Yemen opposition blames Saleh for Gulf plan failure

By Jamal al-Jaberi (AFP)

SANAA, May 19, 201 — Yemen's opposition blamed President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Thursday for the failure of a Gulf plan aimed at ending a bloody political dispute, saying he would do "everything" to remain in power.

Saleh "foiled the initiative by refusing to sign it" on Wednesday, Yassin Saeed Noman, head of the opposition Common Forum, told AFP.

Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Abdullatif al-Zayani, flew out of Sanaa on Wednesday after sources close to the negotiations between the regime and opposition said the two sides again failed to ink the power transfer accord.

Saleh, in power since 1978, "has refused the peaceful choice and is ready to do everything to remain in power," said Noman.

"With this, the regime will have to face the people who will continue with their peaceful revolt and will continue to escalate, even if the regime uses violence against them," he said.

Conditions Saleh has set that he says will enable him to sign in his capacity as president, cannot be met, said another member of the Common Forum who requested anonymity.

According to the Gulf-brokered proposal, Saleh would quit office within 30 days, in return for immunity from prosecution, before a government of national unity is formed and elections for a new president held after two months.

Washington issued a fresh plea Wednesday for the deal to be inked.

US President Barack Obama's aide John Brennan called Saleh to urge him to sign and implement the agreement "so that Yemen is able to move forward immediately with its political transition," a White House statement said.

However, Saleh has called onto his loyalists to stage a rally in his support on Friday, as every week, in a move described by his opponents as a sign that the veteran ruler is still clinging to power.

Journalists were also invited to attend a military parade that will take place in Sanaa on Sunday to mark the 21st anniversary of the unity between the country's north and its formerly independent south.

South Yemen was independent from the 1967 British withdrawal from Aden until the region united with the north in 1990. The south seceded in 1994, sparking a short-lived civil war that ended with it being overrun by northern troops.

As the protests, which began in January raged, rifts surfaced within Yemen's army. Pro-opposition troops led by dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar control the capital's northern and western regions, while troops loyal to Saleh control the rest of Sanaa.

Anti-regime protesters staged a massive rally in Taez, Yemen's second-largest city Thursday, carrying banners accusing Saleh and his ruling party of "manoeuvering".

In Sanaa, protesters at the University Square, dubbed "Change Square" after it became the epicentre of demonstrations in February, carried banners reading "no initiative, no dialogue, departure is the final decision".

"The initiative does not concern us," prominent activist Tawakul Karman told AFP. "We insist on completing our revolution to the end... (until) we overthrow Saleh."

"We will continue to protest despite our awareness that we could be killed or arrested. We are not afraid," said Karman.

But the protesters have expanded the field hospital they set up at the square and urged more doctors to volunteer, according to an AFP reporter.

The impoverished but strategic Arabian Peninsula country has been gripped by protests since late January calling for Saleh's ouster.

Security forces have mounted a deadly crackdown on the protests, leaving at least 180 people dead, according to a toll compiled from reports by activists and medics.

Gulf mediator gives up on Yemeni political deal

May 18, 2011

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — The head of a coalition of Gulf countries seeking to broker an end to Yemen's political crisis gave up on Wednesday and left the country, opposition and government leaders said.

Yemen is reeling from three months of massive street protests demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh after more than three decades in power.

The Gulf Cooperation Council sought to mediate a deal for Saleh to leave power in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Saleh snubbed the deal last month, prompting a visit from the coalition's head, Abdul-Latif al-Zayyani, to try to break the impasse.

But al-Zayyani, who is from Bahrain, ended his five-day visit Wednesday without closing the deal, leaving each side blaming the other for its failure.

In Washington, the White House said that John Brennan, who is an assistant to U.S. President Barack Obama, had called Saleh on Wednesday urging him to accept the GCC-brokered plan. He called it "the best path forward for Yemen to become a more secure, unified and prosperous nation."

This represents a change in the U.S. stance toward Saleh, who was considered an ally in fighting al-Qaida's active Yemeni branch.

Opposition spokesman Mohammed al-Sabri said al-Zayyani told the opposition he was leaving because he couldn't get Saleh to sign.

"He said that since they were not able to reach an agreement, he was leaving Sanaa and would not come back," al-Sabri said.

Al-Sabri said Saleh had repeatedly tried to amend the deal by adding conditions that the opposition rejected.

Ruling party official Yasser al-Yemani confirmed al-Zayyani's departure, adding that Saleh refused to sign until the sit-ins across the country had ended.

"Saleh will not leave power as long as the security situation remains unstable," he said.

The mass protests have posed an unprecedented challenge to Saleh's rule. Several top military commanders and ruling party officials have defected to the opposition, while a crackdown by government forces has reportedly killed more than 150 people.

Yemen, Saudi Arabia's southern neighbor, faced crises even before the protests. It is plagued with widespread corruption, a weak central government, a Shiite rebellion in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and an active branch of al-Qaida in its weakly governed provinces.

The GCC nations behind the mediation effort were Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

U.S. urges Yemen president to sign transition deal

WASHINGTON May 18 (Reuters) - The White House urged Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Wednesday to sign and implement a transition of power deal so that the country could "move forward immediately" with political reform.

John Brennan, an adviser to President Barack Obama, called Saleh earlier in the day, the White House said in a statement.

"Brennan noted that this transfer of power represents the best path forward for Yemen to become a more secure, unified, and prosperous nation and for the Yemeni people to realize their aspirations for peace and political reform," the statement said.

Brennan also reiterated that all parties in Yemen, a key U.S. ally in the fight against al Qaeda, should "refrain from violence and proceed with the transition in a peaceful and orderly manner."

Matchmaker describes how he found bin Laden a nice Yemeni wife

Mohammed al Qadhi

May 17, 2011

SANA'A // She wanted to be a "martyr of God" and bear children to "this precious man of noble origin". He wanted a nice Yemeni girl who was "religious and moral".

With those stipulations, Yemeni cleric Sheikh Rashad Mohammad Ismail claims he played matchmaker for the world's most wanted man.

In 1999, by his account, he arranged the marriage of Osama bin Laden to his fifth - some reports say sixth - wife, Amal al Sadah. She was 18 at the time, one of 17 children of a civil servant from the city of Ibb. Bin Laden was 43, and soon to shock the world with terror.

Now, Sheikh Ismail, 37, is demanding that Ms Sadah, who was with her husband when he was killed on May 2 by a US commando team in a secluded compound in Pakistan, be released from custody and US interrogation in Islamabad and returned to her native country.

A self-proclaimed "warrior-priest", Sheikh Ismail said he met bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1998, nine years after he arrived as a 15-year-old to fight the Soviet occupation. He said his ties to bin Laden, which cannot be confirmed, include serving as a military assistant to the terror leader from 2000 to 2001.

Yemen, bin Laden's ancestral homeland, is home to an active regional arm of al Qa'eda that claimed responsibility for a foiled 2009 attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound plane. It was also blamed for bombs found in cargo en route to the US in 2010.

Sheikh Ismail said he returned to Yemen before the bin laden-planned September 11 terrorist attacks on the US and was jailed in Ibb by Yemeni security for three years. Even so, his loyalty to the al Qa'eda chief remains unshaken.

"The Americans made his dream and wishes come true; which was to die fighting the infidels," he told The National in a recent interview in Ibb.

"This death is a turning point that will open a new chapter for the fight with the Crusaders," he added.

Despite the foreboding tone, Sheikh Ismail has fond recollections of the matrimony he allegedly nurtured between bin Laden and Ms Sadah.

"He wanted to marry a Yemeni girl and did not put any conditions on me except that she should be religious and moral. He did say he wanted to have a bond with the descendents of Prophet Mohammed," said Sheikh Ismail.

He said he immediately thought of Ms Sadah, whose deeply religious family claims to trace its ancestry back to the Prophet Mohammed.

Sheikh Ismail said he talked to the family of Ms Sadah in Ibb, a leafy city in Yemen's south-west, and they welcomed the idea. He said Ms Sabah herself accepted bin Laden proposal even after she knew about his spartan way of life.

He said the ultraconservative family accepted his proposal in part because of bin Laden's reputation for piety and high morals. This contradicts the account her father gave Reuters news agency in which Ahmed Abdul Fattah al Sadah was quoted as saying he rebuffed bin Laden's overtures several times before granting his blessing.

Mr Sadah also told reporters his daughter came into contact with bin Laden's circle as a teenager attending an Islamic religious school, where she was a student of the wife of Rashad Mohammed Saeed, whom he described as an aide to the militant leader.

"Rashad asked his wife to nominate a girl to marry bin Laden because he wanted a Yemeni wife. The teacher selected my daughter," Mr Sadah said, adding that the man initially told him a Pakistani businessman wanted his daughter's hand.

Sheikh Ismail said the family did not ask for a dowry but that US$5,000 (Dh18,367) was spent to purchase "gold jewellery and clothes" for the wedding ceremony which was reportedly held in Afghanistan in late 1999 or 2000. Mr Sadah has said he received no money from bin Laden for the marriage.

Sheikh Ismail, described as an "eloquent" preacher by his followers in Ibb, said he explained to Mrs Sadah that she would live a simple life in a "house made of mud bricks with no refrigerator, heater, or washing machine".

"I told her everything about his austere life and she accepted and said the hereafter is the lasting life. I then realised she was religiously and spiritually qualified to be a partner of this man and she was really what we wanted," he said.

He claims bin Laden used to speak highly of Ms Sadah and that he prayed for Sheikh Ismail for bringing him such a wife "who never complained or blamed him".

"She wanted to be a martyr of God; she is a faithful woman. It is a great honour for anybody to have a kinship or descendants from this precious man of noble origin," Sheikh Ismail said.

Sheikh Ismail said the last time he met the couple was in August 2001. "[Ms Sadah] paid farewell to my wife and told her to tell her family that she was very happy with Sheikh Osama and found in him what she wanted: a religious man who fears God and that she is worshipping God and prays to be a martyr," he said.

The news of bin Laden's killing, he said, made Mrs Sadah's father and mother in Ibb sad but not inconsolable.

"They are proud their daughter is the wife of a heroic martyr," he said.

But, in the Reuters report, Mr Sadah said: "My daughter was Osama bin Laden's wife, nothing more, and she had no relation to the al Qa'eda organisation … We are not in favour of bin Laden's actions and the al Qa'eda organisation. We believe in coexistence between people."

The father said that after the September 11 attacks, he lost all contact with his daughter, now 29, last speaking to her after the birth of her first child, a girl named Safia.

"We did not know until now where she was or how she was living or how many children she had," he said. "We had been planning for her mother and one of her brothers to visit her but the September events thwarted this plan."

According to reports, US authorities in Pakistan have interviewed three of bin Laden's widows, including Ms Sadah and two Saudi wives. Ms Sadah was reported to have earlier told Pakistani interrogators the family had lived for five years in the compound where bin Laden was killed by US special forces.

Mr Sadah said his family had met the Yemeni foreign minister, who promised to help get his daughter and her children repatriated. Pakistan has said it will repatriate bin Laden's widows and their children.

Until that happens, Sheikh Ismail has a message of hope for Ms Sadah locked away in Pakistan.

"We will not forget you and we will do our best to bring you back to your family. My advice is to be patient and we are confident that you will be back home and live decently among her family," he said.

He also urged the Pakistani government and the US to preserve the dignity of Ms Sadah, warning that any harm to her would be unacceptable.

"The Americans have to understand that honour is more precious to us than blood," he said.

Source: The National

Could al-Qaida launch attacks on U.S. from Yemen?

by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, May 17 (Xinhua) -- Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)could gain a foothold in Yemen that would allow the terror group to stage a "spectacular attack" against the United States or U.S. interests, according to a think tank report released on Tuesday.

"If the organization is seeking to attack us, it's actively seeking to attack us, and it will try to attack us this year," said Katherine Zimmerman, the study's co-author and analyst at the American Enterprise Institute at a panel discussion in Washington on Tuesday.

Indeed, recent events in the region have benefited the organization and placed it in a strategically advantageous position.

"For the U.S., the most dangerous situation comes from what (Yemen-based) al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has gained from the unrest," she said, referring to the current anti-government protests that have swept the Arab world and spilled over into Yemen.

As a result, Yemeni counter-terrorism forces have moved from al-Qaida strongholds into the capital to protect key infrastructure there, a move that has increased al-Qaida's operating space.

"This allows the group (the AQAP) to train for, to plot for and to attack the U.S. and its interests," she said.

Of note, however, is that the United States has ramped up security and taken action to prevent such a scenario from unfolding, she added.

The al-Qaida group in the Arabian Peninsula, an offshoot of the organization founded by Osama bin Laden, who was killed in Pakistan by U.S. forces earlier this month, has staged attacks against the United States in the past. The most notable was a foiled plot launched on Christmas Day 2009, in which an operative attempted to detonate a bomb hidden in his underwear on a flight bound for Detroit.

BACKLASH AGAINST U.S.

The report, entitled "Crisis in Yemen and U.S. Objectives," also argued that Washington could experience backlash for any backing of current President Ali Abdullah Saleh, should the government change hands.

Yemeni protesters continue to call for his resignation in the third month of demonstrations, while Saleh urged the opposition to stop "playing with fire," media reported. Moreover, any new government would have other concerns to attend to, such as the country's tanking economy, and that could give the AQAP some breathing room.

U.S. forces have conducted drone strikes on parts of the country in a bid to kill key members of AQAP, one of the latest being an attack that killed two suspected members of the organization but missed the intended target, radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

Frederick W. Kagan, co-author of the report and one of the architects of the U.S. surge in Iraq, said the current U.S. approach is unlikely to meet much success.

"If we are going to have a successful military approach to the AQAP problem, it's going to have to go beyond drones," he said.

The report argued that drone strikes against terror suspects have been used in the embattled country with only limited success and have not prevented al-Qaida from operating.

Still, the deployment of large numbers of U.S. ground troops would be unwise, as well as counterproductive and resulting in undesirable consequences, he added.

NO U.S. STRATEGY FOR YEMEN?

The United States has been criticized for lacking a strategy for Yemen. Recently, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates admitted that Washington had no plans on the table for a Yemen without Saleh.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Edmund J. Hull argued that more of a strategy exists now than a few years back. The real challenge, however, is implementation.

"Washington often thinks once it has articulated the problem and articulated a strategy, somehow the job is done," he said.

"Well guess what? The real slips, the failures more often occur when you try to implement that strategy. And you don't even know if it's a useful strategy until you've tried to implement it seriously," he said.

He believes the United States so far has a workable approach for Yemen and that 300 million U.S. dollars in U.S. aid -- criticized by some as not enough -- is sufficient funding for now.

As for the current U.S. goals in the battered country, foremost is to defeat al-Qaida and deny the group or its splinter organizations any safe haven, as well as to disrupt cooperation between it and other radical groups, especially al Shabaab in Somalia, the report said.

The secondary goal is to prevent regional instability, manage refugee outflows and the development of any humanitarian crisis and secure a free passage in the Bab Al-Mandab Strait linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, the report said.