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Oct 11, 2008 SANAA (AFP) - The trial began on Saturday of three Yemenis who are alleged to have spied for Iran. Abdul Karim Lalji, 33, Hani Deen Mohammad, 31, and Iskandar Abdo, 57, were arrested in the southern city of Aden for "illegal contact," the prosecutor told the court. The men handed over "information, documents and photos relating to military secrets and the country's political, security and economic situation, to the detriment of Yemen," according to the charge sheet.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said the security forces have arrested a group of alleged Islamist militants linked to Israeli intelligence. Mr Saleh did not say what evidence had been found to show the group's links with Israel, a regional enemy of Yemen. The arrests were connected with an attack on the US embassy in Sanaa last month which killed at least 18 people, official sources were quoted saying. Israel's foreign ministry has rejected the accusation as "totally ridiculous".

October 4, 2008 Israel accuses North Korea of supplying Mideast with arms and nuclear technology Times Online and news agencies Israel has accused North Korea of supplying at least half a dozen Mideast governments with nuclear technology or conventional arms. World powers at a 145-nation Vienna meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency at the same time urged North Korea to stop reactivating its weapons-producing atomic programme. The comments focused on North Korea's black market role and its reversal of a commitment to mothball its nuclear activities in exchange for trade and security guarantees. In the latest setback, US chief...

Finding that a Yemeni cleric and his assistant had been deprived of a fair trial because of errors by the presiding judge, a federal appeals panel in New York on Thursday overturned their convictions in a prominent terrorism case once hailed by the Bush administration as a significant blow to Al Qaeda. The appeals court judges found that the defendants, Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad and his aide, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, did not receive a fair trial because the trial judge, Sterling Johnson Jr., allowed the jury to hear inflammatory testimony and other evidence that prejudiced the defendants’ case.

YouTube - aljazeera channel is an example of racism in the ARAB WORLD...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p94t2YkoGQo This Arab admits on video that: "the Arabs are the most racist people in the world".  

SAN'A, Yemen — Authorities arrested at least 25 militants with suspected links to Al Qaeda in connection with the deadly attack on the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital, a senior security official said Thursday.

(CNN) -- Eighteen-year-old Susan El-Baneh and her husband of three weeks died holding hands, her brother said, victims of a terrorist attack Wednesday on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen.

Even though we know yesterday's Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Sana'a, Yemen were targeted at Americans and America, it's ironic that the only American who died was a relative of Jaber El-Baneh, the fugitive seventh member of the Lackawanna Six Al-Qaeda terrorists--homegrown terrorists in Suburban Buffalo. I've written about Jaber El-Baneh--who, in 2005, was allowed to escape a Yemeni prison by Yemeni police and prison guards and who has never faced justice in America for training to foment terrorist attacks on our soil. Mr. El-Baneh trained at the Al-Farooq terrorist training camp run by Osama Bin Laden...

Excerpt - DUBAI, Sept 18 (Reuters) - The United States has closed its embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa after an attack on the heavily fortified building, al Jazeera television said on Thursday. It was unclear from the report whether the closure was temporary or permanent. ~ snip ~

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2008 – President Bush today praised Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the outgoing commander in Iraq who oversaw a dramatic reduction in violence there, and thanked him for agreeing to lead U.S. Central Command. The president also denounced an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, that killed an unspecified number of security personnel. After meeting with the general at the White House, Bush credited Petraeus with helping to plan and implement a 33,000-troop surge that started in January 2007 and has been cited as a key factor in Iraq's improved security. "General David Petraeus...

An in depth look at the terror attacks in Yemen and the latest on Pakistan. Today a great show, we talk to Jane Novak from Armies of Liberation.Com about Yemen. We also talk to Daveed Gartenstein Ross from DefendDemocracy.Org about Yemen and Pakistan nad Bill Roggio from LongWarJournal.Org on the latest from Pakistan. This is a marquee show! Runs 60 Minutes

U.S. State Department Sean McCormack said that the sophisticated attack "bears all the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda attack." One source told FOX News the apparent attack on the embassy in Yemen did not "happen in a vacuum." In the last two months, Yemen has broken up or arrested members of a significant number of cells — some related to Al Qaeda. A senior U.S. official earlier said the bombings were carefully orchestrated, with sniper fire and some attackers apparently dressed as soldiers. President Bush said the attack is a reminder that "we are at war with extremists." In mid-August,...

Yemeni security forces repelled a complex attack on the US embassy in the capital of Sana'a. More than sixteen were killed after terrorists detonated multiple bombs then launched a ground attack in an attempt to breach the compound. The attack begun after several bombs were detonated just outside the embassy. The terrorists then ambushed the first responders by using pre-positioned snipers. The terrorists were wearing uniforms of Yemeni security forces and driving what appeared to be police cars, which enabled them to get close to the heavily fortified compound. A sustained firefight then ensued between the terrorists and the embassy...

The British embassy in Yemen has been threatened with attack after 16 people died when a car bomb exploded outside the American embassy this morning. The heavily-fortified compound was on fire after the two explosions. Heavy gunfire was also heard and smoke seen rising from the compound, witnesses said. A Yemeni security source said 16 people including six attackers died in the attack. Four were bystanders. A group calling itself Islamic Jihad in Yemen took credibility for the attack. It also threatened that it would target the British, Saudi and Emirati missions in the Yemeni capital, according to a statement...

(CNN) -- A suicide bomb attack Wednesday outside the gates of the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa killed 10 security staff and civilians and six attackers, an embassy spokesman told CNN. Mohammed al-Basha said the blast, described by witnesses as a "fireball," was caused by a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest. A Yemeni security official said there was a gun battle between attackers in police uniform and security staff. The second car exploded after it passed an outermost gate to the Embassy but before it reached a second protective barrier, the official said. Another U.S. Embassy spokesman,...

Explosions and gunfire were heard in the vicinity of the US embassy in San'a, the capital of Yemen, a security official said. Police cordoned off the area, said the official, who had no further details. An embassy employee contacted by telephone inside the mission's compound would only say: "There has been a security incident." Regional TV networks were reporting a car bomb explosion outside the embassy and an exchange of gunfire between guards and unidentified assailants. In March, three mortar rounds targeting the US embassy crashed into a high school for girls next door, killing a Yemeni security guard and...

How The West Was Won The rapid and unexpected decline of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was officially recognized this week, when Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commanding the Marine Expeditionary Force, turned operational control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi army and police. Anbar, a vast expanse of desert the size of North Carolina, had been the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. For years, foreign fighters loyal to al-Qaida had sneaked across Iraq's northwestern border with Syria, into Anbar and down a "rat line" of safe houses in Haditha, Ramadi and Hit. From Fallujah, the arch terrorist Zarqawi...

EXPLOSION HEARD NEAR U.S. EMBASSY IN YEMEN -AL-ARABIYA TV

Two policemen and five suspected of having links to al-Qaeda were killed and others were injured on Monday in fire exchange between security forces and al-Qaeda suspects in Sayoun of the south-eastern province of Hadramout, official source said. Governor of Hadramout, Salim al-Khanbashi, said that security forces surrounded a house in Tarim in Edeed area of Sayoun where a group of suspects were hiding and exchanged fire with them. The military-run news website 26sep.net, reported that Hamza al-Qaiti, number two in Yemen’s al-Qaeda, was among militants killed in that counterterrorism raid. It said that security forces sized bombs, materials to...

On the other side of the Red Sea in the south-west corner of the Arabian peninsula, Yemen has natural gas reserves and is trying to lure investment from its wealthy neighbours. But the country suffers from a shortage of fresh water and is beset by economic hardship, a persistent al-Qaeda menace and a Shia rebellion in the north. It takes a leap of faith to believe that a private initiative can raise $200bn for what would be the world's biggest engineering project to link the two countries. Plans are afoot for such a scheme, however. The grandiose project is the...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

In the remote desert highlands of southern Yemen, a team of archaeologists have discovered new evidence of ancient transitions from hunting and herding to irrigation agriculture 5,200 years ago. As part of a larger program of archaeological research, Michael Harrower from the University of Toronto and The Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia (RASA) team explored the Wadi Sana watershed documenting 174 ancient irrigation structures, modeled topography and hydrology, and interviewed contemporary camel and goat herders and irrigation farmers. "Agriculture in Yemen appeared relatively late in comparison with other areas of the Middle East, where farming first developed near the...

Here is another one of our Islamic "allies". Muslims can persecute Christians and Jews across the Islamic world and we are not supposed to say a word about it. Because the most important thing in the world as we all know, is not to offend the poor Muslims. Our fearless leader Mr. Bush keeps talking about freedom and freedom of religion. How come it does not apply to his Islamic buddies?

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

DUBAI (Reuters) - An al Qaeda Yemeni wing called in an Internet posting on Wednesday for kidnappings of tourists in the Arab country to press for the release of jailed militants. "It is a duty that detainees be freed through any rough way such as kidnapping tourists, who are numerous, or through various other ways," an article in the e-magazine of al Qaeda in the South of the Arabian Peninsula read. The group said it was pained some militants "had turned themselves in voluntarily to the ruling regime to improve their situation", in an apparent reference to a Yemeni-American thought...

A brutal insurgency rages in the northern highlands. Separatist discontent grows in the south. Al Qaeda is moving in, targeting oil facilities and foreigners as well as ordinary Yemenis. In the latest unrest, at least five people were killed Saturday in an explosion at a post office in the northern town of Sadah, one of numerous hot spots in this Arabian Peninsula country of 23 million. Observers fear that Yemen is descending into chaos -- a prediction made more dire by its proximity to a critical choke point through which one of every 25 barrels of the world's daily oil...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. military prosecutors have requested the death penalty for the alleged mastermind behind the bombing of the USS Cole warship that killed 17 U.S. sailors in 2000, the Pentagon said on Monday. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian national of Yemeni descent being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, faces eight charges, including murder and terrorism, for the attack in the Yemeni port of Aden on October 12, 2000, that wounded 47 sailors. Prosecutors have also charged al-Nashiri over a failed attack on another U.S. warship, the USS The Sullivans, in Aden in January 2000 and an attack...

Text of report in English by Yemen News Agency Saba website Hadramout, June 25 (Saba)-The security services have arrested allegedly one of the most wanted al-Qaeda militants and four others in Hadramout province, east of Yemen. Security sources said that Haytham bin Saad has been arrested with along four of his companions. The sources affirmed that the five al-Qaeda militants have been in a prison of the state security in Sayoun city of Hadramout. Source: Yemen News Agency Saba website, Sanaa, in English 25 Jun 08

The Hunt for American al Qaeda The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty. The State Department along with the Department of Diplomatic Security announced the beginning of a publicity campaign in Afghanistan urging locals to provide any information on Gadahn's whereabouts, with a reward if the information leads to his capture. Radio advertisements with information concerning the $1 million reward have...

the rate of child marriage among females in Yemen reached 52 percent, compared to less than seven percent among males. On top of that, in rural parts of Yemen, girls usually get married at an average age of 12 to 13 years old. "Recently the case of early marriage in Yemen has come to light, especially after the divorce of a little girl last month," ... the case of 'Noujoud', the first eight-year-old child to obtained a divorce from her husband who is in his early 30s...

riyadh • Hardline Sunni clerics accused Shias on Sunday of destabilising Muslim countries and humiliating Sunnis, just days before a Muslim interfaith conference called by Saudi Arabia's king. The attacks on Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah — though contrary to official policy — highlight the sharp, growing distrust between Islam's two arms, and its potential to cause more unrest. In a strongly worded statement, the 22 clerics savaged the Iranian-backed Shia Hezbollah in Lebanon, saying it has tricked Muslims into believing it is against Jews and Americans. The statement appeared on several websites on Sunday, including Al Moslim, which is run...

Yemeni security forces have broken up an 11-member Al-Qaeda cell in the capital Sanaa, the defence ministry's online newspaper reported on Thursday. The suspects, who were arrested over the past few days, revealed during their interrogation "important information regarding terrorist attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda (in Yemen)," the September 26 website reported. Vice-Prime Minister for defence and security affairs General Rashed al-Alimi was due to give a press conference to provide more information on the arrests, it said. "Six Saudi Arabians and three Chadians are among the people arrested," a source close to the inquiry said, according to AFP. "The...

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Jane Novak, a 46-year-old stay-at-home mother of two in New Jersey, has never been to Yemen. She speaks no Arabic, and freely admits that until a few years ago, she knew nothing about that strife-torn south Arabian country. And yet Ms. Novak has become so well known in Yemen that newspaper editors say they sell more copies if her photograph — blond and smiling — is on the cover. Her blog, an outspoken news bulletin on Yemeni affairs, is banned there. The government’s allies routinely vilify her in print as an American agent, a Shiite monarchist, a...

In one of the best Covert Radio's yet, Brett Winterble, talks to Bill Roggio from Long War Journal.Org about the latest in Iraq and Pakistan. Brett also talks to Jane Novak from the Armies of Liberation Blog, its an eye opening 30 minutes. Bottom Line: Al Qaeda has effectively taken over Yemen and its bad news for us!

U.S. Frustrated By Elusive Justice Served to USS Cole Plotters May 04, 2008 It's been called "the forgotten attack" but it's one of the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history. Eight years after the USS Cole was attacked by a motorboat packed with explosives, all of the six men convicted of the strike have escaped from prison, or been freed by Yemeni officials. Seventeen sailors were killed and 40 more wounded in the strike, blamed on Usama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Jamal al-Badawi, who helped organize the Cole plot, has reportedly escaped from Yemeni prisons twice. He is supposedly...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

Almost eight years after al-Qaeda nearly sank the USS Cole with an explosives-stuffed motorboat, killing 17 sailors, all the defendants convicted in the attack have escaped from prison or been freed by Yemeni officials. Jamal al-Badawi, a Yemeni who helped organize the plot to bomb the Cole as it refueled in this Yemeni port on Oct. 12, 2000, has broken out of prison twice. He was recaptured both times, but then secretly released by the government last fall. Yemeni authorities jailed him again after receiving complaints from Washington. But U.S. officials have so little faith that he's still in his...

Six people died and at least 35 were hurt on Friday when a bomb hidden in a motorcycle went off outside a mosque in Yemen's northern city of Saada. The blast happened as worshippers, including army officers, were leaving the Salman Mosque after Friday prayers, officials and security sources said. "We estimate so far six dead and around 35 wounded," Motahhar Rashad told Al Jazeera television. "It is a large mosque." Rescue workers were still helping people at the scene, and medical sources told Reuters some 100 people had been taken to two hospitals in the area. There are conflicting...

As war renews in Yemen's North and protests turn to riots in the South, terror attacks have hit the capital, and the opposition is boycotting upcoming elections. Civil liberties are under attack and traditionalism growing as the central government turns to hard liners for support and the population's basic needs go unmet. Northern war Despite a recent $1.4 million donation from the UK, the World Food Programme is facing an urgent shortage of funds to feed the 77,000 civilians displaced by the war in north Yemen. Several thousand have been killed in the war that began in 2004 and thousands...

Oil prices have spiked to a record of $117.40 a barrel after a Japanese oil tanker was attacked in the Middle East, off the east coast of Yemen.

An eight-year-old Yemeni girl had the following to say after her big day in court. "I am happy that I am divorced now. I will be able to go back to school," Nojud Mohammed Ali said… - AFP(15 April 2008) The divorced husband, 28-year-old Faez Ali Thameur, withstood it all like true champion of a man.…said he married the child "with her consent and that of her parents" but that he did not object to her divorce petition.In response to a question from Judge Mohammed al-Qadhi, he acknowledged that the "marriage was consummated, but I did not beat her." Faez...

SANAA (AFP) — A Yemeni court on Tuesday granted a divorce to an eight-year-old girl whose unemployed father forced her into an arranged marriage this year, saying he feared she might be kidnapped. "I am happy that I am divorced now. I will be able to go back to school," Nojud Mohammed Ali said, after a public hearing in Sanaa's court of first instance. Her former husband, 28-year-old Faez Ali Thameur, said he married the child "with her consent and that of her parents" but that he did not object to her divorce petition. In response to a question from...

Court terminates 8-year-old girl's marriage Tue Apr 15, 2008 1:21pm EDT   SANAA (Reuters) - A Yemeni court ordered the marriage of an eight-year-old girl terminated on Tuesday because she had not reached puberty.The court also ordered the child's family to pay about $250 in compensation to the 30-year-old ex-husband.The girl's lawyer and human rights activist Shatha Nasser said the minor had filed a suit in April asking for divorce and told the court that her husband had been physically abusing her and forcing her to have "sex with him after hitting her."One of the people attending the trial...

Nojoud Muhammed Nasser YT Photo by Hamed Thabet SANA’A, April 9 - An eight-year-old girl decided last week to go the Sana’a West Court to prosecute her father, who forced her to marry a 30-year-old man. Nojoud Muhammed Nasser arrived at court by herself on Wednesday, April 2, looking for a judge to handle her case against her father, Muhammed Nasser, who forced her two months ago to marry Faez Ali Thamer, a man 22 years her senior. The child also asked for a divorce, accusing her husband of sexual and domestic abuse. According to Yemeni law, Nojoud cannot prosecute,...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States ordered non-emergency employees of its embassy in Yemen to leave the country Monday. The order came a day after a rocket attack on a compound that houses Western and other international oil workers. No injuries were reported. It also follows attacks that have targeted the U.S. Embassy and killed two Belgians and eight Spaniards in the last two years, the U.S. State Department said in a statement. "The security threat level remains high due to terrorist activities in Yemen," the department said. "The department remains concerned about possible attacks by extremist individuals or groups...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

Fifteen people died in Yemen during fierce gun battles between Shiite gunmen and members of a tribe loyal to the government, witnesses said on Sunday. Thirteen people were hurt in the fighting between the pro-government Al-Bukhtan tribe and the gunmen, they said, according to AFP. The fighting, which broke-out on Saturday in a market in the Saada province near the border with Saudi Arabia, came two months after Zaidi gunmen killed an Al-Bukhtan member who they accused of supporting the government. Government forces have since joined the battle by shelling Zaidi positions.

SAN'A, Yemen (AP) — Fatah and Hamas agreed Sunday on the goal of uniting in a single Palestinian government but failed to resolve the crucial question of how the rival factions should share power. After five days of talks using Yemeni officials as intermediaries, the West Bank-based Fatah government met face-to-face with representatives of the Hamas militants who seized control of the Gaza Strip in June. The two sides signed a declaration that both accept a Yemeni initiative calling for the creation of a national unity government and the rebuilding of security forces loyal to that government instead of factions.

SAN'A, Yemen (AP) - An Al-Qaida terror cell was behind a mortar strike against the U.S. embassy in Yemen that missed its target but killed a security guard and wounded 13 students at a nearby school, an Interior Ministry official said Saturday. The official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said al- Qaida militant Hamza al-Dayan launched three mortars at the embassy Tuesday before fleeing the scene in a vehicle with three accomplices. The mortar shells crashed into the school in the downtown Sawan district of San'a, killing the security guard and wounding 13 schoolgirls, three grievously. On Thursday, the...

Yemeni officials have said they will hand over the prime suspect in the murder of wealthy Norwegian student Martine Vik Magnussen, despite the absence of an extradition treaty with Britain. The move comes after it emerged Farouk Abdulhak was smuggled out of the country on a private jet. He left Britain a day before police discovered the 23-year-old's body in the basement of his Great Portland Street flat. The 21-year-old student and friend of Miss Magnussen fled London on Saturday, apparently flying to Athens before travelling to his native Yemen. Dr Abu Bakr al-Qurbi, Yemen's foreign minister, said: "It is...