Here comes YEMEN!!!!!

ARE YOU NOTICING THE NEWS ON YEMEN??

Well here's a "little" something about Yemen from the book "Decade of Fear" by Michelle Shephard

Understanding a "little" about YEMEN
From the book "Decade of Fear" by Michelle Shephard

In the summer of 2009, about four months before Yemen would
become the next pariah state, I went to Sanaa with Star
photographer Lucas Oleniuk to learn not just about al Qaeda's
past but its future. We were also interested in finding out more
about the bookishlooking U.S.-born cleric, Anwar al Awlaki, who
was living in Yemen and whose online preaching had inspired
members of the Toronto 18. Awlaki was not yet on the public
radar, but he was watched closely within the intelligence
community.

The main point of our trip, however - and how I sold it to my
editors - was Yemen's connection to Guantanamo. Barack Obama was
nine months into his presidency and the Guantanamo quagmire was
starting to dog his administration. He was still figuring out
what to do with the prisoners. Almost half of the camp's
detainees were from Yemen and there was concern about returning
these men into this impoverished nation. The Pentagon considered
some of the detainees too dangerous to release, but it did not
have enough evidence to prosecute them. Others may not have been
violent going in, but eight years in custody had given them time
to develop a serious grudge. Would they not become easy recruits
without proper monitoring or assistance? Yemen's government
promised that if it received financial help from the United
States, it could handle the returning detainees. Few believed
those assurances, especially since Yemen, the poorest of Arab
countries, was in trouble.

The statistics were horrifying. Yemen was suffering from
dwindling oil and water reserves. Poverty was crushing. Almost
half of the country's 23 million people survived on less than $2
a day. At least a quarter were unemployed, illiterate or
starving, and often all three at once. Government corruption was
rampant under President Ali Abdullah Saleh, "The Boss," as the
man who had ruled for three decades was known. The birthrate was
increasing steadily and the population's median age was
seventeen. In the mountains north of Sanaa, the "Houthi
rebellion" (named after a deceased rebel leader) had claimed
thousands of lives since 2004, as Shia insurgents clashed with
government soldiers in the Saada Province, near the border with
Saudi Arabia. In the south, a secessionist movement threatened to
pull the country apart. The prospect of civil war had loomed
constantly since the bloody days in 1994, when it had consumed
the country. These socioeconomic and domestic threats were far
greater concerns than al Qaeda, but as history had shown, fragile
states were perfect incubators for burgeoning terrorist
organizations.

Visiting Yemen as a national security reporter was like trekking
to Graceland as an Elvis fan. Dozens of men named on the U.S. and
UN terrorist lists lived freely in Sanaa, like bin Laden's
spiritual advisor, who ran the city's government-funded
university. Former Afghan jihadists and senior al Qaeda
lieutenants and countless low-level foot soldiers lived in
"retirement" in the mountainous tribal region, or in the
crumbling stone buildings of the ancient city, largely unnoticed.
Every household had at least one gun (according to the Small Arms
Survey, Yemen was second to the United States as the world's most
armed nation).

Saleh, who had once been nicknamed "Little Saddam" after his
former Iraqi ally, was the longest-serving ruler in the Middle
East after Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin
Said. When he took power in 1979, the Washington Post quoted an
unnamed U.S. intelligence analyst who predicted that Saleh would
be lucky if he lasted six months. But Saleh was wily and
understood the need to dole out costly patronage to keep the
tribal and religious leaders onside. He famously said that
governing Yemen was as dangerous as "dancing on the heads of
snakes." If so, he had been the ultimate snake charmer for more
than three decades.

We picked up Abu Jandal on a street near his home in Saawan, a
dusty neighbourhood punctuated by concrete barricades, which made
it feel as if you were driving through a pinball machine. Abu
Jandal was standing on the street, checking his watch, as we
approached. He looked nothing like I had imagined, more business
executive late for a golf game than the fabled jihadist. He wore
a white polo shirt and khaki pants instead of the traditional
thawb, the growing. Abu Jandal and Hamdan knew little at the time
about the organization they were joining but were persuaded to
fight for the cause after spending three days listening to bin
Laden preach about America's creeping influence in the Gulf. Bin
Laden was an admirable and imposing figure, with his
six-foot-five frame towering above the men, his soothing voice
waxing poetic about the struggle ahead, and his avowal to live a
modest life despite his family's wealth. Abu Jandal and Hamdan
stayed.

More than a decade after this meeting, talking with us as he sat
in the Arabia Felix Hotel, Abu Jandal tried to recall what it was
like when he first met bin Laden. He was slightly defensive,
perhaps having been asked this question too often.

"Osama bin Laden is very normal person," he said with a shrug.
"Osama is your average father or friend or husband. Bin Laden
never treated us as followers ... he treated us like he was our
older brother and we his younger siblings. Really, he is a normal
guy but many people think otherwise because a lot of the media is
antagonistic to him. He is a man that believes he has a righteous
cause. So he defends his cause with all the means available."

He had been more effusive in his interview with Khaled years
earlier. "Our love for Sheikh Osama springs from the fact that we
went hungry together and were filled together," he said,
according to an English translation of their interview. "We felt
afraid with him and felt safe with him. We wept and rejoiced with
him. We were joined by a common destiny. We lived a full life
with him without discrimination. The man was very simple in all
his dealings and in everything in his life. Nevertheless he bore
the nation's concerns, and he did that very cleverly. In that
aspect of his character, he was very astute. His simple way of
dealing with others and his tolerance towards those who offended
him made everyone around him love him dearly.".....

Ali Soufan had a reputation as a shrewd interrogator. He was
fluent in both Arabic and English and well versed in al Qaeda's
hierarchy and its players. He had been part of the Cole
investigation, but he met Abu Jandal for the first time when
dispatched to Yemen in September 2001.

At first, Abu Jandal refused to cooperate, ranting to Soufan and
his partner from the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service
about the evils of the West. But slowly, through patience,
persistence and with the agents' extensive knowledge of al
Qaeda's inner workings (which Abu Jandal admitted to me impressed
him), he began to talk. It didn't hurt that Ali Soufan played to
Abu Jandal's ego and tried to befriend him. He noticed that Abu
Jandal never touched any of the biscuits they provided with tea,
and it dawned on Soufan that he was diabetic. So next time they
served sugar-free cookies, and Abu Jandal ate them heartily. It
was a small gesture, but it showed respect, and slowly, he began
to talk.

Abu Jandal's cooperation is credited as vital in the early days
following 9/11, when it was essential to prove to doubting allies
that al Qaeda had been involved. He was also reportedly the first
to confirm the identities of seven of the hijackers. "Through our
interrogation, which was done completely by the book, including
advising him of his rights, we obtained a treasure trove of
highly significant actionable intelligence," Soufan told a U.S.
Senate Committee in 2009. "Abu Jandal gave us extensive
information on Osama bin Laden's terror network, structure,
leadership, membership, security details, facilities, family,
communication methods, travels, training, ammunitions and
weaponry, including a breakdown of what machine guns, rifles,
rocket launchers and anti-tank missiles they used. He also
provided explicit details of the 9/11 plot operatives, and
identified many terrorists who we later successfully
apprehended.".....
..........

Did you notice it. The proof that bin Laden and terrorists hatched
and carried out the 9/11 attacks was given to the USA in detail.
The 9/11 was NOT some "conspiracy" stuff on the part of the USA
Government, as some want to tell you.

Well Yemen is in the news, and probably will be, until such nations gain their
freedom, and can start to form the union of the "king of the south" as they
must (Daniel 11:40-45) to bring end time Bible prophecy to the last 42
months of this age, and the return of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.
All expounded for you on my website.
..........