US embassy cable - 04SANAA488

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SANAA 000488 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR NEA, NEA/ARP, NEA/PD, NEA/RA, DS/OP/NEA AND 
S/CT 
 
CENTCOM FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP, KMDR, PHUM, PTER, KISL, YM, TERFIN, COUNTER TERRORISM 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON US TREASURY DEPARTMENT 
DESIGNATION OF SHAIKH ZINDANI AS TERRORIST FINANCIER. 
 
REF: SANAA 468 
 
1.  SUMMARY: Press coverage of the 2/24 terrorist financing 
designation of Shaikh Abd-al-Majid al-Zindani, Head of both 
Al-Iman University and the Advisory (Shura) Council of the 
leading Yemeni opposition party Islah, has generally been 
highly critical.  A few papers offered muted support, 
reprinting the argument outlined by the U.S. Treasury 
Department that Zindani had ties to al-Qaeda.  The 
designation was covered by all Yemeni newspapers and news 
websites except government-controlled media such as Yemen 
TV, Yemen's official news agency (SABA), Al-Thawra official 
daily, Aden-based October 14, and 26 September weekly of the 
Armed Forces of Yemen.  Press reports focused on U.S. 
Treasury accusations concerning Zindani's role in 
financially supporting terror groups associated with al- 
Qaeda.  The Islah party's reaction to the designation was 
described by some newspapers as "cautious."  Some anti-U.S., 
pro-Islah newspapers carried articles critical of the U.S. 
counter-terrorism policy toward Yemen and commented that 
Yemen-U.S. relations will be "adversely effected" by the 
Zindani case.  Some newspapers refrained from commenting, 
due to the sensitivity of the issue at least at the public 
level.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  Al-Tagheer Net (02/25) published a report titled 
"Zindani joins the U.S. list of terrorists," highlighting 
the U.S. Treasury announcement that Zindani is Usama bin 
Laden's loyalist and one of his spiritual advisors.  The 
same site published an op-ed article (2/26) commenting on Al- 
Iman University headed by Shaikh Zindani.  The article said 
that, years after its establishment and particularly after 
many of those who fought in Afghanistan joined it, the 
University turned from a "scientific institution" into a 
"suspicious front that gives birth to elements with 
fundamentalist and extremist views."  "This whole project" 
Al-Tagheer added, "emerged amidst an atmosphere full of 
suspicions and controversy about the nature and real 
objectives of the University's activities."  The article 
referred to an FBI list, which it said was submitted to the 
Yemeni government following the U.S.S. Cole bombing, 
"putting Al-Iman University on top of 16 locations in Yemen 
suspected of harboring extremist and terrorist elements" and 
requesting its closure.  The article also examined links 
between Shaikh Zindani and Ali Jarallah, assassin of the 
number two leader for the Yemeni Socialist Party YSP), 
Jarallah Omar, and "the key role Zindani played in financing 
the assassination." 
 
3.  Aden-based Al-Ayyam independent daily (02/26) quoted the 
DPA German news agency in Egypt which said that the Leader 
of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Mahdi 'Akef, criticized 
the U.S. Administration's designation of Zindani as a 
terrorism financier.  The Muslim Brotherhood issued a 
statement saying that "the U.S. is relying on its power, 
designating people as terrorists without any evidence." 
"This act" the statement added "is part of a U.S. campaign 
against anything that is Islamic under the pretext of 
fighting terrorism which the U.S. failed to define until 
now."  Al-Ayyam added that 'Akef defended Zindani and said 
that, "if Zindani made any mistake, he should be brought to 
account by his own government."  On February 28, Al-Ayyam 
published a statement by Zindani denying U.S. Treasury 
charges, which he described as "false".  Zindani said: "If 
the U.S.A. has any accusations against me it has to present 
them to the competent authorities and the judiciary in the 
Yemen Government.  I would like to remind everyone that the 
Yemeni Government is responsible for defending its citizens 
and I am a Yemeni citizen.  I would like to reiterate that 
terrorism as defined by Muslim scholars in the Juristic 
Assembly of Mecca as `the use of weapons in breach of 
Shair'ah or the Law, or the murder of innocent people;' is 
something I condemn in all its forms, and I have already 
announced this several times before." 
 
4.  Weekly of the opposition Al-Haq party, Al-Umma (02/26), 
cited "unconfirmed reports" that in February 2003 the Yemeni 
Government received a list of Yemenis in leadership 
positions wanted by the U.S. Administration, including 
Shaikh Zindani and Shaikh Omar Ahmad Saif, and accused by 
U.S. sources of having issued a Fatwa to blow up the U.S.S. 
Cole warship. 
 
5.  Independent weekly Al-Usbu' (02/26) quoted U.S. Public 
Affairs Officer John Balian, who said that "the designation 
does not constitute a request that Yemen extradite Zindani 
or interrogate him over links to al-Qaeda."  The paper 
quoted Foreign Minister Qirbi, as saying that "the Foreign 
Ministry did not receive the official charge documents from 
the U.S. and will respond to them once it receives them." 
The paper commented that the U.S. designation of Zindani 
will "arouse" anti-U.S. sentiments in Yemen. 
 
6.  Web site of Islah's Al-Sahwa weekly, Al-Sahwa Net 
(02/27), published the text of a short statement issued by 
the Islah party February 27 which said that "rebutting the 
allegations of the U.S. Treasury Department concerning 
Shaikh Zindani is the responsibility of the (Yemeni) 
Government since Shaikh Zindani is a Yemeni citizen." 
 
7.  Independent weekly Al-Ibhar (02/27) published an op-ed 
article commenting that the U.S. played a "cunning" game 
first with the former Soviet Union "when it supported 
mujahideen from different parts of the Arab and Muslim world 
in the fight against communism in Afghanistan" and against 
the mujahideen themselves "including Bin Laden, Al-Zawaheri 
and now Al-Moayad and Zindani who once served indirectly the 
U.S. interests during the Cold War."  The paper indicated 
that the U.S. designation of Zindani will put Yemen before 
two difficult choices:  "One" Al-Ibhar said "is to extradite 
Zindani to the U.S. which if it occurs will turn the whole 
situation in Yemen upside down.  The second option is for 
Yemen to face a possible economic embargo in case it decides 
to turn down a U.S. request to extradite Zindani." 
 
8.  Anti-American Al-Shumu' independent weekly (02/28) 
quoted an anonymous American source from the Brookings 
Institution who described the recent U.S. Administration's 
attempts to pin down people suspected of sympathizing with 
al-Qaeda as "hasty".  On the designation, the source told Al- 
Shumu' that "sufficient intelligence has not been gathered 
yet about Zindani."  Al-Shumu' also quoted `western 
diplomatic sources' who said that the U.S. began to gather 
information about the activities of the "Head of Islah" 
(probably referring to Speaker of Parliament Shaikh Abdullah 
Al-Ahmar) and his ties with extremist Islah figures accused 
by Washington of involvement in terrorist acts. 
 
9. The English-language Yemen Observer (02/28) commented 
that a massive backlash is expected at every level of the 
Yemeni society in defense of the "respected national 
figure."  The Observer quoted tribal sources who warned 
that, "they would attack American interests if the U.S. even 
thinks about harming Shaikh Zindani."  The Observer quoted 
political observers who regretted the decision and said 
that, "no state among the 44 countries in what the U.S. 
calls the `Greater Middle East' that has co-operated more 
than Yemen in the fight against terrorism."  In an editorial 
titled "Sewing the Seeds of Extremism," Editor-in-Chief of 
the Observer said: "With the leveling of accusations against 
Shaikh Zindani, the American administration is putting the 
Yemeni government in very tight spot by raising the ante in 
its pursuit of those it considers extremists ... and by 
adopting this new policy, the U.S. is sparing no efforts to 
shatter the spirit of cooperation with Yemen in the battle 
against terrorism."  The editorial questioned America's 
motives: "Haven't the American officials considered that 
their inconstant and querulous attitude may ignite anger 
among the Yemeni public and convince them that America is 
not fighting terrorism as it pretends to, but is in fact 
targeting Islam, represented by its leaders and scholars?" 
The paper added: "This will undoubtedly give extremists an 
excuse to target Western interests in general and American 
targets in particular in defense of the Yemeni people, whom 
the U.S. has begun kidnapping one by one."  "By this" it 
concluded "the American administration has chosen a new 
foundation for extremism, sewing its seeds instead of 
combating them." 
 
10.  Prompted by the designation of Zindani, Pro-Islah 
independent weekly Annas (03/01) published an op-ed article 
commenting on Yemen's counter-terrorism relations with the 
U.S.  The paper indicated that the effect of President 
Saleh's visit to the U.S. in 2000 "to avoid a possible U.S. 
strike against Yemen" might not last long.  Annas said that 
Yemen is facing a real danger from outside "since some 
Yemenis, at least from the American point of view, took part 
in acts of violence, held senior positions in al-Qaeda, and 
were accused of links to terror cells particularly in the 
States."  The paper added that the U.S. counter-terrorism 
strategy concerning Yemen is based on: "using direct 
military force to stamp out so-called terrorists, e.g. Al- 
Harithi; dragging and kidnapping people believed to have 
useful information; such as Al-Hillah (who disappeared in 
Egypt) and Al-Moayad; making terror charges against 
political and religious figures such as Abdullah Sa'atar and 
Shaikh Zindani of Islah." 
 
11.  The independent English-language Yemen Times bi-weekly 
(03/01) quoted Yemeni political analysts, who described the 
Islah response to the charges as "clever and cautious". 
 
12.  Mouthpiece of the ruling GPC party, Al-Mithaq weekly 
(03/01), quoted government sources who said that "once the 
Yemeni government receives something official supporting the 
U.S. allegations against Zindani, it will respond to them, 
since Shaikh Zindani is a Yemeni citizen and is entitled to 
protection."  Al-Mithaq also published an article that the 
U.S. Treasury announcement was a shock and a "puzzle" to the 
Islah party.  The article described the U.S. Treasury 
announcement as clear and void of complications and its 
expressions noted that the U.S. "considers Zindani a more 
important target than Bin Laden himself since Zindani is, 
according to the announcement, one of Bin Laden's spiritual 
leaders."  The article described Islah's response to the 
accusations as a "strategic mistake that carried sheer 
hostility to the Yemeni government by putting it in 
confrontation with the U.S. and making it responsible for 
defending every Yemeni citizen regardless of their acts!" 
The article indicated that the Yemeni government will not be 
able to enforce the Constitutional provisions that prohibit 
the extradition of Yemeni citizens "if the extradition 
request came from the Security Council itself or a United 
Nations body."  On the other hand, the article commented 
that the delay in making this U.S. announcement on Zindani 
has some "connotations" that go beyond the evidence 
question.  "Winning the coming U.S. presidential elections" 
the article said "requires that the Americans' fear from 
terrorism must be maintained to embellish Bush's heroic 
achievements in this area and make the `war option' look 
like an election program which the Americans have to vote in 
favor."  "Campaigning for these elections, therefore, might 
have started with Zindani, but it could go beyond him since 
Bush is looking for a field where he can launch his new wars 
that require no evidence" the article added.  "Our mission" 
the article concluded "is clear and that is to find out 
first who informed against Zindani and listen to the 
American evidence so that Yemen does not get blamed or 
attacked for the mistakes of others." 
 
HULL