Armies of Liberation

Also a write up of the range of reactions in Yemen by Nasser Arrabyee here

YE1.org (googlish): Association of the enemies of terrorism

هنا نسجل تبادل التهاني بمناسبة الإعلان عن مقتل بن لادن We note here the exchange of greetings on the occasion of announcement of the death of bin Laden (Read on …)

Security forces were firing straight into the crowd again, and the 100 injured are suffering from gunshots not tear gas. The YP also reports “85 antigovernment protesters were kidnapped by the republican guards and the central security forces.”

Yemen Post: At least twelve anti government protesters were killed and over a hundred injured when the security forces intercepted and attacked a massive demonstration calling for an immediate ouster of the regime in the Yemeni capital Sana’a on Wednesday.

“We don’t have enough medicine to treat the over one hundred shot by the government. We call on the international community to give us medicine to save those the government shot from dying,” said Dr. Naneeb Ghanem, a senior medical staff member at Sanaa change square.

He added, “the language of bullets and killing is what this regime wants to spread. It’s a massacre against humanity and human rights. Eleven have been killed and the number is expected to rise.”

The death toll was expected to rise from the attack on the hundreds of thousands of the protesters at the TV and Radio Corporation area, medical sources said.

The security forces are continuing heavy fire after they had failed to stop the demonstrators, who are chanting slogans demanding the resignation of President Saleh and condemning the deadly crackdown on the people seeking change, said Iyad Muhammad, a protester.

The Saleh regime has many tried and true tactics to hide the truth of what is happening in Yemen from their own citizens and international observers beyond censoring the internet: expelling and/or restricting foreign journalists, cloning news papers, death threats, bribes and corruption, outright lies to international media, closing newspapers, confiscating issues, fines and of course jail and trumped up charges, kidnapping and assaults.

Yemen Post: Yemen’s most famous news outlet, Mareb Press website was blocked by the Yemeni government for covering the current news of the Yemeni youth revolution, which is demanding the ouster of President Saleh’s regime. (Read on …)

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.

The Yemeni government systematically clones newspapers, people, twitterers, NGO’s, opposition parties, Facebook groups, websites and labor unions. The following press release is an initiative to keep track of the stooges on Facebook.

In an attempt to halt a growing number of attacks on facebook groups calling for the end of Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime, Yemen Portal started a service allowing the public to report facebook members that are known to have pro-regime stances and those who may have attempted to disrupt or attack efforts of anti-Saleh groups.

This has come as a response to calls and complaints by many administrators and members of pro-revolution groups that suffered from a sudden influx of members that attempted to prevent the group from reaching its objectives, demoralize members, or even divert the group’s course to become pro-Saleh instead of anti-Saleh.
(Read on …)

A press release from Yemen Online (The site, or what’s left of it, is here: http://yemenonline.info/.) Al Masdar Online was blocked inside Yemen last week.

YemenOnline daily news attacked by unknown hackers and the owner points to new government violation against press in Yemen, 6/3/2011

Sana’a-Yemen: The daily news web site YemenOnline’s attacked this morning by unknown hackers and has been to manipulate contents of the information and photos . The owner of YemenOnline , Jamal Al-Awadhi pointed to a new government violation against press and freedom of expression in Yemen. We already received calls that criticized our news policy because of our neutrality and independence of publishing the current news of Yemen ‘ Al-Awadhi said. (Read on …)

نزولاً عند طلب العديد من قراء النافذة الثورية في يمن بورتال وعدد من أعضاء المجموعات الثورية التي تطالب بإسم الشباب اليمني بإسقاط نظام الرئيس على عبد الله صالح فوراً وبدون أي حوار، قام محرك البحث يمن بورتال بتدشين خدمة لاستقبال بلاغات حول اعضاء الفيسبوك المعارضين لتحركات الشباب على الفيسبوك لإسقاط النظام. وقد تزايدت هذه الطلبات بسبب التكاثر المفاجئ للأعضاء الجدد في الفيسبوك الذين يقومون بالإنضمام للمجموعات الثورية ومحاولة تحويل توجهها أو التشويش على اعضائها وإحباط هدفها. (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 …)

This is total crap, everyone including me the same day exposed that it was the US that carried out the December airstrikes.

News Yemen: Described as a model for journalism in principle and that he was the voice of truth in a choppy sea with waves of falsehood and deception
Anwar al-Awlaki calls for media to continue the march of Haider and expose the practices of the Yemeni government and the U.S.
13/02/2011 (Read on …)

ABC

An Arab intelligence agent has told the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent program that Australian citizens have been seen in Al Qaeda terrorist training camps in Yemen.

Yemen is fast earning a reputation as a launching pad for Jihadi-inspired terrorism.

The Arabian Peninsula nation is also the refuge of American-born radical cleric Anwar Al Awlaki, who recently became the first US citizen to be placed on the CIA’s official assassination list.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has listed 20 Australian citizens as persons of interest because they seem to have disappeared from the radar after travelling to Yemen.

Now there is new evidence young Australian men have indeed been recruited to Al Qaeda training camps.

For several months Foreign Correspondent has been in touch with an Arab intelligence agent who says he visited Al Qaeda camps and observed several Australians there.

“They have all kinds [of training]. They have Islamic studies; they have training in weapons; they have training in explosives,” he said.

“They also have a classroom with computers for training on the internet.”

The intelligence operative claims the camps are directed by Anwar Al Awlaki, a man whose other devotees have included the so-called underpants bomber – a young Al Qaeda-trained Nigerian man who tried to blow up an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009.

“Their leader is Anwar Al Awlaki; he is their spiritual guiding father; he is second only to Osama bin Laden,” he said.

“He knows that the internet is more powerful than the gun.”

In a desperately poor country with little oil or water, Al Qaeda has taken root in small desert villages in Yemen’s south.

There are sporadic clashes with government troops, but in some places Al Qaeda is the law. Its fighters have the run of communities.

Normally I cant tell what the heck the US statements mean or what the real message is, but this seems pretty clear: don’t open fire on the protesters tomorrow and the promise to reform is nothing without action.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
February 03, 2011
Readout of President’s Call with President Saleh of Yemen

President Obama called President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen on February 2 to welcome the significant reform measures that President Saleh had announced earlier that day, and to stress that President Saleh now needs to follow-up his pledge with concrete actions. President Obama asked that Yemeni security forces show restraint and refrain from violence against Yemeni demonstrators who are exercising their right to free association, assembly, and speech. The President also told President Saleh that it is imperative that Yemen take forceful action against Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to protect innocent lives in Yemen as well as abroad. Finally, President Obama expressed concern over the release of Abd-Ilah al-Shai, who had been sentenced to five years in prison for his association with AQAP. President Saleh thanked the President for U.S. support and committed to continuing and strengthening relations with the United States.

Saleh’s version from DOD website

26 Sept: In his phone call to President Saleh, Obama praised the initiative President Saleh announced today that included several positive steps, mainly wise and significant reforms. (Read on …)

Journalists are daily targets all over the Middle East, and regularly get beaten, kidnapped and their equipment stolen in order to hide the truth of one dictatorship or another. Its surprising the western journalists are so shocked by their first taste of it in Egypt.

Crackdown on a number of Human Rights associations and disappearance of Egyptian, American and Algerian Human Rights Activists. The lives and the safety of the activists is the responsibility of the Egyptian Army

Cairo Thu Feb 3, 2011
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and the Egyptian Association for the Advancement of community participation Announcing its their deep concern for the lives and safety of “Ahmed Seif al-Islam Hamad”, the director of the Hisham Mubarak Center for Law and “Khaled Ali” the Director of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, and the number of workers at the two centers, as well as a researcher for Amnesty International “Said Hadad”, also an American Citizen researcher of division of Human Rights Watch, “Daniel Williams” after the siege of the building, which includes two centers located in downtown, by some thugs and gangs ,who are followers of the Ruling
National Democratic Party, and the storming of the centers of forces claimed as belonging to the military police, In about three o’clock this afternoon, which was closed Telephones human rights activists and under siege imposed by criminal gangs on the building, the Arab and Egyptian network could not be able to enter the building and assurance on the lives of human rights activists at the moment. (Read on …)

heh, wasn’t me or anybody that I know, really… Update: many back up already. Heavy traffic on the web may be making it wonky. Update 2: The sites are now all showing moved or under construction. Not the the website of the Yemeni parliament is much use anyway. U (Read on …)

تبدأ بمسيرة 3 فبراير، يمن بورتال وكراود ڤويس يدشنان قسماً لمتابعة أخبار المسيرات والاحتجاجات في اليمن

الاربعاء، 2 فبراير 2011

قام محرك البحث يمن بورتال نت وموقع كراود ڤويس (Crowd Voice) بتدشين صفحة “المسيرات والاحتجاجات الشعبية في اليمن” والتي يمكن الوصول إليها عبر الرابط: http://crowdvoice.org/yemen أو https://yemenportal.net/protests.

وستقوم هذه الصفحة بتجميع وسرد أخبار ومواد متعلقة بالأحداث المتسارعة للمسيرات والاحتجاجات التي يتم تسييرها في شتى مناطق اليمن. وتم المضي بهذه الخطوة للتعريف بما يدور في البلاد خصوصاً مع ازدياد عدد الأخبار التي يقوم محرك البحث يمن بورتال نت برصدها على مدار الساعة لا سيما من المواقع الجنوبية والمعارضة والمستقلة التي تنقل أخباراً وصوراً وكليبات فيديو حول المسيرات والتظاهرات والاحتجاجات التي تدور في شتى المحافظات اليمنية.

وحرصاً على ان تكون الصفحة مفتوحة ومتنوعة، سيتم السماح بنشر المواد حول الفعاليات بغض النظر عن مصدرها ولن يتم منع اي روابط متعلقة بأحداث تدور رحاها داخل الحدود اليمنية أو خارجها طالما كانت مرتبطة باليمن.

وما يميز هذه الصفحة أنها ستسمح لمستخدمي الانترنت من إضافة روابط أو صور أو كليبات فيديو لها علاقة بالمسيرات والاحتجاجات في اليمن ولن يحتاج المساهمون إلى التسجيل أو ذكر اسمائهم أو مقارهم وذلك حرصاً على خصوصيتهم.

ويجدر ذكره أن كراود ڤويس، الذي أطلقته شبكة شباب الشرق الأوسط (MidEast Youth) رسميًا في يونيو 2010، هو مجمع للأخبار والمواضيع في مكان واحد ليسهّل عملية تصفّحها، وترشيحها، وإعادة نشرها. ويعتمد الموقع على تقنية جديدة مبتكرة ومتميزة في مجال الإعلام الاجتماعي ليس فقط في إتاحته التفاعل معه من قِبل المستخدمين، بل في تمكين المستخدمين من صناعة محتواهم الخاص (User-generated Media). ويتيح كراود ڤويس بذلك آفاقًا جديدة لم تكن موجودة من قبل، بل ويرسم أبعادًا أكثر رحابةً، ليعبر بها ما بعد عصر المعلومات (Post-information Age)، وتحديدًا إلى عصر اليقظة (Attention Age).

ويرحب يمن بورتال وكراود ڤويس بإضافة بانر أو رابط خاص بهذه الصفحة على المواقع اليمنية للتعريف بهذه الفعاليات التي تشهدها البلاد ورفع مستوى وعي مستخدمي الانترنت في اليمن والعالم بشأنها. وأفضل الطرق للحصول على البانر هو عبر زيارة الصفحة: http://crowdvoice.org/yemen والنقر على GRAB BLOG WIDGET ونسخ الكود الذي سيعرض ومن ثم لصقة في الصفحة الرئيسية في الموقع أو المدونة.

صور مرتبطة بالخبر

شعار للموقع (عربي): http://174.120.100.74/~investor/feb3/feb3-yemen.png

شعار (انجليزي): http://174.120.100.74/~investor/feb3/feb3-yemen-ar.png

لقطة للصفحة: http://174.120.100.74/~investor/feb3/feb3.gif

روابط ذات علاقة:

· موقع كراود ڤويس: http://crowdvoice.org

· موقع يمن بورتال نت: https://yemenportal.net

· موقع شباب الشرق الأوسط: http://mideastyouth.com

· موقع الكاسر (لكسر الحجب عن المواقع): https://alkasir.com ويمكنكم الحصول على برنامج كسر الحجب عن موقع يمن بورتال عبر ارسال رسالة الكترونية إلى get-ar@alkasir.com

· للاستفسار: admin@yemenportal.net

Wow, Saleh is really scrambling to appease everybody. Shaea was kidnapped in August and arrested in September, tried and sentenced to five years for supporting al Qaeda after releasing several interviews and statements from Anwar al Awlaki. The YJS and international media advocates have been lobbying for his release. Update: Yemen Post reports he’s out.

News Yemen: President Ali Abdullah Saleh has reportedly ordered the release of imprisoned journalist and expert of terrorist groups’ affairs AbdulElah Haidar Shaye. (Read on …)

When bribes, cloning, apologies and counter-protests are not enough, there’s always the threat of fines, death threats and hacking news sites. They can’t shoot protesters in the head in Sana’a like they do in Radfan and Habaylean, or bomb residential areas like they do in Saada. The state of Yemen is certainly not going to institute and implement any meaningful reforms, so it comes down to the same pile of tricks.

The streets in Sana’a are empty today and the “northern protest movement” may just fizzle out because the opposition parties are as afraid of disrupting the status quo as the regime and the people with jobs don’t want to risk their families’ dinner. Tawakkol Karaman has been leading protests in “Freedom Square” every Tuesday for at least a year. The new thing was the university students were charmed by the fall of Bin Ali, and it seems most of Yemen is chewing qat and watching TV. (The Egyptian protests are mesmerizing.)

Following the 2006 election, the JMP relinquished its claims of voter fraud and ballot stuffing in exchange for promises of electoral and constitutional reform, which never occurred, thereby leading to the postponement of the 2009 parliamentary election. But one strong factor in the decision at the time was the JMP’s fear of spiraling instability, a legitimate concern.

Yemen Online: Un-known hackers have manipulated yesterday by the last updated news that published on YemenOnline on the last events in Yemen . Yemenonline editors found the all the latest updates that covered the demonstrations against the president have been deleted .

It’ seems an undeclared war against freedom of expression and what happened means that there is control over the sites and there are those who intervene to manipulate by the news and articles using new technology ’ Jamal Al-Awadhi editor in chief of YemenOnline said.

Regarding the death threat on Tawakkol Karaman, Amnesty, UK reports:

Tawakkol Karman, the president of the Yemeni NGO Women Journalists without Chains, was arrested on 23 January for taking part in a student demonstration in Sana’a. The demonstration expressed solidarity with protests in Tunisia and called for an end to the rule of the current Yemeni president, who has been in power since 1978.

Ms Karman was released a day later and charged with taking part in an unlicensed protest. Dozens of other activists were also arrested and charged with the same offence.

According to information received by Amnesty, Tawakkol Karman’s brother was reported to have received a phone call on 26 January asking him to either confine his sister to her house or “those who weaken the whip of obedience would be killed”. (Read on …)

They all do this, Fahd al Qarni, al-Khaiwani etc. Its important not to leave the others behind in jail while the spotlight is still on the situation, but sooner or later their friends drag them out. CNN reports Karaman ultimately went home after a promise that the others would be released. She’s on a hunger strike. Hopefully everyone else will be released shortly and all will be well.

Yemen Post: Kerman refused to be released without the detainees who were arrested while defending her yesterday. According to official sources, 21 protesters and activists are still in jail.

Karman is currently protesting inside the prosecutions office in Sana’a where she vowed not to leave until all were released. (Read on …)

Amnesty International is off on the wrong track accusing the US of orchestrating the arrest as retaliation because Abdulelah broke the story of the civilian deaths in the December 2009 US airstrike in Abyan. Its an absurd allegation because he wasn’t the one who broke the story. Everybody knew within hours. Below the fold is a DPA article describing the evidence against Shaea, which seems a little thin from the story.

Yemeni journalist sentenced to five years for terror links By Nasser Arrabyee/18/01/2011:
A Yemeni journalist was sentenced on Tuesday to five years in prisons for links with the Yemen-based Al Qaeda.

The journalist Abdul Elah Haidar Shaea, was sentenced to five years and his colleague Abdul Kareem Al Shami was sentenced to two years in prison. The two men were convicted of forming an armed gang to work with the Yemen-based Al Qaeda branch, Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). (Read on …)