(Ammar Abdullah/Reuters)
Posted on 06/10/2015 12:08:17 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The decision comes after an interview in which a former militant revealed the government collaborated in attacks carried out in 2007.
Spain's top prosecutor, Javier Zaragoza, called on Monday to investigate claims of links between the former Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh and al-Qaida.
The decision comes after an investigation made by Qatar's Al Jazeera TV network, which revealed in an interview earlier this month that a former member of the designated terrorist group confirmed that Saleh had collaborated with the group.
The revelation has sparked the prosecutor's reaction as one of the case cited by the former al-Qaida member involved the bombing at Yemen's Balquis Temple by the terrorist group, in which eight Spanish tourist were killed in 2007.
Investigations by Spain's authorities were closed in 2011 after a group of investigators traveled to Yemen and were unable to obtain further information by the Yemeni government.
According to the former al-Qaida militant turned informant Hani Mujahid, he urged the Yemeni intelligence service to stop the attack ahead, before it happened.
"I talked to him (chief of the counter-terrorism department). I told him a car bomb was prepared (by al-Qaida) to kill a group of Spanish tourists in the Marib province, in the Balquis temple," Mujahid told Al Jazeera.
The terrorist-turned-informant also claimed that Saleh participated in al-Qaida's direction.
"Ali Abdullah Saleh turned al-Qaida into an organised criminal gang," said Mujahid during the interview.
The Yemeni leader was strongly backed by the United States, Saudi Arabia and other western nations at the time he ruled the country, and received billions in funding for anti-terrorist operations.
Under his rule, the U.S. began a drone-airstrikes program against al-Qaida in Yemen, which -- according to cables leaked by Wikileaks -- were hidden from the public and Parliament by Saleh's government.
(Excerpt) Read more at telesurtv.net ...
(Ammar Abdullah/Reuters)
[and 85-90% of the world's Muslims are Sunni, IOW, Shiites kill twice as many per capita]
Al Qaeda Tries a New Tactic to Keep Power: Sharing It
Ben Hubbard
June 9, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/10/world/middleeast/qaeda-yemen-syria-houthis.html?_r=0
Yemen’s Ousted President Saleh Helps Propel Houthi Rebel Advance
Key support came from military units still loyal to former leader
http://www.wsj.com/articles/yemens-ousted-president-saleh-helps-propel-houthi-rebel-advance-1428704009
Houthi Yemen coup moves Iran’s Middle East hegemonic ambitions forward - upheld by Washington [Debka]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3255450/posts
Who’s fighting for whom in Yemen’s proxy war?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3273817/posts
Informant says Yemen’s Saleh helped direct al-Qaeda
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/06/informant-yemen-saleh-helped-direct-al-qaeda-150604073415522.html
This guy must be the ultimate in double dealers. Today he is allied with the Iranian backed Shiite Houthis. Something tells me Saleh would back anyone along as a buck is involved. Saleh has run the whole gamut of rogue status’ his whole life. He started out as a Nasserite army officer fighting with the Egyptians against the Royalist rebels, who were ably led by British mercenaries. He later comes to a unity agreement with the Marxists in South Yemen to unite the two countries. Becomes Saddam’s only true ally during Desert Storm. Allies himself with both the US and Al Qaeda, try pulling that off, during the War on Terror. And is now in the Shiite camp with the Houthis. This guy has to be a slippery as a snake.
Saleh ruled for more than 20 years over a country that had spent decades either split in two or in a state of civil war. A few years ago he was being accused of allowing the US to snuff al-Qaeda using drones and keeping it all quiet. At the same time, he was trans-shipping North Korean and Iranian munitions and working with al-Qaeda. Swept away in the Arab Spring, he agreed to leave, but has used his various jihadist connections to try to regain power, and TH with the consequences to Yemen.
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