Local blogger irritates government in Yemen
Update: Wow! The article looks so good in hard copy! And its really on the front page. The APP published a photo of one of the massive protests in South Yemen and another of the poor residents of Saada in North Yemen digging out the bodies of a woman and baby killed in one of the government bombing strikes. And there’s a map! And several nice photos of al-Khaiwani, including the one where he’s interviewing bin Shamlan and smiling. So thats NICE. Some of the comments are hilarious. Scroll through, they’re even funnier than the comments at the article on Alarabiya’s website.
Original post: Hey you Jersey people!!! Help me spring my friend, the Yemeni journalist al-Khaiwani. Click This to sign a letter and join the 1400 other people who protested the bogus case against al-Khaiwani. He was recently sentenced to six years in jail for writing about the near-genocide the Yemeni government is committing in the Northern Sa’ada province.
At the same time, the Yemeni government released all the al-Qaeda terrorists who bombed the USS Cole and killed 17 US sailors in October 2000. And many other terrorists as well. They are harder on journalists than on al-Qaeda. Even FBI directer Mueller went there recently to ask for the killers to be re-imprisoned or extradicted, and nada. Bush wrote a letter and sent his rep, zippo. The al-Qaeda guys are free (despite being sentenced to lengthy prison terms and escaping jail, they currently are on “loose house arrest”), but al-Khaiwani and other journalists are in jail.
Do you think our Senators might help me out? Can you drop them an email? Lautenburg is not too busy to pose for a pic with Bruce. (Bruuuce!) Menendez is talking about plug-in hybrid vehicles. One Congressman from Arizona, Trent Franks, wrote a letter to the Yemeni govt to immediately release al-Khaiwani and live up to their stated democratic principles. And the letter made a big impression among the Yemeni people. I know there’s loads of local issues here in the Garden State, but all I’m asking them for is a letter. (A bi-partisan congressional resolution wouldn’t be bad either.) And every international rights organization and the US State Department issued statements condemning the verdict, so there’s no doubt that al-Khaiwani is a prisoner of conscience.
This is a recent letter from al-Khaiwani to his supporters here (before he got sentenced to SIX years for an article “liable to undermine the morale of the military”. Seriously, that’s the charge he was found guilty of.)
We believe that democracy and freedom have an expensive price…
Thank you very much for this campaign, which comes in the context of the overall values that we believe, and they punish us when we believe those values and adopt them. I do not want to talk about myself, but rather the environment that we live in and suffering we endure from the inconsistency between what the authorities announce about democracy and freedoms, and what happens when we believe in those same things, democracy and freedoms.
They want us to practice our rights as they understand them, but we do it ideally. The regime said that democracy is the way of ruling, but when we try to practice our rights within this concept, criticizing the way that the regime governs and how they act, then they deal with us in a way that has no relation to democracy. They deal with us as outlaws. They use all of the state’s resources to attack anyone who has any opinions not corresponding with their opinions, and to attack those who even discuss their way of ruling.
What I am suffering and facing is part of the price I and many others pay for the democracy and freedom we hope to achieve in the future. At least we are preparing for a healthy environment that we want the next generation to live in. We believe that democracy and freedom have an expensive price, and this is a part of that price.
However that doesn’t mean we will keep silent and bend, as it is the price. We will refuse injustice peacefully. Solidarity is a way to enhance new civil values which support the democracy we will make with our sacrifice and with the support of others. We pay the price of the freedom for ourselves and for the generations after us. Again, thank you very much for your help and support.
Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani
05/10/08
Sana’a, Yemen
And then he went to jail.
To the regular readers: NICE article in the APP.
Local blogger irritates government in Yemen
To rulers’ chagrin, she backs free press, democracy
By KIM PREDHAM
STAFF WRITERIn a country many Americans might have trouble locating on a map, one Monmouth County woman has become the focus of both hatred and admiration by government officials, journalists and citizens — all without ever leaving the comfort of her home.
“It boggles my mind entirely,” said Jane Novak, 46, an energetic stay-at-home mother of two who — between caring for her children and husband — devotes hours of her time exposing the alleged dirty deeds of the government of Yemen, especially its crackdown on opposition journalists.

