Armies of Liberation

There was a deal from the time of the Cole bombing that is relatively unbroken until today. Fahd had to deny that he is Saleh’s stooge because the public perception is that they are nothing but guns for hire.

Memri: Indicted USS Cole Bomber Fahd Al-Quso Strongly Denies Association with Yemeni Regime

The September 19, 2011 issue of the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi featured an interview with Fahed Al-Quso, a senior operative of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), wanted by the US for involvement in the bombing of the USS Cole. Al-Quso discusses the situation in Yemen, as well as the ongoing clashes in the south of the country between government forces and a previously unknown jihad group called “Ansar Al-Shari’a,” supposedly linked to Al-Qaeda.

We’ll know if he gets a spread in the mag.

Yemen Observer; Over 26 al-Qaida militants and 10 Yemeni troopers, including a colonel, have been killed in fierce confrontations between the Yemeni forces and insurgents of al-Qaeda in the Arabia Peninsula (AQAP) in Abyan province, over the past 24 hours, said an official military source on Monday.

The source added that 38 militants and 30 soldiers also were wounded when al-Qaeda militants intercepted advancing army troops in Dawfas, west of Zinjubar, capital of Abyan province.

Also an official source at the ministry of interior said that over 300 al-Qaeda operatives have been killed since the start of the battles between the Yemeni military and security forces and between al-Qaeda militants in Abyan province that broke out in May 2011.

According to local information from Abyan, Nasser Al Wahayshi escaped from Zinjubar to MuKairas on Thursday July 21, 2011 after the government troops and tribesmen tightened the noose on his fighters in the city and its outskirts. Mukairas is close to Al Wahayshi village, Ghail Al Wahayshi in Al Baidah province.

al Teef: A medical source said hospital Bazib the military’s “network spectrum,” said the hospital received this afternoon the body of a dead al-Qaeda, the source said military sources said it was up to a leading figure in the al-Qaeda, “Nasser al-Wahishi,” saying it the first time in which they are bringing the body of one of al-Qaeda to Aden .
(Read on …)

The Atlantic: In the late 1990s, Awlaki was approached by an al-Qaeda facilitator known as Ziyad Khaleel, who performed simple tasks for the terror network, for example paying for a satellite phone to be used by Osama bin Laden. Khaleel and Awlaki were both connected to a Yemeni charity, founded by an associate of bin Laden. Awlaki served as its vice president for a time. (Read on …)

The good news: obviously they have no access to nuclear materials despite that constant rhetoric. This oddly timed US announcement relates to intel announced in Dec 2010 by the Saudis as the purported poison perfume plot . Update: this article at Global Security decimates the Times article.

MSNBC: American counterterrorism officials are increasingly concerned that the most dangerous regional arm of Al Qaeda is trying to produce the lethal poison ricin, to be packed around small explosives for attacks against the United States.

For more than a year, according to classified intelligence reports, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen has been making efforts to acquire large quantities of castor beans, which are required to produce ricin, a white, powdery toxin that is so deadly that just a speck can kill if it is inhaled or reaches the bloodstream.

Intelligence officials say they have collected evidence that Qaeda operatives are trying to move castor beans and processing agents to a hideaway in Shabwa Province, in one of Yemen’s rugged tribal areas controlled by insurgents. The officials say the evidence points to efforts to secretly concoct batches of the poison, pack them around small explosives, and then try to explode them in contained spaces, like a shopping mall, an airport or a subway station. (Read on …)

The Miami Herald reports on Nashiri’s legal teams’ motion to take the death penalty off the table. Beyond challenging the legality of the death penalty on the basis of torture, delay and jurisdiction, the lawyers should assert the Nuremberg defense: Nashiri was just following government orders.

The (pdf) motion makes the point that Nashiri’s lawyers are unable to travel to Yemen to investigate exculpatory evidence and mitigating circumstances.

There is a strong circumstantial case that the Saleh regime, or top elements of it, had foreknowledge of the attack and furthermore, facilitated the murder of 17 US service members.

Saleh’s Interior Minister Hussain Arab issued the travel documents that afforded Nashiri free passage prior to and after the attack, as well as weapons permits. (Arab was later appointed to the Shura Council and remained a Major General in the army until he resigned a few months ago.) Saleh sent several top Yemeni officials to Port Aden the evening prior to the terror attack. The Saleh regime obstructed the US investigation. Nashiri was sheltered in Yemen immediately after the bombing with the knowledge of government officials. All those tried and convicted in Yemen for the terror attack were released years early, including al Quso and al Badawi, per a deal with Saleh. There are also witnesses in Yemen who say Nashiri is “wearing a shirt to big,” and culprits (in the government) were never charged.

Its not news. Why Bush (and DOD) gave Saleh a pass on the USS Cole attack, and why Obama called him “a friend” a few months ago, is beyond me. Saleh is no friend to the US. For more on the miscarriage of justice, for the victims not their murderers, see my friend Gary Swenchonis Sr.

A bunch of overdue AQAP links and articles: First, business as usual: Sadiq al Ahmar said 16 of the recent al Qaeda escapees are living in villas in Sanaa, and other al Qaeda members are in the counter-terror forces, Republican Guard and Central Security. Its typical; we listed names of some of the AQ in the CT forces some years ago. Its well documented that other al Qaeda terrorists receive no-show salaries from the army or intelligence forces. The regime spun it as “rehabilitation,” until they needed a deniable proxy. The US dismissed them as “militants” but now the US is droning “militants” with no clear affiliation to al Qaeda or any transnational terror organization.

Yesterday, in an interview with Al Sheba, about what promoted the power of “the existence of al-Qaeda in Yemen”, Shekh Sadiq al Ahmar stressed that the so-called al-Qaeda elements are out of the house of the presidency and they exist in an anti-terrorist forces and the Republican Guard and the Central Security, noting that 16 members of Al Qaeda leaders who fled from the prison of Al-Mukalla month the past, “present in the villas in the capital alone to them the system in it.” He added, “The system uses the al-Qaeda bogeyman to extort from the Gulf, and promoted himself to America.”

Second, Shabab fighter Ahmed Warsame, arrested in the Gulf, was brought to the US for trial. Warsame has ties to both AQAP and al Shabab and met Anwar. Awlaki has been pimping al Qaeda to the Somalis since (at least) 2006 when the eight westerners were arrested trying to smuggle weapons to Somalia from Yemen. The enmeshment between al Qaeda in Yemen and al Shabab was politically inconvenient prior to the rev and is an expedient sound bite now.

NYT 7/10: In his remarks on his plane, Mr. Panetta said there were greater dangers to the United States in Yemen. “There’s no question when you look at what constitutes the biggest threat in terms of attacks on the United States right now, more of that comes from Yemen and people like Awlaki,” he said. He added that in Yemen, “There are a number of operations that are being conducted not only by the Defense Department, but by my former agency to try to focus on going after those targets. I would say that’s one of our top priorities right now.”

Fox News: The Somali terror suspect transferred this week to a New York City federal court spent “significant time” with American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, a U.S. official told Fox News. (Read on …)

Update 2: Zawaheri 6/16 via the al-Fajr Media Center.

Update by Aaron: Person or persons unknown have seen fit to release a counterfeit as-Sahab video claiming that OBL son Hamza has been named to succeed his father. The above banner is part of the promotional effort. The jihadis on the forums quickly denounced the video and removed it from their sites.

Original: My money was always on Hamza. Why? Because that’s who Abu al Feida announced in 2008 as bin Laden’s designated successor. Hamza was the only one who escaped from the SEAL raid. There was some earlier reporting that Hamza was offered and turned down the post; maybe they talked him into it now or elase its a cover to keep him out of the spotlight for the moment. See post 2/6/08 where in Abu al Fida (Rashad Mohammed Saeed Ismael) makes the announcement and sings Hamza’s praises. Al Feida (bin Laden matchmaker and adviser to President Saleh) was always well informed and in the loop. The fact that al Tahadi took it down just adds credence to the theory. Also Hamza and al Wahishi have the Iran connection.

MEMRI: Announcement Of Hamza Bin Laden As Osama Bin Laden Successor Posted, Immediately Removed On Jihadi Forums

On June 9, 2011, the jihadi forum Al-Tahadi published what appeared to be a video statement from the Al-Qaeda media wing Al-Sahab announcing that Hamza bin Laden, the son of slain Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, had been declared the new leader of the organization.

To my recollection, a search here on Ammar al Waeli will likely lead to the following history. Al Waeli was the subject of a 2002 FBI seeking info alert generated by an associate of Fawaz al Rabie, killed in 2006. Al Waeli was seen by eyewitnesses on a rooftop in Saada City exhorting residents against the Houthis during the sixth war (2010) while Ali Mohsen’s troops chewed qat. Al Waeli was also involved in the 2009 plot against Saudi CT chief Prince Naif along with Naif al Qatahani. Al Waeli, along with Hamza al Dyanai was allegedly instrumental in the 2007 murder of eight Spanish tourists and two Yemenis in Marib in a suicide bombing by the (also deceased) Hamza al Qaiti group.

Al Waeli was convicted on terror charges in March. My assumption at the time was he was tried in absentia although the Saleh regime didn’t mention that part. Now in theory he is killed exiting Zinjibar, echoing some southerners reports of the RG attacking fleeing residents. Just keep in mind, Qasim al Reimi was reported dead three times by the Saleh regime. Al Waeli was also reported as killed in Jan 2010. Its important to note that different aspects of the Yemeni regime have relations with different groups of jihaddist mercenaries or state jihaddists as I call them, like al Nabi.

The Jaber al Shabwanis are possibly relatives but certainly tribesmen of the tribal sheik/assistant governor of Marib Jaber al Shabwani who was killed in an errant air strike (by who is still a question, in Marib some insist it was a Yemeni plane) as he was en route to negotiate al Qaeda surrenders. Ali Mohsen said recently Saleh orchestrated the hit on Sheik Shabwani. The sheik was the brother of Ayyed al Shabwani, a know al Qaeda operative.

al Motamar

The source made clear that a number of the organisation leaderships and its dangerous elements have been killed in qualitative operations by army men from brigade 201 and mechanized brigade 35 while those elements were fleeing Zanjibar city.

The source added that the operations led to the killing of terrorist Amar Abada al-Waeli, one of the most dangerous leaders of al-Qaeda organisation and with him seven other elements in addition to killing the terrorist Abu Ali al-Harithi , a leading element in Shabwa province , terrorist Abu Ayman al-Masri , media official in the organisation , terrorist Ali Saleh Farhan ‘amir of the organisation in Mareb province an a number of terrorist elements that came from Mareb province , among them the terrorist Mabkhout Ali Jaber al-Shuwani and wounding his brother Fahad Ali Jaber al-Shuwani .

Egyptian Saif al Adel as acting chief makes sense. In 2010 UBL named Saif Adel commander of external operations. The Montral Gazette noted at the time that,

“His strategy is to stage multiple small terror operations, using the resources of affiliates and allies wherever possible,” said Syed Saleem Shahzad, a Pakistani expert on al-Qaida.

A U.S. counter-terrorism official said the idea was for “small but often attacks” that would hurt the West more than a “one-off terror spectacular”.

In 2005, al-Adel wrote an al-Qaida planning document that holds clues to his thinking. The document said that Islamist movements failed because their “actions were mostly random”. It called for al-Qaida to focus on “the greater objective, which is the establishment of a state”.

Small frequent attacks sounds like whats been going on in Yemen. Also confirmed is the the high level of communication and coordination that has been ongoing between bin Laden and al Qaeda in Yemen recently (and probably since the 1990’s and importantly after the formation of AQAP.)

See also “Saif al Adel’s ties to Iranian Revolutionary Guards and (Yemen based) UPS bomb plot”. As Pete Hoekstra said in Nov 2010, AQAP and AQCentral are “communicating more with each other, influencing the direction of each other and coordinating activities.”

The current head of AQAP Nassir al Wuhayshi was declared leader of al Qaeda in the region by Ayman al-Zawahiri in November 2008. Wahishi, like Adel, spent years in Iran, both starting in 2001. Wahishi was deported to Yemen in 2003 and jailed until he escaped in 2006. Adel is thought to have lived with Saed bin Laden and his younger brother Mohammed. He was released and relocated to Pakistan by 2010 .

Australian terrorism expert Leah Farrall, who is writing her doctoral dissertation on al-Qaida’s command structures, told SPIEGEL ONLINE: “Not only would Saif al-Adel’s return to the field greatly bolster al-Qaida’s operational capability, and bring a rigour to its external operations, but his longstanding connections to groups whose relations with al-Qaida have been subject to tension could herald a new era in operational cooperation for attacks against the West.”

More on Adel from Peter Bergen at CNN:

al-Adel had been appointed interim chief of al Qaeda because the global jihadist community had grown restive in recent days about the lack of a formal announcement appointing a successor to bin Laden.

However, he said, the choice of an Egyptian may not sit well with some Saudi and Yemeni members of al Qaeda, who believe bin Laden’s successor should come from the Arabian Peninsula, a region that is holy to all Muslims.

ABC: A leader of the al Qaeda offshoot that U.S. officials have called the greatest threat to the U.S. vowed in a message posted on Islamist websites Wednesday to take revenge against the U.S. for the death of Osama bin Laden, saying that jihad would only intensify and that Americans would come to “wish for the days of Osama.” (Read on …)

Saleh has a sudden change of heart:

WSJ: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been more forthcoming with information on Mr. Awlaki since the president has faced major protests in his country, a U.S. official said. Mr. Saleh has sought to use that information in an effort to gain more U.S. support, the official added. The White House has backed an Arab proposal that would ease Mr. Saleh from office…The attempt to kill Mr. Awlaki was the first known U.S. military strike inside Yemen since May 2010, when U.S. missiles mistakenly killed one of Mr. Saleh’s envoys and an unknown number of other people. That soured relations and prompted the administration to pull back.
(Read on …)

Update: The drone strike in Shabwa around midnight was launched by the US military and targeted Anwar al Awlaki, CNN is reporting. The two killed were Awlaki associates and the intel was not from the several computers seized at UBL compound.

Original: I really did mean to post this at the time. The drone strike yesterday in Shabwa that killed two AQ siblings was preceded by miss in Abyan on 4/24. One predator didn’t explode and the other hit a road. The April strike occured near Amfryad in Mudiyah where in December 2010 US missiles killed 49 civilians along with a few al Qaeda (as a parliamentary inquiry found). The last use of armed unmanned drones was in 2002 and resulted in the killing of al Harithy and US citizen Kamal Darwish, Lackawanna recruiter.

Yemen Times: ABYAN, Apr. 26th – US airstrikes in Abyan governorate are still threatening the lives of citizens. The Al-Ma’jala strike – which took place on 17 December 2009 and killed 55 people, including 14 women, 21 children and 14 alleged Al-Qaeda members – still looms large in the region’s collective memory.

According to Abyan’s security chief, Colonel Abdullah Ali Saeed, a new airstrike hit the small village of Amfryad in Mudiyah district on 24 April 2011. The attack involved two cruise missiles being launched by a US Predator drone.

The Predator was pursuing a pickup truck allegedly belonging to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) jihadists. (Read on …)

Its a circus. The DOJ is seeking the death penalty on someone they didn’t care enough to bring to trial for years, an individual complicit in the murder of 17 US service members. Al Nashiri has been in US custody since 2002. He says his confessions were gained by torture, and the US admits water boarding him along with a mock execution and brandishing a power drill. Nashiri was charged by the Military Commissions at Gitmo in Dec. 2008. Charges were dropped in Feb 2009 when charges against all detainees were dropped pending review. In August 2010 the Obama administration said there were no charges pending or contemplated against al Nashiri. Now, as the election season approaches, they want him dead; at the same time the status of Khalid Sheik Mohammed is back in limbo. While Gitmo and the MCs raise complicated issues, all the dithering, back sliding and stalling at the highest levels raises the question whether any of these decisions were based on the demand for justice for the dead sailors, or if is it all just political expediency and maneuvering.

WAPO: Capital charges brought against Guantanamo detainee Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in USS Cole attack

U.S. military prosecutors on Wednesday charged one of the most prominent detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in a death penalty case that could prove to be a major test of the nation’s revised system of military commissions. (Read on …)

Yes Nashiri did first meet bin Laden in 1996.

Chicago Tribune: According to the allegations against Nashiri, he met Osama bin Laden in 1996 and joined Al Qaeda two years later. In the fall of 2000, he allegedly recruited others to pilot a small boat filled with bombs into the Cole, setting off an explosion in a Yemeni port, killing 17 U.S. sailors and leaving a 40-foot hole in the ship.

Nashiri, a Saudi, was captured more than a year later, and “admitted he assisted with the plot,” according to the government allegations. He was taken to Guantanamo Bay, one of 779 captives who have been detained there at one time or another. (Read on …)

Oh come the hell on, Sami Dhayan? He and Nabi have been Saleh mercenaries for a long time! Sami Dhayan gave an interview about taking money from the Def. Min. to fight for Saleh two years ago during the last “al Qaeda take-over” of Jaar. And Nabi is a state jihaddist for years. How is the US empowering the moderates and residents to deal with the situation? hmmm well… Does the al Qaeda scare tactic help more interests than just Saleh? Is somebody’s budget at stake?

Update: A comment: “Family members of mine have seen Khaled Abdulnabi, years ago, being taken by helicopter (ali saleh). Only to have him return with the keys to a late model land cruiser. Tell me, who else has a helicopter in yemen besides ali saleh? No one. He has always been funded by the Yemeni govt. Its like a bad relationship when one spouse can’t c the obvious signs that the other one is in bed with another person.”

Yemen Post: Jihadists denied on Wednesday they had taken over the radio station in Yemen’s southern province of Abayn.
This week local sources said the Jihadist groups clashed with the security and armed forces in Abyan and took control of the station and other public compounds.
Sami Dayan, a spokesman for the Jihadist groups there, said they did not intervene in the tasks of the station staff, but they assigned citizens to guard it after the security forces had left it.
The Jihadist groups also aired from the station that Abyan had been declared an Islamic state, the sources said, amid the escalating protests calling for the ouster of the regime across Yemen.

www.aden-na.net

Claiming (us) – A prominent leader in the Southern Movement and the Vice-Chairman of the mobility of the southern province of Abyan Khaled Alfayyadi in question by a news agency of Aden for Al-Qaeda in the show that “there is no such regulation alleged but that the organization follows the national security issued by the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh from his palace in Sanaa. ” (Read on …)

The wackos al Qaeda in Abyan’s Jaar restricted women to their homes, via WAQAP radio, so no demonstrations or freedom for them! In this issue, Awlaki says that its fine to kill obvious apostates. A write up at Intelwire:

Ibrahim’s piece makes two more very important points related to the uprisings, which represent a significant shift in AQ rhetoric and even its philosophy. First, he argues that Al Qaeda is entirely in favor of “freedom” in the Middle East, because that gives people the freedom to learn about and understand AQ’s goals…Even more significantly, Ibrahim writes that Al Qaeda is not opposed to regime change through peaceful means. While Ibrahim’s status as an Islamic authority figure in the movement is unclear at best, this represents a pretty significant shift away from a long argument that military jihad is the only acceptable means to achieve Al Qaeda’s long term political goals.

Awlaki: We don’t just assume someone is an apostate without clear evidence. The other thing is who can implement the ruling once one is determined to be an apostate…In brief, if the individual has apostatized publicly, and his apostasy is clear, then this person’s blood and wealth is not protected from the Muslims due to the hadith narrated by al-Bukhari, “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.”

Intelwire’s J.M. Berger notes: AQAP Inspire #5 finished production March 18, so that’s an 11-day wait from production to posting.

Nabi takes over Ja’ar, Abyan, as he did a few years ago while Saleh was still president. I wrote some articles about it at the time. Nabi was a jihaddist operative of the Saleh regime for years. His jihaddist group fought for Saleh in Saada in 2005 and on the side of the state in 2009 against Sami Dhayan when al Qaeda declared an Islamic Emirate in Jaar, but then Dhyan made a deal with the state for money. Its hard to say what this is now, it could be Saleh playing a card or it could be Nabi making a move. Nabi is distributing leaflets calling for the soldiers to surrender.Too bad the US abdicated the democracy narrative and doesn’t have any kind of moral standing to comment about the interests of Yemenis. Meanwhile Obama is bombing Libya and condemning violence in Syria.

Trend: Seven suspected al-Qaeda members were killed during an attack on a military post in the southern Yemeni Abyan province on Saturday, security sources said. Initial reports show that police had information about the intended attack, in which a vehicle and a motorbike used by the suspects were burnt.

Meanwhile, gunmen stormed buildings of police and security in Jiar city in the province and took control of the two buildings, a security source told the German Press Agency on the phone.

“There are attempts being exerted by security forces to retake the gunmen controlled buildings and arrest the perpetrators,” the source said. Media reports say that the masked gunmen were scattering leaflets in the city, warning soldiers against fighting alongside President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The flyers were signed “Your Brothers Mujahedin.”

Someone sent this to me earlier, a bit more expansive but translated:

Masked gunmen after dawn today, this Saturday stormed the headquarters of the political security and civilian police Jaar city of the Abyan province, and seized all the equipment located therein.

According to information coming from there that the masked men said they were deployed after that, and in large numbers at the entrances to the city and in the public streets and threw publications appended to the name of (your brothers the Mujahideen) calls for soldiers to surrender and not to fight with those who they called in their statement tyrant (Ali Abdullah Saleh). (Read on …)

Many in Yemen underestimate the danger of AQAP because they fail to realize that Anwar al Awlaki and thus AQAP are connected to almost every terror plot in the US over the last five years. Its not only the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, or the attack by Abdulmutallab on an airliner over Detroit in 2009, or the 2010 plot to bomb six planes with toner cartridges, there are also dozen and dozens of smaller plots in the US that never seem to make the news in Yemen. The US is under attack by AQAP. Ali Saleh’s al Qaeda could be a state creation, but the real al Qaeda live in Yemen too and they are not giving up their plans for a catastrophic attack on the US. Reuters Bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri added to US terrorist listing, already tops Saudi Arabia’s terrorism list.

CP: While the target and timing were unimportant, the mission itself was a highly organized plot that involved one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists and al-Qaida’s go-to bomb maker, current and former officials said. Before Abdulmutallab set off on his mission, he visited the home of al-Qaida manager Fahd al-Quso to discuss the plot and the workings of the bomb. (Read on …)

The point to note with regard to the following article is the two AQ were killed during a mourning ceremony for another who was killed in Marib. For the readers convenience, I am re-posting my article, Large al Qaeda camp in North Yemen dims peace prospects, politician says to illuminate the al Taiz clan. Saada, as you will note, is where Ammar al Waeli (see the 2002 FBI alert) was, as I heard it, standing on a roof exhorting the residents. In the same ruling last week that released Badr al Hassani, Al Waeli was recently sentenced to fifteen years in jail, in absentia I am assuming. The hostilities between the al Tais and the state began after the Houthis captured their commander, Hussain al Tais, and turned him over to the state. Then AQ captured Col Hosam in Saada and issued an ultimatum. According to local reports, Col Hosam was not killed despite the AQ vid announcing his death (see below). The point is the linkage between the well established al Qaeda presence in Saada and the better understood al Qaeda in Marib and what is currently known as AQAP.

Two al-Qaeda elements killed in Saada north Yemen al Motamar: Wednesday, 09-March-2011
- Local sources in Saada province in north Yemen have confirmed the killing of two elements from al-Qaeda organisation and injury of a third in exchange of fire with gunmen from Al Tais in Kitaf district. The sources clarified that the clashes resulted in the killing of two of al-Qaeda elements; Ali Nasser al-Tais and Abdullah Hassan al-Tais in addition to the wounding of Arif Saleh Rashid. The sources pointed out that the clashes erupted during mourning on the death of al-Qaeda element called Abdullah Hadi al-Tais killed by security men in clashes in Mareb last week.

My article from March 2010: (Read on …)

Its absolutely unbelievable, even for Yemen. This is the cell originally billed as responsible for the attack on the UK ambassador, but that later faded into charges of forming an armed gang. Badr al Hassani, who accused the PSO in Marib of supporting and funding Al Qaeda, was acquitted although the court had previously summoned the PSO deputy to testify. Old timer Ammar al Waeli sentenced for the 2007 attack on Spanish tourists in Marib. Al Waeli is currently in Sa’ada alongside the state forces, or he was last time I checked. Not the mention the whole slew of analysis on AQAP that dismisses the fatal but well timed attacks on tourists in 2007 as the work of the disenfranchised al Jund al Yemen (the Yemen Soldiers Brigade) when al Waeli is an associate of Fahd al Quso as well as an employee of the state, two groups that are most definitely not mutually exclusive. The two convicted were sentenced to jail time of two and three years, although the Marib attacks killed people, to run from date of arrest, basically a walk. The trials were yet another show with no substance, and this is the system that the US is so desperate to maintain.

26 Sept: Specialized Penal Court in the capital Sana’a sentenced on Saturday three al-Qaeda elements from two to 15 years in prison. The three defendants were convicted of committing terrorist acts targeted tourists, foreign and military facilities in Marib province during 2008-2010.

At the hearings presided over by Judge Ridwan al-Nemr, the court sentenced the convicts Sadam Huessin al-Raymi to three years and Rami Hans Hermel (German nationality) for two years from the date of their arrest and put them under police surveillance and forbid them to travel to any province after their release for a period of two years.

The verdict also included the contentment of the jail period for Abdullah Mosaad Abdul-Aziz al-Rawi (Iraqi nationality) and to deport him to his country, while the court upheld the release of Badr al-Husseini for lack of evidence and the confiscation of seizures related to the case.

In addition, the court issued a sentence of 15 years imprisonment against Ammar Abad Saeed al-Waeli, an al-Qaeda element, for his involvement in an armed gang targeting foreign tourists, which resulted in the death of a number of Spanish tourists and their Yemeni guides, by a bomb car in July 2007 in Marib province.