Yahoo: WASHINGTON - Waleed Mohammed bin Attash, long suspected of plotting the bombing of the USS Cole, confessed to planning the attack during a hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a Pentagon transcript released Monday.

An alleged chief operational planner for al-Qaida, bin Attash also said he helped organize the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 that killed more than 200, the transcript said. Seventeen sailors were killed and dozens injured when suicide bombers steered an explosives-laden boat into the guided missile destroyer Cole on Oct. 12, 2000.

"I participated in the buying or purchasing of the explosives," bin Attash said when asked what his role was in the attacks on the Cole and the embassies. "I put together the plan for the operation a year and a half prior to the operation, buying the boat and recruiting the members that did the operation."

Cooperative Research provides an excellent timeline of the intelligence failures that lead to the Cole Bombing and notes:

In May 2001, UPI will report, “According to several US government sources, one of the reasons the attack on the Cole succeeded was involvement by the ‘highest levels’ of the Yemen government of President Ali Abdallah Saleh, although Saleh himself personally was not, one said.” [United Press International, 5/20/2001]

Since the bombing of the USS Cole, many thought to be involved in the conspiracy have recieved light sentences or escaped jail in Yemen:

Six convicted Cole conspirators’ appeal verdict was rendered in March of 2005. In 2005, a court appeal reduced al-Badawis’ sentence from death to 15 years, Mamoon Amswah was commuted from eight to five years. The court upheld the death for Abdu al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is being held in US custody and who is believed to be the mastermind of the USS Cole attack. Fahd Al-Quso’s ten year prison sentence was upheld. Ali Mohamed Murakab and Morad al-Sorori both retained five years in prison for forging identification documents.

Jamal al-Badawi was originally sentenced to death by a Yemeni court for his involvement in the attack. The sentence was commuted upon appeal to fifteen years in prison. However, al-Badawi managed to escape from jail twice and is currently at large. In May 2003 after their escape from prison the month prior, Jamal Ahmed Mohammed Ali Al-Badawi and Fahd al-Quso ak/ak Fahd al-Qis’e were indicted by a federal grand jury in Manhattan, New York for plotting the attack on the Cole and in total were indicted for an excess of fifty terror related offenses. Both al-Quso and al-Badawi were recaptured in March 2004.

Jamal Al-Badawi escaped from prison again in 2006 along with 22 other al-Qaeda operatives. Al-Badawi currently remains at large. Shortly after the escape, Yemen’s Specialized Penal Court ordered the release of Hadi Saleh Al-Waeli suspected of selling arms, ammunition and explosives to the terrorists who bombed the USS Cole Destroyer at Aden Port in 2000. Khaldoun Al-Hukaimi and Saleh Mana held in connection with the attack managed to escape from the custody of the Political Security Organization in Aden in 2003 along with eight other detainees. The pair was reported to have committed suicide attacks in Iraq in 2005, RayNews reported.

In 2003, Yemen arrested Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal who was on the US list of most wanted terrorists in Yemen and was believed to be one of the masterminds of the Cole bombing. Yemen refused to allow US federal investigators access to Al-Ahdal, the Yemen Times reported, suggesting instead that the FBI submit questions for al-Ahdal in writing. Sources indicated to the Yemen Times that al-Ahdal had confessed to involvement in the bombing. He admitted “being in charge of technical and financial preparations” for both the Cole and Limburg attacks, the paper reported. Al-Ahdal was tried in 2006 on charges of distributing money for al-Qaeda. No charges were brought relating to the Cole bombing. He was sentenced to 37 months in prison, and with time served, was expected to be released shortly. Also tried in 2006 was Ghalib Al-Zaidi who was charged with harboring al-Ahdal for a month following the Cole bombing; al-Zaidi was sentenced to three years time served and released.

SJTL

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Are the Yemeni Government's actions against a small band of Shiite rebels part of a broader pattern of internal jihad?

The upper levels of the Yemeni military, judiciary and intelligence services are inculcated with hard core Salafism, and many aspects of Yemeni state institutions support jihaddist campaigns all over the world, including Iraq. It is in this context that the Yemeni Ministry of Defense recently published a fatwa on its website authorizing and obligating the use of deadly force against the Believing Youth, a small band of Shiite Zaidi rebels that has been battling the government on and off since 2004. Essentially Yemen’s military leadership declared a jihad on the group.

Yemeni President Saleh’s nephews, relatives and tribesmen make up the leadership of Yemen’s military and security forces. Presidential relative General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar is leading the assault on the Shiite rebels. Al-Ahmar is the powerful commander of Yemen’s North West military region and a reputed Salafi who recruited fighters for Osama bin Laden in the 1980’s.

In the current round of fighting, the Yemeni military has augmented its ranks with child soldiers, tribesmen and Jihaddists. Several induction centers have been opened and local media report children as young as 15 have been given weapons and sent to the front with no training. Tribesmen from President Saleh’s tribe, the Hashid Confederation, have also volunteered and been inducted for service in the thousands. As the Believing Youth are from the Bakil Tribal Confederation, military deployment of tribal irregulars has increased the threat of all out tribal warfare.

Yemeni Jihaddists, unlike Yemen’s child soldiers, are extremely well trained. Many are veterans of prior conflicts in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia and other Jihaddist campaigns. Some currently receive terrorist training in Yemen, reportedly with aid from some top military commanders. Saleh’s use of Salafist proxies dates back at least to Yemen’s 1994 civil war when Jihaddists targeted Southern Socialist forces that had been labeled as apostates.

In 2007, a variety of Salafi Jihaddists joined Yemen’s military efforts against the rebels even before the Defense Ministry published the fatwa. These included members of the Abyan Aden Islamic Army and its leader Khalidabdul Nabi according to local reports. (In 2003, the Yemeni government reported to the U.S. that Nabi was dead when he was in fact released from custody.) more...

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Up Close and Personal

As we earlier discussed, the Yemeni regime has distributed a fatwa justifying violence against a band of Zaidi (Shiite) rebels. A variety of established jihaddist groups have joined the battle, for example the Aden Abyan Islamic Army and Khalidabdul Nabi, along with thousands of Salafi tribesmen. The regime has ordered Salafi mosque preachers to increase their rhetoric against Zaidis in general. The regime has furthermore entirely blocked off the region where the rebels are located, prohibited shipments of food and medicine for two months, and ordered villagers to leave their homes in advance of military assaults without providing any shelter. The Yemeni military assault is being lead by General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a "former" friend of Osama Bin Laden, and the upper ranks of Yemen's military, security forces, judiciary and administration are thought to contain numerous individuals of a hard core Salafist orientation.

To follow is a listing from the rebels side of the Yemeni government's actions and their impact on the civilian population.

1- The government prohibiting corn and other beans and foods from coming to the governorate

2- Prohibiting medical supplies from entering the Saada region, closing pharmacies and clinics. Also only allowing military personnel and others fighting with the government to enter the Republic Hospital and Alsalam Hospital and arresting the injured civilians who come to the hospital for treatment.

3- Prohibiting all kinds of energy supplies from entering the governorate

4- Cutting the public electricity supply in all parts of the governorate

5- Cutting all telecommunication supplies, home land phones, cell phones and internet

6- Banning civilians from selling their agriculture production although it is their only recourse for surviving, and confiscating their products in check points under the justifications that they are supporters for Alhouthi

7- Providing soldiers with religious books that describe us as disbelievers that deserve to be killed and we have samples of these books

8- Forcing people to guest military soldiers and using their homes to perform military actions including firing heavy weapons from inside these homes and making schools as military camps.

9- Indiscriminating arrest for large numbers of civilians in Saadah and other governorate. Taking these arrested people to unknown places. The arrest includes religious scholars, religious guidelines, religious teachers and innocent in general.

10- Continuous indiscriminating attacks with heavy weapons including missiles, heavy cannons and others. This leads to destroying homes while civilians are inside it as what happened to the home of Gar Allah Fardan in Altalh are when he was killed inside his home with his two daughters in Altalh area. In addition to confiscating properties from homes by soldiers.

11- Continuous attacks especially air forces attacks over cities and villages especially on the areas of (All Alseefi), (Alhamazat), (lmahather), (Altalh), (Bani Mouath), (Algomolah) and (Majz). In addition to threatening to attacking areas that have not been attacked yet. This leads to hundreds of families to become displaced. They have been going suddenly to deserts, mountain and caves with out covers, tents, camps and any surviving supplies.

12- Assassinating number of social figures through different means and claiming untruly that the followers of Alhouthi are behind it in order to flame tribal revenge as what happened to Dr. Ahmed Alagam and Taha Alsaddi

13- Making pressure on heads of tribes to send their tribes men to fight with the army in order to flame tribal retaliation that will continue even after the war.

14- Establishing units inside the army from Salafi religious group that believe that we are disbelievers and it is (according to their understanding of religion) Ok to kill us, to take our property and it is OK to rape our females and it is OK to take our children as slaves.

15- Forcing religious speakers to invite people to join the army to fight and distributing publication that encourage for that.

16- Pressuring the Association of the religious guidelines to issue a religious testimony (Fatwa) that legitimize fighting us and justified killing us. This statement was published every where including official media (radio, TV and newspapers). This statement was published with out signatures and with out names.

17- There is credible news that confirms that there are ten troops (ten military units) – with full equipment- are in their way to the governorate from different part of the country.

More on the jihad and all things Yemeni at AOL

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Well we all know the Yemen government blocked my website from being viewed in Yemen. They also blocked my good friend in Yemen, Abdulkarim Al-Khaiwani's website Al-Shoura. I am publishing the full text of al-Shoura's statement because we can do that here:

Statement On The Withholding Of “Al-Shoura Net” And The Continuation Of The Burglary On Al-Shoura Newspaper And “Sout Al-Shoura”

A continuation of the policy of repression and targeting of media and press freedoms in the country, on Sunday evening, February 24, 2007 the authorities withhold (blocked) “Al-Shoura Net” electronic website after a series of official threats against the website and the staff (they threatened to arrest him and hurt his kids.) ; Most recently in the words of an official source on the 26th of September militarism press. (the Defense Ministry's paper wrote threats against al-Khaiwani and his staff.)

The official withholding (blocking the website) is new violation added to the series of formal targeting pain phases (hate speech) of the (regime) media issued by (at) the Yemeni forces Union Party.

It is targeting our electronic website after it had targeted “Al-Shoura” press and “Voice of the Al-Shoura” because we are criticizing corruption, the prejudices of Rights and Freedoms, and our continuing need for political and cultural reforms And good governance,

Continued Below---> more...

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