Chemical Weapons, Drug Smuggling, and Other Crimes of the Yemeni Dictator

[صوت الجنوب]

أسلحلة كيميائيه وتهريب المخدرات و جرائم أخرى للدكتاتور اليمني

October 14, 2005



Chemical Weapons, Drug Smuggling, and Other Crimes of the Yemeni Dictator
Jane Novak

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Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is scheduled to visit the United States in November for a round of meetings with President Bush and other high ranking US officials. As the representative of the Yemeni people, Saleh deserves a great deal of respect and hospitality. Yet it has become increasingly apparent that the regime, under the total domination of President Saleh, is engaged in a wide variety of criminal activities to the detriment of regional stability and the Yemeni people themselves.

Drug Smuggling


One regionally destabilizing regime activity is drug smuggling. A variety of illegal drugs are smuggled via the Indian Ocean into the southern Yemeni governate of Hadramawt. The drugs are then transported inland to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States under the supervision of a close relative of the president who is also responsible for the governmental security apparatus, a well informed former regime official reported. The Saudis regularly report seizing tons of drugs (as well as guns and other prohibited materials) from Yemeni smugglers.

The profits from many illegal transactions are thought to be laundered through real estate transactions by front companies in Dubai. Once laundered, the money finds it way to bank accounts in Europe, notably Germany.

Trafficking Weapons


Both the US and the UN have expressed concern regarding the amount of illegal arms transfers from Yemen. The Yemeni weapons pipeline has two sources of supply: the black market and legitimate military purchases.

Published reports have indicated that local gangs of arms traffickers in Serbia, Slovakia, Montenegro, Croatia and Kosovo ship weapons from the ports in Montenegro and Croatia to Yemen. Additionally some weapons purchased by the Yemeni military are diverted into the black market. The serial numbers for two assault rifles used in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia have been traced to Yemen's Defense Ministry. Five U.S. consulate employees died in the attack.

Independent analyst Shaun Overton noted, "Many people believe that Yemeni military officers bear responsibility for the distribution of weapons in the country. Arms can flow legally into Yemen for the legitimate purpose of supplying the army." The poorest nation in the Arab world, Yemen is among its top weapons purchasers. The rise in Yemen's military budget, which tripled from 1998 to 2003, corresponds with an increase in weapons trafficking activity, an enterprise reputedly supervised by a close relative of President Saleh who is a top a top military ******.

The Yemeni weapons pipeline illegally supplies weapons to various groups in the Sudan, Somalia, Palestine, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, and to al-Qaeda. According to Elaph, an Arabic website, "The Saudis were very furious as the latest battles with terrorists in Saudi Arabia revealed that all weapons and explosives used by the Qaeda fighters were bought and smuggled from Yemeni arms markets." An Israeli military intelligence official said "The weapons are smuggled by private gangs but with full knowledge of the authorities..."

Illegal transfers are also made directly by the military. A recent UN report noted that the Yemeni government had admitted sending 5000 "personal weapons" to the government of Somalia despite a U.N. weapons embargo. The weapons were delivered by the Yemeni Air Force. The report also noted a much larger deal brokered between Yemen and Somalia that included rocket launchers, anti-tank weapons, shoulder-fired missiles and other armaments. Previously, Yemeni tanks discovered in the Sudan were disavowed by the Yemeni government. In August, the Yemeni military banned journalists from reporting on military topics without prior approval.

Active Support of Terrorists

It is no secret that al-Qaeda affiliated members of the Yemeni military and security forces are aiding terrorists. A Yemeni government official stated that "subversive" (al-Qaeda) elements of Yemen's secret service have established training camps for Iraqi Baathists who later fight in Iraq. Military analyst James Dunnigan wrote recently, "There are many al Qaeda sympathizers in the Yemeni military and government as well. These sympathizers have been discreetly aiding Iraqi Baath Party officials who have fled Iraq, and now Syria. There has also been some active, but covert, support for the terrorists operating in Iraq."
Dunnigan's assessment corresponds with that of former Yemeni ambassador to Syria, Ahmed Abdullah al-Hasani, who recently requested political asylum in London. A former commander of Yemen's navy, al-Hasani stated at a press conference that "al-Qaida elements are at the top in Yemen, in the army and political security forces." Yemeni Socialist Party lawmaker Mohammed Salah, said "The government deals with terrorists in a way to keep them under their control, to use them when it needs to," the AP reported.

A recent study for the Center for Strategic and International Studies by Anthony Cordesman found that 17% of foreign fighters in Iraq were likely Yemeni. This figure does not account for fighters of other nationalities trained in Yemen. Twenty suicide bombings in Iraq were perpetrated by Yemenis, reported al-Thawry newspaper. Two individuals charged with involvement in the Cole bombings who "escaped" along with eight other suspects were later reported to have carried out suicide bombings in Iraq which resulted in dozens of deaths.

Beyond training and support, there is reportedly an established terrorist transit route through Yemen to Iraq. A Saudi source recently told the London based Saudi paper Asharq Alawsat that generally, “A young man decides he wants to fight in Iraq, illegally enters Yemen, travels to Syria, and is subsequently smuggled across the border into Iraq.”

Counterfeit Money


The Central Bank of Yemen distributed a substantial amount of forged currency to its clients. Confirmed as forgeries by the Yemeni police, the bogus currency distributed by the Taiz branch of the Yemen Central Bank was in both Saudi and Yemeni denominations, according to al-Wahdawi news. Counterfeit Saudi riyals are thought to be regularly smuggled into Saudi Arabia to be exchanged with authentic denominations.

Adel al-Dhahab, the lawyer who had handled counterfeiting cases for the Reserve Bank of Yemen in 2004, reported that some of the counterfeit money stored for protection by the Reserve Bank was stolen (and presumably re-circulated) by a high ranking official in the Ministry of the Interior, until the prosecutor was forced to stamp every bill as counterfeit to prevent such practices. Mr. al-Dhahab also confirmed that the Central Bank is used as a mechanism of transferring and investing the personal funds of top officials overseas.

Smuggling Diesel


Researcher Sarah Philips reported that a well-informed ex-parliamentarian from the ruling General People's Congress (GPC), said that "high-ranking regime officials smuggled large quantities of subsidized diesel from Yemen's southern ports to the Horn of Africa, transferring at least 20 to 30 percent of the public money used to pay for the subsidies into their own pockets." She found that at a time when imports of other products (including diesel consuming machinery) decreased slightly, "the rapid increase in Yemen's diesel imports makes a circumstantial case" for large scale smuggling.

Mr. Abduljabar Saad, Under Secretary of the Finance Minister, in his resignation letter dated 8/16/2005 objected to widespread corruption throughout the ministry. He also noted the large increase in publicly subsidized diesel intended for the Yemeni public and he stated with a fair amount of certitude that it "is being smuggled to neighboring markets."

Chemical Weapons


It is questionable whether the Yemeni military's response to the Houthi rebellion was proportionate, reasonable, and justified. The primarily Shiite region of Sa'ada was decimated by a military force comprised of former Iraqi military men, Afghan Arabs, and Yemeni military personnel, under the ******ship of General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a reputed al-Qaeda sympathizer and President Saleh's half brother. Persistent news reports and published interviews have charged that General Mohsen used gas as a weapon during the conflicts in Sa'ada.