Armies of Liberation

Republic of Yemen

Preparatory Committee for National Dialogue

General Secretariat

Summary: Vision for National Salvation

Sana’a 2010

In the name of Allah, the most Merciful the Most Compassionate
“Why were there not, among the generations before you, persons possessed of balanced good sense, prohibiting (men) from mischief in the earth – except a few among them whom We saved (from harm)? But the wrong-doers pursued the enjoyment of the good things of life which were given them, and persisted in sin (116). Nor would thy Lord be the One to destroy communities for a single wrong- doing, if its members were likely to mend” (117). Surat Hud

Introduction:

On Monday Ramadhan 17th 1429 Hijria, corresponding to 07.09.2009, the Preparatory Committee for National Dialogue (“PCNDâ€) formed of political and social forces, parties, organizations and individuals, businessmen, scholars, intellectuals, opinion leaders, women and youth leaders presented to the Yemeni people of all its political and social categories, classes, forces and components this national dialogue vision. The directions and contents of this vision were formulated by the National Consultation Forum (NCF). The PCND, through serious and responsible discussions and deliberations ultimately concluded that the last opportunity for all Yemenis to confront the nationwide crisis is the mobilization of all national efforts and energies so we all represent a leverage for peaceful change and national salivation that relieves the country from the hands of despotism and corruption. The country should be rescued from this sophisticated cyclone of the crisis. Dire consequences should be avoided with the aim of having a safe and stable country where the dignity of Yemeni people, their rights and freedoms are preserved, and where respect for the principles and goals of the Yemeni revolution is restored and for the noble democratic choices of the Yemeni people agreed upon on 22nd of May 1990 as irrevocable choices.

The following is a summary of this proposed vision containing its key elements.

First:

Objective Diagnosis of the Current Crisis

Roots of the Crisis:

Despotic and autocratic clan or race based regimes that fostered central un-institutional power as a mean to justify and cover up its clan or race based monopoly of power, authority and resources. This is the true impasse and crisis that wasted the right of people in power and the right of country in its human and material resources and, thus, deepening retardation and waste.

Since 1930s, Yemenis were struggling and making substantial sacrifices with enormous number of martyrs to face and resolve this dilemma and abolishing its painful reflections by working to establish a national state as a frame for all Yemenis on the basis of equal citizenship, rule of law and a decentralized system representing the wishes of different groups and forces in the nation.

This continued until the morning of the 22nd of May 1990 when a peaceful unification was realized with all associated national and democratic contents, creating a favorable environment for resolving the historical crisis and opening horizons for the future through:

1. Ending the situation of geographic and social separation that affected the social and national identify of the Yemeni people and, thus, ensuring the direction of national resources to achieve envisaged social development and prosperity.
2. Eliminating all forms of factional discrimination, arrogance tendencies, autocracy and seizure of resources, which, under fragmentation and division, grew and dominated on other forms of consultative democratic regime dreamed of by Yemenis.
3. Opening doors for ousting all forms of autocratic rule, despotism and tyranny and establishing an institutionalized nation-state resting on the principles of equal citizenship and the rule of law as means to overcome the state of retardation and to catch up with the time, strengthen independence and national sovereignty.
4. The peaceful nature of the Yemeni unification represented a fresh start for new Yemeni history repudiating the use of violence for political purposes or in national struggle. Therefore, unity was correlated with political and partisan pluralism, the exchange of power through free and fair elections as inevitable conditions for enhancing the building of modern national state, which would not be built under the state of violence, fragmentation and conflicts over power, resources and decisions.

It is very unfortunate that events followed a different direction. A crisis broke out by the end of 1993 and a civil war erupted in the summer of 1994. In the wake of that war, the rulers pounced against the concepts of the national partnership and the nascent democratic project based on political and partisan pluralism and, hence, obstructed all horizons of hope that were open before Yemenis on 22nd of May 1990.

Second:

Key Manifestations of the Crisis (Read on …)

The comments came as a senior U.S. intelligence official revealed new details of a March 8 killing of a top al-Qaeda commander in the militant stronghold of Miram Shah in North Waziristan, in Pakistan’s autonomous tribal region. The al-Qaeda official died in what local news reports described as a missile strike by a unmanned aerial vehicle. The CIA formally declines to acknowledge U.S. participation in such attacks inside Pakistani territory. Hussein al-Yemeni, the man killed in the attack, was identified by an intelligence official as among al-Qaeda’s top 20 leaders and a participant in the planning for a Dec. 30 suicide bombing at a CIA base in the province of Khost in eastern Afghanistan.

London, England (CNN) — American-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki is calling for jihad against America, claiming “America is evil” in a new audio message obtained exclusively by CNN.

“With the American invasion of Iraq and continued U.S. aggression against Muslims, I could not reconcile between living in the U.S and being a Muslim, and I eventually came to the conclusion that jihad against America is binding upon myself just as it is binding on every other Muslim,” he says in the recording that runs more than 12 minutes.

Al-Awlaki is believed to be hiding out in hills of southern Yemen with the protection of his very powerful family tribe.

CNN could not authenticate the recording as being by al-Awlaki, but sources have told CNN that they believe the voice on the recording is him and that the recording is genuine. (Read on …)

Flatbush retailer sees customers having fun, winning; buys himself a $3,000,000 Money winner
Yemen-born Abdo Ashariki has owned the Cortelyou Deli & Grocery on Cortelyou Rd. in Brooklyn for three years. The father of 10 children who range in age from 4 to 39 said he liked to watch his customers scratch and win prizes on the New York Lottery tickets he sold to them. “But why,” he asked, “should they have all the fun?” That’s why Ashariki said he usually bought one or two tickets for himself each day, a habit that paid off handsomely on February 20, 2010 when Ashariki purchased a $10 Money ticket that turned out to be a $3,000,000 winner. (Read on …)

SANAA — Shiite rebels in north Yemen freed on Tuesday the 178 prisoners they were holding, a mediator announced, and said they were complying with a ceasefire that ended six months of fighting on February 12. (Read on …)

Summary

In an article called “The Secrets of the Innovative Bomb” published Feb. 15, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula discusses its innovative designs for improvised explosive devices. The article offers useful insights into the group’s use of such explosives, highlighting the growing threat to security screening. (Read on …)

Yemen Times: The Authority of Civil Status and Civilian Records, yesterday, launched an ambitious strategy to update the records by 2015.

The authority, which is responsible for issuing birth certificates, personal and family identity cards as well as death, marriage and divorce certificates, has so far issued only the personal identity cards, automatically. The service, which is available at the governorate centers covers only 20 districts from a total of 333 districts around the country, as of today and expanding this service is one of the main objectives of the strategy including transferring the archives to a digital system. This venture also entails constructing new premises with adequate space. (Read on …)

Almotamar.net – Security and local sources in Abyan province told Almotamar.net Monday that Yemeni air force dealt an air strike more than an hour ago to a hideout for the Qaeda organization in Yemen, in the district of Modia…in an area called Al-Hamra Thiraa Mountain Jeezat Al Ghanam in the district of Modia, province of Abyan, pointing out that the area has lately witnessed noticeable activity of elements from the Qaeda organisation and was monitored by security authorities.

Al-Malahim Media Foundation, the media arm of the Yemen-based AQAP, identified the militant as Ibrahim Saleh Mujahid al-Khalifa (alias Abi Jandal al-Qisaimy), saying the militant is a Saudi national.

“Al-Qisaimy was responsible for collecting and raising money from inside Saudi Arabia and transferring them into al-Qaida wing in Yemen,” al-Malahim said in a statement posted on the Internet. It added that “al-Qisaimy was also the coordinator behind smuggling groups of wanted Saudi militants to Yemen through the Saudi-Yemeni joint border.”

Amman – A Yemeni was on Sunday interrogated by the public prosecutor of Jordan’s State Security Court on suspicion of belonging to al-Qaeda and plotting acts of terrorism inside the kingdom, judicial sources said. The Yemeni national, Ammar Barouti, is believed to be one of al- Qaeda’s leaders in Yemen, tasked with recruiting fighters before sending them to Iraq for fighting US forces there, the sources added.

Barouti was arrested at Jordan’s Queen Ali International Airport five months ago during a flight from an Arab country on his way home. “He was suffering from wounds during battles he fought against US forces in Iraq,” the judicial sources said, without giving into further details.

AJC: From 2002 to 2008, Mobley worked for several contractors at three nuclear power plants in New Jersey, PSEG Nuclear spokesman Joe Delmar said. Mobley carried supplies and did maintenance work at the plants on Artificial Island in Lower Alloways Creek, and worked at other plants in the region as well.

He satisfied federal background checks as recently as 2008, Delmar said, adding that the plant is cooperating with authorities. Mobley moved to Yemen about two years ago, supposedly to learn Arabic and study Islam, a former neighbor said.

Yemen Post: Families in Yemen’s southern province of Dhale are fleeing the city to other safe places as security remains tight and raids on homes and arrests in connection with the search for outlaws and separatists continue.

Many families have left their homes after they came under attack since last Saturday when security forces imposed a security cordon around many districts in the province and started to bomb homes and arrest innocents. (Read on …)

NYT: Yemeni forces launched an attack Thursday to recapture a government building occupied by separatists in the south of the country, setting off a gunfight that killed two people, a local official and witnesses said. (Read on …)

NBC: Federal sources have confirmed that a man from Buena is in custody in the Middle East, and they say he’s believed to be an Al-Qaeda militant who’s accused of going on a deadly rampage.

“We don’t know nothing, we’re trying to hear something,” said Charles Mobley. Those were the only words he would share on camera about his son, 26 year-old Sharif Mobley. Federal sources have confirmed the 2002 Buena Regional High School graduate is currently in custody in the Middle East, suspected of being an Al-Qaeda militant. (Read on …)

Yemen/US: Take Steps to Avoid Airstrike Tragedies
Civilian Deaths in US-Assisted Raid Underscore Risks of Military Force in Counterterror Measures

(New York, March 8, 2010) – The Yemeni government’s acknowledgment that an airstrike killed more than 42 civilians in December 2009 is a stark reminder of the need for careful targeting when using such counterterrorism measures, Human Rights Watch said today. (Read on …)

Congress has enacted roughly $218 million in US assistance for FY2010, of which $170 million or 78 percent has been in the security domain [Train and Equip (Section 1206), Foreign Military Financing (FMF), International Military Education and Training (IMET), Nonproliferation, Antiterrorism, Demining and Related Programs (NADR), and International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE)]. This dwarfs the development and diplomatic sums provided to Yemen and transparently communicates the American investment in President Saleh.

Sahwa Net- Al-Mithaq newspaper, the mouthpiece of Yemen’s ruling party, the General People’s Congress, has accused the former governor of Saada Hassan Mana’a of supplying weapons to the Houthi rebels in weapons… (after) he told a Yemeni newspaper, Al-Masdar, that (Deputy Minster of Interior, Mohammad) al-Quasi failed to run the battle with the Houthi in Saada.

“Breaking the Silence†chronicles the lives and injustices against the Akhdam women in Yemen. The ‘Akhdam’ , singular Khadem, meaning “servant” in Arabic, are a social group in Yemen, distinct from the majority by their darker skin and African descent. Although they are Arabic-speaking and practicing Muslims, they are regarded as non-Arabs and designated as a low caste group, frequently discriminated against and confined to unskilled and menial labor. In a society already riddled with patriarchy and poverty, the distain and discrimination against the Akhdam renders Akhdam women easy targets of violence and abuse. Akhdam women are subject to hate-based attacks and sexual assaults without any type of legal or social recourse.

This video, produced by Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights and WITNESS, featuring the stories and voices of these three women, Haddah, Qobol, and Om Ali recounting their stories of violence, injustice and forced poverty uncover the legacy of discrimination the ‘Akhdam’ live with daily and the necessity for urgent action against these atrocities.

COUNTER-TERRORISM agencies are increasingly concerned about deepening links between a group of Australians under surveillance because of their connections with the Sydney terror cell and Islamic militants in Yemen, widely regarded as “the new Afghanistan” for al-Qa’ida.

Security agencies are monitoring the movements of at least 20 Australians who have travelled to Yemen in recent years, including friends and family of the nine men recently convicted and sentenced to up to 28 years in prison for preparing for a terrorist act in Sydney. (Read on …)

An international phone call trafficker was apprehended in his house in the south by the secretariat of the Criminal Investigative Department (CID). The detained, Ayman Ahmed al-Surmi, is being interrogated by the CID while the search for other suspects, including al-Surmi’s brother, continues…. The ease in using the Voice Over Internet Protocols (VoIP) tempted many local traffickers to cooperate with service providers outside Yemen to traffic calls. These outside providers traffic international phone calls through the internet without going through Yemen Telecommunication (TeleYemen) the local body responsible for regulating all international phone calls..International phone call trafficking goes through satellite connections or through broadband services, the traffickers receive it and then redistribute it through the local network by using local phone numbers (mobile and fixed phones) paying the tariff of local calls while receiving double this fee. (Read on …)

The Document of Pledge and Accord, 1994

Issued by the Political Forces Dialogue Committee,
18 January, 1994

Note by al Bab: This translation, originally published in the Yemen Times, is the only version currently available in English. Although it generally reflects the content of the document, there are some ambiguities and inaccuracies. Anyone intending to quote the document is advised to check the Arabic original.

Quote: Praised be the Lord who said, “Join hands together all of you around the truth of God and do not go separate ways.â€

During the period from 1/6/1414 till 7/8/1414 H (equivalent to 23/11/93 till 18/l/1994), the Dialogue Committee of the Political Forces held steady and continued meetings in Sanaa and Aden in a national and sincere effort to contain the crisis which the nation has witnessed, and to arrive at real outlets for the unification procession which started on 22/5/1990, and to promote the process of consolidation of unity, democracy, stability, and construction of a state based on law and order and institutions.

The efforts of the Dialogue Committee came at a time when the crisis reached such levels that could not be neglected. So the people of Yemen joined hands in put a decisive end to the crisis and its destructive fall-out which would have impacted the unity, cohesion, and all the achievements of the people made over a long and arduous struggle in which the martyrs gave their lives and blood.

Yemen appeared to the world as if about to fall in a deep chasm because of the situation of lack of trust due to the mistakes, excesses, and dangerous overlapping of responsibilities and duties, lack of commitment to the laws and constitution all of which accumulated over time leading to a major deterioration in the security and economic conditions which have negatively affected our people in a sad way. (Read on …)

Below is a list of some of Saleh’s relatives that control key positions in the Republic of Yemen:

1. Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh – President’s son, Commander of the Republican Guard and Special Forces.
2. Yahya Mohammed Abdullah Saleh – nephew of President, Staff of the Central Security as a successor to his father.
3. Tareq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh – nephew of President, Saleh’s personal Guard Commander.
4. Ammar Mohammed Abdullah Saleh – nephew of President, the official in charge of national security. (Read on …)

President: secessionism calls, anti-unity logos taken as major national felony
SANA’A, Feb. 16 (Saba) – President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Tuesday that the call for secessionism and raising logos against the great Yemeni unity are a major national felony, and those who support such misleading ridiculous calls are those who harmed the Yemeni people in the south at the time of separation along 25 years and practiced various kinds of suppression, oppression and torture against them. (Read on …)

35th Sit in the Liberty Square : Security enhancements are great, continued preventing journalists and activists from photograph the sit-in, the protesters moved to the Justice Ministry to demand to stop unconstitutional special court for journalists and the release of Journalists: Bashrahil, Maqaleh, Ghanem, Saklady, Rashed, Rabeezy and to Free JAASHEEN in IBB governerate (Read on …)

Yemen Observer: Yemeni foreign Minister Dr. Abu Bakr al-Qirbi called on neighboring countries and international donors to contribute to the reconstruction of Sa’adah upon the conclusion of the conflict.

Initial surveys of the damages in Sa’adah governorate are estimated in the billions of dollars, with upwards of 9,072 private and public institutions in need of reconstruction and development since the latest round of conflict erupted in August 4, 2009 between al-Houthi rebels and government forces.

The Sa’adah reconstruction Fund was established by presidential decree in July 2007 and was assigned YR 10 billion. However, since the establishment of the fund, nothing has been accomplished due to the continued disturbance and unrest in Sa’adah governorate.

About YR 50 million was utilized in September 2007 as an operative expanses while agencies conducted an evaluation of the damages suffered in Sa’adah governorate suffered since the war began in June 2004.

Officials of the Sa’adah reconstruction fund have estimated the reconstruction losses to begin at $500 million, with that number expected to increase exponentially as the true extent of the damages come to light.

IFEX: – 4 February 2010 – The undersigned organizations wish to express their grave concern about the worrisome deterioration of the state of human rights in Yemen. The Yemeni authorities are increasingly taking retaliatory measures against human rights defenders who have the courage to expose human rights abuses in the country, both those occurring in the context of the war in Saada in the north and those accompanying the repression of social and political ferment in the south.

The undersigned organizations condemn in particular the unfair prosecution of rights defender Yasser al-Wazir, a member of the Yemeni Organization for the Defense of Rights and Democratic Freedoms, who just a few days ago was sentenced to eight years in prison. This wrongful punishment is only the most recent of a string of abuses targeting al-Wazir – abuses closely related to his activities as a rights activist and the role his organization plays in documenting abuses related to the war in Saada, where members of the Zaidi confession, who constitute a majority of the population in Saada, have been exposed to all manner of collective punishment, discrimination, and repression because of their faith.

Yasser al-Wazir was abducted more than 18 months ago by the political police. For more than three months, his whereabouts were unknown and he was denied family visits. It is believed that he was tortured and spent long stretches of time in solitary confinement during this period. Al-Wazir remained detained without charge until two months ago, when the authorities referred him to trial on trumped-up charges, including charges of forming an armed group, although al-Wazir was never questioned about this accusation.

His trial was conducted in semi-secret conditions, in closed sessions, and al-Wazir was not informed about the trial dates. His attorney did not attend the trial, which was conducted before the Special Criminal Court, a state security court whose constitutionality is questionable. Defendants in this court are not given the procedural and legal rights that guarantee due process and a fair trial.

The undersigned organizations express their full solidarity with Yasser al-Wazir and all members of the human rights movement in Yemen, which is currently working amid an atmosphere of fear in which the authorities are blocking all avenues of peaceful expression and silencing voices critical of the catastrophic policies of the Yemeni regime, which threaten to completely tear apart what remains of the central state structure. (Read on …)

Statement issued by the Supreme National Authority for the independence of the South -
Brothers, heads and members of the components of this popular movement Abyan province and to all the loyal stakeholders in a peaceful popular movement in the southern province of Abyan. (Read on …)

Yemen Times: HAJJA, Feb. 17 — Journalist Mohammad Al-Rabue’, who wrote for Al-Sahwa and Al-Qahira newspapers, was murdered on his way to work, on Sunday, February 13, in Bani Qais district, Hajja governorate. The journalist, who wrote about the violations committed in the governorate was said to be killed by Ahmad Awoni and his four sons. (Read on …)

HOOD Online: Mansour Shayee, head of Yemen’s new “Special Press Court,” has transferred charges against Mohammed Naji Allaow, a leading human rights activist, to the prosecution.

Mr. Allaow, a lawyer and former Parliamentarian, was charged with insulting the judiciary. Allaow is chairman of the Yemeni Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms, a pioneering rights group, better known as HOOD.

The court’s decision was based on Allaow’s criticism of the establishment of the Special Press Court itself. Allaow’s remarks came during a symposium held by Sajeen organization in March 2009.

Al-Balagh newspaper published the proceedings of the symposium, and the newspaper was also referred to trial. The session will be on February 27, 2010.
(Read on …)

Al Sahwa – Yemen Net, the only provider of internet in Yemen has admitted that it blocked Almasdar Online (www.almasdaronline.com) on the bases of security directions. Deputy Manager of Yemen Net, Yasser al-Emad told the management of Almasdar Online that the security authorities ordered the block of the news website. (Read on …)

The Official Yemeni Terrorism: Roots and Origins

By Dhaif Hussein Al-Solani

During the times and eras, Yemen (Yemen Arab Republic) was and still a country full of weapons, with different kinds (sorts) and marks, and on all different occasions the Yemeni officials are proud of this state which specify their country to other neighboring and far Arab countries without any reasons to cause that type of pride. According to the last census by more than one local rightful and media organizations, there are more than 60 million pieces of Kalashnikov gun machines available for the Yemeni public, in addition to the other different medium-sized and heavy weaponry owned by the big tribes backed up personally by the Yemeni President such as the Hashed, Baked, Maareb, Hajjah, Al-Mahweet, Sa’adah, and Amran tribes.

The storage of such huge weapons has no logic meaning of being proud, moreover, it has made Yemen a hot center point for permanent fighting between the people in all situations over nonsense reasons for long different periods of the history. Many overseers agree that Yemen is the most known country in the world for the smuggling of weapons and mainly exporters, even to present today there are still countryside weapon markets surrounding and spreading to the capital city of Sana’a and other main cities and this is the best evidence of an environment with the color of blood and gun powder. (Read on …)

SANAA, 16 February 2010 (IRIN) – Government officials and aid workers are gearing up to carry out humanitarian needs’ assessments in previously inaccessible areas, thanks to an 11 February truce between Yemen’s army and Houthi rebels in the northern province of Saada which appears to be holding.

“Once security conditions allow it, a comprehensive needs’ assessment will be carried out in all war-affected districts,” Pratibha Mehta, the UN resident coordinator in Yemen, told IRIN.

“This [the ceasefire] will enable humanitarian assistance to reach civilian populations who have been cut off from services since the outbreak of the sixth round of fighting in August 2009,” she said.

Aid workers and local government officials are keen to make the most of the calm, but the track record of such ceasefires is not good, and helping the 250,000 internally displaced persons [IDPs] – scattered in several camps or staying with relatives – is difficult.

According to Saada Governor Taha Hajer, the ceasefire would help the government reconstruct Saada and allow IDPs to return to their homes. “We should put the tragic past [six months of fighting] behind us.â€

Police ‘kill protester’ in Yemen hospital shooting

SANAA — A demonstrator was killed and six others were wounded on Saturday as police opened fire during an operation to remove the body of a dead protester from a hospital in south Yemen, witnesses told AFP. (Read on …)

قتل اليوم السبت بمحاÙظة حجة الزميل محمد الربوعي على يد مسلحين. Was killed Saturday province argument colleague Mohamed Rabuai by gunmen. وقالت معلومات إن عصابة إجرامية أقدمت على قتل الربوعي ÙÙŠ محاÙظة حجة على خلÙية قضية نشر, مضيÙØ© أن الزميل الربوعي قام بكش٠الأعمال الإجرامية لتلك العصابة وتعرض لعدة تهديدات بالتصÙية الجسدية. The information that a criminal gang proceeded to kill Rabuai in the province of the argument against the background of the issue of publication, adding that his colleague Rabuai reveal the criminal activities of this gang and subjected to numerous threats of physical liquidation.

وقد تلقت الأوساط الإعلامية اليمنية نبأ مقتل الزميل محمد الربوعي مراسل صحيÙØ© القاهرة المحلية بمديرية بني قيس والذي مثل Ùاجعة كبيرة للأقلام الحرة بالمحاÙظة إثر تعرضه لاعتداء آثم من قبل عصابة Ùجر اليوم على خلÙية قضايا نشر صحÙية. Has received among the media of the killing of a fellow Yemeni Mohammad Rabuai reporter Cairo local Department Bani Qais, who represented the great tragedy of the free pens to maintain he was exposed to a vicious assault by a gang at dawn today against the background of deployment issues a press release.

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

Illegal killing committed by the Yemeni occupation forces against the Southerners during the period of February 9, 2009 to February 9, 2010

Victims of the Massacre

Preparation and drafting: Awad Ali Haidarah
Email: south_martyrs@yahoo.com

Introduction:This is the second report of its kind, which we issued on extra-Legal killing and political assassination by the Yemeni occupation forces against the southern civilians and activists. The first report covered the period from July 7, 1994 until February 9, 2009. It documented 215 murders and assassinations of political cases; including 13 children, 10 women, and 3 elderly. This report covers the period from February 9, 2009 to February 9, 2010. The report publication coincides with the celebration of Memorial Day on February 11. (Read on …)

Al Sahwa: The management of Almasdar Online has accused the Ministry of Communication of blocking its news website on Tuesday, expressing, in the meantime, its surprise as the ministry resort to such illegal acts, pointing out that it knows the causes behind the blocking.

While the management of Almasdar Online held the Ministry of Communication responsible for the blocking, it stressed that it would sue a file against the ministry.

It further demanded the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate to confront what it described a “farce” practiced by Yemen’s authorities against news websites in Yemen, calling all journalists, activists and civil society organizations to stand by the website.

Ahmed Nasrallah, a veteran al-Qaeda operative who has been in Yemen for several years, decides to defect and turn himself in to the Yemeni government. He discloses the location of al-Qaeda strongholds in Yemen and even gives away the location of al-Qaeda’s deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a southern Yemeni town. He describes al-Qaeda’s weaponry, security, and violent plans for the future. He offers to spy on al-Qaeda in Afghanistan or on a militant Yemeni group led by Zein al-Abidine Almihdhar, a relative of hijacker Khalid Almihdhar. (In 1999 Zein will be caught and executed in Yemen for kidnappings and killings.) However, two officials in the Political Security Organization (Yemen’s equivalent of the FBI) have radical militant ties and hand over Nasrallah to al-Qaeda operatives. These operatives plan to kill him for betraying their group, but he escapes to Egypt before they can do so. The Egyptian government then interrogates him for more than a year. However, it is not known what he told them before 9/11, or what they might have passed to the US. One of the two Yemeni officers helping al-Qaeda on this matter, Abdulsalam Ali Abdulrahman al-Hilah, will be recorded by Italian intelligence in 2000 apparently mentioning the upcoming 9/11 attacks (see August 12, 2000). [Wall Street Journal, 12/20/2002]

Yemen security agency prone to inside threats, officials say
By Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post Foreign Service

SANA’A, YEMEN — As deputy director of Yemen’s feared internal security agency a few years ago, Mohammed al-Surmi was in charge of monitoring al-Qaeda extremists. But he also allegedly lived a double life, feeding the terrorist network information to uncover informants within its ranks.

Surmi was removed from his job, but still wields influence: He is now deputy mayor of the capital, Sana’a, where some residents call him “His Excellency.” (Read on …)

WaPo Yemen’s alliance with radical Sunnis in internal war poses complication for U.S.

By Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post Foreign Service

SANAA, YEMEN — Even as it fights a U.S.-supported war against al-Qaeda militants here, the Yemeni government is engaging Islamist extremists who share an ideology similar to Osama bin Laden’s in its own civil war, adding new complications to efforts to fight terrorism.

Yemen’s army is allying with radical Sunnis and former jihadists in the fight against Shiite rebels in the country’s north. The harsh tactics of those forces, such as destroying Shiite mosques and building Sunni ones, are breeding resentment among many residents, analysts said, and given the tangle of evolving allegiances could build support for al-Qaeda’s Yemeni branch, which plotted the Christmas Day attempt to bomb a U.S. airliner. (Read on …)

Jamestown: It appears that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is currently following a new version of a classic al-Qaeda strategy. Developed by al-Qaeda’s strategic thinkers, the strategy behind AQAP’s latest operations is to draw American military forces into Yemen. If successful, AQAP would strengthen its position in the near term within the traditional tribal structure and potentially benefit its recruitment efforts and broaden its financial support. Such an outcome would also open another front in a strategic location, even as the United States is planning and executing a drawdown in Iraq. In light of the United States’ current refusal to take this bait, we should expect AQAP to attempt further provocative operations aimed at America.

Yemen Times: OREBRO, Feb. 7 — Walid Al-Saqqaf former editor in chief of Yemen Times and currently a university scholar and software developer has been awarded the Democracy Prize for 2010 by ?rebro University in its Annual Academy celebration held today in ?rebro, Sweden.

Al-Saqaf, is pursuing his higher studies at ?rebro University in media and communications was chosen based on his research work that was ‘grounded in the true democratic ideals and ambitions’ according to the nominating committee. Al-Saqaf developed YemenPortal.net, which was the first country-specific aggregator in the Arab world, and is specialized in collecting news, forum, opinion, blog and video content from dozens of online sources. Since it was launched in 2007, the engine indexed around 1.8 million items ranging from news and opinion articles to video clips, most which are related to Yemen. (Read on …)

Letters to the International Herald Tribune
Yemen’s Human Rights Record

Thomas Friedman rightly praises the emergence of strong civil society organizations in Yemen, (“Postcard from Yemen,†Views, Feb. 8), but he ignores the repression they suffer under the Saleh administration.

If Muhammad al-Maqalih, the online editor of an opposition publication, had tried last autumn to send a postcard, for example, it would have been postmarked from an unknown prison. Government agents, not Al Qaeda, snatched him on Sept. 17, 2009, after he accused Yemen’s military of war crimes against Houthi rebels. After denying to Human Rights Watch in December that it held him, the government is now prosecuting al-Maqalih before the state security court.

The Yemeni government has brazenly “disappeared†and unfairly prosecuted critical journalists and academics and quashed civil society efforts to promote the rule of law.

The United States praises Yemen for its counter-terrorism efforts, but glosses over its human rights abuses, which generate local support for Al Qaeda.

Christoph Wilcke, Munich

Senior Middle East researcher, Human Rights Watch

The Houthi rebels are considering a coalition with the Joint Meeting Parties, an opposition alliance in Yemen, Saadaonline reported on Friday. The coalition comes based on the united views of the Houthi and the JMPs of the situation in the country, according to the website.

‘Intellectual and cultural views of the Houthi and the JMPs would not be a roadblock to the coalition that comes within the framework of important and the most important as the situation deepens a day after a day,’ spokesman for the militants was quoted as saying.

The JMPs led by the Islah Party has a realistic view of the current situation in the country, he said, adding that arrangements were underway to solidify the coalition.

Islam Online GENEVA – The United Nations is accusing the international community and donors of turning a blind eye to the escalating humanitarian crisis in Yemen, while focusing on security threats.

“The humanitarian situation is just getting worse without any doubt,” John Holmes, UN emergency relief coordinator, told Reuters in an interview.

“Needs are great and in danger of not being met because the international community, the donors, have not responded as we would have hoped.”

The UN appealed late last year for $177 million in humanitarian aid to help some 250,000 people displaced by the ongoing fighting between government troops and Shiite rebels. However, it is only 0.4 percent funded. (Read on …)

The Challenges of Dealing with Yemen’s Deep Crises (ARI)
by Abdullah Al-faqih ARI 29/2010 – 4/2/2010

Theme: President Saleh’s foremost concern is to keep total economic and political power in his own hands as long as he lives, and to hand it down to his son afterwards. The US and the international community are concerned with the threat posed by al-Qaeda to regional and international peace and many educated Yemenis are concerned about the potential for tension between Saleh’s goal and that of the international community.

Summary: The first decade of the new millennium was supposed to be Yemen’s best in modern times. However, in the summer of 2004 an open-ended rebellion broke out in the Saada region in the far north. By mid 2007, resentment against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime among the population of the southern governorates came to a head, with thousands of people pouring out onto the streets every day. While Saleh is busy waging war against the insurgents in the north and trying hard to quash the massive unrest in the south, Saudi and Yemeni al-Qaeda operatives have merged together in the so called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Any sound strategy to tackle Yemen’s complexities should meet several conditions: (1) it should be comprehensive in scope and inclusive of political, economic and security issues; (2) its priority should be to dismantle the ongoing political conflicts in the north and south; and (3) it should fully engage Saleh using a combination of incentives and disincentives. (Read on …)

Houthi’s Ceasefire Offer Spurned
Saada War Rages On
By RANNIE AMIRI

To understand the true motive behind the relentless bombardment, one only need return to the primary demand of the rebels: an end to the ever-increasing socioeconomic marginalization and religious discrimination of the Zaidi community in Yemen.

This war was not just to aid the fledging Saleh regime in combating an enemy far less threatening to its existence than al-Qaeda, but to send a clear message to Saudi Arabia’s own citizens who suffer the same systemic and institutionalized discrimination as do the Zaidis. Namely, Shia Muslims, Ismaili Muslims, Sufi Muslims and any who dare challenge the authority of the House of al-Saud or the doctrines of the officially-sanctioned Wahabi school of thought.

Aden News Agency:

Local sources in Aden – one the largest cities in the south of Yemen- have declared that the political prisoner ( Faris Zeid Abullkareem Tamah ) was killed by the police of Al-Malla’a city in Aden, after being kept there for days, while the circumstances of his death still unknown until this moment. (Read on …)

A Yemeni provincial opposition politician thought to be active in a southern separatist movement was gunned down in south Yemen, his party and local residents said on Monday.

The Yemeni Socialist Party said Saeed Ahmed Abdullah bin Daoud was shot dead on Friday in the southern town of Zanjibar in Abyan province, adding on its website that the province was in “an unprecedented state of disorder”.

Zanjibar residents said bin Daoud, a member of the Socialist party’s leadership committee in the town, was also involved with southern separatists seeking independence from the central government.

There was no immediate word on the reasons for the killing.

Saudi Gazette Pakistani built bomb to kill Prince, says Yemeni official
By Abdullah Al-Oraifij
ABYAN, Yemen – Dramatic new claims have been made that a Pakistani explosives expert was responsible for manufacturing the bomb that was used by a suicide bomber in a failed attempt to assassinate Prince Muhammad Bin Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Assistant Interior Minister for Security Affairs at his palace in Jeddah last August.
Talking to Okaz, Ahmad Al-Maseeri, Governor of Abyan in Yemen, said that the man who made the explosive capsule, used by Abdullah Hasan Al-Asiri in his attempt to kill the Prince, was a Pakistani. (Read on …)

al Arabiya: Yemen on Sunday arrested the second biggest arms dealer in the country just days after the capture of another top dealer, whose weapons depot was stolen by rebels fighting the government in the north, Al Arabiya TV reported. (Read on …)

Informed sources revealed that a number of Algerians took part in some battles based on Yemeni territory between the conflicting parties to the conflict there.

أضاÙت ذات المصادر، أن عددهم يزيد على عشرين عنصرا أغلبهم من ذوي الاتجاه السلÙÙŠØŒ تنقلوا إلى اليمن بطرق رسمية عبر المطارات وبجوازات سÙر سليمة، منهم من تنقل إلى المملكة العربية السعودية وأقاموا هناك بطريقة غير شرعية أين انقضت الÙترة المحددة لتأشيراتهم، وبعدها تحوّلوا إلى الأراضي اليمنية، والبعض الآخر منهم ساÙر إلى سوريا وليبيا ليتنقلوا بعدها إلى اليمن. Same sources added that they are over twenty components, mainly with the Salafi trend, moved to Yemen through airports and official passports of sound, many of whom moved to Saudi Arabia and settled there illegally Where the specified period has elapsed for their visas, and then turned to the land of Yemen , and some of them traveled to Syria and Libya to move around then to Yemen. (Read on …)

Earth Times: London – World powers must broaden the range of support they give to Yemen immediately and sustain it over many years to stop the country from becoming a base for al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, top diplomats at a conference in London said Wednesday. That will require aid which goes beyond military assistance to help the Yemeni government defeat rebels in the north and south, instead targeting reform, economic development and the rule of law. (Read on …)

RSF

The 66-year-old editor of the daily al-Ayyam, Hisham Bashraheel, was arrested on 6 January, the day after the security forces lifted a 24-hour siege of his newspaper in Aden. One of his sons, managing editor, Hani Bashraheel, was also arrested at the same time. Another son of Hisham Bashraheel, Mohammed Hisham Bashraheel, was arrested on 5 January. It is not known where they are being held or what the charges against them are.

Times Online: When Osama Bin Laden decided to marry for the fifth time, he turned to his most trusted advisers to find him a bride.

He wanted a Yemeni girl, he told them. The marriage would cement his relationship with Yemen, his billionaire father’s homeland. Sheikh Rashad Mohammed Saeed Ismael, a Yemeni aide, took up the challenge. (Read on …)

Monsters and Critics: Five major Yemeni opposition parties said in a joint statement that the conference ‘tended to save the political regime in Yemen rather than the state which is exposed to a serious deterioration due to the policies of this same regime.’

The parties, led by the main Islamist party, Islah, said the government used the conference to gain foreign support ‘in the face of the dangerously deteriorating internal situation and the democratic life.’

They said the conference’s support for the Sana’a government have ‘depleted the last remaining hopes of Yemen and Yemeni people for a serious and real help from the international community.’

Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for the meeting in response to the failed bomb attack on an airliner over Detroit on December 25. The alleged bomber was reportedly trained in Yemen.

‘The meeting ended with ambiguous decisions that did not affect the essence of the Yemeni crisis in their manifestations except the security aspect,’ the statement said.

By supporting the government, the conference supported ‘instability and corruption,’ it added.

Hidden roles between Sanaa regime and al-Qaeda

Special News Saada
20/1/2010

we talk about Saada previously and the hijacking of doctors in
Saada province on the role of a hidden secret and to coordinate with the secret coordination with pro Government:

Especially in the area of Wadi (Valley) Al-Abu Jebara
we talked previously about the history of this valley and where Al Qaedeh fighters training.

Funds, which pumps by Saudi princes and their relationship with Osama bin Laden through private sources, News Saada inside the corridors of military bases and political situation in Saada

During the latest sadah War mostly at Abu Ali font , we got field information that confirm that :ABADAH and TAYS group and other groups from WADY- Valley- Al JBAREH had met with local officials of Sadah and received ammunition and weapons to confront Al Hoothy from behind, and that what really happened .

Those days we got secret and confidential information when news focused on Qaeda in Yemen. The information said that there is currently coordination between military commanders/ eaders loyal to Ali Mohsen Al Ahmar through his office in Saddah, the aim of this coordination is bolstering and unify their actions against Al Hoothy. (Read on …)

Saudi aid in the security field is already reckoned to be around double the $140m to be offered to Yemen by the US this year, and there is more – harder to quantify precisely – in the form of mosque-building, charity and religious education. But the hardest Saudi aid to quantify is the cash flowing straight out of a Saudi “Special Office” to the sheikhs of many Yemeni tribes, especially ones located anywhere near the Saudi border.

A Yemeni civil rights activist laments the Saudis’ financial clout, portraying it as one of the chief banes of Yemen’s existence: “Although Yemenis hate Saudis,” he explains, “the Saudis know how to spread their influence by their wealth and they have corrupted everything in Yemen.” He claims that two thirds – in other words, 6,000 of Yemen’s approximately 9,000 tribal sheikhs – benefit from Saudi handouts, the most powerful of them to the tune of $3.5m a month.

The Saudis’ apparent reluctance to invest in the long-term development and improvement of the country and help educate its people is what makes Yemenis baulk at the now frequently voiced Western opinion that Yemen’s rich neighbours, rather than any Western countries, should be taking the lead in supplying aid to Yemen.

WaPo: The operations, approved by President Obama and begun six weeks ago, involve several dozen troops from the U.S. military’s clandestine Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), whose main mission is tracking and killing suspected terrorists. The American advisers do not take part in raids in Yemen, but help plan missions, develop tactics and provide weapons and munitions. Highly sensitive intelligence is being shared with the Yemeni forces, including electronic and video surveillance, as well as three-dimensional terrain maps and detailed analysis of the al-Qaeda network. (Read on …)

al Masdar Online: After surrounding his home in Sana’a
الأمن يعتقل رئيس لجنة الوساطة بصعدة الشيخ Ùارس مناع Security arrested the Chairman of the Mediation Committee Saada Sheikh Faris Manna
المصدر أونلاين- خاص Source Online – Special

علم “المصدر أونلاين” من مصادر مؤكدة إن الشيخ Ùارس مناع شقيق محاÙظ صعدة ورئيس لجنة الوساطة السابق بين السلطة والحوثيين قد اعتقل اليوم الخميس من منزلـه ÙÙŠ أمانة العاصمـة. Aware of “online source” from confirmed sources that Sheikh Faris Manna brother of the governor of Saada, Chairman of the Mediation Committee between the Authority and the former Huthi was arrested on Thursday from his home in the capital. (Read on …)

Yemen, its friends and partners have today met in London to discuss the many urgent problems which the people of Yemen face.

The meeting reiterated support for a unified Yemen, respect for its sovereignty and independence, and commitment to non-interference in Yemen’s internal affairs. It was clear that economic and social reform by the government of Yemen was key to long term stability and prosperity. It was agreed that a comprehensive approach was needed, with strong support from the international community. (Read on …)

The Yemeni Foreign minister, Dr Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, denies that Yemen has been failing to tackle al-Qaeda but he says the international community needs to provide more aid to the country to help them defeat terrorism.

Yemen is asking for aid to also reduce poverty in a country that is one of the poorest in the Middle East.

Denying the money would disappear into corrupt hands, he said the government will accept conditions on how and where the aid is spent.

SANA’A, JAN. 20 ­— A Yemeni Salafi sheikh has refuted allegations made by the German press that the Dar Al-Hadeeth Center for Islamic Studies in Sa’ada is encouraging terrorism. (Read on …)

DUBAI — Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the botched Christmas Day bombing of a US airliner and vowed further strikes on US targets, in an audio message broadcast on Sunday. (Read on …)

Sahwa Net – Thousands of people in various areas of South Yemen have taken into streets on Thursday, protesting the release of detainees of what is called the Southern Movement and calling the London Conference to be held on next Wednesday to consider their grievances.

In Radfan city, thousands of people took into streets shouting anti-regime slogans, calling in the same time, the London conference to put and end to violations against newspapers and journalists in Yemen.

During the protest, one person was wounded and other 25 were arrested by the Yemeni authorities which shot fire and heavily used tear gas to disperse the protests.

The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called an international conference in London to discuss how to help Yemen to tackle extremism.

Allegations that the Yemen-based branch of al Qaeda was behind the attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a US airliner on Christmas Day 2009 have dramatically increased international attention to the threat of terrorism emanating from Yemen.

To be effective, international counterterrorism policy in Yemen should take into account the lessons from the response to al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan: military tactics such as airstrikes that cause high civilian casualties, and arbitrary arrests and abusive treatment of suspected militants undermine efforts to reduce local support for al Qaeda. The Yemeni government has engaged in all of these actions against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Second, engagement with Yemen must also address the serious human rights problems that have turned large segments of Yemeni society against the government, and thus reduced the government’s ability to fight terrorism effectively. Ongoing human rights violations by the state security forces (particularly the Central Security Forces, the Political Security Organization, and the National Security Organization), risk providing an even more fertile base of support for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Yemen’s most serious human rights violations arise in the context of two pressing internal conflicts-the government’s war with Huthi rebels in the north of the country, and its repression of a secessionist movement in the south. Officials have recently warned against “internationalizing” these two conflicts, but it would be a mistake if international efforts to assist the government ignored the grievances underlying those conflicts. Yemen’s military and policing approaches have resulted in numerous violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, which have alienated large segments of Yemeni society.

Most Yemenis do not see AQAP as a threat to them. They are more concerned about the government’s repressive practices and rampant corruption, as well as the lack of jobs for the country’s booming population, a looming water crisis, and rapidly depleting oil reserves, the main source of revenue, along with the conflicts in the north and south. Resolving the human rights grievances underlying those two conflicts and strengthening human rights protections generally is critical to creating a more stable government in Yemen and empowering it to address the country’s economic and development problems.

Recommendations to Yemen’s allies:

1. Increase development aid to Yemen, ensuring a cohesive strategy in collaboration with the appropriate UN agencies, and use aid to address human rights concerns that drive instability.

2. Support establishment in Yemen of a human rights monitoring mission by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights with a mandate to publicly report on human rights abuses by all parties to Yemen’s conflicts, and press the government of Yemen to cooperate in the establishment of such a mission.

3. Add effective human rights components to any bilateral aid for security forces, such as law enforcement and military training and equipment, including non-lethal methods of crowd control, respect for the laws of war, measures to combat torture, and internal accountability.

4. Stress the importance of an independent judiciary with the resources and competence to address accountability for human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests and torture.

5. Urge the government to ensure that impartial humanitarian agencies have access to all places of detention in Yemen, and end the use of private or unauthorized detention sites.

6. Ensure that no assistance goes to units of security forces implicated in unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests, torture and other serious human rights abuses. Publicly speak out when such violations occur.

7. Assist the United States and Yemen in repatriating or resettling Yemenis held without charge at Guantanamo, including the 40 Yemenis that the US government has already cleared for release.

1. Do not turn Al Qaeda’s enemies into its friends (Read on …)

Press TV: Yemen’s Houthi fighters accuse the Sana’a government of fueling violence in the country in a bid to attract financial backing from the United States.

The Shia resistance fighters charged the central government with forging an al-Qaeda cell in Yemen, adding that the abduction of foreigners in the country is another part of the scheme planned by Sana’a.

The Houthis insisted that they have evidence showing that the Yemeni government supplies arms to and finances militants throughout the country.

SANAA — A Yemeni tribal source confirmed the air strikes in Erq Al-Shabwan village, in Maarib province, and said a number of people had been killed. Local forces were responding with anti-aircraft fire.

The wave of air strikes, which began in the morning, blasted the house of Ayed al-Shabwani, one of six Al-Qaeda leaders the government said were killed in an air strike last week, the tribal source said.

A military official, who would not be named, said there had been three strikes on the house and one on an orange grove near the village where the authorities think Shabwani had built a safe haven for dozens of Al-Qaeda members.

Yemen Today: That your students here and in Iraq are leading the mujahideen, who took him forensic science that you can, as well as military science that they had acquired in the fields of jihad…Mr. Sheikhi I was the processing of explosive devices to kill the enemies of God worshipers of the cross and their apostate from the radio when I heard that the renowned scholar / Abdul Majid al-declare that any entry in Yemen is a U.S. occupation in his sermons calling for jihad when it comes to Yemen U.S. force! Glory to God who you are I want you to tell us that you would arrange to science Takdhuh who do not want you like a chicken! — (Read on …)

YEMEN ANNOUNCES IT IS HOLDING JOURNALIST

Yemen’s Minister of Information has announced that the Yemeni authorities are holding journalist Muhammad al-Maqalih. However, the authorities are still refusing to give any information about him, including his whereabouts. He is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.

Muhammad al-Maqalih was abducted on 17 September, by men in civilian clothes, believed to be from the security forces. Eyewitnesses told his family that he was taken by a group of men who arrived in a white minibus, which had its licence plates obscured. In December 2009, the Minister of Information officially announced that the security forces are holding him. It is not clear which security force is holding him or where he is being held, and the reason for his detention is not known. (Read on …)

As many as three dozen criminals who converted to Islam in American prisons have moved to Yemen where they could pose a “significant threat” to attack the U.S., according to a report on al Qaeda from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to be released Wednesday. (Read on …)

Press Release: The Secretary of State has designated al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended (INA). The Secretary also designated AQAP and its two top leaders Nasir al-Wahishi and Said al-Shihri under E.O. 13224. Secretary Clinton took these actions in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury. These actions prohibit provision of material support and arms to AQAP and also include immigration related restrictions that will help stem the flow of finances to AQAP and give the Department of Justice the tools it needs to prosecute AQAP members. (Read on …)

Yemen Observer: YEMEN – The last issue of the Yemen Observer, the al-Qaeda militant that was captured is not Saeed al-Shehri who is the deputy Amir of al-Qaeda AKAP but another militant known as Yusuf al-Shehri. As a result of this error the Yemen Observer apologizes to its readers for this error.

This story is that A car carrying members of al-Qaeda was turned over when attempted to bypass a newly established sudden checkpoint by the Yemeni security units today and resulted in the capture of Yusuf al-Shehri, security source told the Yemen Observer.

The car was going in a high speed and was carrying al-Shehri and other al-Qaeda militants and flipped over in the district of Sylan in Shabwah province near the borders of Marib province. All the militants in the car were captured.

Etiawan: Britain’s government says international talks on terrorism in Yemen will likely be squeezed into a two-hour session. (Read on …)

URGENT ACTION

another son of Hisham Bashraheel arrested

Another son of al-Ayyam editor-in-chief Hisham Bashraheel is now known to have been detained after a demonstration about action taken by the authorities against the newspaper. Like his father and brother, he is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.

Muhammad Bashraheel is now known to have been arrested on 5 January, the day before his father Hisham Bashraheel and brother Hani Bashraheel were detained. The three are being held at the Criminal Investigation Department in Aden. All of them were allowed to see their families and lawyers today, having apparently been denied access to them before. It is unclear whether the three men will be allowed regular contact with them. They may be prisoners of conscience, held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

The three men had been taking part in a sit-in protest at the newspaper’s offices in the southern city of Aden. The protest began on 4 January to mark eight months since the authorities effectively banned them from printing and distributing copies of al-Ayyam. The security forces opened fire on the protestors on 4 January and the newspaper’s security guards returned fire: one member of the security forces was killed and three wounded; one security guard was killed and three wounded.

The authorities confiscated every copy of al-Ayyam from street news stands and distribution points in the capital Sana’a and southern cities on 30 April 2009, taking similar action against six other newspapers on 4 May, when the offices of al-Ayyam were also then blockaded by the security forces to prevent copies of the newspaper from being distributed. Members of the security forces were then stationed outside al-Ayyam until 6 January when security forces raided its offices and confiscated computers. On 5 May the government announced that they would be banning all newspapers which they considered had expressed support for the secession of the south of the country in coverage of protests in the region. Despite this, al-Ayyam published some news on its website during 2009.