Armies of Liberation

Yemen Post reports the demands are money and the release of imprisoned terrorists, but the demands themselves and the timing of the kidnapping, following a French call for Saleh to step down, the odd video without any al Qaeda characteristics, the tension with (if not expulsion of) the French ambassador for his remarks, the bombing of TOTAL’s pipeline and the pending UN resolution may all indicate the statement is yet another attempt by the Sana’a regime to spin the media away from the slaughter in the capital.

The situation echos that of the German hostages, a crime thought committed by Saleh loyalists linked to drug smugglers and al Qaeda. As the recent West Point paper pointed out, many of the security officials murdered by al Qaeda were in fact counter-narcotics agents, and that’s another area where the footprints of al Qaeda and the Sana’a regime overlap.

Obama should grab that sleazy slimy mass murderer rat Saleh by the throat and throttle him until he gives up these and all the Yemeni hostages. Dozens more severely wounded Yemenis were kidnapped by security forces in the last days, including women, but likely the Yemenis will get much less publicity. The regime has got to go.

Yemen Post: French Hostages in Yemen Face New Challenges

On May 28th, 2011, 3 French aid workers were kidnapped in the eastern Yemeni province of Hadramaut as they were conducting a field trip near Sayyun. (Read on …)

Damn. Its so shocking to see a video like that in Yemen but at least there’s no mention of AQAP or an AQ flag behind them. Article at al Masdar (ar). They were kidnapped after France expressed support for the revolution and urged Saleh to step down immediately.

Update: In French, each said his name and then the man speaks, apparently reading from a paper in front of him, that they were abducted in Yemen. The French man says that he was speaking on the 102 day since the abduction, which means it was registered before five days.

He said that the French government did not do anything for their cause, to free them, and directed his appeal to the French people, before the end of the video cuts off his words.

ah better. English:

ADEN — Three French aid workers feared to have been kidnapped in Yemen appeared in an online video on Monday nearly 11 weeks after they went missing, saying their abductors’ demands have not been met.

Al-Masdar Online, an independent Yemeni news website, posted the video on its website showing a man and two women, and saying that they were the French aid workers taken hostage in the southeast on May 28.
(Read on …)

These 428 were actually released, some after years and many broken pledges, thanks to the good offices of Qatar. There was a second release of several dozen and several hundred remain in jail.

Yemeni government releases 428 Houthis and gets back 10 military vehicles
30/12/2010 News Yemen: The government on Thursday released 428 Houthis who in return freed 10 military vehicles. (Read on …)

Summary: The Houthis captured AQAP operatives and Dammaj “students” -perhaps teachers- Hussain al-Tais and Mashhour al Ahdel in al Jawf in August. Al Tais, a former Gitmo detainee, was active in Saada, associated with General Ali Mohsen and Ammar al Waeli and thought to be involved with the kidnapping of the Germans in June 09. The rebels turned the two over to the security forces. AQAP then kidnapped the deputy director of the PSO in Saada, Ali Hosam, and issued a deadline for al Tais’s release. There was no further news on al Hosam. The two suicide attacks this week on the Houthis are thought to be in retaliation for al Tais’s capture. Yesterday AQAP kidnapped the head of the hospital in Saada to bargain for al-Tais’s release. They took him to the Wadi Abu Jubarah al Qaeda training camp. Ali Mohsen negotiated successfully with the AQAP kidnappers for the doctor’s release, based on a promise of the prisoners’ release, according to al Eshteraki and Yemen Online. Or possibly blacklisted weapons dealer Fares Manna did the negotiating, according to AFP via al Sahwa:

“Dhafer al-Shihri was freed after mediation led by a tribal chief, Sheikh Fares Mannaa,” the source told AFP, on condition of anonymity. He said the kidnappers who seized the doctor on Sunday had agreed to the release after a pledge that one of the jailed men, Abdullah al-Dibai, held for more than a year on charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda, would be freed…

“The kidnappers drove the hostage to the region of Wadi al-Ghabara,” 70 kilometres (40 miles) north of Saada, a local official who asked not to be identified told AFP. They had demanded the release of nine members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) imprisoned in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

“Among them are Saleh al-Tyss (ed- a/k/a Hussain al Tais) and Abdullah al-Ahdal (ed- a/k/a Mashhour al Ahdal per an earlier AQAP statement), two leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula held in Yemen, and Saleh al-Shihri, another AQAP leader jailed in Saudi Arabia,” the local official added….

Tension has been rife between the Shiite rebels and AQAP in northern Yemen since the rebels detained five Al-Qaeda members whom they handed over to Yemeni authorities over the past two weeks.

Also the doctor in an interview after his release reports seeing three other kidnapped Yemenis, including a military officer, so that’s a hopeful indication of the fate of kidnapped PSO Commander Hosam.

(Read on …)

Like the USS Cole bombers, all the surviving member of the Aden Abyan Islamic Army who kidnapped 16 western tourists in 1998 were ultimately released. The US is trying to get Abu Hamza to the US to stand trial.

NY Times: A British government ruling stripping the Egyptian-born Muslim cleric known as Abu Hamza al-Masri of his British citizenship was struck down Friday by a special immigration court. But government officials said the court’s action would not affect the government’s plan to extradite the cleric to the United States, where he is wanted on terrorism charges. (Read on …)

On September 20, AQAP issued a demand for the release of Hussain al Tais in exchange for Ali Hosam. details here. The spraying in the face is similar to an incident several years ago against a southern journalist.

Original: We all remember abu Jabarah in Saada, where the al Qaeda training camp is, under the direction and protection of Ali Mohsen al Ahmar, who was also seeking to negotiate in Lauder. The al Tais family pop up regularly as hard core jihaddists with close connections to Ali Mohsen. The Yemen Observer notes: The Sa’dah Deputy security director (Ali Abdulhusam) was kidnapped by armed gunmen after being spraying him with an anesthetic and taken to an unknown place..This case is similar to that of the kidnapping of the German doctors who were found dead in one of the Governorate’s directorates.

Earlier on Abu Jubarah and the German hostages.

Saada Online – Special
Friday, August 27th, 2010 م

Revealed local sources in Saada province for “Saada Online” for important information about the kidnapping of Deputy Director of Political Security in Sa’ada, “Ali Hussam,” saying that the armed elements had abducted Thursday from his home in the neighborhood of “officers” in the center of Sa’ada, and signs that fingers point to the family of “Al-Tais” known by their affiliations to the extreme and of being officers in the Northern Command Bank and living in the valley of “The Abu Jabara,” said a local resident that the kidnapping may have been due to demand, “Al-Tais,” the release of a relative with detainees at the political security.

It is noteworthy that the abduction “Ali Hussam,” is very similar to the details of the abduction of German doctors and indications are that and also their views of “The Abu Jabara,” especially since the kidnapping was the center of the city of Saada, where there are military units, military and security services intensively , reported media sources confirmed that two men stood in a jeep, Morocco, on Thursday in front of the home of Colonel Hussam, and roads door and when he went out to them they fired on his face spray anesthesia and he fainted and they carried him to the back of the jeep, which was brought down the curtain on the rear to block the vision of her own Customs . Sadah Online

Full text of the YO story below:

The Sa’dah Deputy security director was kidnapped by armed gunmen after being spraying him with an anesthetic and taken to an unknown place.

The kidnapping story of Sa’dah deputy security director is still mysterious.

As the security authorities decline to give any information, the local council’s General Secretary Mohammed al-Emad showed reservation when speaking to News Yemen.

This case is similar to that of the kidnapping of the German doctors who were found dead in one of the Governorate’s directorates.

The deputy security director Ali Abdulhusam was kidnapped by unknown gunmen while he was leaving his house for afternoon prayer in the officers’ area in the middle of Sa’dah city last Thursday.

Sources say that gunmen in a jeep intercepted him and took him to an unknown place.

The sources also said that two men standing in front of Abdulhusam’s house sprayed

an anesthetic on his face and took him unconscious into the jeep’s box, covering the rear of the car to conceal the plates.

The source said that the Jeep was seen crossing al-Gablat road south east of Sa’dah and that is it took Atwah road heading to Nashor area.

The state’s failure to release the prisoners as required by the truce itself, not to mention the May 22 amnesty announcement, was predictable. It happened in every cease fire since 2005. Similarly, little reconstruction occurred over the last five years despite all the funds donated and numerous announcements. Of the 3000 political prisoners, the breakdown is roughly 1000 entirely innocent (arrested for suspected sympathy with the rebels), 1000 rebels and 1000 southerners arrested during protests or during night raids on activists’ homes. Also several journalists. There’s still about 2200 in jail and its a continuing source of friction and a bargaining chip against the larger populace, but as the RAND report correctly notes, the truces are a tactic of war, not a method of peace.

SANAA, 24 June 2010 (IRIN) – Abdulmalik al-Houthi, leader of the Shia rebels in the northern governorate of Saada, has accused the government of reneging on amnesty promises made by President Ali Abdullah Saleh on 22 May.

Saleh had announced an amnesty for all imprisoned southern separatists and Houthi rebels in the north during a speech to commemorate unification in 1990.

“Instead of releasing our fellow citizens in line with President Saleh’s amnesty, security authorities in the government are launching new arrest campaigns against our men,” al-Houthi said in a statement on 22 June.

According to local media reports, fewer than 800 of the more than 3,000 prisoners believed to be covered by the amnesty have been released.

Asked why the government had not released all of the prisoners under the amnesty, Interior Ministry official Lutfi Nisari said only: “This is a presidential affair.” (Read on …)

Quite a fascinating interview at Naba News with the American Ludmila Yamalova after she was freed from her kidnappers in Yemen.

1. Your feeling as a woman when tribesmen kidnapped you, did you think that they may kill you or being raped?

a. Answer. Yes, after the first half-hour of denial that this nightmare was happening and the intense conviction that it was going to end …the fear of physical violence kicked in. I started remembering previous hostage situations, which had ended tragically. Images of rape and killing kept crossed my mind for the next fifteen or so minutes… These fears were further perpetuated because for the first hour or so, we had no idea what was going on and what the agenda was. There was a lot of screaming, yelling, talking on multiple mobile phones, anger, angst and, what seemed like, confusion. It was difficult to tell how I fit into the whole picture and what their motives were against me, individually, and us, as a couple.

2. How did they treat you during the period of hostage? (Read on …)