republic of Yemen’s Ambassador, Mr. Abid Al-Malek Saeed. The letter states that Yemen had been helping the Iraqi Armed forces through a Yemeni business-man named Mr. Shaher Abid Al Haqq.

Reference is given to a meeting held 19 February 2001, were the Yemeni side was ready to export military materials from Yemen and Ethiopia to Iraq. The letter indicates the President of Yemen, Ali Abid Allah Salah, gave his blessing to the deal and that the Iraqis were given guarantees for the spare parts. These parts were specifically drawn from the stocks of the Yemeni armed forces, air force, army aviation and included armor, trucks, and weapons.

A follow-up meeting was held on 22 March 2001, which included the Yemeni Ambassador and Mr. Al-Haqq. Al-Haqq and the Ambassador provided the Iraqi military with a list of guaranteed available military materials and prices. Al-Haqq also revealed that he had met with the President Salah who had given his blessing for these efforts and support. The letter indicates that the President Salah, “believes that the support of Iraq with the proposed exports is necessary” and he had made calls to his brother, an Air Force Commander, asking him to present everything possible to Iraq, even if he has to take supplies from the Yemeni Air Force and ask Russia and others for replacement material.

Arab billionaire’s son: ‘I didn’t kill party girl’

Source: Metro

Tuesday, March 25, 2008- The son of an Arab billionaire businessman who left Britain hours before a Norwegian friend was found dead has denied killing her. (Read on …)

Almotamar.net, Saba – Yemen has refused Monday to sign an agreement with the United States of America over the installation of two radioactive surveillance stations at Aden and Hodeidah ports.

Well-informed sources were quoted by almotamar.net as saying that a ministerial committee, was formed to look into the matter with help of experts from Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Public Health and Population, Transportation, Higher Education and Scientific Research and Legal Affairs, asked the government not to sign the agreement with the U.S. for the establishment of the surveillance stations because of their bad consequences, affirming the terms of the agreement were in favor of the U.S.

The draft agreement provided that any cooperation between Yemen and any other country in this regard should be under the US observation.

Moreover, the draft agreement was considered as political obligation by Yemen.

In April 2007, the cabinet saw a memorandum submitted by Electricity and Energy Ministry over the installation of two US radioactive surveillance stations at the Aden and Hodeida ports and approved the formation of a committee to look into the matter.

Yemen Post

Yemeni Parliament approved amending the law numbered 25 of 1991 concerning the insurances as obligatorily put pension age at 60 and while the pension age for women was optionally fixed for 55.

The amendments allow the husband to have both his pension and his wife; however, it did not allow him to have more than one in case he is married to more than one wife and he has the right to select which pension to have with his.

He did attend the al-Farouq training camp. Is he going to deny that? Thats a crime in the US. And supposedly, according to a Yemeni court (?!), he participated in the bombing of the oil facilities in September 2006.

Yemen On Line :
FBI wanted Al-Banna to al-Jazeera: “I challenge Yemen and U.S. to substantiate allegations against me”

Sana’a, March 24, 2008 – Doha-based Al-Jazeera TV Channel broadcast on Sunday a brief report on Yemeni-American citizen Jaber Al-Banna. Al-Banna said he is innocent from all charges brought against him and added that the Yemeni government is an agent for the United States. U.S. Embassy spokesperson, Ryan Gliha, said al-Banna is one of the most wanted terrorism suspects and that he should be in prison. Gliha added that U.S. believes that those countries committed to fight terror should act to imprison those convicted of terrorist crimes. “Al-Banna should be imprisoned for the terrorist crimes he committed in Yemen and in the U.S,” said Gliha. “The U.S. asked Yemen to hand over al-Banna, but Yemeni authorities refused to extradite him,” Gliha concluded. Al-Banna said he is innocent from all Yemeni and U.S. charges filed against him and at the same time challenged both governments to prove any of their charges against him.

Al-Banna, who was sentenced for one year in jail in absentia after his escape with 22 other al-Qaeda operatives from a Yemeni prison in 2006, is wanted by the United States over charges of “providing material support to terrorists,”

Yemen GCC integration’s roadmap defines five trends to accelerate the process
SANA’A, Feb. 04 (Saba)- Roadmap of Yemen’s integration to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has highlighted five main trends to qualify Yemen to join the GCC member states according to a scientific insight to fulfill economic integration with the Gulf countries.

These five trends could be projected as follows:

Trend of Commercial Partnership:

The roadmap affirmed the importance of strengthening frameworks of commercial partnership between Yemen and the GCC affiliate countries through focusing on realizing goals represented by setting up a free trade zone shared by Yemen and the GCC states as an introduction to Yemen inclusion to the Gulf Joint Market. It noted the main obstacles facing this move which are the weak infrastructure in Yemen and neglecting development of domestic export.

The previous trend requires Aden to be a regional commercial center which
the roadmap showed that reinforcing commercial partnership with GCC members requires supporting Yemen’s efforts to make use of the Aden Free Zone (AFZ) as a regional commercial center, noting to the nature of hampers in this regard such as deficiency in institutional administration of the zone and marketing weakness. It emphasized that the Yemeni government has to take viable political procedures to overcome such difficulties.

Trend of Investment Partnership:

It is so crucial to bolster investment partnership between Yemen and the Gulf states via achieving certain goals, most important of which is utilizing the various investment opportunities in the fruitful economic sectors in the country, noting to difficulties retarding this step such as incomplete infrastructure and the feeble business environment in Yemen.

Trend of Labor Force:

For a complete and harmonized inclusion with the Gulf economies, the Yemeni labor force needs to be a part of the Gulf market. The roadmap indicated to the unavailability of surveys to determine requirements of the Gulf market and the insufficient educational outcomes of Yemeni universities and technical institutes as hinders of this trend.

Trend of Supply:

The roadmap made assertion to fill the supply gap of Yemen and execute decision of the Higher Council of December 2005 which stipulates qualifying Yemen economy to reach the lower level of development in GCC member states to enable it to surpass shortages and problems encountering preparing feasibility studies for some projects and matching foreign aids with priorities of development in the country.

Trend of Institutional Formation:

The roadmap matrix confirmed the importance of fulfilling necessities of this trend by means of procedures and decisions to be taken by both sides, Yemen and Gulf states, to form a technical committee and another parliamentary committee assigned with accelerating and updating Yemeni legal legislations to adjust them to the Gulf legal legislations.

Woopsie! JPost:

Top aides to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday distanced themselves from a Yemeni plan outlining a path to reconciliation with Hamas movement, and one said an Abbas envoy only signed the document because of a mixup. Under the Yemeni proposal, signed Sunday, Abbas’s Fatah movement and Hamas would agree in principle to unite in a single Palestinian government. However, in several days of talks in Yemen, the bitter rivals failed to resolve the crucial question of how they should share power.

A senior Abbas confidant, chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurei, said Monday that al-Ahmed signed because of a mixup. Al-Ahmed called Abbas’ office repeatedly to get guidance, but Abbas was meeting at the time with US Vice President Dick Cheney, and al-Ahmed went ahead and signed, Qureia said.

“There was a misunderstanding,” Qurei told reporters Monday. “President Abbas was busy hosting Cheney, and Azzam tried many times to contact him (Abbas), but couldn’t reach him. The talks were at the end, and time was pressing.” Other senior Abbas aides said al-Ahmed should not have signed the agreement.

yay! that’s good news:

SANA’A,

The Ministry of Information released on Sunday the independent Abwab magazine after five day suspension at the Sana’a International Airport.

The first issue of Abwab magazine was suspended at the airport twice. It was first preventing from being distributed by Yemeni security two weeks ago because the airport security has claimed the magazine published “inappropriate” picture of president Saleh.

The government has again hold up “Abwab” and prevented its owner from distributing it for local readers because it has been printed in Dubai.

The undersecretary of the Ministry of Information Mohammad Shaher told the official daily al-Syasiah that the magazine had violated the publishing law as it had been printed in Dubai, not in a local printer. Shaher has also claimed the license of publishing was given to Nabil al-Sufi not to Yemeni Media Group as the magazine mentioned.

The editor and publisher of Abwab Nabil al-Sufi has denied claims of Shaher and depicted the suspension as “immoral blockade of the magazine”.

- Parliament questions Interior Minister over rampant corruption and poor performance in security agencies

Interior Minister Rashad Al-Alimi is due to appear before Parliament on Wednesday to be questioned about spread of corruption and poor performance in different security agencies affiliated with his Ministry, the weekly reported, adding that Parliament members want to interrogate the official over the repeated incidents of citizen kidnapping in the various governorate. Al-Alimi was summoned by Parliament for questioning over the repeated incidents of citizen kidnapping amid absence and ineffective role of relevant security authorities, which, according to MPs, are not committed to applying the concerned security laws. Parliament also put part of the blame on the poor performance of judicial bodies.

According to the weekly, many MPs from opposition caucuses and independents called for selecting a new parliamentary committee to be concerned with defense and security issues after the standing committee failed to play its required role and dropped responsibility in dealing with such critical issues that seem to threaten social peace and stability.

The NUPO mouthpiece went on to say that many MPs lashed out at the interior minister for not responding to previous Parliament’s summoning amid the worsening phenomenon of kidnapping, coupled with poor performance by the relevant security agencies. Parliament’s last week meetings discussed several heated issues, mainly price hikes of basic foodstuffs, child trafficking, poor security performance and repeated incidents of citizen kidnapping.

Anglo-American?

al-Motamar:

Almotamar.net – An official source revealed on Saturday that Yemeni authorities received a note from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) mentioning that American forces are detaining 16 Yemeni citizens in Iraqi prisons since the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq five years ago and that no charge has been directed to them and have not stood trial.

The source told almotamar.net that the ICRC says the situations of the prisoners are very difficult and their health condition is in a state of continuous deterioration, indicating that he met the Yemeni prisoners during one of his visits to a number of Iraqi prisons to see situations of prisoners there the beginning of this year.

According to the memo of the ICRC received by the Yemeni ministry of human rights the imprisonment of the Yemeni citizens were among storming campaigns carried out by American forces against some residential quarters in Baghdad and Basra to arrest Arab residents there. American forces justifications for arresting Arab residents in Iraq was under allegation that they were present in Iraq for resistance, indicating that the Yemeni prisoners mentioned that they were in Iraq three years before the American invasion and some of them were working in trade.

The ICRC says the prisoners in the Iraqi prisons are suffering from difficult health conditions, including the 15 Yemeni prisoners.

SANA’A, March 22 (Saba) - UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Sigrid Kaag confirmed on Saturday the UNICEF’s interest to support plans and programs of Yemeni government to improve children and women’s status in Yemen.

Upon her arrival to Sana’a on Friday in an official visit, Kaag said that she would discuss with Yemeni officials assistance the UNICEF may provide for Yemen to improve children conditions and their health and education future.

The UNICEF really care for Yemeni children, she said, adding that we seek to reduce children labor in Yemen, which reached 60 percent among children under age 18.

Hungry working and sick

Ramzeah al-Aryani, Head of the Federation of Yemeni Women, said that around 84,000 children under the age of five die annually in Yemen due to malnutrition or lack of adequate health care. This figure means that about 250 children die every day. Forty percent of children in Yemen are suffering from anemia, weight loss and nutritional deficiencies. These problems exist as a consequence of global price increases which causes untold suffering for children and mothers.

Yemen, Syria discuss preparations for joint committee meetings

SANA’A, March 23 (Saba) – Prime Minister Ali Mujawar and Syrian ambassador to Yemen Abdul Ghafor Sabouni discussed on Sunday topics related to the upcoming meetings of the Yemeni-Syrian committee to be held here in May co-chairing by the two countries’ premiers.

Mujawar underlined importance of the good preparation for the meetings by the two sides.

The upcoming meetings should focus on the activation of mechanisms of following up what have been realized by the two sides regularly, Mujawar said.

He also stressed necessity of finalizing the procedures pertaining to the joint maritime transport project due to its importance to promote the trade exchange between the two brotherly countries.

For his part, Sabouni said the arrangements for the meetings are going well, pointing out the meetings would deal with several topics topped by the issue of promoting the trade exchange and investment between both countries.

Yemen released five persons held for questioning in a mortar attack on the US embassy in Sana’a last week. The Interior Ministry denied that an al-Qaeda link had been established as earlier reported by the state run al-Thawra newspaper. Investigations are ongoing the ministry reported.

DUBAI, March 24 (Reuters) - An al Qaeda-linked group has claimed responsibility for a failed mortar attack on the U.S. embassy in Yemen last week that wounded girls at a nearby school and a group of soldiers.

“One of the (mortar rounds) missed its target and fell on a school near the embassy. We ask God to hasten the recovery of the schoolgirls,” Yemen Soldiers Brigades said in an Internet statement dated March 21.

“We have previously warned Muslims not to come near government and foreign facilities,” added the group, which says it is part of al Qaeda in Yemen, in the statement posted on a Web site often used by al Qaeda.

Yemen said 13 schoolgirls and five soldiers were injured in the “terrorist attack” on Tuesday which Washington said targeted its embassy but had failed.

A Yemeni state newspaper said on Saturday a wanted al Qaeda member had carried out the attack, citing an unidentified security official.

The Brigades last month claimed responsibility for deadly attacks on Spanish and Belgian tourists in the Arabian Peninsula country.

Hasn’t this been under construction for like five years?

Iran, Yemen Discuss Power Cooperation

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian deputy power minister and his visiting Yemeni counterpart in a meeting here in Tehran explored avenues for implementing an agreement held earlier by the two sides on energy cooperation.

According to the agreement signed between the Iranian Transport Stations Company and Yemen Electricity Corporation, the Iranian company would provide assistance in supplying power to the Marib Gas Power Station project.

Also during the meeting, the Yemeni deputy minister handed over a letter from his country’s Electricity and Energy Minister Mustafa Bahran to Iran’s Power Minister Parviz Fattah underlining the need for mutual cooperation in the field of electricity.