Skip to content
Guest Thinkers —

The Plot Thickens

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

The story Waq al-waq reported yesterday about the former Guantanamo detainee and another wanted Saudi militant found dead in Sa’dah continues to evolve. Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to disclose everything that I have been able to find out in the past several hours, but I can say that the story goes deeper than just the two Saudis – only one of whose identity has been confirmed.

In another, and perhaps separate twist, al-Sharq al-Awsat is reporting that seven Somalis have been arrested for fighting with the Huthis. (In this the paper is following the reporting of Akbar al-yawm, a pro-government paper.) These two incidents will almost certainly be used by the government to support previous claims that al-Qaeda and the Huthis are in cahoots.

I think it is much too early to tell if this is actually the case, and I would be extremely wary of taking these claims at face value. Too much is still unknown at this point.

In other al-Qaeda news, al-Arabiyya is reporting that it obtained a cell phone video featuring AQAP Deputy Commander and former Guantanamo detainee, Said Ali al-Shihri, calling on individuals in Saudi to donate money to the cause to help their brothers in Yemen with jihad.

Along, with al-Shihri there is a Yemeni militant who is being identified by al-Arabiyya as Muhammad ‘Abd al-Karim al-Ghazali.

A video of the story is available here, and an English language report on the issue is here.

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people
Related
The Yemen Model: Drones and Permanent War
This week the Washington Post published a three-part series it entitled “Permanent War.”  The first piece, by Greg Miller, talks about the disposition matrix and sets the stage for the […]
Frontline: al-Qaeda in Yemen
Last night Frontline aired the film al-Qaeda in Yemen, which was reported by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad who writes for the Guardian and who, along with Declan Walsh when he was at […]
Knowing what you’re doing
For the past several years I have been arguing that the US has to do a better job of framing the war against al-Qaeda in Yemen.  The war should never […]
AQAP’s Big Dilemma
Things have been going pretty good for AQAP of late.  The group appears to be gaining recruits both from inside Yemen and abroad and it is taking and holding more […]
Up Next
Guest Thinkers
Investing in Yemen
One thing your buddies at Waq al-Waq like to do is talk about the broad scope of Yemen, including its economy. I’m sure you’ve all heard that it is: not […]