Middle East

A hideous story from the troubled border of Yemen and Saudi Arabia.  I’ll quote a few passages. 

Saudi policemen burned 18 Yemenis while they were trying to cross into Khamis Bani Mushait, a Saudi village bordering Yemen. Alsahwa opposition newspaper reported on Saturday that the police poured diesel onto the men, who were hiding in a hole in the area to escape the police.
…

The 18 burnt men were transferred to a police station. They said police interrogated them while they shouted in pain. “They questioned us quietly and with indifferent temperament,” Salloum said.

After nine days in the hospital, the 18 burn victims were taken back to the police station and the officer offered them two choices; either to go back to Yemen and write waivers and confessions that the Saudi police weren’t responsible for what happened to them or to stay in Saudi Arabia till they died.

It is difficult to tell what is the greatest horror in the story- the obscene cruelty or the wanton indifference; the lack of any human compassion or the clinical and legalistic way in which punishment and cover-up was inflicted.   This is the kind of story that leaves one with a shudder of terror and a quick desire to forget. 

But this is not a philosophical blog, nor is it a forum to peer into the dark crevasses of man’s soul (for which we can all breathe a sigh of relief).  There are reasons why such a scenario happened, and will continue to happen, if hopefully not to the dark extreme as above.

Why were the men there?  As the Yemen Times said, the “illegal immigrants were trying to get jobs in the Saudi bordering cities”. 

Ah! So simple, so obvious, and yet such a depth of history and desire and humanity and the peculiar idiosyncrasies of the region. 

Michael Isikoff, who is really one of the best reporters out there, has a brief article on what is happening in Yemen now.  The meat of it is Robert Mueller’s recent visit, about which Isikoff says “did not go well, according to two sources who were briefed on the session but asked not to be identified discussing it. Saleh gave no clear answers about the suspect, Jamal al-Badawi, leaving Mueller “angry and very frustrated,” said one source, who added that he’s rarely seen the normally taciturn FBI director so upset.”

Eagle-eyed readers will note the young, blog-centric and- dare we say?- devilishly handsome expert quoted in the last paragraph.

Gregory D Johnsen, despite his snide comment on the marriage post, has an excellent article in the new Sentinel, the journal of the Combating Terrorism Center, out of West Point.   It is on Yemen, and provides an excellent overlook of what is happening in Yemen right now, and why.  This is as good a piece as you will read on that roubled country.

Self-promotion?  No.  An educational opportunity.

Your author has a new article up on Yemen in the Jamestown Foundation’s Terrorism Focus. 

Want a teaser?  Why not?

Yemen is running out of water. Its economy is one of the weakest in the world. Its second-most powerful and influential political figure, Shaykh Abdullah al-Ahmar, recently died, and Saleh is trying to manage the transition to his own successor. These are fragile and trying times in the country. The attacks were a message to Saleh, and to the global community, that the chaos-producing strategy of al-Qaeda in Iraq, achieved despite being only a small part of the insurgency, is now being exported to the militants’ homelands.

Enjoy!

I hate being the guy who only publishes bad stories, and I promise to try and publish some things that are more uplifting, but I came across this story last week and it has bothered me ever since.   I suppose there is a bit of inspiration in the story, but the overall arch is wildly depressing.

 And 8-year-old girl, Nojoud Mohammad Nasser, is challenging Yemeni law by seeking a divorce from her husband, 22 years her elder.  It is not that divorce is illegal in Yemen, but that Nojoud is too young to seek it.  Not too young to be forced into marriage, of course.  

According to Yemeni law, Nojoud cannot prosecute, as she is underage. However, court judge Muhammed Al-Qathi heard her complaint and subsequently ordered the arrests of both her father and husband.

“Whenever I wanted to play in the yard he beat me and asked me to go to the bedroom with him. This lasted for two months,” added Nasser. “He was too tough with me, and whenever I asked him for mercy, he beat me and slapped me and then used me. I just want to have a respectful life and divorce him.”
One instantly thinks of Lolita, only real and more horrible (”and how she cried- every night, every night- after I had pretended to fall asleep”).   It is a remarkable story, and that she even has the ability and intelligence to seek legal recourse at eight is astonishing.  

This story, and others like it, have caused a bit of an outcry in Yemen.  The Yemen Observer published an bitter editorial about another case,  decrying both the government and the civil society organizations which “only care about organizing conferences and seminars at which they spend the funds they have received from the government and from international organizations and donors.” But  ”on the ground they do nothing at all.”
Now comes news from the Timesthat the Yemeni Parliament has rejected a minimum age for marriage.

The Yemeni Parliament, through its Evaluation and Jurisprudence Committee, rejected a request to amend the personal status law presented by the Women’s National Committee (WNC). Women’s movements and civil society in Yemen along with 61 Parliament members have advocated a law that legislates a minimum marriage age of 18 for both males and females. However, the Jurisprudence Committee claims there are no legislative grounds to impose such a law based on its understanding of Islam.
I do think that 18 might be extreme for the minimum, but that is a red herring.  Clearly, girls being raped at eight or eleven is an absolute horror, and it is good that this is getting attention.  I sympathize with the Parliament, though.  Yemen has a host of other problems, and might be wary about upsetting older sensibilities. 

However, I have no sympathy for Najoud’s husband. 

Although he is currently in custody, Nujood’s husband has rejected her demand to be divorced.

“It is not a matter of loving her, I don’t, but it’s just a challenge to her and her uncle who think that they can put me in jail and also the judge has no right to bring me here. How did she dare to complain about me?” he threatened.
We’ll track this story, and hope that through some archaic and insane law she doesn’t have to go back to him.  I am never one to advocate rough justice, but that guy…

Two attacks in Yemen today, onenear the US Embassy in Sana’a and another in the southern province of Abyan.  As of right now, the Yemeni government doesn’t see this as targeting the US Embassy, but rather as a “purely criminal incident”.    To be sure, the mortars in Sana’a hit a school, some 500 meters from the Embassy.    So well it could easily have been an attack on American interests, it could also have been a local matter.

Now, in the last Yemen post here, the jihadi journal “Echo of Battles” was discussed, and it was noted that the last issue directly presaged an attack.   So that does lend some credence that this could have been an al-Qaeda operation, designed to co-incide with the publication of the newest issue.  Possibly one could say smart money is on that, but I think it is short-sighted to think jihadism is the only problem or the sole source of violence in Yemen.  

The attack in the south is a little different.  It does carry the scent of Islamic militancy, but it is unsure whether it is al-Qaeda, the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, or possible any other splinter group.  While many- most, even- Islamic militant groups share the same broad aims and are driven by similar motivations, it is wrong to think of them as monolithic.   It might be comforting to do so, and possibly fit a pre-conceived political viewpoint, but it does nothing to help the problem.  There has no been a single movement in the history of the world that wasn’t beset from conception with dissidents, schismatics, heretics.   To imagine al-Qaeda, and Islamic militancy more broadly, to be any different is simply counter-productive.

Several Yemeni papers have reported that at-large al-Qaeda leader Qasim al-Raymi has been spotted at a funeral in Sana’a.   Al-Raymi, according to al-Needa, was spotted by an eyewitness in Sana’a beautiful, tangled Old City.   This report is seconded by al-Sahwa (which also has a picture of al-Raymi). 

(Thanks to Greg for his translation skills)

Al-Raymi has been moving up the ranks of al-Qaeda in Yemen since the jailbreak of 2005.   In this, perhaps the most seminal moment of Yemen’s struggle with jihadism, 23 suspected terrorists literally tunneled their way out of prison.   The prison experience, combined with the influx of veteran jihadis returning from Iraq, has shaped what some (including this author) are calling the second generation of al-Qaeda in Yemen.

Here, from al-Arabiyya, is a powerful graphic depicting what the prison break almost assuredly looked like.

For a bit more on al-Raymi, here is from Greg’s description of the escapees.

Qasim Yahya Mahdi al-Raymi (b. 1977): Al-Raymi is from Sanaa, and was also known by the kunya Abu Hurayrah al-San’ani. His younger brother, Faris, who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, was killed in mysterious circumstances in Sanaa in June 2007 after leaving his house in the company of Zakariya al-Yafa’i, another escapee. Another brother, Ali, is listed as being in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay. Al-Raymi was arrested in connection with a series of explosions in the al-Qadasayah district of Sanaa in 2002. He was charged with being part of the cell that was planning to attack five embassies in Sanaa. During his trial in 2004, al-Raymi threatened to cut off the leg of Said al-Akil, the public prosecutor. Al-Akil’s house was subsequently attacked with a hand grenade later that week. Al-Raymi was sentenced to five years in prison on August 30, 2004, which was later upheld by a superior court in February 2005.

Al-Raymi appearing like this is somewhat amazing.   It is an incredibly bold move, showing his face in the capital- while Yemeni Political Security isn’t the most efficient of its kind in the world, it is far from incompetent.   Al-Raymi was sending some kind of message.  What that message is constitutes the pressing question.

A clue could be in the second issue of an on-line jihadi mag (link not working- will try to fix later), called “Echoes of Battle”.    In it, the Yemeni organization seems to have changed its name from “Al-Qaeda Organization of Jihad in Yemen” to “Al-Qaeda Organization of Jihad in the Southern Arabia Penninsula.”   This is somewhat bolder, both more atavistic and future-looking (similar to many of al-Qaeda’s goals).   It would appear that as the al-Raymi and his contemporaries wage their internecine battle against the older generation, they are also expanding their goals and their reach.   Much like al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, they no longer present themselves as merely a national movement.   It is also worth noting that the first issue of “Echoes of Battles” directly presaged an attack on foriegn tourists.  We’ll see if this is their calling card, or if that was just a coincidence.

(apologies for the narcissistic links today)

The New York Times today has a harrowing and brutal portrait of Yemen’s own version of the Untouchable class, the Akhdam- servants- a dark-skinned, shunned class who barely scrape by a slum-dwelling non-existence sweeping streets and begging.

 Quoting Robert Worth (who has done some interesting work of late on this vital but n
neglected country):

SANA, Yemen — By day, they sweep the streets of the Old City, ragged, dark-skinned men in orange jump suits. By night, they retreat to fetid slums on the edge of town.

They are known as “Al Akhdam” — the servants. Set apart by their African features, they form a kind of hereditary caste at the very bottom of Yemen’s social ladder.

Degrading myths pursue them: they eat their own dead, and their women are all prostitutes. Worst of all, they are reviled as outsiders in their own country, descendants of an Ethiopian army that is said to have crossed the Red Sea to oppress Yemen before the arrival of Islam.

“We are ready to work, but people say we are good for nothing but servants; they will not accept us,” said Ali Izzil Muhammad Obaid, a 20-year-old man who lives in a filthy Akhdam shantytown on the edge of this capital. “So we have no hope.”

Now, there is no proof at all that they come from a pre-Islamic invasion, but that difficult myth has continued to plague them.  There indeed is much confusion as to their origin, but the idea that they are remnants of an ancient expeditionary force who stayed behind to muck around in gutters is an absurd and self-perpetuating myth. 

One of the biggest problems the Akhdam have is that, in addition to dealing with spurious legends, the government has a million other problems to deal with.  Yes, they are the poorest in Yemen- but there isn’t much of a mobile upper class among the Arabs of the country, anyway.   There is already a lot of grumbling about daily life, and for President Saleh to wage a campaign to help “outsiders” would be an act of political folly. 

But: perhaps we are looking at this with tear-colored glasses, instead of seeing the brighter side of the picture.  Yemen Times?

IIn Yemen, there is a minority of people with dark complexion called al-Akhdam. Historically speaking, their presence in Yemen has been a result of the Ethiopian pre- Islam invasion in 525 BC. Settling down in Yemen and throughout the years have adapted a life style in which they practice many trades especially folklore dancing, handicrafts, cleaning and some other free trades. Unofficial statistics show that the population of this minority reaches 500,000 inhabitants living in Sana’a, Shabowa, Lahj, Abyan, Aden and al-Hudaida.

Well- that doesn’t sound so bad.  These people have folklore. 

I don’t mean to make light (well, kind of, but only at the Yemen Times).  What that article does show is the ingrained prejudice (see the myth asserted as fact) and the somewhat rosy picture it paints, both institutional obstacles to progress. 

Things are bad for many in Yemen.  Things are horrible for the servants.  I would recommend highly Worth’s piece, and look at the accompanying slide show.  

Side note: The Yemen Timeslater ran this letter, which I hope shows that while the problem of the Akhdam might be institutionalized, it isn’t all-pervasive.

So there is going to be a total eclipse of the moon tonight, which is pretty cool, even if you are not into astronomy.    Light bending around the earth coats the moon in an dark red glow; we bathe it with our shadow- just one of the bizarre tricks the universe can play on us.

 I bring this up because the last time I saw one- May 4th, 2004- I was living in Yemen.  I was pretty excited by it then, too, because I guess I am a nerd when it comes to those things.   Greg Johnsen and I, along with our friend Sam, grabbed a few non-alcoholic beers (we were in Yemen, after all), and went into the backyard to watch it. 

It started slow, of course, and we sat with the ancient rhythms of the galaxy.  But then something not-as-ancient, but weirdly anachronistic started.  The call to prayer began to go off, from one direction and then another, crashing all around us, cutting into the stillness of the night, amplified across the reddening moon. 

There had been another call to prayer added for the night.  None of us were really sure why, exactly, and when we asked the next day never received a clear answer.   There were vague jokes about people being scared, and some answers about worshiping the wonders of creation, but nothing concrete.

And I guess it doesn’t matter.  It was a wierd bending of time that might only happen in the Middle East.  Sitting there, looking at the deadening and mysterious moon, hearing the ancient call to prayer, sounding the same as it had throughout dusty and tumultuous centuries, one could feel time stop: regress.   It bent into itself.  We could feel ourselves in the 7th century, looking up at a terrifying sky, with only the comfort of gorgeous Arabic repeating the simple words: there is no god but god.   Modern science couldn’t- can’t?- penetrate that tautological elegance.    There is a consistency there- as beautiful and terrifying and implacable as a shadow moving through the murky cosmos.   

Jamestown has two new pieces on Yemen out today, one by one of America’s foremost experts on terrorism, and another by the sharpest young Yemeni scholar out there.

The latter, by Gregory Johnsen, analyzes al-Qaeda’s new strategy in their attacks.

Over the past six months, al-Qaeda in Yemen’s strategy has become increasingly clear. It aims to strike at both Yemen and Western countries—particularly the United States—by attacking them at their most vital and vulnerable points: oil and tourism. For Yemen the danger is clear. Oil revenues account for roughly 75 percent of the nation’s budget, while tourism remains one of the few legitimate areas of growth for an economy that is headed for failure. But this strategy is also calculated to hurt the West by targeting Western citizens and striking at oil production in the Arabian Peninsula. No longer is there a clear distinction, at least for al-Qaeda in Yemen, between attacking what is often referred to as the near enemy or the far enemy; instead it has devised an approach to simultaneously attack both. This strategy—which is more overarching than it is detailed—also allows for fighters to remain in Yemen instead of traveling to Iraq or Afghanistan, which is effectively decentralizing the front.

Johnsen’s thesis is dead-on, and his reccomendations are sharp.   I may be baised, as Gregory is a good friend and frequent collaborator, but I wouldn’t be friends with a dummy. 

The other article is by Michael “Anonymous” Scheuer.   Scheuer’s article, while swimming with quotes, is a little off- or, if not off, then somewhat behind the times.  Consider:

Attacks by al-Qaeda in Yemen are likely to continue at a level that does not lead to an all-out confrontation with Salih’s regime. In all likelihood, al-Qaeda intends to cause just enough sporadic damage to persuade Salih’s regime that it is best to curtail its efforts to destroy al-Qaeda and to allow the group to operate relatively freely in and from Yemen as long as no major attacks are staged in the country. Indeed, such a modus vivendi may be in the works as San’a officials have experimented with putting imprisoned Islamists through a reeducation process that shows them the error of their ways and then releases them on the promise of good behavior (al-Sharq al-Awsat, May 21, 2006).

This was the strategy of the government, and the strategy of Al-Qaeda old Yemeni guard.  The new generation is far, far less willing to compromise with the government.  Scheuer’s article is helpful as background, but it needs to be augmented with more recent developments. 
The Yemen Post has an interesting interview with a leader of Al-Qaeda in Yemen, Rashad Mohammaed Saeed Ismael.   It is somewhat illuminating at times, as his irritation at the new guard sometimes bubbles to the surface, but it is also chock-full of nonsense like this:

YP: What is the source of strength in Al-Qaeda?

RI: The movement drives much of its force from its deep-rooted principles.

YP: From where does Al-Qaeda’s financial support come?

RI: Al-Qaeda has a complicated web that has no end or beginning. 

Thanks!

While we are here, it is worth reading Robert Worth’s New York Times article on Yemen.  It is old, but I will link to it from the Yemen Post.  I thought it was excellent.