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Yemen's president open to dialogue with al-Qaida
Yahoo News ^ | 1/10/2010 | Associated Press via Yahoo News

Posted on 01/10/2010 9:05:32 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld

Yemen's president said he is ready to talk to al-Qaida members who renounce violence, suggesting he could show them the same kind of leniency he has granted militants in the past despite U.S. pressure to crack down on the terror group.

Yemen is moving cautiously in the fight against al-Qaida, worried over a potential backlash in a country where anger at the U.S. and extremism are widespread. Thousands of Yemenis are battle-hardened veterans of past "holy wars" in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya and Iraq, and though most are not engaged in violence now they preserve a die-hard al-Qaida ideology.

"Any movement against al-Qaida will lead to the fall of the Yemeni regime," warned Ali Mohammed Omar, a Yemeni who fought in Afghanistan from 1990-1992 and says he met Osama bin Laden twice during that time.

If the U.S. or its allies become directly involved, "the whole (Yemeni) people will become al-Qaida. Instead of 30 or 40 people, it would become millions," he told The Associated Press in an interview.

Yemeni forces recently launched their heaviest strikes and raids against al-Qaida in years, and Washington has praised San'a for showing a new determination against al-Qaida's offshoot in the country.

The United States has increased money and training for Yemen's counterterror forces, calling al-Qaida in Yemen a global threat after it allegedly plotted a failed attempt to bomb a U.S. passenger jetliner on Christmas Day.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh's comments raised the possibility he could continue a policy that has frustrated U.S. officials in the past — releasing al-Qaida militants on promises they will not engage in terrorism again.

Several have since broken those promises and are believed to have returned to al-Qaida's ranks.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: aliabdullahsaleh; alqaedayemen; alqaida; arabianpeninsula; sanaa; waronterror; wot; yemen; yemeni; yemenigovernment; yemenis

1 posted on 01/10/2010 9:05:34 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
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To: sonofstrangelove

Is that at the behest of zero? That’s what he said he would do during the campaign.


2 posted on 01/10/2010 9:14:44 PM PST by GrandmaPatriot
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To: sonofstrangelove

Why are we giving money and arms to this guy?


3 posted on 01/10/2010 9:15:45 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld ("I have learned to use the word "impossible" with the greatest caution."-Dr.Werner Von Braun)
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To: sonofstrangelove

Of course he is.....he is an al Qaeda sympathizer. Irony, huh? =.=


4 posted on 01/10/2010 9:30:44 PM PST by cranked
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To: sonofstrangelove
Why are we giving money and arms to this guy?

because Russia and China are giving them arms, too.

http://paxalles.blogs.com/paxalles/2010/01/russia-china-outsupplying-yemen-with-arms-resources.html

5 posted on 01/11/2010 12:53:51 AM PST by blueplum
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To: sonofstrangelove

“Yemen’s president said he is ready to talk to al-Qaida members who renounce violence”

I must have missed the part about any aq members being peaceful.


6 posted on 01/11/2010 2:23:47 AM PST by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like what you say))
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To: sonofstrangelove

Salih is a fool. This is how you deal with terrorists:


7 posted on 01/16/2010 9:58:07 PM PST by G8 Diplomat
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