Yemenis protest against al Qaeda

In a direct rebuke to the terror group, residents of Taiz held a major protest against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) on Thursday evening after prayers. Protesters held signs denouncing AQAP that said, “Your racism will do nothing but make us stronger.”

Taiz is the largest city in Yemen, often setting the tone for the six month revolution seeking to overthrow the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh. The goal of the revolution is the establishment of a civil (non-military) democracy with equal rights and opportunities for citizens.

Protesters also denounced al Qaeda’s media statements, including the “Inspire” magazine, which they say distorts western perceptions of Yemen.

Regime change has been opposed by the United States and Saudi Arabia. Both states seek minor cosmetic changes in Yemen’s leadership on the pretext of counter-terror concerns.

Hundreds of thousands on the streets also condemned AQAP’s takeover of Zinjibar in Abyan. In chants, they expressed solidarity with the 90,000 Yemeni citizens who fled from the violence and al Qaeda’s attempted imposition of a Taliban style culture in the city.

Ray News reported that the protesters rejected the state’s slander and use of the al Qaeda “bogeyman” to garner western support and affirmed that Taiz is known as a “city of science and always stands against terrorists and terrorism.”

Protesters also reiterated their demand for a civil state and a transitional council.

Most Yemenis believe that the state colludes with AQAP, a premised based on a decade of state facilitation and leniency with the group. Current events in Abyan also give rise to concerns that al Qaeda is working with the ruling family to ensure its longevity.

In May, security forces attacked the protest camp in Taiz City. Commanded by Yemen’s counter-terror chief, Ahmed Saleh, the president’s son, security forces shot protesters point blank and set fire to the tent city in the early morning hours. Several children and disabled persons were unable to escape the flames and burned to death. The death toll of the massacre was 57 and over 1000 were injured from burns and bullet wounds, Bloomberg reported.

–Jane @ Examiner.com

اوباما يفقد السيطرة على اليمن

My article from PJM at al Mostakela:

اوباما يفقد السيطرة على اليمن

تخاطر الولايات المتحدة بتمكين القاعدة في اليمن وتنفير الشعب اليمني عن طريق إحباط تغيير النظام هناك

كتبت – جين نوفاك

يعتبر اليمن بلد معقد، فقد ظل يرزح تحت وطأة اضطرابات كبيرة، كما أن فهم اليمن يخبرنا الشيء الكثير عن الشرق الأوسط المعاصر، والسياسة الخارجية لإدارة اوباما، واتجاه “الربيع العربي”.

فبينما يعتقد الأمريكيون أن السياسات الأخيرة لحكومتهم وقيادتهم قد جعلت الولايات المتحدة أكثر شعبية في المنطقة [الشرق الأوسط]، إلا أن الحقيقة – كما أظهرتها صناديق الاقتراع- هي عكس ذلك بشكل عام.

تكمن سياسة إدارة أوباما في دعم الديكتاتورية القائمة هناك أو على الأكثر مساندة تغيير شكلي في النظام، وفي هذا المنوال تساءلت صحيفة الصحوة الأسبوعية التابعة للمعارضة اليمنية بالقول: “لماذا أمريكا صامتة عن استخدام قوات مكافحة الإرهاب ضد الشعب اليمني؟”

انه سؤال جيد. فمنذ شهر فبراير، تحولت الاحتجاجات الشبابية في اليمن إلى ثورة أجيال على طول البلاد وذلك من أجل إسقاط الرئيس علي عبدالله صالح وكل أقربائه، بعد ثلاثة وثلاثين عاماً من تولي السلطة. قال المحتجون إنهم يريدون مجلساً انتقالياً مدنياً ليشرف على دستور جديد وانتخابات عادلة، وتحقيق غايتهم القصوى في دولة ديمقراطية مدنية. وبالمقابل، قتلت قوات الأمن التابعة للدولة حوالي ألف مدني في كل أنحاء اليمن.

رأي توماس كراجسي، سفير سابق للولايات المتحدة في اليمن، سياسة بلاده كما يلي: “إن علي عبدالله صالح هو قناتنا الرئيسية لكل شيء نحاول فعله في اليمن”.

إن الهدف الأساسي للولايات المتحدة في اليمن هو التغلب على تنظيم القاعدة، وتعتقد إدارة أوباما أن صالح أو على الأقل جهازه، هو وحده القادر على فعل ذلك.

وهذا هو بالضبط النهج القاصر الرؤية الذي انتقده أوباما حينما عزاه للسياسات السالفة تجاه الشرق الأوسط. ففي ظل نظام صالح، نجد أن التعذيب منظم، والاختطافات السياسية شائعة، والقصف المدفعي بمثابة معالجة مستمرة للاحتجاجات المناوئة للنظام. كما نجد أن الفرص الاقتصادية، والسلطة السياسية والسلطة المحلية تتوفر فقط عبر العبور من بوابة صالح وأسرته. فالفساد ونهب عائدات النفط والمساعدات الدولية أنتج غياب شبه تام للخدمات الأساسية. فقد بلغ الجوع وشحة المياه سابقاً مستويات حرجة، وبينما توشك الأرضية الاقتصادية على الترنح، فالوضع أضحى سيئاً.

فبعد أن قتل قناصة 58 متظاهراً في شهر مارس، استقال الكثير من إدارة صالح، وطلوا الثورة بالزنك. فاللواء البغيض علي محسن الأحمر، قائد عسكري قوي والأخ غير الشقيق لصالح، أنزل الفرقة الأولى مدرع لحماية المحتجين، وعرض بأن يغادر البلد سوية مع صالح. وفي شهر مايو أعلن صادق الأحمر، أكبر شيخ لقبيلة الرئيس القوية “حاشد” عن دعمه للمعارضة، واصفاً صالح بالسفاح. وكان هذا بعد قيام قوات الأمن بإحراق عشرات من النائمين في الخيام حتى الموت.

تبرأت أحزاب اللقاء المشترك المعارض في البداية عن الثورة الوطنية وذلك خوفاً من انتقام النظام، ونتيجة للضغط الغربي، ومن أجل تعزيز الانشقاق بين المعارضة الرسمية والشباب الثائر.

وفي شهر يونيو، ضرب انفجار القصر الرئاسي مخلفاً إصابة الرئيس صالح بجروح بالغة. ابتهج الملايين عندما غادر صالح إلى السعودية لتلقي العلاج، مخمنين أنه لن يعود أبداً. ومع ذلك لا السعودية ولا الولايات المتحدة تريدان تغييراً كبيراً في البلاد، وهكذا صادقت إدارة أوباما على نائب الرئيس عبد ربه منصور هادي كقائد للمرحلة الانتقالية بالرغم أن هادي رفض تولي الرئاسة بحسب ما يستلزمه الدستور اليمني.

عارضت حكومة الولايات المتحدة مطلب المحتجين لتشكيل مجلس انتقالي، وعوضاً عن ذلك راحت لدعم خطة معيبة جداً صاغها مجلس التعاون الخليجي. وتدعو الخطة الخليجية إلى أن يسلم صالح السلطة إلى نائب له ويستقيل مقابل حصانة من المحاكمة. وتقترح حكومة وحدة وطنية من الحزب الحاكم المهيمن ومن أحزاب المعارضة غير الفاعلة (أحزاب اللقاء المشترك). ويتبع هذا النهج انتخابات سريعة قد تعيد ترسيخ نظام صالح. ووافق صالح ونكث عن موافقته ثلاث مرات. حيث استفاد من أسابيع من المفاوضات لإفراغ البنوك، وتهريب النفط، وإعادة مركزة قواته.

وبينما دعا حوالي نصف الحكومة ونصف الجيش ومعظم الشعب بتغيير النظام، ساندت الولايات المتحدة تذرع صالح بالشرعية في شهر مارس.

فالبيانات الصادرة عن الولايات المتحدة، على وجه الخصوص وزارة الخارجية تحث على الحوار بين الأحزاب السياسية لحل “الأزمة السياسية”.

خصص الرئيس اوباما سطراً واحداً لليمن في حديثه عن الشرق الأوسط في شهر مايو، حيث طلب من “صديقنا” صالح أن يمتثل لالتزامه بنقل السلطة. حذر مسئولو الولايات المتحدة خلال زيارة قاموا بها في شهر يوليو أحزاب اللقاء المشترك من توسيع الاحتجاجات أو تشكيل مجلس انتقالي. حيث حث فقط مسئولو إدارة اوباما صالح لأن يقبل بالمبادرة الخليجية، التي هي في الحقيقة تشير إلى التسامح نحو النظام.

إن مئات الملايين من الدولارات الخاصة بتمويل مكافحة الإرهاب المخصصة لليمن منذ 2006 تُدار من خلال ابن صالح وأبناء أخيه (مشهورون محلياً بـ البلاطجة الأربعة)، والذين يرأسون الأجهزة الأمنية ووحدات مكافحة الإرهاب، وقوات أخرى.

وهم الذين يسرقون المساعدات، حتى أنهم في أوقات يساعدون تنظيم القاعدة. فمنذ فبراير والبلاطجة الأربعة مشغولون جداً بمهاجمة الشعب اليمني، متظاهرين بتحدي القاعدة. فبعد تحذير من سيطرة القاعدة، سحبت الدولة قوات من أبين وتحركت القاعدة بسرعة للسيطرة على مدينة زنجبار. يجزم اليمنيون بشكل موحد من خلال واقع تناسق الأحداث بأن نظام صالح يحضا تاريخياً بعلاقات حميمة مع القاعدة.

وهكذا تهدف السياسية الأمريكية إلى الدفاع عن نظام قمعي فاسد وغير شعبي لأسباب هي أنه يساعد في مكافحة الإرهاب، والمشكلة أن النظام ليس فاعلاً في القيام بذلك.

كما أن السعوديون يدعمون النظام ويرونه بأنه متراس ضد المتمردين الحوثيين. والسخرية هي أنه بينما تحضا القاعدة بدعم شعبي قليل جداً في اليمن، نجد أن سياسات الولايات المتحدة والسعودية قد تنتهي إلى تقوية مطالبة جماعة القاعدة والأراضي التي تسيطر عليها، وذلك من خلال تدمير أي بديل سياسي، ودعم الحكومة التي هي في الحقيقة لا تحارب القاعدة.

Yemen’s CT chief accused of war crimes

After Yemen’s Republican Guard killed and dismembered tribal prisoners Thursday, Arhab tribesmen issued a statement Friday demanding the immediate arrest and prosecution of General Ahmed Saleh as a war criminal.

Ahmed Saleh heads the Republican Guard containing US funded counter-terror units and is the son of Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen’s president for 33 years. Ahmed Saleh is the primary liaison in Yemen for the United States’ counter-terror efforts and among the main recipients of US counter-terror funds for nearly a decade.

Republican Guard forces under Ahmed Saleh’s command have committed grievous war crimes in Yemen since the outbreak of popular protests in February, Yemeni opposition parties allege, including the recent corpse mutiliations. The parties called for an immediate ban on weapons sales to Yemen in a statement on Sunday.

Nationwide protests that began in February demand the immediate ouster of the entire Saleh regime, and a transitional council with the ultimate goal of fair elections and a civil state. Nearly 1000 protesters have been killed by security forces.

The Arhab tribesmen said the brutal killing and desecration of bodies was “a criminal act that have exceeded all the heavenly religions, international laws and tribal customs” and went beyond aggression to vengeance. Arhab tribesmen overtook al Samaa, one of the largest Republican Guard bases, triggering airstrikes on villages, wells, mosques and other civilian infrastructure. Arhab is on the outskirts of the capital, Sanaa.

Additional airstrikes took place in Taiz, killing two civilians when bombers attacked the residences of pro-revolution sheikhs. At least 45 were killed in Taiz in July as a result of clashes between the Republican Guard and pro-revolution tribesmen seeking to protect the thousands of protesters in the citiy center.

In response to the aggression in Arhab and threats against protesters, a new tribal confederation was declared Firday by Sheikh Sadiq al Ahmar comprising the Hasid and Bakil and other previously distinct groupings. The declaration by 750 tribes stated any aggression against the protesters will be considered an attack on the tribes and asked the international community to stand by the Yemeni people’s right of self determination.

President Saleh is recuperating in Saudi Arabia from injuries sustained in a June bombing. He reneged three times on an offer proffered by the international community of immunity for his substantial war crimes prior to and since the revolution in exchange for his resignation in 30 days. Saleh endorsed the deal again on Sunday.

The Saleh regime has a substantial history of internal war crimes. Events in Arhab echo the six year Saada War when the state’s habitual barbarism and collective punishment triggered a widening cycle of violence which ultimately created over 300,000 internal refugees. In his father’s absence, Ahmed Saleh has proven himself to be a capable mass murderer, unleashing a campaign of collective punishment in every province.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Yemen’s counter-terror chief accused of atrocities – National Yemen Headlines | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/yemen-headlines-in-national/yemen-s-counter-terror-chief-accused-of-atrocities#ixzz1UDIlMz7M

Yemen protesters announce boycott of US, Saudi products

Protesters in Yemen announced a boycott today of US and Saudi products, a largely symbolic move in light of Yemen’s grave humanitarian crisis. Protesters allege that the Obama administration has thwarted their efforts for regime change.

Millions across Yemen have demanded the end to the 33 year reign of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his family in six months of protests. State forces slaughtered nearly 1000 protesters, often by firing directly into crowds of the unarmed protesters.

US intransigence is thought to be linked to efforts to salvage hundreds of millions of dollars spent to train and equip Yemeni counter terror forces under the direction of Saleh’s relatives, known as The Four Thugs. Protesters charge the US trained counter-terror forces have perpetrated many of the fatal attacks on civilians. US military officials that said there was no direct evidence. The US has reaped little return on its investment in Yemen as the security forces are riddled with al Qaeda supporters.

The protesters platform calls for a transitional council to replace President Saleh who is in Saudi Arabia recovering from injuries suffered in a bombing. Another top demand is the restructuring of the security forces which have a long history of torture, corruption and al Qaeda facilitation. The Obama administration vetoed the idea and instead has imposed a transition plan that leaves most of the Saleh regime in place.

The Yemeni public has very little support for al Qaeda and is demanding a modern civil state that affords equal rights to all sects in Yemen’s religiously pluralistic landscape.

Continue reading on Examiner.com US, Saudi meddling drives Yemen protesters to boycott – National Yemen Headlines | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/yemen-headlines-in-national/us-saudi-meddling-drives-yemen-protesters-to-boycott#ixzz1UDJIPXPf

Obama fumbles Yemen

“By thwarting regime change in Yemen, the United States risks empowering al-Qaeda and alienating a nation,” my article at PJM:

Yemen is a complex country that has been under considerable turbulence. Yet understanding Yemen tells us a great deal about the contemporary Middle East, Obama administration foreign policy, and the direction of the “Arab Spring.”

While Americans may think that their government’s recent policies and leadership have made the United States more popular in the region, the truth — as polls show — is generally the opposite. Obama administration policy is to support the existing dictatorship or at most to back a relatively cosmetic change in the regime. Thus, the Yemeni opposition weekly al Sahwa asked, “Why is America silent about the use of `counter-terror’ forces against the Yemeni people?”

It’s a good question. Since February, youth protests in Yemen morphed into a nationwide and intergenerational revolution to overthrow President Ali Abdullah Saleh and all his relatives, after 33 years in office. Protesters said they wanted a civilian interim council to oversee a new constitution and fair elections, with the ultimate goal of achieving a civil democratic state. In response, state security forces have murdered nearly 1,000 citizens around the country.

Thomas Krajeski, former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, summed up the policy as follows: “Ali Abdullah Saleh is our main conduit to everything we are trying to do in Yemen.” The U.S.’s primary goal in Yemen is to vanquish al-Qaeda. And the Obama administration believes that Saleh, or at least his apparatus, is best able to do that.

This is precisely the short-sighted approach that Obama has criticized when attributing it to predecessors’ policies in the Middle East. Under Saleh’s regime, torture is systemic, political kidnapping common, and artillery fire a frequent remedy to anti-regime sentiment. Economic opportunity, political power, and local authority are available only through access to Saleh and his family. Corruption and embezzlement of oil revenues and international aid mean a near absence of basic services. Water scarcity and hunger were already at critical levels, but as the economy ground nearly to a halt, things are even worse.

After snipers killed 58 demonstrators in March, much of the Saleh administration resigned, galvanizing the revolution. The unsavory General Ali Mohsen al Ahmar, a powerful military commander and Saleh’s half brother, brought the First Armored Division to Sanaa to protect the protesters and offered to leave the country alongside Saleh. In May, after dozens sleeping in tents were burned to death by security forces, Sadiq al-Ahmar, paramount sheikh of Saleh’s powerful Hasid tribe, announced his support for the opposition, calling Saleh a butcher.

The opposition Joint Meeting of Parties (JMP) initially disavowed the national uprising in fear of regime reprisal and due to Western pressure, reinforcing the schism between the formal opposition and the revolutionary youth.

In June, an explosion rocked the presidential palace leaving President Saleh severely injured. Millions rejoiced when Saleh flew to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, assuming he would never return. However neither the Saudis nor the United States want too much change. Thus, the Obama administration endorsed Vice President Mansour Hadi as interim leader although Hadi refuses to assume the presidency as required by the Yemeni constitution.

The U.S. government opposes the protesters’ demand for a transitional council and instead supports a deeply flawed plan drafted by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The GCC plan calls for Saleh to pick his successor and resign in return for immunity from prosecution. It proposes a unity government of the hegemonic ruling party and ineffective opposition parties, the JMP. This approach followed by quick elections would re-entrench the Saleh regime. Saleh agreed and reneged three times, using weeks of negotiations to empty the banks, smuggle oil, and reposition troops. The protesters were incensed.

With nearly half the government and military and most of the public calling for regime change, in March, Saleh’s pretense of legitimacy was bolstered by U.S. statements and especially the State Department’s urging dialog among political parties to resolve the “political crisis.”

In his Middle East speech in May, President Obama devoted one line to Yemen, calling on “our friend” Saleh to follow through on his commitment to transfer power. During a July visit, U.S. officials warned the JMP against escalating protests or recognizing a transitional council. Obama administration officials merely meekly urge Saleh to accept the GCC deal, which in fact signals tolerance toward the regime.

The hundreds of millions of dollars in counter-terror funding allocated to Yemen since 2006 ran through Saleh’s son and nephews (known locally as the Four Thugs) who head the security services, counter-terror units, and other forces. The aid is stolen by them and at times they even help al-Qaeda. Since February, the Four Thugs are too busy attacking the Yemeni public to take on al- Qaeda. After warning of an al-Qaeda takeover, the state withdrew forces from Abyan and al-Qaeda quickly moved in to occupy Zinjibar City. Yemenis rather uniformly assert coordination of the events, as the Saleh regime historically has had cordial relations with al-Qaeda.

Thus, American policy is aimed at defending an unpopular, corrupt, and repressive system on the grounds that it helps combat al-Qaeda. The problem is that the regime is not effective in doing so.

The Saudis, too, support the regime, seeing it as a bulwark against Shia rebels. The irony is that while al-Qaeda has very little popular support in Yemen, the U.S and Saudi policies, by destroying any political alternative and backing a government that doesn’t really fight al-Qaeda, may end by strengthening that group’s appeal and the territory it controls.

آليات ما بعد ثورة اليمن ينبغي أن تبدأ محلياً (ترجمه) الكاتبة الأمريكية نوفاك تبادر باقتراح آليات ما بعد الثورة –

Mostakela: :: آليات ما بعد ثورة اليمن ينبغي أن تبدأ محلياً
(ترجمه) الكاتبة الأمريكية نوفاك تبادر باقتراح آليات ما بعد الثورة
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2011-يونيو(حزيران)-19

آليات ما بعد ثورة اليمن ينبغي أن تبدأ محلياً

كتبت: جين نوفاك*- ترجمة خاصة بـ “يمنات”

المصدر: مدونة الكاتبة /ورد برس

بعد ثلاثة أشهر من الاحتجاجات الدامية، ما يزال ملايين من اليمنيين ثابتين في الشوارع على طول وعرض البلاد. إنهم يريدون رحيل صالح ونظامه بالكامل. اندلعت مصادمات في صنعاء بين القبائل المُعارضة والفصائل العسكرية، وبدأ الرئيس صالح بشن أعمال عدائية بعد حجز فريق واحد من الوسطاء، بمن فيهم سفير الولايات المتحدة، وقصف فريق آخر من الوسطاء أيضاً. كما أن رفض صالح قبول فرصة ذهبية قدمتها له دول مجلس التعاون الخليجي لم يكن مفاجئاً. فمن اليوم الأول للثورة، يدرك المحتجون أنه سيقاتل حتى آخر قطرة من دمه، وسوف يستخدم أي وسيلة لازمة من اجل بقائه على السلطة.

سينجح الشعب اليمني بالإطاحة بصالح. وبالتالي، يجب على هذا الجيل من الثوريين اليمنيين أن يبدؤوا في اليوم الذي يلي صالح بعمل شاق لبناء اليمن الديمقراطي المدني الذي يلبي مطالبهم. وما أن تنجح الثورة، يجب حمايتها. ولعل واحد من سبل حمايتها يكمن في توزيع السلطة على المستوى المحلي.

وفيما يلي جدول زمني بـ اثنا عشر شهر بعد رحيل الرئيس صالح من السلطة. ويهدف هذا الاقتراح إلى خلق آلية لتحقيق مطالب الشباب اليمني الثائر. وترتكز هذه الآلية على مبدأ الحقوق المتساوية لجميع اليمنيين، حيث يأخذ الاقتراح على عاتقه وجوب بناء هيكل الحكومة المؤقتة من الألف إلى الياء، مع تركيز مطرد على الاحتياجات الفردية لليمنيين. نظراً لأن عملية إعادة توازن السلطة تتطلب ألا تُسوى فقط بين التكتلات المختلفة ومراكز السلطة، بقدر ما تتطلب أن تُسوى بين الشعب وكافة مؤسساته. ذلك أن تحقيق المصير الوطني الشامل يكمن فقط في منح سلطات واسعة على الصعيد المحلي.

تنظيم المجتمع

إن التكلفة التقديرية لهذه الآلية الانتقالية المؤقتة على مدى ثلاث سنوات هي 2.4 مليار دولار، تُستمد من أموال الجهات المانحة التي تعهدت بها في مؤتمر المانحين عام 2006. وتتطلب هذه الآلية الانتقالية المؤقتة إجراء مسح سكاني للبلاد. وسيجرى هذا التعداد في مرحلة واحدة شاملة للعائلات والأفراد الذين لديهم شهادات ميلاد وبطاقات انتخابية، والطلاب المسجلين في المدارس والمسجلين في محو الأمية للكبار وكذالك طالبي التوظيف. ولعل أهم شرط أساسي بعد الثورة هو انتخابات نزيهة. كما يجب أن تبني الانتخابات البرلمانية والرئاسية المبكرة في قوائم الناخبين على الدقة. و على نفس القدر من الأهمية, سوف يحدد التعداد أيضا اليمنيين الأكثر ضعفا، واحتياجات المجتمع الملحة، فلقد امتص الرئيس صالح ثروات البلاد، وأصبح كثير من المواطنين على حافة المجاعة.

تتطلب الآلية الانتقالية المؤقتة من الناشطين اليمنيين والمواطنين إنشاء مراكز محلية في كل مديرية وقرية، وسوف تعمل هذه المراكز على استقبال طلبات العمل من اليمنيين البالغين- ذكوراً وإناثاً- والمستعدين لإعادة بناء الأمة مقابل دخل محدود، خلال الفترة التي تلي كارثة حكم صالح. كما ستساعد المراكز المحلية في الحصول على طلبات قروض صغيرة ومنح مجتمعية.

تُمنح القروض الصغيرة للأفراد لتكوين اقتصادهم الذاتي، وهو السبيل الأكثر عملية لبداية دفع الاقتصاد. كما أن المنح المقدمة لإعادة بناء المجتمع يجب أن تصبح متاحة بعد أن تقوم المجالس المحلية بتقييم الاحتياجات الأكثر إلحاحا في كل قرية ومديرية. أضحى الفساد الشامل عملية منظمة على كل المستويات في إدارة صالح، وهو يقوض قواعد الاقتصاد والمجتمع المدني، وبالتالي فإن إعادة البناء الجزئي سيحد من عملية النهب الكبير من خلال صرف أموال المانحين بكميات قليلة. كما يجب على كافة مشاريع إعادة بناء المجتمع نشر ميزانياتهم والتحلي بروح عالية من الشفافية. وعليه، فان الآلية الانتقالية المؤقتة تتطلب أيضا خدمة انترنت واسعة النطاق على المستوى الوطني، ووضع معايير للعمليات المحاسبية الوطنية، فضلا عن إنشاء مركز للمساعدة في كل مجتمع.

كما تقوم المجالس المحلية بتأسيس مراكز طبية مجتمعية لتقييم الاحتياجات الطبية على المدى القريب والبعيد، وستعمل على الرقابة على توزيع المساعدات الطبية الدولية، وتقديم برامج تعليمية طبية. وسيتم التشديد على إقامة عيادات ومراكز غسيل الكلى، وتوفير خدمات الصحة الإنجابية.

وكإجراء تشديدي إضافي لكبح الفساد، سيتم إنشاء مراكز إعلامية مجتمعية لتساعد في تكوين منافذ للأخبار المحلية والوطنية، وقنوات البث الإذاعي والصحف المستقلة.

تنظيم المحافظات والمناطق

تعمل الآلية الانتقالية المؤقتة على إيقاف كافة النشاط السياسي لمدة ثلاثة أشهر، بما في ذلك حركة الاستقلال الجنوبية، وهذه ليست محاولة لتقويض الحراك الجنوبي، أو إنكار الحق المشروع للجنوبيين في السعي نحو الاستقلال. هذه آلية محايدة، وهيكل سياسي يسعي إلى توفير الخدمات الأساسية لجميع اليمنيين قبل استئناف النشاط السياسي. وسيتم حل حزب المؤتمر الشعبي العام لمدة سنتين، وبعد ذلك يمكن أن يعاود تنظيمه. ويمكن لأحزاب اللقاء المشترك والأحزاب المؤسسة الأخرى أن تستأنف نشاطها بعد ثلاثة أشهر، وكذلك يجب وبقوة تشجيع وتطوير أحزاب سياسية جديدة، ويمكن أن تبدأ على الفور بعد رحيل صالح، مع الحرص على حصول الإناث على حصص “كوتا” خلال الدورتين الأوليتين من الانتخابات.

وبعد ستة أشهر من مغادرة صالح, يجب أن تجرى انتخابات المجالس المحلية والمحافظين ضمن قوائم انتخابية دقيقة، وتجرى هذه الانتخابات علي مبدأ القائمة النسبية، نظراً لأن النظام الانتخابي القائم على مبدأ “يأخذ الفائز كل شيء” أو “الأول يليه ما بعده” يميز بشدة الأحزاب الصغيرة والمستقلين، وسوف يكون منبوذاً. وخلال نفس المرحلة الانتخابية، يتم انتخاب القضاة ومدراء المدارس في كل مديرية، ويمكن رفع لائحة أسماء المنتحبين بواسطة مراكز المجتمع، وستجرى الانتخابات المحلية مرة كل سنتين لتشجيع مساءلة الممثلين السابقين من قبل المجتمعات المحلية التي يخدمونها.

كما سيقوم كل محافظ باختيار شخص ذو نزاهة عالية, وذلك كممثل على مستوى الوطن ككل لمصلحة “اللجنة العليا للانتخابات والاستفتاء”، والتي بدورها ستشرف علي الانتخابات البرلمانية والرئاسية. كما يمكن رفض المرشحين المقدمين من المحافظين بنسبة 75 ٪.

ستكون المجالس المحلية المنتخبة شريكة مع مراكز المجتمع والمراكز الطبية المجتمعية. وتقوم إدارة المجالس المحلية بالإشراف على الشرطة، والميزانيات المحلية والانتخابات. وستعقد الانتخابات البرلمانية والرئاسية بعد ستة أشهر من انتخابات المجالس المحلية، أي بعد سنة واحدة من سقوط صالح، ولن يكن حزب المؤتمر الشعبي العام مؤهلاً لخوض الانتخابات الأولى. وسيجرى في نفس الوقت استفتاء حول استقلال الجنوب، مع خيارات استقلاله أو وحدته أو التصويت مرة أخرى في الدورة الانتخابية المقبلة. وسيكون الاستفتاء جزءاً من كل مرحلة انتخابية حتى يحين الوقت الذي تصل فيه نسبة ما يجمع عليه الجنوبيون 75% من عددهم.

الأمن ومكافحة الإرهاب

يطالب الثوار اليمنيون بـ “إعادة بناء جهاز الأمن القومي، والأمن السياسي، والاستخبارات عن طريق دمجها في جهاز أمني وطني واحد.”، كما أن مخاوف مكافحة الإرهاب هي ذو أولوية عالية بالنسبة للمجتمع الدولي. فالولايات المتحدة خصصت ملايين من الدولارات كحزمة دعم أمنية لليمن، ومن ثم ما لبثت أن عادت وجمدتها، ولذلك ينبغي أن تطلق هذه الأموال وتوجه نحو تطوير جهاز مخابرات جديد، وإعادة هيكلة الجيش وتدريب الشرطة المحلية.

كما يجب استدعاء الجيش الجنوبي برتبهم الحالية لملء الفراغ في مكافحة الإرهاب في الفترة المؤقتة، وكذلك للمساعدة في إعادة هيكلة أجهزة الجيش اليمني، ذلك لأن جمعية المتقاعدين العسكريين الجنوبية مدربة تدريب عسكري روسي، وبعيدة عن الفساد العسكري القائم بما في ذلك الاتجار بالنفط والسلاح. وقد أثبتت احتراماً متزايداً للحقوق المدنية وحصانة المدنيين أكثر مما هي عليه الأجهزة الأمنية القائمة. كما إن الجيش الجنوبي المتقاعد على دراية بالتضاريس التي تستخدمها القاعدة لشن عمليات قتل جماعي ضد المدنيين في العالم. كما يجب تشجيع عبد الملك الحوثي على تخصيص علاقات متبادلة، كحد أدنى، والانضمام إلى وحدات مكافحة الإرهاب والوحدات العسكرية. إن عملية دمج الجيش الجنوبي المتقاعد وقادة الحوثيين بمثابة كبح مزدوج ضد تغلغل تنظيم القاعدة بشكل وجيه جدا في القوات الموجودة.

المصالحة

سيعتبر طي كل الحروب القبلية بأنه إقدام شريف، ويجب إنهائها، وسيسعي رجال القبائل للاستفادة من نظام المحاكم لحل النزاعات. وتعتمد آلية الانتقال المؤقتة على رجال القبائل وكافة المواطنين في إنشاء مراكز المجتمع (مراكز محلية) وفقا للقواعد المحلية وفي إطار المعايير الوطنية.

كما أن للمصالحة بين المؤتمر الشعبي العام والشباب الثوري أولوية مهمة. فبينما سيكون من المهم إنشاء محكمة لجرائم الحرب المتعلقة بجرائم ضد المواطنين اليمنيين، فإنه يجب تجنب المحاكمات السريعة و أحكام الإعدام، باستثناء ربما أولئك المجرمين من المستوى الكبير، الذين يمكن أيضا أن يحاكموا من قبل المحكمة الجنائية الدولية. أما أولئك الذين حوكموا وأدينوا في قضايا فساد صغيرة ينبغي أن يعملوا على خدمة المجتمع بدلا من فترة سجنهم.

يجب أن تتحقق مطالب الجنوب في الحقوق المتساوية واحترام التاريخ والهوية الجنوبية، وكذلك الاستفتاء. إن ممثلي استقلال الجنوب عليهم واجبات تجاه جماهيرهم المحلية، بمن فيهم أولئك غير المؤيدين لهم، وذلك في وضع الاحتياجات الطبية للجنوبيين قبل المطالب السياسية خلال الفترة المؤقتة.

وسيتم بذل جهود خاصة على الصعيدين المحلي والوطني تجاه الفئات المهمشة والأقليات الضعيفة، مثل الأخدام والصوماليين واليهود والبهائيين والمسيحيين. فعلى قاعدة ضمان الحقوق المتساوية لجميع اليمنيين، تتطلب الآلية الانتقالية المؤقتة حماية متساوية لجميع الأجناس والأعراق والأديان دون تمييز مؤسسي أو معياري من قبل الأغلبية.

اليوم الذي يلي رحيل صالح

يطالب الشباب اليمني الثوري بمجلس أمناء انتقالي من تسعة أشخاص من ذوي القيم الفاضلة للإشراف على الفترة الانتقالية حتى تجرى الانتخابات البرلمانية والرئاسية. وكدولة ثورية، يجب أن توافق التكتلات الرئيسية المهتمة على الأعضاء، إلا أنه بالمقابل، ينبغي على المجلس أن يكون سياسيا ويمثل المصلحة المثلى للشعب، وليس المصلحة الذاتية لجماعة أو هوية، على اعتبار أن جماهير الأنصار العريضة قد جرى تنظيمها مسبقاً عن طريق أحزاب اللقاء المشترك, لجنة الحوار الوطني، الحراك الجنوبي، والتحالفات القبلية و الحوثيين. وبالتالي، يجب على تلك التكوينات المذكورة آنفا الموافقة على مرشحين موثوق بهم في غضون 48 ساعة من مغادرة صالح، وأن تدعم جهود المجلس الوطني الانتقالي، لا أن تضعف مكانته.

وسوف يتخذ مجلس الأمناء على الفور معايير وإجراءات وطنية خاصة بمراكز المجتمع. وعند الحصول على قاعدة البيانات المجتمعية، سيخصص مجلس الأمناء مجالات إعادة التأهيل، بما في ذلك الصحة، والكهرباء، والتنمية الاقتصادية، والحقوق المدنية، والسجون. وسوف يختارون المدراء الأكثر تأهيلاً للإشراف على القوي العاملة التي تم تحديدها من خلال الطلبات المقدمة إلى المراكز المجتمعية خلال فترة التعداد. وبالرغم من أن المحافظات والمجتمعات المختلفة لديها احتياجات مختلفة ومتفاوتة عن بعضها البعض، إلا أنه لا بد من تطبيق كافة الإجراءات بشكل موحد إلى الحد الذي تكون فيه، على سبيل المثال، المراكز الطبية في ذمار مجهزة مثلها مثل نظيراتها في تعز.

وسيقوم الأمناء الوطنيين بتنظيم والإشراف على عديد من المهام الهامة، مثل مراجعة ميزانية الحكومة. ويتعين إجراء مراجعة للدستور لتشخيص المواد التمييزية والخطرة، وتعليق العمل بها، مثل تلك المتعلقة بوسائل الإعلام، إلا أن التنقيحات الدستورية ينبغي أن يضطلع بها برلمان منتخب، بحسب الأصول المتبعة. وعلاوة على ذلك، ينبغي أن تتمحور الوظيفة الأساسية للأمناء الوطنين في التركيز على بناء وتمكين الهياكل البيروقراطية والإدارية والتمثيلية على الصعيد المحلي البحت، وبالتالي، لا يمكن إنجاز هذا العمل إلا بمشاركة الملايين من اليمنيين، وعليه، فإن هذه هي المشاركة على وجه التحديد التي من شأنها أن تحول دون ظهور حكم استبدادي جديد في اليمن.

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*جين نوفاك، محللة أمريكية في الشأن اليمني يمنية منذ وقت طويل، معروفة جيداً في اليمن والشرق الأوسط. حجبت الحكومة اليمنية موقعها الإلكتروني www.armiesofliberation.com منذ عام
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Post rev mechanisms

Yemen shells protesters in Taiz

The Coordinating Council of the Yemeni Youth Revolution for Change (CCYRC) issued an urgent appeal to the international community today to take action against an unfolding massacre of unarmed protesters in Taiz City. A video released earlier today shows masked roof top gunment opening fire on protesters below. Residents have confirmed the state is now using artillery to shell citizens who were protesting for the immediate departure of long time dictator, Field Marshal Ali Abdullah Saleh. The death toll was earlier reported at four killed, 90 injured from bullet wounds and hundreds felled by tear gas. However casualty figures are likely to rise with the introduction of artillery. Protests have been ongoing for over three months and hundreds have died at the hands of the state and its proxies.

Statement no.43-B
Thursday , May 29, 2011

Urgent Call to the international community
Stop the Human Massacre in Taiz City – Yemen
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المجلس التنسيقي لشباب ثورة التغيير: (تنّوع)
The Coordinating Council of the Youth Revolution of Change

http://www.facebook.com/CCYRC

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As we write this statement to you, the security forces and republican guards in Taiz city in Yemen are attacking peaceful protester at protest camp for the past three hours resulting in many killed and hundreds wounded, we do not have exact number, as people are being shot at the moment with live ammunitions.

This is an urgent call to all the international human rights organizations, Governments, UN Counsel, and leaders of the world who call for global peace.

Please act NOW, unarmed citizens are facing a merciless war simply for demanding PEACE and FREEDOM. They are being forced to evacuate the camp site, under live fire by machineguns and heavy artillery.

The aggressive regime has forbidden all media activities and personnel from visiting freedom and change squares around Yemen, and evacuating them. There is no media coverage in Yemen, the regime is acting with aggression against Yemeni citizen with barbaric force.

PLEASE ACT AND IMMEDIATELY TO HELP STOP THE ONGOING KILLING

Continue reading on Examiner.com Yemen shells protesters in Taiz, Youth Council issues urgent statement – National Yemen Headlines | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/yemen-headlines-in-national/yemen-shells-protesters-taiz-youth-council-issues-urgent-statement#ixzz1UDL3G7SA

Continue reading on Examiner.com Yemen shells protesters in Taiz, Youth Council issues urgent statement – National Yemen Headlines | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/yemen-headlines-in-national/yemen-shells-protesters-taiz-youth-council-issues-urgent-statement#ixzz1UDKxcaIL

Post-revolutionary mechanisms in Yemen should begin locally by Jane Novak

Post-revolutionary mechanisms in Yemen should begin locally by Jane Novak

After three months of bloody protests, millions of Yemenis remain steadfast—and on the streets—throughout the nation. They want Saleh and his entire regime gone. In Sanaa, skirmishes have broken out between opposing tribes and military factions. President Saleh initiated the hostilities after locking down one set of mediators, including the US Ambassador, and shelling another. Saleh’s refusal to accept the golden parachute provided by the GCC is no surprise. He will fight to the bitter end and use any tactic necessary to remain in power. The protesters understood this from day one.

The Yemeni people will succeed in overthrowing Saleh. The day after Saleh, this generation of Yemeni revolutionaries must begin the arduous work of building the civil democratic Yemen of their demands. Once the revolution has succeeded, it must be protected. One way is to disperse power at the local level.

The following is a twelve month timetable for the period following the removal of President Saleh from power. This proposal aims at creating mechanism that fulfill the demands of the Yemeni revolutionary youth. This structural proposal is guided by the principle of equal rights for all Yemenis. The proposal assumes that the structure of the interim government must be built from the ground up with constant focus on the needs of individual Yemenis. The re-balancing of power that is required is not among various groups and power players, but between the people and all their institutions. Self-determination on the national level can only be accomplished by empowerment on the local level.

Community Organizing

The estimated cost of this Interim Transition Mechanism (ITM) over three years is $2.4 billion dollars, drawn from donor funds pledged at the 2006 donors’ conference. The ITM requires a nationwide biometric census. The census will be one stop procedure for families and individuals that includes issuing birth certificates, voter registration cards, school registration including adult literacy programs, and job applications. Perhaps the most essential requirement in post-revolutionary Yemen is credible elections. Early parliamentary and presidential elections must be built on accurate voter rolls. Equally important, President Saleh has sucked the nation dry and many citizens are on the verge of starvation. The census will also identify the most vulnerable Yemenis and urgent community needs.

The ITM requires Yemeni activists and residents to establish Community Centers (CC) in every district and village. The CC will also accept work applications from adult Yemenis, male and female, willing to reconstruct the nation at low pay following the disaster of Saleh’s tenure. The Community Centers will also process applications for micro loans and community grants.

Micro-loans are small loans to individuals to start their own businesses. Micro loans are the most practical way to kick-start the economy. Grants for community reconstruction should become available after local communities assess the most urgent needs in each village and district. Mass corruption is systemic at all levels of the Saleh administration and pervades the norms of business and civil society. Micro-reconstruction limits the potential of mass theft by disbursing donor funds in small increments. All community reconstruction projects must publish their budgets and maintain a high level of transparency. Thus the ITM also requires nationwide internet broadband service and standardized national accounting practices as well as a help center in each community.

The CC will establish Community Medical Centers (CMS) to assess immediate and long term medical needs. CMS will provide oversight on the distribution international medical aid and provide medical education programs. An emphasis will be placed on establishing clinics, dialysis centers and providing reproductive services. As a further check on corruption, a Community Media Center will be established to aid in the formation of news outlets for local and national news and independent broadcast ventures and newspapers.

Provincial and regional organization

The ITM places a moratorium on all political activity for three months, including the southern independence movement. The ITM is not an effort to undercut the Southern Movement or deny the legitimate right of southerners to seek independence. The ITM is a party-neutral, apolitical structure that seeks to provide basic services to all Yemenis before political activity resumes. The GPC will be disbanded for two years, after which it may reorganize. The JMP and other established parties may resume activity after three months; however, the development of new political parties is strongly encouraged, should be facilitated at the CCC and may begin immediately after Saleh’s departure. Female quotas are required for the first two election cycles.

Six months after Saleh’s departure, governors and local council elections will be held based on accurate voter rolls. Elections will operate on a proportional basis (the list system). The “winner takes all” or “first past the post” system discriminates heavily against small parties and independents and will be discarded. Judges and citizen-run School Boards will also be elected in each district at this time. Recall petitions for elected officials including judges can be filed by any citizen at the Community Center. Local elections will be held every two years to encourage representatives accountability to the communities they serve.

Governors will each nominate an individual of high integrity that will act in the national, not provincial, interest to form the Supreme Commission on Elections and Referendums (SCER) that will oversee parliamentary and presidential elections. Nominees can be rejected by 75% of the governors.

The elected local councils (LC) will partner with the Community Centers and Community Medical Centers. Local Councils administrative role will include oversight of the police, local finances and elections. Parliamentary and presidential elections will be held six month after local council elections, -ie, one year after the fall of Saleh and the GPC will be ineligible for the first election. A referendum on southern independence will be held at the same time, with the options of independence, unity or a vote again at the next election. The referendum will be part of every election until such time as 75% of southerners have reached a consensus.

Security and counter-terror

The Yemen Revolutionaries demand the “rebuilding of the National and Political Security apparatuses and the Intelligence Agency to merge all of them into a single national security apparatus.” Counter-terror concerns are a high priority of the international community. The US designated and then froze a multi-million dollar security package for Yemen. These funds should be released and directed toward the development of a new intelligence service, restructuring military and training local police.

The southern army shall be recalled under their existing rank to fill the counter-terror void in the interim period as well as aid in restructuring the Yemeni military services. The Retired Southern Military organization has Russian military training and is disconnected from the corrupt ventures of the current military including the trafficking of oil, persons and weapons. The RTM has demonstrated a greater respect for civil rights and civilian immunity than the existing security services. The RSM is also familiar with the terrain the al Qaeda is using to plan mass murder of civilians abroad. Abdelmalidk al Houthi is encouraged to designate liaisons, at a minimum, to the military and counter-terror units. The insertion of the RSM and the Houthi commanders will act as a double- check against al Qaeda penetration which is quite substantial in the existing forces.

Reconciliation

All tribal wars will be deemed to have an honorable resolution and will end. Tribesmen will endeavor to utilize the court system to resolve disputes. The ITM relies on tribesmen and all citizens to create Community Centers according to local norms and within national parameters.

Reconciliation between the GPC and the revolutionary youth is a high priority. While iit is important to establish a war crimes tribunal regarding crimes against Yemeni citizens, quick trials and death sentences should be avoided, except perhaps for those with the highest levels of guilt who may also be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court. Those tried and found guilty of low level corruption should perform community service instead of prison time.

Southern demands for equal rights, respect for southern identity and history, and a referendum shall be fulfilled. Southern independence representatives have a duty to their local constituents including non-supporters to place medical needs ahead of political demands in the interim period.

Special efforts will be made locally and nationally toward marginalized groups and vulnerable minorities such as the Akhdaam, Somalis, Bahais, Jews and Christians. With a foundation of equal rights for all Yemenis, the ITM requires equal protections for all races and religions without institutionalized or normative discrimination by the majority.

The Day after Saleh

The Yemeni Revolutionary Youth demand a nine person interim trustee council of virtuous persons to oversee the interim period until parliamentary and presidential elections are held. As the protesters state, major interest groups must sign off on the members, but the council should be apolitical and act in the best interest of the nation not individual groups or identity. Large constituencies of Yemenis are already organized through the JMP. National Dialog Committee, Southern Movement, Houthis and tribal coalitions. Each of these organizations is required to approve credible candidates within 48 hours of Saleh’s departure and to support, not undermine, the Interim National Council’s efforts.

The trustees will immediately establish nationwide standards and procedures for the Community Centers. Upon receipt of community assessments, trustees will designate areas of rehabilitation including health, electricity, economic development, civil rights and prisons. They will select the most qualified managers to oversee the work force identified through the applications received at the Community Centers during the census period. While different provinces and communities have varying needs, all procedures must be applied uniformly until such point that the Community Medical Center in Dhamar is identically equipped to that in Taiz, for example.

The National Trustees will organize and oversee many important tasks like an audit of the government budget. A review of the constitution should be performed to identify and suspend discriminatory and dangerous articles, like those pertaining to the media, but constitutional revisions should be undertaken by a duly elected parliament. However, the primary function of the National Trustees should be to retain focus on building and empowering bureaucratic, administrative and representative structures at the most local level. This work cannot be done without the participation of millions of Yemenis. And it is this participation precisely that will prevent a new tyranny from emerging in Yemen.

Obama snubs Yemen protesters

Protesters in Yemen began a letter writing campaign today, directed toward US President Barak Obama. The protests that began in January seek the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Unlike in Egypt where protests were centered in the capital, in Yemen demonstrations broke out around the country and swelled to the millions with each passing week. On Friday, massive protests were held in 18 of 20 governorates around the country.

“Millions of Yemeni peaceful protesters are questioning the silence and the insubstantial announcements by some members of your administration and moreover, overt bias in favor of the Yemeni tyrant. The respected Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, announced publicly that protests in Yemen are an internal affair and the primary concern of the United States is instability and diversion of attention from dealing with AQAP… Yemeni women, men, children, and elders are all eager and confident that they will hear from you as the leader of the free world and that you will support their democratic goals now and in the future.”

In public statements, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates repeatedly stressed the good relationship between the US and Saleh. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “The people of Yemen have the same rights as people anywhere, and we support dialogue as a path to a peaceful solution.”

However, the protesters are demanding Saleh’s immediate resignation and the exclusion of his family members from positions of authority.

The US is lobbying to retain Saleh’s son and nephews who head the US trained counter-terror units. President Saleh is seeking immunity from future prosecution of his substantial financial crimes as well as crimes against humanity and other violations of international and Yemen law.

The US Ambassador to Yemen, Gerald Feierstein, has been negotiating between the state and opposition parties. However the opposition party coalition, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), is not the driving force behind the protests and did not join the protests until a month after they began.

Protester leaders, representing groups from around the nation, have issued and re-issued their demands and even resorted to Youtube to send a message to the US ambassador in Yemen.

The protesters’ letter highlights their “aspirations to maintain universal values, and to elect a free and democratic government that will guard and respect the achievements and victories attained by the blood of the young martyrs fallen and slaughtered in the squares of freedom.”

State forces, in uniform and in plain clothes, have killed over 100 protesters and wounded hundreds others. Last Friday 53 demonstrators were killed, mostly by shots to the head, when snipers positioned on rooftops opened fire. Over 150 villagers were killed in Abyan this week when an unsecured ammunition factory exploded, an incident many in Yemen have tied to regime attempts to create chaos.

The slaughter, the broad national protests and mass defections from the Yemeni bureaucracy and military are clear indications of the illegitimacy of the Saleh regime, protesters assert. The transition plan calls for civilian leadership by an interim transitional council.

On Wednesday, Ambassador Feierstein said that the economic challenges facing the country are important as the current political challenges.

Indeed decades of corruption, embezzlement and mismanagement under the Saleh regime, and the diversion of revenue of natural resources and foreign aid, have brought Yemen to the brink of economic disaster. Wikileaks revealed that the US is aware that Saleh and members of his family are also engaged in regionally destabilizing criminal enterprises including large scale weapons smuggling. Drug smuggling, currency counterfeiting and human trafficking of women and children are other lucrative enterprises for the Saleh regime.

In 2010, Human Rights Watch called for a UN investigation into whether the actions of the Yemeni military during the Saada War violated international law. The state’s tactics included sustained bombardment of civilians, and the blockade of food, medicine and international aid, which constitute collective punishment the rights group asserted. Over 300,000 were displaced. Residents of Saada joined the national protests calling for a democratic state and have been demonstrating weekly.

http://www.examiner.com/yemen-headlines-in-national/obama-snubs-yemen-protesters

Yemen’s Saleh plays the al Qaeda card

At first glance, the FOX News headline, “al Qaeda: Yemen province now an Islamic Emirate,” is pretty disturbing. But it’s not remotely true. The US media is getting played by the King of Spin, President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his legion of Baghdad Bobs, again.

As anti-government protests calling for Saleh’s ouster engulfed Yemen and military commanders defected, the Saleh regime pulled back its remaining military and security forces and distributed weapons to proxies. In Abyan, state-jihaddists looted an ammo factory and took over the building housing a radio station. The terrorist mercenaries made an announcement on the radio that the city of Ja’ar in Abyan was deemed an Islamic Emirate and women were confined to their homes without a guardian. Later over 150 villagers, mostly women and children, scavenging the factory were killed in a horrific explosion. Yemenis claim the blast was remotely detonated.

Yemen’s state-jihaddists are al Qaeda types who work as mercenaries for the regime. The Saleh regime is very good at “cloning,” a tactic to undermine the opposition and confuse the west. The state has created look-alike newspapers, governmental non-governmental organizations (GONGO’s), and fake opposition parties. Beyond deploying security thugs in civilian clothes, as Mubarek did, the Saleh regime has a large contingent of jihaddist mercenaries on the payroll. Many of these “state-jihaddists” were released from jail after a pledge of loyalty to Saleh.

After the tragedy in Abyan, Yemenis across the nation accused Saleh of playing the Al Qaeda card to spin the western media and US, a frequent practice. They say that the state fosters and deploys al Qaeda mercenaries to elicit counter-terror funds, equipment and training, which are then used against internal opposition. As the Senate found last year, Saleh diverted US trained counter-terror units and US supplied equipment to the Saada War. (Indiscriminate bombing displaced over 300,000 residents in the northern Saada province as the state withheld food and medicine in a pattern that constituted collective punishment, Human Rights Watch found.) Beyond the 150 killed in the Abyan blast, dozens of others are suffering severe burns with little medical support.

The leaders of the raid on the ammo factory, Khaledabdul Nabi and Sami Dhayan, have worked for the state for years. Nabi, of the Abyan Aden Islamic Army, trained and led jihaddists into battle on behalf of the Saleh regime during the Saada Wars (2004-2010) against northern Shia rebels who claim religious discrimination. Nabi’s group, not AQAP, made the radio announcement. The residents in Ja’ar formed a local security committee which now has control of the area.

Yemenis are bewildered at the stance of the Obama administration in light of Saleh’s chicanery. Secretary Gates has repeatedly stated that the Saleh regime is an important partner to the US and the protests are an internal affair. At the same time, the US Ambassador in Sanaa is lobbying to keep Saleh’s sons and nephews in charge of the counter-terror units. A former Foreign Minister, Abdullah al Asnag, long in exile, detailed the regime’s duplicity from the USS Cole bombing to the 2010 US airstrikes in Yemen. Watan, the Coalition of Women for Social Peace, appealed directly to the American people yesterday,

Our stance depends on evidences proved that Selah is using al-Qaeda, and the American war against terrorism to receive generous financial support, and intensive training for the Special Forces, Central Security, and National Security, which all headed by his son and his nephews and use to suppress the Yemeni for more than a decade.

The last American stance, which was expressed by Robert Gates, reinforces our belief that the U.S. government is not serious in fighting terrorism and promoting democracy. The money is used in the name of the American people and the fight against terrorism to support dictatorial regimes and Al-Qaeda, against nations’ choices and demands for democracy. Yemen comes at the forefront of these nations.

American people, the hands of Yemeni people who have been in the streets in a peaceful revolution since two months, still rose demanding the elimination of the dictatorial regime and establish a modern civil state. However these hands are facing your weapons, your money, and the shameful attitude of your government, which we know that they do not reflect the spirit of the American nation which based on principles of freedom and human dignity.

Lift up your hands against your government that on your behalf and via your money is supporting the repression of peoples, democracy and peace.

Yesterday in Hajjah, 230 were wounded when Saleh’s thugs opened fire from rooftops on the peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators, echoing last Friday’s massacre when snipers killed 53 during a protest in Sanaa, largely by head shots.

Yesterday protesters issued a video statement to US Ambassador Feierstein along with a draft list of demands that represents a consensus among all the protesters around the county. Unlike in Egpyt where protests were centered in Cairo, Yemen is witnessing large sustained anti-government protests in nearly every province and even on the island of Socotra.

http://www.examiner.com/yemen-headlines-in-national/yemen-s-saleh-plays-the-al-qaeda-card

Yemeni womens coalition appreals directly to the American people

Watan, the Womens Coalition for Social Peace, based in Yemen issued an appeal yesterday directly to the American people. In the letter, the group asks Americans to urge their elected representatives to end support of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh who has been in power for 32 years. Saleh, a notorious human rights abuser, has looted the Yemeni state budget, natural resources and international aid, bringing Yemen to the brink of economy disaster. Nationwide protests demanding Saleh’s ouster began in January. US officials including US Ambassador to Yemen, Gerald Feierstein, have repeatedly urged negotiations. Yesterday Feierestein called for a prompt resolution to the conflict, far short of the supporitng the protesters democratic ambitions. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said a transition of power in Yemen would be a “real problem” for the US. The text of Watan’s letter is as follows:

Letter to the American People

”Watan” calls the American People to demand their government to stop supporting the dictatorship and Al-Qaeda in Yemen

Yemen, March 30.2011

Last Monday, at least 120 civilians, including children and women have been killed in the explosion of ammunition factory in the town of Ja’ar, Abyan Governorate, southern Yemen. The blast occurred as a result of mining the place by al-Qaeda who had taken over the factory and looted a day after the regime army battalion, which was in charged of guard the factory, pulled out. The withdrawal of the military forces and the emergence of al Qaeda in Jaar, coincided with the withdrawal of security forces and the emergence of al Qaeda in several areas.

Moreover, the incident came after one day of the statement by U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates, in ABC channel, in which he said: ””We have had a lot of counterterrorism co-operation from President Saleh and Yemeni security services.. So if that government collapses or is replaced by one that is dramatically weaker, then I think we’ll face some additional challenges out of Yemen”

Watan Coalition, Women for Social Peace, condemns the crimes committed by al Qaeda against the Yemenis, at the same time, it condemns the recent U.S. attitude expressed by Mr. Gates. We consider such attitude as encouragement to the President Selah to use al-Qaeda card to suppress the peaceful revolution that calls overthrow the regime.

Our stance depends on evidences proved that Selah is using ”al-Qaeda, and the American war against terrorism” to receive generous financial support, and intensive training for the Special Forces, Central Security, and National Security, which all headed by his son and his nephews and use to suppress the Yemeni for more than a decade.

U.S reports revealed that the U.S. support; both in term of financial support and equipments, have gone to al-Qaeda, and some of this support has been used in the attack targeted the U.S. embassy in 2008.

The support, which haven’t been handed to al Qaeda, are currently used by security forces in suppressing peaceful protests, and that what happened extensively in the past few weeks. The American political position always has been up to date with this misuse of financial- and non financial support, within the war against terrorism frame.

The last American stance, which was expressed by Robert Gates, reinforces our belief that the U.S. government is not serious in fighting terrorism and promoting democracy. The money is used in the name of the ”American people and the fight against terrorism” to support dictatorial regimes and Al-Qaeda, against nations’ choices and demands for democracy. Yemen comes at the forefront of these nations.

American people, the hands of Yemeni people who have been in the streets in a peaceful revolution since two months, still rose demanding the elimination of the dictatorial regime and establish a modern civil state. However these hands are facing your weapons, your money, and the shameful attitude of your government, which we know that they do not reflect the spirit of the American nation which based on principles of freedom and human dignity.

Lift up your hands, against your government that on your behalf and via your money, is supporting the repression of peoples, democracy and peace.

Watan coalition Women for Social Peace

Continue reading on Examiner.com Yemeni womens coalition appeals directly to the American people – National Yemen Headlines | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/yemen-headlines-in-national/yemeni-womens-coalition-appeals-directly-to-the-american-people#ixzz1UDLuRX2n

Hotels burn in Aden amid crisis

Aden, March 22 Unidentified individuals thought to be militants burned and destroyed a number of hotels in Aden City early Tuesday morning. .

In addition to burning sections of the hotels, the perpetrators also destroyed the contents of the various hotel rooms, offices and showrooms as well as ripping out electrical wires and damaging the gardens that adorn the hotels’ entrances and parks.

Among the hotels and resorts that were attacked were the Sailors Club, the Nashwan Resort, Pearl Hotel, Wadhah Resort, and Sun Motel.

Eyewitnesses reported that the vandalism occurred in clear view of the Central Security forces and private forces stationed nearby, but the authorities did not intervene.

For over two months, growing public protests throughout Yemen demanded the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power since 1978. Saleh’s authority suffered blows this week when hundreds of military commanders and government officials resigned following a violent attack on protesters in Sana’a last Friday. Over 50 unarmed demonstrators were killed by sniper fire and more than 200 seriously injured in the horrific attack.

It was reported in Aden that the Saleh regime plans to deliver Aden to fundamentalist groups as a last ditch effort to retain western backing. The earlier withdrawal of some security forces stationed in Aden is seen by some to be an indication of the scenario, as is today’s destruction of the hotels.

Security forces remain stationed at the presidential palace and other sensitive and important locations.

Al Qaeda in Yemen took credit for several lethal terror attacks on tourists beginning in 2007.

Yemen fires on protesters in Sanaa

Yemen entered the fourth week of anti-regime protests with a late night onslaught of state violence against protesters at Sanaa University who were demanding the resignation of long-ruling president Field Marshall Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The attack began two hours ago when security forces opened fire on the protesters. Early conflicting reports indicate two have died or are in very critical condition with bullet wounds to the head. Over 30 were wounded by gunfire and another 40 were injured after being beaten with clubs or choking on tear gas.

Several witnesses reported the medical professionals rushing to the scene were stopped by police. At the same time, the protesters appealed for blood donations and medical supplies via twitter stating several people are bleeding out near the gates of the university. Two medics were beaten by state security.

The crowd that gathered today, international Womans Day, had a larger number of women and girls than on prior days.

Witnesses said members of the Republican Guard opened fired along with Central Security forces. The Republican Guard is headed by President Saleh’s son Ahmed, and has received US counter-terror training, .The Central Security forces are under the command of President Saleh’s nephew.

The assault began late in the evening, about 11:00 as protesters were mostly hunkered down for the night or trying to set up new tents. Central Security officers were spotted removing their uniforms before entering the university square. The officers had arrived in government vehicles, witnesses report. The situation remains tense as it nears 1:00 am in Sanaa and the wounded have yet to receive treatment.

Widespread protests

The deaths in Sanaa were preceded by fatalities among protesters on Monday in outlying the provinces of Ibb, Aden, Dhamar when state forces opened fire on protesters. In Ibb over 70 were reported injured with bullet wounds at a protest that drew several hundred thousand. Protests have spread as far as Socotra Island. Sanhan, President Saleh’s home village was marked with anti-regime graffiti.

The war torn Saada province saw the resignation of Faris Manna from the ruling GPC party, the latest of over a dozen high profile allies to desert President Saleh. Manna, a long time regime ally, was the state’s mediator to the Houthi rebels. A major weapons dealer, Manaa was sanctioned by the UN in 2010 for smuggling arms to Somalia. Along with Manna, an estimated 300 ruling party officials also resigned following earlier attacks on protesters, leading to what a partisan site called “the emancipation of Saada from the corrupt regime.”

Military deploys in cities

The violence came after a meeting between Saleh and his relative, General Ali Mohsen al Ahmar, perhaps the most powerful man in the military. After the meeting last night, military units were deployed in Sanaa, Taiz and Aden today. Large scale protest were held in 12 provinces.

In Sanna, Al Masdar Online reported the “widespread and unprecedented presence of armored vehicles.” The day’s violence marked the first time soldiers had shot at the protesters in Sanaa. Previously the Saleh regime used paid thugs as deniable proxies as well as members of the security forces including the National Security.

Prison Riot

A riot at Sanaa Central Prison left at least three dead and four injured. Prisoners were chanting anti-government slogans, which led to an assault by guards. Authorities say they shot tear gas and fired over the inmates’ heads and acknowledge one prisoner was killed, but the prisoners report three fatalities and several serious injuries. The prison guards withdrew from the prison and are massed outside the gates along with security forces.

The prisoners have indicated they wished to make a peaceful surrender in a statement that read in part, “Prisoners of the Central Prison in Sana’a appeal to international organizations to intervene and save them from a real massacre which might take place today after guards retake control of the prison.”

Media Manipulation

The Yemeni state-owned ISP blocked al Masdar Online last week, the latest among dozens of independent Yemeni news websites to be blocked within Yemen. Internet access is strictly controlled by the state. Yemen Online was hacked by pro-regime operatives. Dozens of what appear to be government operatives have flooded pro-revolutionary Facebook groups. The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate detailed 53 cases of attacks on journalists including assaults, threats against their children, expulsion and in one case, arson.

“Beating up journalists is a blatant attempt by the authorities to prevent the Yemeni people and the world from witnessing a critical moment in Yemen,” Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division, said in a statement.

A Reuters report today quoting an individual in Sanaa who “heard” that in Aden southern protesters threatened to burn schools in Mallah and al Mansoura was hotly denied by dozens of residents in those neighborhood when contacted. The residents also pointed out that the state forced school children to participate in pro-regime rallies for years without parental approval. It is well documented that students who refused were denied sitting for their exams along with other punitive measures.

Yemen’s history of crimes against civilians

The atrocities against protesters that have garnered global attention are a continuation of the pattern of Yemen’s inhumane treatment of its citizens since at least 2005. In 2009, human rights organizations began calling for an investigation into the Sana’a regime’s potential war crimes and crimes against humanity. The military actions during the Sa’ada Wars and with regard to the southern protest movement are well documented but did not draw condemnation from the Obama administration or the EU. Some of these habitual patterns include:

- Punitive denial of medical services to injured civilians

- Arbitrary arrests

- Incommunicado detention

- Shooting unarmed protesters

- Deniable proxies including tribesmen harmed citizens

- Shelling residential areas

- Denial of food as policy

- International groups denied access to internal refugees

- Targeting journalists and rights activists

- Torture in jail

Continue reading on Examiner.com Breaking: Yemen firing on protesters at Sanaa U, 80 injured: witnesses – National Yemen Headlines | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/yemen-headlines-in-national/breaking-yemen-firing-on-protesters-at-sanaa-u-two-dead-70-injured-witnesses#ixzz1UDOOFbde

Continue reading on Examiner.com Breaking: Yemen firing on protesters at Sanaa U, 80 injured: witnesses – National Yemen Headlines | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/yemen-headlines-in-national/breaking-yemen-firing-on-protesters-at-sanaa-u-two-dead-70-injured-witnesses#ixzz1UDOFuXKp

Protesters buried in mass grave in Aden

Protesters killed by security forces were buried in a mass grave in Aden on February 27, a ranking Yemeni official confirmed today.

The grave site is on the eastern edge of the Salahu Deen military camp, near little Aden, and was first reported last week.

The official said 15 protesters were buried together in an unmarked single grave about eight meters long, speaking anonymously due to the high risk of government reprisal.

On Friday, February 25 Yemeni security forces launched a broad assault in Aden resulting in twenty-two fatalities among protesters. These were identified by name and hometown, and the number is likely to rise. Over 100 demonstrators were also wounded by gunfire. The deaths occurred in several locations across Aden in what appears a pre-planned onslaught of state violence in the governorate which had seen increasing numbers of anti-government protesters.

Residents reported homes were strafed, and police shot directly into crowds, Human Rights Watch reported. Many protesters were arrested, some pulled from hospitals by security forces. Ambulances were blocked and the dead, dying and injured on the streets were pinned down by gun fire.

In an apparent effort to mask the death toll, Yemeni security forces raided hospital morgues in Aden and transported corpses to the Basuhaib military hospital in Tawahi. Medical sources at Basuhaib hospital confirmed the protesters bodies were later taken away by the military.

The burial took place in the early morning, Sunday, February 27 after the bodies arrived from Taqahi in two military trucks.

The state continues to withhold information from families regarding the identities of arrested protesters.

Rights groups have urged Yemen to halt assualts on peaceful protesters.

Dozens of reporters were beaten and harassed during the protests.

Tens of thousands gathered Friday, March 4, in a massive funeral march for Hael Waleed Hael, 18, that began in Mallah, Aden and ended at the Alqatee cemetery in Crater City. Mr. Hael was shot to death on Mallah’s main road during the assault on Aden.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Protesters buried in a mass grave in Aden, Yemen official says – National Yemen Headlines | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/yemen-headlines-in-national/protesters-buried-unmarked-grave-aden-yemen-official#ixzz1UDOnVd8k

Funeral march in Aden Yemen

ADEN March 4, 2011–Tens thousands of people from across Aden attended a massive funeral march today for a protester killed by Yemeni security forces. Hael Waleed Hael, 18, was shot by to death in Maalla City last Friday.

The funeral procession begin at one pm in Maalla and wound up in Crater City where Mr. Hael was buried in Alqatee cemetery.

Hael Waleed was among seven persons killed on Maalla’s main road Feb. 25. Eyewitnesses reported that troops belonging Yemen’s Central Security Forces opened fire on peaceful protesters demanding the end of the regime Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power since 1978.

Twenty-two were killed on Feb 25-26 during widespread protests across Aden. Many violations of international law were documented since anti-government protests broke out over two weeks ago including shooting at medics attempting to retrive the wounded from the streets.

Official reports said that one colonel in the Central Security was killed in clashes and five solders injured in Maalla but trusted sources said there are seven soldiers’ corpses in the hospital morgue.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Funeral march in Aden, Yemen for young protester killed by security forces – National Yemen Headlines | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/yemen-headlines-in-national/funeral-march-aden-yemen-for-young-protester-killed-by-security-forces#ixzz1UDQ0hbMp

Injuries and fatalities in Yemen after anti-government protests

In what may be the bloodiest day yet since anti-government protests broke out in Yemen two weeks ago, residents around Aden are reporting numerous fatalities as security forces opened fire on protesters in many districts throughout the day and evening Friday.

Human Rights Watch issued a statement late Friday evening

Police shoot medics in Aden, Yemen

Pro-democracy demonstrations are continuing today in Yemen marking the 12th day of protests in small state on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Yesterday students gained control of the square in Sana’a University and began setting up tents and checkpoints to keep out hired goons. Protesters in Taiz remain in the city center there and protests sprung up in other governorates.

The protesters are demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh who has been in power since 1978. last week Saleh announced he would not be running for president again, a pledge made before in 1999 and 2006. Yesterday at a news conference, Saleh said, “If they want me to quit, I will only leave through the ballot box,” a clear contradiction.

In the port city of Aden, foreign workers are packing up and violence continues. Five have been killed by police in the last week, the latest was yesterday. In the Khormaksar district in Aden, one person was killed and four wounded by security forces. Medics trying to retrieve the wounded were shot at with live rounds. Video can be viewed on youtube here.

Protests in South Yemen have been ongoing since 2007 when a secessionist movement was born. Over one hundred were killed and hundreds more wounded as police regularly shot at unarmed protesters, Human Rights Watch found in a 2009 report that noted,

The security forces, and Central Security in particular, have carried out widespread abuses in the south—unlawful killings, arbitrary detentions, beatings, crackdowns on freedom of assembly and speech, arrests of journalists, and others. These abuses have created a climate of fear, but have also increased bitterness and alienation among southerners, who say the north economically exploits and politically marginalizes them. The security forces have enjoyed impunity for unlawful attacks against southerners, increasing pro-secessionist sentiments in the south and plunging the country into an escalating spiral of repression, protests, and more repression.

Yemeni authorites indicated a belief that violence toward citizens in Southern Yemen would not provoke unrest in the northern areas because some southerners seek secession, however protesters in Taiz and Sanaa have expressed solidarity with the protesters under live fire in Aden.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Yemen, police shoot at medics in Aden – National Yemen Headlines | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/yemen-headlines-in-national/yemen-police-shoot-at-medics#ixzz1UDQj36pn

Game changer in Yemen as protests swell

In Egypt and Tunisia, the stance of the military was pivotal in the success of popular uprisings; in Yemen, it may be the tribes that are the determining factor.

Anti-government protests across Yemen show no signs of abating. In Taiz, Yemen’s largest governorate, many who arrived last Friday are still in the city center a week later. Their numbers have grown as citizens from outside the city center have joined the sit-in demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. A grenade attack today injured eight.

In Aden, security forces were reported shooting from rooftops. Four protesters were killed by gun fire this week and dozens injured. Demonstrations against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power since 1978, were also held in Hodiedah, Hadramout, Dhalie, Abyan, Ibb, al Beidha. Lahj and other governorates. The protests in the capital, Sana’a have gained the most international attention, because thats where the reporters are. In Sanaa, the state deployed deniable proxies, supposed pro-government protesters, to attack democracy activists with clubs and knives.

State violence from Aden to Sanaa increased public frustration and numbers of protesters. International media coverage of the violence has outraged not only the world, but Yemenis themselves. Internet activism hit a new high in Yemen as twitter accounts and facebook groups work to spread the news from governorate to governorate as never before.

Political momentum is shifting as major allies of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh peel away and long time adversaries coalesce in the unified demand for his departure. Fractures in Saleh’s alliances and opposition give space to new political formulations and creeds. However, the alliance of opposition parties, the Joint Meeting Parties, is still calling for dialog and reform, not an end to the corrupted and dysfunctional Saleh regime.

In Yemen, Many Protests, One Villain

It was only sheer chance or serendipity perhaps that southern Yemen’s “Day of Rage” was scheduled for Friday, earning the #Feb11 hashtag on Twitter. The Southern Uprising Facebook page drew nearly two thousand members since its founding two weeks ago in a nation with 2 percent Internet penetration. The group’s goal is the liberation of southern Yemen from occupation—by the northern forces of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of southerners have been demonstrating nearly weekly since 2007, but Friday’s appears to be the first organized on Facebook.

However, in the capital Sana’a, it was precisely the victory of the Egyptian people over their dictator that brought Yemenis streaming into their own Tahrir Square in jubilation. And it didn’t take long for chants to change to, “Go, go Ali!” Equally predictable has been the state’s response to both sets of protests.

Novak: The Southern Leaders Don’t Practice Democracy

My interview with the Aden News Agency

Jane Novak… a name that has become coupled with Yemen, not Yemen that is known as it is known by those who doesn’t know it, but Yemen as it known by its people, with all its sorrows and economical, political and humanitarian setbacks, that are recognized by Jane Novak from a distance, from the United States, her country. The human rights, political and media activist, Jane Novak, has devoted herself for Yemen and its several issues, and whom the distance couldn’t separate her from Yemen’s issues, but she has recognized them at first hand, whether traditionally or through the modern technology.

Jane Novak is known for her severe defense for the human rights in Yemen and the freedom of the press and word, besides giving a number of initiatives that may extract Yemen from its political crises. She is also known for her unhurried reading of the reality of Yemen, and refraining from reading one-media propaganda, while she wrote tens of articles about Yemen and its issues accurately and objectively on famous websites like World Press, Arab American News, in addition to her well-known website the Armies of Liberation, this empathy gained her the sympathy of many of the Southern Case supporters in the south, and Sa’ada Case in the north.

The Aden News Agency has conducted an exclusive interview with the writer Jane Novak, we hope that it would cast some light on the fact of the different and recent issues of Yemen.

Jane Novak Interview with Aden News Agency Arabic

جين نوفاك… اسم بات مقروناً باليمن، ليس باليمن الذي يعرفه من لا يعرفه، ولكن اليمن الذي يعرفه أهله بمآسيه ونكباته الاقتصادية والسياسية والانسانية والتي تعرفت عليها الكاتبة (جين نوفاك) عن بعد، من الولايات المتحدة الأميركية، موطنها، حيث سخرت هذه الكاتبة والناشطة الحقوقية والسياسية والإعلامية نفسها لليمن وقضايا اليمن المتعددة والتي لم تحول المسافة بينها وبين معرفتها بقضاياه بل تعرفت عليها عن قرب، عبر التماس حال الناس أنفسهم، سواءً بأسلوب تقليدي أو معاصر عبر التقنية الحديثة.

عرفت “جين نوفاك” بدفاعها الشرس عن حقوق الإنسان في اليمن، وحرية الصحافة والكلمة، إلى جانب تقديمها المبادرات تلو الأخرى للخروج باليمن من أزماته السياسية المتأزمة، حيث تمتاز بقراءتها المتأنية للواقع اليمني وعدم اتباع الإعلام الواحد سواء كان إعلام السلطة أو المعارضة حيث قامت بكتابة العشرات من المقالات عن اليمن وأزماته بكل موضوعية ودقة وتعبير عن حال اليمن المعاش في عدة مواقع إلكترونية معروفة كـ World Press و Arab American News بالإضافة إلى موقعها الشهير Armies of Liberation الشيء الأمر أدى بالتالي إلى اكتسابها تعاطف الكثير من حملة القضية الجنوبية جنوباً, وحملة قضية صعدة شمالاً, وحملة القضايا الاقتصادية والسياسية والحقوقية والاجتماعية جنوباً و شمالاً. وفي حوار مع وكالة أنباء عدن “عنا” قالت نوفاك أن النظام اليمني يلعب ببطاقة الإرهاب بشكل جيد جداً, مضيفة “والعلاقة السرية مع القاعدة تجلب الكثير من الفوائد لكل من النظام والقاعدة على حد سواء”.

مُقارنة لمكافحة حركات التمرد في اليمن

مُقارنة لمكافحة حركات التمرد في اليمن
السبت, 02-أكتوبر-2010
شهارة نت- جين نوفاك* /تقرير -
ترجمة: عبدالله عبدالوهاب ناجي، وجاسم محمد

تعد اليمن من بين أكثر الدول فسادا وأقلها نموا في العالم، وهو ما يفسر الاستمرار الطويل للحرب في الشمال و انفجار حركة الاستقلال في الجنوب. ويتعامل الرئيس اليمني علي عبد الله صالح مع معارضة شرعية باعتقال صحفيين، وإطلاق النار على محتجين، وقصف مدنيين، إلى حد يرقى إلى مستوى جرائم حرب. وبينما ظل “صالح” لفترة طويلة يعمل على تمكين تنظيم القاعدة، إلا أن الهجوم الإرهابي خلال يوم عيد الميلاد الأخير أحدث نقلة حتمية جديدة في العلاقات بين الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية واليمن. ومع ذلك، فإن الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية تخاطر بأن تصبح طرفا في القمع العنيف وتعزيز دعم نظام أحد اكبر الشركاء الطموحين التابعين لتنظيم القاعدة

COMPARATIVE COUNTERINSURGENCY IN YEMEN

Yemen is among the world’s most corrupt and least developed nations, factors that explain a long running war in the north and an exploding independence movement in the south. Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Salih deals with legitimate dissent by jailing journalists, shooting protesters, and bombing civilians on a scale that reaches the level of war crimes. Salih has long been an al-Qa’ida enabler, but the December 25, 2009 Christmas Day terror attack brought new urgency to U.S.-Yemeni relations. However, the United States risks becoming a party to violent repression, as well as enhancing the support system of one of the world’s most ambitious al-Qa’ida affiliates.

The blockade of South Yemen follows tactics of Saada War

As Yemen’s blockade on southern Yemen enters its third week, stocks of food, medicine and oil have dwindled to dangerous levels. Prices have skyrocketed and already malnourished children bear the brunt of the military action.

بقلم الكاتبة الامريكية جين نوفاك : ثلاثة أسابيع من الحصار في جنوب اليمن تجلب الجوع والعنف

مع دخول الحصار اليمني على اليمن الجنوبي أسبوعه الثالث ، إنخفضت المخزونات من المواد الغذائية والدواء و المشتقات النفطية الى مستويات تنذر بالخطر. و ارتفعت الأسعار و أصبح الأطفال يعانون بالفعل من سوء التغذية تحت وطأة العمليات العسكرية.

وبدأ الحصار قبل 17 يوما عندما قامت وحدات المنطقة الغربية المدرعة بإقامة نقاط تفتيش جديدة على الطرق وعند مداخل المدن لمنع وصول الأشخاص والبضائع التجارية بما في ذلك الغذاء والدواء والنفط والمياه. وقد فرض الحصار على كل من ردفان ، يافع ، الضالع ، الملاح  ، الحبيلين ،الشعيب  ، جحاف ، الأزارق ، وأجزاء من محافظة شبوة.

السلام مع الكرامة في اليمن: هل يمكن ايقاف دوامه الحرب؟

السلام مع الكرامة في اليمن: هل يمكن ايقاف دوامه الحرب؟

كتبت: جين نوفاك*- لصحيفة “إجسامينر”

ترجمة/ عبدالله عبدالوهاب ناجي- ترجمة خاصة بـ: المستشار نت

كل حرب من حروب صعدة الستة في اليمن هي نسخة مكررة من الحرب التي سبقتها، باستثناء أن كمية القنابل تزداد أكثر، والأطفال يزدادون وهناً، والسجون تشتد ازدحاماً. رفضت الحكومة اليمنية بشكل ممنهج منح الغذاء والدواء والمساعدات الدولية للمدنيين في محافظة صعدة، شمالي البلاد، كخطة حربية، منذ الحرب الأولى عام 2004. و شرد القصف العشوائي، الذي شنته الحكومة في حربها الثانية عام 2005، أكثر من 50،000 من المدنيين. وبلغ عدد اللاجئين بحلول نهاية الحرب الخامسة 120000 لاجئ. وفي الحرب السادسة، التي بدأت في أغسطس 2009، فان القصف اليمني السعودي المشترك هدم أكثر من 9000 مبنى، بينها مساجد ومدارس وقرى بأكملها. ومع نصر الدولة المضني والشاق في فبراير 2010، كان عدد اللاجئين داخلياً قد وصل إلى ربع مليون نسمة. وبهذا الخصوص، تدعو “هيومن رايتس ووتش” إلى إجراء تحقيق في جرائم حرب محتملة.

Peace with Dignity in Yemen, Can the Cycle of Endless War be Broken?

Each of the six Sa’ada wars in Yemen was a photo copy of the one before, except the bombs got bigger, the children more frail and the jails more crowded. The Yemeni government systematically denied food, medicine and international aid to civilians in the northern Sa’ada province as a tactic of war since the first in 2004.

Indiscriminate government bombing in the second round of war in 2005 displaced over 50,000 civilians. By the end of the fifth war, 120,000 were refugees. In the sixth war that began in August 2009, a joint Yemeni-Saudi bombing campaign flattened over 9000 structures including mosques, schools, and entire villages. With the state’s Pyrrhic victory in February 2010, the number of internal refugees had swelled to a quarter of a million. Human Rights Watch is calling for an investigation into potential war crimes.

In February, the Houthi rebels released 178 civilian and military men in their custody and returned the bodies of several Saudi soldiers. Yemen announced the release of 161 Houthi detainees. However the Yemeni Organization for the Defense of Rights and Freedoms (HOOD) said only 32 detainees were released out of a total of 2,000.

Would Yemeni law find Anwar Awlaki guilty?

Yemen’s Foreign Minister Abu Baker al Qirby urged Anwar Awlaki to turn himself to be tried under Yemeni law, vowing that no Yemeni citizen would be extradited to the US or any other country.

The US announced last week that it had authorized Awlaki’s kill or capture, having determined he is an active al Qaeda operative. Awlaki was previously known for brainwashing vulnerable persons on the internet. Awlaki holds duel Yemeni-American citizenship.

Alwaki Tribe Denies Statement

The Sheik of the Awlaki tribe in Yemen denied that tribal leaders held a meeting or threatened Yemeni citizens as is being widely reported in the Western media.

Reuters reported receiving a faxed statement last week from the Awalki tribe that said, “We warn against cooperating with America to kill Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki” after the Obama administration announced that it authorized operations to kill or capture Anwar Awlaki, who holds duel Yemeni American citizenship.

Yemen National Dialog Coalition Seeks Reform, Broad Political Inclusion

Yemen’s National Dialog Committee published an English language summary of its National Salvation Plan yesterday. The document is available at http://yemenvision.wordpress.com/

The National Dialog Committee (NDC) is an important Yemeni civil society coalition dedicated to creating a forum and consensus on a peaceful route to popular empowerment. The NDC is comprised of members of the opposition party alliance, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) along with independents, some of the ruling General People’s Congress party members and prominent social figures including political leaders, tribal sheiks, businessmen and intellectuals. It is headed by Mr. Mohammed Salem Basandwah, an adviser to President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The JMP’s Hamid Al-Ahmer is its Secretary General. The group is dedicated to building a national consensus on the issues facing Yemen and implementing solutions through peaceful means.

Al Qaeda in Yemen, unwanted nomads or essential nucleus?

The announcement that al Qaeda in Yemen’s (AQIY) leadership escaped to Somalia in recent weeks is not the end of Yemen’s terrorism woes, but may instead signal the Yemeni al Qaeda group is taking a leading regional role among al Qaeda factions from Saudi Arabia to Somalia and beyond.

The flight of al Qaeda’s leadership is at best a temporary move and at worst may be an indication of continuing collusion between Yemeni President Saleh and terrorists seeking to harm the US.

Large al Qaeda camp in North Yemen dims peace prospects, politician says

In Yemen, al Qaeda’s training camp in the Abu Jabara valley is no secret. It is in an old military camp between Sa’ada and al Jawf provinces, near the Saudi border, and it houses hundreds of Yemeni and foreign al Qaeda loyalists.

Acting as mercenaries for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, al Qaeda operatives fought in the Sa’ada War against the Houthi rebels. As a result, hundreds of jihaddists gained battlefield experience during the five years of brutal war. In an interview with Examiner.com, Yemeni politician Hassan Zaid recommended the terrorists in Abu Jabara be disarmed now that the war has ended.

Corrupt al Qaeda

Despite their high flown rhetoric, Quoranic citations and photo-shopped internet magazine, al Qaeda in Yemen is just as corrupt as the Saleh regime itself. The enmeshment of al Qaeda with Yemen’s subverted military and intelligence services is a product of long standing relationships that stretch from the caves of Afghanistan to the presidential palace in Sana’a.

South Yemen clashes escalate, police wound 20

Twenty people were wounded today when police opened fire on a funeral march in the restive town of Dhalie. Local reports indicated one person later died. The crowds had gathered to honor two victims killed when police broke up a anti-government protest on March 11.

Yemen launched a broad assault on its southern region earlier this month with ground troops and tanks following a US declaration that unrest in the south was a Yemeni internal affair.

In an escalating cycle of state violence, demonstrations against the siege were met with live fire, water cannons, tear gas and arrests. Cell phone communications were cut on the orders of the Ministry of Information which also ordered the seizure of al Jazeera and al Arabyia broadcast equipment.Two protesters died earlier in the week after being shot by police during a protest in Dhalie on Thursday.

Tribal anarchy in Yemen: the tragedy in al Jasheen, Ibb

The Yemeni government’s abdication of its responsibilities in rural Yemen is amply demonstrated by the ongoing saga in the village of al Jasheen, in Ibb province. In this drama, a group of poor villagers refuse to submit to a tyrannical Sheik who demands illegal taxes. The Sheik’s personal militia of state security forces attack, expell and imprison these citizens with impunity.

In al-Jasheen, Yemeni citizens were denied access to their own homes. In response, the Yemeni state reinforced the tribal system at the expense of the civil system. Residents received no redress from the courts, local council, parliament, the ruling party (of which they were members) or the opposition parties. State security forces tasked with protecting citizens instead targeted them. The governor of Ibb and Parliament’s leadership rallied around the sheik.

Al Jasheen’s sheik, Mohammed Mansour is President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s poet and the father of a Member of Parliament. He expelled the villagers three times since 2007. They trekked to the capital and camped out in front of parliament in protest. Women and children slept in the courtyard of a local NGO for weeks at a time.

Yemen releases two half dead editors as the US notes atrocities,increases terror aid

Yemen released the editor of the banned Al Ayyam after holding him without charge for three months. The 66 year old Hisham Basharaheel was freed in extremely poor medical condition. There was no word on the status of his two sons who were imprisoned at the same time. Al-Ayyam, one of the largest dailies in the south, was closed in May last year over allegations that, by reporting news of civil unrest, the paper “harmed unity.”

Also released today was Mohammed al Maqaleh arrested in September after reporting on a military airstrike in the war torn Sa’ada province that targeted a group of refugees sheltering in an open field. Over 80 were killed, and dozens wounded. Al Maqaleh was kidnapped the next day, and for months Yemeni authorities denied that he was in custody. Brought to court in February, al Maqaleh recounted various methods of torture including mock executions, beating and starving. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed his release, urging Yemen to release or bring to trial other journalists held without charge.

Election in Yemen, ploy or progress?

Yemen’s President Saleh submitted a draft constitutional amendment to Parliament that calls for transforming the appointed 111 member Shura Council into an elected body. At first glance, the move appears to further popular empowerment. However, the electoral system in Yemen is heavily weighted in favor of President Saleh’s ruling party, the General People’s Congress (GPC), which monopolizes political power.

Parliament is considering the measure today, the state media reported. Parliament rarely initiates legislation, instead acting as a rubber stamp for Saleh’s dictates while providing a facade of legitimacy.

Glaringly absent from the President’s reform plans is any provision for long overdue electoral reform, the issue that has driven a wedge between the ruling GPC and alliance of opposition parties, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP).

American al Qaeda attended the extremist Dammaj Institute in Yemen

The suspected al Qaeda operative arrested in Yemen, American Shairif Mobley, worked in several US nuclear plants before leaving for Yemen two years ago where he attended an extremist school , the Dar al Hadeth Institute in Dammaj Yemen. The Dammaj Institute is the flagship school of the Dar al Hadeth network of hard core Salafi institutes in Yemen. There are a half dozen other Dar al Hadeth schools and numerous outposts dotted all over Yemen. The grounds contain a mosque, library and educational center as well as housing.

The Dar al-Hadith’s Dammaj institute in Saada was described as a “known terrorist training center” during tribunals for Guantanamo Bay detainees. “Reports say that between 3,000 and 5,000 foreign students live and study there,” said Abdul-Salam al-Korary, a local journalist who has covered Yemen for several decades. “It is a very radical school.” American al Qaeda operative, Johnny Walker Lind, who was arrested in Afghanistan with the Taliban, also attended Dammaj institute.

Suspected American al Qaeda, Sharif Mobley, shoots up Yemen hospital in escape bid

A New Jersey man from Buena Borough is accused of joining Yemen’s al Qaeda terrorists. Sharif Mobley is in custody in Yemen after an escape attempt in a deadly hospital rampage that left one guard dead.

Yemeni officials charge that the 26 year-old Mobley was planning a terror attack. Mobley was apprehended and hospitalized last week. In a thwarted escape attempt, Mobley killed a policeman on Sunday as he attempted to shoot his way out of the hospital reports say.

His friends and family expressed shock.

Mobley’s father Charles spoke to NBC40. “We don’t know nothing, we’re trying to hear something,” said Charles Mobley. HIs mother said accusations are completely false and that her son is not a terrorist.

The Yemeni military earlier reported the shooter was a German citizen of Somali origin. He is currently thought to be a Yemeni-American duel citizen.

A British Airways employee charged today with plotting a terror attack also may have Yemen links.

Southern activist dies in shoot-out after burning effigy of President Saleh

On Monday, Yemeni authorities announced the death of Ali Saleh al Yafie, labeled by authorities as an al Qaeda operative. Two soldiers and several members of al Yafie’s family were also killed in the pre-dawn raid on his home in Abyan, including a seven year-old granddaughter.

Al Yafie was an activist in the populist movement which calls for the independence of southern Yemen. On Sunday, al Yafie burned an effigy of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh during an anti-government rally in Zanzibar, Abyan. Activists allege that Monday’s deadly raid was in retaliation for al Yafie’s actions at the demonstration. His family said he had no relation to al Qaeda.

Yemeni authorities often conflate domestic political opposition with al Qaeda in a bid to gain international backing. Sana’a repeatedly accused both the northern Houthi rebels and the southern secessionists of links to al Qaeda, however the central government of Ali Abdullah Saleh itself has struck numerous deals with al Qaeda’s leadership and operatives over the last decades.

Yemen admits Al Qaeda raid was mistake

A senior Yemeni defense official admitted on Wednesday that a December 17 air strike against al Qaeda in southern Yemen killed scores of civilians and not 30 al Qaeda operatives as the government previously insisted.

The strike has been touted by both US and Yemeni officials as evidence of Yemen’s newly found commitment to battling an increasingly active Yemeni al Qaeda affiliate.

Within hours of the bombing, U.S. President Barack Obama called Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, saying the operation “confirms Yemen’s resolve in confronting the danger of terrorism represented by al Qaeda for Yemen and the world,” Yemen’s state media reported.

Dirty Tricks in Yemen’s Media War

Activists in southern Yemen allege that the Yemeni government is taking the western media for a ride.

Aden Press charged that Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s translator, who works as a reporter for one of the major wire services, is infusing his reporting with pro-government bias and sometimes outright lies. Planting government operatives in western media outlets is only one tactic the Yemeni government uses to spin the news in its favor.

Funeral for police torture victim draws thousands in southern Yemen

Thousands of Southern Yemenis marched in the funeral Monday of 28 year old Fares Zaid al Tamah, who died in police custody in Aden on January 30. Mr. al Tamah was allegedly tortured to death in the latest incident of escalating government violence against activists and protesters in Yemen.

Separatist sentiment is running high in southern Yemen where 70% of residents favor dissolution of the unified state. Activists claim they have been illegally occupied since 1994’s civil war while southern oil deposits and land were looted by the tribesmen and relatives of northern President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The deceased was arrested in Abyan in his Landcruiser, his relatives said, while he was listening to an audio of the singer Aboud Khawaga, whose material often includes political themes.

Yemen sells Coast Guard services and Navy personnel to highest bidder

With renewed focus on al Qaeda threats emanating from Yemen, the US is substantially increasing support to several branches of the Yemeni military. However, Yemen’s military and security forces are often involved in for-profit ventures, on both overt and covert levels. The task of building up Yemen’s Coast Guard demonstrates such difficulties.

Last year, the Coast Guard complained several times to the Interior Ministry that the Border Guard was complicit in criminal activity and “aiding smugglers as smuggling takes place in an organized way,” the Yemen Post reported. The Border Guards prevented the Coast Guard from searching boats suspected of smuggling, sometimes resulting violent clashes between the forces’ members.

Prisoner exchanges may undermine shaky peace in five year war

The sixth round of the Sa’ada War ended Thursday when Yemeni President Saleh agreed to a cease fire with the Houthi rebels. The six point truce requires the rebels to unblock roads, withdraw from government buildings, return arms and release all prisoners including Saudi soldiers. The rebels also pledged not to attack Saudi Arabia.

However, the issue of prisoner exchanges is threatening to undermine the fragile peace in Yemen’s long simmering northern war. The Saudis issued a 48 hour ultimatum for the return of their soldiers, but the status of rebel prisoners in Saudi and Yemeni custody has not been addressed. A video posted to LiveLeak shows Saudi authorities brutally whipping the feet of prisoners, purported to be suspected Yemeni rebels. The rebels say the unilateral immediate release of all their captives was not in the original agreement.

State violence continues in Yemen: two protesters killed by police

In the continuing cycle of violence in southern Yemen, police opened fire at a hospital, killing one and wounding six. Another person was killed later in a separate incident.

The latest deaths occurred today when a group of southern activists attempted to retrieve the corpse of a protester killed February 2. Police guards at Ibn Khaldun hospital in the town of Hutah opened fire on the group, wounding seven. Abdullah Muhammad Al-Baqery, 45, died of his injuries.

Yemen’s Reign of Terror: Tortured Editor Al Maqaleh Comes to Bogus Trial

Four months of uncertainty surrounding the fate of kidnapped editor, Mohammed al Maqaleh, came to an end this week when he was brought to trial. The journalist’s court date was marred by numerous irregularities including the exclusion of his court appointed lawyer. Mr. al Maqaleh disclosed details of his torture by Yemeni security forces in an interview with a union representative. Yemen is one of the world’s worst violators of press freedom and notorious for prisoner torture.

Kidnapped in Broad Daylight
Mr. Al Maqaleh was kidnapped from a Sana’a street September 17, 2009 by plain clothes police. Yemeni authorities repeatedly denied he was in custody as his family and activists held weekly demonstrations.

A member of the Yemeni Socialist Party’s Central Committee, al Maqaleh also edits the party’s website, Al Eshteraki. On September 16, al Maqaleh reported on a military air strike that killed 87 internally displaced war refugees in Sa’ada province. Graphic photos accompanied the article. The UN urged an inquiry into the civilian deaths, an all too regular occurrence in the Sa’ada War.

Southern Yemen: 70% favor secession poll shows

The Yemeni Center for Civil Rights announced Friday that a public opinion poll found that an overwhelming majority of southern Yemenis favor independence.

At a press conference, the center’s director, Nouradinne Azizi, said 70% of Yemenis living in the territory of the former People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) favor secession from the unified Yemen state.

War in Yemen: a humanitarian disaster

The humanitarian crisis in war-torn north Yemen is “worse than ever,” the International Committee of the Red Cross warned today. Civilians, primarily women and very young children, remain at critical risk without much needed aid.

Over 200,000 Yemenis are estimated to be displaced by the fighting in Yemen’s Sa’ada War. The ICRC has provided food, water and essential aid to 75,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sa’ada and Amran governorates, the group said.

Yemen’s Human Rights Heroes Honored

Yemen’s National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms (HOOD) announced the winners of its Human Rights Awards for 2009.

Among the honorees was a comedian imprisoned for being too funny, a woman who spoke out about rape by security forces, members of a village who rebelled against a brutal sheik and a man tortured and sodomized in a tribal prison.

Southern oppositionist calls for UN peacekeepers in Yemen

With a donors’ conference on Yemen scheduled for next week, southern Yemenis are demanding the international community take their grievances into account.

One person was wounded and 25 arrested in Radfan when police opened fire on protesters. The demonstration was called in support of the imprisoned editors of al Ayyam Newspaper and the release of hundreds arrested at earlier protests and funeral marches. The protesters urged the British-hosted conference to support their calls for secession and a two state solution to Yemen’s instability.

Bin Laden claims Yemen airliner plot

In an audio tape broadcast by al Jazeera today, al Qaeda leader Usama Bin Laden claimed credit for the failed plot to bomb an airliner as it was landing in Detroit, December 25. Bin Laden called the Nigerian perpetrator of the plot, Abdulmutallab Al-Farouq , “a hero” and said the plot was intended to send the same message as the attacks of 9/11. The authenticity of the tape has not been confirmed yet by US officials.

Yemen’s human rights atrocities fuel al Qaeda, rights group says

Human Rights Watch issued a report yesterday linking the Yemeni government’s brutality to the pronounced terror threat emanating from the al Qaeda group in Yemen, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Britain raised its terror alert level yesterday from “substantial” to “severe” indicating a terror attack is “highly likely.” No specific reason was cited by British authorities. The UK is holding a conference on Yemen January 27 to address heightened concerns about the terror threat from AQAP following the failed attempt to bomb an airliner landing in Detroit on Christmas day. A conference on Afghanistan will follow the Yemen conference.

Somalia’s terror group al Shabab to support al Qaeda operations in Yemen

In an interview al Shabab spokesman Ali Rage said the Somali terror group intended to provide manpower to Yemen’s al Qaeda group (al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) , and that the Yemeni terrorists had provided generous support to al Shabab in the past.

Closer coordination between Somalia’s al Shabab and Yemen’s Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) heightens risk of a coordinated attack on the NATO anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden.

Yemeni al Qaeda leader al Reimi alive after third report of his death

Local sources dispute the Yemeni government’s account of the death of top level al Qaeda leader. Qasim al Reimi. Yemeni authorities claimed al Reimi was among six top level al Qaeda figures were killed in an air strike January 15.

The website of the Yemeni Defense Ministry reported that six were killed while driving in between Sa’ada and al Jawf provinces in the north of Yemen.

Yemeni Ministry claimed on Saturday that it had positively identified the bodies as including Qasim al Reimi, third in command of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The terror group earlier claimed credit for a failed plot to blow up an airliner over the US last Christmas. The other fatalities were identified as Ammar Abadah al-Waili, Saleh al-Tais, Ayedh Jaber al-Shabwani and Ibrahim Mohammed Saleh al-Banaa. (Al Waeli was later found to be recruiting for al Qaeda in Sa’ada.)

Yemen bars MP from prison visit with editor Bashraheel as media crack-down continues

The siege of al Ayyam newspaper and the arrest of its editors in Aden is heightening tensions, especially in the volatile south of Yemen.

On Thursday, Yemeni authorities prevented an opposition politician from seeing Hasham Bashraheel, the editor of al Ayyam newspaper, held without charge in an Aden jail.

Air Strike in Yemen as clerics threaten jihad

A statement by 158 Yemeni religious scholars warned the US that any military intervention will be met by violence.

“If there is any insistence from any foreign party or aggression or invasion against the country … then Islam considers jihad a duty to repel the aggression,” the declaration read.

Aid Won’t Fix the Crisis in Yemen

On July 17, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh celebrated the 31st anniversary of his ascension to power. The Sana’a regime, perverted by corruption, is largely unable to provide public services, including water, electricity, security, medical care and education. A third of Yemenis—7 million people—are malnourished. Police and military units act as enforcers for corrupt officials. The judiciary dispenses political retribution. Torture in Yemeni jails is systemic and brutal.

On his anniversary, Saleh published an essay calling for dialog and tolerance. The same week, 18 protesters were killed by police, a journalist sentenced to jail and an opposition party prevented from holding its conference. A four-year rebellion in the north and a two-year uprising in the south threaten to engulf the nation in violence. Known al Qaeda operatives roam the capital freely, and teenage suicide bombers routinely target elderly tourists.

Yemen’s donors believe stabilizing President Saleh’s regime will thwart the devolution of Yemen into a failed state and an al Qaeda safe haven. U.S. aid proposed for 2010 is at the highest levels in years. The Department of Defense allocated $66 million in military aid, mostly for patrol boats and armored pick-ups. Congress’ Foreign Operation Appropriation bill includes an additional $15 million in military aid and $40 million in development and economic aid. Other humanitarian aid is channeled through USAID. However, increased funding to Yemen is a questionable strategy that may escalate instability.

Aid Won’t Fix the Crisis in Yemen (Arabic)

جين نوفاك- ورد برس- 26 يوليو، 2009
ترجمة: عبدالله عبدالوهاب ناجي- ترجمة خاصة بيمنات
Yemenat

احتفل الرئيس اليمني علي عبدالله صالح في السابع عشر من يوليو بالذكرى الواحدة والثلاثين لتوليه السلطة. ويعتبر نظام صنعاء، المضلل بالفساد، غير قادر، إلى حد كبير، على تقديم الخدمات العامة بما فيها المياه والكهرباء والأمن، والرعاية الطبية والتعليم. حيث يعاني ثلث من اليمنيين- سبعة ملايين نسمة- من سوء التغذية. تعمل وحدات من الشرطة والجيش كمنقذين لمسئولين فاسدين. القضاء ينفذ عقوبات سياسية. كما أن التعذيب في السجون اليمنية شامل ووحشي.

نشر صالح بياناً يدعو فيه إلى الحوار والتسامح بمناسبة ذكرى توليه السلطة، وفي نفس الأسبوع قتلت الشرطة ثمانية عشر متظاهراً، وتم الحكم على صحفي بالسجن، ومُنع أحد أحزاب المعارضة من عقد مؤتمره. إن مضي أربع سنوات من حركة التمرد في شمال البلاد وسنتين من الانتفاضة في الجنوب يهدد بإغراق البلد في دوامة من العنف. ويتجول أعضاء معروفون في تنظيم القاعدة في العاصمة بحرية، ويستهدف مفجرون انتحاريون مراهقون سائحين مسنين بشكل متكرر.

Yemen on the Brink of Civil War, Arabic

Yemenat:

اليمن على شفا الحرب
كتبت: جين نوفاك/ ورد برس
ترجمة: عبدالله عبدالوهاب ناجي/ ترجمة خاصة بالمستقلة

أصدرت سفارة الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية يوم الأحد في صنعاء بيانا حول العنف السياسي في جنوب اليمن الذي أدى إلى مقتل ثمانية أشخاص في الأسبوع الماضي. وشددت الولايات المتحدة على أن “وحدة اليمن تعتمد على قدرتها على ضمان المساواة في معاملة جميع المواطنين بموجب القانون…” وما تدعوه الحكومة اليمنية بالوحدة فإن المتظاهرين يدعونه احتلالاً.

Yemen on the Brink of War

On May 3, the U.S. Embassy in Sana’a issued a statement on the political violence in South Yemen that claimed eight lives last week. The United States stressed that “Yemen’s unity depends on its ability to guarantee every citizen equal treatment under the law.” What the Yemeni government calls unity, the protesters call occupation.

Since protests erupted in South Yemen in May 2007, dozens were killed, hundreds injured and over a thousand arrested. As police shot into the crowds, Southern claims of institutionalized discrimination turned into calls for independence. After regional protest marches last week, Yemen began shelling the town of Radfan. Some Southerners took up arms for the first time.

Yemen Retakes Ja’ar

On March 28, Yemen launched a major security operation to regain control of Ja’ar in the governorate of Abyan. Yemeni authorities announced Monday that 45 of 56 wanted militants have been arrested during the operation.

Yemen’s three terror fronts

By Jane Novak March 28, 2009 3:18 PM

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took credit in an internet statement Friday for a pair of suicide attacks that targeted South Koreans in Yemen.

A teen-aged suicide bomber killed four South Korean tourists in Shibam, Hadramout on March 15. A second terror attack three days later in Sana’a targeted a convoy of family members and South Korean investigators. The motorcade had left a military camp and was traveling along a highway when a suicide bomber detonated his device between two of the cars. There were no injuries to the passengers.

Yemen’s Multi Faceted Deals with Al Qaeda (Arabic GT)

اليمن تعقد صفقات متعددة الوجوه مع القاعدة

كتبت: جين نوفاك – فبراير/ 2009
عبدالله عبدالوهاب ناجي- ترجمة خاصة بالمستقلة

عقد الرئيس اليمني علي عبدا لله صالح مؤخرا صفقة مع أيمن الظواهري، حيث أن اليمن بصدد إفراغ سجونها من جهاديين معروفين. تقوم الحكومة اليمنية بتجنيد مجاهدين مؤسسين لمهاجمة أعداءها المحليين بينما تحجم عن تدابير جدية لمكافحة الإرهاب ضد تنظيم القاعدة الذي تم تشكيله مؤخراً في شبه الجزيرة العربية. حيث مكنت العلاقة ثلاثية الأطراف بين النظام اليمني وتنظيم القاعدة، جميع المشاركين على مواصلة تحقيق أهدافهم على حساب الأمن الوطني والإقليمي، و العالمي.

Yemen strikes multi-faceted deals with al Qaeda

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh recently struck a deal with Ayman Zawahiri, and Yemen is in the process of emptying its jails of known jihadists. The Yemeni government is recruiting these established jihadists to attack its domestic enemies as it refrains from serious counter-terror measures against the newly formed Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The tripartite relationship between the Yemeni regime and al Qaeda enables all participants to further their goals at the expense of national, regional and global security.

Yemen releases 95 jihadists

Arabian Peninsula al Qaeda groups merge

In the face of Saudi Arabia’s success against the al Qaeda organization, many Saudi operatives have fled to the more hospitable climate in Yemen, joining others who recently arrived from Iraq, Somalia, and Pakistan. Al Qaeda in Yemen announced its merger with Saudi Arabia’s al Qaeda organization to form al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. The announcement came in its latest release of the online journal Sada al Malahim, or the Echo of Epics. A propaganda video was also released by the group on Friday.

US Sanctions Iran Based al Qaeda, Zawahiri Promises Fighters to Yemen

The US Treasury Department placed financial sanctions on Saad bin Laden, thought to be in Pakistan, and three alleged al Qaeda operatives in Iran including a Yemeni. The terrorist designation Friday froze their assets within US jurisdictions and prohibits Americans from financial dealings with the four.

Saad bin Laden, son of radical figurehead Osama bin Laden, facilitated communications between al Qaeda’s number two, Ayman Zawahiri, and the Iranian Qods Force after an al Qaeda attack on the US embassy in Sana’a last year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Yemeni Weapons Fuel Somali Instability

Yemen the main source of illegal arms to Somalia: UN
———————————————-

Jane Novak for the Yemen Times

SANA’A, Dec. 27— A UN investigation found Yemen is the primary source of arms and ammunition to Somalia which has been under an arms embargo since 1992. The panel of independent experts monitoring the embargo also reported arms smuggling from Yemen intersects with acts of piracy and human trafficking. The findings were presented in a December 10 report to the UN Security Council.

The report notes commercial weapons imports from Yemen supply Somali retail markets as well as opposition and criminal groups. The Yemeni government’s inability to stem the large scale arms trafficking is “a key obstacle to the restoration of peace and security to Somalia,” the panel found. The UN Security Council extended the monitoring group’s mandate for another year.

Saleh’s Orders to Release Sa’ada Detainees Dated 12/08

If Saleh ordered the Sa’ada prisoners released on 12/08 and they are still in jail, then its either a ploy or he can’t get his own directives implemented.

The order:

Eid al-Ghadir Day, Saada Yemen 12/08

Eid al-Ghaidr Day, Sa'ada Yemen 12/2008

After several years of outlawing this Shia celebration, in 2008 the ban was lifted.

Interview with Nasser al-Nuba

Exclusive Interview

Brigadier General Nasser al-Nuba is the head of the Retired Military Consultive Association (MCA) in Aden and the southern governorates. The MCA under General al-Nuba organized demonstrations in South Yemen beginning in July 2007 to demand equal rights for military retirees and southerners in general. As the year long demonstrations began to swell to include hundreds of thousands, demonstrators were met with an increasingly repressive response on the part of security forces. Over twenty protesters were shot dead, hundreds severely beaten and over a thousand arrested.

The Yemeni Intelligence Concocts Terror Attacks for Political Gain

The leader of the Yemeni Soldiers Brigades claimed the Yemeni state participates in terror attacks for political gain. by Jane Novak for the Long War Journal

Yemen’s security forces have repeatedly orchestrated terror attacks within Yemen in order to manipulate US and international perceptions, the most wanted fugitive in September’s terror attack on the US Embassy in Sana’a said in an interview Tuesday.

Hamza Ali Saleh al Dhayani (also Aldhaini, al Dhajani) is a prime suspect in the September 17 suicide attack on the US Embassy that killed 16, including an American citizen. Yemen also named al Dhayani as a suspect in March’s mortar attack on the US Embassy.

Global crises, natural disaster shake Yemen’s economy

Jane Novak For the  Yemen Times

 SANA’A, Nov. 29 — Yemen’s oil-reliant economy is in trouble. Known oil reserves are depleting. Low global oil prices make economic diversification and budgetary rationalization urgent concerns. The outbreak of piracy in the Gulf of Aden harms potential growth sectors including Aden port, off-shore oil blocks and Yemen’s LNG project. Swelling numbers of Somali refugees, as well as Somali pirates, burden the economy. The struggling non-oil economy was dealt a blow from devastating floods in October. These factors combine to create an economic storm brewing on the horizon of 2009.

The roots of protest: Prior elections impact future polls

By: Jane Novak For the Yemen Times 

LAHJ, Nov. 22 — Voter registration committees triggered protests on Thursday that drew crowds estimated at hundreds of thousands. The registration process was launched November 11 in preparation for April’s Parliamentary election.

A teen was killed at a registration center in Radfan, Lahj on November 15 when police opened fire on protesters, an opposition MP said. Registration committees were forcibly ejected by residents in other southern towns. Radfan was the scene of four fatalities in September 2007 when security forces clashed with protesters. The year-long protest movement in the southern governorates culminated in the election of the Southern Liberation Council (SLC) on November 14, 2008. The SLC, purporting to represent hundreds of thousands of southern Yemenis, will boycott the election.

Yemen’s opposition party alliance, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), is boycotting the registration process. The JMP claims the registration committees were illegally formed and favor the ruling General People’s Congress Party (GPC). Security officials said on Thursday that hampering the committees’ activities is a crime. Dozens of JMP activists were arrested during otherwise peaceful protests.

Electoral Violence in Yemen Five Months Early

Violence is breaking out all over Yemen, especially in the Southern governorates, in advance of April’s Parliamentary elections. Angry citizens have repeatedly attacked and expelled voter registration committees, and security forces opened fire on several occasions.

Yemen’s opposition party alliance, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), is boycotting the registration process because the government reneged on implementing needed electoral reforms.  Southern Yemenis just elected their own representative body, the Southern Arabian Liberation Council (SALC), which has called for an electoral boycott claiming the central government, not just the election, is illegitimate in the south.

Yemen’s government deploys the institutions, processes and rhetoric of democracy to legitimize its rule and gain western support. In reality, the consolidation of democracy has made little progress since 1994 when Saleh’s forces re-imposed a unified state on southern Yemen by force. At the center of the national dynamic is greed. Saleh’s regime loots the state treasury at every step of administration. Brutal security forces, secret police, corrupt courts and systematic torture are the systems in place for those who do not succumb to bribery, blackmail and threats. While the forms of democracy have spread, the practice has not.

US Embassy Attacked in Yemen

Yemeni security forces repelled a complex attack on the US embassy in the capital of Sana’a. More than sixteen were killed after terrorists detonated multiple bombs then launched a ground attack in an attempt to breach the compound.

The attack begun after several bombs were detonated just outside the embassy. The terrorists then ambushed the first responders by using pre-positioned snipers. The terrorists were wearing uniforms of Yemeni security forces and driving what appeared to be police cars, which enabled them to get close to the heavily fortified compound.

Corruption Triggers Media Repression in Yemen

The level of media repression may be a determining factor in whether Yemen avoids the threat of state failure. The Yemeni government suffers from entrenched corruption in nearly every office, a legacy of traditional patron/client relationships. Demands for transparency threaten the substantial patrimonial networks associated with access to the government budget.

More than 20% of state funds go to the administrative expenses of the Presidency and Parliament. A quarter of the Yemeni budget is allocated to the military as a line item. Another third of the budget is spent on diesel subsidies. Beyond the misappropriation of state funds, members of the administration also spin off criminal enterprises using advantages gained from their official positions.

In Yemen’s pervasively corrupt environment, investigative reporting is challenging the conditions that undermine efforts at wider economic and political reform.

The spreading destruction of the Sa’ada War in Yemen

The boundaries of the war in Yemen war are expanding beyond the northern Sa’ada governorate. For the first time, bombing is audible from Sana’a, the nation’s capital. Recent battles are among the bloodiest in memory.

After four years of armed conflict between the government and a group of Zaidi rebels, the war’s impact is spread far beyond the combatants and the field of combat. Military, judicial and civil policies targeting the rebels have precipitated a humanitarian crisis in Sa’ada and a civil crisis in the nation with rights groups protesting mass arrests and other tactics.

Yemeni Security Forces Blanket Aden on War Anniversary

Aden, July 7- In the early morning hours Monday, Yemeni army units supported by Central Security forces blanketed Aden City, the former capital of southern Yemen, in advance of a planned civil rights demonstration.

By the end of the day, the fourteenth anniversary of the end of Yemen’s civil war, government forces had arrested over 300 in Aden and detained numerous reporters. Security blocked all the routes to the public square at al-Hashimi station, the site of the planned sit in.

Yemeni Hunger Striker, Hassan Baoum, Serously Ill

Southern Yemeni activist Hassan Baoum is seriously ill and has been transferred to a police hospital, his family reports. Baoum is on a hunger strike in protest of his “illegal arrest” on April 1, 2008. He has had a diabetic reaction, and his blood pressure is very high. Baoum has been held incommunicato since his arrest on April 1, 2008, restrained by leg irons and handcuffs.

Yemen Spirals Toward Disintegration

اليمن: حركات لولبية باتجاه التفكك

هجمات ارهابية تضرب العاصمة صنعاء ، مع تجدد الحرب شمالي اليمن وتحول الاحتجاجات إلى أعمال شغب جنوبي اليمن، والمعارضة تقاطع الانتخابات القادمة.

الحريات المدنية تقبع تحت الهجمات وينموالاتجاه التقليدي مع تحول الحكومة المركزية إلى متطرفين للتأييد، والاحتياجات الاساسية للسكان تستمر بلا تلبية.

الحرب في الشمال

يواجة البرنامج العالمي للغذاء نقصا حادا في الامدادت اللازمة لتوفير احتياجات 77.00 ألف مواطن من مشردي الحرب في الشمال،رغم الدعم الاخير المقدم من المملكة المتحدة بقيمة 1.4مليون دولار،لقي عدة الاف حتفهم في هذه الحرب التي بدأت منذ 2004م كما تدمرت آلاف المنازل والمساجد والمحال التجارية نتيجة القصف الحكومي بالقذائف.

Yemen Spirals Toward Disintegration

As war renews in Yemen’s North and protests turn to riots in the South, terror attacks have hit the capital, and the opposition is boycotting upcoming elections. Civil liberties are under attack and traditionalism growing as the central government turns to hard liners for support and the population’s basic needs go unmet.

Al-Qaeda In Yemen: Mercenaries or Terrorists

القاعدة في اليمن مرتزقة أم إرهابيون؟ [23/4/2008] ? : – جين نوفاك*- ترجمة خاصة بـ[يمنات]

لقد تم الإعلان عن تناقض وجهات النظر بين محللين سياسيين غربيين ويمنيين حول اندلاع الهجمات الإرهابية في اليمن حيث بينت إحدى المقالات في مركز مكافحة الإرهاب أنه«تم التغلب على القاعدة في اليمن بسبب التعاون الوثيق بين اليمن والولايات المتحدة أثناء المرحلة الأولى من الحرب (2000 – 2003) لكنها – القاعدة – تعلمت من هذه الخسارة»وكيفت تكتيكاتها وأهدافها.
الجيل الجديد من هذا التنظيم يرفض التفاوض مع نظام الحكم اليمني وتبشر به إستراتيجية جديدة ورقي مستمر،عبر الدعاية الخاصة بالشبكة العنكبوتية.

في الوقت الذي تستحوذ فيه الضغوطات الداخلية على اهتمام نظام الحكم اليمني، تأتي فيه السيطرة على هذا التنظيم في آخر الأولويات.

Al-Qaeda in Yemen, Mercenaries or Terrorists

The dichotomy of viewpoints between Yemeni and Western analysts on the recent outbreak of terror attacks in Yemen is pronounced. An article at the Counter Terrorism Center at West Point finds that “Al-Qa`ida in Yemen was defeated by the close cooperation of the United States and Yemen during the first phase of the war (2000-2003), but it learned from the loss,” and adapted its tactics and goals.

Violence Explodes on Multiple Fronts in Yemen

Twenty-one people died in political violence across Yemen this weekend, including southern protesters, northern rebels, tribal paramilitary fighters, and Yemeni soldiers. A mortar attack by al Qaeda in the capital heightened tensions.

Yemen Mobilizes Military to Quell Riots

Yemen has rounded up opposition political leaders in response to several days of riots that caused extensive damage to government buildings and vehicles. Over the last 48 hours, the Yemeni military deployed dozens of tanks, armored vehicles and fighter jets into the southern Yemeni governorates.

Massive Protest in South Yemen

A rally in the southern Yemeni governorate of Dhalie on Monday drew several hundred thousand protesters from the governorates of Hadramout, Aden, Abyan, and Shabwa. Some estimates put the crowd at more than a half million.

Unsteady Peace in War Torn North Yemen

A three-year war in Sa’ada, Yemen generated thousands of casualities, wide-scale destruction, tens of thousands of internal refugees and cost upwards of a billion dollars. Progress toward implementing a cease-fire agreement negotiated by Qatar reached an impasse this week as both the Yemeni military and several thousand Shia rebels refused to abandon their positions. Reports of a prison massacre are heightening tensions amid sporadic skirmishes in the province, which borders Saudi Arabia.

Internet Censorship in Yemen

The Internet has taken root in Yemen, functioning as it does everywhere, as a social network, as an electronic pamphleteer and as a purveyor of facts and ideas. The Yemeni government is intimidated by the public’s internet use and the resulting social and political progress. Consequently the Yemeni state dramatically increased internet censorship in the last months, as it is prone to do in times of crisis and negative publicity.

Yemen’s Illogical Logic of Repression

“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty,” Thomas Jefferson.

As Yemenis struggle toward freedom from tyranny, the Yemeni government uses all means at its disposal to thwart the growing democracy movement. The regime simultaneously creates a façade of reform for the benefit of the western donors, often with depressingly good results.

Yemen’s Intifada

يواجه اليمن عدم استقرار غير مرئي منذ الحرب الأهلية في 1994م زادت من حدته الحرب التي خاضتها الدولة مع الثوار الشيعة

في محافظة صعدة الواقعة شمال اليمن، حيث خلفت تلك الحرب أكثر من 50000 لاجئ داخلي، ورغم أن التمرد انتهى في يونيو/ حزيران الماضي إلا أن التهديد ما زال قابلا للاشتعال بسبب عدم تطبيق أي من الطرفين لشروط وقف إطلاق النار.

التهميش السياسي والاقتصادي لقطاع واسع من المجتمع ساهم في التمرد وبالتالي خلق فسادا حكوميا مستوطنا.. قلة الخدمات الأساسية والتدابير الأمنية المتشددة كانت من أهم العوامل المحفزة لاحتجاجات جنوب اليمن واسعة الانتشار والتي جذبت أكثر من 100.000 محتج والتي راح ضحيتها حتى الآن عشرة محتجين زعم أن قوات الأمن هي من قتلتهم بالإضافة إلى ضرب واعتقال الكثير منهم.

Yemen’s Intifada

Yemen is facing instability unseen since its 1994 civil war. A war with Shiite rebels in the northern Sa’ada province left over 50,000 internal refugees. The rebellion ended in June but threatens to re-ignite as neither side has fully implemented the cease-fire conditions. The political and economic marginalization of vast segments of society contributed to the rebellion as did endemic governmental corruption, lack of basic services and draconian security measures. These factors are also the catalyst for widespread protests in southern Yemen, some of which attracted over 100,000 protesters. Ten protesters were killed, allegedly by security forces, and many were beaten and arrested.

Yemeni Officials Who Profited from Land Confescation

A Yemeni Parliamentary committee issued a report in 2006 naming 26 persons who illegally profited from land confiscated in Aden following Yemen’s 1994 civil war. The list includes Members of Parliament and the Shoura Council, military and security force commanders, current and former judges and ministers. The Parliamentary committee recommended that the land owners receive compensation for their losses, however none has been paid.

INTERVIEW: Colonel Naser Saleh Abdul Qawi, secretary general of Aden Military Retirees Society.

Colonel Naser Saleh Abdul Qawi is the secretary general of Aden Military Retirees Society. Col. Abdul Qawi was a member of the southern Air Force, and was stationed at the al-Anad military base before it fell to Sanaa’s forces in Yemen’s 1994 civil war. Abdul Qawi is one of hundreds of military retirees who were reinstated to the Yemeni military in response to months of protests that have rocked the southern Yemeni governorates.

One Killed, Four Wounded in Aden Protests

November 29, Aden: One person was killed and several wounded when Yemeni soldiers prevented thousands of protesters from reaching the site of an anti-regime demonstration.

INTERVIEW: Yemeni MP Ahmed Saif Hashed, “There Are No Human Rights In Yemen”

Mr. Ahmed Saif Hashed serves on the Yemeni Parliament’s Freedom and Human Rights Committee. An independent MP, Mr. Hashed represents constituency 70, which includes parts of Lahj and Taiz. Mr. Hashed is a prominent human rights activist with a special interest in the condition of Yemeni prisoners. He heads the Al-Tageer human rights organization and owns the Al-Mostakela newspaper. Jane Novak interviewed him for the Global Politician.

Yemen’s Truce with Al-Qaeda

THE AMERICAN ATTEMPTS to rehabilitate the Yemeni regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh have not succeeded. Yemeni authorities recently pardoned Jamal Al-Badawi, convicted mastermind of the 2000 USS Cole bombing. Almost all the terrorists who bombed the American warship and killed 17 American sailors are free, except those dead or in U.S. custody.

Bloody Protests Continue in Yemen

Since May, Yemen has witnessed widespread civil unrest in the southern governorates including Aden and Marib. Three protesters were killed during demonstrations in Mukallah, and two more were killed in Dhalie. On October 13, five people were shot dead at a sit-in in Radfan, Lahj when security forces opened fire on the crowd. Witnesses reported a dozen wounded. Over fifty thousand people gathered the next day in Radfan for a previously scheduled demonstration despite these brutal security practices.

INTERVIEW: Dr. Aidros Nasr Al Naqeeb, Head of the YSP Parliamentary Block, “The Yemeni regime has no desire for reforms in any field.”

Armies of Liberation conducted an interview with DR. AIDROOS NASR NASER AL NAQEEB, the chairman of the Yemeni Socialists Party’s (YSP) Parliamentary block. Dr. Aidroos represents three districts in the southern governorate of Abyan.

The USS Cole Bombing: A Seven Year Perspective

On October 12, 2000 two Yemeni suicide bombers rammed an explosives-laden dingy into an American destroyer, the USS Cole. Seventeen US service members were killed and forty-nine injured. The destroyer had been invited by the Yemeni government to refuel in the port of Aden.

In the light of historical perspective, several facts have become clear. Intelligence warnings generated prior to the attack were never forwarded to the commander of the Cole. The investigation afterwards was marred by turf wars within the US government, leaving links between the Cole bombing and the attacks of 9/11 unexplored. The Yemeni government worked diligently to limit the scope of the US investigation. Almost all the Yemenis involved in the Cole bombing are walking free. The involvement of some Yemeni officials in the bombing is documented; however, the scope of that involvement is not.

Yemen on the Brink of Civil War?

Tensions simmering since the Yemeni civil war in 1994 have flared into violence that may engulf the nation.

“We want equal rights,” retired Brigadier General Ali Moqbel stated. The simple declaration expressed the sentiment of tens of thousands of Yemenis who have repeatedly clashed with security forces in Aden, Makallah, Dahlie and other towns in southern Yemen since the spring.