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Yemen: A Crossroads of History and War Against Terrorism

Aired February 08, 2002 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening. I'm Brent Sadler from Sanaa, the capitol of Yemen, a country the United States still says poses a significant terrorist threat. We're here on the trail of two al Qaeda terror suspects, so stay with me for LIVE FROM YEMEN.

ANNOUNCER: It is a crossroads of history, of the Cold War, and now of the war against terrorism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDMUND J. HULL, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO YEMEN: If you look at the global al Qaeda network and you look at where the important cogs are that make it turn, one area where those are is Yemen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Come to a country where a dagger is as common as a necktie, to Osama bin Laden's ancestral home, where John Walker Lindh studied before joining the Taliban.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SABRI SALEEM, DIRECTOR, YEMEN CENTER FOR ARAB STUDIES: He talked to the director of the Arabic program. I don't want to have a female teacher. I want it to be only a male teacher. I don't want to be mixed with female students.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: It's a country where tribes are a law unto themselves, and where plotters of the USS Cole attack may still be hiding.

LIVE FROM YEMEN, reporting from Sanaa, here's Brent Sadler.

SADLER: Yemen's notoriety as a haven for terrorist activity exploded onto the front pages after the suicide bombing attack against the American destroyer USS Cole in the Port of Aden some 16 months ago.

That happened less than a year before the terrorist strikes against New York and Washington. The Yemenis are now holding at least six suspects in connection with the Cole attack, but they delayed trials in the hope of helping U.S. investigators, trying to put a much bigger case against Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

Yemen is the ancestral home of bin Laden, and its been often reported that bin Laden himself used Yemen as a hideout during the mid 1990s. We're now going to take a very close look at that al Qaeda manhunt that's going on in this country, and we'll also be assessing whether or not Yemen could become a target for a possible U.S. military strike.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SADLER (voice over): And anti-terror unit of the Yemeni Army blasts its way into a mockup building. This government video shows Special Forces training to storm a terror base, honing close quarters shooting skills, capturing hijackers.

U.S. Special Forces have come here to watch demonstrations and monitor Yemen's progress. The FBI and CIA pay frequent visits to remind President Ali Abdallah Saleh, that a significant al Qaeda presence in Yemen will not be overlooked.

HULL: We're interested because, if you look at the global al Qaeda network and you look at where the important cogs are that make it turn, one area where those are is Yemen, and we have to remove those cogs from the machine.

SADLER: And there are encouraging signs Yemen is determined to accomplish that, with U.S. support. Yemeni soldiers escort us into a highly sensitive tribal area in Marib Province, a focal point for the al Qaeda manhunt aimed at capturing two Yemenis, Mohammad al-Yacoub and Khaid al-Harazi (ph), wanted by the United States for the bombing of the USS warship Cole, some 16 months ago.

The government stormed this area last December, suspicious that an influential tribe, often at odds with the government, might be harboring the al Qaeda suspects. There was a bloody firefight, but no al Qaeda.

The wanted men's alleged involvement in what happened some 300 miles to the south in the Port of Aden in October, 2000, makes their capture all the more important. A work boat, similar to this craft, packed with explosives targeted the USS Cole, killing 17 American sailors. Less than a year later, terror struck the U.S. again on September 11th.

SADLER (on camera): Since then, the Yemeni end of the Cole inquiry has helped to find vital new evidence, say U.S. officials, linking the terror strike on the American warship here to suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and two U.S. Embassies in East Africa in 1998.

SADLER (voice over): Yemen prematurely closed the files on the Cole bombing, but they are now reopened. And having faced strong U.S. criticism for failing to combat terror within its own borders, Yemen is now being praised for raising its anti-terror profile. So any threat of direct U.S. military action against al Qaeda in Yemen is regarded here as counterproductive. ABUBAKER AL QIRBI: I think military action in Somalia, Yemen, Iraq or wherever it is, is not going to be the real solution for terrorism. It creates actually more risks than solutions, I think.

SADLER: Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Arab world, and has long been regarded as a haven for terrorists. The vast tribal regions are often a law unto themselves, where many foreigners have been kidnapped in recent years, used as hostages to force the government into supplying services like roads, clean water, and clinics to impoverished rural districts.

The educational system in Yemen has long been a political battlefield, moderates versus conservatives, vying for influence and control in a country where the conservatives were beginning to take hold.

Modern education, these students are taking exams in business and economics at Sanaa University, was replaced by studies in fundamentalist Islam, the powerful Al-Isla (ph) Party used to dominate education but now the government has the upper hand.

AL-QIRBI: If you try to link school with political parties, then things may go astray, and therefore one has to perceive the dangers before they happen.

SADLER: In the process of modernizing Yemen and dragging an economically backward nation into the 21st Century, the authorities of today have retaken control of education, clamped down on fundamentalism, and launched what appears to be a hard hitting campaign to rid the country of terrorists, to help give people a better life.

FARIS SANABANI, PUBLISHER, YEMEN OBSERVER: They don't want terrorism. They don't want kidnapping. They want stability. They want investment flow and they want tourists to come in. They want to see people in the country. They want their country to develop.

SADLER: And development goes hand-in-hand with security, say officials here, if Yemen is given the chance.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SADLER (on camera): Last month, Yemen imposed tough new visa regulations on foreign students, teachers, and Muslim clerics living here, as part of a wide campaign to combat terror. Scores of people, including a handful of Americans, have been detained and deported.

But Yemen, for all its troubles, still remains a compelling destination for U.S. citizens, including the American John Walker Lindh, who's now facing multiple counts of terrorism and conspiracy charges.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SADLER (voice over): Americans learning Arabic in Yemen, studying at a private language school in the capitol Sanaa. Records show that over the years, many other Americans have enrolled here, including John Walker Lindh, the alleged American Taliban, now facing multiple charges of terrorism.

He was known as Abdul Hamid among the Taliban, but here in Yemen, the language school director tells me, Walker Lindh used the name Suleyman.

SALEEM: And I remember when his mom called me from the U.S., he said I have a kid. He's, I believe, 17, 18 years old. He's a young chap, Muslim converted to Islam, I want him to come and study in your school.

SADLER: This is where Suleyman or Walker Lindh slept, but not for long. The way of student life here, he complained, was unsuitable for true Muslims.

SALEEM: He talked to the director of the Arabic program, I don't want to have a female teacher. I want it to be only a male teacher. I don't want to be mixed with female students.

CATHERINE WALLACE, U.S. LANGUAGE STUDENT: Just talking to a cook that used to work here and talking to students that used to be here, he was writing notes to people saying you're going to go to hell if you don't start praying.

SADLER: Soon after arriving, Walker Lindh was in conflict with Sabri Saleem, the director.

SALEEM: I got him. I said, look Suleyman you came to study Arabic. You didn't come to train my sister. If you don't like my school you can leave anytime.

SADLER: And within days, he did go, finding a place at the city's al-Iman Islamic University. The university refused CNN access, a world of difference from the language school he abandoned.

WALLACE: Yes, exactly the opposite of that, because there really is a secular school and we really do just focus on language.

SADLER: But some eight months later, says Sabri Saleem, Walker Lindh was forced to return here, accompanied by two Yemeni officials because of a visa problem, having changed schools without permission.

SALEEM: And then he left the country. After he left, I didn't hear anything about him until last December. This is the story about John Walker.

SADLER: Or at least a fraction of it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SADLER: Well, there's a lot of talk about Yemen, so let's pinpoint exactly where it is on the map. Yemen stands at the foot of the Arabian Peninsula, produces a modest amount of oil, and the shipping lanes off its coastline are now vital to U.S. interests. When we come back, we'll talk with the top U.S. official here, himself an expert on counter-terrorism, and we'll be hearing from Yemen's President Ali Abdallah Saleh, on his fight against terror.

ANNOUNCER: Also ahead, surviving the Yemeni summers and winters, in homes without thermostats, an ancient building secret that stands the test of time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SADLER: Welcome back to Sanaa, the capitol of Yemen, 7,000 feet high, known as the rooftop of Arabia. This is indeed an extraordinary country, rich in history and tourist potential.

After the bombing of the warship USS Cole in Aden Harbor some 16 months ago though, Yemen is estimated lost about a billion dollars in tourist trade.

And this is the kind of thing you're missing, a land of fairy tale buildings dating back to the time of Bilqis, the Queen of Sheba. The ancient architecture of Yemen is so unique that the old city of Sanaa itself has been declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations. The mud and brick construction provides natural climate control, cold in summer, warm in winter. They are not cold monuments to the past, but striking homes of the present.

It's not only Yemen's architecture that has stood the test of time, ancient tribal rule in many parts of this desert nation have made the job of modernizing and pacifying Yemen all that more difficult.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SADLER (voice over): Until only a decade ago, Yemen was two entirely different countries, separated into Republican North and Marxist South, its strategic maritime importance fiercely contested during the Cold War Era.

As a result, violent extremism flourished in the 1970s, as north battled south for dominance, eventually spawning thousands of Yemeni Jihadis who joined the Afghan Mujahedeen to fight the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan during the 1980s.

Known as Afghan-Arabs, they established links with Osama bin Laden. After Afghanistan, large numbers of poor and uneducated Yemeni fighters returned home. Jobless, many enrolled in Islamic institutions, became radicalized, and melted into society.

In 1990, the north's President Ali Abdallah Saleh oversaw the creation of a unified Yemen. But just four years later, a communist attempt to wreck unity erupted into another round of civil war.

The brief but bloody conflict was crushed by President Saleh, but only with the crucial help of tribal fighters, Afghan-Arabs, and the Islamists. And even today, tribal chiefs and an influential Islamic political party help underpin the government's authority, a complex situation.

When President Saleh negotiated the U.S. Navy's refueling agreement for Aden in 1998, one time associates of Osama bin Laden, it's reported, still exerted influence here, making the capitol center a volatile mix of political, ideological, and religious contradictions, in which bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network had established roots.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SADLER (on camera): Well, Yemen is becoming less fertile ground for those terrorist roots, according to U.S. officials. But that doesn't mean al Qaeda has been wiped out in this country. In fact, only last month, an alleged plot by al Qaeda to blow up the U.S. Embassy here was exposed.

So embassy staff now have to live and work behind a cordon of steel and their families evacuated, after the September 11 attacks in America, have not returned. The U.S. ambassador here is an expert on counter-terrorism and he firmly believes al Qaeda still does pose a threat inside Yemen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HULL: Yes, very much so. We saw with the Cole attack that they could harm not only U.S. interests, but Yemeni interests in a very significant way, and these are part of the al Qaeda international network. They are important cogs in the al Qaeda machine, and therefore they're a threat to the international community as well.

SADLER: Do you think the Yemenis are doing a good job in trying to track down the al Qaeda suspects?

HULL: I think they're making a sincere effort, both through political means and also military means. I think we can all do more, and we need to do more until we get the results that are required. I think that in that regard, it is very much a Yemeni initiative, a Yemeni operation, but the rest of us have to ask how we can help appropriately. I think the key is to encourage and support Yemeni initiative, and I think there may be appropriate that the United States can help.

SADLER: Is there any change towards the perception of bin Laden and terror activities globally since the September 11 strikes in the United States?

HULL: Yes. I think there's been a significant shift in Yemen. I think the luster is off of al Qaeda and bin Laden personally, first because of the failure in Afghanistan of al Qaeda, but moreover because of what bin Laden has said himself in his various tapes, and his attacks against respected Arab and Muslim leaders. I think he's alienated Yemeni society.

SADLER: How would you describe the way that terrorism and al Qaeda has affected this country? HULL: Well, in a sense, al Qaeda terrorism and Islamic extremism has been like an infection of Yemen. Yemen tradition is a very moderate country in its Islam.

But what I see are antibodies developing in the Yemeni society, and growing rejection of this infection from the outside, and treating the resulting fever both through political means and through security measures.

SADLER: So you think Yemen, in terms of terror and the past is concerned, using that metaphor, is a curable patient?

HULL: Very much so, and I think that the whole process that is underway here is going to produce a society that is very resistant to terror in the future.

SADLER: Can you rule possible military action by the U.S. in or out against Yemen?

HULL: I think it's the wrong question to ask frankly. The question to ask is how do you achieve the objective of eradicating al Qaeda in Yemen? And the answer to that question is, you encourage the Yemenis to continue what they're doing up to now and you look for ways of supporting them in doing that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SADLER: Yemen's President Ali Abdallah Saleh met with President Bush in the White House last November. Since then, Yemen has been taking a much more visible approach to combating terror, and accommodating the United States, but only so far.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT ALI ABDALLAH SALEH, YEMEN (through translator): We are supporting the USA and the whole world in combating terrorism and eliminating the roots of terrorism, but we are not with the war because we have different opinions.

We prefer to use security and intelligence efforts and activities instead of the war, because war needs money. The recent war needed fleets, aircraft, rockets, missiles, and huge amounts of money. This huge amount of money could be used in intelligence and security works instead of the war to eliminate and eradicate all kinds of terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SADLER: Well next, I'll be delving into Sanaa's old soul in the ancient part of the city, telling the intriguing story of the jambia, the traditional Yemeni dagger. Worn by most Yemeni men, it's equivalent to the tie we wear in the west.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SADLER: Yemen's social habits are intriguing to visitors. Take for example the chewing of qat. Every day, most men spend hours chewing on leaves that are a mild stimulant. It's a costly habit at about $2.00 a day for the average Yemeni. The government disallows chewing during office hours and in the military, but has no plans to ban it.

But another aspect of life here, the gun culture, is being curtailed. Yemen was reckoned to have about 60 million guns in the country. That works out at about three weapons for every single person in Yemen.

Nowadays, you don't see civilians openly carrying guns in the major cities, but you do see many men wearing a very large dagger clipped to their belt. It's called a jambia, a fashion accessory that's more important here than any designer label.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FERRIS SARABARI (ph): The souk has been existing for about 500 years, the souk of jambias, but the city of Sanaa has been existing for thousands of years. It's known as the City of Sam, the son of Noah. And this market, or this souk for the jambias is that kids become very happy the day they get the jambia. It's a sign of manhood. They wear it. They buy it and life goes on from there.

SADLER: What's on sale here and what do they all mean?

SARABARI: The jambias in Yemen is almost like the suit that you wear in the west, or the car that you drive, to identify the personality of that person. It is a tradition. It is what we're wearing when we go to weddings, when we go back to the tribe, when we gather on the weekends, and it's to present a touch with your culture and who you really are. Let's take a look at this. This looks pretty old and pretty good.

This is about three million (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the equivalent of $20,000.

SADLER: $20,000?

SARABARI: Yes.

SADLER: $20,000 for this jambia?

SARABARI: Yes, but 500 years old.

SADLER: So what kind of Yemeni would have carried this?

SARABARI: It would have to be either a businessman, a sheikh or somebody who has a lot of money or has a family heritage that he inherits from his grandparents.

SADLER: Now what about the issue of rhinoceros and the horns? Isn't there some protection that there shouldn't be sale of those items here?

SARABARI: Since 1982, there's no more rhinos coming to the country, and they have adopted new measures and new things, such as they're making the jambia from wood, from plastic, from stones, from horn, and from animals from the sea.

SADLER: Now obviously these jambias are weapons. They're sharp knives. Are there any rules controlling their use?

SARABARI: They're sharp knives, that's correct but there is rules and regulations. In our tradition, in the Yemeni tradition, if you take the jambia out to argue with someone, that is as if you have killed him. It is a big punishment by the tribal law. You are not to take it out to threaten somebody or stab them. We take it out for festivity, to dance, for joy, and for weddings.

SADLER: So, Ferris, as we continue going through the old souk here, what's your dream idea of your most treasured jambia?

SARABARI: The one million dollar jambia. There is a jambia that was sold for one million dollars.

SADLER: One million dollars.

SARABARI: One million dollars. One million U.S. dollars.

SADLER: You'd be happy with that.

SARABARI: Of course, I would.

SADLER: I think I would be too. So thanks very much indeed Ferris Sarabari for showing us around this fantastic souk.

SARABARI: You're very welcome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SADLER (on camera): Well Yemen has often been regarded as a very difficult country to work from for journalists. But as part of the wider picture to help understand Yemen's problems, the authorities here seem to have opened up to the media, to CNN as well.

That's the latest here from LIVE FROM YEMEN. We'll leave you with pictures of a wedding ceremony taken earlier this day in which that jambia, the traditional dagger, features most prominently. Good bye.

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