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Arabia

Fighting Grips Yemeni Capital as Saleh Orders Ahmar's Arrest

2011-05-27

[An Nahar] Security forces in the Yemeni capital battled heavily armed supporters of the country's most powerful tribal leader on Thursday as President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower... ordered the primitive's arrest. The leader, Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, in turn accused Saleh of dragging Yemen into civil war, speaking after hours of festivities late on Wednesday and overnight in which at least 24 people were killed. Meanwhile a website linked to the defense ministry said 28 more people died when an kaboom destroyed an ammunition store belonging to the al-Ahmar tribal opposition. But a dissident military official whose troops are stationed in the area denied the existence of an ammunition store in that district. Amid the escalating bloodshed, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Frederick T. Frelinghuysen ... urged all sides in Yemen "immediately to cease the violence." "We are very troubled by the ongoing festivities," she said in Gay Paree. "We call on all sides immediately to cease the violence." Washington, which has urged Saleh to quit, ordered what it termed "non-emergency" embassy staff to leave Yemen "while commercial transportation is available." La Belle France added its voice to the condemnation of the violence and Saleh's refusal to agree to a handover of power. "We call on the authorities and the other sides in the conflict in the capital to make the fighting cease and protect the population in areas affected by the armed festivities," foreign ministry front man Romain Nadal said. Saleh has ordered the arrest of the powerful dissident Sheikh Sadiq and his nine brothers, the defense ministry in Sanaa said. "The president has ordered the arrest of the sons of Ahmar to bring them to justice for armed rebellion," the ministry's 26sep.net news website said. The state news agency Saba said that in Wednesday festivities in Sanaa six civilians including a woman were killed. Tribal sources said that 12 soldiers from the elite Republican Guard and six civilians and rustics were killed in other festivities. The latest fighting brought to at least 68 the number killed since Monday, according to an Agence La Belle France Presse tally based on reports from medics, the government and tribal sources. Scores were also maimed. The festivities have pitted loyalist security forces against clansmen from several tribes fighting in support of Sheikh Sadiq who rallied to the opposition in March. The fighting that spread to the Arhab district north of the airport late on Wednesday prompted its closure, with flights diverted to the southern city of Aden, aviation and tribal sources said. Airport director Naji al-Marqab insisted it was functioning normally on Thursday, Saba reported. Blasts echoed through Sanaa in what residents described as the fiercest festivities since Monday. The festivities were centered on al-Hasaba district, where Sheikh Sadiq lives. "I couldn't sleep until 5:00 am from the sound of shelling," one resident there told AFP. Meanwhile, ...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had escaped from his bonds and overwhelmed this guard using the bludgeon Filomena had smuggled to him in the loaf of bread... more protesters abandoned University Square, which has been the epicenter of anti-regime protests for months in Sanaa, amid the escalating violence. "If things remain this way, the youth revolt will not succeed and we will leave the square," one protester told AFP. But organizers of the protests have called for demonstrations on Friday, calling it "The Friday Peaceful Revolt." Saleh loyalists, meanwhile, called for a counter-protest under the banner "The Friday of Law and Order." Saleh and his opponents have for months rallied their supporters in rival demonstrations every Friday. The president, in power since 1978, has resisted strong diplomatic pressure to sign up to proposals by Yemen's wealthy Gulf neighbors that would see him leave office in return for a promise of immunity from prosecution. Sheikh Sadiq's rustics have been fighting security forces since Saleh again rejected the Gulf plan at the weekend. Tribal loyalties run deep in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, which has an estimated 60 million firearms in private hands -- roughly three for every citizen. Yemen has been seen as a key partner in the U.S. "war on terror," but in recent days Washington has stepped up its pressure for Saleh to sign up to the Gulf plan for his departure. On Wednesday, U.S. President Barack B.O. Obama repeated his call for Saleh to step aside. Clansmen of the Arhab tribe belonging to the powerful Bakil federation of hardline holy man Abdul Majid al-Zindani, who faces U.S. sanctions as a "terrorism financier," have also been fighting Saleh loyalists.

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Arabia

Tens of thousands protest in Yemen, clashes in south

2011-03-02

[Ennahar] Tens of thousands of protesters flooded Yemen's streets on Tuesday in a fresh "Day of Rage," demanding an end to the president's three-decade rule. In the capital Sanaa, protesters chanted "With blood and soul we support you, Aden" -- the port city where most of the 24 protesters killed in the past two weeks of protests have died. Some protesters made "V" for victory signs while others wore white headbands with "Leave" written in red. Tens of thousands more also marched through the streets of Ibb and Taiz, south of Sanaa. President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ... , a U.S. ally against al Qaeda's Yemeni wing, has failed to quell two months of protests in a country of 23 million where 40 percent live on less than $2 a day and a third are undernourished. "Victory is coming and it is near," Hassan Zaid, an opposition leader, shouted to the protesters gathered in Sanaa, where protesters have been camping out for two weeks. "We have one goal and one demand, and that is the quick end of the regime." Protesters are angry at widespread corruption, as Yemeni university graduates struggle to get jobs without connections, and youth unemployment is high. Northern rebels and southern separatists say they are denied resources and a say in politics. As oil and water resources dry up, the 68-year-old leader is less able to pay off allies to keep the peace. Saleh has met tribal and regional military leaders, and offered talks to form a unity government on Monday. But the political opposition swiftly rebuffed the offer, saying it was standing with protesters demanding he step aside. CLERIC SWITCHES SIDES A leading hardline Mohammedan holy man, Sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, who two weeks ago backed the idea of Saleh staying in power until 2013, joined protesters on the streets of Sanaa. "There is no legitimacy to a ruler whose people do not want him," Zindani said. Saleh himself lashed out at President Barack B.O. Obama over demands that leaders show restraint in tackling unrest as protests galvanized by successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia rage across Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Oman. "Every day we hear a statement from Obama saying 'Egypt you can't do this, Tunisia don't do that'," Saleh said in a speech at Sanaa University, a rallying point for protests in the capital where tens of thousands have gathered outside campus. "What do you have to do with Egypt? Or Oman? Are you the president of the United States, or president of the world?" In Aden, protesters following the example of their peers in Taiz and Sanaa set up tents, but covered them with black flags and pictures of protesters killed in festivities with police. In Hodeidah province in the north, Saleh loyalists and protesters fought with rocks and sticks. Four people were hurt. Security forces in the south have come under frequent attack in recent days. On Tuesday, separatists fought the army in southern Habilayn, killing two soldiers and wounding three. The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said at least eight people jugged by Yemen security forces last month, several of them southern separatists, had disappeared. "Snatching and hiding political opposition leaders ... is hardly compatible with the government's claim to protect rights," said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East director. Also in the south, rustics kidnapped an Uzbek doctor, saying they would use him as leverage for demands that the government hold accountable those behind an Arclight airstrike aimed at al Qaeda that killed dozens of civilians in December 2009.

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Arabia

Yemeni president says US and Israel behind unrest

2011-03-02

[Asharq al-Aswat] Yemen's embattled president has accused the United States and Israel of trying to destabilize his country and the Arab world. President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ... 's comments marked his harshest public criticism yet of the U.S., a key ally. Tuesday's speech at Sanaa University appeared part of his effort to blunt growing calls for his ouster. He claimed that "there is an operations room in Tel Aviv with the aim of destabilizing the Arab world" and that it is "run by the White House." An hour after his speech, tens of thousands of protesters marched to the university, joined for the first time by opposition parties. Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, considered by the U.S. to be linked to the al-Qaeda terror network, was present at the gathering.

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Arabia

Yemen court questions U.S. al Qaeda suspect

2010-05-07

SANAA - Yemeni authorities have begun questioning a U.S. citizen suspected of being an al Qaeda militant who is accused of killing a guard as he tried to escape a hospital, a state-run website said on Thursday. Sharif Mobley, arrested in March along with 10 al Qaeda suspects, was handed over to a court in the capital Sanaa. He also faces charges of wounding another guard as he tried to shoot his way out of the hospital where he was being treated, the Yemeni Defence Ministry website said. Yemen became a major Western security concern after the Yemen-based regional arm of al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound plane in December. A Yemeni official has said Mobley may have had links to a Nigerian man who was behind the Dec. 25 plane bombing attempt. Public Service Enterprise Group Inc, a U.S. company which owns several nuclear power plants, said in March that Mobley, 26, worked at nuclear reactors in 2002-2008, doing routine labour work. Mobley had been in Yemen for at least a year, first studying Arabic at a language institute before attending a university run by prominent hardline Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, an official said after his arrest. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man suspected of being behind the Dec. 25 attack, had visited Yemen to study Arabic and Islam and had had contact with radical U.S.-born Muslim preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, who is based in the impoverished Arab country. Awlaki was also linked to a U.S. Army psychiatrist who shot dead 13 people at a base in Texas in November.

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Arabia

Yemeni radical cleric warns of foreign occupation

2010-01-12

[Asharq al-Aswat] Yemen's most influential Islamic cleric, considered an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist by the United States, warned the government on Monday against allowing "foreign occupation" of the country in the growing cooperation with the U.S. against the terror group. Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani's comments reflected a deep mistrust among Yemenis of Washington's intentions as it ramps up counterterrorism aid and training for San'a to combat Al Qaeda's offshoot here. Al-Zindani, a radical cleric who once associated with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, is highly influential among Yemenis and the government is careful to maintain at least his tacit support. "We accept any cooperation in the framework of respect and joint interests, and we reject military occupation of our country. And we don't accept the return of colonialization," al-Zindani told reporters. "Yemen's rulers and people must be careful before a (foreign) guardianship is imposed on them," he said. "The day parliament allows the occupation of Yemen, the people will rise up against it and bring it down." President Barack Obama said he does not plan to send American combat forces to Yemen, and San'a has said it will not allow such a deployment. "I have no intention of sending U.S. boots on the ground in these regions," Obama said in an interview with People magazine to be published Friday. U.S. military personnel are helping train Yemeni counterterror forces and gave Yemeni forces intelligence and logistical help in heavy airstrikes last month against suspected Al Qaeda hideouts that Yemen says killed dozens of militants. Al-Zindani is a controversial figure in Yemeni politics. The United States has labeled him a "global terrorist," alleging he helps fund and recruit for Al Qaeda and that students from Iman University, which he heads, were involved in past attacks. But Yemen's government courts his support. The deputy prime minister last week denied al-Zindani is a member of Al Qaeda. Addressing a news conference held at his San'a home, al-Zindani denied U.S. accusations against him, saying "it's become well known among the people that a lot of lies come out of" Washington. He also denied any knowledge of Al Qaeda's activities in Yemen. He also denied he had any influence on an American-Yemeni radical preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, who is being hunted by Yemeni forces for alleged Al Qaeda links. Al-Awlaki is a young cleric popular among extremists for his calls for jihad, or holy war, against the Americans. Yemeni officials say he may have met with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in Yemen before the 23-year-old Nigerian allegedly tried to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day. Al Qaeda's offshoot in Yemen is accused of plotting that attack. Al-Awlaki also had e-mail contact with the accused Fort Hood shooter before he allegedly opened fire at the military base in Texas, killing 13 people. Al-Awlaki later praised the attack, and he has also praised al-Zindani's writings in Internet speeches. "I was never a direct teacher for Anwar al-Awlaki," al-Zindani said, his white beard dyed red with henna in the style of some Islamic hard-liners. "I am general lecturer and a writer of books. If someone says they listened to my lectures or read my books, am I to blame if he then, say, divorces his wife, or if he attacks someone? If that's the case, then all teachers and professors should be accused," said al-Zindani, who also denied any connection to Abdulmutallab. Al-Zindani, who often preaches in favor of holy war to defend the Muslim world, was careful not to directly criticize the Yemeni government's cooperation with the United States and avoided any comments that suggested a call for violence. But he said San'a must regulate its counterterror partnership with Washington with written agreements approved by parliament. "The constitution says agreements must be put before parliament. I demand the implementation of the constitution," he said. He sharply criticized a U.S.-backed Yemeni airstrike against a suspected Al Qaeda hideout on Dec. 17 in which dozens of civilians were reported killed. "Is this right? What about a government that calls in any force to strike whoever it wants in this way, without any restrictions?" he said.

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Arabia

Yemeni authorities release Aussie

2006-12-09

Three foreigners, including an Australian, have been released after almost two months in Yemeni detention for allegedly trying to smuggle weapons to Somalia, a Yemeni security official says. A Dane, an Australian and a Briton walked into a bar were freed over the past few days after an investigation revealed that there was not enough evidence to charge them, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, because he wasn't permitted to speak to the press. Yemeni authorities made the arrests in October. Two other Australians and a German were released last month, but two others, one from Austria and one from Somalia, remain in custody. All detainees are Muslims and some of them were said to be students at the Islamist Iman University, which is run by Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani. The United States lists al-Zindani as an al-Qaeda supporter. University officials told Yemeni local papers after the arrests that none of the detainees were students in the Imam university. The arrests were part of a state security campaign launched against members of an al-Qaeda cell.

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Arabia

Yemen Sheikh Claims to Have Cured Libya HIV Child With Herbs

2006-11-30

Sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, the founder of Yemen's religious Al-Eman University, has announced that the facility had cured one of the HIV-infected children from Libya, using just herbs. Libyan authorities have pegged the HIV outspread among 426 children in a Benghazi hospital to five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who have been imprisoned for over 7 years. Was henna one of the magik herbs? Al-Zindani, however, claims that he has managed to cure one of those children, to the point that there are no traces of the virus. He said that the child was then sent to Germany for tests and that doctors there agreed the virus was gone. The sheikh said that his university had used "natural herbs" to heal the child.

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Arabia

Yemen the new centre for training jihadists

2006-10-31

GROUPS of young Australian men are going to Yemen for jihadi training, say law enforcement sources who are concerned the country has replaced Central Asia as a destination for extremists. Australian security agencies recently identified a small group of men from NSW who travelled to Yemen for religious and military training. It is believed the men were of Arabic background. It is not known if this group has any connection to the Australians arrested in Yemen. One of the men was stopped from going after he was approached by authorities and warned that he would risk breaking terrorism laws if he flew to Yemen. A law enforcement source said Yemen was attracting radical local Islamists for religious and military training because of the counter-terrorist crackdowns in nations such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. "Yemen is the new wild west," the source said. Try Yemen as the port of entry for Somalia, the new Islamic paradise. Authorities in Australia have been monitoring individuals who travel for extended periods to countries with radical Islamic training camps, although the ability to move easily over borders makes such detection difficult. One of Yemen's most notable exports - along with oil, fish and Osama bin Laden's father - are the extremist teachings of Islamic fundamentalists, such as the alleged al-Qaeda financier Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani. The US Government declared the red-bearded lunatic firebrand a "specially designated global terrorist" in 2004 for his financial and spiritual support of bin Laden. The conservative American magazine National Review dubbed him the "Yemeni Sheik of Hate". Zindani founded the controversial al-Iman University, one several religious colleges in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, which are often accused of promulgating anti-Western hatred. He reportedly claimed in one taped sermon that the attacks of September 11, 2001, were a conspiracy between the US President, George Bush, and Jews. Zindani leads the Islamist wing of an opposition party, Islah, and has helped the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas raise funds, but he is reported to be close to the relatively pro-Western Yemeni President, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Among the university's former students is John Walker Lindh, who is serving 20 years in a US jail for fighting with the Taliban. Zindani and his students have been linked to the bombing of USS Cole in Aden in 2000 and the murders of three American missionaries in 2002. The university was briefly closed by authorities after September 11, 2001, in a crackdown on fundamentalist teachings. Before its suspension, it had about 6000 students, 800 of whom were foreigners. Many were expelled after the attacks on the US, but it - and others in Yemen - still attract students. Zindani's Friday sermons are taped and are on sale by the evening of the same day.

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Arabia

Yemen: 4 Australians, 1 Dane Busted for Gunrunning

2006-10-30

Followup on our story from yesterday. SAN'A, Yemen A fourth Australian traitor was detained in Yemen along with one treasonous Dane for allegedly trying to smuggle weapons to Somalia, a security official said Sunday. All five are Muslims and have been studying terrorism and media relations at the Islamist Iman University, which is run by Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, who is listed as an al-Qaida supporter by the United States. "We are a school of peace. Our students could not be involved," the Iman said in a prepared statement, "and the Americans have been driven back from Baghdad Airport," he added. Earlier reports had said three Australians and a Dane were arrested. But the security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release information to spies and saboteurs media, said the arrest campaign was still going on and that at least eight foreign nationals and 20 Yemenis have been arrested so far. He did not specify the nationalities of the other three foreigners and said investigations were ongoing. Marin Countystanis? Berkeleyites? The arrests are part of a state security campaign launched last month against members of an al-Qaida cell. On Thursday, a Danish Foreign Ministry official confirmed the arrest of the Dane but refused to identify him. Danish media said the suspect is a 23-year-old man who converted to Islam and moved to Yemen two months ago with his wife and child. Nipped in the bud. The security official said another detainee, Ibrahim Abdullah al-Sinhi, also known as Abu Dujana al-Misiki, admitted he'd been assigned to carry out an attack with an explosive-laden car on San'a international airport. Yemen is believed to be a frequent route for smuggling arms to Somali factions. Al-Qaida has an active presence in Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, despite government efforts to fight the terror network. The al-Qaida was blamed for the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden that killed 17 American sailors and the attack on a French oil tanker that killed one person two years later. The IHT tries to sow seems to have some doubt about AQ's culpability, even though the US, Yemen, and AQ itself agree that it was an AQ operation.

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Arabia

Zindani tests the limits of Saleh's power

2006-03-08

The war on terrorism is fought in Yemen in the press and courtrooms as well as in the mountains and deserts. Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, is a veteran political survivor, but a tug-of-war with the U.S. over a leading opposition figure accused of supporting terrorism is threatening the president's delicate web of political alliances. Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, a veteran of the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan, was named by the U.S. Treasury Department as a "specially designated global terrorist" in February 2004. The sheikh is accused of obtaining arms and funds for al-Qaeda and acting as a spiritual advisor to Osama bin Laden. He has since been added to the UN Security Council's list of terrorism suspects. The 56 year-old Islamist is a powerful man in Yemen and enjoys a wide power base. He is the head of the Shura Council of the Islah Party and president of al-Iman University in Sanaa, maintaining a strong presence in both the political and intellectual life of the country. A resolution of the UN Security Council has called for the seizure of the sheikh's assets and a ban on travel to foreign countries. Neither measure has yet been implemented in Yemen; in fact, al-Zindani accompanied Saleh to Mecca for a summit meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference last year, a mission noted in a recent letter from President Bush to President Saleh (published by a defense department website, 26September.com, March 4). The letter expressed President Bush's "disappointment" in Saleh’s handling of the al-Zindani case and expressed doubt in Yemen’s "commitment to the war on terrorism." According to 26September, the message was followed by a telephone call to President Saleh from a U.S. anti-terrorism official who demanded al-Zindani's arrest. Yemen is asking for more definitive proof of the sheikh’s guilt. Al-Zindani has lately targeted three of Yemen's journalists for offending the Prophet Muhammad by publishing the Danish cartoons. The sheikh is raising money to try the journalists, but has run into an unexpected wall of solidarity from Yemen's journalist community. An embarrassing development was the revelation that copies of the cartoons had been made and distributed at the sheikh's own al-Iman University (NewsYemen, March 3). There may be deeper reasons for al-Zindani's antagonism toward local media. The sheikh blames his problems with the U.S. on malicious portrayals in the Yemen press, invented for "political reasons." He describes U.S. allegations of ties to terrorism as similar to the charges of Iraqi possession of weapons of mass destruction in that they lack proof or evidence (NewsYemen, March 3). Al-Zindani is eager to avoid extradition to the U.S. and, to the surprise of many, has even publicly praised the efforts of his political rival, President Saleh, to remove his name from the U.S. list of terrorism supporters. The sheikh may already be a target of an unknown party, as an investigation has been opened into two recent incidents of alleged interference with al-Zindani's car. In the first, a tire exploded while he was driving, and in the second a tire flew off his vehicle (Yemen Times, March 4). One member of the Islah Party’s Shura Council, Muhammad 'Ali Hasan al-Muayad, is already in U.S. detention after his extradition from Germany in November 2003. Demands for the arrest or extradition of al-Zindani could threaten the fragile balance that keeps President Saleh in power. While Saleh's methods frequently puzzle and exasperate the State Department, he is still regarded as an important ally of the U.S. in the war on terrorism. President Saleh has expressed his reluctance to extradite any citizen of Yemen: "We are not the police of any other country. We are independent and have sovereignty" (Yemen Observer, March 1). It remains now to be seen if the U.S. will press the issue.

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Arabia

Yemen claims to have subdued al-Qaeda threat

2005-03-10

Yemen, Osama bin Laden's ancestral home, has subdued al Qaeda but the country's fight against terrorism is not over yet, Prime Minister Abdul Qader Bagammal said on Wednesday. "We haven't eradicated terrorism 100 percent. We can't say that there is no intention or action to carry out terrorist acts ... but in relation to al Qaeda we can say 90 percent of the problem has been brought under control," Bagammal told Reuters. "We are still chasing some (militants). When questioning those arrested more names are revealed," he said. "Oooch! Ouch!... Bob!... Aaaiiieeee!... Herb!... Oooooh! Momma!... Willard!" Bagammal linked his country's progress in fighting al Qaeda to intelligence-sharing and cooperation with the United States and Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Algeria which had their share of militant violence in the past. Yemen has also brokered deals with tribes that had once given refuge to al Qaeda, he added. But despite its close cooperation with the United States, which trains Yemeni anti-terrorist squads, Bagammal said Sanaa would not hand over to Washington a prominent Yemeni cleric the U.S. accuses of being a "terrorist". The United States has added Sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, a senior leader of the opposition Islamic Islah Party, to its list of suspected terrorists, requiring U.S. and Yemeni banks to freeze his assets. Washington accuses Zindani, who runs a religious university in Yemen, of serving as one of bin Laden's spiritual mentors and of influencing and supporting many "terrorist causes." "They (Americans) asked us to freeze his assets. We looked into it and we found no bank accounts for him in Yemen. This man is the deputy of a party that takes part in the government and has more than 50 members in parliament... Sounds like you've defined what your problem is, then... "I won't hand him over to the Americans. If the Americans have evidence (against him) let them produce it and we will investigate. We will deal with it according to Yemeni law. The fact that he is accused by the Americans and we have to hand him over ... this is against Yemeni policy and sovereignty. He is a Yemeni citizen and we will defend him." Yemen, which has joined the war on terror since the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, has been a major source of recruits for al Qaeda. Ninety of the 300 detainees of the Guantanamo bay in Cuba are Yemenis. That's... ummm... (carry the 11, divide by the square root of 17...) 30 percent... Bagammal said Yemen has foiled many al Qaeda attacks against Yemeni and Western targets in the past two years and provided other countries with information that helped abort attacks. Some attacks, he said, were foiled by the militants' own mistakes. "Some had their explosives blown up while preparing for attacks which led to arrests and disclosure of cells." Red wire-green wire syndrome, one of our favorites... Bagammal said Yemen was aware that force alone would not resolve the militant problem and was conducting a dialogue with al Qaeda sympathisers to persuade them to abandon violence. Actually, hunting them down and doing terrible things to them is the best way, though I guess if you find it exciting to play with the uncertain then dialogue certainly works... The country was also reforming and vetting school and religious books that promote anti-Western hatred and violence. He said al Qaeda attacks has cost Yemen tens of millions of dollars in losses. "The terrorist attacks have had their impact on all sectors of the economy. Tourism, investments and our port activities were badly hit."

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