In Season 2, Episode 1 of the Guns for Hire podcast, host Alia Brahimi is joined by the award-winning BBC investigative journalist Nawal Al-Maghafi to talk about her film exposing American mercenaries in Yemen. One of the few journalists to report from Yemen first-hand, Nawal discusses the Delaware-registered private military company (PMC) contracted by the UAE to kill “terrorists”, her meetings with two of the Americans involved, and the PMC’s training of Yemeni units – including former al-Qaeda operatives – to conduct targeted assassinations. She also describes how so many of those killed have been activists, teachers, and culture figures, and the terror that his now gripped the population of southern Yemen.
“He knows these guys aren’t terrorists. This was a business deal. He knew what he was doing but he will never say it”.
Nawal Al-Maghafi, award-winning BBC investigative journalist
Find the Guns For Hire podcast on the app of your choice
About the podcast
The Guns for Hire podcast is a production of the Atlantic Council’s North Africa Initiative. Taking Libya as its starting point, it explores the causes and implications of the growing use of mercenaries in armed conflict.
The podcast features guests from many walks of life, from ethicists and historians to former mercenary fighters. It seeks to understand what the normalization of contract warfare tells us about the world as we currently find it, but also about the future of the international system and about what war could look like in the coming decades.
Through our Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East and Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, the Atlantic Council works with allies and partners in Europe and the wider Middle East to protect US interests, build peace and security, and unlock the human potential of the region.
Image: A member of Yemen’s U.S.-trained counter-terrorism force attends a field training near Sanaa November 9, 2010. Yemen needs more help from its allies to combat al Qaeda, its foreign minister said on Monday, just two days after the militant group said it had been responsible for sending U.S.-bound parcel bombs on two aircraft. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah (YEMEN – Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST MILITARY)
American Hit Squad in Yemen
In Season 2, Episode 1 of the Guns for Hire podcast, host Alia Brahimi is joined by the award-winning BBC investigative journalist Nawal Al-Maghafi to talk about her film exposing American mercenaries in Yemen. One of the few journalists to report from Yemen first-hand, Nawal discusses the Delaware-registered private military company (PMC) contracted by the UAE to kill “terrorists”, her meetings with two of the Americans involved, and the PMC’s training of Yemeni units – including former al-Qaeda operatives – to conduct targeted assassinations. She also describes how so many of those killed have been activists, teachers, and culture figures, and the terror that his now gripped the population of southern Yemen.
Find the Guns For Hire podcast on the app of your choice
About the podcast
The Guns for Hire podcast is a production of the Atlantic Council’s North Africa Initiative. Taking Libya as its starting point, it explores the causes and implications of the growing use of mercenaries in armed conflict.
The podcast features guests from many walks of life, from ethicists and historians to former mercenary fighters. It seeks to understand what the normalization of contract warfare tells us about the world as we currently find it, but also about the future of the international system and about what war could look like in the coming decades.
Further reading
MENASource Jun 28, 2023
The Wagner rebellion is over—for now. But how will the events reverberate in the Middle East and North Africa?
By Mark N. Katz
The June 23-24 rebellion led by Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin—aimed, he claimed, at replacing the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov (not Russian President Vladimir Putin)—has ended. However, reverberations from it are likely to continue being felt beyond Russia, such as in the Middle East and North […]
MENASource Jun 1, 2023
Is Egypt planning a full-scale invasion of Sudan?
By Shahira Amin
With the evacuation of foreigners from Sudan nearly complete, expectations are that an Egyptian military invasion of Sudan is imminent.
MENASource May 11, 2023
Experts react: Sudan at the crossroads—where the conflict goes from here
By Benjamin Mossberg, Alia Brahimi, Thomas S. Warrick, Shahira Amin, R. Clarke Cooper
Atlantic Council experts react to the conflict in Sudan and discuss how it will impact the region and beyond.
Middle East Programs
Through our Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East and Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, the Atlantic Council works with allies and partners in Europe and the wider Middle East to protect US interests, build peace and security, and unlock the human potential of the region.
Image: A member of Yemen’s U.S.-trained counter-terrorism force attends a field training near Sanaa November 9, 2010. Yemen needs more help from its allies to combat al Qaeda, its foreign minister said on Monday, just two days after the militant group said it had been responsible for sending U.S.-bound parcel bombs on two aircraft. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah (YEMEN – Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST MILITARY)
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