Armies of Liberation

Jeffrey D. Feltman
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs
Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Washington, DC

January 20, 2010

Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Lugar, and Distinguished Members of the Committee:

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before this Committee today to discuss this important subject.

The unsuccessful attack on a U.S.-bound aircraft on December 25, 2009 serves as a further reminder of the threats that can emerge when ungoverned and poorly governed places around the world are exploited by terrorists. The United States and the international community have been engaged in supporting good governance, sustainable development, and improved security in Yemen for years. Recognizing the growing threat emanating from Yemen, the United States has been significantly ramping up levels of both security and development assistance since FY 2008. In addition, this administration has developed a new, more holistic Yemen policy that not only seeks to address security and counter terrorism concerns, but also the profound political, economic, and social challenges that help Al-Qaeda and related affiliates to operate and flourish. (Read on …)

Mr. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown … Esquire
Mr. Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki mon … Esquire
Mr. Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Amr Moussa, … Esquire
Gentlemen, participants at the London Conference …

Honorable Greetings …

In the beginning, allow us to extend our thanks and appreciation to the international community to pay attention to issues in Yemen and in the forefront of those issues is the people of the south (the people of the Republic of Yemen People’s Democratic Republic earlier) that the people who introduced authoritarian rule and his socialist alone is not equal and is not a referendum with the Republic of This culminated in the Yemen Arab occupation of the entire module of the South by force after the summer war in 1994. (Read on …)

Starting to look like another stike when no one was home… One set of local reports indicate an orange grove was destroyed and no injuries or casualties, government sources say Faiz Bin Mo’aili, an Al Qaeda member, was killed, another reports say five civilians were injured.

SANAA — A Yemeni tribal source confirmed the air strikes in Erq Al-Shabwan village, in Maarib province, and said a number of people had been killed. Local forces were responding with anti-aircraft fire.

The wave of air strikes, which began in the morning, blasted the house of Ayed al-Shabwani, one of six Al-Qaeda leaders the government said were killed in an air strike last week, the tribal source said.

A military official, who would not be named, said there had been three strikes on the house and one on an orange grove near the village where the authorities think Shabwani had built a safe haven for dozens of Al-Qaeda members.

al Masdar has an outline in Arabic of the locations of al Qaeda in Yemen and a map:

Abu Dujana San’aani trashes Zindani in letter from Afghanistan for his support of Saleh, the oligarchy and elections. He says I was building a bomb when I heard you made a fatwa against the US… Nice photo of al Zindani and Azzaam below.

Yemen Today: That your students here and in Iraq are leading the mujahideen, who took him forensic science that you can, as well as military science that they had acquired in the fields of jihad…Mr. Sheikhi I was the processing of explosive devices to kill the enemies of God worshipers of the cross and their apostate from the radio when I heard that the renowned scholar / Abdul Majid al-declare that any entry in Yemen is a U.S. occupation in his sermons calling for jihad when it comes to Yemen U.S. force! Glory to God who you are I want you to tell us that you would arrange to science Takdhuh who do not want you like a chicken! — (Read on …)

Amnesty International: Yemen must set aside prison sentence on female journalist, 19 January 2010

Amnesty International has called on the Yemeni authorities to set aside a three month prison sentence imposed on a woman journalist after she was convicted of defaming President ‘Ali ‘Abdullah Saleh.

According to media reports, Anissa ‘Uthman, a journalist working for al-Wassat, a weekly newspaper, was prosecuted because of articles she wrote criticizing the arrest and imprisonment of human rights activists. (Read on …)

Amnesty International:

YEMEN ANNOUNCES IT IS HOLDING JOURNALIST

Yemen’s Minister of Information has announced that the Yemeni authorities are holding journalist Muhammad al-Maqalih. However, the authorities are still refusing to give any information about him, including his whereabouts. He is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.

Muhammad al-Maqalih was abducted on 17 September, by men in civilian clothes, believed to be from the security forces. Eyewitnesses told his family that he was taken by a group of men who arrived in a white minibus, which had its licence plates obscured. In December 2009, the Minister of Information officially announced that the security forces are holding him. It is not clear which security force is holding him or where he is being held, and the reason for his detention is not known. (Read on …)

WaPo LONDON — Britain suspended direct flights with Yemen on Wednesday and the prime minister said the U.K. will introduce new no-fly lists as it seeks to tighten airport security following the failed Detroit airliner attack.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the House of Commons the measures are in response to a growing threat from al-Qaida affiliated terrorists based in Yemen.

The full report from the Senate Foreign Relations committee is here, pdf. From the Gulf Times: Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohamed al-Sabah noted “members of Al Qaeda (in Yemen) already hail from 36 nationalities.” And Fox News reports there are 55,000 Americans in Yemen. The following news story from ABC:

As many as three dozen criminals who converted to Islam in American prisons have moved to Yemen where they could pose a “significant threat” to attack the U.S., according to a report on al Qaeda from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to be released Wednesday. (Read on …)

People providing arms, money or material support to AQAP are guilty of supporting a terror group under US law. That’s a broad category of persons that includes some members of the PSO. The US is asking for the UN’s 1267 committee to include AQAP. IN 2004, the UN gave Yemen a list of 400 AQ and Talaban associated personal and business bank accounts in Yemen, Yemen froze one account and never circulated the list the next years. Update: AQAP, Whahishi and al Reimi added to 1267 list.

Press Release: The Secretary of State has designated al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended (INA). The Secretary also designated AQAP and its two top leaders Nasir al-Wahishi and Said al-Shihri under E.O. 13224. Secretary Clinton took these actions in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury. These actions prohibit provision of material support and arms to AQAP and also include immigration related restrictions that will help stem the flow of finances to AQAP and give the Department of Justice the tools it needs to prosecute AQAP members. (Read on …)

A follow up to our earlier post: Yousef (not Saed) al Shehri Accidentally Captured, Updated: Maybe Saed

Smart money bet that Yemen’s announcement of the (accidental) capture of Saed al Shehri would be bogus, as was the three deaths of al Qaeda leader Qasim al Reimi who is quite alive.

So far Yemen’s “All Out War” on al Qaeda yielded zero among the top leadership but lots and lots of false reporting and propaganda to the contrary. Its been like this all along.

Update: Yousef al Shehri was killed in October 2009 trying to cross into Saudi Arabia, dressed in women’s clothes. Who the heck had the traffic accident and is custody is anyone’s guess at this point, but odds are high that its not anyone of significance or even associated with al Qaeda. Does the Yemeni government just pull a name out of a hat when it comes up with this stuff?

Yemen Observer: YEMEN – The last issue of the Yemen Observer, the al-Qaeda militant that was captured is not Saeed al-Shehri who is the deputy Amir of al-Qaeda AKAP but another militant known as Yusuf al-Shehri. As a result of this error the Yemen Observer apologizes to its readers for this error.

This story is that A car carrying members of al-Qaeda was turned over when attempted to bypass a newly established sudden checkpoint by the Yemeni security units today and resulted in the capture of Yusuf al-Shehri, security source told the Yemen Observer.

The car was going in a high speed and was carrying al-Shehri and other al-Qaeda militants and flipped over in the district of Sylan in Shabwah province near the borders of Marib province. All the militants in the car were captured.

Such an important topic, so little time…

Etiawan: Britain’s government says international talks on terrorism in Yemen will likely be squeezed into a two-hour session. (Read on …)

Where is US Ambassador Seche, who visited the Bashraheels previously when they were under house arrest? Al Ayyam under the bus in exchange for Saleh’s pretense of cooperation against al Qaeda. And its a poor pretense at that. The US will never diminish the al Qaeda threat from Yemen as long as the adminstration keeps siding with the wrong people (thieves and killers) and keeps sacrificing “those seeking justice” who Obama mistakenly says we support. More here.

URGENT ACTION

another son of Hisham Bashraheel arrested

Another son of al-Ayyam editor-in-chief Hisham Bashraheel is now known to have been detained after a demonstration about action taken by the authorities against the newspaper. Like his father and brother, he is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.

Muhammad Bashraheel is now known to have been arrested on 5 January, the day before his father Hisham Bashraheel and brother Hani Bashraheel were detained. The three are being held at the Criminal Investigation Department in Aden. All of them were allowed to see their families and lawyers today, having apparently been denied access to them before. It is unclear whether the three men will be allowed regular contact with them. They may be prisoners of conscience, held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

The three men had been taking part in a sit-in protest at the newspaper’s offices in the southern city of Aden. The protest began on 4 January to mark eight months since the authorities effectively banned them from printing and distributing copies of al-Ayyam. The security forces opened fire on the protestors on 4 January and the newspaper’s security guards returned fire: one member of the security forces was killed and three wounded; one security guard was killed and three wounded.

The authorities confiscated every copy of al-Ayyam from street news stands and distribution points in the capital Sana’a and southern cities on 30 April 2009, taking similar action against six other newspapers on 4 May, when the offices of al-Ayyam were also then blockaded by the security forces to prevent copies of the newspaper from being distributed. Members of the security forces were then stationed outside al-Ayyam until 6 January when security forces raided its offices and confiscated computers. On 5 May the government announced that they would be banning all newspapers which they considered had expressed support for the secession of the south of the country in coverage of protests in the region. Despite this, al-Ayyam published some news on its website during 2009.

In an interview al Shabab spokesman Ali Rage said the Somali terror group intended to provide manpower to Yemen’s al Qaeda group, and that Yemen’s al Qaeda had provided generous support to al Shabab in the past.

Closer coordination between Somalia’s al Shabab and Yemen’s AQAP heightens risk of a coordinated attack on the NATO anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden. Currently AQAP is asking for any information on the US vessels in the Gulf including the names and home states of individual American sailors, blueprints, suppliers and operating procedures.

In a missive released yesterday, AQAP said, “Today, the duty of our Muslim nation is to declare Jihad against the infidels and their apostate cooperatives; not only on land but on sea and in the air too. The Crusader warships are present in the Gulf of Aden, in the Arabian Sea and in the Red Sea, and the American surveillance jets occupy the sphere over the Arabian Peninsula..” This echoes an earlier statement from AQ Central calling for naval jihad.

Droves of Yemeni jihaddists and Somalis in Yemen traveled to Somalia when the TFG was battling the ICU. Afterward, the US noted an exodus to back to Yemen. The intersection of piracy, arms smuggling, human smuggling and terrorists has been noted by the UN.

Update: Reuters: AQAP military commander Qasim al-Raymi has fought in Somalia and has written on the need to back Somalia’s revolt… Some others in that founding group had also fought in Somalia. Security experts say Yemenis make up a sizeable part of a foreign contingent that fights with al Shabaab’s Somali rank and file and supplies bomb-making and communications expertise. By one estimate there are about 500 or more foreigners in Shabaab’s ranks, which experts say may number 5,000 or more.

(Read on …)

There we go. I think I wrote something very similar in 2005 after my head stopped exploding, but its good to see it in the New York Times. (See my Feb. 2006 article, Al Qaeda Escape in Yemen, Facts, Theories and Rumors for a comprehensive round-up of the situation then that brought us here now.)

Ali Mohsen, bin Laden recruiter, using Afgan Arabs in the Sa’ada War, and possibly training al Iman students at his military camp next door. The US funnels money pretty directly to Ali Mohsen, according to Robert Kaplan in Imperial Grunts. The US is funding a jihaddi that targets Zaidi civilians with indiscriminate bombing and deliberate starvation? The Houthis have always claimed the Sa’ada war was intent on the irradication of Zaidism itself. The strategic location of Sa’ada for al Qaeda can’t be underestimated.

NY Times: Mr. Mohsen, a general who is currently prosecuting the war against a Houthi rebellion in the north, also recruited thousands of Yemenis to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. His brigades returned victorious, and Mr. Saleh has used them since to help defeat the south in the 1994 civil war and against the Houthis. Some fighters, of course, have migrated to Al Qaeda, and there are imams here more radical than Mr. Zindani.

When north and south Yemen were united in 1990, Sheik Zindani accepted Mr. Saleh’s rule and was granted this huge area of government land on the western edge of Sana for the university — adjoining a large military base, which is Mr. Mohsen’s headquarters. There are rumors that students sometimes get military training there, which Mr. Abu Ras also denies.

Ali Mohsen’s extremist office manager in Sa’ada indoctrinates the military in Friday sermons and they hand out religious tracts to soldiers that say Houthi blood is free. This is the guy who was instigating against foreign medical workers prior to the kidnapping of the Germans.

Arab Monitor: Meanwhile sources claim that Saudi fighter planes launched two separate missile attacks against a camp for displaced persons located about 15 km north west of Saada and four attacks in the Jabal Qatabir region. Al-Houthi sources also claim they managed to repel Yemeni government forces from regaining control in the area north of Saada. Sanaa had hoped that a Saudi Arabian military intervention against the al-Houthi movement on and beyond the borders with Yemen would help back up the government in its stand-off with the separatist ambitions in the south, in an effort to ultimately liberate military capacities for the US-dictated crack-down on al-Qaeda clusters presumed to be hiding out in Yemeni territory.

Guest Post:

Counterterrorism in Yemen between Sociopolitical/Socioeconomic International Development Aid Programs and Airstrikes; London Conference to examine terrorism in Yemen Challenges and Opportunities

By Ahmed Hezam, Jan 2010 ahezamyem@gmail.com

By now and since 9/11 (and even before that), It has been very obvious that the Yemeni Government – in spite of all the negative speculations and interpretations and political analysis/reporting (though some are/were very rational) on the seriousness of the political will, interrelated and integrated radical relations, its inner dynamics and weak institutionalism, …etc – become an alley and a partner with the US and the western hemispheres on what it has been known to be called “The War on Terror”. (Read on …)

CTV

As with Afghanistan, experts say there’s no easy solution to countering al Qaeda in Yemen.

Joost Hiltermann, deputy program director with International Crisis Group’s Middle East and North Africa arm, warned that military intervention could weaken the central government, allowing al Qaeda more free rein there.

“In a situation as fragile as in Yemen, to put a major external military force could be fatal,” Hiltermann told CTV.ca. “The country may not be able to sustain it.”

Complex problems

Yemen is a semi-mountainous country on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula with a fast-growing population of some 22 million people. (Read on …)

A government that operates so far above the law that it doesnt pay its own electric bills is going to have difficulty with reforms. Yemen Observer

YEMEN – The Ministry of Electricity, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Justice, has a plan to reduce its debts, collecting more than YR20 billion from individuals and institutions, said Awad al-Socatri, Minister of Electricity and Power at a press conference in Sana’a Sunday evening. (Read on …)

Brian Whiitker, the Saleh Factor

Weekly Standard, a Few Bad Men: history of men released from Gitmo

Globe and Mail from Bikinis to Burkas, Yemen’s slide into fundamentalism since unity

CTV Military Approach May Backfire

WaPo: Yemen’s internal divide complicates U.S. efforts against al-Qaeda, the southern factor

Al Jazeera, Child Soldiers Used in Yemen’s War, both sides

Gulf News Yemen, Al Qaeda isnt the only problem, from a Yemeni view

BBC Yemen’s Deal with al Qaeda Re-examined