The unique brutality of Yemen's Houthi intelligence services - exclusive

The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) on Thursday is due to publish a report delving into the unique brutality of the Yemen Houthi intelligence services with the Jerusalem Post exclusively obtaining a copy of the report prior to its publication.

The report names some of the top Yemen Houthis intelligence officials which could also lead to new sanctions against some of those individuals.

Also, the report uncovers how the Yemen Houthis have “laundered” some of their officials into their Foreign Ministry in order to continue to sabotage and siphon off humanitarian aid after global powers started to notice the intelligence ministry was undertaking such illegal activities.

It is authored by Ari Heistein, an independent security consultant with a foreword by Edmund Fitton-Brown, Senior Advisor, Counter Extremism Project and UK Ambassador to Yemen (2015-17).

The Houthi regime occupies Sanaa, a large part of Yemen, including most of the Red Sea coast, which also covers around two-thirds of the country’s population, though the globally recognized Yemen government still controls more of Yemen’s territory.

Fitton-Brown said that he “had prolonged, intensive exposure to the Houthis in the context of successive rounds of Yemeni peace talks during that period,” saying that he “became familiar with the virulent and somewhat bizarre nature of the group.”

He noted that, “they chew the qat plant, which adds a narcotic high to their violent and extreme ideology and character.”

Fitton-Brown said the new report is groundbreaking because “it shines a light into the darkest corner of the Houthi apparatus of oppression – their Security and Intelligence Service (SIS), which secretly and semi-secretly manages some of the Houthis’ most sensitive and egregious activities.”

“It is involved in radicalization of minors, in a country where the use of child soldiers is commonplace. It smuggles arms, recruits spies and assassins, and conducts liaison with terrorist groups,” wrote Fitton-Brown.

Moreover, he wrote, “It is directly involved in appalling human rights abuses, including against aid delivery personnel in Yemen – and it has played a leading role in the Houthi diversion of humanitarian assistance that CEP h has highlighted.”

“It is of particular value that Ari has named names in this report. Most SIS officials, below the highest level, would probably prefer not to have their names in lights. They will worry about coming to the attention of foreign authorities when they travel. And it is likely that Ari’s information will be used by international sanctions authorities, who may decide to sanction more Houthis in view of the group’s many abuses. Prominent members of SIS, both at the national and provincial level, are strong candidates for targeting,” said Fitton-Brown.

Moreover, he stated, “The value of Ari’s research is difficult to overstate, at a time when the world has been taken by surprise by the Houthi assault on freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, damaging global trade, impacting world prices and decimating the Suez Canal revenues that are crucial to the Egyptian economy.”

“They have also made themselves a cause célèbre amongst the type of Westerners who habitually side with Middle Eastern extremists against their own governments and against Israel,” he said.

Houthi aid diversion

As noted in a previous CEP report on Houthi aid diversion, the report said that, “SIS served as the enforcement arm for the Supreme Council for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and International Cooperation (SCMCHA).”

“Until recently, SCMCHA was tasked with interfacing with humanitarian organizations and overseeing their work in Yemen. However, the body was disbanded on 9 October 2024 and its responsibilities were transferred to the Houthis’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MLSA),” said the report.

Next, the report stated that, “The disintegration of SCMCHA may have resulted from growing international pressure on humanitarian aid organizations to cease cooperation with the Houthi agency known for disruption and diversion of aid.”

Further, the report noted, “the problem of Houthi aid diversion in Yemen was ongoing for nearly a decade prior to SCMCHA’s termination, the recent Houthi military campaign against Israel and the group’s sustained attacks on international shipping drew additional attention to that problem.”

One name that the report highlights is that of Abdulhakim al-Khaywani, a longtime Houthi loyalist who assumed his role as chief of SIS in 2019 after serving as deputy interior minister. I said that, “Al-Khaywani took on the leadership of SIS with great zeal, as even during his tenure as deputy at MOI he sought to aggressively curtail citizens’ rights.”

Next, the report said that al-Khaywani’s deputy is Abdulqader al-Shami, one of the few senior officials who successfully pivoted from the Saleh regime to the Houthis and continued to serve in senior posts following the collapse of the Saleh-Houthi alliance in 2017. The report noted that there are sources which say he has connections with al-Qaeda and that he is one of the focal points of a Houthi-al-Qaeda link, which the UN has described in its official reports.

Undersecretary of SIS Major General Mohammed al-Washli reportedly oversaw the forced disappearance of two elderly educators, Sabri al-Hakimi and Mujib al-Mikhlafi, who were detained by SIS in October 2023. According to the report, the two were later found with signs of torture on their bodies. Also, the report said that al-Hakimi died in custody and that his body was released under condition that it be buried quickly with no forensic review.

Fitton-Brown told the Jerusalem Post that to end the Yemen Houthi threat to world trade, the limited attacks from the US and Israel to date probably would be insufficient.

Rather, he said the closest any party came to containing the Houthis were the Saudis in the late 2010s, but that the West had blocked them from finishing the job due to concerns that Saudi attacks would prevent humanitarian aid and collateral civilian harm from indiscriminate Saudi air strikes.

He said that if the world wants to stop this issue it might need, “to get the Saudis to finish the job with the Houthis.”

The former UK ambassador said that this would require the West switching to being in favor of Saudi intervention despite its previous record blocking Saudi intervention.

Further, he said that Saudi intervention might get pushed forward “if the Iranians are foolish enough to escalate” and if Iran attacked the Saudis or if there were other destabilizing moves between Israel and Iran, forcing Riyadh to take a clearer and more interventionist stance.