Yemen

NOVANEWS   Comes in Wake of Crocker’s Claim Afghan Occupation Prevents This antiwar.com Speaking during a photo-op at ground zero, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta warned that the potential of another 9/11 is “very real” and tapped Yemen as a likely source for the next attack. This comes just a day after US Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker claimed that the decade-long occupation of Afghanistan was “the ultimate guarantee that there will not be another 9/11.” Panetta, however, still saw threats coming out of both occupied Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, as well as growing threats across the rest of the planet. He offered no solutions to this. The reality, of course, is that both the Crocker and Panetta claims are grounded not in reality, but in expediency. Crocker ...

NOVANEWS antiwar.com He may have been released from the hospital yesterday, but Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh will not be returning to his country, “US sources” say. Saudi paper Asharq al-Awsat reports Saleh has backed down under US pressure and could remain in Saudi Arabia, where he has been receiving treatment for wounds received in a missile attack on the presidential palace in Sanaa. He is reportedly staying in a Saudi government residence while he recuperates. The United States is on record asking its longtime ally to step down as protests and insurgencies rage across the small country. The US continues to fund his government, but wants a new head of state in Maj. Gen. Abd al-Rab Mansur al-Hadi. Saleh has rejected several deals to step down that woule be favorable to him; i...

NOVANEWS Saleh Spokesman Says Wounded Dictator Will ‘Appear’ in Next 48 Hours antiwar.com It has now been over three weeks since Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh narrowly escaped assassination in an attack on his presidential palace, fleeing into Saudi Arabia for emergency surgery. In the interim Yemen is much as he left it, a nation facing myriad civil wars and insurrections, with the government holding ever less sway. But according to his spokesman Ahmed al-Sufi, President Saleh is on the brink of returning to the country, and is scheduled to make a public appearance in the next 48 hours. Sufi expressed concerns that “his appearance will not be as the media expects it,” apparently owing to severe burns suffered in the attempt on his life. Saleh’s return will be hugely controversia...

NOVANEWS   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. telegraph.co.uk 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, stabl...

NOVANEWS Massive Protests Continue, But Regime Eyes Shows of Strength antiwar.com It was only a week ago that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was wounded in a rocket attack. Since that time, he was rushed to Saudi Arabia for emergency surgery, saw major public celebrations of his ouster, and now, it seems, is eying a comeback. In fact reports suggest that Saleh’s family has actually strengthened their position within the nation’s security forces since the dictator’s operation, and is organizing his supporters for a return to power. Of course, the pro-democracy demonstrations are continuing nationwide, and all of the same problems with Saleh’s continued rule are really still in place one week later. Yet reports of a massive government organized “impromptu” pro-Saleh fireworks dis...

NOVANEWS by rehmat1   Tawakkol Karman 32, is a Yemeni woman journalist and chairperson of Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC). She is one of the leaders of the mass anti-government movement in Yemen. She has been ignored by the so-called ‘civilized West’press because she is ‘different’ from the western brainwashed apologetic Zionist Western media ‘darlings’ like Irshad Manji, the Canadian lesbian Muslim reformer or former Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somalia-born anti-Islam neocon. Tawakkol Karman is proud of her faith, wears Hijab and hates to be an apologetic Muslimah. Could she be another ’Islamist’ like Safynaz Kazen, the Egyptian Muslim journalist or Professor Zahra Rahnavard, wife of Mir Hossein Mousavi, who lost to Dr. Ahmadinejad in June 2009 election or  Zainab ...

NOVANEWS Many fear that if Mr Saleh is given a chance to return, his comeback would reignite the fighting in the capital as opposition tribes try to oust him By Catrina Stewart 8 June 2011 REUTERS Protesters gather calling for an interim presidential council to prevent the return of President Saleh. Yemen's wounded President was yesterday said to be in a much graver condition than previously thought after an attack on his compound last week prompted him to flee from the country. President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is receiving medical treatment in a Saudi hospital, is said to be suffering burns to 40 per cent of his body, bleeding in his skull and a collapsed lung, serious injuries that suggest he will be unable to return to Yemen soon. Unusually, information regarding the extent of hi...

NOVANEWS US Urges ‘Immediate’ Transition of Power to Acting Ruler antiwar.com Long-time Yemeni dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh dismissed the notion that his retreat to Saudi Arabia for surgery was a permanent move, insisting he would return to the country “within days” and intended to retain power. The nation’s interim ruler Major General Hadi confirmed that this was the case, saying Saleh’s health had “greatly improved.” The president fled the country after being wounded in an attack on Friday, and had surgery over the weekend. Saleh’s impending return immediately throws into doubt the ceasefire between regime troops and the tribal forces led by Sheikh Ahmar. The deal was no doubt based on the assumption of Saleh’s ouster, and if he manages to return the situation is likely to resume...