LEAKED
CIA Pressured Yemen to Release al-Qaeda Leader From Prison
More evidence of CIA support for al-Qaeda exposed.
by Alexander Rubinstein
March 23rd, 2021
By Alexander Rubinstein
WASHINGTON (Substack // Alex Rubinstein) - Explosive new recordings released
by the Houthi government of Yemen pile more earth atop mountains of existing
evidence of the U.S. government's support for the very same terrorists it
has claimed to be waging war against for nearly two decades.
The Moral Guidance Department, a branch of the Yemeni Armed Forces of the
revolutionary Houthi government of Yemen published last week a number of
secret documents and phone calls from the former regime of longtime
president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Two phone calls between former president Saleh and the former director of
the CIA George Tenet were released. A Yemeni government official has
confirmed to me that the calls took place in 2001.
In the calls, the former CIA director can be heard pressuring Saleh to
release a detained individual involved in the bombing attacks on USS Cole in
October of 2000, which left 17 dead and 37 injured.
In the call, Tenet is asked by Saleh's translator about the name of the
individual in question.
"I don't want to give his name over the phone," Tenet tells him.
Saleh notes that the FBI team tasked with the USS Cole investigation had
already arrived in Sana'a, and asks Tenet if the FBI personnel could meet
with him to discuss the matter. Tenet refuses, saying "this is my person,
this is my problem, this is my issue. The man must be released."
"I've talked to everybody in my government; I told them that I was going to
make this call," Tenet says.
As Saleh's translator is delivering Tenet's message to the president, the
CIA director cuts him off and says that the man in question "must be
released within 48 hours."
"After 50 days, this must stop," he says.
Major General Abdul Qadir al-Shami, the deputy-head of the Yemeni Security
and Intelligence Service, confirmed to Houthi media that the person in
question was dual American-Yemeni citizen imam Anwar Al-Awlaki, a top leader
of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), who was killed in Yemen in 2011
by a CIA drone strike.
Houthi media says al-Shami "pointed out that the Americans used to train
their individuals in Yemen and send them abroad to carry out operations for
them, and then affix the accusation to Yemen as an excuse to come under the
cover of fighting those individuals."
Another document from the State Department dated 1998 highly suggests US
interests in establishing a military presence in Yemen around the sea of
Aden.
CIA Yemen
Saudi-born Ali al-Ahmed of the Gulf Institute, a leading expert on Saudi
politics and terrorism, told me that he is not at all surprised by the phone
call between George Tenet and Yemen's former president.
"I've been saying this for a long time," al-Ahmed told me. "People that
think that these organizations; al-Qaeda, ISIS, are organic,
non-state-backed organizations are either lying or are completely stupid.
The fact that ISIS had all these American weapons, they didn't come from
thin air. This was part of a plan. The same thing with al-Qaeda; the fact
that this organization which has been attacked all over the world continues
to survive 20 years on, and spread, it's not by accident. It's done by
security and intelligence organizations in Washington, D.C. and in Qatar,
Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and by Ali Abdullah Saleh."
"This recording," he said, "fits the bill; that Anwar al-Awlaki and others,
they were sometimes knowingly or unknown being used as a tool."
The Tenets of Tenet
George Tenet is the second-longest serving director of the CIA. Originally
brought in to the post by Bill Clinton, he oversaw the Bush administration's
response to the September 11 attacks.
According to the 9/11 Commission Report, after Tenet asked for the Saudi's
help with Osama bin Laden prior to the attacks, the Saudi's response was so
encouraging that Clinton made Tenet "his informal personal representative to
work with the Saudis on terrorism," which included at least two trips to
Riyadh.
Following the 9/11 attacks, Tenet authorized the CIA's use of waterboarding
and other torture methods.
Tenet told 9/11 investigators that he had not met with President Bush in the
month prior to the attacks, but was later corrected by a CIA spokesman that
same evening, who said he did.
A CIA Inspector General inquiry accused Tenet of failing to do enough to
prevent the attacks, saying "by virtue of his position, [Tenet] bears
ultimate responsibility for the fact that no such strategic plan was ever
created" despite the CIA knowing of the dangers presented by al-Qaeda.
