Armies of Liberation

Yemeni Child Bride Honored At “Glamour” Gala
Reported by: RNS
Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008 @10:10am CST

(New York, NY) — A ten-year-old child bride from Yemen has been honored as one of “Glamour” magazine’s women of the year Monday night.

The “New York Daily News” is reporting that pint-sized Nujood Ali broke with tradition by demanding a divorce.

The girl was given up for marriage by her impoverished parents.

Although her 30-year-old groom had promised to wait until Ali was older before becoming intimate, he reportedly raped and beat her on their wedding night. When no one would take Ali to the courthouse to seek a divorce, she went on her own and sat there until a judge took notice.

Human rights lawyer Shada Nasser shared the “Glamour” award for helping Ali become the first child bride in Yemeni history to be granted a divorce. The two flew in for the posh Carnegie Hall gala. Among the other honorees were Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Senator Hillary Clinton.

How nice, think I’ll post another:

(I have that same necklace.)

Yemeni child bride honored among Women of the Year
Mon Nov 10, 2008 9:54pm EST Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page | Recommend (0) [-] Text [+] NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - A Yemeni child bride, who gained international renown after refusing to accept a forced marriage to a man nearly three times her age, on Monday received an award as a “Woman of the Year” alongside nine others.

The annual Women of the Year Awards, published by Glamour Magazine for the past 19 years and sponsored by L’Oreal, pay tribute to women who have made major contributions to entertainment, business, sport, fashion, science and politics.

Nujood Ali, who is now 10, was chosen for the award after her unusual story of rebellion against an arranged marriage made her an international celebrity, with her story highlighted by various magazines and TV networks.

Like many young girls in Yemen, where the majority are Muslim, Ali was pulled out of second-grade from her school in the capital Sanaa by her impoverished father and married to a man in his 30s. He beat and sexually assaulted her.

Under Yemeni law the minimum age of marriage is 15, according to the U.S. Department of State, but tribal customs and interpretations of Islam often override this and girls are married much earlier with bride-price payments widespread.

But rather than accept traditional custom, Ali went to court, got the help of a human rights lawyer and successfully filed for divorce in April this year.

“With the help of human rights lawyer Shada Nasser… Yemeni child bride Nujood Ali took the stand against her husband in court, and was granted a historic divorce,” said a statement about her award, presented at a ceremony in New York.

“Together Nasser and Ali are committed to saving other little girls from early marriage.”

Ali was also picked for the Women of the Year Fund Initiative, where one of the awardees is chosen as the basis for fund-raising for their project.

Other women to make the annual list were TV personality Tyra Banks for her charity that supports young women, Hillary Clinton for inspiring generations of women, and Chanel Chief Executive Maureen Chiquet for her role in international business.

Jane Goodall, best known for her ground-breaking work with chimpanzees, was awarded a lifetime achievement award for her humanitarian and environmental work while Australian actress Nicole Kidman was praised for her work with the United Nations Development Fund for Women.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, beach volleyball duo Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, and artist Kara Walker also featured in the 2008 list.

The winners, featured in the December issue of Glamour magazine on the newsstands on Tuesday, were picked by an advisory board made up of past honorees ranging from Diane von Furstenberg to Nora Ephron to Queen Latifah.

Escaped al Qaeda operative Hamza al Quayti was killed in a shootout along with four other al-Qaeda operatives as well as two policemen. President Saleh said the group was planning attacks in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. A published report indicated elements within Yemeni security forces directed al Qauyti in March to launch a failed mortar attack on the US embassy and cleared the roads for his escape after the attack. The coordinates were off deliberately, the report says. The official regime meme is the current raid is proof Yemen is cooperating in the WOT, and deserves “greater international support and understanding” The group is supposedly responsible for all three car bombings (election, tourists, police station).

Daily Times: Yemen’s leading Al Qaeda fugitive killed in shootout

SANAA: Yemen said on Tuesday that a prominent fugitive member of the local branch of Al Qaeda was killed in a shootout when police stormed a house in the eastern province of Hadramaut.

Hamza al-Quayti, one of 23 Al Qaeda militants who broke out of jail in February 2006, was killed along with four other fighters in Monday’s clash in the town of Tarim, the defence ministry website September 26 said. Two policemen were killed and three others wounded, while two militants were wounded and captured, it added. The ministry said the militants who were hiding in a house stormed by security forces had formed a cell which “planned to execute terror attacks and bombings in Yemen and abroad”. It said police found explosives and documents including Arab passports, including two belonging to Saudis. It claimed the cell was behind attacks including a suicide car bombing that killed eight Spanish tourists and two Yemeni guides at a historic site in Marib, east of Sanaa, in July 2007 (07/02.07).

(Read on …)

Yemen Observer
The investigations showed that they used internal and external journalists’ e-mails, and provide them with false news about the conflicts in order to raise the insurgents’ morals.

The security source said that the captured elements’ confessions disclosed that they used to write reports about public opinion trends and sent them together with some photographs to Abdulmalik al-Huthi and external journalists, particularly to the American journalist Jane Novak using certain links.

The Yemeni government doesn’t dispute the authenticity of the photos in question. The crime is sending them out of the country, “especially” to me.

Update: Not that the truth matters in Yemeni courts, but Howie reminds me he found the photos at a public forum and sent them to me. I’ll dig for the link where they were posted online way before I ever published them.

Announced by the 26 Septemper (sic), website of the Yemeni military, the charge is distributing information (probably photos of civilians killed by government bombing in Saada.) No mention of progress in tracking down the al-Qaeda in Yemen webmaster though…

From al-Motamar,

the ruling party’s website: The source also pointed out that elements of the network were writing leaflets and sending some information on trends of the public opinion and then sending them to terrorist Abdulmalik al-Houthi in addition to sending some film shots to journalists and newspapers abroad , among them American press especially to the American journalist Jane Novak. They were also writing daily bulletins of the so-called the information office of the rebels. The source added that elements of the network confessed of receiving funds from families of Hamidudin living in one of the neighbouring countries. He explained that after completing investigations with the network elements they would be sent to concerned authorities to be given just punishment for the acts they have committed.

Did they mean photos like these? The ones that show the Yemeni government’s war crimes? These photos were actually published by a Yemeni newspaper . They show Yemenis digging out the bodies of women and children killed by government bombing. In Sa’ada, the Yemeni government is waging an intensive and random bombing campaign against its own citizens as well as starving them with a food blockade. Very Sudan-like.

Warning: Horrible pictures below the fold of the Yemen women and children killed by their own government in Saada Yemen. (Read on …)

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

Despair Inc.

How Vain! Does Ali Abdullah Saleh think he’s pretty when he’s not biting his lip?

IHT: SAN’A, Yemen: Yemen banned a new magazine Sunday for publishing a picture of the nation’s president deemed “inappropriate” by authorities, the paper’s editor said. Nabil al-Soufi, editor of Abwab, said the security authorities banned the first issue of the magazine because they believed the picture of President Ali Abdellah on the cover made him look dour. The editor said the picture was a reprint.

How about this one?

News Yemen: The chief editor and publisher of Abwab magazine, printed in Dubai, Nabeel al-Sufi said the security at the Sana’a International Airport had prevented 10,000 copies of his magazine’s first edition from entering the country because of a cover picture of president Saleh… in case security authorities refuse to release the 10,000 copies of the magazine, the magazine might be completely terminated.

Caption Contest?

U Wantz Demokracy?
Sorree, No Kan Do.

Update: I just couldn’t help myself:

So now its become a popular thing. Update by Vinnie (my radio show producer) , “I couldn’t help myself either”:

A Yemeni Parliamentary committee issued a report in 2006 naming 26 persons who illegally profited from land confiscated in Aden following Yemen’s 1994 civil war. The list includes Members of Parliament and the Shoura Council, military and security force commanders, current and former judges and ministers. The Parliamentary committee recommended that the land owners receive compensation for their losses, however none has been paid.

The following is a translation of the document that includes a description of the individual’s position in brackets for the readers’ benefit:

LIST OF THE NAMES AND AREAS OF INDIVIDUALS WHO RECIEVED CONTRACTS FROM THE GOVERNORATE LEADERSHIP AND PREVIOUS MANAGER OF INTERIOR TRADING CORPORATION (HUSSEIN NASER OMAYER), ACCORDING TO THE (PARLIAMENTARY) FIELD SURVEY.

NAME (CURRENT POSITION) AREA DISPOSITION

1 NASER MANSOOR HADI
(The brother of Yemeni Vice President, Abdo Rabo Mansour Hadi, and Agent of Political Security Forces of Aden,Lahj and Abyan governorates)
received 4.6 ACRES,
sold to ALI SOLAIMAN DAHSH 2 ACRES, and ALAWADHI 3 ACRES

2 HUSIEN NASER OMAYER
(Previous general manager of Interior Trading Company in south)
received 20 ACRES
SOLD TO Gamal Qasem 7 acres, Salem Balfaqeh 2 acres, Abdul baset 1 acre

3 MUHAMMED SALEH AL-MOHAMMADI
received 3.0 ACRES
SOLD TO SADEQ ABDO MOHAMMED 3.0 ACRES

4 MOHAMMED SALEH TUREIQ
(General Manager of Sa’ada Security Forces, former GM of Aden Security.)
received 5.3 ACRES
SOLD TO GAMAL QASEM 5.0 ACRES

5 BELAL ALI MOHSEN
received 4.8 ACRES

6 MOAAD TAHA GHANEM
(Son of the former governor of Aden) Taha Ghanem
received 3.7 ACRES SOLD TO ALI AL-YAMANI

7 ABDULLA AHMED GHANEM
(Member of al-Shoura Council, formerly Minister of Legal Affairs)
received 8.3 ACRES
SOLD TO ALI AL-YAMANI

8 TAHA HUSEIN NASER OMAYER
(Son of Hussain Naser Omayer )
received 2.1 ACRES
SOLD TO ALI AL-YAMANI

9 WALEED AL-FADHLI
received 3.0 ACRES
SOLD TO ALI AL-HAG AHMED AND HIS PARTNER

10 ALI SHEIKH OMER
received 2.8 ACRES
SOLD TO AL-QERN TRADING CORPORATION

11 MOHAMED ALI SALEM AL-SHADDADI
(Member of Parliament)
received 3.3 ACRES

12 HUSEIN MOHAMMED ARAB
(Member of al-Shoura Council, previously the Minister of Interior Affairs)
received 2.7 ACRES
SOLD TO ALI SALEH AL-AWADHI

13 FAISAL RAGAB
(High ranking military commander)
1.0 ACRE SOAM + WALL

14 ABDUL-QAREEM SHAEF
(General Secretary of conference party in Aden governorate)
offered 1.0 ACRE SOAM + WALL
REFUSED

15 FAHEEM ABDULLA MOHSEN
(Chief Justice of Sana’a Commercial Court, previously Chief Justice of Aden Commercial Court)
1.0 ACRE SOAM + WALL SOLD TO NOR AL-DIN FAKHRI

16 RASHEED HOWAIDI
(Justice serving on the Republic High court, previously Chief Justice of Aden Appeal court, )
received 1.2 ACRES SOAM + WALL
SOLD TO ALI GAMAL QASEM

17 SALEH AL-AMMARI
(former judge in Aden Appeals Court)
received 1.1 ACRES SOAM + WALL
SOLD TO MOHAMMED BA-HASHWAN

18 NOR AL-DEEN FAKHRI
(former General Manager of Yemeni Port Authority)
received 0.9 ACRE WALL + VILLA

19 MOHAMED AHMED ALKHAILA
received 0.86 ACRE WHITE LAND

20 MOHAMED ABDULLA AL-BATANI
(Member of al-Shoura Council, previously Minister of Interior)
received 0.86 ACRE WHITE LAND

21 AHMED ABOBAKER AL-SOMAHI
received 0.86 ACRE WHITE LAND

22 ALI AHMED AL-SEIAGHI
(Vice minister of trade)
received 0.86 ACRE WHITE LAND

23 FARID MOGAWAR
(previous General Manager of Fish Wealth)
received 0.86 ACRE WHITE LAND

24 MAHDI ABD AL-SALAM
(General Manager of Taiz Education, previously General Manager of Aden Education)
received 0.86 ACRE WHITE LAND

25 MOHAMMED GOMEA AL KHADHER
(previous General Manager of Aden International Airport, dismissed)
received 0.86 ACRE WHITE LAND

26 MANSOOR SALEH BASORRA
received 0.86 ACRE WHITE LAND

27 SHADWAN AL-MOHAMADI
received 2 ACRES WALL

TOTAL 80.4 ACRES

ADDITIONAL REMARKS ABOUT LIST OF 26:
1. ADDED NAME OF SHADWAN AL- MOHAMMADI IN AREA (2) ACRES TO LIST OF (26).
2. THE TOTAL AREAS ACCORDING TO FIELD SURVEYING (ON FIELD = 80.4 ACRES).
3. THE AREAS ACCORDING TO THE LIST OF INSTRUCTION = 102.0 ACRES.
4. THE DIFFERENT BETWEEN FIELD SURVEYING AND INSTRUCTION