# Ali Abdullah Saleh

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Ali Abdullah Saleh," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ali-abdullah-saleh/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*President of Yemen for decades, close to both Saudi Arabia and the United States until Yemen's 1990 Security Council vote on Kuwait, after which his country collapsed into civil war; he fled to Saudi Arabia and was killed by a bomb planted in the palace where he had taken refuge.*

- **Position:** President of [Yemen](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/yemen)
- **Alignments:** Close to Saudi Arabia and to the United States
- **Rupture:** Yemen's vote against the use-of-force resolution on Kuwait
- **Death:** Killed by a bomb planted in the Saudi palace where he had taken refuge

**Ali Abdullah Saleh** led [Yemen](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/yemen) for decades. In [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account he was close to Saudi Arabia and close to the United States alike — until he split with Washington over Yemen's vote on the use-of-force resolution against [Saddam Hussein](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saddam-hussein).[1][2]

A civil war began immediately, and Kiriakou stresses that it was never a simple two-sided fight: Al-Qaeda fought in it from the Hadramaut in the east — the name means dead vegetation, an area so dry that not even animals live there, and therefore a no man's land nobody else could enter, where [Osama bin Laden](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/osama-bin-laden)'s family originated. Former communists attacked the central government in the south, and the Shia Muslims of the north-west attacked it too.[2][3][4]

Saleh fled to Saudi Arabia, which took him in reluctantly. Someone was able to get into the palace where he was living and plant a bomb, which, in Kiriakou's blunt phrasing, "quite literally blew his head off. So, Ali Abdullah Saleh no longer exists."[4][5]

The movement that emerged from the north-western front of that war, the [Houthis](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/houthis), eventually took control of the government he had led.[6]

## See also

- [Yemen](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/yemen)
- [Houthis](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/houthis)
- [Osama bin Laden](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/osama-bin-laden)

## Sources

1. John Kiriakou - Middle East on the Brink of a Major War After Houthi Move (2026-07-27), at 26:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR49AAOlitk&t=1584s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-27-national-security-files-john-kiriakou-middle-east-on-the-brink-of-a-m/
2. John Kiriakou - Middle East on the Brink of a Major War After Houthi Move (2026-07-27), at 26:57. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR49AAOlitk&t=1617s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-27-national-security-files-john-kiriakou-middle-east-on-the-brink-of-a-m/
3. John Kiriakou - Middle East on the Brink of a Major War After Houthi Move (2026-07-27), at 27:28. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR49AAOlitk&t=1648s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-27-national-security-files-john-kiriakou-middle-east-on-the-brink-of-a-m/
4. John Kiriakou - Middle East on the Brink of a Major War After Houthi Move (2026-07-27), at 27:59. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR49AAOlitk&t=1679s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-27-national-security-files-john-kiriakou-middle-east-on-the-brink-of-a-m/
5. John Kiriakou - Middle East on the Brink of a Major War After Houthi Move (2026-07-27), at 28:29. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR49AAOlitk&t=1709s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-27-national-security-files-john-kiriakou-middle-east-on-the-brink-of-a-m/
6. John Kiriakou - Middle East on the Brink of a Major War After Houthi Move (2026-07-27), at 29:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR49AAOlitk&t=1770s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-27-national-security-files-john-kiriakou-middle-east-on-the-brink-of-a-m/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ali-abdullah-saleh/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt