Al Qaeda in Yemen: A Fabricated Threat?

A disaster is taking place in Yemen due to the political regime in Sana’a, the United States and the opposition in Yemen some are calling “terrorists.”

Two weeks ago, I stated that President Ali Abdullah Saleh is extremely intelligent and that this intelligence has allowed him to lead his regime for more than 30 years despite a large number of crises and the political, social and economic conflicts that have occurred in the country. Now, President Ali faces even greater challenges due to the intensification of the political crisis in the North of Yemen (I am not now talking about the South). The increased tension between the political regime in Sana’a and the citizens in the North led President Saleh to ask neighboring states for assistance in confronting the Houthis, as his army has had difficulty meeting the threat posed by this group, which opposes his regime.

The U.S administration is not far from the incidents arising in Yemen. Actually, the president, thanks to his intelligence, was able to convince the United States that Al Qaeda’s presence is growing and he requires U.S. assistance. This pushed the United States to immediately offer cruise missiles, which have been launched on Yemeni villages and cities to supposedly target “Al-Qaeda,” (“Al Shark” newspaper, January 2010) but in reality have caused the death of innocent victims. In addition, U.S. General David Petraeus is in charge of ensuring that there is effective cooperation and coordination between Yemen and the U.S. in fighting “terrorism.” In fact, the U.S. and President Abdullah Saleh hold different concepts of “terrorism.” Americans say everyone opposed to the United States and its interests is considered a terrorist, whereas Yemen’s president sees everyone opposed to his government — its plans and leaders, or demanding justice, equality, rights and participation in political decisions — as terrorists and plans to attack them with the help of the outside world.

It is in this context that both the United States and Britain closed their embassies in Sana’a. Additionally, London and Washington have now revealed their agreement to form and finance police forces in Yemen to fight “terrorism”!! Like the Dayton project in the West Bank of Palestine, should we consider the political authorities in Sana’a to be as phony as the authorities in Ramallah and General Petraeus to be like their counterpart, Dayton? It is my opinion that this was all designed so that Britain and the United States could exert influence in Yemen on the pretext of helping the government. In fact, let’s examine the example of the young man from Nigeria, Omar Al Farouk Abdulmutallab (pay attention to the name) and his Christmas Eve attempt to explode a U.S plane over the Atlantic Ocean [sic]. But, before going any further, we should severely condemn all those who endanger public transportation (civil aviation, boats, trains, etc).

I actually looked closely at this issue and found, as others did, information that confused me and, I suppose, others. According to the data, Omar is not Syrian and his parents informed the authorities in Nigeria about their son’s condition. Also, the U.S. administration knew all about the young man’s actions. So how did he get his visa to enter the United States? And how was he able to get out of the Nigerian airport? Let us assume that someone gave him a hand, there. Then how did he pass through the Amsterdam International Airport? What made many, including myself, even more confused is that Omar was a student in Britain. We are told that he later was in Pakistan and, when the armed conflict arose in Yemen, was trained in Al Qaeda camps. We are also told he entered Yemen twice, where he first went to learn Arabic. The U.S. president accuses Al Qaeda in Yemen of equipping and training Omar Al Farouk and claims that the United States is in a state of war against Al Qaeda.

What increases our confusion even more is that, though we all know Al Qaeda to be a top secret organization, Yemeni television surprisingly was able to show us pictures of leaders and armed soldiers of Al Qaeda in Yemen. Subsequently, the government of Denmark declared that it had arrested a Somali terrorist belonging to Al Qaeda who wanted to assassinate the cartoonist denigrator of the Prophet Mohammed. Later, the government in Baghdad, supported by the United States, stated that the Baath party is moving elements of Al Qaeda from Yemen to Iraq in order to harm Maliki’s sectarian government. On the other hand, the Arab media each day declares the arrest or death of high leaders of Al Qaeda. But the question to be asked is: Could there still be any more leaders?!

Through all this we haven’t heard from the lawyers of Omar Al Farouk nor the Somali young man, nor have we been given any information that could confirm the stories spread by the media. In addition, all the information is emanating from one side. So, shall we refuse to use our brains, our ability to analyze and make conclusions, and merely settle for listening?!