Yemen Post: A high-ranking member of Al-Qaeda in Yemen was killed Sunday in a clash between several suspected militants of Al-Qaeda and security forces in the province of Abyan in the south of Yemen, a senior Interior Ministry official confirmed to the Saudi Okaz newspaper.

The official was quoted as saying the Saudi national was killed while five others have been seized by the security forces. “Seven Al-Qaeda members were also killed in the shooting.”

Meanwhile, local sources revealed on Monday that security forces were sent out to track down the about 60 Al-Qaeda members, who were believed to be members of the Yemen’s Islamic Liberation Front, the country’s largest Al-Qaeda group in Abyan province.

Yemeni troops together with security forces have been pursing some sub-commanders of the Al-Qaeda in Abyan region who launched deadly attacks on security forces earlier this week, according to the same sources.

Al Qaeda-trained Americans Washington Times: The FBI is working to track down several hundred American Muslims who traveled to Yemen in recent months and received training there at the hands of the al Qaeda terrorist group, according to U.S. government officials.

Intelligence reports from Yemen indicated that as many as 300 of the U.S. Islamist trainees had been given terrorist training and that many had converted to Islam while in U.S. prisons. It is not known specifically when the American al Qaeda trainees made the journey to Yemen, or — more significantly — how many of them returned to the United States, said officials familiar with U.S. counterterrorism intelligence and operations.

But the fact that so many U.S. nationals were given al Qaeda training has forced U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies to redouble efforts to try and penetrate al Qaeda networks in the United States.

“We are concerned about people going to Yemen for training,” said a U.S. official, who suggested the trainees traveled in small numbers and not a large group.

The officials said the reports about the training had prompted the FBI to beef up its overseas presence in Yemen and other locations in the region as part of a renewed effort to better track potential terrorists going to Yemen.

Little is known about al Qaeda’s networks inside the United States despite increased FBI resources to monitor domestic terrorists.

An FBI spokesman declined to comment.

However, U.S. intelligence officials have expressed growing worries that Western-appearing Islamists will be used in future terrorist attacks because they can more easily pass through security screening than those from the Middle East or South Asia.

U.S. counterterrorism officials said al Qaeda in Yemen has emerged in recent months as the most dangerous wing of al Qaeda. The clandestine Islamist group, headed by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri and once based in Afghanistan, has undergone an evolution that now puts Yemen as its main base of operations and support.

Tornado fighter-bombers supplied by the UK to Saudi Arabia are “extremely likely” to have been used in attacks on civilians in Yemen, human rights campaigners have said.

Amnesty International UK called for the Government to suspend all arms supplies to Saudi Arabia pending a full investigation.

The UK must ensure that any support it has provided for the jet fighters “did not facilitate violations of international humanitarian law, including possible war crimes, by the Saudi Arabian air force,” it said.

Amnesty’s report, Yemen: Cracking Down Under Pressure, found it was “extremely likely that the Saudi air force deployed UK-supplied Tornado fighter-bombers in the strikes” over northern Yemen in early November 2009.

But the reports “cannot be verified definitively”, the charity said.

Oliver Sprague, Amnesty’s arms programme director, said: “Our report points to the Saudis using UK-supplied and UK-maintained arms in secret attacks that have left scores of Yemeni civilians dead.

“The Government needs to announce a thorough investigation to get to the bottom of this, reporting the findings back to Parliament. Meanwhile all current and future UK supplies of arms to Saudi Arabia should be suspended pending the results of this investigation.”

Amnesty said “months of attacks saw heavy aerial bombardments, including from Saudi Arabian forces” last year as the Yemeni authorities, under pressure to confront threats from al Qaida and Huthi Shia rebels, targeted Sa’dah in the north of the country.

“Amnesty has gained information pointing to hundreds – possibly thousands – of civilians being killed in the bombing,” the charity said.

It added that in one attack on December 17, at least 41 people were killed, including 21 children and 14 women, when their settlement in al-Ma’jalah in the Abyan district was hit by missiles.

Al Estraki

مر أكثر من عام منذ اعتقال ثلاثة من نشطاء حقوق الإنسان. Over more than a year since the arrest of three human rights activists. عرفتهم مشاركين في اعتصامات ومواقف تضامنية مع معتقلين أو مخفيين أو أي قضية انتهاك لحق إنسان. Knew the participants in the protests and the positions of solidarity with the detainees or hidden, or any case of violation of the right people.

منذ سنوات شاركنا معا في اعتصامات تضامنية سلمية, كانوا معنا مسالمون مدافعون عن حقوق الإنسان ، لايحملون سلاحا ولا أسرار تستفيد منها إيران التي يحاكمون اليوم أمام محكمة استثنائية بتهمة التجسس لصالحها. Years ago we participated together in peaceful solidarity sit-ins, were with us are peaceful human rights defenders, for not carrying a weapon does not benefit from the secrets of Iran, which is on trial today before a special court on charges of spying for her.

أمام المحكمة الجزائية المتخصصة (امن الدولة) وفي محاكمة شبه سرية يمنع الإعلام من تغطيته يحاكمون بتهم تصل عقوبتها إلى الإعدام، ولنا أن نتساءل عن محاكمات تدور بهذا الشكل هل تتحقق فيها أدنى مقومات العدالة والنزاهة؟ Before the competent criminal court (state security) In the trial of a semi-secret to prevent the media from covering trial on charges punishable by death, and we have to wonder about the trials taking place in this way is achieved the lowest foundations of justice and fairness?

ماهي هذه الأسرار العظيمة التي بحوزة معمر العبدلي ووليد شرف الدين وصادق الشرفي حتى يقدمونها لإيران؟ What are these secrets in the possession of the great Muammar al-Abdali, Walid Sharaf al-Din and sincere Honorary until they bring to Iran?

من شقة عرسه إلى سجن المخابرات From flat to a prison wedding Intelligence

صادق الشرفي الشاب الجامعي والناشط الحقوقي هو أحد مؤسسي منظمة التغيير للدفاع عن الحقوق والحريات ..كان يجهز شقته التي سيتزوج فيها من الزميلة الصحفية بصحيفة”يمن تايمز” علاء الشامي اليوم التالي من اعتقاله. Honorary sincere young university and human rights activist, is one of the founders of change for Defending Rights and Freedoms .. he was preparing to marry his apartment where the associate press newspaper “Yemen Times” Alaa al-Shami next day of his arrest. أثناء ماكان يتفقد شقته ,حيث أن يوم الاحد19-8-2009م هو اليوم المقرر لزفافه كان الأمن السياسي قد رتب مسارا أخر لحياة الشرفي القادمة. McCann while inspecting the apartment, where on Sunday 19/08/2009 was the scheduled day of his wedding was the political security had arranged another path to the next ceremonial life. وبدلا من الاحتفال بزفافه زج به الأمن السياسي خلف قضبان سجنه. Instead of celebrating Bsvavh thrown behind the bars of the Political Security prison.

السبت 18 يوليو2009م داهمت قوات الأمن الشقة واقتادته الى جهة مجهولة, وظل مصيره مجهولا لأشهر قبل أن يعترف جهاز الأمن السياسي انه في قبضته. السبت July 18, 2009 security forces raided the apartment and took him to an unknown destination, remained unaccounted for months before they are recognized PSO that in his grip.

اختطاف من الشارع Abducted from the street

ظهر 25 أغسطس 2009م ومن وسط شارع الزبيري بصنعاء وبطريقة عمل العصابات لا ممارسات دولة نظام وقانون اختطف وليد شرف الدين واقتيد إلى مكان مجهول! Afternoon August 25, 2009 and Central Zubairy Street Sana’a and modus operandi of the gangs have no practice of the State system and the law was kidnapped and Walid Sharaf al-Din and taken to an unknown place! لم يكتف أشاوس الأمن باختطافه, في الثالثة عصرا من نفس يوم الاعتقال قام 8 أفراد بزي مدني وثلاثة مسلحين وامرأتان من الشرطة النسائية ورجل قام بتصوير مهمة روعت زوجة وليد علياء الوزير وطفلتيه بتول وزينب، داهموا المنزل وفتشوه ومن ثم صادروا جهازي لابتوب “احدهما يخص عمل وليد في مكتب الأمم المتحدة” وسيديهات وملفات وجواز سفره, هو الآخر ظل مصيره ومكانه مجهولين و زوجته ووالدته بحثتا عنه في كل مكان وكان الشك انه في سجن الأمن السياسي هكذا ظلتا لأشهر تبحثان حتى تأكد شكهما وكشف الأمن السياسي بوجود وليد في سجنه! Not only did the stalwart Security abduction, in the third afternoon of the same day of arrest by the 8 members in civilian clothes, and three insurgents, two women of women police and a man filmed the task horrified wife and Walid Alia minister and Teflth virgin Zainab, raided and searched the house and then confiscated two laptop “one of them for the work of Walid in the Office of the United Nations “Sdiat files and passport, is also under the fate and whereabouts unknown, his wife and his mother had discussed with him everywhere and the doubt that in the political security prison so have for months discussing so make sure Chkema revealed the political security presence and hand in the jail!

اختفى في عدن وظهر في صنعاء Disappeared in the back of Aden and in Yemen

معمر العبدلي .. Muammar al-Abdali .. لم تكن هذه المرة الأولى التي يزج به في سجن الأمن السياسي فقد ذاق مرارة السجن قبل هذه المرة. Were not the first time thrown in the political security prison has tasted the bitterness of prison before this time.

كان العبدلي قد أسس منظمة “حرية الفكر وتحرير المعتقلين” حين اعتقل للمرة الأولى يوم 27 مايو2007م كان خارجا من قاعة الامتحانات حيث كان طالبا في السنة الرابعة بكلية الشريعة والقانون بجامعة صنعاء- كان في انتظاره جنديان بزيهما المدني يتبعان جهاز المخابرات وسيارة بيضاء من هناك اختطفاه إلى جهة غير معلومة لأسرته- غير أنهم أخذوه إلى الأمن السياسي وكانت التحقيقات معه تبدأ من العاشرة ليلا وتستمر حتى بزوغ أشعة الشمس حينها كانت تهمته أنه شيعي وانتماءه لحزب معارض والاتصال بدولة أجنبية تطورت هذه المرة إلى تخابر معها! The Abdali has found the “freedom of thought and free detainees,” when he was arrested for the first time on May 27, 2007 he was leaving the examination hall, where he was a student in the fourth year the Faculty of Shari’a and Law at the University of Sana’a – was waiting two Bzehma civil pursuing the intelligence agency, and a white car from there Achttefah to destination unknown to his family – but they took him to political security and investigations were with him starting from the tenth night and continue until the emergence of the sun that time it was his charge that Shiite and his membership of an opposition party and contacting a foreign country has this time to Tkhabr with it!

هذه المرة الاعتقال تم في محافظة عدن من أحد فنادقها يوم 13 -7-2009م انقطعت أخباره عن أسرته اختطفه الأمن وصادروا جهاز كمبيوتر محمول وهاتف نقال وبطاقة هوية بالإضافة الى جواز سفره وحقيبة ملابسه ,عصر اليوم التالي من اختطافه بعدن – طوق عناصر من الأمن القومي منزله بصنعاء يوم14-7-2009م وداهموه وقاموا بتفتيشه, ولم تعلم أسرته بمكانه إلا بعد أربعة أشهر من الإخفاء- كان في سجن الأمن السياسي بصنعاء! This time the arrest was in the governorate of Aden from a hotel on 13 -7-2009 م no news from his family was kidnapped by security and confiscated a laptop computer and a mobile phone and identity card in addition to his passport and bag his clothes, this afternoon following his abduction in Aden – surrounded elements of the National Security home Sanaa on 14/07/2009 and Daanmoh They searched him, his family did not know his whereabouts until after four months of concealment – was in the Political Security prison in Sana’a! معمر أب لأربعة أطفال ينتظرون عودته. Muammar father of four children waiting for his return.

جاء عيد وآخر سيأتي وهم في السجن وتأمل أسرهم أن يأتي هذا العيد وقد أفرج عنهم, أطفال وليد ومعمر كل يسألون عن أبويهما وعن سبب اعتقالهما! Came to the festival and another will come in prison and hopes of their families to come this holiday has been released, children and Walid and Muammar all asking for and why their parents pick them up! شارك اطفال معمر في اعتصامات للمطالبة بإطلاقه وهو مافعلته طفلتا وليد شرف الدين . Muammar children participated in protests to demand the release it as it did Teflta Walid Sharaf al-Din.

ثلاثتهم لازالوا حتى اليوم في سجن المخابرات ويحاكمون في الجزائية المتخصصة.- ليسو بمجرمين لكنهم كالآلاف ضحايا حرب صعده التي لاناقة لهم فيها ولابعير! All three are still so today in the prison intelligence and criminal tried in specialized .- to Digg Kalalav criminals but victims of the war in Sa’ada province which they have the elegance and Abair!

اختطفوا واعتقلوا بطرق غير قانونية ويحاكمون في حين كل إجراءات القبض والمحاكمة غير عادله وغير قانوني. Kidnapped and illegally detained and prosecuted, while all the procedures for arrest and the trial unfair and illegal.

إلى متى تنتهك كرامة المواطن اليمني إلى متي يعيش في ظل خوف والرعب من أجهزة تفترض أنها تعمل من أجل أمنه وحمايته وصون كرامته التي تهدر يوميا على يدها؟! When to violate the dignity of the citizen to the Yemeni when living in the shadow of fear and horror of the devices assume they are working for security and protection and maintenance of dignity is wasted every day on her hand?!

Hate crimes directed against Muslims remain relatively rare, notwithstanding the notoriety gained by incidents such as recent vandalism at the Madera Islamic Center.

Jews, lesbians, gay men and Caucasians, among others, are all more frequently the target of hate crimes, FBI records show. Reported anti-Muslim crimes have declined over recent years, though they still exceed what occurred prior to the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

“We see hate crimes generally go in spurts, and are often in relation to international or domestic events,” Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Friday.

In 2008, 105 hate crime incidents against Muslims were reported nationwide. There were 10 times as many incidents that were recorded as anti-Jewish during the same year, the most recent for which figures are available.

The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes leaped to a record 481 in 2001, apparently prompted by the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. It hasn’t been nearly that high since.

All told, 7,783 reported hate crime incidents occurred in 2008, including 1,381 in California. These incidents can take many forms.

Lodi resident David Halla, for instance, was arrested Monday and charged with assaulting a 76-year-old charter bus passenger while en route from Modesto to Chukchansi Gold Resort-Casino. This could count as a hate crime, as witnesses say Halla was shouting racial epithets at the Spanish- speaking victim.

On the other hand, if Halla had called the alleged victim old, that wouldn’t have been recorded as a hate crime, because age is not covered by federal hate crime laws.

By itself, hate is not a crime.

Congress, though, has specified that a criminal act becomes a hate crime when it is “motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.” Stiffer penalties can result.

The very idea of a hate crime can pose special challenges.

Read more: Modesto Bee

Yemen Post: At least 9 soldiers were killed when armed men attacked a security checkpoint in Yemen’s Southern Abyan Province, where many were killed and injured during fierce clashes between the security forces and suspected Al-Qaeda militants last week.

The Alsahwa website quoted informed sources as saying militants launched an RPG attack against the personnel of the checkpoint in the Almashrou’a area in Jaar district when soldiers were breaking their fast at Maghrib.

The attackers burned the bodies of the soldiers, a security patrol and the attack site and chanted Allah is great and their attack was in retaliation for attacks against their brothers in the province, the sources said.
The heinous attack followed fierce confrontations with suspected Al-Qaeda members in the Lowder and Jaar districts in which more than 40 were killed including soldiers.

Last week, confrontations resumed after the authorities said they had retaken control of the Lowder district.
Also, the developments come amid the continuous hunt for Al-Qaeda terrorists throughout Yemen and fears of the west about growing presence of Al-Qaeda in the country.

http://www.aljumhor.net

The unknown elements, released a statement to al-Qaeda in mosques and markets of Zanzibar Abyan governorate as “the Mujahideen in the Arabian Peninsula,” Al Qaeda’s wing in Zanzibar and Lauder.

وكذب البيان الذي وزع بكميات كبيرة في مديرية زنجبار في السوق العام ومسجد التوحيد ، ومسجد الحاج أحمد ، إضافة لتوزيعه على المحلات التجارية ، الأنباء التي تناقلتها وسائل الإعلام عن مقتل سبعة من أعضاء التنظيم أو عن تسليم أنفسهم للأجهزة الأمنية في محافظة أبين، واصفاً ذلك بأنه بافتراءات وحرب إعلامية لتشويه أعضاءه عند المواطنين. And a lie the statement that was distributed in large quantities in the Directorate of Zanzibar in the general market and al-Tawhid Mosque, the Mosque of Haji Ahmad, as well as for distribution to shops, reports by the media about the killing of seven members of the organization or surrender to security forces in Abyan province, describing it as a pernicious and a media war to discredit its members when the citizens. و أكد البيان سيطرتهم على الوضع في لودر، مطمئنا إخوانهم المسلمين بأن المجاهدين في عز قوتهم ومنعتهم. The statement stressed and control of the situation in Lauder, assuring fellow Muslims that the mujahideen at the height of their power and prevented them.

ودعا البيان من أسماهم إخوانهم المسلمين بعدم تلقي الأخبار من أجهزة الإعلام الرسمية، وتلقيها بدلا عن ذلك من ” من إخوانكم المجاهدين الصادقين أو من مواقعهم المنتشرة على شبكة الانترنت”، مسميا عدد من تلك المواقع. The statement called for what he called fellow Muslims not to receive news from the official media, and receive instead of from “the truthful Mujahideen brothers or their deployed on the Internet”, naming a number of those sites.

And this is what Centcom wants to fund. I’m happy to hear the State Department and Seche were arguing against it.

Human Rights Ministry: “Do producers of the report see that it is fair protecting terrorist and saboteurs and endangering people’s rights ,freedoms, blood and honor to non-humanitarian tampering?”, the ministry wondered.

US officials propose more than billion dollars to support Yemen
Source : Wall Street Journal VIA Nasir al Arrabyee: By ADAM ENTOUS, SIOBHAN GORMAN and JULIAN E. BARNES
WASHINGTON—The U.S. military’s Central Command has proposed pumping as much as $1.2 billion over five years into building up Yemen’s security forces, a major investment in a shaky government, in a sign of Washington’s fears of al Qaeda’s growing foothold on the Arabian Peninsula.

The timing and the final funding amount will depend on how supporters of the effort overcome resistance from some officials at the State Department and the Pentagon, who have doubts about Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the ability of his government, seen by many as corrupt, to effectively use a flood of American-taxpayer money.

The threat to the U.S. from al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen has become a priority concern for the Obama administration, fueling a robust internal debate over how to calibrate assistance to address what many officials see as the biggest counterterrorism challenge outside Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Central Command, which oversees military operations across the Mideast and South Asia, argues a large infusion of cash is necessary to stanch al Qaeda gains and enable Yemen’s security forces to conduct more effective counterterrorism operations, U.S. military officials and diplomats say. The money would be used primarily for training and equipment.

But senior U.S. diplomats and experts warn of a widening imbalance between fast-growing U.S. military support and the slow pace of civilian development assistance, which is aimed at peeling away popular support for Islamists. “It tends to encourage a negative perspective in Yemen that all we care about is U.S. security,” said a senior U.S. official.

More safeguards are needed, officials say, to ensure U.S. equipment and resources aren’t diverted by the Yemeni government to its fight against domestic rivals. In addition to battling the homegrown group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the government in San’a faces rebels to the north and secessionist groups in the south of the country.

U.S. Special Operations teams in Yemen, birthplace of Osama bin Laden’s father, already play an expansive role in the country. Some spearhead an effort to track and kill al Qaeda leaders as part of a campaign authorized by President Barack Obama. Other teams run small development projects, a role typically handled by State Department aid officials.

The U.S. military accelerated strikes against Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula following December’s failed attempt by the group to blow up a Detroit-bound American airliner.

Over the past nine months, the U.S. military has carried out a handful of missile strikes on alleged al Qaeda operatives in Yemen, according to U.S. officials briefed on the operations. All of the strikes were approved by Washington’s then-ambassador to San’a, Stephen Seche, the officials said. Mr. Seche recently returned to Washington.

The White House is now weighing a proposal to add armed, aerial drones operated by the Central Intelligence Agency to the arsenal against al Qaeda in Yemen, mirroring the CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan.

Tensions between Central Command and the State Department have simmered for months over the size and scope of the U.S. military’s security assistance to Mr. Saleh’s government, according to U.S. officials.

U.S. officials said Central Command originally floated the idea of a bigger, $1.6 billion package for Yemen, but scaled it back after objections from the State Department and some in the Pentagon.

Mr. Seche and others have argued that Yemen doesn’t have the capacity to absorb such large sums, according to officials involved in the deliberations. They also voiced concerns that the Pentagon’s plans risked overly militarizing Yemen, and potentially fueling a wider insurgency in the country.

“We can’t just throw dollars at Yemen and think it will solve itself,” said a U.S. official who has taken part in the Yemen debate. “This is the mistake we’ve made in efforts to combat the Taliban in Pakistan.”

The State Department has been particularly concerned that the large influx of funds to Yemen could be diverted to the government’s war against a Shiite group known as the Houthis. The U.S. doesn’t believe claims by Yemen and Saudi Arabia that the Houthis are being funded and trained by Iran.

Aid to Yemen under the U.S. government’s main counterterrorism program has grown from less than $5 million in fiscal 2006 to more than $155 million in fiscal 2010, the Pentagon said. But that effort has been piecemeal, prompting calls within the military for a more concerted, sustained campaign.

Jeremy Sharp, a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs at the Congressional Research Service, said the proposed increase was significant in terms of the large dollar amounts involved, but more importantly because “it would send a message that cooperation is expected over a longer time period.”

A Pentagon spokesman said the proposal by Central Command is being evaluated as part of the fiscal 2012 budget process in consultation with the State Department. “Any discussion on the outcome of this process would be premature at this time,” the spokesman said.

A senior U.S. military official said the Pentagon was taking a close look at how much aid Yemen can accept. “There are times when we don’t spend money, when the partner doesn’t have the carrying capacity,” the senior military official said.

One of the most vocal supporters of aid to Yemen, Gen. David Petraeus, left his position as head of Central Command in July to lead coalition forces in Afghanistan. It is unclear if his successor, Gen. James Mattis, will fight for all of the funds or push for a scaled-back version.

Some at the Pentagon think a one-year to two-year package makes more sense because it could give the U.S. more leverage to encourage Mr. Saleh to remain cooperative.

Oil revenue, a key source of funding for the Yemeni government, has been dwindling, increasing U.S. concerns that Mr. Saleh’s government will weaken. “Yemen is already running out of water; they’re already running out of oil,” said Henry Crumpton, a former counterterrorism chief at the State Department and senior CIA official.

Christopher Boucek, a fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said there is danger on relying too heavily on a military solution in Yemen. “It is a lot easier to focus on the counterterrorism side,” Mr. Boucek said.

Special Operations teams run several rural development programs in Yemen’s tribal areas.They are doing the type of work the State Department’s Provincial Reconstruction Teams have done to understand local needs in regions of Iraq and Afghanistan, a congressional official said. Officials said the teams’ aid role in Yemen has grown in part because of the U.S. Embassy’s stricter travel restrictions for civilian employees. In some cases, USAID officers haven’t been out to visit their projects in years.

The State Department recently committed $120 million in development assistance to Yemen over the next three years. That pales in comparison to the aid provided to other countries where counterterrorism is a high priority, such as Pakistan, which has been promised $7.5 billion over five years.

“It’s a cycle: Which comes first, security or development? Security has really hampered these efforts,” said a Yemeni official, who described civilian development efforts so far as “minimal” compared to military and security expenditures. “That is a problem.”