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Yemen, the Middle East, and the World Beyond
I exchanged a number of e-mails yesterday with contacts and friends in Yemen about the truce that al-Ghad reported, most of them are cautiously optimistic and mostly believe that the truce is legitimate. I'm a little more wary and would like to see some more evidence before I jump on the bandwagon ...
Snow and a broken computer have gotten the week off to a slow start, but across the globe in Yemen things are picking up, even though you wouldn't know it from the big three. News Yemen has the latest on the casualty numbers in the tribal fighting in Marib. Mareb Press has details on the mediation ...
On February 19 we posted on Nasir al-Wahayshi's speech here. At the time one of the things that most intrigued me - besides a specific term, I have already blogged about - was the individuals that he mentioned by name, asking "where are the descendants of Abu Tariq al-'Irada, Abu 'Ali al-Harithi ...
Leading the way over the weekend is news on the al-Huthi front. We speculated last week on the possibilities of renewed clashes in the wake of the postponed elections and the military deal with Russia and while it is still much too soon to declare that war has once again broken out things are not ...
Instead of talking about how Reuters came late to the party let's embrace the fact that they came at all. (Anyone with the reference?)
Thomas over at Jihadica has a lot more on the term ruwaybidha, including one of the traditions from which some version of the term stems, also politely correcting my original transliteration. I still think that the term implies a sense of authority or responsibility, almost like a shepherd (al ...
Brian is now a cog in the federal justice system so it is up to me to carry the weight, at least for today. Husayn al-Jarabani of al-Sharq al-Awsat reports that Ahmad Naji was among the three individuals that Yemen authorities arrested yesterday in San'a. For those with an incredible memory, Naji ...
One can sometimes get the impression - not from reading this blog, of course - that all Islamists are violent, even if they aren't all al-Qaeda. For those, I would recommend this piece in the February issue of the CTC Sentinel on "Deconstructing Salafism in Yemen" by Laurent Bonnefoy, a bright ...
I have thought for some time now that a book that is really needed is some sort of jihadi dictionary, explaining common words phrases and allusions that often pepper jihadi magazines and videos. Not that the book would really sell beyond a few hundred copies, but still.... Anyway, one particular ...
Presumably there is more news than me finally being able to transfer al-Wahayshi's latest speech on to my i-pod so that I can listen to his creaking voice as I manuever around campus. The news services are following what we have been reporting for a couple of days now, and saying that parliamentary ...
Just days after al-Zawahiri's audiotape "From Kabul to Somalia" was released the fighting in the latter has picked up. The NY Times has coverage here, and Reuters has more coverage here. I was also struck by this report yesterday in the NY Times, which opens: The F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller ...
In a number of conversations I had yesterday with both governmental and non-governmental sources it does seem clear that the two year delay for parliamentary elections, which we talked about yesterday, is going to happen. Here is an al-Jazeera story on the deal - about which little is known at the ...
Mareb Press is reporting that there is an initial deal or rather the framework of an initial deal to delay parliamentary elections for two years. This is not all that surprising, given that the JMP has consistently said it was going to boycott the elections. The GPC has responded by saying that it ...
See, the "joke" in the subject line works because the English language has words that sound alike, but with different meanings. Here I am "playing" on them, so to speak. Also, I just read that Yemen is investing in a $200 million zinc mine, apparently the first mine in Yemen. Output is projected ...
Major newspapers employ individuals who fact check their articles, including the opinion pieces of columnists, yes? Someone please enlighten me if this is not the case. I have written a few op-eds, some of which have even been published in newspapers and I always had to provide some documentation ...