Armies of Liberation

You cant reach Sabaphone subscribers from a land line or via overseas calling.

The Yemeni DOD’s 26 Sept website is down, and mine and the dozens of Yemeni news sites blocked for years (including the newly blocked al Masdar) are accessible again from within Yemen. In 2008 everything was unblocked for a week while they upgraded and expanded the censorship software. I thought this was the precursor to the regime taking down twitter and facebook, as opposed to, you know, Saleh allowing more political space. Odd 26 Sept is down when the independent sites are are. But its lovely what ever it is, for as long as it lasts. Update: 26 Sept back up and I’ll probably be re-blocked soon. But Yemen has strong traditional communications methods as a result of the lack of electricity, roads and internet, so I don’t think it will impact the protest movement even if they cut the net entirely. Update 2: The www.26sep,net is wobbling as I’m reading it, losing parts and coming up again. Really bizarre. Also the sites that were open are now closing in Yemen. Gotta be an upgrade.

Regional: Syria is waking up a tad but there’s still a lot of understandable fear. The Omani protests seem to have petered out. Libya is not looking good with the murderous lunatic Qaddafi retaking many towns. The no-fly zone is not established. Hamas harassed protesters in Gaza and confiscated cameras. With Saudi sending a thousand troops into Bahrain, and the imposition of martial law there, the democracy dominoes are shifting in the other direction. It will be up to Yemeni protesters to keep going as external momentum diminishes if thats what it comes to. But they are taking down chunks of the regime daily.

The internet is having technical difficulties authorities say in response to widespread reports of outages. Report via Al Masdar which was blocked inside Yemen last week, for spreading too much accurate information: http://bit.ly/f8oiAA (ar)

Update: Good thing there is a plan in place. al Sahwa

Facebook strictly tightened in Yemen, 7/3/2011 – Sahwa Net

Sahwa Net- While Many of Internet subscribers in Yemen have expressed sorrow as the Tel-Yemen Company in Yemen imposes restrictions on Facebook users, a number of Yemeni civil society organizations condemned the attempts of the Yemeni Parliament tries to approve communication laws which could violate freedoms and allow surveillance on citizens.

Facebook groups which witnesses hot discussions abut Yemen’s political situations nowadays face difficulties on communication, particularly those groups which belong to opposition parties.

On Sunday and Monday, Internet service was blocked in Sana’a and some other Yemen governorates for several hours.

Many of these are internet cafes with multiple users. The population of Yemen is 24 million with half of those under 20 years old. Due to very high birthrates, the population is expected to double by 2034.

Yemen Post: The number of the internet subscribers increased in Yemen last year to 563299 people, up 107870 subscribers from 2009, a report by the Public Corporation for Wire and Wireless Telecommunication said. (Read on …)

The reason Yemen blocked al Masdar Online this week is because the news site was providing Yemenis with the facts about events occurring inside Yemen; its the same reason they blocked me in 2007. There are few quick fixes for the region’s myriad of issues, but free satellite internet access would be one. Luckily for humanity, Walid al Saqqaf devised a work around for governmental censorship of the internet, connecting Yemenis to each other, the world and reality. An article about Yemen Portal and Alkasir from Fast Co:

Yemeni Journalist Offers Facebook and Twitter Access, Piercing Government Blocks

Alkasir makes access to Facebook and Twitter possible in the face of oppressive regimes’ attempts to block them.

Walid Al-Saqaf’s Alkasir is an unsung hero in the recent political overhaul in Egypt and the Arab world. Alkasir–meaning “circumventor”–is what has allowed many ordinary citizens to access Facebook and Twitter and share vital information despite government blocks. (Read on …)

Nice round-up of Sanaa, Aden, Taiz and judges protests, also Feb 24 group.

Daily caller: SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Authorities flooded the streets of Yemen’s capital with 2,000 police Wednesday to try to halt six days of Egypt-style demonstrations against the president of 32 years, a key U.S. ally in battling al-Qaida. One person was killed when police and protesters clashed in the southern port of Aden in the first known death during Yemen’s political unrest.

The police, including plainclothes officers, fired in the air and blocked thousands of students at Sanaa University from joining thousands of other protesters in the capital of the Arab world’s most impoverished nation.

A call spread via Facebook and Twitter urging Yemenis to join a series of “One Million People” rallies on a so-called “Friday of Rage” in all Yemeni cities, seeking the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. (Read on …)

2/2/2011

http://yemenonline.info/news-1880.html

Al-Basha computer company has issued a new product which is linked to a wireless service in cooperation with Yemen Mobile company to surf the Internet on line anywhere..any time in Yemen. The estimated speed of the new internet service is Mbps 2.4 using a small device (Flash desk) with a program that installs automatically to your computer which makes you ready to start a great online speed service for the first time in Yemen.

In plea documents, LatiNode admitted that from about March 2004 through June 2007, it paid $1.1 million to third parties, knowing that some or all of those funds would be passed on as bribes to officials of Hondutel. In addition, from about July 2005 to April 2006, the court records show LatiNode paid $1.2 million to a third-party consultant, knowing some or all of the money would be passed on to Yemeni officials in exchange for favorable interconnection rates in Yemen: Miami Herald