Source: New York Times, By Gregory Johnsen, 20/11/2010
EARLY last week, as a federal court in Washington was hearing arguments over the Obama administration’s decision to authorize the killing of an American linked to Al Qaeda, the man at the center of the case was having his own say. The same day, Nov. 8, Anwar al-Awlaki appeared in a 23-minute video that concluded: “Don’t consult anyone in killing Americans. Fighting Satan doesn’t require a religious ruling.”
The coincidental timing of the video added to the urgency of a case the judge has called “extraordinary and unique.” Unique, indeed. But in truth Mr. Awlaki is hardly significant in terms of American security. Contrary to what the Obama administration would have you believe, he has always been a minor figure in Al Qaeda, and making a big deal of him now is backfiring.
Mr. Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents in 1971, left the United States for good in 2002 before eventually settling in Yemen in 2004. He is believed to be hiding in the southern province of Shabwa, where his tribe, the Awaliq, holds sway.
The federal lawsuit, which is being brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights at the request of Mr. Awlaki’s father, has set off a broader debate over whether the government should be allowed to assassinate an American in a country the United States is not at war with. The administration maintains that the president has sole authority over such strikes, while the other side is arguing that judicial review is required.
It’s a vexing legal question worthy of debate. But no one should remain under the mistaken assumption that killing Mr. Awlaki will somehow make us safer.
He is far from the terrorist kingpin that the West has made him out to be. In fact, he isn’t even the head of his own organization, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. That would be Nasir al-Wuhayshi, who was Osama bin Laden’s personal secretary for four years in Afghanistan.
Nor is Mr. Awlaki the deputy commander, a position held by Said Ali al-Shihri, a former detainee at Guantánamo Bay who was repatriated to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and put in a “terrorist rehabilitation” program. (The treatment, clearly, did not take.)
Mr. Awlaki isn’t the group’s top religious scholar (Adil al-Abab), its chief of military operations (Qassim al-Raymi), its bomb maker (Ibrahim Hassan Asiri) or even its leading ideologue (Ibrahim Suleiman al-Rubaysh).
Rather, he is a midlevel religious functionary who happens to have American citizenship and speak English. This makes him a propaganda threat, but not one whose elimination would do anything to limit the reach of the Qaeda branch.
He’s not even particularly good at what he does: Mr. Awlaki is a decidedly unoriginal thinker in Arabic and isn’t that well known in Yemen. His most famous production is a lengthy sermon-lecture series called “Constants on the Path of Jihad,” which emphasizes the global nature of holy war: “If a particular people or nation is classified as ... ‘the people of war’ in the Shariah, that classification applies to them all over the earth.” But “Constants” isn’t really his own creation; it’s an adaptation of a work written by a Saudi militant killed in 2003. At most, Mr. Awlaki is a popularizer, someone who takes the work of others and makes it his own.
When he preached in the United States, first in San Diego and then in Virginia, he exploited his knowledge of Arabic and his Yemeni heritage to burnish his credentials as a genuine Islamic voice. He has been linked to Maj. Nidal Hassan, the psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at a Texas Army base in 2009, and some of the 9/11 hijackers attended his services. But until the Obama administration put him on its hit list, he had little standing in the Arab world.
Now, however, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is taking advantage of this free advertising. No propaganda from the group had ever mentioned his name before it was reported in January that the United States had decided he could be legally assassinated. Shortly after, an article in the official Qaeda journal trumpeted that Mr. Awlaki had not been killed in December, as had been reported, in an air attack on a gathering in Shabwa Province.
So now that it has given Mr. Awlaki such a high profile, the administration is in a bind: if it ignores him, it will look powerless; if it succeeds in killing him, it will have manufactured a martyr. The best way out is to redouble its efforts to track down the real, more dangerous leaders of the Yemen group like Mr. Wuhayshi and Mr. Asiri, who likely made the bombs used in the parcel attacks and carried by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called Christmas Day bomber.
Mr. Awlaki’s name may be the only one Americans know, but that doesn’t make him the most dangerous threat to our security.
Gregory Johnsen is a doctoral candidate in Near Eastern studies at Princeton and writes the blog Waq al-Waq.
Friday, 19 November 2010
Saudis acknowledge their role in foiling parcel-bomb plot
Source: CNN, 20/11/2010
An al Qaeda group claims responsibility for the plot to send explosive devices on cargo planes bound for the U.S.Saudi Prince Khalid al Faisal acknowledged Thursday that Saudi Arabia alerted U.S. and European authorities to the presence of parcel bombs that were en route from Yemen.
"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is targeted" by terrorists, he told CNN's Nima Elbagir in the first public Saudi confirmation of the role of Saudi intelligence in thwarting the attempted bombings for which the Yemen-based arm of al Qaeda has claimed responsibility.
"The kingdom has managed to overcome this through preemptive confrontation, and we saw evidence of that recently in our warning of the United States and Europe of the parcel bombs that were on their way to them," he said. "That information came from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."
Last week, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula issued what the organization described as an "explanatory statement" addressed to the Muslim nation denying that it planned to carry out any terrorist acts against Muslims making the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca.
It was issued in response to comments by Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz that he could not rule out the possibility that al Qaeda might try to sabotage the hajj. The minister's remarks were reported by the Guardian Unlimited.
"The Hajj is a main pillar of the pillars of Islam," the al Qaeda group's statement said. "We, the mujahedeen, are extremely keen on protecting and preserving the blood of Muslims everywhere and especially in Mecca because it holds more sanctity than any other place and let everyone remember that we only joined this movement to defend Muslims, apply God's rule on Earth and lift the injustice imposed on Muslims," said the statement, which was dated November 10.
The statement then accused Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, of being the real terrorist.
"We assure the Muslim nation that we are against any criminal act committed against the pilgrims of the Holy site, and we warn our Muslim nation of the implementation of the plan of God's enemy Petraeus, which aims to detonate bombs in public markets, mosques, and houses of worship in order to discredit the jihadi movement."
It added that the Saudi warning about the parcel bombs "confirms the full cooperation and collaboration of the Saudi regime with the Americans and Jews and their utmost loyalty to them."
AQAP, which also blamed Iran for violence, has claimed responsibility for the plot -- which surfaced October 29 -- to send explosive devices on cargo planes bound for the United States. The group posted its claim on various radical Islamist websites, saying, "We will continue to strike blows against American interests and the interest of America's allies."
Faisal, who is fifth in line to the throne, with oversight of the Mecca region and Islamic holy sites, made his remarks on the final day of the pilgrimage, which authorities believe attracted a record of nearly 4 million this year.
Though efforts are under way to expand the city's capacity to host pilgrims, Faisal predicted the total number will have to be capped.
An al Qaeda group claims responsibility for the plot to send explosive devices on cargo planes bound for the U.S.Saudi Prince Khalid al Faisal acknowledged Thursday that Saudi Arabia alerted U.S. and European authorities to the presence of parcel bombs that were en route from Yemen.
"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is targeted" by terrorists, he told CNN's Nima Elbagir in the first public Saudi confirmation of the role of Saudi intelligence in thwarting the attempted bombings for which the Yemen-based arm of al Qaeda has claimed responsibility.
"The kingdom has managed to overcome this through preemptive confrontation, and we saw evidence of that recently in our warning of the United States and Europe of the parcel bombs that were on their way to them," he said. "That information came from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."
Last week, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula issued what the organization described as an "explanatory statement" addressed to the Muslim nation denying that it planned to carry out any terrorist acts against Muslims making the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca.
It was issued in response to comments by Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz that he could not rule out the possibility that al Qaeda might try to sabotage the hajj. The minister's remarks were reported by the Guardian Unlimited.
"The Hajj is a main pillar of the pillars of Islam," the al Qaeda group's statement said. "We, the mujahedeen, are extremely keen on protecting and preserving the blood of Muslims everywhere and especially in Mecca because it holds more sanctity than any other place and let everyone remember that we only joined this movement to defend Muslims, apply God's rule on Earth and lift the injustice imposed on Muslims," said the statement, which was dated November 10.
The statement then accused Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, of being the real terrorist.
"We assure the Muslim nation that we are against any criminal act committed against the pilgrims of the Holy site, and we warn our Muslim nation of the implementation of the plan of God's enemy Petraeus, which aims to detonate bombs in public markets, mosques, and houses of worship in order to discredit the jihadi movement."
It added that the Saudi warning about the parcel bombs "confirms the full cooperation and collaboration of the Saudi regime with the Americans and Jews and their utmost loyalty to them."
AQAP, which also blamed Iran for violence, has claimed responsibility for the plot -- which surfaced October 29 -- to send explosive devices on cargo planes bound for the United States. The group posted its claim on various radical Islamist websites, saying, "We will continue to strike blows against American interests and the interest of America's allies."
Faisal, who is fifth in line to the throne, with oversight of the Mecca region and Islamic holy sites, made his remarks on the final day of the pilgrimage, which authorities believe attracted a record of nearly 4 million this year.
Though efforts are under way to expand the city's capacity to host pilgrims, Faisal predicted the total number will have to be capped.
Saudi prince says Yemen is a security threat
Source: CNN, 20/11/2010
* Turki al-Faisal says terrorism crosses into Saudi Arabia from Yemen
* He says extremists are working to create a sanctuary
* Al-Faisal calls the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the most important issue in the region
An increasingly unstable Yemen represents a security threat to Saudi Arabia, both along the border and internally, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal said on Friday.
Speaking at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts, al-Faisal said Yemen is being ripped apart by an insurgency in its north and by a southern secessionist movement, enabling al Qaeda to operate and strengthen throughout the country.
"Terrorism emerges from Yemen and crosses into the kingdom," he said. "Refugees fleeing the conflict there flood across our border."
Al-Faisal, the former chief of Saudi Arabia's intelligence service and an ex-ambassador to the United States, added that extremists in Yemen have reportedly made deals with local tribal leaders for supplies and protection, creating a sanctuary there similar to the one in Pakistan's tribal areas.
"Should the situation worsen, this would become an even greater security threat," he said.
Authorities in Saudi Arabia recently tipped off U.S. and European officials to the presence of parcel bombs that were en route to the United States from Yemen. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemen-based arm of the al Qaeda terrorist network, has claimed responsibility for the planned attack.
"All I can say ladies and gentleman, for now, is that we have troops along the border. We are doing all we can to help the country," he said.
Al-Faisal also touched on the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, calling it the most important issue in the Middle East right now. As he has been in the past, he was firm in his criticisms of Israel.
Peace negotiations between Israel and Palestinian Authority officials have stalled over the issue of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank.
"Israel's unwillingness to cease its unlawful colonization and continued refusal to grant the Palestinians their own homeland is the core reason that this conflict continues," he said. "The kingdom continues to call on Israel to take the necessary steps towards peace and justice.
* Turki al-Faisal says terrorism crosses into Saudi Arabia from Yemen
* He says extremists are working to create a sanctuary
* Al-Faisal calls the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the most important issue in the region
An increasingly unstable Yemen represents a security threat to Saudi Arabia, both along the border and internally, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal said on Friday.
Speaking at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts, al-Faisal said Yemen is being ripped apart by an insurgency in its north and by a southern secessionist movement, enabling al Qaeda to operate and strengthen throughout the country.
"Terrorism emerges from Yemen and crosses into the kingdom," he said. "Refugees fleeing the conflict there flood across our border."
Al-Faisal, the former chief of Saudi Arabia's intelligence service and an ex-ambassador to the United States, added that extremists in Yemen have reportedly made deals with local tribal leaders for supplies and protection, creating a sanctuary there similar to the one in Pakistan's tribal areas.
"Should the situation worsen, this would become an even greater security threat," he said.
Authorities in Saudi Arabia recently tipped off U.S. and European officials to the presence of parcel bombs that were en route to the United States from Yemen. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemen-based arm of the al Qaeda terrorist network, has claimed responsibility for the planned attack.
"All I can say ladies and gentleman, for now, is that we have troops along the border. We are doing all we can to help the country," he said.
Al-Faisal also touched on the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, calling it the most important issue in the Middle East right now. As he has been in the past, he was firm in his criticisms of Israel.
Peace negotiations between Israel and Palestinian Authority officials have stalled over the issue of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank.
"Israel's unwillingness to cease its unlawful colonization and continued refusal to grant the Palestinians their own homeland is the core reason that this conflict continues," he said. "The kingdom continues to call on Israel to take the necessary steps towards peace and justice.
Yemen intelligence agent ‘knifed near US embassy’
Source: AFP , 19/11/2010
Two knife-wielding men attacked and seriously wounded a Yemeni intelligence agent near the US embassy in Sanaa on Friday, witnesses and medics said.
Armed with traditional jambiyas or curved daggers, the men set upon Colonel Ibrahim Abbas as he was making his way to a mosque at about 5:00 am (0200 GMT) in Sanaa’s northeast, the witnesses said.
The intelligence officer suffered stab wounds to his neck and back, before he was rushed to hospital where medical officials said his condition was “serious.”
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the jihadist network’s Yemeni branch, claimed responsibility after a similar pre-dawn attack in which gunmen wounded 10 intelligence agents in the capital on September 25
Two knife-wielding men attacked and seriously wounded a Yemeni intelligence agent near the US embassy in Sanaa on Friday, witnesses and medics said.
Armed with traditional jambiyas or curved daggers, the men set upon Colonel Ibrahim Abbas as he was making his way to a mosque at about 5:00 am (0200 GMT) in Sanaa’s northeast, the witnesses said.
The intelligence officer suffered stab wounds to his neck and back, before he was rushed to hospital where medical officials said his condition was “serious.”
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the jihadist network’s Yemeni branch, claimed responsibility after a similar pre-dawn attack in which gunmen wounded 10 intelligence agents in the capital on September 25
Thursday, 18 November 2010
For Al-Qaida In Yemen, Targeting U.S. Is Personal
Source: NPR, by Dina Temple-Raston, 19/11/2010
While counterterrorism officials absorb Wednesday's mixed verdict in the first civilian trial of a former Guantanamo detainee, they are focusing on some other, very different, Guantanamo prisoners — those who never stood trial but instead were released to other countries and then left to their own devices.
Many of the detainees who were released back to Yemen and Saudi Arabia have popped up in the ranks of one specific branch of al-Qaida: its arm in Yemen known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. That's the same group that claimed responsibility for last month's package bomb plot and last year's attempted bombing of Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day.
A Deeper Dislike Of America
Counterterrorism officials are trying to solve the mystery of why AQAP — more than any other arm of al-Qaida — seems to have such a visceral dislike of the United States.
Its focus on America as a target has gone beyond the mantras of al-Qaida's narrative. It is about more than just U.S. soldiers in Muslim lands or America's foreign policy. The enmity seems deeper, more personal.
"It's not that Osama bin Laden or Ayman Zawahiri ever had any great love of the United States, but to them we were just an enemy," says Bruce Hoffman, who heads Georgetown University's security studies program.
"With AQAP the hostility toward the U.S. seems to be different. Individuals in that organization — people who either served time at Guantanamo or lived in the United States — seem to have an almost cathartic approach to their violence," he says.
Rick "Ozzie" Nelson, a counterterrorism expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, agrees.
"Osama bin Laden had very philosophical goals with his movement and the original movements of al-Qaida," Nelson says. "He didn't really have a personal grudge against the United States. He held something against U.S. and Western policies."
Nelson adds, "What you are seeing with some of the affiliates — and particularly with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula — their operations are based out of personal vendetta more than it is the greater al-Qaida narrative."
Consider the names on AQAP's membership roster. It seems that at least part of the group's anger is rooted in its members' negative and direct connections to America.
The Guantanamo Connection
The organization's leadership reads like a list of former Guantanamo detainees. The brother of AQAP's leader was at Guantanamo. Its second in command, its operations chief and its top theologian — they were all at Guantanamo and were either released to their home countries or to a Saudi Arabian reeducation program that was supposed to convince them to give up their violent jihad.
In addition to ornery former detainees, AQAP also boasts some high-profile American members including the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and an editor and propagandist named Samir Khan. Analysts say the combustible combination of detainees and angry expatriates means the group now sees its battle against America as something visceral.
In an interview with NPR earlier this year, former detainee Moazzam Begg, a British citizen, recited a poem from memory about his experience in Guantanamo. He called it "Indictment USA."
"The last verses are like this," he said in the interview, "'They suffered an atrocity and want us all to pay, but I wish no proximity to such a USA. Vulgarity is not my style, but still I have to say, this occasion causes me to revile, so f—- the USA.'"
Since his release in 2005, Begg has become an activist in Britain and has not been formally linked to AQAP. But al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is filled with people who share Begg's experience and perhaps his anger toward the United States.
Militants Bred In The U.S.
There is a second group influencing al-Qaida's arm in Yemen: its American members.
Awlaki, the radical cleric, left the U.S. in 2002 and was arrested in Yemen four years later. Initially Yemeni officials said he was under arrest for the role he was planning in a local tribal dispute. But a short time later, FBI officials showed up to question him.
"For the first nine months I was in solitary confinement in an underground cell," Awlaki told Begg in a telephone interview in 2007, shortly after he was released from prison. "No interaction with any other prisoner was allowed for the entire nine months."
Awlaki has blamed the U.S. for his incarceration and shortly after he was released he began producing fiery sermons on the Internet calling on followers to join the violent jihad.
When the U.S. revealed that he was on a CIA capture-or-kill list — essentially targeting him for assassination — Awlaki was more explicit: He called on his followers to come to Yemen and fight or to kill Americans.
One of the people who appears to have answered that call is Khan, a 25-year-old American.
Unlike other AQAP recruits, he never spent time in prison. But from his parents' basement in North Carolina, he launched a pro-al-Qaida blog that developed a following.
He boarded a flight to Yemen last October. Six months later al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula's English language magazine, Inspire, was published on the Web. Khan is thought to be the editor. (A federal grand jury reconvened this week to decide whether to formally charge Khan with providing material support to a terrorist organization.)
The second issue of Inspire came out in October. Khan has a cover article entitled: "I Am Proud to Be a Traitor to America."
On page 51 of the fall issue is a photograph of the Chicago skyline — with no explanation. Less than a month after Inspire's second issue hit the Web, AQAP sent two explosive-laden packages on cargo planes to the U.S. Their destination: Chicago.
The photo may have been a clue dangled on a string for U.S. intelligence officials to puzzle out: a dig they would understand, after the fact.
While counterterrorism officials absorb Wednesday's mixed verdict in the first civilian trial of a former Guantanamo detainee, they are focusing on some other, very different, Guantanamo prisoners — those who never stood trial but instead were released to other countries and then left to their own devices.
Many of the detainees who were released back to Yemen and Saudi Arabia have popped up in the ranks of one specific branch of al-Qaida: its arm in Yemen known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. That's the same group that claimed responsibility for last month's package bomb plot and last year's attempted bombing of Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day.
A Deeper Dislike Of America
Counterterrorism officials are trying to solve the mystery of why AQAP — more than any other arm of al-Qaida — seems to have such a visceral dislike of the United States.
Its focus on America as a target has gone beyond the mantras of al-Qaida's narrative. It is about more than just U.S. soldiers in Muslim lands or America's foreign policy. The enmity seems deeper, more personal.
"It's not that Osama bin Laden or Ayman Zawahiri ever had any great love of the United States, but to them we were just an enemy," says Bruce Hoffman, who heads Georgetown University's security studies program.
"With AQAP the hostility toward the U.S. seems to be different. Individuals in that organization — people who either served time at Guantanamo or lived in the United States — seem to have an almost cathartic approach to their violence," he says.
Rick "Ozzie" Nelson, a counterterrorism expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, agrees.
"Osama bin Laden had very philosophical goals with his movement and the original movements of al-Qaida," Nelson says. "He didn't really have a personal grudge against the United States. He held something against U.S. and Western policies."
Nelson adds, "What you are seeing with some of the affiliates — and particularly with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula — their operations are based out of personal vendetta more than it is the greater al-Qaida narrative."
Consider the names on AQAP's membership roster. It seems that at least part of the group's anger is rooted in its members' negative and direct connections to America.
The Guantanamo Connection
The organization's leadership reads like a list of former Guantanamo detainees. The brother of AQAP's leader was at Guantanamo. Its second in command, its operations chief and its top theologian — they were all at Guantanamo and were either released to their home countries or to a Saudi Arabian reeducation program that was supposed to convince them to give up their violent jihad.
In addition to ornery former detainees, AQAP also boasts some high-profile American members including the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and an editor and propagandist named Samir Khan. Analysts say the combustible combination of detainees and angry expatriates means the group now sees its battle against America as something visceral.
In an interview with NPR earlier this year, former detainee Moazzam Begg, a British citizen, recited a poem from memory about his experience in Guantanamo. He called it "Indictment USA."
"The last verses are like this," he said in the interview, "'They suffered an atrocity and want us all to pay, but I wish no proximity to such a USA. Vulgarity is not my style, but still I have to say, this occasion causes me to revile, so f—- the USA.'"
Since his release in 2005, Begg has become an activist in Britain and has not been formally linked to AQAP. But al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is filled with people who share Begg's experience and perhaps his anger toward the United States.
Militants Bred In The U.S.
There is a second group influencing al-Qaida's arm in Yemen: its American members.
Awlaki, the radical cleric, left the U.S. in 2002 and was arrested in Yemen four years later. Initially Yemeni officials said he was under arrest for the role he was planning in a local tribal dispute. But a short time later, FBI officials showed up to question him.
"For the first nine months I was in solitary confinement in an underground cell," Awlaki told Begg in a telephone interview in 2007, shortly after he was released from prison. "No interaction with any other prisoner was allowed for the entire nine months."
Awlaki has blamed the U.S. for his incarceration and shortly after he was released he began producing fiery sermons on the Internet calling on followers to join the violent jihad.
When the U.S. revealed that he was on a CIA capture-or-kill list — essentially targeting him for assassination — Awlaki was more explicit: He called on his followers to come to Yemen and fight or to kill Americans.
One of the people who appears to have answered that call is Khan, a 25-year-old American.
Unlike other AQAP recruits, he never spent time in prison. But from his parents' basement in North Carolina, he launched a pro-al-Qaida blog that developed a following.
He boarded a flight to Yemen last October. Six months later al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula's English language magazine, Inspire, was published on the Web. Khan is thought to be the editor. (A federal grand jury reconvened this week to decide whether to formally charge Khan with providing material support to a terrorist organization.)
The second issue of Inspire came out in October. Khan has a cover article entitled: "I Am Proud to Be a Traitor to America."
On page 51 of the fall issue is a photograph of the Chicago skyline — with no explanation. Less than a month after Inspire's second issue hit the Web, AQAP sent two explosive-laden packages on cargo planes to the U.S. Their destination: Chicago.
The photo may have been a clue dangled on a string for U.S. intelligence officials to puzzle out: a dig they would understand, after the fact.
Schlumberger Probed Payments Made in Yemen
Source: The Wall Street Journal, By DIONNE SEARCEY , 18/11/2010
New documents have emerged relating to possible bribery in Yemen by global oil-services giant Schlumberger Ltd.
Internal company documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show that Schlumberger employees raised concerns in 2008 about payments for cars the company rented from Yemeni government officials at above-market rates—including $6,000 a month for a Toyota Camry and two Toyota Corollas. Employees also cited a contract with customs broker Dhakwan Management Petroleum Co., whose chairman had ties to Yemen's president.
Internal emails say the company was aware of those ties.
The new details of Schlumberger's activities in Yemen come as the U.S. Justice Department continues an investigation into whether the company made improper payments to a government-related consulting firm there. Last month, the Journal reported that the probe, which was at an early stage, concerned contract payments Schlumberger made several years ago to a consulting firm headed by a nephew of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
At the time, the company was seeking approval from Yemen's government to create an oil-exploration databank on the country.
A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment on its probe.
The documents reviewed by the Journal were part of an internal investigation in which Schlumberger delved into possible incidents of bribery reported by employees. It isn't clear what conclusion, if any, the company probe reached or if documents from it are part of the Justice Department inquiry.
A spokeswoman for Schlumberger declined to comment. The company, with principal offices in Houston, Paris and The Hague, has said it has a robust compliance program and thoroughly investigates any concerns raised.
The internal documents show that Schlumberger tried to cancel contracts in Yemen out of concern they could violate U.S. foreign-bribery laws but sometimes faced what it said was retribution. In 2007, after it canceled a car-rental contract with one government official, a Schlumberger truck packed with three tons of explosives—which are commonly used in the oil-services industry—was hijacked in a volatile area of Yemen, according to the documents.
Schlumberger managers suspected the incident was tied to the contract's cancellation, but didn't cite any conclusive evidence.
No one was hurt in the incident, and the truck and explosives were recovered, the documents say.
The Schlumberger documents say that for years the company rented vehicles from officials of Yemen's Petroleum Exploration and Production Authority, which approves crucial permits, contracts and activities of foreign oil companies. In 2008 alone, PEPA awarded $30 million worth of work to Schlumberger, company documents say; the documents don't cite figures for other years. The car-rental contract that Schlumberger believes led to the hijacking incident wasn't one of the contracts with a PEPA official.
Between 2005 and 2007, Schlumberger paid a total of $6,000 a month to rent one Camry and two Corollas from PEPA committee member Ahmad Abdul Jaleel Al-Shameeri, the Schlumberger documents say. The market rate for renting the cars was about $950 each per month, according to company documents.
As a member of the committee, Mr. Al-Shameeri would have signed off on contracts awarded to oil-service firms, including Schlumberger, the company's documents say, though they didn't identify any Schlumberger contracts he approved.
It's unclear how much business, if any, Schlumberger got from the committee while it was renting cars from Mr. Al-Shameeri. The company documents indicate it canceled the contract out of concerns it might be violating U.S. foreign-bribery laws.
Mr. Al-Shameeri couldn't be reached, and it isn't clear if he is still works at PEPA.
The documents say that for four years starting in 2004, Schlumberger also rented three Toyota Land Cruisers for $2,700 a month each from Abdul Hameed Al-Miswari, a PEPA general manager of materials. The documents say he was responsible for permitting and signing off on imports of equipment by oil-services companies.
"He has it within his power to stop all importation and therefore, all work," said one internal document that describes Mr. Al-Miswari. The document cited the market rate for Land Cruisers rentals as $1,600 each a month.
Schlumberger managers elsewhere in the Persian Gulf region learned about the contract with Mr. Al-Miswari and canceled it on Jan. 26, 2008, company documents say. Two weeks later, on Feb. 10, 2008, "Al-Miswari apparently stopped two [Schlumberger] imports into the country," one company document states. The documents don't indicate why the company believes Mr. Al-Miswari was personally involved in blocking the shipments. Mr. Al-Miswari, who continues to work at PEPA and was a committee member while Schlumberger was renting cars from him, didn't return calls seeking comment.
PEPA's current chairman, Nasser Al-Humaidi, didn't return phone calls or answer emails seeking comment about whether the agency allows officials to conduct private business with oil or oil-service firms or why the PEPA committee members would be involved in renting cars to such companies.
Other internal documents say that Schlumberger has been using customs broker Dhakwan since 2003. Dhakwan prepares and processes customs exemptions and re-export permits at PEPA, according to internal Schlumberger documents. Schlumberger paid Dhakwan $280,000 between 2004 and 2007, the documents show.
Schlumberger documents identified Dhakwan's chairman then as Major Gen. Ali-Mohsen Al-Ahmar, a political ally and close friend of the Yemeni president. A person who answered Dhakwan's phone said Gen. Al-Ahmar wasn't available, and declined to comment further. Yemeni government officials didn't return calls seeking comment.
When Schlumberger's internal investigation revealed Dhakwan's ties to the government, the documents say, the company tried to terminate its contract. But it found its imports stalled, and decided to reinstate the broker, according to company emails and other documents. The documents say Schlumberger thought Dhakwan officials might have interfered with its imports, but didn't cite specific evidence for the company's suspicions.
"It appears that PEPA will process NO documents unless they are presented by Dhakwan (and this applies to ALL companies in Yemen, not only SLB)," read an Aug. 11, 2009, email from Nigel Bennett, Gulf Supply Chain Services Manager for Schlumberger, to several other Schlumberger employees. "It appears that we have no choice but to continue to use them to present the paperwork to PEPA if we wish to continue business."
Mr. Bennett couldn't be reached for comment.
Schlumberger managers tried using another customs broker for a time but found it used Dhakwan to process its customs transactions, company documents say. The Schlumberger managers decided it wasn't worth angering Dhakwan, according to the documents, and let the new company keep using the broker. The website of Dhakwan, now called Dhakwan Petroleum & Mineral Service Co., lists Schlumberger as a current customer
New documents have emerged relating to possible bribery in Yemen by global oil-services giant Schlumberger Ltd.
Internal company documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show that Schlumberger employees raised concerns in 2008 about payments for cars the company rented from Yemeni government officials at above-market rates—including $6,000 a month for a Toyota Camry and two Toyota Corollas. Employees also cited a contract with customs broker Dhakwan Management Petroleum Co., whose chairman had ties to Yemen's president.
Internal emails say the company was aware of those ties.
The new details of Schlumberger's activities in Yemen come as the U.S. Justice Department continues an investigation into whether the company made improper payments to a government-related consulting firm there. Last month, the Journal reported that the probe, which was at an early stage, concerned contract payments Schlumberger made several years ago to a consulting firm headed by a nephew of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
At the time, the company was seeking approval from Yemen's government to create an oil-exploration databank on the country.
A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment on its probe.
The documents reviewed by the Journal were part of an internal investigation in which Schlumberger delved into possible incidents of bribery reported by employees. It isn't clear what conclusion, if any, the company probe reached or if documents from it are part of the Justice Department inquiry.
A spokeswoman for Schlumberger declined to comment. The company, with principal offices in Houston, Paris and The Hague, has said it has a robust compliance program and thoroughly investigates any concerns raised.
The internal documents show that Schlumberger tried to cancel contracts in Yemen out of concern they could violate U.S. foreign-bribery laws but sometimes faced what it said was retribution. In 2007, after it canceled a car-rental contract with one government official, a Schlumberger truck packed with three tons of explosives—which are commonly used in the oil-services industry—was hijacked in a volatile area of Yemen, according to the documents.
Schlumberger managers suspected the incident was tied to the contract's cancellation, but didn't cite any conclusive evidence.
No one was hurt in the incident, and the truck and explosives were recovered, the documents say.
The Schlumberger documents say that for years the company rented vehicles from officials of Yemen's Petroleum Exploration and Production Authority, which approves crucial permits, contracts and activities of foreign oil companies. In 2008 alone, PEPA awarded $30 million worth of work to Schlumberger, company documents say; the documents don't cite figures for other years. The car-rental contract that Schlumberger believes led to the hijacking incident wasn't one of the contracts with a PEPA official.
Between 2005 and 2007, Schlumberger paid a total of $6,000 a month to rent one Camry and two Corollas from PEPA committee member Ahmad Abdul Jaleel Al-Shameeri, the Schlumberger documents say. The market rate for renting the cars was about $950 each per month, according to company documents.
As a member of the committee, Mr. Al-Shameeri would have signed off on contracts awarded to oil-service firms, including Schlumberger, the company's documents say, though they didn't identify any Schlumberger contracts he approved.
It's unclear how much business, if any, Schlumberger got from the committee while it was renting cars from Mr. Al-Shameeri. The company documents indicate it canceled the contract out of concerns it might be violating U.S. foreign-bribery laws.
Mr. Al-Shameeri couldn't be reached, and it isn't clear if he is still works at PEPA.
The documents say that for four years starting in 2004, Schlumberger also rented three Toyota Land Cruisers for $2,700 a month each from Abdul Hameed Al-Miswari, a PEPA general manager of materials. The documents say he was responsible for permitting and signing off on imports of equipment by oil-services companies.
"He has it within his power to stop all importation and therefore, all work," said one internal document that describes Mr. Al-Miswari. The document cited the market rate for Land Cruisers rentals as $1,600 each a month.
Schlumberger managers elsewhere in the Persian Gulf region learned about the contract with Mr. Al-Miswari and canceled it on Jan. 26, 2008, company documents say. Two weeks later, on Feb. 10, 2008, "Al-Miswari apparently stopped two [Schlumberger] imports into the country," one company document states. The documents don't indicate why the company believes Mr. Al-Miswari was personally involved in blocking the shipments. Mr. Al-Miswari, who continues to work at PEPA and was a committee member while Schlumberger was renting cars from him, didn't return calls seeking comment.
PEPA's current chairman, Nasser Al-Humaidi, didn't return phone calls or answer emails seeking comment about whether the agency allows officials to conduct private business with oil or oil-service firms or why the PEPA committee members would be involved in renting cars to such companies.
Other internal documents say that Schlumberger has been using customs broker Dhakwan since 2003. Dhakwan prepares and processes customs exemptions and re-export permits at PEPA, according to internal Schlumberger documents. Schlumberger paid Dhakwan $280,000 between 2004 and 2007, the documents show.
Schlumberger documents identified Dhakwan's chairman then as Major Gen. Ali-Mohsen Al-Ahmar, a political ally and close friend of the Yemeni president. A person who answered Dhakwan's phone said Gen. Al-Ahmar wasn't available, and declined to comment further. Yemeni government officials didn't return calls seeking comment.
When Schlumberger's internal investigation revealed Dhakwan's ties to the government, the documents say, the company tried to terminate its contract. But it found its imports stalled, and decided to reinstate the broker, according to company emails and other documents. The documents say Schlumberger thought Dhakwan officials might have interfered with its imports, but didn't cite specific evidence for the company's suspicions.
"It appears that PEPA will process NO documents unless they are presented by Dhakwan (and this applies to ALL companies in Yemen, not only SLB)," read an Aug. 11, 2009, email from Nigel Bennett, Gulf Supply Chain Services Manager for Schlumberger, to several other Schlumberger employees. "It appears that we have no choice but to continue to use them to present the paperwork to PEPA if we wish to continue business."
Mr. Bennett couldn't be reached for comment.
Schlumberger managers tried using another customs broker for a time but found it used Dhakwan to process its customs transactions, company documents say. The Schlumberger managers decided it wasn't worth angering Dhakwan, according to the documents, and let the new company keep using the broker. The website of Dhakwan, now called Dhakwan Petroleum & Mineral Service Co., lists Schlumberger as a current customer
Schlumberger probed possible bribery in Yemen: report
Source: Reuters, 18/11/2010
Schlumberger Ltd, the world's largest oilfield services company, investigated bribery charges in Yemen that were reported by its employees, the Wall Street Journal said, citing internal company documents.
Employees raised concerns in 2008 about payments for cars Schlumberger rented from Yemeni government officials at above-market rates, the paper said.
Between 2005 and 2007, Schlumberger paid $6,000 a month to rent a Camry and two Corollas from Yemen's Petroleum Exploration and Production Authority committee member Ahmad Abdul Jaleel Al-Shameeri, the Journal said. The market rate for renting the cars was about $950 each per month, according to company documents cited by the paper.
The report on Schlumberger's actions in Yemen have surfaced as the U.S. Justice Department continues a probe into whether the company made improper payments to a government-related consulting firm there, the WSJ said.
Employees also cited a deal with customs broker Dhakwan Management Petroleum Co, whose chairman had ties to Yemen's president, the paper said. The company was aware of those contacts, internal emails showed, WSJ added.
Spokeswomen for the Justice Department and Schlumberger declined to comment to the Journal. Schlumberger and the Justice Department could not be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.
Schlumberger Ltd, the world's largest oilfield services company, investigated bribery charges in Yemen that were reported by its employees, the Wall Street Journal said, citing internal company documents.
Employees raised concerns in 2008 about payments for cars Schlumberger rented from Yemeni government officials at above-market rates, the paper said.
Between 2005 and 2007, Schlumberger paid $6,000 a month to rent a Camry and two Corollas from Yemen's Petroleum Exploration and Production Authority committee member Ahmad Abdul Jaleel Al-Shameeri, the Journal said. The market rate for renting the cars was about $950 each per month, according to company documents cited by the paper.
The report on Schlumberger's actions in Yemen have surfaced as the U.S. Justice Department continues a probe into whether the company made improper payments to a government-related consulting firm there, the WSJ said.
Employees also cited a deal with customs broker Dhakwan Management Petroleum Co, whose chairman had ties to Yemen's president, the paper said. The company was aware of those contacts, internal emails showed, WSJ added.
Spokeswomen for the Justice Department and Schlumberger declined to comment to the Journal. Schlumberger and the Justice Department could not be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.
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