Armies of Liberation

World Bulletin

A Yemeni provincial opposition politician thought to be active in a southern separatist movement was gunned down in south Yemen, his party and local residents said on Monday.

The Yemeni Socialist Party said Saeed Ahmed Abdullah bin Daoud was shot dead on Friday in the southern town of Zanjibar in Abyan province, adding on its website that the province was in “an unprecedented state of disorder”.

Zanjibar residents said bin Daoud, a member of the Socialist party’s leadership committee in the town, was also involved with southern separatists seeking independence from the central government.

There was no immediate word on the reasons for the killing.

PETN is so last year… This is all coming from the governor of Abyan, al Maseri. A Pakistani expert came to Yemen last year to train them on smaller, undetectable explosives and he died at some point in a work accident. Another Pakistani gave training on poisen gases. Four months ago they got aid with the help of non-Yemenis in the organization. Al Maseri says the security forces found a similiar substance to that used to attack Prince Naif.

Saudi Gazette Pakistani built bomb to kill Prince, says Yemeni official
By Abdullah Al-Oraifij
ABYAN, Yemen – Dramatic new claims have been made that a Pakistani explosives expert was responsible for manufacturing the bomb that was used by a suicide bomber in a failed attempt to assassinate Prince Muhammad Bin Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Assistant Interior Minister for Security Affairs at his palace in Jeddah last August.
Talking to Okaz, Ahmad Al-Maseeri, Governor of Abyan in Yemen, said that the man who made the explosive capsule, used by Abdullah Hasan Al-Asiri in his attempt to kill the Prince, was a Pakistani. (Read on …)

Not only are they fighting on behalf of the regime against the Houthis but they gained entry through facilitiation by officials. Many are at Dammaj. Apparently this group was in Yemen for some time. Aden Gulf Network

Informed sources revealed that a number of Algerians took part in some battles based on Yemeni territory between the conflicting parties to the conflict there.

أضافت ذات المصادر، أن عددهم يزيد على عشرين عنصرا أغلبهم من ذوي الاتجاه السلفي، تنقلوا إلى اليمن بطرق رسمية عبر المطارات وبجوازات سفر سليمة، منهم من تنقل إلى المملكة العربية السعودية وأقاموا هناك بطريقة غير شرعية أين انقضت الفترة المحددة لتأشيراتهم، وبعدها تحوّلوا إلى الأراضي اليمنية، والبعض الآخر منهم سافر إلى سوريا وليبيا ليتنقلوا بعدها إلى اليمن. Same sources added that they are over twenty components, mainly with the Salafi trend, moved to Yemen through airports and official passports of sound, many of whom moved to Saudi Arabia and settled there illegally Where the specified period has elapsed for their visas, and then turned to the land of Yemen , and some of them traveled to Syria and Libya to move around then to Yemen. (Read on …)

Abu al Fida is the individual who negotiated on behalf of al Qaeda with President Saleh and Gamal al Qamish starting in 2006 once the dialog program died. He always praised the relationship and gained some important concessions from the regime. More on al Feida here, with links back to older posts.

Times Online: When Osama Bin Laden decided to marry for the fifth time, he turned to his most trusted advisers to find him a bride.

He wanted a Yemeni girl, he told them. The marriage would cement his relationship with Yemen, his billionaire father’s homeland. Sheikh Rashad Mohammed Saeed Ismael, a Yemeni aide, took up the challenge. (Read on …)

More buzz on Ali Mohsen from al Wahdawi below the fold. This investigative report from “Saadaonline” is not too surprising:

Ali Mohsen coordinating with al Qaeda in Sa’ada
Salafi leaders integrated directly into the military
Tribal militias and other groups armed by the military
Zaidi mosques handed over to Salafis
Kidnappers were unable to relocate the hostages initally because of Houthi control of many areas and were forced to leave the bodies inside the military controlled Al Jbarah valley
Yemeni government behind the recent declaration of jihad if western troops enter Yemen

Hidden roles between Sanaa regime and al-Qaeda

Special News Saada
20/1/2010

we talk about Saada previously and the hijacking of doctors in
Saada province on the role of a hidden secret and to coordinate with the secret coordination with pro Government:

Especially in the area of Wadi (Valley) Al-Abu Jebara
we talked previously about the history of this valley and where Al Qaedeh fighters training.

Funds, which pumps by Saudi princes and their relationship with Osama bin Laden through private sources, News Saada inside the corridors of military bases and political situation in Saada

During the latest sadah War mostly at Abu Ali font , we got field information that confirm that :ABADAH and TAYS group and other groups from WADY- Valley- Al JBAREH had met with local officials of Sadah and received ammunition and weapons to confront Al Hoothy from behind, and that what really happened .

Those days we got secret and confidential information when news focused on Qaeda in Yemen. The information said that there is currently coordination between military commanders/ eaders loyal to Ali Mohsen Al Ahmar through his office in Saddah, the aim of this coordination is bolstering and unify their actions against Al Hoothy. (Read on …)

There’s a new ops center and intermediaries to funnel and pass US intel to the Yemenis. Good luck with that, all their sources are going to start having car accidents. Yemeni-American Anwar Awlaki is on a pre-approved hit list. Other reports say theres about 200 Special Ops in Yemen and plans for more but no troops.

WaPo: The operations, approved by President Obama and begun six weeks ago, involve several dozen troops from the U.S. military’s clandestine Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), whose main mission is tracking and killing suspected terrorists. The American advisers do not take part in raids in Yemen, but help plan missions, develop tactics and provide weapons and munitions. Highly sensitive intelligence is being shared with the Yemeni forces, including electronic and video surveillance, as well as three-dimensional terrain maps and detailed analysis of the al-Qaeda network. (Read on …)

Yemen
How worried are you that it could become the next Afghanistan in terms of providing a safe haven for al-Qaeda to launch global attacks.

A number of us have been focused on Yemen for well over two years.
From the time when we were examining how foreign fighters were being trained and then how foreign fighter facilitators were operating who enabled foreign fighters to come into Iraq through Syria and many different roads lead to what was then termed al-Qaeda in Yemen and this past year was franchised by the al-Qaeda senior leadership as al-Qaeda in the Arabia Peninsular. (Read on …)

In an audio tape broadcast by al Jazeera today, al Qaeda leader Usama Bin Laden claimed credit for the failed plot to bomb an airliner as it was landing in Detroit, December 25. Bin Laden called the Nigerian perpetrator of the plot, Abdulmutallab Al-Farouq , “a hero” and said the plot was intended to send the same message as the attacks of 9/11.

“America will not even dream of security, until security becomes a reality in Palestine. It is not fair that you enjoy your lives, while our brothers in Gaza live in hardship. Therefore, our raids against you will continue, Allah willing, as long as your support of the Israelis continues.”

The attack had earlier been claimed by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Nasir al Wahishi, a former lieutenant of bin Laden, is heading the terror group’s offshoot in Yemen. The group merged in January 2009 with al Qaeda’s Saudi branch. Saudi Said al Shihri is the military commander of the organization.
ON January 19, the US State Department designated al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The group and two of its two top leaders Nasir al-Wahishi and Said al-Shihri were also designated under executive order number 13224. The UN’s 1267 committee also designated AQAP as a terrorist organization along with al Wahishi and al Shihir. As a result all UN member states are required to freezes their asserts, ban travel and embargo arms transfers to these entities.

Prior to being read his Miranda rights, Al Farouq claimed that he was trained by al Qaeda in Yemen and many other suicide bombers had undergone training in Yemen. The UK raised its terror threat level to “severe” in advance of a conference on Yemen scheduled for January 27 in London.

DUBAI — Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the botched Christmas Day bombing of a US airliner and vowed further strikes on US targets, in an audio message broadcast on Sunday. (Read on …)

Human Rights Watch

Allegations that the Yemen-based branch of al Qaeda was behind the attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a US airliner on Christmas Day 2009 have dramatically increased international attention to the threat of terrorism emanating from Yemen.

To be effective, international counterterrorism policy in Yemen should take into account the lessons from the response to al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan: military tactics such as airstrikes that cause high civilian casualties, and arbitrary arrests and abusive treatment of suspected militants undermine efforts to reduce local support for al Qaeda. The Yemeni government has engaged in all of these actions against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Second, engagement with Yemen must also address the serious human rights problems that have turned large segments of Yemeni society against the government, and thus reduced the government’s ability to fight terrorism effectively. Ongoing human rights violations by the state security forces (particularly the Central Security Forces, the Political Security Organization, and the National Security Organization), risk providing an even more fertile base of support for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Yemen’s most serious human rights violations arise in the context of two pressing internal conflicts-the government’s war with Huthi rebels in the north of the country, and its repression of a secessionist movement in the south. Officials have recently warned against “internationalizing” these two conflicts, but it would be a mistake if international efforts to assist the government ignored the grievances underlying those conflicts. Yemen’s military and policing approaches have resulted in numerous violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, which have alienated large segments of Yemeni society.

Most Yemenis do not see AQAP as a threat to them. They are more concerned about the government’s repressive practices and rampant corruption, as well as the lack of jobs for the country’s booming population, a looming water crisis, and rapidly depleting oil reserves, the main source of revenue, along with the conflicts in the north and south. Resolving the human rights grievances underlying those two conflicts and strengthening human rights protections generally is critical to creating a more stable government in Yemen and empowering it to address the country’s economic and development problems.

Recommendations to Yemen’s allies:

1. Increase development aid to Yemen, ensuring a cohesive strategy in collaboration with the appropriate UN agencies, and use aid to address human rights concerns that drive instability.

2. Support establishment in Yemen of a human rights monitoring mission by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights with a mandate to publicly report on human rights abuses by all parties to Yemen’s conflicts, and press the government of Yemen to cooperate in the establishment of such a mission.

3. Add effective human rights components to any bilateral aid for security forces, such as law enforcement and military training and equipment, including non-lethal methods of crowd control, respect for the laws of war, measures to combat torture, and internal accountability.

4. Stress the importance of an independent judiciary with the resources and competence to address accountability for human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests and torture.

5. Urge the government to ensure that impartial humanitarian agencies have access to all places of detention in Yemen, and end the use of private or unauthorized detention sites.

6. Ensure that no assistance goes to units of security forces implicated in unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests, torture and other serious human rights abuses. Publicly speak out when such violations occur.

7. Assist the United States and Yemen in repatriating or resettling Yemenis held without charge at Guantanamo, including the 40 Yemenis that the US government has already cleared for release.

1. Do not turn Al Qaeda’s enemies into its friends (Read on …)

Well, I’d like to see their proof. There’s a lot of talk but not many documents, details or witnesses.

Press TV: Yemen’s Houthi fighters accuse the Sana’a government of fueling violence in the country in a bid to attract financial backing from the United States.

The Shia resistance fighters charged the central government with forging an al-Qaeda cell in Yemen, adding that the abduction of foreigners in the country is another part of the scheme planned by Sana’a.

The Houthis insisted that they have evidence showing that the Yemeni government supplies arms to and finances militants throughout the country.

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 …)

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.

The erroneous “exclusive” report announcing Saed al Shehri’s capture was not some typo by the Yemen Observer. They pulled the first story that correctly identified the person arrested as Yousef al Shehri, deleted it not corrected it, and replaced it with an article announcing Saed was captured.

Now, after the news is spinning all over the web, they issue a correction. The Yemen Observer is a propaganda front for the Yemeni government and a component of its efforts to delude the world into believing there has been any progress in the battle to diminish the threat from al Qaeda.

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.

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.

The last time “al Qaeda” demanded money was in August 08, five million dollars. It was the era of the Yemen Soldiers Brigades (now theres a blast from the past). Supposedly, Islamic Jihad and Hamza al Qaiti, claimed responsibility for the car bombing of a police station in Sayoun, and demanded the money to stop future attacks. The very sad incident of the German’s kidnapping has been bizarre from day one. The demand for funds is unusual. Damanding prisoner releases is not. But Saleh says he knows where the German family is being held and is negotiating. The Germans are skeptical.

Speigel: The German government has been presented with a new challenge in Yemen. Kidnappers holding a German family are allegedly demanding $2 million in ransom and the release of several suspected Islamist terrorists being held by the Yemeni government. The demands are being met with skepticism. (Read on …)

It makes me wonder if Mr. Awlaki, who says he is close to the President, ever heard any of Anwar’s recent sermons or read his writings. Anwar Awlaki clearly is inciting people to violence. Backgrounder to follow below the fold. Apparently Anwar wrote for the Yemen Observer. Interview Yemen Post:

In the attacks last month in Abyan and Shabwa against Al-Qaeda, government officials said they were trying to attack Anwar Awlaqi, your son. Is he really an Al-Qaeda leader?

My son Anwar has been attacked in the local, Arab and international media in America, Britain and other parts of the world. They are claiming that he has links to Al-Qaeda. This is completely untrue. And I will give you the reason why. My son is an engineer and an educationist. He studied in the best universities in the United States. But he is also a good Muslim. He published many books about Islam to teach young Muslims in English. (Read on …)

Update: the Yemen Observer deleted the story below and rewrote the article to indicate it was Saed not Yousef al Shehri that crashed the car and was captured. The first link is dead. Tacky tacky.

Original Post: The Yemeni government’s English language mouthpiece Yemen Observer is conflating al Qaeda operative Yousef al Shehri with top al Qaeda in Yemen leader Saed al Shehri (Saudi, ex-Gitmo).

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, the second person in command (ed- No, he’s not.) of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, security source told the Yemen Observer. (Read on …)

Yes here we go yet again… An absolutely predictable update: Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) denied that six of its leaders were killed in a Yemeni air strike last week, according to a statement published by the SITE monitoring group on Monday.
“None of the mujahedeen were killed in that unjust and insidious raid; rather, some brothers were slightly wounded,” the Qaeda group said in a statement on jihadist forums, SITE reported.

Original Post: Following Yemen’s announcement that al Qaeda head honcho Qasim al Reimi was killed in an air strike this week along with five others, news is starting to leak out that ooops, maybe not.

Al Reimi had been reported killed in two earlier air strikes but this time the announcement was based on an identification, officials said. Security sources now say that perhaps it was a “hasty” announcement. Tribal sources say another of the six dead men was recently spotted eating lunch with his family, and al Reimi was wounded in the leg and escaped.

We can call it the al Nabi syndrome, reported dead but still alive. Old habits die hard. At best, now we’re back to “maybe al Reimi is dead,” and “maybe the Yemeni government told the truth about al Qaeda for once.” Wait and see mode.

Its hard to say what’s up, really. There were six bodies recovered including al Reimi, the Yemeni officials said. Ah, even I’m doing it now, quoting them like they have a shred of credibility.

Meanwhile the Yemeni journalists are getting smashed (run-over, imprisoned, fined and kidnapped) without a word from the West and/or the hundreds of foreign journalists who recently discovered Yemen. Even for the open source intel value alone, you think someone would make a peep. I knew something was up today when several Yemeni news sites were mysteriously offline.

(Read on …)

That’s some good targeting right there, if it turns out to be true. Two cars, no civilians, direct hit. Ammar Al Waeli? Fascinating. Update: They are “almost certain” al Reimi was killed. Also: Mr. Ayman was an Egyptian jihadist who had arranged many suicide bombings in Afghanistan, the official said. He had moved in and out of Yemen recently, and has been on Yemen’s most-wanted list for years… Another man targeted in the raid was known to have escaped, the official said: Ammar al-Waeli, an important arms dealer for Al Qaeda.

Update 2: Almotamar.net The ministry said the killed terrorists are Qassim al-Raimy, Ammar Abadah al-Waili, Saleh al-Tais, Ayedh Jaber al-Shabwani and Ibrahim Mohammed Saleh al-Banaa.
(Read on …)

Its not just Saleh with the long standing ties…

AFP: Yemen’s government has gone on the offensive against Al-Qaeda, sending the network into hiding, the country’s national security director Ali Anisi said.

Anisi, who also heads President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s office (ed- since 1982), was speaking after authorities announced the killing of Abdullah Mehdar, an Al-Qaeda chief in eastern Yemen. (Read on …)

The Daily Mail: Yemen has started negotiations with kidnappers holding one British and five German hostages. The Yemeni foreign minister has confirmed that talks are taking place to free the Europeans believed to have been kidnapped by Al Qaeda.
(Read on …)

Yemen kills a guy no one ever heard of and maybe its legit, but everything coming out of the Yemeni state media and security needs to be taken with a grain or bucket of salt. If its true that al Midhar is a major al Qaeda figure with his own cell, then there’s a lot going on under the radar, considering Wahishi and the three stooges are thought to be the essence of Al Qaeda. Check my timeline Al Qaeda in Yemen Arrests 2002-2009.

SHABWA, Jan. 13 (Saba) – Security forces in Shabwa province have killed one of the major figures of al-Qaeda in Yemen, Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday. (Read on …)

Yemen reached the tipping point some time ago, when the political, administrative and security structures were co-opted by a growing number of terror sympathizers and/or operatives within. The tools of the state are themselves compromised. Meaning that if Saleh authentically wanted to make a serious move, on al Qaeda, (instead of just asking them to leave), it is nearly impossible to do so in any way that diminishes the capacity of the group. It is the elite support of bin Laden and his goals that is problematic. The following is from the Arab reform Initiative:

Is the War Against Terrorism Going to Save Yemen?
Mohammad Mekhlafi, Lawyer and member of the “Yemeni Joint Committee”

Since the re-unification in 1989, foreign fighters from throughout the Arab world have entered Yemen. The number of “Afghan Mujahedeen” reached over 60,000 people. They were led by Usama bin Laden, and participated in the 1994 war against the country’s south and the socialist party. President Ali Abdullah Saleh used them to break the society’s resolve and to weaken the different political forces. His objective was to rule alone and transform the structure of power into a kin system.

“Afghan Mujahedeen” were able to infiltrate Yemeni society and state apparatuses, including military and security bodies. Since this time, it is not clear if any distance between the Yemeni power structure and these terrorist organizations has been established. The ruling elite- in the name of the “War against Al-Qaeda” – is now trying to win support from abroad in order to annihilate political forces, continue accumulating power, and eventually ensure the succession of Saleh’s son. (Read on …)

Wow a really good article on the Sa’ada War, Saleh’s relatives commanding security forces and Ali Mohsen al Ahmar’s conduct of the Sa’ada War. It lays the facts out for the obvious conclusion about why the war just won’t end.

Globe and Mail: There have been tens of thousands of casualties and about 100,000 people in Yemen’s northwest triangle are now under siege – trapped by a combined force of the Yemeni regular army on one side, the Republican Guard on another, and Saudi military forces along the border between the two countries.

“They’re trying to starve them out,” said Abdel-Ghani Iryani, a development consultant and political analyst, who says he still can’t figure out what the war against the Huthi is all about. (Read on …)

Update: Yemen denies with the standard claim that al Fadhli is linked to al Qaeda. As usual they fail to explain why al Fadhli was a member of the Saleh government for over a decade handling the “jihaddists file” which they transfered to someone else after al Fadhli’s defection.

Original post: Wow, this is interesting stuff, and current! Its about time al Fadhli dished a little dirt.

-the January 09 meeting with Saleh and the dozens of Jihaddists was to ask them to broker a deal with al Qaeda whereby al Qaeda would leave Yemen in exchange for money. Saleh was negotiating with Wahishi through back channels and would have happily sent them to Saudi Arabia or Somalia.

- the release of the over 108 jihaddists at that time was part of the negotiations. The Yemeni government defended the release as “aged member of the Aden Abyan Islamic Army who were never charged with anything.” According to Tariq al Fadhli, they were al Qaeda members.

- Saleh requested al Fadhli assassinate four southern leaders, which was when he defected. Hundreds of southern politicians were assissinated by Saleh’s proxies in the period between unity in 1990 and the civil war in 1994.

From the Telegraph: Yemen offered to free all al-Qaeda militants held in its prisons last year if the group agreed to leave the country, a former senior government official has claimed.

Although the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country’s president, released 130 of its fighters as a goodwill gesture, al-Qaeda’s leadership in Yemen rejected the deal, according to Tariq al-Fahdli, who has since joined an outlawed group fighting for the secession of the south.

“Because we were previously with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Saleh asked us to act as a broker,” Mr Fahdli said, adding that the president had offered to pay the group money to move to Somalia, Saudi Arabia or another country.

Mr Fahdli was recruited along with fellow veterans who fought Soviet occupation in Afghanistan to form a militia against communists in south Yemen during a 1994 civil war.

He said he defected last year to a new movement fighting for southern independence after Mr Saleh asked him to kill the secessionists’ four leaders. (Read on …)

Member of Parliament and rebel spokesman Yahya al Houthi, translated by the Iranian Press TV, alleges al Qaeda infiltration into key Yemeni ministries (media and intelligence). But its not news. I’d like to add to the list the Political Security, National Security, aspects of the military as well as the certain passport and tourism offices as additional Yemeni government institutions subverted by al Qaeda.

A Yemeni Parliamentarian says al-Qaeda enjoys strong support from the government of President Ali Abdullah Salih and runs key ministries in his cabinet.

Exiled Yemeni lawmaker Yahya al-Houthi — who is the brother of the Shia leader, Abdul-Malek — accused the government of allowing hundreds of al-Qaeda militants into the country.

He said members of al-Qaeda are in charge of many key ministries in the Salih administration including ministries for media and intelligence. (Read on …)

Thats just smashing!!! For more, see my category, “9 hostages”, on the side bar.

BBC: German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has made a surprise visit to Yemen, where five German nationals have been held hostage for six months. (Read on …)

1- This is not new. In 2005 it became clear that Judge al Hittar’s dialog program was an early release mechanism and little else and the program was discontinued. In June 2006, President Saleh and intelligence chief Gamal al Qamish began direct negotiations with al Qaeda, promising government jobs, more prisoner releases and an easing of travel restrictions in exchange for no attacks within Yemen on government facilities. After 23 high value al Qaeda escaped prison in 2006, those who surrendered were later released after a pledge of loyalty to Saleh. Although described by some Saleh apologists as a time honored tribal mechanism of conflict resolution, (”we have to understand the neighborhood,” they said), naturally the appeasement resulted in both the strengthening and legitimization of al Qaeda.

In January 2009, Saleh negotiated in person with dozens of jihaddists which culminated in the release hundreds of what the Yemeni government called “harmless and aged jihaddists” in exchange for the terrorists supporting the state in its efforts against the southerners. See my article, aptly named Yemen Strikes Multi-Faceted Deals with al Qaeda. Odd how all those al Qaeda training camps popped up in the South after that. Hmmm…

2- Saleh to this point has refused to negotiate with Southern protesters, who remarkably have eschewed violence. The police shoot those political oppositionists in the head and arrest them en masse, triggering more protests. Its little wonder they want to secede. Saleh also refuses to end the blockade on and carpet bombing of the northern Sa’ada province, although the Houthi rebels do not target civilians, unlike al Qaeda (and the Saudi and Yemeni air forces).

Lets look at the difference in the Yemeni government’s approach to the Houthi rebels, who the regime erroneously claims want to re-establish a Shiite theocracy, and their approach to al Qaeda, who do in fact want to establish a global caliphate.

Houthis: an all out relentless military attack, schools closed, preachers replaced, mosques bombed, mass arrests, labeled apostates, blockaded, censored, tortured, sentenced to death.
Al Qaeda: not.

VOA: Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh says he is willing to negotiate with al-Qaida members who renounce violence and lay down their weapons. The offer goes against the aims of the United States and other nations that are seeking to help Yemen vanquish the local al-Qaida off-shoot. (Read on …)

WASHINGTON: Twenty other young Muslim radicals have been trained to blow up planes by al-Qaida in Yemen, a young Nigerian charged with trying to blow up a US airliner has told FBI.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, has told FBI that close to 20 other young Muslim men were being prepared in Yemen to use the same technique to blow up airliners, CBS said in an exclusive investigative report.

US surprised by AQAP’s links to Pakistan? Say it aint so…

Newsweek: U.S. officials have been surprised by what they’ve discovered about the resurgence of Al Qaeda in Yemen in the aftermath of the Christmas Day bombing attempt by a Nigerian student who says he was trained and equipped there. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as this offshoot is called, is linked directly to the “core” group in Pakistan and it is now “one of the most lethal” affiliates, White House counterterrorism coordinator John Brennan said at a news conference.

Times Online:

Yemeni security sources believe that of the 15-20 Britons recently recruited by Al-Qaeda, most have undergone training in camps in Rafad, a mountainous region in the southeast. It lies in the province where Abdulmutallab is thought to have met Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric who is viewed as a big influence in luring foreign recruits to Al-Qaeda.

One institution popular with British Muslims is Dar alHadith in Dammaj, northern Yemen. US defence officials have described the institute as a “known terrorist training centre”. This has always been denied by the institute.

Students can access weapons there, and teachings have traditionally been anti-western. Students are told that democracy is an enemy of Islam and locals are reported to refer to America as “the great Satan”.

Abu Muaz, head of the Salafi Youth Movement in the UK, said about 50 Britons had gone to study at Dar al-Hadith. “Most want to learn about Islam, but there are some jihadi supporters who decide to take up arms,” he said.

That’s truely excellent news but I’m dubious about the claims of a joint Houthi- al Qaeda operation.

SANAA — Five Germans, including three children, and a British national who have been held by kidnappers in Yemen for the past six months are still alive, a top official said on Thursday.

“We have confirmed information that they are still alive. They are five Germans and a British national,” deputy prime minister for defence and security affairs, Rashad al-Aleemi, told a press conference. (Read on …)

Sounds hokey, hopefully its a false report, not that I would expect less of al Qaeda than to send a boy to murder himself and others to further their imperrialsit agenda. Now with the threat in Aden, Saleh can blame all the raids, checkpoints and round ups on the hunt for the boy. I wonder if they will say he was at the compound of al Ayyam newspaper that they they shot up and set fire to last night…

DUBAI — Counter-terrorism authorities are said to be hunting for a 16-year-old boy from northern Yemen suspected of having been recruited by Al Qaeda to be a homicide bomber at one of five foreign targets in the southern port city of Aden, according to Western sources close to Yemeni security officials. (Read on …)

The Brits want to coordinate the counter-terror funding about to be funneled into Yemen, and offer Yemenis an alternative to al Qaeda. What Yemenis need is an alternative to President Saleh. Even the State Department notes that Yemenis are unable to impact the governance of their county, change it or hold it accountable. Could we start there? Or rather, let Yemenis start there?

Yemen was pledged 4.6 billion (yes thats a B) dollars in development funds at the 2006 donors conference. It didn’t do much good. What the western donors should be convening is a war crimes tribunal or, at a minimum, a major crimes tribunal like the one Ms. Clinton suggested for Afghanistan to help rid it of top level corrupt officials. Offer the Saleh family amnesty, and let them leave. All the al Qaeda problems will clear up much more quickly because without Saleh, al Qaeda will flee Yemen.

Times Online: Gordon Brown is to host an emergency summit this month on the terror threat posed by Yemen after the attempt to blow up a transatlantic airliner on Christmas Day.

The Prime Minister and Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, will seek agreement on an international fund to help the Yemeni Government to drive al-Qaeda out of the country. (Read on …)

Al Shabab’s announcement yesterday that it is coming to the defense of its Yemeni counterparts overshadows the fact that the intial airstrikes in Yemen on al Qaeda did very little actual damage to the organization. All the targeted leaders survived. The sucess of the strikes were repeatedly over-stated by the Saleh regime in its typical pattern of blatant propaganda for the western audience. Yemen’s subsequent “storming” and “hunting” operations are more of the same. The AFP article notes the Yemeni government claims that 60 Islamist militants were killed. Its not true. Its not even close to being true.

AFP however does note the widely overlooked November arrest and later release of an individual at a Mogadishu airport with chemicals and a syringe.

Jihaddists have been going back and forth between Yemen and Somalia for some time. When the TFG was battling the Islamic Courts Union, there was a marked increase in terrorist traffic from Yemen to Somalia. Subsequently, the US noted somewhat of an exodus of Islamist fighters from Somalia to Yemen. Substantial amounts of weapons move from Yemen to Somalia, as the UN’s monitoring committee found, and is perhaps the most destabilizing factor in Somalia’s continuing chaos. Tens of thousands of Somali refugees cross the Bab al Mendab annually into Yemen. Somali pirates obtain logistical and intelligence support from sources in Yemen.

The overlapping infrastructure of refugee smugglers, arms smuggling and piracy was also noted by the UN, and of course, overlaps with al Qaeda’s footprint as well. To the extent that Somali terror recruits are joining Yemeni terrorists, its the Americans among them who pose an enhanced risk to the US homeland. The Yemeni jidaddist fanatics have historical relationships with Al Qaeda Central, which remains intent on a catastrophic attack on the United States. AFP article below the fold.

Do we really have to do this over and over and over again? It has been going on since 2000 and President Saleh has never been sincere, he just comes up with better BS. To go forward on the premise that Saleh achieved any level of rehabilitation after a good talking to is ludicrous.

The US believes Saleh rehabilitated in July when presented with evidence the Al Qaeda fanatics were planning assassinations against top officials. Al Alimi, perhaps? Its a huge mistake to trust Saleh on any level at any time. It is a threat to US security to under-estimate the level of enmeshment between the Yemeni state and al Qaeda, from al Qaeda local to al Qaeda central, from mid level security officials up to the President of Yemen.

Washington (CNN) — “Solid intelligence” from U.S. and Yemen services finally persuaded Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh last summer to accept increased help in fighting al Qaeda in his country, a senior U.S. official told CNN.

After years of pressure from the United States to crack down on al Qaeda in Yemen, Saleh was persuaded to accept help after he was presented with intelligence that al Qaeda “was targeting inner-circle Yemeni leaders,” and that there was a growing number of terrorist training camps in Yemen, the official said… (Read on …)

Anwar’s been a busy bee, issuing fatwas, negotiating tribal alliances, and meeting with would be suicide bombers. In his recent public statements and interviews, Awlaki justified attacks on US military personnel as legitimate jihad. Apparently he also promoted attacks on civilians as acceptable (if not required) by Islamic law. LAT:

Under questioning by the FBI, Abdulmutallab has said that he met with Awlaki and senior Al Qaeda members during an extended trip to Yemen this year, and that the cleric was involved in some elements of planning or preparing the attack and in providing religious justification for it, officials said. (Read on …)

Washington Post

SANAA, YEMEN — The Yemeni American cleric at the center of investigations into last month’s massacre of 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., became more openly radical in Yemen, following a path taken by other extremists in this failing Middle East nation with a growing al-Qaeda presence, according to relatives, friends and associates in Yemen. (Read on …)

Fox News: CAIRO — Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula on Monday claimed responsibility for the attack on a U.S. airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day, saying it was retaliation for a U.S. operation against the group in Yemen. (Read on …)

The Yemeni government knows EXACTLY where they are.

Washington (CNN) — U.S. officials are privately acknowledging they have provided secret intelligence on several al Qaeda targets to Yemen’s government, but they won’t say if U.S. fighter jets or armed drones are involved.
(Read on …)

I’ve always been concerned about that, “naval jihad” against the assorted western navies on anti-piracy ops in the Bab al Mendab. To the extent that Somali and Yemeni al Qaeda are in contact, and the pirates are already paying for intel on where the ships are, the sea is a potential theater of operations as it was in both the USS Cole and Limburg attacks. There was a statement from al Qaeda Central calling for naval jihad in Spring 2008, I think it was. To follow, the latest ramblings from the Yemeni fanatics in response to the first air strike, here at NEFA:

“And lastly, we call upon the proud tribes of Yemen—people of support and victory—and the people of the Arabian Peninsula, to face the crusader campaign and their cooperatives on the peninsula of Muhammad, prayer and peace upon him, and that’s through attacking their military bases, intelligence embassies, and their fleets that exist on the water and land of the Arabian Peninsula; until we stop the continuous massacres on the Muslim countries.”

How many of the “secret training camps” are actually “abandoned military bases” like the one found in Sa’ada when the Germans were doing a fly-over searching for the children? Or have been built with the assistance of subverted aspects of the security forces, and thats a generous description, like the one in the mountains near Ja’ar?

The Sun COPS fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners. The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen. (Read on …)

“The Council for southern peaceful movement” headed by Tareq Al-Fadhli issued a statement on the 25th of this month, the link is here . Al Fadhli was a long time ally of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and handled “the jihaddist file” for the state. In March, al Fadhli defected to the southern independence movement. He has been mum about al Qaeda to this point, and this is the first explicit rejection of the terror group by al Fadhli. Its important to recall the southern independence movement is highly fractured. Several leaderships and factions share the same goal of a reversal of 1990’s unity agreement, but have been unable to coordinate effectively or establish a regional representative mechanism or body. None of the other factions have any history with al Qaeda, beyond being their targets in 1994.

What’s interesting about this statement is that al Fadhli confirms to the United States that Al-Qaeda is the product of the Sanaa regime. He warns of a plot by the regime to frame the southern movement for AQAP. He says he rejects the terror group and their ideology and existence on the Southern lands. He asks all the southerners not to take this group lightly and to expel them from their territories.

My comments: Better late than never, but this is late. However, at least al Fadhli is in touch with reality. Yes, there are al Qaeda camps in the south. The question is the level of al Qaeda’s affiliation with the Sana’a regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, not whether it exists. Southern opposition figurehead, former President al Beidh, keeps claiming there are no terror training camps or al Qaeda presence in the south at all, and that reduces his credibility. Many southerners believe the recent air strikes (which missed all the leaders despite the Yemeni government’s hype) are solely an intimidation tactic against the protesters or a propaganda tactic for the benefit of the US. Some of the targets were authentic al Qaeda camps, and the leaders bugged out before the missiles struck.

Google translation follows:

Statement by the peaceful movement South on the recent strike by the Sanaa regime and Al Qaida (Read on …)

PETN, our new vocabulary word, was used in both the attack of Prince Naif and in the recent airliner incident. In both cases the explosive device was sewn into underware. The Nigerian says he was trained at a camp near Sana’a (Arhab?), and recruited online by a “radical cleric” who facilitated contact with al Qaeda in Yemen. The Yemeni government hasn’t yet recieved any official communications from the US on the matter. Full coverage of the earlier attack on Prince Naif here in my category, Attacks-Prince.

MSNBC: U.S. agencies are looking into whether al-Qaida extremists in Yemen directed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and provided him with the explosives used in the failed bombing of Northwest Flight 253, senior administration officials told NBC News on Saturday. (Read on …)

This one totally went by me the first time I read it. Abdullah al Raimi is thought complicit in a major terror attack in Saudi Arabia in 2003. According to the Yemen Times, Abdullah al Raimi was in the crowd when al Qaeda showed up at the protests in Abyan. Having escaped prison in the 2006 big al Qaeda escape, he was recaptured and released. He was thought cooperating with Yemeni authorities. (Another individual with the same name spent a year in jail and was recently released although it was immediately clear that it was a case of mistaken identity.)

Yemen Times: Al-Jazeera Channel showed part of the protests, Abdullah Ahmad Al-Raimi, Al-Qaeda leader who is currently on the Yemeni government wanted list, was recognized in the crowd. Al-Raimi had escaped from Yemeni security after serving three of the four year sentence he was given by a Yemeni court after he was handed over from Qatar.

from Global Jihad website, a refresher on Abdullah al Raimi:

On 01/09/2004, the Swiss police arrested 10 suspects related to the financing of the Riyadh Suicide Attacks in Saudi Arabia, on 05/12/2003. (Read on …)

Inventors of the Butt Bomb create exploding underware. Nigerian made contact with “radical Iman” by internet then traveled to Yemen for training. Blotter:

The plot to blow up an American passenger jet over Detroit was organized and launched by al Qaeda leaders in Yemen who apparently sewed bomb materials into the suspect’s underwear before sending him on his mission, federal authorities tell ABC News. …According to the authorities, Abdulmutallab says he made contact via the internet with a radical imam in Yemen who then connected him with al Qaeda leaders in a village north of the country’s capital, Sanaa. (Read on …)

Reports are that 350 al Qaeda are in an inaccessible area of Shabwa, Yemen.

A reliable source, al Tagheer: According to the sources, Aulaqi returned to the area and began practicing refusal to live a normal life with his family which is still up to this moment with him and then started preaching to people in the mosque every Friday and began to recognize a group of young people and meet them.

Also in the area, convicted USS Cole bomber Fahd al Quso. That’s really the news here. The guy already blew up a warship, what’s his follow up going to be? This is the last man standing from the 2000 Malaysia meeting where both the USS Cole bombing and 9/11 were planned. Al Quso is on bin Laden’s short list of trusted lieutenants. Al Quso was convicted and sentenced to ten years in jail, escaped, returned and then was granted an early release in 2007 by our ally, the war criminal President Ali Abduallah Saleh. Al Quso was listed as one of the FBI’s most wanted last month.

Just out of pure curiousity, where’s al Badawi and Elbaneh these days? And when oh when will the MSM realize the Yemeni dictatorship is not a reliable source. Its a lying al-Qaeda infiltrated, mafia government that spins the western media time after time with out and out BS.

al Tagheer:

Mohammad Amir change – special – forbid evangelized: denied private sources for “change” is Mohammed Amir Ahmed Saleh, who recently appeared on Al Jazeera Festival in South Yemen as one of the public elements of the al-Qaeda cadres and handled news of his death in a raid yesterday (Thursday) it belonged to al-Qaeda, noting that, only, one of the Wajahat region that has appeared. (Read on …)

Nigerian student studying in the UK flying from the Netherlands to Detroit tries to detonate explosive device he says he obtained from Yemen. BBC:

A Nigerian reported to have links to al-Qaeda is being questioned after an attempted act of terrorism on a plane arriving in the US, officials say.

They say the 23-year-old man was trying to ignite an explosive device as the jet approached Detroit from Amsterdam. (Read on …)

OK one thing is clear, Anwar Awlaki is fine, just fine, despite that crazy media frenzy yesterday reporting his death..

So far seven is the number. Marib Press reports the air strike was on al Quso’s farm and Anwar Alwaki was not killed or injured, neither was Wahishi or al Quso.

al Jazeera: Abdullah al-Faqih, a professor of political science at Sanaa University, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that he was sceptical of the claims being made about al-Awlaki.

“He is the son of a colleague of mine at Sanaa University. His father is an adviser to the president of Yemen. If they really wanted him, they could phone him and tell him to come back to the capital and arrest him. (Read on …)

Update 2: Abdulelah Shayer, who conducted both interviews, confirmed on al Jazeera that Anwar Awlaki is alive.

Update; Nasser Arrabyee reports the five killed were all of the Awlaki tribe and associates of Fahd al Quso, convicted in Yemen as a conspirator in the 2000 al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole. Al Quso escaped in 2004 and was indicted in NY federal court for 50 counts of terrorism. Al Quso was re-jailed and given an early release in 2007.

From the site, the tribal sheikh Lahmar bin Salfooh, said that the five men were comrades of Fahd Al Kusa and that all of them are from Al Awlaki tribe in Shabwah province.

Al Kusa, who was released after being convicted of participating in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, was not among the dead bodies, said Bin Salfooh.

“Fahd Al Kusa is still alive, maybe he was in other place at the time of strike,” he said

“I saw only five dead bodies, three of them from Nesab district including Mohammed Ahmed Omair, and one from Al Saeed district, and the fifth from Ausailan, and all of them are Awlakis,” said bin Salfooh an interview over phone from the site.

Orignal Post: Sources on the ground confirm six al Qaeda were killed in an airstrike in Sahbwa and one random guy driving a tractor. Better. Maybe there were more strikes later that account for the Yemeni government’s figure of 34 killed. AQAP’s head Nasir al Wahishi has been sheltering in Shabwa for some time according to the Yemen government. The Iranian is interesting if true. Mohammad Ahmed Saleh al-Oumir referenced below is the same Mohammmed Saleh Awlaki who rallied the crowd in Abyan, and is (was) known to be an agent of the regime. He is a relative of Fahd al Quso, convicted in the USS Cole bombing. Of course, last we heard of Fahd al Quso was when the Yemen Post reported last year that he was living with his family in Shabwa and receiving money transfers. The The WaPo says the airstrike targeted Anwar Awlaki’s home, where Wahishi and al Shiri were meeting.

AFP: SANAA — Thirty-four suspected Al-Qaeda members were killed Thursday in a dawn air raid by the Yemeni army on an area used by the militant group, a security source said.

“The raid was carried out as dozens of members of Al-Qaeda were meeting in Wadi Rafadh,” a remote mountainous region some 650 kilometres (400 miles) east of the Yemeni capital, the source said, asking not to be named.

The head of Al-Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula, Nasser al-Whaychi, was present at the meeting, the source said, adding that “members of the group including Saad al-Fathani and Mohammad Ahmed Saleh al-Oumir were among those killed.”

The source was unable to say what had happened to Whaychi, but he indicated that Oumir was the person who had recently made a public appearance at a meeting in Abyane of which Al-Jazeera television showed a video.

“Saudis and Iranians at the Wadi Rafadh meeting were also among the dead,” said the source, without going into detail.

The operation came a week after a first army raid that killed 30 Al-Qaeda activists in the southeastern Abyane province and which led to the arrest of more than 30 others.

Reuters: Among those believed killed was Anwar al Awlaki, whom U.S. officials linked to the gunman who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood army base in Texas on November 5. (Read on …)

In a new piece at al Jazeera (Arabic), Yemeni expert on Islamic groups Abdul Elah Shayer interviews Anwar Awlaki, Yemeni-American al Qaeda propagandist.

In the interview Awlaki says Nidal Hassan inquired by email specifically about the Islamic legitimacy of killing US soldiers. Awlaki also seems to be trying to distance himself from a charge of material support. Excerpts from the Aljazeera.net interview with Awlaqi below the fold. (Read on …)

Yemen got a total pass for releasing Fahd al Quso from jail early. Al Quso spent about three years of a ten year sentence after his conviction in a Yemeni court as a conspirator in the USS Cole bombing which killed 17 US service members.

Al Qaeda under fire in Yemen

The Thursday’s operations, which targeted an Al Qaeda training camp in the south, and a group of 8 would-be suicide bombers in the north, have gained a regional and international support. (Read on …)

Khaled al Nabi is cranky because the Yemeni president didn’t give him the land he was promised. Al Nabi took over some government buildings to express his displeasure. Saleh doesn’t keep his promises to the militants any better than he does to the US, meaning they feel no compunction to honor their own parts of the deals. All those presidential agreements with major terrorists are meaningless in terms of real containment.

Jihadists and insurgents in control of the government institutions in Jaar, Zanzibar الأحد , 13 ديسمبر 2009 م Sunday, December 13th, 2009 م

جعار/ التجمع Jaar / assembly
اقتحم مسلحون تابعون للجهادي خالد عبدالنبي عدداً من المؤسسات الحكومية وسيطروا عليها كتعويض للأراضي الذي يدعي خالد عبد النبي انه يمتلك الحق فيها. Fatah gunmen to jihad Khalid Abdul Nabi a number of governmental institutions and took it as compensation for the land, which named Khalid Abdul Nabi, he has a right to them.
وقال عبدالنبي: إنه يمتلك توجيهات خطية من رئيس الجمهورية بتعويضه عن أملاكه التي صرفت كتعويضات لكن السلطات ماطلت لسنوات في تنفيذ توجيهات رئيس الجمهورية ما دفعه لاحتلالها بالقوة. Nabi said: It has written instructions from the president to be compensated for his property that has been spent in compensation, but the authorities procrastinated for years in implementing the directives of the President of the Republic to pay for the occupation force. (Read on …)

Arab Monitor:

Yemen’s government farer away than ever from restoring political stability

Sanaa, 22 December – Saudi Arabian Deputy Defence Minister Khaled bin Sultan admitted that his country’s military intervention in neighbouring Yemen has so far resulted in 73 soldiers killed and 470 wounded, while 26 are missing. According to him, 12 of the missing are believed to have been killed, while the fate of the remaining 14 is still unclear. Following these announcements, the Deputy Defence Minister said his country’s armed forces are mulling an attack on the border village of al-Jabiriya, where the al-Houthi movement is still present. (Read on …)

Blowback 1: Vid: al Qaeda rallies the crowd, that’s so bad, especially in the absence of a competing narrative.

Blowback 2: Conflating air strikes on al Qaeda with air strikes on the Houthis.

CSM: The strikes comes just three days after The New York Times reported that the United States has provided weapons and logistical support to Yemeni government strikes against “suspected hide-outs of Al Qaeda within its borders.” That involvement has raised questions over whether the US has been active in Yemen – and Saudi Arabia’s – fight against the Houthis as well.

There’s hope yet…

German newspapers are reporting that three children kidnapped in Yemen along with their parents June 13 were seen alive in a video. There’s no indication yet about the circumstances of the video or how it was obtained. The German government hasn’t confirmed or denied the reports.

The children’s parents and four other medical workers in the Sa’ada region were taken at gunpoint by unknown persons. Three young nurses were found murdered days later. Besides the children and their parents, a British engineer remains missing in Yemen. See my category “nine hostages” for full coverage since the incident.

The Yemeni government instantly blamed the Houthi rebels for the kidnapping, although there were no indications at all of who was responsible. Along with western investigators, Yemeni authorities launched a search, discovering an al Qaeda traning camp in an abandoned military outpost. Other hypothesis pointed to a power struggle among major drug dealers with the authorities.

At the time of the kidnapping, the rebels and others postulated that the Germans’ kidnapping was a precursor to another war, pointing specifically to the alleged “false flag” attack on the bin Sallem mosque that preceded the fifth Sa’ada war in northern Yemen. War resumed in August, with devastating consequences on the civilian population. (Read on …)

Al Qaeda operatives place their families at great risk by bringing them to the training camps and hide-outs. Whereas the global human instinct is to protect one’s family at all costs, in the al Qaeda philosophy, women and children have no inherent value. Women were created and exist only to serve the patriarch of the family. Sacrificing the company of their families in order to insure the family’s safely is beyond the moral capacity of these selfish fanatics. Normal men would sacrifice themselves for their families. Al Qaeda sacrifice their families for themselves. And they have no hesistation in killing other people’s women and children to make their political statement and intimidate society.

al Jazeera:

Abbas al-Assal, a local human rights activist, said at the time that 64 people were killed, including 23 children and 17 women.

Abdul-Ghani al-Iryani, a political analyst based in Yemen, said that the air raids meant civilian casualties were unavoidable, but that the government could take steps to lessen public anger.

“Unfortunately collateral damage cannot be avoided in operations like this [as] al-Qaeda live with their families in their bases and training camps, so there’s no way of avoiding it,” he told Al Jazeera.

Al-Iryani said the government should announce the names of the al-Qaeda operatives killed in the raid.

“There’s nothing that the government can do in regards to dealing with al-Qaeda per se, but addressing people’s grievances in other issues could increase the credibility of the state,” he said.

Also Al Qaeda spokesmen speak at rally. This is funky: (Read on …)

Solid analysis from Ali Saif Hassan of the YPDF at Time:

“If the government wants to fight [al-Qaeda] seriously, they can do it,” says Ali Saif Hassan, the director of Yemen’s Political Development Forum. But, he adds: “It’s a matter of political decision — how much they will win, and how much they will lose.” Sana’a has recently focused more of its attention on the rebel separatist movement in the south and on the recent Houthi uprising in the north than it has on al-Qaeda.

While some western analysts say that al-Qaeda seeks to overthrow Yemen’s government, Hassan disagrees, saying that al-Qaeda only seeks to establish a base there — a link between the Horn of Africa and the rest of the Arabian Peninsula — and that so long as Saleh leaves al-Qaeda alone, they’ll do the same for him. “The government still sometimes thinks it is too costly for it to fight al-Qaeda. If you ask them to go and fight al-Qaeda, they say ‘Why? And what do I get back?’” says Hassan. Fighting al-Qaeda would mean losing key fundamentalist support in the country, support that is already falling away. What would compel Saleh to turn it around? “It is business,” says Hassan. “If the government gets more support from the Americans, they will change.” The Obama administration has requested $65 million to help Yemen battle its resurgent terrorist threat.

Yemeni local sources report that jihaddists who had earlier fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are now fighting for the Yemeni military in the Sa’ada War against the Houthi rebels. (Read on …)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, its old news, the quid pro quo. The Yemeni regime utilizes al Qaeda on the one hand and facilitates it on the other, while gaining western funding because of its existance. al Teef:

كل هذه الجرائم تمت بعلم السلطة وفي رعايتها عندما كان النظام في حاجة اليهم ،وقد اشرف جهاز الامن
السياسي على معسكرات تدريب لتنظيم القاعدة وشارك في تزوير جوازات سفر لمتطرفين متعددي الجنسيات بدعوى تسفيرهم للجهاد في افغانستان ،وكانت صنعاء اهم محطة لتصدير “المجاهدين الافغان العرب” ولما انتهت المهمة وفرغ النظام من تحقيق اهدافه راح ينقلب على الاصوليين ويستخدم حجة تنظيم القاعدة كفزاعة للعواصم العربية والغربية لكنه في واقع الامر يلعب لعبة الاحتواء المزدوج فهو يسمح لبعضهم بالهرب من السجن ويحرض على اخرين لقتلهم في الصحراء بطائرة اميركية من دون طيار. All of these crimes has been sponsored by the knowledge of power and when the system is in need of them, has overseen the PSO training camps for al Qaeda and participated in the falsification of passports to extremists multinational enter Iraq under the pretext of jihad in Afghanistan, Sanaa had the most important station on the export of “Mujahideen Afghan Arabs” and the The mission ended and completed the system to achieve its objectives claimed would turn on the fundamentalists and al-Qaeda uses the argument of the scarecrow from Arab and Western capitals, but in fact playing a game of dual containment, it allows them to escape from prison and to incite others to kill American aircraft in the desert without a pilot. (Read on …)

In an effort to diminish the blowback, would it have been so difficult for Mullen to mention something about the importance of distinguishing between combatants and civilians? He must have heard the reports of the women and children killed. I understand the onus is on the spree-killer al Qaeda fanatics who do not wear uniforms and who shelter among the local populations. Nonetheless, its an honor based society, the kids are dead and its possible that Saleh will be gone soon.

AP, ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT — Adm. Mike Mullen is applauding a military strike in Yemen against suspected members of the al-Qaida terrorist group. (Read on …)

When a counter-terror air strike kills more civilians than an average suicide bombing, can it be called a success? Discounting the dead kids for just a minute and using even the coldest pragmatic standards, the US air strikes in Yemen did much more harm than good to the US on multiple levels and will negatively impact security for a decade. Despite the broad pro-democracy sentiment in Yemen, and increasingly vocal popular frustration with Yemen’s brutal and incompetent dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh, the only allies the US has in Yemen now are the genocidal Saleh and his corrupt cronies. (Read on …)

Sahwa Net – Main Yemeni opposition parties, the Joint Meeting Parties, in Abyan governorate has denounced assaults launched by Yemeni forces on alleged al-Qaeda sites on Thursday in Abyan, describing the strikes as a “brutal massacre”. (Read on …)

Al Qaeda in Yemen has a recruiting tool for a decade now, locally and internationally.

Gulf News: The leader of Al Qaida in Abyan, Mohammad Saleh Al Kazimi, was confirmed to be among those killed. The second man in Al Qaida in Yemen, Qasim Al Raimi, reportedly survived the attack. Ten of the Al Qaida members killed in Thursday’s attacks were not Yemenis, according to the report. Between 24-34 Al Qaida members were reportedly killed in the attack, but independent sources and eyewitnesses say that nearly 50 were killed and 60 injured including women and children.

So 25 innocent people were killed and 60 wounded preventing a possible terror attack in Yemen. What is the calculus? The value of 25 unidentified dead possible al Qaeda outweighs the loss the 14 dead dirt poor Bedouin kids? That seems a bit racist. Would the equation be acceptable if they were European kids? What is the ratio of the death value of Yemeni kids to foreign tourists? The celebratory call that followed the air strikes was premature.

WaPo: The United States provided intelligence and other assistance to Yemeni forces in attacks Thursday against suspected al-Qaeda targets, according to officials from both countries…U.S. officials refused to comment Friday on a report by ABC News that U.S. air-launched cruise missiles had been used in two of the attacks. The network said that the launches had been approved by the White House and that President Obama had called President Ali Abdullah Saleh to congratulate him on Yemen’s efforts against al-Qaeda.

Maybe its hard to get good intell from under the bus…

NYTimes: U.S. Aids Yemeni Raids on Al Qaeda, Officials Say

WASHINGTON — The United States provided firepower, intelligence and other support to the government of Yemen as it carried out raids this week to strike at suspected hide-outs of Al Qaeda within its borders, according to officials familiar with the operations. The officials said that the American support was approved by President Obama and came at the request of the Yemeni government.

The American contributions were intended to help Yemen to prevent Al Qaeda from mounting attacks against American and other foreign targets inside its borders. Officials declined to say whether those targets were embassies, businesses, schools or other sites. (Read on …)

And Qasim al Reimi escaped. Not that it would be any better if they got him. Is this kid less worthy of life than American or European kids? The pictures of the dead Yemeni children are always hard to take, and theres so many, but these deaths could have been avoided with a little intelligent foresight. (Read on …)

At the risk of stating the obvious, if they are unidentified, how does the Yemeni government know they are al Qaeda? Because they’re dead and the right age? The four listed as arrested in Abyan were found in hospitals.

Al Motamar: The Interior Ministry said the elements of al-Qaeda organisation who were arrested were wounded on Thursday in the raid that targeted al-Qaeda training camp, three kilometers from Al-Maajala area. (Read on …)

It was a training camp with tents, the Yemeni government says, not a traditional Bedouin village in Abyan. And they surrounded the “al Qaeda camp” and launched a ground assault after the bombing. CNN doesn’t mention the civilian casualties (broadcast on al Jazeera) or MPs statements calling for an inquiry into what appears to be a airstrike on a civilians or even former president al Beidh who predictably issued a long poetic missive in Arabic only. They, and many others, regurgitated the Yemeni government’s line in its entirety. The language barrier is the opposition’s to overcome. Love this: “Qassim Al-Raymi, the military commander for al Qaeda in Yemen and two ‘known’ accomplices were able to flee…” Unbelievable. Presumably they meant the Arhab raid, not the Abyan one, although its muddy from the reporting.

(CNN) — An airstrike in Yemen earlier this week killed a leading al Qaeda figure there, a Yemeni government official said Friday.

The official, who is not named because he is not authorized to speak to the media, told CNN that Mohammed Saleh Mohammed Ali Al-Kazemi was killed in an airstrike in the southern province of Abyan on Thursday, along with “scores of operatives.” (Read on …)

After all this time and all the lies and all the elaborate hoaxes on the al Qaeda issue, who in the world takes Ali Abdullah Saleh at his word? Who, really?

The tens of millions offered by the Millennium Challenge Account didn’t spur any real reform, and apparently the winning smile just doesn’t cut it in Yemen either.

There’s been enough civilian slaughter in Sa’ada under the guise of counter-insurgency to warrent a war crimes tribunal. And there’s been enough in the South. A bogus counter-terror operation (or a sincere one, but we’ll never see that) doesn’t legitimize US support of a mass murderer.

SANAA (Reuters) – Yemen’s opposition accused the government on Friday of killing dozens of civilians, including whole families, in raids a day earlier which the authorities said had killed about 30 al Qaeda militants. (Read on …)

Lets review. a) Qasim al Reimi manages to escape just minutes before the raid north of Sana’a in Arhab. Looks good on paper if you believe in fairy tales. b) Yemen bombs a Bedouin village in Abyan, where separatist sentiments are running high, killing over 60. The Yemeni military say the dead number 30 and were al Qaeda but the photos show women and children. The casualty lists show extremely poor Bedouin families wiped out en masse c) Obama calls Saleh and says “Good Job!” The Western media uses headlines like “Yemen Forces Strike Al Qaeda, Kill 34.” Its like deja vu all over again.

YemenOnline.Decembe 18- Three of al Qaeda members escaped from the last military attack carried out by security forces in a number of areas in Yemen yesterday.Kassim Al-Reami,Hisam Mogali and the third one is believed to be a non-Yemeni have escaped during the attack into unknown area .

al Jazeera: At least 34 people have been killed in raids on suspected al-Qaeda hide-outs and training sites in Yemen, security officials have said. (Read on …)

Update 5: Mareb Press: Where said raw statistics obtained by the site of Marib Press Fifty people were killed in the Abyan province, mainly women and children in addition to the death of eighteen an element of al Qaeda were killed and more than seventy other people were taken to each hospital in the Abyan and Al-Razi hospital in Aden, Captain , while the outcome of the confrontations in the Directorate of four people, welcome to Al Qaeda and three wounded were in critical condition and expected death, some by private sources. (Read on …)

Yes, the PSO and other Yemeni security agencies are seriously compromised by al Qaeda infiltration. The Saudi intell in Sana’a are working with Prince Ahmed Saleh, who heads the Special Forces and Republican Guard. So far, in the Sa’ada War, Saudi Arabia is helping President Saleh with money, media propaganda, intell on the ground, tanks and other weaponry, fatwas, a naval blockade, arrests and deportations and air support including bombing villages. Meanwhile Saleh, with all due bluster and pomp, hotly rejects external interference or mediation. The article mentions Qamish, head of the PSO, who had the pissing match with al Qaeda cell leader Hamza al Qaiti after a trio of mortar attacks early in 2008. Al Qaiti blamed al Qamish for a double cross (or faulty equpment) when the mortars missed. Al Qaiti was killed shortly thereafter and before the September 2008 attack on the US embassy.

UPI Dec. 15 — Saudi Arabia’s intelligence service has established a station in Yemen’s capital ostensibly to help coordinate a joint campaign against northern Shiite rebels along the kingdom’s border.

But its main task is understood to be hunting down the Yemen-based operatives of a resurgent al-Qaida that threatens the Saudi monarchy, and eliminating them with extreme prejudice…The Saudi General Intelligence Presidency, the kingdom’s principal intelligence agency, set up its Sanaa operation in June following talks between King Abdallah and Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for 40 years. (Read on …)

Should generate a bit of disarray in the flow but won’t change the goal

(CBS) Al Qaeda Leader Believed Killed by Drone Said to Be Strategist for Moving Militants From Pakistan to Yemen

The man responsible for executing part of al Qaeda’s strategy to move the terrorist groups’ Arab militant fighters out of the Afghanistan-Pakistan region to Yemen may be dead, senior Pakistani security officials and Arab diplomats in Pakistan have told CBS News. (Read on …)

Sa’ada, Marib?

To be clear, I think the Western diplomat who said that bin Laden may be in Yemen was trying to explain why they didn’t find him in Afghanistan after all these years. It is not the precurser to a military action or any reflection of official US policy. And yes, Zawaheri is the one running much of the show now. Bin Laden and Zawaheri have individual and unique sets of relationships and history within Yemen that sometimes overlap.

MSNBC

There is some speculation among the diplomatic community in Islamabad that Bin Laden may no longer be in the border areas. One likely location, according to Western diplomats, would be Yemen. U.S. officials, however, say they have no evidence that he has left the border area and believe he is still there.

Bin Laden no longer has operational control of al-Qaida, but instead has delegated much of his authority to Zawahiri and whoever is the director of international operations. His role now is largely symbolic, with his video and audio messages now more commentary than calls to action.

But if you see him…

This poor guy, who has the misfortune of being named Abdullah al Reimi, was picked up nearly two years ago in a case of mistaken identity. The Yemeni official media made the standard announcements (big al Qaeda arrest!) and the wires picked up it, but within days it was proven that it was the wrong guy. He’s finally getting out. The whereabouts of the real Abdullah al Reimi are unknown, last we heard he was in Dhamar preaching violent jihad at a mosque but that was years ago. The original reports on all of the above are on the site somewhere.

al Masdar

أفرج جهاز الأمن السياسي بصنعاء أمس الثلاثاء عن عبدالله غازي الريمي بعد اعتقاله “بالخطأ” لقرابة عاميـن نتيجة تشابه اسمه مع أحد المطلوبيـن أمنياً. Released the Political Security in Sana’a on Tuesday Ghazi Abdullah al-Rimi after he was arrested “by mistake” for nearly two years as similarity of his name with one of the wanted men. (Read on …)

al Motamar spins the reduction in sentences.

Criminal Section specialized in issues of the state cases in Yemen, chaired by Judge Mohammed al-Hakimi on Tuesday judged the approval of imprisonment of the first defendant Usama Muhsin Assadi for seven years, reducing the sentence of the second defendant Isam Ali Ghailan for to 4 years and a half, reducing g the sentence of the third defendant Munir Hassan al-Buni from 7 to 4.5 years. (Read on …)

We covered this story before but we’re doing it again as it includes the reports of the drones over Marib. Yemen Observer, English language government paper…

YEMEN – Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists were behind the assassination of Colonel Tarboush, the head of the investigative office in Marib, according to a Ministry of Interior security authority. (Read on …)

So glad they are paying attention and that the whole statement wasn’t about al Qaeda. They actually mentioned the refugees, food and medicine!

Matoob Business WASHINGTON – The United States and its international partners must “use all appropriate measures” to keep Yemen from becoming a “failed state,” the US Senate said in a recently approved resolution. (Read on …)

The Republican Guard is headed by President Saleh’s son, Prince Ahmed. Who could al Beidh be referring to as “a leading member of the ruling regime”, certainly not Ali al Ansi, President Saleh’s personal secretary since 1982 and former head of the National Security. The general consensus among the western secure-ocrats is the subversion by al Qaeda doesn’t go that high in the Yemeni adminstration. I really hope they are right because if they’re wrong, its a whole differant ball game. As an aside, sometimes when Yemenis say al Qaeda (real al Qaeda) are members of the security, they mean that the terrorsts receive officer’s pay from a particular branch of the security forces or military.

Gulf News

Some reports spoke of an increasing presence of Al Qaida in the south? How do you see this dangerous trend?

I have already spoken about this issue and said that the Sana’a regime will play this card too to distort the image of the peaceful movement in the south, which has nothing to do with Al Qaida whatsoever. I hereby stress that the south has never been a land that would tolerate an ideology such as Al Qaida’s. On the contrary, this terror network has built a strong alliance with the regime in Sana’a, engineered and supervised by a leading member of the ruling regime. This is known by regional states, Egypt and the United States. I don’t exaggerate when I say that some leaders of Al Qaida are in fact officers in the Republican Guard. (Read on …)

The video is of the assassination of a security chief who al Qaeda claimed was complicit in the death of al Harithy in 2002. What a crazy world, the poor guy. At least they didn’t behead him, the way these murderers do in other parts of the world. Its interesting the way al Harithy’s death is considered un-avenged, while Fawaz al Raibi’s 2006 killing didn’t strike the same tribal cord. One distinction is that the US killed al Harithy (and US citizen Kamal al Darwish) with Predator drone. Perhaps the broader message is a threat against the same type of (rather effective) aerial targeting of terrorist leadership by the US as occurs in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and in parts of Africa. The video doesn’t show the moment of death and follows the other “al Qaeda assassination” of the three security chiefs in revenge for the killing of Hamza al Qaiti that triggered the protests in Hadramout, demanding the regime bring the true killers to justice.

DUBAI, Nov 26 (Reuters) – Al Qaeda’s wing in Yemen said it shot dead an abducted Yemeni security official, and issued a video showing him on Islamist websites on Thursday.

“I advise people not to get involved in actions (such as mine) … and not to be drawn into working for American intelligence,” said a blindfolded man, identifying himself on the video as Bassam Tarbush, a provincial security official. (Read on …)

Thats been my impression for quite some time; the history between the Yemeni al Qaeda and AQ Central brings the threat level to a higher degree. There’s a variety of national, jihad deploying splinter groups globally, all competing for the terror leaders’ recognition and ensuing status. But AQC trusts old school AQY, these were always the body guards and drivers for a good reason. They don’t need to talk it up. Its Wahishi’s chattiness that was a reason to discount him from the get-go as a stooge, a front and publicity hound. He’s got some mojo, but the old guard is often unjustifiably dismissed as actually rendered harmless by Saleh’s deals. Its those old reliable ties that are the most troubling. Identity politics is the norm in Yemen including in al Qaeda.

If all the certified al Qaeda terrorists in Yemen called bin Laden at once, possibly the first call he would answer would be from Fahd al Qaso, the last man standing from the 2000 Malaysia meeting, (the al Qaeda summit where the Cole bombing and 9/11 were solidified). Al Quso was last sighted in Shabwa, where al Awlaki is. Where exactly is Jaber Elbanneh and Jamal Al Badawi, besides overshadowed by the AQAP vids, magazines and statements? Nasir al Wahishi was close to UBL, and I dont want to know the details (beyond what we can extrapolate from the fact that Yemeni al Qaeda wear women’s clothing, make-up and invented the butt bomb). The primary issue with catastrophic attacks is, who does AQC trust with the essential information, who is the most trusted conduit? That’s often a function of decades of history, shared culture, personal relationships and the ease of familiarity. There’s an overlapping Zawaheri branch quite well connected, but it sometimes goes through different and occasionally official channels, methinks. Somehow when Yemeni jihaddists want to attack Saudi Arabia, its a big issue, but not the prior years (the quietness period) when they attacked and killed civilians in Iraq.

LONDON (Reuters) – Al Qaeda’s Yemen wing is probably the most dangerous of its regional offshoots since it is closest to the leadership and seeks to attack oil giant Saudi Arabia, a U.N. counter-terrorism official said.

Richard Barrett, Coordinator of the U.N. Taliban-al Qaeda Sanctions Monitoring Committee (ed-the 1267 committee) , added the menace of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was compounded by its ability to hide in unstable Yemen and the boldness of its ambition, shown by an attack on Saudi Arabia’s security chief in August.

“The most dangerous group is AQAP,” he told Reuters on Monday, saying it was seeking to attract Saudis in militant circles, “a lot” of whom were intent on attacking the kingdom. (Read on …)

From al Teef, this is a google translated part of an longer article.

Spectrum network – report – and a serious public

حقيقة ما يدور في جعار..!! The truth of what is going on in Jaar ..!!

ما أن تطال قدماك مدينة جعار وشوارعها ينتابك إحساس وشعور غريب ما يجري في دهاليزها المخيفة, مع تعتيم على حقيقة الوضع هناك، فهي تعاني كثيراً من المشاكل والصراعات “الكيدية” بين اتهامات السلطة ومقاومة المجاميع المسلحة التي تنتقم لجماعاتها وأقاربها الذين قتلوا في مواجهة حطاط”2003″م وما لحق بهم من أضرار بين ما كان يسمى بجماعة خالد عبد النبي المتهم بزعيم جماعات الجهاد الإسلامي جيش عدن أبين, وبين قوات الأمن والجيش في ضل غياب الحقيقة واعتماد الرأي العام على المصدر الرسمي , وتعتمد عليه الكثير من وسائل الإعلام المختلفة, دون البحث عن حقيقة ما يجري في أرض الواقع. What your feet do not reach the city of Jaar and streets you just get a strange feeling and a sense of what is happening in the corridors frightening, with blackout reality of the situation, they have a lot of problems and conflicts, “malicious” charges between power and resistance to armed groups that are retaliating to their own and their relatives who were killed in the face of Hatat “2003 “M and the damage suffered what was called the group Khalid Abdul Nabi, the accused leader of the militant groups Islamic Army of Aden-Abyan, and between security forces and the army lost in the absence of truth and public opinion on the adoption of the official source, and depend upon a lot of different media, without searching for what is happening on the ground. (Read on …)

Update 2: Released unharmed, November 24.

Update: The governor of Sana’a says he is still with the original group of tribal kidnappers and negotiations are underway. Yemeni officials do not have a great record of telling the truth but in this case I hope its true.

If the imprisoned tribesman is 22, then he was 14 when he went to fight in Iraq??
“Sources at the Inferior Ministry confirmed that he person from Arahab tribes because of who was the kidnapping incident is accused of his affiliation to al-Qaeda organisation, who is Hussein Abdullah Hussein Qoub, fought in Iraq for two years and settled in Syria for one year and in Lebanon for another year and he was arrested after his return from Iraq four years ago.”

Original Post: Damn. An earlier report here. As an aside, the reason the 22 year old was held by the state without charges after fighting in Iraq is that jihad (murder) abroad is not illegal in Yemen and is often encouraged by the President on national TV, for example during the Lebanon crisis.

Hammoud Mounassar, AFP Al-Qaeda gunmen have seized a Japanese engineer from his tribal kidnappers in Yemen, a tribal source who has been seeking to negotiate his release said on Saturday.

“The hostage was seized by elements of Al-Qaeda, who took him to an unknown destination in the Maarib region,” east of the capital, Sanaa, one of two tribal mediators told AFP on condition of anonymity. (Read on …)

Dude! Sanhan is the President’s village. Somalia, yes. But who owns that website,Saru Hamyir? I never heard of it. From the Long War Journal:

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has opened a new training camp in the South. The new camp highlights Yemen’s value to al Qaeda in waging its global terror campaign.

The camp is based in the Al Jaza area in the district of Mudiyah in the southern province of Abyan. The camp is said to house more than 400 local and foreign fighters. Yemenis, Saudis, and Somalis make up the vast majority of the fighters.

The camp was established with the approval of the central government, according to a report in Saru Hamyir, an Arabic-language Yemeni news website. The existence of the camp was confirmed by US military and intelligence officials familiar with the region.

The weak Yemeni government is known to support al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula while targeting jihadi groups that do not adhere to a peace agreement signed in January. (Read on …)

Tribesmen in Yemen have kidnapped foreigners for years in order to pressure the government for the release of family members, often held as official hostages by the state or as a result of a tribal dispute. The Yemeni government cares not a whit about kidnapped Yemenis, ergo its the foreigners who get snatched. In this case, the Japanese engineer is being held as ransom for an al Qaeda member, and the Yemeni government lied (again, no surprise there) about the success of the negotiations. The regime’s lack of a counter-terror posture and prior accommodations to terrorists only encourages this behavior. At the same time, the lack of equitable redress in the form of a functional legal system is the fundamental root of the kidnapping phenomenon.

Yemen Post According to sources close to the Japanese engineer who preferred to be anonymous, the kidnappers didn’t release the Japanese engineer yet.

“There were conflicting reports about the release of the Japanese engineer kidnapped in Arhab and I confirm that tribal mediation did not succeed so far in the release of the kidnapped Japanese”, the source said. (Read on …)

Iran accusing anyone of state terrorism is rather ironic.

Kansas City: Iran’s chief of staff has warned Saudi Arabia over its military offensive against Shiite Yemeni rebels, saying it signals the start of “state terrorism” and endangers the entire region. (Read on …)

281 machine guns could spell trouble, Mumbai style. The cache is linked to the 44 arrested educated Saudis who were thought to be financing the weapons purchases. What is says about AQAP is a whole other story.

Saudi Gazette

RIYADH/DUBAI – New details have emerged concerning the discovery of the weapons stash at an “istiraha” rest house near Riyadh and the arrest of 44 suspected Al-Qaeda members which were announced at the beginning of November. (Read on …)

Ah, in typical American fashion, the contents of murderer Major Nidal Hasan’s emails to Anwar Awlaki (Yemeni-American pro-sectarian-violence blogger) are starting to trickle out.

the Blotter: United States Army Major Nidal Hasan told a radical cleric considered by authorities to be an al-Qaeda recruiter, “I can’t wait to join you” in the afterlife, according to an American official with top secret access to 18 e-mails exchanged between Hasan and the cleric, Anwar al Awlaki, over a six month period between Dec. 2008 and June 2009. (Read on …)

Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Shaea interviewed proponent of violent jihad and blogger, Yemeni-American Anwar Awlaki about his relationship with Nidal Hasan who carried out the random murder spree at Fort Hood in Texas. On behalf of the Washington Post, Shaea traveled to Anwar’s home in Shabwa governorate. (The Yemeni government claimed they couldn’t find Awlaki…) Awlaki maintains that he did not instigate Hasan to engage in any specific acts of violence, although he approves.

Aulaqi said Hasan viewed him as a confidant. “It was clear from his e-mails that Nidal trusted me. Nidal told me: ‘I speak with you about issues that I never speak with anyone else,’ ” he told Shaea…

Of the dozen or so e-mails, said Shaea, Aulaqi replied to Hasan two or three times. Aulaqi declined to comment on what he told Hasan. Asked whether Hasan mentioned Fort Hood as a target in his e-mails, Shaea declined to comment.
Aulaqi said Hasan’s alleged shooting spree was allowed under Islam because it was a form of jihad. “There are some people in the United States who said this shooting has nothing to do with Islam, that it was not permissible under Islam,” he said, according to Shaea. “But I would say it is permissible. . . . America was the one who first brought the battle to Muslim countries.”

The cleric also denounced what he described as contradictory behavior by Muslims who condemned Hasan’s actions and “let him down.” According to Shaea, he said: “They say American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan should be killed, so how can they say the American soldier should not be killed at the moment they are going to Iraq and Afghanistan?”

Two more Saudi soldiers killed. Over 400 Saudi villages evacuated and reports emerge from regime of Pakistani (?) fighters with the Houthis. Abdullah al Houthi arrested inside SA, amid reports the rebels are intercepting Saudi communications. A bunch of arrests but longtime commander Yousef al Madani got away. Saudis still bombing miles inside Yemen.

Expat Southern leaders can’t get it together. Al Beidh’s Iran idea didn’t go over well, I hope. Its not a good idea at all. Regime accuses al Fadhli of mobilizing his
fighters. The movement is more fractured than ever. YP reports it was “Samih Ahmed Awadh Al-Halbeh one of Sami Diyan’s group who was caught at Hardh area while he was trying to escape outside the Yemeni territories.”

The murky story of the three assassinated security chiefs continues with Hadhramout tribes holding a meeting Monday in Taribah about the killings of the 3 security officers. They are expected to demand that Sana’a bring the actual killers to justice. The families have the same demand, and the funerals have not taken place yet. One theory is its yet another false flag attack and the killers were assassins paid by powerful and well-connected drug traffickers. Before Ali Salim Al Amri (from Hadramout) was appointed in July 2009, the traffickers had a good working arrangement with the previous security bosses who were northerners. All of which begs the question of Al Qaeda’s claim of responsibility as beautifully demonstrated by the following Yemen Observer write-up: Yemen Observer (Read on …)

Yemen Post:

Yemen said on Thursday the police had arrested ten fugitives including seven Qaeda suspects. The arrested included the leader of Al-Qaeda in Abyan Sami Dayan who was held on the Yemeni-Saudi border while trying to leave Yemen. (Read on …)

Update: both Pentagon and US Embassy deny deal inked; what they signed was the minutes of the meeting.

Original Post: A few days ago a leading Saudi member of Yemen’s Al Qaeda called for men to join with President Saleh’s forces in battling the Houthi rebels. It really would be a bit sticky now (or is it just me) if the US was to arm and train them.

AFP Yemen said on Wednesday that it had signed a military cooperation deal with the United States although the US embassy would confirm only that talks had been held on joint counterterrorism efforts. (Read on …)

Xinhuanet: – An al-Qaida-linked group in Yemen warned Tuesday the Yemeni and Saudi majority Sunnis against Shiite Iran’s dangerous plots.

In an audio recording posted on an Islamist website, Mohamed bin Abdul Rahman al-Rashid, one of the Saudi most wanted suspected terrorist, said “Shiite Iran poses an extreme danger to Sunnis of Yemen and Saudi Arabia than Jews or Christians.”

“Driven by a greed to take over Muslim countries, Shiite Iran has long been plotting to install a Hezbollah-like group to occupy areas at the joint-border of Yemen and Saudi Arabia,” al-Rashid added, inciting the Saudi-Yemeni Sunni Muslims to “fight Iran-backed Shiite rebels.”

Yemen’s al Qaeda is coming down on the side of Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government against the rebels and Iran. That’s an amazing maneuver right there, an al Qaeda statement recruiting for the Yemeni government in the Sa’ada War.

Yemeni-American terror advocate and penpal to murderer Nidal Hasan, Anwar Awlaki was never charged with a crime in Yemen or the US. He had one of those “Saleh” deals – he promised to refrain from all violent activity within Yemen and they let him released him from jail. Its quite a common arrangement. But he stopped checking in nine months ago. His former cell mate as noted in the article later had a role in a terror bombing in Syria.

AP — A radical American imam who communicated with the Fort Hood shooting suspect and called him a hero was once arrested in Yemen on suspicion of giving religious approval to militants to conduct kidnappings. Yemeni authorities are now hunting for Anwar al-Awlaki to determine whether he has al-Qaida ties.

Al-Awlaki, who has used his personal Web site to encourage Muslims around the world to kill U.S. troops in Iraq, disappeared in Yemen eight months ago, according to his father (former Minister of Agriculture and previous head of Sana’a University). Yemeni security officials say they believe he is hiding in a region of the mountainous nation that has become a refuge for Islamic militants. In August Anwar excitedly blogged about a battle in Marib between Yemeni forces and al Qaeda.)
(Read on …)

The Yemen Post has a write up of the attack on the three security officers. AFP reports AQAP said the attack which was “in support of our brothers in the prisons of Hadramut, Sanaa and others and in revenge for anyone who has the intention of harming the mujahedeen.” But like the kidnapping of the foreign medical workers, theres an overlay of a substantial criminal drug syndicate in the landscape. Who benefits financially from the murders is a legitmate question. To follow is a bad google translation of an article from Aden Press, a Yemen southern opposition publication.

Aden Press
Hadramout – London “Aden Press” special: 4 – 11 – 2009
في الوقت الذي أعلنت وسائل الاعلام في صنعاء عن بدء فريق الادلة الجنائية بإجراء تحقيقا واسعا وجمع الاستدلالات عن منفذي الهجوم الارهابي الذي نفذته مجموعة من المهربين تنتمي للمحافظات الشمالية واستهدف حياة مسئولين أمنيين للامن العام والسياسي وإصابة (3) أخرين في العملية التي لم تعلن أي جهة مسئوليتها عن الحادث وسط معلومات ترجح أن تنظيم القاعدة في اليمن وراء العملية While the media announced in Sanaa, the start of forensic team to conduct an investigation and a wide collection of evidence and for the perpetrators of the terrorist attack carried out by a group of smugglers belonged to the northern governorates and the attempt on the life of the security officials of public security, political and injury (3) others in the process that no one has claimed responsibility about the incident, amid suggest that al-Qaeda in Yemen was behind the operation ، غير أن مصادر خاصة في حضرموت أكدت لـ” عدن برس ” بأن المنفذين للعملية جماعة تنتمي لمهربين من كبار قادة الاجهزة الامنية المحافظات الشمالية . , But private sources in Hadramout confirmed for “Eden Press” that the perpetrators of the process group belonging to smugglers top security chiefs to the northern governorates. (Read on …)

Yemen has released hoards of jihaddists in order to use them as informers for the state, or so they say at every mass release or high profile terrorist who walks free. And there have been many. The Yemeni government insists always that they know exactly where the wanted terrorists are, and I believe it. But the fact remains the Yemeni government is unwilling or unable to to arrest these al Qaeda individuals who insist random violence against civilians is justified and have executed terror operatons. The arrangement is like loose house arrest on steroids, loose village arrest perhaps. The US-Yemeni version of the containment policy has a few flaws for all concerned.

Yemen Tribune MARIB, 30 Oct — Security measures around oil installations and vital government institutions in the northeastern province of Marib have been tightened fearing al-Qaeda ‘imminent’ attack, the Media Centre at the Ministry of Interior said in a statement on its website on Friday, adding “security was stepped up to avert any al-Qaeda attack.” “Security agencies in the province of Marib continue to hunt down al-Qaeda operatives in the region and will bring them to justice,” said the statement, stressing “their movements are monitored round the clock and a security fence has been established around them which they cannot penetrate or escape its surveillance.” The centre said “security organizations in Marib don’t rule out the possibility that terror elements might carry out sabotage and terror operations to impel security to cease chasing them,” adding “any adventure of this kind will fail and security police have been put on high alert.”

Earlier, child kidnap hostage freed from tribesmen after gunfight, see update.

Redux: from The New York Times:

Gunmen ambushed a government motorcade in the eastern Yemeni province of Hadramawt on Tuesday, killing three top provincial officials and three guards in an attack that had all the hallmarks of Al Qaeda’s regional arm…. (Read on …)

Article dated Oct 12, haven’t gotten to it until now.

Dawn:

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has handed over to Saudi Arabia two sons of top Yemeni Al Qaeda leader Alawi who masterminded the suicide attack on Saudi Deputy Interior Minister Prince Mohammad bin Nayef in Jeddah last month. (Read on …)