Yemen sheds light on ‘direct US-Qaeda relationship under Saleh’

Yemeni armed forces say they have obtained evidence that point to the existence of a “direct relationship” between the United States and the Takfiri al-Qaeda terrorist group as well as a former Yemeni administration’s role in the formation of the ties.

The armed forces issued a statement on Tuesday, saying it had come by the contents of telephone calls between former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and George Tennet, an ex-Chief of the US’s CIA spy agency.

One of the conversations pointed to the existence “of direct relationship between the CIA and al-Qaeda terrorists and cooperation on the part of the Saleh government’s officials in formation of the relationship,” the statement noted.

In the conversation, Tennet is insisting that the Yemeni government release an al-Qaeda member that had been arrested in relation to the terror group’s alleged attack against American missile destroyer USS Cole in 2000.

Speaking to al-Masirah, Abdul Qader al-Shami, Head of Yemen’s Intelligence Agency, identified the person in question as a dual American-Yemeni national, named Anwar al-Awlaki. Washington assassinated Awlaki in 2011 once it had no more use for him, he added.

Explaining the extent of Yemen and al-Qaeda’s cooperation in Yemen, he said, the Americans train terrorists on the Yemeni soil before sending them overseas to carry out terror operations. Once these terrorists return to Yemen, Washington accuses the country of providing safe haven for them, Shami stated.

The armed forces also detailed the US’s ambitions concerning Yemen during Saleh’s second tenure as Yemen’s president that lasted from 1990 until 2012.

ME