Hussein al-Jirdani, who was working as a bodyguard for opposition presidential candidate Faisal bin Shamlan, has been arrested by Yemeni security forces and charged with being a senior al-Qaeda terrorist. President Ali Abdullah Saleh told reporters the man had been planning attacks against U.S. interests in the capital.
"We discovered today that a senior terrorist was planning terrorist attacks in Sanaa against American interests and he was arrested," Saleh said, brandishing a picture of the suspected suspected al-Qaeda terrorist.
Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, has been battling al-Qaeda linked terrorists for years and tomorrow's election follows foiled attempts to blow up oil and gas facilities in the country last week. Saleh, who has ruled Yemen since 1990 and is expected to win the election, has made security a cornerstone of his campaign. Yemen is a U.S. ally and has cracked down on al-Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks and bombings at home.
The guy is also the cousin-in-law of the president. The oppositon says he volunteed to work for them but they fired him after a week because something was fishy. The link to bin Shamaln is a dubious one and the announcement is clearly an electoral ploy.
Posted by: Jane | Sep 19, 2006 at 23:21