From Handing Over Military Secrets to Political Promotion: The U.S. Role in Recycling the Traitor Ahmed Ali Saleh

The American relationship with Yemen has never been coincidental or fleeting. Since the early 2000s, the country became a testing ground for undeclared warfare technologies under the banner of “counterterrorism.” The Yemeni state turned into a fragile structure where domestic power struggles intersected with an externally engineered security architecture. Within this context emerged the role of the traitor Ahmed Ali Saleh: a man who rose through the military ranks via the Republican Guard—yet not as a national leader building a modern republican army, but as a trusted intermediary for Washington. The U.S. invested in him, reshaped his units to serve its ends, and over time, the “cooperation” extended beyond technical support into operational and intelligence arrangements, political shielding when necessary, and finally, media and political recycling when many believed his chapter was closed. This report presents the outlines of that file, supported by available evidence and documents.

A Complex Military Scene: Ahmed Ali as a U.S. Proxy

Since the early 2000s, the Yemeni army ceased to be a purely national institution and became a laboratory for foreign experimentation, capitalizing on the state’s fragility. Ahmed Ali Saleh stood out as a direct conduit for the American agenda. His role extended far beyond leadership: he facilitated access to sensitive information and allowed foreign oversight of the Yemeni army—clear acts of betrayal that laid the groundwork for visual evidence to follow.

Visible Treason: Ahmed Saleh Handing Over Army Secrets

One of the strongest pieces of visual evidence comes from a documented video showing Ahmed Ali Saleh’s direct involvement with the U.S. agenda in Yemen. The footage shows him receiving a U.S. military delegation inside one of the country’s most critical army camps, in a strictly secret visit away from official or media coverage.

This was not a routine reception. The scene revealed that Ahmed Ali Saleh not only opened the gates of the camp but also facilitated American access to Yemen’s most sensitive military data: the scale of armament, weapon types, training methods, and even direct U.S. supervision of Yemeni army training.

Even more dangerously, the footage shows him personally explaining weapon specifications and usage to the U.S. delegation. This amounted to operational and armament-level disclosures that should have been safeguarded by state secrecy. Effectively, he acted as a “military instructor” for the U.S. inside a Yemeni camp—an act tantamount to high treason and surrendering the nation’s military capabilities to the enemy.

When cross-referenced with WikiLeaks cables and U.S. reports on Republican Guard training and armament, the conclusion is stark: Ahmed Ali Saleh was not a national commander but a direct implementer of the American project in Yemen. This evidence is pivotal in assessing his political and military trajectory, especially amid current U.S. attempts to recycle him through media campaigns and the lifting of international sanctions.

An American Tool: Control and Exploitation of the Army

By 2009, Washington had begun redrawing Yemen’s military power map—with Ahmed Ali Saleh at its center. He became the channel through which the U.S. influenced and directed military units to serve its own interests.

Leaked diplomatic cables confirm that senior U.S. officials discussed with Yemeni leadership arrangements for arming and training units under Ahmed Ali’s supervision. His military decisions and plans were thus partially subject to U.S. directives. In practice, he turned the Yemeni army into an instrument of American agendas, cloaked under the façade of “sovereign” decisions.

Reports by Human Rights Watch, the Carnegie Endowment, and Small Wars Journal also note that the army under his command was not only militarized for external agendas but was also deployed to suppress domestic protests and uphold a patronage network that ensured his survival—shielded politically and internationally by U.S. protection.

In sum, Ahmed Ali was less a national commander and more a key element of a U.S. project: channeling Yemeni military power toward foreign goals while securing personal and external dominance at the expense of state sovereignty.

Removal and Sanctions: A Temporary Discarded Card

In 2011, following the popular revolution that toppled his father, Washington supervised the restructuring of the Yemeni army via its embassy. It deemed Ahmed Ali a liability and moved to sideline him. The U.S. imposed financial and diplomatic sanctions—asset freezes and travel bans—on both him and his father, signaling that he was no longer a trusted partner.

But this was not a patriotic reckoning; it was a U.S. strategy to rebalance the military in its favor. While Ahmed Ali was removed, the army’s operational and strategic decisions remained coordinated with the U.S. Embassy. Ahmed Ali, meanwhile, was kept under watch, ready for political “recycling” whenever U.S. interests required.

Recycling Ahmed Ali: The Illusion of Control

Today, the U.S. is attempting to revive Ahmed Ali Saleh politically and militarily, presenting him as a leader capable of stabilizing Yemen. Media campaigns portray him as a national figure, while his long record of betrayal is glossed over.

International sanctions against him are being lifted step by step in a calculated plan to reintroduce him into the political arena. Both Arab and American media collaborate in creating a misleading image—an illusion of independence that conceals his true role as a U.S. proxy.

The People’s Awareness: A Strategic Obstacle

These recycling attempts crash headlong into the awareness of the Yemeni people, who carry the lived memory of resisting foreign interference. Public consciousness of Ahmed Ali’s history of betrayal renders any U.S. strategy to reimpose him inherently fragile.

The Yemeni military and institutions that Washington once sought to control through him have since grown more independent. Any effort to restore him to power faces a deeply rooted popular rejection that undermines U.S. political calculus.

Conclusion

Yemen’s political and military history demonstrates a consistent truth: external tools, no matter how essential they may seem, are powerless against the will of the Yemeni people. The recycling of traitors will fail. Ahmed Ali Saleh remains a lost card for Washington—no amount of polishing or media engineering can change that. Sovereignty in Yemen will prevail over all foreign agendas.