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| Arabia |
| Meet The Group That Now Rules Yemen |
| 2015-03-27 |
| Who are the Huthis, where did they come from, and where are they going? BuzzFeed News' Gregory Johnsen reports. This is the story of how the Huthis came to be, why the group was able to prosper as the rest of the country collapsed, and what that now means for Yemen, the region, and the U.S. campaign against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the organization's most sophisticated and dangerous branch. It all goes back to a budget cut. In 2000, Yemen's then-President Ali Abdullah Salih made one of his periodic changes to a discretionary fund that was known within his office as al-i'timad, or support. Salih used the money as a governing tool -- when one rival got too strong, Salih would funnel money toward opponents as a way of keeping them in check without confronting them directly. It was part of what he called "dancing on the heads of snakes," staying ahead of his enemies by playing them off against one another. The process was crude and prone to fluctuation, but for years it worked. The strategy allowed Salih, who came to power on the heels of the brutal assassinations of his two immediate predecessors, to survive and, for awhile, even prosper. In the mid-1990s, an Islamist political grouping called Islah, which included the local chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as tribal elements, had started to grow in power, taking control of a handful of key ministries. Salih, who had been funding the group off and on for years, withdrew his support and started funding their domestic enemies Long full background at link |
| Posted by:3dc |