Marines and Yemeni Paranoia

We have been absent for a while, but that doesn't mean that events haven't kept up their speed in the region. Speaking of events in the region, no one can forget this past week, when over a dozen American embassies were damaged by those protesting the anti-Islam movie "Innocence of Muslims." The embassies in Cairo and Sana'a were actually raided, and the consulate in Benghazi, Libya destroyed.

Following the raid last Thursday of the US embassy in  Sana'a, Washington decided to send in some extra marines for security. Although some Yemenis think that only Yemen will receive some unwelcome American marines, their country is not the only one...in fact, extra security is being sent to other embassies in the region as well. Users on YE1, Yemen's biggest online forum, are freaking out about the marines, and they have been all weekend.

On the Yemen Revolution's Facebook page, people are also going nuts over the marines. Yesterday we saw a photo of a marine drill sergeant talking to some Yemeni uniformed personnel labeled "Photos of Marines' Arrival in Sana'a." Nevermind that the marines coming to Yemen would most likely never be wearing a drill sergeant hat, which is worn at book camp only (according to the movies we've seen?)...the ridiculous photo also included a backdrop of tall, green pine trees. Has anyone ever seen a tall pine forest in Sana'a, or anywhere in Yemen?

The facebook page has constant updates throughout the day, dozens in fact, so much that it's hard to follow. Today, this picture was posted:

The accompanying text reads:
"Sources: Sheraton hotel sold to the American embassy, First pictures of Marines in Sana'a. Sources revealed that dozens of American marines have spread around the embassy vicinity in the past few days."

According to Yemenis, Americans just bought one of Yemen's biggest and most important hotels. 

Arab Traveler and His Wife Hide Their Baby in Bag to Enter UAE

The منوعات / munawa3at (miscellaneous) section of Al-Quds Al-Arabi usually has some entertaining stories. You're trying to read the serious news, and you get distracted by some tantalizing story with a picture that steals your attention. This story is the perfect example:

Photo Al-Quds Al-Arabi. (God knows where they find these photos)

A man and his wife tried to hide their baby inside a suitcase in order to get into the UAE. They were flying into Sharjah airport and didn't have a visa for their son. How old was the kid? 5 months old. The parents were arrested and charged with attempting to enter their son into the UAE illegally. In addition, the parents were charged with putting their son's life in danger (due the harmful effects of x-ray and metal detectors on infants). According to the story, the mother claimed that she agreed to put their baby in the suitcase only after her husband convinced her that it would not harm the baby.

As usual, the most interesting part of this story can be found in the comments section. Most of the commentors condemned what the parents did, but even more were quick to mention motivating factors. Almost all of the commentors criticized the UAE immigration authorities:

فعل شنيع حقا ولكن الاشنع منه تلك الدول التي تحولت الى اداة لظلم الاقارب ....ان يستصدر تاشيرة لحفيده وحتى الابن ايستطيع زيارة اهله المقيمين قبل ولادة وزير الداخلية او المسئول الذي يعتمد على المزاج في اتخاذ القرار.
 - One noted : "An ugly act, but even uglier is are those countries that...give a visa to a grandson or the son, and their parents can't visit them, and it all depends on the mood of who is making the decision."

لماذا يحتاج هذا الطفل أو أبيه الى تأشيرة، أليس هو عربي. اذا كنت مقيم في اوروبا فلا تحتاج الى تأشيرة الى معظم دول اوروبا. أنا سافرت الى الأمارات قبل خمس سنوات وحصلت علي التأشيرة في المطار لأني أحمل الجنسية الألمانية ولم تكن معي جنسيتي الأصلية- الفلسطينية
- Another noted: "Why does the kid need a visa to visit, isn't he an Arab? If you live in Europe you don't need a visa for most of the European countries. I traveled to the Emirates 5 months ago and got a visa at the airport because I have German citizenship, and I didn't present my original citizenship, which is Palestinian."

هذا الرجل قام بهذا العمل بسبب قسوة قوانين دول الخليج و نظام الكفاله الجائر فيها .لو ان الانسان له حقوقه في تلك اللمالك لما اضطرت هذه الاسره الى محاولة تهريب ابنها و تعريضه للخطر. ليت دول الخليج تكون اكثر لينا مع العرب و تساويهم بالاوربيين على الاقل و هو دخول البلاد بتاشيره تأخذ في المطار مثلا
Another noted: "This guy did this because of the harshness of laws in the Persian Gulf countries and the system of Kafala (system used to bring in migrant workers, requires every person to have an in-country 'sponsor' who monitors them). If people had their rights, they wouldn't be forced like this family to try and smuggle their kid and expose him to danger. I wish the Gulf countries would treat us more like Europeans at least, who get their visas at the airport."

مع كل أسف لا زلنا بعيدين عن الانسانية و المال لم ينفع. الامارات بلد هجرة و يجب أن تكون هناك حلول لمثل هذه الحالات الانسانية.
Another noted: "I'm sorry, but we are still far from humanitarianism here and money doesn't make a difference. The Emirates is a country of immigration, and they should have solutions to these types of humanitarian situations!"

لو كان عايش في فرنسا مثلا لكان لرضيعه بطاقة اقامة أوتوماتيكيا وكلن تحصل ابنه على كل الحقوق مثل أبيه تماما واحنا دائما ننتقد الاوربيين مع أنهم والله مقارنه بالخليج أحسن بكثييييييير
Another noted: "If  he [the kid] was living in France, for example, he would get a residency card automatically and he would have all of his rights just like his father...we always criticize Europeans, but really, compared to the Persian Gulf they are ALOT better."

A Girl Abducted...Wait, Was She Saudi???

Any serious observer of Arabic media has gotta check out a few sources on a daily basis. If you're checking out traditional media, there's some heavyweights that are required daily reading....we'll list in order of preference: Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Al-Arabiya, Al-Jazeera, Al-Akhbar, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. Al-Quds Al-Arabi is pretty independent and thus has the best opinion pieces and overall news. Al-Arabiya maintains a pro-Saudi line with a Gulf focus, but usually has some pretty entertaining regional news not carried by other sources, plus their website is fun.

Today on Al-Arabiya we happened to notice a story about a kidnapping that had apparently captured Saudi public opinion for years:

The story discusses the sentencing of two Egyptians who kidnapped a 9 year old girl from the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia. According to the story, the Egyptian couple (a man and a woman) abducted the girl and kept her captive for 3 years and 6 months. During this time, the couple tortured the girl and one of them raped her repeatedly.

As we all know, Saudi Arabia is governed by strict Islamic law. The punishment for this couple's crimes: an immediate death sentence, which occurred yesterday. Apparently, the couple was caught when they tried to sneak the girl out of Saudi Arabia, where they were living. Asked about the sentencing, the victim, Radia Abdel Ru'oof, stated that she was happy with it, noting that it is her right to see such a sentence.

Summary:
Two people kidnap and torture a girl. They are sentenced to death. Do you think most Arab readers have a problem with that? If you guess "no," then you're right. Dozens and dozens of readers in the comments section praised the judgement, with notes like: كويس انهم يقتلو "They were killed...good." Or الحمد لله اولا واخر ثم الشكر لقادتنا واسود نايف وسلطان الله يرحمهم   "Thank God firstly, and then thank our leader [Saudi princes] Nayef and Sultan may God have mercy on them." One comment notes that the girl sold fabrics with her parents outside the mosque.

However, the interesting part of the comment section (totaling 276, up from about 150 six hours ago) occurs when the majority of users start asking about the victim's citizenship - they want to know if she was Saudi. Among the first 37 comments, over a third mentioned the victim's girl's citizenship (Afghani) or ask about it. Finally, a reader on comment number 37 notes that "This is a real crime - the citizenship of the girl isn't important at all, evil is present every society and you all should avoid focusing on that point."

Between comments #38 to #77, an additional 13 people note that the girl was an Afghan or Pakistani and not Saudi. It's really startling to see how many people make an effort to note that no, don't worry, this girl wasn't Saudi. The comments also may have something to do with the fact that the article revealed the victim's name openly...if a Saudi woman was raped and her name was revealed, that may drastically hurt her chances at marriage. That fact may be why Saudi readers asked about her nationality...or maybe they just didn't care unless the girl was Saudi.

There were some redeeming comments, such as #95: الانسان هو انسان بغض النظر عن جنسيته وديانته ولونه "People are people, regardless of their nationality or religion or skin color." That's a good man. However, it was overall disappointing to notice that most initial comments focused on the girl's background, and not her well-being or future.

State Department...Still 'Hacking' ?

As we noted previously, the US State Department has been taking part in some interesting activities on Yemeni websites. Originally described as “hacking Al-Qaeda websites,” their activities were actually much less mysterious than originally thought.  We (and others) later determined that the State Dept. operatives simply posted doctored banners and images on Yemeni forums, specifically المجلس اليمني Al-Majles Al-Yemeni or Ye1.org.

Anyway, they’re not finished, and we are following what they’re doing. They’re making some cool graphics, but overall their work remains pretty ineffective at persuading people to dislike Al-Qaeda. When these guys come onto threads with their State Dept logo and signature, the conversation almost always turns from Al-Qaeda to the ills and dark sides of American foreign policy (which here inevitably includes drone strikes that kill civilians).

Here’s the latest example of their work, found Sunday on ye1.org:

The text reads "Ansar Al-Sharia is thirsty for the blood of Yemenis, and relishes in shedding their blood. To Al-Qaeda- the proud tribes of Yemen are on the lookout for you." [In Arabic, Ansar Al-Shar means 'Followers of Evil']

We believe that this parody image is supposed to be a play on an original Ansar Al-Sharia (AAS) propaganda image that was published as part of an AAS public relations campaign last winter:

The text reads "Ansar Al-Sharia: Relief for Yemen after its thirst, Hope for Yemen after its desperation. Proud tribes of Yemen, how then are you sacrificing yourselves for them?" [the Americans, presumably]

 In the original AAS banner above, the group refers to Yemeni tribal elements who oppose them as "Sahwat" صحوات or "Awakenings," harking back to the Awakening Councils of Anbar, Iraq. The groups consisted of tribes opposed to Al-Qaeda and who fought to end Al-Qaeda's influence in their territories. Just as they did in Iraq, Al-Qaeda/AAS tries to label the tribal Yemenis who fight against them as traitors or apostates in order to de-legitimize them and Islamically permit their killing.

So far, reverse image searching shows that the AAS image shows up over 2,000 times on the internet. The State Dept.'s image shows up only once. We'll be keeping our eyes open for more.

More Ahmad Shafiq Hating

The caption accompanying the post: "One neighbor to the other."
Bramjnet, one of the largest (is there a bigger one?) Egyptian web forums on the internet, features a very long thread on the Egyptian elections, with over 27,000 posts and almost 1 million views.

Egyptian Presidential Candidate Ahmad Shafiq Drunk During Interview?

We don't need to elaborate much on this one.....watch the video and see for yourself.

State Dept Hacking Yemeni Sites?

The blogosphere was beset with stories last week of a speech by American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who claimed that the State Department hacked Yemeni tribal websites, replacing Al-Qaeda propaganda that bragged about killing Americans.

Clinton's words:

"Within 48 hours, our team plastered the same sites with altered versions of the ads that showed the toll al-Qaida attacks have taken on the Yemeni people...Within 48 hours, our team plastered the same sites with altered versions of the ads that showed the toll al-Qaida attacks have taken on the Yemeni people," "Extremists are publicly venting their frustration and asking supporters not to believe everything they read on the Internet."

The story was everywhere: Huffington Post, Slate, Washington Post,  Politico, Times of India,  New York Magazine, etc. It was picked up by the AP - everyone carried it. 

We were pretty surprised to hear such news, considering our previous experience with فريق التواصل الالكتروني , the State Dept's Digital Outreach Team. They're the folks who go onto Arabic (and presumably other language) forums to comment officially in the name of the USA. They may not have a lot of resources behind them, which would explain why they have sometimes been rather inept. A great example of that can be found here on Abu Mahjoob forums, where several users demonstrate their frustrations with the team's lack of dialogue and with the fact that they constantly bring up terrorism and Al-Qaeda in any given subject. This team really deserves their own post....maybe later. Anyway, we've never seen the team do anything near actually HACKING into websites. The only offensive action noticed by us here at the blog was a video they made at the beginning of the Arab Spring, comparing Al-Qaeda ideology to the peaceful action of the Arab revolutions by splicing an Ayman Al-Zawahiri video with scenes from Tunis and Cairo. That video was actually pretty awesome. 

It was hard to believe that they had moved on to hacking websites. And we were right - they didn't. Wired got the story right - their piece on the story gives a great summary of what went wrong: either Clinton misspoke or the story was misreported, but either way, State did not "hack" websites, it simply posted their ads on forums. Now that sounds more like the tactics of the good old فريق التواصل الالكتروني. However, making parodies of AQ banners/ads was new....we decided to check it out. 

We looked at المجلس اليمني Ye1.org/vb , the largest Yemeni focused forum, and we would argue, the largest and most active Arabic forum in the game right now. It didn't take too long to find the State Department's handywork. Enjoy:

Image reads: "Ansar Al-Sharia  Al-Qaeda: This is our gift to the Yemeni people, if you are part of the popular committees*, we are Al-Qaeda, we bring mercenaries to steal your sons and destroy your homes."

We're not sure, but we think the above State Dept ad was designed to counter this ad made by Ansar Al-Sharia (Al-Qaeda in Yemen):

Image reads: "Popular Committees: We made your masters cry. How can you be such mercenaries to America? For God we've moved and for his religion we fight. But you, what are you fighting for, you committees of shame?" As you can see, the soldier on the left is clearly meant to be an American soldier. Jihadi authors on Ye1 claim that the popular committees are slaves of the Americans. 

There's more State Dept. images online. We'll bring them to you...more on that in a later post. 

*Note: "Popular Committees" refers to groups of local, tribal forces who are currently fighting AQ in Yemen. They're civilians who are against AQ's rule of territory there...reminiscent of the Anbar Awakening Sunnis in Iraq. 

UPDATE:
More accurately, the State Dept.'s image may have been in response to this particular image from Ansar Al-Sharia: