THE FORGOTTEN WAR
Recruited, Arrested, On Trial: Yemeni Spies Tell of Their Reluctant Work for
CIA, MI6
The CIA and MI6 have recruited hundreds of Yemenis to work as mercenaries
and spies gathering intelligence and coordinates of Yemeni military
positions, promising them money and even passports for the dangerous work.
by Ahmed Abdulkareem
March 19th, 2021
By Ahmed Abdulkareem
SANA'A, YEMEN - There is little dispute that the United States and the
United Kingdom have been major benefactors to the Saudi Kingdom in its
six-year-long attempt to use military might to bring Yemen to heel. Both
countries have provided billions in hi-tech weapons, intelligence
information, and training to what is arguably the Middle East's most
repressive monarchy. But according to the confessions of six men arrested
last month amid the ongoing battle over Yemen's strategic Marib province,
Western support for the Saudi-led Coalition goes much farther than
conventional military support.
Arrested Yemeni spies speak to MintPress
The CIA and MI6, its British counterpart, have recruited hundreds of Yemenis
to work as mercenaries and spies gathering intelligence and coordinates of
Yemeni military positions in Marib, al-Mahrah, Sana'a and Sadaa, and
providing that information to their handlers, according to confessions given
to the Yemeni Security Intelligence Service (YSIS) by at least six Yemeni
nationals currently on trial in Sana'a for violating Article 130 of Yemen's
Penal Code.
The six men, who are being held in a detention facility in Sana'a, agreed to
speak to MintPress about their experiences. They insist that abject poverty
as a result of the ongoing war drove them to participate in the operation,
which they said came with the promise of a $300 payout.
According to the men, the operation was carried out primarily at the Ghaydah
Airport in eastern al-Mahrah. There, they joined dozens of young Yemenis
recruited by the CIA for training by American and British officers on how
to properly identify and describe; the use of cameras, sophisticated
software programs and devices used to share coordinates; information
gathering; and how to find and identify military leaders and headquarters,
workshops, factories, laboratories, warehouses, checkpoints and launching
sites for missiles and drones. Even the locations of the personal homes and
vehicles of Ansar Allah members and other vocal opponents of the Saudi
intervention were sought, according to the men.
A careful recruitment process
Their recruitment process was long and delicate, beginning when the men were
approached by Yemeni officers working for the Aden-based National Security
Agency. After agreeing to travel to al-Mahrah to learn more, the men were
housed in hotels before being brought to special cottages at the Ghaydah
Airport where they were interviewed by American and British intelligence
officers. Muhammad Har, one of the six charged, told MintPress that he was
initially approached by Fayez Muhammad Ismail Al-Muntaser, a former officer
of the National Security Agency and commander of the Saudi-led Coalition's
Special Missions Battalion.
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"When it was my turn, I entered the [unintelligible] and was surprised that
members of the committee were Americans. One was asking the questions, the
second was writing data, the third was taking fingerprints, while the fourth
black-skinned one was translating," Ali Mohammed Abdullah al-Jomani, a
34-year-old detainee from Haddah recalled. Al-Jomani, who says he used to
earn the equivalent of about $10 per day, was put up in the Taj Al-Arab
Hotel for three months during the initiation process. "When we went back to
conduct the second interview, we did not find the Americans, but rather
British officers. They repeated the previous questions about our ability to
use maps, drive cars, and use computers." This tracks with allegations by
the Yemeni Security Intelligence Service that the CIA was recruiting young
Yemenis and handing them over to British officers for training and further
handling.
According to the men, there were two separate camps at the airport, one
American and the other Saudi. "After we were accepted, we were trained on
how to describe people, cars, and homes and how to share data and photos
through WhatsApp," recalled Basem Ali Ahmed al-Kharouga, a 29-year-old
detainee from Sana'a. "The training included field exercises inside and
outside of the airport." Al-Kharouga had long dreamed of traveling abroad
and thought that he had finally found his way to flee the violence when he
was promised a foreign passport in exchange for the work.
Few options for young Yemenis
In addition to poverty and unemployment, there are other reasons that
Yemen's youth would risk life and freedom to work with foreign intelligence
services, perhaps the most prominent being the blockade levied against the
country by the Saudi Coalition since 2015. Before the war, Yemenis would
regularly leave the country for business, pleasure and to seek medical care.
Now - with seaports and airports, especially the once-bustling Sana'a
International Airport, effectively shuttered by the Saudi Coalition -
Yemenis are no longer able to flee the violence in their country or travel
abroad, leaving many desperate young Yemenis with few options.
Yemen's Marib Offensive Born of Desperation, with No Sign Saudis/US Will
Cease Their War
Having all but given up on the prospect of peace in Yemen under the Biden
admin, the Houthis are betting on retaking Marib from Saudi forces.
MintPress News | Ahmed Abdulkareem | Mar 12
Hospitals, schools, office buildings, and infrastructure like water wells
and sewage networks have been destroyed in the wake of Saudi bombing
campaigns, which are often carried out with U.S. and British targeting
information gleaned from their network of recruited spies. Funerals,
weddings, homes, and other civilian facilities have been targeted, leading
to the death and wounding of thousands of civilians and making American and
British intelligence services complicit, at best, in the wanton violence.
"We were sent to Marib, me and another guy who went by the name of 'Akram
Amer,' on one mission that lasted for four days. We were assigned by [a man
named] 'George' to spy on the home of Ali Salem al-Huraizy near al-Rawda
Park," Aymen Mujahid Qaid Muhammad Harish, one of the six detainees, told
MintPress. Among Harish's tasks was to monitor sites in the city of Arhab,
north of Sana'a, where the Saudi Coalition would later target a home where a
funeral was taking place. The double-tap airstrike left a child and nine
women dead and, according to Harish, his Western handlers, who were
responsible for providing the Saudis with targeting data, are to blame for
the attack.