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.
In June, MintPress revealed 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.
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.
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.
In a groundbreaking investigation, MintPress News 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.
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.
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.
The Double Life of Abdul Azzan
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 Joanne Cummings, 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.
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.
“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.
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.”
Ansar Allah accuses the National Democratic Institute (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.
“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.
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 conducting espionage activities 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 linked to the CIA. In 2013, the company opened its headquarters in Sanaa, managed by British national Sarah Cunningham, according to Azzan.
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.
“One of our intelligence activities was the Landscape program, where we studied all local media outlets,” Azzan explained to MintPress.
“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.”
In 2014, the embassy sent Azzan to Washington for a two-week training session, where he met a senior CIA official.
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.”
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.
“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.
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 Middle East Initiative in Sanaa, forging a close relationship based on shared religion, financial incentives, and what Azzan described as true friendship.
“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.
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.
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 IDEA organization, which is linked to the ‘Saturdays Church.’”
Azzan also contributed significantly to the success of the Dar Al Salam Organization. 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.
USAID Consultant Turned CIA Operative
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 Adam Earli, then the Cultural Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa.
“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.
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 intelligence contractor, MSI. 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 IBTCI and MSI.
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.
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:
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.”
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 Fulbright program. 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.
Potential spies are also identified and selected through EducationUSA at AMIDEAST, based in Aden, and the Humphrey Fellowship Program, aimed at “outstanding civil employees.” Additionally, the U.S. Speaker and International Visitor Programs play a role. Al-Hamdani notes that American intelligence successfully recruited numerous local spies through these initiatives.
“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.”
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:
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.
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.
Cultural Subversion: Targeting Yemeni Values
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, YALI, 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.”
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,
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.”
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 Resonate Yemen, 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.
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.
A document reviewed by MintPress includes a letter signed by former NSA staffer Harry T. Sweeney, 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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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 reportedly pushing 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.
Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News
Ahmed AbdulKareem is a Yemeni journalist based in Sana’a. He covers the war in Yemen for MintPress News as well as local Yemeni media.
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