Iran-Backed Rebels Loot Yemen Files About U.S. Spy Operations

[Purveyor]

Source: LA TIMES

Secret files held by Yemeni security forces that contain details of American intelligence operations in the country have been looted by Iran-backed militia leaders, exposing names of confidential informants and plans for U.S.-backed counter-terrorism strikes, U.S. officials say.

U.S. intelligence officials believe additional files were handed directly to Iranian advisors by Yemeni officials who have sided with the Houthi militias that seized control of Sana, the capital, in September, which led the U.S.-backed president to flee to Aden.

For American intelligence networks in Yemen, the damage has been severe. Until recently, U.S. forces deployed in Yemen had worked closely with President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi’s government to track and kill Al Qaeda operatives, and President Obama had hailed Yemen last fall as a model for counter-terrorism operations elsewhere.

But the identities of local agents were considered compromised after Houthi leaders in Sana took over the offices of Yemen’s National Security Bureau, which had worked closely with the CIA and other intelligence agencies, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-us-intelligence-yemen-20150325-story.html#page=1

[tech3149]

1. Now this combined with Bibi's antics should make negotiations real fun!

I can't wait to hear how the war hawks will try and distort and spin what is discovered into just meaningless bs.

[blackspade]

2. shit...

[Unknown Beatle]

3. Bullshit!

I don't believe this for a moment. It's a propaganda piece.

[msongs]

4. so which Americans are so effing stupid to give these files to anyone in Yemen? there's the

problem

[riversedge]

6. The concern is with the lost of the network within Yemen--The agents etc. Not with

the actual 'intel'---as I read this.

...But U.S. officials also worried Wednesday about the loss of the Yemeni intelligence files, including the names and locations of agents and informants with information on Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, considered the terrorist network’s most dangerous and resourceful branch.

There was no indication that the Houthis gained direct control of U.S. intelligence files, so the loss doesn’t compare to more infamous cases, like the takeover by Islamic militants of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 or the U.S. retreat from Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

But AQAP, as the group is known, has repeatedly sought to attack Americans at home and abroad. It designed a bomb that a Nigerian man sought to explode in his underwear on a Detroit-bound flight in 2009, and concealed explosives aboard four cargo planes headed to the U.S. in 2010. Both times, the bombs were discovered before they exploded.

[DeSwiss]

5. The ''enemy'' is stealing our intelligence!!!

- Now get off that toilet, wipe the 4.6 seconds as usual and go out support the troops!



K&R