Armies of Liberation

TFP

Al-Qaeda confirms commander’s loss

PESHAWAR (PAN): The al-Qaeda network, led by elusive Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, confirmed on Friday the death of a leading commander in an American airstrike in southeastern Afghanistan. Ahmed Suleman, a spokesman for the dreaded organisation, said in a statement emailed to Pajhwok Afghan News the prominent Arab commander perished in the American raid in the volatile Paktika province. Several companions of Abu Abdallah al-Shami - who led Arab, Pakistani, Uzbek and Chechen fighters in the troubled region where violence has escalated in recent months - were also eliminated in the attack. Shami’s death came three years after his escape from the Bagram Airbase along with three other hardened militants on July 12, 2005. One of the escapees, Saudi citizen Abu Naser al-Qahtani, was captured a year later while Omar al-Farooq died in a British airstrike earlier. Still at large is Abu Yahya al-Libi, who has been active in recent years, releasing videotaped speeches in praise of al-Qaeda leaders. Calling for jihad against the foreign forces in Afghanistan, the high-profile militant leader often urges youths to swell al-Qaeda ranks. In the statement, al-Qaeda chief in Afghanistan Abu Yazid Muhammad Mustafa resolved to seek revenge on US, Afghan and other foreign forces for the killing Shami and other ‘mujahideen.’ He called the commander’s death a huge loss. “Al Qaeda announces the martyrdom of one of the heroes and field leaders who performed well in facing the modern crusade, our brother Abu Abdallah al-Shami,” the statement said. “God had destined him to become a martyr,’’ the statement added. Al-Yazid asked the slain commander’s family to exercise patience in this hour of grief. “Following his release, Shami resumed jihad with even stronger zeal,” he added. On July 13, Ahmad Suleman said commander Abu al-Hassan al-Saeedi was killed in a clash with Afghan and American forces. Saeedi (48), hailing from Yemen, was chief of al-Qaeda training camps in Paktia and Khost during the jihad against the Soviet forces. Meanwhile, three civilians were killed and another four wounded in a predawn roadside bombing in the southeastern Khost province, a top official said on Friday. In the lawless Helmand province, five people including three Taliban insurgents, a policeman and a resident perished in a gunbattle Thursday evening. The clash erupted in the rebel-infested Nad Ali district. Khost Governor Arsala Jamal told Pajhwok Afghan News the blast happened at 2.00am on the outskirts of the provincial capital. The fatalities included a woman, a child and a driver, said Jamal, who blamed the guerrillas for the explosion. Four people with shrapnel injuries were brought to the Khost Civil Hospital, Dr. Abdul Majeed Mangal confirmed. The injured were in a stable condition, the hospital director added. The Helmand police chief said the Nad Ali battle was triggered by a Taliban attack on a police checkpoint. Also killed in the shootout was a civilian.

From the Times Online, via Weasel Zippers:

Dr Williams said: “The Anbar Awakening (in Iraq) really broke the hearts of a lot of al-Qaeda followers who saw the jihad in Iraq in black-and-white terms. Sunni Arab al-Qaeda were pushed out by fellow Sunni Arabs.

“Iraq is seen as a defeat. The image of Afghanistan is seen as a more pristine jihad.”

The Times has learnt from several insurgency sources that Abu Yusuf Saleh al-Yemeni, an emissary for al-Qaeda, met the leadership of Hizb-e-Islami, the Afghan insurgent group, in Nuristan province on the eastern border in autumn 2007. The two sides agreed to work together. Al-Yemeni now leads a band of al-Qaeda fighters alongside Hizb-e-Islami fighters, as well as Taleban and Pakistani militants from bases in Nuristan.

CSM

Mir argues that the sudden shift of tactics and the apparent rapid enhancement in the sophistication of the attacks by insurgents point to an external capability. The attack on Benazir Bhutto and the Serena Hotel in Kabul were indicative of better planning and coordination that could not have come from the Taliban alone, he argues.

“They are traditional fighters,” he says. “Not thinkers. Recent attacks have also revealed the involvement of police and this is not the Taliban style at all.”

Recent reports have indicated increased activity of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and the bordering regions of Pakistan. Last week saw the death of a top commander of Al Qaeda in Khost Province in southern Afghanistan. Abu al Hassan al Saeedi was reportedly a Yemeni leader who was killed in fighting with American forces, according to the local news agency Pajhwok. Killed alongside him was Umer Haqqani, son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, considered one of the top militant leaders in Afghanistan.

Express India

June 21 A joint operation by the Military Intelligence (MI) and the Bangalore city police culminated in the arrest of six Manipuri extremists of the People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) on Thursday. Officials from the MI unit at Southern Command Headquarters, Pune, co-coordinated the operation.

Those arrested are Ibungo Singh alias Chulamba (29), a self-styled lieutenant who had to discharge the duties of an officer, Sergeant Major Laikhu Ram Jiten Singh alias Dada (30) who was the project officer in charge of collecting money and Joney alias Nanao (26), all of them Manipuri nationals who are wanted in many cases of bomb blasts, extortion and other terror activities. The other three arrested are Megan Chander (29), Vikas Pradhan (24) and a foreign national from Yemen, Almer Mohammed (23).

The MI was tracking the extremists for the past one month and after enough evidence against them was gathered, decided to zero in and make the arrests….While Jiten Singh is suspected to have links with the ISI, sources said the foreign national was suspected to have Al Qaeda connections, which are yet to be conclusively proved.

al-Motamar

Almotamar.net - On charges of bringing, exporting and transporting quantities of narcotics and hashish as well as money laundering, the Yemeni Specialised Criminal Court began Tuesday the trial of 16 defendants among them a Kuwaiti army captain and his son, at large, in addition to another defendant.

(Read on …)

Dijbouti is a very poor nation as well

Bin Laden Seeks $190 Billion for Yemen, Africa Cities (Update1)

By Will McSheehy and Matthew Brown

June 2 (Bloomberg) — Middle East Development LLC, the Dubai-based construction company controlled by a half-brother of Osama Bin Laden, will seek to raise about $190 billion to build two new cities in Djibouti and Yemen and a bridge linking them.

Tarek Mohammad Bin Laden will provide at least $10 billion of seed financing for the $200 billion project, Issam Halabi, Middle East Development’s vice president of technical affairs, told reporters at a conference organized by the Middle East Economic Digest in Dubai today.

“The Bin Ladens are originally from Yemen, and this is part of Sheikh Tarek’s desire to fight poverty and encourage trade,” Halabi said.

As oil earnings spur economic growth in the Persian Gulf, governments and investors are building new cities to create jobs for the region’s burgeoning population and attract inward investment. The $120 billion King Abdullah Economic City project in Saudi Arabia is the region’s biggest, followed by Kuwait’s $86 billion Silk City project, according to Dubai-based research company Proleads.

Yemen, the poorest Gulf state, faces Djibouti across the Red Sea and has attracted investment from neighbors including Qatar’s state-owned Qatari Diar Real Estate Co. and Dubai-owned port operator DP World Ltd. DP World also has a management contract for Djibouti’s sea port, and last year Dubai-owned investment company Istithmar PJSC bought a stake in the east African state’s Daallo Airlines in a bet on increasing trade and travel between the Gulf and east Africa.

Sea Bridge

Construction of a 28.5 kilometer bridge linking Yemen and Djibouti is due to begin next year and the project will take about 15 years to complete, Halabi said. The bridge is being designed to carry road vehicles, trains, and pipes for gas and water, he said.

The new cities in Yemen and Djibouti are intended to attract manufacturing, technology and leisure ventures, and companies including Bechtel Group Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Ericsson AB have expressed interest in the project, according to Halabi.

Tarek Bin Laden shares the same father as Osama Bin Laden. Mohammed, their late Yemen-born father, emigrated to Saudi Arabia and founded the family’s Saudi Binladin Group construction empire.

Middle East Development has projects in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Bahrain and a publicly-traded unit in Singapore, according to its Web site.

Yemen Online

President Saleh offers to mediate in Lebanon crisis. He also wants to solve the Hamas/Fatah rift. Too bad he can’t solve his own problems.

Sana’a, May 10, 2008 (yemenonline) – President Ali Abdulla Saleh made several calls late on Thursday with Arab leaders and rival Lebanese factions to discuss mandating Lebanon’s army chief to chair a dialogue to contain latest development in Lebanon and to halt the sectarian fighting in the country.

Saleh called leaders of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mosa, Lebanese army chief General Michel Sleiman, Lebanese Speaker Nabeh Barri, Lebanese prime minister Fuad al-Sanyora, Lebanese Future Party’s head Sa’ad al-Hariri, Hezbollah’s head Hasan Nasrullah.

President Saleh proposed mandating Lebanon’s army chief Sleiman, on whom all Lebanese political forces have agreed (as a consensus president), to manage a dialogue in Lebanon and shoulder his responsibility in preserving Lebanon’s security, stability and national unity.

Released unharmed

Reuters

SANAA (Reuters) - Two Japanese tourists were kidnapped in the town of Marib in Yemen on Wednesday, a provincial government official said.

The official said the kidnappers were believed to be tribesmen and the two women were part of a group of five tourists sightseeing near the old dam of Marib, a major tourist attraction.

“They took them in their vehicle and kicked away their Yemeni driver,” he said.

Scores of holidaymakers and foreigners working in Yemen have been kidnapped over the past decade by tribesmen demanding better schools, roads and services, or the release of prisoners. Most have been released unharmed.

A Yemeni tribe abducted two foreign engineers and their Yemeni driver last year after a dispute between a local contractor and the hostages’ employer.

Not car bombs or a bomb near the wall, mortars again, they say they were aiming at the embassy:

DUBAI, May 3 (Reuters) - An al Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility on Saturday for a failed mortar attack on the Italian embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa three days ago.

“Al Qaeda Organisation in the Arabian Peninsula - Yemen Soldiers Brigades - claims responsibility for the blessed operation … on the morning of Wednesday April 30, 2008, (that attacked) the Italian embassy building in Sanaa with two mortar shells,” the group said in a statement posted on an al Qaeda-affiliated website.

It said the attack was aimed at expelling infidels from the Arabian Peninsula, home to Islam’s holiest sites.

Two shells hit the parking lot of a customs building adjacent to the Italian embassy on Wednesday, but there were no casualties.

(Read on …)

rebels

Huthi rebels accuse Sanaa of blocking peace deal

Commander of Yemeni rebels blames government for failure to implementing Qarat’s peace deal.

SANAA - The commander of Yemeni rebels said on Monday that efforts by Qatar to implement a peace deal it brokered between the government and the insurgents have failed.

Abdul Malak al-Huthi blamed Sanaa for the failure which he said had resulted in the Qatari mediators leaving Yemen’s northwestern Saada province and heading back to Doha.

“The Qatari team left after reaching a dead-end due to the refusal of the official side (government) to pull out army troops from the areas in which they deployed during the clashes — namely villages, schools and mosques,” Huthi said.

Saada, a mountainous province near the border with Saudi Arabia, has been the scene of an on-off rebellion by members of the Zaidi community, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Thousands of people have been killed in the clashes.

The insurgents are known as “Huthis” after their late commander, Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi, who was killed by the army in September 2004.

Hussein was succeeded as field commander by Abdul Malak, his brother.

A relative calm prevailed in Saada recently as the government negotiated with the rebels with the help of Qatari mediators to implement a peace deal brokered by Qatar in June 2007.

The agreement, under which the rebels would lay down their arms, was revived during a meeting between the two sides in Doha in February.

Abdul Malak al-Huthi claimed that his fighters had “evacuated 54 positions and hills in eight localities, including government buildings, public utilities and roads linking (the province) to Saudi Arabia.”

He said the rebels had maintained only a “limited presence” in some areas pending the army’s withdrawal and the implementation of measures that would prepare for villagers, displaced by the fighting, to return home.

Authorities “are to blame for the failure to implement the agreement,” Huthi said.

“The president (Ali Abdullah Saleh) is responsible for safeguarding security and stability and halting the bloodshed,” he added.

An MP from Yemen’s ruling party was among five people shot dead by gunmen in Saada on Friday although it was not known if the attack was linked to the insurgency.

M&C

Sana’a, Yemen - Yemeni security forces have arrested a member of the Egyptian militant Jihad group believed to have connections to terrorists behind a series of recent attacks against US targets in the Yemeni capital Sana’a, a news report said on Saturday.

An anti-terrorism unit captured the Egyptian man, identified as Muhammad Yaqout, in a sting operation in Sana’a last week, the RayNews website said, quoting a police source.

The unnamed source said Yaqout was a leading Jihad member and that he was linked to two mortar attacks that targeted the US embassy in Sana’a on March 18 and a residential compound housing US and Western citizens on April 6.

Interior Ministry officials were not available for comment.

Yaqout was arrested in Sana’a last August as part of a crackdown on Yemeni and foreign suspected militants after a suicide car bombing attack against a convoy of Spanish tourist in the north-central province of Marib on July 2, 2007.

He was released two months later after investigations showed that he had no links to the attack that left eight Spanish tourists dead.

Let me guess, the Saudi wheat that was donated to Yemen

ADEN

1800 tons of national goods exported to Somalia, Djibouti

Around 1800 tons of national goods were exported via Muala Sea Port in Aden City on Saturday to Djibouti and Somalia.

The goods exported to Somalia were biscuits, soap and sweets, in addition to 800 tons of wheat to Djibouti.

According to the statistics of the port, 32,752 tons of cement were unloaded in the platform of the port. The port also received on Saturday 1,115 sheep from Somalia.

Yemen Post

Yemen surprised observers as it suddenly reduced its participation in 20th Arab Summit held in Damascus over March 29-30. Vice-president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi was delegated to attend the meetings on behalf of President Saleh who used to attend all former Arab summits.

Observers stressed the absence of Saleh could have a passive impact on the Palestinian reconciliation and the Yemeni initiative aiming to patch the differences between the different Palestinian factions.

Journalist Abdul Bari Atwan pointed out that Saleh’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia could be a reason for not attending the summit. He hinted that Yemeni authorities are pressured by the United States that tries to divide Yemen once again into South and North.

Saleh’s absence has been widely echoed in Arab public opinion and media and some observers consider his absence to be a signal that Sana’a Declaration between Fatah and Hamas has reached an impasse. They assure that it is not time to recognize Hamas as a partner and none wants to embarrass Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Sources revealed that Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi met the chairman of Damascus-based Hamas Political Bureau Khalid Mashaal who has been briefed by the former on reasons for Saleh’s absence.

The same sources insinuated that Saleh absented himself because Abbas declined to support Sana’a Declaration which could be embarrassing to him in person and other Arab countries including Egypt and Saudi Arabia as well as the U.S.

President Saleh should have been there to administer the Palestinian file and to come up with a resolution to support the Yemeni initiative which aims to end up the internal Palestinian differences.

Similarly, other Arab acting parties like Saudi Arabia and Egypt sent low-level diplomats to attend the summit and this prompted the Libyan President Mu’mer Al-Qadhafi to blame the U.S. and Western pressure for the low representation.

SVC

ABOUT 20 people suspected of having links with Al Qaeda have been arrested and questioned by security authorities in Uganda since the beginning of the year.

According to security sources, the majority of them have been released and some deported after under-going what security officials described as “thorough screening”.

“We have a computerised list of the most wanted people who engage in terrorist activities and with links to Al Qaeda. We have nabbed 18 since this year began,” said the security source attached to the immigration department at Entebbe Airport.

The source said most of the suspects are handed over to the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) and Internal Security Organisation (ISO) for questioning.

The list, of over 100 most wanted suspects, was released by the US’ Federal Bureau of Investigations and Central Intelligence Agency after the September 11, 2001 attack that left over 3,000 dead in the US.

Al Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden, tops the list of terrorist organisations in the world. The 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam were the group’s first major operations in East Africa.

The majority of the suspected Al Qaeda agents picked by Ugandan security for questioning are said to be from Pakistan, London, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, Canada and Ireland.
The External Security Organisation (ESO) Deputy Director General, Emmy Allio, on Friday confirmed that some terrorist suspects are held for questioning.

He said four Yemen nationals who had come for the Afro-Arab summit that ended two weeks ago were held briefly after they were suspected of having links with Al Qaeda. “They had names similar to those of the most wanted persons in our data bank. They were not detained, but held overnight in a Kampala hotel,” said Allio.

The suspects were later released as their faces differed from those on the security list. He, however, declined to divulge the names of the four.

The ISO chief, Amos Mukumbi, declined to discuss the number of people arrested for having links with Al Qaeda saying: “Those are very sensitive security matters.”

Asked to comment on the arrest of London-based Somali national Ali Abdi Hassan, who was arrested in Entebbe Airport as he entered Uganda on February 12, 2008, Mukumbi said: “Leave that issue alone.”

A senior official attached to CMI who preferred to remain anonymous said: “It may be true that the number is 28, but most were set free after questioning.”

I, however, can’t tell you how many we still have at the moment.”

Yemen Post

Eritrean authorities deployed last week 32 Yemeni fishermen in two wrecking boats and sources indicated that the fishermen arrived in Al-Hodeidah’s Midi Port in a critical condition because of the inhumanly treatment by the Eritrean authorities.

The sources mentioned that Eritrean authorities arrested the 32 fishermen along with their four boats while they were fishing in Yemen’s regional waters. The fishermen were jailed in Eritrea and they were forced to pay fines.

The Eritrean authorities also confiscated the caught fish, fishing equipments and foodstuffs on the boats. Further, they sent them back home over two wrecking boats and this posed a great danger to their lives especially when they traveled for about 200 km.

But if he called the murder “jihad”, it would be legal, just like Yemenis who murder Iraqis in Iraq have committed no crime under Yemeni law.

An Arab “playboy” wanted for questioning over the killing of a Norwegian student in London could face trial in his native Yemen, which supports capital punishment, government sources in the country have revealed.

Farouk Abdulhak is alleged to have fled in his father’s private jet. Farouk Abdulhak is believed to be in hiding after leaving England 24 hours before the body of his university friend, Martine Vik Magnussen, was found in the basement of the block of flats where he lived.

Detectives have issued an appeal for him to return to Britain to face questioning. However, the suspect’s billionaire father, Shaher Abdulhak, has suggested that if his son was charged by Scotland Yard he would consider inviting British prosecutors to try him in Yemen, because there is no extradition arrangement between the country and Britain.

(Read on …)

Yemen trade exchange volume with Europe increased up to YR 418 bln

[24 March 2008]

SANA’A, March 24 (Saba)- Volume of trade exchange between Yemen and Europe increased up to around YR 418 billion last year compared to about YR 328 billion in 2006.

The trade balance realized a surplus for European countries at an increase of YR 291,880,492,000 in 2007 compared to YR 69,680,000,000 in 2006.

????

(Excuse me if I think something may be up here. The recent weapons to Somalia were delivered by government aircraft. Its like John Gotti with an air force and a bank, you get a little skeptical at claims of outright altruism.)

26 Sept
Yemeni plane have been arrived to Chad before last hours carrying aids and relief materials, while another plane will head to Sudan during coming few hours carrying relief materials and aids for the affected by the current events as a result of war erupted between the two countries.

The two planes included foodstuff, medical materials, clothes, etc. as expression of Yemeni people’s feelings towards the refugees in those areas to mitigate their suffers as a result of armed clashes sparked between the two countries.

Alsahwa.net

March 11, 2008- Yemeni recently released fishermen have revealed that they were subject to military trials after they were arrested by Eritrean authorities in Yemen’s regional water.

They affirmed to Alsahwa.net that they appealed the Yemeni authorities to shoulder their responsibilities towards their buddies currently imprisoned in the Eritrean jails.

They further confirmed they were released after they paid fines and confiscating their assets.

The fishermen demanded the government and local and international human rights organizations and media to consider their issue ,emphasizing that they were severely treated by the Eritrean authorizes without explanations.

SANA’A, NewsYemen

Minister of Endowments and Religious Guidance Hamoud al-Hitar has formally demanded the Dutch government ban a film against the Holy Quran a Dutch member of the Parliament intends to release, said Saba.

The official news agency said al-Hitar talked on the issue with Netherlands ambassador of Netherlands Harry Buikema in a meeting on Wednesday, calling for exerting international efforts must be coordinated to prevent defaming religions and religious symbols to avoid tense situations.

Wilders said in an interview with Guardian the film is to be aired in the coming months. He said he has been warned that he may have to leave the Netherlands for his own safety.

al-Motamar Yemen’s parliament on Saturday passed an article amendment of the commercial law allowing non-Yemeni persons to work in trade in the Yemeni Republic without the need to have a Yemeni partner or partners and in accordance to the operative laws.

The parliament approved by the end of last February the amendment of article 28 of the commercial law after finishing its discussion of a report by the trade and industry parliamentary committee on results of its study of the draft law in this regard presented by the government.

The parliament has today also passed several laws on approving agreements of oil production sharing concluded between the Yemeni Ministry of Oil and Minerals and world oil companies.

International court cases……

al-Sahwa: February 28, 2008- Yemen’s government has wasted financial resources in form of compensations offered for foreign firms due to absurd deals signed with firms.

Several companies filed suits in international courts against Yemen, and won those cases.

Yemeni government compensated a French company $40m . The company received the amount in January with opposition some offcials. Yemen further paid 6,2 compensation to a Canadian Kwala firm

Additionally, Yemen lost $154m during 2005 — 2007 due to gradual reduction for customs and tax tariff within the agreement of the biggest Arab Free Trade Zone, reported Saba. The estimated increasing these losses up to $ 300m during this year and around $524m in 2009 to be $838m by 2010, expecting the losses in 2005-2010 reach $1816m.

More over a French court sentenced Yemen to pay $27m compensation for an Omani company.

The government terminated the contract binding it to Singapore Yemen Vest (and paid a $200 million compensation), ten years after lawmakers and economists warned about its viciousness.

Just missing the antiquities Yemen Observer:

Yemen and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s (KSA) security forces seized a large amount of drugs at the Arabian Sea on its way to be smuggled to the KSA on a boat coming from Pakistan last Tuesday, said security sources.

Security sources said that the joint security operations in the two countries resulted after numerous sailors were apprehended in possession of contraband.

In the beginning of February, Yemen and Saudi joint forces arrested a major international gang involved in producing counterfeit money, and drug dealing. Sources told the Sep 26 website that the members of the gang are from Yemen, Saudi, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Kenya, and that members of the gang were arrested In Sana’a, Aden, and Jeddah, possessing large amounts of drugs and counterfeit money. They were able to phish approximately million Saudi Rial into banks.

(Read on …)

Its just going to get worse as oil revenue continues to decrease. From the Yemen Observer

News of a British company’s intention to cut off the electricity supply to some governorates was denied by Dr. Mustafa Buhran, Minister of Electricity and Energy. The Minister confirmed that the published news goes back to a previous dispute, and was obtained by a newspaper correspondent who either negligently published it, or published it with the intention of creating public unrest.

The Minister declined to speak about the agreement’s details, yet he mentioned that the agreement regarding electricity lease contracts was signed by the previous government, adding that the issue of debts had been dealt with.

Sources from the electricity corporation spoke of contracts with a temporary, off-shore electricity company for the sum of $3.5 million per month, to deal with current shortages.

Media news said that the British electricity-generating company had threatened the Yemeni electricity ministry with disconnecting the supply to six cities if they did not pay the outstanding amount owing of $7.5 million. Reports spoke of a British company by the name of Jericho, that has been supplying parts of Aden governorate, Hodeidah, Hadramout, Amran, Taiz and Sayoun with electricity according to a contract between the company and the ministry for the past year.

Sources attributed the company’s measures to the Yemeni corporation’s failure to pay the sum of YR1.5 billion ($7.5 million) for electricity supply for the months of December and January.

Some reports disclosed that the Yemeni Ministry of Electricity and Energy and its corporation are suffering hard times, as evidenced by their failure to pay the British company, which sells huge amounts of electricity used in lighting and operating industrial plants in the previously mentioned areas.

Critics of the electricity ministry said that it could have supplied these cities with power by building two generating stations at the cost of $60 million, instead of paying that same amount to the British company for a one year supply.

Yemen suffers a 30 percent deficit in electricity supply, due to the expansion of urban areas in addition to the demand for energy from rural areas and projects. It signed a contract with the British company in mid-2006 to supply the six areas with power.

Dr. Buhran told the Parliament that the Ministry’s revenues do not cover the cost of electricity production, because the revenue rate is less than 25 percent of the cost. “The government pays a subsidy to cover this deficit,” the Minister said.

Yemen to benefit from satellite audio, visual transmission document

SANA’A, Feb. 21 (Saba)- Minister of Information Hassan al- Louzi confirmed Yemen’s interest to make use the document of principles organizes satellite audio and visual transmission in Arab countries adopted by Arab Information Ministers.

The Arab Information Ministers Council adopted the document in the end of their extraordinary meeting which was held recently in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

Upon his arrival to Sana’a after participation in the extraordinary meeting, al-Louzi said to Saba that Yemen is interesting to make use of the accord which approved by the council, especially preparing a law concerning audiovisual information and set-up General Authority of Audiovisual information.

The principles of this document will be put into practice on all transmission authorities in the Arab League member states and on all satellite transmission relay activities or any activity related to its services whether it be transmitted from or to these countries.

The document provided that all these authorities and other mentioned entities to abide by religious and moral values of the Arab society and taking into account its familial and social structure and to ban transmitting whatever might offend of the Divine, heavenly religions, messengers, to refrain from instigating religious sectarianism and to abide by the ethics of the Media profession .

The document also requires refraining from transmitting programs that contain indecent and sexual images and to protect children from any harm of their physical. mental and moral growth and from any incitement that spoils manners and misconducts.

The document obliged the transmission authorities and the relay services via satellite to apply the standards and regulations that preserve the Arab identity in all transmitted materials including (SMS).

Unhappy campers

Alsahwa.net

February 23, 2008- Yemeni Journalist Syndicate called for denying the charter dubbed “Principles for Regulating Satellite TV in the Arab World “approved by the Arab League Information Ministers in their recent meeting in Cairo.

The Secretary-General of YJS , Marwan Damaj told Alsahwa.net that the charter aims to crack down freedom of press and silence freedom of expression Demanding all Arab journalists to resist the charter.

The nonbinding charter calls on Arab satcasters to refrain from offending, among other things, “leaders or national religious symbols in the Arab Word” as well as “from broadcasting anything which calls into question God, the monotheistic religions, the prophets, sects or symbols of the various religious communities.”

?

Alsahwa.net

February 17, 2008 – The advisor of Yemeni president Salem Saleh Mohammad has affirmed that the United Arab Emirate’s security authorities prevented him form leaving the country, despite his official entry to the state.

He told Alsahwa.net in a phone call that UAE seized his passport and prevented him from leaving the state without any explanations, considering what he faced a sort of mistreatment all Yemenis face in the Gulf States.

“While Yemen’s Foreign Affairs Minister is called to attend the meeting of the GCC foreign ministers, Yemenis are dealt as suspects in these states” added he.

Again more good news in that the law is being enforced. The fact that many smugglers are Pakistanis is really no surprise.

al-Sahwa

Alsahwa.net

February 17, 2008 – Security authorities arrested on Friday 11 Iranians on their launch in Mahra province, southeastern Yemen.

Security sources in Mahra revealed that a special committee arrived form Sana’a to investigate them, pointing out that small quantities of drugs were seized with them.

The security sources expected that the men are drugs merchants, indicating that 34 Pakistanis had previously been arrested there and prosecuted on charges of smuggling drugs.

Related 790,000 pills

Last Friday, Coast Guard Forces announced that they seized an unknown ship off Yemeni coasts after it unloaded its shipment in the sea.

Security sources in Sana’a managed in 2007 to seize and destroy over 15,000 kg of manufactured hashish as well as 791,495 of narcotic tablets, and two kilo grams of heroin. They also discovered and destroyed 112 hashish plants.

Over the same year, 225 dealers were arrested and referred to prosecution over 40 drug lawsuits. A report by the General Administration for Fighting Drugs at Interior Ministry indicated that drug crimes increased in 2007 to 140 crimes and 226 charged people while there were just 81 indicted people in 2005. The indicted people of foreign nationalities reached 22 instead of five in 2005.

Over the last three years, the number of drug crimes mounted to 304 cases with 511 indicted people including 469 Yemenis and 42 of foreign nationalities.

Over 1,500 kg of hashish has been destroyed in Al-Mahara province in 2007 and the figures show that there is a constant increase of seized quantities of hashish.

T here have been increased activities of smuggling, especially of drugs, through Yemen over the last few years and further the country has turned to be a crossing point for drugs to the consuming countries in Gulf and elsewhere.

Though coast guard and security forces exert immense efforts to prevent drugs crossing from Yemen, the country is still a good haven for drug dealers.

Drug dealers use quite different means and techniques in their smuggling operations including using animals and high speed boats, benefiting from the long maritime strip stretching over 2,000 km.

Yemen Post

Update: Yemen Observer:

Mohammed Abdullah al-Harazi, governor of Al-Mahara, announced that security officials there are investigating the real reasons for an Iranian boat’s violation of Yemeni territorial waters.

The governor revealed that preliminary information showed that a crew of 11 persons were on board the boat, all of Iranian nationality.

Al- Mahara security authorities captured the boat last Friday, near Fartak mountain on the eastern Mahara coast when it entered Yemeni territorial waters illegally.

Mubarak Saied, security manager of Al-Mahara, said that a security team from the capital arrived in Al-Mahara on Sunday to examine the boat and found modern telecommunications equipment aboard. Saied said, “The investigation of the Iranian crew is continuing but as of this time there are no results.”

The Iranian embassy is waiting for an official statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about this event.

According to the official news agency the Iranian embassy were not informed of the Iranian ship’s violation from the Yemeni government, but rather learned about the problem by reading about it in the media. “According to international protocol the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must inform any embassy about what has happened with its citizens and we are awaiting an official statement from the Ministry as soon as possible,” the Iranian diplomat said.

This is a bizarre case. Two guys go to the Egyptian embassy with information on a terror plot orchestrated by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia with the knowledge of Yemeni authorities and ask for money. Egypt tells Yemen’s National Security. The guys get sentenced to death for harming relations with a brotherly country.

Court hears of Saudi-Kuwaiti plan to target Egypt
Calcutta News.Net
Saturday 16th February, 2008

A state security court in Yemen has sentenced two local men to death over trying to spy for Egypt.

The court in Sanaa heard that the men had provided the Egyptian Embassy with information about an alleged joint Saudi-Kuwaiti plan to finance terrorist attacks in Egypt.

But the Egyptian Embassy reported the details of the meeting to the Yemeni National Security Agency.

The men were found guilty of supplying Egyptian diplomats in Sanaa with details of the alleged conspiracy by the governments of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Prosecutors said the men had met an Egyptian diplomat and handed over to him a ‘confidential’ document, supposedly issued by the Saudi intelligence services.

(Read on …)

I think these two are being tried for revealing state secrets. They went to the Egyptian embassy to sell a story about terrorists training in Yemen for attacks in Egypt as the behest tof SA and Kuwait, and Egypt notified Yemeni security. Its a death penalty case.

February 10, 2008 – Yemeni court adjourned on Sunday issuing sentences against two Yemeni citizens, Hamad al-Dahook and Abdul-Aziz al-Hatbani, accused of providing intelligence to the Egyptian embassy and abusing Yemen’s political and diplomatic status.

The delay was due to the participation of the court’s head, Mohsin Alwan, in a criminal justice conference held in Sana’a.

The first suspect, Haman al-Dahook, 50, admitted in the last session held in June 20 that he served as an agent to Saudi intelligence and that he was fired later.

The prosecutor said that the Egyptian embassy to Sana’a had informed the prosecution that the suspects blackmailed them in return for providing the embassy of intelligence concerning the Egyptian security.

The indictment list said that the defendants had provided the embassy with misleading information suggested that Kuwait and Saudi trained and funded terrorist networks in Yemen in order to export them to target the Egypt’s security and tourism.

YO:

Yemen ranked high among the top 10 countries in the Middle East and North Africa in receiving financial remittances from abroad last year, according to a report issued by the World Bank.

Financial remittances of Yemenis living abroad amounted to $1.300 billion in 2007, forming 6.7 percent of the Gross Domestic Product for that year.

(Read on …)

Yemen, Oman agree on allocating $ 100 for development projects

[07 February 2008]

SANA’A, Feb. 07 (Saba )- Co-chaired by ministers of transport Khaled al-Wazir and Khamis al-Alawi, the Yemeni-Omani Joint Ministerial Committee concluded its 8th round’s activities and agreed on speeding up measures concerning the $ 100 million that Oman obliged itself to support Yemen’s development projects during Donors Conference held in London last year.

The two parts also agreed on preparing funding treaties in terms of using the fund for implementing investment program of the third Five-Year Plan’s projects for economic and social development in Yemen for the period 2006-2010.

They also agreed on referring establishing joint investment companies to private sector in the two countries for naming suitable projects.

Concerning establishing al-Mazyonah Free Zone, the Omani side suggested naming fixed customs mechanism without any delay and making the customs declaration issued from the zone enough for avoiding inspection and delay in Yemeni shipping customs.

As for marine transport, the two parts also agreed on holding a meeting between specialists of Omani Salalah Port and Yemeni ports of Aden and Mukalla in Yemen next March to get acquainted with facilitations in the ports.

Moreover, they also agreed on completing measures of establishing the Yemeni-Omani businessmen council and information exchange between the two countries
concerning smuggling in its different kinds.

chutspa!

Earth Times

Sana’a, Yemen - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who began an official visit to Spain on Monday, would seek the release of a reporter for the Arab television network al-Jazeera who was convicted in 2005 over terrorist charges, Yemeni officials said. The officials, who asked not to be identified, said Saleh would urge Spanish officials to release the journalist Tayseer Alouni, 51, who received a seven-year jail sentence by a Spanish court after he was found guilty of collaborating with al-Qaeda.

Alouni, known for interviewing the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities, holds dual Spanish and Syrian nationalities.

He was released from jail and put under house arrest in the southern Spanish city of Granada in October 2006 due to his ill health,

Saleh is on a three-day visit to Spain for talks on cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

It was not clear whether the Yemeni leader would propose to swap Alouni with a Spanish citizen of Syrian descent who was sentenced to death in Yemen in 1998 on terror charges.

Yemeni officials said on Wednesday that Saleh’s talks in Madrid would touch on the fate of the Spanish convict Nabil Nanakli Qusaibati, who was sentenced to death for leading a group that carried out several bombings in Yemen in 1997.

Qusaibati’s death sentence was upheld by the Yemen’s Supreme Court in 2003, but the execution was postponed several times after Spanish officials pressured the Yemeni government.

On Saturday, Saleh endorsed an extradition agreement inked with Spain last October, paving the way for Qusaibati’s extradition.

Yemen proposal to set up expatriate ministerial council approved

[22 February 2008]

SANA’A, Feb. 22 (Saba) - The meeting of Arab ministers in charge of immigration affairs has approved Yemen’s proposal to form a ministerial council under the Arab League to discuss expatriates issues.

Minister of Expatriate Affairs Saleh Sumai said upon his arrival home coming from Cairo after his participation in the meeting that the ministers referred a recommendation on the proposal to the Socio-economic Council.

The ministerial meeting, which concluded its activities on Wednesday adopted other proposals of Yemen such as setting up an Arab exemplary center or centers for qualifying Arab laborers nominated to work abroad and creating national machineries to absorb and regulate Arab laborers that return home.

To recap, two guys are accused of going to a foreign embassy to warn them that the Yemeni government is fostering a terror cell that will perpetrate an attack in a foreign county. The prosecutor hasn’t submitted any evidence, the defense charged.

Yemen Observer

The Yemeni Penal Court, presided over by Judge Husein Alwan, decided to postpone the current session until next Saturday, due to a request by the defense for additional preparation time. The current trial is attempting to establish whether or not the suspects, Abdulaziz al-Hatabani and Hamad Ali al-Dahok, had illegal contact with foreign countries to reveal state secrets. (heh, training terror cells is a state secret?)

Lawyer Fahd Taha presented the defense of his clients, denying the charges and all allegations, citing article 100 of the legal code. “The prosecution has no case as it cannot use one suspect’s statement against the other; therefore this case must be settled in our favor,” Mr. Taha said.

He stated that the security members in charge of the investigation should have presented the photos and records of both suspects and those they had allegedly communicated with, adding that no incriminating evidence had been submitted to the court. He insisted that his clients were neither caught in a foreign embassy nor in contact with foreign diplomats.

“How did the security authorities know of the memo that my clients apparently submitted to the foreign embassy, which accused Yemen of training terrorist cells to carry out subversive attacks in a foreign country?” Mr. Taha wondered.

In response, the prosecution stated that what Mr. Taha had to say was nothing new, that it had been presented in previous sessions, and they had subsequently refuted all the arguments. They went on to say that they feel confident with the case that they have presented to the court.