Armies of Liberation

These are not random cases of rape. Its an organized system of forced prostitution. In Taiz, there’s a substantial number of babies born to women who were in jail for more than a year.

Yemen Post

Newborns of female prisoners at Yemen’s central jails are subjected to be sold, an organization interested in prisoner affairs said on Saturday.
The Sajeen Organization said at a symposium on female prisoners in Yemen that most prisoners are tortured at jails and sometimes raped.
And when they try to protest maltreatment and illegal acts they are threatened by officials at the jails.

Chairman of the organization said a daughter, named Muntaha, was sold in August 2008 for YR 15,000 that went for her mother and $5000 for her father who works in Sana’a.

Many others abuse issues of female prisoners in the country go unreported, lawyer Abdul Rahman Berman said. Female prisoners face difficult moments during investigations as they are prevented from hiring lawyers.

For her part, Amal Al-Basha, Chairwoman of the Sisters Forum said violations against female prisoner rights take place with permission from the leadership.

She added that human rights organizations and activists are prevented from meeting female prisoners in the country, criticizing arrest and imprisonment measures.

Many are jailed over honor charges and when a female inmate ends her term she finds none to help here and house her. As a result, many female inmates turn into bad community assets.

Related, in Yemen if you don’t have someone to bring you food or money in jail, then you don’t eat

Sahwa Net – Yemeni human rights groups have demanded the Yemeni government to lift suffers of Yemen’s prisoners resulted in by government reducing to food and care expanses allotted to them.

In a letter to President Saleh, the groups which included HOOD , the Arab Sister Forum , Prisoner Organization and human rights activists demanded to grant prisoners all their rights guaranteed by the constitution and law.

Munier al Mawari makes several excellent points on the situation in Ja’ar in this article at Newomma. The tribal relations between the al Fahdli jihaddists and the Yafai jihaddists is an important consideration. Al Muwari lists several advantages of the operations for the regime including strengthening the grip of al Fahdli, heightening southern conflicts, the appearance of fighting militants to the western audience, moving more military equipment into the South, and consolidating control of land among Saleh’s family. He also notes the Fahdli contingent of the jihaddists has a much closer relationship with bin Laden and AQ central than these younger jihaddists. Al Muwari notes the security forces operation is led by the Defense Minister, who is from Abyan and has good ties with al Fahli. The ten arrested are all of the Yafia tribe.

تناقلت المواقع الإخبارية اليمنية يوم الثامن والعشرين من مارس 2009 خبرا عاجلا مصدره محافظة أبين في جنوب اليمن نصه كما يلي: “كلف الرئيس علي عبدالله صالح وزير دفاعه اللواء الركن محمد ناصر أحمد قيادة حملة عسكرية قوامها عشرات الأطقم العسكرية، ليشرف شخصياً على الحملة الأمنية التي بدأتها وزارة الداخلية لتعقب عدد من الجهاديين في مدينة جعار ثاني كبرى مدن محافظة أبين، وإنهاء حالة الفلتان الأمني التي تشهدها المدينة منذ عدة شهور”. هذا هو
ملخص الخبر، فما هي خلفياته الحقيقية، التي قد تتبادر إلى ذهن أي محلل سياسي خارج اليمن، أو حتى أذهان الدبلوماسيين الأجانب المطلعين على أسرار اليمن من داخلها، ولهذا يلزم توضيح الحقائق والخفايا التالية: أولا: الحملة العسكرية التي يقودها وزير الدفاع لا تستهدف الجهاديين من اتباع طارق الفضلي المنتمي مناطقيا وقبليا إلى أبين، بل تستهدف تقوية الفضلي ضد عناصر أخرى منافسة محسوبة على الجهاد، معظمهم ينتمون إلى آل عاطف من أبناء يافع، ولا يربطهم بالفضلي سوى الصراع على الأراضي حيث أن الأراضي الواقعة شمالي مدينة جعار هي تابعة ليافع تاريخيا، (Read on …)

al EShteraki: Rashad Al-Alimi approved by Major General, Deputy Prime Minister for Defense and Security, on Monday broke the al-Qaeda to the security services. (Read on …)

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took credit in an internet statement today for a pair of suicide attacks that targeted South Koreans in Yemen.

A teen-aged suicide bomber killed four South Korean tourists in Shibam, Hadramout on March 15. A second terror attack three days later in Sana’a targeted a convoy of family members and South Korean investigators. The motorcade had left a military camp and was traveling along a highway when a suicide bomber detonated his device between two of the cars. There were no injuries to the passengers.

According to al-Tajamo Weekly, the terrorist obtained information on the route and schedule of the delegation from Yemen’s security forces who were aware of the attack twelve hours in advance.

The AQAP internet statement said the attacks were an effort to “expel the infidels from the Arabian Peninsula” and were in retribution for the killing of Hamza al Qaiti by security forces after a suicide bombing in Sayoun last August. As additional rationale, the group cited South Korea’s “alliance with Crusader forces” in Iraq and Afghanistan, the corrupting influence of tourism and the spread of Christianity. The statement rejected the concept of a covenant of protection for visitors.

At a special parliamentary session, opposition and majority MPs alleged the Yemeni security forces are infiltrated by al Qaeda. MPs also accused the Yemeni government of deploying al Qaeda for political purposes. Independent MP Sakhr Al-Wajih said the government itself was involved in many of the terrorist acts which took place over the last years.

Parliament called for the disclosure of the ambiguous relationship between Yemeni authorities and al Qaeda. A ranking member of the ruling party said the relationship between the government and al Qaeda had harmed the country. Another MP said that it was clear that al Qaeda had penetrated the Yemeni security forces. (Read on …)

Qaeda bomber behind Yemen attack trained in Somalia, They say his name was Abdel Rahman Mehdi al-Aajbari, al Eshteraki< ?a>

security sources responsible بأن الاجهزة الامنية That the security apparatus تمكنت خلال الايام القليلة الماضية من القاء القبض على عشرة اشخاص من العناصر المنتمية الى تنظيم القاعدة، جميعهم في Able in the past few days of the arrest of ten people from the elements belonging to al Qaeda, all in خلية تعرف بخلية (قاسم الريمي). Cell known as a cell (Kassem Reemy). (Read on …)

Messy messy post but I’m swamped.

al Nedaa: Ssecurity authorities released the young Kuwaiti Alderbas Saif Abdul Latif, 19, detained since late last January in the Political Security Prison as part of a crackdown to hunt down the suspects of belonging to al Qaeda, having proved to be linked to any of the charges against him, and referred the charges attributed to him by the suspected terrorist issues to the establishment of illegal.
Was confirmed by the “call” a diplomatic source in the Kuwaiti embassy in Sanaa Alderbas release, stressing that Kuwaiti citizens only to control the non-renewal of his stay in Yemen, and that his release came after the correction of the legal status, origin and preferred not to engage in any additional details because the case is closed.

Yemen Online: Yemen Arrests six suspects belong to an Islamic Center in Sana’a
YemenOnline.March 25- The national security forces in Sanaa arrested four people after surrounding an Islamic institute (Al-Dawaa Center) for two hours on Wednesday. YemenOnline Learned that that the suspects arrested on suspension of of organising two attacks on South Koreans and of plotting another 10 against Western targets, the interior ministry said on Wednesday. “Six members of an Al-Qaeda cell wanted by the security forces have been arrested,” the ministry’s website quoted a senior security official as saying.The cell was suspected of organising two suicide bombings against South Koreans which killed a total of five people, one against a group of tourists visiting the historic eastern city of Shibam and the other against a group of officials who had been dispatched to join the investigation.The cell was also suspected of plotting 10 other attacks against Western targets, including oil installations and foreign tourists, the official said.”The security forces are in the process of hunting down the other members of the cell. Their arrest is only a matter of time,” he said.

(Read on …)

A finger in every pot. The Israelis have been saying for years that weapons from Yemen, smuggled with the awareness of authorities, are a source of weapons for Hamas. Yemen is also the major supplier of weapons to Somalia including Shabab and other jihaddi groups in the region.

JP: The latest reports of an alleged IAF strike on a Hamas arms convoy in Sudan draw attention to an arms network running from Iran, via the Persian Gulf and Yemen to Sudan, Egypt, and Hamas-ruled Gaza. The existence of this network has been noted by analysts in the past. It forms part of a larger, overt, close relationship maintained by both Iran and Hamas with the regime of Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum.

Sahwa Net – Israeli security sources have said that Mossad could have intelligences that the arms recently destroyed in Sudan were transferred from Iran to Yemen and from Yemen to Sudan later , according to al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper .

A convoy of trucks in Sudan which were believed to be carrying arms were bombed by Israeli warplanes in January

We have a winner.

Now lets lay odds on whether al Wahishi and al Reimi were tipped off before the raid and/or managed to escape. One would presume that their regime-affiliated travel facilitator remains as capable as ever. The head of security expects them to escape to Abyan (Jaar?).

Other Shabwa trivia: Shabwa is also where al Shairi, the ex-Gitmo Saudi AQAP lieutenant, surrendered to the Sheik on behalf of the Saudis. And, according to the last published report available (Yemen Post), Fahd al Quso is living in Shabwa.

Its important though not to overlook the concurrent build up of foreign and domestic jihaddists in Sa’ada.

News Yemen: Security forces in Shabwa are besieging al-Qaeda suspects in a mountainous area of Hatib district of Shabwa province, security source said Thursday.

The suspects are hiding in the mountainous area of Hatib which borders Abyan province, the security director of Hatib told NY. The source said expects did not clash with the security forces until now, expecting that they might flee to Abyan.

Ministry of Interior reported on Thursday that the security forces arrested two suspects included in a security blacklist.

The admission by the MP’s and al-Alimi that al Qaeda has penetrated the security services is important. Its not a new development but a validation of the configuration that exists.

The issue is two fold: 1) to what extent does al Qaeda deploy its resources within the security services to achieve the jihaddists goals, and 2) to what extent do the security services use the terrorists and their networks to achieve goals of the political elite.

The goals of al Qaeda are recruitment, financing, training and travel to external theaters of jihad. Additional goals domestic include freeing imprisoned terrorists, establishing camps, and social impact. Regional goals include the continued assault on Somalia and attacks in Saudi Arabia,

attagammua:

Quasi-security reserve player .. خبير أمني: القاعدة لاعب رئيس في ظل انفلات خطير Security expert: al-Qaeda’s head of the loose in a serious
الإثنين , 23 مارس 2009 م Monday, March 23, 2009

صنعاء/ التجمع Sanaa / assembly
كشفت العمليتان الانتحاريتان ضد السياح والفريق الامني الكوري في شبام حضرموت والعاصمة صنعاء يومي الاحد والخميس الماضيين مدى الفراغ الامني الذي صار يتحكم فيه تنظيم القاعدة – اللاعب الابرز- الذي فرض قبضته ونجح في السيطرة والتحكم بمفاتيح اللعب, الامر الذي دعا خبيراً امنياً لتشبيه دور الاجهزة الامنية بلاعبين على دكة الاحتياط. The processes Alantharitan against the tourists and the security team in the Korean capital city of Shibam, Hadramout and Sana’a on Sunday and Thursday over the security vacuum, which is controlled by al Qaeda – the most prominent player – which has a grip and control and control keys to the game, which called for security experts to compare the role of the security services players on the reserve bench. (Read on …)

Very little is happening so far in Houthi areas, despite claims to the contrary, and weekly protests go on for the release of the people imprisoned, some since 2006. YR 10 billion is a lot of money for a line item.

SANA’A, March, 23 (Saba) – Saada Reconstruction Fund’s Board approved in Monday’s meeting the plan of the fund’s budget for the fiscal year 2009 estimated at YR 10, 7 billion.

The action plan aims at reconstructing 5000 thousand house and 900 farms besides reconstructing and qualifying 200 public institutions. (Read on …)

Al-Motamar

Almotamar.net – President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Monday received Assistant of the United States of America President for Homeland Security and Counter-terrorism John Brennan who conveyed to President Saleh a written message from the US President Barak Obama. The message is pertaining to bilateral relations, cooperation and existing partnership between the two countries, including cooperation in security and combating terror in addition to conditions of the Yemeni prisoners in Guantanamo and developments of common concern of the two countries. (Read on …)

Sana’a, Yemen – A major fire broke out in an oil field operated by the French oil firm Total in south-eastern Yemen Sunday, but no casualties or production losses were reported, witnesses said. “A massive fire engulfed the chemical storage section in block 14,” one witness told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. He said the fire caused explosions.

Block 14 is located in Massila of the Hadhramaut province, some 900 kilometres south-east of the capital Sana’a. It produces 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire.

The fire destroyed the structure of the storage facility, an oil engineer told

Russia is Yemen’s biggest creditor by far.

Yemen Post

President Saleh’s recent visit to Russia raised a great deal of media fuss and this fuss was associated with the nature of the visit. The official media mentioned that Saleh’s visit was meant for canceling Yemen’s debts as well as the economic cooperation, while the international media revealed that Yemen signed weapons deals at billions of US Dollars. This was later affirmed by the official media as they revealed that the country signed a four-billion dollar weapons deal, the biggest deal ever. (Read on …)

Everybody is stuck in the past. al Sahwa

Sahwa Net – Extensive meetings of the South peaceful movements leaders has led to an agreement to form a preparatory committee for a general conference of the various southern movements.

” We consider the meeting a good step to bring all movements together” said Nasser al-Khabji, a south movement leader. South leaders called for pursuing peaceful struggle and uniting all movements under a single leadership.

Other developments include:

1- Saleh plans to return YSP property 15 years after its confiscation assuming he gets the proper level of cooperation.

2- Hamid refused to apologize on behalf of Islah for supporting actions against southerners during the civil war. (Over 150 southern leaders were assassinated from 1990-1993.) Al-Attas’s letter was not read at the conference.

3- Saleh’s mercenaries headed by al-Fahdli are calling themselves the National Front for the Liberation of the South, which is brilliant and confusing.

The original fear-mongering report came out in one of the regime fronted stooge papers. The tribes then issued a statement warning against US assault. Yemeni tribes have been the subject of statements by Zawahiri and Saleh recently. Normally they have to kidnap a foreigner to get any publicity.

SANA’A, March 22 (Saba) – A Yemeni official source has denied that the US will carry out land and air strikes against al-Qaeda targets in Yemen, dismissing reports that a Yemeni official had made statements for the official website of the United States Department of Defense over the matter.

The state-run 26sep.net cited the source as saying all information included in the reports were untrue and baseless.

There is no official source in Yemen who had contacted the website in New York to tell them about a Yemeni-US deal to crackdown al-Qaeda militants in the country, the source made clear, adding some websites deliberately promulgated misinformation for only a purpose of propaganda.

This would be funny except the guy got a death sentence.

Sanaa, 23 March (AKI) – Yemeni Bassal al-Haidari was sentenced to death by the country’s special criminal court in Sanaa on Monday after being found guilty of contacting Israel’s outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert and offering to collaborate with Israel. (Read on …)

A recent terror attack on South Korean tourists in Yemen killed four and was followed by an attempted attack days later on South Korean officials which only killed the bomber. The South Koreans are engaged in soul searching and wondering why. The answer probably has more to do with Yemen’s natural gas project (South Korea is a major investor) than with the South Korean position on Iraq or Palestine.

Cracking the wall of silence, both opposition and majority Members of Parliament in Yemen denounced the Yemeni government’s support of terror activities in Yemen for political ends. It is not as some suggest a passive relationship, an incorporation of Islamists into the political system or turning a blind eye; the Yemeni government is directly involved in some “terror attacks” and provides material support for jihaddist groups.

Yemen Post: As the government announced a massive hunt, even with helicopters, for fugitives it says have planned to carry further terrorist attacks in Yemen, MPs said on Monday the government had provided aid for terrorist groups to carry out attacks.

During a closed parliament session to which Deputy Premier for Security and Defense Affairs Rashad Al-Alimi was invited along with the ministers of Culture, Tourism and Guidance and Deputy Minister of Interior, MPs said the government’s support for Jihadist and terrorist networks in the country was politically-motivated.

During the sitting, which was dedicated to discussing the issues of insecurity and soaring terrorist acts, independent MP Sakhr Al-Wajih said the government has been found involved in many terrorist acts which took place in the past years.

In the sitting, which was supposed to be closed and not to be attended by media, MPs urged a transparent dealing with security issues in the country as they reaffirmed previous accusations, by MPs from the ruling party and opposition, that the government had provided aid for terrorists.

In previous sessions, MPs from the ruling party and opposition called on the government to determine the nature of its relationship with terrorist networks and reconsider its policies on the relationship, saying all government acts in this regard are negatively affecting the country.

One more time: (Read on …)

When I established this website five years ago today, I never expected things to take the incredible path they did. Its been rather fun. For this year’s anniversary, I decided to go with the Anteater theme.

Anteater loves America this much.

Anteater was first.

Anteater doesn’t like Ruby.

Anteater is a geek.

(Read on …)

Again? Did this happen last month or is it a new confrontation between the Coast Guard and the Border Guard? Its a current article, so maybe its a second occurence.

Sahwa Net – Confrontations have erupted between border guards and coast guards in Lohia district ,Hodaida, as coast guards conducted check campaign on boats suspected that they were carried with smuggled commodities.

Local sources said clashes broke out when border guards prevented coast guards from checking fishing boats in Lohia .

The source explained that border guards harbored smugglers , pointing out that trafficking is carried out regularly as border guards protect smugglers.

Yemen Post has more: (Read on …)

The students have been demanding for over a year that the military be withdrawn from the campus.
The National

SANA’A // The shooting of a student at Sana’a University in Yemen by a soldier has sparked protests on the campus and raised concerns about the increased presence of the military at the institute.
(Read on …)