Yemen joins chorus against Osama

By Kesava Menon

MANAMA (BAHRAIN), NOV. 27. Yemen had been among the group of Arab countries which not only opposed some of the major elements of the U.S. policy on West Asia but was also not unafraid to express its views.

Now, the Government of Yemen has espoused one of the U.S. administration's theories about the ubiquitous role that Osama bin Laden plays in international terrorism. This change in Yemen's attitude dovetails with reports that the U.S. is preparing for some hard action against Bin Laden and his hosts Taliban in Afghanistan.

After the naval vessel, USS Cole, was struck in a suicide bomb attack, killing 17 servicemen in Aden harbour, the Yemen Government sought to play down the possibility that it could have been an act of terrorism. Yemen has been in bad light internationally for the frequency with which tribesmen in the country kidnap foreigners for ransom. There is also a strong Islamic movement in the country which is a partner in the otherwise secular coalition Government. In lieu of these factors and the fact that Yemen has opposed several of the U.S. policy postulates on West Asia, it is understandable that Yemen should try to avoid the impression that it had become a place where terrorist attacks would also be staged.

In the initial days after the attack on the Cole, there was a divergence between the initial hypotheses drawn up by the U.S. administration and the Yemen Government. While U.S. investigators appear to have quickly adopted the theory that the attack was a terrorist act and probably masterminded by the loose global network that has grown up in the last 10 years, Yemeni authorities were talking of the possibility of an accident. However, Yemeni officials did co-operate with the U.S. investigators and have finally allowed them to question the several dozen suspects who have been taken into custody. They have finally come around to the theory, favoured almost from the outset by the U.S. that Bin Laden probably had something to do with the attack. Yemen's Prime Minister, Mr. Abdul Karim al Iryani, has told a London-based Arabic paper that, although hard evidence had not been found as yet, Bin Laden was at least involved indirectly in the attack on the Cole. From what has been disclosed about the investigations so far, it appears that the two men who carried out the attack were natives of Yemen. At least one of them was, like Bin Laden, believed to be a Yemen native who had taken on Saudi nationality.

Another UAE-based suspect is believed to have provided the explosives while a native of Morocco was believed to be the engineer who put the explosive device together. All of them are believed to have linkages with the Afghan-based ``jehadi'' forces and there is also said to be proof that they had connections with Bin Laden's Al Qaeda organisation. U.S. and Yemeni investigators are now trying to find whether Bin Laden was directly involved in planning, financing and providing the explosives or had merely given a general directive.

Many of these allegations and pointers have been provided to the Pakistani daily The Nation by U.S. officials who have more or less directly warned that retaliation against the Taliban and Bin Laden is imminent. But what is surprising is that the Yemen Government should also have spoken out about the Bin Laden angle after the U.S. had made its position and intentions so evident.

The Government of Yemen has been articulate in its opposition to the economic embargo imposed on Iraq and it has, in direct contradiction of U.S. views and desires, called on the Arab world to confront Israel militarily so as to stop Israel's current action against the Palestinians. (The Yemen Government's agreement to provide supplies and fuels for the U.S. naval ships that enforce the Iraqi embargo sits ill with its expressions of anguish at the plight of the Iraqis but the Government had apparently not disclosed to its people that the U.S. ships calling in their prime port of Aden were indeed carrying out this policy).

The fact that one of the more staunchly nationalistic Arab Governments has begun singing the U.S. tune on global terrorism gives the distinct impression that the noose is about to tighten on someone.

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Section  : International
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