President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ...
appointed on Tuesday brigadier-general Ahmed Saeed Mohammed Bin Barek as commander of the Eastern Military Region, instead of Gen. Mohamed Ali Mohsen.
Also, Colonel Hussein Saleh Abdullah was appointed as commander of the 15th Infantry Brigade instead of Colonel Thabet Jowas.
The two decrees came days after the announcement of two commanders joining the youth protesters against President-for-Life Saleh's
... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence...
regime.