A law enforcement source said Yemen was attracting radical local Islamists for religious and military training because of the counter-terrorist crackdowns in nations such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. "Yemen is the new wild west," the source said.
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One of Yemen's most notable exports - along with oil, fish and Osama bin Laden's father - are the extremist teachings of Islamic fundamentalists, such as the alleged al-Qaeda financier Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani. The US Government declared the red-bearded Zindani founded the controversial al-Iman University, one several religious colleges in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, which are often accused of promulgating anti-Western hatred. He reportedly claimed in one taped sermon that the attacks of September 11, 2001, were a conspiracy between the US President, George Bush, and Jews. Zindani leads the Islamist wing of an opposition party, Islah, and has helped the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas raise funds, but he is reported to be close to the relatively pro-Western Yemeni President, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Among the university's former students is John Walker Lindh, who is serving 20 years in a US jail for fighting with the Taliban.
Zindani and his students have been linked to the bombing of USS Cole in Aden in 2000 and the murders of three American missionaries in 2002. The university was briefly closed by authorities after September 11, 2001, in a crackdown on fundamentalist teachings. Before its suspension, it had about 6000 students, 800 of whom were foreigners. Many were expelled after the attacks on the US, but it - and others in Yemen - still attract students. Zindani's Friday sermons are taped and are on sale by the evening of the same day.