Guest Thinkers

Apologies for the extended absence from blogging. It couldn’t be helped. A lot has happened in the last two weeks, some of which I’ll even be blogging about in the […]

The biggest news coming out of yesterday was the accusation by the Huthis that the US was involved in air raids which killed up to 120 people. “The savage crime […]

Two new articles – in English – today give me an excuse to write on the Huthi conflict and also discuss some new media outlets that are publicizing their side […]

Waq al-waq has had well over 3,000 visitors today, which is far above our daily average. For those new to blog and looking for information on Yemen and al-Qaeda in […]

Instead of reading Salih’s interview with al-Hayat and the denial that was e-mailed to me early this morning by Yahya al-Huthi, I have spent the day (well not the whole […]

Two deaths today during a funeral procession in Lahj for demonstrators that were killed last week. Al-Sahawa has the names of the deceased and some rather gruesome pictures. The bad […]

Despite my nerd-like fantasies – Washington Journal is my favorite show – C-Span didn’t show up to cover the event at Carnegie on Tuesday, but al-Hurra did and their correspondent […]

GENEVA – The United Nations food agency said on Friday a lack of funds had forced it to cut back rations for around one million people in Yemen, despite growing […]

One really never knows what one will find cruising around the jihadi forums. The other day I came across a pretty interesting thread asking who was the true Amir al-Mu’minin. […]

Yemen has announced that it has arrested 6 of the 12 potential suicide bombers that were on the loose. There is little information about when, where or how. Such is […]

Al-Tagheer republishes this piece by Faysal Mukrim of al-Hayat, which happens to be strangely similar to the piece written by Muhammad al-Ahmadi in al-Ghad, which is edited by Mukrim. Mareb […]

One of the things about thinking so much about one particular country is that everything tends to be processed through that one filter. This can be both good and bad. […]

I have a new article out in Newsweek that argues that any benefits from assassinating al-Awlaki should be weighed carefully against not only the questionable legality of such a strike […]

To any readers for whom this has not yet aired: Greg is on Newshour and on The Charlie Rose show this evening, talking, I believe, about recipes. Or Yemen. He […]

There have been numerous reports on Yemen in English that have been released in recent days – some good and some not so good – but few on which I […]

Well, having spent more time than even I like talking about Yemen today (for those keeping score at home apparently the limit sans qat is eight hours – nine hours […]

So, I am on the email list for Stratfor, an intelligence group, although I generally delete them. There is only so much time in a day. But today’s was titled […]

The head of the criminal investigation unit in Marib was kidnapped yesterday, and is reportedly being held in exchange for the release of tribal prisoners.Al-Sharq al-Awsat is reporting on the […]

There is not much in the way of analysis in this piece by Mareb Press, but I do completely disagree with the headline. I think al-Wahayshi’s statement was, in fact, […]

Now that it is confirmed that al-‘Awfi is back in Saudi Arabia’s custody, everyone has a chance to speculate on exactly how he came in from the cold and what […]

A YSP leader and his son were killed in Amran. The details are a little sketchy but it seems as though the two came under gunfire and were killed. Husayn […]

I have been promising for a while to post about Sada al-Malahim (The Echo of Battles), but it turns out I’m actually over-worked and under-paid – on a related note […]

Yesterday the NEFA announced that it had “obtained” an AQAP statement – I’m not sure obtained is the right word here, as they didn’t find it in some Yemeni safehouse […]

Greg mentioned this below, and promised not to be snarky about it, which is admirable, but in the end unsustainable. Not when there is an editorial such as this, which […]

The forums are still silent as to an AQAP statement (or any other one for that matter) on the kidnappings and executions. However, judging from the 1,069 people (at last […]

Brian and I are both in the process of posting skeleton bios and e-mail addresses to our profiles. Over the coming days – hopefully not weeks – we will also […]

I finally carved out some time today to read over the transcript of Muhammad ‘Abd al-Rahman Sulayman al-Rashad’s recent audio tape. This is the second anti-Shi’a screed from AQAP in […]

From time to time I hear rumors, most of them I ignore but every so often – apparently – I blog about them. One thing that I’ve been hearing lately […]

Writing in the Yemen Observer, Nasser Arrabyee- to whose blog we have linked here, and to which you should go every day- has a brief article about the drug trade […]

As Ibn Silliqi noted in the comments this morning another video has been released from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. This one is entitled, “The Descendants of Muhammad ibn Maslamah.” […]