New confessions by the US-Israeli spy network have revealed that civil society organizations in Yemen have been targeted and recruited to carry out US intelligence goals.
According to the network confessions published by the security services today, the US intelligence has prepared a number of programs to penetrate local civil society organizations and deflect them to serve the Americans.
In this context, the spy Abdul Moeen Azzan pointed out that the organizations program at the Democratic Institute was run by a Yemeni employee named Bushra Al-Laswas, and the program ostensibly helped to establish and strengthen the role of local civil society organizations in public life in Yemen and strengthen their role.
“But also from the intelligence point of view, the hidden aspect of the program’s work lies in attracting a large number of organizations, or leaders of civil society organizations, and local associations in the Yemen, and there is no doubt that these organizations also played a big role after they wer
e spawned in a large way,” he said.
He pointed out that the institute played a role in spawning these organizations and a large number of them in the Yemeni arena worked strongly to push the US agenda and goals in Yemen and prioritization, until it changed the order of priorities needed by the Yemeni citizen in line with the priorities of the US embassy. He pointed out that this large number of personalities who were attracted provided a source of information as well, whether for the Institute or later for the embassy or for the US intelligence.
He pointed out that there are many leaders and people who were highlighted, and many organizations that had a later sale, and these organizations had a major role in the establishment of the Institute.
The spy Mohamed Al-Waziza touched on the governance project of civil society organizations, which was funded by the “GIZ”, a German organization, and was the preparation of a guide that includes standards and procedures for the governance or standards of management o
f civil society organizations so that they are of unified standards. He pointed out that they asked him to hold a workshop for ten organizations chosen from different governorates.
He pointed out that the workers in the project are Assem Al-Ashari and Ilham Al-Baadani. He pointed out that the workshop included training attendees from the organizations that were selected from the governorates, including Sana’a, on the standards set in the guide written by an external consultant from outside the institution, who trained the workshop.
“After completing the workshop, we used to ask the organizations to choose 10 organizations within the governorates and train them on the same guide, and the matter reached after the workshop, and then I helped Ilham follow up on some of the organizations that were holding the workshops, and my role was in some organizations in Sana’a, and we used to attend the workshop for the ten organizations they chose and how they explain the guide that they were originally trained on,” he s
aid.
Infiltration and recruitment of community organizations:
In turn, the spy Hisham Al-Wazir touched on the most important intelligence activities to penetrate local community organizations, where he pointed out that the RGP project is one of its most important intelligence works in the process of penetrating local community organizations, and it is shared in this role by the NDI and the Middle Partnership Initiative, by funding it and pushing it to work to achieve the agendas of the CIA, as well as the association of its personalities with those concerned in the CIA department through the American diplomats themselves.
He pointed out that if an organization is funded, for example, in Marib, to work on a project on women’s rights, the head of this organization will later be used and summoned by the CIA to turn him into an informant to locate the so-called al-Qaeda or identify sheikhs who can be recruited to work with the Americans. He pointed out that this is how these people were used under the cover of
projects, aid, employment or any other cover.
MEPI intelligence missions:
While the spy Abdul Qader Al-Saqqaf explained that the Middle East Partnership Initiative, which was concerned with dealing directly with civil society organizations, was trying through these organizations to win people and deal with young men and women and hold courses, and they had a special office that deals with these organizations, through a program called the Middle East Partnership “MEPI”, and the role was to spread awareness of the contrary, and move among civil society between youth and women, and this was one of the negative roles played by the US embassy.
He pointed out that the American role and the work of the organizations appear to be aid, but it later became clear that there is no assistance from whom you are talking about with the Yemeni government in development, and not everyone has seen any progress in this area, only the deterioration continues.
In this context, the spy Abdul Moeen Azzan acknowledged in confessi
ons his intelligence roles and tasks through the Middle East Partnership Initiative, where he pointed out that through his work as its administrative officer, he worked to maintain good relations with the people who had been attracted from representatives of civil society organizations, local associations and institutions in different regions of the Yemen and who had also been linked to the US embassy and continued to communicate with them for the purpose of obtaining information from them as requested by the Political Section and requested by the Embassy.
He pointed out that he also recruited and recruited new figures and representatives of organizations to obtain information from them, as requested by the US embassy. He pointed out that the recruitment process was mainly carried out for organizations and personalities representing organizations that were receiving financial grants from the initiative.
Regarding the mechanism on which the Middle East Partnership Initiative is working, the spy Azzan says: ”
First, in the beginning, the financial grant was taken, and communication begins with him or with the person in charge of the organization, or the person responsible for the project, and he is contacted regarding the project for a certain period, and the relationship is strengthened, and they are attracted after passing several stages, and they are nominated for international visitors and others, and to participate in conferences or events that meant, for example, a partner organization of international organizations MEPI requests nominations from actors representing local organizations.”
The spy Shayef al-Hamdani explained that “there are people and individuals in civil society organizations that were built from very early stages who participated in the international visitor program, well-known figures with regard to civil society, and also progressed in positions in the government ladder until they reached ministers of human rights and can gather and control a large number of civil society organizations in
the entire republic, so investment in these figures was made between the various offices and agencies of the US embassy.”
The spy Abdul Qader Al-Saqqaf pointed out that some of the meetings that took place in Sana’a through courses, workshops or even private meetings at the headquarters with civil society leaders and human rights organizations, some were sent to courses or program visits, and exploratory visits to America, and there are also intensification of meetings and rapprochement until they are attracted and recruited in certain fields, in order to return to play the roles required of them among the organizations in the civil society in which they work, so conflicts begin to abound.
Community Accountability Project:
In turn, the spy Mohamed Al-Waziza touched on the social accountability project funded by the National Fund to Support Democracy. He pointed out that the project included training five civil society organizations in five governorates on the guide that was prepared, and on the tool that w
as prepared, which is the establishment of community hearings, in which it was about how you as an organization hold a community hearing.
An audio recording of the spy documented his conversation with an organization about its ability to carry out activities, what these activities are, whether they are within the framework of the project itself, and its ability to collect data.
He pointed out that after that, a short list of organizations that can be selected and that have competence and have worked in the governorates or in the aspect of community accountability from the past, leading to the selection of five organizations. He pointed out that after the organizations were selected, coordination began to hold a training workshop on the guide for organizations in Aden Governorate.
On the same level, an audio recording of the spy Raafat al-Akhali from a workshop to train elements on the implementation of social accountability activities for the spy, where he says, “The concept that we worked on is accountabi
lity, but in a mild way in a participatory way, and the idea was that the youth and the committees that we formed for social accountability, to meet with the concerned with the director of the education office in the directorate, and with the director of health, and start explaining to them the nature of the work in principle.”
“Before you do anything, start explaining to him the idea that I came to build trust with each other, to work. There were a lot of reservations of course at first, and that’s to be expected, but a little bit when the accountability mechanism became clear, and then people started to trust, and we started to get the information easily, not all the information of course, but in a lot of information we got.
Source: Yemen News Agency