Armies of Liberation

Four Yemeni journalists were killed since Saleh’s return in September.

10/25: He was speaking to the International Press Institute’s Naomi Hunt by Skype, which was something of a feat because Skype has been jammed from Yemen since February.

It is just one of the ways in which the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh is inhibiting media coverage in his country. (Read on …)

Targeted assassination attempts continue:

Yemen Post: Senior Opposition Leader still in Bad Condition; Youth Blaming Government for Incident

Defected military loyal to the opposition warned on Monday that its leaders will be targets of government assassination plots.

One day after the warning, Mohammed al-Mutawakil, the secretary general of the opposition popular front (ed-PFU) party was injured in a traffic accident the opposition call as planned by the government in an effort to kill him.

He was hit by a motorcycle as he was walking down the street. Al-Mutawakil received serious injuries to the head and is now hospitalized.

Hundreds of youth and opposition leaders visited al-Mutawakil and were not happy.

“We are sure this is not an accident. His health is really bad. This is planned and he was one of the respected leaders in the eyes of the pro revolution youth,” said Abdullah Najjar, a youth activist who visited al-Mutawakil

Majority of Yemen opposition leaders have left the country knowing that Yemen is not safe for them anymore. The interior ministry denied that the incident was planned and is investigating with the motorcycle driver.

Saleh has a trail of blood behind him dating back decades. The car accident is among the most repetitive tactics. There are no moral restraints on the regime; its no surprise that the opposition is making this accusation. Its possibly true. The 1999 death of the great Yemeni activist and editor, Abdulazziz al Saqqaf is one event that generates national suspicion. Leaving a lunch with Abdubakr al Qirby (a medical doctor), Professor al Saqqaf was run over and killed by a car in a sequence that made no sense as an accident. Al Qirby later became and remains Yemen’s Foreign Minister. New information came to light in the last months about Saleh’s complicity in the death of at least one former president, prior to attaining the presidency himself. The treachery of Saleh has no bounds.

Update: The motorcycle was driven by children according to buzz. The PFU rejects the Interior Ministry’s announcements issued without conducting an investigation.

Update 2: al Mutawakil transferred to Saudi Arabia for treatement.

More activists are receiving threats over the phone by security personnel of detention if they dont stop their activism.

Traditionally the US allied National Security under Ammar Saleh has perpetrated most attacks on journalists and activists and may have the lead again in personal threats and assault against the democracy activists now.

Yemen Post: As Yemen is living through its worst spell of violence since the beginning of its popular uprising, with several hundred casualties awaiting medical treatment, the Red Cross is accusing the Yemeni government of theft and abuses.

According to Valerie Petitpierre, the deputy head of the International Committee of the Red Cross’s delegation in Yemen, government forces would have physically assaulted some of her staff as they were trying to confiscate their medical supplies.

“The ICRC delegation is receiving very worrying reports of armed confrontations taking place in Al-Gomhori Hospital and placing many innocent lives at risk,” she said.

Eye witnesses within the hospitals confirmed the allegations, saying that several members of the Red Cross staffs had been beaten and threatened of further reprisals if they insisted in helping the wounded.

Petitpierre went further in her declaration mentioning that “in some cases they have had equipment confiscated, and there have also been incidents in which they were denied access to people in need of first aid.”

She stressed that it was the government’s moral duty to ensure and facilitate medical treatment to all, beyond prejudice or feelings of revenge. “Anyone injured or wounded must be able to receive life-saving health care without undue delay.”

MoKhtar Al-Obaydi was abducted by the the national security while he was returning from the Change Square to his village in Arhab, north of Sanaaa, on the first of Ramadan. He teaches the religious studies at the Zaidi Sheikh Abo Nashdan’s Centere in Arhab.

In tandem with attacking the media to prevent the real news from escaping Yemen, Field Marshal Saleh hired a PR firm notorious for white washing dictators. One standard tactic is to plant positive op-eds and TV guests. We’ll have to track who gets bought off.

Saleh’s ongoing murder of over 500 protesters since the start of the revolution is exceeded by his war crimes prior (bombing refugee camps etc.) Saleh’s family’s coordination with al Qaeda is well documented as are his criminal networks and looting of the budget. Rebranding Saleh is like rebranding Saddam.

Over 450 serious attacks on journalists have been recorded in the last six months. Fire destroyed the building housing HOOD the leading Human Rights organization, and all its archives on July 18. The deliberate and often random murder of Yemeni citizens is a near daily occurrence over the last months. Security forces containing the CT units under Saleh’s son and nephews have bombed, shot, beaten and burned people alive, including children.

“President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime has hired British PR firm Bell Pottinger , through a subcontract from US PR firm Qorvis to promote a better image for the regime in the US and Europe. Bell Pottinger has hired a big suite inside the Sheba Hotel. The company is received about US 2 million per month from Saleh’s family for publishing articles in international newspapers to improve Saleh’s image and employing its relations with US congressmen in favour of the regime. This is part of Saleh’s regime’s better utilisation the country resources and assistance. I am wondering if these companies can prove the image of Yemeni People as terrorists.” More here (ar).

Yemen Post Over the last week, one journalist killed, another escaped an assassination attempt, two were attacked, and the biggest law firm defending journalist rights in Yemen was burnt to ashes….More than 60 newspapers have shut down in three months after security forces confiscate and burn thousands its of newspaper copies. Al-Neda newspaper office was attacked by gunmen and property was damaged…This comes as government spokesperson Abdu Ganadi accused journalists in Yemen are serving foreign agendas.

- Republican Guard shells a public mini-bus in Taiz, driver killed, 13 wounded including three children, attack occurred in front of a hospital, several other parts of the neighborhoods shelled by tanks and artillery: al Masdar Also Taiz, clashes after security tries to impede a mass rally demanding an immediate formation of a transitional council: al Masdar (Read on …)

Two officials escaped over the week-end apparently and another reverberation to the disclosure that several of Saleh’s relatives have diplomatic posts at the embassy in DC, article says:

بعد فرار مسئولين.. أوامر عليا تحضر سفر أي مسئول دون الرجوع لمكتب الرئاسة (Read on …)

Ali Al Kurdi was appointed the head of the unity brigades in Aden by President Saleh. Al Kurdi has been in and out of jail on terrorism charges. Al Kurdi, an Afghan Arab, announced that his group is ready to engage in suicide bombings against those who agitate against unity and/or oppose President Saleh. He denied receiving funding from the state and that al Qaeda exists in Yemen, calling it a US ploy. The following is a google translation.

Marib Press
He told (Marib Press) that he supported the survival benefit of president for life
Chief of Defence of the unit in Aden: ready to carry out martyrdom operations against militants in the southern movement
الأحد 02 January to January, 2011 at 19:00 / Adan – Marib Press – Abdul Rahman Anis:

Expressed on the Kurdish leader of the so-called “People’s Organization for Defending unity” in Aden governorate, the willingness to implement what he described as “martyrdom operations” against the activists of the southern movement. (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 …)

For more on the al Ghadeer arrests in Amran, click here. Mr. Baoum, leader of one of the southern independence factions was arrested early in November. More at Aden News Agency.

News Yemen: Political sources said Friday that presidential directives issued to release the leading figure in the Southern Movement, Hassan Baom, his son and his colleagues. Sources also said that 22 supporters of Houthis, arrested on the al-Ghadir Day in Amran, have been released.

Al-Haq party welcomed the releases of detainees and called on the government to release all detainees and make real peace in Sa’ada. It also called on political parties and human rights organizations to play a role over the detention of innocent people without any legal justification for more than five years.

URGENT ACTION, POLITICAL ACTIVIST DETAINED INCOMMUNICADO
A leader of a political opposition group in southern Yemen has been held in incommunicado detention since 9 November. Amnesty International fears for Hassan Ba’oom’s health and is concerned that he may be held solely for the peaceful expression of his right to freedom of expression and therefore a prisoner of conscience. (Read on …)

That’s damned straight, and I love the Guardian’s headline: The internet’s cyber radicals: heroes of the web changing the world The article profiles Walid al Saqqaf, former editor of the Yemen Times and the creator of Yemen Portal, a site which bypasses the government’s internet censorship in Yemen, aggregates news stories on Yemen, has a feature to automatically translate Arabic articles to English and publishes the full content of the websites blocked in Yemen. Then for kicks he invented Al Kasir “the circumventor,” a downloadable application which works globally to bypass censorship. Nice. Maybe that makes him a cyber radical but without queston, Walid al Saqqaf is a hero who changed the world for the better.

A generation of political activists have been transformed by new tools developed on the internet. Here, a leading net commentator profiles seven young radicals from around the world….

WALID AL-SAQAF – YEMEN PORTAL

The 37-year old Yemeni activist is the creator of Yemen Portal and of software used to circumvent firewalls.

What is Yemen Portal? (Read on …)

Extremists hack Yemeni website to serve their tapes

By Abdullah al-Qubati in Sana’a

Sana’a, 20 Nov., Pirates hacked Mostakela network website on last Friday, taking its domain and smashing al-mostakela paper site through plagiarism identity of the website owner and contacting with the hosting company.

Unknown hackers defined themselves as “Gaza Hackers” claimed responsibility on piracy via a release covered the Mostakela homepage. It was enclosed with an audio-tape previously attributed to Osama Bin Laden. The so-called hackers also posted a statement on a website titled by the same name Gaza Hacker Team that included a confession with hacking Mostakela, which was described as “atheistic” and “enemy of Islam”. The statement also threatened to convert the website domain to “Islamist Forum for defeating its owner and enemies of Islam”. A video-tape links documented the Mostakela before and after the attack was posted on the Gaza Hacker website.

The content of these posts and tapes manifested that those alleged hackers belonged to extremist Islamist groups.

Ahmed S. Hashed, who is the owner of Mostakela website regarded the incident as a “robbery crime of ownership and an assault on rights and freedoms of speech and publishing”.

Mostakela network launched in 2006. It is a social network includes online site of al-mostakela newspaper issues, classified forums for intellectual, political, ideological and religious dialogues and discussions and electronic library of about 34,000 title of books and video-audio files.

According to mostakela editors, the archive of its forums included 134,000 topics and hundreds thousands posts. More than 33,000 member around the world registered in the website since 2006.

“Mostakela website is a free intellectual website opened to inter-faith, cultures and ideologies dialogue,” Hashed said. “Since 2006, it was hacked several times by extremists, who usually defined their identities as Islamists and the recent piracy attack was at the beginning of last Ramadan,” he added.

Hashed pointed out “this hacking came, as my other news website Yemenat has been banned by Yemeni government for more than 2 years ago.”

Its unbelievable!!! What happened to the amnesty for political prisoners?

Related: Sahwa Net -The Specialized Press and Publications Court sentenced on Saturday the editor-in-chief of Al-Nass newspaper, Osama Ghalib and journalist Fawzi al-Kahili a fine of YR 50.000. The prosecution has accused Ghalib and al-Kahili of publicly releasing articles which abused Adel Qaid, director of al-Mithaq Foundation which belongs to Yemen’s ruling party, the General People’s Congress.

Resumed on Sunday, 10/10/2010 Penal Court specialized in Aden under the chairmanship of Judge Mamedalowhit trial of Al-Ayam newspaper forcibly suspended since May 2009, and has appeared before this Court, Mr. Hisham Bashraheel editor of the days and his two sons, brother Hani Bashrahil editor of sports days suspended also forcibly Mohammed Hisham Bashrahil and CEO of days and I welcome the good Musharraf presses and a number of newspaper employees. (Read on …)

I knew they were going to target General Nuba one way or another. See my 9/26 post, “Next Saleh will discover al Qaeda near General Nasser al Nuba’s camp”. I was close, but instead they blamed him for the assault on the governor of Shabwa’s convoy. Its a ridiculous charge. While General Nuba created and leads the association of retired military officers, he’s never organized them into a military unit. Among all the factions, and since 2007, the Retired Military Association has the most self-discipline and has always remained peaceful, in spite of tremendous provocations. The end result will likely be the same. The military is preparing a second wave of assaults in Shabwa, the vicinity of al Hota they say. Also see southern movement statement below. Who the Yemeni state blames for anything is a function of who they are talking to. For CNN, its al Qaeda.

(CNN) — Yemen has dispatched paramilitary forces to a southern province following an ambush on the local governor by suspected al Qaeda militants, a government official said Thursday.

The forces are preparing for a second offensive on Shabwa province “very soon,” said the Yemeni official who did not want to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media. (Read on …)

To wipe out the people with inside knowledge of all the dirty tricks, and that was the buzz on the attack on the prison and they are mysteriously re-zoning all of the Aden free zone. Its a giant conspiracy theory and if one quarter of it is true, then the US is in deep trouble. I like the part where the author analyzes the al Qaeda statements and really al Qaeda has been wheeling and dealing with the Saleh regime for two decades.

Saada Aden Revealed a legal expert and political analyst south of the facts confirm beyond any reasonable doubt and the parking system the occupation of Sana’a and behind all terrorist attacks in the areas of the South recently targeted a number of figures southern security headquarters and facilities of the State under the pretext of “Al Qaeda” emphasizes partnership this system in the industry of terrorism. (Read on …)

A statement from TAJ regarding al-Ayyam’s guard:

To: Amnesty International
To: The Arabic Human Rights Organisation
To: World Human Rights Organisation

We urgently write to you to condemn the death sentence issued from one of Sana’a courts in the Republic of Yemen on Sunday 11 July 2010 against the political activist Ahmed Omer Alobady who has been in prison since 14th February 2008.

Mr Alobady was wrongly arrested by the occupation Yemeni forces for his politics views towards the Southern Arabia crisis, NOT for any crime that he has committed, in order to intimidate other political activists joining this peaceful movement.

Despite the Yemeni General Attorney’s failure to find any proof against Mr Alobady, he was sentenced to death.

This method is widely used by the Yemeni Government against all Southern Arabia political activists.

As a matter of urgency we would like you and ALL other organisations around the world to act quickly to overturn this unfair judgment.

Southern Democratic Assembly ( TAJ )

12 July 2010

مناشده عاجله
الى منظمة العفو الدوليه الى المنظمه العربيه لحقوق الانسان الى المنظمه الدوليه لحقوق الانسان
نتوجه بهذا النداء العاجل اليكم لادانة الحكم الصادر من احدى المحاكم اليمنيه في صنعاء صباح يوم الاحد 11-7-2010م بحق الناشط السياسي احمد عمر العبادي السجين منذ14 فبراير 2008م الذي كان متواجداً اثناء حادثة الاعتداء على منزل رئيس تحرير صحيفة الأيام الجنوبي هشام باشراحيل في صنعاءوالذي كان حادثاً مدبراً يستهدف نشاطهما السياسي بدرجه أولى ومواقف الرجلين ودورهما المتميز في الحراك الجنوبي لاسكاتهما ومعاقبتهما على مواقفهما الثابته من القضيه العادله للشعب الجنوبي , وتم تدبير هذه ا لمكيده ا لجنائيه حتى يتسنى لحكومة الاحتلال اليمني إلباس القضيه ثوباً جنائياً كما تعود نظام صنعاء اليمني في التعامل مع خصومه السياسيين في العاده وعلى الرغم من ان النيابه العامه اليمنيه لم تتمكن من اثبات التهمه الجنائيه بالقتل لاحمد عمر العبادي . ولم تكتف سلطات صنعاء اليمنيه بالاعتداء على منزل باشراحيل في صنعاء بل قامت قوات الأمن اليمنيه بالاعتداء مرة أخرى على منزل باشراحيل في عدن مما أدى الى قتل حارس منزله وشخصين آخرين . أن كل هذه دلائل بأن هناك استهداف شخصي للرجلين احمد عمر العبادي وهشام باشراحيل .

اننا نطالب منظماتكم وكافة المنظمات الدوليه والانسانيه المهتمه بحقوق الانسان للقيام بحمله دوليه وسرعة التحرك وإدانة هذا الحكم الجائر وايقافه .

التجمع الديمقراطي الجنوبي (تاج ) لندن بتاريخ 11-7-2010م

Alia al Wazir was stopped in the airport en route to a Freedom House conference and prohibited from leaving the country. No male escort (mahram) was the official reason, not that there’s a law on the books to that effect, and its likely due to the trial of her husband, UN employee Walid Sharaf al-Din, charged with communicating with Iran. The National Security can’t prevent al Qaeda from exiting and entering Yemen but they do a whopper of a job on the activists, journalists and civil rights workers. Update: the state hasn’t presented any evidence against al Din and his lawyers demanded the judge recuse himself. The trial has been continually postponed.

al Eshteraki: منعت سلطات مطار صنعاء الدولي زوجة معتقل في الأمن السياسي من السفر إلى بيروت يوم الأحد. Authorities banned Sana’a International Airport wife was detained in the political security of travel to Beirut on Sunday. (Read on …)

Its a rouge regime, in addition to all the war crimes and systemic human rights violations. There is no way to incrementally push Saleh back to the light. What a political embarrassment it would have been for Yemen’s allies if the attempt succeeded. And the Houthis are correct, that’s the standard way Saleh deals with his opponents.

Palestinian Telegraph: Sana’a, Yemen, May 5, 2010 (Pal Telegraph, by Anwar Al-Shoaybi) – The AL-Houthi rebel group has denounced the assassinations attempts by gunmen against a prominent Yemeni opposition leader as a “serious crime”.

“The crime stresses our argument that the regime is seeking to liquidate all those opposing it even in terms of holding different opinion,” Mohammed Abdul Salam, the group’s spokesman, told reporters Wednesday.

“Broadly Speaking, we don’t rule out that a military campaign might be conducted against our brothers affiliated with the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), and that they might be assaulted, called traitors, and their rights confiscated just the way the regime used to deal with us, as it (the regime) doesn’t want anyone opposing it, even with respect to opinion,” said Abdul Salam. (Read on …)