Armies of Liberation

109 were released from jail in January 2009, in a deal with Yemen’s president but there was a different name then.

Yemen Post: A high-ranking member of Al-Qaeda in Yemen was killed Sunday in a clash between several suspected militants of Al-Qaeda and security forces in the province of Abyan in the south of Yemen, a senior Interior Ministry official confirmed to the Saudi Okaz newspaper.

The official was quoted as saying the Saudi national was killed while five others have been seized by the security forces. “Seven Al-Qaeda members were also killed in the shooting.”

Meanwhile, local sources revealed on Monday that security forces were sent out to track down the about 60 Al-Qaeda members, who were believed to be members of the Yemen’s Islamic Liberation Front, the country’s largest Al-Qaeda group in Abyan province. (Read on …)

I’m dubious and I hope its an inaccurate assessment.

Al Qaeda-trained Americans Washington Times: The FBI is working to track down several hundred American Muslims who traveled to Yemen in recent months and received training there at the hands of the al Qaeda terrorist group, according to U.S. government officials.

Intelligence reports from Yemen indicated that as many as 300 of the U.S. Islamist trainees had been given terrorist training and that many had converted to Islam while in U.S. prisons. It is not known specifically when the American al Qaeda trainees made the journey to Yemen, or — more significantly — how many of them returned to the United States, said officials familiar with U.S. counterterrorism intelligence and operations. (Read on …)

Yes, Saudi Arabia was indiscriminately bombing residential areas in Yemen for months. UK Press

Tornado fighter-bombers supplied by the UK to Saudi Arabia are “extremely likely” to have been used in attacks on civilians in Yemen, human rights campaigners have said.

Amnesty International UK called for the Government to suspend all arms supplies to Saudi Arabia pending a full investigation.

The UK must ensure that any support it has provided for the jet fighters “did not facilitate violations of international humanitarian law, including possible war crimes, by the Saudi Arabian air force,” it said. (Read on …)

Al Estraki

مر أكثر من عام منذ اعتقال ثلاثة من نشطاء حقوق الإنسان. Over more than a year since the arrest of three human rights activists. عرفتهم مشاركين في اعتصامات ومواقف تضامنية مع معتقلين أو مخفيين أو أي قضية انتهاك لحق إنسان. Knew the participants in the protests and the positions of solidarity with the detainees or hidden, or any case of violation of the right people. (Read on …)

Al-Jazeera aired a TV Program Titled ‘The Right In America Declared War On Islam Inside and Outside America’ which is total garbage.

Hate crimes directed against Muslims remain relatively rare, notwithstanding the notoriety gained by incidents such as recent vandalism at the Madera Islamic Center.

Jews, lesbians, gay men and Caucasians, among others, are all more frequently the target of hate crimes, FBI records show. Reported anti-Muslim crimes have declined over recent years, though they still exceed what occurred prior to the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

“We see hate crimes generally go in spurts, and are often in relation to international or domestic events,” Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Friday.

In 2008, 105 hate crime incidents against Muslims were reported nationwide. There were 10 times as many incidents that were recorded as anti-Jewish during the same year, the most recent for which figures are available. (Read on …)

Click this: Kamal Art for Kamal Sharef’s website. He was arrested because he is a friend of Abdulelah Shaea, who has access to AQAP. Sharef’s work includes a lot of social commentary diametrically opposed to the Al Qaeda ideology including opposition of child marriages and support of w omen’s rights.

Al Qaeda escaped from Lauder somehow (Ali Mohsen). They are correct in noting the official media is a disinformation machine.

Yemen Post: At least 9 soldiers were killed when armed men attacked a security checkpoint in Yemen’s Southern Abyan Province, where many were killed and injured during fierce clashes between the security forces and suspected Al-Qaeda militants last week. (Read on …)

The pdf of the report is here. 114 pages

And this is what Centcom wants to fund. I’m happy to hear the State Department and Seche were arguing against it.

Human Rights Ministry: “Do producers of the report see that it is fair protecting terrorist and saboteurs and endangering people’s rights ,freedoms, blood and honor to non-humanitarian tampering?”, the ministry wondered.

The short term packages make much more sense but the strategy overall is flawed because Saleh is the source of nation-wide, legitimate grievances and is a war criminal. The US alliance with Saleh is akin to the alliance with Saddam while he was gassing the Kurds. Furthermore, aspects of the state itself have been co-opted by al Qaeda. Strengthening Saleh strengthens al Qaeda, its that simple.

US officials propose more than billion dollars to support Yemen
Source : Wall Street Journal VIA Nasir al Arrabyee: By ADAM ENTOUS, SIOBHAN GORMAN and JULIAN E. BARNES
WASHINGTON—The U.S. military’s Central Command has proposed pumping as much as $1.2 billion over five years into building up Yemen’s security forces, a major investment in a shaky government, in a sign of Washington’s fears of al Qaeda’s growing foothold on the Arabian Peninsula.

The timing and the final funding amount will depend on how supporters of the effort overcome resistance from some officials at the State Department and the Pentagon, who have doubts about Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the ability of his government, seen by many as corrupt, to effectively use a flood of American-taxpayer money.

The threat to the U.S. from al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen has become a priority concern for the Obama administration, fueling a robust internal debate over how to calibrate assistance to address what many officials see as the biggest counterterrorism challenge outside Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Read on …)

Saleh never keeps his promises to anyone. He’s a compulsive liar or has some pathology where he’s unable to keep his word. But this mechanism of negotiation with al Qaeda really isn’t working and hasn’t worked for quite some time. If all the jihaddists Saleh made a deal with band together, its going to get ugly. Al Zaidi surrendered in June after being released from jail in 2006. ( Click here for an interview with al Zaidi in 2009 in which he discusses his imprisonment and prior dealings with Saleh. Al Zaidi says he was never a member of al Qaeda and was imprisoned because he was a personal friend of Mohammed bin Mohammed al Ahdel. )

News Yemen: A leading member of al-Qaeda in Yemen has renounced an agreement with the government to stop violence and terrorist activities in the country, independent source reported on Wednesday.

In an exclusive interview with the Yemeni independent weekly Al-Wasat, Khalid al-Zaidi, a leading member of al-Qaeda in the northern province of Mareb, said that his agreement with the government not to cause any instability in the country has been renounced.

Al-Zaidi said he met with President Ali Abdullah Saleh last June and wrote a pledge not to carry out any sabotage acts in the country on condition that the government releases al-Qaeda prisoners and cancel all convictions against him. He said that “the agreement has failed as the government has not fulfilled what we have agreed upon.” (Read on …)

Its the same type of charges they brought against al Khaiwani but the world objected. They lie so often that its difficult to believe anything. Shaea is BFF with Anwar Awlaki and interviewed Fahd al Quso and Nassir al Wahishi, by itself, not a crime. We’ll have to see what the next magazine looks like.

Security source said that the case of the journalist Abdualah Shai’a will soon be referred to public prosecutor in preparation for his trial, pending the completion of investigations. The Security authority has accused Shai’a as being an active affiliate of al-Qaeda offering logistical support to the leadership and its members.

According to the security Shai’a offered cassettes from al-Qaeada operations in Yemen to the media and received money which he used to support the organization. The security authorities also concern Shai’a as one of the most enthusiastic defenders and promoters of al-Qaeda and its operations through the satellite channels where he presents himself as an expert on al-Qaeda. (Read on …)

UPI: (Yemeni) Authorities claimed they killed 27-year-old Adel Saleh Hardaba in Lawdar, who was described by authorities as the second-in-command of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Jazeera reports.

In an earlier statement, TAJ identified the bystanders wounded as:
 Bassam Saleh Hardabah
 Mohamed Saleh Nasser
 Maged Mohammed Marzouki
 Abdurabbo Ahmed Dhmah
 Bassam Albilali
 Maged Saleh Hardabah
 Abdulla Almanssoury

Adel Saleh Hardaba, according to locals, was 18 years and unemployed. He was not wounded (its not name confusion). The story is he was arrested by the Yemeni regime in Lauder. Apparently he was killed after the arrest.

Some were targeted killings like Wadhah and others were killed in jail or when police opened fire on organizers preparing for the demonstration the next day. Missing from the list is Mohsen Wakaz and the two year old boy Chavez shot to death in March 2009. What happened at the podium in al Habalyn is organizers were setting up for a demonstration the next day when they were strafed by security forces and killed. The demonstration the next day was even larger than originally expected.

Names of the martyrs of peaceful struggle m / m Hajj 2007-2010 ===

Name the type of injury Directorate place of martyrdom martyrdom date
1 Abdel Nasser Kassem Hamadi Radfan gunshot abdominal Alhabaylin podium 13/10/2007
2 Shafiq Haitham Hassan Radfan gunshot abdominal Alhabaylin podium 13/10/2007
3 Fahmi Mohammed Hussein al-Jaafari Radfan gunshot heart Alhabaylin podium 13/10/2007
4 Mohammed Nasser Haitham age Radfan gunshot abdominal Alhabaylin podium 13/10/2007 (Read on …)

As the state runs out of money, this is the latest in a series of clashes with soldiers and tribal fighters prompted by overdue salaries.

News Yemen: Security forces have clashed with some fifty protesters, who supported the army in the war against Houthi rebels in northern Sa’ada and wounded during the conflict, near the 1st Armored Division in the capital Sana’a.

Protesters demand the government to pay YR120,000 (almost $600) for each as compensation for injury. Protesters said the government promised to pay them the money but it did not fulfill the promise.

Eyewitnesses said protesters blocked the highway against the 1st Armored Division with iron barriers and big stones and threw stones at security forces. Protesters have also attacked a police car and assaulted a security officer.

Security have opened fire in air to disperse protesters and unblocked the highway, eyewitnesses said. But they said that three soldiers were seen laying on the ground and ambulances were seen rushing to the scene. Sixth war in Sa’ada came to end last February, but many people still suffer post-war consequences.

We all remember abu Jabarah in Saada, where the al Qaeda training camp is, under the direction and protection of Ali Mohsen al Ahmar, who was also seeking to negotiate in Lauder. The al Tais family pop up regularly as hard core jihaddists with close connections to Ali Mohsen. The Yemen Observer notes: The Sa’dah Deputy security director (Ali Abdulhusam) was kidnapped by armed gunmen after being spraying him with an anesthetic and taken to an unknown place..This case is similar to that of the kidnapping of the German doctors who were found dead in one of the Governorate’s directorates.

Earlier on Abu Jubarah and the German hostages.

Saada Online – Special
Friday, August 27th, 2010 م

Revealed local sources in Saada province for “Saada Online” for important information about the kidnapping of Deputy Director of Political Security in Sa’ada, “Ali Hussam,” saying that the armed elements had abducted Thursday from his home in the neighborhood of “officers” in the center of Sa’ada, and signs that fingers point to the family of “Al-Tais” known by their affiliations to the extreme and of being officers in the Northern Command Bank and living in the valley of “The Abu Jabara,” said a local resident that the kidnapping may have been due to demand, “Al-Tais,” the release of a relative with detainees at the political security.

It is noteworthy that the abduction “Ali Hussam,” is very similar to the details of the abduction of German doctors and indications are that and also their views of “The Abu Jabara,” especially since the kidnapping was the center of the city of Saada, where there are military units, military and security services intensively , reported media sources confirmed that two men stood in a jeep, Morocco, on Thursday in front of the home of Colonel Hussam, and roads door and when he went out to them they fired on his face spray anesthesia and he fainted and they carried him to the back of the jeep, which was brought down the curtain on the rear to block the vision of her own Customs . Sadah Online

In our Regional this address the issue of five young detainees from the Dali in the central prison in Mansoura Aden in the capital are:
1-Sayyaf Saleh Nasser Almoaker
2 – Alaa Seif al-jaoof
3 – Mohmmad Ali al-Obeidi
4 – Ali Mohsen Ali al-Hassani
5 – Nadhm Alobjar‬
Had been held nearly seven months in the city of Dalia, then deported to the capital of Aden, kept in the central prison was supposed to have been all of the various kinds of torture and forced many of them to sign the papers and records of achievement fake was referred for investigation to the prosecution and the charges of maliciously false, ensuring that a number of lawyers members of the Yemeni Observatory for Human Rights to defend them, lawyers Salam Jehafi Yahya Alsaglde, two lawyers, who remain seized of the case, said lawyer Abdul Salam Ahudaani for “Forum Juhav” earlier that the case file is available from the Attorney General in Aden, and that they (ie lawyers) seeking to launch the release of five detainees without trial by the decision of the presidential pardon and promises of release may be obtained. We contacted them where they live behind prison walls, and find them waiting for the moment of departure and return to their families and relatives

You’re welcome!!

Gratitude to Ms. Novak of South Yemen> By / Raed Jehafi

Miss Jane Novak, writer and human rights activist U.S., specializing in the political affairs of Yemen, one of the best political analysts in Yemeni affairs, as dealing with the issues of Yemen with tact and professionalism, and during the six years since Yemen outbreak of war in Sa’ada between the Yemeni and Houthi, managed Ms. Novak of addressing the problem of Saada politically wise and far-sightedness and impartial adult, was making a contribution to all new developments, not to relent in defending human rights in Saada and exposing the crimes of murder and destruction, which affected people in Sa’ada, and by then proceeded Ms. Jane Novak at follow-up developments in the street south in southern Yemen , is well aware of what the status quo in the southern provinces, has a historical background of Yemen and its inherited political stages of different political systems unless they owned the majority of Yemenis, including writers, journalists, and became the American writer dealing with deeply serious terrorism files and al-Qaeda in Yemen, the sequence of events is accurate and proficient in sort of problems and analysis through the draw from the evidence and the evidence, you receive a day thousands of information on Yemen and the issue of Houthi and al-Qaeda and the case of South and connect with nearly four thousand Yemen and south, share with most of them, especially intellectuals, politicians, journalists and other information and ideas, and engage in discussion in the overall issues Yemeni affairs, and through numerous news media are included in the Web, co writer Jane Novak Yemen and South through the codes and three locations the most important of the armies of liberation, in addition to Facebook and other living writer, Novak reality and suffering of the streets of Yemen and South, and had a head start thanks defense of cases of the victims accelerated in southern Yemen and other …

باسمي وباسم أبناء الجنوب اليمني مثقفين ورجال اعلام وساسة وطلاب وفلاحين وغيرهم نتقدم بأجمل التحايا وجزيل الشكر والعرفان للسيدة نوفاك. My own behalf and on behalf of the sons of the South Yemeni intellectuals and media men and politicians, students, farmers and others extend greetings and warmest thanks and gratitude to Ms. Novak.

المصدر:ملتقى جحاف Source: Forum Juhav jhaff.com

برقية وفاء وعرفان للسيدة نوفاك من جنوب اليمن
08-30-2010 06:23
الجنوب الحر – رائد الجحافي

الآنسة جين نوفاك , كاتبة وناشطة حقوقية امريكية , متخصصة في الشؤون السياسية اليمنية , تعد من أفضل المحللين السياسيين في الشأن اليمني , إذ تتناول قضايا اليمن بحصافة واقتدار, وخلال ست سنوات منذو اندلاع حرب صعدة بين السلطة اليمنية وأتباع الحوثي , تمكنت السيدة نوفاك من تناول مشكلة صعدة بحنكة سياسية وبُعد نظر وبحيادية بالغة , كانت تدلي بدلوها في كافة المستجدات , لم تتوانى في الدفاع عن حقوق الانسان في صعدة وفي كشف جرائم القتل والتدمير التي طالت السكان في صعدة , والى جانب ذلك شرعت السيدة جين نوفاك في متابعة مستجدات الشارع الجنوبي في جنوب اليمن , تدرك جيداً ماهية الوضع القائم في المحافظات الجنوبية , لديها من المعلومات التاريخية اليمنية ومن الموروث السياسي لمراحل الأنظمة السياسية المختلفة مالم يمتلكها غالبية اليمنيين , بمن فيهم الكتاب والصحافيين , وأضحت الكاتبة الامريكية تتناول بعمقٍ بالغ ملفات الارهاب والقاعدة في اليمن , تتابع الاحداث بشكل دقيق وتجيد في فرز المشاكل وتحليلها من خلال ما تستخلصها من قرائن وأدلة , تتلقى في اليوم الواحد آلاف المعلومات عن اليمن وقضية الحوثي والقاعدة والقضية الجنوبية , وتتواصل مع ما يقارب الأربعة آلاف يمني وجنوبي , تتبادل مع معظمهم خصوصاً المثقفين والسياسيين والصحافيين وغيرهم المعلومات والأفكار , وتدخل في نقاش في مجمل قضايا الشأن اليمني , وعبر وسائط اعلامية عديدة تندرج جميعها داخل الشبكة العنكبوتية , تعايش الكاتبة جين نوفاك اليمن والجنوب من خلال مدونات ومواقع ثلاثة أهمها جيوش التحرير , بالاضافة الى موقع الفيس بوك وغيرها , تعيش الكاتبة نوفاك واقع ومعاناة الشارعين اليمني والجنوبي , وكان لها السبق والفضل في الدفاع عن قضايا ضحايا المعجلة في جنوب اليمن وغيرها…

باسمي وباسم أبناء الجنوب اليمني مثقفين ورجال اعلام وساسة وطلاب وفلاحين وغيرهم نتقدم بأجمل التحايا وجزيل الشكر والعرفان للسيدة نوفاك.

المصدر:ملتقى جحاف

The Australian wonders what the heck is going on in Lauder and its a good question. How can we know when all the journalists are in jail? There’s difficulty even identifying the sides in the conflict, as there was in Ja’ar in 09 when the state’s jihaddists including al Nabi and Sami Dayhan were fighting another group intent on establishing an Islamic emirate in the city. Things went so far that several suspected homosexuals were killed and other Taliban style gross brutality occurred.

via al SahwaFAR from Afghanistan, Iraq and the flood plains of Pakistan, a bitter siege played out this week between al-Qa’ida and an American ally. Or did it?

The first reports from the siege of Lodar, in southern Yemen, told of 80,000 people fleeing as government forces encircled the town, dropping leaflets instructing residents to flee before a big offensive against al-Qa’ida militants hunkered there.

The next report revised the number of residents fleeing down to 3000, with 200 al-Qa’ida militants and 200 fighters from the secessionist Southern Movement holding the town. Yesterday the Yemeni government hailed its conquest of Lodar, having “stormed the dens of the terrorists”. Its count of al-Qa’ida fighters killed came in at 12. (Read on …)

That’s good and hopefully will avert a seventh war. A mutual timetable provides a good structure but the oversight is still up in the air. The Houthis view below the fold:

Qatar (Doha) – Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani witnessed this evening the signing of the explanatory appendix of the executive program schedule for the implementation of the 22 points which were signed between the Yemeni government and the Houthis Group, State-run Qatari News Agency reported. (Read on …)

Several international correspondents were also assaulted. The cartoonist Kamal and the SABA news “al Qaeda expert” Haider are still imprisoned without charges. Amnesty International noted: Under pressure from the United States and others to confront threats from al-Qaeda, along with Zaidi Shi’a rebels in the north and growing demands for secession in the South, the Yemini government is using national security as a pretext to stifle criticism and reject human rights in a campaign of unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and unfair trials.

Yemen Times SANA’A, August 25 — Yemen Times journalist Khaled Al-Hilaly was assaulted by two men from political security wearing civilian clothes after he covered a sit-in organized by the Journalists Without Chains organization condemning the abduction of journalists Abdulelah Shae’ and Kamal Sharaf.

Al-Hilaly was cornered as he was returning home after the event by two security men with wireless walkie-talkies. They demanded that he hand over his camera, which is worth more than USD 600, or else he would be arrested. When the journalist tried to verify their identity or give them the memory card instead of the camera the security men hit him on the head and violently snatched the camera. (Read on …)

Ali Saleh played his game so well, that the blowback is coming to haunt him. The deliberate conflation of state jihaddists with the AQAP nucleus got a lot of people confused. There’s no doubt that AQAP has global ambitions but its the subverted members of the security and other social figures that enable their capacity and legitimize their message. Update: AP: gee al Qaeda is now the main threat, Saleh says. The guy can turn on a dime.

Yemen says US exaggerates Al Qa’eda threat The national: SAN’A // Yemen said today that US officials have exaggerated the size and danger of al Qa’eda in Yemen, and insisted that fighting the jihadist network’s local branch remains San’a’s job.

A Yemeni official has denied what he called “press leaks published in US and Western media that exaggerate the size of al Qa’eda and the danger that it poses to Yemen’s stability and security,” according to Saba, the state news agency. (Read on …)

I was hoping the Afghan anti-corruption model could be replicated in Yemen, but with the CIA as part of the corruption in Afghanistan, its not very promising. Wasn’t the CIA paying the al-Qaeda supporting mass murderer, Ali Mohsen al Ahmar? I thought the book by Kaplan said as much. But its a few years old, maybe they wised up. Its bad to leak info to the media but its more immediately deadly to leak it to the Yemeni regime.

AP: The Obama administration on Friday accused an analyst who worked at the State Department of leaking top secret information about North Korea to a reporter. Steven Kim, who worked at State as an employee of a contractor, maintains his innocence.

He was named in a federal indictment unsealed Friday and charged with illegally disclosing national defense information, which carries a top penalty of 10 years in prison, and with making false statements to the FBI, which has a maximum five-year sentence. It was the latest move in an aggressive campaign to crack down on leaks, even as the administration has supported proposed legislation that would shield reporters from having to identify their sources.

Recent disclosures to news media have revealed the potential for using CIA drones in the counterterrorist fight against al-Qaida in Yemen, the close relationship of the CIA station chief in Kabul with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the CIA’s practice of paying some members of the Afghan government for information.

1) What are they afraid of? Losing the case or exposing the Yemeni government officials complicity? Now that would be tacky. Nashiri got weapons permits and travel documents from the Interior Ministry and one report says he hid out in Yemen for months after while the Y govt denied he was there. 2) The old military commissions worked fine, the “reformed” commissions are supposed to be even better somehow. 3) What an insult it is to the US service members and the families of the deceased that politics again is determining US policy toward terrorists.

Boston.com: WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has shelved the planned prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged coordinator of the October 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, according to a court filing.

The decision at least temporarily scuttles what was supposed to be the signature trial of a major Al Qaeda figure under a reformed system of military commissions. And it comes practically on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the attack, which killed 17 sailors and wounded dozens when a boat packed with explosives ripped a hole in the side of the warship in the port of Aden. (Read on …)

SANA’A, Aug 30 (Bernama) — Some 1.4 million Yemeni children is unable to attend schools in Yemen, a governmental report revealed, Yemen News Agency (Saba) said.

The report, issued recently by the Supreme Council for Education Planning indicated that this makes these children live under the threat of illiteracy and represent a major tributary to double the number of illiterates in the country. (Read on …)

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies strongly condemns the Yemeni army’s shelling in the Lawdar district in the Abyan province, Southern Yemen, which has severely harmed the civilian population located there.

It is with deep concern, that CIHRS observes the nearly week-long shelling campaign, supported by heavy artillery and tanks, which has prompted hundreds of Yemeni families to flee the Lawdar district and take refuge in the mountains as the authorities continue their military siege of the area, sealing off all entrances and exits. According to information received from Yemeni human rights organizations and other sources, at least three civilians have been killed and dozens more injured, among them at least two children, while the artillery fire hit a local market and severely damaged homes, agricultural land, and a nursery.

The assault was launched after several Yemeni troops were killed in an ambush by either al-Qaeda operatives, as the Yemeni authorities claim, or elements involved with the Southern Movement. Exiled Southern Yemeni officials and leaders of the Southern Movement state that the attack was launched in an attempt to turn the international community against the peaceful Southern Movement by associating it with terrorism. It should be noted that the Yemeni regime used Yemeni fighters returning from Afghanistan to quell the rebellion in the South in 1994. Consequently, al-Qaeda began to establish a base in the area, which later became the largest in the Arab world.

The Yemeni authorities have persistently sought to stigmatize the popular protest movement and its leadership in the south as terrorists, in an attempt to justify the use of excessive force and increasing repression against citizens in the Southern provinces.

CIHRS would like to bring attention to the fact that the Southern province of Abyan has been the target of a series of brutal attacks over the last year. One of the bloodiest attacks took place in December 2009 ; when the Yemeni army, with support from the U.S. government, launched two air strikes on alleged al-Qaeda camps. At least 42 civilians were killed in these raids, most of which were women and children.

CIHRS stresses that counterterrorism efforts against al Qaeda should not be used as a pretext for the international community to turn a blind eye to the grave abuses perpetrated by the Yemeni government against individuals suspected of affiliation with al-Qaeda; or against the regime’s political opponents. A noticeably large segment of the citizenry has become the target for various types of collective punishment in light of the militarization of the country and the civil strife being stoked by the regime in the Sa’ada region, North of Yemen, and the South to secure its monopolization of power. In this context, CIHRS would like to bring attention to the fact that it is these very policies that created such fertile ground for al-Qaeda to grow in the Arabian Peninsula.

Additionally, These policies have created an auspicious atmosphere for the recruitment of more terrorists and terrorist-sympathizers, both from inside and outside Yemen.

CIHRS further warns that the unconditional support given to the Yemeni regime by the U.S. administration and some parties in the EU will only exacerbate the dangers of terrorism. Numerous individuals are swayed to terrorism on a daily basis, driven by their growing sense of injustice and injury, which is fed by the daily practices of extrajudicial killings; abductions; forced disappearances; torture; repression of peaceful protests; vicious attempts to silence the press and human rights defenders; the increasing political, economic, and social marginalization of broad swathes of the population; the rampant spread of corruption; in addition to the spread and ascendancy of an extremist religious discourse fostered by the Yemeni regime itself.

Thus, CIHRS believes that averting the threat of terrorism requires concerted efforts by the international community to push Yemen to construct a rule of law; prevent impunity for grave human rights abuses; adopt an enlightened religious discourse; and refuse to sacrifice human rights under the justification of combating terrorism. Yemen’s allies in the fight against terrorism must guarantee that the military, security, and financial aid given to the Yemeni government is not used to perpetrate more war crimes and crimes against humanities or violate the rights of suspected al-Qaeda members or the thousands of Yemenis civilians who are paying a catastrophic price for the policies of the Yemeni regime, which threaten to bring about the wholesale collapse of the central state.

CIHRS

The anti Al-Qaeda narrative in Yemen is quite strong and asserts that AQAP is a regime stooge and the threat is manipulated to gain international support. But many in Yemen don’t actually see the danger to Yemen if those lunatic fanatics manage to pull off an attack in the US.

al Teef: Network spectrum – in particular: اعتبرت الناشطة الحقوقية توكل عبدالسلام كرمان ، رئيسة منظمة صحفيات بلاقيود ، إن الحرب الذي تشنه قوات الجيش والأمن اليمنية على مايسمى بتنظيم القاعدة في أغلب محافظات الجنوب .. Considered human rights activist Abdul Salam assigned Kerman, head of the journalists Blagiwd, the war being waged by the military and security forces on Yemen’s so-called Al Qaeda in most provinces of the south .. أسطورة اخترعها النظام لتبرير حربها على الحراك الجنوبي السلمي” . Myth concocted to justify the war on the peaceful southern movement. ”

هذا وكانت قناة الجزيرة قد استضافت الناشطة والإعلامية توكل كرمان للتعليق على تقرير منظمة العفو الدولية الذي اتهمت فيه المنظمة السلطات اليمنية بقتل وتصفية شخصيات في الحراك الجنوبي وجماعة الحوثي وأعضاء بالقاعدة دون مبررات قانونية ، كما اتهم التقرير اليمن بانتهاك حريات وحقوق الإنسان في كثير من المجالات . The Al-Jazeera hosted the activist and media trust Kerman to comment on the Amnesty International report that accused the organization Yemeni authorities of killing and the liquidation of the characters in the southern movement Houthi’s group and al Qaeda members without legal justification report also accused Yemen of violating the freedoms and human rights in many areas.

يذكر أن كرمان كانت قد استقالت في وقت سابق من اللجنة التحضيرية لتهيئة الحوار الوطني بين السلطة وأحزاب اللقاء المشترك إضافة إلى عضوين آخرين استقالا من اللجنة هما نقيب الصحفيين اليميين الأسبق عبدالباري طاهر والنائب أحمد سيف حاشد . The Kerman had resigned earlier in the Preparatory Committee to create a national dialogue between the Authority and the Joint Meeting Parties in addition to two other members resigned from the Committee are former chairman of journalists Alimyin Bari Taher, MP Ahmed Saif rally.

Update: Authorities admit Safain surrendered but no indication he’s in jail. I thought the Tays group had a lot of positions in the military, honey businesses, conduct smuggling to SA and were active in the Sa’ada war against the Houthis.

Yemen Post: Ali Husayn Abdullah Al-Tays was member of Al-Qaeda and ex-detainee in Guantanamo gave up to Yemen’s security authorities and showed readiness to cooperate with the government, according to the same sources.

Earlier this month, another Al-Qaeda operative, Jomaan Safian, surrendered to authorities in Al-Jawf province. Safian reportedly harbored dozens of foreign Al-Qaeda operatives and provided financial l support to the organization.

Begin original:
The president of Yemen, Field Marshal Ali Abdullah Saleh, met with the leader of Al Qaeda in al Jawf, Jomaan Safian, Mareb Press reports. The Emir of al Qaeda in al Jawf, Safia turned himself in to the security services, wasn’t arrested but met with President Saleh. In exchange for medical treatment for his father abroad, YR 1 million and some jobs for his family, Safian assured the president that he rejected al Qaeda and that the rest of the cell in al Jawf would be under control (until of course Saleh needs them for something.) Safian was released after few hours of meeting. Unfortunately, few of Saleh’s deals with al Qaeda figures have worked for as long as planned or as necessary.

Marib Press: أكد مصدر قبلي وقريب عائليا من أمير القاعدة في محافظة الجوف الواقعة شمال شرق العاصمة صنعاء أن أمير القاعدة في محافظة الجوف جمعان صافيان، الذي قالت أجهزة الأمن اليمنية أنه سلم نفسه لها قد التقى بالرئيس علي عبد الله صالح وتم الإفراج عنه بعد ساعات من اللقاء الذي جمعهما. A source with me and close family of the prince of al Qaeda in al-Jawf province, located northeast of the capital Sanaa, the Emir of al-Qaeda in al-Jawf province Jamaan Savian, who said the Yemeni security services he turned himself in her had met with President Ali Abdullah Saleh was released hours after the reunion was .

ونقلت صحيفة الدار الكويتية عن مصدر قبلي ” أن الرئيس اليمني قام بصرف مليون ريال يمني كمكافأة شخصية لصافيان على موقفه وقناعاته الجديدة. Dar was quoted by the Kuwaiti source of me, “that the Yemeni President regardless million Yemeni riyals a reward personal Savian to his position and the new convictions. (Read on …)

They are all coming back to haunt us, every single one. Nassib was a former intelligence officer, acquitted in the USS Cole bombing. He survived the 2002 air strike on al Harithy, was captured with Dr. Fadl in 2004. Nassib was released in 2006, after the big prison break by 23 al Qaeda operatives.

AFP: The latest deaths add to an earlier toll of 11 soldiers and three civilians killed on Friday. The defence ministry said it had managed to identify one of the slain Al-Qaeda fighters as Adham Shibani, adding that the wounded militants were currently being interrogated.

The security forces were tracking “other terrorists” who took part in Friday’s fighting, the ministry said. The militants who managed to flee were named as Ahmed Mohammed Abdu Daradish, Abdel Rauf Abdullah Mohammed Nassib and Jalal Saleh Mohammed Saidi. (Read on …)

Its like when they bombed Taiz over a dispute about water well.

Received the Yemeni Organization for Defending human rights and democratic freedoms of the citizens communication Directorate Lauder Abyan province, southern Yemen complain of the indiscriminate shelling of the town of Lauder and surrounding villages, killing a number of citizens and the wounding of others and destroying several houses. (Read on …)

Critical Threats.org has a lovely timeline.

and promises to be good! Of course if he’s going to “serve the country,” he can’t stay in jail. There are/were a lot of this group in Sa’ada. Update: Yemen Times Released from Gitmo to Yemen in Dec. 2006: Esam Hamid Al-Jaefi, Ali Hussain Al-Tais, Mohammed Ahmed Al-Asadi, Tawfiq Al-Murwai and Muhassen Al-Asskari.

Lahj News Net: A security source said an official former detainee at Guantanamo Bay and a member of Al Qaeda (Ali Hussein al Tais) surrendered to security forces and expressed regret and remorse to the period spent in the ranks of al Qaeda and expressed its readiness to cooperate all that would serve the country and maintaining security and stability, and called on other items that were deceived by the organization to follow in the delivery of the same security services and to renounce violence and integration into society and contribute to nation-building process. (Read on …)

The current casualty count is about 30. The death toll tripled in the last few hours.

Important and urgent about the brutal shelling of the occupation forces in the Directorate of the Yemeni province of Abyan Lauder

It has been informed that yesterday and the day before that of the month of Ramadan, and without regard to the place and the privacy of the Holy month of Ramadan by the forces of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the war criminal, killer of women and children, and continue to heinous crimes against the right of our people.
And proceeded with occupation forces broking into the Yemeni market Lauder, and randomly shooting people present in the market and landed a number of martyrs and wounded, including a woman and a child.
Names of some of the Martyrs:

 Riadh Mohammad Nasser Nasroh was pronounced dead while he was exercising the buying and selling in his shop.
 Adham Mohamed Hydra vegetable seller

The wounded were:
 Bassam Saleh Hardabah
 Mohamed Saleh Nasser
 Maged Mohammed Marzouki
 Abdurabbo Ahmed Dhmah
 Bassam Albilali
 Maged Saleh Hardabah
 Abdulla Almanssoury

And still the heavy artillery of the army of occupation until the moment the Yemeni shelling the town of Lauder, and some villages in the Department of Lauder central southern province of Abyan Centre South Arabia.

And certainly there will be others killed and wounded because of it. In a desperate attempt and frowned upon, the Yemeni occupation regime claims it will do in its brutal but to fight the terrorism. Will those who engage in their daily lives in the market and killed in their stores and pedestrians whom are women and children in the kindergarten, be from Al-Qaeda?

And all research centers and the ongoing anti-terrorism authorities in the region and the whole world knows very well that Al-Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula and the forces of terrorism is a product par excellence presidential Yemen. We the Southern Democratic Assembly (TAJ) call our people together, with adherence to project independence as an option is irreversible and stay away from both sides of the Yemeni occupation regime authority and the opposition.

At the same time call upon the international community and international human rights organizations to provide international protection for our people and bring the murderers and the perpetrators of these massacres led by the criminal Ali Abdullah Saleh to international courts to receive the punishment for what they did.
Issued by:
Southern Democratic Assembly (TAJ)
Secretariat of Human Rights
Date 20-8-2010 -London

And then called them al-Qaeda. The local story seems to be the Yemeni security forces attempted to arrest some activists in the southern movement in Loder City, Abyan who argued and refused to go. The soldiers opened fire randomly, provoking clashes. Then they began shelling the city. Three civilians killed and five wounded. Shelling continues. The RPG attack came after the civilian deaths in this version.

The official version: M&C The sources told the German Press Agency dpa that the (al Qaeda) militants fired rocket-propelled grenades at an armoured personnel carrier in the Loudar district of Abyan province, killing eight policemen on the spot.

Update: What a disaster. Now 21 dead. Clashes lasted three hours.

This seems reliable: By AHMED AL-HAJ (AP) –: A Yemeni security official says a clash between troops and civilians at a market in the country’s restive south has left 13 people dead — including 10 soldiers. The official says the clash erupted after military vehicles drove into a market in the town of Lawdar in Abyan province, setting off a quarrel with the townspeople that eventually escalated into an exchange of gunfire…He says three of the townspeople died in Friday’s clash and one military vehicle was set ablaze.

Aden News Agency: استشهد مالايقل عن ثلاثة أشخاص وأصيب خمس آخرون بجراح خطيرة جراء قصف مدفعي نفذته وحدات عسكرية تابعة لقوات الاحتلال اليمنية بمدينة لودر كبرى مدن المنطقة الوسطى عصر اليوم الجمعة Cited at least three people and wounded five others were seriously injured due to artillery shelling was carried out by military units of the occupying forces the Yemeni town of Lauder, the largest city in the central region on Friday afternoon
وقالت مصادر محلية بمدينة لودر كبرى مدن المنطقة الوسطى بمحافظة أبين لـ”وكالة أنباء عدن” ان قوات الجيش اليمنية نفذت قبيل دقائق من الان حملة قصف بالمدفعية استهدفت وسط المدينة وان عدد من قذائف المدفعية سقطت في محيط روضة الأطفال بالقرب من سوق السمك رافقها إطلاق نار من أسلحة متوسطة وخفيفة مسفرة عن سقوط ضحايا . Local sources said the City of Lauder, the largest city in the central province of Abyan of “the news agency of Eden” that the army of Yemen carried out, such as minutes from now campaign artillery shelling targeted the city center and the number of artillery shells in the vicinity of the kindergarten near the fish market was accompanied by fire from Medium and light weapons, thus giving casualties.
وتحصلت “وكالة أنباء عدن” على أسماء عدد من الشهداء بينهم رياض محمد ناصر ناصروه وهو مالك متجر صغير كان بداخله لحظة القصف وادهم الشيابي قتل أثناء مروره وسط السوق العام في المدينة. And social development, “news agency of Aden,” the names of a number of martyrs, including Nasroh Riaz Mohammad Nasser, a shop owner was inside a small moment of the bombing and Adham Alhiappi killed while passing through the center of the public market in the city.
وقال شهود عيان لـ”وكالة أنباء عدن” ان عشرات الشباب من أبناء المدينة هاجموا مدرعة تابعة للجيش ردا على القصف وشوهدوا وهم يقومون بإحراقها بعد هروب الجنود من عليها . Witnesses said the “news agency of Eden” that dozens of young people of the city attacked an armored military response to the bombing and burning were observed after the escape of soldiers from them.

OK they admit bombing the city and it is still going on. MOI is certain its al Qaeda; other officials say maybe members of the Southern Movement. Southerner spokesmen deny.

(AFP) ADEN, Yemen — Eleven soldiers were killed on Friday as the Yemeni army fought gunmen in the southern city of Loder, the interior ministry said, and medics said three civilians also died. The soldiers were killed “in an ambush set up by Al-Qaeda terrorists and outlaws cooperating with them,” the ministry said. (Read on …)

Al Masdar Online

Local sources said the “online source” The flight carried out midnight on Thursday, an air strike targeted a gathering of al-Qaeda in a mountain Department Lauder Abyan governorate (South Yemen).
لكن المصادر أشارت إلى إن القصف لم يخلف أي ضحايا بشرية، ما يرجح أن الضربة أخطأت الهدف. However, the sources pointed out that the bombing did not leave any human victims, what is likely to strike missed the target.
يأتي ذلك في الوقت الذي ارتفع عدد ضحايا الهجوم الذي نفذه مسلحون يشتبه بصلتهم بتنظيم القاعدة ضد دورية عسكرية تابعة لقوات الجيش المرابطة في مديريـة لودر مساء الخميس ليصل إلى 4 قتلى في صفوف قوات الأمن.

Al Qaeda declared war on all Yemenis in a recent statement: any one with a government job or walking past anything western deserves to die, the statement said. The death squads have killed dozens of police and soldiers.

SANA’A, Aug. 20 (Saba) – Two soldiers were killed in an attack of al-Qaeda on Thursday in Apian governorate, a security source said on Friday. The source told the ruling party-run almotamar.net that the some affiliates of al-Qaeda have carried a sudden attack with machine guns on a number of security men in a public souk and escaped. The attack has left, in addition to the two killed, a wounded soldier. The security authorities have tightened security measures in the governorate and begun hunting the attackers.

ID’s

SANA’A, Aug. 20 (Saba) - The security services in Abyan governorate managed to find out the identities of the perpetrators involved in killing 36-year-old Sergeant Sultan Abd-al-Karim al-Shar’abi, a security source in Al-Mahfid Security Department has said. The Interior Ministry said that the investigations revealed the involvement of three persons in setting an ambush for al-Shar’abi on 13 August.

The three perpetrators are: Abdullah Muhammad Abdullah (27), Yaslam Ali Hadi Laksar (35) and Salim Ali Hadi Laksar (22). They are all from al-Mahfid District. The Ministry showed that the three perpetrators are at large, but a search operation is underway to arrest them.

Update:

(Reuters) - Twelve Yemeni soldiers have died in two days of clashes with gunmen suspected of being al Qaeda militants, a local official said, the latest in a string of attacks on security personnel in south Yemen since June. (Read on …)

Yemen Post:

The quiet situation in Harf Sufyan district after the bloody battles last July draws numerous unanswered questions. The battles killed dozens from both sides and had 228 soldiers held hostage. Observers believe that the Qatari mediation helped to calm down the situation, while local analysts believe that local mediations were the main and only reason behind the end of fighting in Harf Sufyan. Houthis not only control Sa’ada governorate, but also control the strategic military site of Al-Zaala which oversees the main road linking the capital Sana’a with Saada city. (Read on …)

Apparently Saed al Shehri and the brothers sat around chewing qat and predicting the future and dreaming of destruction and kamikaze attacks.

August 18, 2010 — Brookings: Al Qaeda is warning its supporters and sympathizers to prepare for a new war in the Middle East, which it says will pit Israel against Iran. Al Qaeda’s franchise in Yemen, the self-styled al Qaeda in the Arabian Pennisula (AQAP), issued an audio message this month with a lecture by its second-in-command Saeed al Shehri in which he tells jihadists in the Middle East that “what is expected is for the war to begin by the Jews against Iran.” Israel will stage air strikes on Iran’s nuclear installations to start. Shehri expects the Iranian Shia regime to try to take advantage of an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities to seize the holy cities of Mecca and Medina by blaming Saudi Arabia for helping Israel attack. In turn, the Israelis will seize territory in the Levant to establish “the greater state of Israel.” The Sunni Arab population of the Middle East will be caught between the “Jews in the Middle East and Iran in the Peninsula.” (Read on …)

Click the categories tab on the side bar if you are seeking specific Yemen related topics.

In 2006, 23 high value al Qaeda prisoners escaped the Political Security jail in the capital Sana’a, aided by some government officials. Supposedly they used a spoon to dig the tunnel but actually used a drill according to other prisoners in the jail at the time. Some escapees were later killed by security forces. All the rest surrendered and were then released on loose house arrest. The only two who remain on the lam are Nasir al Wahishi and al Qasim al Reimi, currently the leaders of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

At the time, the releases were condoned by some as the way things are done in Yemen. Now the state is labeling them as dangerous al Qaeda (and any convicted murder and friend of Fawaz al Reibi certainly is) which the security forces managed to catch to the glee of the US. Its a total crock. Either they called him up and asked nicely to go to jail for a few weeks or worse yet, the previously surrendered, convicted al Qaeda murderer was actually plotting attacks. Today’s news from AFP :

SANAA — Yemeni security forces have arrested a suspected Al-Qaeda militant who was sentenced to death for attacking a French ship and was among 23 prison escapees in 2006, a security official said on Thursday. Huzam Majali, who is considered a leading figure of Al-Qaeda in the area of Arhab, north of the capital, was arrested on Wednesday. “He surrendered after a successful raid by the anti-terrorism forces on a house he was hiding in,” the official said.

Hiding, why is he hiding when he made a deal with Yemen’s president for his release? The background:

Jamestown: Hizam Salih Ali Mujali (b. 1980): Hizam is the older brother of Arif Mujali. He is from the governorate of Sanaa. Yemeni forces arrested him along with Fawaz al-Rabay’i in late 2003. The two resisted arrested, and fired at the security forces, killing one soldier, Hamid Khasruf. Hizam, like his younger brother, Arif, was part of the 15-man cell that went on trial in 2004. Hizam was charged with attacking a Hunt Oil helicopter and for participating in the attack on the Limburg. On August 30, 2004, he was sentenced to death for killing Khasruf. This sentence was upheld by a higher court in February 2005. Both Hizam and Arif turned themselves into the government in August 2006 (al-Wasat, August 30, 2006). Their surrender was orchestrated by Sheikh Hadi Dalqim, a tribal leader from Marib, who served as a mediator between the government and the brothers. It is unclear whether Mujali’s sentence was commuted as a result of the negotiations.

Its certainly clear now.

Update: SABA the state propaganda agency:

SANA’A, Aug. 19 (Saba) – Al-Qaeda suspect Hizam Mujali has surrendered himself to the security authorities, the Defense Ministry-run 26sep.net reported on Thursday…He was also part of the infamous 2006 prison break. However, he eventually turned himself back in to the security authorities, striking a deal that would allow him to keep his freedom on the condition that he did not rejoin al Qaeda.

That condition appears to have recently been broken. The government targeted him in a raid launched in Arhab area December 2009. Although his brother Arif was captured, Hizam managed to escape.

The Defense Ministry said that security forces in Apian (Abyan) Province have captured after a manhunt operation a senior al-Qaeda suspect called Anis al-Oli. Security sources told the website arresting such suspects and many others came as a result of information have been taken from al-Qaeda leaders and elements have been arrested recently.

This is lovely news, and the organization certainly deserves to be honored after their tireless work on behalf of protecting children in Yemen.

Press Release: Child rights institution (IDE) in Switzerland has chosen SEYAJ organization for childhood protection as a typical organization of the month for August 2010 to honor it for its distinct role in protecting, monitoring, supporting and advocating the rights of the child in Yemen.

(See their page in English here: Introduction about SEYAJ, its role in protecting childhood in Yemen and its main activities & programs will be displayed in English, French and Germany on one of the main pages of IDE web site that dedicated to highlight on the selected institutions. (Read on …)

That’s one way to look at it. Alternately millions in Yemen believe that state contracted out the attacks on the security in the south, and its all another ploy to make Saleh look like a victim of al Qaeda. After his long history of detente with al Qaeda, he has so little credibility that many doubt he is making sincere efforts. But the author of the article is correct in saying the substantial AQAP attacks all failed.

Yemen Post: With the growing number of Al-Qaeda attacks on governmental security officials, some tend to believe that this proves that Al-Qaeda is as strong as ever in Yemen. I believe the opposite. Killing security officials is not a complicated matter to plan nor does it cost a lot.

The effort for killing a government official is little, as it needs little planning and costs no more than $10 dollars! A couple of bullets, gasoline money for a motorcycle and a couple of loyal followers you are willing to do the attack free of charge are all you need.

The last major attack by Al-Qaeda in Yemen was the U.S. embassy attack two years ago. Even that attack was spoiled completely. This only proves that their presence is not what media pictures it to be. The attack on the British ambassador in Yemen is another sign of weak Al-Qaeda presence in Yemen, as the bombing took place nearly 200 meters away from the car of the British ambassador. Original Al-Qaeda attacks are much more accurate and Iraq and Afghanistan are examples of how destructive Al-Qaeda can be when it attacks. (Read on …)

The US never brought “incitement to violence” charges against American citizens and jihaddist bloggers Anwar Awlaki, Samir Khan, Jesse Morton, Zach Chessler, and Yousef al Kattab. Meanwhile former federal stooge, racist blogger Hal Turner was convicted–after 14 months and three trials–of incitement to violence for a blog post saying he believed three judges were worthy of execution for a ruling against handguns. Turner was under a gag order while the freds were leaking his file to the Star Ledger. He was denied bail and wound up sharing a cell with an Aryan Nation murder after it was known Turner was a federal rat on the skinheads. Meanwhile Awlaki’s blog was online for years and hosted in the US. While the site may have had some intel value, it was never followed up on. Condolences to the Fort Hood families.

Later the US determined Anwar was operational in AQAP. Awlaki still hasn’t been indicted for incitement to violence, even after numerous persons said they were inspired to violence by Awlaki, including the two latest in Alaska. Awlaki himself claimed the mass murderer Nidal Hassan as his student as well as the would be killer Farouk Abdulmattalab. Anwar also ruled (as if he’s an actual cleric or something) that all Americans should be killed because they pay taxes and have the opportunity to vote. This is one of the issues the ACLU is bringing up- there’s no charges against Awlaki, just a capture or kill order.

Samir Khan ran the Inshallahshahid blog openly calling for jihad against Americans. Sami went to Yemen, apparently not on the no-fly list, and hooked up with AQAP. He is now thought to be the designer of the fanatics’ latest magazine, the English language Inspire. US authorities are just now wondering if Sami is guilty of anything and convened a grand jury to contemplate the question. They are considering if there is enough evidence to support a material support charge and conspiracy to murder, but not apparently incitement to violence. Yousef al Kattab, the Revolution Muslim blog founder, is now in Tetouan, Morocco. Apparently he was also not on no-fly list.

Joey was never charged with incitement to violence, although the RM blog is among the foremost English language proponents of violence under the banner of Islam and he posted specific death threats. Jesse Morton (Younis Abduallah) is another Revolution Muslim flunky, whereabouts unknown, uncharged. Zach Chesser called for the death of the South Park creators and posted their home addresses along with a picture of Theo Van Gogh dead with a knife in his chest. Zachy wasn’t charged with incitement to violence. Zachy became a RM administrator and was only pinched when he tried to go join al Shabab–bringing his infant son as cover. The only one is custody, indicted for material support, Zach flipped in a day and began cooperating with authorities. So the post-racial Obama administration brings a clearly malicious prosecution against a racist blogger but gives a pass to all the jihaddist bloggers. The DOJ, for the first time in a long time, has an overt political agenda in many areas. This is just one instance of selective application of the law. However, others have a more optimistic view.

GPB: One of the jihadi world’s most famous bloggers could be brought up on U.S. terrorism charges soon, NPR has learned. A federal grand jury in Charlotte, N.C., convened to consider evidence against Samir Khan, a 24-year-old North Carolina man who is thought to be the editor of Inspire, a new al-Qaida online magazine….Sources close to the case tell NPR the grand jury convened Tuesday to see if there was evidence enough to charge Khan with terrorism offenses. Among the charges people close to the case said the grand jury is considering: material support to a terrorist organization and conspiracy to commit murder overseas. The FBI, for its part, declined to confirm or deny there is an investigation. And the grand jury is unlikely to come out with any decision in the case for weeks. Grand jury deliberations are secret until indictments are announced….Intelligence officials now say they believe Khan’s al-Qaida patron was Anwar al-Awlaki, the same U.S.-born radical cleric linked to the Fort Hood shootings and the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day. They say he invited Khan to Yemen and Khan packed his bags and went.

At the same time journalist for the state propaganda agency SABA and “al Qaeda expert” Abdulelah Haider Shaer was arrested, political cartoonist Kamal Sharef’s house was raided and he was dragged off to an unknown location and is currently held incommunicado. Topics covered by Sharef include womens’ rights, corruption, bigotry,and child brides and other progressive commentary on social issues.

News Yemen: Security authorities arrested on Monday cartoonist Kamal honor of his home in the capital Sana’a, and confiscated his personal belongings including a laptop computer ..
وقال شقيق شرف لـ(نيوزيمن) أن مسلحين بلباس مدني وعسكري قاموا وقت الإفطار باقتحام منزلهم واعتقال شقيقه، وآخرين قاموا بمحاصرة منزلهم ، ومن ثم قاموا بتكتيف شقيقه ، اقتادوه إلى جهة مجهولة، بناءً على مذكرة حد قولهم باعتقاله. The brother’s honor (NewsYemen) Gunmen in civilian clothing and military as they break into their home breakfast and the arrest of his brother, and others who surrounded their house, and then they Petktev his brother, took him to an unknown destination, according to a warrant for his arrest they said. (Read on …)

Walid Sharafuddin is a political prisoner in Yemen whose wife was beaten during a peaceful protest in his favor, story here with photos. The following is a plea for the release of Walid in the spirit of Ramadan.

That’s more good news. The first issue they should discuss is access routes for the urgently needed humanitarian aid. Qatar has done some good work for years on the issue. The situation needs impartial monitors on the ground. (No, I am not calling for foreign intervention, just saying that both sides have very loose command and control.) From the Yemen Post:

Yemen and Qatar agreed the government and the Houthi Group will send delegations to Doha in the coming days to sign a minutes over the 2007 Doha-brokered peace deal between the two sides, informed sources said on Monday.

The move was agreed during the short visit of Qatar’s Prime Minister Hamad bin Jasim Al Thani to Sana’a. (Read on …)

They were hoping for some dates and sweets but there’s no food deliveries since June due to various conflicts and road closures. The widows and children are begging for food.

AMRAN, 17 August 2010 (IRIN) – Thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the northern Yemeni governorate of Amran, including 1,800 in the governorate’s only IDP camp, Khaiwan, have been hit by food aid delivery delays, according to aid workers. (Read on …)

Hassan Baoum, a leader of one of the factions of the southern movement, was abroad receiving medical treatment for many months. He was previously jailed (and denied medical treatment in prison) and the fact that he returned to Yemen upon his recovery says a lot. Now it would be nice if they let Al-Ayyam’s Mr. Bashraheel go abroad for urgently needed treatment. More on Baoum’s return at Mukalla Online. Update: Bashraheel is currently in KSA receiving treatment, one good piece of news anyway.

Yermen Times: SANA’A, August 11 — About 395,000 Yemenis seeking jobs opportunities failed to infiltrate the Saudi border over the last two years, according to report published in Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper last week.

The report, that was written by Saudi journalist Turki Al-Saheel, stated that “at least one Yemeni infiltrator is arrested every ‘five minutes’ in the border region.” The report said that there are dozens of would-be Yemeni infiltrators camped out along the border waiting for chance to enter into Saudi Arabia. (Read on …)

And another

ADEN, Yemen, Aug 16 (Reuters) – Suspected al Qaeda militants shot dead an intelligence officer in southern Yemen on Monday in at least the seventh attack officials have blamed on the group since June. An official in Abyan province said the officer, Abdulkarim al-Dalei, was killed in the provincial capital Zinjibar….In the capital Sanaa, security forces detained Abdulelah Shai, a journalist who is an expert on al Qaeda, his brother said on Monday. In July, Shai was briefly detained and interrogated about al Qaeda by the intelligence services. Shai, a freelance journalist, has made numerous appearances in international media as an expert on al Qaeda and is often described as having a close relationship with members of the militant group.

Reuters

SANAA Aug 14 (Reuters) – A Yemeni intelligence officer was killed by gunmen in south Yemen, a security official said on Saturday, in an attack blamed on al Qaeda.

The officer was gunned down by two men as he walked outside of his home late on Friday in the flashpoint southern province of Lahej, the official said, adding that the attackers were suspected al Qaeda operatives.

Al Qaeda in Yemen previously focused on high-impact strikes against Western and Saudi targets, but appears now to be targeting government forces in response to enhanced Yemen-U.S. security coordination in government crackdowns on the militant group.

This is the same issue that brought the 2009 Parliamentary elections to a stand still. The SCER oversees the elections and election monitors and the electoral list (which in 2006 contained more male voters than men). The JMP asserted the positions on the SCER should be split between the JMP and GPC, but the regime said judges were good candidates for the positions and nominated its list, rubber stamped by parliament. The JMP is getting hemmed in the issue of the proportional list, which it favors, by international pressure just to do something that looks like an election. YObserver:

The Supreme Commission For Elections and Referendum (SCER) endorsed on Monday the schedule for the upcoming parliamentary elections set in April, which the Yemeni opposition considered “contrary” to the agreements of the “national dialogue” that began last Saturday. (Read on …)

Really tragic numbers here.

Daily Times: A study carried out in 2010 by the US-based aid group CHF International revealed that out of Yemen’s 11 million children, five million are currently employed. Three-fifths of those do not receive an education while the remaining two million both study and work at the same time.
CHF said that 40 percent of Yemeni children are drawn into the labour market between the ages of seven and 13. (Read on …)

VOA News

Security officials in Yemen say an al-Qaida leader in the country’s north has surrendered to authorities. The officials said Juman Safian turned himself in on Saturday in the province of al-Jouf. They did not release additional details.

Yemen recently intensified its campaign against the group’s local branch, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, following a series of deadly attacks on government targets.

Earlier this month, al-Qaida threatened to target anyone who supports Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh or what it called the “crusader campaign” by the United States.

(Read on …)

Hopefully the statement indicates a real consensus, not some earlier statements, if only for the ability to move things forward. There’s no one to talk to when there’s eight groups and leaderships in the SMM. The July 17 JMP/ GPC agreement on dialog (which is stalled again) even if it reaches consensus, does nothing to address the southern issue. Some southerners consider the agreement a northern plot. The EU observers determination of the 2006 election as mostly free and fair (with massive reforms needed) neglected the boycotting southerners entirely.

Signatories of the current agreement include:
Supreme National Authority for the independence of the South:
Supreme National Council for the Liberation of South
Southern Democratic Assembly (TAJ)
Youth Union South (Ashajj)

An important statement of the components of independence

The latest developments in the political arena southern confirm beyond a shadow of
Doubt on the strength of the SPLM and the effectiveness of South peaceful struggle vital
Awareness of the project and the return of the South goes to accomplish the tasks ahead in
Forefront of independence and nation-building and the restoration of the Arab identity of the South
Based on the popular will, which has become dogma in the minds of our people
And the road to the ultimate salvation of the Yemeni occupation, despite our awareness of the seriousness of the conspiracies

Hatched against the draft independence.

The forces of South Independence Declaring its firm and principled position on the issue of
Our people in the south and the right to freedom and independence it is not concerned with any agreements
And conducted by the JMP with the occupation authority since the wake of the Yemeni
The war of summer 1994 through an agreement in February 2009 and the end of the agreement of July 17, 2010 (Read on …)

The indigenous Yemeni counter al-Qaeda narrative holds that the brothers are corrupt as the regime itself and the state deploys al Qaeda as a political tool to create domestic and international pressure. This statement from the SMM in Lahj asserts the authorities are behind the string of assassinations which targeted southern members of the security forces. Others assert that they are killing off those who know the state’s secrets about its inner deals with al Qaeda. The official story line is that President Saleh reformed and is now facing blowback from his sincere efforts against al Qaeda. Aden Gulf.net :

Indicated that members of al-Qaeda in the south they follow the Sanaa regime and his soldiers:

A statement issued by a branch of the Supreme Council of the mobility of the peaceful province of pilgrimage that the Sanaa regime views the situation in the south read wrong and that he was not aware of the size of the variable that wrought will existed in the People in the south, they failed and failed practices and policies in the south, whatever their plans and their own ends, and the statement described the recent assassinations that targeted the southerners as well as some incidents that killed dozens of people in Aden and Abyan, Shabwa and Dali as a sinister plot designed to the south by the occupation regime in alliance with tribal figures and different terrorist organizations including al Qaeda, which dates back its source origin to the Yemen Arab Republic and tactics shameful and despicable aim to drag the South to the box to violence and fighting procedure and the creation of security chaos Bgit infanticide mobility demands the independence of South peaceful and freedom of the south, which, according to the statement of the impossible to be achieved to the occupation that .. (Read on …)

Anthony Shaffer is of course the agent who got totally screwed by DIA after trying to point out that the 9/11 commission skipped any inquiry into Able Danger’s (ignored) warnings two weeks prior to the USS Cole bombing in Aden. Although the Yemen hub was under close scrutiny prior to (and after) the attack, no warnings were generated from that intelligence either.

ABC: Anthony Shaffer is a CIA trained intelligence officer and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve with more than 25 years experience in the intelligence community. He doesn’t have any sympathy for Anwar al Awlaki’s activities or his alleged terrorist connections, but he does think the US cleric is due what he calls “due process”.

“I think the best answer is to capture him and bring him back and have him stand trial,” he says. And he’s made another intriguing point. He believes Anwar Al Awlaki wants to be martyred. “He would become the Elvis of Al Qaeda if we kill him and so I think there’s a great downside to that,” he said. The lawyers who are now acting for Anwar al Awlaki’s father don’t know how far their legal case will get. But it’s certainly going to create a very awkward situation for the Obama administration.

Its really a fascinating article at Naba news about the dangers of state sponsorship of Salafism and its penetration into society, but Yahya Saleh is more a liberal or perhaps modernist than Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar.

Aden Gulf: نبأ نيوز ( موقع الامن القومي اليمني ) يصف السلفيين بالفئة الضاله ويتهمهم بالإنتماء لإيدلوجية تنظيم القاعدة ويحذر من خطورة تحالف علي صالح معهم News News (site of the Yemeni National Security) describes the Salafi deviant group and accuses them of belonging to the ideology of al Qaeda, warns of the danger of a coalition in favor of them (Read on …)

Taiz the sleeping giant… What is it with the stun grenades lately? Somebody from one of the CT units sold a crate onto the black market?

Yemen Post: Several technicians were injured when an adaptor exploded due to a technical fault during its maintenance in Taiz Province…On the other hand, an explosion was heard at the market in the area, with reports saying it was a sound grenade that hurt some people. (Read on …)

hip hip cheerio

LONDON, Aug. 11 (Saba) – President Ali Abdullah Saleh arrived on Wednesday in Britain’s capital, London, on a visit during which he is meeting Prime Minister David Cameron and other senior UK officials. The talks will focus on the bilateral relationship and ways to boost cooperation in all areas. (Read on …)

There are good plans to address many urgent issues in Yemen but they are not implemented fully. Power centers within the government thwart reforms to protect their profits. In other cases, coordination among semi-autonomous ministries is nearly impossible to achieve.
IRIN

SANAA, 10 August 2010 (IRIN) – Despite record rainfall in the Yemeni capital Sanaa and other areas this summer, very little is being done to harvest this water to mitigate water shortages, experts say. In May at least seven people were killed in what officials described as the worst flooding to hit Sanaa in a decade. Flooding has brought large parts of the city to a standstill on a number of occasions. Attempts by the government to harvest rainwater are very limited, according to Ramon Scoble, a consultant for Germany’s Technical Cooperation Committee (GTZ). (Read on …)

The regime is getting lazy lately and running over journalists instead of going through the motions of a bogus trial.

Sahwa Net- The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate has denounced repeated violations and abused practiced against journalist Khalid Dhala’. In a statement, it said that these violations increased and became targeting openly his life as he was subjected to a car crash on 13 July 2010. The statement demanded security forces to protect Dala’a, immediately arrest the criminals and bring them to justice

Press release

Jurist information center condemns abuses against journalists, the latest of which was a journalist Khaled Mohsen Dlaq from the threat of his life and he was run over a car driven by unknown persons in the center of the capital Sanaa, which led to suffering a serious injury in parts of his body and was evacuated to hospital in time, which condemns the information center have been exposed jurist journalist Khaled Dlaq it at the same time demanding the Interior Ministry quickly prosecution of offenders and finding them and bring them to justice to receive their just punishment

Issued by the Information Centre jurist Sana
7-8-20010

MEMRI: On August 10, 2010, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a 15-minute audio recording from Sa’id Al-Shihri, aka Abu Sufyan Al-Azdi, the Saudi deputy commander of AQAP, who is also a former Guantanamo detainee. In the recording, Al-Shihri says that the organization has received communications from supporters of Al-Qaeda in the Saudi armed forces, who asked whether they should remain in their positions, or whether they should leave to join up with AQAP in Yemen. Al-Shihri tells them that they should remain in the Saudi armed forces and take advantage of their positions to further infiltrate the armed forces, carry out assassinations against the government, the royal family, and Westerners living in the country, and to provide logistical assistance to the mujahideen. (Read on …)

UNICEF and Government of Yemen jointly launch the First Inter-Agency Comprehensive Child Protection Assessment Report in Conflict Affected Areas in the north of Yemen:

Key Findings:
* 68% of children interviewed have been subjected to domestic violence
* 8% of all abused children have admitted exposure to sexual exploitation perpetrated by host communities, aid workers and others
* 7.9% of IDPs and affected families have had one child killed as a result of the conflict
* 10.3% of children of these families have been injured as a direct result of the fighting from both sides of the conflict
* 21% of children reported that they saw someone being injured or wounded
* 7.1% had witnessed someone being killed
* 10.2% of families reported that their children had been subjected to detention by both sides of the conflict
* More than 15% of the fighters from Al-Houthi and tribal militias are Children below 18 yrs.
* 2.1% of displaced and affected families have indicated that at least one of their children is still missing
* High illiteracy levels amongst care givers in displaced and affected regions, 73% of fathers and 85% of mothers are illiterate without appropriate learning or educational opportunities

According to Ahlul Bayt News Agency (ABNA.ir), Yemen’s Shia Houthis said they released on Monday 100 soldiers and pro-government tribesmen they had captured in clashes last month, in the second such move aimed at cementing a fragile truce in the north of the country.

“These releases came … on the occasion of (the Muslim fasting month of) Ramadan, and to prove our seriousness in bringing about peace and creating conditions for a resumption of mediation by Qatar,” Houthis spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Salam said.

The Houthis, who announced a similar release on Sunday, and the government have welcomed an offer by Qatar to try to revive a Qatari-mediated peace agreement in the north of the Arabian Peninsula country.

Apparently they widened the scope of the discussions beyond electoral reforms to include other national issues.

Yemen Observer: Yemeni political parties started Saturday their first meeting for national dialogue over political and electoral reforms before the coming parliamentary elections scheduled in April 2011. (Read on …)

The issue of non-iodized salt has come up before and its a change that could positively impact the nation.

Yemen Post: 70 per cent of salt at the Yemeni markets is non-iodized, a study by the UNICEF Nutrition Program has said. (Read on …)

Yemen is the only nation that signed onto the UN convention granting refugees status to those fleeing war. Since then the lack of international support, and corruption and inefficiency within the UN offices, meant that Somalis in Yemen are trapped in a life of poverty and hunger with few options but to illegally migrate to Saudi Arabia and beyond. The refugees strain the government’s meager resources and many have no access to education, medical services and jobs, but then neither do many Yemenis.

IRIN: SANAA, 9 August 2010 (IRIN) – Straining to cope with the number of Somalis arriving by boat, Yemen is seeking to end the prima facie refugee status (automatic asylum) it has been giving them for the past 20 years. The government says some are economic migrants and should not be granted automatic refugee status, while others are militants seeking to join al-Qaeda groups to destabilize the country. (Read on …)

Al-Qaeda determines who deserves to live and die. Reuters

DUBAI, Aug 7 (Reuters) – Al Qaeda’s Yemen-based arm said it was behind an attack that killed at least six soldiers in an oil province last month, and threatened more strikes on government targets.

The attack in the southern Shabwa province on July 25 was among five raids on state targets since June which have been blamed on the resurgent militant group. (Read on …)

Arrested in 2008 in Hadramout, charges filed in 2010, trial date to be determined:

Yemen Observer: A total of 28 Al Qaeda suspects including a Saudi and an Egyptian nationals will be put on trial for charges of forming an armed gang for carrying out terrorist acts in Yemen, a prosecution statement said Saturday (8/7/10).

The statement said the Saudi national is called Abdullah Faraj Mohammed Al Jawbar, and the Egyptian is called Ibrahim Mohammed Saleh Al Bana’a. The Egyptian had 11 different names, the statement said.

Seven of the defendants will be tried in absentia including Shaker bin Hamel, Saleh bin Ali Jaber, and Mutaz ba Zabad, as fugitives from justice. (Read on …)

Fares Manna is the president’s partner and was released from National Security jail after two months (following the incident of the shipload of Chinese weapons). He was recently sanctioned by the UN for selling weapons in Somalia despite an international ban. In an interview at al-Masdar, Manna makes some interesting claims:
- all the Houthis weapons were purchased from the Yemeni Military and systematic leakage occurs by a particular method due to the collusion by some aspect of the military
- the National Security Agency in particular is corrupt and no reform in Yemen is possible without the cancellation of the National Security
- he says he legally brokers deals with Russian, Ukranian and Eastern European countries (as I said in 2005) to purchase arms for the state and he also resells and ships arms all over the Middle East and Africa (which would include Somalia)
- all his transactions are legal according to Yemeni law
- the merchants of war reject peace with the Houthis and instigate new conflicts
- he himself lost over $100 million when his houses were bombed, they were will stocked with weapons as directed by the state, he was storing the arms so they didnt fall into the hands of the Houthis, but the National Security failed to supply the correct intelligence to the state.
- Manna is launching a peace initiative in Sa’ada, more at the Yemen Times.

For more on Fares Manna and weapons smuggling, see our category “Proliferation”.

The interview from al Masdar:

أطلق تاجر السلاح اليمني فارس مناع نداء استغاثة باسم اهالي صعدة وطالب الدول الخليجية عامة والمملكة العربية السعودية وقطر خاصة بالتدخل وتقديم الدعم والمساهمة في إعادة إعمار المحافظة. Yemeni arms dealer called Knight Manna distress call on behalf of the people of Saada and called the Gulf States in general and Saudi Arabia and Qatar in particular to intervene and provide support and contribute to the reconstruction of the province. وفيما حمّل الدولة مسؤولية انتشار السلاح في الاسواق اكد ان السلاح الذي يحمله الحوثيون يعود اصلا الى الجيش اليمني. The state took responsibility for the proliferation of arms in the market confirmed that the weapons carried by Houthis back originally to the Yemeni army. (Read on …)

Update: And another at Foreign Policy from May but the following is a current analysis from Professor Sheila Carapico at the Yemen Times:

Americans got a crash course on Yemen for Christmas.

That’s because we’ve wanted to know more about the little-known, dirt-poor country in southwestern Arabia where the “underwear bomber” who tried to blow up a plane—bound for Detroit from Nigeria on Christmas Day—says he was trained. President Barack Obama says, correctly, that “large chunks” of Yemen “are not fully under government control.” So it seems to make sense to strengthen the Yemeni government, to get at “al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” as the local gang of Islamist extremists is known.

The State Department has duly doubled aid to Yemen, pledging $63 million in 2010, $12.5 million of which will buy military equipment. And there will be more from the Pentagon: Yemen received $67 million for its armed forces from the Defense Department in 2009, an amount set to increase this year.

But what kind of government rules Yemen, and how is it using these boatloads of Pentagon boodle?

Its elected parliament makes Yemen a democracy in name only. Its president, Ali Abdallah Salih, has held office longer than any other Arab ruler except Libya’s strongman, Muammar Qaddafi, and is grooming his son to take over.

Salih’s regime has battled rebels in the far north since 2004, and today it also faces a very disaffected population throughout the south. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is a tertiary concern at best. In fact, Salih has a history of strategically enlisting radical jihadis to keep his political opponents in check. (Read on …)

Focus:

Sanaa. A policeman was killed in an attack launched by alleged al-Qaida snipers on a security checkpoint in Yemen’s southeast province of Shabwa on Friday, a spokesman for the local police said, Xinhua informed. The spokesman told Xinhua that “some suspected snipers of al- Qaida group shot dead the policeman this afternoon who was on duty at a police checkpoint located in the south of Ataq, the capital city of Shabwa.” (Read on …)

Press Conference: State.gov,

Our coordinator of the office of counterterrorism here at the Department of State, Ambassador Dan Benjamin…Let me turn to Yemen. We recognize that al-Qaida has taken advantage of insecurity in various regions of Yemen that have been worsened by internal conflicts. We also know that Yemen is grappling with serious poverty and is the poorest country in the Arab world. The lack of resources inhibits good governance, the delivery of services and the effectiveness of the security provision that is needed to deal with terrorism. So to have any chance of success, U.S. counterterrorism policy has to be conceived in strategic and not merely tactical terms. That’s why the Administration has adopted a two-pronged strategy for Yemen: helping the government confront the immediate security concern of al-Qaida and mitigating the serious political, economic, and governance issues that the country faces over the long term.

US State Department Report on Terrorism 2009:

(11) The attempted December 25 bombing provided a further reminder that un- or under-governed spaces can serve as an incubator for extremism and underscored that we cannot expect al-Qa‘ida affiliates to be focused solely on the near enemy – the governments in their own countries and regions – or American facilities in their immediate surroundings.

(115) After the failed December 25 attempt on NWA Flight #253, in which Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who had trained in Yemen with al-Qa‘ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), attempted to detonate explosives over the continental United States, the international community intensified its focus on Yemen‘s security situation, which continued to deteriorate in 2009. The Yemeni government‘s response to the terrorist threat improved dramatically in December, exemplified by the heightened pace of counterterrorism operations. Still, the government‘s focus on other internal security challenges, including the ―Sixth War‖ of the Houthi rebellion in the northern Sa‘ada governorate, which began in August and had not ceased by year‘s end, often diverted it from broader counterterrorism activities. (Read on …)

I think the al-Qaeda losers took “credit” for two of the five recent attacks on security installations in the south, but they may claim them all sooner or later. The Saleh regime has so little credibility in the south that southern leaders are openly asserting that the regime instructed al-Qaeda to carry out the spate of attacks and willingly sacrificed some soldiers to achieve several goals- heighten tension, accuse the southerners of being aligned with al-Qaeda, set the stage for assassinations of southern leaders and of course, dupe the west into increasing support. This latest murder spree took place in the vicinity of Tariq al-Fadhli’s home and near the Political Security headquarters. One of the attackers threw a stun grenade or “sound bomb” before opening fire (well trained and equipped). The attackers escaped. The regime is rounding up all motorcycle drivers. The prior attacks took place in Aden, Abyan and Shabwa where, despite the emphatic southerners denials, there are some al-Qaeda hangouts. Jarr in Abyan was a hot spot for remnants of the Abyan-Aden Islamic Army who began assassinating people suspected of irreligiosity in the spring of 09 until state-sponsored blue on blue fighting brought some control to the city. Shabwa is where al-Quso and Awlaki are, and Aden is Aden.

Sana’a, Yemen – Suspected al-Qaeda militants attacked a police patrol in southern Yemen on Thursday, killing three policemen, security sources said. The attackers threw a hand grenade and opened fire at the patrol vehicle near a checkpoint in Zinjebar city, the provincial capital of Abyan province, the sources told the German Press Agency dpa. (Read on …)

CNN:
Washington (CNN) — Federal authorities Wednesday granted two civil liberties groups a license they need in challenging the government’s authority to use lethal force against U.S. citizens designated as terrorists. (Read on …)

One Yemeni observer notes, “The ministry of interior identified the bomber as a 36 years old Hadi Ahmed Saleh from Kohlan district province of Sanaa. He was a soldier in the 35th brigade based in the city of Dhala.Some of his colleagues suggested that he was unaware that his motorcycle was rigged with explosives. When you have a regime that uses terror to blackmail the international community , the prospect of Yemeni intelligence role in such attacks is not far fetched .”

SaadaAden: Aden news agency suggested that the soldier was a “victim of a conspiracy carried out by malicious military officials in coordination with the intelligence of Yemen, where witnesses confirmed that the soldier came out of the leadership of the camp and started down the road towards the Public Security Department and did not know the mission objective.”

And a truly gruesome video of the deceased at Youtube. A less hysterical rundown from the YT:

Yemen Times: SANA’A, August 4 — Nine soldiers were injured when a soldier blew himself up in front of the Al-Dhale’ General Security Office last Tuesday.

Of the nine injured soldiers, two are said to have been seriously injured. A 15-year-old child was also injured as he was passing near the office.

It was reported on the army website 26th September that the deputy of Al-Dhale’ governorate, Abdulla Husain Al-Haddi, had accused Al-Qaeda of organizing the attack.

According to local sources, the soldier committed this suicide bombing because his salary had been suspended for months and he had not been treated well by his commanding officer.

According to reliable sources, Al-Qaeda cannot be behind this suicide bombing because the group is not present in the governorate, and some even think that the soldier himself may have unknowingly been rigged with explosives. (Read on …)

Its the same wave continuing non-stop since 2004. The May 22nd announcement by President Saleh of a general amnesty was all propaganda, partially because governmental fiefdoms are autonomous from the central government. Investigative reporting on corruption draws the attacks and reform efforts are stymied at every level.

Al-Sahwa Reporters Without Borders is alarmed by a new wave of threats and acts of intimidation against journalists in Yemen. The political class seems to have no qualms about using violence against journalists who write about corruption or embezzlement. Utterly illegal and arbitrary arrests are becoming commonplace.

“The situation is becoming more and more worrying again after the encouraging signs in May when the authorities dropped proceedings against 33 journalists on the 20th anniversary of Yemen’s reunification,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We fear that Yemen is now entering a few phase of violence against media that dare to criticise the policies imposed by the government.” (Read on …)

Al-Qaida attacks all over the world kill innocent civilians including in Yemen. One well documented total is about 85,000 Muslim civilian deaths in the last ten years but its a partial listing. The Yemeni government also kills innocent people but al-Qaeda’s convenient outrage is a joke. Another joke is their announcement that they are raising an army of 12,000. Its total propaganda, and as Yemeni power players, they do it very well. The numbers are still around 500 despite all their best efforts including the CD’s in the mosques. Hopefully the securocrats don’t go all knee-jerk as they are prone to. Globe and Mail

Al Qaeda threatened in an internet audio recording on Thursday to carry out more attacks on Yemeni forces following several suspected and confirmed Qaeda strikes on the government that have killed dozens.

Four assaults on state targets have been attributed to Al Qaeda’s Yemen based regional arm since June, though it has only claimed two of the attacks. The most recent attack by suspected militants in a southern oil province killed six soldiers.

Al Qaeda in Yemen previously focused high-impact strikes on foreign targets, but has started to aim them at the state in response to enhanced U.S.-Yemeni cooperation in a crackdown on the militant group that has included air strikes and raids. (Read on …)

If its an agreement between two political parties on behalf of their members, then the details should have been public from the get-go. Yemen Post

A source in the Supreme Council for the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) told Yemen Post that the JMP decided in its meeting to form a panel of the Supreme Council in order to do to Sa’ada and inform the Houthis of the main points and details of the agreement of February 2009, signed between them and the General People’s Congress. (Read on …)

The news was not well received in Yemen. SABA

US raises annual aid up to $300 million to Yemen

SANA’A, Aug. 02 (Saba) – The US Administration stated on Monday its decision to raise the annual aid for the democratic and economic development in Yemen to $300 million. (Read on …)

IRIN: SANAA, 3 August 2010 (IRIN) – Head of the government’s Reconstruction Fund (RF) Mohammed Thabit says the UN World Food Programme (WFP) should stop giving food to internally displaced persons (IDPs) and contribute instead to the reconstruction of Saada Governorate. (Read on …)

Yahya al-Houthi, an MP and brother of Abdel-Malik, sent a letter to the Yemeni parliament about the Senate’s finding the US military aid may have been mis-used (diverted) to Saleh’s efforts against the Houthis. Its extremely difficult to believe that the transfer of mil aid comes as a shock to anyone in DC. The Sa’ada region has been cut off from journalists since 2004, and the civilian casualty toll is anyone’s guess, but the Yemeni regime’s tactics are clearly in violation of international law and include sustained blockade and indiscriminate bombing. While Saleh is using US military support against the Houthis, he is also using al-Qaeda operatives as mercenaries and has been doing so since 2005-ie, the US is equipping an (al-Qaeda supported) jihad against Shia civilians. The Yemeni state itself calls it a jihad and has produced fatwas claiming “Houthi blood is free.” This is not news, but an ongoing pathetic failure of integrity and foresight.

We continue to expose our deep concern of the military and financial help of Western and especially the assistance the United States, European Union, as well as Arab aid provided to the system of Yemen in response to Western demands to provide such assistance to the regime in Yemen, and we reiterated our concern that such assistance will increase the tension conditions in our country and increase the unjust compulsion, the arrogance and injustice, emphasizing that he would use the aid in the suppression of the people and strengthen the dictatorship and the rule of domestic and install the corruption, rather than commitment to a democratic political and institutional governance, and it will expand the popular discontent against the corrupt system more, thereby expanding the cycle of violence and prolonging it.

We are today before the important recognition of the Chambers of the U.S. published a lot of media sources, reporting on the health of our apprehension of that aid has recognized that the system used actually against Houthis, rather than hunt for alleged terrorists, and people saw that it did not distinguish between one was people of all age groups and orientations of the target of bombs and missiles and one incident of camp the normal people too-distant future where the regime killed this aid, scores of children and women and the elderly, as well as it beat for the accommodation of prisoners from the Yemeni military in Sa’ada, where he spent more than 100 prisoners, as well as hit the markets and the displacement camps and cities inhabited by the civilian population. (Read on …)

Update: The state is blaming the southerners with another theory that the biker was tricked into delivering explosives to the intel HQ. The “suicide bomber” was a soldier from the 35th armored brigade.

Yemen Post: Security sources in Dhale Province said on Wednesday the southern separatist movement was behind the suicide attack against the police headquarters that injured 9 policemen, two seriously.
The Alsahwa website quoted the sources as saying elements from the movement asked the owner of a motorbike to deliver food for a detainee at the building and the meal was an improvised explosive device that was set off when the motorcyclist arrived at the building.
However, the sources revealed the motorcyclist was a soldier from Sana’a Province and his motorbike was packed with explosives while he was shopping in the Dhale market.
Saleh Ali Hadi was one of the personnel at the armored brigade 35, they said.
On Tuesday, the authorities said 8 policemen were wounded when the motorbike exploded at the gate of the police office. The office suffered damages as well.
Initially, they said the attack bore the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula which claimed responsibility for recent attacks against offices of public security and intelligence in the south.
But other sources dismissed Al-Qaeda had been behind the bombing, saying the bomber might be used by another group that put explosives in his motorbike.

Original Post: Could be anything from intra-governmental wrangling to propaganda for the west to increasing muscle-flexing by the wild-eyed fanatics or violence by the southern fringe.

M&C
Sana’a, Yemen – Eight policemen were injured when a suicide bomber attacked a police headquarters in southern Yemen on Tuesday, police sources said. The sources told the German Press Agency dpa that the attacker blew himself up at the gate of the police building in al-Dhalea city, capital of the province of the same name. They said the attack bore the trademarks of al-Qaeda.

Someone lobs a grenade in Abyan, Yemen Observer: (Read on …)

With the oil revenues down, pretty soon they wont be able to cover the state’s payroll of bribes and salaries. Bloomberg

The International Monetary Fund approved a $370 million loan for Yemen to support a three-year plan aimed at cutting the budget deficit and reducing poverty. The Washington-based lender made an initial disbursement of $53 million available immediately, according to a statement posted on its website yesterday. (Read on …)

Really.

MSNBC: Two civil rights groups today sued the US government, seeking the legal authority to challenge the Obama administration’s targeting of a radical cleric in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki — who may now be America’s most wanted terrorist.

The government says al-Awlaki has become one of the dominant recruiters of Americans for violent attacks on the homeland. He’s said to have communicated with Major Nidal Hasan before last year’s shootings at Ft. Hood and with Faisal Shahzad, who planted a car bomb in Times Square earlier this year. In addition, the FBI says he played a key role in the Christmas Day airline bomb plot. Intelligence sources say he has been the target of several unmanned drone attacks.

Now, the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights say they’ve been asked by al-Awlaki’s father to challenge the government’s targeting of al-Awlaki, who is a U.S. citizen, born in New Mexico. The groups say the government has improperly “asserted authority to use lethal force against U.S. citizens located far from any battlefield without charge, trial, or judicial process of any kind.” (Read on …)

CBY already injected 20% of its reserves as purchasing power shrinks amid continued public insecurity. A Yemeni economist earlier postulated that excessive money laundering has had a negative impact on the value of the riyal.

Yemen Observer Yemeni riyal fell further against the US dollar as the central bank pumped $57 million into the exchange market, the latest of a series of cash injections to support the tumbling currency which hit a record low this week. (Read on …)

The state reinforces tribal law at the expense of civil law.

Bikyamasr: Amnesty International has urged the Yemeni authorities to launch an immediate independent investigation into the extrajudicial execution of a man accused of murdering a tribal sheikh.

‘Ali ‘Abdullah Muhsin al-Rajhi had been accused of murdering the sheikh, but instead of being arrested and brought to trial by the authorities, he was handed over to the victim’s family and summarily killed.

He is reported to have been shot dead by a relative of the murdered sheikh on 18 July 2010 in front of a crowd outside a mosque in the village of al-Hajfa, south-east of the capital Sana’a. (Read on …)

The head of the bipartisan and inclusive National Dialog Committee withdrew from the National Dialog announced by the ruling GPC and opposition JMP where each submitted a list of 100 representatives. Bassandawa is urging dialog to be held under international auspices and address the full range of Yemen’s national crisis including consideration of a federal system. He seems to think the opposition caved to regime and international pressures which prioritize agreement on the (already postponed) Parliamentary elections in 2011 ahead of comprehensive national reform. Bassandawa is “convinced of the futility” of any discussions where the ruling party seeks only agreement on electoral reforms not the fundamental crises that face the nation. He also urges inclusion of all national forces including the southerners and opposition abroad. The Houthis for their part have said their participation is conditional on approving the terms and scope of the dialog, which they have yet to see.

Al Masdar The Chairman announced that preparations for national dialogue Mohamed Salem Bassandawa boycott of the dialogue sessions with the Authority and the ruling party, on condition to participate in the dialogue to be sponsored by regional, Arab and international.

وكان حزب المؤتمر الشعبي الحاكم وتكتل اللقاء المشترك وقعا أمس الخميس على محضر تبادل أسماء ممثلي الطرفين في اللجنة المشتركة للإعداد والتهيئة للحوار الوطني، وتضم القائمتان مائة عضو لكل طرف، وبين قائمة المشترك باسندوة. The Popular Congress Party, the ruling bloc, signed a joint meeting on Thursday to record the exchange of names of representatives of the parties in the Joint Commission for the preparation and configuration of the national dialogue, and lists, which contain a hundred members of each party, and the list of common Basendwah.

وفي تصريحات لـ”المصدر أونلاين” من العاصمة الأردنية عمان التي يتواجد فيها حالياً قال باسندوة ان “الانتخابات تحتل المرتبة الأولى في اهتمام الحزب الحاكم وليس إيجاد حل للأزمات التي تعصف بالبلاد”. In statements to “online source” of the Jordanian capital Amman, where there are currently Bassandawa said that “the elections is ranked first in the interest of the ruling party and not find a solution to crises that racked country.” (Read on …)

Oh Yay! Do not ship the copters, please. Yemeni strafed villages in the 2005 round of the Saada War. They’ll use them against the southerners today and in Sa’ada tomorrow. A better end monitoring structure needs to be in place. PDF of the original report to Congress here. Update: an excellent report with some interesting findings (equipment missing already) and very necessary conclusions including the need to rationalize Saudi aid.

World Tribune:, WASHINGTON — Congress has expressed concern that U.S. military aid to Yemen was being diverted to battle Iran-backed Shi’ite insurgents. Officials have acknowledged continued differences between Sanaa and Washington over Yemen’s security priorities. The United States has stressed the Al Qaida threat while Sanaa designated the Shi’ite rebellion in the north as the leading priority.

“As a result of this difference in focus, there are serious concerns that U.S. counter-terrorism assistance, provided to assist the ROYG [Yemeni government] in combating Al Qaida, has been diverted for use in the war against the Houthis,” the report said. (Read on …)

Verging on death, not counting the hundreds of thousands of children that are not homeless but still extremely malnourished:

SANAA, 29 July 2010 (IRIN) – Feeding over 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Yemen involves complex logistics and coordination.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) works with its implementing partners, such as NGOs Islamic Relief and Adventist Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA), to ensure fair distribution and maximum outreach to displaced families, including 60,000 children under five.

Its operations extend across Hajjah, al-Jawf, Saada, Sanaa and Amran governorates, GianCarlo Cirri, WFP representative in Yemen, told IRIN.

“The ration basket for IDPs consists of wheat grain or fortified wheat flour, pulses, fortified vegetable oil, sugar and salt,” he said, adding that a blanket supplementary feeding programme – consisting of wheat-soya blend, fortified vegetable oil and sugar – is offered to children under five due to high levels of malnutrition….Funding shortfalls, insecurity and access are the main challenges reported by WFP staff and implementing partners. (Read on …)

Brandon Sun SAN’A, Yemen – A Yemeni opposition member shot in the head after returning from 32 years in exile died Wednesday from his wounds, his son said. Abdel-Raqib al-Qershi fled from Yemen in 1978 after he and his family were accused of leading a rebellion against the government and killing tribal leaders…Al-Qershi’s son, Awad, said his father had returned to San’a in May following an offer of amnesty from the country’s president. A month later, he was shot in the head as he walked out of a local mosque with his sons. The authorities named three suspects in the assassination attempt, but none have been arrested. After an emergency operation in Yemen, Al-Qershi was flown to Syria for further medical treatment where he died.

Original Post: President Saleh invited Abdalrguib Qurashi who was in exile in Syria for 30 years, to return to Yemen under his protection. Last month, Qurashi was shot in the head after returning from prayers in Sana’a, fell into a coma, was transferred to Syria for medical treatment and died today. Qurashi was a leader in the Nasserite party involved in a 1978 assassination attempt on Saleh. Many were killed and periodically the party asks for the location of the graves. (Read on …)

Oh yes, that’s what Yemenis need is another foreigner inciting bloodshed. The lunatic Egyptian wants Yemeni clerics to declare jihad on the US. Certainly strengthens Saleh’s position with the US though, how handy.

Reuters: Zawahri, in his second message this month released on Islamist websites, also ridiculed Yemeni clerics, who he said promised jihad, or holy war, against the United States if it interfered in Yemen, but who he said ignored signs that the government was cooperating with U.S. forces.

Noting that Amnesty International had called on Washington to explain its role in Yemen, Zawahri asked: “Is Amnesty International more concerned about defending the Yemeni people than they (the clerics) are?”

Amnesty International released a report in June suggesting that the United States may be playing a role in Yemen after releasing photographs that showed remnants of alleged U.S. missiles and cluster bombs used in an attack in south Yemen.

“What more are they waiting for to call for jihad? … are they waiting for the U.S. soldiers to appear on the streets of Sanaa in their tanks?”

Mr. President Barack Hussein Obama:

We the people of Aden in the south are suffering humiliation and oppression, murder and torture by the regime of the State of North Yemen, Sanaa

We also know we have an independent state and we have entered into unsuccessful unity with North Yemen, Sanaa, a country with a tribal, military and Baathist structure, that is usually backward for us and takes us back a century.

Today, the Arab people in Aden struggle to disengage from the North Yemen, Sanaa, and his re-Arab and to re-establish a southern capital of Aden, known as a free state on their national soil, known to the May 21, 1990

We want your support and your support and you with the free world in order to restore our nation and peaceful coexistence among the nations of the earth

Thanks
يافعي حضرمي متواجد حالياً with my regards
journalist from south yemen

alkhader alhasani
sana a 25/7/2010

A letter to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch from southern Yemenis in the US:

The South Yemen community in U.S.A sincere regards, and thank you for your efforts for the past years and your positive interaction, whether by descending on the ground in the south and especially the governorate Aden, and some nearby provinces, Your meeting with some of the families of the martyrs and prisoners, or through your reports on the bitter reality and the serious daily violations of human rights in under the occupation of Yemen, and heinous practices against the people of South Arabia are engaged in struggle for independence.

We appreciate these efforts and urge you to exert more pressure on the occupying government in Sana’a to stop all methods of repression, torture and killing, siege and arrests, and pursuits, committed against peacefully protesters and activists, and move quickly to rescue the Political prisoners of Sana’a regime, and the rest of the detainees from daily torture of those who are still in detention including minors.

First the Political Security prison in Sana’a

Ahmed Alkuwma – correspondent

Maged Althammah – Age 14 years (Read on …)

Al-Iryani also said AQAP presents a threat to Saudi Arabia more than Yemen, quite true. People’s Daily

A political advisor of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh denied on Friday that cleric Anwar al-Awlaki has been radicalized in Yemen. (Read on …)

In 2005, Yemen made several repeated announcements that it was going to cut its bloated diplomatic corps in order to reduce expenses. I think it was around the time they were angling for Millennium Challenge Funds. But of course it was all propaganda and the only embassy closed was in Romania. Ambassadorships are quite lucrative, and often used as rewards or to get outspoken people out of the country. The embassies abroad are frequently centers of corruption and sometimes crime and often have networks that spy on Yemeni expatriate communities.

Republican Decrees appointing ambassadors issued
[25/يوليو/2010] SANA’A, July 25 (Saba) – Six Republic Decrees issued on Sunday appointing Yemeni ambassadors to a number of countries:

1- Decree No. 143 for 2010 appoints Yahya al-Sayaghi as an ambassador of Yemen to Cuba.

2- Decree No. 144 for 2010 appoints Abdul-Qawi al-Eryani as an ambassador of Yemen to Turkey.

3- Decree No. 145 for 2010 appoints Shaiy al-Zandani as an ambassador of Yemen to Jordan.

4- Decree No. 146 for 2010 appoints Jamal Nasir as ambassador of Yemen to Algeria.

5- Decree No. 147 appoints Zaid al-Wareeth as an ambassador of Yemen to Iraq.

6- Decree No. 148 appoints Mustafa Numan as an ambassador of Yemen to Spain.

Technical assistance is good and Yemeni security lacks training in investigative procedures. The problems are 1) the UN in Yemen is also plagued by corruption and 2) much of the criminal networks including the drug smuggling are in the hands of top regime officials and presidential relatives who will thwart sincere efforts at crime fighting. The most functional part of the Yemeni economy is the black market and smuggling rings. Nonetheless at least its a step in the right direction. Yemen Gazette:

SANAA, 12 Jul — The United Nations is planning to open an office in Yemen to fight terrorism, crime, human trafficking and drugs, the government official daily, al-Thawra said on Monday. Interior Minister Brig Gen Rashad al-Masri welcomed the move during a meeting with a UN delegation headed by the coordinator of the UN programs in the middle east and north Africa, Life Vilatson saying “the opening of the office will have positive results for Yemen and neighboring countries,” and voiced his ministry’s “willingness to provide all necessary facilitations to establish the office and facilitate its mission.” The UN delegation hailed “the successes made by Yemen in combating terrorism and drugs,” and expressed gratitude for “Yemen’s complete cooperation and facilitations for the success of UN programmes in the field of battling crime and drugs.”

Saudi terrorist Al-Hamami surrenders.

Yemen Online: Yemen arrests the Saudi suspect in Shabwa patrol attack

YemenOnline.Jul25- Yemen security forces have arrested today the saudi suspect whi responsible on the deadly attack on a security patrol south of Yemen last Thursday. Ahmed Saleh Hedeij Al-Hamami was blacklisted on Saturday and his car wanted after the Interior Ministry said it was used by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula AQAP to carry out the attack killing six soldiers. (Read on …)

There has to be some neutral supervision of the cease-fire implementation.

Update: Khaleej Times: Houthis free 200 captured soldiers from the 72nd Regiment of the army’s Republican Guards (commanded by Prince Ahmed).

Gulf Times: Shia rebels took control of a strategic army post in north Yemen yesterday and captured some 70 soldiers, in the latest clash to endanger an increasingly fragile truce, army and tribal sources said. “Houthi (rebels) took control of a military position in Al Zaala and captured all remaining soldiers,” a tribal source said. “Violent clashes erupted since the early morning hours.” A local military official said the rebels captured some 70 soldiers. (Read on …)