Yemen Snapshot: Two Brothers Fighting on Opposite Sides (Boone)

Opposition Tribesmen in Sanaa, YemenIn the eyes of Hashim, an antigovernment activist and writer fond of quoting Islamic philosophers, Yemen's peaceful struggle for democracy is divinely ordained.

But his brother, a member of Yemen's elite Republican Guard, sees it differently. Ghazi says Yemen's uprising is driven not by democratic aspirations but by bandits trying to incite chaos. "They have attacked power stations, cut off supply lines to major cities," he points out.

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Yemen Snapshot: Young Protesters "Lose Control of the Cause They Started" (Boone)

Yemen’s young people, who began holding anti-government protests outside of Sanaa University five months ago, have lost control of the cause they started.

A consortium of political parties — which, although have for years stood in opposition to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, still represent for most Yemenis a corrupt government system — have effectively hijacked the protest movement.

In the tent city where it all began, now known as Change Square, it is entrenched politicians belonging to the so-called Joint Meetings Parties (JMP), a fragile coalition of opposition groups that includes Islamists, Nasserites, and Cold War-era socialists, who have taken control of the stage and the microphone.

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