Armies of Liberation

The trial of the murderer of the French engineer continues. The issue is whether it was a personal dispute or an al Qaeda motivated act of violence. Apparently Anwar was renting out a flat and the accused was communicating with him via his cousin. Awlaki was charged in absentia in the same case.

Ray News Sana – UPI – Attorney General introduced the Yemeni state security court in Sana’a, what he saw as evidence to prove the involvement of French is accused of murdering in a relationship with hard-line American of Yemeni origin Anwar al-Awlaki, and his cousin Osman, accused of instigating the killing of foreigners. (Read on …)

Following the counter-terror raids in Lauder, Abyan, the soldiers permit the dead bodies to drag off the back of a truck, and kick them. It reminds me of the much worse cases in 2005 when the Yemeni military tied bodies of killed Houthis fighters to a truck, dragged them through the streets and burned them. If the Yemeni military begins using the same brutal tactics in its CT ops as in its other military operations, it will generate new recruits for al Qaeda as well as give the impression of US acquiescence to the barbarism. The screen cap on the video is too gruesome to go above the fold, so click for more: (Read on …)

Update: a good game but they lost!!! They play again Thursday same time. Original: Yemen playing Saudi Arabia in the opening game today, 7:30 pm Aden time, 11: 30 am EST, Watch the pre-game show and the game live, streaming now at http://www.watchfomny.com/Sport-tv-3.php or, if that goes down, click here.

(Read on …)

Extremists hack Yemeni website to serve their tapes

By Abdullah al-Qubati in Sana’a

Sana’a, 20 Nov., Pirates hacked Mostakela network website on last Friday, taking its domain and smashing al-mostakela paper site through plagiarism identity of the website owner and contacting with the hosting company.

Unknown hackers defined themselves as “Gaza Hackers” claimed responsibility on piracy via a release covered the Mostakela homepage. It was enclosed with an audio-tape previously attributed to Osama Bin Laden. The so-called hackers also posted a statement on a website titled by the same name Gaza Hacker Team that included a confession with hacking Mostakela, which was described as “atheistic” and “enemy of Islam”. The statement also threatened to convert the website domain to “Islamist Forum for defeating its owner and enemies of Islam”. A video-tape links documented the Mostakela before and after the attack was posted on the Gaza Hacker website.

The content of these posts and tapes manifested that those alleged hackers belonged to extremist Islamist groups.

Ahmed S. Hashed, who is the owner of Mostakela website regarded the incident as a “robbery crime of ownership and an assault on rights and freedoms of speech and publishing”.

Mostakela network launched in 2006. It is a social network includes online site of al-mostakela newspaper issues, classified forums for intellectual, political, ideological and religious dialogues and discussions and electronic library of about 34,000 title of books and video-audio files.

According to mostakela editors, the archive of its forums included 134,000 topics and hundreds thousands posts. More than 33,000 member around the world registered in the website since 2006.

“Mostakela website is a free intellectual website opened to inter-faith, cultures and ideologies dialogue,” Hashed said. “Since 2006, it was hacked several times by extremists, who usually defined their identities as Islamists and the recent piracy attack was at the beginning of last Ramadan,” he added.

Hashed pointed out “this hacking came, as my other news website Yemenat has been banned by Yemeni government for more than 2 years ago.”

Al Qaeda in Yemen released their third English “magazine”, Inspire, a month early, eager to explain the UPS plot “Operation Hemorrhage.” I think all the talk about small targets, cheep plots and lone wolves could be a diversion for a substantial plot by another Yemeni cell. Either way, according to their own statements, AQAP clearly has no regard whatsoever for the negative impact of their actions on Yemenis. They talk about disrupting the western economy, but they also destroyed Yemen’s economy without apology. They also continue to insist random murder (of Yemenis and Westerners) is correct according to Islam: “Obama stood in front of the world with a terrified face announcing that his nation is being threatened by terrorism (i.e. real Islam)…” That’s how they said it, terrorism is the real Islam.

Related: Samir under Anwar, not a pretty visual: (Read on …)

The article below postulates the Yemeni military launched an airstrike on a village after the Sheik of the area gave an interview that reflected poorly on Saleh, which actually is more likely than the official story, based on prior history.

YO: Yemen – A number of officials and tribal leaders of Bani Thabian district, Sana’a, denied that the district is a home for al-Qaeda group following reports by foreign media that Bani Thabian tribe is home for al-Qaeda. (Read on …)

Beware the triple agent, that’s all I have to say.

WSJ: Limited U.S. intelligence experience in Yemen has created “a window of vulnerability” that the U.S. government is “working fast to address,” a senior Obama administration official said. (Read on …)

Woops, this was in draft since October… An article in Mareb Press “penetrates the secrets of the Houthis” and their success in Yemen. And apparently like many other Islamic movements, the Houthis picked up the slack for the state.

For context, an excellent three part series in SABA on al Jawf notes the utter lack of the state in the governorate, including the fact that only 4% of the governorate has electricity. The articles can be accessed here for part one and here for parts 2 and 3.

One interesting point in the RAND report, Regime and Periphery in Northern Yemen, The Huthi Phenomenon, was the continuing evolution of insurgencies. While the Houthis can’t be classified as a typical insurgency, they certainly are fighting the state. Now we get to see what happens, after six years, when they stop fighting and start to rule. In an article discussing their new deal in al Jawf, the author states they restored law and order that has been missing, the article says, for 40 years and broke the bones of the bandits who were wrecking havoc (a figurative expression perhaps.)

They began the penetration of the governorate by sending teachers and assuming other functions normally assigned to the state which is entirely absent. They restored order to the market including prohibiting women from shopping alone in the market, and started hassling the gays. Several were taken into custody and turned over to the security where they are “until this moment still languishing.” They prohibited smoking among the ranks (sounds like Mayor Bloomberg.) While noting the state encouraged tribal wars, the article below notes that many revenge wars have been ended by the Houthis.

Yemen Today: One of the elders of Al-Jouf Yemen’s claim: – Houthis prepared to intervene by force to end the vendetta between Hamedan and Shoulan (Read on …)

I still have to get the Houthis side of the story, despite all their outrageous photoshops of US troops. There is a more immature, irrational and hysterical tone to their propaganda lately. They thought a Hollywood movie from a decade ago outlined some secret plot against Yemen.

Dozens of Houthi Militants Killed, Injured in Saada Clashes, Yemen Post Staff:

At least 27 Houthi militants have been killed and dozens of others injured in continuous clashes between the militants and a pro-government clan in Yemen’s northern Saada province.

The Interior Ministry said on Tuesday the casualties were the result of three-day fighting in the Manbah district in which heavy weapons have been used. (Read on …)

That would work out, no? They are both Americans, Jaber Elbaneh of the Lackawanna Seven cell from Buffalo. Sharif Mobley’s trial was delayed again due to the lack of a translator, again. See Yemen Post. Also as much as Mobley’s lawyer is insisting that he is not an al Qaeda operative, and he is only charged with the murder of the guard in the hospital, the brothers are making Dua for him, along with a variety of other al Qaeda prisoners globally, in the latest issue of Inspire. Where is Elbaneh anyway? Still home in Ibb?

THREE MEN AT IMMINENT RISK OF EXECUTION
Three men in Yemen had their death sentences sent to the President for ratification in mid-October. If the sentences are ratified by the President, they could be executed at any time.

Amnesty International: The three men, Shaikh Khalid Nahshal, Mabkhout ‘Ali Nahshal and Abduh Muhammad Nahshal, were among 32 people charged in connection with the killing of at least one government official in the district of Khayran in northern Yemen in September 2006. This happened following a dispute over the local and presidential elections and an exchange of fire between a group of armed men and the government official in charge of Khayran. In 2007 six of the defendants were sentenced to death, but three had their sentences commuted to prison terms in June 2009, following an appeal. The remaining 26 received prison sentences. In January 2010, Shaikh Khalid Nahshal, Mabkhout ‘Ali Nahshal and Abduh Muhammad Nahshal had their death sentences upheld by the Supreme Court.

I am glad to see the US State Dept recognizes there are substantial war crimes committed by the Yemeni government in its conduct of the Saada War, and the UK recognizes that as well apparently. These crimes really need to be factored into the overall equation going forward.

MTP: A year ago, Saudi Arabia was fighting a nasty border war against the Houthi rebels across its frontier with Yemen. The Saudis began bombing Houthi targets inside Yemen on Nov. 5, 2009, but the airstrikes were inaccurate, and there were reports of civilian casualties.
(Read on …)

In “The Privateers of Yemen,” Foreign Policy mag thoroughly plagiarizes my earlier article Yemen sells Coast Guard services and Navy personnel to highest bidder. I never have a problem with people using my database, that’s why its here. It would be very simple to close it off to the public and I don’t. But rewriting my article, using all the same links, without contacting me is just tacky tacky tacky. If she had written to me for additional insights, like everyone else does when they want to use my research, then I could have informed her of what Chapter 2 was (ie- what happened after I published the original article) but unfortunately she missed it entirely, and her article is incorrect or at least not current. Oh well. But at least the story is out there, again.

General Ali Mohsen al Ahmar: the Avis of Yemen

YP: BY DIONNE SEARCEY- Wall Street Journal (For the Yemen Post)
New documents have emerged relating to possible bribery in Yemen by global oil-services giant Schlumberger.
Internal company documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show that Schlumberger employees raised concerns in 2008 about payments for cars the company rented from Yemeni government officials at above-market rates—including $6,000 a month for a Toyota Camry and two Toyota Corollas. Employees also cited a contract with customs broker Dhakwan Management Petroleum Co., whose chairman had ties to Yemen’s president. (Read on …)

Zawaheri spent a lot of time in Yemen in the 1990’s, many of these relationships remain intact. Osama bin Laden was also a frequent visitor. One strong line of thinking in the ME puts bin Laden behind the murder of Azzam. Also we cannot assess AQAP as a new entity that sprung fully formed from the womb of the PSO prison in 2006, without taking into account the context of the prior three decades, and the global inter-relation among various jihaddis and groups, that would be stupid.

Al Qaeda’s Religious Justification of Nuclear Weapons NFB: “This vanguard constitutes the solid base [qaeda in Arabic] for the hoped-for society … We shall continue the jihad no matter how long the way, until the last breath and the last beat of the pulse–or until we see the Islamic state established.”[1] Abdullah Azzam

When legendary jihadist Abdullah Azzam was assassinated under mysterious circumstances in November 1989, suspects in his murder included Osama bin Laden and Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. (Read on …)

Its a decent short term strategy but the challenge will be getting the funds and aid to the designated population. The issue of the institutionalized political injustice remains the focal point. USAToday:

WASHINGTON — The United States is sharply increasing the amount of development and other civilian aid it is sending to Yemen and has changed the way it is administered, a move that some experts say may still not be enough to counter al-Qaeda’s growing presence there. (Read on …)

This is a good thing.

MEOL: LONDON – The Right Start Foundation and the Chairman of its board of trustees, Amr Khaled, have launched the ultimate struggle to win over the Yemeni public’s hearts and minds, in a battle to favor Islam’s intermediacy and moderation. They have started a monumental project that confronts extremist ideology in Yemen.

The struggle will be waged across three fields.

The field of media and information includes a group of icons who represent Islamic preaching will accompany Khaled to Yemen, and will start an extended media campaign aided by the Yemeni Ministry of Information. The campaign will be propagated through all of Yemen’s media outlets, forums, websites, mosque pulpits and television channels.

This media campaign will be led by Khaled and a group of preachers who call for intermediacy. In it, they will rebuff Al-Qaeda’s ideology and direct the Yemeni people to the ideas of temperance and moderation.

The field of youth leaders is a project that will achieve public presence through youth leaders from all the cities of Yemen, who are to be trained under the supervision of Khaled and his foundation. Thus, the campaign will have delegates confronting extremism in every city and governorate in Yemen.

The field of preachers is a campaign will select 100 renowned preachers and scholars who enjoy public approval, and train them under the supervision of Khaled and the International Right Start Foundation, aided by the Ministry of Endowments (Awqaf). They will be trained to broadcast the true Islamic thoughts that counter the thoughts of extremist ideology, and will be allowed access to media outlets and Friday sermons, thus empowering the circulation of the true Islamic ideas that defy extremism.

A 14 year old girl was raped by her father and became pregnant. For God’s sakes, why would the judge put her in jail and not a hospital?

al Tagheer: Lawyer Adnan Al Jabri, who pleads in the case of a child raped in the governorate of Ibb, expressed his displeasure at what was happened to Sumaia M. A. A. (14 years) who was raped by her father and then sent to prison, when he tried to release her through a number of memoranda from many authorities, including human rights, but all the attempts have failed.

The Yemeni police has arrested on October 5, 2010 a person accused of raping his daughter, who made pregnant.

According to exclusive sources of “Al Thagheer” the Security Administration in Khadeer Al Odein in Ibb governorate accused “M. A. A. 37-year-old,” of raping his daughter (Sumaia) 14-year, last month.

Lawyer Al Jabri, said in a statement to “Al Thagheer” that the head of Mudaikhara Court, Judge Ali Issa, is insisting on imprisoning her without justification.

Al Jabri added: she was investigated just as a defendant and was taken into the custody of the central prison in Ibb, rather than taking care of her in any social department, and her only fault that she was raped by her father and made her pregnant, which caused her psychological health to decline, as well as the continuous delay of the DNA examination, pointing out that the lack of such tests in such issues, which happen to lives of female children, that the scarcity of centers or private hospitals is the biggest obstacle in the proceedings of the case, stressing that such an examination identifies the perpetrator of the crime and according to it the litigation continues. (Read on …)

GAN
Yemen (Aden) – Aden Free Zone (AFZ) and the International Center for Auction Co., Ltd has signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a trade and storage complex and a global complex to organize and manage all kinds of auctions, Global Arab Network reports according to Saba. (Read on …)

KUWAIT CITY: A number of leading Al-Qaeda members, including former spokesman Suleiman Abu Ghaith of Kuwait, have moved from Iran to Yemen, a Kuwaiti daily said Thursday citing an intelligence report. The revelation was made in a classified Western intelligence report sent to security officials in the Gulf and a number of Arab countries, Al-Qabas said, citing unnamed informed sources. (Read on …)