Armies of Liberation

Its so brutal. Click here for first hand testimony from tortured prisoners.

Amnesty International
PUBLIC STATEMENT
27 November 2009
Index: MDE 31/017/2009

Yemen: Government should announce commitment to tackle ‘widespread’ torture
(Read on …)

As the holiday of Eid al-Adha approaches, our thoughts are with tens of
thousands of displaced people in northern
Yemen who will not be able to celebrate Eid
in their own homes. (Read on …)

Alert net

SANAA, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Yemeni forces and Shi’ite rebels waged pitched battles on the outskirts of Saada on Saturday after regular troops thwarted an attempt by the insurgents to enter the northern city, a Yemeni military official said. (Read on …)

BBC: Assets (of Dubai World) include DP World, which caused a storm when trying to take over six US ports (and operates Aden Port.)

DPI corporate page here. Kuwait had a better bid than Dubai for Aden Port, but Dubai World got the contract, which was heavily weighed in their favor initially and even after the contract’s revision. But with DWI currently unable to pay its debts, development at Aden Port may stall. There is an the ongoing strike at Aden port for more than a year, prompted by DWI’s unfair labor practices. I have a copy of DWI’s employment contract and it allows for arbitrary dismissals among other discriminatory actions. DWI has called for the dismissal of union leaders. DWI took control of container operations in November 2008.

Yahoo: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A top Dubai finance official said the emirate fully expected fallout from its debt problems and assured foreign creditors that Dubai World’s request to postpone payment on some of its $60 billion in debt was “carefully planned.” (Read on …)

The video is of the assassination of a security chief who al Qaeda claimed was complicit in the death of al Harithy in 2002. What a crazy world, the poor guy. At least they didn’t behead him, the way these murderers do in other parts of the world. Its interesting the way al Harithy’s death is considered un-avenged, while Fawaz al Raibi’s 2006 killing didn’t strike the same tribal cord. One distinction is that the US killed al Harithy (and US citizen Kamal al Darwish) with Predator drone. Perhaps the broader message is a threat against the same type of (rather effective) aerial targeting of terrorist leadership by the US as occurs in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and in parts of Africa. The video doesn’t show the moment of death and follows the other “al Qaeda assassination” of the three security chiefs in revenge for the killing of Hamza al Qaiti that triggered the protests in Hadramout, demanding the regime bring the true killers to justice.

DUBAI, Nov 26 (Reuters) – Al Qaeda’s wing in Yemen said it shot dead an abducted Yemeni security official, and issued a video showing him on Islamist websites on Thursday.

“I advise people not to get involved in actions (such as mine) … and not to be drawn into working for American intelligence,” said a blindfolded man, identifying himself on the video as Bassam Tarbush, a provincial security official. (Read on …)

Video here and another here. I wonder how much of that (and I know nothing of weapons) is of US origin. The Saudis are using F15s and Apaches.The rebels have alleged that some of the strikes hit civilians. The Saudis have forceably returned Yemeni civilians fleeing the violence across the border back to the war zone. One of the few humanitarian aid corridors established crosses the Saudi border into northern Yemen. SA reports nine soldiers missing after rebels report their capture.

What follows is the Arab Sisters Forum press release on the escalating attacks on Amal Basha, head of the organization. She was repeatedly threatened, had a liquid sprayed in her face on the street, the headquarters was broken into and trashed, and the brakes on her car were cut in an assassination attempt.

Triggers for the attacks include advocacy for arbitrarily detained prisoners and a report on torture in Yemen submitted by several Yemeni human rights organizations to the UN which contributed to the UN’s findings on November 19th, expressing “grave concern” and calling for an investigation of unlawful killings (murder) by security forces.

Its actions like these that belie the Saleh regime’s commitment to both democracy and stability and expose the administration as a thuggish mafia whose only goals are staying in power and stealing money. (Read on …)

Tribes fighting each other don’t fight the state. The fighting moved into villages with medium weapons, killing people and destroying houses. One study found 90% of tribal wars revolved around water.

Yemen Post: At least six more people have been killed and dozens hurt since clashes erupted between tribes in Yemen’s central province of Dhamar.

Local sources told the Alsahwa website a land dispute was behind the war between the tribes of Bani Al-Ferasi and the tribes of Al-Amas, Da’adi’e and Bani Hassan in the district of Al-Hada. (Read on …)

The unusual thing here is the two police killed. The Yemeni government has been killing its citizens during Southern protests since 2007. Hundreds are in jail including several journalists and opposition politicians. Scores have been killed during the demonstrations. The LNG that is coming on line is in the south of Yemen and there is no hope that President Saleh will grant the region a say in the expenditures of the gas revenue or greater autonomy. There’s a limited presence of the state in the south. Formal inclusion into the central government as a largely and authentically self governing and self financing component of the nation is unlikely. Not that thats the big idea in the south now anyway, its a bit late, and with Salehs track record of all lies all the time, no one would believe it anyway.

SANAA, Nov, 25 (Xinhua) — At least five demonstrators and two policemen were killed in clashes between Yemeni security forces and protesters in southern Yemen Wednesday.

About 12 people, including four policemen, were wounded in the south during the clash, the witnesses told Xinhua.

Security forces clashed with one thousand demonstrators after their rally has turned violent at Ataq city in the southern province of Shabwah.

The protesters took to the streets to demand the release of detainees arrested in previous rallies and complained about marginalization, according to the witnesses.

للنشر الفوري

الكويت: يجب إخلاء سبيل الناشط المسجون
رئيس الوزراء يُسكِت انتقاد السياسات الحكومية بتهمة التشهير

(مدينة الكويت، 24 نوفمبر/تشرين الثاني 2009) – قالت هيومن رايتس ووتش اليوم إن على النائب العام الكويتي أن يأمر فوراً بالإفراج عن محمد عبد القادر الجاسم، المحامي والناشط الحقوقي ومن المنتقدين الهامين للحكومة. (Read on …)

Update, more on Morocco in English from ANHRI: The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said today, that the upholding of the court of appeal in Casablanca of the ruling against the Moroccan -already detained- human rights activist, Chakib AlKhayari of 3 years in prison and a fine of 753,000 dirhams (nearly$ 90,000) for allegedly insulting official government bodies, and violating laws of exchange and currency in Morocco by “opening a bank account in the city of Melilla, with 225 euros ($ 290)”, again raises doubts of the sincerity of the Moroccan government in combating corruption, as well as the fairness of trials and the official stance regarding freedom of opinion and expression.

The following also by email:

ان هذا المستشفى هو مرتع لكل انواع الفساد وسوء التسيير واهانة المواطنيين المغاربة وهو وصمة عار في جبين كل من عرف حجم الفساد والظلم وسكت انه مرتع للمتاجرة بقلوب واموال عائلات اشخاص محكوم عليهم بالموت ان حجم الفساد لم يتغير رغم عدة مراسلات ان هذا الواقع الفاسد لم يتغير بل ازداد وكمثال على ذلك ما تشدقت به احدى الممرضات وبتحد كبير *انا مخدماني الاميرة ومحايرة في حد* هذه الممرضة تعامل مرضى السرطان المحكوم عليهم بالموت بشكل لا يليق حتى بالحيوانات وكل من تكلم او احتج تنتقم منه باساليب مختلفة اما عن مدير المستشفى فقد تلقى مني شخصيا رسالة توضح وتتهم الممرضين بالفساد مشفوعة بالاتباتات والحجج ولم يحرك ساكنا لذلك اوجه ندائي الى كل الضمائر الحية بتسليط الضوء على الفساد الممارس بهذا المستشفى والى طلب دعم ومساندة الاشكال الاحتجاجية التي انا مقبل عليها بصفتي ابن سيدة مصابة بالسرطان والمتكفل ماديا بعلاجها حيث تعرضت مرارا لعملية نصب وحيث ان العديد من المرضى يعانون هم وذويهم دون وجود مخاطب داخل هذا المستشفى الفاسد البيروقراطي (Read on …)

Another via email:

بيـــــــان صحــــفي
تتواصل لقاءات الدكتور موفق الربيعي الامين العام لتيار الوسط مع المواطنين حيث التقى نخبة من الوجهاء والمثقفين من ابناء مناطق (ابي غريب والعامرية والسيدية والدورة والغزالية والشرطة الخامسة) واكد خلال اللقاء على ضرورة العمل الجاد والمتواصل لحث الناخبين بالذهاب الى صناديق الاقتراع واختيار ممثليهم . (Read on …)

I got this article via email, and while Yemen is my first priority, I really should try to highlight more the other countries and their human rights and civil rights abuses.

توَّعدُ الرئيس الإيراني أحمدي نجاد المشكوكُ في شرعيةِ انتخابه، المُحتجينَ على حكومته بـ ” كسرِ أرجلهم “، خلالَ زيارته الأخيرة لمدينة تبريز، يبدو مُثيراً للضحك والسخرية، إذا ما علمنا أنَّ نظامه الثيوقراطي وحرسه الثوروي ومحاكمه الثوروية لا تكتفي بتكسير الأرجل، بلْ أبعدَ من ذلك تقومُ بتدلية الرقاب من المشانق وتصادرُ الأرواحَ والأنفاسَ وترجمُ النساءَ في الشوارع والساحات، لمجرَّد الاختلاف السياسي والثقافي والاجتماعي معَ الخطاب الرسمي السائد المُوغل في القروسطية، ولعلَّ الدلالة الصارخة على ذلك ما حظيتْ به واقعةُ إعدام الناشط الكوردي الشاب إحسان فتاحيان مؤخراً من اهتمامٍ إعلامي إقليمي وعالمي، كمؤشرٍ آخر على مدى اغتراب النظام الإيراني في الراهن العالمي الموَّار، مُضافاً إلى أشهرٍ من قمع السلطات الإيرانية للمتظاهرينَ والمُحتجينَ على التلاعب بنتائج انتخابات الرئاسة الإيرانية التي أسفرتْ عن تنصيبِ نجاد رئيساً مُجدداً. (Read on …)

This is unbelievable. Maybe if we all say it slowly: There is no military solution. The Yemen Times details reports of Somalis fighting alongside the Hotuhis and picks up reports in the Saudi media of yet another player, Jordan, on the side of the Saudis:

Saudi media sources revealed on Saturday that Jordanian commandos are backing the Saudi army in its operations against Houthis at the Dukhan Mountain.

The Eco of Najd and Hijaz newspaper said that the Jordanian commandos arrived at Saudi camps in the northern city of Tabuk a few days ago, and were then transported by planes to the southern part of the Kingdom. The newspaper revealed that those forces suffered great losses as a result of Houthi assaults against them.

Seche was right when he said both sides were exploiting the ban on journalists in Sa’ada to make up their own truths. More from the YT:

Circulated by email, the (rebels) statement continued that Houthis took over 134 military positions and eight Sa’ada districts since the sixth Sa’ada war broke out in mid-August. It accused the Saudi army of using phosphor bombs in its aerial shelling on Jabal Dukhan, Hasama and Dhahr Al-Himar areas.
Six Saudi soldiers were killed were killed in a Houthi assault on Thursday, Saudi media sources said, adding that Saudi Marines are taking control of the 64km-long coastline between Jaizan and Mausem towns to prevent potential infiltration of militants into Saudi territory. They confirmed that Saudi fighter jets destroyed two Kaytusha launch-pads, belonging to anonymous militants.

I will now predict the future of Taiz, Yemen. A small popular movement in Taiz emerges, striving to address legitimate grievances, for example the government’s neglect of a Dengue Fever outbreak. The security forces beat and arrest dozens at a protest, triggering more protests, which trigger more arrests. Then security forces start shooting in the air, and later shooting and killing protesters. The rest of the country has no reaction. The Yemeni regime blames saboteurs in military uniforms for the civilian deaths. The movement’s numbers grow from of the community’s sense of injustice and boredom. In a speech, the President accuses the people in Taiz of being al Qaeda, Houthis, secessionists, and apostates. The international community has no reaction. Medicine sent by the UN gets stolen from the Health Ministry’s warehouse and re-sold in pharmacies in Sana’a.

Journalists and civil rights leaders who discuss civil rights violations are arrested on charges of undermining stability and insulting the President. Some are tortured badly. The President accuses Iran, Israel and/or Yemeni expatriates of funding the movement. The military increases checkpoints on the road to Taiz where the soldiers are rude to women, rough up men and block people from entry when there is a protest scheduled.

Someone sets off a small bomb at an empty building in the early morning. The president announces it is an al Qaeda attack and asks the US for more for counter-terror funding. This is the only story about Taiz that makes it into the western media, except for one article on Yemeni women in the police department. Nasir al Wahishi takes credit for the bombing in his al Qaeda Internet magazine. Several top level US security officials visit, and the official Yemeni media says they came to Yemen to praise democracy .

Sana’a moves some tanks to Taiz. The protests get bigger but consist of only men. The leaders of the popular movement argue among themselves about who is the actual leader and split into factions. They never create a mechanism to hear the people’s opinions and preferences, instead their own children get top positions.

The governmental media never mentions the protests in Taiz, except to accuse the opposition JMP of undermining stability. The opposition parties issue a statement in Arabic denouncing the violence and that’s all they do. A journalist gets kidnapped, and the police say he beat himself up trying to embarrass the regime. The ruling party wins all the local and Parliamentary seats in Taiz, and the EU applauds a free and fair election.

After the election, democracy advocates among teachers and government workers are fired or jailed. The price of water and food triples. Western analysts conclude the Yemeni government needs more development funds. The Health Ministry never addresses the outbreak of Dengue Fever that triggered the protest in the first place.

Yay. Still missing five Germans and a Brit since June 09.

Related: Germany Hearts Yemen

BERLIN, Nov. 23 (Saba) – German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle hailed Monday Yemen’s democratic approach as well as the level of distinctive relations between Yemen and Germany. (Read on …)

First, preening with bombs: the Saudi boys become men with the blood of Yemeni children. The following is a snippet from an article in Al Quds that addresses internal Saudi dynamics:

“(Political science professor at British universities and Saudi author Madawi) Al-Rasheed then indicated that the response to the infiltration of certain Houthi elements was only part of the story, the other part being related to the ongoing preparations to transfer the authority in Saudi Arabia to the second generation of the royal family. She said in this regard: “Saudi Arabia engaged in a war to strike the Houthis, and to ripen the battle over command in the Kingdom and allow the succession of the second generation of the ruling family. Indeed, Muhammad Bin Fahd who was the object of a failed attempted assassination a while ago, wants to assume the Interior Ministry. Today, another name was added, i.e. that of Khalid Bin Sultan, who is expected to assume the Defense Ministry. He is thus talking as though he was fighting a superpower, while in fact he is fighting a group of outlaws who are blockaded in a small area. Therefore, the war on the Houthis partially aims at resolving domestic Saudi disputes.”

Next from Mai Yameni at the Guardian makes the point that Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen is a policy failure of the first degree.

A crucially important conflict, woefully under-reported in the west, has now come to a head in the Middle East. In response to an ongoing fight that could spill out beyond the Arabian peninsula, Saudi Arabia has entered into direct war with the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen.

Saudi military intervention marks the first time in the kingdom’s history that its army has crossed its borders without an ally. Previously, the kingdom engaged only in proxy wars. The Saudis used royalist Yemenis to fight Nasser’s Egypt in the 1960s, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein to fight Iran in the 1980s, and the US to fight Iraq in the 1990s. (Read on …)

Judge al Hittar’s rehab program never disputed the Takfirist, Jihad ideology, only that Saleh’s government was a legitimate target of it.

This Yemeni government is entirely irrational and out of control. They are blindly targeting a broad variety of people and groups. In the latest attempt to gain submission through fear, the Arab Sisters Forum offices were broken into, and the principles are receiving threats. Ms Basha’s brakes were tampered with last week. The car “accident, hit and run and/or failed brakes” is the signature assassination style of the Yemeni regime. A variety of civil rights groups have denounced the attacks.

Move: condemns the terrorist acts suffered by the Arab Sisters Forum in Sana’a
Yemeni Journalists – Special
Yemeni Journalists Club “Move”

Media Women Forum condemns the terrorist attempt, which has been the headquarters of the Sisters Arab Forum on Sunday evening by unknown elements worked to sabotage the headquarters of the Forum and tampering with its contents without stealing anything with a valuable electronic devices belonging to the organization .. (Read on …)

Thats been my impression for quite some time; the history between the Yemeni al Qaeda and AQ Central brings the threat level to a higher degree. There’s a variety of national, jihad deploying splinter groups globally, all competing for the terror leaders’ recognition and ensuing status. But AQC trusts old school AQY, these were always the body guards and drivers for a good reason. They don’t need to talk it up. Its Wahishi’s chattiness that was a reason to discount him from the get-go as a stooge, a front and publicity hound. He’s got some mojo, but the old guard is often unjustifiably dismissed as actually rendered harmless by Saleh’s deals. Its those old reliable ties that are the most troubling. Identity politics is the norm in Yemen including in al Qaeda.

If all the certified al Qaeda terrorists in Yemen called bin Laden at once, possibly the first call he would answer would be from Fahd al Qaso, the last man standing from the 2000 Malaysia meeting, (the al Qaeda summit where the Cole bombing and 9/11 were solidified). Al Quso was last sighted in Shabwa, where al Awlaki is. Where exactly is Jaber Elbanneh and Jamal Al Badawi, besides overshadowed by the AQAP vids, magazines and statements? Nasir al Wahishi was close to UBL, and I dont want to know the details (beyond what we can extrapolate from the fact that Yemeni al Qaeda wear women’s clothing, make-up and invented the butt bomb). The primary issue with catastrophic attacks is, who does AQC trust with the essential information, who is the most trusted conduit? That’s often a function of decades of history, shared culture, personal relationships and the ease of familiarity. There’s an overlapping Zawaheri branch quite well connected, but it sometimes goes through different and occasionally official channels, methinks. Somehow when Yemeni jihaddists want to attack Saudi Arabia, its a big issue, but not the prior years (the quietness period) when they attacked and killed civilians in Iraq.

LONDON (Reuters) – Al Qaeda’s Yemen wing is probably the most dangerous of its regional offshoots since it is closest to the leadership and seeks to attack oil giant Saudi Arabia, a U.N. counter-terrorism official said.

Richard Barrett, Coordinator of the U.N. Taliban-al Qaeda Sanctions Monitoring Committee (ed-the 1267 committee) , added the menace of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was compounded by its ability to hide in unstable Yemen and the boldness of its ambition, shown by an attack on Saudi Arabia’s security chief in August.

“The most dangerous group is AQAP,” he told Reuters on Monday, saying it was seeking to attract Saudis in militant circles, “a lot” of whom were intent on attacking the kingdom. (Read on …)