It was impossible to independently confirm the meetings took place or who might have participated. Yesterday, the London-based newspaper Al Hayat published a statement by Egyptian militant leader Rifai Ahmed Taha citing the Cole explosion and calling for more attacks on U.S. interests. Taha now is believed to be in hiding in Afghanistan with bin Laden. Bin Laden recruited Yemenis and other Arabs to fight Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s. After the 1989 Soviet withdrawal, many battle-hardened Yemenis returned home.
Yemeni officials say they are questioning Afghan veterans.
Retired U.S. Gen. Anthony Zinni, the military commander in the region when the Pentagon contracted for refueling services at Aden in 1998, told a Senate committee hearing yesterday that he knew terrorists used Yemen as a transit route into Saudi Arabia but that there were no better alternatives. Navy ships had to refuel in the area while moving to and from the Persian Gulf, he said. The Aden neighborhood that is home to the apartment at the center of the investigation is known as Buraika and overlooks a beautiful bay. Senior Yemeni government officials and military officers live there. One neighbor pointed out the apartment, on the first floor of a small white house with an unfinished second story.