If true, it might be the first documented case of Munchausen Syndrome as national policy.
Yemen has long been implicated in a double game of its own. As one Yemeni official described the country in 2008: “Yemen is like a bus station “” we stop some terrorists, and we send others on to fight elsewhere … We appease our partners in the West, but we are not really helping.”
That acknowledgement makes the colonel’s accusations seem more plausible. “Officials: Yemen government allowing al-Qaida wins,” from the Associated Press, July 2:
SANAA (AP) “” A Yemeni army colonel and a local official are accusing the weak central government of allowing al-Qaida-linked militants to exploit the country’s turmoil and overrun entire swaths of land in the volatile south.
They say the aim is to show the West what Yemen would look like if wounded President Ali Abdullah Saleh were to relinquish power as opposition protesters have demanded for months.
Col. Mohammed al-Samwali on Saturday accused the Defense Ministry of intentionally hesitating to send reinforcements and supplies to his unit, which is battling al-Qaida-linked Ansar al-Sharia group that seized the Abyan provincial capital, Zinjibar.
Abyan official Abdel-Majed al-Salahi claimed the government plans to let “at least five southern cities fall into the hands of extremists.”