Assange accuses Government of 'ratting out' Australians

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

31/08/2011

Reporter: John Stewart

WikiLeaks has released a classified US embassy cable containing an ASIO list of Australians linked to a radical Yemeni cleric.

Transcript

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has accused the Federal Government of ratting out Australians named in a classified US embassy cable.

Intelligence claims they had links to a radical Yemeni cleric.

Well the list was created by ASIO and warns that Al Qaeda operatives based in Yemen could be trying to recruit women to carry out terrorist attacks.

But a Sydney lawyer who represents four of the people on the list has told Lateline that some of the information provided to the Americans by ASIO is wrong.

John Stewart reports.

JOHN STEWART, REPORTER: Anwar al-Awlaki was born in America. About a decade ago, he joined Al Qaeda in Yemen. The radical Muslim cleric has been tied to plots against the United States and now he's one of America's most wanted.

Last night, WikiLeaks released a classified cable from the American embassy in Canberra. The cable names 23 people; they are Australians or have connections here. All are said to have past or present links to the Yemen-based al-Awlaki.

The list was compiled by ASIO and 11 were subsequently placed on a no-fly list and a further 12 put on a terrorism watchlist.

The US cable also warns that Al Qaeda is recruiting women for terrorist attacks.

Sydney lawyer Stephen Hopper represents four of the people. He says the list is old and has no new information about his clients.

STEPHEN HOPPER, LAWYER: They're very frustrated, but they just roll their eyes and think, "Oh, yet again." You know, "When are they going to get over it?"

JOHN STEWART: The 23 Australians named by ASIO include Sydney sheikh Abdel Zodd, Sydney woman and long-time ASIO target Rabiah Hutchinson and Melanie Brown, the Australian wife of convicted terrorist associate Willie Brigitte.

Rabiah Hutchinson's lawyer, Stephen Hopper, says his client has never met al-Awlaki and that ASIO's information about his client is wrong.

STEPHEN HOPPER: Ms Hutchinson could never have been connected to al-Awlaki. She was in detention in Iran for two years before she surrendered to the Australian Embassy. At that stage her passport was cancelled and she hasn't left Australia.

JOHN STEWART: In 2008, Rabiah Hutchinson was interviewed by the ABC. Ms Hutchinson said she knew that she was regarded with suspicion by non-Muslims.

RABIAH HUITCHINSON, NO FLY LIST (2008): I would defend Islam with my life, so that makes me a filthy, dirty, subhuman terrorist that deserves anything that anybody and everybody wants to do to them.

JOHN STEWART: Ms Hutchinson has been referred to as the Grande Dame of Terror, a title she rejects. She's still unable to leave Australia after the Government refused to renew her passport.

Two of Ms Hutchinson's sons are also among the 23 people on the list.

Terrorism expert Clive Williams says that in recent years American authorities have been increasingly concerned about Al Qaeda in Yemen and al-Awlaki's influence as a key terrorist leader.

CLIVE WILLIAMS, TERRORISM EXPORT, MACQUARIE UNI: I think they see him as more dangerous than Dr Al-Zawahiri these days. He's really become the propagandist for Al Qaeda and for extremist ideology more generally. And he is certainly more of a worry, I think, for the Americans in particular than anybody else at this stage.

JOHN STEWART: Another of Stephen Hopper's clients, Sydney woman Shyloh Giddens, is also on the list. Ms Giddens was arrested in Yemen last year and deported to Australia after her passport was cancelled on advice from ASIO.

STEPHEN HOPPER: Shyloh may have met a number of persons of interest. What I can say about that is that it's completely benign.

JOHN STEWART: Last night, the federal Attorney-General broke the Government's longstanding position not to comment on material published by WikiLeaks and condemned the release of the uncensored cable, saying, "On occasions in the past, WikiLeaks has decided to redact identifying features where security operations or safety could be put at risk. This has not occurred in this case. ... The publication of any information that could compromise Australia's national security or inhibit the ability of intelligence agencies to monitor potential threats is incredibly irresponsible."

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange hit back at the Australian Government, saying "Australian Attorney-General Robert McClelland bemoans having his department being publicly caught out ratting out 23 Australians to the US embassy without due process. ... If Mr McClelland is unhappy about being caught out, perhaps he should consider cancelling my Australian passport again. It has not, after all, proven terribly useful to me in the last 267 days of detention without charge. Or, perhaps he could do us all a favour, cancel his own passport and deport himself?"

Today the Sydney sheikh Abdel Zodd said he had no contact with al-Awlaki and had never been to Yemen.

There is no evidence that anyone placed on the list by as ASIO has been planning a terrorist attack.

John Stewart, Lateline.

Is Yemen losing its last Jews?

With less than 300 left, Yemen’s head rabbi urges Yemen’s last Jews not to abandon their troubled country completely.

Annasofie Flamand

August 30, 2011 As the uprising in Yemen continues and clashes between government forces and militants in the south show no sign of abating, some Yemeni Jews are considering fleeing the violence.

According to the Yemen Post twelve Jews have already left the country and according to the paper eight more are planning to leave shortly fearing “they could be a target in a lawless state.”

While the numbers of Jews that have left or are considering leaving are relatively small, the overall remaining Jewish community in Yemen has shrunk from around 60,000 in the 1940s to around only 300 people today.

Head Rabbi of the Jewish community in Yemen, Yahya Yousef, told GlobalPost that Jews in Yemen do not face any problems or specific threats to their lives. “We are not afraid of any threats,” he said. “We do not get threatened. Yemenis respect us. We have no fears from being attacked by Yemenis. They are our brothers.”

However, while the Rabbi plays down any potential risks, there have been attacks on Yemen’s Jews in the past. Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered extra security be given to Jews after an attack on a Jew in 2009 and offered all the country’s Jews free accommodation in the capital Sanaa.

When the Jewish state of Israel was founded a large wave of around 50,000 Jews fled Yemen between 1947-50 in Operation Magic Carpet after Arab Muslim rioters attacked Jews in Aden killing 82 Jews and destroying hundreds of homes and businesses.

While the government under Saleh has been careful in dealing with the Jewish community, tens of Jews have left Yemen in the past two years leaving only a few hundred Jews in Yemen.

According to Rabbi Yousef the latest exodus of Jews left Yemen illegally. We are against such actions by the Jews who left Yemen," he said.

The 12 Jews who recently left Yemen had been planning to go to London, but are still in Egypt where they are having problems with their papers, according to Yemen Post.

Rabbi Yousef said Yemen’s Jews belong in Yemen. “The Yemeni government has treated Yemeni Jews with love and care. We are safe and we do not consider ourselves different from any other Yemenis. We live in peace and love our country,” he said.

“We are not involved in the Arab Spring or any political matters. We prefer to live far from politics and have been doing so for a long time. We are Yemeni and all the rights given to Yemenis are also given to us.”

Yemen's Saleh says 'corrupt' exploiting protests

August 31, 2011, AFP

SANAA — Ailing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh accused his opponents of being corrupt and arms dealers who are exploiting youthful protesters demanding his ouster, in a televised address.

"Those who went to the University Square to support the youth revolution that demands the ouster of the regime... have fed on corruption, and are dealers of arms and land," Saleh said in the address aired late Tuesday on state television as he received well-wishers at his residence in Riyadh.

The veteran leader has been in the Saudi capital since early June for treatment after he was wounded in a bomb attack on his Sanaa compound.

"Our people know them well. They were a burden on the political system which was always blamed for protecting those corrupt... who are now (demonstrating) at the University Square," Sanaa's epicentre for anti-regime demonstrations, he said.

"Let them go away... corrupt, liars and deceivers. We do not mention names, but our people know them very well," he added, in an apparent reference to the leaders of the opposition and tribal chiefs who have backed protests that began late January calling on him to quit after 32 years in office.

Saleh wore gloves and a headgear, just as he did in all his appearances after the attack, which could be covering unhealed wounds or scars. He refrained from the customary handshakes with visitors.

In an earlier address on Tuesday on the occasion of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr feast, which marks the end of the fasting month, Saleh called for a mechanism to implement a Gulf plan aimed at a peaceful transition of power.

He told his ruling General People's Congress party to "make contact with the (opposition) Common Forum to develop a mechanism for implementing the Gulf plan without delay," Saba state news agency reported.

The Gulf plan proposes that Saleh would transfer power to the vice president within 30 days in exchange for a promise of immunity from prosecution.

Saleh vowed earlier in August to return "soon" to his impoverished country.

6 women named as potential al-Qaeda recruits by US cable

Melbourne, Aug 31 (PTI)

Whistle-blowing site Wikileaks has released a secret US diplomatic cable which has named some six women living in Australia as potential targets of an al-Qaeda plot to recruit women for terror attacks.

The women - four Australians, a Briton and a Filipino - are among 23 people based in Australia, alleged by Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the US State Department to be connected to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The latest batch of confidential and secret cable, written by the US embassy in Canberra in January last year, was sent to US intelligence agencies and 15 American diplomatic stations around the world.

"Recent threat information suggests (al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) is looking to identify a female for a future attack," the cable states referring to the organisation's most internationally active branch, local media reported today.

The document claims al-Qaeda has been looking to recruit women for future terrorist attacks.

Australia has flayed whistle-blowing site, calling it "incredibly irresponsible" for publishing the cable detailing Australians with suspected links to Yemeni terrorism.

Wikileaks cables have also reportedly revealed there was a split between the Government and Reserve Bank over the handling of the economy during the global financial crisis.

The branch, referred to as AQAP, is believed to have played a role in most attempted attacks in the West since 2009.

Of particular concern to intelligence agencies is a belief that many on the list have been in contact with AQAP's chief propagandist and radical preacher, Anwar al Awlaqi, a US citizen believed to be a key figure in AQAP

Some of the people named in the secret US diplomatic cable, including Sheikh Abdel Zoud, the cleric at Sydney's Belmore Mosque, have strongly rejected the claims, saying they bear little relation to the truth.

There are concerns that those on these lists disappear off "the passport radar" in countries such as Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates.

They then travel to countries like Yemen and Pakistan for terrorism training.

The report said the quality of the information has been questioned by Sydney cleric. He was quoted as saying that he had no idea why he was on the list as he had never been to Yemen, had never spoken to al Awlaqi, sent him money nor visited his website.

The 23 names were given by ASIO to the US, which put them on the "Visas Viper" programme, a database used for watch-listing suspected terrorists.

Eleven were banned from flying in the US, and the other 12 were subject to increased security screening.

The government has termed the publication of the information has been could compromise Australia's national security -- or inhibit the ability of intelligence agencies to monitor potential threats -- is incredibly irresponsible.

The government has condemned the publication of the document as it "could seriously impact Australia's national security."

"The publication of any information that could compromise Australia's national security -- or inhibit the ability of intelligence agencies to monitor potential threats -- is incredibly irresponsible," Attorney-General Robert McClelland was quoted as saying in the media.

Houthis Celebrate Eid Holiday Late; Sectarian Differences Grow

Sana'a, August 31, 2011, In the strong clear sign of sectarian differences in Yemen, Sunni Muslims celebrated Eid holiday on Tuesday, on the same day as Saudi Arabia and gulf countries, while the pro Shite Houthis followed the Iranian example of fasting one more day and delaying Eid until Wednesday.

Houthis called on their followers in the northern Sa’ada province to fast Tuesday and not follow the regime’s order.

A small number of residents listened to the Houthis call as the majority of Sa’ada province celebrated Eid on Tuesday.

Iran is one of the few Muslim nations that delayed Eid holiday to Wednesday and experts believe that Houthis are trying to differentiate themselves from the pro Sunni regime in Yemen.

Experts fear that the next war in Yemen is not a political one, but rather sectarian, like what is seen today in Iraq.

More than 60 percent of Yemenis are Sunni while less than 40 percent follow the Zaidi sect of Islam, a pro Shite sect.