Ruling and opposition parties form joint election committees

Sana'a, February 11, 2012- The opposition Joint Meeting Parties and the ruling General People Congress agreed on Saturday to form joint committees to run the early elections set for Feb. 21.

The Yemeni News Agency, Saba, has said that both sides prepared a guideline for the joint tasks, cooperation and coordination for holding the elections successfully.

The agreement included issuing directions to the election committees and approving an executive progrmme to carry out election rallies and taking actions to overcome any challenges or difficulties.

Saba said the agreement was signed by deputy chair of the General People Congress Abdul-Karim Al-Iriani and the he chair of the opposition Joint Meeting Parties Abdul-Wahab Al-Anisis.

Yemen's opposition and some ruling party officials see that these elections would lead to radical changes in Yemen.

During a United Nations conference entitled “Reform and Transitions to Democracy,” held in Beirut last month, the Yemeni veteran politician Al-Eryani said that Yemen will radically change after February 21 when early presidential elections will be held.

Spokesman of JMP Abdul Al-Odaini said that Yemen's presidential elections to would be a major shift in democratic, political and social fields.

The GCC states, the United States and other western countries acutely seek for the success of the elections that are considered the major step to peaceful power transfer.

Under the GCC deal, Hadi is the consensus candidate of major parties in a presidential elections scheduled for February, while Saleh remains as a figurehead president for 90 days after he was forced to sign the deal.

After the elections, as GCC deal states, Hadi will oversee national dialogue to consider proposals for constitutional reforms that include replacing the presidential system with a multi-party parliamentary system.

Source: Yemen Post

New Details About Unrepentant ‘Underwear’ Bomber Released

Feb 11, 2012 2

By CNN Newswire

Reported by Jason Ryan, Pierre Thomas and Jack Cloherty:

‘Underwear' bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was obsessed with radical Yemeni-American cleric Anwar Awlaki, and embarked on a pilgrimage to Yemen to seek him out in 2009. During that time he met with senior al Qaeda leaders and became a hardened terrorist who went on a mission to kill 289 people during his attempted Christmas Day attack in 2009.

Court papers filed before Abdulmutallab's sentencing next Thursday reveal new details about his links to Awlaki, who had emerged as a key figure within Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The report lays out in fascinating detail how Abdulmutallab came to his mission and why the Yemeni-American cleric was deemed so dangerous the U.S. government would hunt him down and kill him in a U.S. attack involving drones and military jets in September 2011.

For years, Abdulmutallab had been following the fiery radical's online teachings of Awlaki. A psychological evaluation by Dr. Simon Perry, also released on Friday noted that Abdulmutallab was familiar with all of Awlaki's lectures, saying, "They were an important motivator which led [Abdulmutallab] to decide to participate in jihad. He began listening to the lectures in 2005 and reading Aulaqi's writings, which motivated him to accept martyrdom."

In August 2009, Abdulmutallab left Dubai, where he had been taking graduate courses, and sought out Awlaki in Yemen. Abdulmutallab was not to be denied. "Defendant visited mosques and asked people he met if they knew how he could meet Awlaki. Eventually, defendant made contact with an individual who made contact for him."

"Thereafter, defendant received a text message from Awlaki telling defendant to call him, which defendant did," the government memo discloses.

During the phone call, Awlaki asked that Abdulmutallab provide in writing the reasons he wanted to participate in violent jihad. After working on his response over the next three days Abdulmutallab was finally granted a meeting with Awlaki.

"Defendant was picked up and driven through the Yemeni desert. He eventually arrived at Awlaki's house, and stayed there for three days. During that time, defendant met with

Awlaki and the two men discussed martyrdom and jihad." The sentencing memo notes.

"Defendant left Awlaki's house, and was taken to another house, where he met AQAP bomb-maker Ibrahim Al Asiri. Defendant and Al Asiri discussed defendant's desire to commit an act of jihad. Thereafter, Al Asiri discussed a plan for a martyrdom mission with Awlaki, who gave it final approval, and instructed defendant Abdulmutallab on it." prosecutors noted.

The government filing also discloses that at an AQAP training camp Abdulmutallab met with Samir Khan a U.S. citizen who fled to Yemen and wrote the online English-language magazine Inspire dedicated to violent jihad and how-to ideas on terrorist attacks. Khan was also killed in the U.S. strike along with Awlaki.

Leading up to the attempted attack, the government's memo noted that the bomb-maker personally gave Abdulmutallab the underwear bomb, and that Awalki "arranged for a professional film crew to film the [martyrdom] video. Awlaki assisted defendant in writing his martyrdom statement, and it was filmed over a period of two to three days."

Noting his operational control over Abdulmutallab, the memo notes, "Although Awlaki gave defendant operational flexibility, Awlaki instructed defendant that the only requirements were that the attack be on a U.S. airliner, and that the attack take place over U.S. soil. Beyond that, Awlaki gave defendant discretion to choose the flight and date. "The government is requesting five life sentences for Abdulmutallab and is also asking that the judge release an FBI videotape showing a model of the underwear bomb and of an explosion with the same amount of explosive Abdulmutallab had in the bomb.

"Since [Abdulmutallab's] motivation to commit martyrdom appears to be great, I believe there is high probability that given the opportunity, he would try once again to commit an act of martyrdom, endangering his and other innocent lives." Dr. Perry's assessment noted.

Abdulmutallab traveled from Yemen to Africa via Ethiopia to Ghana to Nigeria before he flew to Amsterdam, where he boarded the flight bound for Detroit. FBI officials believe that Abdulmutallab was wearing the device for much of his travels, and that moisture or the explosives becoming loose prevented the device from fully exploding.

The sentencing hearing is set for 1 p.m. on Feb. 16, 2011.

EU to provide 7 million euros for Yemen presidential elections

Feb 11, 2012

Sana'a - The European Union is to provide 7 million euros (9.2 million dollars) for supporting presidential elections in Yemen that are set for February 21, the bloc's officials said Saturday.

'The elections will provide an opportunity for the Yemeni people to vote for a new Yemen and to express their support to the peaceful transfer of power and the political transition process,' the EU delegation in Yemen said in a statement.

The bloc is to mobilize an electoral expert mission to provide a comprehensive assessment of the electoral process, according to the statement.

The election is part of a United Nations-sponsored deal signed in November by the outgoing president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and the opposition for a peaceful transfer of power.

The deal grants Saleh, who has ruled Yemen for 33 years, immunity in return for his relinquishing power.

The parliament unanimously nominated Vice President Abd Rabbu Mansur Hadi as the sole presidential candidate in the elections.

The early vote aims to end a year of anti-Saleh demonstrations and the unrest in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country.

Thousands in Yemen back upcoming vote

(AFP)

10 February 2012

SANAA — Thousands rallied in the Yemeni capital on Friday to back a single-candidate presidential election planned for later this month that has sparked protests in the south, an AFP correspondent reported.

The demonstrators, who gathered in Sanaa’s Change Square — epicentre of a year of protests against veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh — chanted slogans in favour of the poll in which Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi will be the sole candidate.

“February 21 is the day on which Yemen will be reborn,” read one slogan printed on a large picture of Hadi brandished by demonstrators.

“We have all agreed that Hadi will rule for our country’s independence,” they chanted.

“Hadi, take the key, the slaughterer’s rule has ended!” they shouted, referring to the hundreds of people killed in clashes with the security forces since nationwide protests erupted in January last year.

The election is the one of the centrepieces of a Gulf-brokered deal Saleh signed in November with the parliamentary opposition, under which he is to hand power to Hadi after the vote in return for a promise of immunity from prosecution.

Unlike the poll, the immunity pledge remains deeply controversial with the Change Square protesters.

“Our demand will not change, we will not accept anything but a trial,” they chanted.

Hadi himself hails from the formerly independent south of Yemen, but the single-candidate election has proved controversial in the restive region.

On Thursday, security forces shot dead two people protesting against the vote in the southern town of Daleh, witnesses said.

Activists of the Southern Movement say the election fails to meet their aspirations for autonomy or renewed independence for the region.

Some factions of the movement have been campaigning for a boycott. Its hardline pro-independence wing, led by former southern leader Ali Salem al-Baidh, has called on supporters to disrupt the poll.

The south was independent from the end of British colonial rule in 1967 until union with the north in 1990.

It broke away again in 1994, sparking a brief civil war that ended with the region being overrun by northern troops.

Southerners have since complained of discrimination by the Sanaa government in the allocation of resources, and there have been repeated protests in favour of regional self-rule.

Protesters in Sanaa on Friday also pledged support for the uprising in Syria, where activists say regime forces have killed more than 6,000 people since mid-March.

“From (Yemen’s southern city of) Aden to Sanaa we will all sacrifice for Daraa,” they chanted, referring to Syria’s southern city which was the cradle of the protest movement.

The protesters hanged a dummy representing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The gathering took place after the weekly Muslim Friday prayers in which the preacher urged the Yemeni government to expel the Syrian ambassador.

“We call on the national unity government to expel the Syrian ambassador from Sanaa just as other countries have done,” Saleh Bateys said. “This is the least we can do for the Syrian people.”

Yemen’s six Gulf neighbours have decided to expel Syria’s envoys and withdraw their own from Damascus over the “mass slaughter” of civilians in Syria, they said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

Tunisia has also said it would expel the Syrian ambassador, and Libya on Thursday ordered Syrian diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours.

Several Western states have recalled their ambassadors from Damascus and the United States has closed its embassy there altogether.

Three Saudi nationals kidnapped in Yemen

10 February 2012

SANA’A: Yemen officials confirmed on Friday that three Saudi Arabia nationals had been kidnapped by al-Houthis fighters while crossing the Yemeni northern province of al-Jawf, which sits on the Yemeni-Saudi border.

The province, which has been under the control of Salafists, a group of Sunni ultra-conservatives, has slowly come under the control of the Shia militants, as their leader, Sheikh Abdel Maleh al-Houthi used the power vacuum left by months of popular uprising against the central government to resume its territorial expansion.

The group, which is now believed to be counting tens of thousands of hardened soldiers within its ranks is controlling the provinces of al-Jawf, Hajjah and Sa’ada with only a few pockets left of resistance.

The three Saudis were stopped at one of al-Houthis’ checkpoints near the Kingdom’s border and were immediately transferred back to Sa’ada, the group’s stronghold.

Ali al-Hamda, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen announced that he was carefully monitoring the situation, stressing that he trusted and applauded the efforts exerted by the Yemeni authorities in solving the matter promptly.

Several politicians from the Joint Meeting Party are saying that the kidnappings were politically motivated and that al-Houthis militants were following a foreign agenda in targeting Saudi nationals.

A recent report made by the Saudi intelligence services claimed that Iran which has for over a decade been financing al-Houthis’ political ambitions as they share the same religious beliefs would be now using the group to target the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and in essence conduct a war by proxy.

Moreover, Riyadh warned that Iran had already infiltrated many political groups and Media outlets to promote its own regional vision and slowly angle people into siding with Tehran against the Kingdom.

Several incidents in the Yemeni-Saudi border involving al-Houthis loyalists prompted a heightening in security measures with fears that the old border demarcation dispute will resurface. And the al-Houthis are already claiming some Saudi villages as their own