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UPDATED MARCH 23 Yemen's parliament enacted sweeping emergency laws Wednesday after President Ali Abdullah Saleh asked for new powers of arrest, detention and censorship to put down a popular uprising demanding his resignation. The move suspends the constitution, allows media censorship, bars street protests and gives security forces 30 days of far-reaching powers.

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An al-Qaeda offshoot is encouraging revolt in Yemen. The key U.S. ally faces new threats from two leading tribal groups, who join protesters one day after at least five people – and perhaps 11 – were killed in clashes on Friday.

The Arabian Peninsula al-Qaeda group, an offshoot of the Yemen-based terrorist network, produced and posted an audio tape on Saturday, urging revolutions. The speaker was Ibrahim al-Rubeish, a former detainee at the Guantanamo Bay prisoner facility run by the United States, according to the SITE Intel organization, which monitors terrorist websites.

The tape was produced by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a Yemen-based offshoot of the terror network, reports the SITE Intel group, a U.S.-based group that monitors extremist websites.

"One tyrant goes, only to be replaced another who may fix for the people some of their worldly issues by offering job opportunities and increasing their income, but the greater problem remains," al-Rubeish said.

Contributing to the threat to Saleh are high unemployment and a water shortage, circumstances that al-Qaeda is exploiting in its call for a Shi’ite revolution.

Yemen is a base for al-Qaeda’s attempts to attack the United States, and the Obama administration fears the fall of Saleh could set off full-fledged anarchy and terror in more areas in the Middle East.

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