Armies of Liberation

Armies of Liberation covers all Yemen related topics. The reverse magnetic field in the Gulf of Aden has spawned theories that it is a) a worm hole opening b) aliens or c) an underwater military base. These wacky theories are augmented by the international attention to the area including China’s first naval excursion in a century, Iran’s ships and the many western countries that are patrolling the Bab al Mendab for piracy. However the reason for the reverse magnetism is much more likely its this:

Gulf of Aden axial magnetic anomaly and the Curie temperature isotherm
Nature.com, D. Tamsett & R. W. Girdler

School of Physics, The University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK

The main features of magnetic anomalies over ocean ridges have been explained1 as a corollary of seafloor spreading and geomagnetic reversals. Oceanic crust is formed in a narrow region, becoming magnetized in the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field as its temperature falls through the Curie point of the magnetic minerals present. The Gulf of Aden was one of the first places where reversely magnetized sea floor was recognized2. The seafloor spreading direction and latitude are such that the anomaly due to normal magnetization is negative and slightly skewed.

Positive anomalies were also observed suggesting the presence of reverse magnetization. A short wavelength magnetic anomaly which frequently occurs superimposed on the axial magnetic anomaly in the Gulf of Aden is now described. Various interpretations are considered; the preferred involves a dramatic shallowing of the Curie temperature isotherm close to the seafloor spreading centre. The interpretation has implications for models of the generation of oceanic lithosphere and for locating possible geothermal areas in rifted regions.

Who leaked this to Reuters at this time? Wikileaks had it but why this one and why now while there are battling? Saleh has some powerful friends. And taking the portfolio and handing it to Ahmed was no effort to increase transparency but to consolidate control.

Exclusive: Arcadia may have rigged Yemen exports: cable

(Reuters) – Oil trading firm Arcadia Petroleum, sued by regulators last week for allegedly manipulating U.S. oil prices, used hardball tactics in Yemen to buy the country’s oil exports at below market prices, until authorities revamped their sales process to break the trading house’s “long-standing monopoly”, according to a confidential State Department cable. (Read on …)

Yemen: President Saleh refuses to meet US official after Wikileaks cables
20/12/2010 News Yemen: President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused to receive the US Assistant Secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, in protest to Wikileaks cables on Yemen, al-Ahaly independent weekly quoted special sources as saying. (Read on …)

Yemen Post: In an interview with Al-Jazeera this week, I was asked if the Yemeni people were shocked by the WikiLeaks reports. I said that most of what was revealed was expected, and the Yemeni people already know that its government does not have a national agenda. Those nations that do not have agendas are forced to follow others agendas. That is the policy of life. (Read on …)

The al Qaeda-centric analysis focused on threat assessment rightfully bemoans the probable impact of Wikileaks on AQAP’s media arms. Wikileaks will be exploited by al Qaeda media moguls, including the pseudo cleric Anwar al Awlaki and the ever obnoxious Samir Khan. They might even mention it in the Arabic mag. But Wikileaks is also bolstering AQAP’s counter-weights.

The Houthis, southerners, HR activists, tribesmen and the rest of Yemen are also finding the documents support their worldviews, which in many cases contain overlapping premises. In the Yemeni equilibrium, the documents strengthen many narratives, not just al Qaeda’s, but only to the extent that the information is being incorporated. (For more read, my paper Comparative Counter-insurgency in Yemen at the GLORIA center.)

Still its all old news. The Yemeni intelligence’s attempt to assassinate General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar by giving Saudi fighter jets false coordinates is not even slightly shocking to the average farmer. Yemen is the land of conspiracy theories because Yemen is the land of conspiracies. To follow is an excerpt of an insightful, as usual, Yemen Times editorial which puts the impact of the documents in context:

Wikileaks and public opinion, Nadia Al-Sakkaf: In countries like Yemen, it’s hard to say a ‘public opinion’ really exists. Most of the people are unaware of politics because they either illiterate or tucked away in rural areas with no access to independent news. Even for those who are aware, they are indifferent because they are not interested.

Moreover, the Yemeni nation’s memory is very short and the country as a whole lacks vision. This means that people do not look into the past to make decisions about the present and future. This is probably due to lack of education and awareness but mostly because a sense of ownership does not really exist.

Most Yemenis do not think they have a say or a responsibility towards their country. They do not take ownership of the situation of Yemen today and their role in making things better.

This is why even a hundred Wikileaks will not make a difference for Yemen. It will only confirm what we already know and have done nothing about.

This is also why the Yemeni government did not think much before responding with, “the information is both un-true and a misinterpretation of what really happened and that Yemen does not care about what is being said or published.”

What really matters is creating a strong public opinion in Yemen and making sure that this is a representative of the people and that it has value. Without this, nothing anyone can do or say will make any difference.

For another good view of Wiki/Yemen, see the YT’s Is Yemen’s Cable a Breaking Point?

I really should start making bets for money. Al Alimi was summoned to Parliament earlier in the week to discuss the revelation that he joked about lying to Parliament. (At the time of the December airstrike, the JMP opposition parties withdrew but the uber-majority GPC dutifully pretended to believe the lie.) Al Alimi rescheduled for today, Saturday, and was again a no-show. Yemen’s rubber stamp parliament, dominated by President Saleh’s ruling GPC, doesn’t have the capacity to hold al Alimi or any of the ministers to account.

The last time he was summoned I believe was after the second al Qaeda attack on the South Koreans in 2008. A pedestrian suicide bomber bounced off the convoy of SK officials in Yemen to investigate the earlier suicide attack that killed three SK tourists in Hadramout. It was apparent that AQAP had information on the route of the convoy in advance. When he finally showed up, al Alimi admitted that the security services are infiltrated by al Qaeda, but he diagnosed it as low level and a function of corruption. Then he denied saying it. And in case you are interested, the headline coming out of the Human Rights conference was, “Alimi calls for civil society organizations to expose human rights violations and document them.” (Read on …)

The revelation that the “US saw Yemen as key transit hub for arms to Hamas” is going to be well received by the majority in Yemen, but its another criminal activity that is widely understood. The rash of exploding Yemeni fishing boats and one light aircraft that exploded in the Sudan were indications. For some context, there’s the saga of the shipload of Chinese weapons smuggled into Yemen with false documents last year and thought to have been ultimately trans shipped to the Sudan. Also see my aptly titled article, Drug Smuggling and Other Crimes of the Yemeni Dictator at World Press.Org published Oct. 14, 2005. The relevant section follows:

Weapons Trafficking: Both the United States and the United Nations have expressed concern regarding the amount of illegal arms transfers from Yemen. The Yemeni weapons pipeline has two sources of supply: the black market and legitimate military purchases.

Published reports have indicated that local gangs of arms traffickers in Serbia, Slovakia, Montenegro, Croatia and Kosovo ship weapons from the ports in Montenegro and Croatia to Yemen. Additionally some weapons purchased by the Yemeni military are diverted into the black market. The serial numbers for two assault rifles used in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia have been traced to Yemen’s Defense Ministry. Five U.S. consulate employees died in the attack. (Read on …)

Wow, more stuff we all knew already:
- The drone downed in March 2007 was US not Iranian.
- President Saleh met and released escaped USS Cole bomber Jamal al Badawi shortly before Frances Townsend’s Oct 2007 visit.
- Saleh haggled on the Gitmo detainees, bargaining for money.
(Read on …)