This is a short interview with Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani’s little daughter, Eeba, via Hub. She says the thugs were pounding his head into the street and he motioned to her to go back inside.
I hope the regime takes advantage of the temporary lull in publicity to free al-Khaiwani before we have to go into phase two of the campaign.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt: December 24, 1943
“And today we salute our unseen allies in occupied countries, the underground resistance groups and the Armies of Liberation. They will provide potent forces against our enemies……
There have always been cheerful idiots in this country who believed that there would be no more war for us if everybody in America would only return into their homes and lock their front doors behind them.”
Happy Memorial Day Everybody, Enjoy Freedom
Almotamar.net - Yemeni Human Rights Ministry dispatched Wednesday a memorandum to the general prosecutor demanding the release of 40 prisoners from the Central Prison in Sana’a. Those prisoners have been detained as hostages under orders of sheiks and influential personalities.A source at the ministry told almotamar.net that disclosure of hostage prisoners came during a visit to the Central Prison last week made by the Minister for Human Rights Huda Al-Ban and jurists from the ministry for the purpose of seeing conditions of prisoners, the source pointed out that the visit disclosed the presence of 40 prisoners retained as hostages by sheikhs and 30 of them have been detained under requests by sheikh in Yemen over their relatives’ commitment of killing crimes, vengeance and other cases.
The source clarified that some prisoners have been held for more than ten years and have not been tried until now. He said the Human Rights Ministry asked last week to meet the general prosecutor to discuss cases of prison inmates imprisoned by illegal ways and to release them in addition to solving problems of insolvent prisoners. But the meeting was postponed to this week, the source said.
Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, lawyer for Salim Hamden, who sucessfully won a U.S. Supreme Court challenge of the Bush administration’s military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees is facing early retirement as a result of the Navy’s up or out policy. The Navy is refusing to promote him up, so he’ll be out. Commander Kirk Lippold, former USS Cole Commander is facing early retirement through this tactic as well.
Tony Shaffer, of the Able Danger crew, is another guy who is getting shafted for doing his job. DIA says he stole a pencil and then revoked his security clearence and health coverage. Seriously.
Meanwhile if Shaffer’s two warnings on the port of Aden had reached Lippold, the USS Cole would have been on a higher threat level or it would have refueled elsewhere. I know this because I have a hard copy of the Congressional inquiry. Kie Fallis, who was at DIA, tried independently to get a warning issued, and quit in disgust the day after. General Zinni testified there was no specific threat warnings regarding Yemen. Not to mention the debacle that followed with State vs. the FBI.
This is excellent news. Excellent.
from the Yemen Observer
SANA’A – The Yemen Observer can continue printing hard copies of its newspaper, after a decision to suspend its license to operate was overturned on Tuesday by Prime Minister Abdul-Qader Bajammal.
One day prior to world celebration of the UN World Press Freedom Day, the decision of the Yemeni government has been made. Two other newspapers who also had their licenses suspended for charges connected to republishing the Danish cartoons, the Al-Rai Al-A’am and Al-Hurriyah,, were also given the go-ahead to continue to print.
The move follows a series of demands by the Yemen Journalists Syndicate (YJS). Bajammal has instructed the Ministry of Information to activate the revoked licenses of the three newspapers after a meeting with members of the YJS.
The Ministry of Information revoked the license of the Observer and Al-Rai Al-A’am on February 8, and Al-Hurriyah’s on February 4.
For the past three months, Observer journalists have been able to only print articles on its website.
“It was a fruitful meeting with the Prime Minister,” Saeed Thabet, Acting Chairman of the YJS told the Observer.
“We have been demanding the release of the licenses of the newspapers for past three months. The response of the government came late but was encouraging.”
Staff at the Yemen Observer welcomed the news. Faris Sanabani, the publisher, welcomed the prime minister decision saying: “It is time for the Yemeni government to move to responsibility of press freedom to the journalists themselves, who should play a vital role in transparency, fighting corruption and development.”
“It was a good decision by the government, even if it was perhaps a late one,” said Mohammed Al-Asadi, Editor-in-Chief of the Yemen Observer. “We hope that the charges will also be dropped.”
The trials of those accused in connection with the reprinting of the cartoons continues.
Hafez Al-Bukari, Secretary General of the YJS expressed his satisfaction of the meeting with the Prime Minister. The discussion also includes various issues concerning press freedoms, the draft law and access to information in addition the administrative arrangement of the general assembly meeting of the YJS to elect a new chairman.
“I am impressed with the meeting,” Al-Bukari said. “We really wish that all promises made by the Prime Minister will be fulfilled including the establishment of an Information Center in the cabinet to supply journalists with necessary information and statistics.”
Also some movement on the draft press law. More from the YO.
Very sadly over 100 people are reportedly killed and wounded. For updates, stay tuned to the Big Pharaoh: I am alive. I’m far away from Dahab but the security situation is very tight where I am. I had plans to go to Dahab though. I called a friend who went back to Cairo from Dahab yesterday and he told me that two of his friends, who remained in Dahab, were injured in the attack. This is very very shocking. The third terrorist attack in Sinai after Taba and Sharm el Sheikh.
Condi: The United States condemns the vicious terrorist bombing in Dahab, Egypt,
today. We extend our deepest sympathies to those injured by this attack and to
the families and loved ones of those killed. There can be no justification for
this barbaric act of terrorism. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of
Egypt in this time of grief.
YO: Yemen has strongly denounced the terrorist bombing in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Dahab on Monday, which resulted in a large number of casualties. At least 23 people were killed and 62 wounded when three bombs exploded at the beach resort on the Sinai peninsula. In a telephone conversation with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, President Saleh repeated Yemen’ call for a stronger international stance to prevent terrorist acts.
(No similiar statement to the Iraqis for the 20 killed and 90 wounded yesterday.)
Update: Egypt’s intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, flew to Yemen on Wednesday for talks on the Dahab bombings, according to intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information. They said Egypt wants to know if al-Qaida activists who escaped from a prison in Yemen might be connected to Sinai terror cells.
The Journalists’ Syndicate expressed its concern towards the proceedings of the court cases against Al-Rai Al-Am, Al-Hurriya, and Yemen Observer. It also indicated that there could be serious repercussions stemming from these trials. Charges could include heresy and treason and exposes the editors in chief to substantial risk.
A statement made by the syndicate disapproved of the call for heresy which was made by those inside the court chambers and was counter to the opinion of both judges and ulema. They urged the executive and legislative powers to act quickly so that charges of unbelief and terrorism could not be lobbed against the editors in chief.
The ulema and judges also criticized the arbitrary application of law which goes against the spirit of the law. The way has been opened up for Sheikh Al-Zandani to intervene in the case and play the role of civil prosecutor before the decision concerning the charge of unbelief is made.
Allegations by the official media against Yemeni journalists of being foreign agents:
Again al-Mithaq Weekly of the ruling party last Monday accused our colleagues Jamal Amer and Hafiz al-Bukari of being agents for foreign forces. The two guys were invited to take part in some media activities in the US which were described as suspicious trips. Amer is visiting the US under the International Visitors Program which is sponsored by the State Department. I visited the US under this program in 2002 and I found it a very excellent study, meeting journalists from different countries and getting to know very closely the media in the US and how it functions. The Program is meant for different target groups including parliamentarians, businessmen, legalists, journalists, teachers, academicians…etc. I remember after I came back, one of my colleagues asked me “how was your CIA training workshop?”
This is the totalitarian culture that always feels afraid from the outsider culture and explains everything in the context of conspiracy. They think themselves we are the target of the West which is working hard to destroy us. This is complete nonsense and hallucination.
More from a translated article from Annas in the Yemen Times:
Writer Ali Al-Faqeeh tackles in an article the question of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate developments saying assailment has lately escalated against the journalists syndicate by the official media and that attack was intensified after the journalists chairman announcement of tendering his resignation for health reasons. Official newspapers published articles and news stories about journalists demands for holding a conference to re-elect a new council for the syndicate and the call for saving the syndicate fro deterioration. The official newspapers attack have gone further to accuse some members of the journalists syndicate of hanging around the gates of foreign embassies and involvement in projects financed by foreign parties, citing the Danish project for support for Yemeni press.
Although newspapers affiliate of the ruling party have devoted pages to talk abut the situation of the journalists syndicate and its future if there was not an urgent call to holding a syndicate’s general conference and election of a new council , it is not surprising especially that those newspapers have been used to file charges against whoever differs with the authority orientations and its desire to nationalize civil society organizations so that their tasks will be praising gains of the ruling party.
The Egyptian car ferry that sank in the Red Sea with up to 1,500 people on board may not have had enough lifeboats to carry the passengers and crew, a presidential spokesman suggested tonight.
Over 1,000 people are missing after the Salam Boccaccio 98 sank overnight some 40 miles off the Egyptian port of Hurghada.An Egyptian official said “dozens of bodies” had been pulled from the water and the Egyptian transport minister, Mohammed Lufti Mansour, said 203 survivors had been rescued. Fears were rising for the rest of the 1,300-1,500 people said to have been on board.
Its been almost a day already and there’s still a thousand people in the water.
If anyone is interested in the Ethiopia/ Eritrea dispute, this article from the Arab News lays it out pretty well.
Then again, for another view, there’s this.
This guy turns out to have very clear vision on many issues, not just Yemen: Ahmed Al-Rabei:
No sooner had we finished from Abdul Halim Khaddam’s interview than we watched the Syrian people’s assembly convene on air, on al Arabiya. Members of parliament follow one another in a session of heavy insults directed at the Syrian vice president of forty years.The representatives described Khaddam in a variety of sorts, some of which we will not mention, out of respect for our readers. During the session, Khaddam was variously described as “a thief, a pervert, an animal, a traitor and a servant to the enemies”.
According to members of the Syrian people’s assembly, Khaddam was one of the pillars of corruption in Syria. He and his son were guilty of smuggling nuclear waste in an infamous scandal. His son used to smuggle dollars and Khaddam had to plead with the late president Hafez Assad for his release. He was also said to own 500 cars.
Syrian MPs put forward a logical question. Why did Abdul Halim Khaddam remain silent about corruption during his years in power? In his interview, he said the country was corrupt so much so that one official embezzled three billion dollars while the people of Syria were eating from garbage piles. He also claimed that repressive security services controlled the country. Where was Abdul Halim Khaddam in the past forty years? Why did not intervene to halt this corruption?
The question posed above is indeed reasonable but it is accompanied by another, equally rational, question. If these representatives are aware of all these scandals about Abdul Halim Khaddam, to the extent that they accuse him of smuggling nuclear waste, where were the members of the Syrian people’s assembly when these practices were taking places throughout the last forty years? Why didn’t they intervene when they were allegedly elected by the people to legislate and supervise the conduct of the state? If Khaddam is guilty to this degree, then what about other officials, part of the old guard, and their sons who remain in power?
I estimate that most of what the Syrian MPs spoke about Khaddam is true and most of what Khaddam said about corruption and corrupt officials in also true. But the problem lies in the nature of totalitarian regimes and that fact that parliament is powerless and unable to tackle corruption. The problem is one of monopoly of the press and an absence of freedom. In an environment such as this, people witness corruption and remain silent. The very corrupt officials disregard smaller cases, as well as, bribery and the theft electricity and fuel of tanks and military trucks. The thief remains silent on the activities of other thieves given the absence of accountability and transparency.
The impartial observer ought to view Khaddam’s interview and the Syrian parliament’s session together. He will then discover enough material for a series of scandals. Damascus has to intervene in order to reform what can be saved!
The rest of his articles are very good too. And its true the press is the foremost mechanism of accountability.
Dang. I take my eye off Bangladesh for a few months….
IFEX In Bangladesh, widely considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world for the press, 2005 was a year in which Islamic militants increasingly targeted journalists, say Media Watch, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
According to RSF, more than 50 journalists and 10 publications have been threatened by the banned Islamist organisation Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) since September 2005 for publishing allegedly anti-Islamic articles. The threats began in the northern Rajshahi region where JMB founder Bangla Bai has launched an armed struggle to impose Islamic law.
At least 12 journalists were threatened in September for writing about the activities of Islamist groups like JMB. In October, JMB militants threatened journalists at seven news media outlets. Most journalists in Rajshahi now censor themselves for fear of becoming targeted again, says RSF.
Just because it annoys me so:
ALERTS ISSUED BY THE IFEX CLEARING HOUSE DURING THE PAST THREE WEEKS
19 DECEMBER 2005
Indonesia - Radio station closure a threat to democracy, access to information (IFJ) - alert
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/71172/
Mexico - Senate postpones debate on much-criticised radio and television law amendments (AMARC) - alert update
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/71173/
Afghanistan - Journalist dead after beating, death threats; another journalist caught in bomb blast (IFJ) - alert
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/71175/
Poland - IPI concerned about legal actions aimed at intimidating “Polityka”’s staff (IPI) - alert update
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/71176/
Greece - Two journalists assaulted (IPI) - alert
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/71177/
Albania - Journalist assaulted (IPI) - alert
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/71178/
Colombia - Journalist threatened again for reporting on the annulment of elections (FLIP) - alert update
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/71179/
The Gambia - Outcry for justice persists one year after journalist Deyda Hydara’s murder (RSF) - alert update
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/71181/
The Gambia - Journalists barred from site of editor’s murder on 1st anniversary (CPJ) - alert update
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/71183/ (Read on …)
The broader picture to this is very complex.
SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni tribesmen released five Italians on Friday almost a week after seizing them to pressure the government to release jailed relatives.
Elated but exhausted, the hostages arrived in the capital Sanaa a few hours after leaving a hideout in a remote area of the mountainous, and largely lawless, Marib province.
“We lived in danger, they had guns aimed at our backs,” hostage Enzo Bottillo told Reuters through a translator. The kidnappers, from the Zaidi tribe, had threatened to kill the Italians if the government tried to release them by force.
“The situation was very difficult, it’s a difficult thing for anyone to go through,” added another female hostage.
They Italians are due to fly home Friday evening.
The kidnapping on Sunday was the fourth of Westerners in less than two months, and stoked fears of a return to the wave of abductions that swept Yemen several years ago.
Yemeni officials said the kidnappers had surrendered to the authorities after five days of negotiations backed by a huge security siege. A security source said counter-terrorism units were used in the operation and the police said they were still hunting two tribesmen linked to the kidnapping.
It was not clear if the government had agreed to some of the kidnappers’ demands, but previous negotiations with hostage takers in Yemen have often been resolved through compromise.
“We thought we were going to die. The last night was very tense. We were ordered at gunpoint to stay on the floor and remain silent,” hostage Piergiorgio Gamba, 51, was quoted by Italian news agency ANSA as saying.
Bottillo said the kidnappers had kept them in a small room with no toilet facilities. “We lived in isolation from the world,” he added.
Scores of tourists and foreigners working in Yemen have been kidnapped over the last decade by tribesmen demanding better schools, roads and services, or the release of jailed relatives but most hostages have been released unharmed.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has vowed to crack down on abductions, and vowed kidnappers will be prosecuted.
Yemen has put to death two convicted hostage-takers since Tuesday and a state-run Web site said the country had decided to execute all kidnappers of Westerners on death row to serve as a deterrent.
Impoverished Yemen hopes to boost its tourism, but attacks by al Qaeda-linked militants and kidnappings by disgruntled tribesmen have scared off many travellers.
The Italians were seized just a day after five German hostages were freed unharmed. In 2000 a Norwegian diplomat was killed in crossfire, and in 1998 four Westerners died during a botched army attempt to free them from Islamic militants.
Starting the New Year off with a bang:
(YT) Opposition MPs released a statement accusing government of playing with public spending and recording large sums of money, included in 2006 budget items, amounting to 320 billion Yemeni Riyals that went to the unknown. The statement also blamed government for the spread of corruption, lack of human development and failure to improve citizens’ living standards….The committee’s remarks exposed that spending on some services like education and health is not encouraging, emphasizing that education expenditures decreased from 21.2 percent in the 2005 budget to 15.5 percent in the 2006 budget.
How do you decrease educational spending in a country with an illiteracy rate of over 50% and over a million kids not in school, while increasing the military budget? Easily if the parliament is packed with GCP party members. I read a book that called the GPC “the party of government employees.” And that’s a fair assessment, because if you want a government job in Yemen, its best to belong to the GPC. And if you want to keep that job, its best not to make waves.
David at Medien Kritik characterizes the kidnapping of the former German ambassador thus: Arab extremists kidnapped another German.
In reality, the kidnappers are disenfranchised tribesmen, who are effectively excluded from the political system (because they comprise the greatest potential check on Saleh’s authority). Lacking a functional judiciary, many kidnappings occur to effect the release of family members held without trial, often as hostages, by the regime.
From the Yemen Times:
He said the kidnappers’ sole demand was to release five tribesmen arrested more than a month ago in relation to tribal vengeance incidents…They were supposed to be tried in the court of law for involvement in successive vengeance battles since 1993. The kidnappers say the authorities did not fulfill their promises and hence the tribe decided to kidnap the tourists to plea their case….
They were outraged by news that the security officer, who killed their relatives was promoted to a higher rank by the government after the murder.
They said authorities did not bring the officer and the other culprits to justice despite many appeals, forcing Aal Abdullah to take the matter ‘into their own hands’.
This is a good description of their motivation, even if its possible Faris wrote it. In general,
They aim to extract concessions from the government, pledges to build facilities, roads, free prisoners or, in the worst cases, claim a ransom.This last demand, however reprehensible, is a reflection of the fact that the kidnappers are often living in abject poverty, desperate for food, clothes, or even medicine for their children or elderly relatives.
These are not “Arab extremists.” These are not terrorists, they are terrorized instead by the regime’s biased use of power. These are extremely poor people without any legitimate means to impact the highly authoritarian and rampantly corrupt regime.
Kidnapping is *not* a good way to voice their grievances or gain bargaining power with the regime. But this kidnapping, as the one before it, does not belong in some handy dandy little box of “Arab extremism.”
Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men
Joy to the World
I have lots o’ links but I had no time to post them with all the Christmas preparations, but I have to mention these now that dinner is in the oven and we are home from church.
My Present From Saleh: Hope
In an interview with Ahmed Jaralleh (who BTW is an editor for whom I have great respect,) President Saleh said:
Q: You have said you won’t compete for the presidency of Yemen again. Is this to measure your popularity or are you really tired and want to bow out?A: Some politicians may think I am using this issue to measure my popularity and find out whether people still want my leadership. However, I assure you there is no need for such speculations because Yemen is full of intellectuals, smart politicians and highly educated people. I have taken this decision because I want to encourage my citizens to prepare themselves to replace Ali Abdullah Saleh. Although I am not old and still capable of handling this huge responsibility, I want to see my people take over the authority in a democratic manner.
Is he really this smart? I know Saleh is smart but is he smart enough to see that he will be world renowned and acclaimed if he really does step down?
Also on such a holy day, I hate to argue with the Pope but…
He singled out the Darfur conflict in Africa in urging strength for all those who are working for peace, development and the prevention of conflicts. He urged protection “of the most elementary rights of those experiencing tragic humanitarian crises, such as those in Darfur and in other regions of central Africa.”
And thats very good, and some of the older readers will remember when I asked everybody to email Kofi Annan before the Darfur situation hit the media. Come to think of it, that was the first blogger alliance I made, way before Yemen, and all the bloggers were very good then to post about Darfur when I asked them. And Darfur is truely a tragic humanitarian crisis, and there are others in Africa. But lets note that the bottom three most malnourished children in the world are Sudanese, Yemeni and Malawi in that order.
ADNKI: Yemen pushes for entry into the GCC.
At the Gulf summit in Muscat, Oman, in 2001, Yemen was admitted to the council of ministers of education, health and social affairs and to the Gulf Football Cup. Yemen now hopes to join the economic groups and other institutions of the GCC, and offers its recent World Bank-backed economic reforms as proof that it deserves to get full membership, the Yemen Observer reports.
Was this the same soccer league that recently suspended the team because of governmental interference? Economic reforms, where-decreasing the oil subsidies while increasing military spending 50%?
World Bank statistics put Yemen’s Gross National Income (GNI) at 570 US dollars per capita. The GNI of the other GCC members ranges from Oman at 7,890 dollars to Kuwait at 17,970 dollars and the United Arab Emirates at around 20,000 dollars. Life expectancy in Yemen is also significantly lower than that of the Gulf countries.
Child mortality is significantly higher.
are corrupt themselves and will be our first target.
Seriously, he said that:
“The corruption must be uprooted through referring corrupt people to the courts. Some accuse others of corruption as they are themselves corrupted,” said Saleh.He said that to fight corruption state has first to fight those corrupted who raise anti-corruption slogan, in the opposition parties
or in the GPC party.
Yemen ranked 43 out of 196 countries in the under-five mortality rate in the report of two years ago, an estimated 111 out of 1000. The following government expenditure statistics from the 2004 report reveal the depth of the problem: Health 4%; Education 22%; Defense 19%;
The last figure I had for child mortality was 8% which is terrible. 11% is worse. The birth rate is high. We’re talking about a lot of child deaths here.
This is the best reporting I’ve ever seen on Yemen, and I’ve seen it all, literally.
Highlights from part three of his series.
Long sanguine about Yemen, Burrowes has become so pessimistic about its future because of corruption that instead of describing Yemen as a democracy, as he used to do to the point of being considered an apologist for Saleh, he now calls it a “kleptocracy — a government of, by and for thieves.” As for the kind of leader Saleh has grown into, Burrowes said, “He has become a very good dictator.”
Yes a very good dictator, also the king of spin.
“We have values. We have ethics. We wish for order. We wish for stability. We wish for democracy. We wish for all good things,” M’Fareh went on about the tribes, and then said of Saleh’s government, “They live on divide and rule. When they see us having relations with internationals, it makes them very angry.”
Wishing for democracy is a common thing in Yemen.
But on the far side of such rhetoric was its reality: a teetering program in a teetering place where the question of democracy’s meaning turned out to be a decision about whom to ignore.A president who is vital to the U.S. war on terrorism?
Or a sheik who represents a country’s most-forgotten people and was now saying so earnestly as to be heartbreaking, “We are citizens. We are Yemenis. The problem is they don’t want to reach out to us because we will speak openly about all of the problems. And they don’t want that to happen.”
Speaking openly about problems is *strongly* discouraged by the regime.
Peaceful civil protests are a good thing, especially when you haven’t been paid in two months.
Al-Sahwa.net- (12/11) Tens of workers in the Textile Factory
in Sana’a made an open sit-in protesting the delay of
paying them salaries for last October and November.The strikers ask for their payments and the extra
wages according to the new strategy of wages and
salaries.Meanwhile, 700 workers at the electricity stations in
Mocha and Katheeb carried out a strike on Saturday for
an hour protesting the ignorance of the Public
Corporation for Electricity to pay them the extra
sages in accordance with the new wages strategy.Source in Mocha and al-Katheeb Stations stated that
the one-hour sit-in was just a warning before a
general strike to be achieved this week.”“The strike will continue till the corporation pays
our financial rights. We started last Monday issuing
statements requesting the ministry of electricity to
pay our rights but the concerned body did not respond
to our request,” source told al-Sahwa.net.“The administrations of the two stations tried to
pressure us to stop asking for our legal rights like
employees in other state bodies,” the source added.Statements called the concerned bodies to immediately
apply the new wages and salaries strategy to them like
other colleagues, otherwise they will continue the
strike.On the other hand, tens of motorcyclists rallied in on
Saturday before the premise of the Capital Secretariat
condemning the decision of the secretariat to
confiscate all motorcycles in the capital Sana’a to
prevent them work in the capital.
The seventh assembly of the General People Congress (GPC) announced few minutes ago that President Ali Abdullah Saleh is the party’s candidate for presidency in next year elections….However, President Saleh thanked the thousands people gathering for the GPC seventh assembly conference for the confidence in him. He also accepted the nomination under one condition.
He postponed his decision on the nomination. “It should be made in a democratic way in an exceptional conference,” the president addressed the GPC assembly tonight.
Saleh has announced earlier in July that he will not run for a second term in the September 2006 presidential elections.
So this is unclear. He accepted or he postponed? He’s nominated but accepts only on the condition of a “vote”? At another blowout conference? They spent millions on this one.
Related: (Saleh) said there was no corruption committed by GPC leaders in governmental establishments and rejected claims that the GPC abused public wealth.Meanwhile, Saleh issued orders to secure positions for some members in new local permanent committees regardless of the results of the elections, through which members of the new local permanent committees should be selected.
Also Saleh re-elected as head of the GPC.
More: The GPC also condemned opposition parties that have been calling for Saleh, who has been ruling Yemen for 27 years, to honor his pledge not to run again and to allow the peaceful transfer of power in 2006. Yes, how dare they expect him to be truthful. What an outrage.
Update: Cute. Pick off the leadership of the oppostion parties and reward them with high ranking positions in the GPC, bypassing the party’s electoral process.
However, some members were handpicked to be members of the party’s PC and did not need to go through the election process.Upon the request of President Saleh, Mohamed Abuluhum was chosen to be a member of the PC without the need to be voted for as tribute to him for leaving his Republican Party and joining GPC.
Abdullah Mujeidi was also selected in reward for leaving his senior post in the opposition Yemeni Socialist Party to join the ruling party.
from GULF STATES NEWSLETTER • VOL 29 • NO 771 • 9 DECEMBER 2005
(page 8 )
As Ali Abdullah Saleh faces security threats from Salafyist
Sunnis, the Zaydi rebellion and a range of criminalised
sub-state factions, the apparently outgoing president has
begun the slow-process of reorganising Yemen’s main internal
security organisations (GSN 770/8).There have been years of criticism and whispers about the
security establishment’s lack of financial probity, but this is not
the cause of security sector reform: the reorganisation is
primarily driven by a recognition that many elements of the
system are seeded with militant Salafyist or Baathist elements,
and they are now working against the security policy of
Yemen and its major ally, the United States.Considering Yemen’s recent history, the presence of
embedded Baathists and Salafyists should not come as a
surprise. Yemen remained a strong backer of Saddam Hussein
– a personal mentor to Saleh – throughout the 1990-91 Gulf
crisis and for some time thereafter. Senior Saddam-era Iraqi
advisors are seeded throughout the military. Advisors to a
number of Yemeni army battalion and company commanders
previously served in the Iraqi army; indeed have seen heavy
service since the beginning of the twin Al-Houthi rebellions
in 2004-05 (GSN 760/7, 741/6). Their presence was shown
when three Iraqi personnel were injured in a Zaydi grenade
attack against the Yemeni Air Force’s Air Defence Academy in
Sanaa on 7 May.Within the Yemeni military, sympathy for the insurgency in
Iraq is high. The country has also been fertile ground for the
Wahhabi indoctrination that flowed in during the anti-Soviet
jihad in Afghanistan and during the early1990s, when figures
such as Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri invested
resources and time to embed militant Salafyist thinking
throughout Yemen. Saleh actively welcomed returning Afghan
Arabs and used them as a paramilitary militia at the violent
edge of politics during the unification period (1990-94) and
subsequently as military forces in the 1994 civil war.There are indications that some irregular units of former
jihadists have been used against Zaydi militants in the Sadah
area, indicating a return to Yemen’s predilection for the use of
Salafyist proxies. Salafyist tribesmen appear to be being used
against the Zaydi by North West Region commander and
presidential half-brother Ali Mohsin Al-Ahmar – a powerful
figure, married into an influential southern family, who is seen
by some Yemenis as a potential future president.This would not go down well in Washington, where
unconfirmed rumours abound that Al-Ahmar worked with
Saudi Salafyists, including Bin Laden, in the effort to recruit
Yemenis to fight in Afghanistan. After his May 2005 defection
to the United Kingdom, former Yemeni ambassador to Syria
Ahmed Abdullah Al-Hasani alleged that Al-Ahmar was
complicit in the December 1998 kidnapping of 16 Western
tourists; two days before the botched rescue resulted in the
deaths of four tourists, Al-Hasani alleged that members of the
terrorist group were in Al-Ahmar’s house in Sanaa.
Such allegations cannot be verified – and might simply
reflect the tangled web of tribal contacts that any Yemeni
securocrat needs to maintain – but with the USA looking hard
at the government’s connections to terrorism, controversial
figures like Al-Ahmar are increasingly finding that mud sticks
in Washington.PSO’s ambiguous role
Perhaps most significantly, considerable elements of Yemen’s
oldest internal security arm, the Political Security Organisation,
are seeded with Salafyists, recruited when Saleh was using
them as deniable political paramilitaries in the early 1990s.
Headed by General Ghaleb Al-Qimch, the PSO is
independent of the Ministry of Interior and its leaders are all
military officers. The PSO is theoretically an intelligence-gathering
arm reporting directly to the president, but, it has
long carried out direct actions, including the harassment of
journalists and political opponents.The rumour mill continued to turn with lively conjecture
about an alleged PSO role in the December 2002 assassination
of Yemeni Socialist Party assistant general secretary Jarallah
Omar. Defence lawyers for alleged assassin Ali Al-Saawani
have suggested that a state ‘organisation’ manipulated Al-Saawani
into killing Omar, the architect of the Islah/YSP
alliance that now looks so threatening to the Saleh’s ruling
General People’s Congress faction (GSN 769/4).
With Washington breathing down Saleh’s neck about
political reform, such activities are no longer a mainstay of
government practice, but critics say the PSO is slow to change
its violent ways and has increasingly become a liability to the
president. These critics say the PSO is responsible for much of
the “revolving door” strategy that has seen militants escape or
be released to engage in recidivist militancy.Should Saleh really shuffle off the political stage in 2006 as he
has threatened, the PSO would constitute a power base within
the GPC that could threaten the accession of a designated Saleh
ally – such as presidential son Ahmed Ali Saleh – as surely as
Syria’s old guard have weakened President Bashar Al-Assad’s
rule.
Just what I love, good hard numbers, the allocation (or not) of the budget on infrastructure.
[12/12/2005] (NewsYemen ) Dec 12, Sanaa – The 2006 budget proposed by the government allocates much more for defense and security compared to developmental sectors such as education, health, and electricity, said Yemeni parliamentarian Abdulkarim Shaiban.The education sector was allocated YR 184 billion with an increase of YR 7 billion and health increased by 10% to become YR 46 billion. Electricity got YR 27 billion, which constitutes a decrease of almost 60% from last year’s budget.
Meanwhile, defense and security were the biggest winners in the proposed budget as they gained an unprecedented increase of YR 100 billion, totaling YR 274 billion. This is greater than all the aforementioned three developmental sectors put together.
Shaiban, who is a member of the parliament’s financial committee added that “increase of allocated amount for the education sector could barely cover the extra expenses for the new students who would enroll in 2006. This is the case despite the statistics that confirm that one million children are in the schooling age but are not enrolled.”
He added that among the biggest disappointments was the “electricity sector, which was reduced by YR 38 billion as it was YR 65 billion in 2006.”
Shaiban noted that the government admitted a decrease in investments, which he said would continue to decline if the government continues to ignore vital infrastructure services such as electricity.
He said there is a ‘mystery’ in the way the government is dealing with the oil sector. “While allocating YR 176 billion to support petroleum derivatives for 2005, which resembles an increase of %85, we all know that subsidies for those products were partially lifted in July 2005.” Shaiban said.
“The citizen is going to be the ultimate victim.”
Concerning the government’s pledges to fight corruption, Shaiban is convinced it is merely ‘empty rhetoric’ and that the financial statement of 2005 demonstrates that the government continued to overlook corruption and ignore taking serious efforts to curb it.
“Corruption requires clear and courageous steps and not general moves.” he said, adding that corruption will flourish if the government does not channel funds to the sectors in need such as local councils, which will continue to suffer from fund shortage. He noted that despite planned yearly increases of YR 25 billion for local councils, the budget for 2006 approved an increase of just YR 8 billion.
Child Labor: http://www.yobserver.com/news_8692.php
Malaria: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/e43bbc5a7a4433d09eaacf058236ce31.htm
Women: http://www.yobserver.com/news_8640.php
central bank: http://yementimes.com/newsarticle.shtml?a=20_2005_11_17_7000
drug smuggling: http://www.yobserver.com/news_8546.php
qat: http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=874&p=report&a=1
qat and agricultrual stats: http://www.newsyemen.net/en/view_news.asp?sub_no=6_2005_11_26_5618
girls education: http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20050802-09171000-bc-yemen-women.xml
literacy and education: http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=898&p=report&a=1
journalists: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/02bcaa94b83d74dca0eb73c312e86545.htm
child trafficking: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31207
AIDS: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50445
Internet usage: http://www.yobserver.com/news_8770.php (Read on …)
KT: Lawyer Jamal Al Jaabi told Reuters the court ordered Jamal Al Adeenee, editor-in-chief of the independent weekly Al Osboo, to pay a fine of 30,000 rials ($154) for accusing an Education Ministry official of administrative and financial violations. His newspaper was suspended for three months.
He said Abdul-Wadood Al Mattari, editor-in-chief of the weekly Al Rassid, received a two-month suspended jail sentence for accusing the stores of selling sub-standard goods, and his newspaper was banned for one month.
What is the bigger story here:
YT/NY: Al-Jazeera’s Yemen correspondent Ahmed Al-Shalafi and cameraman Ali Al-Baidhani were detained today by security forces while filming a protest in Sanaa and were released more than an hour later after ‘high-level’ instructions were given….
Al-Shalafi explained that while they were filming a protest by employees of a public textile company, they were confronted by armed police forces who arrested and took them to a police station. They were kept in detention for more than ninety minutes waiting to be released.
He added that the film that was recorded at the scene of the protest was confiscated and destroyed at the police station. Both journalists could have been held longer in the station if it were not for the intense calls that they made to high-ranking officials to interfere and set them free.
Al-Shalafi told NewsYemen that the forces that arrested them said they had ‘high-level orders’ to prevent any journalists from covering the protest and to destroy any recorded material, including video footage or regular photographs.
It is worth noting that a brutal attack against journalists working for another prominent Arab news channel, Al-Arabiya, took place in the same location last month. The government said it would investigate that incident
The incident at the time led to severe injury of one of the beaten journalists, who later suffered from internal bleeding.
However, no one was held accountable since then, and journalists still feel insecure when covering events near that area.
and Press Freedom
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the beating and intimidation of Mohammad Sadiq al-Odaini, head of a Yemeni independent press freedom group. Al-Odaini, secretary-general of the Center for Training and Protecting Journalist Freedom, told CPJ that earlier this week he was threatened at gunpoint by a man he recognized as a member of the security forces. A few days later the same man assaulted him along with two other attackers.
Al-Odaini said he believed he was targeted because of his organization’s annual report published last month that accused the authorities of failing to investigate attacks on the press.
On December 5, a man who al-Odaini identified as security officer Asaad Ali Hezam al-Aayawi, pointed a pistol at al-Odaini’s head and accused him of being a traitor, the journalist said. The officer, who showed al-Odaini his badge, is a well-known figure in the area, the journalist said. On December 8, the same man along with two masked men dragged al-Odaini from his house in the capital Sana’a around 9:30 p.m. and beat him. They tried to enter the house but left after neighbors intervened. The attackers returned later and stayed outside his home until 2 a.m. Al-Odaini called the police but they did not arrive until after daybreak.
More at News Yemen.
What a good organization:
Several opposition figures currently living abroad have also announced that they plan to run for president. In July, President Ali Abdullah Saleh said in a speech that he will not run in the next elections, saying he wanted to give young people the opportunity to run the country.In 1999 he won the country’s first ever direct presidential elections with 96 per cent of the vote, but the main opposition party says it was banned from fielding a candidate and the Washington-based National Democratic Institute said the election was flawed by political intimidation, underage voting, inappropriate behaviour by the security forces and vote-buying.
In 2001 the country’s constitution was amended to allow the presidential term to be extended from five years to seven, and Saleh had been widely expected to run in the next elections. He is Yemen’s longest serving leader since the republican system was proclaimed in North Yemen in 1962 and in South Yemen in 1967. Saleh is backed by the two main powers in Yemeni society; the army and the tribe.
However, in the parliamentary elections in 2003, despite reportedly exerting intense pressure on the electorate, Saleh’s party, the General People’s Congress, only secured 58 percent of the vote.
The Organization of Islamic Unity in Mecca: Among attending heads of state is Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who included in his delegation Sheikh Abdel Majid Zandani, who is wanted by the U.S. administration on suspicion of financing terrorism.
Zandani, head of the Islamic Iman (faith) University, traveled out of Yemen for the first time since he was included in an international list of terrorism financiers by the U.N. Security Council last February.
Also the 4th annual al-Quds Conference was recently held in Sanaa.
7/12/2005 al Sahwa:
The leaders of resistance in Palestine
and Iraq renewed their intent to continue their legal
struggle against the occupation forces.
Khaled Mashal, chair of the political office of Hamas,
…renewed his pledge to continue resistance as a
strategic choice to conquer occupation. He reviewed
challenges that Arab and Islamic Umah faces at all
levels and the pressure that America practices on Arab
and Islamic nations and leaders to impose its
dominance in the region and to support Zionist entity….
Hussein Hadrooj, member of the political office of the
Lebanese Hezbullah, called upon resistance movements
to carry their responsibility towards people and to
consider the dangers around….
Chairman of the Muslim Scholars Association in Iraq
Hareth al-Dhari…also confirmed before the students
rally the adherence to the constructive resistance
choice in order to thoroughly crush occupation forces
that constantly kill and oppress Iraqi people.
al-Qaradawi also in attendence per Saba:
The Chief of Trustless Council of al-Quds foundation Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi said that the Sana’a conference of the foundationwas fruitful and came out with positive results. Upon his departure, Sheikh al-Qaradawi said that the donations reached about $ 4 millions for supporting the activities of the foundation.
Qaradawi (Aug 2005): “It is a duty. All scholars say that defending an occupied homeland is an individual duty applying to every Muslim. Reducing this duty to a ‘right,’ which can be relinquished, is a kind of depreciation….“This has nothing to do with suicide. This man does not want to commit suicide, but rather to cause great damage to the enemy, and this is the only method he can use to cause such damage…The truth is that we should refrain from raising this issue, because doubting it is like joining the Zionists and Americans in condemning our brothers in Hamas, the Jihad, the Islamic factions, and the resistance factions in Iraq. It is as if we are joining them.”
So to discuss even the legitimacy of suicide bombing is traitorous.
at al-Motamar, Full text to follow, but here is an exerpt:
Q: what about your none nomination in 2006 presidency elections? Was it just for propoganda as opposition says, or was it aerial intention, as had been declared?
A: when we announced that we were and still mean it, the target was to push others for nomination, so that every one in our country get used to democracy and peaceful transition of power.
Q: Fine, but what about the alternative?
A: the alternative is the person whom would be elected by people through ballots.
Q: do you think that the opposition through its figures is capable to fill the gap, if you insist on your position.
A: this question must be directed to the opposition, but we call it develop leader ship that can hold responsibility.
Q: Openly, why did you declare that, though you were not obliged to do so? I mean was there a political necessity behind that announcement?
A: In order every one in our homeland learns principles of democracy and the peaceful transition of power, and in order to stabilize and develop multiple choices in democratic practice.
I will personally give him a legacy as a great leader if he actually steps down without bringing in Ahmed.
Of course a free and fair election does require equal access to the broadcast media, some fiddling with the election law (including the issue of proportional representation), equal rights for oppostion journalists and equal financing (and maybe their buildings back) for the opposition parties. ™
YT: President Musharaf raised several points during the bilateral discussions such as the military training and supply however no final agreement was concluded. The security cooperation agreement also contained the exchange of information in the war against terrorism, organized crime and drugs manufacturing and trafficking.
However, the agreement signed was confined to security and intelligence issues, considering that there are sensitive elements of fundamentalist and terrorists who work clandestinely and are believed to receive funds from unidentified sources. Yet, it was not disclosed whether such funds are being provided from, or through, Yemen. President Musharaf only said that the two countries should coordinate their intelligence efforts to face this threat….
According to Altjamo’ weekly, the Pakistani people are troubled by the continuous recruitment of Arabs including Yemenis to join or support Al-Qaeda. It is worth mentioning that over 32 thousand Afghan-Arabs had returned to Yemen in 1992-1994, with the consent of the Yemeni authorities, in order to support President Saleh in the 1994 civil war in Yemen.
However, more recently these groups started spreading back to Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq and selected locations. While other groups remained in the protection of Yemeni tribes until the 9/11 events, However, Yemen is trying to expel these groups out of the country as a part of its war against terror commitments.
The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by an apparent government attempt to intimidate journalists from the independent daily Al-Ayyam by sending elite Yemeni Republican Guards to its Aden office.
Around 1 a.m. on December 5, five soldiers in a gray-blue Mercedes circled Al-Ayyam’s headquarters several times before asking to meet with editor-in-chief, Hisham Bashraheel. The soldiers gave no reason for the request. They were told the editor was not available. Al-Ayyam said the soldiers, armed with rifles and machine guns, belonged to the Republican Guard based on the numeric configuration of the car’s license plate that read 3/24944. The same soldiers returned the following day at around 7 a.m. and parked next to the office. They waited there for two hours causing alarm among staff. The newspaper told CPJ that the Mercedes was later seen by an Al-Ayyam employee entering the presidential compound in Aden.
Staff at Al-Ayyam told CPJ they suspected that the show of force by the Republican Guard was an attempt to intimidate the newspaper in retaliation for its recent coverage, which included stories about the political opposition to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the deteriorating human rights situation in the country, and strained relations with the United States over rights abuses.
When the newspaper’s editors complained to the local governor’s office about the harassment they were told the Republican Guard were in the area to “eradicate crows” in the city.
