Armies of Liberation

Yahya Saleh while saying an entirely different thing in Arabic tells Reuters the ruling family is entirely committed to peace: AlertNet:

* Says cash for training and equipment cut, intelligence aid same,

* Says civil war unlikely despite “revolution of children and thieves”

* Calls potential U.N. resolution on transfer plan foreign interference

By Erika Solomon

SANAA, Oct 5 (Reuters) – The United States and other Western donors have cut counter-terrorism aid to Yemen’s army during eight months of mass protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, his nephew and leader of a key paramilitary unit said on Wednesday, in effect supporting anti-Saleh groups. (Read on …)

Mil to mil cooperation going forward is fine, necessary and productive as long as it does not include Saleh’s son Ahmed (Republican Guard) , or three nephews Yahya (Central Security), Tariq (Presidential Guards) and Ammar (National Security) or his half brother Mohammed Saleh Ammar (head of the Air Force). Everything after that is smooth sailing.

NYT

A senior American official made it clear on Saturday that Mr. Saleh’s immediate departure remained a goal of American policy, and that Yemen’s government was under no “significant illusion” that the United States had changed its position.

“Sustaining military to military cooperation is in our best interest,” the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We don’t want to undermine that cooperation.”

A Yemeni government spokesman, however, said Mr. Saleh deserved credit for helping the Americans.

“After this big victory in catching Awlaki, the White House calls on the president to leave power immediately?” Deputy Information Minister Abdu al-Janadi said to Reuters. “The Americans don’t even respect those who cooperate with them.”

The spokesman for Yemen’s opposition coalition, Mohammed Qahtan, rejected the idea that Mr. Awlaki’s killing cast the government in a favorable light. Instead, it shows “the regime’s failure and weakness to perform its duty to arrest and try Awlaki in accordance with the Constitution,” Mr. Qahtan said. “And it’s that that forced America to go after him using their own means.”

Strong rumors in Yemen that Saleh is dead after video testimony surfaces from a purported witness from the palace. The following is a bio of Hadi that omits the fact that he was a member of the central committee for YSP Yemeni Socialist Party during the 1980’s in the PDRY. Also during the 1986 civil war, he attacked Radfan and other places causing many civilian deaths.

Yemen Times: Abd Raboo Mansour Hadi, the vice president of Yemen has taken over as presidential responsibilities in Yemen after Saleh left Sana’a to Saudi Arabia on Saturday night for medical treatment, Yemen’s Abdo Al-Janadi, deputy minister of information stated yesterday night. (Read on …)

General Ali Mohsen al Ahmar: the Avis of Yemen

YP: BY DIONNE SEARCEY- Wall Street Journal (For the Yemen Post)
New documents have emerged relating to possible bribery in Yemen by global oil-services giant Schlumberger.
Internal company documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show that Schlumberger employees raised concerns in 2008 about payments for cars the company rented from Yemeni government officials at above-market rates—including $6,000 a month for a Toyota Camry and two Toyota Corollas. Employees also cited a contract with customs broker Dhakwan Management Petroleum Co., whose chairman had ties to Yemen’s president. (Read on …)

Shamari is another one of those ambassadors that never change, like Saleh’s two brother-in-laws, the Yemeni Amb to the US and the UN. The interview at Marib Press. Al Shamiri wrote about the earlier wars entitled, “One Thousand Hours of War.” It was referenced by the Yemen Post: (Read on …)

Jamestown: In January 2009, Nasir al- Wuhayshi (a.k.a Abu Basir) appeared on a video to announce the merger between al-Qaeda branches in Saudi Arabia and Yemen under his command. The new organization was given the name Qaedat al-Jihad in the Arabian Peninsula, or al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Al-Wuhayshi was surrounded by three leaders of AQAP, his fellow Yemeni Qasim al-Rimi, who was reportedly killed in an airstrike in January (Yemen Observer, January 16) and the Saudis Said al-Shihri and Mohammed al-Ofi. Each of the four men made a statement about the evolution of their group (Al-Jazeera, January 29, 2009). [1] The leadership of AQAP made it clear that, in addition to targeting the near enemy in Sana’a and Riyadh, it would target Western interests and ultimately the West itself. But before the end of the year, the organization went even further, conducting the most serious terrorist operation to affect the American homeland since 9/11. (Read on …)

Update: Malek Samulski is in South Africa or was a few years ago anyway.

Original: Its the continuation of an old story. New developments from The Australian: an Australian terror suspect had his 2004 attempted travel to Yemen arranged by Masek Samulski, one of the eight westerners, including the Ayyoub boys, arrested and then released (despite their confessions) in 2006 on charges of trafficking weapons to Somalia. The 2006 arrests were triggered by Awlaki’s arrest a few months earlier according to news reports at the time.

(See 3/1/08, appeal upholds sentence , or 11/03/06 arrests hinder counter-terror op or maybe this one is the most complete: 12/14/06 Terror arrests: from the American to al Sakhi to the Australians who go free.)

COUNTER-TERRORISM agencies are increasingly concerned about deepening links between a group of Australians under surveillance because of their connections with the Sydney terror cell and Islamic militants in Yemen, widely regarded as “the new Afghanistan” for al-Qa’ida.

Security agencies are monitoring the movements of at least 20 Australians who have travelled to Yemen in recent years, including friends and family of the nine men recently convicted and sentenced to up to 28 years in prison for preparing for a terrorist act in Sydney. (Read on …)

dtd 3/3/10

NYT: IT is not often that you see an old comrade in arms of Osama bin Laden hoisting the American flag outside his home.

Yet there on the videotape was Tareq al-Fadhli, the hero of jihadist campaigns in Afghanistan and South Yemen, raising Old Glory in the courtyard of his house, not far from here, earlier this month. As the tape continues, Mr. Fadhli can be seen standing solemnly at attention, dressed in a khaki shirt and a cloth headdress, as “The Star-Spangled Banner” blasts from a sound system nearby. (Read on …)