Armies of Liberation

As earlier reported here and updated here, the government of Yemen struck a deal in January with “co-opted terrorists”. The jihaddists agreed to target the regime’s political foes in exchange for money, prisoner releases and the city of Ja’ar.

In an apparent culmination of the deal, two southern political leaders have been assassinated in Amran governorate, north of the capital Sana’a in the last week. A two year old child was also murdered in his father’s arms. An Arabic language report is here.

Mohsen Wakaz was murdered today along with his toddler son, Chavez. Wakaz was the deputy secretary of the Socialist Party in Amran governorate. He was ambushed by unidentified gunmen. On Sunday, Ali Saleh Alzakeri was murdered. He was one of the Socialist Party leaders in the same governorate. Party leaders have denounced the murders and declared their resolve in the face of the assassination campaign.

The Yemeni government has regularly deployed terrorists as mercenaries. President Saleh’s northern forces won the 1994 civil war over the Yemeni Socialist Party in part due to the participation of veterans of the Afghan jihad. More recently, the government of Yemen incorporated jihaddists as trainers and fighters in the northern Sa’ada war that raged since 2004 against the Shiite “Houthi” rebels. In addition, several prominent opposition leaders have been killed, for example, the murder of Jarallah Omar by a jihaddist in 2002. Omar was the architect of the rapprochement among Yemen’s opposition parties. All in all, 152 Socialist leaders were assassinated between 1990-1993.

A guest post (meaning I didnt write it) by Abu Yemen:

The Yemeni dictator continues to turn Yemen into a failed state despite all free advice given to him by honest citizens and overseas friends. President Ali Abdullah Saleh is turning a deaf ear to all sensible opinions expressed to him by politicians, scholars, and experienced clergy. The recent tour he made to Russia and Ukraine in order to acquire huge quantities of sophisticated weapons worth over 2 billion US Dollars is another example of his irresponsibility, ignorance, and betrayal of constitutional obligations. According to reliable sources in Yemen, this little dictator has indulged in many constitutional violations, totally disregarded human rights, and has abandoned democratic principles. Further, the President of Yemen is involved in ignition of civil wars and sponsors a crude policy of creating disputes, tribal and political, amongst the entire population in Yemen. Today the deplorable President of Yemen has gone too far in misrepresenting the aspirations of the Yemeni people over the last 30 years. During this time, he misled public opinion in Yemen as well as many friendly governments in the Arab world, Europe, US, and Canada. In this regard, he pretended on one hand to play the role of cooperating in the joint efforts to curtail and defeat international terrorism, and on the other hand, he maintained discrete arrangements with terrorists to survive and use them to exterminate his political opponents.

Consequently, Yemen has become a safe haven for such terrorist elements. These terrorist elements represent a serious threat to the security and stability of the entire region to the extent that genuine interests of all are at risk. It is therefore time for all concerned to consider stepping forward and extending all necessary efforts to assist the masses of Southern Yemenis seeking to abandon the political unity between the two Yemens after the dictator betrayed the unity agreement concluded 20 years ago. Your attention is equally invited to a possible military confrontation currently under preparation by the dictator and his men against the Hawtis in Saada who enjoy the support of tribes all over the province, and the support of those in the provinces of Al Jawf, Ma’rib, and Harf Sufyan. Yemen has reached the point of disintegration and every self-respecting citizen in Yemen is praying for safety from becoming the next Somalia.

There are several steps that could be taken to stabilize Yemen but pumping foreign aid in is not one of them and will make little impact. The absorption rate for Yemeni aid is under 60%, and Yemen is paying interest on unspent loans. Yemen is unable to coordinate its administrative efforts in productive manner due to corruption, incompetence and institutional weakness. The Planning Ministry hasn’t come up with the plans to allocate the donor’s funds pledged in 2006, and even with a plan, the execution of development projects in Yemen is consistently poor, due partially to the failure of coordination among the ministries and the overall lack of fiscal accountability .

Yemen Observer, interview with former foreign minister:

Donor support
Concerning pledges made by the GCC and several international donors to support Yemen’s development, al-Asali said,” The government should act quickly, and it should realize that times have changed, and the patience of donors and the Yemeni people has run out.”

In November 2006, the GCC and several other international donors in London pledged more than $4.7 billion, most of it from the GCC, to support further development in Yemen.

“Now it has been about two and a half years, and the problem remains. Even the money, which has already been allocated, will be withheld because Yemen’s institutions will not be able to meet the conditions of the allocations,” said the former Minister of Finance. “But the problem is that the government believes it can use the money through Yemeni institutions, but the donors believe that these Yemeni institutions are not enough and unable to use the money effectively.”

He said some of these institutions are effective and some are not, but in general they are not in a position to effectively use the money provided. “So, the government should have agreed with the donors on other alternatives to use the money.”

“I remember when I was Minister of Finance, I suggested that the money from Saudi Arabia should be allocated for electricity production, and the money from UAE for the development of ports, and the money from Qatar for technical education, etc. However, the cabinet did not agree with me,” he said. Al-Asali also expected the global economic crisis to affect the allocation of donor pledges. “They were supposed to hold an asessment meeting two years after the London conference, but they did not hold this meeting until recently,” he said.

IFJ : The IFJ President, Jim Boumelha, joined journalists in Yemen today in celebrating the presentation to their colleague Abdul Karim Al Khaiwani of Amnesty International’s Special Award for Human Rights Journalism under Threat.

In delivering the award during the 4th congress of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate in Sana’a, IFJ President Jim Boumelha praised the bravery and resilience that Al Khaiwani has shown during his long ordeal. “Abdul Karim is a very special journalist.” He said. “He is one of those rare breeds of journalists, some of the bravest and the most determined – those who are prepared to sacrifice their personal and professional lives for the public good and to put their future and even the future of their families and children at risk in order to ensure that our profession remains one of the strongest backbones of our democracies.” (Read on …)

Does this mean President Saleh will get arrested if he goes to Australia? Note, theres no date on this article and according to the website the AAIA was re-listed in 2007, so this may be old news.

PROSCRIPTION OF SIX TERRORIST ORGANISATIONS
The Australian Government has today re-listed six groups as terrorist organisations under the Criminal Code, following advice from Australia’s security agencies.

The re-listing ensures that it remains an offence to associate with, train with, provide training for, receive funds from, make funds available to, direct or recruit for these organisations.

Organisations that have been re-listed are:

Ansar al Islam (formerly Ansar al-Sunna);
Asbat al Ansar;
Islamic Army of Aden;
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan;
Jaish e Mohammed (JeM); and
Lashkar-e Jhangvi.

Ansar al-Islam and Asbat al-Ansar are extremist groups which continue to engage in terrorist activity in Iraq.

The Islamic Army of Aden continues to target Yemeni and Western interests in the southern governorates of Yemen and has previously kidnapped Western tourists which resulted in the death of an Australian…

One organisation, Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) will not be re-listed as it no longer meets the threshold for proscription, based on current intelligence that it has affiliated with other terrorist organisations.

Further details of these terrorist organisations, including a Statement of Reasons for each re-listing, are attached and available on the Government’s National Security Website at www.nationalsecurity.gov.au.

Its here, a bit out of date.

Following the suicide bombing that killed four South Korean tourists in Hadramout, Yemen on Sunday, a convoy carrying the team of South Korean investigators was targeted by a suicide bomber en route from the airport. (Update:The attack took place as the convoy was leaving al-Dailami military base. M&C ) Its just unbelievable. Thankfully there were no casualties beyond the bomber. Lets put it in historical context:

1- Yemen has a history of impeding and obstructing terror investigations by “Western” investigators. The prime example is the USS Cole investigation when the Yemeni government and its officials deliberately misdirected, misinformed and failed to inform the FBI or grant direct access to suspects. Following the obstruction of the investigation came the obstruction of justice. All those complicit in the bombing are free in Yemen. Those convicted by a Yemeni court spent less than four years in jail, and many were never brought to trial.

Another example is the 2007 suicide bombing in which killed eight elderly Spanish tourists and two Yemeni guides. In that case, the Yemeni government denied a US offer of forensic assistance and obstructed Spanish investigators. The Yemeni government has accused numerous persons of complicity in these murders and none of the “masterminds” are in jail. However, four teen-agers were convicted recently and 16 other alleged terrorists are about to go on trial.

Now following the suicide attack that killed four Korean tourists and one Yemeni, the Korean investigative team was targeted by another suicide bomber coming from a military base en route to the airport. How did the suicide bomber know when the security team was going to be passing? Clearly its not random.

2- The Yemeni government is currently deploying two separate groups of jihaddists as mercenaries. The first is the al Fahdli group in Abyan, south Yemen and is the “co-opted” jihaddists. There was a meeting, a deal was struck, money changed hands, prisoners were released and the plan is a go. The regime has abdicated control of Jahr, Abyhan to the fundamentalists who have murdered several suspected homosexuals, confiscated property and imposed their hard-core version of Sharia law. New training camps were established.

One new terrorist guesthouse is in Sanhan, President Saleh’s village, and the next stop is a training camp in al-Haimah west of Sanaa. Another camp was recently established in the al-Ahbush mountains in Rumalia near Jahr, with the support of Yemeni military authorities. A third camp established is in Rahbat in Aden.

The second group of terrorists is that assembling in the north, in Sa’ada. This group appears to have been loaned out by Ayman Zawahiri to assist President Saleh in the next war against the Houthi rebels. The group reportedly is comprised of Yemenis and Arab and non-Arab foreigners, which may include Somalis.

The third contingent of violent jihaddists in Yemen is supposedly headed by Nasir al Wahishi and has incorporated the remnants of the Saudi al Qaeda network. This group publicly rejects negotiations with the regime and has threatened shipping routes in the Bab al Mendab. However, some Yemeni security officials are aware of Wahishi’s current location.

So in conclusion, while it is still too early to draw any firm conclusions on this week’s terror attacks in Yemen, the range of possible perpetrators is quite broad. Random factoid: South Korean is a primary investor in and customer of Yemen’s LNG project scheduled to come online within months.

al-Motamar, (paper of the ruling party) Yemen Interior Ministry mentioned Wednesday that a suicide bomber, wearing an explosive belt, has blasted himself near the airport at the time the Korean security delegation was leaving Sana’a Airport.

An official source at the Interior Ministry said the incident did not cause any casualties the suicide bomber body was torn to small pieces.

Security Information Centre said security men surrounded the incident place and experts of criminal evidence began inspecting the place and gathering parts of the suicide bomber body and remains of the explosive charge.

Security apparatuses also embarked on investigating the incident to identify the suicide bomber and will be revealed in the next hours.

الأخوة أعضاء يمن بورتال الأعزاء،

تحية طيبة أهديها إليكم بعد طول غياب ويسعدني إبلاغكم بأن المحرك “يمن بورتال نت” قد تجاوز عقبة أخرى وانتهى من التحديث الجذري للبنية التحتية له حيث انتقل إلى سيرفر جديد ذو سعة وسرعة كبيرتين وبالتالي فإن تصفحه سيكون أسرع وأسهل من الآن فصاعداً.

كما يسعدني إبلاغكم بأن عدد المواد المخزنة في قاعدة بيانات المحرك قد وصل مؤخراً إلى مليون مادة. وإليكم البيان المرفق الذي يحتوي على التفاصيل وأتمنى أن يقوم أصحاب المواقع والمدونون منكم بنشره دعماً منكم للمحرك الذي ما يزال مع الأسف محجوباً في اليمن إلا أنه من الممكن محاولة فتحه عبر الرابط المؤمن

https://yemenportal.net

متأملاً استجابتكم في نشر المرفق مع تمنياتي لكم بالتوفيق والنجاح.
(Read on …)

How nicely edited this one is and it includes good goverance as a goal…

Cultural Association of Iraqi Youth
established in 2005 to help a generation Iraqis reap the benefits of democracy

General Information
Address: Cultural Association of Iraqi Youth,
Abdelbari i 2, Kut City, Wasit Province, Iraq
Phone: 009647702625845.
E-mail: asd_bad2001@yahoo.com
Registration: General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, Office to assist Non-Governmental Organizations, Registration No. 1z40800, dated 21/9/2005
Target group: Iraqis twelve years and old of both sexes
Funding: Self

The Objectives of the Organization
1- The organization seeks to enfranchise young people in the Iraqi civil and political system by teaching them the technical, administrative and leadership skills necessary to utilize the democratic process.
2- The organization seeks to develop the next generation of national, regional and local leaders with an entrenched set of egalitarian values far from sectarianism, racism, nationalism and geography.
3- The organization seeks to defend the civil rights of Iraqi youth and help them develop strategies to protect and enhance their civil liberties.

Mission Statement
“Awareness of young people and the consolidation of democracy in Iraq opened the way for the growing participation of Iraqi youth in determining the governance and the future of Iraq.” (Read on …)

Full Brochure Available on Request

Brochure about: Babil Center for Human Rights &Civil Development

Iraq\ Middle South Iraq

Iraq\ Babylon government \ Hilla

The founding statement of the Center

After the political change that has been active in Iraq, the movement of spreading the culture of human rights and has been founded to a wide range of associations, institutions and organizations and centers are working to build a new form of culture which tried the former regime ignored and swept under the carpet. . We all work under the banner of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants and conventions in this area. We have achieved many of those centers set of substantive accomplishments, which gave them a reputation that can help to play a definite role in the coming stage.
(Read on …)

Keeping with our regional theme today:

www.byshr.org, full report

Introduction

The Kingdom of Bahrain, since 2004, has been waging a campaign against the defenders of human rights in Bahrain. It started this campaign by closing down the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and forbidding the establishment of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights. This campaign has continued in an escalating manner, until the “Bandar” report appeared – Salah Al-Bandar is the former government adviser – where the report pointed out that there is a continuous plan to target human rights defenders and their organizations.

Since the issuance of the report – Bandar – the authorities started to wage organized campaigns against the defenders of human rights, and the campaigns intensified with the death of the activist Ali Jassim, who died in mysterious circumstances after his participation in the annual demonstration organized by the National Committee of Martyrs and Torture Victims in December every year.

From that moment onwards, the defenders in Bahrain are being caught in the midst of the danger of torture in the investigation centers – Criminal Investigation Bureau – and the danger of arrest and imprisonment, where the Bahraini authorities accused the activists of committing capital crimes against the country. The Public Prosecution, however, was only able to prove those accusations after it had practiced extreme torture against all the defendants in criminal cases with the help of the National Security Service.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights had filed several complaints to the Special Rapporteur for the Defenders of Human Rights in the United Nations, and had also filed complaints to the Special Rapporteur for Arbitrary Arrest.

The BYSHR believes that the international organizations and panels should pay more notice to the cases of human rights defenders, especially in the period which is the focus of the report – December 2007 until February 2009 – due to the increase of torture, arbitrary arrest and unfair trial incidents for the defenders.

The BYSHR extends an invitation to the Special Rapporteurs – Arbitrary Arrest, Torture, and Defenders of Human Rights – to visit Bahrain and to have a close look into the situation of human rights defenders, and to meet the different segments of society, in addition to the human rights organizations.

Note: The methods of torture that will be mentioned in the report were taken from the complaint forms submitted to the Special Rapporteur against torture and degrading treatment.

For more information: Mohammed Al-Maskati – president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights
+973-36437088 or mohdmaskati@byshr.org

Nader Al-Salatna – Vice president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights
+973-39596196 or naderalsalatna@byshr.org

I decided to pop this comment to the front page for a few reasons. One is that the author has a good description of the standard alliance of the military, ruling party and Islamists that is in place in many nations, including Yemen. Secondly of course is that this is a bad scenario for Bangladesh, another immature democracy fraught with corruption and poverty where competing social forces face an uneven playing field and the media pays the price. What always surprised me about Bangladesh was how the Awami League and the BNP failed to reconcile historical hostility from events decades ago. However a more fundamental schism is between the forces of modernism and those determined to entrench power through the use of force, a basket that includes jihaddists, military elite and the ruling party. The most immediate threat to regressive forces everywhere is the free media and unfettered critical thinking.

State patronized terror is a scenario in most of the Asian nations, especially in those Muslim dominated countries like Pakistan, Iran, and Bangladesh etc. But, the most important factor here, which might be a subject of grave concern of the international community, is, in many of the Muslim nations, anti-Jihadist and anti-Islamist forces are becoming target of the Islamist-Ruling Party alliances.

In Bangladesh, on February 22, 2009, only anti-Jihadist newspaper Blitz office was attacked by a group of armed thugs belonging to the ruling party, which was co-led by an officer from the Forces Intelligence. This is certainly a new development, where anti-Islamist media is being attacked by a trio force of ruling party, Islamists and the military intelligence. Such things also happen in Pakistan as well.

Weekly Blitz editor is award winning internationally acclaimed anti-Jihadist journalist, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, who advocates inter-faith understanding and confront radical Islam.

Almost after 1 month of attack on the office of Weekly Blitz newspaper by armed hooligans belong to ruling party in Bangladesh, members of law enforcing agencies are reluctant in taking any action, as some high ups in the government and police administration instructed the investigation officer not to ‘harass’ any of the accused in this case as they belong to the ruling party.

On February 22, 35-40 armed terrorists belonging to the ruling party, led by Ruhul Amin attacked the office of Blitz newspaper. They instructed the caretaker named Anwar of the commercial center named Skylark Point [where the Blitz office is located] to lock the outside gate and continued their notorious actions in the broad day light for hours in presence of members of law enforcing and various intelligence agencies.

Despite lodging of a case more than 5 days back [Case No. 65, under section 143, 448, 323, 342, 384, 380, 427 and 506], members of law enforcing agencies in Bangladesh are showing extreme reluctance in arresting any of the attackers, mostly belonging to the ruling party, who attacked the office of Weekly Blitz on Sunday [February 22, 2009], physically assaulted the editor and other members, abused the female staffs and looted laptop and other valuables in a broad day light, in presence of an officer from DGFI [Forces Intelligence] named Shamim. Members of law enforcing agencies were witnessing the incident silently.

Weekly Blitz editor and other staffs of the newspaper have made an appeal to the media community in the country and in the world for their kind and immediate help in this regard.

Lets recall that al Khaiwani was arrested as a personal vendetta by Saleh, beat up, his kid slapped, interrogated for a week, released and then kidnapped and really beat up badly, convicted and imprisoned for months, pardoned and re-convicted and now pardoned again. (This is not even counting what happened to him in 2004/5.) Its like battered wife syndrome translated to the national level, yes its nice the abuse stopped momentarily but its important not to lose sight of the over-riding fact that it never should have occurred in the first place.

And the announcement about freeing the broadcast media is getting old also; its about the fifth time I heard that in the last five years, nothing happens. More talk, headlines and propaganda and when the dust settles, journalists are still getting beat up, no new licenses or as we saw recently, the new TV channel goes to al Zindani… So it would be nice if true but Saleh’s words are meaningless, so lets see what happens before celebrating this announcement.

Alarab

Yemen pardons opposition journalist facing jail

Yemen’s president said on Saturday he had pardoned an opposition journalist facing a six-year jail sentence for links to armed rebels. A Yemeni court last year convicted Abdelkarim al-Khaywani, editor of opposition newspaper al-Shura, to six years in jail after he was found carrying images and statements of the rebels.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced the pardon in a speech to a journalist union’s conference, in which he also called for new legislation to allow private television and radio stations and easing rules for the launch of new publications.

Battles with the Shi’ite Muslim rebels, which had raged on and off since 2004 in the north of the poor Arab country, subsided last year. Hundreds of people have been killed in the conflict and thousands have fled their homes.

Sunni Muslims form a majority of Yemen’s 19 million population, while most of the rest are Shi’ite Zaydis.

Does this include the nephew of Saddam who has the interpol warrent on him for running the northern insurgency (Mosul) from Yemen? It would be good for as many of these Iraqi military to go back to Iraq as possible because they have a negative influence on the stability of Yemen, Sa’ada in particular, and the region.

Kurdish Globe: The advisors of Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, held several meetings with members of dissolved Baath Party (Saddam’s Party) and former officers of Iraqi Army in neighbouring countries in an attempt to listen to their demands before returning to Iraq and participating in the political process.

In the beginning of February 2009, Iraqi government opened five offices in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen and United Arab Emirates to negotiate with former members of Baath Party and persuade them to return to Iraq….

Meanwhile, the hardline members of Baath Party rejected the repeated calls for national reconciliation by the Shia-dominated government.

“The Baath and its men reject… meetings, dialogue and agreement with the collaborators, spies and traitors,” said a statement on the Baath party’s official website. The party is believed to be headed by Saddam’s former deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, who eluded US attempts at capture after the 2003 invasion.

In the tangled web of the prolonged insurgency, secular Baathist groups often allied themselves with al Qaeda’s religious fanatics, local criminal gangs and foreign intelligence agencies to carry out devastating attacks that have killed tens of thousands of people over the years and triggered sectarian warfare in Baghdad.

Yemen Online

Senior Iraqi officers and citizens in Yemen to go back home, Iraqi sources confirmed. (Read on …)

This one is number 43 on the Saudi list of 85 wanted fanatics, Abdullah Abdul Rahman Mohammed Al-Harbi, not to be confused with previously repatriated Ahmed Owaidan al Harbi.

Yemen arrests Saudi al-Qaeda militant
SANA’A, March 15 (Saba) – One of the most wanted al-Qaeda militant of Saudi Arabia was arrested by Yemeni forces in Taiz province, Interior Ministry said Sunday.

“Yemen’s security services have captured Saudi man on a list of 85 wanted militants of Saudi Arabia Abdullah Abdul-Rahman Mohammed al-Harbi who is wanted by Yemen as well over terrorist acts”, said the Ministry.

“Al-Harbi is one of the most wanted militants in Yemen’s newly issued list of 116 wanted militants”.

Security sources pointed out that al-Harbi are being investigated by Yemeni security bodies.

The sources revealed also that a number of suspected al-Qaeda militants, including a leading Yemeni member of al-Qaeda al-Khadhir al-Gadib, had surrendered to Yemeni authorities in Abyan province.

This is bad news: al-Tagheer:

Four tourists in Shibam Hadramout killed this evening in a car bomb by a suicide bomber.

He said the correspondent of the “change” in a procession to Shibam for a group of tourists traveling in a vehicle belonging to one of the travel and tourism, one of the persons intercepted a car bomb has exploded cars and a number of dead and wounded.

The correspondent added that the operation took place near a mountain, “Bp” in the Sale of Shibam Hadramout and during the procession of tourists stopped to take pictures of the sunset from the top of the mountain.

The correspondent pointed out that he is still writing, even ambulances transported the injured to more bad in the hospital did not have definitive statistics on the victims of the accident, which, according to preliminary data, which left four tourists from the Korean nationality.

He stressed that the security forces in the region imposed a security cordon at the scene of the incident and prevented from approaching it.

South Korean tourists. This is very sad. Another article says it was remote a controlled device, which if true may indicate prior experience in Iraq or an unwillingness to martyrdom, like the ambush of the Belgians in January 2008.

Updated casualty figures: Four South Koreans, three Yemenis killed, brought to the morgue in Sayoon, four South Koreans wounded.

CNN

100 detainees, 15 to go to trial, 15 cleared for release, some of the remaining 70 with family in SA may go for rehab there.

Story Highlights

-Rehab plan would involve only Yemenis with family ties to Saudi Arabia, paper says

-Yemeni spokesman opposes plan: “We want our detainees back to the homeland”

-Saudis may have underlying motive to interrogate detainees wanted for terror

This is rather important as well: In a dramatic break with the Bush administration, the Justice Department on Friday announced it is discarding the “enemy combatant” designation, which allowed the United States to hold suspected terrorists at length without criminal charges.

More on the new de-designation: CO:

In a court filing in Washington, the Justice Department dropped the term “enemy combatant” to refer to those being held in Guantanamo. It also said that the government’s authority to continue to jail terrorist suspects would hinge on proving that they “authorized, committed or aided” the Sept. 11 attacks or that they “were part of or substantially supported” the Taliban or al-Qaida.

Some lawyers said the decision not to use the term “enemy combatant” marked the death knell for military commissions, which Congress established specifically to try Guantanamo detainees. Under federal law, the commissions have authority to try only persons declared “unlawful alien enemy combatants.”

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, who defended Osama bin Laden’s driver before such a commission, said Friday’s move effectively gave the war court “jurisdiction over a category of persons that doesn’t exist.” (Read on …)

Not even on a per case basis when in hot pursuit, Yemen Observer:

Yemen has denied foreign navies access to Yemen’s territorial waters whilst in pursuit of pirates. Yemen’s Deputy-Foreign Minister for Arab, Asian and African Affairs Ali al-Ayashi, denied the news currently being circulated by some websites that quoted a French diplomatic source saying the Yemeni government had permitted foreign warships to chase pirate vessels into its territorial waters on a case-by-case basis when Yemen is unable to act.

Al-Ayashi said these claims were baseless, and go directly against the sovereignty of Yemen. “The issue of fighting piracy by foreign ships in Yemen’s territorial waters is baseless, and Yemen has never agreed to any such procedures,” said al-Ayashi. He added that Yemen had affirmed many times that it would fight piracy in its territorial waters through the use of Coast Guard patrols, and through joint-operations between the Yemeni Navy and Coast Guard.
(Read on …)

The second man of Al-Qaeda terror network Ayman Al-Zawahiri has been seen for the first time Habar Gidir stronghold Marka town 90km south of Somalia capital as quoted from officials of unnamed money transfer companies and aid agencies on Thursday.

“Here in Marka, I have seen an Arab man who was heavily guarded as he was walking inside the town, with his sides we could see foreign armed men. I glimpsed him and he was Terrorist Ayman Al-Zawihiri, the man we often see on the world televisions,” one of the remittance companies said in condition of anonymity.He said all the movements in the town were halted as some of the senior officials of Al-Shabab group confirmed that the man they are hosting is Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

“I could not exactly say he was himself but most of out spoken issue was that the man seen is Al-Qaeda’s second man,” he added.“The presence of Ayman Al-Zawahiri in Marka is widely known, many people saw him but they fear for their security.

Our friends over at Terror Free Somalia got information from Waaga’s Club, but it’s in Somali. He describes the source as, “terror sympathizer HABAR-GIDIR ..news from Somalia waagacusub.own by harar-gidir own.. Shabelle media.. we call shabaab media.” The site was suspended shortly after. He believes there’s possibly some validity. It could be a high level AQ rep, not Zawahiri, considering the difficulty Zawahiri would have traveling. It could be a lot of things. I can’t find anything on Shabelle about it in English, but since Shabelle and Wagacusub tend to work hand in hand, thats not surprising. Also Shabelle regularly puts out misinformation in English.

At this point, its a rumor, but given the recent deal making between the government of Yemen and al-Qaeda, the prospect of Zawahiri visiting nearby Somalia is not as far fetched as it may initially seem. Yemen is the primary supplier of weapons to Somalia (in violation of the UN arms embargo); weapons are shipped from Yemen across the narrow Bab al Mendab Strait and the same boats bring Somali refugees to Yemen on the return trip.

After the September attack on the US embassy in Yemen, the US intercepted a communication between Ayman Zawahiri and the Iranian al Quds force leadership that referenced a deal between Yemeni President Saleh and Zawahiri. The deal was Zawahiri would send more fighters to Saleh to use in the northern Sa’ada war (against the Zaidi Shiite rebels) and in return Saleh would release imprisoned al-Qaeda operatives.

In a second deal in January, Saleh met with the contingent of Yemeni old generation co-opted al Qaeda under the leadership of Tariq al Fahdli and made a deal to use them to undermine the southern separatist movement in exchange for the release of prisoners. Saleh also gave the jihaddists funds and a free hand in the southern province of Abyan. New jihaddist training camps were also established. Then President Saleh released 102 jihaddists, of which about a third were actual al-Qaeda, the rest were local militants, thereby upholding his end of both deals.

Current news reports from Yemen indicate hundreds of jihaddists are amassing in the north in Sa’ada, Yemenis and non-Yemenis including Arabs and non-Arabs. The influx of foreign jihaddists to Sa’ada as well as the structure, training and hierarchy being imposed on them, indicates this possibly is an outcome of the communication between President Saleh and Ayman Zawahiri. Maybe Ayman will pop over from Somalia for a quick pow-pow with Ali.

Update: considering the site’s down, I posted the original below: (Read on …)

11 Syrians, 4 Yemenis and a Saudi according to some, IHT says 2 Syrians, 14 Yemenis.

The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
SAN’A, Yemen: Yemeni prosecutors brought 16 suspected al-Qaida members to trial Wednesday on terrorism charges that include an attack on the American embassy and killings of foreigners in Yemen.

The men — 14 Yemenis and two Syrians — stood inside a courthouse in the capital San’a as their trial started and heard the charges against them. The hearings were then adjourned.

The prosecution alleged the suspects formed an al-Qaida cell that masterminded a spate of attacks. The men were arrested on separate occasions between 2007 and 2008.

Some of them are accused of firing a volley of mortars at the U.S. embassy compound in March 2008. The mortars hit an adjacent girls high school instead, killing a Yemeni guard and wounding dozens of schoolgirls.

The charges also include 23 other terrorists acts, such as the Jan. 2008 killing of two female Belgian tourists, attacking a foreigners’ residential compound in Hadramout province (?) and clashes with police in which an al-Qaida militant leader was killed.

Al-Qaida has for years maintained a strong presence in Yemen — an impoverished country on the southwest corner of the Arabian peninsula that is also the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden.

In recent years, Yemen has cooperated with the U.S. in fighting terrorism, but its government has struggled to confront Islamic extremists.

Yemen has also seen numerous high-profile, al-Qaida-linked attacks, including the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the Gulf of Aden, which killed 17 American sailors.

A Sept. 2008 attack on the U.S. Embassy involving gunmen and explosives-packed vehicles killed 17 people, including six militants. Al-Qaida later claimed responsibility for that attack.

Three mortar attacks
Suicide car bombing in Sayoun
Ambush of Belgain tourists

dtd 2/27/10

(Read on …)