Armies of Liberation

Update: Is he or isn’t he in Saudi Arabia? Even the international media is issuing contradictory reports. The CCRYC recommends the formation of local governing and security committees. Ali al Ansi, head of the National Security, in a very Alexander Hague move, some call coup attempt, announces he is forming a military council to run the country until Saleh recovers. Others from the GPC say al Hadi should be in charge but that’s unconstitutional, not that the GPC cares much for the constitution.

Original: Its entirely unclear who launched the attack on the presidential palace: still nine theories and no evidence. Several of the wounded from the palace were flown to SA. One thing is clear, the State Department’s contacts in Yemen are so bad or so duplicitous that Toner was announcing Saleh was uninjured based on those sources. “Our Embassy staff are reaching to contacts on the ground there. We’ve received conflicting reports regarding the attack on the presidential compound, including who was injured and whether or not anyone was killed. While we have heard that President Saleh was uninjured, we can’t – we cannot yet independently confirm that… We’re saying that we have heard that he was uninjured through our contacts, but we’re still unable to independently confirm it.”

CNN: “Those transferred (to SA after attack on palace) include prime minister, Ali Mujawar; deputy prime ministers Rashad al-Alimi and Sadeq Amin Abu Rasand; Shura Council Chairman Abdul Aziz Abdul Ghani; Parliament speaker Yahya Al-Raee; and Shura Council Chairman Abdul Aziz Abdul Ghan. A Yemeni official who asked not to be named told CNN that Saleh was in the mosque when two “projectiles” were fired during Friday prayers. He confirmed the death of Sheikh Ali Mohsen al-Matari and four bodyguards. State-run news agency SABA, citing a source in Saleh’s office, said three guards and the sheikh were killed.”

al Masdar reports Saudi doctors were flown in to treat Saleh. Al Arabya and al Jazeera reporting Saleh will be (or is) flown to SA for treatment. Reports also indicate the SAudi King negotiated a cease fire in Sanaa.

Who is treating the injured protesters? Maybe the US can send that floating hospital offshore to treat the thousands injured and without care or air drop medical supplies and food.

Ahram “Ten people were killed and 35 others wounded when Republican Guard troops shelled the home” of Sheikh Hamid on Friday, in an apparent tit-for-tat attack, an aide in his office told AFP on Saturday.
(Read on …)

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 …)

There seems to be a few fake announcements coming out of the south. But the following JMP statement is real enough, a tad late, not issued in English and lacks a contact number etc. Below the fold, JMP calls for international community to take action to stop the blood shed and the US takes a less than clear position.

Yemen Post: Any government after the current regime in Yemen will be a strong ally of the international community in the war against terrorism and Al-Qaeda, spokesmen for the Joint Meeting Parties, the opposition coalition, said on Monday. The statement comes amid U.S. warnings of Al-Qaeda in Yemen amid the escalating unrest, but as the U.S. is now suggesting that Saleh stand down.

Muhammad Qahtan said the coming regime will be better than the Saleh regime which exploited the issue of Al-Qaeda and the war against terrorism to deceive the world and use the anti-terror funds for personal interests.

” Meanwhile, we welcome the interest of the GCC countries in Yemen’s stability and security as well as their support to the choice of the Yemeni people, who have been staging protests and sit-ins to call for the ouster of President Saleh. The efforts of the U.S and EU envoys to Yemen to prevent further deterioration of the country amid the current crisis are also welcome,” he said. (Read on …)

Reuters

The Houthis, Jadban said, want effective representation in a national dialogue to take place if the popular movement manages to remove Saleh from office.

Jadban was until recently a member of Saleh’s ruling party, the General People’s Congress Party until he resigned last week along with 11 other parliamentarians to protest Saleh’s refusal to meet street demands to step down. (Read on …)

The last time there were widespread protests against Saleh was the 2005 oil riots which overtook the whole country. This is different because there’s no easy way to placate the protesters (like reinstating the subsidies as occurred in 2005 after some tribesmen highjacked oil tankers). One similarity is that Al Motamar reports that university officials deny that any students attended the rallies and imply as usual that its all a JMP plot.

SANAA, Yemen January 22, 2011, NPR: Thousands of Yemeni protesters have called for the ouster of their president after 32 years in power. (Read on …)

Hamid al Ahmar reiterated his call for Saleh to resign and condemned the unilateral action taken in Parliament that paves the way for Saleh’s continuing reign. Nearly all the constitutional amendments since 1990 have reduced civil rights and popular empowerment.

Hamid al-Ahmar: Al-Qaeda emerges from the Presidential Palace January 5, 2011 – Sahwa Net – Secretary General of the National Dialogue Preparation Commission Hamid al-Ahmar strongly slammed the ruling party polices in Yemen, calling President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. (Read on …)

If its an agreement between two political parties on behalf of their members, then the details should have been public from the get-go. Yemen Post

A source in the Supreme Council for the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) told Yemen Post that the JMP decided in its meeting to form a panel of the Supreme Council in order to do to Sa’ada and inform the Houthis of the main points and details of the agreement of February 2009, signed between them and the General People’s Congress. (Read on …)

Photo Aden Press