Press Review - Issue 42

42 - October 15, 2001 thru 21 October, 2001, Vol XI

Due to the dramatic developments following the events of the 11th of last September in New York and Washington and the fierce military strikes implemented by the U.S. and Britain on Afghanistan under cover of fighting terrorism and those who harbor it, most of articles in Yemeni press are still devoted to discuss and analyze these events. Most of the excerpts we have chosen from articles selected from some newspapers are therefore devoted to this subject.

RAY weekly, organ of Sons of Yemen League party, 9 Oct. 2001

Tackling the theme of terrorism the newspaper's editorial says that terrorism is a lethal disease and a devastating behavior that no religion and nobody accepts whosoever. This is a stance announced and expressed by all Arab and Islamic peoples and governments. Under the banner of terrorism the biggest international alliance has been formed aimed at eliminating this disease. Against this alliance there is on the other hand a unanimity grouping the sages, the wise, men of thought and intellectuals as well as political analysts. These see that any military strikes of any size or kind are not the most successful solution for extermination of terrorism and extremism in the world as it is a case created out of a host of stands reached among some to the extent of violence and terrorism but they are not confined to that some.
Thus the voice of reason and wisdom rises in a in a manner calling for an objective reading of many stands and concepts and results that ensue them. There should a scientific reading diagnosing the case and prescribes the effective treatment that can rectify stands and rehabilitate the relationship between civilizations and peoples on bases of reasonable dialogue, a matter embodies the essence of the Islamic mission.

Al-Balagh weekly, 9 October 2001. The newspaper's editorial says that the war the United States and Britain have started on Muslims in Afghanistan is by all criteria a crusade war. At the time when the U.S. warplanes pound Afghanistan with missiles and shedding Muslims' blood under pretext of fighting terrorism the Zionist enemy fire and its tanks continue killing Palestinian children and youths. The Zionist enemy continue demolishing houses and burning farms. How can then anyone doubt that what happens nowadays as not a crusade war against Islam and Muslims?
The newspaper's editorial maintains that it is a war going on between the right and wrong, between good and evil. It would not come to an end but we have to get ready for this crusade war being launched on the entire Islamic world. It is not a war on terrorism but rather meant for humiliating the Muslims.

ATTARIQ weekly, 9 Oct. 2001. Columnist Khalid Ali Tuaiman says in his article that according to the new American perception of the international relations announced by president Bush, whoever is not with the United States in the alliance it is now leading, is necessarily against it.Any party showing reservation and caution towards the law of the American force and resorts instead to legitimacy of the United Nations in combating terrorism, he would be according to the U.S. administration viewpoint termed as supporter of terrorism . It may be accused of being involved in the recent events of Washington and New York.
The writer says further that American is now trying hard drawing the international community behind it to fight a war against ghosts and wind mills and against an unknown enemy. The objective is rather to distract attention from what is happening under surface in America and so that the secrets of the events of 11 September remain undisclosed. Therefore, the American administration makes it as condition to be blindfolded for those joining the new ''international'' alliance to fight what it terms as fighting terrorism. Those joining the U.S. campaign should not be aware of the danger of such ambiguous alliances on international stability and peace and its serious impact on coexistence with peoples and nations.
Fighting terrorism, says the author, requires in the first place accurate and specific definition of what is terrorism and its forms, and secondly requires stating ways and means of combating it under jurisdiction of the United Nations, the only power possessing the right to take whatever it sees of legal, political, military and economic measures to fight the phenomenon of terrorism and others threatening world stability and security and leading to undermine pillars of world peace.

Al-Ayyam newspaper 11 Oct. 2001

Mr Ali Al-Jabouli writes this week an article on the local councils in Yemen and their combating of corruption. The writer assumes that confrontation between local councils and some officials of executive apparatus has already begun. The encounter is especially those officials in some governorates whose corruption has been detected. This gives hope in the success of local authority experiment and its effectiveness in the process of uprooting corruption in the state and society. This corruption gnaws in the body of the state and threatens legal and legislative rules regulating life of the society and malfunction the structuring of the state of institution, order and law.

Al-Mithaq weekly, organ of the People's General Congress party, Oct. 8, 2001

Dr Abdulaziz al-Maqalih writes this week on the first anniversary of the Palestinian al-Aqsa intifadha saying a hard and bitter year of tears and blood has elapsed but it has been also a year of heroism and great sacrifices. A year during which the stones hurled by a youth at the invaders is no less in meaning than the big meaning of challenge to the bullet. The Zionist colonialist occupation was wagering, from the very early hours of the intifadha, on that it would not continue for more than days or weeks.
Undoubtedly those who brought to power the notorious murderer Ariel Sharon were deluded that merely mentioning his name would be enough to arouse panic in the souls of intifadha youth and make them give up their struggle. The intifadha has nevertheless continued through its first year and will go on for years to come until full liberation is realized and occupation disappears. Those who follow up the course of this people's challenge grouping all Palestinian parties and organizations, understand that the idea of resistance, the core meaning of the Intifadha, is the only and possible means for restoring the land, sanctities and establishment of the independent state. All promises and illusions have fallen and also the result of accepting negotiations has been building more Zionist settlements and chopping many portions of the usurped homeland.

Al-Isboua weekly, 11 0ct. 2001 Mr Mohammed Nouman Muqbil has written an article on the first anniversary of the incident of the USS Cole destroyer at Aden seaport. He says despite the elapse of one year of the incident that took place on 12 October last year, the mastermind of the operation is still unknown. The investigation and search for the prime responsible for the attack is thought to be, according to explanations and statements of government officials in Yemen, the Israeli intelligence or Usama bin Ladin or others. This means that uncertainty is still there about who is the mastermind of the incident.
Because of that incident Yemen has come under strong pressures on part of the United States that is held responsible for creating the terrorists whom it previously used to describe as mujahiddin. The U.S. had offered them assistance and trained them for the fight against the Russians in Afghanistan. And by the dismantle and disappearance of the Soviet Union they are now termed as its arch enemy and demands to try and fight them. After the events of 11 September the U.S. worked for mustering an international alliance against them and launched military strikes on their camps and centers in Afghanistan and refused bringing to courts the suspects of Cole blast in Yemen