YEMEN - Pax Americana Is Changing - Part 22.

For the past five years, Yemen has been a passive partner in the US-led war on terrorism. It has taken steps to limit the activities of al-Qaeda and other like-minded groups within the country; but most of these have been at the behest of the US. The San'a' regime is often schizophrenic in its pursuit of Islamic militants.

In April 2004, Prime Minister Abdel-Qader Bajammal claimed that Yemen had eradicated 90% of al-Qaeda in the country. Yet rumours that factions within the country's political and security establishments assisted in the early 2006 jailbreak of 23 militants, including prominent figures in the attacks on the US warship, the USS Cole, and the French tanker, Limburg, have once again raised questions about Yemen's reliability as an ally in the war on terrorism.

Likewise, President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been schizophrenic about the need for Yemen to democratise in line with US President George W. Bush's project to open up "the Greater Middle East" (GME). While he has repeatedly said he would not seek re-election as president, Saleh's allies are trying to persuade him to get another term in the presidential elections in September 2006. In many of the country's mosques imams often imply in their Friday sermons that his leadership is indispensable for the stability of Yemen.