Free Republic

The Saudi kingdom long was Yemen’s largest benefactor and held sway over powerful Yemeni tribal leaders. Yet following Saleh’s resignation in November 2011, Iran swiftly worked to increase its influence in Yemen by creating ties with whomever shared a common disdain for Saudi Arabia, including liberal anti-Saleh activists. The Houthi rebels, an oft-ignored militia from Yemen’s far north, were an obvious ally for Iran. Houthi fighters, who follow a sect of Shi’ite Islam known as Zaydism, consolidated power in the wake of the 2011 government collapse. They are staunchly anti-Saudi. They believe that the Kingdom was involved in the systematic...

Yemen's ousted leader gave an impassioned speech to Arab leaders Saturday and called on his people to stage peaceful protests in opposition to the takeover of the country by Shiite Houthi rebels.Speaking at the Arab summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, President Abdel Rabbo Mansour Hadi spoke about "dark forces" influencing his nation.He branded the Houthi militias the "stooges of Iran" and directly blamed the Islamic Republic for creating chaos in Yemen and forcing him to flee the country.

A White House spokesman said American efforts in Yemen are a "template that has succeeded," even as President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was forced to flee the country by boat. White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Wednesday said that the U.S. still had Yemeni extremists in its crosshairs. According to media reports, Hadi fled the presidential palace in Yemen as rebels attempted an armed takeover of the city of Aden. Earnest told reporters that U.S. officials were not aware of Hadi's destination but insisted that American officials still had a level of control over the chaotic situation. "We have...

Airstrikes by Saudi Arabia against Iran-backed Shiite rebels in turbulent Yemen have added a regional dimension to the conflict in the Arab world’s poorest country. Five reasons why the world should care about what is happening there: Yemen is home to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, which Washington has viewed as the most lethal branch of the global network founded by Osama bin Laden. AQAP has been linked to several attempted attacks on the U.S., including the underwear bomb plot of December 2009, and it claimed the January killings at the offices of the French satirical weekly Charlie...

Yemen's crisis is getting worse and then some. Saudi Arabia has started bombing rebel positions inside Yemen, and said the Sunni Kingdom will do "anything necessary" to deter the Iran-backed Shiite rebels who are taking over its neighbor. Meanwhile, the rebel Houthi fighters looted American intelligence files, which contained details of US operations in the country, Brian Bennett and Zaid Al-Alayaa of the LA Times report. Some of the files were reportedly "handed directly to Iranian advisors by Yemeni officials who have sided with the Houthi militia," which has successfully dismantled Yemen's government since marching into Sana, the capital, in September....

Secret intelligence files held by Yemeni security forces and containing details of American intelligence operations in the country have been looted by Iran-backed militia leaders, exposing names of informants and plans for U.S.-backed counter-terrorism operations, U.S. officials say. U.S. intelligence officials believe additional files were handed directly to Iranian advisors by Yemeni officials who have sided with the Houthi militias that seized control of the capital of Sana last September and later toppled the U.S.-backed president. For American intelligence networks in Yemen, the damage has been severe. Until recently, U.S. forces deployed in Yemen had worked closely with President Abdu...

SNIPPET: "Actually, two have been convicted by a jury for using their nightclubs to launder the proceeds of drug and weapons deals, one was acquitted of money laundering but has pled guilty to a drug trafficking charge, and one of those convicted of money laundering has now been charged with tax evasion. And that's not to mention the failure to pay state liquor taxes and fees, the unsolved murder of a one-time business partner, and various immigration-related issues. Money was transferred in to a relative and known Hizballah operative in Lebanon, and there are strong ties to the Lebanese expat...

The Yassine family of Austin, Texas is apparently quite the enterprising group. Led by Hussein “Mike” Yassine, the Yassines were quite diversified. They own 8 bars. According to law enforcement authorities they are also a one-family crime wave. They are involved in murder, money laundering, drug dealing–and they have a brother back in Lebanon who is part of Hezbollah.

Five suspected terrorists were reportedly killed during police raids at two different locations in Bali late on Sunday. Police have yet to issue an official statement on the nature of the raids and details on the casualties. The first raid took place at around 10:15 p.m. in a budget hotel, Laksmi, on Jl. Danau Poso 99X, Sanur. The area is known as one of the most famous red-light districts in Bali, where people can easily obtain a cheap room from staff at budget hotels who rarely ask for valid identification from their guests. Neighbors said that they heard a burst...

Al-Qaida is claiming responsibility for a suicide-bombing Saturday in the southern Yemeni port city of Mukalla, which left at least 26 people dead and at least 20 others wounded. The bombing came just hours after a speech by Yemen's new President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is originally from the south of the country. Witnesses say the suicide car-bomber broke through an outer barrier at a presidential compound in Mukalla blowing up himself and his vehicle, near a group of soldiers who were eating, causing dozens of casualties. Al Arabiya TV reported that the car-bomber was from Saudi Arabia and belonged...

A former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the FBI says played a role in a 1996 terrorist attack that killed 19 U.S. servicemen, accompanied Iraq’s prime minister to the White House on Monday, attending an event at which President Obama trumpeted the end of the Iraq War. Hadi Farhan al-Amiri, transportation minister in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government, was part of the delegation that visited the White House to discuss Iraq’s future and Iran’s influence there, among other topics. -excerpt - Louis J. Freeh, who served as FBI director in the Clinton administration and the early months...

Jihad Returns to America By: Robert Spencer FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, June 04, 2009 Jihad came once again to American soil on Monday, when an American convert to Islam, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, began shooting at soldiers who were standing outside the Army-Navy Career Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Muhammad murdered Pvt. William Long, 23, and gravely wounded Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18. Muhammad was charged with capital murder and – in a departure from authorities’ practically reflexive dismissal of terrorism as a factor in virtually any act of violence by a Muslim -- sixteen counts of committing a terrorist act. Rather curiously,...

Nageeb Abdul Jabar Mohammed Al-Hadi -- if that's even his name -- is just one of nearly 750 people U.S. investigators want to know more about in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. He has at least four aliases and two different birth dates. He is a Yemeni, with a Michigan driver's licence and a Detroit wife. He was on a plane from Frankfurt, Germany headed for Chicago when it was diverted to Toronto. He was arrested at Pearson International Airport and may be extradited to the United States to face two charges related to false passports and fraudulent misuse ...

Globalterroralert.com (4/14/05): Sources in the Arabian Peninsula are now claiming that one of the four Al-Qaida suicide bombers who attacked a U.S. base in the western Iraqi town of Al-Qaim on April 11 was Saudi national Hadi bin Mubarak al-Qahtani. According to a statement marking his death, Hadi had grown "eager to martyr himself" after witnessing the example of the "19 heroes" and their "holy attack that demolished the foolish infidel Americans and caused many young men to awaken from their deep sleep." Click to view English translation c/o Globalterroralert.com

<p>BAGHDAD &#8212; U.S. forces captured Iraq's swashbuckling former interior minister, while a top-level Ba'ath Party official surrendered, the latest arrests from a list of 55 most-wanted fugitives from Saddam Hussein's ousted regime.</p> <p>Thirty-four of those on the list have been detained. But despite a huge bounty and a feverish search, the hunt is still missing its biggest quarry: Saddam and his two sons.</p>

Saddam killed his top commander as Marines stormed Baghdad SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COMSunday, May 4, 2003 LONDON — Iraqi President Saddam Hussein killed his leading military commander on charges of treason as U.S. forces captured Baghdad. The London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat daily said Saddam and his younger son, Qusay, executed Gen. Seif Eddin Al Rawi on April 8. The newspaper said Al Rawi, commander of the elite Republican Guards, was accused of treason and shot in the head and back. Al Rawi was summoned by Saddam and executed on the day U.S. marines captured the Iraqi capital. The newspaper...

TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) - U.S. soldiers raided a dozen buildings in Saddam Hussein's home town Friday, killing one Iraqi and detaining about 20. U.S. officials also announced the capture in Baghdad of one of Saddam's most trusted aides. The aide, Mizban Khadr Hadi, was a member of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council and had been an adviser to Saddam since the early 1980s. Captured Thursday, Hadi was ranked No. 41 on the U.S. most-wanted list of 55 regime leaders. Even with U.S. President George W. Bush declaring an end to "major combat operations," the raid in Tikrit was the latest of...

U.S.: Top Figure in Saddam Regime Caught .c The Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A top official of Saddam Hussein's former regime was reported under arrest Friday after being taken into custody in the Iraqi capital, the U.S. military said. An announcement at the U.S. Army's V Corps headquarters said Misbas Qadr Hadi, a member of Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council and a top Baath Party leader, was captured Thursday in the area of Baghdad controlled by the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division.

TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) - U.S. soldiers raided a dozen buildings in Saddam Hussein's hometown Friday, killing one Iraqi and detaining about 20. U.S. officials also announced the capture in Baghdad of one of Saddam's most trusted aides. The aide, Mizban Khadr Hadi, was a member of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council and had been an adviser to Saddam since the early 1980s. Captured Thursday, Hadi was ranked No. 41 on the U.S. most-wanted list of 55 regime leaders. Even with President Bush declaring an end to "major combat operations," the raid in Tikrit was the latest of many signs that daunting...