Desert trip in Yemen: Madventures road trip to the Empty Quarter / Rub' al Khali desert - Old City of Sana'a & Khat session

Here are two fascinating and amusing must-see video reports on Yemen.

Hat tip: Yam-Yam Yemeni blog Wednesday, 03 February 2010:
Some European chap on a trip to Yemen

Desert trip in Yemen - Madventures road trip to the Empty Quarter / Rub' al Khali desert



Posted to YouTube by dailypalnet on 03 September 2009 - info:

Madventures road trip to the Empty Quarter / Rub' al Khali desert
Category: Travel & Events
Tags: Madventures III Yemen Al-Siyah Al-Haima tribe Ramadan Eid ul-Fitr khat qat gat chaad farmer economics village party food Wadi Daw'an oasis Shibam Empty Quarter Rub' al Khali desert expedition road trip terrorist trek wasteland camp camel riding checkpoint Sharif bedouin country nomads sharia islam prayer song guns rifles Al-Qaeda Al-Qaida weapons blasters
(3,754 views and 12 comments, as at 12 February 2010)

This is a video response to
Old City of Sana'a & Khat session (Madventures III)



Posted to YouTube by OpenEyeVisuals on 27 April 2009 - info:
Clip from Yemen episode.
© Gimmeyawallet productions
Official chan: http://www.youtube.com/MadventuresEN

Get the dvd for full episodes and better quality.
http://www.superpirate.com/store/inde...
Category: Travel & Events
Tags: madventures III babel yemen sana'a old city market felix arabia atmosphere khat session qat qaat kat gat gathering party islam prayer muezzin mosque minaret arabian peninsula middle east southwest asia kamal sanaa travel culture english
(8,603 views and 21 comments, as at 12 February 2010)

Al-Qaeda in Yemen call for jihad

Said al-Shihri, the deputy chief of al-Qaeda's wing in the Yemen, has called for Muslims in the region to wage holy war against Christians and Jews.



Photo: A Yemen soldier stands atop a hill overlooking the capital Sanna (AFP/Getty Images)

Al-Qaeda in Yemen call for jihad
From The Daily Telegraph
Published: 6:59PM GMT Monday 08 February 2010

In an audio message posted on the internet Said al-Shihri, a former inmate of the US prison in Guantánamo Bay, urged followers "to attack the interests of America and the Crusaders."

He continued: "We advise you, our people in the peninsula, to prepare and carry your weapons and to defend your religion and yourselves and to join your mujahideen brothers."

The message is the first time that al-Shihri has surfaced since a December 24 air strike by Yemeni forces that targeted him and other al-Qaeda figures.

Yemeni authorities initially claimed that he had been killed, but this was later denied by al-Qaeda.

Yemen is in the throes of a major crackdown on the global militant network's regional offshoot, which grabbed the world's attention when it claimed a failed bomb attack on US-bound plane in December.

Al-Shihri congratulated Nigerian radical Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab for his "blessed" attempt to blow up the Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas.

The authenticity of the statement could not be independently confirmed but it was posted on a website commonly used for militant messages.

Saudi Arabia has long feared al-Qaeda will take advantage of the Yemen's lawless regions to build a solid base of operations there from which it can threaten the whole peninsula. The offshoot al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula was formed a year ago, when Yemen and Saudi militant groups merged.

African leaders urged to tackle al-Qaeda threat

African leaders urged to tackle al-Qaeda threat
AFP report by Helen Vesperini, Feb 02 2010 06:54 via Mail & Guardian:

(ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA) - Senegal's president urged African leaders on Monday to join forces in the fight against al-Qaeda's North African branch, saying the network's campaign was taking on "new and disturbing" forms.

Abdoulaye Wade's appeal came as African Union heads of state gathered to tackle the continent's crises and conflicts at the bloc's 14th summit.

"We must organise a round table with neighbouring countries to resolve the issue" of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the veteran Wade said in an interview on the sidelines of the summit in the Ethiopian capital.

"This desert terrorism is taking new and very disturbing forms ... But countries like Senegal, or Mali, can do nothing on their own. It is an international problem. Western powers will have to intervene too," he said.

The Senagalese leader also raised the alarm over arms trafficking in the African Sahel region, saying "Western powers should also get involved", without elaborating.

The North African branch of Osama bin Laden's terror network has threatened to execute a French hostage kidnapped in Mali in November. The group is also holding five other European hostages in the region.

Wade also said he hoped the military junta in Senegal's neighbour Guinea "will respect their pledge not to participate in elections" this year, insisting an accord brokered by Burkina Faso "is just a beginning and we must remain vigilant".

He was speaking as African Union leaders tackled rising tensions in oil-rich, secessionist southern Sudan and other African troublespots on the penultimate day of their summit.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi, who on the opening day had to relinquish the 53-state body's presidency to Malawi, warned Sudan could become "another Somalia".

Tension has been escalating in Sudan in the run-up to a 2011 referendum in which the south is widely expected to choose independence from Khartoum, only six years after signing a peace deal.

Many observers fear that a secession in oil-rich Sudan -- Africa's largest country, bordering nine others -- could further destabilise one of the continent's most volatile regions.

"If the South has a right to separate itself then there'll be danger for the South," Gadaffi told a press conference Sunday, arguing that secession could leave a weakened South vulnerable to outsiders who "covet" its oil resources.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who attended the first day of the summit, also put special emphasis on the fate of Sudan.

"The UN has a big responsibility with the AU to maintain peace in Sudan and make unity attractive ... This year will be crucially important for Sudan with the election in three months and the referendum in a year," he said on Sunday.

"In the AU we believe that till the last minute we should work with all the Sudanese stakeholders to be sure we promote peace in the country," AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra, told journalists.

He said the AU respected the will of the Sudanese people but: "Nevertheless, we are making sure that unity is attractive."

But for Bona Malwal, a member of the Sudanese delegation and ambassador to the AU, south Sudan is already on a path towards secession.

"It is already too late. We have asked this help for a long time. But now the people of the south have made up their mind. They are in favour of independence. Time is running out," he said.

"The international community can still be involved to help the two parties to handle the aftermath of the referendum in a peaceful manner," he said.

"The Khartoum government will never stop the decision of the people of the South."

The African leaders were also to discuss the conflict in Somalia, where the bloc's embattled peacekeeping force came under fresh Islamist militia attacks late on Sunday, claiming the lives of 12 civilians. - AFP

Al Qaeda is benefiting from civil unrest and economic woes in Yemen, says Fawaz Gerges

Editor's note: The following article by Fawaz A. Gerges (pictured here below), reprinted at the website of The London School of Economics (page last updated on 08 January 2010), first appeared as a Special on CNN.com January 07, 2010 -- Updated 1548 GMT (2348 HKT).

Fawaz Gerges, who has done extensive field research in Yemen, is a professor of Middle Eastern politics and international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, London University. Among his books is "The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global." Click here for his website.

Click here for Google map of Yemen.

Al Qaeda has bounced back in Yemen

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Al Qaeda is benefiting from civil unrest and economic woes in Yemen, says Fawaz Gerges
  
• He says sending more aid, focusing on counterterrorism won't be a successful policy
  
• He says Arab nations should take the lead, with U.S., Britain helping in the background
  
• Gerges: It's crucial to tackle Yemen's social and political crisis
  

January 07, 2010 (CNN) - In his weekly address, President Obama said that the Christmas Day airline bomber acted under orders from an al Qaeda branch in Yemen, which 'trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for America.'

Vowing to hold accountable all those involved in the attempted act of terrorism on Christmas, Obama sent a letter to his Yemeni counterpart, Ali Abdullah Saleh, delivered by Gen. David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, in which he pledged to double the $70 million in counterterrorism aid to the poverty-stricken country in 2009, a figure that does not include covert programs run by U.S. special forces and the CIA.

With the increase in security assistance, Yemen now tops Pakistan, which receives about $112 million, a clear indication of the growing threat of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (known as AQAP Yemen-based) in U.S. eyes.

American strategy is driven by assumptions that do not fully recognize the complexity and gravity of the situation in Yemen. The first premise is that with increased U.S. security assistance, the Yemen government will take the fight to al Qaeda and uproot it. Secondly, U.S. officials assume that confronting al Qaeda requires mainly counterterrorism measures.

What is alarming about the resurgence of this al Qaeda branch is its linkage to Yemen's deepening social and political crises and failing state institutions. In the last three years, against all odds, the al Qaeda branch has revived the central organization's declining fortune in the Arabian Peninsula and emerged as a potentially potent force.

AQAP numbers between 100 and 300 core operatives -- as many as those in Pakistan, though they are younger and lack the operational skills and sophistication of their Pakistani cohorts. Most are rookies with little combat experience, unlike the previous Afghanistan generation.

The structure and composition of the Yemen branch appears to have changed because of the merger with militant elements from Saudi Arabia last January, forming AQAP and revitalizing the jihadist network there. Some fighters had returned from war zones in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and have supplied military training and ideological motivation and leadership.

In 2007 I interviewed several hardened Yemeni and Saudi returnees from Iraq who made it clear that they would target America and Britain if U.S. and U.K. troops do not withdraw from Muslim lands. These hard-liners were neither bluffing nor making empty threats.

There are also some signs of cross-fertilization between AQAP and Somalia's al-Shabab, an al Qaeda like-minded group fighting for control of the war-torn country facilitated by the flow of thousands of Somali refugees to Yemen.

That is not the whole story, however. The recent revival of al Qaeda in Yemen is a product of a structural socioeconomic crisis and political divisions and fault lines that have pushed the country to the brink of all-out war. Al Qaeda is a parasite feeding on lawlessness, social and political instability, and abject poverty and despair.

Today Yemen is a fragile state with failing institutions and a collapsed economy. Forty percent of the country's 23 million people are unemployed. More than a third of the population is undernourished and almost 50 percent live in absolute poverty.

Yemen, the poorest Arab country, has one of the highest fertility rates. A huge youth explosion (60 percent of the population is under the age of 20) faces a grim future -- and radicalization.

With every visit to this stunningly beautiful country, I observe a deteriorating security situation and declining social conditions. It is now common to see many women of all ages clad in black from head to toe begging on the streets of major cities, an alarming sign of social breakdown in an ultraconservative Muslim society where women do not appear in public.

The sound of Soviet-made fighter jets often shatters the peace of the early hours of the morning. The jets are on their way to bomb Houthi (Shia) rebels in the Sada'adah province and the Harf Sufian district of Amran province, a mini-civil war in the north that has raged on and off for four years and has claimed more than a thousand lives, most of whom are civilians.

A secessionist movement in the south has gained momentum, with a sizable segment of southern public opinion demanding a divorce from the forced union imposed by the north in the early 1990s. What the al Qaeda branch has tried to do is to submerge and embed itself in these raging local conflicts and to position itself as the spearhead of opposition and resistance to the Saleh regime.

For example, al Qaeda has allied itself with tribes in the separatist south in the fight against the central government, a radical move because many separatists are socialist and not religiously inclined.

Ironically, in 1994 President Saleh relied greatly on jihadists and Islamists to subdue the socialist south and unify Yemen. From his base in Sudan, Osama bin Laden, whose father was born in Yemen, exhorted his men to fight the "Godless Marxists" in the south, who they massacred.

The al Qaeda-Yemen connection goes back to the foundation of the jihadist organization. Yemen has always had powerful Islamist and jihadist movements. In the 1980s, thousands of Yemenis joined the Afghan jihad against occupying Soviet forces and most returned home emboldened and militarized. Unlike their Middle Eastern counterparts, Yemeni returnees were welcomed by the Saleh regime.

In the early 1990s when bin Laden set up al Qaeda in Sudan and then in Afghanistan, he heavily and personally recruited Yemenis whom he trusted. Bin Laden, a Saudi, has often said he has a soft spot in his heart for Yemen because of its people's religiosity and tribal code of honor and hospitality and harsh, mountainous landscape. The Saudi-Yemeni contingent was the largest within the bin Laden organization, as well as in the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

Many of his bodyguards, personal secretaries, drivers and cooks were Yemenis. AQAP chief Nasir al-Wuhayshi (reportedly killed by a U.S.-directed airstrike on December 24), once served as bin Laden's personal secretary. Bin Laden entrusted the protection and transportation of his wives and children to his Yemeni men, a fact that speaks volumes about his mindset.

U.S. officials appear to overestimate the capacity of the Yemen government to meet the multiple challenges and threats to its authority and integrity. Its security forces are spread thin. Four years after the outbreak of the Houthi rebellion, the state has failed to resolve it.

More importantly, the government can no longer deliver the social goods and patronage, historically solid underpinnings of the Saleh rule. The country has been badly affected by falling oil revenues (Yemen is the smallest oil producer in the Middle East), pervasive corruption, and the international financial downturn. After more than three decades in power, President Saleh's ability to co-opt adversaries and maintain friends has shrunk considerably, plunging Yemen into an uncertain future.

On its own, counterterrorism will most likely fail in expelling al Qaeda from Yemen's tribal areas and might trigger a backlash against the Saleh regime and its Western patrons.

Of all Middle Easterners, Yemenis voice strong anti-American foreign policy sentiments and take pride in sacrificing blood and treasure in defense of Arab and Muslim causes. Any U.S. policy course that neglects the local context will help al Qaeda sell its narrative to a receptive audience.

What Yemen desperately needs is a political and economic vision that tackles deteriorating security and social conditions and empowers state and society, not just the Saleh regime. This vision cannot be made in the USA.

Yemen's neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, along with the League of Arab States, should take the lead in finding solutions to Yemen's political and tribal divisions and providing the means to prevent Yemen from becoming a failed state. More than any other country, Saudi Arabia has more to lose by the breakdown of its next-door neighbor.

The United States and Great Britain should provide leadership and assistance in shepherding the reconstruction process through and ensuring that inclusive governance, transparency, and accountability are adhered to.

A good start is British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's call for a high-level international meeting this month to discuss ways of combating al Qaeda influence in Yemen. But the most effective means to combat al Qaeda is to to tackle Yemen's structural social and political crisis and to fully involve Yemen's Arab neighbors in the talks.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Fawaz A. Gerges.

Fawaz Gerges is a professor of Middle Eastern politics and international relations who has done extensive research in Yemen.