Quick notes from an undisclosed location

Even though I’m technically on vacation and studiously avoiding anything that resembles work (I don’t think Richard Yates counts), I couldn’t resist a quick peak at the latest issue of Sada al-Malahim (issue 9), which was posted on Friday.

In addition to yet another instance of the hall of mirrors (although Munir comes off much worse than I do – seriously AQAP can’t you settle on one transliteration of my name?) I was most taken with the small notice indicating that Said al-Shihri’s wife and children had joined him in Yemen. This if far from insignificant, particularly when combined with the statement I received on Saturday purportedly put out by AQAP on al-‘Awfi.

If the statement on al-‘Awfi is legitimate (and I’m checking that or rather I will be checking it once I get back home) this would shed a lot of light on not only what happened with al-‘Awfi but also some of the counter-terror measures the Saudis are engaged in.

Well, I’ve already spent more than my allotted time on Yemen issues today (and I haven’t even touched on the latest violence in the south or Ali Nasir’s denials of reported positions, so ….)