Iran judge sentences American to death for spying

TEHRAN: An American ex-Marine, who also holds Iranian citizenship, has been sentenced to death by an Iran judge for spying for the CIA, the Fars news agency reported on Monday.

Amir Mirzai Hekmati, 28, was “sentenced to death for cooperating with a hostile nation, membership of the CIA and trying to implicate Iran in terrorism,” the verdict said, according to Fars.

Hekmati, who was born in the United States to an Iranian immigrant family, was shown on Iranian state television in mid-December saying in fluent Farsi and English that he was a Central Intelligence Agency operative sent to infiltrate the Iranian intelligence ministry.

He had been arrested months earlier.

Iranian officials said his cover was blown by agents for Iran who spotted him at the US-run Bagram military air base in neighbouring Afghanistan.

But Hekmati’s family in the United States told US media he had travelled to Iran to visit his Iranian grandmothers and he was not a spy.

In his sole trial hearing, on December 27, prosecutors relied on Hekmati’s “confession” to say he tried to penetrate the intelligence ministry by posing as a disaffected former US soldier with classified information to give.

The United States has demanded Hekmati’s release.

The State Department said Iran has not permitted diplomats from the Swiss embassy — which handles US interests in the absence of US-Iran ties — to see Hekmati before or during his trial.

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Lull in drone strikes has emboldened militants: NYT

NEW YORK: A nearly two-month lull in American drone strikes in Pakistan has helped embolden Al Qaeda and several Pakistani militant factions to regroup, increase attacks on Pakistani security forces and threaten intensified strikes against allied forces in Afghanistan, the New York Times reported on Sunday citing US and Pakistani officials.

The insurgents are increasingly taking advantage of tensions raised by an American air strike in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in two border outposts, plunging relations between the two countries to new depths.

The Central Intelligence Agency, hoping to avoid making matters worse while Pakistan completes a wide-ranging review of its security relationship with the United States, has not conducted a drone strike since mid-November, the newspaper said.

Over all, drone strikes in Pakistan dropped to 64 last year, compared with 117 in 2010, according to The Long War Journal, a website that monitors the attacks.

Analysts attribute the decrease to a dwindling number of senior Al Qaeda leaders and a pause in strikes last year after the arrest in January of Raymond Davis, a CIA security contractor who killed two Pakistanis in Lahore; the Navy Seal raid in May that killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden; and the American airstrike on Nov 26.

Diplomats and intelligence analysts say the pause in CIA missile strikes — the longest in Pakistan in more than three years — is offering for now greater freedom of movement to an insurgency that had been splintered by in-fighting and battered by American drone attacks in recent months.

Several feuding factions said last week that they were patching up their differences, at least temporarily, to improve their image after a series of kidnappings and, by some accounts, to focus on fighting Americans in Afghanistan.

Other militant groups continue attacking Pakistani forces. Just last week, Taliban insurgents killed 15 security soldiers who had been kidnapped in retaliation for the death of a militant commander, the newspaper said.

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Yemen Cabinet approves immunity law for president

SANAA: Yemen’s Cabinet approved a law granting President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and anyone who has worked under him, immunity from prosecution for any crimes committed during his 33-year rule.

Sunday’s decision came as a surprise to many in Yemen, who believed that a power transfer deal he signed in November granted him and his family immunity from prosecution for the killings of protesters, but would not extend to cover his 33-year rule and anyone who worked in government.

The Cabinet approved the law despite nationwide daily protests demanding the longtime leader be put on trial for the killing of hundreds of people in raids on protest camps, the use of snipers and armed attacks on marches during the country’s 11-month popular uprising.

The wording of the law ”provides President Ali Abdullah Saleh and those who worked with him, including in civilian, military and security institutions during the period of his presidency, legal and judicial immunity.”

Activists say that the country’s Revolutionary Guards, run by Saleh’s son, are responsible for most of the attacks on protesters.

Yemen’s new national unity government, comprised of an equal number of opposition and loyalist ministers, approved the law in accordance with the transfer agreement that Saleh signed in neighbouring Saudi Arabia late last year.

The agreement, brokered by Yemen’s powerful Arab neighbours and backed by the United States, the EU and the UN, grants Saleh immunity in exchange for him hand handing over powers to his deputy.

According to the agreement, Yemen’s parliament must approve the law as a formality after the Cabinet vote.

Saleh is scheduled to hand over the presidency to his vice president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi on February 21.

The decision to grant blanket immunity to Saleh and all those who worked for him comes on the same day that a security chief who oversaw deadly crackdowns on anti-government protesters was fired from his position, according to a local official.

The dismissal strikes a minor blow to Saleh, a wily politician who some believe is trying to undermine the power transfer deal to retain power. Opposition figures charge that he is still trying to run the country, though he signed the deal under heavy international pressure and after months of stalling.

The firing of the Taiz region’s security chief, a staunch Saleh ally, could indicate that his control, once absolute, is slipping.

The governor of the Taiz region, Hamoud al-Sufi, told The Associated Press Sunday that the regional council voted to dismiss Brig. Gen. Abdullah Qairan after reviewing the province’s security situation.

A regional council member said the decision was based on Qairan’s role in the deaths of protesters.

”He was involved in killing civilians because he is the one who ordered the forces to fire on protesters and raid protest camps,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity.

Taiz has been a hotbed of anti-regime activity, and security forces have at times responded with deadly force.

Saleh moved Qairan to Taiz in March from the province of Aden, where local activists accused him of ordering the use of indiscriminate force against demonstrators.

In late May, security forces stormed the central protest camp in Taiz city, shooting demonstrators and setting their tents on fire. More than 20 people were killed.

Before the Gulf-brokered deal, Saleh could have easily overruled Qairan’s dismissal.

In a similar move, soldiers in the central Marib province mutinied against their commander, Brig. Gen. Ali al-Samqi, chasing him from their base. The soldiers accused Al-Samqi, also a Saleh loyalist, of corruption. He arrived in the capital, Sanaa, Sunday.

Security has collapsed across Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, during the anti-Saleh uprising, allowing al-Qaeda-linked militants to step up operations in the country’s loosely governed southern provinces.

One soldier and six militants were killed in new clashes near the southern town of Zinjibar, military officials said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity under military protocol. The clashes occurred late Saturday.

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