YEMEN, the new frontier?

[buglerbilly]

Yemeni officials admit they are losing the battle against al-Qaeda

Yemeni officials have admitted they are losing the battle against al-Qaeda and the terror group is extending its reach into remote regions where state control has all but disappeared.

By Adrian Blomfield in Zinjibar

Published: 6:28PM GMT 11 Jan 2010

Men claiming to be Al-Qaeda members address a crowd in Yemen's southern province of Abyan Photo: AFP/GETTY Regional politicians have presented a much bleaker prognosis than the authorities in the capital Sana'a, who have repeatedly sought to play down the threat posed by extremists in the wake of the Detroit terror attack.

They say al-Qaeda has forged its strongest relationship with local tribes in the sparsely populated mountains and desert of the south, where long simmering resentment of the government has given way to near-rebellion.

Sitting inside his heavily protected official residence, Ahmed al-Misri, Abyan's governor, is a gloomy man who frankly admits he regrets ever having taken up the job.

As well he might, Yemen observers say. Along with the provinces of Shabwa and Marib, Mr Misri's fiefdom forms an ungovernable crescent east of Sana'a and Aden, Yemen's main cities, which many commentators have described as "the new Waziristan".

With al-Qaeda growing ever stronger and local secessionists gaining such momentum that many commentators predict civil war, Mr Misri is so besieged by enemies that he is said rarely to leave his residence.

That is not entirely true. Protected by a local tribal code under which his kinsmen would be entitled to avenge his death, Mr Misri does venture out into the province.

The same is not the case, he conceded, for government forces, who were so weak and poorly equipped that they had effectively surrendered control of much of Abyan to al-Qaeda militants.

"To speak plainly, [government control] is not so strong," he told The Daily Telegraph from Abyan, normally a closed security zone.

"We don't have enough weapons. We don't have enough soldiers. Our resources are so few that if something happens in the countryside, we can't respond because there are no helicopters or aeroplanes."

Such analysis will cause deep disquiet in Washington, which has indicated it has no choice but to leave Yemeni forces to lead the fight against al-Qaeda.

Since the Detroit attack, responsibility for which has been claimed by Yemen's al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, government officials in Sana'a have been quoted as saying thousands of troops had been deployed to provinces like Abyan.

But in a disclosure that will raise worrying questions about the Yemeni's government's commitment, the governor claimed the deployment was a charade, with troops being rotated between provinces to give the impression that a major offensive was under way.

Al-Qaeda has emerged as a particularly potent force in the past eight months after it was reinforced by an unknown number of new arrivals from Saudi Arabia who had access to considerable funding.

Dividing themselves into small cells, they embedded themselves among nomadic Bedouin tribes in the mountains so cut off from the modern world that many had not heard of al-Qaeda, the governor said.

The new arrivals, with assistance from their Yemeni counterparts, found it easy to win acceptance. Introducing themselves as religious scholars, they proved they had deeper pockets than the government, digging wells, offering religious schooling to unemployed youngsters and doling out AK-47s to weapons-hungry tribesmen.

Mr Misri conceded the government had been outmanoeuvred: "If the government gives them $50, al-Qaeda gives them $100," he said.

With unemployment in his region at 50 per cent, the American and Yemeni governments may find that outbidding al-Qaeda for tribal loyalties may be the most effective course to victory.

The use of force has so far has had mixed consequences. An air strike against a Bedouin mountain encampment called Maajala on Christmas Eve killed 14 al-Qaeda members, including the leader in Abyan, the governor said. But it also killed 45 tribesmen, among them 18 women and 15 children, who may have had no idea of whom they were sheltering, he added.

Yaslam Abu-Sit, the first Abyan official to reach the encampment said he discovered a scene of carnage: "There were just five survivors; three girls, a woman and a youth of 16."

News of the attack enraged many southerners. Future strikes, analysts warn, only risk deepening sympathy for al-Qaeda and turning people both against the United States and the Yemeni government.

Already deeply disillusioned, the ranks of the south's main secessionist group, the Southern Movement, could swell, tipping the country into full-scale civil war – an outcome that would make the task of defeating al-Qaeda much more difficult than it already is.

[buglerbilly]

Al-Qaida loses top military leader as Yemen launches missile strike

Ian Black The Observer, Sunday 17 January 2010

Yemen has struck a blow against al-Qaida, with the announcement that government forces have killed the group's regional military leader as the US presses for a security crackdown in the wake of the botched Christmas Day bombing of an airliner over Detroit.

The Interior Ministry said that Qasim al-Raimi, described by Yemeni and foreign experts as a dangerous and experienced terrorist, had died with four of his lieutenants in a missile strike on their vehicles in Sa'ada province on Friday. It was not clear whether the attack was based on intelligence supplied by the US.

Analysts and diplomats say President Saleh is anxious to demonstrate speed and resolve in his pursuit of al-Qaida, above all to head off the hugely destabilising risk of US forces becoming visibly involved.

Apparent confirmation that al-Raimi has been killed will be seen as a significant setback for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a merger of the Saudi and Yemeni branches of the group. Al-Raimi was one of 23 al-Qaida members who escaped from a Sana'a security prison in 2006, embarrassing the government and leading to suggestions of official complicity with the jihadis, a recurrent theme in the often tense relations between Yemen and the US.

Another of those reported killed was an Egyptian, Ibrahim Mohammed Saleh al-Banna, the group's ideologue.

Yemeni government sources said three other al-Qaida fighters were captured on Saturday near the Saudi border with weapons, explosives and leaflets, the 26September.net website reported.

Yemen announced last week that it was waging "all-out" war on al-Qaida, as conservative clerics warned they would wage "jihad" against any foreign forces. The US and Britain say they are financing and training Yemeni counter-terrorist and coastguard units, but there are indications of deeper US involvement. New security measures are being put in place at sensitive installations all over the country.

President Obama has made it clear that he does not plan to send ground forces to Yemen, which is facing a civil war in the north and separatists in the south, as well as grinding poverty, unemployment and illiteracy.

Yemen has claimed that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian "pants bomber" in the Christmas Day incident, was radicalised while studying in London. But the US and Britain say they are concerned about the proliferation of "ungoverned spaces" in Yemen in which al-Qaida can train and operate. President Saleh clearly wants to show that he is taking the initiative in advance of the conference Gordon Brown has convened in London on 27 January to galvanise international support for Yemen.

Yemen has meanwhile tightened security measures along its Red Sea coastline in response to threats from the al-Shabaab movement in Somalia that it will send fighters to support al-Qaida, *al-Arabiya TV reported.

[buglerbilly]

Yemen agrees ceasefire with northern rebels
Yemen has agreed a ceasefire with northern Shi'ite rebels to end a six-year conflict which drew in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

Published: 8:53PM GMT 11 Feb 2010


Yemeni soldiers fire towards suspected positions of Shiite Huthi rebels Photo: AFP/GETTY

A truce was to begin on Thursday at midnight Yemeni time (2100 GMT), a Yemeni official said.

Shi'ite rebel leader Abdul Malak al-Huthi issued an order for his forces to respect the ceasefire.

The Yemeni government, simultaneously battling a resurgent al-Qaeda and southern separatists in addition to the northern Huthi insurgents, has been exchanging proposals with the Shi'ite rebels in recent days to end the conflict.

Yemen said last week it had handed rebels a timetable for implementing the government's ceasefire terms, a week after rejecting a rebel truce offer because it did not include a promise to end hostilities with Saudi Arabia.

The world's largest oil exporter was drawn into the conflict in November when the rebels seized some Saudi territory, complaining that Riyadh was letting Yemeni troops use its land for attacks against them.

Riyadh declared victory over the insurgents last month after insurgents offered a separate truce and said they had withdrawn from Saudi territory. But the rebels say Saudi air strikes have continued.

Yemeni officials have said that as part of a truce deal, Sanaa would allow rebel representatives to sit on a committee overseeing the truce, and insurgents would hand over weapons they seized from the Yemeni and Saudi forces.

The official said President Ali Abdullah Saleh had briefed a committee charged with supervising conditions for a truce on his "position to stop the war".

The deadline for the full implementation of the truce had been a point of contention, with the rebels asking for more time for their fighters to leave mountainous positions, they said.

Qatar brokered a short-lived ceasefire between the government and rebels in 2007 and a peace deal in 2008, but clashes soon broke out again.

President Saleh unilaterally declared the war over in July 2008. Full-scale fighting resumed a year later.

[buglerbilly]

Muslim cleric Aulaqi is 1st U.S. citizen on list of those CIA is allowed to kill

By Greg Miller

Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

A Muslim cleric tied to the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner has become the first U.S. citizen added to a list of suspected terrorists the CIA is authorized to kill, a U.S. official said Tuesday.

Anwar al-Aulaqi, who resides in Yemen, was previously placed on a target list maintained by the U.S. military's Joint Special Operations Command and has survived at least one strike carried out by Yemeni forces with U.S. assistance against a gathering of suspected al-Qaeda operatives.

Because he is a U.S. citizen, adding Aulaqi to the CIA list required special approval from the White House, officials said. The move means that Aulaqi would be considered a legitimate target not only for a military strike carried out by U.S. and Yemeni forces, but also for lethal CIA operations.

"He's in everybody's sights," said the U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the topic's sensitivity.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said: "This agency conducts its counterterrorism operations in strict accord with the law."

The decision to add Aulaqi to the CIA target list reflects the view among agency analysts that a man previously regarded mainly as a militant preacher has taken on an expanded role in al-Qaeda's Yemen-based offshoot.

"He's recently become an operational figure for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," said a second U.S. official. "He's working actively to kill Americans, so it's both lawful and sensible to try to stop him." The official stressed that there are "careful procedures our government follows in these kinds of cases, but U.S. citizenship hardly gives you blanket protection overseas to plot the murder of your fellow citizens."

Aulaqi corresponded by e-mail with Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 12 soldiers and one civilian at Fort Hood, Tex., last year. Aulaqi is not believed to have helped plan the attack, although he praised Hasan in an online posting for carrying it out.

Concern grew about the cleric's role after he was linked to the Nigerian accused of attempting to bomb a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day by detonating an explosive device he had smuggled in his underwear. Aulaqi acknowledged teaching and corresponding with the Nigerian but denied ordering the attack.

The CIA is known to have carried out at least one Predator strike in Yemen. A U.S. citizen, Kamal Derwish, was among six alleged al-Qaeda operatives killed in that 2002 operation but was not the target.

[buglerbilly]

The threat from Yemen

Telegraph View: the West must remain on its guard against the al-Qaeda threat at all times.

Published: 7:45PM BST 26 Apr 2010

Yesterday's failed assassination attempt on Britain's ambassador to Yemen provides another unwelcome reminder of the escalating terrorist threat posed by Islamist militants based in the Arabian Peninsula. Yemen's interior ministry confirmed that the attempted suicide-bomb attack on the police convoy escorting Timothy Torlot to his office was carried out by a young Yemeni student who had recently been radicalised by al-Qaeda activists.

The ease with which al-Qaeda has been able to establish a firm foothold in Yemen illustrates the magnitude of the challenge the West faces in trying to counter Islamist extremists. While al-Qaeda has been active in Yemen since the attack against the American warship USS Cole in 2000, in recent years it has grown in strength there to the point where it is now regarded by Western intelligence services as constituting a major threat to our security. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the British-educated, Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up an American airliner en route to Detroit on Christmas Day, was radicalised in Yemen. The country has also provided a safe haven for other Islamist radicals, such as Anwar al-Awlaki, the US-born cleric linked to last year's massacre at the Fort Hood military base in Texas, and whose assassination the Obama administration recently authorised.

Yemen's emergence as an al-Qaeda terror hub is partly due to the success British and other Nato forces have enjoyed in disrupting the group's operational infrastructure in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda has also been strengthened by the arrival of several former Guantanamo Bay inmates who were released to Saudi Arabia, but then managed to escape and rejoin the fight in Yemen. This unfortunate development demonstrates why the West must remain on its guard against the al-Qaeda threat at all times.

[buglerbilly]

American drones deployed to target Yemeni terrorist

Armed US drones have been deployed to target one of the world's most wanted Islamist terrorists following reports that he was involved in last week's failed suicide bomb attack against Britain's ambassador to Yemen.

By Con Coughlin and Philip Sherwell in Washington
Published: 8:00AM BST 02 May 2010


The U.S. military has deployed armed drones over Yemen ready to attack al-Awlaki at a moment's notice if credible intelligence is received indicated his precise whereabouts Photo: AP

US President Barack Obama last month authorised the assassination of radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki after he was linked to last year's Fort Hood massacre and the attempt in December to blow up a Detroit-bound jet by a man wearing explosives in his underpants.

Now senior US intelligence officials say they have stepped up their efforts to target al-Awlaki following new evidence that the American-born cleric is taking an increasingly operational role in the operation of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terror group held responsible for the failed suicide bomb attack against Tim Torlot, 52, the UK envoy to Yemen.

Colleagues of Mr Torlot said yesterday that he had been "shaken" by last Monday's attack, which took place as the ambassador's heavily-armed motorcade was passing through a narrow section of road on the way to the embassy in the country's capital, Sana'a.

Mr Torlot was unhurt in the attack, which left the bomber dead and three others injured, and was said to be recovering from the experience at the ambassador's official residence.

Mr Torlot, who is married with a 19-year-old daughter, provoked controversy last year after he moved his pregnant mistress, a 40-year-old American writer, into the residence after his wife returned to Britain to file for divorce.

Although adultery is punishable with death by stoning in Yemen, security officials do not believe the ambassador's complicated private life was the motivation behind last week's terror attack.

Instead they believe the bomber, 22-year-old Ali as-Selwi, had been radicalised at a training camp run by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a relatively new Islamist terror group that has been established with the help of former Guantánamo Bay detainees.

Previously Western intelligence experts have been sceptical about the links between AQAP and al-Awlaki, 38, a radical Muslim cleric who was born in New Mexico and spent years as an imam in the US before moving to Yemen.

Al-Awlaki, who is regarded as one of al-Qaeda's most inspirational preachers and whose sermons regularly appear on radical Islamist websites, came to prominence last year after it emerged he had communicated extensively by email with Major Nidal Hassan, the army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas.

The cleric, who allegedly had ties to the September 11 hijackers, later praised the Fort Hood killings and said Muslims should only serve in the US military if they intended to carry out similar attacks.

He is also believed to have played a role in the radicalisation of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the British-educated Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound jet last Christmas.

Mr Obama took the highly unusual step of authorising the assassination of an American citizen after US intelligence officials convinced the White House that the radicalisation of impressionable young Muslims by al-Awlaki's sermons posed a major threat to national security.

Although several leading members of AQAP are believed to have recently relocated to Somalia to escape attacks by U.S. drones, al-Awlaki is believed to have remained in Yemen, and is currently hiding in a house in the country's remote mountainous Shabwa region.

US intelligence officials now believe that al-Awlaki is taking on an increasingly operation role in planning AQAP terror attacks, rather than the intellectual and supportive role they have played in the past.

And while it remains unclear whether he was directly involved in planning the suicide bomb attack against Mr Torlot's convoy, he is known to support the camp where the bomber was radicalised and prepared for his mission. Intelligence officials believe that many more young Yemeni Muslims will be trained for suicide missions so long as al-Awlaki remains at large.

Consequently the US military has deployed armed drones over Yemen ready to attack al-Awlaki at a moment's notice if credible intelligence is received indicated his precise whereabouts.

The emergence of Yemen as a base for al-Awlaki and AQAP underlines the difficulties Western intelligence agencies face in preventing the spread of Islamist terror groups.

Although al-Qaeda has been active in Yemen for more than a decade, and was responsible for the suicide bomb attack on the American warship USS Cole in 2000, which killed 17 people, it has grown in strength during the past years following the release to Saudi Arabia of a number of al-Qaeda terrorists from Guantánamo Bay.

Many of them managed to escape to Yemen, where they helped to establish a new terrorist infrastructure.

British intelligence officials are particularly concerned about the activities of al-Awlaki. They believe that his radical sermons, which are easily available over the internet, are persuasive enough to radicalise impressionable young Muslims resident in the UK.

Al-Awlaki's sermons are believed to have inspired the British terrorists responsible for carrying out the July 7 attacks in London in July 2005.

Copies of his lectures were found in the Iqra bookshop in Leeds, where the July 7 bombers held meetings. His lectures were also found among the material seized from a jihadist recruiter, Aabid Hussain Khan, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, who groomed Britain's youngest terrorist, schoolboy Hammaad Munshi, then 15.

Al-Awlaki originally fled from the US to live in Britain after it was disclosed that three of the September 11 hijackers had worshipped at two different mosques where he preached, one of them in Virginia.

He moved to Yemen in 2004, where he was arrested and then went underground. But despite his links to al-Qaeda, he has been invited by radical British Muslims to give video lectures, most recently at East London Mosque in January. Many of his videos are still readily available in Britain.

Al-Awlaki's most influential lecture, Constants on the Path to Jihad, is based on a 2005 book by Yousef al-Ayyiri, the founder of AQAP.

According to Evan Kohlmann, a US terrorism consultant, the sermon is "a 'virtual bible' for lone-wolf Muslim extremists".

Last year, al-Awlaki published 44 Ways to Support Jihad, a practical point-by-point guide to pursuing or supporting holy war.

Al-Awlaki 's lectures were also found on a CD belonging to Mohammed Atif Siddique, 22, from Glasgow, an aspiring suicide bomber, who was found guilty of possessing bomb-making instructions.

[buglerbilly]

From The Sunday Times May 2, 2010

My brother tried to kill you – I’m sorry

A Yemeni living in Britain is to apologise to the UK envoy who survived a bombHugh Macleod and Richard Kerbaj Recommend? THE brother of the suicide bomber who tried to kill Britain’s ambassador to Yemen in an Al-Qaeda attack last week is a university student in Liverpool.

Abdul Raqib Al-Salwe, 29, who moved to Britain to study in 2004, has now promised to write to Tim Torlot, the diplomat, to say sorry on behalf of his family.

Torlot narrowly escaped a suicide bomb attack in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, by Al-Salwe’s brother Othman, 22, who is believed to have been radicalised by Al-Qaeda.

“I feel ashamed about what happened,” said Al-Salwe, who is completing a PhD in computer network security at Liverpool John Moores University. “I love Britain. For me it’s like my home — it is my home. And I am even more ashamed because I live in the country of the ambassador who my brother was trying to kill. I will say to him that my family and I are sorry about what happened and that we find it completely unacceptable.”

In Sanaa last week, his father, Ali Al-Salwe, a successful building contractor, struggled to understand what had turned his studious son into a bomber.

“He was like any other child. He was not introverted. He was good with people,” he said after police called on him to identify Othman’s severed head, which had landed on the roof of a house near the scene of the attack last Monday. Although the ambassador was unhurt, three people were injured.

The story of how Othman Al-Salwe fell prey to Islamic extremists and was transformed from a polite, pious boy into a lethal extremist has uncanny similarities to that of Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab, the Nigerian student trained by Al-Qaeda in Yemen who tried to blow up an American airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day.

Like Abdulmuttalab, Othman was one of 16 children in an affluent, respectable family of multiple wives. He grew up in Asbahi, a well-to-do suburb of Sanaa, and attended the Ibn al-Ameer secondary school, where his classes included maths, science and the history of Yemen. But outweighing all other subjects was religion.

“He used to watch those channels that sing the Koran,” remembered his brother, Issa, 17. “But he also liked ordinary TV shows.” By his mid-teens, Othman had memorised the entire Koran.

“He was religious, but not extreme. He was a very straight person,” said his father. “He didn’t pursue girls, but he didn’t get into a bad crowd of guys either.”

Yemen’s security forces felt otherwise. In 2005 plainclothes officers raided the Ibn Majed high school, which he had moved to and arrested Othman and several of his friends. They were interrogated at Sanaa’s political prison, where Othman was held for the next two years on suspicion of ties to Al-Qaeda.

When he was released in 2007, his father — who says he visited him every week — was concerned that he might have been radicalised by Al-Qaeda members in the jail. He wanted to get his son as far away as possible from Sanaa so he sent him to finish his schooling in the family’s home village of Selou. Othman was under orders to check in daily with the police.

Eager to see him marry and start a family, his father found him a local bride. Like Abdulmuttalab, Othman had never had a girlfriend: he believed it was sinful to mix with the opposite sex before being engaged. He appeared not to like what he found and after five months the engagement was broken off.

Othman was engaged once more, this time to a cousin, but again the relationship broke down after a few months. In December, a third prospect of an engagement failed after the prospective bride’s family rejected his proposal.

“Othman was fasting and praying more often and started telling me and his other brothers that we should hold on to religion,” said his brother Izadeen, 21. “But we didn’t have any doubts about him.”

Earlier this year, Othman disappeared. “He didn’t talk about prison much but when he did, it was always to say that he could never go back there,” said Izadeen, the last family member to see him alive.

His father reported his disappearance to the police but they were unable to track him down before it was too late. Security sources say he travelled to Marib, an ancient temple city in the desert, where Al-Qaeda is known to have active cells.

“I cried when he died,” said Abeer, Othman’s 10-year-old sister. “I wish I could meet him again.”

Othman’s father still cannot understand how his son’s religious beliefs appear to have been channelled by dedicated terrorists into a suicide attack. “What my son did was shameful and I thank God the ambassador is safe,” his father said.

[buglerbilly]

Suspected al Qaeda militants attack Yemen prison

Armed men attacked a high-security prison in the south Yemen city of Aden on Saturday, releasing several prisoners suspected of being members of al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP).

By Oliver Holmes in Sana'a

Published: 6:32PM BST 19 Jun 2010


Smoke rises above the Yemeni prison where 14 people died in an attack by suspected al Qaeda militants. Photo: REUTERS

Ten guards, three women and a child were killed during the raid orchestrated by the Yemeni-Saudi branch of al Qaeda that lasted throughout the morning.

"We are expecting the death toll to rise," a security official in Aden said.

"The attackers used grenades, machine guns and rocket propelled grenades in an attempt to free al Qaeda suspects," he added.

Muhammed al Kibsi, deputy editor in chief at the Yemen Observer, told The Sunday Telegraph that five men attacked the prison.

Mr Kibsi said that a man disguised in niqab, a full-body black veil worn by the vast majority of women in Yemen, entered the prison and begun the attack.

Then four men disguised in security uniform jumped out of two cars nearby and fired into the prison.

"The attackers were only able to breach the first wall but were not able to get pass the central courtyard. However, some prisoners who were in the visiting rooms were able to escape with the attackers," said Mr Kibsi. Security officials are unsure how many prisoners escaped.

Eyewitnesses said huge plumes of smoke rose from the prison and prolonged periods of heavy fighting ensued in what appeared to be a coordinated operation by the attackers to free prisoners.

"The fighting lasted from before sunrise until mid morning. The attackers ran into a nearby hotel which was then surrounded by security forces," Ainan al Sharabi, an eyewitness resident of Aden, told The Sunday Telegraph.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The day before the attack AQAP urged tribes in the east of Yemen to rise up against the government and threatened to retaliate for air attack in the area, according to SITE, a US monitoring group that tracks terrorist activity on the internet.

"Allah willing, we will light up the ground with fire under the tyrants of infidelity in the regime of [Yemeni President] Ali Saleh and his helpers, the agents of America," AQAP wrote.

The latest attack in Aden shows an increase in organisational capabilities and ambition from AQAP.

[buglerbilly]

Al-Qaida blamed for Yemen shootings

Two dead from gun attacks in Zinjibar on national security offices, less than a month after raid in Aden killed 11 people

Reuters in Sana'a

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 July 2010 09.53 BST Article historySuspected al-Qaida gunmen have assaulted two south Yemen national security offices in co-ordinated attacks, killing at least two people and setting off heavy fighting.

Both the headquarters of the General Security agency and the office of an intelligence agency handling political security were attacked as the work day began in the coastal town of Zinjibar. Witnesses said they had seen five people believed dead on the street.

"Security guards fired on them and there are dead and wounded on the scene," a police source said. "It is believed that the attackers were members of al-Qaida."

Several people wounded in the attack were taken to hospital and at least two were pronounced dead, police said.

The assault is the second by suspected al-Qaida gunmen on security offices in Yemen in less than a month. In June al-Qaida attackers raided the southern regional headquarters of the political security office in the port city of Aden, killing 11 people. Al-Qaida called it revenge for a government assault.

Yemen, next to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, leapt to the forefront of western security concerns after a Yemen-based regional al-Qaida wing claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a US-bound airliner in December.

Yemen's western and Saudi allies want the government, also trying to cement a northern truce and quell southern separatism, to resolve domestic conflicts and consolidate power so that it can focus on fighting al-Qaida.

Yemen escalated a crackdown on al-Qaida this year and further stepped up security measures after accusing al-Qaida of being behind the June attack.

[buglerbilly]

Yemen Wants All Detainees Repatriated

July 16, 2010

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

SANA'A, Yemen -- Yemen asked the United States on Thursday to repatriate all Yemenis held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison, Yemen's state news agency Saba reported.

The agency said Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh made the request during a telephone conversation with President Obama. Saleh "reiterated Yemen's demands for the repatriation of all Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo with their files," Saba said.

The Yemeni leader told Obama that his government would "take all the legal procedures towards them," the agency said, adding that Saleh stressed his government's readiness to "rehabilitate" prisoners.

Obama informed Saleh about the extradition of a Yemeni inmate this week and "emphasized that his administration was studying the situation of the Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo and their extradition to Yemen for rehabilitation," Saba said.

Yemenis are now the largest single group among the 180 prisoners remaining at Guantanamo.

Last year, Saleh said that Yemen had rejected a U.S. proposal to send 94 Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia, where they could be put through a rehabilitation programme. He said the Yemeni government would build a rehabilitation center, where the returnees would be re-educated to shun extremism and fanaticism.

Hundreds of prisoners have been released from the Guantanamo prison since it was set up in 2002; only 14 of those freed so far were from Yemen.

© Copyright 2010 Deutsche Presse-Agentur. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

'Yemen will be Obama's Afghanistan' warns Al Qaeda cleric

An American-born cleric with links to al-Qaeda has warned the American people that President Barack Obama will mire US forces in Yemen just as in Afghanistan, in a message appearing on militant websites.

Published: 12:31AM BST 20 Jul 2010


Imam Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen Photo: AP

The 13-minute audio message, in English, comes days after the US Treasury department put Anwar al-Awlaki on its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

"If George W. Bush is remembered as being the president who got America stuck in Afghanistan and Iraq, it's looking like Obama wants to be remembered as the president who got America stuck in Yemen," he said.

Born in New Mexico, al-Awlaki, 39, is not perceived by American officials as a major tactical terror leader on par with al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.

But his role as an inspirational exhorter for al-Qaeda's cause and his growing involvement in plots aimed at the US has made him a prime target in the effort to counter the militant movement.

Six months ago the US government put al-Awlaki on a secret list of targets to be captured or killed, according to US officials.

In another message released separately, al-Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri vowed that the American troops would leave both Afghanistan and Iraq in "defeat."

US officials worry al-Qaida's offshoot in Yemen has found refuge in the country's remote, lawless areas and could be plotting attacks against American and other Western targets.

Critics, meanwhile, have warned that imposing a deadline for the withdrawal of US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq could provide the terror network a propaganda tool.

Al-Zawahri praised Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked groups, saying they are "moving from one victory to another" in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Taliban will "enter Kabul in triumph and Obama will leave it in fear," he said in the hour-long message – his first since May.

"Oh Obama, whether you admit it or not, Muslims have defeated you in Afghanistan and in Iraq and you will be defeated in Palestine, Somalia and the Arab Maghreb," he said, referring to Islamic countries in northern Africa.

"You will not only be defeated militarily and economically but most important you will be defeated morally."

Al-Awlaki, meanwhile, mocked US efforts to combat al-Qaeda in Yemen, saying its air strikes were only sending recruits streaming to the terror group and had "accomplished for them (al-Qaeda) the work of years."

He also dismissed the American effort to back the Yemeni government with aid and training, and said the Obama administration is being swindled.

The White House declined to comment on al-Awlaki's message.

[buglerbilly]

Al-Qaida in Yemen: Poverty, corruption and an army of jihadis willing to fight

Dubbed an 'urgent security priority' by the US, Yemen has become a regional hub for al-Qaida. In the first of two special reports, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad meets the group's new fighters

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Jaar guardian.co.uk, Sunday 22 August 2010 21.30 BST


Armed men claiming to be al-Qaida members address a crowd in Yemen's southern Abyan province. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The market at Jaar, a small city in Abyan province in southern Yemen, is on a filthy, dusty road strewn with garbage, plastic bottles, cans and rotten food. Plastic bags fly on the hot wind and feral dogs sniff around the vegetable stalls. Minibuses and donkey carts jostle for space on the crowded street.

Standing in the middle of the chaos is one of the jihadi gunmen for whom the town has become famous. Thin, short, with a well-groomed beard and shoulder-length hair, he is dressed in the Afghan style: shalwar kameez, camouflage vest and an old Kalashnikov. He is either a bandit imposing a protection racket on the merchants or a rebel protecting them from the corrupt regime – and most probably a bit of both.

He waves cheerfully to the people passing by, but few give him a second glance. The jihadis – like the chaos and the filth – are an established part of the landscape of south Yemen. They attend state-run mosques and Quranic learning centres and help fill the ranks of the country's security forces.

Recently, their influence has grown more threatening. In the past two years al-Qaida has established a local franchise in Yemen, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has claimed responsibility for audacious attacks – including the attempt to assassinate the British ambassador to the capital, Sana'a, earlier this year.

In Yemen, recruits can study ideology and take guidance from militant leaders, including the Yemeni-American cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, who has been described as "terrorist number one" by the Democrat chairman of the House homeland security sub-committee, Jane Harman. Awlaki is believed to have given guidance to the so-called underwear bombing suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and to Major Nidal Hasan, accused of murdering colleagues in shootings at Fort Hood.

With its conservative Islam, ragged mountains, unruly tribes and problems of illiteracy, unemployment and extreme poverty, Yemen has been dubbed the new Afghanistan by security experts.

The Guardian spent two months in the country, travelling to the tribal regions of Abyan and Shabwa, where al-Qaida has set up shop and where suspected US drone attacks have killed scores of civilians and few insurgents. Speaking to jihadis, security officials and tribesmen, it became clear how a combination of government alliances, bribes, broken promises and bungled crackdowns has allowed Islamists to flourish and led to the emergence of the country as a regional hub for al-Qaida.

You don't have to go deep into the mountains to hear the jihadi message. One Friday, sitting on the roof of a hotel in Sana'a, I hear the amplified prayers of a preacher ring out at the end of his sermon: "God condemn the Jews and the Christians … God make their wives and children our slaves … God defeat them and make the believers victorious."

Ahmad al-Daghasha, a Yemeni writer who specialises in Islamic and jihadi issues, says two factors are responsible for the growing influence of al-Qaida. "First there is the local situation, which is miserable, politically and economically," he says. "That situation is translated into many forms of resistance – the jihadis and al-Qaida are only one. Then there is the foreign oppression that we all see on television – whether in Iraq, Afghanistan or Palestine – that gives al-Qaida's rhetoric legitimacy."

In the south, government control is slipping away fast. Bandits, lawless tribes, secessionists and jihadis are all fighting the regime. Though they have few ideological connections, the groups are all contributing to one thing: a failing state where extremism can flourish.

On my first day in Jaar I toured the town with the deputy governor of Abyan province. We left the market and drove to a neighbourhood built by the Yemeni socialists in the 70s to house east European agriculturalists. The small wooden prefabs are being rebuilt with cinder blocks, as if huge grey tumours were sprouting everywhere.

At the entrance to the neighbourhood, two gunmen stood guard and graffiti sprayed on the walls declared allegiance to al-Qaida. "None of those men have been to Afghanistan, you know, but it's the look that they want to acquire," said the deputy governor.

Until last year, Jaar had been in the hands of the jihadis. The government claimed to have taken it back in an army offensive led by the minister of defence, but the neighbourhood was still out of bounds for the security forces. "Government officials cannot come here," the deputy governor said. "But I can come because I have been negotiating on behalf of the government with them for a few years now."

The rise of al-Qaida in Jaar has been a gradual process of radicalisation as generations of volunteer fighters have returned from conflicts abroad: the Afghan war against the Soviets in the 1980s, as well as the Nato-led war against the Taliban and the war in Iraq in 2003. Veterans of these conflicts, as well as jihadis who have never fought abroad, are in the streets of Jaar fighting for influence. In the 1970s and 1980s, Jaar had been predominantly a socialist town. But when the regime in Sana'a fought the socialists in a short civil war in 1994, the Islamists fought alongside them. When the socialists were defeated, the Islamists were encouraged to take control of the area. Quranic centres, the Yemeni equivalent of madrassas, were established with government support.

Over the next 10 years, the town became a base for the Islamists: they had jobs and they received their salaries from the government and money that poured in from Saudi Arabia, in support of the Quranic centres.

I spoke to Faisal – a thin skeleton with a thick moustache balanced awkwardly on his small head – on the floor of his Spartna living room. A former Socialist party member and head of the Young Artist Association in the Abyan, he watched the Islamisation of Jaar happen.

"The socialists were defeated on 7 July 1994," he said. "On July 8 a group of Islamists came and picked me up, blindfolded me and took me to the HQ of political security. I was handcuffed and beaten there. They wanted to know if I was a communist and their commander declared I was one. Then they tied my arms to a tree and hung me there and started beating me up with a stick.

"Things started changing after that," he said. "The Islamists were given jobs, they became headmasters and officers." They closed the cinema and converted it into a mosque. Art disappeared and gradually women started wearing the full black niqab. "Last year they killed 10 men and threw their bodies in the streets, saying they were homosexuals," he said.

One of the leaders of change in the city during this time was Khaled Abdul Nabi. I met him in his madrassa-like compound. Young men doubling as students and bodyguards lurked in the alleyway in front of his house and at the bottom of his stairwell.

Khaled sat on the floor, pulling at his beard. From floor to ceiling behind him stretched bookshelves filled with thick, leatherbound books on jurisprudence and theology. A pistol was placed neatly in front of him.

In 1994, he said, they had been given promises by President Ali Abdullah Saleh that he would implement sharia law and form an Islamic state, so they had formed special units, operating under army leadership, to fight for him. "We formed a small unit with other brothers and stormed into the prison in Jaar and the police station and liberated the town before the arrival of the army. But none of the president's promises came true. He lied to us and we believed him, probably because we were naive at that time."

Nevertheless, after the war, the Islamisation of Jaar began. "Islamic preaching spread in this place in an extraordinary way. Mosques and sharia teaching centers were being built, we had lots of support and of course there was also the reaction to what was happening in the Islamic world, people became more committed to religion so they could fight the crusaders."

Abdul Nabi went on to form the Abyan-Aden Islamic Army in 1998, one of the first jihad-inspired groups operating in Yemen. It is accused of being behind several violent acts, including bombings and assassinations of security officers, as well as the kidnapping of 16 foreign tourists in 1998, which led to the deaths of four hostages.

In August 2008, Yemeni security forces killed five of Abdul Nabi's men in Abyan province and claimed they had arrested 28 al-Qaida supporters, including Abdul Nabi, himself.

After meeting Saleh, Abdul Nabi allegedly agreed to support the president in his fights against the Shia rebels in the north and separatists in the south and last year he was released in a general amnesty with about 175 Islamic militants, many of them his own men. He returned to Abyan to rebuild his organization, which is now affiliated to al-Qaida, and called for the formation of an Islamic state in southern Yemen.

"I agree with George Bush in one thing," he said, pulling at his beard. "He gave us a really accurate wisdom: you are either with us or against us, you are either with Islam or with the crusaders. I tell the Muslim clerics in the whole world you are either with the flag of the mujahideen and God is great or you are with the flag of the cross … there is no other option."

One of the problems he faced now, he said, was with younger generations of jihadis. When jihadi leaders try to moderate their positions, the young followers will often splinter and form more radical groups, so each generation is more radical than the next.

"The shebab [young Islamists] are part of the Islamic situation in Afghanistan, Somalia, Nigeria and Iraq and jihad is a religious duty, like fasting. But the problem is that most of them, yes they are true jihadis with good intention, they lack the knowledge."

The next generation

I was sitting with Faisal in his home in Jaar when the message came through that a young commander, Jamal, who is attached to al-Qaida in Yemen had agreed to see me.

A thin teenager was sent to lead the way. We followed him through dirt alleyways between rows of small houses of concrete cinder blocks. Plastic bottles and shards of glass crunched under our feet. A window flickered with silver light from a television and two dogs chased one another to a corner and then fought viciously.

In the darkness the town appeared even more desolate and wretched.

We entered one of the concrete shacks, which was lit by a small red bulb. There were two rooms, one by the entrance that doubled as a kitchen and a bathroom, and one that was furnished as a bedroom with brand new furniture. We sat on the linoleum-covered floor.

Jamal was in his mid 20s, with a round face, long curly hair and a pair of thin glasses that gave him the look of an art student. "Who am I?" he asked, repeating my question. "I am a mujahid. Young men dream and have ambitions in life and my ambition is to die fighting for God."

Jihad had become his life, he said. He was fighting against what enraged God … "the drunks, the apostates and the people who stop following the religion of God."

Jamal, a jihadi fighter for six years, had been to prison a couple of times and released each time the president issued a pardon. Now he was a fugitive again. "The director of security accused us of planting an explosive device in front of his house."

How had a young man living in a poor, obscure small town in the south of a poor nation, who had not travelled further than its capital city, become a threat not only to the government of Yemen, but to the world in general.

"There are too many Arabic tragedies, in Iraq, in Chechnya, in Afghanistan and in Palestine, that makes us want to fight in the way of God," he said.

"Look this is how we started. , after the outbreak of the Iraq war, Jaar became a big training ground for the Saudis going to Iraq. Unlike the Yemenis, the Saudis had no experience in fighting. They were very religious and had lots of money, but they didn't know how to shoot. We started training them – you know we Yemenis are taught to shoot when we are children – and then a whole ring was organized to send them to Iraq via Syria."

Saleh's government knew about the jihadi training camps, he said, and had no quibble with them as long as they didn't fight in Yemen. "Saleh told us go to Iraq but not to come back and create problems for him here."

In the winter of 2005-2006, the world began to take note of the flow of jihadis heading to Iraq and the Americans started to put pressure on Syria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia to stem the flow of militants. "The government exposed the ring," Jamal said. "They started arresting people when they reached the border. We started clashing with the government and we killed some of their security forces."

In 2006 he was arrested, which led to the first of several meetings with Saleh. Saleh agreed to release the prisoners in return for their promise of inactivity. Three days later Jamal was back on the streets, but trust between him and the regime did not last long.

"They put a lot of pressure on us," he said. "I was monitored. You leave your house and there is a government spy. You come back and there are two. So we changed our procedures." When the government arrested some of the jihadis, fighting broke out again. "We fought with them again. We fought the government until all of our brothers were released."

A cycle of arrests, fighting and deal making ensued, escalating the strength and anger of the jihadis. Sometimes they would be promised compensation by the president, but when they went back to Sana'a to collect the money they would be sent from one government department to the other. Weeks would pass, and so the clashes would erupt again. "Before our last meeting with the president in 2009, Jaar fell under our control. By that time, our brothers stopped going to Iraq. They said if we are not arrested on the way and we reach Iraq, either the Americans will arrest us or we would be tortured by the shia [Iraqi government]. Why not stay and fight here.

"We entered Jaar, and the town fell in our hands. We were more than 40, the police and army left, and we called Allahu Akbar, and planted mines and explosive devices in the streets, and for the first time we went back to our homes and we slept in our beds, we were no longer fugitives, we took over the security of Jaar and we imposed sharia."

A small mouse darted across the floor between our legs. It hit one of the legs and scurried under the bed.

Even this young commander had trouble with the generation of radicals coming after him.

"We were betrayed by the people of Jaar," he said. "When we used to hide in the mountains some kids from the town used to come and bring us food and clothes. We trained those kids how to use a weapon, how to wire explosive devices, how to build electrical circuits. They were young kids. We trained them how to attack, how to hide behind a wall."

He clutched an imaginary gun and manoeuvred while he was sitting cross-legged on the floor. "Those young kids started looting and beating up people. They destroyed the town."

His voice became a mixture of blame and regret. "Because of the young, we failed in ruling the town and we had to leave and head back to the mountains."

Even for Jamal, who represents the post-Iraq war generation, there is another generation after him who don't know which government property to loot and which to leave alone, a generation he thinks is unruly.

I asked Jamal if he considered himself part of al-Qaida's organisation in Yemen. "We are all connected, all the jihadis are connected," he opened his arms and pointed at the three of us sitting on the floor. "One of us is Qaida," and he pointed at himself, "the other is protecting him," and he pointed at me, "and the other is providing logistics." And he pointed at the teenager who had brought me there.

"The two," he pointed at us, "would only know the Qaida person they are in contact with, and that Qaida person [he pointed at himself] would be the only one in that group to know the leadership."

What al-Qaida gave him, he said, was organisation. "Before Wahaishy [the head of AQAP] and Rimi [the commander of its military wing] arrived here we were chaotic, we would fight the government whenever we wanted. Now we only move when we are given orders."

As we walked back through empty dark streets I asked the teenage boy leading me how the young looked at people like Jamal.

"He is like a hero for us all, we want to be like him." Why? "Because he stands for his people. He won't let the government do whatever they like."

When I met the deputy governor again, I asked him about the meetings the jihadis had with the president and the promised money. He said: "The authority wants to contain those men. They block roads and attack military checkpoints and collect fees from shop owners. Because this is not a state of law, this a state of buying people, they treated the jihadis and al-Qaida in the same way they treated the tribes, they paid them money to lie low."

"You have to understand that the military campaign will cost money, money for soldiers, for vehicles, then money in prison, money for a court case, so the state says why should we pay three million to fight them when we can pay them one million for things to calm down and avoid their evil. But the jihadis take the money, buy weapons and become stronger, and now the state regrets that policy and it is changing."

To an extent, he said, they had been trying to buy a truce. But it had been mismanaged.

At Faisal's house, I asked him what he thought of the government's attempt to crack down on al-Qaida.

"Don't believe the government when they say we are fighting the jihadis," he said. "The government gives them money, the government negotiates with them, the government uses them to fight its enemies, and then they tell the Americans give us money so we can fight al-Qaida."

He closed his eyes and sighed. "It's a comedy," he said.

[I]• Tomorrow Ghaith Abdul-Ahad follows the trail of the US's 'terrorist No 1', Anwar al-Awlaki

[buglerbilly]

Ex-Gitmo Detainee Surrenders in Yemen

August 23, 2010

Long War Journal|by Thomas Joscelyn

Yemeni authorities announced on Saturday that a former Guantanamo detainee who rejoined al Qaeda has turned himself in. Ali Hussein al Taiss was a wanted "al Qaeda element," according to Saba News Agency, the official Yemeni news service. But al Taiss surrendered to authorities and "expressed his remorse for the period he has spent in joining al Qaeda ranks and showed his readiness to cooperate in serving the country's security and stability."

Al Taiss was transferred to Yemen on Dec. 15, 2006. He is one of at least several former Gitmo detainees who have joined al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which was formed in 2009 when al Qaeda's branches in Saudi Arabia and Yemen merged.

An al Qaeda trainee

During his combatant status review tribunal (CSRT) at Guantanamo, al Taiss tried to distance himself from al Qaeda and the Taliban. (A transcript of his CSRT can be read on the New York Times' web site.) Al Taiss, who was given the internment serial number (ISN) 162, admitted that he traveled to Afghanistan in 2001 to receive weapons training. But al Taiss claimed that he knew nothing about al Qaeda. "My leaving Yemen and going to Afghanistan has nothing to do with al Qaeda or fighting," al Taiss claimed.

Al Taiss' denials ring hollow in light of the numerous admissions he made during his CSRT.

The tribunal read aloud a number of allegations that al Taiss conceded were true.

"Tribunal: While awaiting transportation from Kandahar to Al-Farouq, the detainee stayed at Al-Nabrass, an al Qaeda safe house.

Al Taiss: That's true.

Tribunal: The Al-Nabrass safe house was frequented by Osama Bin Laden. …

Al Taiss: What difference does it make, if it was Osama Bin Laden or somebody else?

Tribunal: The Detainee attended the Al-Farouq training camp in 2001.

Al Taiss: That's true.

Tribunal: At the Al-Farouq training camp, the detainee received training on the AK-47 rifle.

Al Taiss: That's true."

Al Taiss' admissions give the lie to his claim that he had nothing to do with the Taliban or al Qaeda. Al Farouq was the crown jewel of the jihadists' pre-9/11 training infrastructure in Afghanistan. New recruits were generally sent to al Farouq for basic training and then onto the front lines to fight for the Taliban, or to one of al Qaeda's other facilities for additional training.

At some point in 2001, al Taiss left al Farouq. "They took us from there and I didn't know where we were going. They took me to another place to finish my training." Al Taiss did not say who "they" were, but he was probably referring to his al Qaeda handlers.

The US officials at Gitmo who investigated al Taiss' background concluded that he fled to the Tora Bora Mountains along with other al Qaeda and Taliban members. During his CSRT, al Taiss said this claim was "false." But a declassified memo prepared after al Taiss' CSRT notes that the "detainee stated he went to the Tora Bora region with others and witnessed the bombing in that area." That is, al Taiss admitted to Gitmo officials that he fled to Tora Bora.

US officials also concluded that al Taiss was captured by Pakistani authorities while fleeing Tora Bora. Al Taiss denied this during his CSRT, claiming that he turned himself over to Pakistani authorities in late Oct. 2001 because he did not have his passport and he wanted the Pakistanis to make sure he was returned to Yemen. However, al Taiss' explanation of what happened to his passport is consistent with al Qaeda's modus operandi.

"Tribunal: What happened to your passport?"

Al Taiss: It's in Kandahar at the guesthouse. If I had it with me I wouldn't have turn[ed] myself in and I wouldn't be here. …

Tribunal: So, you gave your passport to someone in the house where you were staying in Kandahar?

Al Taiss: Yes."

Al Qaeda's recruits typically turn over their passport when they arrive at the terror group's safe houses. This allows al Qaeda to control the recruit's travels and also provides a layer of operational security, as it makes it possible for al Qaeda members to hide their identity when they are initially captured. A declassified mo prepared at Gitmo notes that al Taiss explained during another session with authorities at Gitmo that "when you arrive you are supposed to turn it [your passport] over to someone."

Yemeni transfers delayed

The security situation in Yemen has delayed the US government's transfers of detainees from Guantanamo. A comparable number of Yemenis and Saudis have been detained at Gitmo. While most of the Saudi detainees have been transferred to their home country, most of the Yemeni detainees have not.

During the Bush administration, only fourteen Yemeni detainees were repatriated. By way of comparison, more than 100 Saudi detainees were returned to their home country. The Obama administration has transferred only a handful of Yemeni detainees since January 2009. Thirty Yemeni detainees are subject to "conditional" repatriation, meaning they have been approved for transfer but will not be transferred until the environment in Yemen improves.

The State Department's Country Reports on Terrorism for 2009 highlighted the difficulties in transferring detainees to Yemen. "Legal, political, and logistical hurdles remained a hindrance to an effective detention and rehabilitation program for Guantanamo returnees," the State Department reported. "The [Yemeni] government lacked a secure facility to house Guantanamo returnees, a plan for rehabilitating the returnees, or the legal framework to hold returnees for more than a short amount of time."

In addition, the State Department noted that the Yemeni "government's monitoring program of released Guantanamo returnees remained largely ineffective."

Compounding these problems, AQAP is currently one of al Qaeda's strongest affiliates. The organization's deputy, Said al Shihri, is a former Gitmo detainee. So, too, is AQAP's mufti, Ibrahim Rubaish. Both al Shihri and Rubaish are Saudis who graduated from Saudi Arabia's rehabilitation program and fled to Yemen. Most of the former Gitmo detainees who are known to have joined AQAP are Saudis.

Al Taiss is the second Yemeni known to have rejoined al Qaeda after being repatriated. In Dec. 2009, Hani Abdo Shaalan, who was repatriated to Yemen in 2007, was killed in an airstrike. Shaalan was reportedly plotting attacks against the British embassy and other western targets in Yemen at the time.

© Copyright 2010 Long War Journal. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Shabwa: Blood feuds and hospitality in al-Qaida's Yemen outpost

In the second of his special reports from Yemen, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad finds a population for whom the constant danger of tribal feuds is exacerbated by the presence of al-Qaida

Read part one of the special report

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Shabwa, Yemen guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 August 2010 22.49 BST


Anwar al-Awlaki, a jihadi currently under the protection of the sultan of Awalik. Photograph: AP

The sky was dark on the road from Aden to Shabwa, even though it was the middle of the day. "There will be rain," said the driver of our dilapidated 1980s Land Cruiser, and soon afterwards heavy drops hammered the car, as water ran down the jagged black mountains, leaving them glittering like marble.

The Yemeni province of Shabwa is host to the most significant al-Qaida presence in the country. As well as jihadi training camps, many of the leaders of this new "franchise" of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) are believed to be based here. Foremost among these men is Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American cleric the Obama administration designated in April as a legitimate target for assassination, and who was once described as the US's "terrorist number one".

The Guardian spent a week travelling around this lawless region, talking to tribespeople about the al-Qaida presence and trying to understand why the organisation had become so established here.

The Land Cruiser was packed with Bedouin men of the Awalik tribe. Together we bounced along the potholed mountain roads which are controlled variously by bandits, separatists, jihadis and government security forces. Most of the time, it's bandits.

We found our first bandits just across the border into the province, on a bend in the road between two mountains. Seven young men were sitting in the shade of a tree clutching guns, some covering their faces with kufeyas. Less than 50 metres away across a small bridge and under another tree sat a group of soldiers, slouching in the shade.

The bandits and soldiers would not attack each other, said one of my companions in the car. Why? "They and the soldiers are from the same tribe," he said. We met a second group of bandits a few hours later, further along the road. They were more active. It was night by then and they had blocked the road with boulders and rocks. A lone gunmen stood in our path while a dozen men sat to the side. The gunman thrust his head in the car window and looked around: "Anyone of you work for the government?"

Met with a murmured "no", he let us drive on our way.

Arriving in the small Bedouin settlement of Hateeb after dark, the men carried their bed mats away from their concrete houses and laid them on the rocks under the sky and chattered for hours before they fell asleep.

The situation between the tribes and al-Qaida is tense.

The tribes can't deny them shelter and hospitality: in the Bedouin code of honour there are few crimes graver than insulting or betraying a guest or refusing him hospitality.

At the same time, they have became weary of their presence and the unwanted attention they have brought. Every night I was in Shabwa, drones flew slowly around the skies, keeping watch on the rocky landscape. The pictures sent back must be familiar to other drone-infested war zones.

A few nights later, as I sat chatting with Ali, the young nephew of the tribal sheikh, and other men at night under the gaze of distant drones, we heard the distant sound of a car. A warning bullet rang from a distant scout and all the men picked up their guns.

"Qaida!" came the shouts from one house to the other.

The men ran into the middle of the village, waiting to intercept the jihadis' cars, but just as the headlights came into view someone shouted that the convoy were of tribesmen from the next village taking a relative to hospital.

"Al-Qaida is in that mountain," said Ali, pointing at a distant peak.

At first, he said, they had been much closer to the settlement, but after an airstrike in which five militants were killed, the tribesmen asked them to move away. "We asked them to leave after the bombing."

Tribal feuding

Ferocious blood feuds have been raging for years in Shabwa. Almost every tribesman in the region finds himself entangled in the cycle of revenge.

The barren desert and mountain are divided into patches of small tribal war zones. As we travelled in Shabwa we often had to leave the main track and drive deep into the desert to avoid passing through the land of a tribe with which someone in our car had a blood feud.

"We would like to go to school," says Ibrahim, a hazel-eyed 16-year-old tribesman who was sitting in the back of the car with a wrapped head shawl. "But we had to stop, because someone might track us there and kill us."

I asked him if he had seen much fighting. "Yes," he answered. "Many times."

The tribesmen exist in perpetual poverty in this harsh landscape. When ‑ if ‑ water comes, it moves fast down thin rocky valleys, leaving the desert as thirsty as before. Apart from a few patches of farmed land, the rest is desert.

Being so poor, the people have little to fight over except their honour.

The only way for an insult to be avenged was by killing the enemy, calling his name so he would turn – it's a shame to kill a man in his back – and shoot him while looking into his eyes. The culture of hospitality is taken so seriously that one tribal feud that has been going for two years was over a guest who was insulted.

Ali tells how the inter-tribal battles sometimes included heavier armaments. "Last year we besieged a neighbouring tribe. We took anti-aircraft guns and mortars. We shelled them for three days and we besieged them for weeks, until they had nothing to eat but biscuits."

Against this backdrop of armed, perpetually fighting tribes, where it sometimes seems every other man is wanted by the authorities for a murder or two, al-Qaida can easily blend in. Their gunmen are little different from any other gunman wanted by authority and seeking shelter among his tribe.

"There are few believers [jihadis] who live in the mountains," an old man in Hateem told me, "but we haven't seen them do anything wrong here. We don't care if they have killed someone in America; here in Shabwa they haven't committed a crime and they should be respected like any other man."

Sheltering enemies

The village of the sultan of the Awalik sits on a hill surrounded by lush green fields and palm groves, in the middle of the hostile desert.

Saeed is an architectural treasure trove of high and slanted mud towers and shaded dirt lanes. Some of the fortified compounds are pockmarked with bullet holes from tribal feuds and the many insurgencies that have raged in the area over the decades.

Next to the ruins of one mud castle destroyed by the RAF back in the 1950s is the new concrete and marble compound of the sultans of the Awalik.

Inside the compound I met the sultan, Fareed bin Babaker. He is tall, old and frail, with a hooked nose and a thin white goatee, but carries the weight of tribal authority in his soft yet imposing voice.

His pronouncements are adhered to by almost two million Awalik in southern Yemen. He is a close ally of the government, yet at the same time his tribes are giving shelter to the enemies of the government and the west. The most notorious jihadi he is currently protecting is Anwar al-Awlaki.

Awlaki, a once-obscure 30-something cleric has been linked to Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009, and to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day. He is now among the US's most-wanted targets.

Sultan Fareed, after expanding for almost an hour on the history of southern Yemen, told me that Awlaki lived in the village and that he knew of his movements.

"Anwar, and with him four or five people, spend the night in their homes [in the village] and in the morning they do their morning prayers somewhere not far away," said Fareed. "We know about it."

Why, I asked, was such a wanted man allowed to live in the village. He replied that he had committed no crimes in the tribal community, nor had the government asked him to hand Awlaki over.

"Al-Qaida haven't killed anyone here, so we [don't have to] accept or refuse to hand them to the authorities," he said. "The government haven't asked us to hand him in; if they do then we will think about it. But no one has asked us."

The Awlaki family compound is just a few metres away from the sheikh's. I walked over to it, to see if I could get a glimpse or speak to him, but all doors and windows were locked.

A boy opened a small window in the upper floors, looked down at me, then disappeared back inside the building and the window was shut.

Victims

Sometimes, the ever-watchful drones do more than merely observe the people in Shabwa. After leaving the sultan's village we travel to the Majala valley in the Awalik mountains. Here, a series of small graves marked by stones lie by the side of the highway.

An old man sat nearby in his relatives' tent sipping sweet tea. He and his five-year-old daughter were the only survivors of a double missile strike that is said to have killed dozens of people, including his wife and sons, and their wives and his grandchildren.

He had been out of the Bedouin settlement collecting his camels on 17 last year when he had heard a huge explosion. "I though a petrol tanker had exploded, but the mountains around me shook so hard," he said.

It took him a few hours to reach the camp where his relatives had settled. By that time other villagers were already there. Abdul Mutalib, a thin-faced young man who was one of the first to reach the area, said he saw people, cars and animals on fire. "A woman was burning in her tent. I tried to get her out but I couldn't."

We drove to the first bombsite. Shreds of soiled clothes and scraps of yellow plastic buckets used by the Bedouin to collect water or milk dangled from the twisted branches of a dead tree.

Whitened animal bones were scattered about. The twisted metal of a rocket engine lay on the edge of a 2m crater.

A few metres away lay the long grey shell of the rocket that had carried the deadly cluster bomb canisters.

According to the villagers, a Yemeni parliamentary report and Amnesty International, a dozen men, women and children of the Haydara family were killed here in one of two Bedouin encampments targeted on 17 December, 2009.

There were more shreds of plastic and few black clothes scattered around two more craters, and then a long trail of animal bones.

We walked for 20 minutes over boulders and thorny shrubs to reach the other campsite that was hit on the same day. Here, the remains of austere Bedouin life dangled from another tree: plastic and bits of clothes, blue tarpaulins that are used to make shelters. Among the wreckage were dozens of melted black plastic shoes of varying sizes, men's, women's and children's.

This is where the Ba Kazim family were killed, the villagers said. According to the Yemeni parliamentary commission, in total 41 civilians were killed in the two strikes, and 14 al-Qaida fighters.

Scattered between the debris of shattered lives are colourful yellow objects whose sharply engineered forms contrast with more rag-tag shapes of the Bedouin objects.

They carry the bald stencilled words "BOMB FRAG", "US NAVY" and a serial number. These were cluster bombs, scattered like candy.

I asked one of the men who was showing me the site, Muqbel al-Kazimi, about the reports that al-Qaida had been in the camp.

Muhamad al-Kazimi, who is wanted by the government for his al-Qaida connections, was here with a few men, he said. He is believed to have been killed. "There were fewer than 10 men, and they lived in a couple of tents on the edge of Ba Kazim camp."

Why would the Bedouin have shared their camp with al-Qaida, I asked?

"The fighters told the Bedouin they would dig a well for them to get water," he said.

In this poor, arid region, that must have seemed like a good price.

[buglerbilly]

CIA sees increased threat from al-Qaeda in Yemen

By Greg Miller
Washington Post Staff Writers

Tuesday, August 24, 2010; 9:41 PM

For the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, CIA analysts see one of al-Qaeda's off-shoots - rather than the core group now based in Pakistan - as the most urgent threat to U.S. security, officials said.

The sober new assessment of al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen has helped prompt senior Obama administration officials to call for an escalation of U.S. operations there - including a proposal to add armed CIA drones to a clandestine campaign of U.S. military strikes, the officials said.

"We are looking to draw on all of the capabilities at our disposal," said a senior Obama administration official, who described plans for "a ramp-up over a period of months."

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, stressed that that analysts continue to see al-Qaeda and its allies in the tribal areas of Pakistan as supremely dangerous adversaries. The officials insisted there would be no letup in their pursuit of Osama bin Laden and other senior figures thought to be hiding in Pakistan.

Indeed, officials said it was largely because al-Qaeda has been decimated by Predator strikes in Pakistan that the franchise in Yemen has emerged as a more potent threat. A CIA strike killed a group of al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen in 2002, but officials said the agency has not had that capability on the peninsula for several years.

"We see al-Qaeda as having suffered major losses, unable to replenish ranks and recover at a pace that would keep them on offense," said a senior U.S. official familiar with the CIA's assessments.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as its Yemen-based group is called, is "on the upswing," the official said. "The relative concern ratios are changing. We're more concerned now about AQAP than we were before."

Al-Qaeda in Yemen is seen as more agile and aggressive, officials said. It took the group just a few months to set in motion a plot that succeeded in getting an alleged suicide bomber aboard a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day.

More important, officials cited the role of Anwar al-Aulaqi, an American-born cleric whose command of English and militant ambition have helped transform the Yemen organization into a transnational threat.

Philip Mudd, a former senior official at the CIA and the FBI, argues in a forthcoming article that the threat of a Sept. 11-style attack has been supplanted by a proliferation of plots by AQAP and other affiliates. "The sheer numbers . . . suggest that one of the plots in the United States will succeed," he writes in the latest issue of CTC Sentinel, a publication of the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. In the future, he said, "the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region will not be the sole, or even primary, source of bombing suspects."

U.S. officials said the administration's plans to escalate operations in Yemen reflect two aims: improving U.S. intelligence in Yemen and adding new options for carrying out strikes when a target is found.

The CIA has roughly 10 times more people and resources in Pakistan than it does in Yemen. There is no plan to scale back in Pakistan, but officials said the gap is expected to shrink.

Details of the plans to expand operations in Yemen have been discussed in recent weeks among deputies on the National Security Council at the White House, officials said. According to one participant, the talks are not about whether the CIA should replace the U.S. military in its leading operational role in Yemen, but "what's the proper mix."

Although the CIA has expanded the number of case officers collecting intelligence in Yemen over the past year, officials said the agency has not deployed Predator drones or other means of carrying out lethal strikes.

Instead, attacks over the past eight months have been the result of secret military collaboration between Yemen and the United States.

U.S. Special Operations troops have helped train Yemeni forces and helped them to execute raids. A senior U.S. military official said the United States has not used armed drones in Yemen, mainly because they are more urgently needed in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq. As a result, intermittent strikes on al-Qaeda targets have involved cruise missiles and other weapon that are less precise.

An airstrike on a suspected gathering of al-Qaeda operatives in Marib province on May 25 involved a cruise missile launched from a U.S. naval vessel. Among those killed was the deputy governor in the province, who was reportedly seeking to convince the militants to give up their arms. The human rights group Amnesty International later said it found evidence that U.S. cluster munitions were used in the attack.

Proponents of expanding the CIA's role argue that years of flying armed drones over Pakistan have given the agency expertise in identifying targets and delivering pinpoint strikes. The agency's attacks also leave fewer tell-tale signs.

"You're not going to find bomb parts with USA markings on them," the senior U.S. official said. Even so, the official said, the administration is considering sending CIA drones to the Arabian Peninsula "not because they require the deniability but because they desire the capability."

A senior Yemeni official indicated that the government would not welcome CIA drones. "I don't think we will ever consider it," the official said. "The situation in Yemen is different than in Afghanistan or Pakistan. It is still under control."

Introducing a covert CIA capability might also improve the U.S. ability to carry out attacks - perhaps from a U.S. base in nearby Djibouti - if the Yemeni government were to curtail its cooperation.

That relationship is "in as positive a place as we've been for some time," the senior administration official said. But, he added, "we always have to be in a position where we are able to protect our own interests should that be necessary."

The concern about al-Qaeda in Yemen is remarkable considering that the group was all but stamped out on the peninsula just a few years ago and is known more for near-misses than successful, spectacular attacks.

Indeed, some government intelligence analysts outside the CIA argued that it would be wrong to conclude that al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen has eclipsed the organization's core.

"We still do view al-Qaeda core as they view themselves," a senior U.S. counterterrorism analyst said, "which is the vanguard of the jihad, providing a lot of global direction and guidance."

Even under constant pressure from Predator attacks, al-Qaeda has proven remarkably resilient. Officials also stressed that it is surrounded by other militant groups in Pakistan that share its violent aims.

The U.S. citizen who planted a failed bomb at Times Square earlier this year, for example, said he had been trained by the Pakistani Taliban.

But concern about AQAP has risen sharply in the aftermath of the failed Christmas Day attack.

U.S. officials cited recent indications that AQAP has shared its chemical bomb-making technology with other militant organizations, including Somalia-based al-Shabab.

Because Yemen is an Arab country and the ancestral home of bin Laden, some analysts fear that it could be more difficult to dislodge al-Qaeda there than in Pakistan.

Officials acknowledged that since a military strike missed Aulaqi in December, they have had few clues on his whereabouts. Aulaqi has been linked to three plots in the United States, and his presence has further radicalized his peers.

"The other leaders of AQAP are predominantly Yemenis and Saudis, and their world view and focus is on the peninsula," said the senior U.S. counterterrorism official. Aulaqi "brings a world view and focus that brings it back here to the U.S. homeland."

millergreg@washpost.com finnp@washpost.com

Staff writers Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

[buglerbilly]

'What the world doesn't know about, it will not care about or do anything to remedy' Inside Yemen, the most dangerous place on the planet

By Martin Bell

Last updated at 1:33 AM on 29th August 2010

Ignore the usual Bell proletyzing, still an interesting report.............

The common sense travel advice on Yemen is: don't even think of going there. On top of six wars in six years in the north of the country there is now also an insurgency in the south. The United Nations assesses the risk to its staff from these multiple conflicts as between medium and high.

Al Qaeda has a shadowy but ambitious organisation here: Al Qaeda In The Arabian Peninsular. Last April one of its suicide bombers tried to assassinate the British ambassador.

Not only for Westerners, but for Yemenis too, it is among the world's most dangerous places, and not for those of a nervous disposition.


Innocent victim: Six-year-old Abbas, who survived the landmine blast that killed his uncle but was left wounded and blind in one eye

So where am I going? To Sana'a, the Yemeni capital, that's where - flown there on Emirates airlines' magic carpet, which is where the comfort zone ends and the journey to the sharp end begins. I may seem a bit on the elderly side to be approaching my 19th war zone in 43 years.

But I also believe that we live in an explosively dangerous and interconnected world. We have to understand what the connections are and where the dangers come from; and that other people's interests can also be ours. And so instead of retiring I accelerate.

For a while now I have worked as an ambassador for Unicef. They assign me to countries where they can't send their celebrities: and Yemen is high on that list. Besides, in the past under Unicef's banner I have been given the kind of access which, as a reporter, I could only have dreamed of; and I try to turn it to Unicef's advantage.

Just over half Yemen's population are its 12 million children caught in the crossfire of unreported wars: whoever's fault it is, it isn't theirs. And what the world doesn't know about it won't care about or do anything to remedy. Yemen - which is the size of France - is an unstable, volatile, anything-can-happen kind of country. Its Arab neighbours watch it with alarm.

The last of Yemen's wars - or maybe just the most recent - ended in a fragile ceasefire in February this year. It pitted forces and tribes loyal to the government against the Houthis - rebels who take their name from their leader Hussein al-Houthi, who was killed in a raid on his hideaway in 2004.

The heavy weapons of Saudi Arabia were also involved in the war, on the government side, making it the most destructive of all of them.

A Unicef survey indicated that one family in eight had a child killed, and one in ten a child severely injured, in the fighting in the border Governorate Of Sa'ada. Of the 324,000 people driven from their homes, 205,000 were children.

Most haven't dared to return, some because their homes have been destroyed, some in fear of the start of a seventh war, and some because the ground itself is sown with 'dragons' teeth' - landmines.

In a camp to the west of the conflict area, housing 9,000 refugees, I sat in a tent beside a six-year-old boy, Abbas, who had returned home with his family when his uncle stepped on a landmine and was killed. The boy survived, but was blinded in one eye and has severe shrapnel wounds to his body. The ceasefires that come and go in war zones are not observed by landmines or unexploded bombs.


Unicef Goodwill Ambassador Martin Bell talks to war victim eight year old Abbas, seen at the Al-Mazraq IDP camps in Al-Mazraq, Yemen


A one-armed eight-year-old Nigerian boy is among 29 underage prisoners locked up with adults at Hodeidah Central Prison

Outside the tent stood a nine-year-old girl, Elkum, who was traumatised and speechless. Her mother explained that she was trapped under the rubble of her house in the fighting and now has to be taken in hand all the time or she wanders round the camp, not knowing who she is or where she's going.

It is much the same on the other side. Unicef has been told that the greatest need in the rebel-held area is not food, water or medicine, but care for the bruised minds of traumatised children. That's what happens in protracted wars, or those that pause for a while and then restart.

The contrast between the majesty of Yemen's past and the misery of its present could hardly be more striking - although strangely enough you can walk around Sana'a and have little idea that it is the capital of a country in crisis. I met a group of academics from a British university, studying the effects of war, who said, 'War? What war? This looks all right to us.' (But they never left the city). The hotels are generally empty and the tourists absent. There is almost a peacetime bustle in the streets, as Yemeni men go about their business with their status symbols, ornate curved daggers, strapped proudly to silver belts.

The old city of Sana'a, with its tower houses, which were the world's first skyscrapers, is truly one of the wonders of the Middle East. Visit these red-brick marvels today and you can enjoy the pleasures of tourism without the tourists. Sunlit and serene, it looks the very reverse of a war-torn capital; but appearances can be deceptive.

Outside the capital, all is not as it used to be before the wars and great migrations of refugees. The look and feel of the place is being transformed, as is the Africanisation of much of the prison population, the markets and shanty towns. You see this in the road blocks, in the movement of the refugees themselves, and most of all in Aden, which has been changed in places from an Arab to an African city - like a relatively peaceful version of Mogadishu, in Somalia.

The legends of Yemen include the Queen of Sheba, who ruled it, and Sinbad the Sailor, who was shipwrecked on one of its islands - no ordinary shipwreck either, for his ship was sunk by gigantic birds of prey. Yemen - once known as Happy Arabia - has always tended to the exotic. Its exports used to be myrrh and frankincense and coffee. In the Middle Ages, it had a worldwide monopoly on the coffee bean.

Today its best known export is terrorism. As recently as ten years ago Western warships included Aden as one of their ports of call. That ended abruptly on October 12, 2000 when the USS Cole, an American guided missile destroyer, was attacked by suicide bombers in a rubber boat. Seventeen American sailors were killed and 39 wounded. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility. From that point on, Yemen was in the sights of the intelligence agencies - and of the Pentagon seeking revenge and targets of opportunity.


The men at the prison, who are mainly African illegal immigrants trying to reach Saudi Arabia

The focus tightened last Christmas when a Nigerian student, radicalised and equipped in Yemen, tried to blow up an American airliner over Detroit by setting fire to bomb materials sewn into his underwear. He was lucky to escape with burns - and the passengers with their lives. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab exposed Yemen, not for the first time, to the sort of attention that it did not want.

Extremist Yemenis see themselves as the special forces of Jihad. They are well recruited and highly motivated. They were prominent in the ground campaigns against regular armies in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya. They are still in Afghanistan today, in Helmand and Kandahar, in action against the British among others. They don't regard themselves as foreign forces, but rather as brothers in Islam. That is how the rhetoric works. And our intelligence services are well aware of the threat.
One effect is that the foreign aid that Yemen receives - £45 million this year from the British Government alone - tends to be linked to progress on the security front, especially against Al Qaeda. The Yemeni government too, challenged by rebellions on two fronts and by the home-grown branch of Al Qaeda, gives priority to security. That leaves little to be spent on the welfare of the people. The aid agencies fill the gap.

We have no troops in Yemen or Somalia. Yet we are threatened from those countries just as much as from Afghanistan. And there is further reason why we should pay attention to this poorest of Arab states, out of human sympathy as well as national self-interest. Both the heart and the head require us to be attuned to it.

For it is in the grip of a great and unreported humanitarian crisis, of which the young are the principal victims. Imagine a country in which more than half the children are malnourished, which is a uniquely dangerous place to give birth in, and in which there are two entirely separate but simultaneous refugee crises running in parallel. There is such a country - Yemen.

Great tides of desperate people are flowing both within it and to it. For besides the refugees internally displaced by the war, it draws in hundreds of thousands who seek sanctuary from the wars of Africa, especially Somalia, whose coastline faces Yemen. Last year 77,000 Somalis were registered and countless others slipped in unobserved, hoping for new lives in the Gulf states.

Many others were lost at sea - no one knows how many, but 485 bodies were washed up on the Somali coast. Sometimes when the small and overloaded craft run into high seas, the people smugglers throw some of them into the water so it doesn't capsize. The number drowned in a year is reckoned by the aid agencies to be at least 3,000.

Internally displaced people bathe and wash clothes in a local river close to the Al-Mazraq IDP camps, Al-Mazraq, Yemen
One of the survivors is Omar Kumin, a 42-year-old Somali who paid $100 for the fare on the world's most dangerous water taxi. That was five years ago. Since then he has been saving up so that his three sons can join him in Yemen. The eldest is 17 and of an age to be recruited into one of the militias. They won't face much of a future in Yemen but just about anywhere is safer than Somalia. The Yemenis have been remarkably hospitable to the Somalis but can hardly absorb any more.

The Saudis are less welcoming. They have not only closed their border with Yemen but also established a security zone - a no man's land - along it. Its purpose is to keep out not only the Africans but unwanted Yemenis, too.

The refugees' ambition, against all odds, is to take the coast road north to the border and somehow walk across it. There too the people smugglers are waiting to exploit them. The route passes through the coastal city of Hodeidah. Many of those who did not register their arrival in Yemen are picked up and thrown into the central prison there as illegal immigrants. They are not Somalis, for the Yemenis regard the Somalis as their brothers, but other Africans - Nigerians, Kenyans, Eritreans and Sudanese.

Our delegation was granted unprecedented access to this home for lost souls, its 30ft walls set around with watchtowers, because of Unicef's concern about the 29 underage prisoners - 16 and 17-year-olds - being held there. In the great central courtyard we found more than 1,000 prisoners paraded before us, nearly all young men, squatting in ranks and sections under the eyes of their guards. They included 483 Africans.

Some of the Nigerians, spotting the cameras, surged towards us. Most had been held for more than a year. They complained about the conditions - not enough medicine or food or clean water. They had given up on going to Saudi Arabia. All they wanted was to return to Nigeria.

They included a one-armed eight-year-old boy who had been arrested with his father - or elder brother, the story changed - and was staying with him in the prison. They were crouched in a dark corner, and the boy may well have been a victim of child traffi cking. There could be no more vivid illustration than the scene before us of the refugees' plight and of the hopes that ended in tears in 'hapless Arabia'.

Further south in Aden, Yemen's second city, is the main administrative centre for the refugees - the port was also a British colony for 200 years until 1967. I remembered having been assigned there shortly after independence, as a young and rather naive reporter, to see how the new South Yemen (as it was then called) was doing - not so badly as it happened, until it became for a while the only Marxist state in the Arab world.


The old city in the heart of Sana'a, the Yemeni capital

On returning I was pleased to see that over the years the British had left more of a legacy than the Marxists, but at a cost - and the cost was engraved on the stones in the military cemetery under the mountain. We didn't fly our dead home in those days, or salute their repatriations at Wootton Bassett, but buried them close to where they fell.

Many of them were soldiers of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, who died at the end of Empire. Some were no more than 18 and 19 years old, the same age as so many of today's young men killed in Afghanistan by the Taliban's foreign fighters, Yemenis among them.

I stood for a while in respect; then, when the guard had woken up, I signed his faded visitors' book and reflected: why do we go on doing this, and in what cause? Are our soldiers in far-flung places, now as then, too few to fight and too many to die? It may be that one of the lessons of history is that we don't learn the lessons of history. We shall surely do again what we always do, which is to declare victory and leave the field.

Older people in Aden tend to look back on the British time with a certain nostalgia. A statue of Queen Victoria, which was removed from its plinth and threatened with being melted down, has now been restored to its rightful place in the park which bears her name. The British departure from Aden in 1967 was controversial.

The exploits of Lieutenant Colonel Colin Mitchell of the Argylls - 'Mad Mitch' to his friends and enemies - are well remembered to this day: leading his regiment into battle with bagpipes playing, Mitchell reoccupied a district of Aden in what is now known as 'the Last Battle of the British Empire'. But the present crisis engulfing the whole country was unimaginable then.

It is a mix of war, malnutrition, overpopulation and terrorism; the exploitation of desperate people and the mass migration of tens and thousands driven from their homes both in Yemen and outside it. The two Yemens, north and south, were united in 1990. To many southerners it was not a happy union, and to add to all the other problems the secessionist movement in the south is growing in strength.

There is modest cause for hope but you have to look hard to find it. One point to emphasise: Yemen itself is not in thrall to Al Qaeda in any way. Al Qaeda In The Arabian Peninsular is more of a threat to the West than it is to its host country. Yemen is threatened by war and anarchy. It is as if one of the failed states of Africa had migrated to Arabia.

In other emergencies I have been shocked by how many babies and infants, malnourished or starved, were being brought to the therapeutic feeding centres and health clinics. At the al-Wahda hospital in Aden I was shocked by how few there were.

In Yemen the very young suffer from higher levels of malnutrition than anywhere in Africa; 32 per cent are born underweight. But it is Ramadan, a time for prayer, fasting and family togetherness - and a time when many people will not take their infants to the hospital, or, if they are in the hospital, will take them out. At this one we found Abrar, a three-year-old girl, who had been admitted ten days earlier and had just left intensive care. She was emaciated and clearly still very ill. But her mother, with three other children to look after, was determined to take Abrar home against all medical advice. I asked the paediatrician whether the girl would survive if she went home. The doctor paused and said, 'No'.

Or how about this - a story from the closed border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia where smugglers deal in two commodities, children and drugs, and sometimes both together. At a child protection centre in the northern town of Haradh we were told of a case where a child was thrown over a fence nine feet high and his fall was broken on the other side by the leaves that were strapped to his body. The leaves were of qat, which is a widely chewed by Yemenis but banned in Saudi Arabia as a narcotic.


Female Unicef aid workers at the Al-Mazraq refugee camp

Besides this, experts predict that within 15 years Sana'a will be the world's first capital city to run out of water. Ask what problems Yemen doesn't have, and I would have said earthquakes and volcanoes, except that there actually was an earthquake in 1981. In September the United Nations will be assessing the progress made in the developing world since the Millennium - and in Yemen, except in education, the scores will be low to zero on almost every count.

And yet... there is among the young, and the agencies like Unicef serving them, a determination to shape a future for the country more like its fabled history than its recent past. You can see this not in the big projects but the small ones. One of these is to transform Yemen's record on maternal mortality - 370 deaths for each 100,000 live births - the highest in the Arab world. Two years ago, for a modest $300, Unicef started a project in the northern town of Zaidia for volunteer midwives to work in the community and identify mothers-to-be at risk. It now funds itself and lives are being saved which would otherwise be lost. The health workers are out among the people.

In one of the poorest districts of Aden I watched a puppet show, which was actually a performance of street theatre with the sort of emotional supercharge that I had not experienced for years. It was staged by teenage volunteers for other teenagers and for younger children too. It was about the hardships of their everyday lives in a dirt-poor and troubled country.

Through puppetry, song and dance it told the story of a young girl, Leila, who was forced like so many others to beg in the streets, and who while she was there saved another beggar from a life of prostitution. One of the themes, even for so young an audience, was the danger of HIV/ Aids. The story ended happily for all. And the message that brought the kids to their feet was that, since they were all in this together, the way to a brighter future was for them to help each other.

That's what so many Yemenis are trying to do in the most adverse circumstances imaginable. And the aid agencies - including Unicef, Oxfam and Islamic Relief - are working modest miracles alongside them. But modest miracles may not be enough. The present crisis is so acute that the nightmare outcome, of Yemen becoming another Somalia, is not unthinkable; it would have far reaching consequences, even beyond the dimension of the permanent threat from Al Qaeda In The Arabian Peninsular. If there's another war in this far-away country and we blithely suppose we're not interested in it, we may well find that it's interested in us.

So in helping Yemen we are not only doing what is right. We are also helping ourselves.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1306085/What-world-doesnt-know-care-remedy-Inside-Yemen-dangerous-place-planet.html#ixzz0xxjJXv2l

[buglerbilly]

Rights Groups Sue to Block Targeted Killings

August 31, 2010

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Two civil liberties groups sued the federal government on Monday to try to block its attempts overseas of a targeted killing of a U.S.-born cleric believed to have inspired recent attacks in the United States.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for the father of cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who's believed to be hiding in his parents' native Yemen. Defendants were President Barack Obama, CIA Director Leon C. Panetta and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates.

The groups, both based in New York, said it was unconstitutional to intentionally try to kill al-Awlaki unless he presents a specific imminent threat to life or physical safety and only killing him will eliminate the threat. The Obama administration cited al-Awlaki's growing role with al-Qaida when it placed him on the CIA's list of targets.

Al-Awlaki was put on the list after U.S. intelligence authorities tied him to Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers and concluded he had provided inspiration for those who carried out shootings in Fort Hood, Texas; a failed Times Square car bombing; and an attempted Christmas Day bombing of a jetliner approaching Detroit.

The lawsuit seeks a court order declaring that the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government's targeted killings of U.S. citizens, including al-Awlaki, unless there's a concrete and imminent threat to life and there's no other way to prevent it.

In a statement, Department of Justice spokesman Matthew Miller defended the U.S. position. He said Congress has authorized the use of all necessary and appropriate force against al-Qaida and associated groups.

"The U.S. is careful to ensure that all its operations used to prosecute the armed conflict against those forces, including lethal operations, comply with all applicable laws, including the laws of war," Miller said.

He said the U.S. government has the authority under domestic and international law and the responsibility to its citizens to use force to defend itself "in a manner consistent with those laws."

"This administration is using every legal measure available to defeat al-Qaeda, and we will continue to do so as long as its forces pose a threat to this nation," Miller said in the statement.

Al-Awlaki was born in 1971 in New Mexico. His father, Nasser al-Awlaki, who had moved to the United States to study agriculture at New Mexico State University in 1966, returned the family in 1978 to Yemen, where he served as agriculture minister.

The younger al-Awlaki returned to the United States in 1991 to study civil engineering at Colorado State University before pursuing a master's degree at San Diego State University, followed by doctoral work at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he remained until December 2001.

He was a preacher at mosques in California and Virginia before moving to the United Kingdom in 2003 and to Yemen in 2004.

The lawsuit notes al-Awlaki hasn't been publicly indicted for any terrorism-related crime, though Yemeni officials have stated they are taking measures to arrest him. He has been detained by the government of Yemen before and was imprisoned for 18 months there in 2006 and 2007, the lawsuit notes.

Since at least January, al-Awlaki has been hiding in Yemen and has had no communication with his father because to do so would endanger his life, the lawsuit says.

ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said a program that authorizes killing U.S. citizens without judicial oversight, due process or disclosed standards is "unconstitutional, unlawful and un-American."

CIA spokesman George Little said his agency acts "in strict accord with American law."

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Ex-Detainee Tries to Woo Saudi Soldiers

August 31, 2010

Long War Journal|by Thomas Joscelyn

I'll stick this here as Al Shihri is almost certainly based in the Yemen right now.............

In a nearly 15-minute audio tape released in early August, Said al Shihri, one of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's (AQAP) top leaders, tried to convince Saudi soldiers and security officers to serve al Qaeda. Al Shihri set forth a dozen reasons why Saudi citizens should betray the royals, and he offered a cursory plan for doing so.

Al Shihri said it should be "easy" to overthrow the House of Saud if his plan is followed.

Al Shihri called for willing recruits to form cells that can attract logistical support from members of the Saudi Air Force, Army, and office of the Interior Ministry. Al Shihri urged guards for the Saudi royals to turn on "the tyrant princes" and "kill them." Those in charge of security at "weapons warehouses" inside the Kingdom and employees of the Interior Ministry are especially valuable recruits, al Shihri said.

Operational cells should also perform surveillance on "important targets" inside the Kingdom, al Shihiri advised, according to a translation of the tape obtained by the Long War Journal.

Al Shirhi's tape is the just the latest example of how the Saudis' rehabilitation program for former Gitmo detainees and other jihadists has faltered. Al Shihri was captured in northern Pakistan in late 2001 and handed over to American authorities. He was detained at Guantanamo until Nov. 9, 2007, when he was repatriated to the Saudis.

The Saudis arranged for a private jet to fly al Shihri and other Gitmo detainees back to the Kingdom. Typically, the former detainees are pampered, and are offered inducements to renounce al Qaeda, including jobs, cars, and wives. The Saudis set up an art therapy program as part of the rehabilitation effort, too.

The program does not try to convince the former detainees that waging violent jihad is inappropriate. Instead, the Saudis tell the Gitmo grads that jihad must be authorized by the right religious authorities – i.e., those loyal to the Saudi establishment – and not target Saudi Arabia itself. In written testimony supplied to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in February 2009, then Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair explained:

The rehabilitation course covers various religious topics, including takfir, loyalty, allegiance, terrorism, legal rules for jihad, and psychological instruction on self-esteem. The course does not address anti-Western/anti-U.S. views, focusing only on the difference between Wahhabism, Saudi Arabia's conservative branch of Islam, and takfirism, the violent ideology espoused by al Qaeda.

Al Shihri, who graduated from the Saudi rehabilitation program, clearly did not buy the program's lessons. Throughout the tape, al Shihri warns Saudis that if they continue to remain loyal to the Kingdom, then they should "fear Allah" because they are serving the "sheikhs of Satan."

Four assassination attempts on Saudi deputy interior minister

AQAP is actively targeting some Saudi princes for assassination, just as Said al Shihri calls for in his tape. According to the Saudi Gazette, al Qaeda has tried to kill Prince Muhammad Bin Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, who is the Saudi deputy interior minister and oversees the Kingdom's counterterrorism efforts, four times since 2004.

The first attempt "involved a bomb-laden vehicle that was used to target the Ministry of Interior building in Riyadh." In a second attempt, al Qaeda fired a missile at the prince's plane but missed when the pilot took "evasive action."

In a third attempt, an al Qaeda suicide bomber stuffed explosives in his rear and tried to blow up the prince. The bomber was on the Saudi Kingdom's most wanted list, as is Said al Shihri, and pledged to turn himself in. The prince agreed to accept his surrender in person and that opened up a window of opportunity for al Qaeda. The suicide bomber was reportedly directed by senior AQAP leaders, including perhaps Said al Shihri himself.

The fourth attempt on the prince's life is noteworthy because it involved Said al Shihri's brother-in-law, Yousef al Shihri, who was also a former Guantanamo detainee. The Saudi Gazette reports that Yousef al Shihri and another al Qaeda terrorist were killed in a shootout with Saudi security forces along the border on Oct. 13, 2009. [For more on Yousef al Shihri, see LWJ report, Another former Gitmo detainee killed in shootout.]

The pair were dressed as women at the time, and their garb hid two suicide explosive belts. They had two other suicide belts in their possession that were reportedly intended for two other al Qaeda operatives living inside the Kingdom. Their intended target was Prince Muhammad Bin Naif.

Echoes of Anwar al Awlaki's messaging

Said al Shihri's tape is similar in its message to the sermons delivered by Anwar al Awlaki, who is in hiding in Yemen. Awlaki has consistently tried to convince Muslim soldiers to turn on their armies in the name of jihad. Awlaki's most infamous recruit in this regard is Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Tex., on Nov. 5, 2009.

Shortly after the Fort Hood attack, Awlaki wrote on his web site:

Nidal Hassan is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear the contradiction of being a Muslim and fighting against his own people. No scholar with a grain of Islamic knowledge can deny the clear cut proofs that Muslims today have the right — rather the duty — to fight against American tyranny.

This theme – that Muslims cannot serve infidel armies and Allah at the same time – has been part of Awlaki's messaging for years. Maj. Hasan even explored this theme in a presentation he gave to his colleagues at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. After the Fort Hood shooting, it emerged that the FBI was aware that Maj. Hasan was in contact with Awlaki via email, but the communications were dismissed as innocuous.

In a more recent tape, Awlaki proudly called Hasan one of his "students" and said that Hasan asked about the religious permissibility of certain acts, including serving in the American military.

Said al Shihri's tape echoes Awlaki's messaging. Al Shihri says that "some members" of the Saudi armed forces have asked for guidance from AQAP as to "whether they should remain at their jobs" or join al Qaeda in Yemen. Al Shihri counsels them to stay in Saudi Arabia and only flee if it is necessary to evade authorities.

Al Shihri wants Saudi recruits to serve al Qaeda from inside the Saudi establishment. AQAP is clearly hoping that some Saudis follow Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's path.

© Copyright 2010 Long War Journal. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Pentagon Bulks Up Yemen’s Arsenal as Shadow War Grows

By Spencer Ackerman September 3, 2010 | 8:00 am



Yemen is the new Pakistan — well, at least it is to many in the Pentagon, the White House, and the intelligence community. U.S. spies think al-Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate is the most likely terrorist network to attack us, And just like last year’s $400 million U.S. “counterinsurgency fund” for Pakistan tried to get the Pakistani military al-Qaeda-specific weapons, the Pentagon’s already given Yemen $155 million dollars’ worth of copters, Humvees, radios and transport planes to contain the evolving terrorist threat. Look for all that to expand.

According to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Central Command is pondering a $1.2 billion military-assistance package to Yemen covering the next five years. Just five years ago, the Defense Department dispensed less than $5 million to the benighted country on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. But anywhere al-Qaeda goes, U.S. military money is sure to follow.

Neither U.S. Central Command nor the Office of the Secretary of Defense would discuss the contours of the hypothetical military-assistance package. But the current year’s aid bundle is instructive. Like what the U.S. gave Pakistan in 2009, it centers around stuff that small units can use on raids against terrorist cells.

That’s because the Yemeni army as a whole, in the assessment of one U.S. defense analyst, is a basket case. “You can’t rehab the whole Yemeni army. It’s too corrupt and too poorly trained,” says the Army War College’s W. Andrew Terrill. Better to focus on what elite units can do against the targets that the U.S. wants hit than to bankroll the total 75,000-man force in its on-again-off-again war with Houthi rebels in its northern provinces.

But with a larger defense package waiting in the wings, and the threat of more Yemen-trained underpants bombers creating public anxiety over Yemen, who knows whether the training mission will end up creeping. After all, the Pakistanis still covet F-16s to go after their Indian rivals — and the U.S. is providing them with 18 new ones this year.

This fiscal year, the Defense Department devoted $155 million through the end of this month to its Yemeni counterparts, mostly focusing on their Special Operations Forces and Air Force. Yemeni Special Operations Forces get $34.5 million for 50 new Humvees, personal radios, light weapons, ammo and other stuff to improve their “tactical effectiveness and operational reach,” according to Pentagon budget documents.

Yemen’s Air Force get nearly $83 million for new Huey helicopters, Russian-designed Mi-17 “Hip” copters, and spare parts and maintenance gear. “This program will allow the Yemen Air Force to transport small units to participate in day- or night-time operations at high altitude,” the department says in a funding submission to Congress.

Finally, there’s another $38 million to get the Yemenis CN-235s, a transit plane that just so happens to double as a spy plane. The plane’s stated purpose here? To “help build the capacity of Yemen’s national military forces to conduct [counterterrorism] operations by providing equipment and training to improve the operational reach and reaction time of counterterrorism forces.”

That sort of gear isn’t the kind that the Yemenis like to use against the Houthis and other non al-Qaeda enemies. A multi-stage offensive last year showcased heavyhanded Yemeni tactics — it was called Operation Scorched Earth — and even drew in the Saudis, who dropped bombs and pulvarized Houthi areas with artillery.

“This won’t make lot of difference in a major counterinsurgency campaign. This isn’t going to tip the scales combatting something like the Houthis,” Terrill explains. “But it could get some people in a hurry, in helicopters and maybe Humvees, go after 20 al-Qaeda [at a time].”

But that could change. The U.S. has recently lobbed cruise missiles against suspected al-Qaeda targets in Yemen. But the Journal reports that unmanned Hellfire-carrying drones might be part of the next-gen Yemen military-assistance package. And if Yemen really is the new Pakistan, then like the Pakistanis, the Yemenis could persuade the U.S. to let them use some drones against their own internal enemies. The last nine years of war have demonstrated conclusively that the U.S. is more concerned about blunting the emergence of new terror threats than it is about mission creep — and that it’s willing to throw a lot of money around in faraway locales.

Credit: DoD

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/09/pentagon-bulks-up-yemens-arsenal-as-shadow-war-grows/#more-30218#ixzz0yTEBAKe5

[buglerbilly]

US Expands Terror Training in Yemen

September 08, 2010

Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- U.S. special operations forces are expanding their training of the Yemeni military as the Obama administration broadens its program to counter terrorism in countries reluctant to harbor a visible American military presence.

That balancing act has become an administration trademark, funneling millions of dollars in aid and low-profile military trainers to countries such as Pakistan and Yemen in order to take on a more diverse, independent and scattered al-Qaida network.

The scope and amount of the military training in Yemen has grown slowly, reflecting the Pentagon's intention to tackle the terror threat while still being sensitive to fears that a larger American footprint in Yemen could help fuel the insurgency.

Over the past year, the number of elite U.S. trainers moving in and out of Yemen has doubled, from 25 to about 50 now. The numbers fluctuate depending on the training schedule, but U.S. forces are now providing a more complex level of instruction that combines tactical ground and air operations.

At stake is the stability of a troubled, poverty-stricken nation struggling to thwart al-Qaida-linked terrorists who are growing stronger and are increasingly targeting the U.S. and other Western interests.

"Yemen is the model for how we're going to conduct counterterrorism in the future," said Rick Nelson, a counterterrorism expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "It is not going to be large-scale intervention as it was under the Bush administration and not because it is or isn't working but because it's economically unfeasible" to wage expensive wars.

The U.S. military training there, said one senior defense official, is aimed at fixing shortfalls in the Yemeni military's aviation, intelligence and tactical operations. And there also is training for the maintenance of aircraft and other systems.

Several U.S. and Yemeni officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the U.S. training effort, which is rarely discussed in public because of its politically sensitive nature.

In general, the U.S. trainers never appear in public. The U.S. special operations forces are believed to be concentrated in a mountainous area in western San'a, the capital. Yemeni counterterrorism troops and British special operations trainers are participating with the U.S. trainers.

Yemeni authorities have been careful not to discuss the U.S. presence. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said during a Ramadan sermon last month that Yemen does not accept the presence of foreign troops in its territory. However, he admitted in March that there are American trainers in Yemen.

"There is no American presence on Yemen's land and seas," he said. "There is U.S.-Yemeni cooperation in counterterrorism, in training. And mission numbers no more than 40-50 people."

Saleh is concerned about his delicate alliance with the hardline groups and tribes that are most threatened by U.S. operations. And Yemeni media have accused the weak central government of giving up its sovereignty by allowing foreign troops to use Yemen as a battlefield against al-Qaida.

The careful growth of training by special forces in Yemen mirrors a slow expansion of a Pentagon counterterror training program in Pakistan, which officials say serves as a workable road map for building U.S. military relationships with government forces in terrorist strongholds.

The U.S. instruction of Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps not only enhances the capabilities of the nation's security forces, but also makes it easier for American commanders to gather intelligence, establish contact with local populations and move more freely in the country.

U.S. trainers in Pakistan operate mainly in two training centers along the Afghan border. But their proximity to terror strongholds can also be a drawback. Earlier this year, three of the trainers were killed and two others wounded by a roadside bomb.

While the Obama administration is still pulling together its overall Yemen policy, there are strong indications it will call for a broader array of assistance and engagement with Yemen.

Experts on the Gulf region warn that military aid must be supplemented with economic, development and governance support. Too much emphasis on defense programs could make Yemen more militaristic, fuel militant recruiting and provide resources for the government's internal struggles against Shiite Hawthi rebels in the north and a secessionist threat in the south, said Christopher Boucek, a Yemen expert at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"If we just focus on the military and security for them to become more lethal, it's not going to improve the country's security; it will only fuel recruitment and grievances," Boucek said.

Boucek, who was in Yemen earlier this year, said the increased military training force is more visible there now. And that growth has come as the country has transformed from being a place for terrorists to hide out or train to a place where militants can participate in jihad.

"More people are going there, they are more lethal and dangerous, and there is room for it to grow," he said.

U.S. training efforts in Yemen are part of a multi-pronged counterterrorism campaign that over the past year has included surveillance and intelligence sharing, along with several targeted cruise missile strikes directed at al-Qaida leaders.

More than 40 people were killed in December by air raids targeting al-Qaida leaders. Yemenis have reported sightings of unmanned aircraft hovering over the provinces of Shabwa and Marib, known as hideouts for al-Qaida militants.

Recently, U.S. officials have said they are looking at using armed predator drones to hunt down and kill al-Qaida leaders operating out of safe havens in Yemen's ungoverned regions. But such operations would be done only with the acceptance of Yemeni leaders, officials said.

The Pentagon has pledged $150 million in military assistance to Yemen this year for helicopters, planes and other equipment.

A senior Yemeni official said the government is looking most for a sense of commitment from the United States that does not ebb and flow as terror incidents with a Yemen tie occur.

The terror threat from Yemen has escalated in the past 18 months, with estimates that about 300 al-Qaida members or cells are operating there. The situation grabbed headlines after the Christmas Day Detroit airliner attack was linked to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen.

Yemen is also the base of U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have helped inspire the airline plot and other attacks in the U.S. The administration has the fugitive al-Awlaki on a kill or capture list.

In January, the country's most influential Islamic cleric, Sheik Abdel-Majid al-Zindani, warned against "foreign occupation." Al-Zindani is an extremist who once associated with Osama bin Laden and whom the U.S. has called "a specially designated global terrorist."

Senior U.S. military and counterterrorism officials say al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan -- including Osama bin Laden -- present the most serious threat and could best plan and execute a complex Sept. 11-style attack against the United States. This weekend will mark the ninth anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks.

Officials say al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen represents a more imminent threat, although it would be more likely to throw together a simpler, less sophisticated attack aimed at the U.S.

The growth of the Yemen training program, and the sensitivities involved, mirror the effort in Pakistan. Over time, as the training gained acceptance from Pakistani officials, the number of U.S. special operations trainers grew from a few dozen to as many as 140 now moving in and out of the country.

The U.S. now has a more formal, established program there. To date, special operations forces have trained about 1,500 members of the Frontier Corps and 2,000 members of the Pakistani military.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Yemen Arrests Ex-Gitmo Detainee

September 08, 2010

Long War Journal|by Thomas Joscelyn

A former Guantanamo detainee who joined al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) after graduating from a Saudi rehabilitation program has been arrested in Yemen. Fox News reported Tuesday that Yemeni authorities have detained Jabir Jubran al Fayfi, who was transferred from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia on Dec. 13, 2006.

More than two dozen former Gitmo detainees have graduated from the Saudi rehabilitation program only to return to jihad. Eleven of them, including al Fayfi, were added to the Saudi Kingdom’s most wanted list in early 2009. Along with other former detainees, he escaped across the border in a disappearance that was orchestrated by al-Qaida.

An admitted jihadist

Al Fayfi was given the internment serial number (ISN) 188 at Gitmo. During his combatant status review tribunal (CSRT), al Fayfi admitted that he was a jihadist who had traveled to Pakistan, Kashmir, and then Afghanistan to wage jihad. Al Fayfi denied any affiliation with al-Qaida, but U.S. officials found otherwise. And al Fayfi conceded that he had joined the Taliban.

Al Fayfi’s journey to jihad began like that of many other al-Qaida and Taliban members. He was recruited in a Saudi mosque and convinced that by waging jihad he could atone for his past bad behavior. According to declassified files prepared at Gitmo, Al Fayfi struggled with a drug habit until he became convinced of the righteousness of jihad.

He decided to fight in Kashmir first.

During his CSRT, al Fayfi tried to deny that he had been recruited in a Saudi mosque, but his denial reveals that his trip abroad was facilitated by the terror network. "I have not been recruited," al Fayfi claimed. "I only took an address for Jihad in Kashmir [for a man]. He is one of the Mujahedin. All details are in my file."

Al Fayfi admitted that he had received light arms training in Kashmir and, according to memos produced at Guantanamo, that he had "joined a unit of approximately nine others and participated in three raids." Al Fayfi "fought in Kashmir for about four months."

It is likely that al Fayfi’s time in Kashmir was sponsored by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM), a known al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist group based in Pakistan. According to one memo produced at Gitmo, al Fayfi "spent time in a [JEM] building in Karachi, Pakistan." That same memo notes that the JEM has "close ties to Afghan Arabs and the Taliban" and that Osama bin Laden "is suspected of giving funding to the JEM."

JEM is one of the two primary jihadist organizations operating in Kashmir and was created by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Agency to fight Indian forces.

After fighting in Kashmir, al Fayfi read another fatwa in a Pakistani newspaper that called on Muslims to support the Taliban in Afghanistan. During his CSRT, al Fayfi conceded that he served the Taliban but tried to downplay his role.

"As for the Taliban," al Fayfi said, "I went to see them according to the Fatwa, which says if they applied the conditions in the Fatwa, I will go for Jihad with them."

U.S. officials found that al Fayfi fought against the Northern Alliance in late 2001. Al Fayfi’s position was "struck eleven times over three days" during the U.S. bombing campaign, according to one declassified memo, but "no casualties were sustained" because the trenches were well-prepared. After the Northern Alliance broke through the Taliban’s lines, senior Taliban commanders ordered a "general withdrawal." But al Fayfi stayed behind to fight.

"While the majority of Afghan Taliban and approximately five hundred Arab volunteer jihad extremists withdrew," U.S. intelligence officials noted in one memo, al Fayfi "and a small number of others were directed to remain on the Bagram Front to provide covering fire against the advancing infantry." Al Fayfi and his fellow fighters were finally forced to retreat by "three advancing Northern Alliance tanks."

Al Fayfi then retreated to the Tora Bora Mountains along with other al-Qaida and Taliban fighters.

During his CSRT, al Fayfi offered an unconvincing explanation for his time in Afghanistan. "It is true I was in the front line but I did not fight because I went to see whether they applied the Fatwa conditions only." Al Fayfi explained further:

It is obligatory to receive a gun in [the] front line. It is not my choice but I did not use it. I was only observing if the Fatwa applied and not fighting. I was even transferred to the back lines. I was not even able to share the fighting. Actually there was no fighting during my time there.

Although al Fayfi tried to deny that he had fought in Afghanistan, he conceded that he had fled to Tora Bora. He also conceded that he saw Arabs there, but claimed he had no way of telling the difference between al-Qaida and Taliban fighters. This was part of his general denial of any ties to al-Qaida.

U.S. military officials at Gitmo found evidence that al Fayfi was lying about his al-Qaida ties, however. Al Fayfi’s name was found on several documents maintained by al-Qaida that were recovered by the U.S. and its allies. One of the documents is a "handwritten letter that was recovered along with other materials linked to al Qaeda." The letter "contained a list of Arabs incarcerated in Pakistan and encourages its correspondent to incite the people against the Pakistan Government." Two other lists that included al Fayfi’s name were recovered during raids on al-Qaida safe houses.

In addition, an unnamed "foreign government service reported" to U.S. officials that al Fayfi "was a member of al Qaeda."

The Gitmo files note that al Fayfi claimed he wanted to return to Saudi Arabia where he could be with his family and resume his job as a taxi driver. Al Fayfi told U.S. authorities that he was finished with jihad.

That was obviously a lie. Instead, al Fayfi joined other former Gitmo detainees in Yemen.

© Copyright 2010 Long War Journal. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

U.S. Official: Al-Qaeda in Yemen Not Atop U.S. Threat List

By JOHN T. BENNETT

Published: 8 Sep 2010 16:55

A top U.S. counterterrorism official is dismissing claims that the Obama administration considers al-Qaeda's Yemen cell the top threat to America.

U.S. officials "have no such rankings of threats," U.S. State Department counterterrorism coordinator Daniel Benjamin said Sept. 8. National security personnel and observers should "put away the rankings tables" and focus on the list of threats facing the United States, he said during a U.S. Institute of Peace-sponsored forum in Washington.

Benjamin was responding to an Aug. 26 Washington Post article that cited unnamed administration officials as saying a group known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) as America's top threat, not the main part of the group based in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Both groups are major threats, Benjamin said, adding the Af-Pak cell "is still formidable."

Since taking office in January 2009, the Obama administration has ramped up the fight against the Yemen-based cell. But Washington has for some time recognized that group's strength, Benjamin said.

"This is nothing new," he explained. "Al-Qeada in Yemen has always been a concern to the U.S."

"We are looking to draw on all of the capabilities at our disposal," a senior Obama administration official was quoted as saying the Post article. That same official described "a ramp-up" in Yemen "over a period of months," according to the Post article.

Some national security experts for months have wondered aloud about Yemen becoming the next failed state in the mold of Afghanistan that is ripe to become an al-Qaeda safe haven.

"News that the failed [2009] Christmas Day attack on a U.S. passenger jet was tied to al-Qaeda elements in Yemen prompted questions of whether the fractious Arab state might give rise to a Taliban-style regime," Sarah Phillips of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace wrote in a March report.

But AQAP faces its own challenges in the region, she wrote.

"For its part, [AQAP] has stated its intent to achieve 'our great Islamic project: establishing an Islamic Caliphate,' but it is vulnerable to the threat that Yemen's tribes may ultimately find its presence a liability," according to Phillips.

The Obama administration continues to publicly oppose inserting U.S. troops to take down al-Qaida in Yemen, Benjamin said.

The U.S. military mission there, Benjamin said, will continue along its current tenants: training Yemeni forces and providing them "the equipment they need," as well as training civilian authorities to conduct counterterrorism missions.

What might a U.S. troop presence in Yemen bring? "Overt military intervention is likely to further entrench al-Qaeda in the country," Phillips wrote.

But, she noted, "greatly increasing development aid also risks reinforcing a regime that is poorly equipped and poorly motivated to distribute the aid effectively among its people."

For his part, Benjamin said Washington plans to continue assisting the Yemeni government with its efforts to "disrupt and dismantle" the al-Qaeda cell. Such allegedly Yemeni-led operations are designed to hinder AQAP's ability to organize, plan and train for attacks, he said.

What's more, U.S. officials are trying to "mitigate" some of the economic and governance problems that allow groups like AQAP to set up shop there, Benjamin said. By building functioning institutions capable of "meeting the needs of their people," American officials hope to remedy some of the ills that make extremism attractive to a downtrodden, frustrated populous, he said.

There are doubts, however, about the current Yemeni government's ability to deliver.

"Western chances of encouraging a more inclusive political system are questionable," Phillips wrote in her report. "In the long term, only a fundamental domestic restructuring of the political system to become much more inclusive will lead to stability."

[buglerbilly]

US Mulls Terror Charges for Al-Awlaki

September 14, 2010

Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is considering filing the first criminal charges against radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in case the CIA fails to kill him and he's is captured alive in Yemen.

The decision continues the White House's strategy of fighting terrorism both in court and on the battlefield.

Al-Awlaki, a U.S. and Yemeni citizen born in New Mexico, has inspired a wave of attempted attacks against the U.S. and has become al-Qaida's leading English-speaking voice for recruiting and motivating terrorists. Counterterrorism officials said al-Awlaki, since mid-2009, has become a key operational figure who selects targets and gives orders.

Shortly after the failed Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner, which officials believe al-Awlaki had a hand in planning, the White House took the unprecedented step of authorizing the CIA to kill or capture him. A decision on criminal charges is expected in the next several weeks, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the deliberations.

The Nigerian man charged with the attempted bombing, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, suggested in Detroit federal court Monday that he wanted to plead guilty to some charges, raising the possibility that his cooperation could form the foundation for charges against al-Awlaki.

The Obama administration has rewritten the nation's counterterrorism strategy, treating terrorism as both a wartime issue to be handled by the military and CIA, and a legal issue to be settled in court.

That has alternately angered both liberals and conservatives. Congressional Republicans have cast the administration as soft on terrorism for using criminal courts rather than military tribunals to prosecute suspected attackers. Civil liberties groups, meanwhile, have called lethal action against al-Awlaki unconstitutional.

Al-Awlaki is living in a mountainous region of Yemen, sheltered by his family and religious leaders who say he has no ties to terrorism. Yemeni officials have said they will not turn him over to the U.S. because, as a Yemeni citizen, he must be prosecuted there.

Yemen has been an unreliable U.S. partner when it comes to holding terrorists in prison, however, and charging al-Awlaki in the U.S. would make it easier for the Obama administration to demand he be turned over.

Such charges, however, would come with political and intelligence-gathering risks. Counterterrorism officials regard al-Awlaki as a terrorist operative, not just a preacher, but they have revealed few specifics. Charging al-Awlaki with having direct involvement in terrorism could require the U.S. to reveal evidence gleaned from foreign wiretaps or confidential informants.

The best-case scenario for the government would be for Abdulmutallab to plead guilty. He has already told the FBI that al-Awlaki was involved in the airliner bomb plan, and a plea deal would allow Abdulmutallab to become a witness against him. But Abdulmutallab, who fired his lawyers Monday and was given approval to represent himself, has yet to strike a deal and would probably seek a reduced prison sentence in exchange for his help.

Another option, given al-Awlaki's increasingly violent sermons and his collaboration with al-Qaida's propaganda efforts, would be charging him with supporting terrorism. But that charge carries only a 15-year prison sentence, leaving the administration open to questions about how the president can authorize the CIA to essentially impose the death penalty for such a crime.

Al-Awlaki had been under scrutiny for years by FBI agents in San Diego, where he lived in the late 1990s. He also lived in northern Virginia before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Both areas are seen as prosecutor-friendly districts for national security cases. As a U.S. citizen, he cannot be prosecuted before a military commission.

If the Justice Department decides to charge al-Awlaki, it's likely he would not be indicted. Rather, charges are more likely to take the form of an FBI complaint. That's because an indicted suspect automatically gets the right to an attorney if he is captured, making it harder for authorities to question him.

The Justice Department used a similar strategy last week when it announced a criminal complaint against the self-proclaimed emir of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud. He is accused of planning a deadly December 2009 suicide attack on a CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Anwar al Awlaki: the new Osama bin Laden?

Anwar al Awlaki, a preacher broadcasting his Islamist ideology in sermons on the internet, is a clear and present danger, says Philip Johnston.

By Philip Johnston UK Daily Telegraph

Published: 9:00PM BST 17 Sep 2010



Yemen-based preacher Anwar al-Awlaki Photo: AP You may not have heard of him before – but this is the new face of international terrorism. His name is Anwar al Awlaki – and unlike Osama bin Laden, who has not been seen in public for many years, he is loud, obvious and very dangerous. If there is an attack any time soon in London or in another Western capital, the chances are that Awlaki will be behind it. The CIA has put him on their hit-list of assassination targets, and in a rare speech on Thursday, Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, name-checked Awlaki as the West’s Public Enemy No 1.

“The operational involvement of Yemen-based preacher Anwar al-Awlaki with al-Qaeda is of particular concern given his wide circle of adherents in the West, including in the UK,” said Evans.

So, who is Awlaki and why are intelligence agencies so worried about him? To some extent, he is the creation of the West’s success in restraining al Qaeda’s activities in Afghanistan and the lawless borderlands of north-west Pakistan. Bin Laden’s terror organisation, if not exactly beaten, has been scattered. Where, once most of the terrorist plots against Western targets could be traced back to Pakistan (specifically, the tribal areas of Waziristan), the proportion dropped to 75 per cent three years ago and is now down to 50 per cent. The reason is that a lot of al-Qaeda’s foreign fighters, especially the Arabs, have relocated to Somalia or to Yemen – and it is there where Awlaki rules the roost.

But he is not a gun-toting terrorist warlord like bin Laden. Awlaki, 39, is a preacher, broadcasting his Islamist ideology in sermons on the internet. The web gives him a global reach – literally into the bedrooms of disenchanted and gullible young Muslims who may already have been radicalised by an extremist imam or friend. For the intelligence services, this poses a dangerous new threat because it is so hard to keep under surveillance. Plotters meeting can be watched and followed; but if the conspiracy is internet-based, with would-be terrorists acting alone simply because they have heard Awlaki’s call to jihad on their PC, the chances of stumbling upon it are reduced.

The first time that many people heard Awlaki’s name was at the turn of the year. It is said that he recruited and mentored Umar Abdulmutallab, the young African who attempted to blow up a plane carrying hundreds of passengers over Detroit on Christmas Day, by detonating a device in his underpants. However, Awlaki has been on Western intelligence’s radar for some years, as his connections with terrorist plotters, including the September 11 hijackers and the July 7 London bombers, gradually became apparent.

Far from emerging like an Old Testament prophet from the mountains of Arabia, Awlaki is an American citizen. He was born, somewhat incongruously, given his brand of radical Islam, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. His father, a Yemeni, moved there in 1971 with his wife to attend the state university where he received a master’s degree in agricultural economics. In 1978, when Awlaki was seven, the family moved back to Yemen where his father served as agriculture minister. Aged 20, Awlaki returned to the US in 1991 where he studied civil engineering at Colorado State University. He later lived in San Diego, where he obtained an MA in education, and then studied for a doctorate in Washington.

During this period, though not an Islamic scholar nor a trained imam, Awlaki began to take a greater interest in religion and politics, possibly linked to a trip to Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Soviet occupation. He began to acquire a reputation as a firebrand preacher at various mosques, though his devout image was sullied by several arrests for soliciting prostitutes.

Increasingly, he came under the influence of radical Islamists, notably the Yemeni, Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, an ally of Osama bin Laden. He allegedly worked for a charitable organisation that the FBI believed was a front for funneling money to terrorists. Some of the September 11 hijackers reportedly respected Awlaki as a religious figure and two of the hijackers who flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon building attended a mosque where he preached.

His apparent connection to the September 11 attacks was one of many embarrassments for the FBI. Awlaki was under investigation in 1999, but the agency concluded he was not a danger and shut down the operation a year later. After the September 11 attacks, the FBI interviewed Awlaki four times, and one detective told the 9/11 Commission that he believed he “was at the centre of the 9/11 story”. It is believed that he kept the hijackers “spiritually focused”.

Despite the FBI’s suspicions, Awlaki was able to return to Yemen in 2002. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he later turned up in London, where he stayed for two years, speaking at conferences hosted by British Muslim organisations. However, he did not come to MI5’s notice until after he returned to Yemen in 2004. It was about then that Awlaki made the transition from preacher to operational terrorist mastermind, using his charismatic appeal and jihadi rhetoric to fire up potential recruits.

He speaks perfect English, unlike many al-Qaeda leaders, which gives him a broader appeal. He also encourages his followers to think about mounting small-scale attacks that can cause widespread fear without always trying to stage a September 11-style “spectacular” which risks alerting the authorities.

As Evans said: “His influence is all the wider because he preaches and teaches in the English language, which makes his message easier to access and understand for Western audiences. There is a real risk that one of his adherents will respond to his urging to violence and mount an attack in the UK, possibly acting alone and with little formal training.”

Awlaki is best known for “Constants on the Path of Jihad”, a series of lectures available on popular internet forums, such as YouTube, where he has 1,900 videos. He reads the Arabic text and translates what he has read into English, offering his commentary on what the text means for Muslims. He maintains that violent jihad is an obligation for every Muslim. His lectures have been found in possession of almost every radical Islamist who has executed, or attempted to execute, attacks on Western targets.

They include the July 7 bombers in London, who used to meet in a bookshop that sold lectures by Awlaki. Major Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood military base in Texas last November, had asked for Awlaki’s advice in emails about a suicide attack. There is evidence that he had direct contact with the Canadian-based terrorists known as the Toronto 18 and court records show that three out of the five men convicted for plotting to attack soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey, were inspired by Awlaki’s lectures and believed they contained a fatwa to strike in the US.

It is the accessibility of Awlaki’s message on the internet that most alarms intelligence chiefs and the fact that his centre of operations marks a shift in the centre of gravity of al-Qaeda from Pakistan/Afghanistan towards Yemen and east Africa. MI5 has seen a surge in its casework related to Yemen – the headquarters of al-Qaeda’s Arabian peninsula affiliate. In April, the CIA named Awlaki as a specially designated global terrorist, which effectively places him on an international hit-list as someone who has declared war on the West.

He may not have the vaulting ambitions of Osama bin Laden to cause massive carnage; but unlike the reclusive al-Qaeda leader, he is a clear and present danger.

[buglerbilly]

Obama invokes 'state secrets' claim to dismiss suit against targeting of U.S. citizen al-Aulaqi

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, September 25, 2010; 1:49 AM

The Obama administration urged a federal judge early Saturday to dismiss a lawsuit over its targeting of a U.S. citizen for killing overseas, saying that the case would reveal state secrets.

The U.S.-born citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, is a cleric now believed to be in Yemen. Federal authorities allege that he is leading a branch of al-Qaeda there.

Government lawyers called the state-secrets argument a last resort to toss out the case, and it seems likely to revive a debate over the reach of a president's powers in the global war against al-Qaeda.

Civil liberties groups sued the U.S. government on behalf of Aulaqi's father, arguing that the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command's placement of Aulaqi on a capture-or-kill list of suspected terrorists - outside a war zone and absent an imminent threat - amounted to an extrajudicial execution order against a U.S. citizen. They asked a U.S. district court in Washington to block the targeting.

In response, Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the groups are asking "a court to take the unprecedented step of intervening in an ongoing military action to direct the President how to manage that action - all on behalf of a leader of a foreign terrorist organization."

Miller added, "If al-Aulaqi wishes to access our legal system, he should surrender to American authorities and return to the United States, where he will be held accountable for his actions."

In a statement, lawyers for Nasser al-Aulaqi condemned the government's request to dismiss the case without debating its merits, saying that judicial review of the pursuit of targets far from the battlefield of Afghanistan is vital.

"The idea that courts should have no role whatsoever in determining the criteria by which the executive branch can kill its own citizens is unacceptable in a democracy," the American Civil Liberties Union and Center for Constitutional Rights said.

"In matters of life and death, no executive should have a blank check," they said.

The government filed its brief to U.S. District Judge Robert Bates just after a midnight Friday deadline, blaming technical problems, and the late-night maneuvering underscored the political and diplomatic stakes for President Obama. His administration announced last year that it would set a higher bar when hiding details of controversial national security policies.

Justice Department officials said they invoked the controversial legal argument reluctantly, mindful that domestic and international critics attacked former president George W. Bush for waging the fight against terrorism with excessive secrecy and unchecked claims of executive power.

The Obama administration has cited the state-secrets argument in at least three cases since taking office - in defense of Bush-era warrantless wiretapping, surveillance of an Islamic charity, and the torture and rendition of CIA prisoners. It prevailed in the last case last week, on a 6 to 5 vote by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

A senior Justice official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the administration is engaging in "a much narrower use of state secrets" than did its predecessor, which cited the argument dozens of times - often, the official said, to "shut down inquiries into wrongdoing."

In its 60-page filing, the Justice Department cites state secrets as the last of four arguments, objecting first that Aulaqi's father lacks standing, that courts cannot lawfully bind future presidents' actions in as-yet undefined conflicts, and that in war the targeting of adversaries is inherently a "political question."

Robert M. Chesney, a national security law specialist at the University of Texas School of Law, said that Obama lawyers would undoubtedly prefer not to stoke the state-secrets debate, or to risk judicial review of its claim to a borderless battlefield.

"The real big issue here is . . . are we only at war in Afghanistan, or can the U.S. government lawfully use war powers in other cases, at least where the host nation consents or there is no host government?" Chesney said.

"You're trying to avoid a judicial ruling on the merits of the whole issue," Chesney said, adding, "But at the end of the day, if it's your best argument in a case you want to win, you're going to make that argument."

Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

[buglerbilly]

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, CIA Director Leon Panetta, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper defend "state secrets" claim in al-Aulaqi suit

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, September 26, 2010; 4:03 AM

When senior Obama administration officials invoked the state secrets privilege Saturday to dismiss a lawsuit brought on behalf of U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, they declared in federal court that the case threatened to expose secret military and intelligence operations against al Qaeda's overseas network.

In a 60-page filing, the government asked U.S. District Judge Robert Bates to dismiss a lawsuit filed by civil rights groups retained by Aulaqi's father seeking to block his Yemen-based son's placement on the CIA and Joint Special Operations Command capture-or-kill list of suspected terrorists.

The filing also asked the court to dismiss the case without debating the merits of any future actions potentially taken against Aulaqi on the grounds that targeting in wartime is a matter for presidents, and that Aulaqi's father did not have legal standing to bring the case.

Civil rights groups filed a suit last month to halt the targeting of Aulaqi, arguing that such an action outside a war zone and absent an imminent threat amounted to an extrajudicial execution order against a U.S. citizen.

In an effort to keep secret particular operations in Yemen, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said classified "information concerning whether or not U.S. armed forces are planning to undertake military actions in a foreign country, against particular targets, under what circumstances, for what reasons and pursuant to what procedures or criteria" cannot be disclosed without seriously harming national security.

CIA Director Leon Panetta sought to withhold "any information, if it exists, that would tend to confirm or deny any allegations in the complaint pertaining to the CIA."

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. in his declaration cited Aulaqi's leadership role in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and a Dec. 25 bombing plot against a Detroit-bound jetliner.

Government filings quoted Aulaqi as justifying the killings of U.S. citizens including children in a May 23 propaganda video: "No one should even ask us about targeting a bunch of Americans who would have been killed in an airplane. Our unsettled account with America includes, at the very least, one million women and children. I'm not even talking about the men."

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights, representing Nasser al-Aulaqi, said in a statement, "In matters of life and death, no executive should have a blank check."

Robert M. Chesney, a national security law specialist at the University of Texas School of Law, said Obama lawyers would undoubtedly prefer to avoid debate over the limits of unilateral executive wartime powers, or risk judicial review of its claim to a borderless battlefield.

"But at the end of the day, if it's your best argument in a case you want to win, you're going to make that argument," Chesney said. "The real big issue here is . . . are we only at war in Afghanistan, or can the U.S. government lawfully use war powers in other cases, at least where the host nation consents or there is no host government?"

[buglerbilly]

Yemen FM confirms US strikes on Qaeda

By W.G. Dunlop (AFP) – 2 days ago

DUBAI — Yemen's foreign minister acknowledged the United States has launched attacks on Al-Qaeda in his country in an interview published on Thursday, the first confirmation from Sanaa of a US military role.

Abu Bakr al-Kurbi told the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat that the US strikes were suspended in December because his government viewed them as having been unsuccessful.

"Fighting Al-Qaeda is the responsibility of security and anti-terrorism forces in Yemen," Kurbi said.

However, the New York Times reported in mid-August that the US military carried out a secret air strike in May against a suspected Al-Qaeda target in Yemen, killing a deputy provincial governor in the process.

According to the paper, the strike was a secret mission by the US military, and was at least the fourth such assault on Al-Qaeda in the mountains and deserts of Yemen since December.

The United States operates a major counter-terrorism base in Djibouti just across the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait from Yemen.

In June, human rights watchdog Amnesty International released images it said were of fragments of a US Tomahawk cruise missile, reportedly taken at the scene of a December 17 strike in Al-Majalah in Abyan province in the south of Yemen, in which it said 55 people, mostly civilians, were killed.

The White House said US President Barack Obama's top counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan visited Yemen on September 20 and discussed cooperation in the fight against Al-Qaeda.

The United States has become increasingly concerned about the threat posed by Islamist militancy in Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, particularly the activities of his jihadist network's local franchise, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

In the interview, Kurbi also said that while Yemen had launched a manhunt for US-born jihadist preacher Anwar al-Awlaqi, who is on a US most-wanted list, it would not hand him over if it succeeded in capturing him.

"Awlaqi is in an area where we are conducting operations against Al-Qaeda, and he is among those targeted for arrest in these operations," the Yemeni foreign minister said.

"The US has already requested the extradition of other Yemenis holding US citizenship, but we refused because the Yemeni constitution prohibits the extradition of a Yemeni citizen to a third country. This applies to Awlaqi."

In April, a US official said the Obama administration had authorised the targeted killing of Awlaqi, after intelligence agencies concluded the Muslim cleric was directly involved in anti-US plots.

Born in the southwestern US state of New Mexico, Awlaqi, 39, rose to prominence last year after he was linked a US army major who shot dead 13 people in Fort Hood, Texas, and to a Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight on December 25.

Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, faces a growing threat from Al-Qaeda, a sporadic Zaidi Shiite rebellion in the north and a separatist movement in the south.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Britain's deputy ambassador to Yemen survives mortar attack

Britain’s deputy ambassador to Yemen has survived a rocket attack in the capital Sana’a, local security officials say.

By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent, UK Daily Telegraph

Published: 12:03PM BST 06 Oct 2010

It was the second major assassination attempt on a British diplomatic target in the country this year. The ambassador, Timothy Torlot, survived a suicide bombing also aimed at his car in April.

Four men, including one German national, are currently on trial for that attack.

Few details have so far been released on the latest attempt.

According to officials, the rocket landed near an armoured car carrying the deputy head of mission at the British embassy, Fiona Gibb, at around 8.15 on Wednesday morning. It missed, though the car was struck by shrapnel.

The car, whose windscreen was cracked in the incident, was taking five embassy staff in total to work. At least two bystanders are thought to have been hurt, though it is not known how badly, while one British embassy employee was taken to hospital for treatment to minor injuries.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "A British embassy vehicle was attacked at approximately 0815 local time this morning in Sana'a, Yemen," a spokeswoman said. "The vehicle was on its way to the British embassy, with five embassy staff on board.

"One member of staff suffered minor injuries and is undergoing treatment, all others were unhurt. We are informing their families at the moment. We are aware of at least two bystanders injured during the attack, and are seeking further detail."

The attack happened about two miles from the British embassy, which lies in an exposed position on a hillside overlooking Sana’a’s celebrated Old City, opposite the Movenpick hotel. It is heavily defended, with sandbagged machine-gun posts manned by troops watching the road outside.

Armoured vehicles pick up staff members from their homes across the city every morning, deliberately using different routes every day to shake off would-be attackers.

Nevertheless, Othman Ali al-Selwi, 22, a young radical taking his last years of high school, managed to get close to a car carrying Mr Torlot as it passed along a road east of the Old City as it took him to the embassy in the morning of April 26.

Again, there were no serious injuries, and Mr Torlot himself escaped unscathed. The suicide bomber’s head was found on a nearby roof.

The embassy was closed for two weeks afterwards as security procedures were reviewed.

In a separate attack, the French local head of an Austrian oil firm, OMV, was shot dead by one of his security guards shouting "Allahu Akhbar", or God is Great.

The guard was arrested by police.

Yemen is the poorest Arab country, and is afflicted by numerous tribal, regional and religious divisions. Last year, a group of Yemeni and Saudi Islamist militants, some of whom had been released from the Guantanamo Bay internment camp, announced the formation of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen.

Inspired by the Yemeni-American radical preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, they have launched a number of attacks, both within Yemen and in neighbouring Saudi Arabia. They are thought to have been behind the attempt by a former student of University College, London, to blow up an American airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day.

They also claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt on Mr Torlot.

Britain is leading international attempts to form a plan to stabilise the country. It is thought to have special forces operating at least in a training capacity in the country, while providing financial aid to the government.

The United States is also co-operating with Yemeni security forces, and is known to have attacked suspected al-Qaeda bases using remote missiles or drones.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, told the BBC the latest attack was “a reminder that we have some way to go” in efforts to make the country safer.

“As far as I am aware there are no casualties or injuries,” he said. “All our diplomats there are remaining at home or in the embassy.

“It is a difficult and dangerous place to work.”

[buglerbilly]

Yemen attack underlines growing al-Qaeda influence

Tuesday's terrorist attack on Fionna Gibb, United Kingdom’s deputy ambassador to Yemen has underlined the country’s emergence as a hub for the global jihadist movement, along with Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia.

By Praveen Swami, Diplomatic Editor, UK Daily Telegraph

Published: 7:02PM BST 06 Oct 2010


United States counter-terrorism authorities say Yemen-based Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki has been key to AQAP's increasing targeting of the west Photo: AP

More than 30 terrorist strikes have taken place in Yemen this year, claiming the lives of over 50 Yemeni officials. The targets have also included expatriates, tourists and energy infrastructure. Both Timothy Torlott, the United Kingdom’s ambassador to Yemen and Prince Mohammad bin-Nayif, Saudi Arabia’s counter-terrorism chief, narrowly survived assassination attempts.

The violence has grown ever since the formation of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)—a group that has caused growing concern among security services in the west because of its ability to recruit Muslims from the United States and Europe. The organisation was responsible for a plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight in December, 2009.

Jonathan Evans, the director-general of MI5, said last month that the organisation had been dealing with a surge of Yemen-related casework.

The organisation’s key leader is Nasser Abdul Karim al-Wuhayshi, a former personal assistant to Osama bin-Laden, the al-Qaeda chief. Al-Wuhayshi fought against United States troops at the battle of Tora Bora in December, 2001. He was later arrested by Iranian authorities and extradited to Yemen, but escaped from prison in 2006.

Saudi Arabia-based al-Qaeda operatives, hard-hit by targeted security force operations in their own country, joined al-Wuhayshi in Yemen. Several were, ironically, beneficiaries of a Saudi programme intended to rehabilitate jihadists held in Guantánamo Bay—a controversial enterprise that included everything from the provision of financial assistance to art therapy.

Last month, Yemeni authorities arrested another graduate of the rehabilitation programme—Saudi national Jabir Jubran al-Fayfi, who had fought in Afghanistan and Kashmir before his arrest by the United States. Al-Fayfi was among at least two dozen Saudi Gunatanamo detainees reported to have rejoined al-Qaeda.

United States counter-terrorism authorities say Yemen-based Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki has been key to AQAP’s increasing targeting of the west. Al-Awlaki, who was the spiritual mentor for at least two members of the al-Qaeda hijack squad which carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, is said to have inspired the Christmas Day mid-air bomb plot. He is also alleged to have inspired the November, 2009 shooting of 13 US officers at Fort Hood, in Texas.

Most AQAP operations have demonstrated its assault teams possess high levels of intelligence and operational capabilities. In March 2009, an AQAP suicide bomber targeted a convoy from the South Korean embassy, which was carrying investigators and members of the families of an earlier attack which had claimed the lives of four South Korean nations.

Less than 24 hours before the attack on Ms. Gibbs, police had set up check-posts across Sana’a, following intelligence that a major attack was imminent. Yet, security forces there proved unable to deter the attack.

More than 30,000 additional troops are scheduled to be deployed before November, when Yemen will host the prestigious football Gulf Cup—but the attack on Ms Gibbs is likely to be cause of concern to both fans and teams.

Signs are that the threat from AQAP is set to escalate. In an audiotape released on jihadist websites this summer, top AQAP leader Mohammad Said al-Umdah Gharab al-T’aizzi announced that “an army of 12,000 fighters are being prepared in Aden and Abyan”, the organisation’s strongholds. “By this army”, he said, “we will establish an Islamic Caliphate”.

Yemen is seen as a test case for a core element of the United States of America’s global counter-terrorism strategy: building up the security capabilities of vulnerable states across Asia and Africa. From 2002, United States committed substantial funds for modernising Yemen’s counter-terrorism capabilities, and also carried out multiple drone attacks on al-Qaeda units in Yemen. But in May this year, following the death of Jabir al-Shabwani, the deputy governor of Marib Province, in one air strike, the drones offensive was called off.

The country has continued to request international counter-terrorism assistance, but many experts believe a broader crisis of legitimacy will have to be addressed if AQAP is to be defeated.

“Yemen’s facing an awful confluence of crisis”, says Dr. Christopher Boucek, a Yemen expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC. “It has a failing economy, it has an unemployment rate of over 35 per cent, its running out of oil, and its running out of water. In fact, most of the violence in Yemen today isn’t Islamist, its driven by water. All this means that the government just has no presence or ability to deliver services in large parts of the country”.

[buglerbilly]

Cop on al-Qaeda hit list gunned down

October 11, 2010 - 7:29PM

Two attackers on a motorbike in a south Yemen town gunned down an officer who featured on an al-Qaeda hit list of policemen to be killed, a security official said on Monday.

One of the attackers drove the motorbike while the other shot the criminal investigations officer, Ghazi al-Samawi, the official said.

The attack took place Sunday night in the town of Zinjibar in Abyan province.

Witnesses said the attackers yelled "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) as they carried out the killing and then sped off.

Samawi featured on an Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) list of 55 policemen to be targeted for killing.

AQAP on Saturday claimed responsibility for the September ambush of a bus carrying Yemeni intelligence agents, saying it killed 14 people.

The US-based SITE monitoring service also reported that AQAP claimed it had assassinated a colonel named Abdul al-Karim al-Baan in the southern Lahij province, whom it described as "the head of investigations.

Furthermore, AQAP said it had shot an intelligence officer named Al-Hashidi in the province, without saying whether or not he died, and said it was responsible for an attack on a security and intelligence buildings in Lahij.

Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, is battling a growing Al-Qaeda threat, a sporadic Shi'ite rebellion in the north and a separatist movement in the south.

© 2010 AFP

[buglerbilly]

Al-Qaeda magazine published 'tips on how to kill Americans'

A magazine run by the Yemeni group al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula has published a list of tips on how to kill Americans.

Published: 7:00AM BST 12 Oct 2010


Underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab at a desert camp in Yemen Photo: AP

"A random hit at a crowded restaurant in Washington, DC at lunch ... might end up knocking out a few government employees," one article reads, according to the private SITE Intelligence Group, which studies, tracks and analyses the global jihadist network and terrorism financing.

The edition also includes "The Ultimate Mowing Machine," which describes how to use a pickup truck "as a mowing machine, not to mow grass, but mow down the enemies of Allah." It says "to achieve maximum carnage, you need to pick up as much speed as you can while still retaining good control . . . to strike as many people as possible in your first run."

The magazine includes two articles by renegade US cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is on a US government kill-or-capture list for his alleged roles in the attempted Christmas Day airliner bombing, and inspiring the Fort Hood shooting of 13 troops. Army Major Nidal Hassan has been charged in the killings.

There's also an article by the so-called American al-Qaeda, Adam Gadahn.

Another American, Samir Khan, describes how he went from online jihadist in North Carolina to full-time terrorist in Yemen. The article is entitled, "I Am Proud to be a Traitor to America."

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has taken root in Yemen's remote and mountainous Shabwa province, far from the reach of the country's weak central government.

The group rose toward the top of the security agenda of the United States and other world powers after it was linked to the failed Christmas Day attempt to down a Detroit-bound US airliner. The would-be bomber had explosives sewn into his underwear.

The magazine's content reveals the group's evolving strategy of rejecting easier-to-stop spectacular attacks in favour of one-man operations, using everyday objects.

That shows the organisation is "increasingly agile, lethal and opportunistic," according to Yemeni scholar Christopher Boucek from the Carnegie Endowment.

The first edition included an article called "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom."

In the introduction to the latest magazine, the editors boast of "recent US assessments" that declared al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula "one of the most dangerous branches of al-Qaeda." It concludes, "You haven't seen anything yet."

[buglerbilly]

US Terror War in Yemen Frustrated by Politics

October 17, 2010

Associated Press



SAN'A, Yemen -- For nearly a year, the United States has waged a war against al-Qaida in Yemen, largely in deep secrecy. But the militants appear unfazed, and the fragile government of this poor Arab nation is pushing back against American pressure to escalate the fight.

The regime of Yemen's longtime leader, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, is weak, dependent for its survival on the loyalty of unruly tribes and alliances with Muslim extremists. Yemeni authorities also fear too harsh a fight against al-Qaida will alienate a deeply conservative Muslim population where anti-American sentiment is widespread. As a result, the main Yemeni tactic is often to negotiate with tribes to try to persuade them to hand over fugitive militants.

Yemeni officials say Washington is pressing them to be more aggressive.

"The Americans are pushing hard and the government is resisting hard," said Yasser al-Awadi, a senior lawmaker close to Saleh, Yemen's leader of 32 years.

Al-Qaida militants have been building up their presence for several years in Yemen, finding refuge with tribes in the remote mountain ranges where San'a has little control. But they made a stunning show of their international reach in December, when they allegedly plotted a failed Christmas Day attempt to blow up a passenger jet over the U.S. The Obama administration branded Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula a global threat, and has dramatically stepped up its alliance with Saleh's regime to uproot it.

Around 50 elite U.S. military experts are in the country training Yemeni counterterrorism forces - a number that has doubled over the past year. Washington is funneling some $150 million in military assistance to Yemen this year for helicopters, planes and other equipment, along with a similar amount for humanitarian and development aid. San'a says its troops are fanned out around the country, hunting for militants.

Still, there's been little visible progress.

In recent weeks, al-Qaida gunmen have been bold enough to carry out assaults in the capital, San'a, including a failed ambush on a top British diplomat in her car. The government touted as a major success a fierce weeklong siege in September by Yemeni troops against an al-Qaida force in the provincial town of Houta, but most of the militants escaped into nearby, impenetrable mountains.

Days after that siege, the governor of the same province, Shabwa, narrowly escaped gunmen who ambushed his convoy. In nearby Abyan province, an al-Qaida campaign of assassinations that has killed dozens of police and army officers prompted authorities last month to ban motorcycles in urban areas to try to stop cycle-mounted gunmen.

Meanwhile, al-Qaida in Yemen's top leadership remains intact, issuing a Web video last week threatening to cross into neighboring Saudi Arabia to assassinate senior security officials. "Look under your beds before you sleep, you might find one of our bombs," the video warned Saudis, whose government is viewed by al-Qaida as not Islamic, corrupt and too close to America.

And the hunt for Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born radical Islamic cleric who Washington says has become a leader in the group, may have gone cold. The governor of Shabwa province, where al-Awlaki is believed to be hiding in the mountains, told The Associated Press he hasn't been sighted in two months and cast doubt whether the cleric was still in the province.

American officials have been careful not to show any sign of friction. "We believe that abilities of the Yemeni security system are constantly increasing," the State Department's No. 3 diplomat, William Burns, told reporters after meeting Saleh last week.

Still, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi recently brought one dispute out into the open, saying San'a had put a stop to American warplanes or drones carrying out strikes against al-Qaida targets, a tactic that Washington has relied on against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Pakistan.

In December, three airstrikes were carried out against purported al-Qaida targets in two provinces and outside San'a. At least six al-Qaida militants are thought to have been killed in those strikes, along with more than 40 civilians. In a Sept. 30 interview with the Arab daily Al-Hayat, al-Qirbi acknowledged the assaults were carried out by U.S. aircraft.

"American strikes have ceased since December because the Yemeni government insisted that these strikes don't yield any results," he said.

American officials have refused to confirm that U.S. planes carried out the strikes. U.S. officials contacted the past week for further comment also declined to speak.

Yemen at first said its warplanes carried out the strikes to avoid an angry public backlash, according to Yemeni officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the subject.

Visible signs of the American counterterror campaign here are few. Deep in the country of 23 million people, villagers report the round-the-clock sound of drones, presumed to be American craft watching militants. Dozens of informers have been recruited in recent months to keep U.S. counterterrorism officials posted on the militants' movements and chatter, Yemeni security officials say. They also say the Yemenis submit to their U.S. counterparts daily progress reports on efforts to track down al-Awlaki.

With U.S. airstrikes off the table - and American officials saying there is no intention for U.S. troops to fight on the ground - it is up to Yemen's police and military to wage the battle. But their ability to operate is deeply hampered.

Al-Qaida fighters - estimated to number around 300 - have built up strongholds in the provinces of Shabwa, Abyan, Jouf and Marib, regions of daunting mountain ranges where central authority has nearly no presence. At least 70 percent of Shabwa, for example, is a no-go area for security forces, leaving most under the control of armed tribesmen who offer protection to al-Qaida militants, Yemeni security officials say.

Yemen and Washington also disagree on how much of a real threat al-Qaida presents. Yemeni lawmakers and tribal chiefs often maintain that the danger is a myth propagated by Washington to impose its control over the country - or by the San'a government to give it an excuse to strike its domestic enemies.

The United States sees al-Awlaki as the most notorious English-speaking advocate of terrorism directed at America, with a dangerously strong appeal to Muslims in the West, and Washington has put him on a list of militants to kill or capture. U.S. investigators say e-mails link him to the Army psychiatrist accused of last year's killings at Fort Hood, Texas, and that he helped prepare Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, accused in the Christmas airline bombing attempt.

But in Yemen - al-Awlaki's ancestral land - only a few people have heard of him. Those who have say they cannot understand what the fuss is all about. And if he is captured, he will not be extradited to the United States because Yemen's constitution forbids it, Foreign Minister al-Qirbi has said.

"I believe his role and importance are grossly exaggerated," Shabwa's governor Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi told AP. "I don't think that what the Americans are saying about him is totally baseless, but I am confident that it is exaggerated."

More broadly, the government is also reluctant to wage an all-out fight because of Saleh's alliances with militant Islamic groups, including jihadi veterans of the wars in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Chechnya and Iraq. He has let their influence grow as part of an elaborate divide-and-rule game that has helped him stay in power.

In a sign of his accommodation with them, Saleh in late September named powerful Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani - considered by Washington "a specially designated global terrorist" - as the "religious overseer" of the ruling party's ongoing negotiations with opposition parties over electoral reform.

Al-Zindani, who is thought by the United States to be a one-time spiritual mentor of Osama bin Laden, has warned that the U.S.-backed fight against al-Qaida could lead to "foreign occupation" of Yemen.

"The regime has from the start depended on a tripod of military, religious and tribal bases," said prominent analyst Abdel-Ghani al-Iryani. "It continues to think to this day that it's in control of the situation, but I personally think they no longer can."

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Yemen sentences al-Qaeda bombmaker Jamal al-Jaberi

October 19, 2010 - 12:29AM

A Yemeni court has sentenced to death a convicted al-Qaeda bombmaker as authorities step up security at the British and US embassies amid a mounting battle between the army and the jihadists.

The Sanaa court sentenced to death self-confessed militant, Saleh al-Shawsh, on Monday after finding him guilty of involvement in a series of deadly attacks on military targets and oil facilities.

"God willing, your end will come at our hands and the start will be from Abyan," Saleh al-Shawsh shouted from the dock as the judge handed down the sentence.

He was referring to a southern province which has seen deadly clashes between the army and suspected al-Qaeda militants in recent months.

Shawsh confessed to involvement in seven attacks claimed by al-Qaeda in Hadramawt and Marib provinces, east of the capital, Sanaa.

"The actions attributed to me are correct," he told an October 9 hearing.

"I prepared and carried out these operations voluntarily and without duress."

He has lodged no appeal against the verdict.

Shawsh was caught red-handed on January 30 as he prepared to carry out a suicide bombing in the Hadramawt port city of Mukalla.

He was stopped on his motorbike and found to be wearing an explosives belt and carrying two bombs.

Monday's hearing was held amid tight security and police cordoned off the court building.

Several convicted al-Qaeda members have been sentenced to death in recent years, but no executions have been announced by the authorities.

Dozens of al-Qaeda suspects are on trial in Yemen as the security forces step up their operations against the jihadist network, which is particularly active in the south and east.

The deputy head of security in the Abyan town of Mudia, Colonel Mohammed al-Khodr, said six suspected al-Qaeda militants had been killed in clashes since Thursday last week.

Attacks in the province blamed on al-Qaeda since then have killed at least 11 people, most of them soldiers.

Two air strikes against suspected al-Qaeda hideouts in the mountains near Mudia on Sunday killed an elderly man and wounded two women, security and medical sources said.

In the capital, security forces set up checkpoints on roads leading to the British and US embassies after diplomatic missions warned of a heightened risk of attack.

On Friday, the US embassy warned nationals of a "high security threat level in Yemen due to terrorist activities".

Australia raised its travel warning for Yemen to its highest possible level while the British embassy said it was "closed to the public because of the security situation".

Earlier this month, a rocket wounded an embassy staffer in the second attack on a British diplomatic vehicle in the capital in six months.

Last Wednesday, France advised the partners and children of its nationals in Yemen to leave the country because of the deteriorating security situation.

A French contractor working for Austrian energy group OMV was shot dead at the company's compound in the Yemeni capital on October 6, the same day the British embassy car was hit.

Reinforcements were also deployed around police headquarters and other security installations in Sanaa on Monday, an AFP correspondent said.

"Those measures were taken based on information on attacks," a security official said.

The United States has stepped up its military assistance to Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, in the face of fears that it has become a major base for the network's worldwide operations.

© 2010 AFP

[buglerbilly]

Shadow War in Yemen Could Heat Up After ‘Printer Bomb’ Scare

By Spencer Ackerman November 1, 2010 | 9:18 am



The intercontinental mail-bomb plot this weekend didn’t result in any fatalities. But if its real purpose was to draw the U.S. deeper into Yemen, where the plot was hatched, then it might be a different kind of success. An intense and more lethal CIA role in Yemen, without cooperation from the weak Yemeni government, might be imminent, indicating that another undeclared war is about to intensify.

White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan didn’t say it on the Sunday chat shows, but there’s a plan gaining momentum within the Obama administration to expand the CIA’s “operational control” over “U.S. hunter-killer teams” from the Joint Special Operations Command tracking al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based affiliate. The Wall Street Journal reports that the proposal would let the U.S. “unilaterally” attack al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — the presumed (but not directly accused) culprits of the plot – while the Yemeni government retained “deniability” for counterterrorism raids. Most likely, that means official public denunciation of commando assaults and drone strikes from President Ali Abdullah Saleh while he privately winks at the operations and takes U.S. cash.

And if that sounds like Pakistan 2.0, it should. So far, the U.S. has largely relied on cruise missile strikes in Yemen, not drones. But drone strikes, the CIA’s preferred answer to terrorism, would tick up under the new plan. Since the drones require bases from which to fly, it’s worth asking whether Saleh will turn some of his air fields over to CIA Predator teams — as the Pakistani government secretly did. Saleh is on the verge of receiving a military aid package worth $1.2 billion from the U.S., which may help him decide. Whether by drone or by raid, target number one is likely to be al-Qaeda’s Yemen bombmaker, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, who may have made the bombs that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to detonate in his underwear on Christmas. (A close second target is probably extremist preacher and U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki.)

The CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan’s tribal areas has hit record levels of intensity this year, with 92 attacks so far in 2010. As the Journal has previously reported, ever since al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula attempted to blow up a passenger aircraft on Christmas Day, there’s been congressional support for exporting that model to Yemen. A former Green Beret running for Congress, Tommy Sowers, signaled openness to that plan in a recent Danger Room interview. Why? Because shadow wars offer U.S. policymakers the tantalizing prospect of success without responsibility. But rarely can it be said that they actually work as intended.

Both the Obama administration and the Saleh government fear a public backlash in Yemen to stepped-up strikes and raids. And there’s no appetite in war-weary America for putting many boots on the ground in Yemen to harass al-Qaeda. Deploying small commando teams, putting missile-armed drones in the skies and authorizing military units to train Yemeni commandos are a way for the U.S. to step up its efforts while minimizing both domestic and foreign audiences.

It’s usually considered a a miracle option, using just enough force to succeed. Back before 9/11, when there was no political constituency for invading Afghanistan, Bill Clinton imagined teams of “black ninjas” rappelling into Osama bin Laden’s compounds to take al-Qaeda down.

At least that’s the theory. In practice, it’s a lot more messy. The drone campaign in Pakistan is an open secret, fiercely unpopular in the tribal areas in which it’s waged, and cited by Faisal Shahzad as a motivation for his May attempt to blow up Times Square. It’s also hardly a limited commitment: in Pakistan, it’s costing the U.S. $7.5 billion over five years, without counting military aid. And there’s no end in sight, as bombarding al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan has led to the group’s reliance on its Yemen branch, which operates with relative impunity. All that’s led analyst Micah Zenko to decry the “quick allure of military force” as a “civilian’s siren song.”

But more fundamentally, the Obama administration isn’t asking the American public to commit to such an expanded military/intelligence role in Yemen. As Noah Shachtman’s long observed about Pakistan, most of the country doesn’t realize the U.S. is fighting a hot war across the Afghanistan border, with accordingly low levels of oversight; high levels of just-trust-us assurances from the CIA and the administration that the plan is succeeding; little debate over the merits of expanding the war; and controversy over an undeclared war’s legality.

With terrorist attacks emerging from Yemen, few dispute the need for some kind of response. But assuming that the U.S. needs to fight a war there, how sustainable will a shadow war really be? And how deeply will the U.S. ultimately involve itself in yet another country it barely understands?

Photo: U.S. Army

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/shadow-war-in-yemen-could-heat-up-after-printer-bomb-scare/#more-34413#ixzz142erMpNs

[buglerbilly]

Support Grows for CIA Control of SpecOps

November 01, 2010

Agence France-Presse

Support is growing in the U.S. military and the Obama administration for shifting to CIA operational control over elite Special Forces teams secretly in Yemen, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Citing unnamed officials, the newspaper said the foiled mail bombing plot by suspected al-Qaida militants in Yemen has added urgency to an administration review of expanded military options.

Officials said such a shift would allow the United States to strike suspected militant targets unilaterally with greater stealth and speed, the report said.

Allowing U.S. Special Operations Command units to operate under the Central Intelligence Agency would also give the United States greater leeway to strike without the explicit blessing of the Yemeni government, the paper said.

In addition to streamlining the launching of strikes, it would allow the Yemeni government deniability because the CIA operations would be covert, The Journal said.

The White House is already considering adding armed CIA drones to the arsenal against militants in Yemen, the paper said.

© Copyright 2010 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Inside Yemen's al Qaeda heartland

In a special despatch, The Sunday Telegraph looks at the lawless Yemeni region that is the haunt of Anwar al Awlaki and other leaders of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

By Tom Finn in Sana'a, Bill Lowther in Washington, Philip Sherwell and Colin Freeman

Published: 7:30PM GMT 06 Nov 2010


Anwar al-Awlaki is thought to be hiding in southern Yemen Photo: AP


Yemeni army troops take position on September 27, 2010 in the hills overlooking the southern town of Huta Photo: AFP

For someone who lives close to some of the world's most wanted men, Abu Mudrik Bin Fahir takes a suprisingly neighbourly attitude. A tribal sheikh in the eastern Yemeni province of Shabwah, his fiefdom is wedged amid the mountains that serve as the main base for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group that claims to have masterminded last month's parcel bomb plot.

Yet despite the threat of Yemeni government raids, CIA drone attacks and now, possible raids by American special forces, he predicts few people in his area will betray the militants to the authorities.

"Al-Qaeda live side by side with the locals, and many of them have married into local families," said the bearded 48-year-old, gesturing to the mountains beyond his home village of Amkiin. "They are part of the community."

Welcome to what Yemeni officials call "The Triangle of Evil" - the three rugged provinces of Shabwah, Mareb and Jof that form the strongholds of al-Qaeda's new franchise in Yemen. It is in this vast region of arid desert and jagged, Arizona-style canyons that the hunt is now on for Anwar Al Awlaki, the so-called YouTube preacher, and other senior figures behind the parcel bombs discovered on planes in Britain and Dubai ten days ago. Not that Sheikh Fahir thinks they stand much chance of being found.

"The terrain here is more inaccessible and tougher than Tora Bora in Afghanistan," he said, referring to the remote mountain caves where Osama Bin Laden famously gave the US forces the slip in 2001. "The British Army, when they were in Aden, struggled in these mountainous regions, and so I tell you, the weak Yemeni Army will have no chance whatsoever."

As he spoke last week, US security officials told The Sunday Telegraph that a new effort was underway to flush out Awlaki, whose internet-based sermons are blamed for recruiting hundreds of Muslims to the the cause of violent jihad, including Roshonara Choudhry, the London student convicted last week of the attempted murder of the MP Stephen Timms.

In the skies above Sheikh Fahir's village, the wasp-like sound of CIA-controlled drones could be heard, and in the southern Yemeni town of Jaar, where al-Qaeda supporters openly preach in the flyblown market, Yemeni troops mounted a ground operation in which a senior militant was reported killed. On Saturday, a Yemeni judge ordered police to find Awlak "dead or alive" after convening a trial for his alleged role in a plot to kill a Frenchman at a Yemeni oil compound.

US naval ships in the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden were also on alert, after receiving intelligence that Awlaki, along with Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the Saudi-born explosives thought to have crafted the parcel bombs, might try to flee by sea to neighbouring Somalia. American officials believe the pair could easily be given passage in an Arab dhow from the smuggling gangs that traffick drugs, arms and people across the 200-mile wide stretch of water. The fugitives would then be offered shelter from fellow jihadists with al Shebab, the Somali al-Qaeda affiliate with which AQAP has cultivated ties.

"The US naval presence in the area is equipped to stop any vessel that falls under suspicion," said one American security source. "It is likely that some vessels will be halted and searched."

However, even if such a search were to scoop up Awlaki, it would have only limited effect on AQAP's operational capabilities. While the Yemeni-born, US educated preacher is the best known face of the movement, security experts say he is little more than a mid-ranking figure overall. The "Triangle of Evil" is home to scores of other senior commanders, who not only control an estimated 400 loyal fighters, but enjoy the tacit support of the tribes among whom they have made their home.

Unlike in Iraq, where al-Qaeda suffered a backlash after terrorising people in the neighbourhoods that embraced it, in Yemen the movement has been careful not to alienate its hosts. Taliban-style beheadings and amputations are rare, and its main targets are the Yemeni military and the West rather than local civilians.

It buys tribal loyalty by paying generous tithes, and benefits from the region's idiosynchratic traditions of hospitality: tribes who will readily wage decade-long feuds with each other over minor slights may nonethless baulk at handing over a guest to outside authority.

"al-Qaeda is playing on a mixture of tribal and customary law," said Gregory Johnsen, a fellow of the American Institute for Yemeni Studies and author of a respected blog on Yemeni affairs. "The tribes in Yemen also have a history of using outside forces, such as socialist movements, as a wedge against the state. There have also been instances of Qaeda buying hospitality, although in general it is a very murky picture in terms of what is going on."

In an area where most people earn less than $2 a day, al-Qaeda's brand of radical Islam is often seen as a purer cause than Yemen's weak and corrupt central government. Rather than just issueing bloodcurdling calls for jihad, AQAP propaganda also articulates tribal grievances about unemployment and the lack of money that the area gets from Yemen's oil industry, which has pipes snaking across the desert floor. As Sultan Fareed, a sheikh from Awlaki's home village of al-Saeed, said in a recent newspaper interview: "Al-Qaeda haven't killed anyone here, so we don't have to hand them to the authorities."

More worryingly for the West, the Yemeni authorities themselves often take a similarly ambivalent line. In a region where menfolk carry AK47s like walking sticks, it has historically found it simpler to bribe troublesome tribes than tackle them militarily, leaving it ill-equipped to quell a determined foe like al-Qaeda.

Take, for example, last month's siege against the al-Qaeda stronghold of Hawta, a typically Yemeni town of towering houses built into a cliffside in central Shabwah. Government forces, who surrounded the area with tanks and artillery, trumpeted it as a major blow against terrorism, but that was not how it was seemed to Sheikh Fahir, whose village lies just a few valleys away.

"The siege of Hawta was ended by sheikhs who negotiated with al-Qaeda militants to peacefully leave the town," he said. "The government had very little to do with it, though they made out to be their success. Al-Qaeda have just relocated to camps in the mountains."

Unable to rely on the Yemeni government, some factions within the Washington security establishment are now pushing President Barack Obama to authorise a beefed-up role for US covert operations in the region. The CIA has already conducted a number of drone missile strikes against suspected AQAP members, including one last December that killed several militants in Wadi Rafadh, a valley in Shabwah province. But now they want to extend their remit to include boots-on-the-ground missions, a move that has sparked objections from the Pentagon, which say that experience in Iraq and Afghanistan has shown that secretive spy-run operations have a habit of getting out of hand. Unlike US military operations, CIA missions do not require the permission of the Yemeni government.

"The CIA is pushing hard for control of greater clandestine operations in Yemen, but the Pentagon right up to Defence Secretary Robert Gates is very reluctant to grant this," observed Dan Goure, a Pentagon consultant. "I expect this decision to rise to the President."

Meanwhile, another debate is raging within the Awalik tribe itself, which is one of the largest in the region, over whether to continue to shelter its most infamous son. While some sheikhs believe that continuing to harbour Anwar al Awlaki will now bring nothing but trouble, others fear reprisals from al-Qaeda should they give him up. Last month, the government gave sheikhs from the tribe money and guns to start hunting for militants in their territory in the Awalik mountain range in Shabwah, but despite the involvement of about 1,000 men, a two-day operation yielded not a single arrest.

Saeed Obeid, a Yemeni expert and author of several books on al-Qaeda, is not surprised. "In the media and according to statements by tribal leaders, the Awalik tribe are with the government," he said. "But in their Internet forums, when you investigate it further, they claim that they don't accept any external intervention, and that they will never surrender Awlaki."

[Redcoat]

It is a little known fact that Britain fought a covert war in the Yemen 50 years ago using a small band of "former" members of the SAS no fuss no publicity AND total victory oh how times have changed

[buglerbilly]

It is a little known fact that Britain fought a covert war in the Yemen 50 years ago using a small band of "former" members of the SAS no fuss no publicity AND total victory oh how times have changed

It's a whole different ball game now and the same result would NOT be achieved by the same methods............unfortunately!

[buglerbilly]

U.S. deploying drones in Yemen to hunt for Al-Qaeda, has yet to fire missiles

By Greg Miller, Greg Jaffe and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writers

Sunday, November 7, 2010; 12:48 AM

The United States has deployed Predator drones to hunt for al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen for the first time in years but has not fired missiles from the unmanned aircraft because it lacks solid intelligence on the insurgents' whereabouts, senior U.S. officials said.

The use of the drones is part of a campaign against an al-Qaeda branch that has claimed responsibility for near-miss attacks on U.S. targets that could have had catastrophic results, including the recent plot to place parcels packed with explosives on cargo planes.

U.S. officials said the Predators have been patrolling the skies over Yemen for several months in search of leaders and operatives of the group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. After withstanding a flurry of attacks involving Yemeni forces and U.S. cruise missiles earlier this year, AQAP's leaders "went to ground," a senior Obama administration official said.

The use of U.S. drones in Yemen underscores the deep U.S. reliance on what has become a signature weapon against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

The deployment also represents an attempt by the Obama administration to reinvigorate a campaign that has gone without a visible U.S. strike for nearly six months. Officials praised Yemeni cooperation and said they have been given wide latitude. Pressed on whether the drones would be free to shoot, a second administration official said, "The only thing that does fall into the 'no' category right now is boots on the ground."

The officials and others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military and intelligence operations.

Yemeni officials said the United States had not yet pushed for the use of Predator-fired missiles and indicated that they had deep reservations about weapons they said could prove counterproductive.

"Why gain enemies right now?" said Mohammed A. Abdulahoum, a senior Yemeni official. "Americans are not rejected in Yemen; the West is respected. Why waste all this for one or two strikes when you don't know who you're striking?"

Instead, Yemen has asked the administration to speed up shipment of promised helicopters and other equipment for its own use, and to recognize the backlash that a more visible U.S. campaign could cause. A U.S. defense official said plans were being made to nearly double military aid, to $250 million, in 2011.

Senior administration officials said that cooperation with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has intensified in the aftermath of the parcel bomb plot and that the subsequent shutdown of commercial and cargo flights from Yemen focused the government's attention on the cost of AQAP's presence in the country. Officials said Saleh had been pushed in extensive talks last week to expand Yemen's own effort and allow increased U.S. action.

"Where we are right now with our capabilities, with our platforms, and with our authorities and permissions," the U.S.-Yemeni pursuit of al-Qaeda "might look very different in 12 months or 18 months," the senior Obama administration official said.

U.S. officials described a major buildup of intelligence and lethal assets already underway, including the arrival of additional CIA teams and up to 100 Special Operations force trainers, and the deployment of sophisticated surveillance and electronic eavesdropping systems operated by spy services including the National Security Agency.

The officials said senior members of AQAP, including the U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, have taken advantage of Yemen's rugged terrain and their ties to its tribal networks to all but disappear from view.

"The Yemeni government has the best knowledge" of the group's activities, the senior administration official said. "But their knowledge is limited, too."

A Yemeni judge ordered police Saturday to find Aulaqi "dead or alive," the Associated Press reported, after the cleric failed to appear at his trial for his alleged role in the killing of foreigners.

U.S. officials declined to provide details on the drones that have been deployed to Yemen, except to say that they are operated by the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), a clandestine military force responsible for tracking suspected terrorists around the world. By contrast, drones used in Pakistan are operated by the CIA.

Intelligence more sparse

The Predators in Yemen are flown from a base outside the country that U.S. officials declined to identify. The most likely options include U.S. military installations in Djibouti and Qatar.

The lack of intelligence in Yemen helps to explain why U.S. counterterrorism operations in al-Qaeda's two main strongholds - Pakistan and Yemen - have been on a different course.

The pace of drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal belt has escalated sharply over the past several months, an increase that has matched the intensified U.S. war effort against the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. CIA-operated drones launched 38 attacks in Pakistan during September and October, plus four so far this month.

CIA strikes there are aimed not only at top al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan but at Taliban groups that use safe havens there to attack U.S. troops across the border.

Officials said U.S. spy agencies have had nearly a decade to assemble a detailed picture of al-Qaeda and other militant groups in Pakistan, studying aerial images, monitoring cellphone calls and recruiting informants who help direct where drones hover and strike.

"It's like having Google Earth in one area, and you're looking at it constantly, day in, day out, 24-7" over the past nine years, the senior official said of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghanistan border.

In contrast, the official described the intelligence buildup in Yemen as "evolutionary," and moving into high gear only since President Obama took office.

The official contrasted Pakistan's relatively compact tribal areas to the vast, untracked spaces of Yemen's mountains and deserts and noted the ability of the Yemeni insurgents to blend in among the population.

"In places like Waziristan , where you have terrorists in groups that huddle together, that train together, in these redoubts that you can actually sort of see and track and follow, your confidence in doing certain things without incurring collateral damage . . . is much different," the senior Obama administration official said. In Yemen, the official added, "your knowledge base is lower. . . . The fidelity of the picture is less."

The official acknowledged that some parts of the U.S. government are eager to use in Yemen a tool that has been so successfully employed in Pakistan.

"There are a lot of people who are really feeling good about what they're doing in certain parts of the world," the official said.

"But that doesn't mean that, oh, if you'll just let us do this over here you're going to have a different picture or different results" than is now the case in Yemen. The hesitation to use drones in Yemen, he said, "is not just knowledge of targets. It's also issues having to do with collateral damage."

Inflaming hostility

The stakes were illustrated in May when a U.S. cruise missile strike against an alleged al-Qaeda gathering killed a deputy provincial governor. Shrapnel from cluster munitions carrying U.S. markings were later found at the scene, prompting protests from the Yemeni government and tribal outrage. Saleh sent troops to Marib province, east of the capital, to put down unrest.

U.S. officials expressed skepticism that the deputy governor was in fact meeting with al-Qaeda operatives in an effort to convince them to disarm, as some Yemeni officials said. But the harsh reaction was real, reinforcing concerns that errant strikes can inflame hostility toward the United States.

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said the drones' surveillance prowess is often overstated and will be of limited use in identifying al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen without the aid of signal intercepts or human sources on the ground.

"All Land Rovers look pretty much alike," said a former high-ranking U.S. intelligence official familiar with operations in Yemen. "You have to have something that tells you this is the one to follow."

While declining to say whether the JSOC drones in Yemen are armed, officials said they would not hesitate to carry out a strike if solid intelligence were acquired. One U.S. official indicated that the U.S. reliance on cruise missiles last spring did not reflect a preference of those weapons over Predators but the fact that drones were not in position at the time.

The only known drone strike to have occurred in Yemen came in 2002, when the CIA fired on a vehicle carrying Abu Ali al-Harithi, an al-Qaeda operative accused of organizing the 2000 attack on the USS Cole. The attack also killed a U.S. citizen, Kamal Derwish, who the CIA knew was in the car but was not the primary target of the strike.

The absence of drones from the region in the years that followed reflected the temporary decline of al-Qaeda's presence in Yemen, as well as intense demand for Predators and other unmanned aircraft in theaters that were seen as a higher U.S. priority, including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Meanwhile, al-Qaeda was able to regroup, merging its Saudi Arabian and Yemeni affiliates into AQAP, which is now seen by some officials as a more pressing threat to the United States than the main al-Qaeda organization.

Aulaqi, a New Mexico-born cleric tied to several terrorist plots, earlier this year became the first U.S. citizen to be added to the list of terrorism suspects the CIA is authorized to kill. Another key operative is Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, a 28-year-old Saudi national, who is thought to have devised the bombs that were contained in packages mailed from Yemen two weeks ago, as well as the explosive device hidden in the underwear of a young Nigerian accused of attempting to take down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day.

[I]millergreg@washpost.com jaffeg@washpost.com deyoungk@washpost.com

DeYoung reported from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

[buglerbilly]

Yemen Wants Billions to Fight Terrorism

November 10, 2010

Associated Press

The government in Yemen obviously wants another set of villas in Bahrain or Abu Dhabi...............:doh


SAN'A, Yemen -- Yemen wants far more military aid than the U.S. has promised in the fight against escalating terrorism -- billions of dollars more than Washington has in mind.

And yet Yemeni authorities have little to show for the significant Western aid that has already poured into the impoverished country.

In fact, the al-Qaida offshoot that claimed responsibility for the failed plot to send mail bombs from Yemen to the U.S. appears more emboldened than ever. And Yemen's government seems to feel more threatened by an increasingly restless secessionist rebellion in the south, where it has little control, than by militants linked to Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

Since the Oct. 28 discovery of the two mail bombs, U.S. officials are pressing Yemen for more and faster cooperation on intelligence-sharing and more opportunities to train Yemeni counterterrorism teams. Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world and the government's authority is weak in areas outside the capital of San'a.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said over the weekend that the U.S. could do more to help train Yemeni forces to combat terrorists. U.S. officials told The Associated Press last week that military aid to Yemen would double to $250 million in 2011 -- underscoring the growing realization of the threat al-Qaida poses to the fragile state.

President Obama called President Ali Abdullah Saleh last week to say the aid is part of a broader, more comprehensive strategy to promote security as well as economic and political development.

But Hesham Sharaf, a Yemeni deputy minister, said the proposed U.S. assistance is "nothing" compared to what Yemen needs. Government officials are talking about a two-year program to develop the armed forces that would cost around $6 billion, he said.

Yemen says it needs to develop its coast guard and acquire more than a dozen combat helicopters, satellites and equipment such as night-vision goggles and spyware.

"Technology like satellites should be in Yemen's hands, not images handed down to us," Sharaf said. "We must have special Yemeni forces trained to use combat helicopters, not Americans. If they [Americans] go on the ground, people will criticize us and say we are weak."

As part of its aid, the U.S. provides equipment and training to Yemeni forces. But there are ongoing U.S. concerns that Yemen could use the equipment and those forces against Shiite rebels who have fought government forces intermittently for years in the north or a separate front against secessionists in the south.

Many critics inside Yemen say the aid is going to fight government opponents, particularly the southern secessionists, and that Yemen is simply milking the West for money to carry out an agenda that doesn't necessarily make fighting al-Qaida its top priority.

Soon after the mail bombs were detected, other government officials echoed Sharaf's call for more equipment and assistance to fight al-Qaida.

The failed attacks exposed the government's lack of success against al-Qaida and its growing threat to the regime and showed that the group was using Yemen as a base to plot international attacks.

Yemen is clearly expected to show how it is using the aid it has been given. In addition to asking for more intelligence cooperation, a U.S. official said Washington also wants to have access to prisoners allegedly from al-Qaida.

Much Western aid has poured into Yemen's security and military agencies in the 10 years since al-Qaida bombers steered an explosives-laden boat into the Navy destroyer USS Cole that was refueling at a Yemeni port, killing 17 U.S. Sailors.

In the past five years, U.S. military assistance to Yemen has totaled about $250 million. That covered programs to train and equip Yemeni forces to combat al-Qaida, as well as buy boats and other equipment for the airport and seaports. It also paid for training senior officers here and in the U.S.

About 50 elite U.S. military experts are in the country training Yemeni counterterrorism forces -- a number that has doubled in the past year.

At least four new security branches to combat terrorism as well as a new anti-terrorism administration in the air force were created, with much Western financing and technical support.

Many in Yemen say Western assistance is going to train new forces -- many of which are commanded by Saleh's eldest son and other relatives -- instead of supporting older troops battered by other wars.

A Yemeni coast guard service was founded soon after the USS Cole attack with U.S. aid. A special forces unit and the National Security Agency were formed around the same time to supplement the work of the intelligence services.

An anti-terrorism unit under the Interior Ministry was also added, and a similar anti-terrorism administration was created under the air force.

Although the U.S. trains Yemeni special forces, Yemen frequently sends part of its regular armed forces -- estimated to number about a half-million -- to hunt al-Qaida militants in the south. And the new U.S. demand for more intelligence-sharing and access to prisoners is viewed in Yemen as a move by the U.S. to increase its oversight of how U.S. military assistance is being used.

The presence of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has grown in Yemen and has become increasingly emboldened, directing attacks overseas and inside the country against security officials and foreigners.

Last month's mail bombs traveled from Yemen on several flights before they were discovered in airports in England and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. They did not explode, but investigators said they could have.

U.S. intelligence has linked U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed hiding in southern Yemen, to last year's failed Christmas bombing of a Detroit-bound jetliner. He also had ties to some of the 9/11 hijackers and to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in November 2009 at the military base in Fort Hood, Texas. Yemeni officials have said al-Awlaki may have given his blessing for the mail bomb plot.

Al-Qaida elements have increasingly taken refuge in the south, where there is little government control.

Government critics suspect the troops used against al-Qaida-linked militants in the south are aimed mainly at weakening the secessionist movement.

A security official said the government doesn't have a clear strategy against al-Qaida. Many of the raids on alleged al-Qaida hideouts yield no specific or strategic arrests or killings but end with large deployment of troops in southern opposition strongholds, added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media.

A Shiite rebellion in northern Yemen on the border with Saudi Arabia has also been simmering for about six years, with intermittent fighting. A year ago, Yemeni forces fought a flare-up in the north, which was put down only with the help of Saudi forces.

A fragile cease-fire is holding with the northern rebels, but the fighting has left the army battered, and much of that territory is outside government control.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Yemen: the war on terror and a deadly game of cat and mouse

Tribal customs and a deadly ambivalence towards the West mean that the hunt for Anwar al-Awlaki will be long and frustrating.


The hunt for al-Qaeda in Yemen, and its spiritual mentor, Anwar al-Awlaki, has become the latest spectator sport of a security-obsessed world Photo: REUTERS

By Richard Spencer 8:00AM GMT 13 Nov 2010

Sheikh Ahmed Shuraif certainly has the tools for the job the Americans and British want him to do. Kalashnikov rifles litter the floor of the spacious lounge where he and his men gather in the afternoon to chew qat, Yemenis' favourite narcotic leaf. And this is just his town house in Yemen's capital, Sana'a. Out in the province of Marib, where he commands one of Yemen's most important tribes, he is reputed to have the country's largest private army, including tanks.

Since Marib is one of the main homes of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Sheikh Ahmed should be a useful ally in the war on terror, his men the very people the West hopes will turn on the terrorists in their midst. Unfortunately, he says, it is not as simple as that. "In our religion we are against what al-Qaeda does," he says, smiling gently and thoughtfully from his couch in the middle of the room. "What they are doing is very bad. It's not in Islam at all."

His sons, one a provincial deputy governor, and some of his followers line the cushions set against the walls around him, nodding and hanging on his every word. "But who is al-Qaeda, and who is not? Even they don't know themselves sometimes. How can we tell? In our tribal custom, if someone comes among us we have to protect them. If we discover later they are al-Qaeda, we cannot turn them in. We would no longer accept him, but we would not give him to the government."

The hunt for al-Qaeda in Yemen, and its spiritual mentor, Anwar al-Awlaki, has become the latest spectator sport of a security-obsessed world. If the battle raging in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a bloody teenage computer game, with militants taking on western infantry with mines, and being struck in turn by drone-fired missiles, the war in Yemen is more cerebral.

Scientifically minded al-Qaeda recruits invent devilish ways of smuggling bombs out of the hills and into the homes of their enemies – odourless explosives in Fedex packages, youthful assassins with bombs hidden in their private parts. Those taking them on have to plan equally cleverly. The war is as much psychological as physical. Al-Qaeda's new strategy is to set the West on edge rather than destroy manifestations of its power, as in 9/11. It wants to undermine our self-confidence and credibility with its potential recruits.

Aerial attacks by drones, as in Afghanistan, along with the inevitable "collateral damage", could play into al-Qaeda's hands. The government has put Awlaki on trial in absentia since al-Qaeda sent two parcel bombs two weeks ago via courier to America, which were intercepted in Dubai and England before they could explode. It has also launched raids with the overt purpose of seizing or killing al-Qaeda's local leader, Nasser al-Nuhayshi, and his number two, the former Guantanamo inmate Said al-Shehri, without success.

But co-operation with the West, long-term development, education – these are the new watchwords, and they require local bosses like Sheikh Ahmed to put them into effect. The Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has compared ruling his country to dancing on the heads of snakes. Many "snakes", in Mr Saleh's view, are tribal leaders like Sheikh Ahmed, who must be constantly placated if they are to cooperate.

In the areas known to shelter al-Qaeda – primarily the central provinces of Marib, al-Jawf, Abyan and Awlaki's homeland, Shabwa, men like Sheikh Ahmed hold sway. Despite occasional army forays, al-Qaeda seems to operate reasonably freely – oil workers stationed in Shabwa report seeing even Awlaki regularly driving around the countryside.

How much Mr Saleh can do to recruit the sheikhs to the cause of chasing the West's enemies is the big question. "He can't control the whole country, but he can put a squeeze on any sheikh he wants to," claims one senior western official. "If he wanted to make it not worth their while to shelter al-Qaeda he could."

If that is true, the ambivalence of men like Sheikh Ahmed is an unwelcome sign of how much needs to be done. And the sheikh claims genuine efforts have not even started. "There's no discussion with the government – nothing," he said. "They have offered nothing to us."

In al-Jawf, one of the sheikhs negotiating with al-Qaeda on behalf of the government was yet more unnerving. Sheikh Abdullah al-Jamili made no bones that his main concern was to exact compensation for one of his men killed in a shoot-out with al-Qaeda three months ago, rather than imposing a new national security regime. He claimed to meet al-Qaeda leaders regularly, including Awlaki "a few days ago". Confrontation was not on his mind, he suggested. "If you want to meet anyone from al-Qaeda, you should come to al-Jawf," he says, disarmingly. "I'm carrying words between al-Qaeda and the government – I'm trying to make peace between them."

What Sheikh Abdullah means by this cryptic comment he refuses to say over the telephone and The Daily Telegraph declined his offer, which would have been prevented by the government in any case, of going to find out. But peace between the government and al-Qaeda has a particular resonance in Yemen, where, as Sheikh Ahmed pointed out, the government had Awlaki in prison three years ago and then let him out.

It is no secret that al-Qaeda is in part an accidental creation of the West – formed from volunteers who served with the American- and Saudi-backed mujahideen against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan. While these former allies turned against each other in the Nineties, in Yemen the situation remains far less clear.

Today's generation of jihadis is largely composed of disaffected, fundamentalist locals with an added backbone of former Saudi inmates of Guantanamo Bay, but they owe their organisational existence to an older generation who served Osama bin Laden personally in Afghanistan. Many of those were recruited by Brigadier-General Ali Muhsin al-Ahmar, Mr Saleh's powerful head of security, and he and his apparatus have found it hard to turn their backs on them. They played a vital role in the civil war which followed the reunification of north and south Yemen in 1990. After al-Qaeda bombed the USS Cole in Aden harbour in 2000, the chief planner was seen walking the streets of Sana'a with the deputy head of the internal security service as a manhunt for him was under way.

Even today, Mr Saleh's government and his judiciary seem to veer between support for engagement, particularly economically, with the West, and radical Islam. Mr Saleh has supported clerics who feature on the United States's list of globally designated terrorists, while his judges have refused to convict militants for terrorist acts committed abroad. His parliament, roughly democratic, recently refused to pass legislation setting a minimum marriage age for girls.

Mr Saleh, and his general, are now assumed to be fully on-board – government officials have been targeted and murdered in recent years. But the assumption is not whole-hearted. "Hitherto he hasn't seen al-Qaeda as threatening his survival," the western official says. "He may even see al-Qaeda as a useful way of getting the world's attention and more resources. But that would be a mistake. He cannot placate al-Qaeda."

The most strategically significant result of the attempt by the al-Qaeda-backed "underpants bomber" to bring down a plane over Detroit last Christmas was the formation by a number of governments, led by Britain, of the "Friends of Yemen". The group is friendly in the sense that it promises much-needed development aid. Yemen's neighbours are only too well aware of the recruitment possibilities for radicalism provided by a population of which 35 per cent are unemployed and 60 per cent are under 25 – particularly one surrounded by so much oil wealth. Yemen's own limited oil supplies, which until recently provided three-quarters of government revenue, are dwindling fast, with production last year falling by almost half.

But the group is friendly in the way a police interrogator is friendly, bearing the implicit threat of exclusion from the outside world – or worse – if Yemen does not put its house in order. That threat is already partly being made good, with bans on air travel, visa approval and freight imposed by several countries since the parcel bombs. This enrages government supporters like Faris al-Sanabani, publisher of the Yemen Observer newspaper. "It's like a collective punishment," he said. "The bridges that are being cut are very important – sons following fathers in studying abroad have a positive impact on the country."

Mr Saleh has been in power for 30 years, and most diplomats and aid workers, to say nothing of the locals, agree that Yemen has not, of late, flourished under his rule. They also accept there is no real alternative. That makes his ability to force his will on his fractious country key to our fight with al-Qaeda. "Foreign interference makes things worse – history shows that," said Mr Sanabani. "It should be left to Yemenis to confront al-Qaeda."

"Different countries are talking of sending their military to protect Yemen from al-Qaeda," said Sheikh Ahmed, who may dwell at length on his president's failures but agrees on this one point. "The country will never accept it."

But Washington already has its drones out in force, even if they are not armed – yet – and a decade of engagement has had limited results. If the next parcel bomb from Yemen actually explodes, both Sheikh Ahmed and Mr Sanabani may find that is a risk America is prepared to take.

[buglerbilly]

Terrorists posing as refugees in Yemen

Militants from war-torn Somalia are using refugee routes into Yemen as a cover for making contact with an al-Qaeda group responsible for a series of plots against the West.


The militant Islamist militia, al-Shabaab, are battling what remains of the United Nations-backed Somali government for control of the capital, Mogadishu Photo: REUTERS

By Richard Spencer in al-Kharaz Camp, Aden 9:00PM GMT 21 Nov 2010

Yemeni officials have claimed that members of the al-Shabaab terrorist group have been arrested in refugee camps for Somalis. The government fears that refugee camps such as Al-Kharaz, which now houses 18,000 out of an estimated 2-300,000 Somali refugees in Yemen, could become recruiting grounds for radicals.

Officials also claim there are “regular links”, including arms transfers between al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group accused of planting parcel bombs on planes last month.

“I see Shabaab people on the streets of Aden,” said one former Somali airport official who fled with his family when he was threatened and now lives in a fly-blown two-room hut in the al-Kharaz refugee camp, two hours’ drive into the desert from the port city.

Thousands of Somalis are taking to open boats every month for the eight-hour journey across the Gulf of Aden, many still bearing the physical scars of their country’s brutal civil war.

Most say they are leaving from fear of al-Shabaab, the militant Islamist militia that is battling what remains of the United Nations-backed Somali government for control of the capital, Mogadishu. It offers young men the choice of joining them or being killed.

The Yemeni government says it is to make it harder for refugees to claim asylum as a way to cut the links. It is considering a proposal to remove automatic refugee status to all Somali arrivals and then seek international support for repatriating those not granted asylum. The move is opposed by aid workers, who say there is little evidence to back the claims. The UN, which runs Al-Kharaz and another camp in Aden, said it had received no approach from the government over the change of rules.

[buglerbilly]

Yemen car bomb kills 17, rattling fragile truce

November 24, 2010 - 8:59PM

A car bomb struck a religious procession in a Shiite rebel bastion of north Yemen on Wednesday, killing 17 people and rattling a fragile truce with the government, a rebel spokesman and a tribal chief said.

"Seventeen people were killed and 15 wounded in the car bombing that targeted a Shiite procession in Al-Jawf province," rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam told AFP by telephone.

Abdulsalam said the attack targeted the faithful who were preparing to mark Al-Ghadeer, the day on which Shiites commemorate the anointment of Ali, one of the key figures of their faith, as successor to the Prophet Mohammed.

The anniversary has long been a source of contention between the Sunni and Shiite branches of the faith and a tribal leader in the province told AFP that the bombing was the work of a Sunni militant loyal to Al-Qaeda.

"A suicide bomber driving a four-wheel drive vehicle blew himself up alongside the procession," the tribal chief said.

"Among the dead was provincial tribal chief Hussein bin Ahmed bin Hadhban and his son," he added.

Other tribal sources warned that the death toll was likely to rise. One told AFP it "could reach 30."

Yemen is the ancestral homeland of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and has been a growing focus for the operations of his worldwide jihadist network sparking a sharp increase in US military aid.

The mountains in the west of Al-Jawf province and neighbouring Saada have been a stronghold of Zaidi Shiite rebels in the uprising they have been waging against the Sanaa government on and off for the past six years.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday that there had been an "alarming escalation" in fighting in the region, despite a truce signed between the rebels and Sanaa in February.

The agency said that aid agencies and witnesses had reported that clashes between the rebels and pro-government tribes had erupted in Saada province on November 13.

"At least 20 people have been killed reportedly and others wounded over the past 10 days in the worst violence in northern Yemen since the signing of the ceasefire in February," UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said, speaking before the latest unrest.

The Yemeni army launched a major offensive against the rebels in August last year sparking a new round of conflict that spilled over the border of the Arab world's poorest country with oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

That fighting ended with an uneasy truce in February mediated by gas-rich Qatar.

But it has been repeatedly shaken by clashes between the rebels and pro-government tribes, and Qatar has been forced to undertake a series of mediation missions in a bid to broker implementation of the peace deal.

Clashes late last month killed two rebel fighters and a pro-government tribesman, a tribal chief said.

The rebels draw their support from among followers of the Zaidi branch of Shiite Islam, who are in the minority in mainly Sunni Yemen but form the majority community in the north.

There have been six rounds of fighting between the rebels and government troops since the uprising first erupted in 2004.

The UNHCR says that more than 300,000 people have fled the fighting, of whom just 20,000 have so far returned to homes in Saada province.

© 2010 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.

[buglerbilly]

Yemen Hearts U.S. Arms, Iffy on Troops

By Spencer Ackerman November 30, 2010 | 7:01 am



Yemen has been more than happy to take hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. counterterrorism aid over the past year. It may eagerly take over a billion more starting next year. But Yemeni leaders aren’t so keen on completely signing away their sovereignty as a U.S. shadow war against al-Qaeda expands.

Barely a week after an al-Qaeda operative who received his explosives in Yemen tried to blow up a plane over Detroit on Christmas, President Ali Abdullah Saleh rebuffed a request from General David Petraeus to embed U.S. personnel inside Yemeni military units for counterterrorist strikes. “You cannot enter the operations area and you must stay in the joint operations center,” Saleh told Petraeus during a January 2010 meeting, according to an account of their conversation disclosed by WikiLeaks.

The Saleh-Petraeus cable has received media attention because it describes Saleh blithely pledging to lie about U.S. complicity in air strikes against al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch. But it reveals much more about the future course of a growing undeclared war in Saleh’s country — namely, a detached leader keen for U.S. military aid but uncomfortable with granting carte blanche for U.S. military operations.
‪
Saleh’s key request for Petraeus is summed up in a sub-headline in the cable: “Helicopters, Helicopters, Helicopters.” Saleh told the then-Central Command chief that all he needs are 12 attack helicopters for his commandos to “capture terrorist suspects and identify victims following strikes,” a sale that he contended would reduce the need for “fighter jets and cruise missiles against terrorist targets.” Petraeus was noncommittal, but Saleh pledged not to use them against Houthi rebels in Yemen’s northern provinces: “Only against al-Qaeda.”

Months later, in September of this year, Central Command asked Congress for $83 million to give Yemen’s Air Force Hueys and Russian-designed Mi-17 ‘copters. But Petraeus had his doubts about Saleh’s flyboys. “Only four out of 50 planned U.S. Special Operations Forces Command training missions with the Yemeni Air Force had actually been executed in the past year,” reads a paraphrase of Petraeus’ discussion with the Yemeni president, who pledged to personally turn the cooperation around.

The Yemeni president also “did not have any objection” to use U.S. fixed-wing bombers “out of sight” on alert “outside Yemeni territory” ready to attack al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Although the stated purpose of the transition to piloted aircraft was to reduce civilian casualties after December cruise missile strikes killed Yemeni noncombatants, Saleh appears not to be so attentive to the problem. He got into a “lengthy and confusing aside” with his defense minister over exactly how many civilians died, suggesting, in the words of then-ambassador Stephen Seche, that “he has not been well briefed by his advisors.”

That’s not an auspicious sign for the U.S.’ creeping campaign against al-Qaeda in Yemen. (Expect Michael Leiter, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, to describe the contours of the threat from that group in a speech on Wednesday in Washington.) But after the Yemen-based branch of al-Qaeda sent bombs packed in printer cartridges to the U.S. on cargo planes in October, it doesn’t look like Saleh’s hesitancy over U.S. operations in Yemen is anything but a speed bump. One plan under consideration is to give the CIA operational control over Joint Special Operations Command “hunter/killer” teams and introduce missile-equipped drones to Yemen, allowing U.S. counterterrorism operatives to bypass Saleh (or at least grant him plausible deniability) for counterterrorism strikes. And if that doesn’t sit well with Saleh, maybe $1.2 billion over five years — including his helicopters — will calm his nerves, even as armed drones hover over his country.

[buglerbilly]

Inside Yemen: Britain's woman on the frontline of the new war on terror

When Fionna Gibb arrived as deputy British ambassador to Yemen, she expected it to be quieter than her previous job in Iraq. Seven months on, she has already had one attempt on her life, and fears Yemen's al-Qaeda threat may yet get worse.


FIonna Gibb, the deputy British ambassador to Yemen. Pictured in the Old City Photo: JULIAN SIMMONDS

By Colin Freeman, Sana'a 7:00AM GMT 19 Dec 2010

There is no longer such a thing as a routine day for Fionna Gibb, deputy British ambassador to the Yemeni capital, Sana’a. The last time there was, it nearly killed her.

Heading to work one morning in early October, her armoured vehicle was speeding down a dusty dual carriageway when it passed two al-Qaeda hitmen posing as roadside dustmen. The pair, who are thought to have been watching the movements of cars with diplomatic number plates, pulled a rocket launcher from under a dustbin bag and fired.

“There was a terrible noise at the back of car, the whole back mudguard had been blown off and the back tyre had gone down so it was running on one rim,” said Ms Gibb, who had arrived in Sana’a from war-torn Basra. “We were very lucky that it didn’t kill us all.”

The attack bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the movement’s new Yemen-based franchise, which, in addition to October’s parcel bomb plot, and last Christmas’s botched airline attack by the so-called Underpants Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has vowed to “kill Crusaders who work in embassies”.

Thanks to Britain’s colonial past in Yemen, and its present role in Afghanistan and Iraq, “Crusaders” of the British variety have proved a favourite target. A month before Ms Gibb arrived, the outgoing Ambassador, Tim Torlot, had a similarly narrow escape, when a suicide bomber disguised as a schoolboy hurled himself at his car.

On the ground, that means that diplomatic life in Sana’a - a picturesque, mountain-ringed city whose cappucino-coloured Old Town is a Unesco World Heritage Site - is now more akin to that in Baghdad or Kabul. The Embassy building itself, one of a series of fortress-like compounds rolled out worldwide in the post 9-11 era, is currently closed to the public, while nine of the 24 staff have been evacuated back to London.

Those who remain divide their time between the Embassy and a new makeshift HQ elsewhere in the city, varying their daily commutes so that they are a harder target than before. Even so, each journey is logged by the Embassy security staff on what is jovially nicknamed “The Whiteboard of Death”.

“We aren’t defeated by the attacks, as there is an important job to be done here,” said Ms Gibb. “It may be a challenge to the terrorists to come and get us again, but we are not going to be deterred.”

A certain bloody-minded optimism comes in handy in dealing with a country like Yemen, which MI6 believes now poses a major terrorist threat, and which the Foreign Office describes as “potentially a regional multiplier of instability” - mandarin-speak for a failed state in the making.

The poorest country in the Arab world, the few hundred Iraq-hardened al-Qaeda fighters who have regrouped in its remote mountain valleys are just one of Yemen’s problems.

Unlike its wealthy northern neighbour, Saudi Arabia, its population of 24 million exists on an average of $3 a day, with unemployment at 35 per cent. It has one of the lowest literacy rates in the Middle East - around 50 per cent - yet the highest birth rate, fuelling endless conflict over land and water in its remote tribal areas, which are ruled, Afghanistan-like, by clan chiefs and their private armies.

Also predicted to run low in the next decade are the country’s oil reserves, which should have bequeathed the kind of bling lifestyle enjoyed in other Gulf States, but which instead may peter out before there is even a proper road or school network. Add to that two separatist wars in the north and south, and 20 years of rule under President Ali Abdullah Saleh has little to show for itself - except, perhaps, as a shining example of the kind of corrupt, incompetent democracy that AQAP’s medieval-style caliphate aspires to replace.

“There is not much future here any more,” said Saleh Mohammed, 45, a Sana’a businessman. “Everyone would leave if they had the chance, although even when I go abroad now I face constant suspicion because because of the terror threat. It makes one ashamed to be a Yemeni.”

Much of Ms Gibb’s time is taken up with the Friends of Yemen, an inter-government confederation set up in January to try to stop the country becoming al-Qaeda’s latest safe haven. Led by Britain, it is the diplomatic equivalent of a probation officer: the Foreign Office, for example, is providing £50 million in aid this year, as well training for anti-terror units, but has made clear that it expects Yemen’s government to improve its act in return.

That means not just making life harder for al-Qaeda, which the Saleh regime has often simply paid off to keep quiet, but improving life for ordinary Yemenis, whose sympathy for the movement - if any - is often borne of a shared contempt for central government.

“Our role is to lobby for reform to be taken seriously, for dialogue in the north and south, and to tackle the problems with illiteracy, poverty and unemployment,” said Ms Gibb, as her car, driven by British-trained Yemeni police, wove through Sana’a chaotic traffic. “Poverty doesn’t cause radicalisation in itself, but it is an important component, and we can’t afford to see Yemen fail - that could destabilise the whole region.”

Glasgow-born, Britain’s woman in Sana’a became a diplomat largely by accident - she thought of becoming a foreign correspondent, but ended up applying for the Foreign Office because the queue for its stall at a graduate careers fair was shorter than the one for the BBC.

Since then, though, she has had ample opportunity to study conflict up close. After three years in counter-terrorism, she spent 2008-2009 in Basra, living in an airport compound where shells landed day and night. “I thought Yemen would be a little less arduous,” she remarked.

She was unfazed by the rocket incident itself, spending the rest of the day working and suffering little more than a “few jitters” on the way home that night. But she makes no secret of her fear that AQAP will strengthen in the medium term, and that the threat against foreigners in Yemen will increase.

Mounting security concerns have already forced the closure of the British Club, a discreet, members-only retreat on Embassy soil that used to be one of Sana’a’s few watering holes. And at a gathering last weekend of the UK wardens - Britons who act as liaisons to the rest of Yemen’s expatriate community - she reviewed communication plans in case of a major emergency. “There is a fear that things could go pearshaped,” she warned them. “Some EU countries think we are over-reacting, but we believe it may get worse before it gets better.”

True, on the face of it, AQAP does not look particularly potent. In the 1980s, tens of thousands of Yemenis volunteered to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, motivated partly by anger at Moscow’s support of the now-defunct Marxist regime in Southern Yemen. But support for any modern-day jihad against the West is limited, and among most residents of Sana’a, mentioning AQAP sparks only anger. “Al-Qaeda’s criminals are humanity’s enemies,” said Yahya al Haniq, an elderly farmer, as he inspected AQAP wanted posters outside the Old City’s ancient central mosque. “They are disgracing Islam’s image, and we hate them.”

However, in the deserts and mountains of the lawless tribal provinces outside the capital, the attitude is more ambivalent. Tribal chiefs have long had a habit of harbouring outlawed groups, ostensibly because of ancient codes of hospitality, but in practice to blackmail central government into concessions.

Take, for example, Sheikh Abdallah al Jumaili, whose Dhu Mohammed tribe has waged a long-running turf war with Yemen’s Shia minority sect, the Houthis. He told The Sunday Telegraph that unless President Saleh’s government gave him extra backing for his private army of 7,000, he would be forced to call in the services of al-Qaeda, whose Sunni sectarian fighters will happily kill Shias for free.

“We do not support the al-Qaeda ideology, but my enemy’s enemy is my friend, “ he said. “If al-Qaeda help us against the Houthi cancer, then people in my tribe will want to accept their help.”

Most Yemeni government officials see such threats as merely calculated rhetoric, rather than a sign that the al-Qaeda banner will soon flutter in Dhu Mohammed territory. But nonetheless, in a society whose fighting spirit is renowned throughout the Arab world, joining a cause - any cause - is often deemed healthy activity for young tribal hotbloods.

“In some governorates (regions) there is no work at all,” said Khalid Ahmed Almulad of the British charity Islamic Relief, which is involved in a British-funded conflict prevention project in the tribal areas. “But if the young men of a family sit around chewing qhat (a narcotic leaf) all day, they will be told they are like housewives. All they need is someone to come in from outside with some idea and they will want to be part of it, to get respect.”

This febrile environment is also thought to be the hiding place of Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American “YouTube preacher” who inspired Abdulmutallab and hundreds of other jihadists worldwide, including Britain. The West is pressurising the Yemeni governent to capture him, yet as Ms Gibb’s current caseload shows, its ability - or willingness - to act on politically sensitive cases is open to question.

Among her tasks last week was a visit to the Yemeni Foreign Ministry to lobby on the case of Farouk Abdulhak, 21, a Yemeni student who stands accused of the murder in London in 2008 of Martine Vik Magnussen, a Norwegian student. The son of Shaher Abdulhak, a businessman with connections to President Saleh, he is understood to be hiding at a family home in southern Yemen, but despite a European warrant being issued for his arrest, Yemen has so far refused to hand him over.

“The family is wealthy and powerful and the president does not seem to want to hand him in,” said Ms Gibb, who last week presented a “demarche” - a formal diplomatic statement - expressing both the British and Norwegian governments’ concerns.

“We are not giving up on this case, and we expect the family and the government to hand over this individual to stand trial.”

Whether that will actually happen is another matter. Despite its tough-love stance, Britain in its role as a “Friend of Yemen” will not cut off funding over the Magnussen case: the need to stabilise the country and defeat the threat of terrorism takes precedence.

“Governments do want to ramp up the pressure on Yemen to deliver results,” said Ms Gibb, as her armoured car returned to her house, and she unstrapped her body armour. “However, they cannot walk away from the country, and perhaps President Saleh knows that.”

[buglerbilly]

Yemen to Add New Anti-Terror Units

December 27, 2010

Associated Press

SANAA, Yemen -- Yemen is setting up provincial anti-terrorism units to confront al-Qaida in its heartland, a security official said Sunday.

Yemen already has highly trained, U.S.-funded anti-terrorism security units, operating under the military and the interior ministry. But this is the first time officials have said the units will be based in the heartland of al-Qaida.

The U.S. has been pressuring Yemen to take on al-Qaida, whose presence has grown in the impoverished country and has increasingly been organizing attacks abroad from its havens in Yemen.

This month, the U.S. top counterterrorism official, John Brennan, called Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh asking him to take "forceful" action against al-Qaida to thwart its plans to carry out attacks in Yemen and abroad.

The U.S. has been actively involved in battling al-Qaida in Yemen, but Washington has often complained of lack of cooperation in information sharing and lack of determination from Yemen to take on the militant group.

The Yemeni official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the plan with reporters, said his country is setting up the localized anti-terrorism units to engage al-Qaida operatives in their own strongholds and "uproot" terrorism from Yemen.

The new units will operate in Shabwa, where the U.S-Yemeni radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki is believed to be hiding, as well as in the mountainous central Marib province, in Abyan and the eastern province of Hadramawt, where many al-Qaida operatives are taking refuge and where the government has little control, according to government officials.

In the past five years, U.S. military assistance to Yemen has totaled about $250 million. U.S. officials said military aid to Yemen would reach $250 million in 2011 alone.

U.S. officials said joint U.S.-Yemen action against al-Qaida targets inside Yemeni territory could include the use of U.S. special operations teams working with Yemeni counterterrorist forces, along with Predator or Reaper drones, which are currently flown from Djibouti or other locations in the region.

The officials insisted on anonymity to discuss the sensitive plans.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Suspected US spy drone 'crashes in Yemen'

(AFP) – 2 days ago



ADEN, Yemen — A suspected US spy drone crashed near the south Yemen town of Loder on Tuesday before Al-Qaeda gunmen made off with the wreckage, a police official and witnesses said.

The drone crashed in Jahayn village near Loder, in Yemen's Abyan province where Al-Qaeda has a strong presence, and was found by local residents, the official told AFP.

Witnesses said residents called in police, who collected the debris.

But as they headed to a police station about 30 kilometres (18 miles) away, Al-Qaeda gunmen in cars intercepted the police and hijacked the wreckage. There were no reports of casualties.

The police official said the drone was a Predator, which is used for reconnaissance but can also be armed with missiles. The US military has widely used Predator drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he believed the drone was "monitoring the movements of Al-Qaeda partisans, who have a strong presence" in Loder.

Government forces and alleged Al-Qaeda militants fought a deadly battle in Loder in late August.

At least 33 people -- 19 militants, 11 soldiers, and three civilians -- were killed in the fighting, according to an AFP tally based on official and medical sources.

The Washington Post reported in November that President Barack Obama's administration had deployed unmanned Predator drones in Yemen to hunt for Al-Qaeda operatives.

But citing unnamed senior US officials, the paper said US military and intelligence operatives have not fired missiles from the drones because they lack solid intelligence on the militants' whereabouts.

Yemen has come under intense pressure to crack down on Al-Qaeda's local franchise, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, since a December 2009 attempt to blow up a US airliner that was claimed by AQAP.

And two parcel bombs on passenger planes posted from Yemen and addressed to synagogues in Chicago were uncovered in Dubai and Britain last October 28, sparking a global scare.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Yemen leader offers to devolve power

Hamoud Mounassar

March 11, 2011 - 12:44AM

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh bowed on Thursday to pressure after a month of violent protests, but his pledge to devolve power to parliament was swiftly rejected as too late by the opposition.

Speaking to tens of thousands of people at a stadium in the Sanaa, the veteran leader of the strategic US ally promised to hold a referendum on a new constitution later this year.

He also ordered his security forces to ensure the safety of anti-government protesters after weeks of unrest in which some 30 people have been killed, part of a wave of popular unrest that has rewritten the rules of Arab politics.

"I propose a new initiative to avoid sedition," he announced in the nationally televised address, a day after fresh violence saw police open fire on demonstrators near Sanaa University, killing one.

He said he would hold a "referendum before the end of the year on a new constitution clearly stipulating the separation of powers" between the president and the parliament.

The new charter would "install a parliamentary regime giving all executive powers to a government elected by parliament," he added.

On the surface the announcement amounts to a political earthquake in an impoverished, deeply tribal country that has been smothered in Saleh's suffocating embrace for 32 years.

But the autocratic leader said he expected his offer to be rejected by the opposition, which on Sunday said dialogue was at an end and vowed to step up protests after Saleh refused demands to resign this year.

Within an hour of the announcement, a spokesman for the main parliamentary opposition group rejected the promised reforms as "too late," signalling political unrest will continue.

"The president's initiative is too late and constitutes the last breath of the political regime, which protesters demand an end to," opposition spokesman Mohammad al-Sabri told AFP.

Demonstrators camped at a square they have dubbed Al-Taghyeer (Change) near Sanaa University also rebuffed Saleh's offer.

"We will only accept the president's departure," one of them told the crowd using a microphone.

A thousand doctors in white coats and dozens of journalists joined the sit-in as pressure mounted on Saleh to resign.

Yemen is a crucial partner of the United States in the fight against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has plotted attacks against US targets from its redoubts in the country's unruly tribal regions.

It is also battling sectarian and secessionist violence, which undermine stability and development in one of the poorest countries in the region.

US involvement in Yemen, including special forces advisors, has depended entirely on Saleh, who has dominated the country since coming to power in a military coup in 1978. He became president of a reunified Yemen in 1990.

Washington has expressed concern about violence but President Barack Obama's administration has not pressured Saleh to leave office in the way it leaned on Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak before his ouster last month.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner urged the government to investigate the use of "excessive force" in Wednesday's deadly police raid.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday that Washington wanted the Yemeni leadership to focus on political reforms that would respond to the "legitimate aspirations" of its people.

© 2011 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.

[buglerbilly]

Yemeni president offers plan to amend constitution

By Portia Walker via Washington Post

Friday, March 11, 2011; 12:33 AM

SANAA, YEMEN - Embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced plans Thursday for a new constitution that would guarantee the independence of Yemen's parliament and judiciary. But the concession was immediately rejected by the opposition movement, which appears determined to end Saleh's nearly 33-year rule.

Speaking to more than 40,000 supporters at a stadium in the capital, Sanaa, Saleh said the initiative would transfer some powers from the executive branch to a parliamentary system and grant greater financial and administrative authority to local governing bodies. The proposal, he said, would be submitted for public approval by the end of the year.

The president's offer was turned down by the opposition, which vowed to continue daily demonstrations against the government.

"This initiative is too late. The demands on the street go beyond that and are bigger than that," said Mohammed Qahtan, an opposition spokesman.

Saleh, a key ally in U.S. efforts against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has made several concessions to the protesters, including a pledge to step down when his term ends in 2013. The protesters, however, are demanding his immediate ouster.

"He has given the opposition everything they have been calling for," said political analyst Abdulghani al-Iryani. "The disagreement now is over the timeline."

Saleh's speech Thursday was broadcast live on Yemeni television and included scenes of well-choreographed support. The 64-year-old president was joined by influential allies, including government ministers, tribal leaders and leading clerics, who sat behind him as he addressed the flag-waving crowds.

The men in the stadium chanted, "The people want Ali Abdullah Saleh," periodically taking to their feet to declare their support for their longtime ruler. Women sat in a separate reserved section, shading themselves from the blazing sun with newspaper pages.

The demonstrations and sit-ins by anti- and pro-government crowds have taken place daily in cities across Yemen for the past four weeks. In his speech, Saleh also emphasized that security forces would provide protection for all demonstrators, regardless of their political allegiance.

One person was killed and scores of others were injured when security forces opened fire on demonstrators in the capital Tuesday. International human rights groups say that as many as 30 people have been killed in the unrest.

Walker is a special correspondent.

[buglerbilly]

Yemen: embattled president sacks government

Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's embattled president, has sacked his government as mourners massed in Sanaa to bury many of the 52 people gunned down by his loyalists.


Anti-government protesters pray around the bodies of the demonstrators who were killed during Friday's clashes with Yemeni security forces, during their funeral procession in Sanaa Photo: AP

10:46PM GMT 20 Mar 2011

Tens of thousands of people turned out for the funerals in what witnesses said was the biggest gathering of Saleh's opponents since protests against his autocratic regime erupted in late January.

About 30 bodies were laid out in rows, and the square near Sanaa University overflowed with mourners who gathered under tight security and despite the state of emergency.

On Friday pro-Saleh snipers raked demonstrators in the square with bullets from surrounding rooftops, in an attack which more than doubled the death toll from several weeks of unrest to around 80.

The violence drew condemnation from the United Nations, the European Union and the United States, which sees Saleh as a key partner in battling al-Qaeda in the region.

Mr Saleh suffered a further blow with the resignation on Sunday of Yemen's ambassador to the United Nations, Abdullah Alsaidi, and human rights minister Huda al-Baan in protest at the deadly attacks on demonstrators.

"Abdullah Alsaidi has submitted his resignation to protest at the use of violence against demonstrators," a foreign ministry official said.

The defections add to a long list of resignations, including two other ministers and 23 MPs who have ripped up their membership of Saleh's ruling party.

In an apparent attempt to placate the opposition the president sacked his government Sunday.

"The president has dismissed the government but asked the cabinet to remain in a caretaker position until a new one is formed," the official Saba news agency reported.

Waving Yemeni flags and shouting slogans denouncing the regime, the mourners formed a massive procession as they carried the bodies in coffins on their shoulders to the cemetery.

"Ali, the blood of the martyrs will not be in vain," they chanted, referring to Saleh.

Ali Abed Rabbo al-Cadi, the head of the independent parliamentary bloc who was in the crowd, said those responsible for the killings must be "held responsible for every drop of blood that has been shed."

Leading Muslim clerics called on Yemeni soldiers to disobey orders to fire at demonstrators, and blamed Mr Saleh – in power since 1978 – for the slaughter on Friday.

They also demanded that Saleh's elite Republican Guard be withdrawn from the capital.

Saleh had declared Sunday a national day of mourning for the "martyrs for democracy," while blaming the opposition for "incitement and chaos" that had led to the killings.

The opposition says the president must resign this year but he has refused to leave until his current term expires in 2013.

He has also offered to devolve power to parliament under a new constitution, a pledge rejected as "too late" by the opposition which says the president cannot be trusted to honour his promises.

Friday's carnage followed repeated US appeals for restraint and respect of human rights in the impoverished country, which is also struggling to contain a southern secessionist movement and a Shiite revolt in the north.

Rights activists have said the United States should reconsider its military aid to Yemen, where US special forces are helping to train local anti-terror units engaged in the fight against al-Qaeda's Yemen-based offshoot.

al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is allegedly behind several attempted attacks against the United States.

Yemen is also the suspected hideout of radical US-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, an alleged AQAP leader and described by a senior US security official as "probably the most significant risk" to the United States.

[buglerbilly]

Senior Yemeni officials resign after 52 demonstrators killed

Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Yemeni president, has been left increasingly isolated within his own government after a raft of senior officials resigned in protest at the killing of 52 protesters on Friday.


Anti-government demonstrators carry wounded protesters from the site of clashes in Sanaa Photo: AP

By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent 5:33PM GMT 20 Mar 2011

Undeterred by the presence of tanks deployed to enforce a state of emergency, tens of thousands defied the regime's increasingly brutal attempts to crush dissent by thronging the streets of the capital Sana'a to bury the dead.

Two days earlier, Mr Saleh had tried to crush the spirit of the growing protest movement when loyalist snipers, some of whom allegedly carried government identity papers, opened fire at demonstrators from city rooftops.

But the plan appeared to have misfired and the protests were the biggest since the campaign against Yemen's president of 32 years first erupted last month.

From mosques around the city, the dead were borne aloft to a mile-strong stretch of road outside Sana'a University where the demonstrators have erected a tented camp to serve as the headquarters of the campaign against Mr Saleh.

"Ali, the blood of the martyrs will not be in vain," the crowds chanted, addressing the president by his first name.

With demonstrations also taking place across the country, Mr Saleh's hold on power seemed to be visibly weakening - an impression only reinforced as more of his allies turned their backs on him.

Huda al Ban, the tourism minister, became the third member of the cabinet to resign in three days. Two ambassadors, including Yemen's chief envoy to the United Nations, also quit and a number of others, including the ambassador to Berlin, were said to be considering their positions.

Sadiq al-Ahmar, the titular head of Yemen's largest tribal confederation - to which President Saleh also belongs - announced his support for the protesters.

A number of his brothers, members of one of Yemen's most powerful families, had earlier thrown in their lot with the opposition.

Despite the growing spate of defections, Mr Saleh retains some support among tribal leaders and within the army. He is also backed by Saudi Arabia and there has been speculation that the Saudi royal family could send in troops to prop up his regime as it has done in Bahrain.

[buglerbilly]

Tanks deploy in Yemen capital as top general defects

Hammoud Mounassar

March 21, 2011 - 9:34PM .

Tanks were deployed outside the presidential palace in Yemen on Monday, as a top general announced his allegiance to the protest movement seeking to oust President Ali Abdallah Saleh from power.

Tanks took up positions in key locations across Sanaa including at the presidential palace, the central bank and the ministry of defence, an AFP correspondent saw.

The deployment came as General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, an armoured infantry division commander, announced that he had joined the "revolution" along with other senior officers.

"The crisis is getting more complicated and it's pushing the country towards violence and civil war," he said in a statement broadcast by Al-Jazeera television.

"According to what I'm feeling, and according to the feelings of my partner commanders and soldiers... I announce our support and our peaceful backing to the youth revolution.

"We are going to fulfil our duties in preserving security and stability."

Ahmar is the most senior military officer to pledge support for the opposition, which has been agitating for weeks to end Saleh's 32-year rule over the impoverished, tribal country.

His pledge comes a day after Saleh sacked his cabinet in a bid to placate opposition calls for sweeping reforms.

The regime has already been weakened by the resignations of ministers, ambassadors and a host of ruling party MPs, but Saleh has refused to stand down until his term ends in 2013.

His regime was internationally condemned after more than 50 people were killed as loyalist gunmen opened fire on protesters in Sanaa's University Square, the centre of the pro-democracy movement.

The defection of top military officers to the opposition is likely to complicate Washington's support for Saleh, whom it sees as a pillar of stability in a volatile country and a partner in the war against Al-Qaeda.

There were unconfirmed reports that other generals and several ambassadors had also pledged their support to the "revolution," in what could be the endgame of a long and bloody period of unrest in the strategic Arab state.

The country's ambassador to the UN and human rights minister resigned on Sunday in protest at the brutal treatment of peaceful protesters.

Politicians and civil society leaders joined in a massive funeral procession in Sanaa on Sunday for some of those killed last week, in what amounted to one of the biggest anti-regime demonstrations since the protests began late January.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday strongly condemned the use of live ammunition against demonstrators in Yemen, and repeated international calls for dialogue and restraint.

"The Yemen government has an obligation to protect civilians. I call for the utmost retraint and end to violence," Ban told reporters following talks with Arab League chief Amr Mussa in Cairo.

"There is no alternative to an inclusive dialogue on political, social and economic reform to address Yemen's political crisis."

© 2011 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.

[buglerbilly]

MARCH 22, 2011, 5:35 P.M. ET.

Yemeni President Refuses to Quit .

By MARGARET COKER, HAKIM ALMASMARI And ADAM ENTOUS


Associated Press
A Yemeni army officer reacts holding up his AK-47 as he and other officers join anti-government protestors demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sanaa,Yemen, Monday.
.
SAN'A, Yemen—Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused to give in to a towering array of opponents demanding he quit to make way for a military-backed democratic transition, and tried to salvage his 32-year rule through negotiations.

Talks between the controversial U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia and Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar—a top commander who abandoned the president Monday—haven't yet yielded a clear transition of power.

As of late Tuesday, the political process had kept military conflict at bay. Tanks commanded by units loyal to Mr. Saleh and others by forces loyal to Gen. Ahmar took up positions outside the presidential palace and near sensitive government buildings, according to residents.

Mr. Saleh's repeated his offers to step down by the end of the year, his spokesman said, a move immediately rejected by the umbrella group of opposition political parties that have been pushing for political reforms for months.

Monday's military defections left Mr. Saleh only with the loyalty of elite forces commanded by his son and nephews, many of them trained and equipped by the U.S. to fight terrorism.

That put the U.S. in the uncomfortable position of seeing U.S.-trained forces loyal to a controversial ally face off against troops on the side of a pro-democracy movement.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday declined to say whether the U.S. continued to support Mr. Saleh or whether it believed it was time for him to step down as president.

Opposition and government officials said Saudi Arabia, the president's longtime benefactor and giant neighbor to the north, was weighing what political solution would be best for its own national interests. Saudi officials couldn't be reached to comment.

America and Saudis have watched with alarm in recent years as Yemen, under President Saleh, has devolved into a failed state with shrinking oil revenues, an exploding population and conflicts with secessionists in the south, rebels in the north and an al Qaeda affiliate in the rugged tribal regions.

U.S. officials said that it appeared Mr. Saleh faced an increasingly uphill fight to remain in power and that Washington was growing increasingly alarmed by the diversion of attention from the fight against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemeni-based group is known.

"Instability and diversion of attention from dealing with AQAP is certainly my primary concern about the situation," Mr. Gates said.

U.S. officials usually work most closely on counterterrorism with Mr. Saleh's son Ahmad Abdullah Saleh, the commander of the Republican Guard, and nephew Yahya, who heads the internal security force.

U.S. officials said the Pentagon has had limited contact with Gen. Ahmar, commander of Yemen's northwestern military district, and that Gen. Ahmar's forces haven't been recipients of direct U.S. counterterrorism funding or training.

For years, Washington has encouraged Mr. Saleh to loosen the reins and adopt democratic reforms, while the U.S. has spent tens of millions of dollars to train his forces to aid in counterterrorism operations.

But ahead of the current crisis, multiple rounds of political negotiations between the president and opposition had dissolved without agreement amid mutual acrimony and allegations that the president was insincere in sharing power.

Opposition to Mr. Saleh has swelled in reaction to a bloody crackdown by security forces against unarmed protesters Friday. Gunmen, whom the opposition alleges were soldiers from units commanded by President Saleh's son opened fire into the crowd, killing dozens of people. President Saleh said a special investigation would look into the killings, and a number of arrests have been made.

By late Tuesday, Saudi and Yemeni tribal leaders had joined political negotiations, according to people familiar with the situation. The threat of military conflict remained a possibility, they said.

With the opposition in a stronger bartering position in the wake of the defections of key military leaders, religious figures and tribal elders, opposition leaders said they would accept nothing short of Mr. Saleh's immediate resignation.

An umbrella group of opposition parties said Gen. Ahmar on Tuesday had delivered their demands to Mr. Saleh: that he step down immediately in favor of a transitional governing council, which could preserve stability while ushering in political reforms.

Mr. Saleh, however, was lobbying his allies in Saudi Arabia to support his bid to stay in power for the rest of the year, allowing him time to oversee a political transition, said people familiar with the situation.


Associated Press
A Yemeni army officer joined protesters demanding the resignation of Yemeni president Saleh on Monday.
.
Mr. Saleh, in a televised speech, said Gen. Ahmar's actions were nothing but a selfish power grab.

Yemen's umbrella group of political opposition parties, called the Joint Meeting Parties, says it wouldn't accept a military leader taking over as that would threaten the group's democratic goals and usher in more instability.

"Military commanders will not steal the revolution from the people," said Mohammed Qahtan, the JMP spokesperson.

—Matthew Rosenberg contributed to this article.

[buglerbilly]

Yemen passes emergency laws to quell protests

MPs back president's move to suspend constitution, ban street protests and give security agencies greater powers of arrest

Tom Finn in Sana'a

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 March 2011 19.24 GMT


Yemeni MPs raise their hands as they vote in favour of a state of emergency declared by the president. Photograph: Mohammad Huwais/AFP/Getty Images

Yemen's parliament has approved a sweeping set of emergency laws giving broader powers of arrest and censorship to the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, despite growing calls from opponents demanding he quit to make way for a military-backed democratic transition.

The emergency law, last evoked during Yemen's 1994 civil war, suspends the constitution, allows for greater media censorship, bans street protests and gives security agencies arbitrary powers to arrest and detain suspects without judicial process.

The approval of the emergency laws came as talks between oil giant Saudi Arabia and Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a top Yemeni commander who abandoned the president on Monday, failed to yield a clear transition of power.

Only 161 of the 301 members of parliament attended the vote, with those present approving the 30-day emergency law through a chaotic show of hands. Opposition MPs, along with dozens of members of Saleh's General People's Congress, boycotted the session, rejecting its "unconstitutional" measures.

The imposition of emergency rule comes as a rift emerges between the regime and a cohort of military commanders, tribal chiefs, politicians and diplomats who have joined together to demand that Saleh, who has been running the country for 32 years, step down.

Thousands of protesters camping in the streets adjoining Sana'a University dismissed the emergency law as irrelevant and continued chanting for Saleh's immediate resignation.

"The idea of banning protests when tens of thousands are already camped out on the streets is ridiculous," said Adel Suwabi, a 23-year-old medical student who has been co-ordinating the protest movement on Facebook. "Our numbers grow every day regardless of what Saleh announces."

The protesters are debating whether to march on the presidential palace on Friday, which they have dubbed "departure Friday". The palace is being guarded by tanks from the Republican guard, which moved into key positions across the capital on Monday after Ali Mohsen sent troops from his 1st armoured division to protect protesters.

Muhammad Qahtan, spokesman for the Islamist-led opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties, which also includes Socialist and Nasserite parties, said protesters were ready to lay down their lives on Friday. "We will march to the president's palace with open chests and you [Saleh] can kill whoever you like to kill," Qahtan told reporterslocal press on Wednesday. "We are not afraid of another massacre," he said, referring to a bloody crackdown by security forces against unarmed protesters last Friday in which gunmen, whom the opposition alleges were soldiers from units commanded by Saleh's son, opened fire into the crowd, killing dozens of people. Saleh said a special investigation would look into the killings and a number of arrests had been made.

Saleh lashed out on Wednesday at the JMP, accusing them of threatening the country's stability.

"They [the JMP] do not realise their national responsibilities and the potentially devastating repercussions of their practices against the country," said Saleh, addressing a group of loyal military officers from Yemen's central security at a brigade camp in Sana'a.

The day before he accused a group of defected generals of trying to mastermind a coup against him and said that in doing so they risked dragging the country into "a bloody civil war". Yemen's opposition also turned down a tentative offer on Tuesday by the embattled president to step down by the end of the year.

Analysts say Saleh's recent shows of defiance suggest he may be in it for the long haul.

Saleh's calling of the parliament vote shows "he's still adhering to some gestures in the direction of democracy," said Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert at Princeton University. "This suggests he intends to hang around and survive the crisis."

Since February, Saleh has repeated promises for a new constitution, called for the formation of a unity government and said he will not seek to extend his term when it expires in 2013. The opposition movement has dismissed those offers and insists he must step down.

Late on Wednesday night the interior ministry shut down the al-Jazeera office in Sana'a and revoked the accreditation of its correspondents after putting out a statement warning foreign media to exercise maximum accuracy and professionalism while covering the situation in Yemen.

"The ministry will regrettably withdraw the licence of any correspondent or foreign outlets found abusing his profession," Saba, the government news agency, quoted a source from the information ministry as saying.

[buglerbilly]

MARCH 24, 2011, 6:51 P.M. ET.

Yemeni President Nears Deal to Resign

By MARGARET COKER in Abu Dhabi and HAKIM ALMASMARI in San'a, Yemen

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the country's top general are hashing out a political settlement in which both men would resign from their positions within days in favor of a civilian-led transitional government, according to three people familiar with the situation.

The outlines of that peaceful transition emerged amid rising tension over the standoff between the President Saleh and Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who earlier this week broke ranks and declared his support for the array of protesters demanding that the president step down immediately.

Opposing tanks from units loyal to Mr. Saleh and to Gen. Ahmar have faced off in the streets of San'a all week and tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators continued their vigil in the capital's Change Square.

The people familiar with the negotiations said Thursday that Mr. Saleh and Gen. Ahmar are intent on preventing bloodshed and preserving stability in the Arabian Peninsula nation. Aides to both men said that while they both understand that Mr. Saleh's continued rule is untenable, they have agreed that the timing of his resignation can't happen until they have worked out the details of a transitional governing council that would take his place. They hope to have a detailed plan ready by Saturday, the people said.

"Both sides have agreed on the main points of departure, and Saturday is expected to be the day that Saleh and General Ahmar both step down," according to a senior official familiar with the negotiations.

It couldn't be determined which individuals were being considered as candidates for any transitional authority as talks continued late Thursday between the two leaders.

The support for mainstream opposition party leaders is unclear across the rugged and largely conservative country. Meanwhile, traditional tribal leaders who have great social standing would face problems exerting authority over rival tribes.

It was unclear whether the solution being hammered out with the president would meet the expectations of thousands of protesters, who have been camped on the streets of the capital for weeks demanding Mr. Saleh's immediate resignation. Various factions of protesters have issued manifestos demanding that a civilian council lead Yemen until new elections could be held. But their patience was wearing thin and opposition leaders said the risk of conflict grows higher as time elapses without a solution.

National demonstrations scheduled for after Friday prayers are increasing tensions. Such protests are expected in San'a, as well as the port city of Aden and Taiz, the country's traditional business and intellectual center.

Some protest leaders in the capital have been calling for a march Friday from the protest center in downtown's Change Square to the presidential palace, a move that diplomats and officials said would likely be viewed as a provocation to the remaining security forces who are loyal to the president and that could prompt more violence.

Yemeni opposition parties until recently had been fighting a lonely and frustrating battle for democracy after two years' of political dialogue with President Saleh ended at the end of last year with no change to the country's status quo, in which Mr. Saleh and his sons and nephews hold much military and political power.

Taking a cue from peaceful uprisings in other Arab nations, opposition political parties and youth activists have held continuous demonstrations in Yemen's capital for weeks. Their demands gained urgency, and support, in the wake of a crackdown last Friday in which plain-clothed security forces opened fire on unarmed demonstrators who had assembled in Change Square, killing at least 50 people.

Gen. Ahmar, a long-time close confidante of the president and the country's second-most powerful political figure, announced his support for the protesters, as did dozens of other military officers, tribal leaders and religious figures.

Mr. Saleh and Gen. Ahmar, who hail from the same tribe, have controlled Yemen for the last 32 years, steering it out of a civil war, the threat of domestic armed insurgents and al Qaeda networks. More recently, the men's relations turned frosty, according to diplomats. Mr. Saleh sees the general as a rival for power, and the president has sought to sideline the commander while advancing Mr. Saleh's eldest son as a possible successor, according to diplomats.

Earlier this week opposition forces deputized Gen. Ahmar to press their demands with the president, who until now has flatly refused to step down before next year.

Talks took a significant step forward early Thursday, when both men decided on a gentleman's agreement that they would resign from their posts simultaneously in favor of a civilian transitional authority to run the nation's affairs, the people familiar with the negotiations said.

The apparent breakthrough came after a marathon round of acrimonious telephone discussions, via aides, that started around 9 p.m. Wednesday between the president at his official residence and the general, who was at his home in downtown San'a, the people said.

The people said that President Saleh and Gen. Ahmar agreed to the central demand of the protest movement: that a civilian council should rule in place of Mr. Saleh, instead of an Egyptian-style military council.

By the start of the dawn prayer Thursday morning, the men hadn't worked out the structure or the composition of such an authority.

After a brief rest, discussions continued Thursday, after the two sides briefed the U.S. ambassador and the British ambassador to Yemen about their progress, according to the people familiar with the negotiations.

Further talks were expected Thursday night that included members of Yemen's opposition groups, the people said.

President Saleh, who has been in power since 1979, long has been viewed by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia as a bulwark against the possibility that Yemen would splinter and as a force that could hobble the influence of al Qaeda networks that have based themselves in Yemen and launched international terror attacks from the country.

The U.S. and the Saudis have watched with alarm in recent years as Yemen, under Mr. Saleh, has evolved into a failed state with shrinking oil revenue, an exploding population and conflicts with secessionists in the south, rebels in the north and an al Qaeda affiliate in rugged tribal regions. The U.S. has pushed the leader to enact democratic reform and has given tens of millions of dollars to elite counterterrorism units commanded by the president's eldest son and nephews.

Amid the current crisis, U.S. officials have worried that Yemen's security forces would be redeployed away from counterterrorism duties or that al Qaeda might take advantage of the crisis to launch new attacks.

In the strategically important southern province of Shebwa, where much of the nation's energy reserves are located, tribesmen have said they have taken over 17 military compounds belonging to Interior Ministry forces under the command of Mr. Saleh's nephew Yahya, a key liaison to U.S. counterterrorism officials. Tribes now control four of Shebwa's 17 districts and have taken over security duties as well as the responsibility to safeguard the energy infrastructure, according to tribesmen.

Write to Margaret Coker at margaret.coker@wsj.com

[buglerbilly]

Risk of civil war looms as Yemen's soldiers defect from Saleh regime

A week ago Bassam Ali Qa'id, 26, was loyal to Yemen's hated President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and part of a state security machine which has shot at, tear-gassed and beaten democracy protesters.


A defected Yemeni soldier holds up his weapon as he joins anti-government protestors demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sanaa Photo: AFP

By Jeb Boone, Sana'a1:00PM GMT 26 Mar 2011

But on Saturday he was a hero to the protesters who in recent weeks have threatened finally to bring to an end Mr Saleh's 32-year rule.

On Monday the general who commands him defected from the Saleh regime and threw in his lot with those campaigning for democratic reform. Now Private Qa'id is helping guard a protesters' camp against the risk of attack by the regime's hard core of security forces - the type of men who nine days ago massacred 52 protesters including an eight year-old boy.

"I could not move without being kissed," he said with a grin. "They gave us flowers and food. I'm eating better here than I ever did at the military camp."

For all the euphoria, the young soldier was in the front line of a frightening struggle for power that threatens to turn into civil war as more and more of Yemen's soldiers defect to the opposition, appalled by killings of civilian protesters and sympathising with their demands for a democratic government and an end to corruption.

Major General Ali Muhsin al-Ahmar, Yemen's most powerful military commander and the man who gives private Qa'id his orders, left the Saleh regime to joining protesters in demanding that the president relinquish power. He ordered his soldiers to defend peaceful demonstrators from further attacks.

The defections seem to be having an effect.

At the end of the week, after some of the biggest protest rallies so far, the president promised to hand over power, at some point, to what he called "a safe pair of hands".

But before he does that - and protesters do not trust him to stand down - there is a risk of significant bloodshed. His palace is guarded by the elite Republican Guard, and there is a constant threat that soldiers loyal to Mr Saleh will send tanks against the protest camp.

Against that, Private Qa'id and other rebel soldiers have helped build 10-feet high concrete and steel barriers across main roads and armed themselves with rocket-propelled grenades, ready to try to stop any assault in its tracks.

Whether that will be necessary is uncertain.

Another soldier in a unit still ostensibly loyal to President Saleh spoke to The Sunday Telegraph about the prospect of fighting his former comrades.

"I would gladly give my life in defence of my country and my people but I will not die for Ali Abdullah Saleh," said the soldier, a member of the Republican Guard, speaking from the base where he is stationed.

"I am so worried about Yemen. Our officers haven't told us anything, we are all just waiting."

Asked how he would react to being ordered to fire on those in the camp, he paused before replying: "By God, I would have to refuse any order to fire on protesters."

One of his close family members speaking with him over the phone told him to flee his unit should he be ordered to go to war against rebel soldiers. "Just run, go back home to our village, you will be safe there," the relative told him.

Rival military factions patrol Sana'a, with fear palpable in the streets. Western security experts are deeply worried that civil war could give an opportunity to al-Qaeda, which already has a strong presence in Yemen. For years the West backed President Saleh as a source of stability and a bulwark against terrorism - a strategy which is now in danger of unravelling.

The president still commands the country's most highly trained military units, under the command of his close relatives. Yet even members of the Central Security Forces and Republican Guard units, some trained by the British and Americans, share many of the grievances of pro-democracy demonstrators.

"Foot soldiers and junior officers are like many other Yemenis. They're hungry, poor, and fed up with corruption," said prominent Yemeni analyst Abdul Ghani al-Iryani.

[buglerbilly]

Yemen troops kill protesters in Taiz

Soldiers use live ammunition on protesters demanding removal of President Saleh, killing six and wounding more than 30

guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 April 2011 12.57 BST


A wounded protester lies on a bed at a makeshift clinic after clashes with Yemeni troops in Taiz. Photograph: Reuters

Yemeni troops have opened fire on crowds of protesters demanding the removal of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, killing six and wounding more than 30 in the second day of clashes in Taiz, witnesses and medical officials said.

The bloodshed in the southern city stoked the uprising that has lasted more than a month against Saleh's 32-year rule. The opposition has held continual protest camps in main squares of cities around Yemen, and on Monday new demonstrations in solidarity with the Taiz protesters erupted in several places.

The violence began when thousands of protesters marched through Taiz toward Freedom Square, where demonstrators have been camped out. As the march passed the governor's headquarters, troops stationed there blocked the procession, and clashes broke out, with some protesters throwing stones, witnesses said.

Troops on nearby rooftops opened fire with live ammunition on the crowd. The marchers then besieged the governor's headquarters, said Bushra al-Maqtara, an opposition activist in Taiz, and other witnesses.

At least six protesters were killed and more than 30 wounded, some with gunshots to the head and chest, said Zakariya Abdul-Qader, a doctor at a clinic set up by protesters in Freedom Square. Other doctors at the clinic confirmed the figure.

The military has clamped down on the city of nearly half a million, about 120 miles south of the capital, Sana'a. For a second day, tanks and armoured vehicles blocked entrances to the city to prevent outsiders from joining the protests. They also surrounded Freedom Square, containing the thousands in the protest camp and arresting anyone who tried to leave.

Saleh's top security official in Taiz, Abdullah Qiran, is accused by demonstrators of orchestrating some of the most brutal crackdowns, particularly in the southern port town of Aden, where he was stationed until his transfer several weeks ago.

Marches in solidarity with the Taiz protesters erupted in the cities of Mukalla, in the east, and Hodeida, on Yemen's western Red Sea coast. In Hodeida, protesters tried to march on a presidential palace in the city but were blocked by security forces, who opened fire with teargas and live ammunition, said activist Abdel-Hafiz al-Abbasi. He said three people were wounded.

[buglerbilly]

APRIL 5, 2011, 7:59 P.M. ET.

Yemen President's Tribe Fights With Army

Associated Press

SAN'A, Yemen—Tribesmen loyal to Yemen's embattled president clashed with a group of soldiers whose commander has sided with the opposition, and the fighting in a suburb of the capital San'a left three tribesmen dead, according to tribal elders and military officials.

It was the latest violence in weeks of turmoil in Yemen, where President Ali Abdullah Saleh's military and police forces have cracked down on protesters demanding he step down after 32 years in power.

The clash erupted as a convoy of about 30 cars with armed tribesmen from Mr. Saleh's Sanhan tribe arrived at the headquarters of the 1st Armored Division in western San'a to meet with its commander, Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who had earlier joined the opposition.

Tribal members and army officers at the scene said Mr. Ahmar, who also hails from Mr. Saleh's tribe, met a tribal chief, Ismail Abu Hurriya, who tried to persuade the renegade commander to return to the president's camp.

It was unclear how exactly the shooting started at the gate of the army compound. Several tribesmen were also wounded by the gunfire, witnesses said. Some said a group of government supporters appeared at the scene and opened fire, but conflicting reports couldn't be immediately clarified.

Security officials said the visit was an attempt by Mr. Saleh to mediate with Mr. Ahmar. All the witnesses and officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the tense situation.

Earlier Tuesday, Mr. Saleh's office said that the president had met with some leaders of his tribe to discuss the tensions.

The powerful Sanhan tribe is split between those remaining loyal to Mr. Saleh and those who have crossed over to the opposition. The tribe is also affiliated with the Hashid, the country's biggest and most powerful tribe, which has sided with the opposition.

Mr. Ahmar's troops have stationed themselves close to the central square near San'a University to protect thousands of anti-Saleh protesters who have been camping for weeks, refusing to give up their protest until Mr. Saleh leaves office.

Yemen's opposition parties urged the international community, regional powers and human-rights groups to help stop the bloodshed in the country. More than 120 people have been killed and 5,000 injured since Yemen's protests started in Feb. 11, inspired by the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

The parties issued a statement late Monday accusing Mr. Saleh, his sons and relatives, as well as security and military apparatuses they control of carrying out planned attacks against peaceful demonstrations with the intent to kill.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton expressed grave concern for "the reports of violent repression, including live ammunition, against demonstrators." In a statement Tuesday, she said she contacted Mr. Saleh last week to call for an orderly handover. "Transition must begin now," she said in the statement.

Mr. Saleh has clung to power, saying Yemen will sink into chaos if he goes, warning of growing al Qaeda influence.

In Taiz, dozens of protesters were treated for breathing problems after police fired tear gas as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets for a third straight day to press for Saleh's ouster.

On Monday, at least 15 people were killed when military forces and police snipers opened fire on demonstrators who marched past the governor's headquarters in Taiz.

[buglerbilly]

At least seven die in Yemen protests

April 13, 2011 - 8:49PM .

AFP

At least seven people have been killed, including four policemen who clashed with a dissident army unit, as hundreds of thousands of anti-regime protesters rallied across Yemen.

Police attacked an army checkpoint in Amran province, 170 kilometres north of Sanaa late on Tuesday, killing one officer and wounding two soldiers, a military official told AFP on Wednesday.

The four policemen died as the security forces traded fire with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, he said.

The targeted army unit operates under the commander of Yemen's northwest military region, General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who has sided with the protesters and accused regime supporters of trying to assassinate him, the official said.

In the south of the country, soldiers on Wednesday shot dead two anti-regime protesters and wounded several others in different sectors of the port city of Aden, medics and witnesses said.

They said the army opened fire as protesters tried to set up roadblocks to enforce a general strike, which demonstrators have vowed to carry out in Aden every Saturday and Wednesday until the fall of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Protests swept provinces across Yemen on Wednesday in response to calls by the Youth for Change, a coalition of groups that has led anti-Saleh demonstrations since late January.

The largest rally was being held in the flashpoint city of Taez, south of Sanaa, where more than 20 people were killed in clashes with security forces early this month.

© 2011 AFP

[buglerbilly]

Yemen’s largest tribes press president to leave


Motivated by recent shows of political strength by neighbors in Egypt, demonstrators in the Middle East and North Africa are taking to the streets of many cities to rally for change.

By Ahmed al-Haj, Saturday, April 16, 2:25 AM

SANAA, Yemen — Dozens of chiefs from Yemen’s two largest and most powerful tribes called on the president to immediately step down and strip his son of control over security forces, while rival crowds of protesters took to the streets Friday.

The abandonment of President Ali Abdullah Saleh by the two tribes, including one that is linked to his own, is part of a larger crumbling of support for the autocratic leader after weeks of protests against his rule. Several army commanders, university professors and religious leaders also have defected to the opposition and called for his ouster. There have been protests almost daily since mid-February.

Saleh has held on, refusing to end his 32 years in power and waging a crackdown that has killed more than 120 people, according to Yemeni rights groups.

The United States is among world powers watching the unrest with concern, particularly because of the uncertainty over who would replace Saleh and whether a new Yemeni leader would be willing or able to continue cooperating with Washington in battling al-Qaeda’s most active offshoot, which operates out of Yemen.

President Saleh has warned that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which the United States estimates numbers about 300 fighters, would take control of the country if he stepped down.

The tribal chiefs who joined Saleh’s political opponents sought to reassure the world Friday that leaders from the opposition movement would “combat terrorism and dry the sources of its flow.”

The 100 chiefs from the Hashid and Bakeel tribes released the statement after two days of meetings with religious leaders, university professors and rights activists. Saleh’s Sanhan clan is affiliated with the larger Hashid tribe.

Leaders of both tribes had already announced their support for the opposition, part of a wave of defections triggered by the single bloodiest day of the government’s crackdown, when snipers killed more than 40 protesters in the capital, Sanaa, on March 18.

In their statement Friday, they called on Saleh to step down “immediately and sack his sons and relatives from their influential posts at the security apparatuses and the army.”

Hundreds of thousands gathered outside Sanaa University and protested against Saleh’s government after Friday’s Muslim prayer services. There also were massive protests in the southern city of Taiz, the port of Aden and in eastern Hadramawt province.

Saleh rallied tens of thousands of his own supporters near his office. He told the gathering that their numbers demonstrated his legitimacy and signaled a “rejection of chaos.”

[buglerbilly]

APRIL 22, 2011, 8:39 A.M. ET.

Yemen Army Officers Arrested for Backing Protest

Associated Press

SAN'A, Yemen—Authorities in Yemen have moved against military figures who defected from the camp of the country's
embattled president to join the opposition, arresting several officers on Friday, according to a military official.

The detentions reflect President Ali Abdullah Saleh's defiance in the face of two months of protests demanding he relinquish power, and growing defections by loyalists, tribal allies, ranking government officials and military figures.

The arrests followed a demonstration at al-Anad air base in the southern Lahj province on Tuesday, where dozens of soldiers and airmen joined the calls for the president to step down, said the military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The official, who holds the rank of a colonel, said several senior officers were detained but wouldn't elaborate.

Human-rights groups have said that at least 58 activists and opposition supporters have been detained in the past three weeks, including more than 20 protesters who were injured in clashes with police in San'a on Saturday.

Lawyer Abdel-Rahman Berman from the HOOD rights group said two women protesters were abducted on Tuesday by female security agents, who forced them into a black car without license plates and a government symbol on its rear window.

Meanwhile, opponents and supporters of Yemen's embattled president marched in cities and towns across the nation for rival rallies after Friday prayers.

In the capital San'a and elsewhere, hundreds of thousands chanted against Mr. Saleh, while renegade military troops made up of defectors provided security to the opposition demonstrations.

Outside the presidential palace in San'a, a mass crowd of Mr. Saleh's supporters carried banners reading: "Friday's Reconciliation."

The demonstrators wore loyalists badges depicting Mr. Saleh, as well as badges showing the president and his son who runs the Republican Guard, and others of Mr. Saleh and a nephew who commands the special presidential forces.

Rival rallies for and against Mr. Saleh have taken place every Friday since massive street protests against his 32 years in power broke out in mid-February, inspired by uprisings across the Arab world.

In the southern city of Taiz—an opposition hotbed—a massive crowd also gathered Friday to demand that Mr. Saleh step down.

Reinforcements of Republican Guard units and special forces were deployed in positions overlooking the protest in San'a, as well as around the Foreign Ministry and military headquarters.

Opposition activist Walid al-Ammari said Friday's demonstration, with the participation of a huge number of women, was "a message to this ruler [Mr. Saleh] to step down immediately without any promises of immunity from trial."

Mr. Saleh and the opposition are considering a Gulf Arab nations' proposal to end the country's crisis.

The draft calls on Mr. Saleh to hand over power to a successor of his choice and leave within a month, safe from the possibility of prosecution. The opposition wants him to leave immediately and the talks with the Gulf Cooperation Council representatives have failed to break new ground.

Mr. Saleh has over the past two months used violence to try to quell the unrest, with his security forces killing nearly 130 protesters so far. He has also offered concessions, including a pledge not to run again for president and not allow his son to succeed him.

[buglerbilly]

Embattled Yemeni president agrees to step down

Ali Abdullah Saleh, the embattled President of Yemen, has agreed to step down and hand power to his deputy in exchange for immunity from prosecution.


President Saleh has agreed to stand down and so pave the way for a new president to be elected Photo: EPA

By Jasper Copping9:00PM BST 23 Apr 2011

Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled for 32 years, has faced months of protests from an opposition movement which has accused his government of corruption and of failing to tackle the country’s poverty.

He has agreed to a proposal from mediators from the six nation Gulf Cooperation Council to stand down and pave the way for a new president to be elected.

Under the draft agreement, Yemen’s parliament would grant Saleh legal protection from prosecution and the president would submit his resignation and hand power over to his vice president, who would call for new presidential elections.

Soltan al-Barakani, deputy secretary general of the ruling General People’s Congress said: “The GPC and its allies have accepted the GCC initiative in its entirety.”

The protest movement which has been demanding Saleh’s immediate departure said that it also accepted the latest draft of the deal but with reservations.

They object to a clause that gives parliament, which is dominated by Saleh’s party, the right to reject the president’s resignation.

On Friday, protesters staged the largest of two months of demonstrations, filling a five-lane boulevard across the capital, Sana’a, with hundreds of thousands of people.

Schools, government offices and private companies were closed, in response to calls from the opposition for a strike to put more pressure on Saleh.

Protests continued yesterday with thousands involved in sit-ins at city squares in at least five provinces.

A crackdown by government forces and Saleh supporters has killed more than 130 people and prompted key allies to abandon the president and join the protesters.

Over the last two months, in the face of mounting opposition, Saleh has also offered concessions, including a pledge not to run again for president when his term is up in 2013 or allow his son to succeed him, but to no avail.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes powerful neighbour Saudi Arabia, has been seeking to broker an end to the crisis.

[buglerbilly]

Yemen protesters reject US-backed Saleh exit plan

Hammoud Mounassar

April 24, 2011 - 8:19PM .

Yemen protesters on Sunday demanded the immediate departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh after his ruling party accepted a Gulf plan for him to quit in 30 days, a move promptly hailed by Washington.

The United States had urged a peaceful transition after Saleh's General People's Congress party said late Saturday that it accepted a plan put forward by the Gulf Cooperation Council, under which he would quit after months of protests.

"There is a consensus on rejecting the initiative" proposed by the Gulf Cooperation Council, said Abdulmalik al-Yusufi, a leading activist at a sit-in demonstration in Sanaa's University Square.

The Gulf plan would see Saleh submit his resignation to parliament within 30 days, after forming a national unity government and handing power to his deputy. A presidential vote would be held within two months.

"The GPC and its allies have accepted the GCC initiative in its entirety," Soltan al-Barakani, the party's deputy secretary general and head of its parliamentary bloc.

Yemen's Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi was in Abu Dhabi, where he was expected to tell his United Arab Emirates counterpart of the decision, Barakani added.

The UAE currently holds the rotating presidency of the GCC.

Yemen's parliamentary Common Forum opposition coalition also welcomed the Gulf plan but insisted Saleh has to go before forming a national unity government.

The White House on Saturday welcomed the plan for Yemen's longtime president to step down, urging all sides to "swiftly" implement a peaceful transfer of power.

"We applaud the announcements by the Yemeni government and the opposition that they have accepted the GCC-brokered agreement to resolve the political crisis in a peaceful and orderly manner," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.

He also urged "all parties to move swiftly to implement the terms of the agreement so that the Yemeni people can soon realise the security, unity, and prosperity that they have so courageously sought and so richly deserve."

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said earlier that "the timing and form of this transition should be identified through dialogue and begin immediately."

He also called for "genuine participation" from all sides and urged them to refrain from violence.

Officials in the United States, which had regarded Saleh a key ally in its fight against terrorism, are alarmed at the fallout from the upheaval in Yemen, where Al-Qaeda has already exploited the violent power struggle between Saleh and his opponents.

On Friday, Saleh had given a cool response to the Gulf plan for him to quit after being in power for 32 years, even as massive crowds returned to the streets to demand his immediate departure.

The embattled leader insisted he would stick to the constitution in any power transfer.

Protesters who have taken to the streets of Yemen since late January, demanding the departure of Saleh and his regime, were not as open as the opposition.

Those camping out at University Square, which they have dubbed Change Square, staged a protest after midnight on Saturday stressing their rejection of the plan.

"Down with the regime" and "Down with all parties," they chanted.

"The Gulf initiative addresses the problem as if it was a political crisis between two parties... We have taken to the streets in a revolution that is demanding a comprehensive change," Yusufi said.

Ahmed al-Wafi, another leading activist in Taez, Yemen's second largest city and host to ongoing mass protests, also dismissed the latest statement by the GPC as an attempt to "buy time."

"The youth will only accept an immediate departure of Saleh. They are not concerned by any negotiations," he said, insisting that the parliamentary opposition will have to "follow the street stance."

More than 130 people have been killed in clashes with security forces and president loyalists since protests broke out late January.

© 2011 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.

[buglerbilly]

Yemenis start civil disobedience campaign

Ahmed al-Haj

April 27, 2011 - 9:09PM .

AP

Yemeni residents in scores of cities and towns across the nation launched a civil disobedience campaign on Wednesday to bring down the country's long-serving president, activists said.

The campaign is the latest in Yemen's uprising that started in early February, inspired by revolts across the Arab world. Massive near-daily protests have called for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country's ruler of 32 years.

According to opposition activists, residents in at least 18 cities and towns got involved in the disobedience campaign, with shops and schools closed and government offices shuttered. The daylong closures are planned twice weekly until Saleh goes, activists said.

Saleh has clung on to power despite the street protests and defections by many loyalist, including his tribesmen, military officers and ranking government figures. More than 130 people have been killed by security forces and Saleh's supporters since the unrest erupted.

Wednesday also saw deadly violence.

In the southern port city of Aden, units of the Republican Guard clashed with anti-government demonstrators who were marking the anniversary of the 1994 outbreak of Yemen's civil war that saw Saleh's army suppress an attempt by the southerners to secede.

One protester was killed and dozens were wounded in the violence Wednesday that involved tanks, armoUred cars and heavy weapons, according to local activist Wajdi al-Shaabi.

Elsewhere, two soldiers were killed and three others wounded when masked gunmen attacked a military checkpoint at the entrance of Zinjibar, the capital of southern Abyan province that has been a hotbed for Islamic militants.

Col Ahmed al-Muhsini of Zinjibar intelligence office confirmed the attack over the telephone and told The Associated Press that the assailants fled afterward.

Yemen, along with prevailing poverty, rampant corruption and lawlessness, southern secessionism and a Shi'ite uprising in the north, has also had to deal with brazen militant attacks and a resurgent al-Qaeda branch that has been active both inside the country and beyond its borders.

And in the country's second largest city, Taiz, tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated on Wednesday in main streets against a Gulf Arab initiative which gives Saleh and his family immunity against prosecution, activist Nouh al-Wafi said.

The authors of the initiative, the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, will meet on Sunday in the Saudi capital Riyadh where its foreign ministers are to fine-tune the draft proposal for ending Yemen's crisis.

Yemen's opposition parties said on Tuesday they will soon sign the deal, which Saleh has already agreed to. It calls for the creation of national unity government and would have Saleh transfer power to his vice-president within 30 days of the signing of the deal. In exchange, Saleh and his family would received immunity from prosecution.

But the proposal, appears to have opened a serious rift between opposition parties and the hundreds of thousands of protesters on the streets, who are suspicious and instead demand Saleh's immediate resignation.

© 2011 AP

[buglerbilly]

Yemen braced for more bloodshed after collapse of Saleh deal

Yemen was braced for more bloodshed yesterday after the collapse of a deal that would have seen President Ali Abdullah Saleh hand over power in advance of elections.


Ali Abdullah Saleh is kissed by a young supporter during a rally in Sanaa on Friday Photo: REUTERS

By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent

2:23PM BST 02 May 2011

The six Gulf states which negotiated the deal reacted furiously to Mr Saleh's last-minute decision at the weekend not to sign it.

He said he would not take part in the signing ceremony in Riyadh due to take place today, sending emissaries instead, and even then representing him only in his capacity as head of the ruling party. The opposition coalition demanded he sign in person, as president, as a token of sincerity.

Mr Saleh also objected to signing in the presence of officials from Qatar who were part of the Gulf Co-operation Council negotiating team. Like many Arab leaders, he blames Qatar and in particular its al-Jazeera television station for the uprising against his rule.

"President Saleh, like any dictator, does not want to leave power and is doing everything he can to win time and stay longer in power," Mohammed al-Sabri, an opposition spokesman said.

Yemeni protesters now fear that even more force will be used to limit protest, after 140 deaths since January. At least one protester was killed in fresh protests in Aden when the army opened fire on a demonstration.

A meeting of the Gulf Co-operation Council in Riyadh said it was sending the group's secretary-general, Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani, to resume talks in Sana'a. But it also issued a statement saying it "bemoaned statements by the Yemeni side which carried insults against Qatar – which, along with fellow GCC countries, is making continuous efforts to arrive at a comprehensive solution to the Yemeni crisis".

[buglerbilly]

US drone attack kills al-Qaeda members in Yemen

A US drone killed two local al-Qaeda members in Yemen after it missed a Saudi leader of the organisation, according to sources.


Two al-Qaeda members were killed and a third person was wounded in the attack in the town of Nissab Photo: GETTY

12:59PM BST 05 May 2011

The drone had targeted the Saudi as he drove to the home of local al-Qaeda men, a security source said.

When the two local al-Qaeda men rushed out in their own car, they were hit and killed by the drone.

The security source did not specify that the unmanned aircraft was American and there was no official word from the Yemeni authorities on who carried out the strike.

But the witnesses insisted it was a US drone that fired the missile.

The defence ministry confirmed the killing of two brothers, but did not elaborate on the circumstances of their deaths. Security sources identified the two brothers as Abdullah and Mubarak al-Harad.

Witnesses said they saw a missile fired by an aircraft hit the two brothers in the province of Shabwa, where al-Qaeda is well entrenched. The men died instantly.

A third person was wounded in the attack in the town of Nissab, the witnesses added.

The Washington Post reported in November that President Barack Obama's administration had deployed unmanned Predator drones in Yemen to hunt for al-Qaeda operatives.

Yemen has come under intense pressure to crack down on jihadists' local franchise, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, since a December 2009 attempt to blow up a US airliner that was claimed by AQAP.

In Abyan – another restive southern province where al-Qaeda is active – nine people, including four policemen and a soldier, were killed in clashes between security forces and al-Qaeda gunmen on Wednesday, a security official and medics said.

The authorities blame al-Qaeda for the violence.

[buglerbilly]

First Drone Strikes Since bin Laden Raid Hit Pakistan, Yemen

By Spencer Ackerman May 6, 2011 | 9:38 am



Just four days after the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden — and seized more than 100 discs, drives and computers from the al-Qaida hideout — the U.S. restarted its drone attacks on Pakistan. Then, mere hours earlier, drones hit Yemen for the first time in nearly nine years. Could this be the first result of intel taken from bin Laden’s thumb drives?

The Pakistani military loudly boasted in a statement that its spy agency ought to get credit for killing bin Laden, right as it warned the U.S. against any future unilateral ops — and, for good measure, that the U.S. military needed to pack up and leave Pakistan. Shortly after the military brass issued that statement, U.S. drones hit a compound and a vehicle in North Waziristan, “killing eight militants,” an anonymous Pakistani security official told AFP. It’s the first drone strike in Pakistan since April 22, according to the New America Foundation.

Drones are anything but a unilateral U.S. operation: The Pakistanis have abetted the strikes for years. But the strikes have become more difficult for the Pakistanis to tolerate, at least publicly, since CIA contractor Raymond Davis walked out of a Lahore jail without facing trial for the killing of two Pakistanis who he said tried to rob him. And the Pakistani statement yesterday made a big show of proclaiming its airspace protected. The strike makes the Pakistanis look either complicit — and, hence, hypocritical — or incompetent.

Meanwhile, several thousand miles southwest, the drones returned to a different theater of undeclared war after a nine-year hiatus. A drone launched a missile on Thursday into Shabwah, which the Long War Journal identifies as “a mountainous province in central Yemen that is a known safe haven for al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.” The targets were two Saudi brothers believed to be al-Qaida operatives, Musaed Mubarak Aldaghery and Abdullah Mubarak Aldaghery.

The rise of al-Qaida’s Yemen affiliate has prompted months of speculation that armed drones would be on their way back to Yemen. They haven’t launched a strike there since 2002, when they killed Ali Qaed Sunian al-Harithi, an al-Qaida operative responsible for the 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole, in what was essentially a prologue for the aerial robot war to come.

Yemeni officials have said since the fall that U.S. drones have been active in the skies over Yemen, but only in a surveillance capacity, searching for al-Qaida figures. Before Thursday, cruise missiles were the recent U.S. weapon of choice against al-Qaida in Yemen.

Counterterrorism analysts have assumed that Yemeni tolerance for the U.S. hunt on al-Qaida stalled in the wake of the massive protests against the U.S.-allied government of Ali Abdullah Saleh. Not many Yemen watchers believe that a post-Saleh government would turn down U.S. largesse. But the feeble position of the government creates an opportunity for the terrorists. “The under-governed spaces are getting bigger,” Christopher Boucek of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace tells Danger Room. “There is greater and greater space for al-Qaida and like-minded organizations.”

All that raises the intriguing possibility that the strikes come as the result of intelligence exploited from the raid on bin Laden’s compound. SEALs took multiple computers from the site. Politico reported that bin Laden had two phone numbers sewn into his clothing. And Danger Room pal Eli Lake reports that intelligence officials digging through the intel trove believe bin Laden gave “strategic guidance and direction” to al-Qaida affiliates — including the one in Yemen. One story out Friday holds that bin Laden, who was “in touch regularly with the terror network he created,” wanted to “derail a train on a bridge” in the U.S. on a symbolic date.

CIA officials have yet to respond to inquiries from Danger Room about the connection between the drone strikes and the bin Laden compound intelligence. Chances are they won’t confirm anything. But it’s hard to resist making an educated guess. After al-Qaida’s Yemen branch tried to sneak bombs into the U.S. packed into printers, the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command paired up to create “kill/capture” teams, equipped with drones. And they’re precisely the ones who killed bin Laden and stole his documents.

Photo: U.S. Air Force

[buglerbilly]

Qatar withdraws from effort to mediate end to Yemen crisis, blames president for impasse

By Associated Press, Published: May 12 | Updated: Friday, May 13, 4:33 PM

SANAA, Yemen — Qatar has pulled out of the effort to mediate an end to Yemen’s political crisis, blaming the country’s embattled president for the impasse.

Qatar was among six Gulf nations pushing a deal for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down after 32 years in power in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Three months of massive street protests have demanded the autocratic ruler’s immediate departure, and a government crackdown has killed about 150 people.

The six nations of the regional alliance known as the Gulf Cooperation Council are worried that Yemen’s growing instability could destabilize other parts of the Arabian Peninsula.

Yemen’s official news agency said Friday that Saleh’s party accused Qatar of siding with the protesters and welcomed its withdrawal from the talks.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

MAY 24, 2011.

Fighting Erupts in Yemen Amid Political Standoff

By TOM FINN in San'a, Yemen, and MARGARET COKER in Abu Dhabi


Agence France Presse/Getty Images
Protesters in San'a on Monday demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Gunbattles erupted across the Yemeni capital amid rising fears that the breakdown of negotiations aimed at ushering in a peaceful transition of power away from President Ali Abdullah Saleh could lead to civil war.

The embattled strongman backed away from a promise to sign an Arab-brokered deal that would end his 33 years in power, give him immunity from prosecution and influence the composition of the transitional authority. That prompted regional leaders late Sunday to suspend their shuttle diplomacy aimed at providing a solution to Yemen's political impasse.

The breakdown of negotiations increased tensions in San'a, the capital, where government soldiers have maintained a strong show of force amid continued demonstrations by tens of thousands of antiregime activists, including the nation's largest tribe and some of its most respected military leaders.

Battles first broke out Monday between Interior Ministry forces and tribesmen protecting the San'a home of Sheikh Sadeq Al-Ahmar, leader of the Hashid tribe, whose switch of loyalties in March away from the president—a member of the tribe—helped snowball support for the myriad opposition groups that began the protests back in January.

The U.S. is pressing Mr. Saleh to accept the Gulf-sponsored transition plan by trying to convince him that it is in Yemen's best interest. But Washington has so far stopped short of threatening sanctions against the president if he refuses to back down, officials said.

"There is a certain amount of exasperation," a senior Obama administration official said, referring to U.S. frustration with Mr. Saleh for repeatedly balking at the transition plan. "He just has to realize the time has come. It's the best way forward for Yemen, for his people."

What sparked the latest fighting was unclear. Some witnesses said Interior Ministry forces, which are under the command of President Saleh's nephew, had taken over a schoolyard near Sheikh Ahmar's heavily fortified compound, a move seen as provocative by his tribesmen, who have been streaming into the capital in order to defend their leader from any potential government recrimination, they say. The house is located near the Interior Ministry.

Tribesmen and security forces fired rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles as each side battled to control territory in the neighborhood. After hours of fierce fighting, tribal fighters had taken over buildings belonging to the Industry Ministry, a government statement said.

It wasn't immediately clear how many people died in the fighting, or how many people had been involved. The area around Sheikh Ahmar's house was cordoned off. Local media reported that at least 18 people had died: 10 security troops, six tribesmen and two civilians. A doctor working in the Kuwait Hospital in San'a said more than 50 people, both tribesmen and soldiers, were being treated for gunshot wounds.

A Yemeni official blamed Sheikh Ahmar's tribesmen for the violence, saying they had triggered the clashes by taking over public property. The official said the Hashids had fired two anti-aircraft missiles at an Interior Ministry building. Later in the day, the official said the gunfighting around Sheikh Ahmar's compound had stopped following "tribal mediation."

It wasn't immediately possible to reach Sheikh Ahmar, whose compound had been surrounded by security forces.

By midafternoon, the violence had expanded across San'a. Plainclothes men carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles had moved to surround the Ministry of Industry and Foreign Trade as well as the headquarters of President Saleh's ruling party.Plumes of black smoke could be seen billowing from the Interior Ministry.

There was no immediate response from the Gulf Cooperation Council, the organization of Arab oil-producing nations that was in charge of brokering a political deal between President Saleh and an umbrella group of opposition parties.

The GCC said late Sunday that it was ending its diplomacy, citing a "lack of appropriate conditions" for a peaceful handover of power. Its statement came after an armed mob loyal to the president laid siege for several hours to the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in San'a, briefly trapping several ambassadors, including the U.S.'s top diplomat in Yemen and the GCC secretary-general.

Aides to President Saleh and the Yemeni political opposition hammered out an agreement to transfer power weeks ago, but the president has refused multiple times to sign the accord, under which he would step down after a 30-day transition period and which would allow him and his relatives immunity from prosecution.

Yemen's central government has little control outside urban areas of the country and struggles to keep dwindling amounts of cash in its central bank. Most Yemenis consider their tribal loyalties paramount, and tribal disagreements or disputes often lead to years—if not decades—of internal disputes.

U.S. and Arab officials fear a power vacuum in Yemen could increase opportunities for the local branch of al Qaeda to plan and launch fresh attacks against international targets.

Despite increasing calls by his benefactors and neighbors for his resignation, President Saleh has been emboldened by the opposition coalition's reluctance to use weapons to oust him. The opposition's ranks include key generals and military officers—as well as their armories—but the group negotiating on behalf of the opposition has been fearful of allowing Yemen to devolve into a situation like those in Libya or Syria.

Over the weekend, President Saleh took a harder line against the demonstrators and the diplomatic efforts. In a nationally broadcast speech Saturday, he condemned the draft political deal as "a coup." He accused the opposition of being foreign agents intent on destabilizing the country and repeated warnings that the country's active al Qaeda cells would seize control of the fragile nation if he were to leave power.

—Adam Entous in Washington contributed to this article.

[buglerbilly]

U.S., E.U. and Arab allies review support for Yemen in bid to resolve escalating crisis

By Karen DeYoung, Tuesday, May 24, 9:38 AM

The Obama administration and its Arab and European allies are reassessing their military and economic support for Yemen in a desperate search for ways to force President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s resignation before civil war erupts.

In a conversation Sunday just before Saleh refused a third successive peace deal negotiated by Persian Gulf states, White House counterterrorism chief John O. Brennan told the Yemeni president “that if he doesn’t sign, we’re going to have to consider possible other steps,” a senior administration official said.

One option, U.S. and Arab officials said, would be to bring Yemen before the U.N. Security Council for unspecified sanctions. On Monday, the European Union called on Saleh to “transfer power now” and warned that member states “will review their policies toward Yemen.”

But even as they considered new steps to resolve the escalating crisis in Yemen, which is in its third month, officials acknowledged that any course of action they might pursue poses risks in this strategically located country that is on the brink of economic collapse and is home to the world’s most powerful and active branch of al-Qaeda.

“The situation is very delicate now,” said the administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss fast-breaking events on the ground. Saleh, he said, “is drawing this out at his own peril.”

In the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, gun battles raged Monday between government forces and fighters loyal to powerful tribal leader Sadiq al-Ahmar, who has sided with the growing opposition movement that has demanded an end to Saleh’s 32-year-long rule, wire services reported.

The U.S. Embassy in Sanaa announced it would close its consular section Tuesday and Wednesday “due to the fluid security situation” and would provide emergency services only for U.S. citizens.

“We’re taking one day at a time, but we’re not at this point relying on a change of heart on the part of Saleh,” the administration official said. “We need to now reevaluate with our partners the next step we can take that will try to resolve this.”

A senior Arab official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “Right now, there is nothing the outside world can do except saying, ‘Sign.’ ”

But while donors may be hesitant about cutting security ties and the economic assistance that keeps Yemen afloat, he said, “you can cut the stuff that goes to him as president — not directly into his pocket, but presidents have expenses. They live in houses, they have cars and salaries to pay.”

The Arab official counseled a bit more patience, but he agreed that time was running out. “It’s going to be impossible for [Yemen] to continue without the risk of this disintegrating. In which case, all bets are off,” he said.

Yemen, an ostensible U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, has been one of the most vexing problems for the Obama administration during a season of widespread popular revolts throughout the Arab world.

Yemen, which received more than $300 million in U.S. security and economic aid last year, allows U.S. Special Operations forces to train its counterterrorism forces and gather intelligence on its soil against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). U.S. fighter jets have launched attacks on AQAP targets in Yemen, and this month marked the first time since 2002 that the U.S. military launched a drone strike there.

“I don’t believe that AQAP has been anywhere near the forefront of this political movement” comprising youthful protesters and civil society groups, political parties, tribal leaders and breakaway military units, the senior administration official said. “But if the military and the security services fracture, AQAP is going to be the one that benefits.”

The tens of thousands of Yemenis pouring into Sanaa to oppose or support Saleh are seen as providing a useful cover for AQAP to move large quantities of weapons into the capital and, potentially, to plan attacks against Western and other targets there.

The administration has tried to track military units involved in the political fighting on both sides to ensure that U.S.-trained counterterrorism units and U.S.-provided equipment have not been involved in the domestic battles. “So far, there’s not been a bleed-over” from the specially trained units into the streets, the official said.

But as frustration with Saleh has increased along with the violence, the administration has moved from gently advising him to make an early exit to vocally calling for him to step down in accordance with negotiated deals he has repeatedly agreed to but balked at signing.

Yemen’s Persian Gulf neighbors, nervously fending off their own domestic unrest, have taken the lead in negotiations. The most recent deal, negotiated by the Gulf Cooperation Council, a six-nation regional group that includes Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, came after Yemeni opposition leaders dropped their reluctance to grant Saleh immunity from prosecution if he agreed to step down in 30 days.

Saleh agreed, and the opposition signed the deal Saturday. A signing ceremony for Saleh and leaders of his political party was scheduled to take place Sunday at the UAE Embassy.

Instead, the embassy was surrounded by armed men professing loyalty to Saleh. Diplomats, including the U.S. and Saudi ambassadors and the head of the GCC, were surrounded for several hours before being evacuated, some on helicopters, by government forces.

When they reassembled Sunday afternoon at the presidential palace, Saleh stood chatting amiably with U.S. Ambassador Gerald M. Feierstein as his party leaders signed the agreement, but then he refused to do so himself.

In a later appearance on state television, Saleh said he had refused because opposition leaders had not signed the document in his presence. He said the opposition would be responsible “if the country goes to civil war.”

GCC officials left Yemen in anger, announcing that the deal was off the table and beginning urgent consultations with one another and the Obama administration.

[buglerbilly]

Yemen locked in power struggle as escalation of fighting leaves 38 dead

• Scores killed in shootout in capital, Sana'a
• Activists fear violence will eclipse protest movement

Tom Finn in Sana'a

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 24 May 2011 21.44 BST


Anti-government demonstrators protesting on the streets of Sana’a. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters

Security forces loyal to Yemen's president Ali Abdullah Saleh were locked in fierce gun battles on Tuesday in the capital Sana'a with guards from the country's most powerful tribal federation whose leader is backing protesters' demands for an end to the premier's 33-year rule.

At least 24 soldiers and 14 tribesmen were killed and 24 injured in the skirmishes, dimming the prospects for a negotiated solution to Yemen's political impasse.

The shootout, which pitted Saleh's central security forces against guards of Sadiq al-Ahmar, head of the Hashid tribal federation from which Saleh also hails, took place in sandbagged streets surrounding Ahmar's fortified compound, near several government ministries and the ruling party's headquarters.

Bullets fizzed through the air and plumes of black smoke rose from shattered houses as the two sides fired machine guns and shells at each other in a heavily–populated residential area in the east of the capital. A stray missile thudded into a mosque sending clouds of dust into the air and residents fleeing in panic.

As the fighting raged on into the evening, the opposition tribesmen began to advance, barricading main roads and sealing off several government buildings including the interior ministry. The estimated 500 tribal fighters are thought to be directing their assault from the Yemenia Airways office.

Local residents, most of whom have been evacuated from the area, say the violence was sparked "randomly" when Ahmar's guards tried to enter a primary school, claiming that Saleh's troops had been using it to stockpile weapons.

Others have accused Saleh, who recently backed away from signing a Saudi-led deal for his exit, of deliberately stirring the violence.

In a statement on Tuesday, Yemen's opposition members said that Saleh, who is facing mounting pressure from the west to quit office, was trying to spark a "civil war" in an attempt to remain in power.

"This is his [Saleh's] last resort," said Hassan Zaid, a leading opposition figure. "We're all praying that this doesn't escalate into a widespread conflict."

The government meanwhile has accused the Ahmar clan of "fomenting unrest" and "exploiting the current troubles in the country".

"The al-Ahmar sons and their gang turned away from the mediation effort and fired rockets and bullets heavily on government installations and citizens' homes," the defence ministry said in a statement.

Tribal mediators have been scrambling to bring about a swift end to the standoff but have so far been unsuccessful. Marib Press reported late on Tuesday that Ghalib al-Kamish, head of political security and the mediation committee, was severely wounded when a rocket hit Ahmar's house during a negotiation session.

It remains unclear what bearing the clashes will have on the protest movement. Protesters have expressed their concern that their peaceful movement may end up being eclipsed by the armed conflict.

"The violence will negatively affect the ongoing protest and will turn the dream of a peaceful revolution into a nightmare of a civil war," said Ibrahim Mothana, a 22-year-old Yemeni writer and activist.

"The protesters will stand firm to keep the uprising going and will never take a violent approach despite the ongoing conflict."

Saleh has resisted intense international pressure to step down. The British Foreign Office minister, Alistair Burt, issued a stinging rebuke, saying Saleh's refusal to sign an agreement under which he would leave office in 30 days in exchange for immunity from prosecution is "a matter of the deepest regret to the United Kingdom.

"Saleh is now isolated from leaders in his own party and the opposition who have demonstrated their commitment to a peaceful transition of power," he said.

The six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council, which has been mediating the negotiations, suspended its efforts indefinitely after Saleh's latest manoeuvre.

[buglerbilly]

Al-Qaeda takes advantage of security vacuum in Yemen

Al-Qaeda is taking advantage of the worsening political turmoil in Yemen to smuggle weapons into the capital in preparation for an attack on Western targets.


A defecting army soldier waves during a celebration by anti-government protesters commemorating the anniversary of Yemen's reunification in Sana'a Photo: REUTERS

By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent

6:30PM BST 25 May 2011

The United States is on standby to evacuate its ambassador from Yemen amid fears of an imminent attack in violence plagued Sana'a, according to a western intelligence assessment.

Already viewed as the most powerful franchise in the global al Qaeda network, al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula is said to have gained considerable strength over three months of political upheaval that have left Yemen's president of 32 years, Ali Abdullah Saleh, on the brink.

At least 44 people have been killed in clashes between troops loyal to Mr Saleh and militiamen controlled by one of his most powerful tribal rivals, Sadiq al-Ahmar, in the past three days.

Amid growing international concern of an incipient civil war in Yemen, President Barack Obama used a press conference with David Cameron yesterday to urge Mr Saleh to abide by a pledge to leave office.

"We call upon President Saleh to move immediately on his commitment to transfer power," Mr Obama said.

Many western missions, including the British embassy, have already cut down to skeleton operations because of the heightened danger. Other western states are also said to be considering withdrawing their envoys although it is understood that there are no plans at present to evacuate Jonathan Wilks, the British ambassador.

"Yemen is standing on the edge of a precipice," a western source familiar with Yemen said. "The rule of law has almost totally collapsed and AQAP can manoeuvre with unimpeded and unprecedented freedom. The current risk is as high as it could be."

Senior US officials have already described AQAP as "the most significant threat to the US homeland" after it was linked to two attacks on domestic American targets, including an attempt by a would-be bomber to bring down an airline over Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009 with explosives concealed in his underpants.

Until this year, Mr Saleh was seen as a useful if mercurial ally against AQAP who allowed the United States to launch aerial and missile attacks on the group's bases in some of the country's most lawless corners.

But the president is increasingly viewed as a liability, whose refusal to bow to the demands of hundreds of thousands on the streets of Yemen's cities has only allowed AQAP to gather strength.

As the army has turned in on itself, dividing into pro- and anti-Saleh factions, AQAP has used the security vacuum to launch brazen raids on ammunitions and weapons stores.

Following the death of Osama bin Laden, there are also fears that new recruits, some inspired by the US-Yemeni preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, will now head to Yemen to muster around AQAP's leader, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, seen by some as, increasingly, the most powerful figure in the al Qaeda franchise.

Mr Saleh had promised for a third time this week to sign a deal that would see him hand over power within 30 days, but at a ceremony attended by bewildered ambassadors on Sunday he again backed down at the last moment.

Instead his troops launched attacks on the house on Mr al-Ahmar on Monday and then alienated potential allies by shelling mediators from the president's tribal confederation as they went to the building to resolve the dispute.

Yesterday, the crisis escalated at presidential forces attacked defecting troops protecting demonstrators in Sana'a's University Square, the epicentre of the protest movement. Thousands of people fled the city as gunmen in civilian garb roamed the streets firing at will, while tribesmen loyal to the opposition occupied the state news agency, the national airline Yemenia building and tried to storm the interior ministry headquarters, according to witnesses.

Amid the bloodshed, Mr Saleh stood defiant and appeared to drop all pretence that he would hand over power, saying: "I will not leave power and I will not leave Yemen. I don't take orders from outside."

[buglerbilly]

MAY 26, 2011, 8:45 A.M. ET.

Yemen Says 28 Killed in Weapons-Depot Blast

Associated Press

SAN'A, Yemen—Yemen's government said 28 people were killed in an explosion at a weapons storage site Thursday, but the opposition claimed military forces shelled a building used by tribal fighters who have risen up against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and warned of civil war if he refuses to step down.

The conflicting accounts didn't differ on the death count, which raised the overall toll to at least 109 since intense clashes broke out Monday in the heart of Yemen's capital and later spread to other areas of the city. The battles threaten to open a militia-led rebellion after months of street protests that have failed to end Mr. Saleh's 32-year rule.

The escalating violence prompted the State Department on Wednesday to order nonessential U.S. diplomats and their families to leave the country.

Yemen's Defense Ministry said the latest deaths occurred in an explosion at a weapons-storage facility in a western part of San'a. The opposition, however, said shells slammed into a residential building occupied by fighters loyal to Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, the leader of Yemen's largest and most powerful tribe.

Mr. al-Ahmar's tribe, called the Hashid, turned against Mr. Saleh two months ago but had kept its well-armed militia on the sidelines. The Hashid and allied tribes opened fierce attacks Monday after Mr. Saleh's forces tried to storm Mr. al-Ahmar's compound in central San'a.


European Pressphoto Agency
A photo made available shows influential Yemeni tribe leader Sadeq bin Abdullah al-Ahmar, center, and other unidentified tribesmen supporting antigovernment protesters that gathered at Mr. al-Ahmar's house in San'a, Yemen, on May 24.

Mr. al-Ahmar's forces have laid siege to at least nine government ministries and government troops have responded with mortars and shelling. The targets Thursday included a TV station owned by Mr. al-Ahmar, which was forced off the air by the attack.

Yemeni authorities also escalated its campaign against Mr. al-Ahmar by issuing an arrest warrant against him and other tribal leaders.

Speaking over the phone from his compound, Mr. al-Ahmar accused Mr. Saleh of "dragging the country to a civil war" and urged neighboring Gulf countries and other nations to force Mr. Saleh to leave power or risk pushing the country into civil war.

"He is the one who started this war. They attacked us on our houses. We didn't start it," said Mr. al-Ahmar. "This man doesn't want anything good for Yemen."

Mr. al-Ahmar claimed Mr. Saleh intentionally triggered the current bloodshed in an attempt to portray his regime as the only option to avoid chaos.

"He wants to explode the situation," Mr. al-Ahmar said. "He is sending a message to the world: 'Look if I leave, this is the kind of war that will take place.'"

Mr. al-Ahmar offered a cease-fire if Mr. Saleh takes the first steps to halt the attacks, which he said have spread farther throughout the capital to include areas around the airport.

But Mr. Saleh has struck a tone of hard-line defiance.

On Wednesday, he vowed he would not step down or allow Yemen to become a "failed state."

"I will not leave power and I will not leave Yemen," said a statement read by Mr. Saleh's spokesman. "I don't take orders from outside."

Mr. Saleh also threatened that his ouster could turn Yemen into a haven for al Qaeda—directly touching on U.S. fears that chaos in Yemen could open room for more terrorist footholds. The Yemeni branch of al Qaeda is linked to the attempted Christmas Day 2009 bombing of an airline over Detroit and explosives found in parcels intercepted last year in Dubai and Britain.

"Yemen will not be a failed state. It will not turn [into an] al Qaeda refuge," the statement said. Mr. Saleh also said he would work to prevent the recent violence from "dragging the country into a civil war."

President Barack Obama has called on Mr. Saleh to transfer power—a change from an administration that once considered the Yemeni ruler a necessary ally against terrorism.

In Washington, a State Department advisory warned the clashes in Yemen's capital "may escalate without notice."

"The security threat level in Yemen is extremely high due to terrorist activities and civil unrest," the advisory said. "There is ongoing civil unrest throughout the country and large-scale protests in major cities."

The clashes have forced hundreds of Yemenis to flee San'a or take refuge in basements to escape mortar strikes.

Hundreds of protesters, meanwhile, camped outside the university in San'a, protected by army troops who have defected to the opposition side.

[buglerbilly]

MAY 29, 2011, 7:45 P.M. ET.

Yemen Unrest Spreads South

By HAKIM ALMASMARI in San'a, Yemen, and MARGARET COKER in Abu Dhabi

A fresh armed uprising against Yemen's embattled president has erupted in the country's third-largest city, pitting well-armed Islamic fundamentalist tribal fighters against forces loyal to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his relatives, expanding the unrest from the capital in the north to the southern reaches of the nation.

The new front against President Saleh in Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, kicked off over the weekend when armed Islamists from the mountains outside the city moved in after hundreds of elite government units usually stationed there withdrew from their posts to bolster defenses elsewhere, the Defense Ministry said.

The security situation in Yemen has deteriorated rapidly over the past week, when political negotiations designed to end President Saleh's 33-year rule and allow him a dignified exit from office failed when he refused—for the third time—to sign the agreement hammered out among his aides, the political opposition and the international community. More than 150 people have died in clashes that have raged in San'a, the capital, a province north of the capital and now in the south in Abyan, which is one of the bastions of an al Qaeda cell prevalent in the country.

Zinjibar residents said fighters hail from local tribes which for years have lived outside of the central-government oversight. The group, which calls itself Ansar al-Sharia, or the Supporters of Islamic Law, isn't part of al Qaeda, residents say, but want to set up a fundamentalist Islamic emirate in the south, like the Taliban did in Afghanistan.

On Sunday, there was no sign that political negotiations had any possibility of being rekindled, and it is unclear how or if the international community can respond to the growing bloodshed. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia, both targets of Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, are concerned that the terrorist organization will take advantage of any civil war to increase its foothold and launch fresh attacks on international targets.

Armed fundamentalist fighters taking control of key cities like Zinjibar heighten that concern. Al Qaeda made a similar arrangement with the Taliban in Afghanistan during the 1990s, making common cause with coreligionists, which allowed Osama bin Laden to attack U.S. targets.

In Abyan on Sunday, residents said heavy clashes flared between the estimated 400 militants patrolling Zinjibar streets and Republican Guard units who have called in helicopter gunships to attack militant positions on the ground in attempts to regain control of the city.

It was impossible to confirm the total damage or deaths, but multiple residents on Sunday described horrifying scenes of urban warfare. They estimated that 200 homes were destroyed by the helicopter attacks, while medical personnel said at least 12 people were killed.

Most stores remained shuttered, and families cowered at home. Militants patrolling the city streets urged residents to stay inside while the attacks continue.

"Even if we are at home, we are scared that one bullet might enter through the window and kill a family member," said Salem Abdo, a Zinjibar resident. "Explosions are heard dozens of times every hour."

The fighting in the south escalated what had been a devolving situation in the north. On Friday, violent clashes between heavily armed tribesmen and government troops that rocked the Yemeni capital last week spread outside San'a. Now, at least three of Yemen's largest tribes are battling the central government forces, which are under the command of the president's son Ahmed and nephew Yahya.

A tribal militia opposed to President Saleh attacked military installations controlled by Republican Guards in the el-Fardha Nehem region, about 80 kilometers northeast of San'a, prompting the government to call in airstrikes, according to government and tribal sources.

Yemen is a primarily tribal community, particularly in rural areas, and loyalties to tribes runs deep. The Hashid tribe, one of the most powerful, commands hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and many of those are currently in the capital taking on government forces. In Fardha, another tribe controlled two Republican Guard bases as of Sunday, said government and tribal sources.

The uptick in violence has changed the nature of Yemen's protests—which like Egypt started as a peaceful call for transition— to a potentially dangerous armed-conflict scenario, as in Libya. When tribal blood is spilled, the tribal code of honor prioritizes revenge, and it is unclear how either President Saleh—or any possible successor—will be able to patch relations between these domestic constituents in the near future.

Critics accused President Saleh of allowing the militants to seize Zinjibar to distract from three months of mass protests calling for an end to his rule. Mr. Saleh has warned that without him, al Qaeda would seize control of Yemen.

The officials say militants seized tanks Saturday night after the governor, the security chief and the head of an army brigade left the town. Army units clashed with the militants outside the city. Medical officials said on Sunday that six civilians were killed.

Meanwhile, a Yemeni rights activist said on Sunday that a brigade of the powerful Republican Guard run by Mr. Saleh's son has defected to the opposition in a southern province. It is the first reported defection among the elite troops, which have been the core of Mr. Saleh's hold on power despite three months of massive street protests and defections by some military and tribal allies.

Activist Abdul-Rahman Ahmed said a letter from Brig. Gen. Ibrahim al-Jayfi, commander of the Guard's Ninth Brigade, was read to thousands of protesters in the provincial capital of Damar on Sunday.

Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar of the powerful Hashid tribal confederation, whose fighters battled Mr. Saleh's troops for five days last week, has called on the Guard to help topple Mr. Saleh. The clashes killed 124 people.

—Farnaz Fassihi in Beirut contributed to this article.

[buglerbilly]

Yemen govt forces kill over 50 in Taez: UN

May 31, 2011 - 6:49PM .

AFP

Government forces killed more than 50 people since Sunday in crushing a sit-in demonstration in Yemen's Taez, the UN human rights office said.

"The UN human rights office has received reports ... that more than 50 people have been killed since Sunday in Taez by Yemeni army, Republican Guards and other government-affiliated elements who forcibly destroyed the protest camp in Horriya Square using water cannons, bulldozers and live ammunition," said the office in a statement.

"Reports indicate that hundreds more have been injured," it said.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay condemned the attacks and urged all sides to stop using force.

"Such reprehensible acts of violence and indiscriminate attacks on unarmed civilians by armed security officers must stop immediately," said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"Further violence will only yield more insecurity and move the country further away from a resolution to this political crisis.

"I urge all parties to continue efforts aimed at finding a peaceful solution to this conflict. The bloodshed must stop."

At least 100 people are also believed to have been arrested over the weekend, while dozens others are unaccounted for.

The four-month-old sit-in in Taez, Yemen's second largest city south of Sanaa, was the longest-running protest against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power since 1978.

During the crackdown, troops backed by tanks also stormed a field hospital and detained 37 of the wounded receiving treatment there.

The UN rights chief also urged authorities to probe cases of disappearances, and claims of torture and killings, noting that there have been no updates on the March 18 reported killing of 52 protestors in front of the University of Sanaa.

© 2011 AFP

[buglerbilly]

JUNE 2, 2011.

Rebel General Fights Yemen Regime

Urban Battle Escalates as Tribal Fighters Get Reinforcements, While Government Is Said to Deploy Elite U.S.-Trained Forces.

By MARGARET COKER

Yemen edged closer to open civil war as the country's most powerful general sent troops to fight against government forces and the president was said to have deployed elite U.S.-funded counterterrorism troops against political opponents for the first time.

Wednesday's moves promised to escalate the urban battle that has run for two days in the capital and appears to be the bloodiest in the country's four-month uprising. At least 37 people were killed in fighting Tuesday and Wednesday and dozens more were wounded, hospital officials in San'a said.

More fatalities were expected as fighting in San'a continued into the night, with explosions reverberating throughout the capital every few seconds early Thursday.

Brig. General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who for three decades provided the iron fist of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule, deployed about 1,000 of his troops late Wednesday in support of his fellow Hashid tribesmen. These tribal fighters have been at the fore as this spring's peaceful protests turned into a broader armed conflict, after negotiations broke down last week to ease Mr. Saleh from office after 33 years in power.

Early Thursday in San'a, two people familiar with Yemen's security forces said Mr. Saleh's government had deployed U.S.-trained counterterrorism troops to battle these tribal fighters. These people said the forces were deployed Tuesday.

It is believed to be the first time the troops—part of a U.S. bid to gain Mr. Saleh's cooperation in fighting Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula—have been deployed against political opponents.

"We have not received evidence that counterterrorism assistance has been used against demonstrators or political opponents during the current unrest," said Col. David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman. "We consistently monitor our counterterrorism assistance to Yemen and take allegations of misuse seriously."

Senior U.S. officials have peatedly repeatedly cautioned Mr. Saleh against using U.S.-trained forces and weapons against the protesters, officials say. U.S. law could force Washington to cut off assistance to U.S.-backed Yemeni forces if they are found to have committed human-rights abuses.

Amid the fighting, Germany, Italy and Kuwait said Wednesday they were evacuating much of their embassy staff from San'a.

Gen. Ahmar, who defected from Yemen's military more than two months ago and backed the protesters nonviolently, has roughly 40,000 men under his command and controls heavy artillery and armored vehicles.

Mr. Saleh has roughly 50,000 to 60,000 troops loyal to him. The pro-Saleh forces are among Yemen's best trained, including the Republican Guards, commanded by Mr. Saleh's son, and the Central Security force, commanded by a nephew, which includes the counterterrorism forces.

Gen. Ahmar's move holds potential to move the country toward a sustained civil war, or urge it to a more decisive end.

Abdul Jabbar, director of the independent Dar Ashraf Research Center in Yemen, characterized Gen. Ahmar as the president's closest ally over three decades. He suggested that by deploying a small number of his troops, the general appears to be pressing for the president's exit while seeking to avoid fueling clashes that could spur thousands of casualties.

"'Its a strong message to Saleh," Mr. Jabbar said. "The general knows that the more deaths that are recorded, the faster Saleh will go. He does not want to be remembered as a killer before he retires."


Reuters
A Yemeni tribesman is taken for aid Wednesday after a battle in San'a near Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar's house.

Yemen's recent violence stands in contrast with the four months of largely peaceful demonstrations in which protesters called for reforms and the end of Mr. Saleh's rule. Political negotiations aimed at transferring power peacefully broke down last month when the leader refused to sign the accord, spurring violence between the president's forces and gunmen loyal to the leader of the powerful Hashid confederation of tribes, Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar.

Gen. Ahmar, who is also Hashid, first staked out a position as a defender of the nonviolent protests, and about half of Yemen's generals joined him when he defected. In March and April, he redeployed some of the armored vehicles and artillery under his command to San'a but stayed out of clashes last week between his tribe and pro-Saleh soldiers.

Gen. Ahmar is considered a conservative Islamist. He has close ties to Saudi Arabia and is linked with the conservative Islah party, Yemen's biggest opposition party.

People familiar with Gen. Ahmar said government forces attacked the general's compounds several times with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades on Tuesday and Wednesday before he retaliated.

Tareq al-Shami, spokesman for President Saleh's ruling party, blamed the country's tribes for sowing chaos and taking up arms.

"The Ahmar family always attack the government and complains first," he said. "The tribes are working in the same front with the defected military leaders. All those who are against the law are aiding one another for their personal benefits, and harming the country."

Yemeni soldiers shelled parts of the northern districts of the capital Wednesday evening, continuing what residents said has been nearly continuous battles that broke out Tuesday after a tenuous cease-fire, was struck over the weekend, fell apart.

Much of the two days' fighting centered on neighborhoods that are home to property and businesses owned by Sheik Ahmar's family, with clashes stretching from the north of the capital to the southern districts, where the family has several housing compounds.

Residents of northern neighborhoods reported nearly uninterrupted explosions and gunfire throughout Wednesday as fighters loyal to Sheik Ahmar gained control of key government buildings in the area. Fighting in the north extended to within three miles of San'a's international airport and edged close to the main airport road.

The people familiar with the elite counterterrorism unit's deployment said they have been fighting in Hasaba, an area in the capital's north where Sheikh Ahmar lives, and are at the heart of other battles.

In the south part of the capital, dozens of families were attempting to evacuate the area amid heavy gun battles, some residents said.

Hospital officials said the past two days' casualties include tribesmen, soldiers and civilians. They said they expected the number of fatalities to rise as clashes continued into Wednesday night.

Last month's proposal, part of political negotiations sponsored by Gulf Arab countries and supported by Washington, would have called for Mr. Saleh's exit but would have allowed him and his relatives immunity and influence over how the transition of power occurred. Amid the breakdown in the negotiations, the international community strongly condemned the violence and repeatedly urged President Saleh to take the deal.

Diplomats have yet to come up with an alternative plan or a way to stem the bloodshed.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said John Brennan, Mr. Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, was traveling this week to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to discuss "options to address the deteriorating situation in Yemen."

"We strongly condemn the recent clashes in San'a and the deplorable use of violence by the government against peaceful demonstrators in Taiz," Mr. Carney said. "These tragic events underscore the need for President Saleh to sign the GCC-brokered transition proposal and to begin the transfer of power immediately."

The weak bonds of confidence between the regime and its citizens frayed further Tuesday, as Hashid tribal leaders blamed the breakdown of the weekend's truce on the government. The two sides had agreed to Yemeni tribal mediators as a way to halt the violence that had flared up the week earlier.

Part of the truce was that the Hashids would end their occupation of government buildings, which they say they had seized last week as a way to protect their members' homes and property across the capital. Hashid members say that when they left those buildings Tuesday, government troops used those positions to attack them again.

—Adam Entous and Nathan Hodge contributed to this article.
Write to Margaret Coker at margaret.coker@wsj.com

[buglerbilly]

Yemen crisis deepens as dozens are killed in street battles

Foreign Office urges all Britons to leave at once with diplomats describing the situation as 'worse than Libya'

Tom Finn in Sana'a and Ian Black

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 June 2011 20.23 BST


A wounded Yemeni tribesman is carried into a makeshift clinic outside Sana'a university during clashes with government forces. Photograph: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP

The crisis engulfing Yemen deepened on Wednesday with dozens of people killed as President Ali Abdullah Saleh reinforced his troops after heavy clashes with gunmen loyal to an influential tribal leader.

Overnight street battles left at least 41 people dead, some trapped in burning buildings. Fighting raged until dawn as presidential guard units shelled the headquarters of an army brigade responsible for protecting government institutions.

Arab embassies were said to be evacuating their staff and the few remaining western residents were being advised to leave urgently. The Foreign Office is urging all Britons to leave while flights are still available in a situation diplomats described as "worse than Libya."

Residents of Sana'a woke to a chorus of birdsong and machinegun fire as plumes of smoke rose into the sky, mortar blasts rattling windows and nerves. Heavy clashes resumed as Saleh's republican guard forces equipped with heavy artillery pushed the tribesmen out of government buildings. By nightfall they had wrested back control of several key positions.

The week's gun battles between rebel tribesmen and Saleh's troops have already claimed 200 lives and the confrontations are fanning fears of civil war.

Life in the capital is growing fierce and desperate. Sana'a's eastern suburb of Hasaba – the centre of the clashes so far – is a ghost-town where Kalashnikov-wielding tribesmen stalk the streets.

Cars and buses with bags strapped to the roofs filtered their way out of the city. "No safety, no electricity, no water, no phone network, and people with no jobs, the situation is very bad these days," said Ahmed Zaid, who scratches a living by ferrying people to Tagheer Square, centre of the protests, on his battered motorbike. "I'm terrified for my family, we're leaving tomorrow, inshallah," he said.

The home of Sadeq al-Ahmar, the Hashid tribe's most prominent sheikh, lies dark. It was an attack by government forces on al-Ahmar's home, a gothic style mansion, last week that triggered the clashes.

Several sheikhs attending a tribal mediation were killed when the house was hit directly by government artillery. It has been the target of shelling ever since and now lies in near ruins. Windows have been blown out and parts of the facade litter the street. Blood is splattered on the walls .

The conflict between the security forces and the Hashid erupted after Saleh refused to sign an agreement brokered by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states requiring him to give up power within 30 days. Violence has escalated across Yemen since then, with at least 21 people killed in the southern city of Taiz on 30 May, one of the bloodiest days in four months of protests in the poorest country in the Arab world.

Key military leaders defected in March after Saleh loyalists fired on demonstrators calling for an end to his 33-year-old rule. Yemen is on the brink of financial ruin, with about a third of its 23 million people facing chronic hunger. It is running out of oil and water.

Western policy is largely dictated by concern that al-Qaida in the Arabian peninsula will take advantage of the chaos to plan new attacks.

In Washington, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, criticised Saleh's refusal to relinquish office.

The two sides blamed each other for breaking a ceasefire that halted three days of fighting last week.

The violence has overshadowed the protests that erupted on 11 February calling on Saleh to step down. The president, whose term ends in 2013, has said he is willing to hold early elections, a call that has so far been rejected by the opposition Joint Meeting Parties.

It is still unclear whether Saleh is holding out for a better exit deal such as a guaranteed position in a future government or intends to try to ride out demands for his resignation until his term officially ends. If it is the former he appears to be making a blunder, since the likelihood of a managed transition are fading and attempts to forcibly oust him are becoming more likely.

"Even if Saleh can defeat all those challenging him, his ability to 'govern' the country in any coherent sense of the word is gone forever," said the Yemeni political analyst, Abdul Ghani Iryani.

"Even in the most autocratic regimes, governance relies on some degree of acceptance of authority. In Yemen there is no sign whatsoever that this exists. Either Saleh leaves power through a political deal he brokers from a position of weakness or he is ousted by force by breakaway military groups and tribal leaders."

[buglerbilly]

Yemen President Wounded as Tribesmen Strike Palace

June 03, 2011

Associated Press



SANAA, Yemen - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was wounded when opposition tribesmen determined to topple him hammered his palace with rockets Friday in a major escalation of nearly two weeks of fighting with government forces. At least six guards were killed and eight top officials were also wounded, an official said.

The official said Saleh suffered slight injuries to the neck, and state TV aired a statement saying he was "in good health" and would speak to the public within hours.

But the extent of the embattled president's injuries was not clear. After initially saying Saleh was treated at the palace, the official later said he was moved to a Defense Ministry hospital. Also, Saleh's planned public appearance was postponed "because of scratches on his face," Deputy Information Minister Abdu al-Janadi said.

"There is nothing effecting the president's health," al-Janadi said, adding that Saleh would appear "as soon as possible, once he is treated."

It was the first time that tribal fighters have directly targeted Saleh's palace in fighting that has rocked the capital since May 23. Sanaa residents have been hiding in basements as the two sides duke it out with artillery and gunbattles, shaking neighborhoods and sending palls of smoke over the city. Earlier Friday, intense government shelling flattened the homes of two tribal leaders and a military general who also joined the opposition.

Protesters have been trying since February to oust Saleh with a wave of peaceful protests that has brought out hundreds of thousands daily in Sanaa and other cities.

But now the crisis has escalated into a fight for power between two of Yemen's most powerful families: Saleh's and the al-Ahmar family, who lead Yemen's most powerful tribal confederation, called the Hashid.

Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, head of the Hashid, announced his backing for the protest movement in March, but it was only when Saleh's troops moved against al-Ahmar's residence in Sanaa last week that Hashid fighters erupted in retaliation, and the battles have escalated since.

On Friday, a volley of at least three rockets hit in and around Saleh's presidential compound. One struck a mosque in the compound where Saleh and senior officials were praying, a presidential statement read out on state TV said. It said three guards were killed, but a medical official at a nearby hospital said six guards died.

The blast wounded many in the top echelons of Saleh's leadership, including the prime minister, two deputy prime ministers, the heads of the two houses of parliament and the governor of Sanaa, as well as the mosque's preacher, said the official. The most serious injuries were to Sanaa's governor Nooman Dweid, and Deputy Prime Minister Rashad al-Alimi, who is also the president's top security adviser and who remained unconscious from his wounds, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

After the strike, state TV played national songs and showed footage of Saleh from his years in power, meeting world leaders and conducting visits to Yemeni cities. The state news agency said the president would address the nation within hours.

More than 160 people have been killed in the Sanaa fighting since it began. Through the night, shelling and gunbattles raged in Hassaba, the northern neighborhood where Sadeq al-Ahmar's residence is located and where the battle has been concentrated. Over the course of the battle, tribesmen have overrun more than a dozen ministries and government buildings in and around Hassaba, artillery has demolished homes, and buildings have been set aflame.

Friday morning, troops expanded their shelling to the southern Hadda district of the capital, pounding the homes of two of al-Ahmar's brothers, Hameed and Himyar.

They also targeted the home of Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the commander of the powerful 1st Armored Division who has also joined the opposition but has so far stayed out of the battle. He is not related to Sadeq al-Ahmar. The houses were destroyed, witnesses said.

At the White House, National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said the U.S. is "very concerned" about the escalating violence and urged restraint from both sides, saying the dispute there will only be solved through negotiations.

Top Obama counterterrorism aide John Brennan, who has been meeting with officials in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates this week, is discussing options for addressing the deteriorating situation, Vietor said.

Washington fears that the chaos will undermine the Yemen government's U.S.-backed campaign against al-Qaida's branch in the country, which has attempted a number of attacks against the United States. Saleh has been a crucial U.S. ally in the anti-terror fight, but Washington is now trying to negotiate a stable exit for him.

Saleh has agreed three times to sign onto a U.S.-backed, Gulf Arab-mediated agreement to leave power in 30 days, but each time he backed out of signing at the last minute.

The mediator of the deal, Abdul-Latif al-Zayani, appealed to Yemenis on Friday to end the fighting. "This is very regrettable and is of no benefit to anyone. The loser is the Yemeni people," al-Zayani, secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which groups Gulf Arab nations, told Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV. He said the GCC is prepared to exert more effort to mend the differences between Yemenis, but he didn't elaborate.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators continue to mass daily in a central square of Sanaa, as well as in other cities. Thursday night, government forces opened fire on protesters in Sanaa, wounding three. Troops on Friday also fired on protesters in the city of Taiz, south of the capital, wounding two.

Despite the gunfire and shelling, protesters swarmed into a Sanaa main street for Friday prayers, and a series of coffins bearing victims of the past days' fighting were carried through the crowd. The cleric delivering the prayer sermon said Saleh was trying to turn the popular uprising into a personal conflict.

The president "wants to overturn this revolution and show the world that it is a conflict between al-Ahmar and Saleh," Imam Taha al-Mutawakil told the crowd.

© Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Yemeni crowds celebrate after president transfers power, flies to Saudi Arabia

By Ernesto Londono and Sudarsan Raghavan, Updated: Sunday, June 5, 6:20 PM

CAIRO — Hours after the Yemen’s president flew to Saudi Arabia for treatment of wounds sustained in a rocket attack, thousands of demonstrators flocked to the streets of the capital Sunday to celebrate what they billed as the latest ouster of an Arab autocrat.

“The Yemeni people have been born again,” cried out Fatima Ahmad, 72, who was among those who walked to Change Square in Sanaa to celebrate the president’s departure.

Thousands waved flags, painted their faces with the colors of the national flag and exchanged congratulations in a capital that had become a battleground in recent days.

“We have deported Ali,” some chanted. “The people have toppled the regime.”

Saleh transferred power temporarily to his vice president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, after boarding a flight to Saudi Arabia late Saturday. He was wounded in a rocket attack on the presidential palace Friday afternoon.

The vice president on Sunday met with U.S. Ambassador Gerald M. Feierstein, Yemen’s news agency reported. The two discussed steps required to maintain a cease-fire between government forces and tribal militias. They also spoke about Yemen’s the political opposition, known as the Joint Meeting Parties.

Yemeni officials have not called Saleh’s departure an abdication from power, but analysts say the longtime leader, who had been a key U.S. ally on the fight against al-Qaeda, is unlikely to return as president.

Despite the jubilation in Sanaa, bloodshed continued in the southern city of Taiz, where gunmen attacked the presidential palace, killing four soldiers, the Associated Press reported.

Saleh’s sudden departure comes as the country is on the verge of civil war and economic collapse, with a violent power struggle among rival tribesmen underway and no clear plan for a transition of power if Saleh were to permanently surrender office.

For months, Saleh had resisted intense pressure from within Yemen, the Middle East’s poorest nation, and from neighboring countries and the United States to step down. With an active al-Qaeda branch in Yemen — one ambitious enough to claim the mantle of Osama bin Laden in the near future — Saleh’s departure could pose one of the most significant policy challenges for the Obama administration in the months ahead.

A Pentagon spokesman acknowledged late Saturday that the crisis in Yemen was already affecting U.S. efforts to fight terrorism.

“The current protracted political issues are having an adverse impact on the security situation in Yemen,” said Col. David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, and the United States is “continuing to review and assess all aspects of our security assistance.”

But he indicated that Washington was already looking beyond Saleh’s rule. “Our shared interest with the Yemeni government in defeating al-Qaeda goes beyond one person,” Lapan said. The U.S. military has an unspecified number of counterterrorism trainers in Yemen, who the Pentagon has said remain in the country, although the civil unrest had affected their work.

In Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, an official in the president’s office confirmed that Saleh had left the country for Saudi Arabia and said that his vice president had taken over his duties. The White House said President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, spoke with Hadi by telephone Saturday but provided no details, news services reported.

The AP quoted the state-run Saudi Press Agency as reporting that Saleh had arrived in the country.

Most of Saleh’s family accompanied him on the flight to Saudi Arabia, AP reported, citing a government official. But Saleh’s son Ahmed, whom he was grooming as a successor, was believed to have stayed behind, AP reported.

Christopher Boucek, an analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said violence in Yemen could become even more intense, given the animosity between Saleh’s supporters and those of the Ahmar clan, whose tribesmen have spearheaded the effort to topple Saleh.

“His son and nephews may try to finish off the Ahmars,” Boucek said. “The regime’s power lies in the military and security branches, the guys who have been fighting, and where do they go? They may think their only option is to fight.”

Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert at Princeton University, agreed that the next steps are unclear. “What happens with his family? Do his forces crumble? Who steps in to fill any vacuum?’’ Johnsen said. “At this point, there is no road map or someone very obvious waiting in the wings.”

Saleh’s departure fuel*ed speculation that the injuries he suffered in Friday’s midday attack — when a rocket or mortar shell struck a mosque inside the sprawling compound where Saleh and other senior officials were praying — could have been more serious than the palace has suggested.

Yemen’s state news agency reported Saturday that the country’s prime minister, Ali Mujawar, and the speaker of parliament, Yahya al-Raee, were among a handful of dignitaries flown to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment. Saleh was wounded in the head and was being treated at the Defense Ministry hospital, a Yemeni official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s medical state.

A few hours after the attack, Saleh delivered an audio address, but his voice seemed slow and slurred. He blamed the attack on the Ahmar family.

Afterward, government loyalists attacked the compound of Hamid al-Ahmar, a wealthy tycoon who has long opposed Saleh. That attack killed 19 people and wounded 40, tribal leaders said.

The clashes prompted Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah to broker a temporary cease-fire between government forces and the Ahmar tribesmen. The kingdom, which neighbors Yemen, has long been worried about its poorer neighbor’s political instability and its abundance of al-Qaeda operatives, many of whom have links to Saudi Arabia. For decades, Saudi Arabia has played a role in shaping Yemen’s politics, and the kingdom could play a significant role in shaping Yemen’s future.

As evidence of the Saudi influence, the capital, Sanaa, and other parts of the country remained quiet and peaceful Saturday — after two weeks of mayhem.

Saleh’s ability to rule Yemen — which he has controlled for 33 years — has diminished significantly since a populist nonviolent uprising, inspired by similar rebellions in Tunisia and Egypt, was launched in January. Islamic militants, including al-Qaeda operatives, have taken control over some areas in Yemen’s restive south as government forces have left their positions. The economy is spiraling.

Joint U.S.-Yemen operations have ground to a halt in recent months as Saleh’s focus shifted to maintaining control of the country.

U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials have testified repeatedly that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemen branch is known, represents the most immediate threat to American interests. AQAP has been linked to a series of failed plots, including the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas in 2009 and the shipment of printer cartridges packed with explosives to the United States.

The main worry among U.S. counterterrorism experts is that Saleh’s departure could set off a prolonged power struggle involving the few functioning institutions in Yemen: its military, intelligence services and tribal leadership. Those institutions, led by Saleh relatives and loyalists, were struggling to contain AQAP even before the dictator faced mounting protests against his rule.

“Once he steps out of Yemen, there’s a major question as to whether he ever returns,” said Juan Zarate, who was counterterrorism adviser to former president George W. Bush. “If in fact he leaves, I’m very pessimistic as to what follows. I think it turns very messy very quickly, creating all sorts of breathing space for [al-Qaeda] and problems for the United States.’’

“It’s a very dangerous elixir in Yemen,” Zarate added. Given the demise of bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures, AQAP is positioned “to emerge as . . . the strategic driver for the jihadi movement.”

Johnsen said the United States might have to scramble to plan for the loss of an ally — albeit an inconsistent one — against AQAP.

“The U.S., until very recently, didn’t put much focus on what comes after Saleh,” he said. “I’m not sure they have a good plan for what comes next — assuming anyone can know what comes next.”

Raghavan reported from Nairobi. Staff writers Peter Finn, Greg Miller, Joby Warrick and Craig Whitlock in Washington and a special correspondent in Sanaa contributed to this report.

[buglerbilly]

JUNE 6, 2011.

Yemeni Leader's Exit Prompts Joy and Fear

By HAKIM ALMASMARI and FARNAZ FASSIHI

SAN'A, Yemen—President Ali Abdullah Saleh's sudden departure to Saudi Arabia for surgery Sunday after he was wounded in an attack threw Yemen's political landscape into disarray as protesters saw the end of his 33-year rule and rival tribes maneuvered for power.

Mr. Saleh's supporters insisted he planned to return to his role as president after he handed power to his vice president.


European Pressphoto Agency
Yemenis celebrated the departure of President Saleh, who went to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment. It was unclear if Mr. Saleh planned to return.

The U.S. said it had no evidence that Mr. Saleh didn't intend to come back to rule Yemen, and urged the country to ensure any permanent transfer of power take place within the confines of the country's constitution.

During the months of protests in Yemen, American officials have been worried that a power vacuum could allow al Qaeda-linked terror groups to flourish in the country.

"Saleh out of the country is a game changer," said April Longley Alley, a senior analyst specializing in Yemen with the International Crisis Group, an independent nonprofit group that tries to prevent and resolve deadly conflict. "It's precarious because there is still no solid cease-fire in place [with Mr. Saleh] in order to allow a political transition to go through."

Youth opposition, which started the pro-democracy opposition movement against Mr. Saleh, celebrated in the square where protesters have been gathering for months. They danced, sang and waved flags and even slaughtered cows to give thanks, witnesses said.


Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh waving during a pro-regime rally in Sanaa on May 20. Saleh, hurt in a blast inside his compound, left the country for treatment in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

.But elsewhere in the capital the mood was somber as ordinary Yemeni families braced for a period of political uncertainty and possible violence if Mr. Saleh returns and resumes fighting the opposition. Shops stayed closed and most families stayed indoors in the capital.

Vice President Abdul Rabu Mansoor Hadi, who is viewed as a conciliator who won't seek power himself, ordered a halt to all clashes in San'a on both the government and the tribal side. The government said it would remove its forces from the areas of Hasba and Hadda, where fighting had been most intense. In response, opposition tribal leader Sheikh Sadeq Ahmar, the leader of the powerful Hashid tribe, evacuated his militia from government buildings and called an end to the fight.

Analysts say that the Hashid tribe, which fought fiercely with government security forces in the past week and was instrumental in driving Mr. Saleh out of the country, won't likely seek a direct political role in any incoming government but could be instrumental in endorsing Yemen's next leader. Tribe members could also play an important role in defusing tensions and restoring stability.

Opposition figures said Mr. Saleh's arrival in Saudi Arabia, whose leadership had been pushing him hard to step down, was a chance to move forward with a political transition laid out in the failed negotiations with Persian Gulf states. "Now he is gone and we don't need his signature, thank you very much," said Yasin Iryani, co-founder of the opposition Democratic Awakening Movement in Yemen. "We are going to move forward with our plans and by the time Saleh is back he will be a private citizen."

For the West, Mr. Saleh's government has been a critical, if at times exasperating, partner in battling terrorist groups with a record of attacking the West.

With his departure, one of the thorniest issues is how Al Qaeda's extensive network in Yemen will react. Although Al Qaeda members are known to be in the few hundreds in Yemen, they have exploited the tribal and rural areas of the country to set up bases and training camps.

U.S. officials are worried that as the country descends further into disorder, groups affiliated with al Qaeda could consolidate their influence in outlying areas and have more space to operate and plan attacks on the West.

The U.S., which has backed Saudi efforts to ease Mr. Saleh from power, urged Yemenis to ensure that any permanent transfer of power takes place constitutionally, a stance that the White House hopes will discourage a coup that might replace one strongman with another.

Obama administration officials said Mr. Saleh appears to have taken the bureaucratic steps to ensure his authority remains intact much the way he would have had he left the country on vacation or official travel.

"Our position is still that we would call on Saleh to immediately begin a transition of power," in keeping with an exit agreement brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council, a State Department official said on Sunday.

Mr. Saleh, who has been fending off challenges to his rule for four months, was injured Friday in a rocket attack on his palace compound. It remains unclear who was responsible for the assault. The government blamed al Qaeda terrorists, but tribes opposed to Mr. Saleh had been engaged in pitched battles with forces loyal to him. Aides initially insisted Mr. Saleh was only slightly hurt, but he failed to appear on television after saying he would and in a recorded radio address seemed lethargic.

Yemeni officials now concede that Mr. Saleh suffered serious second-degree burns on his face, chest and body and shrapnel wounds that could take weeks to heal. "He's pretty banged up," one Yemeni official said, adding that some people near Mr. Saleh in a mosque where he was hit had to have limbs amputated due to the severity of their injuries. "He's lucky to be alive."

Five senior officials also were seriously injured in the attack, including the prime minister, parliament speaker and two deputy prime ministers. They were taken to a hospital in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, Yemen's official news agency said.

Early Sunday morning, 31 members of Mr. Saleh's immediate family departed Yemen for Riyadh, said people familiar with the situation in San'a. Their exit fed speculation among senior members of the ruling party that Mr. Saleh may not return to Yemen for a considerable time.

A Saudi government official said the country was hosting Mr. Saleh for medical, rather than political, reasons and Yemen's predicament had to be resolved by Yemenis.

Mr. Hadi met with military officials and with Mr. Saleh's sons on Sunday, Al Arabiya television said Sunday. An adviser said that Mr. Hadi would only temporarily be Yemen's caretaker and didn't plan to take over unless Mr. Saleh appointed him in accordance with constitutional norms.

Mr. Hadi also met with U.S. ambassador Gerald Feierstein on Sunday. White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan talked Saturday to the vice president, a U.S. official said, offering no further details.

—Michael Phillips contributed to this article.
Write to Farnaz Fassihi at farnaz.fassihi@wsj.com

[buglerbilly]

JUNE 6, 2011.

In Crisis, Saudis Gain Leverage On the Ground

By ANGUS MCDOWALL And BILL SPINDLE

After weeks of frustrated efforts to ease Yemen's president from power, Saudi Arabia finally appears poised to help guide the nation on its southern border to a new leadership, analysts say.

"The Saudis have become the king makers in Yemen now," said Ghanem Nuseibah, an Arabian Peninsula analyst and partner at consulting firm Cornerstone Global Associates.

Saudi Arabia's government has viewed the growing popular protests and recent tribal infighting in Yemen with unease, and spearheaded a weeks-long effort with the Gulf Cooperation Council, an alliance of monarchies in the Persian Gulf, to forge a deal between President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his opponents that would pass power along peacefully. But Mr. Saleh had repeatedly refused to sign, despite promises to do so.

When Mr. Saleh was injured along with a handful of other key officials in an attack on his palace mosque on Friday, Saudi Arabia's ruling family leapt at the chance to offer him medical treatment in their capital. While they continue to say the Yemenis must chose their own leaders, Saudi officials aren't likely to facilitate Mr. Saleh's return to the presidency he has held for 33 years. Mr. Saleh temporarily handed off power to his vice-president, Abdul Rabu Mansoor Hadi.

"There's a consensus that they do need to engage to prevent any trouble from spreading outside Yemen," said Gerd Nonneman, an associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House in London. "They will do everything they can to prevent Saleh from returning, and will be putting pressure on him to ratify the GCC deal."

Mr. Nonneman said Riyadh would also likely view Mr. Hadi as an acceptable interim leader. But they would likely push for a more powerful figure as the next president.

Saudi royals have long-standing connections to most of the factions now competing for power in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest nation.

Both Hamid al-Ahmar and Sadeq al-Ahmar, leaders of the Hashid tribe, the largest in Yemen, have links to senior Saudis. So does the powerful General Ali Mohsen, who weeks ago announced his defection to the opposition.

Although Mr. Saleh has been a recipient of vast sums in financial aid from north of the border, the Islamist opposition party al-Islah, or "reform," has also enjoyed Saudi patronage.

General Mohsen is thought to share the views of Saudi Arabia's Interior Minister Prince Nayef, who is a staunch Islamic conservative though opposed to al-Qaeda, say analysts.

Write to Bill Spindle at bill.spindle@wsj.com

[buglerbilly]

JUNE 7, 2011.

Yemen Leader Vows to Return.

By FARNAZ FASSIHI And HAKIM ALMASMARI


Reuters
Tribesmen loyal to Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar secured a street near the tribal leaders house on Monday. His tribe said it was honoring a cease-fire.

SAN'A, Yemen—Officials loyal to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he would return from Saudi Arabia within days, while his opponents said they were embarking on a plan for a transfer of power that he has yet to approve.

Mr. Saleh left Yemen this weekend for medical treatment after an attack on his compound on Friday. The Yemeni political opposition, backed by a powerful general and a tribal leader, said it was proceeding on the premise that he had left power, after 33 years, and wouldn't return.

On Monday, international calls grew for Mr. Saleh to step down and agree to an plan, mediated by the Gulf Cooperation Council and approved by the opposition, for a transfer of power.

Saudi Arabia—a country that wields considerable influence over Yemen—"hopes the Gulf initiative will be signed soon to resolve the Yemen crisis," the information minister said in a statement Monday.

"An immediate transition is in the best interests of the Yemeni people," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Washington. Earlier on Monday, State Department spokesman Mark Toner pointed out at a news briefing that Yemen's constitution forms a road map for a transfer of power.

The U.S. is a key provider of financial and military aid to Yemen, which Washington relies on as a counterterrorism ally.

A Yemeni government official, Abdu Ganadi, said Mr. Saleh would be back in San'a by Friday and had no intention of stepping down.

"President Saleh went on a typical medical visit. Why are people surprised that he is coming back to Yemen? Isn't he Yemeni and the constitutional president of Yemen?" he said.

The GCC plan calls for Mr. Saleh to hand power to the vice president until a national unity coalition is named, paving the way for presidential elections.

Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is already constitutionally in charge of the country in Mr. Saleh's absence. Opposition leaders have rallied behind Mr. Hadi and said they are comfortable that he will pave the way for a transition to a new government.

Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a powerful militiary commander who defected to the opposition in March, deployed 120 of his soldiers to protect Mr. Hadi after concerns that he might be in danger from Saleh loyalists. Mr. Hadi has stayed away from the presidential palace, using the defense ministry as a base.

Meanwhile, opposition tribal leader Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar ordered his forces not to retaliate after government forces killed five of his men, in what a tribal spokesman said was an effort to honor a cease-fire called by Mr. Hadi.

The Joint Meeting Parties, Yemen's biggest opposition coalition, held a five-hour meeting at its headquarters in San'a on Monday to coordinate and discuss the formation of a national unity coalition and presidential candidates, according to party members.

They invited youth activists, who were behind a protest movement against Mr. Saleh that began more than four months ago.

Members said they also met with Western diplomats and Yemeni military officials.

Although Sheik Sadeq and Gen. Ahmar aren't part of a political party, they have endorsed the opposition's planning for a transitional stage. If Mr. Saleh steps down, the two leaders are expected to play a central role in deciding the next government.

Less clear is the role of Mr. Saleh's family members if he steps down. Mr. Saleh's son, Ahmad, commands the Republican Guards and Special Forces; his nephew, Yahya, heads Central Security Forces. They could fight for influence.

The younger Mr. Saleh moved into the Presidential Palace on Monday.

"It's hard to predict what their motivations are but it's clear that no one from Saleh's camp is ready to give up power yet. They could be very destabilizing," said Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen scholar at Princeton University.

—Summer Said and Keith Johnson contributed to this article.
Write to Farnaz Fassihi at farnaz.fassihi@wsj.com

[buglerbilly]

Yemen leader President Saleh suffered 40 per cent burns, say USA

The president of Yemen was far more seriously injured in an attack on his palace in the capital, Sana'a, than previously stated and suffered burns to 40 per cent of his body with bleeding inside his skull, according to US officials.

By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent

11:27PM BST 07 Jun 2011

The statement, which was accompanied by a call from Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, for "immediate transition", dealt a significant blow to loyalist hopes that Ali Abdullah Saleh would resume office after a period of convalescence in a Saudi Arabian hospital.

As he recovered from two operations to remove shrapnel and reconstruct his skull, Mr Saleh's hold on power slipped further on Tuesday after fighters from the Sharab and Same tribes, both led by senior military figures, took control of most of Taiz, Yemen's second city.

Mr Saleh's forces shelled residential areas, killing a number of people, including children.

Despite deploying tanks and being reinforced from the air, they were beaten.

Unless pro-regime forces stage a major fightback, Mr Saleh, 69, if he were to return, faces the prospect of a Libya-style situation in which the government controls only a portion of the country with revolutionary forces holding sway in cities such as Taiz.

Senior officials in Mr Saleh's government, including the vice-president, have insisted that he will return to Yemen within days.

But it is now thought likely that Mr Saleh will not recover for months.

He was wounded, along with a number of senior officials, in an attack last Friday on his palace.

His injuries were initially thought to be caused by shellfire but US officials said the attack was a bomb, pointing to insider involvement.

[buglerbilly]

JUNE 9, 2011.

Yemeni Tribe Takes Key City

By FARNAZ FASSIHI And HAKIM ALMASMARI

SAN'A, Yemen—Armed tribesmen drove government troops from Yemen's second-largest city, Taiz, in a sign of the government's loosening grip over the country in the wake of an attack that injured President Ali Abdullah Saleh last week.


Reuters
Opponents of the Saleh regime gathered in Taiz on Wednesday. Government forces said they would return to drive the tribal militia from the city.

The Republican Guard, commanded by Mr. Saleh's son, was regrouping outside the city to stage a counterattack against the fighters from the Sharaab tribe in an effort to retake the city, security officials said.

Many of Yemen's political elite are from Taiz, and the city is seen as a measure of Mr. Saleh's grip over the country.

Mr. Saleh was taken to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment for injuries in an attack in his compound Friday. While some government officials said he will return soon, others said he will be out for months.

His departure initiated a push by political, military and tribal leaders opposed to his regime to begin a transition process that is aimed at paving the way toward elections and a new government.

But forces loyal to Mr. Saleh's son, Gen. Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, have occupied the presidential palace in the capital, San'a, and government officials insist the president will return to resume his 33-year rule of Yemen.

While opposition leaders in San'a have said they are committed to a peaceful transition, there are myriad tribes and insurgents across the country with their own interests to pursue.

In Yemen, tribal rivalries run deep and the settling of family and political scores can span decades.

Mr. Saleh's injury and departure followed fighting between government forces and armed members of the powerful Hashid tribe, led by Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, who had declared his opposition to the president. The fight was seen by many as an outbreak of an old feud.

If tribal fighting escalates it could tip the country toward civil war and a scenario in which the Yemen-based terrorist group, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has room to flourish.

The vice president and acting head of state, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, has called for a cease-fire, and a precarious peace has held in San'a.

Taiz, a city of about 500,000 people about 120 miles south of the capital, has been the site of some of the largest demonstrations against Mr. Saleh since popular protests broke out in January. Police have fired live ammunition and used tear gas against protesters to quell the unrest.

The Sharaab tribe began its advance into the city last week, saying it was mobilizing to protect antigovernment protesters against security forces.

"Our job…is to defend the protesters and give them security," said tribal leader Hamood Mikhalfi.

A member of the tribe said about 1,200 armed men were called into Taiz and 3,000 in rural areas waiting as backup.

Medical officials said at least 30 people have been killed and dozens injured, with fighting particularly intense over the last three days.

The government denied that the Republican Guards were forced to retreat from Taiz and said they abandoned their posts willingly.

Taiz was calm on Wednesday, but city residents said they feared the return of the Republican Guard would turn the city into a battleground. "We see the government security forces regrouping and tonight we feel the city will be under fire," said Abdul Salam Abdullah, a teacher in Taiz.

Clashes broke out Wednesday evening between Republican Guards and tribal members about 10 miles east of Taiz, according to witnesses.

Government forces also battled tribesmen in Ibb province, 30 miles west of Taiz.

Write to Farnaz Fassihi at farnaz.fassihi@wsj.com

[buglerbilly]

US extends covert drone strikes in Yemen

Mark Mazzetti

June 10, 2011 .


A U.S. Predator drone. Photo: AP

THE US has intensified its covert war in Yemen, exploiting a growing power vacuum in the country to strike at militant suspects with armed drones and fighter jets.

The acceleration of the US campaign in recent weeks follows violent conflict in which the government in Sanaa is struggling to cling to power.

The Yemeni troops battling militants linked to al-Qaeda in the south have now been pulled back to the capital, and US officials are stepping in with air strikes.

US jets killed al-Qaeda operative Abu Ali al-Harithi and several other militant suspects in a strike in southern Yemen on Friday. According to witnesses, four civilians were also killed.

Weeks earlier, drone aircraft unsuccessfully targeted Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric whom the US government has tried to kill for more than a year.

The US halted air strikes in Yemen nearly a year ago after concerns that poor intelligence had led to bungled missions and civilian deaths.

But officials in Washington said US and Saudi spy agencies had been receiving more information recently - from electronic eavesdropping and informants - about the possible locations of militants.

They say the outbreak of the wider conflict in Yemen has created a new risk, however, that one faction might feed information to the US to trigger airstrikes against a rival group.

An unnamed, senior Pentagon official said using force against militants in Yemen was further complicated by al-Qaeda operatives having mingled with other rebels and anti-government militants, making it harder for the US to attack them without appearing to have picked sides.

The US campaign in Yemen is led by the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command in close co-operation with the CIA. Teams of US military and intelligence operatives have a command post in Sanaa to track intelligence about militants and plot future strikes.

The US ambassador to Yemen met recently with leaders of the opposition there, concerned that support for the air campaign could wane if the pro-US government of authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, were to fall.

Officials in Washington said the opposition leaders told ambassador Gerald Feierstein that operations against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula should continue regardless of who wins the power struggle in Sanaa.

The extent of America's war in Yemen has been among the Obama administration's most closely guarded secrets, as officials worried that news of unilateral US operations could undermine Mr Saleh's tenuous grip on power.

Mr Saleh authorised US missions in Yemen in 2009 but placed limits on their scope and has said publicly that all military operations had been conducted by his own troops.

Mr Saleh fled the country last week to seek medical treatment in Saudi Arabia after the presidential compound was shelled. More government troops have been brought back to Sanaa to bolster the government's defences.

There have been fierce clashes between tribesmen and forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Gunmen loyal to tribal chief Sheikh Sadiq Ahmar handed over government buildings they seized during battles in which nearly 140 people have been killed since May 23.

NEW YORK TIMES, AFP

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-extends-covert-drone-strikes-in-yemen-20110609-1fuul.html#ixzz1OniwCBW9

[buglerbilly]

JUNE 11, 2011.

Yemenis Return to Street, Impatiently

By FARNAZ FASSIHI And HAKIM ALMASMARI


Reuters
Soldiers sympathetic to antiregime protesters chanted slogans against Yemeni President Saleh in San'a on Friday, a day of countrywide rallies.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched in cities across Yemen after Friday prayers calling for an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule and the formation of a transitional government, marking growing frustration among opposition groups and youth activists that change is too slow in coming.

Rallies were held in the capital, San'a, and the second-largest city, Taiz, as well as in smaller cities in most of Yemen's 21 provinces, organizers said. They were largely peaceful, with no reported clashes with security forces.

"The people want a transitional government," crowds chanted on Friday in Taghyeer Square in San'a. "We want the butcher put on trial," they shouted, referring to Mr. Saleh.

A group of few thousand people staged a counterdemonstration in support of Mr. Saleh outside the presidential palace.

On June 3, the previous Friday, a mosque inside Mr. Saleh's presidential compound was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and a planted bomb as officials gathered for prayers, according to U.S. and Yemeni officials. Mr. Saleh suffered severe burns and traveled to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment.

The opposition and government have since been in political tug of war over whether Mr. Saleh's 33-year rule has come to an abrupt end or whether he will remain in power. His government insists he will return soon, despite growing calls by the opposition and the international community, including the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, for him to step down.

Also on Friday, a security official in the Abyan governate in southern Yemen said a U.S. drone aircraft had attacked Islamic militant targets in the town of Jaar, killing three people. The official said it had targeted the residence of an al Qaeda fighter, killing three of his family members.

Pentagon officials couldn't be reached to comment about the reported strike. The U.S. military has secretly stepped up strikes against al Qaeda targets in Yemen in recent weeks using manned and unmanned aircraft, officials say.

In San'a, the government said Friday that Yemen had conducted the raid.

The U.S. government fears that Yemen's political upheaval could create a vacuum that would allow Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to gain further control in the country's restive south.

As part of demonstrations in San'a on Friday, opposition tribesmen marched through the capital with the bodies of 40 tribesmen they said were killed last week in government attacks. They said the attacks had hit homes of Sheik Sadeq Hamid al-Ahmar, the leader of the powerful Hashid tribal federation who led armed tribesmen against the government last week, as well as against powerful defected Gen. Ali Muhsen al-Ahmar.

Yemen's opposition is divided into to general camps. A formal umbrella group of political parties, the Joint Meeting Parties, has been at odds with Mr. Saleh for years. More recent to emerge are youth activists who are unorganized, idealistic and fairly new to politics.

Both camps say Mr. Saleh's term must end and give way to a caretaker national unity government and presidential elections, a plan hashed out under a mediated by Gulf Cooperation Council. But while the formal opposition party favors negotiating with the government—and granting Mr. Saleh amnesty—the youth want immediate transfer of power and prosecution of Mr. Saleh.

"Revolutions are never victorious with dialogue. Revolutions succeed when the people have demands and insist on receiving their demands until met," said Abdullah Maysari, a 24-year-old activist from San'a, who says the uprisings have given him a sense of purpose and hope.

The organizing committee for the youth activists said they are preparing a list of recommended names for the transitional committee and will continue to stage protests if the political process continues to stall. They are also trying to organize, forming committees and holding daily workshops in tents on civil rights and democracy.

Activists and leaders interviewed in San'a on Friday said their hope was tempered with fear that corruption, tribal culture and the country's dire economy could be major obstacles to a young democratic movement.

"It is not our destiny as Yemenis to live like this," said Khaled Anesi, a 39-year-old human-rights lawyer and leader of the youth activists in San'a. "We deserve better and we are willing to die for this cause."

—Adam Entous contributed to this article.
Write to Farnaz Fassihi at farnaz.fassihi@wsj.com

[buglerbilly]

Yemen defector says terror crisis was manufactured to win western support

The oldest military ally of Yemen's injured President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said the al-Qaeda terrorist crisis in the country was manufactured to win backing from outside powers.


Female anti-government protestors during a demonstration demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh Photo: AP

By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent

7:36PM BST 11 Jun 2011

Brigadier-General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who defected in April, tried to allay the concerns of the West that al-Qaeda would take a grip on the country if President Saleh, who is being treated in Saudi Arabia for injuries sustained in an assassination attempt, were forced from office.

In a sign of how Yemen's incipient civil war is also a family conflict over the division of the spoils of office, Brig Mohsen, who is a cousin and brother-in-law of the president, accused two powerful nephews of encouraging terrorism in the country.

"Yemen would be better off and more secure, stable and united without Ali Abdullah Saleh," he said in an interview with al-Hayat, a Saudi newspaper, calling al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula a "scarecrow" used to frighten away outside interference.

"He constantly tries to take advantage of manufactured crises at home to apply blackmail abroad. He claims to be a safety valve for Yemen and neighboring countries, but it is a lie."

His comments came as Yemen's ambassador to Britain said President Saleh is stable and recovering in Saudi from injuries suffered in an attack on his palace earlier this month.

"He's in stable condition and recovering," said Abdulla Ali al-Radhi in London. "He's in his wing in the hospital, no longer in intensive care. He's conscious and talking."

Meanwhile Yemeni soldiers battled Islamic militants on Saturday in an attempt to drive them from several southern towns, killing 21 people and nine soldiers.

Mr Saleh, an army general who came to power in 1978 and has ruled ever since, has seen his power, already weakened by civil war, drought and poverty, disintegrate in the Arab Spring. In the face of peaceful protests, he eventually agreed to step down but failed at the last minute to sign a deal negotiated by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states giving him immunity from prosecution in return for his departure.

He now faces opposition from all sides - separatist rebellions in the north and south, the student protesters, Brig Mohsen and units of the army under him. Even leaders of Mr Saleh's own tribe, the Hashid federation, Yemen's strongest, have marched on the capital.

Previously a long-term American ally, the president now also faces demands from the West to step down, because of fears that the breakdown of power is giving al-Qaeda more room to establish itself.

Fresh evidence of the country's descent into chaos came yesterday when 10 Yemeni soldiers and 21 suspected al-Qaeda militants were killed in clashes in south Yemen. Fierce clashes erupted in the city of Zinjibar, in Abyan province, between gunmen who have seized control of most of the city and besieged troops from the 25th mechanised brigade, a military official said.

The leading opposition party, Islah, which is strongly Islamist, has tried to offer additional reassurance by promising a crackdown on al-Qaeda elements.

But even though Mr Saleh is out of the country, his son and nephews, all of whom command elements of the security services, have remained loyal.

Notionally, they now answer to the vice-president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, but he is seen as dominated by the Saleh family.

The son, Ahmed Ali Saleh, who was seen as heir apparent until Mr Saleh abandoned that ambition in an early attempt to stave off protests, has moved into the presidential palace. His cousins Tarek and Yahya direct the Presidential Guard and central security force respectively.

Another cousin, Amar, is deputy director for national security.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, best known for its attempt to blow up an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, and for its spiritual guide, Anwar al-Awlaki, has been accused of using the unrest to take over most of Abyan province in the south.

But Brig. Mohsen, whose army units have been guarding the main protest camp in the capital from attack by supporters of the preseident, alleged that Tarek and Amar were personally responsible for encouraging terrorism, and that the problem would disappear if Mr Saleh left for good. "Everyone knows that some of these terrorist groups are present among his private guards," he said.

"Just after Saleh spoke of al-Qaeda seizing control of provinces, the regime handed over Abyan to terrorist gunmen. I fear that the regime might hand over control over other provinces to terrorist groups."

He gave no evidence, and similar claims have been hotly denied in the past. Mr Saleh himself, who has not been seen since receiving 40 per cent burns in the attack on June 3, is said by Saudi authorities to be in a "stable condition", but it is unclear whether he will be able to meet his supporters' hopes of a return to Yemen later this week.

[buglerbilly]

JUNE 14, 2011.

CIA Plans Yemen Drone Strikes

Covert Program Would Be a Major Expansion of U.S. Efforts to Kill Members of al Qaeda Branch.

By SIOBHAN GORMAN And ADAM ENTOUS


Reuters
Yemeni residents pointed in order to spot a U.S. drone in October. The CIA has aided military drone strikes in Yemen, and plans to begin its own.

WASHINGTON—The Central Intelligence Agency plans to use armed drones to try to kill al Qaeda militants in Yemen, where months of antigovernment protests, an armed revolt and the attempted assassination of the president have left a power vacuum, U.S. officials say.

The covert program is the latest step to combat the growing threat from al Qaeda's outpost in Yemen, which has been the source of several attempted attacks on the U.S. and is home to an American-born cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, who the U.S. sees as a significant militant threat.

The CIA program will be a major expansion of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Yemen. Since December 2009, U.S. strikes in Yemen have been carried out by the U.S. military with intelligence support from CIA.

The U.S. military strikes have been conducted with the permission of the Yemeni government. The CIA operates under different legal restrictions, giving the administration a freer hand to carry out strikes even if Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, now receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia, reverses his past approval of military strikes or cedes power to a government opposed to them.

The CIA program also affords the U.S. greater operational secrecy. Because CIA drones use smaller warheads than most manned military aircraft, U.S. officials hope they will reduce the risk of civilian deaths and minimize anti-American backlash in Yemen.

The Yemen program is modeled on the agency's covert program in Pakistan, which has killed 1,400 militants but is also unpopular in the country, where it is seen as a violation of sovereignty that costs civilian lives. Some U.S. diplomats and military officials have begun questioning whether the pace of Pakistan drone strikes should be slowed to ease the backlash.

President Barack Obama secretly approved the new Yemen program last year. It has been under development for several months because of the complicated logistics required to set up a major intelligence operation in an unstable corner of the world.

The program is authorized under the same broad 2001 presidential finding that created the legal underpinnings for the program in Pakistan. That secret finding, signed by President George W. Bush shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, directed the CIA to find ways to kill or capture al Qaeda leaders.

The Yemen program had been slated to begin in July, but the launch time may be moved back a few weeks to accommodate planning and logistical needs, U.S. officials said. The last known CIA strike in Yemen using an unmanned aircraft was conducted in 2002.

The CIA declined to comment. "As a rule, the CIA does not comment on allegations of prospective counterterrorism operations," said CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf.

White House National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to comment on the program or any shift to the CIA.

The U.S. is increasingly concerned about the deteriorating security situation in Yemen, worries heightened by signs that Islamist militants are trying to seize control of towns in southern Yemen.

"They're looking to take advantage of an opportunity that has arisen," a U.S. intelligence official said of the recent movements in the south. "Whether they're going to succeed or not is an open question."

The CIA has been ramping up its intelligence gathering efforts in Yemen in recent months in order to support a sustained campaign of drone strikes. The CIA coordinates closely with Saudi intelligence officers, who have an extensive network of on-the-ground informants, officials say.

The new CIA drone program will initially focus on collecting intelligence to share with the military, officials said. As the intelligence base for the program grows, it will expand into a targeted killing program like the current operation in Pakistan.

While the specific contours of the CIA program are still being decided, the current thinking is that when the CIA shifts the program from intelligence collection into a targeted killing program, it will select targets using the same broad criteria it uses in Pakistan. There, the agency selects targets by name or if their profile or "pattern of life"—analyzed through persistent surveillance—fits that of known al Qaeda or affiliated militants.

By using those broad criteria, the U.S. would likely conduct more strikes in Yemen, where the U.S. now only goes after known militants, not those who fit the right profile.

The U.S. military narrowed its criteria after a botched strike in May 2010, when U.S. missiles mistakenly killed one of Mr. Saleh's envoys and an unknown number of other people.

That strike infuriated Mr. Saleh and sparked a debate in the Obama administration over whether to target only known militants, such as Mr. Awlaki, or to continue a broader campaign of airstrikes aimed at weakening al Qaeda through attrition.

Christopher Boucek, a Yemen expert with the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, said a CIA drone program could help curtail al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, but won't be enough to eliminate the group and risks further alienating the Yemeni population.

"Obviously, as things fall apart in Yemen, and the central government is not doing this job, the operational space for unilateral military operations gets bigger and bigger," Mr. Boucek said.

The May 2010 strike was carried out without confirmation from human sources on the ground, U.S. officials said. Administration officials, including top counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, concerned about the consequences for U.S.-Yemeni relations, decided to narrow the target list for future strikes to senior al Qaeda leaders.

Most of the military's strikes have been conducted with manned aircraft and cruise missiles. But last month, the U.S. military used an armed drone to try to kill Mr. Awlaki, the American-born radical cleric. The missile missed its target.

U.S. officials say Mr. Awlaki was in contact with an Army psychiatrist charged in a shooting spree in November 2009 at Fort Hood Army base in Texas which killed 13 people. The U.S. added Mr. Awlaki to the CIA's target list after AQAP's failed attempt a month later to blow up a U.S.-bound passenger airliner.

Write to Siobhan Gorman at siobhan.gorman@wsj.com and Adam Entous at adam.entous@wsj.com

[buglerbilly]

More on this..............

CIA’s Drones Join Shadow War Over Yemen

By Spencer Ackerman June 14, 2011 | 11:30 am



Consider it the capstone to CIA Director Leon Panetta’s command of the drone war: the CIA’s drones are on their way to Yemen.

What started in Pakistan’s tribal areas will now patrol the increasingly ungoverned spaces inside Yemen, hunting al-Qaida terrorists. The drone war resumed after nearly nine years of hiatus on May 5, when missiles fired by unmanned planes sought two brothers in central Yemen thought to be al-Qaida operatives.

Only those drones were flown by the elite Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), not the CIA. Now the agency will work alongside JSOC to export its Pakistan experience conducting widespread drone strikes into a second country. Phase one, already underway, is to use the drones’ surveillance functions to collect intel for JSOC. Once it has a sufficient lay of the land, it’ll begin its own targeting killing program, the Wall Street Journal reports, with help from Saudi Arabia’s “extensive network of on-the-ground informants.”

Panetta essentially forecasted the expansion of the drone war during his Thursday confirmation hearing to become the next defense secretary. He told senators he would “keep the pressure up” on al-Qaida’s Yemeni franchise — despite U.S.-Yemeni counterterrorism cooperation stalling during Yemen’s incipient revolution. And ever since al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula tried to mail bombs to the U.S., plans have been afoot to send joint CIA-JSOC “hunter-killer” teams on a Yemeni manhunt.

The government of Ali Abdullah Saleh has long given the U.S. carte blanche to conduct counterterrorism strikes, as long as the U.S. lined his pockets and allowed him plausible deniability. But Saleh is recovering in Saudi Arabia from wounds suffered during an apparent rocket attack and his rule may be done. Yemen is in chaos right now.

The CIA program is intended to mitigate the effects of a weak or anti-American government but it could easily fuel Yemen’s political fire. In Pakistan, the drones added kindling to a widespread anti-U.S. sentiment, as they’re viewed as a violation of sovereignty that leads to civilian deaths. “Pattern of life” intelligence is supposed to build the targeting data for the drone war, but that worries Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen of Princeton University. “In #Yemen just because it looks like AQ [al-Qaida], walks like AQ and talks like AQ doesn’t necessarily mean it is AQ,” he tweets.

Even if U.S. experts are wrong and a post-Saleh government doesn’t allow the U.S. to conduct drone strikes from its airbases, the Saudi connection raises the intriguing possibility that the Saudis could host the remotely piloted planes.

So that’s at least five countries where military or CIA drones conduct or have conducted counterterrorism strikes: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen and Libya. Panetta told the Senate panel he feared a rise of al-Qaida in Somalia and “north Africa,” too. Will they be the next theaters of robot war?

Photo: U.S. Air Force

[buglerbilly]

Britain to send Apache helicopters to Yemen

Britain is preparing to send Apache attack helicopters to Yemen as cover for evacuations as the Gulf's most troubled state teeters on the brink of civil war.


At least two Apaches could be sent to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships Cardigan Bay or Fort Victoria, which are currently stationed off Yemen Photo: PA

By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent

9:00PM BST 14 Jun 2011

A senior British helicopter commander has made a reconnaissance mission to the country, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The officer, who is understood to be major commanding a squadron of the helicopters, is conducting "operational planning" for a possible rescue mission for diplomats and others stranded should fighting get worse, defence sources said.

Apache pilots training at the main helicopter base in Wattisham in Suffolk have also been secretly passed maps of the country that have been downloaded onto their laptops.

An Army Air Corps source said that in the last few weeks without explanation "maps of Yemen have appeared on our mission planning system".

At least two Apaches could be sent to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships Cardigan Bay or Fort Victoria, which are currently stationed off Yemen.

Three Navy Merlin helicopters have been also been "stripped out" of their anti-submarine equipment to be ready to help. The Telegraph understands that the aircraft will only be used to evacuate the British ambassador and his staff, as well as the 30 man military training team helping Yemeni special forces.

A force of 80 Royal Marines from Alpha Company, 40 Commando, equipped with landing craft and helicopters and enough arms to secure a port are also on board the ships, which are using Djibouti as a basing area.

The Apaches would be expected to escort the Merlins to the capital Sana'a, one of a number of cities where there have already been clashes between government forces, troops loyal to a general who has defected and tribal militias.

They might require desert refuelling, and it is believed part of the reconnaissance mission was to find a suitable rendezvous spot. The helicopters would also be expected to suppress anti-aircraft weapons with their Hellfire missiles.

The Apaches have already shown their ability to carry out strike missions from sea after they were launched from the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean on to targets in Libya earlier this month.

Yemen's deteriorating political situation has degenerated slowly towards civil war since protesters took to the streets in January calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.

President Saleh is being treated in hospital in Saudi Arabia for burns and wounds to his throat and chest sustained in an attack on his compound on June 3. But he is still rejecting efforts by Gulf countries and the West to persuade him to hand over power.

There are still an estimated 500 British citizens still in Yemen despite a Foreign Office warning urging all nationals "to leave now".

The extra deployment is likely to put further pressure on the Apache force that has 10 crews deployed in Afghanistan and five on HMS Ocean.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "As a matter of routine, military forces deploy on operations and exercises with a wide range of mapping and location data."

The West is keen not to get further entangled in conflicts in the Middle East, though President Barack Obama yesterday authorised the use of CIA drones on top of the military drones already in use. They are targeting al-Qaeda gangs, particularly in areas beyond clear Yemen government control.

[buglerbilly]

U.S. builds secret drone base for Yemen attacks

By Philip Ewing Wednesday, June 15th, 2011 9:06 am



The U.S. is building a secret airbase somewhere in the Middle East from which the CIA can launch drone attacks against terrorist elements in Yemen, the AP reports, a hedge against the danger that today’s friendly government could crumble and force America to continue its fight from outside. The AP story even includes this eyebrow-raising detail: “The Associated Press has withheld the exact location at the request of U.S. officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because portions of the military and CIA missions in Yemen are classified.”

There are many good candidates for such an installation: You could expand the existing American presence in Djibouti, or in Qatar — or the Saudis might even host such a base; they have a strong interest in keeping Yemen stable. But just as important as where this base goes is what it represents: Evidence that the danger of Yemen-based terrorism is apparently a long-term proposition. That, in turn, raises major questions about the continued American troop presence in Afghanistan.

If the purpose of the war in Afghanistan was to deny al Qaeda a safe haven from which to attack the United States, doesn’t this Yemen situation prove that has succeeded — and failed? At the cost of thousands of American lives and billions of dollars, the U.S. and its allies have killed many bad guys across Afghanistan, and pushed more into Pakistan. (Where the CIA also flies secret drone attacks to kill them.) Another secret CIA drone campaign elsewhere in the world shows that Afghanistan and Pakistan, whatever their lingering problems, apparently are no longer the most fashionable neighborhood for terrorists. But the problem didn’t go away — it just moved someplace else.

So why, then, is the United States apparently locked into keeping huge numbers of troops in Afghanistan out to 2014 and beyond? Washington has shed its Bush-era ambitions about turning Afghanistan into Switzerland; today the mission is explicitly about security and survival. So long as the CIA can keep its operations in Pakistan going at a low boil — admittedly an iffy proposition these days — does it make sense for ground troops to continue their patrols across Afghanistan when Yemen is apparently the new locus of villainy?

The Pentagon and the White House would both say yes. The consistant message from DoD officials is that Afghanistan is like a shattered vase reassembled with glue, and the glue’s still wet: It’s hanging together, but if even a feather lands on top of it, the thing could crack or break once more into a million pieces. Secretary Gates has said the U.S. and its allies must make no “rush to the exits,” because there’s no telling what that sudden vacuum would do to all the gains in Afghan security. You could argue, though, that there’s no way to avoid such a vacuum, and the U.S. might as well start saving money now with a big troop pullout, as opposed to drawing things out and only getting the same result.

Which brings up the other thing the new secret airbase drives home: The “war on terror,” as it used to be called, evidently has no end in sight.

Read more: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2011/06/15/u-s-builds-secret-drone-base-for-yemen-attacks/#ixzz1POqWYRi4
DoDBuzz.com

[buglerbilly]

Security officials: At least 40 al-Qaida militants escape southern Yemeni prison

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, June 22, 5:50 PM

SANAA, Yemen — At least 40 al-Qaida militants escaped from prison Wednesday in the latest sign that Yemen’s political upheaval has emboldened them to challenge authorities in the country’s nearly lawless south.

In a carefully choreographed escape, the militants attacked their guards and seized their weapons just as bands of heavily armed attackers descended on the prison in Mukalla on the Arabian Sea.

The escapees included militants convicted on terror charges or held in protective custody pending trial, according to officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The last major jail breakout by al-Qaida militants in Yemen took place in 2006, when 23 escaped a Sanaa detention facility including Qassim al-Raimi, who has become the dominant figure in al-Qaida’s most active franchise.

The branch has been linked to several nearly successful attacks on U.S. targets, including the plot to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner in December 2009. The group also put sophisticated bombs into U.S.-addressed parcels that made it onto cargo flights.

Yemen’s political crisis began when demonstrators inspired by successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia took to the streets in early February. The largely peaceful movement gave way to heavy street fighting when tribal militias took up arms in late May.

Yemen’s president of nearly 33 years was badly wounded in an attack on his palace earlier this month and is undergoing medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. The head of Yemen’s most powerful tribal confederation warned Tuesday in a letter to the Saudi king that Yemen could plunge into civil war if President Ali Abdullah Saleh is allowed to return home.

Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi became acting president following Saleh’s departure. The opposition has accused Saleh’s inner circle and family of hindering the opposition’s dialogue with Hadi.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

JUNE 26, 2011, 3:16 P.M. ET.

Protesting Yemeni Thousands Demand Saleh's Sons Leave

Associated Press

SANAA, Yemen—Hundreds of thousands of antigovernment protesters rallied across Yemen on Sunday, demanding that President Ali Abdullah Saleh's powerful sons and other members of his inner circle leave the country.

Mr. Saleh is currently in Saudi Arabia receiving treatment for severe wounds he suffered in an attack on his palace early this month. His two sons, Ahmed and Khaled, both command military units and have played a crucial role in protecting their father's regime and keeping his grip on power in his absence.

On Sunday, protesters in the cities Sanaa, Ibb, Taiz and others, chanted slogans calling for Mr. Saleh to step down and for his sons and other family members to flee. Some demonstrators shouted: "Saleh's orphans have to leave the country."

Yemen's political crisis began in February with protests by largely peaceful crowds calling for Mr. Saleh's ouster after nearly 33 years in power. A crackdown has killed at least 167 people, according to Human Rights Watch.

Mr. Saleh has three times pulled back from signing a deal put forward by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council that calls for him to step down and hand power to his vice president. It also calls for a national unity government to run the country until elections are held. In return, Mr. Saleh would get immunity from any prosecution.

Yemen's political turmoil is a potential source of instability for neighboring Saudi Arabia, a major oil producer.

For the U.S. and Europe, the main concern is that the political strife could open space for al Qaeda's Yemeni offshoot to operate. The group, which has found refuge in Yemen's mountainous hinterlands, has been behind several nearly successful strikes on U.S. targets.

The militants seized a provincial capital and now are operating openly in the lawless south, training with live ammunition and controlling roads with checkpoints.

Washington considered Mr. Saleh an essential partner in battling al Qaeda and had given his government millions of dollars in military aid, but has been pressing for him to step down to spare the country further bloodshed.

[buglerbilly]

In Yemen, violence fuels economic collapse

By Sudarsan Raghavan, Published: July 1

SANAA, Yemen — Over months of political turmoil, attacks on electricity plants and oil pipelines have left Yemen’s economy on the edge of collapse, with the most damaging strike carried out in retaliation for a U.S. counterterrorism raid.

Against a backdrop of street protests and military clashes, the country is grappling with electricity blackouts, rising food prices and fuel shortages so dire that ordinary Yemenis can spend days in lines for gasoline.

In March, tribesmen blew up the main pipeline in Marib province, the legendary birthplace of the Queen of Sheba and home to roughly half of Yemen’s oil reserves. The attack was carried out by a powerful tribal leader, Ali al-Shabwani, whose son was killed in a U.S. airstrike in May 2010.

The pipeline funnels crude to the nation’s main oil terminal in the southern port city of Aden for export and to be refined into gasoline. With Yemen bogged down in a popular uprising, the pipeline remains ruptured, with Shabwani and his heavily armed tribesmen refusing to allow the government access to the site until he gets justice for the airstrike, Yemeni officials said.

Around this sprawling, dun-colored capital nestled among jagged mountains, the consequences are apparent, including water shortages, high transportation costs and soaring food prices — posing great hardships in a nation where 40 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day.

Lines stretch for miles at gas stations that sell fuel at government-subsidized prices. On the black market, fuel costs three times as much. At some gas stations, gunfights have erupted.

“The sheik has no right to do this,” said Yahya Saleh Mohammed, 27, an accountant in Sanaa. He had been waiting in line for gas for two days in his green SUV; he was still a mile away from the gas station, a wait that he estimated would take one more day.

“Yes, [Shabwani] has suffered from the airstrike, but how can he make all the people suffer?” he said.

Many restaurants and stores are shuttered. Beggars have multiplied. At night, large portions of Sanaa are enveloped in darkness; electricity is available only for a few hours a day. The attacks on power plants and pipelines have continued, carried out from both sides of a widening political divide.

“Initially, these were anti-government tribes who wanted to place pressure on the regime,” said Adil Abdul Ghani, an official in the Electricity Ministry. “Now, however, they are pro-government ones attacking the plants because they want to show that the state cannot function without Ali Abdullah Saleh,” the longtime president.

‘Everybody is lost’

The contributing role of the U.S. airstrike in the fuel shortage is an indication of the growing fragility of Yemen’s economy during the five-month-old revolt. It also highlights the potential for U.S. policies to have harmful, if unintended, consequences in this politically brittle nation, where Washington has stepped up counterterrorism activities in recent months, with plans for the CIA to work closely with the Joint Special Operations Command in carrying out attacks with armed unmanned aircraft.

Many Yemenis also view the economic crisis through the prism of politics, blaming the government or the opposition for their woes. That, many analysts and diplomats fear, could spawn more unrest; rising unemployment and poverty could drive disaffected youths toward militancy at a time when al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and other Islamist extremist groups are trying to take advantage of Yemen’s political vacuum.

“Everybody is lost,” said Saif al-Asali, a former finance minister. “And the politicians on both sides don’t seem to care what happens to the people.”

Saleh’s supporters say the Joint Meeting Parties, a coalition of six opposition groups, is attacking the electricity plants as well as blocking roads to prevent trucks from hauling oil to cities and plants.

“We know these are terrorist groups with links to the JMP,” said Abdul Basat al-Kumaim, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Trade. “They know they can’t take power democratically, so they want to steal the power through destructive actions. They want to show that the government is not able to regain control.”

Revenue stream dries up

Hisham Sharaf Abdalla, the minister of industry and trade, said the economy has lost $4 billion to $5 billion since February, roughly 16 percent of the nation’s nominal gross domestic product. The bulk of the losses comes from deep cuts in the production and export of oil, which had provided 60 percent of Yemen’s income.

Some of the drop-off in production was caused by oil companies’ decisions to withdraw employees from Yemen. But the major culprit, say Yemeni officials and diplomats, was the March attack on the pipeline, which carries crude from Marib to the Red Sea port of Salif; from there, it is shipped to the refinery in Aden.

In addition to supplying local gas stations, Yemen’s oil industry had produced enough to allow exports of 120,000 barrels a day, serving as a vital source of foreign currency. Yemeni officials said the nation has lost $1 billion in oil revenue since the pipeline blast. Another refinery in eastern Hadramaut province continues to export oil.

Ripples of an airstrike

The March attack was in retaliation for events that unfolded May 25, 2010, as Jaber al-Shabwani, the deputy governor of Marib, was meeting in a remote desert location with suspected al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula operatives.

The younger Shabwani, who was killed in the airstrike, is not thought to have been an intended target of the raid; there is no indication that he was an al-Qaeda member, and associates said the purpose of the meeting was to persuade the operatives to defect. Shabwani’s father had been an influential ruling party member but joined the political opposition before carrying out the March attack.

“He blames the government and security forces for killing his son,” said Sultan al-Arada, an influential tribal leader in Marib who knows the elder Shabwani. “He wants to know who authorized the airstrike.”

The government is unable to even head up to Marib; the road between the capital and Marib is controlled by a web of tribes. If the government tried to enter Marib by force, Yemeni officials said, it could lead to a tribal war.

Yemeni officials remain angered by the episode, saying that they were not given advance notice of the U.S. raid. They say Shabwani has demanded $5 million in blood money as well as a face-to-face meeting with U.S. Ambassador Gerald M. Feierstein to demand an explanation.

“He’s taken a very extreme stance,” said Abdu al-Janadi, Yemen’s deputy information minister. “He won’t let us fix the pipeline until the Americans admit to him that they are the ones who carried out the strike. And he wants to know which Yemeni official authorized the strike.”

“The Americans are the main reason for this crisis,” Janadi added. “They killed Shabwani’s son.”

[buglerbilly]

US Airstrike Kills 6 Militants in Yemen

July 14, 2011

Associated Press|by Ahmed Al-Haj

SANAA, Yemen - A U.S. airstrike on a Yemeni police station overrun by Islamic militants killed at least six fighters Thursday, a Yemeni security official said.

The strike targeted a region where radical groups believed to have al-Qaida links have exploited the country's political upheaval to take over entire towns.

A five-month-old popular uprising seeking to oust longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh has led to a security breakdown across much of Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country and home to an active al-Qaida branch. In recent months, radical Islamist groups have overrun two towns and other areas in the country's southern Abyan province, the site of Thursday's strike.

The U.S. fears al-Qaida will exploit chaos in Yemen to step up operations there and has been aiding the Yemeni government's anti-terrorism efforts.

Yemeni security officials said Thursday's strike hit a police station in the town of Mudiya that militants had taken over, killing six who were sleeping inside. Security officials also said there were reports of people being wounded, but did not have details.

Resident Mohammed al-Mashraqi said weapons stored inside caused the station to catch fire after the strike. Dozens of militants rushed to the scene to evacuate the wounded and dig search the rubble for the dead, he said.

Security officials said the wounded were taken to a hospital in the militant stronghold town of Jaar, 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest. Yemen army units have been trying to dislodge militants from there and the nearby town of Zinjibar, causing regular casualties on both sides.

The officials said the strike was carried out by an American plane because Yemeni planes aren't equipped for nighttime strikes.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa were not immediately available for comment.

© Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved

[buglerbilly]

Massive Drone Strike Hits Qaida Cop Station in Yemen

By Spencer Ackerman July 15, 2011 | 10:00 am



At some point, al-Qaida is going to have to figure out that gathering in conspicuous places just means giving a big, fat, blinking red target to the killer drones hovering above.

In the latest sign of the intensifying U.S. shadow war in Yemen, drones hit a police station in Abyan Province, where fighters from al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula have flocked during the country’s ongoing political crisis. al-Qaida reportedly took over the station, prompting the drone(s) to take action.

Early reports are conflicting, but the strike might have a massive death toll attached. The New York Times says eight militants are dead, but CNN claims that the body count is at 50. Either way, there’s a lesson here: al-Qaida gatherings are drone bait.

According to stats compiled by the Long War Journal, it’s the third U.S. airstrike in Yemen this year, which really means since May. The next strike will tie the total from all of 2010.

al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula can’t say it wasn’t warned. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the former CIA director, tells anyone who’ll listen how drone strikes, commando raids and other inconspicuous, lethal applications of force are his preferred solution to the al-Qaida problem. Same goes for incoming Special Operations Command chief Vice. Adm. William McRaven. New CIA Director David Petraeus is cool taking militants dead or alive.

Not to suggest there’s a bright side to al-Qaida’s strength in Abyan, but if the militants feel they can run the province with impunity, their operational security standards are likely to drop. The newer model Reaper drones at the U.S.’ disposal increasingly carry smaller, lighter weapons — 35 pound missiles, down from a 100-pound Hellfire — and more of them. That means more opportunities to hit more al-Qaida targets, especially if the terrorist group is going to set up conspicuous de facto bases. Maybe it’s time to rethink the concept of “safe haven.”

Photo: U.S. Air Force

[buglerbilly]

MIDDLE EAST NEWSJULY 16, 2011, 5:08 P.M. ET.

Yemeni Protesters Create 'Shadow Government'

Associated Press

SANAA, Yemen — Senior protest figures in Yemen on Saturday announced the formation of a shadow government they say will prepare to run the country should the embattled regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh collapse.


Reuters
Anti-government protesters march to demand the ouster of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the southern city of Taiz.

The move seeks to create a united leadership for the protesters who have filled public square across Yemen for five months, calling for an end to autocratic ruler's 32-year reign.

The new body highlights the gap between Yemen's protesters and Yemen's official opposition parties, who protesters say were late in joining the anti-regime rallies inspired by those in Tunisia and Egypt. Many protesters criticize the parties for seeking to negotiate Mr. Saleh's exit instead of trying to bring down his entire regime.

Abdu al-Janadi, a spokesman for Saleh's government, said the move "pours gas on the fire."

He said that Mr. Saleh is "the legal, democratically elected president, and an alternative will only come though elections, not through an illegal coup."

Opposition party officials declined to comment.

Protest leader Tawakul Karman announced the formation of a transitional presidential council to reporters in Sanaa on Saturday. The 17-member body includes a number of former ministers, one former prime minister, business people and civil society leaders.

Ms. Karman said the council will soon choose a leader who will appoint a shadow Cabinet of technocrats. The council will also announce a 501-member "national assembly" that will draft a new constitution.

Ms. Karman said the body seeks to "protect the unity of the country before it completely collapses." When asked how the new body will exercise any power while Mr. Saleh's government remains in place, she said it would count on "revolutionary victory."

Mr. Saleh has managed to cling to office despite the mass protests and an attack on his palace that left him badly injured. He has been in treatment in Saudi Arabia since June 5. His aides say he plans to return to Yemen soon.

[buglerbilly]

Officials say 2 suicide blasts kill 11 anti-al-Qaida tribesmen in Yemen’s turbulent south

By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, August 21, 7:22 PM

SANAA, Yemen — A pair of suicide bombings targeting anti-al-Qaida tribesmen in southern Yemen killed 11 people on Sunday, tribal and security officials said.

Both blasts took place in Abyan province, where al-Qaida-linked militants have been taking advantage of a breakdown in security linked to Yemen’s political turmoil to take over towns and large swaths of territory in the south.

In the deadliest attack, a suicide bomber slammed an explosives-laden car into a checkpoint manned by anti-al-Qaida tribesmen, killing eight and wounding 20.

A suicide bomber carried out the second attack, blowing himself up in the middle of a gathering of tribesmen, the officials said. Three men were killed in the second attack.

The officials said suspicion immediately fell on al-Qaida-linked militants in the area who have routinely targeted tribesmen hostile to the terror network or formed militias to fight its members.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Yemen is home to one of the world’s most active al-Qaida branches, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

The group has plotted or inspired a series of attacks — successful and failed — in neighboring Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Washington and Riyadh, two longtime allies, have a vested interest in fighting al-Qaida in Yemen, which overlooks the strategic shipping lanes in the Arabian and Red seas and is close to Saudi Arabia’s vast oil fields.

The fight against al-Qaida in Yemen has been severely disrupted by the turmoil in the country, the poorest in the Arab world. President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen’s ruler for 33 years, has clung to power in the face of six months of mass protests, defections by military commanders, growing international pressure on him to transfer power and an attack on his palace that left him badly injured. He has been in Saudi Arabia for treatment of severe burns and other wounds since June 5.

The United States and Saleh’s Saudi hosts have been pressuring the Yemeni leader not to return home, fearing his return would likely trigger a civil war between loyalists and the opposition movement backed by armed tribesmen and army units that switched sides.

Even so, Saleh declared last week that he is determined to go home. “See you soon in Sanaa,” he told a tribal gathering in a video conference from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Yemen: 30 Al-Qaida Die in US Airstrikes

September 01, 2011

Associated Press

SANAA, Yemen - Yemeni military and medical officials say 30 al-Qaida suspects have been killed in U.S. airstrikes and clashes with Yemeni soldiers in al-Qaida-held cities in the south.

A military official said that the United States bombed al-Qaida positions Wednesday and Thursday, which militants had seized taking advantage of the political turmoil in the country. Yemen has seen mass protests against longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The airstrikes freed a Yemeni military unit besieged in southeast Abyan for several weeks by al-Qaida militants.

A medical official says four Yemeni military officers were also killed in the clashes Wednesday and Thursday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the press.

© Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

U.S. increases Yemen drone strikes

By Karen DeYoung, Updated: Saturday, September 17, 2:39 PM

The Obama administration has significantly increased the frequency of drone strikes and other air attacks against the al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen in recent months amid rising concern about political collapse there.

Some of the the strikes, carried out by the military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have been focused in the southern part of the country, where insurgent forces have for the first time conquered and held territory as the Yemeni government continues to struggle against escalating opposition to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule.

Unlike in Pakistan, where the CIA has presidential authorization to launch drone strikes at will, each U.S. attack in Yemen — and those being conducted in nearby Somalia, most recently on Thursday near the southern port city of Kismayo — requires White House approval, senior administration officials said.

The officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter on the record, said intended targets must be drawn from an approved list of key members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula deemed by U.S. intelligence officials to be involved in planning attacks against the West. White House counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan last week put their number at “a couple of dozen, maybe.”

Although several unconfirmed strikes each week have been reported by local media in Yemen and Somalia, the administration has made no public acknowledgment of the escalated campaign, and officials who discussed the increase declined to provide numbers.

The heightened air activity coincides with the administration’s determination this year that AQAP, as the Yemen-based group is known, poses a more significant threat to the United States than the core al-Qaeda group based in Pakistan. The administration has also concluded that AQAP has recruited at least a portion of the main insurgent group in Somalia, al-Shabab, to its anti-Western cause.

From its initial months in office, the Obama administration has debated whether to extend the air attacks that have proved so effective in Pakistan to the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. Military and intelligence officials have long argued in favor of attacks against al-Shabab camps in Somalia, which have been under overhead surveillance for years. Other officials have questioned the legal and moral justification for intervening in what, until recently, has been a largely domestic conflict.

The administration has said its legal authority to conduct such strikes, whether with fixed-wing planes, cruise missiles or drones, derives from the 2001 congressional resolution authorizing attacks against al-Qaeda and protection of the U.S. homeland, as well as the international law of self-defense.

“The United States does not view our authority to use military force against al-Qaeda as being restricted solely to ‘hot’ battlefields like Afghanistan,” Brennan said in remarks prepared for delivery Friday night at Harvard Law School. “We reserve the right to take unilateral action if or when other governments are unwilling or unable to take the necessary actions themselves.”

“That does not mean we can use military force whenever we want, wherever we want,” Brennan said. “International legal principles, including respect for a state’s sovereignty and the laws of war, impose important constraints on our ability to act unilaterally — and on the way in which we can use force — in foreign territories.”

In Somalia, the administration backs a tenuous government whose control does not extend beyond the capital, Mogadishu.

In Yemen, Saleh has been a close counterterrorism ally, and Brennan said last week that Yemen’s political turmoil, which began in March as part of the upheaval known as the Arab Spring, has not affected that cooperation. U.S. officials have emphasized that violence between loyalist troops and those backing breakaway army officers and tribal leaders has not involved U.S.-trained Yemeni special operations forces. This week, government forces reportedly made gains fighting against entrenched insurgent fighters in the southern port town of Zinjibar.

In the Yemeni capital Sanaa, thousands of anti-government protesters have been camping out in what is known as Change Square for several months, demanding an end to Saleh’s rule. The camp has remained quiet for weeks, but Reuters, citing doctors, reported Saturday that soldiers opened fire near the camp overnight and wounded eight protesters. The troops shot in the air to stop demonstrators from trying to expand the area of protest.

As the political conflict drags on, concern has increased over insurgent expansion and future cooperation with whatever government emerges in Yemen.

For months, the administration has called on Saleh to sign an agreement put forward this summer by Persian Gulf states to transfer power to an interim government and hold early elections. His intransigence seems to have increased since June, when Saleh departed for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia after being severely injured in an attack on his presidential palace. He has repeatedly insisted he intends to return to Yemen and retake control of his government, currently being run by Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

Last week, the ruling General People’s Congress sent a delegation to Riyadh and secured Saleh’s agreement to allow Hadi to negotiate with the opposition and implement a political transition. While the opposition called the deal a trick, the Obama administration has tried to push Hadi and the government to take the initiative and negotiate a deal with opponents.

In a statement released late Thursday, the State Department called on the Yemeni government to sign and implement the agreement “within one week.”

Until May, the first and only known drone strike in Yemen was launched by the CIA in 2002. As part of its stepped-up military cooperation with Yemen, the Obama administration has used manned aircraft to strike at targets indicated by U.S. and Yemeni military intelligence forces on the ground. In May, JSOC first used a drone to kill two AQAP operatives as part of its new escalation in Yemen.

This summer, the CIA was also tasked with expanding its Yemen operations, and the agency is building its own drone base in the region. It is not clear whether the unilateral strike authority the CIA has in Pakistan will be extended to Yemen.

Administration officials have described the expanded drone campaign as utilizing a “mix of assets,” and a senior military official said he knew of no plans or discussions “to change the nature of operations.”

“The new base doesn’t connote that [the CIA] will be in the lead,” the official said. “It offers better teamwork and collaboration between the agencies.”

Staff writer Greg Jaffe contributed to this report.

[buglerbilly]

Protesters die in Yemen after troops open fire

Witnesses say at least 26 people killed and dozens wounded after security forces open fire on protesters massed in Sana'a

Associated Press in Sana'a

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 18 September 2011 22.15 BST


Yemeni anti-government protesters outside Sana'a University call for a boycott of university studies until President Ali Abdullah Saleh steps down. Photograph: Yahya Arhab/EPA

Yemeni forces reportedly opened fire with anti-aircraft guns and automatic weapons on tens of thousands of anti-government protesters who gathered on Sunday in the capital city, Sana'a, to demand the removal of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

At least 26 people were killed and dozens were wounded, witnesses said, in the deadliest attack for months against protesters.

Tensions have been escalating in the long, drawn-out deadlock between the regime and the opposition. Saleh left for Saudi Arabia for treatment after being severely wounded in a 3 June attack on his palace, raising hopes for his swift removal but he has dug in, refusing to step down.

Demonstrations grew this week after Saleh assigned his vice president to negotiate a power-transfer deal – a move many believe is just the latest of many delaying tactics. Greater numbers of security forces and armed regime supporters have also been out on the streets, raising fears of a new bloody confrontation.

Witnesses said more than 100,000 protesters massed on Sunday around the state TV building and government offices, and security forces opened fire when they began to march toward the nearby presidential palace. Snipers fired from rooftops, and plainclothes Saleh supporters armed with automatic rifles, swords and batons attacked the protesters.

"This peaceful protest was confronted by heavy weapons and anti-aircraft guns," said Mohammed al-Sabri, an opposition spokesman. He vowed that the protests "will not stop and will not retreat".

A Yemeni opposition television network carried live footage of men carrying injured protesters on stretchers, including a motionless man whose face was covered with blood and eyes wrapped with bandages. Other young men were lying on the floor in the chaotic field hospital.

Protesters throwing stones managed to break through security force lines and advance towards the Yemeni Republican Palace in the heart of Sana'a, turning the clashes with the security forces into street battles.

The Saba state news agency quoted a security official as saying that the Muslim Brotherhood had held "unlicensed protests" near the university of Sanaa, and "the militia threw firebombs at a power station, setting it on fire"

Although Saleh has been in Saudi Arabia since June, he has resisted calls to resign, despite a Gulf-mediated, US-backed deal under which he would step down in return for immunity from prosecution. Saleh has already backed away three times from signing the deal.

America once saw Saleh as a key ally in the battle against the dangerous Yemen-based al-Qaida branch, which has taken over parts of southern Yemen during the political turmoil. Its support was withdrawn as the protests gained strength.

Demonstrations also took place in many other Yemeni cities, including Taiz, Saada, Ibb and Damar, while government troops shelled for the third day a district in the capital held for months by a powerful anti-government tribal chief and his armed supporters.

Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar said his fighters did not return fire after the shelling by the elite Republican Guard. Ahmar said he did not want to give Saleh any excuse not to sign a deal to transfer power after ruling the impoverished country for 33 years.

[buglerbilly]

350 injured on bloodiest day of Yemen uprising

Hospitals in Sana'a unable to cope with the number of casualties as security forces clashed with anti-government groups

Hakim al-Masmari in Sana'a and Martin Chulov

guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 September 2011 20.38 BST


Anti-government protesters carry a wounded defected soldier from the site of clashes with security forces in Sana'a. Photograph: Hani Mohammed/AP

For the past few weeks Change Square in Sana'a has belonged to Yemen's young revolutionaries. It has been filled with dancing and singing to protest against the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

But there was no singing on Monday. Instead, the square was filled with the echoes of gunfire and screams as the young demonstrators carried their injured friends to safety, their blood dripping in a long crimson trail that led to the field hospital.

It was the bloodiest day yet in Yemen's nine-month uprising, with more than 22 killed and at least 350 wounded. The carnage followed an attack on Sunday that left 30 dead and set the scene for the violence that has broken new ground in the stand-off between anti-government groups and loyalist security forces. On Monday night Sana'a's hospitals said they were unable cope with the number of casualties. Demonstrators were urgently calling for blood donors and trying to ferry the wounded to hospitals on Sana'a's outskirts. Many of the wounds appeared to have been caused by high-calibre rounds fired into the crowds from anti-aircraft guns.

One protester, Ridwan al-Sabahi, was mourning his comrades on the outskirts of Change Square. "They were amongst us yesterday and are dead today," he said. "We were all laughing and dreaming of the day when Yemen will be democratic and free." The blood of the "martyrs" had not been spilt in vain, he said, adding: "We will never forgive Saleh and his family."

Saleh, who was wounded during an explosion as he prayed in a mosque earlier in the year, remains in Riyadh as the guest of the Saudi Arabian monarch, King Abdullah, who on Monday received him in his palace. The day's violence was vividly illustrated by a live video stream from a field hospital set up by protesters after skirmishes with forces loyal to the president.

A dead 10 month-old girl with a head wound brought to the hospital was identified as Anas al-Suaidi, shot by a sniper. Soon afterwards a screaming man with no right arm arrived. At another hospital around 23 bodies were laid out in a makeshift morgue.

As night fell the shooting appeared to have spread across Sana'a as rebel units clashed with loyalist forces in a series of running battles across the city. There were reports that security forces loyal to Saleh's son, Ahmed, were st