“Coming From Yemen You Have the al-Qaeda”
DOD: Coming from Yemen you have the al Qaeda. Down into Somalia you have the al Qaeda network and associated movements….
We’ve expanded our mil-to-mil activities in Yemen….
So, it is a battle for the hearts and minds….
Q Yeah. Just the last thing. I’m sure you’re aware a lot of the suicide bombers that you’re seeing in Iraq, some are from Yemen, some are from Sudan. Are you hearing about recruiting in your area for that kind of activity?
GEN. GHORMLEY: I’m seeing — I’ve heard nothing of — I don’t know what’s going on in Somalia. We’re not in Somalia. I have no charter to go in there. So what’s happening down there, I don’t know. I know that there’s a great amount of concern about it, especially with the — coming from Yemen south into Somalia.
I know of no recruiting. I have heard of the transnationals coming up through Sudan and then on into Saudi Arabia and across….
Q Bret’s other question about terrorism moving into your area — are you concerned about increasing fundamentalism in the schools, in the madrassas in any particular areas that — and is there anything that you can do about increased fundamentalism at that level?
GEN. GHORMLEY: I have no true fundamentalistic madrassas in the area that I know of. I know that, from the reports that I get, that mosques are springing up rather rapidly in Mogadishu. But I don’t know about the number of madrassas that that would involve or would include.
Q But not in your — in the areas where you do operate?
GEN. GHORMLEY: No. I don’t know of any severe radicalism in the areas that I operate.
Not good. Ill have to find the article links about the Afghan Arab preachers being trucked into mosques even in Sanaa and the people being held at gunpoint for the services. And while al-Iman university is not a madrassa, it does deserve some attention as do many other institutions.
