Arrests of al-Qaeda in Yemen
Consider the source: Saleh, the king of propaganda.
What follows is pure specuation, unlike everything else I’ve written is well documented, but I have to say I’m highly skeptical of this story: Yemeni Officials on Terrorist Hit List and Yemen says Qaeda suspects planned to kill officials. IFPBS?
If Saleh want to crack down on Terrorism, he could arrest Zandani and close the 143 known al-Qaeda bank account as requested by the UN. (see post immediately below.)
al-sahwa, 16/5/2005 : For this part, Abdul Aziz Al-Samawi, a lawyer for the prime suspect, Anwar Jilani, denied all such charges brought against his client . “ Those ( the charges) are only security obsessions usually fabricated by Arab security services,” he argued. “The suspects’ age and the size of their bodies are enough to disprove the prosecution’s allegations,” remarked.
Its great PR for Saleh though, round up a few teen-agers just as he’s about to make his next move against the Zaidis. Make the West think he’s helping in the WOT just as he starts targeting the Zaidi parties and papers. Once I do more research, I’ll update this post. But I dont see why the grown ups in al-Qaeda would target their very good buddies in the Yemeni govt and disrupt the web of money and corruption that is functioning so well for them unless its a few low level stooges meant to deflect attention.
Update: Cao got it two days ago: The timing of this seems extremely bizarre. Is the corrupt Yemeni government putting on a show for the sake of Americans….
