Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Al-Qaeda in Yemen army behind USS Cole bombing: former envoy

If this is true that Sunni Al-Qaeda elements are at the top in Yemen, in the army and political security forces, and they are battling the Shi'ite rebels in northern Yemen, allied to Iran, we have another clash between Sunnis and Shi’ites in some ways mirroring Iraq.

-Am

Al-Qaeda in Yemen army behind USS Cole bombing: former envoy

LONDON (AFP) May 04, 2005
Yemen's former ambassador to Syria, Ahmed Abdullah al-Hassani, alleged Wednesday that Al-Qaeda cells within the Yemeni military and security forces planned the 2000 bombing of the US warship Cole.

Hassani, who said he has applied for political asylum in Britain, also told a press conference in London that "it is very likely the head of the regime (President Ali Abdullah Saleh) knew in advance of the Cole explosion."

However, Hassani provided no evidence to support his claims and said he had not been in contact with US officials investigating the bombing since leaving Damascus to travel to London last week.

Hassani promised to disclose "more details" at some unspecified date.

Seventeen US sailors were killed when two suicide bombers on an inflatable raft blew themselves up alongside the USS Cole, a destroyer, in Yemen's southern port of Aden in October 2000.

"It (the bombing) was not surprising because Al-Qaeda elements are at the top in Yemen, in the army and political security forces," he charged.

Hassani said Saleh had dispatched his interior minister and political security minister from Sanaa, the capital, for Aden at midnight, hours before the bombing occurred, casting suspicion on the decision.

Hassani, who was commander of Yemen's naval forces at the time of the bombing, said he was off duty in his home town just outside Aden.

While in Britain, Saleh is being looked after by the opposition Southern Democratic Assembly, which seeks self-determination for southern Yemen.

Flanked by opposition members, Hassani made a plea for self-determination, complaining of corruption and discrimination by the northerners who dominate the Yemeni government.

Yemen used to be divided into a northern state and a southern Marxist state, but united in 1990. A war broke out between north and south in 1994 but northern forces won and crushed northern separatist moves.

The British Home Office and Foreign Office have declined to comment on the case of Hassani, who said he had fled to Britain after an alleged assassination attempt by the Yemeni authorities.


http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050504174254.dh8bajko.html