Did Yemen’s intelligence service collude with Al Qaeda?

Al Qaeda terrorists have never had good press. For sound reasons they are always represented as evil, nihilistic, faceless murderers. There are certain interesting signs this is starting to change. This is happening in part because the emergence of Isis has shown that there is something worse than Al Qaeda. It is in part because the West has joined forces with Al Qaeda in some of its wars. The Al Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra, for instance, seems to have become a western ally in the war against Assad. Tonight Al Jazeera presents an intriguing portrait of an Al Qaeda terrorist.

The documentary Al Qaeda Informant tells the story of the life of Hani Mujahid, a Yemeni citizen who joined Al Qaeda as a foot soldier in the late 1990s. Driven partly by idealistic reasons (he says that he agreed with Osama Bin Laden’s message of global jihad, as well as his support for Palestine), Mujahid travelled to Afghanistan to fight for Osama Bin Laden.