Armies of Liberation

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 …)

I didn’t realize Skype was illegal in Yemen. Previous reporting: 9/30/09, US owned VIOP smuggling phone calls. Arabic, SABA. The YObserver heavily redacted their original article, this is what’s left:

An international phone call trafficker was apprehended in his house in the south by the secretariat of the Criminal Investigative Department (CID). The detained, Ayman Ahmed al-Surmi, is being interrogated by the CID while the search for other suspects, including al-Surmi’s brother, continues…. The ease in using the Voice Over Internet Protocols (VoIP) tempted many local traffickers to cooperate with service providers outside Yemen to traffic calls. These outside providers traffic international phone calls through the internet without going through Yemen Telecommunication (TeleYemen) the local body responsible for regulating all international phone calls..International phone call trafficking goes through satellite connections or through broadband services, the traffickers receive it and then redistribute it through the local network by using local phone numbers (mobile and fixed phones) paying the tariff of local calls while receiving double this fee. (Read on …)

As I noted earlier, corruption triggers media repression in Yemen. Often when journalists are kidnapped, beaten, imprisoned or, as in this case, murdered, it comes back to their investigative reporting on crime or corruption. While the extent of dire and growing water shortage is becoming clear, less obvious is the extensive black market on water, tied to powerful officials, sheiks and businessmen that impedes the implementation of water regulations and reforms. Al Rabue was murdered for exposing the dangerous quality of water sold by the water barons in Hajja. His family was attacked and injured a week earlier. In the climate of impunity established by the Saleh regime, a fair trial is unlikely.

Yemen Times: HAJJA, Feb. 17 — Journalist Mohammad Al-Rabue’, who wrote for Al-Sahwa and Al-Qahira newspapers, was murdered on his way to work, on Sunday, February 13, in Bani Qais district, Hajja governorate. The journalist, who wrote about the violations committed in the governorate was said to be killed by Ahmad Awoni and his four sons. (Read on …)

Update: He worked for the very good organization, SEYAJ for the protection of children: SEYAJ Organization Condemns the assassination of Muhammad AL-Rboey one of its staff in Hajjah governorate ” a journalist and defender volunteers jurist

SEYAJ Organization for Childhood Protecting
Yemen-Sana’a- New University Sq.
Phone:009671228184
Fax:009671228145
Mobile:00967712020332
Hotline:009671257505
PO Box:5642
E-mail: info@seyaj.org
Website: www.seyaj.org

His family was attacked last Thursday by the same gang and three persons are hospitalized. They don’t do this unless they know they can get away with it. An investigative journalist killed by “a gang” that he had written about. Most criminal enterprises in Yemen are partners with state officials. Mareb Press

قتل اليوم السبت بمحافظة حجة الزميل محمد الربوعي على يد مسلحين. Was killed Saturday province argument colleague Mohamed Rabuai by gunmen. وقالت معلومات إن عصابة إجرامية أقدمت على قتل الربوعي في محافظة حجة على خلفية قضية نشر, مضيفة أن الزميل الربوعي قام بكشف الأعمال الإجرامية لتلك العصابة وتعرض لعدة تهديدات بالتصفية الجسدية. The information that a criminal gang proceeded to kill Rabuai in the province of the argument against the background of the issue of publication, adding that his colleague Rabuai reveal the criminal activities of this gang and subjected to numerous threats of physical liquidation.

وقد تلقت الأوساط الإعلامية اليمنية نبأ مقتل الزميل محمد الربوعي مراسل صحيفة القاهرة المحلية بمديرية بني قيس والذي مثل فاجعة كبيرة للأقلام الحرة بالمحافظة إثر تعرضه لاعتداء آثم من قبل عصابة فجر اليوم على خلفية قضايا نشر صحفية. Has received among the media of the killing of a fellow Yemeni Mohammad Rabuai reporter Cairo local Department Bani Qais, who represented the great tragedy of the free pens to maintain he was exposed to a vicious assault by a gang at dawn today against the background of deployment issues a press release.

Oh the Houthis “stole” 20 truckloads of weapons, and Faris failed to report it until they were well away. Lets see what happens now. No one ever goes to jail in Yemen. I had thought Faris Manna was Saleh’s partner, just like the oil smuggler Tawfiq Abdel Rahman Tawfiq Abdel Rahim. I wonder if the theft occured before or after the Defense Ministry imported a shipload of Chinese weapons destined for the rebels with forged documents. The reason Yemen keeps accusing Iran of supplying the Houthis is because without that red herring, it become clear that Yemeni officials are themselves selling weapons to the rebels. Its not just fall off, small deals and captured weapons going from the government side to the rebels. Hey, lets increase in military aid

al Arabiya: Yemen on Sunday arrested the second biggest arms dealer in the country just days after the capture of another top dealer, whose weapons depot was stolen by rebels fighting the government in the north, Al Arabiya TV reported. (Read on …)

Faris is also the brother of the governor of Sa’ada. Faris Manna was one of Yemen’s primary weapons traders for some years before he was appointed to the government mediation committee tasked with negotiating with the Houthi rebels. Apparently what he negotiated was a weapons deal.

When some aspect of the Defense Ministry imported a ship load of Chinese weapons, destined for the Houthi rebels, Faris was placed on a black list of arms dealers. Does the arrest demonstrate Western pressure having an effect or is it another ploy by the Saleh regime? I have never yet seen a high ranking Yemeni official held accountable for any crimes.

al Masdar Online: After surrounding his home in Sana’a
الأمن يعتقل رئيس لجنة الوساطة بصعدة الشيخ فارس مناع Security arrested the Chairman of the Mediation Committee Saada Sheikh Faris Manna
المصدر أونلاين- خاص Source Online – Special

علم “المصدر أونلاين” من مصادر مؤكدة إن الشيخ فارس مناع شقيق محافظ صعدة ورئيس لجنة الوساطة السابق بين السلطة والحوثيين قد اعتقل اليوم الخميس من منزلـه في أمانة العاصمـة. Aware of “online source” from confirmed sources that Sheikh Faris Manna brother of the governor of Saada, Chairman of the Mediation Committee between the Authority and the former Huthi was arrested on Thursday from his home in the capital. (Read on …)

After years of delay during which this bill was brought forth and then rejected by Parliament, Yemen passed a counter-terror financing law. The argument against the law was that it would hamper efforts to fund “legitimate resistance” movements like Hamas and other charitable giving. Also recall in 2005, when the UN circulated a list of 144 bank accounts associated with al Qaeda and/or the Taliban, Yemen closed one and took no further action in subsequent years. See also my category Parliament.

SABA: The parliament ratified on Tuesday the International Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism.

Concluding its second session for the second term of the seventh annual round, the parliament also approved a law draft against money laundering and terrorism financing as well as a law draft of amending some articles of the civil procedures law.

Ratifying the International Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism by the parliament comes within the state efforts to combat terrorism in all its forms.

Nigerian student studying in the UK flying from the Netherlands to Detroit tries to detonate explosive device he says he obtained from Yemen. BBC:

A Nigerian reported to have links to al-Qaeda is being questioned after an attempted act of terrorism on a plane arriving in the US, officials say.

They say the 23-year-old man was trying to ignite an explosive device as the jet approached Detroit from Amsterdam. (Read on …)

We covered this story before but we’re doing it again as it includes the reports of the drones over Marib. Yemen Observer, English language government paper…

YEMEN – Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists were behind the assassination of Colonel Tarboush, the head of the investigative office in Marib, according to a Ministry of Interior security authority. (Read on …)

The problem with the diesel subsidies is the vast majority of the money dedicated to supporting the low oil price actually helps the smugglers not the poor. About a third of the entire government budget is spent on subsidies.

SABA FM: Govt supported oil derivatives with $ 3.5 billion in 2008

SANA’A, Nov. 15 (Saba)- Government supported oil derivatives with $ 3.5 billion last year, Minister of Finance said on Sunday.

In a meeting for the technical committee of ministerial office for priorities, the minister Noman al- Sohibi said that such support made a big burden on the general state budget, adding that the government also supported the sector of electricity with $ 1.1 billion in 2008.

He affirmed importance of decrease the support of the government for oil derivatives in order to insure continuing funds of the state.

This is very close to the model needed for Yemen. Sec State Clinton called for a major crimes tribunal in Afghanistan, and an official described Afghanistan as a “criminal mafia state”™. They should take a closer look at Yemen! Its the same paradigm.

The problem with this concept, a well trained and driven corruption task force, in Yemen is that foreign intervention even in the form of training will create more tension, and none of the actors will agree, but the basic principle is correct. There needs to be a drastic intervention to clean the upper echelon of the Yemeni government of their corrupt practices and networks, a caretaker government perhaps.

Not a foreign intervention, no I’m not calling for any sort of invasion, but an authentic effort at accountability would significantly reduce tensions nation wide. Not dialog, not war, not symposiums, not arrests, not bombing, and not military aid. And please don’t talk to me about SNACC or COCA, they are way too weak. At the same time, per some insightful discussion, the issue of amnesty is critical if any restructuring is to occur, for obvious reasons. I’m glad at least the US is recognizing the heart of the issue, a criminal mafia state™ and the resulting loss of legitimacy and efficiency, even if it is in a different country.

Guardian: Nato taskforce to form ‘Afghan FBI’ and root out high-level corruption

Clinton calls for ‘major crimes tribunal’ as west loses patience with Karzai government

Western soldiers are to begin investigating high-profile Afghans suspected of involvement in what one American official describes as a “criminal mafia state” in a sign of the growing international exasperation with Hamid Karzai’s failure to crack down on corruption.

A taskforce being established by Nato in Kabul will consist of a small team of anti-corruption officers, as well as a criminal investigator and prosecutor who hope senior generals will be able to stop cases being derailed by opposition from the Afghan government.

Details of the body emerged as the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said Washington had called on Karzai to create a “major crimes tribunal” and an anti-corruption commission. (Read on …)

For years, the fishing statistics never added up for me, and finally we have an official recognition of the issue. The figure is 40,000 tons annually or about 20% of total production, but its a rough number. That the statement was made by the Fisheries Minister and published by SABA is encouraging but only to the extent that the corruption is countered in an effective way. There has been public disclosure of many organized criminal activities, but little meaningful efforts to disrupt them after. There are a few potential non-oil industries that could be developed to replace the rapidly depleting oil economy and one of the most important is the fisheries.

SABA 40000 Tons of Yemen Fish Trafficked Annually, Minister Reveals
(Read on …)

The Yemen Post has a write up of the attack on the three security officers. AFP reports AQAP said the attack which was “in support of our brothers in the prisons of Hadramut, Sanaa and others and in revenge for anyone who has the intention of harming the mujahedeen.” But like the kidnapping of the foreign medical workers, theres an overlay of a substantial criminal drug syndicate in the landscape. Who benefits financially from the murders is a legitmate question. To follow is a bad google translation of an article from Aden Press, a Yemen southern opposition publication.

Aden Press
Hadramout – London “Aden Press” special: 4 – 11 – 2009
في الوقت الذي أعلنت وسائل الاعلام في صنعاء عن بدء فريق الادلة الجنائية بإجراء تحقيقا واسعا وجمع الاستدلالات عن منفذي الهجوم الارهابي الذي نفذته مجموعة من المهربين تنتمي للمحافظات الشمالية واستهدف حياة مسئولين أمنيين للامن العام والسياسي وإصابة (3) أخرين في العملية التي لم تعلن أي جهة مسئوليتها عن الحادث وسط معلومات ترجح أن تنظيم القاعدة في اليمن وراء العملية While the media announced in Sanaa, the start of forensic team to conduct an investigation and a wide collection of evidence and for the perpetrators of the terrorist attack carried out by a group of smugglers belonged to the northern governorates and the attempt on the life of the security officials of public security, political and injury (3) others in the process that no one has claimed responsibility about the incident, amid suggest that al-Qaeda in Yemen was behind the operation ، غير أن مصادر خاصة في حضرموت أكدت لـ” عدن برس ” بأن المنفذين للعملية جماعة تنتمي لمهربين من كبار قادة الاجهزة الامنية المحافظات الشمالية . , But private sources in Hadramout confirmed for “Eden Press” that the perpetrators of the process group belonging to smugglers top security chiefs to the northern governorates. (Read on …)

The police commissioner, the PSO chief and the investigative department head for the Wadi in Hadramout were assassinated when their car was attacked and sprayed with bullets. Considering their substantial role in drug smuggling to Saudi Arabia, the murders could be crime related, in addition to political violence or a type of terror attack. And that’s also what we said about the kidnapping of the nine foreigners in Sa’ada in June, it could be the drug smugglers or al Qaeda. The regime of course is trying to spin it as an al Qaeda attack, and it could well be. Update: The New York Times has an excellent version of the standard analysis and lays it out well.

Yemen Today: Three security officials were killed and three soldiers Tuesday in an ambush by gunmen in Hadramout governorate, according to official said. وقال هذا المسؤول لوكالة فرانس برس رافضا كشف هويته “قتل الضابط علي سالم العامري مدير الأمن في وادي حضرموت واحمد باوزير مسؤول امن الدولة في المنطقة اضافة الى ثلاثة عناصر امنيين في مكمن”. (Read on …)

The story that just keeps on giving… The arms dealers, including an MP and Shoura Council Member, who imported the mystery ship of Chinese weapons blocked the road in Marib to pressure the authorities to release the contents of the ship, which is missing.

Nearly all organized crime in Yemen is perpetuated by, or in conjunction with, top government officials, whether drug smuggling, currency counterfeiting, deisel smuggling, weapons as in this case, human or organs trafficing. It all leads back to the top of the regime which both formally and informally is populated by loyalist Sheiks and presidential relatives.

Yemen Post: The threads of the suspected ships carrying Chinese-made weapons which was said to have anchored in western Yemen have started to appear after gunmen blocked a road in Mareb province in northeast Yemen.

The gunmen, believed to be gangs employed by arms dealer in the country, in the road linking Mareb city to Safer area where one of Yemen’s important oil fields is located in Mareb province, have demanded the Defense Ministry to release the ship carrying weapons they had imported from China. (Read on …)

Continuing our previous discussion of the huge explosion on Midi Island, news from Al Motamar

On the other hand Yemeni security apparatuses arrested 107 African migrants in the island of Midi holding Nigerian, Chadian and Sudanese nationalities. The security men also said 2 of the African migrants; one Nigerian youth and a woman in her 6th decade have died and doctors said the death was natural.

The rest of the African migrants were transported to the Centre Al-Jazeera Leadership for investigation and then they were detained in Hudeida province. It is to be noted that this is the third rime African migrants to attempt to infiltrate into Yemeni territories via the island of Midi. On most occasions investigations proved that the African migrants, mostly Sudanese, were intending to infiltrate into Saudi territories across Yemeni territories.

This is the third fishing boat to explode since May. Are they smuggling explosives, fishing with explosives? It is described as a massive explosion. The location is Maydi in Hajjah, near the Saudi border, south of Sa’ada. We earlier noted Maydi (Medi) Island is a new way station for human smuggling from Sudan.

Also note the the port is under the direction of the Border Guards which fall under the Defense Ministry, not the Coast Guard. As earlier noted regarding weapons trafficking, the ports with the highest rates of arms smuggling are those under military control, not the Coast Guard. The Border Guard and the Coast Guard have been involved in several scuffles when the BG interferes in CG efforts to combat smuggling. To the extent that the US is interested in border control, the facilitation of smuggling by aspects of the Yemeni security forces is an important consideration.

al Tagheer: أفادت مصادر مطلعة عن دوي انفجار شديد في ميناء الصيد بمديرية ميدي التابعة لمحافظة حجة صباح الاثنين في حوالي الساعة الرابعة فجرا تضرر فيه ثلاثة قوارب صيد احدهم يتبع ضباط بالجيش ويدعى محمد حنيش. Informed sources said a loud blast in the fishing port MIDI Directorate in the province of argument on Monday morning at about four o’clock am the damaged fishing boats, one of three military officers followed, Mohammed Hanish. (Read on …)

The financial disclosure law was passed in 2007, and its a great concept, but it lacks enforcement mechanisms. Two of 301 MP’s submitted the required form to date. This is not a Parliament that’s going to take the tough position of standing against “the powers that be” for reform, transparency or equal rights. There’s a lot of mafia types. Parliament is an institutionalizaton of tribal authority structures. The Parliament is a tool of Saleh with little autonomy, but a lot of latitude. Crimes are rarely punished and flourish. The Parliament is somewhat more outspoken lately but is not even remotely a counter-balance to the executive. Yemen’s decision makers are a shadow government (Saleh and his family and cronies), and the public has no mechanism of acountability.

Update: Yemen Times “There are around 36,000 officials who are included in the public sector and are obliged by the financial disclosure law to admit their financial disclosures every two years,” she (Vice-Chairman of the Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption Dr. Bilkis Abu Osba’) continued. “Since we created the financial disclosure sector, around 10,000 financial disclosures have been received.”

al Tagheer: Mohammed Al-Matari, head of the financial disclosure the Anti-corruption “Parliament” still ranks high on the list of backward and Late to provide financial disclosure statements. . . لافتا في تصريح لـ”الوحدوي ” إلى أن من بين 301 عضو هم عدد أعضاء البرلمان , تقدم فقط عضوان اثنان بإقرارات الذمة المالية . He noted in a statement to “unitary” to that of the 301 members are members of Parliament, the only two members of financial disclosure.

مبديا أسفه واستغرابه من عدم وجود تفاعل وتعاون من قبل البرلمان في هذا الشأن لما يمثله من سلطة دستورية وقانونية عليا في البلد . He expressed his regret and surprise at the lack of interaction and cooperation by the Parliament in this regard because it represents the authority of the constitutional and legal positions in the country. في حين لم تتلق الهيئة سوى 12 إقرارا بالذمة المالية من مجلس الشورى لعدد But it has not received the recognition of only 12 financial disclosure of the Shura Council of the number

أثنا عشر عضوا من أصل 111 عضوا هم عدد أعضاء مجلس الشورى .. Twelve members of the 111 members who are the number of members of the Shura Council ..

There’s a list no one can publish that names dozens of women who went into a specific jail and then had a baby more than a year later. The abuse (is that word strong enough?) of female prisoners is systemic and in some areas, organized. Its really very depressing, some of these are young girls.

Update: The post seems to be generating some response, including shock, so here’s a bit of our earlier coverage of the topic: Women Raped and Babies Sold from Jail, a report by the Sajeen Organization; Rape Victim Victimized a Second Time by the State, the cases of Susan M.S. Al-Mudhla’ and Anisa al-Shuaibi; Witness Testimony from Yemeni Prisons, heartbreaking stuff there; and CID Investigated on Rape Charge, not much happened…

The following is a bit from the current report from the Yemen Times:

Hodeida jails house large-scale human rights abuses, including rape, illegal detentions, overcrowding and shortages of food and water, according to a new report prepared by the National Forum for Human Rights.

The worst abuses take place when male guards are in charge of women, said Abdulhafidh Mu’jab, who prepared the report after a team of nine lawyers toured Hodeida detention centers.

“Women located in these unsafe places encourages violations or rapes,” he said.

And many women in Hodeida are detained before trial longer than is legal or humane, in facilities that are inadequate for female prisoners, he added.

“They should work on procedures to release women from prison and makes these procedures as fast as possible,” Mu’jab said.

According to Khalid Ayash, who heads the organization, women do not to report sexual assaults in jails because they fear the severe social stigma associated with rape in Yemen. (Read on …)

Southerners? Houthis? Actual criminals? Its hard to say, but likely few of these will recieve a fair trial or a trial at all. The Yemen Post reports: