Articles

November 4, 2017

RIYADH (Reuters) – The Saudi government on Saturday announced the arrest of at least 10 members of the ruling royal family, four current ministers and tens of former ministers in what it called an effort to reign in corruption, and a cabinet reshuffle that removed the strongest potential rival to likely future king Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman.

Among the detained princes was Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the world’s richest men and a top investor in media giant NewsCorp, Twitter and other major companies, according to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

The arrests were carried out by a new anti-corruption committee chaired by Prince Muhammad, according to state-owned Al Alarabiya TV.

The cabinet reshuffle saw Prince Miteb bin Abdullah replaced as minister of the National Guard by Khaled bin Ayyaf, while Economy Minister Adel Fakieh was removed in favor of his deputy Mohammed al-Tuwaijri, according to a royal decree carried by state-run media.

Prince Miteb, the preferred son of the late King Abdullah, was once thought to be a leading contender for the throne before the unexpected rise of Prince Mohammed two years ago.

He had inherited control of the National Guard, an elite internal security force built out of traditional tribal units, from his father, who ran it for five decades.

Prince Miteb was the last remaining member of Abdullah’s branch of the family to hold a position in the upper echelons of the Saudi power structure.

The move consolidates Crown Prince Mohammed’s control of the kingdom’s security institutions, which had long been headed by separate powerful branches of the ruling family.

The alleged targeting of Prince Alwaleed is especially striking because he is one of the most visible Saudi power players not directly under Prince Mohammed’s control. He has gained further attention in recent years because of his criticism of President Donald Trump, who’s built close ties with Prince Muhammad and hours before the announcements of the arrests unexpectedly tweeted about Saudi Arabia’s plan to publicly float part of its state-owned oil company for the first time.

Prince Mohammed, the king’s 32-year-old son, already serves as defense minister and was named heir to the throne in a June reshuffle that sidelined his older cousin, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef who had also served as interior minister.

He has been responsible at the same time for running Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, dictating an energy policy with global implications and behind the plans for the kingdom to build a future after oil.

Prince Mohammed, who has pledged to go after graft at the highest levels, will now also head up the new anti-corruption body, which was given broad powers to investigate cases, issue arrest warrants and travel restrictions, and freeze assets.

“The homeland will not exist unless corruption is uprooted and the corrupt are held accountable,” the royal decree said.

NEW ECONOMY MINISTER

The country’s new economy minister, Tuwaijri, is a former Saudi air force pilot and former chief executive of HSBC’s Middle East operations who has led the economy ministry’s program to privatize some $200 billion of government assets.

He replaces Fakieh, who served as the point man for the kingdom’s wide-ranging economic reforms since his appointment as economy and planning minister in 2015.

A former food executive with a reputation for pushing through politically sensitive reforms, Fakieh had previously served as labor minister, health minister and mayor of Jeddah.

Fakieh faced down fierce opposition from the business community as labor minister when he established quotas for foreign workers to boost jobs for Saudis.

Under Prince Mohammed, Fakieh led the development of a national transformation plan and privatization drive launched last year to end the kingdom’s vulnerability to an unpredictable oil market. His replacement comes as the kingdom makes adjustments to that plan, a process dubbed NTP 2.0.

The royal decree did not say whether Fakieh would hold any other government position. Former ministers often serve in advisory roles after leaving their posts.

HuffPost’s Akbar Shahid Ahmed contributed reporting.

Source=http://loghim.com/home/2017/11/saudi-king-arrests-multiple-princes-and-boosts-crown-princes-influence/

The document below – released by Sactism – is apparently from inside the Eritrean government’s security operation.

Martin

Members of 84^th, 59^thdivisions and Support Forces and police were ordered to stop the demonstration on 31 October.

The National Security Agency has detained 17 members of the school committee and other Muslims; including hajji Mussa Mohamed Nur.

After the 31 October incident, a task force composed of General Filpos WeldeYohans, Brigadier General Sm’on WeldeDngl and Brigadier General Abrha Kassa was set up to prepare for any possibility of widespread unrest around the country.

The internal security department has also set up another task force composed of Colonel Yemane Afewerki, Colonel Yemane AndeMariam (Sokolov), Major TesfaLdet Zekarias.

Three clandestine teams have been set up to kidnap and jail any persons considered important in connection with the recent events. The teams are led by Bereket Guush, Yonas Zerai and ‘Wedi Keren’.

People jailed by the teams will be presented to Colonel Tesfaldet Zekarias, who will also be receiving all intelligence regarding the situation form the 10 sub-zones. The interrogators are: Major Kahsai Beyene, Major Fs’haZion, Tewelde (Rashaida), Tewelde Haile, Ftsum, Kflai and ‘Wedi Yosef’; all members of the National Security Agency.

Isaias has given the National Security Agency extreme powers to enable them to contain the present situation. Brigadier General Efrem Hadsh has been given the responsibility of ensuring security at Adi Halo (Isaias’ dam project and office) in addition to mosques and city entry checkpoints. Rapid Forces commander Brigadier General Ftsum GebreHiwet (Wedi Memhr) has been given orders to conduct intensive security measures around Adi Halo and Asmara entry points with the 22^nd, 59^th divisions and 525^th commando division.

The National Security Agency’s 03 branch are sending out gossip saying that the uprising is an extremist fundamentalist movement funded by external forces to stage a coup d’état.

Orders have been given to ensure heavy security around secondary schools and colleges and on the students who had protested at Adi Halo and taken to the Naro plains (hot desert plains in north east Eritrea near the coast).

Orders have been given for the army not to give any clarifications about the incidents or hold meetings.

The President’s Office, the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Defense offices at Beleza, Bet Gergsh, and Balineki, and the Tract B area are being heavily guarded by the army

Source=https://martinplaut.wordpress.com/2017/11/04/eritrea-internal-security-instructions-on-the-asmara-protests/

Eritrea: details of arrests, injuries during the Akria protest

Details of the scale of the repression under way in Asmara following Tuesday’s protests have been smuggled out of Eritrea.

They are provided in a document [see below] which comes from the United Democratic Eritrean Front.

The information has not been independently corroborated.

Martin

Prisoners: 5th Police Station -58; Adi Abieto- 20; FerroVia-43; 14 women of total 121 prisoners.

Wounded (due to beatings or shots fired) -19, including 5 women and a 67 year old elderly man. Four sustained heavy bullet wounds.

General Filpos has ordered three battalions commanded by Colonel Haregot Frzun deployed to Akria.

They have searched some homes.

He ordered the forces to be on high alert during Friday prayers at mosques.

He has also ordered Asmara, Massawa, Keren, Afabet, Aqurdet, Barentu and other areas to be under heavy vigilance by security forces.

The security forces have been told that the demonstrators are paid agents of the Qatari government who want a Sharia law government in Eritrea.

Source=https://martinplaut.wordpress.com/2017/11/03/eritrea-details-of-arrests-injuries-during-the-akria-protest/

Eritrea update: Asmara protestors -including women and children – beaten and tortured during interrogation

Update from the Arbi Harnet (Freedom Friday) Network

(Akria 02-11-2017) Following the protests in Asmara on Tuesday, and particularly the pandemonium of the shootings by government soldiers, Akria was relatively calm today.

This afternoon some of the students, and a few women, who were taken to prison in connection with the uprising, have been released.

So far in Akria we have counted 5 students and 3 mothers who have been freed.

The condition of their release was that under no circumstances were they to talk about their experiences in prison, or the interrogations they faced.

However, people are refusing to obey these orders and are discussing their experiences.

In the area customarily known as Taseda Tsrgia a young student in the 10^th grade told us that when he was detained they took him to the police station at Asmara Expo. He was interrogated and asked to name the organisers of the march.

He was doused in freezing water repeatedly and beaten up with belts.

Today the security officers quietly reopened the school, after realising that the matter had received international attention.

They removed the uniformed, armed, officers and have replaced them with two armed police officers outside the school.

However residents have noticed that there is a huge presence of armed under-cover security people swarming around the area.

The intelligence unit has adopted a cover tactic of quietly approaching people they want for questioning and asking them to report to the local administration office, instead of raiding houses and arresting people.

Having said this, those who did as they were instructed have been taken to undisclosed locations from the local administration offices.

This afternoon alone from a single neighbourhood, known as Riga Somal, two individuals, Mr AbdelKader Ahmed and Mr Negash Beyan were called in and have now disappeared.

In a related news we have also heard that General Philipos has ordered the arrest of high ranking officers, who were coordinating the government response on Tuesday, for not shooting directly at protestors, but instead shooting into the air.

Team Arbi Harnet in Asmara would like to take this opportunity to thank all those humane officers who chose not to shoot at us, their brothers and sisters.

Finally, we are aware that as always the government is trying to make this into a sectarian movement.

We notice that some are buying into that propaganda. This is unfortunate.

Our movement is against the unjust moves of the government, and against subjugation, and although it started in the school the entire district of Akria has joined in.

We are certain that our struggle for justice will succeed and so we call on all our people inside the country and in the diaspora to join us.

Project Arbi Harnet in Asmara