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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Exclusive: CIA Spy Ring Promoted LGBTQ Causes and Israel Normalization in Yemen</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Ahmed Abdulkareem</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">October 14, 2024<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p>While
Yemen usually conjures images of conflicts with Israel and the
Saudi-led coalition, a new dimension to the complex country and its
people has emerged: Yemen’s secret war of spies. MintPress News delves
into the largest CIA spy cell ever uncovered in Yemen, revealing a major
security operation that apprehended its members and exposed American
espionage activities, dramatically altering our understanding of Yemen’s
complex battlefield.</p>
<p>In June, <a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/inside-force-400-spies-and-sabotage-in-israels-covert-war-on-yemen/287613/">MintPress revealed</a>
how the Ansar Allah-led government of Sanaa had dismantled an espionage
cell – Force 400 — allegedly working for the United States and Israel,
detailing the cell’s members and their activities. Washington responded
by calling for the release of individuals it claimed were employees of
the United Nations, diplomatic bodies, and NGOs, labeling them as
hostages held by the Houthis, a pejorative term often used by Western
officials to describe the political and military movement known as Ansar
Allah.</p>
<p>MintPress News correspondent Ahmed AbdulKareem was granted exclusive
access to several detainees captured by Yemeni security services,
allowing him to conduct a series of interviews with the alleged spies.
Additionally, a trove of top-secret documents was provided to MintPress,
corroborating the testimony of many of the detainees given during these
interviews. MintPress also reviewed hours of footage showing
interrogations conducted by Yemeni security personnel, which confirmed
the details of the allegations against the detainees that were provided
to MintPress during interviews with high-level security officials from
Ansar Allah.</p>
<p>While arrests related to the vast espionage cell began in earnest in
2021, officials in both the United States and Yemen remained
tight-lipped about the discovery. However, Ansar Allah officials told
MintPress that Washington was aware of the arrests and initiated a
series of secret negotiations for the detainees’ release shortly
thereafter. Those negotiations ultimately failed, and details began to
leak in the Arab press. This led Yemeni officials to publicly disclose
the discovery of the espionage ring and eventually revived negotiations
between the two parties in Muscat, Oman.</p>
<p>In a groundbreaking investigation, <i>MintPress News</i> uncovers the
inner workings of one of the largest spy networks ever exposed in
Yemen, shedding light on how American and Israeli intelligence agencies
covertly infiltrated Yemeni society. Through clandestine operations,
they manipulated local dynamics, exploiting religious divisions and
sowing seeds of normalization with Israel. The ultimate aim: gathering
intelligence for Saudi airstrikes on military targets.</p>
<p>Exclusive access to top-secret documents, detainee testimonies, and
interrogation footage reveals a harrowing narrative of espionage. Spies
were recruited through psychological manipulation, sexual blackmail, and
torture, highlighting the extent to which U.S. and Israeli operatives
bent moral boundaries to secure cooperation.</p>
<p>This investigation offers a disturbing glimpse into the shadow war
being waged in Yemen—one fueled by exploitation and coercion. It marks
the beginning of an ongoing series that will unveil further layers of
this covert operation in future reports.</p>
<h2>The Double Life of Abdul Azzan</h2>
<p>Abdul Mohsen Hussein Ali Azzan, a high-level spy arrested last June,
worked for both the CIA and the Israeli Mossad for 15 years. Recruited
by U.S. intelligence in 2010, his handler was <a href="https://www.mei.edu/profile/joanne-held-cummings" target="_blank">Joanne Cummings</a>,
the director of the political and economic department at the U.S.
embassy in Sanaa, who managed his activities until 2013. According to
his account, Azzan converted from Islam to Christianity while working
for an American company in Atlanta that engaged in proselytizing under
the guise of selling printer ink.</p>
<p>Azzan did not just infiltrate and recruit Yemeni parliamentarians; he
also gathered critical intelligence on shoulder-fired air defenses,
unmanned aerial vehicles, and ballistic missiles. This high-value
information was shared with American intelligence, as evidenced by
documents reviewed by MintPress and by Azzan himself during an exclusive
jailhouse interview with MintPress correspondent Ahmed AbdulKareem.</p>
<p>“Thanks to the Atlanta company and my new religion, I was able to
form a good relationship with the Americans,” Azzan, a graduate of Sanaa
University, told MintPress.</p>
<blockquote><p>I wrote a letter to the CIA through Murad Dhafer, a
friend who worked for them. I wasn’t accepted immediately, but I was
enrolled in a special intelligence course. Later, I connected with Carlo
Penda, the Canadian director of the Parliament Program at the
[National] Democratic Institute, and eventually became a director.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Ansar Allah accuses the <a href="https://www.ndi.org/middle-east-and-north-africa/yemen" target="_blank">National Democratic Institute</a>
(NDI) in Sanaa of conducting intelligence missions under the guise of
spreading democracy and promoting human rights. They claim that through
this institute, the CIA recruited spies, some of whom were later
arrested, while also collecting information and preparing research and
studies for U.S. intelligence agencies.</p>
<p>“At the end of 2009, I started working at the American Embassy, where
Joanne Cummins, the Director of the Political and Economic Program,
recruited me for the CIA,” Azzan recounted. He underwent a series of
tests, including a lie detector test, and took courses under two
American intelligence officers. Subsequently, he was connected with
Richard Kaufman, the representative of Israeli interests at the embassy.
“In 2014, the embassy sent me to America, where I met a senior American
intelligence official,” he added.</p>
<p>Before the war against Yemen began in March 2015, the U.S. embassy
left Sanaa. However, it managed to attach its operatives to American
companies still operating at the time and international organizations
such as the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Azzan was among
them. He moved to work with Cambridge Analytica’s UK-based parent
company, SCL group, exposed in 2018 by Max Blumenthal to be <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2018/05/23/scl-group-yemen-surveillance-cambridge-analytica/" target="_blank">conducting espionage activities</a>
on behalf of Archimedes,” a U.S.-based military contractor. Azzan
identified the company as a subsidiary of Moby Media Group, owned by
Afghan businessman Saad Mohseni, who has been <a href="https://www.ansarollah.com.ye/archives/687429" target="_blank">linked to the CIA</a>. In 2013, the company opened its headquarters in Sanaa, managed by British national Sarah Cunningham, according to Azzan.</p>
<p>In addition to his intelligence work, Azzan provided services to the
intelligence company where he served as general manager. According to
Azzan, the company operated on two tracks: collecting information,
preparing field surveys and conducting media campaigns to shift public
opinion toward Israel.</p>
<p>“One of our intelligence activities was the Landscape program, where
we studied all local media outlets,” Azzan explained to MintPress.</p>
<p><i>“The goal was not just to run media campaigns for American
companies, but also to identify and recruit media leaders to promote
Israeli normalization under the guise of acceptance and peaceful
coexistence.” </i></p>
<p>In 2014, the embassy sent Azzan to Washington for a two-week training session, where he met a senior CIA official.</p>
<blockquote><p>After 2018, I worked for the U.S. Department of Defense
under the guise of the director of the Labs office in Yemen. My handler
was Fahim Ahmed, the regional director of Labs, and through the company,
I was connected to a Jewish [Israeli] intelligence organization in
America. This organization was interested in studying Yemeni sects,
understanding their references, and exploiting them for normalization
and fueling sectarian differences.”</p></blockquote>
<p>As security suspicions about the company grew, SCL decided to leave
Sanaa. Azzan was then transferred to the Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Sanaa. Leveraging the organization’s
extensive reach in the Yemeni governorates, Azzan was able to provide
his American intelligence contacts with high-value information about
camps, launch sites, and naval forces, which were later targeted by
Saudi airstrikes. He noted that he worked openly and cooperatively with
OHCHR officials to gather this intelligence.</p>
<img src="https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/AP22166569332598_edited.jpg" alt="US Yemen Civilian Deaths" width="491" height="491" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">Yemeni police inspect a site of Saudi-led airstrikes targeting two family homes in Sanaa, Yemen, March, 2022. Hani Mohammed | AP
<p>“Under the supervision of the resident representative, Mohamed
Al-Shami and I were gathering information with a network of analyst
observers in each governorate,” Azzan explained. “My work continued
until my arrest at the end of 2021. When we couldn’t access a target
area, we would ask the resident supervisor to contact local authorities
under the guise of a humanitarian proposal. He would facilitate this,
ensuring we took no actions that would reveal our true intentions,”
Azzan added.</p>
<p>The most significant damage was yet to come. In 2016, Azzan began
working for the Israeli Mossad through Michael Boven, the former
Economic Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa. After the embassy’s
closure, Boven moved to the U.S. embassy in Israel. He had previously
supervised Azzan at the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-new-u-s-proposal-for-a-greater-middle-east-initiative-an-evaluation/" target="_blank">Middle East Initiative</a>
in Sanaa, forging a close relationship based on shared religion,
financial incentives, and what Azzan described as true friendship.</p>
<p>“I would meet Michael in Jordan as the director of Labs (SCL). During
one of these meetings, he introduced me to Saul Gad, an Israeli officer
in the Mossad. I met Gad in the Dead Sea area of Jordan and began
working for him,” Azzan revealed.</p>
<p>Azzan provided Mossad with highly sensitive information, including
details about Sanaa International Airport, transportation movements,
changes in Ansar Allah’s leadership, military activities, and destroyed
weaponry. He also leaked data from the High Commissioner for Human
Rights regarding the locations of government officials and Ansar Allah
leaders.</p>
<blockquote><p>My baptism influenced my willingness to work for Israel
as a Christian at the Atlanta company, which was led by Protestants who
support Israel and believe that Christ’s return depends on Israel’s
dominance in the Middle East. This connection continued with my
association with the <a href="https://www.idea.int/" target="_blank">IDEA organization</a>, which is linked to the ‘Saturdays Church.’”</p></blockquote>
<p>Azzan also contributed significantly to the success of the <a href="https://esango.un.org/civilsociety/showProfileDetail.do?method=showProfileDetails&tab=3&profileCode=613941" target="_blank">Dar Al Salam Organization</a>.
This local group collaborated with Jewish organizations in the U.S. and
Europe, aiming to disarm individuals of personal weapons like
Kalashnikovs and persuade clerics to promote coexistence and
normalization with Israel.</p>
<h2>USAID Consultant Turned CIA Operative</h2>
<p>The Yemeni collaborators, which Ansar Allah officials say numbered
over 20 individuals, were well aware of their roles with American
intelligence, though they told MintPress that the CIA did not offer them
any guarantees post-recruitment. Shaif Hafazallah Al-Hamdani, a senior
consultant for development management programs at the U.S. Agency for
Development, served the CIA for 27 years. He was recruited by <a href="https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/pl/ngo/29573.htm" target="_blank">Adam Earli</a>, then the Cultural Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa.</p>
<p>“I joined the CIA in 1997 through the American Cultural Attaché. They
told me I would be cooperating with American Intelligence, a high
position, and I accepted,” he confessed. MintPress News was able to view
Al-Hamdani’s documents, photographs with intelligence officers, and
embassy evaluation forms.</p>
<p>Al-Hamdani carried out his espionage duties as an employee of the
United States Agency for Development (USAID). He designed intelligence
follow-up and evaluation mechanisms, coordinating USAID’s work with the <a href="https://www.msiworldwide.com/projects/monitoring-evaluation-and-learning-services-in-the-middle-east-and-north-africa/" target="_blank">intelligence contractor, MSI</a>.
One of his primary tasks was to verify the implementation of these
mechanisms to meet the requirements of American intelligence and other
agencies such as <a href="https://www.ibtci.com/projects-app/yemen-ymelp" target="_blank">IBTCI</a> and MSI.</p>
<p>According to a security source, monitoring and evaluation are crucial
methods for gathering military information and pinpointing military and
manufacturing facilities. Al-Hamdani stated that USAID’s cooperation
with MSI aimed to access project areas to locate ballistic missile
launch sites and unmanned aerial vehicles. They also monitored and
determined military installation locations, provided coordinates to the
CIA, and assessed combat situations on the fronts and the position of
goods, food, fuel, and essential services.</p>
<p>The measures taken by Washington and its allies to punish Yemen have
varied. Yet the crown on the jewel has always been to move the Central
Bank from Ansar Allah-controlled Sanaa to Aden, where U.S.-backed groups
maintain control. Al-Hamdani explains:</p>
<blockquote><p>In 2016, Mr. Brad Hance, the U.S. Deputy Ambassador and
intelligence official, assigned me to receive the Central Bank’s code
and transport it to Aden. I delivered it to another American agent
working in the Aden bank.”</p></blockquote>
<img src="https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/AP22241376100946_edited-1.jpg" alt="Yemen spies" width="491" height="491" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">Unidentified
men ride through the streets of Taiz, Yemen, 2018, then the scene of
fierce clashes between Ansar Allah and the Western-backed government of
Aden. Photo | AP
<p>Al-Hamdani emphasizes that the cultural attaché at the American
embassy was a critical hub for American intelligence operations. Spy
recruitment often occurred under the guise of cultural exchanges, skill
enhancement programs, and scholarships like the <a href="https://ye.usembassy.gov/flta-for-2025-2026/" target="_blank">Fulbright program</a>.
This program offers scholarships to outstanding university graduates
for a year and a half of master’s degree preparation in the United
States. During this period, potential spies are assessed, their
abilities studied, and select individuals are recruited.</p>
<p>Potential spies are also identified and selected through <a href="https://educationusa.state.gov/centers/educationusa-amideast-aden" target="_blank">EducationUSA at AMIDEAST</a>, based in Aden, and the <a href="https://ye.usembassy.gov/2025-2026-hubert-h-humphrey-fellowship-program/" target="_blank">Humphrey Fellowship Program</a>, aimed at “outstanding civil employees.” Additionally, the <a href="https://exchanges.state.gov/us/program/us-speaker-program" target="_blank">U.S. Speaker</a>
and International Visitor Programs play a role. Al-Hamdani notes that
American intelligence successfully recruited numerous local spies
through these initiatives.</p>
<p><i>“Agents were also selected through events at the embassy and
educational scholarships for outstanding students to institutes like
YALI, Oxide, and AMIDEAST, which was run by American intelligence
officer Sabrina Weber, targeting influential youth.”</i></p>
<p>One document reviewed by MintPress mentions a man named Chris Eckel,
who allegedly attended a cultural seminar in Sanaa. When Eckel’s name
was mentioned to Al-Hamdani, he identified him as an intelligence
officer who worked with him on missions. Al-Hamdani’s contributions were
highly valued, as evidenced by an American Embassy evaluation documents
viewed by MintPress, which stated:</p>
<p><em>During this period, Shaif did much more than what was asked of
him. The mission’s programs would have taken longer. His historical
knowledge proved valuable.</em></p>
<p>In addition to his tasks transferring the Central Bank code and
recruitment, Al-Hamdani planted eavesdropping devices in the homes of
senior officials, including Washington allies like former South Yemen
Prime Minister Abu Bakr al-Attas. Al-Hamdani told Ansar Allah security
officials that part of his training courses were in cybersecurity.</p>
<h2>Cultural Subversion: Targeting Yemeni Values</h2>
<p>Socially, one of the roles assigned to clients was to promote
homosexuality and make society more accepting, according to Al-Hamdani.
“The embassy was supporting homosexuals through the Cultural Attaché,
promoting it at the American NGO, <a href="http://yali/" target="_blank">YALI</a>,
by distributing brochures to those inclined or desiring to be
homosexual, promoting it as personal freedom. They were also issuing
visas under the pretext of persecution.”</p>
<p>Al-Hamdani isn’t the only one who spoke about the American embassy’s
role in promoting homosexuality in Yemen, a practice that blatantly
violates Yemeni social, tribal, and religious norms. Other spies,
including Muhammad Ali Ahmed Al-Waziza, who worked with the CIA for 14
years, also mentioned this role. Al-Waziza stated,</p>
<blockquote><p>Visas were given to gay people, and homosexuality was
promoted through educational stories taught in the institutes. We had
gay teachers at the institute, and the language was taught through gay
and lesbian films.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Al-Waziza worked as an administrative assistant at YALI. He joined
the U.S. Embassy in 2007 as a translator and then worked as an
investigator. After the embassy closed, he continued his espionage work
as an employee at <a href="https://www.resonateyemen.org/" target="_blank">Resonate Yemen</a>,
which is affiliated with Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, who currently serves
as Prime Minister in Yemen’s Aden-based Riyadh-backed government. The
local organization was founded and regulated by USAID.</p>
<p>His mission was to maintain continuous communication with recruits
contracted by the American Embassy from government agencies, especially
the Passport Service, the Ministry of Interior, and other service
ministries. Al-Waziza successfully stole the Yemeni Immigration and
Passports Authority database from its servers and handed it over to
American intelligence.</p>
<p>A document reviewed by MintPress includes a letter signed by former <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/harry-sweeney-94a936bb" target="_blank">NSA staffer Harry T. Sweeney</a>,
who was working as a specialist in polygraph testing. The letter,
lauding Al-Waziza’s efforts, reads, “I particularly appreciate your
contributions to Yemeni culture and your suggestions on how to approach
specific people based on your extensive experience in the consular
section.”</p>
<p>When Asnar Allah security officials asked the spies about him, they
all agreed that the reserved and secretive Al-Waziza was the closest to
the CIA. He was the only one allowed to access the top floor of the
embassy building, which was designated for the CIA. The first floor was
for employees, especially analysts, while the second floor was reserved
for the ambassador.</p>
<p>Al-Waziza, according to information obtained from interrogations by
Ansar Allah, was heavily relied upon for conducting investigations and
gathering intelligence. He underwent various training courses, including
one on people management skills in Florida. Al-Waziza conducted
investigations within the embassy for American intelligence and was
involved in recruitment, often using methods such as sexual blackmail,
according to another spy, Bassam Ahmed Al-Mardahi. Al-Mardahi described
how he was coerced into working for the CIA after being filmed during a
sexual encounter in Germany and subsequently blackmailed.</p>
<blockquote><p>I was recruited by being sexually assaulted during a
course held by the American embassy in Germany. There, I was secretly
filmed having sex in a hotel in Frankfurt. After my return to Sanaa, the
clips were sent to me, and I was threatened with working with
intelligence or having them published online.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Al-Mardahi recruited local members from various Yemeni institutions
for American intelligence and conducted a study on the number of weapons
held by the population in Sanaa, earning between $300 and $500 a month
for his services.</p>
<p>The arrest of dozens of spies might offer hope for the release of
thousands of prisoners and detainees held by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and
their allies in southern Yemen. The United States is <a href="https://english.news.cn/20240629/11489d8b3a0e4ec0999f3de30d7f2495/c.html" target="_blank">reportedly pushing</a>
for negotiations regarding prisoner exchanges between its allies and
the Ansar Allah delegation in Muscat, Oman. According to a source in
Ansar Allah, there is a possibility of a proposal to release the spies
in exchange for Israel stopping its aggression against Gaza.</p>
<p>Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News</p>
<p><em><strong> Ahmed AbdulKareem</strong> is a Yemeni journalist based in Sana’a. He covers the war in Yemen for MintPress News as well as local Yemeni media.</em></p>
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