[whataretheysaying] Mary Madigan: Jane Novak of Armies of Liberation..

[Email subscription to blog articles]

Posted by Mary Madigan:
Jane Novak of Armies of Liberation..
http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1211296892.shtml


   ..featured in the [1]New York Times:

     jane_armies

     BEIRUT, Lebanon â Jane Novak, a 46-year-old stay-at-home mother of
     two in New Jersey, has never been to Yemen. She speaks no Arabic,
     and freely admits that until a few years ago, she knew nothing
     about that strife-torn south Arabian country.

     And yet Ms. Novak has become so well known in Yemen that newspaper
     editors say they sell more copies if her photograph â blond and
     smiling â is on the cover. Her blog, an outspoken news bulletin on
     Yemeni affairs, is banned there. The governmentâs allies routinely
     vilify her in print as an American agent, a Shiite monarchist, a
     member of Al Qaeda, or "the Zionist Novak."

   They also call her a [2]"docile pupil of a monkey monk - and a
   non-tummyist", proving that the Yemeni government may not be immune to
   the lure of [3]khat...

     The worst of her many offenses is her dogged campaign on behalf of
     a Yemeni journalist, Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani, who incurred his
     governmentâs wrath by writing about a bloody rebellion in the far
     north of the country. He is on trial on sedition charges that could
     bring the death penalty, with a verdict expected Wednesday.

     Ms. Novak, working from a laptop in her Monmouth County living room
     "while the kids are at school," has started an Internet petition to
     free Mr. Khaiwani...

     ...Nor does she have any background in Middle East studies. One of
     her opponents in Yemen accused her of being a Zionist member of
     Aipac, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. "I had to
     Google it," Ms. Novak said with a chuckle. "I didnât know what it
     was."

     It was after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that Ms. Novak, who
     used to work not far from the World Trade Center, first took an
     interest in the Arab world. "I thought it would be a good idea to
     write in the English-language Arabic press on subjects we could all
     agree on, freedom of the press, equality, stuff like that," she
     said.

     In 2004, she started her blog, [4]www.armiesofliberation.com,
     adorned with a Stars and Stripes logo, and soon wrote an article
     defending Mr. Khaiwani, who was in prison. He wrote her a letter of
     thanks, addressing it to "Jane Novak, the American journalist and
     political analyst."

   [5]More...

   Sign the Petition to [6]Protect Media Freedom in Yemen

   [7]Yemeni journalist Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani

References

   1. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/world/middleeast/20blogger.html?_r=3&sq=robert%20worth&st=nyt&scp=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
   2. http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1117485016.shtml
   3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6530453.stm
   4. http://armiesofliberation.com/
   5. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/world/middleeast/20blogger.html?_r=3&sq=robert%20worth&st=nyt&scp=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
   6. http://campaigns.aicongress.org/yemen/
   7. http://armiesofliberation.com/archives/2008/05/20/sign-please/