While confined to a hospital bed.
"Yemeni leader reportedly out of Saudi hospital" August 08, 2011|Associated Press
SANA, Yemen - Yemen’s president has left a hospital in Saudi Arabia more than two months after being severely wounded in an attack on his palace compound in Sana, Yemen’s state news agency said yesterday.
A Yemeni government official said that Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was badly burned in the June 3 blast, has officially asked Saudi authorities to return to Yemen, accompanied by a medical team. Saleh’s request appears to have been turned down at least temporarily, the official said.
Saleh was discharged from the hospital in the Saudi capital of Riyadh and moved to a government residence in the city to further recuperate, Yemen’s official SABA news agency said.
Another Yemeni government official said the ailing president will remain in Riyadh for the time being because he is “still under medical supervision.’’
Saleh’s more than two-month absence has deepened the uncertainty and instability in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country. There are fears his return could throw an already unstable Yemen into further chaos.
Antigovernment protests show no signs of abating, and the economy is in tatters. Islamist militants - some believed to have links to Al Qaeda - have seized upon the chaos to take over entire towns in the south.
The country’s politics, meanwhile, have been in a state of near paralysis. Vice President Abed Rabo Mansour Hadi is nominally in charge in Saleh’s absence. But the real power on the ground appears to be Saleh’s son, Ahmed, who controls some of the country’s best trained military forces, and the powerful Hashid tribal confederation, which opposes the regime....
Saleh’s continued stay in Riyadh, despite checking out of the hospital, appeared to indicate the intense pressure he is under from his Saudi hosts as well as the Americans to relinquish power.
The Saudi government, long one of Saleh’s top allies, is now among those pressing him to give up power. Anxious about the unrest on its southern doorstep, Saudi Arabia was among a group of six nations in the Persian Gulf region seeking to persuade Saleh to step down in return for immunity from prosecution.
The United States also backed the deal.
Saleh agreed to the plan three times, only to back out. The attack on his palace came days after he pulled out of the deal for the third time.
Related: Saleh Seriously Wounded
It was an inside job?
Mansour al-Hayel, a political analyst in Sana, said “the ball now is in the court’’ of Saudi Arabia and the United States.
“Saleh will play games and will insist on returning, but the Saudis and the Americans are the ones who can convince Saleh to remain in Riyadh and transfer power,’’ he said.
In his first and only public appearance since the attack, Saleh said last month that he had undergone eight operations since the attack. His prolonged absence fueled speculation about the severity of his wounds and whether they would prevent him from returning to Yemen.
The stunning June 3 attack killed 11 bodyguards and seriously wounded five senior officials worshiping alongside Saleh in the presidential palace’s mosque. The government has said Al Qaeda-linked militants were responsible.
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"Yemen’s leader, released from hospital, is urged to stay abroad" August 09, 2011|Associated Press
SANA, Yemen - The United States and Saudi Arabia pressured Yemen’s president to stay in Saudi Arabia after he was released from a lengthy hospital stay to treat wounds suffered in an assassination attempt, Yemeni officials said yesterday.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said Ali Abdullah Saleh was warned that his return to Yemen would probably spark a civil war.
Isn't that what they have now?
In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that it was up to Saleh to decide whether to stay on in Saudi Arabia or return home and that a transition of power should begin immediately, regardless of what Saleh decides to do....
The Yemeni officials said that even though Saleh has spent the last two months in a Saudi hospital, he continues to run the country with the help of his family and is in daily contact with tribal chiefs and army commanders.
In Washington, a US official cast doubt on the idea of American pressure on Saleh to stay on in Riyadh after his release from the hospital on Sunday.
“It is more likely that any persuasion used successfully with Saleh came from the Saudis,’’ said the official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
Saudi Arabia is among Washington’s staunchest Arab allies and has over the past six decades cooperated with the United States on many aspects of Mideast policy.
Everyone knows the Saudis are an AmeriKan servant.
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"Yemeni leader balks at plan to quit" by Associated Press / August 12, 2011
SANA, Yemen - The country’s embattled president is now objecting to key points of a US-backed deal that calls for him to step down in return for immunity from prosecution, a member of his ruling party said yesterday.
Fine. Then try and hang his ass.
The official said President Ali Abdullah Saleh spoke during a meeting with his top party officials in the Saudi capital Riyadh, where he is recuperating from severe burns and other wounds sustained in a June attack on his compound in Sana, the Yemeni capital.
The remarks reflect yet another stalling maneuver by Saleh, who has clung to power in the face of nearly six months of street protests demanding his ouster and a deteriorating economic and security situation in Yemen.
Yemen’s uprising was inspired by the revolts that swept across other parts of the Arab world this year. The protests have often turned violent, with Saleh’s security forces using force against the protesters....
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"Mass antigovernment demonstrations continue in Yemen; Thousands take to the streets in at least 18 cities" August 13, 2011|By Ahmed Al-Haj, Associated Press
SANA, Yemen - Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis poured into the streets of major cities and towns across the country yesterday, keeping the pressure on the nation’s embattled president to step down....
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"20 killed as Yemeni troops battle militants; Jordanian king’s offers for reform evoke skepticism" August 15, 2011|By Ahmed Al-Haj, Associated Press
SANA, Yemen - A new wave of fighting erupted in Yemen in a southern provincial capital that has been overrun by extremist militants, killing at least 17 Al Qaeda-linked fighters and three soldiers, a military official said yesterday....
Related: "CIA-Duh" Takes Control of Yemen
Government forces have been trying to dislodge the Islamic militants from areas in the south, but they have only made modest headway after weeks of fighting and airstrikes.
Related: "CIA-Duh" Consolidation in Yemen
The military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 14 militants were killed in gun battles with security after an ambush on two military outposts in the area of Dufas, close to Zinjibar. Three soldiers were killed in those clashes, the official said.
Three more militants were killed in a military airstrike in the same area, the official said....
In separate fighting, troops from the elite Republican Guards clashed with a defecting army unit north of Sana, a military official from the defecting unit said....
The defecting unit, led by one of Saleh’s former aides, has been in control of the northern part of the capital. The clashes apparently erupted when the Republican Guards attempted to gain new ground, the official said.
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With someone else setting the stage for the next false-flag patsy plot:
"Al Qaeda in Yemen seeking to make ricin; Poison attack is not imminent" August 13, 2011|By Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, New York Times
Intelligence officials say they have collected evidence that Al Qaeda operatives are trying to move castor beans and processing agents to a hideaway in Shabwa Province, in one of Yemen’s rugged tribal areas controlled by insurgents. The officials say the evidence points to efforts to secretly concoct batches of the poison, pack them around small explosives, and then try to explode them in contained spaces, like a shopping mall, an airport, or a subway station.
And thus AmeriKa will need MORE HOMELAND SECURITY, cui bono!!!
President Obama and his top national security aides were first briefed on the threat last year and have received periodic updates since then, top aides said. Senior US officials say there is no indication that a ricin attack is imminent, and some experts say the Al Qaeda affiliate is still struggling with how to deploy ricin as an effective weapon.
These officials also note that ricin’s utility as a weapon is limited because the substance loses its potency in dry, sunny conditions and is not easily absorbed through the skin. Yemen is a hot, dry country, posing an additional challenge to militants trying to produce ricin there.
Do you detect the signature smell of bullshit like me, readers?
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Yeah, I thought I smelled NYT.
