Australia linked to Yemen arrests

[William of the White Hand]

At least she had the decency to remove herself and her half-caste brood away from western society.

Canberra linked to Yemen arrests

* Sally Neighbour
* From: The Australian
* June 03, 2010 12:00AM

AN Australian single mother detained in Yemen with her two children, aged four and seven, is suspected to have been targeted by authorities as a result of information provided by Australia to Yemeni security police.

Shyloh Giddins, formerly of Bankstown in southwestern Sydney, whose Australian passport was cancelled in April, is in solitary confinement while her children are being kept alone under house arrest in the family's apartment in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

A family friend says the children have been locked in the apartment for the past five days, with neighbours passing food to them through the door but prevented from staying with them.

Another Australian woman, who had been caring for Aminah, 4, and Omar, 7, since their mother's arrest on May 16, has been told to stay away from them and that she "might be next", according to Ms Giddins's Australian lawyer, Stephen Hopper.

Friends say Ms Giddins, who is about 30, grew up in rural NSW and later moved to Sydney where she converted to Islam about 10 years ago. She married a Lebanese-Australian and had two children, but the marriage ended several years ago.

A friend who asked not to be identified said she moved to Yemen in 2006 to learn Arabic and study Islam, and so her children could grow up in an Islamic environment.

In April, Ms Giddins was told by the Australian embassy her passport had been cancelled.

On May 14 she and her children were placed under house arrest, and two days later Ms Giddins was arrested by Yemen's National Security Bureau and taken to Sanaa prison.

Mr Hopper said he was concerned Australia may have passed intelligence to Yemen after cancelling Ms Giddins's passport, and that was why she had been detained.

DFAT said Yemeni authorities "have not told us what charges the woman may face".

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/pol...to-yemen-arrests/story-e6frgczf-1225874721043

 

[William of the White Hand]

Freed from a Yemeni cell, Sydney mother brings her children home
DYLAN WELCH NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT
June 14, 2010

THE Sydney mother declared a national security risk by ASIO and locked up in a squalid Yemeni cell for a month has arrived home and is staying in south-western Sydney.

Shyloh Giddins, 30, and her children, Aminah, 4, and Omar, 7, flew into Sydney on Saturday night. They were met by a female relative and Ms Giddins's Australian lawyer during her detention, Stephen Hopper, after a 14-hour flight from Dubai.

Ms Giddins - who was wearing a burqa - and her children then visited her parents, who had driven to Sydney to meet her.

''She's well and the children are well. They're glad to be out of detention,'' Mr Hopper said in a brief statement.

Yesterday Mr Giddins was believed to be staying in south-western Sydney, in a house provided by supporters. Ms Giddins moved to Yemen in late 2006, two years after her husband, Mohammed ''Mick'' Touma, who was an associate of the Darwiche crime family, disappeared. Some white women really know how to pick them.

Mr Touma was facing guns charges and was wanted in connection with murder of a Darwiche rival, Ahmed Fahda, in 2003. He remains on the run.

Mr Touma's brother, Mazen, was last year sentenced to 10 years' jail for planning terrorist attacks in Sydney with more than a dozen other men.

Ms Giddins lived in Yemen for four years, teaching English at a Sanaa university and learning Arabic. Then, on April 10, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, cancelled her passport at the request of the chief of ASIO, David Irvine. ''ASIO assesses Giddins has an extremist interpretation of Islam and her activities in Yemen are prejudicial to security'', a letter to Mr Hopper stated.

As a result of information possibly provided by Australian intelligence agencies via the FBI - which has an office in Sanaa - Ms Giddins was arrested by Yemeni secret police in May. She spent almost a month in a cell while her children were kept under house arrest in the family's apartment. After more than a week of negotiation and a direct request by Mr Smith to his Yemeni counterpart, they were released on Friday.

Ms Giddins released a statement late last night in which she thanked all of the people who helped in her release from prison. ''I have not broken any law either in Yemen or in Australia and don't really know why all this has happened,'' she said.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/freed-fro...r-brings-her-children-home-20100613-y64r.html