[NYTr] Yemen - The Next Quagmire?

Mon Sep 3 03:06:25 EDT 2007

World War 4 Report - Sep 1, 2007
http://ww4report.com/node/4361

YEMEN: THE NEXT QUAGMIRE

Washington's New Terror War Flashpoint?

by Mohamed Al-Azaki

MARIB, Yemen - "After the Spaniards, who will be next to die in this
vibrant, 'living museum,' as Yemenis call their country?" So asked one
member of a group of Italian tourists leaving Yemen after the horrible
attack.

It is a dreadful question after the al-Qaeda car bomb attack detonated
near the Sun Temple archeological site in Marib province, some 150 km
east of the capital Sana'a, killing eight Spanish tourists and two
Yemenis on July 2.

There have been no arrests in the case, and a $76,000 reward offered by
President Ali Abdullah Saleh for any information about those
responsible for the attack is still valid. Exactly one month after the
attack, Yemen's Interior Ministry published photographs of 10 men it
said were involved in the attack.

The photographs of the suspects appeared in the military newspaper 26
September, which reported that the Interior Ministry identified the
bomber as Abdo Saad Rahiqa—who is said to have carried out the attack
with the help of five Yemenis, a Saudi Arabian and an Egyptian national.

"It was almost a revenge story for the killing of their senior al-Qaeda
operative, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harthi," says a security official in
Marib, who declined to provide any further details because of the
sensitivity of the situation. Al-Harthi was a suspect in the USS Cole
bombing that his car was attacked in Marib by a Hellfire missile
launched from an unmanned Predator drone in November 2002

Yemen's oil and gas industry—tiny by global standards but the source of
two thirds of Yemen's GDP—was also attacked last September. The attacks
on the state-owned refinery at Safer in Marib, and Canadian-owned
storage facility at Athubah in Hadhramout, left a security guard and
the four attackers dead.

An al-Qaeda message at the time of the attacks warned that they were
"only the first spark" and that future operations would be "severe and
bitter." Now it has turned its sights on the tourism industry, the
second arm of the national economy and the source of a third of Yemen's
GDP.

"Al-Qaeda group vows to turn Yemen into a 'quagmire' for the West and
US in particular, due to the Yemen's alliance with the US-led war on
terrorism that targeted Islam, as they see it," says Abdul-Elah
Shayiee, Yemeni specialist in terrorism affairs at the state-owned SABA
news agency.

Could Yemen follow on the heels of Afghanistan and Iraq as the third
major venue in the war on terrorism?

Thirty-six suspects are on trial in the capital Sana'a, accused of
forming an "al-Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula-Yemen."
Accused of involvement in the oil facility attacks, they have pleaded
not guilty, saying they were tortured by security forces and forced to
sign false confessions.

This swathe of ancient Arabia—a magical mix of green mountains and
deserts and cloud-high villages where time often seems to stand
still—has become a "living museum" where tourists are escorted by
soldiers dressed in white robes, combat jackets and checkered head
clothes. They often demand tourists give them money for buying
qat—"hag-al-qat" in Yemeni dialect—a mildly narcotic leaf which is
chewed by the majority of Yemeni adults near the end of every day
across the country.

Travel roads are dotted with checkpoints controlled by soldiers—or by
tribesmen with a proclivity for abducting foreigners to pressure the
government into providing better services or to secure the release of
jailed relatives. Usually hostages are treated like honored guests and
released unharmed, but in 1998, four Westerners were killed during a
botched rescue attempt.

A former German government minister, his wife and three children were
kidnapped in Yemen in December 2005. Five Italian tourists were
kidnapped in Yemen in January 2006 and then released. In all these
cases, the hostages were released unharmed. But even a very short news
story on the abducting of Western tourists in Yemen is enough to erase
the efforts of several years of investment and tourism promotions.

Extreme patience is required for a tour outside the capital to Marib,
the most important archeological zone, where the Queen of Sheba once
ruled over an empire of myrrh and frankincense. Tribes in Marib have
had a strained relationship with central government for decades.

The local economy has suffered since the July attacks. "Everything went
upside down," says Ahmed Salim, owner of a tourism company in Marib.
"Tourism is the backbone of economy here, but the challenge is how to
get the trust of tourists over again."

Yemen has been trying to make the Queen of Sheba temple, known for its
imposing columns marking the entrance, a major tourist attraction
following its recent renovation.

Yemen is one of the oldest continuously inhabited regions in the world,
its locales referenced in the Old Testament and Koran. According to
Yemen's folklore, Sana'a was built by the eldest son of Prophet Noah,
Shem or Sam in Arabic; it may also have been the town of Azal
referenced in the book of Zechariah. To this day, Sana'a is locally
nicknamed "Sam City."

About 150 kilometers east of Sana'a, Marib was the capital of Sheba, or
Saba, the mightiest kingdom of ancient Arabia, and the most famous
archaeological site in modern Yemen. Islam's holy book, the Koran, in a
chapter called "The City of Saba," describes the Sheba kingdom this
way: "There was indeed a sign for Sheba in their dwelling place: Two
gardens on the right hand and the left (as who should say): Eat of the
provision of your Lord and render thanks to Him. A fair land and an
indulgent Lord!" (Surah 34:15)

The Bible talks about a visit made by the Queen of Sheba to King
Solomon in Jerusalem, where she took with her camels bearing spices,
gold and precious stones. "Never again did spices come in such quantity
as that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon," according to 1
Kings 10.

In Old Marib, now deserted on top of a small hill, mud-brick buildings
built by local tribespeople sit among the remains of the ancient city.
A few kilometers away are the remnants of the throne and Mahram Bilqis
(Temple of Bilqis)—Bilqis being the name given to the Queen of Saba in
the later stories in the Islamic tradition. Not far away lies what
remains of the famous old dam of Bilqis, which was built in the 8th
century BC and stood for well over 1,000 years.

But uncomfortable relations between the government and the Marib tribes
on one hand, and al-Qaeda's deadly threats on the other stand as a
barrier against the exploitation of these wonders.

Marib, home to four powerful tribes with more than 70 branches, has
earned a reputation for being lawless—and, more recently, a hotbed of
support for al-Qaeda and related militant networks.

"In Marib, the hotels are not the perfect places to relax," says one of
soldiers in yellow and brown camouflage fatiguestationed at the gate of
a main hotel. "If the hotel was left unguarded, tribesmen could easily
grab tourists from their beds, or maybe al-Qaeda comes to blow it up."

[Mohamed Al-Azaki is a Yemeni independent journalist and researcher on
Islamic militants at the Saba Center for Political and Strategic
Studies based in Sana'a, Yemen.]

RESOURCES:

Yemeni court charges 35 suspects over oil attacks
Reuters, March 4, 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL04670927