Al-Saitra: A documentary film revealing US intervention and control in the former Yemeni regime

A documentary film produced by the Al-Masirah channel revealed scenes and documents for the first time about the nature of US military and intelligence activity in Yemen at the beginning of the third millennium.

“Al-Saitra” movie touched on the phases of the American incursion into Yemen through training the Yemeni army and sending shipments of equipment and weapons that were later found to be equipment for establishing a CIA station in Yemen.

A meeting between the director of the CIA’s Middle East division, Jim Hughes, and the Yemeni ambassador to Washington, Abdulwahab Al-Hajri, took place at the agency’s headquarters, according to a secret document released by the Yemeni embassy in Washington in early 2002. Hughes informed Al-Hajri that the CIA was preparing a plan for activity in Yemen and would provide equipment and intelligence information to take the necessary steps. He added that consultation on the plan had taken place between the Foreign and Defense Ministries, the National Security Council, the Central Command, the Federal Investigations, and in coordination with the US ambassador and the director of the CIA station in Sana’a. He also stated that the former Yemeni President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, during his meeting with the CIA director, directed the provision of all facilities to the director of the CIA station in Yemen directly.

In the context of the executive steps to establish the CIA station in Sana’a, another document issued by the Ministry of Interior in 2002 revealed a meeting between the former Interior Minister, Rashad Al-Alimi, and the former US Ambassador, Edmund Hull, who confirmed that building an operations room for the American intelligence required the transfer of electronic equipment through a series of consecutive flights without being subject to any procedures at the airport due to the secrecy and novelty of the technology used, according to another document issued by the Yemeni Foreign Ministry in 2002.

A remarkable incident was documented in a 2002 document released by the General Military Intelligence Department in the Ministry of Defense, which revealed the arrival of a shipment of equipment and devices without prior notice on board a plane belonging to the commander of operations in the US Special Forces, Albert Callan. Callan deceived the airport administration by saying the shipment was aid for the Yemeni Special Forces, but it was later discovered that it was actually headed to the US embassy in Sana’a.

According to Brigadier General Ahmed Meyad, the former director of Sana’a International Airport, US military aircraft frequented Yemen intensively after 2002. This revealed the arrival of Zionist elements with American and European passports, indicating that these elements were arriving at the airport without complying with official procedures.”

A report created by the Honorary Consul for Yemen in Michigan indicated an increase in incidences of American security and defense services recruiting within the expatriate population, according to a document published by the Yemeni Foreign Ministry in March 2003. People who were recruited had to give up their nationality in exchange for being transferred to Yemen and other nearby nations to carry out certain tasks so that the United States could claim them if they were captured as American citizens.

Regarding American intelligence activity in Yemen, a document marked “Top Secret” and released by the Military Intelligence Department in September 2002 stated that American elements’ movements in the capital, Sana’a, and other key cities occurred without any prior notice. Additionally, it was revealed that American elements were present at the scenes of some security incidents and explosions in the capital, Sana’a.

Regarding American activity on the Yemeni coasts, the film also revealed exclusive recordings of training exercises for US Navy officers and Yemeni special forces attended by the commander of the US forces in the “African Horn,” Mastin Robeson. The film also showed a maneuver by American supervision on the western coast.

According to the testimony of the Director of the Naval Institute, Brigadier General Abdulwahid Al-Midan, the American targeting included the armament capabilities of the Navy forces, coastal defense, and the establishment of a coast guard as an alternative to the naval forces. Former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency, Brigadier General Jalal Al-Ruwishan, confirmed that the US’s refusal to allow Yemen and other Red Sea countries to build naval forces is linked to the security of the Zionist entity.

The documentary “Al-Saitra” showed exclusive recordings of an American military visit to the Republican Guard camp south of the capital Sana’a to identify the formations and military equipment. The tour was participated by American military and intelligence officers, including the former US ambassador to Yemen, Edmund Hull, and the commander of US Special Operations, Gary Lin Harrel. The film concluded that the special forces camps belonging to the son of the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, were the center of American military activity in the capital, Sana’a.