Armies of Liberation

There were a lot of articles on the anti-Mohsen protest on Saleh regimists funded “independent” websites, but I finally found it on what looks to be a non-aligned site. Continuing and growing momentum in the protests against corrupt military leaders and other top corrupt officials (known jointly as the institutional revolution) is a good development. Ali Mohsen’s history and connection to extremists is just as bad as the Saleh boys and nephews. The protesters also demanded that Ali Mohsen release all the prisoners he’s holding without any basis. The hegemony of Islahis, because of their funding and muscle, in the square derailed the drive toward a civil state and divided the protesters.

Mersad: Observatory – rebounds: Protest this morning outside the house of the President Hadi Street, sixty in the capital Sanaa, thousands of officers described the soldiers of the north-west and the First Armored Division, demanding dismissal and the trial of General Almends Mohsen al-Ahmar commander of the First Armored Division – revolutionary youth popular- as a result of crimes committed against them and the rights of the people of Yemen. (Read on …)

Saleh frequently resorted to denouncing his opponents in religious terms and framing armed clashes as legitimate jihad with fatwas from his clerics. The CCYR supports equal rights, intellectual freedom and a civil foundation for the impending state and is highlighting the increasing use of fatwas and taqfirism by hard liners to short circuit reform, and intimidate the public at large and activists in particular.

Yemen: Civic Coalition of Youth Revolution condemns Takfirism campaign

“The Civic Coalition of Youth Revolution” CCYR has reviewed the dangers besetting the homeland and revolution with its supreme goal of the new democratic civil Yemen, for sake of which people made big sacrifices.

The CCYR noticed a most important hint in such a historical moment represented in a return to language of Takfeer /Takfirism, exclusion and cancel of others . These are the same values practiced by the former regime throughout 33 years, for which the people of Yemen took to streets.

Most importantly is that it is an influential player within one of the biggest joint meeting parties’ components that practices such behavior and while such a player did not abide by the declared political program of the Islah party, it also did the same for the first goal of revolution represented through establishing the new civil democratic country that respect freedom of thought, belief and of expression.

The CCRY, having condemned such behavior of past black era logic, confirms continue peaceful struggle against any obstacles facing the new Yemen dream of the people.

The CCYR calls Islah leadership to express their attitude towards such practices in a clear manner, for it is an influencing individuals in Islah party who did so.

The CCYR informs all forces of modernization and civilians with care about future of Yemen to practice role of raising awareness on such risks and to fight them everywhere.

The CCYR confirms solidarity with all involved in the Takfirism campaign, Bushra Almaqtary, Fikry Qassem, Salah Aldakak, Muhsen Aed, Sami Shamsan, Adel no’man being last of them.

I add my support. Google translation below:

بيان إدانة واستنكار

في استهداف واضح ومتعمد لحرية التفكير والتعبير، واستمرار لنهج الإقصاء والاستقواء بالدين؛ تتعرض الكاتبة بشرى المقطري لحملة تكفير من قبل جماعات متطرفة تعمد إلى استحضار ثقافة إلغاء العقل، وتجريم الفكر الحر.

وأطلت القوى الظلامية المدججة بفتاوى الإلحاد وتغليب منطق التكفير على رؤى التفكير مجدداً بحملة واسعة النطاق على خلفية مقال كتبته بشرى المقطري الناشطة في أهم ساحة من ساحات الثورة، ساحة الحرية بتعز، لتستعيد موروث التكفير، وتعمل على التحريض ضد الكاتبة بهدف إرهابها، ومنعها من ممارسة حقها في التعبير عن الرأي، قبل أن تتطور تلك الحملة حتى وصلت حدّ التحريض على استهداف حياة المقطري، وقيادة مجاميع متطرفة للمطالبة بإدانتها واستهداف حياتها بحجة الإساءة إلى الدين والذات الإلهية.

إن التكفير هو الداء الرجيم الذي دفعت اليمن ثمنه باهظا من ثلاثينيات القرن الماضي، وقتل بسببه أفضل علماء اليمن ومفكريها بتهمة اختصار القرآن، وشنت بواسطته حرب ضارية على الثورة اليمنية في الشمال والجنوب بتهمة الإلحاد والكفر.

وكان التكفير هو السلاح الذي اغتيل بواسطته أهم مناضلي الثورة اليمنية أيضاً، مثلما كان أحد أهم أسلحة علي عبد الله صالح الذي نشره في طول اليمن وعرضها، حيث تشهد اليمن هذه الأيام سقوط مدن وبلدات بأيدي التنظيمات التكفيرية التي تقاوم الدولة وتقيم إماراتها الخاصة التي تمارس فيها نهجاً وحشياُ في التعامل مع البشر، فتنتهك الحقوق والحريات، وتعدم الأبرياء أو تشوه أجسادهم بزعم إقامة الحدود كما يحدث في جعار وزنجبار ورداع.

إن شن حملة التكفير على الكاتبة بشرى المقطري على إثر مقال كتبته خلال الأسبوع الماضي هو امتداد لثقافة النظام الذي قامت الثورة ضده، والصمت الجبان على هذه الحملة التكفيرية هو معادل لفعل التكفير. (Read on …)

35 hurt in Yemen protester clashes AFP

SANAA — Clashes between Yemeni youths divided over a power transfer deal that grants President Ali Abdullah Saleh immunity from prosecution left 35 people injured on Tuesday, witnesses and medics said.

“Some 2,000 members of the Islamist Sunni Al-Islah (reform) party, among them dissident soldiers, attacked our camp at dawn, injuring 35 people,” Khalid al-Madani, head of the camp backed by supporters of Shiite Zaidi rebels, told AFP. (Read on …)

Islah’s repression of independent thought and revolutionaries continues:

Yemen Post: Islah profile: As revolutionaries in Yemen are celebrating their victory in eventually obtaining some worldwide attention, and relishing in the fact that western nations have taken up the matter of Saleh’s presidency to the UN Security Council, the main opposition party, al-Islah is slowly but surely high jacking the revolution, rallying to its cause more and more protesters. (Read on …)

My article on the Tawakkol/Nobel/ Muslim Brotherhood controversy is here, click. It says Islah founder al Zindani openly advocates jihadist violence, but he’s Saleh’s buddy, not Tawakkol’s. Furthermore the protesters reject the ineffectual opposition parties entirely and advocate a parliamentary system that will reinforce political diversity and empower small parties, minorities and independents. (The US backed GCC plan will empower the radicals, Islah and the status quo; one reason the protesters reject it entirely.)

This is a current interview and video of Tawakkol at Democracy Now and her statement with Ban Ki Moon is here

I am astonished that so many conservative commentators jumping in with both feet, meme of the day. Two of the most informed and rational are linked in my article, but there’s a dozen others going off who never covered the blood bath in Yemen or Saleh’s relationship with AQAP and are now obsessed with trashing Tawakkol as a radical solely because she belongs to the Islah party. Then logically all the Democrats should resign their party because of Bill Ayers (among other reasons).

Some analysis is based on Wikipedia depth understanding of Yemen. One theme was, Why doesn’t she join/create another party? Its Yemen. Tawakkol couldn’t get a license to text message news or establish a news paper for two years. No non-Saleh loyalist can create a new party. When I say the JMP is “diverse,” I mean Islamist oriented Islah joined with the secular YSP, socialist remnants of the ruling party of the former southern state, the PDRY, to form the JMP. The reason Islah itself is diverse is that the southerners’ YSP is the only other opposition party that has any seats in Parliament, due to the hegemony of the ruling GPC. Options to oppose Saleh from within the political system are limited to Islah or the socialists, and both have long been compromised and not fully within the opposition.

But overall, how Tawakkol feels about homosexuals (now that we know what she thinks about Jews) is much less relevant than the fact that Saleh is inserting National Security operatives (and paying al Qaeda) to create chaos in Abyan and the fact that he regularly releases AQAP operatives in a quid pro quo arrangement. Saleh asked for and got a fatwa against protesting. He plays the religion card internally and the terrorism card externally. The threat to US national security is not Tawakkol Karman.

Defector Ali Mohsen is very well deserving of scrutiny in this regard, as are US sweethearts, Saleh’s relatives, security force commanders and CT partners, the Four Thugs. Tawakkol Karman is a democracy activist representative of thousands of other democracy ideologues in Yemen. The backlash against her is more about the politicized Nobel Committee.

Updates: Rusty gets it, see The Arab World, It ain’t Switzerland

The same principle holds in Yemen where a woman with ties to Islamists won the Nobel Peace prize. I don’t give the Nobel Prize much credence as anything more than what Norwegian politicians think, but the reaction about Tawakkol Karman sharing in the prize has been, well, kinda stupid.

This isn’t the choice between a pro-American dictator and Lockean liberals, it’s the choice between a Pakistani like “ally” which pays lip service to the GWOT but who had deep ties to al Qaeda and Saudi style Islamists and those that oppose him. That the opposition is made up of other Islamists is just part of the game you play in the Arab world. It’s also made up of socialists, Baathists, and whatever other insane and discredited ideology still lingering in the region.

Yes, exactly, there are actually Nasserites. All the parties are left over from before 1990’s unity and have a stale ideologies. They don’t really function as parties in that they are top down organizations that don’t ask their members for input or have real transitions of power or transparency themselves.

There are plans in work for a democratic party, but Saleh has to go before it can be founded.

Below is a write up from MEMRI that notes Tawakkol is of a liberal mindset. The MEMRI article says she renounced her Islah membership in favor of the democratic demands of the revolution. Like my article, it highlights her activism in favor of journalists, villagers and women’s rights. It also says that she advocates safeguarding against extremists stealing the revolution by advancing a pluralist model of a transitional government.

There’s a couple of good citations including, “Her preference of liberal over Islamist views was also reflected in her call, during an interview, for equality between Muslim Yemenis and religious minorities such as the Jews, which would include the right to run for president.[13]”

“During the protests against President Saleh, Karman stood out as an independent leader representing no partisan position. Thus, for example, she refused to negotiate with the regime, though her party did negotiate with it.”

There are a few minor factual errors in the MEMRI article including, Tawakkol is not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, whether or not they claim her. She is not and never was a member of Parliament. (She was elected to the ruling council of Islah because she is so popular, to the dismay of the hard liners in the party.) The name of her NGO, Women Journalists without Borders was stolen by a regime clone in 2006, the correct name for her NGO is Women Journalists without Chains.

Tawakkul Karman, one of the three women awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year, is a leader of the Yemeni protest movement who advocates nonviolent struggle for regime change in her country. A 32-year-old mother of three, she was born to a rural family in Taiz province. Her father, ‘Abd Al-Salam Khaled Karman, is a politician and lawyer, and her sister, Safa Karman, is a news editor for Al-Jazeera TV.[1]
After the family moved to San’a, she earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Science and Technology there, followed by a master’s in political science and a certificate in general education from Sana’a University. She also studied investigative journalism in the U.S.

Karman is active in trade unions, human rights organizations and media institutions in Yemen and outside it. She is a member of the Yemeni parliament on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood party, Al-Islah, and of the Youth Revolution Council. She is also the chair of Journalists without Borders in Yemen, and a prominent advocate of free press, women’s rights and human rights in her country. (Read on …)

Excellent! It shows the acres and acres of daylight between them: “Zindani: Nobel Prize is not supervised by a Moslem and is given to the Jews and their collaborators” who undermine Muslims, promote mixing of the genders, hatch plots blah blah. I was rather surprised by several leading US conservatives who, upon hearing the news of the Nobel Peace Prize, promptly published incorrect conclusions and/or speculation about Tawakkol and her relationship to Islah and Zindani without any real knowledge of any of them or of the position of the Yemeni revolutionaries on the political parties, religious pluralism or equal rights.

These public innuendos were made in the media without even researching Karman’s years of work in defense of civil liberties, to raise the marriage age, on behalf of Yemeni Jews, journalists, poor villagers, dialysis patients etc etc. Instead they wondered how she feels about…bin Laden without a shred of evidence beyond a strained and tenuous relationship with Islah, which is a very complex party to start with. This should streamline my response to one sentence: al Zindani’s son called her a Zionist.

Update: No, I’m not a Muslim, but a Roman Catholic Republican New Yorker (for the brain surgeons asking me to identify my religion), and I know who the extremists are in Yemen and who the heroes are. (Read on …)

Update: this is Tawakkol’s English website at Woman Journalists Without Chains (WJWC) that has all her reports on press freedom and clips of several of her interviews. I’m posting it for those people who have no idea of who she is, fail to do research and yet feel compelled to jump to bizarre conclusions based on her association with Islah, a relationship which is in reality quite fractured. Islah is the main opposition party in Yemen and contains many wings- tribal, reformist, fundamentalist, activist and modernist- it’s a compendium of often competing interests. Islah formed an alliance in 2003 with the Shiite parties, the Socialists, the Nasserites and the Baathists that is called the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP). The Youth Revolution of which Tawakkol is a leader notes the JMP is ineffectual, corrupt and opportunistic, and the youth have rejected all JMP negotiations on their behalf. And al Zindani was a long time ally of President Saleh; in fact, Saleh launched his presidential campaign from al Iman university in 2006.

Original: I’m rather touched and very happy to learn of Tawakkol Karman winning the Nobel. Not only did Tawwakol lead the Yemeni protests since February, she led them in Freedom Square for the two years prior, protesting for a newspaper license and media freedom and a range of other causes that came along. I’m glad the committee made such a good choice this year. Tawwakol heads a journalist organization since 2005 which for published semi-annual reports on widespread abuses and denial of media freedom, and they published several on corruption showing exactly who in the the state stole the billions where and how. Tawakkol supported a wide range of civil rights issues in Yemen. She is a leader of the current Yemeni revolution, always on the front lines facing down the rifles. Update: “Yemen will remain happy, and will even spread it’s happiness to the whole world,” Tawakol Karman said today.
(Read on …)

The YT has a good write up of the conflict in al Jawf and comes to the conclusion the Houthis are expansionist.

Yemen Times: Sunni-Shiites war in Al-Jawf

War broke out five months ago between Houthi rebels – who are Shiite Muslims – and the locals of Al-Jawf governorate – themselves Sunni Muslims – 143 km northwest of the capital city of Sana’a.

Around 470 Houthis were killed and over 85 of Al-Jawf’ s citizens lost their lives in this four-month-long war, Sheikh Arfj Bin Hadban, a local tribal leader in Al-Jawf, told the Yemen Times. (Read on …)

The following interview with the manager of Saada Radio gives a glimpse into Saada and al Jawf including the recent clashes between the Houthis and local Islahis:

Yemen Times
Q: But, some locals in Sa’ada told us that the Houthis do not allow anyone to air an opinion against them, for instance, describing them as Twelver Shiites.

A: First of all it is misleading to say that the Houthis are Twelver Shiites. They are not. They are Zaydis.

Are you a Houthi?

No I’m not Houthi, I’m a state-employee at Sa’ada Radio. We used to be against the Houthis. I’m Zaydi and over 99 percent of the population in Sa’ada is Zaydi, but there is no group here called Twelver Shiites.

And it is not true that the Houthis prohibit others from expressing their opinions. If this were true, they would prevent the Salafists from practicing their traditions such as Taraweeh prayer [a prayer done at night during Ramadan after the Al-Esha festival], which does not exist in the Zaydi school.

But if you went to Sa’ada today, you would find the religious traditions of both Zaydis and Salafists performed in their mosques with no problems. They are not going to bring their prayers out of the mosque and argue that our Zaydi School approves of this religious practice. And not only Salafists, but Islahis practice there as well.

There is also hard-core group of Salafists called Muqbil group. They are extremists and they have their school in Damaj, Sa’ada. They carry out their traditions in complete freedom. (Read on …)

Pop quiz: Q: What was the characteristic response of the Saleh regime to power sharing demands following unity in 1990 that precipitated the 1994 civil war? A: Assassinations. Hundreds of southern political leaders were assassinated, often by veterans of the Afghan jihad who were allied with Saleh.

Five protesters wounded in Sanaa by an explosive device thrown from a car with police plates.

War planes bomb Arhab, five dead. Three houses, a mosque and many farms damaged. Clashes in Nehm, 20 km south of Arhab, eight wounded.

The Yemen Post reports Hamid Al-Qushaibi of the 310th escaped a car-bomb assassination attempt in Amran province but al Sahwa reports Major Ismail al-Ghurbani, commander of the 310th Armored Brigade of the 1st Armored Division was shot dead in an assassination in Amran

A truce between Islah and the Houthis in al Jawf will go into effect 8/17 when the JMP declares the national council; Fares Manna, UN sanctioned weapons dealer and long time associate of Saleh, will be replaced as governor by Sheikh Hussein Al-Thaneen from the Islah Party.

One person was killed and three wounded Sunday evening when a suicide car bomber detonated at a gathering of Houthis near the health center in al Jawf, News Yemen reported. The Houthis blamed the US, saying “The process shows the intense action and malicious plots by the Americans and the targeting of Yemen in general and the northern areas in particular.” Mareb Press reports dozens of injuries. Interior Ministery says 14 dead and the hallmarks of al Qaeda.

16 suspected al Qaeda were killed Sunday as clashes in the province take place in seven areas. The tribesmen (like the commander of the 25th Mechanized) say that the government is arming the al Qaeda militants and providing other support.

Yemen Post: Local tribesmen in Abyan province, fighting with government against militants, are accusing the government of helping al-Qaeda fighters stay strong by attacking tribal posts and arming the militants.

According to tribal sources in Abyan, at least 19 tribesmen have been killed by government attacks.

A senior Yemeni Defense Ministry official denies that the toll is that high, but did not deny that government raids did kill tribal fighters in accidental attacks.

Over the last month, tribes have succeeded to retake more than 60 percent of the province from the hands of suspected al-Qaeda militants after the government failed to show progress in its fight against the militants since May.

At least 1600 tribesmen are fighting al-Qaeda militants in the province.

More than 15 al-Qaeda fighters were arrested on Thursday by the tribesmen as their push to cleanse the province from the militants nears the final steps.

Update: Sultan al Barakani says Hamid al Ahmar is the prime suspect in the bombing on the presidential palace because the sims cards used in mobile phones belonged to SabaFone.

The former governor of Ibb mediated a truce to the four months of clashes between the Houthis and tribes loyal to Islah. News Yemen Ah, an English article at the Yemen Post:

Clashes in the northern Jawf province ended on yesterday after Sheikh Ali Qaisi, a prominent Yemeni tribal leader, succeeded in reaching a ceasefire agreement between the Houthi fighters and Islah Islamist party fighters.

At least 110 people were killed over the last month in Jawf clashes. Islah party still controls the majority of the areas in Jawf provinces, while Houthis are trying to expand in the province. The fighting in Jawf started in late May and was non-stop until this week.

Islah party supporters control the military bases the government left behind after being pressured by pro revolution youth to leave the province.

Al-Hudaidah, an armed group broke into Hais post office and rob 16 Million Yemeni Ryals: NYR

US Embassy in Sana’a Disappointed at Fabrications in Governmental Media: Ting Wu, the economic officer at the US embassy in Sana’a expressed the embassy’s disappointment at governmental media outlets for sending fabricated news sourcing the US embassy in Sana’a as saying that the United States believes that President Saleh must return to Yemen in order for Yemen to resolve the political and economic crisis. YP

This comprehensive timeline compiled by the Woman’s Media Forum (MWF) includes violations against the protesters by the Central Security, Republican Guard, the First Armored Division (after Ali Mohsen defected to the protesters) as well as the Organizing Committee in Sanaa’s Change Square, an arm of Islah:

MWF monitors the number of violations of human rights in the recent events taking place in Yemen (Read on …)

Its been a low grade conflict in al Jawf for some time, as discussed earlier, the Islahis take turns with the regime forces fighting the Houthis.

Reuters: (Reuters) – Factional fighting in Yemen’s north entered its fifth day on Tuesday, bringing violence closer to the border with Saudi Arabia, while the United States’ top counter-terrorism official visited Sanaa.

Twenty-three people have been killed and dozens injured in the northern province of Jawf since clashes broke out on Friday between members of Yemen’s main opposition party Islah and northern Shi’ite rebels known as Houthis. (Read on …)

This weeks compendium of ridiculous US statements about Yemen, including during the Brennan visits to Saleh in SA and with Prince Ahmed and the JMP in Sanaa, comes on the same day the US and the international community recognized the Libyan rebels as the legitimate authority in Libya. In Yemen though the US continues to blame the protesters for the uptick in al Qaeda activity, instead of the illogical and unprincipled US policy fostering the stalemate. The Obama administration also threatened the JMP that the international community would not to recognize a transitional council, should one be formed as the protesters have been demanding. Such a transitional council would be “meaningless” said another western diplo because of the presence of a parliament, VP and government. The reality is that the current parliament’s term expired two years ago and prior to that, it functioned as a rubber stamp for Saleh and an instrument of grand corruption. The parliament is another rigged institution of GPC hegemony, comprised of loyalist Sheikhs, businessmen and active duty generals. Most of the reformists within the GPC resigned in March.

In Saudi Arabia Brennan asked Saleh “to fulfill expeditiously his pledge to sign the GCC-brokered agreement for peaceful and constitutional political transition in Yemen,” according to a White House statement. How could Brennan even say it with a straight face? The US is just stalling.

Al Masdar 7/6/11: JMP opposition leader Yahya Abu-Osbu’a.spoke of threats from some Arab and foreign countries not to recognize the Transitional Council, which the opposition intends to form to manage the affairs of the country which is living under a vacuum for a month. Abu Osuba at a political forum Monday evening in Change Square that the countries that had threatened to do so are Saudi Arabia and the United States and European Union countries. (Read on …)

The voter rolls were disqualified a few months ago.

The official opposition is willing to provide immunity to Saleh and his gang, and give him a month to tie up loose ends. Most protesters continue to demand that Saleh leave immediately, while others think Sharia will solve everything, reports Nasser Arrabyee

Ahram: Yemen’s official opposition and President Ali Abdullah Saleh have agreed on a US-backed, Saudi-led, Gulf Cooperation Council plan to see Saleh step down in one month from signing. Wednesday was the date set by the GCC officials for the Yemeni conflicting parties to sign the plan in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Sources from both sides confirmed to Al-Ahram Weekly on Tuesday they would sign the agreement in Riyadh on Wednesday or Saturday at the latest. Earlier in the week, the Islamist-led opposition coalition, which includes socialists and Nasserites (Arab Nationalists), had refused to form a unity government with the ruling party before Saleh steps down, as called for in the plan. American Ambassador to Yemen Gerlad Feierstein convinced the opposition to agree on the plan as a whole. (Read on …)

An analysis of the The Islah Party posted on Scribd.

The Yemen Post reports a student from the Islah party was arrested in Saada. At least the Houthis acknowledged he is in detention, unlike the Yemeni government which holds people incommunicado for months. Also I think it is unlikely the Houthis are going to get drunk and torture him for fun, like happens sometimes in southern prisons. During the sixth war, the Houthis gave the captured soldiers qat, a true sign of humanity, and released video to show their good health, a comfort to the families. For the first time we get to watch the Houthis rule. They have already arrested some homosexuals who were hanging out in a market. If they continue to arrest people of various stripes, as time goes on they will have to set up some kind of Sharia based court.

When the Taliban insurgency established a judicial system in Afghanistan, they would up whipping many teen age girls and publicly executing Afghan government workers. I expect more maturity and self control from the Houthis and a judicial system is based on individual responsibility and facts, not the global grudge match that characterizes the criminal court system in Yemen. But the issue is, as it is everywhere in Yemen, command and control. The loosely organized Houthis, once they took responsibility for the local population, are also responsible for the actions of every fighter toward the locals.

Yemen Post: Houthis arrested a student participating in a conference for Islah Party that took part in Saada province. Local sources said that Ahmed Ali Alhamati, a student in Saada University, was arrested at a Houthi checkpoint in Aned town and taken to Houthis Headquarters in Thahian district. Tribal sources told Yemen Post that Houthis confirmed the detention of the student, denying any effort to release him.

On the other hand, the General Union of Yemeni Students denounced the detention, asking Houthis to free him, and calling to keep away students from conflict with the authorities. At least 26 people have been killed and several wounded in two suicide bombing attacks against Houthis in northern Yemen two weeks ago.

THREE MEN AT IMMINENT RISK OF EXECUTION
Three men in Yemen had their death sentences sent to the President for ratification in mid-October. If the sentences are ratified by the President, they could be executed at any time.

Amnesty International: The three men, Shaikh Khalid Nahshal, Mabkhout ‘Ali Nahshal and Abduh Muhammad Nahshal, were among 32 people charged in connection with the killing of at least one government official in the district of Khayran in northern Yemen in September 2006. This happened following a dispute over the local and presidential elections and an exchange of fire between a group of armed men and the government official in charge of Khayran. In 2007 six of the defendants were sentenced to death, but three had their sentences commuted to prison terms in June 2009, following an appeal. The remaining 26 received prison sentences. In January 2010, Shaikh Khalid Nahshal, Mabkhout ‘Ali Nahshal and Abduh Muhammad Nahshal had their death sentences upheld by the Supreme Court.

An Islah MP gave an interview to al Sahwa following the delay in the parliamentary session meant to discuss the airstrike in Abyan that killed dozens of civilians. Abdul Karim Shiban said that the “al Qaeda” killed in the strike were released from a PSO prison two years earlier. Since then, they moved back and forth from Shabwa to Abyan openly and freely. It was known by the security forces who would have been able to capture them easily. In fact, the men used to chew khat with security officials and received an allowance from the state.

al Sahwa Those targeted in the strike were closely linked to power (Read on …)