Rival tanks deploy in streets of Yemen's capital after powerful general defects to opposition

[IScreamSundays]

Source: Google Hosted

SANAA, Yemen — Rival tanks deployed in the streets of Yemen's capital Monday after three senior army commanders defected to a movement calling for the ouster of the U.S.-backed president, leaving him with virtually no support among the country's most powerful institutions.

Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, commander of the army's powerful 1st Armored Division, was the most senior of the three commanders to join the opposition. He announced his defection in a message delivered by a close aide to protest leaders at the Sanaa square that has become the epicenter of their movement.

Some of the tanks and armoured vehicles deployed in the Sanaa square where protesters have been camping out to call for the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose forces opened fire from rooftops and killed more 40 demonstrators on Friday. Others were deployed at state TV, the Central Bank and the Defence Ministry.

Saleh, who has co-operated closely with a U.S.-backed offensive against his nation's branch of al-Qaida, looked to be far closer to what analysts increasingly have called inevitable: a choice between stepping down after 32 years in power or waging a dramatically more violent campaign against his opponents.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jxlhwZHHwTJ8rgwhra484YMxxLaA?docId=6316119

[FreakinDJ]

1. Now that is a "Game Changer"

but more then likely just another Military Coo

[dipsydoodle]

2. According to this their President has already resigned

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=705330

:shrug:

[Catherina]

3. The string of defections from the regime continues, ambassadors, envoys

The latest defection is the Ambassador to the Arab League. 56 people mowed down so far. How many by us in our clandestine war there I wonder. Our covert missile strikes killed 35 civilian women and children in one attack alone, as well as a government official. Then we have at least 56 in the latest attacks.


An unexploded US cluster bomb in Yemen


Yemeni president Saleh to General David Petraeus - go ahead and bomb “We will say that they were our bombs, not your bombs”. "I have given you an open door on terrorism. so I am not responsible"

Oh yeah you are Saleh. You need to be hauled in front of the ICC for bringing in US troops to war on your own citizens and allowing predator drones to be used against your people.

Does it get any sicker than this?

...

A few days later, in a meeting with General David Petraeus, then head of US central command, Saleh admitted lying to his population about the strikes.

"We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours," Saleh told Petraeus on 2 January. That prompted the deputy prime minister, Rashad al-Alimi, who was also at the meeting, to joke he had just "lied" by telling parliament the bombs in Arhab, Abyan, and Shebwa (the al-Qaida strongholds) were American-made but deployed by Yemen.

Petraeus had flown to Sana'a to tell Saleh that Barack Obama would allow US ground forces "armed with direct-feed intelligence" from satellites or surveillance aircraft to be deployed in Yemen on counter-terrorist operations. But in contrast to his suggestion of an " open door", Saleh rejected the offer, expressing concerns about US casualties.

...

Saleh said "mistakes had been made" in the earlier strikes, lamented the use of US cruise missiles that were "not very accurate" and welcomed the use of aircraft-deployed, precision-guided bombs instead.

...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/03/wikileaks-yemen-us-attack-al-qaida

US. Get the fuck out.

[Corruption Winz]

4. So... I take it that this movement/organization isn't just bluffing? n/t