Three dead in south Yemen clashes

Source: AFP, 17/12/2010

ADEN — Two soldiers and a southern militant were killed in armed clashes on Thursday in south Yemen's Lahij province, the defence ministry's 26sep.net news website said.

Eight others -- five soldiers, two militants and a civilian -- were wounded in the clashes that occurred during an attempt to arrest Abbas Tanbaj, the militant who was killed.

Earlier, a security official said two soldiers in civilian clothes were pursuing a "militant wanted by the security services who was riding a motorcycle" in the town of Habilayn.
The soldiers opened fire on the militant, killing him, after which gunmen arrived and shot them, the official said.

"The bodies of two soldiers were admitted to the hospital in the town along with two wounded" southern activists, a medical official said.

The Southern Movement, whose members want either independence or increased autonomy for the south, usually hold protests on Thursdays demanding the release of detained activists.

South Yemen, where many residents complain of discrimination in the distribution of resources on the part of the Sanaa government, was independent from 1967 until it joined with the north in 1990.
The region seceded in 1994, sparking a brief civil war that ended with it overrun by northern troops

US Third Most Wanted Terrorist Still Alive

Source: Asharq Al-Awsat, By Arafat Mudabish
16/12/2010

Asharq Al-Awsat met with Al Qaeda commander Fahd Mohammed Ahmed Al-Quso AKA Abu Huthaifah Al-Yemeni in the mountainous Shabwa governorate in south-east Yemen. An Al Qaeda commander, Al-Quso is the third most wanted terrorist by the US, behind Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. He is wanted for the bombing of the USS Cole in Aden which resulted in the death of 17 American sailors.

During his meeting with Asharq Al-Awsat, Al-Quso expressed surprise at reports that he had been killed in a US drone attack in the Pakistani province of Waziristan in September earlier this year, confirming that he was very much still alive.

According to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, Fahd Al-Quso was born in Aden, Yemen, in 1974. He is on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist List due to his involvement in the attack on the USS Cole on 12 October 2000. He is also believed to have met with two of the suicide bombers who later carried out the 9/11 attacks on America.

After the attacks, Al-Quso was detained by the Yemeni authorities, but managed to escape from prison in 2003. He was recaptured in 2004 and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment on charges relating to the attack on the USS Cole, however much to Washington's chagrin he was released by the Yemeni authorities in 2007. The US believes that Fahd al-Quso is the head of an al-Qaeda terrorist cell in Yemen, and has links with the leadership of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Reports suggested that al-Quso had been killed in a US drone attack in Waziristan on 8 September 2010; however Washington did not verify this.

Asharq al-Awsat managed to meet with Mohammed Ahmed Al-Quso AKA Abu Huthaifah Al-Yemeni in the Shabwa governorate of Yemen, obtaining photographic evidence that he is indeed alive. Al-Quso refused to confirm or deny that Al Qaeda camps are present in this region, although he did reveal that an air strike that targeted his farm in the remote mountain valley of Rafd in eastern Shabwa province in December 2009 had resulted in 5 deaths, and the destruction of the farm.

As for reports about his death, al-Quso said he was surprised by this, and described these as being nothing more than "rumor." Al-Quso also told Asharq Al-Awsat that he was surprised about the reports that he was in Waziristan, particularly in light of "the situation in Yemen, which is similar to the situation in Pakistan."

He went on to say that "on the contrary, my presence in Yemen is better in light of the crisis situation with the Yemeni government."

Fahd Al-Quso AKA Abu Huthaifah Al-Yemeni – who the US is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his capture or conviction – did not deny that he had received offers from the Yemeni government inviting him to surrender himself in return for certain guarantees and promises that he refused to reveal, although it is likely that this would include a guarantee that he would not be extradited to the US. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that for him, and others wanted by the authorities "we will not give up our religion and the principles that we hold in our hearts…this is unlikely."

Al-Quso also told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Yemeni government had "overstated" the size and presence of Al Qaeda in Yemen in order to justify "the killing of innocent people in the air strikes that are taking place in some regions."

There had been ambiguity over Al-Quso's status after reports that he had been killed in a drone attack in Waziristan, however following Asharq Al-Awsat's interview with him, and the corresponding photographic evidence, there can be no doubt that Fahd Mohammed Ahmed Al-Quso AKA Abu Huthaifah Al-Yemeni is very much alive.

Al-Quso is listed as being considered "armed and dangerous" by the FBI, and the list of charges against him include; Conspiracy to Kill United States Nationals; Murdering United States Nationals; Conspiracy to Murder United States Military Personnel; Murder of United States Military Personnel Aboard the USS Cole; Use and Attempted Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction Against Nationals of the United States Aboard the USS Cole; Conspiracy to Attack National Defense Utilities; Providing Material Support to a Foreign Terrorist Organization, amongst others.

Yemen, AFESD to sign $50 m agreement

Source: Yemen’s officials news agency( Saba)
16/12/2010
SANA'A-Yemen and Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) are to sign in the coming few days an agreement worth at $ 50 million, the weekly 26 September reported on Thursday.

The weekly cited well-informed sources as saying that the agreement would be signed during a visit of AFESD delegation to Yemen soon. The sum will be utilized to finance new projects of bridges and tunnels in the capital Sana'a.

The delegation will hold talks with a number of Yemeni officials on promoting the cooperation aspects between Yemen and the fund as well as the AFESD-funded future projects in Yemen, the sources added.

Worth to mention is that the fund has pledged to allocate $ 500 million to support the development projects in Yemen during 2011-2015.

US says accused airline bomber had help in Yemen

Source: Reuters, 16/12/2010
DETROIT - The Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a U.S. airliner with a bomb hidden in his underwear had gone to Yemen and received help in planning his attack, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was charged with a new count of conspiracy to commit terrorism in addition to the six previous counts related to attempted murder and carrying a bomb on a crowded passenger jet.

Abdulmutallab will be arraigned on the new charge, which carries a maximum life sentence, on Thursday in federal court in Detroit.

A superseding indictment returned by the grand jury in the case on Wednesday said there was evidence Abdulmutallab had traveled to Yemen in August 2009 to become involved in a "violent 'jihad' on behalf of al Qaeda."

Abdulmutallab "and others whose names are both known and unknown to the grand jury, conspired to engage in an act of terrorism transcending national borders," it said.

None of the other alleged conspirators was named.

Abdulmutallab, originally from Nigeria, boarded a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit and near the end of the trip on Dec. 25, he tried to ignite a bomb sewn into his underwear, prosecutors have said.

The explosives failed to detonate fully and Abdulmutallab was subdued by passengers and crew as the jet flew over Woodhaven, Michigan.

Abdulmutallab had been cooperating with U.S. investigators earlier this year and told them he received the device and training from al Qaeda militants in Yemen, U.S. officials have said.

The failed attack led to further efforts by the Obama administration to strengthen U.S. airline security.

Al Qaeda's Yemen-based branch is a serious threat to the United States and has become substantially more dangerous over the past two years, the top U.S. military officer said last month.
The group claimed responsibility for a recent foiled plot to send explosive parcels to the United States and for the crash of a UPS jet in Dubai in September.

Yemen looks to cash in on coffee

Source: Financial Times, By Abigail Fielding-Smith
16/12/2010

A coffee stall in Hodeidah, Yemen: the country hopes to capitalise on a growing international espresso culture
Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, tends to attract attention these days because of an alarming array of problems, which include an al-Qaeda presence presence, looming water shortages and a southern separatist movement.

But when experts from around the world gathered in Sana’a, the capital, this week it was to talk about something altogether more benign: coffee.

More than 200 coffee farmers, importers, processors, and industry representatives met to explore what Gerald Feierstein, the US ambassador, called a “window of opportunity” to revive the fortunes of Yemen’s most famous commodity.

EDITOR’S CHOICE
Al-Qaeda boasts of ‘bargain’ bomb plots - Nov-21France issues warning on UK travel - Oct-06British embassy vehicle attacked in Yemen - Oct-07Yemen as much a threat as Afghanistan, report says - Sep-29Iran fear triggers arms surge - Sep-20Yemen arrests eight al-Qaeda suspects - Jul-11The conference, sponsored by Yemen’s Social Fund for Development, a quasi-governmental body, and inaugurated by Ali Mujawar, the prime minister, aimed to raise awareness of the possibilities of marketing naturally processed coffee.

The event was attended by international development donors as well as industry representatives, eager to find ways of addressing Yemen’s soaring joblessness and economic decline.

Several hundred years ago, the jagged highlands of Yemen were the first place coffee was cultivated, and the beans were exported through the Red sea port of Mocha.

Over the past 60 years, however, exports have fallen from about 40,000 tonnes a year to barely 7,000 as the terraces have slowly filled up with other crops such as khat, a stimulant chewed by 70 per cent of the male population.

Now, however, global demand for the kind of intensely flavoured coffee that Yemen produces is expected to rise with the growth of international espresso culture, and the continued development of speciality markets.

Yemen produces Arabica beans, a higher quality strain of the plant. As an investment proposition, Arabica has performed well recently. The New York Board of Trade futures contract of Arabica due for delivery later this month has risen from $1.397 per pound in June to $2.1635 on Tuesday.

The lack of proper drying equipment, however, means that Yemen’s coffee samples all too often contain stones.

Yemeni farmers, like their counterparts in Ethiopia and Brazil, process the coffee cherries by letting them dry in the sun and then “hulling” them, that is separating the beans from the surrounding pulp, naturally.

The alternative is a more technology-intensive washing process.

While the natural method makes for a sweeter, heavier flavour, which is used for espresso blends, it is also less consistent.

Moreover, the quality assessment tools used by the industry are based on washed coffee processing, making it difficult to drive up the standards of “naturals”.

Some conference attendants felt that talk of reaching high-end markets was premature, given current production levels.

“We need to start with farmers in the field – phase one,” said Ramzi al-Hayat, a buyer and exporter based in Sana’a.

“Right now we’re marketing. But what are we going to be marketing in 10 years unless there’s help for the farmers?”

According to Samer Al-Otmi, an official at the coffee department of the ministry of agriculture, there are many reasons for the decline of coffee production, including water scarcity and the loss of traditional farming skills.

He admitted that although the government has supported some limited irrigation programmes, there has been “not enough effort”.

Khat is even more water-intensive than coffee, but, unlike coffee, it yields a regular crop. For many farmers operating on small margins, with little knowledge of the international market place, coffee seems more risky both to produce and to sell. Khat is at least twice as profitable per average hectare, according to experts.

One farmer attending the conference, Ali Hassan Ahmed Amer, asked: “If you want me to take out khat and grow coffee how will you ensure I will get a good price for this coffee?

“If everyone does the same there will be more supply than demand. With khat I know for sure consumption is there,” he said.

However, Matt Toogood from Raw, a Dubai-based speciality roaster, said that Yemen’s brand profile had such a strong appeal that investing in helping farmers to develop their product was an attractive proposition.

“Yemeni coffee is so distinctive,” he said. “There’s an opportunity right now [for farmers] to put their toe in the water for the end consumer – and we could be the link.”

Large-scale government or donor support is likely to be critical. Mr Mujawar described coffee as a top development priority, but the government is grappling with a budget deficit and multiple insurgencies.

Mr Toogood, however, was in no doubt about the opportunity presented. “These guys could make so much money; they don’t realise,” he said.

US official says Wikileaks did not hurt Yemen ties

Source: AP, By AHMED AL-HAJ 15/12/2010

SANAA, Yemen -- A senior U.S. diplomat said Tuesday that the release of secret diplomatic memos by WikiLeaks has not hurt critical ties with Yemen's government and that security aid to the anti-terror ally was being coordinated with the country's leaders.

The U.S. is set to double its military aid to Yemen to $250 million next year in a sign of how serious the threat is from an al-Qaida offshoot that has found haven in the largely lawless and impoverished nation on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

Internal U.S. diplomatic memos released by WikiLeaks quote discussions in which Yemen's president told a top U.S. commander his country would pretend that American missile strikes against al-Qaida in the country had been carried out by Yemen's forces.

Yemen's Foreign Ministry said the leaked memos were inaccurate and incorrect.
Yemen's weak government is keen to limit the public's knowledge of the extent of U.S. involvement in the country to avoid inflaming widespread anti-American sentiment in the country.

"Our work with the Yemeni government on security issues is done with the permission, coordination, request of the Yemeni government," said Jeffrey Feltman, the U.S. State Department's top official on the Middle East, who visited Yemen Tuesday.

He was responding to a reporter's question about the suspicion that airstrikes in Yemen are carried out by U.S. planes.

He declined to answer a question about whether the U.S. is considering paying compensation to civilian victims and their families.

The U.S. has not officially confirmed its role in airstrikes last winter, although U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, have previously acknowledged American involvement in the bombing.

Amnesty International has said it has evidence of U.S. involvement in airstrikes on suspected al-Qaida hide-outs in Yemen late last year.

Initially, Yemeni officials said al-Qaida militants were killed in a Dec. 17, 2009, airstrike, but a Yemeni parliamentary committee later said that more than 40 civilians died in the strike.

Feltman said the documents made public by WikiLeaks were an "embarrassment" but had not affected the relationship between the two governments.

"Our policy toward Yemen remains that we want to have a long-term partnership with the people and government of Yemen," he said.

Yemeni parties in disagreement over next elections

Ruling party determined to go to elections even alone, and opposition threatens to boycott and take to streets.
By Nasser Arrabyee/14/12/2010

The Yemen ruling party said Tuesday it would go to elections next April after the opposition said they would boycott and take to streets demanding political reforms first.

In a statement read in a press conference held Tuesday by the ruling party and small parties allied with it, the party played down the opposition call for taking to streets saying its only for “deceiving and misleading” the people.

The statement accused the opposition parties of making crises by encouraging Al Houthi rebels in the north, and separatists in the south, and Al Qaeda terrorists in the whole country.

“They want the understandings and to replace the constitution and laws, and the dialogue committees to replace the institutions and agencies of the State,” Sadeq Ameen Abu Ras, assistant secretary general of the ruling party and chairman of partisan coalition which includes the ruling party and about 10 small parties dissented from opposition parties with none of them represented in the Parliament, told reporters in the press conference. Abu Ras referred to the previous accords and committees between the ruling party and opposition for the failed dialogue.

“They wanted 200-member committee to replace the parliament, the 30-member committee to replace the government, and four-member committee plus President, to be a presidential council,” said Abu Ras. He referred to the failed national dialogue committee, made up of 100 members from the ruling party, and 100 from the opposition, and its minor committee, made up of 15 members from each side also.

And the failed five-member committee was the one that was supposed to discuss the constitutional amendments and it included the four opposition parties represented in the parliament plus the President who is the chairman of the ruling party.

The ruling party’s majority in House of Representatives voted Tuesday for 15 Judges from different provinces. The President Ali Abdullah Saleh will appoint seven of them to be members of the high commission which will run the country’s elections.

Amid tightened and exceptional security measures, the minority of the opposition MPs, (about 50 MPs from all parties and some independents) implemented a sit-in at the gate of the Parliament in protest over the steps. The ruling party and opposition parties failed to implement any step of the many agreements they made since 2006.

Earlier on Monday, the opposition parties threatened to take to the streets if the ruling party goes to elections alone next April.

The coalition of the parties called for “action of anger” that never stops until the ruling party recanted its unilateral steps.

This comes after the majority of the ruling voted earlier this week on amendments of the current elections law to form an election commission of judges rather than of representatives from all parties in the parliament .

"The vote is violation of the constitution and laws not to mention the fact that it is an overthrow on the February 2009 agreement."

The opposition and ruling party agreed on February 2009 to delay the elections for two years until April 2011 foe making political reforms during that period. No reforms at all have been done so far while the two years are almost over.

The ruling party says elections must take place on time otherwise the country will be in constitution vacuum. The opposition parties which includes Islamists Socialists and Nasserites say the ruling party wants elections that keep it in power.

" We call for an action of anger that never quietens down until we restore the rights to change, social justice and equal citizenship," said the coalition of the opposition parties in a statement read in a press conference held Monday by top leaders of the parties.

The Secretary general of the Socialist party, Yasin Saeed Noman, said unilateral step towards election is a game played by the extremists of the ruling party.

Mohamade Basundaw, chairman of the opposition national dialogue committee, said going to election without the opposition will only drag the country to a swamp of new crisis.
The ruling party official seem to be determined to go to elections without the coalition of the opposition parties which included the largest three opposition parties.

Earlier, the assistant secretary general of the ruling party, Sultan Al Barakani, played down the call for taking to streets by saying “If they have people to take to streets, they would have taken to streets after the 2006 presidential elections,” when their candidate who competed with the ruling party candidate, won only 20 % of the votes .

Yasser Al Awadhi, who is also a high profile member of the ruling party, said his party is determined to go to elections, but he also said that the door will keep open for the opposition.