Why does Al-Qaeda change its mind, asks Nasser Arrabyee The Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) decided not to execute 73 Yemeni soldiers who were supposed to be killed by firing squads at the end of April if the Yemeni government did not release Al-Qaeda detainees. Instead, all the 73 soldiers were released unharmed earlier this week without the release of any Al-Qaeda detainees from government prisons in return. Al-Qaeda detained the soldiers on 4 March after it killed 185 of their colleagues when it surprisingly attacked troops positions at the area of Dawfas, at the outskirts of Al-Qaeda- held town of Zinjubar, in the southern province of Abyan. The retraction of Al-Qaeda was viewed by analysts as a sign of weakness because of the great pressures on it, not only from outside but also from inside the organisation and its sympathisers. "A lot of soldiers were killed by Al-Qaeda, and some leaders of AQAP and its sympathisers say these soldiers are Muslims and can be fighters with us," said Said Obaid, the chairman of the Al-Jemhi Centre for Studies, a think-tank on Al-Qaeda. "By the release, Al-Qaeda wanted to gain sympathy from the people because it failed to kill them or to keep them," Obaid said, "and it was also impossible to swap with them." The release took place in Jaar, the first Taliban-style Emirate declared early last year and some of the well-known AQAP leaders were present to speak to soldiers and their families. This incident has strongly proved that there is no difference between those who call themselves "Ansar Al-Sharia" and AQAP. In Al-Qaeda-declared emirates like Jaar, Zinjubar, and Radaa, AQAP fighters call themselves Ansar Al-Sharia just to deceive naive young people and recruit them. Some uneducated but religious parents would bar their sons from joining Al-Qaeda as dangerous or terrorist but would encourage them to joint "Ansar Al-Sharia", because the term is new and looks really religious and not terrorist. Kasem Al-Raymi, AQAP military commander, and Tarek Al-Fadhli attended the speech ceremony. Al-Raimi is the third most important leader after the Yemeni Nasser Al-Wahaishi and the Saudi Said Al-Shihiri. The order of releasing the 73 soldiers came from Nasser Al-Wahaishi, according to the statement that was read before the release and distributed to all journalists. Some of the detainees' families and journalists, and human rights activists from Hood and Al-Karama organisations, and the cleric Awadh Ba Najjar were in the ceremony. Al-Qaeda also released 13 others from local people who were detained in different times for allegedly cooperating with the government and the army. Kasem Al-Raymi, AQAQ military commander, was masked while he was speaking to tribal and religious scholars and journalists and right activists. He came masked with tens of bodyguards around him, and sat next to the leaders of "Ansar Al-Sharia", like Jalal Beleidi, and Tarek Al-Fadhli, said journalists who attended the ceremony. Kasme Al-Raymi was the only one masked, even though he was not introduced as Kasem Al-Raymi. "The local people of Jaar told us, the masked man was Kasem Al-Raymi," said Anis Mansour, one of the journalist who attended. "We released the detainees today, although our detainees are still languishing in the prisons of the Sanaa government," said a statement distributed to journalists. The release came in respect to the mediation and intercession of some clerics who came to us like Sheikh Awadh Ba Najjar, and those who came with him, including journalists and human rights activists," said the statement which was signed by AQAP. "Our battle is with America and the Crusaders, so do not be tools in their hands against Islam and Muslims and, and do not be obstacles in the road of the establishment of the rule of Allah," said the statement, addressing the released soldiers and the Yemeni army in general. "The US ambassador in Sanaa is the real ruler in Yemen, and he interferes even in your salaries and appointments of your commanders," the statement said. "The Sanaa government will never ever care for you, and the issue of 73 detainees is good evidence that it never cares for you, it only implements the orders and wishes of America and its ambassador in Sanaa," said the statement, addressing the army. "You are victims for the American policies, its Zionism-Crusade policy, so do not lose your religion and your lives for very little in return " said the statement. The Al-Qaeda-specialised analyst Said Obaid said the message was clear that Al-Qaeda wanted to say to the new government that the enemy is America not Yemeni army or government. "Al-Qaeda wanted to say: we are not against the new government, we are not against the army, but we are against America and the Crusaders and Zionists," said the analyst Said Obaid. Interestingly, the recently formed government of Yemen has a plan to spend $20 million for building a mosque inside a religious and fundamentalist university owned and run by an extremist cleric accused of supporting global terrorism. Last week, Minister of Finance Sakhr Al-Wajeh approved an amount of $1 million as the downpayment for building the first stage of the mosque of Al-Eman University of Sheikh Abdel Majid Al-Zandani. The first stage will cost $5 million, and the overall cost of the whole mosque in all stages will be $20 million, according to documents at the Ministry of Finance. When he was an opposition figure, the minister of finance was one of the most critical members of Parliament of the government's expenditures which did not address urgent needs of the poor people. Al-Wajeeh is also the chairman of the Yemeni parliamentarians against corruption (Yemen PAC). A lot of Yemenis got angry for spending this much money on a mosque while Yemen has more than enough mosques, but has very few schools and hospitals. The government, which is chaired by the Islamist-dominated coalition JMP, justifies spending this much money on Al-Zandani's mosque, by saying it was the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh who approved the budget of the mosque when he visited Al-Eman University during his election campaign in 2006. The same minister Al-Wajeeh would refuse or at least obstruct any order from the former president Saleh. But he did not stop this huge amount of money for the mosque, said some sources from the ministry. But the political analyst Faisal Al-Sufi said the new government should have corrected Saleh's mistakes, not make even worse mistakes. "I was expecting that this new government would turn Al-Eman University into a normal scientific university concerned with strategic studies about development and combating terrorism," said Al-Sufi. "The biggest mistake made by Saleh was that he supported Al-Zandani and his university, and now the new government needs to correct this mistake not to develop it," Al-Sufi added.
