Article in the Wall St Journal 14 Aug 2006: Yemeni judge (Mohammed al-Baadani), jurist "with family in the US and a history of handing out prison sentences to al-Queda fighters plotting attacks in Yemen", had a case of 19 defendants who had travelled to Iraq to kill US soldiers and fight alongside al-Queda.

They openly praised Osama and had been caught with guns and fake Iraqi passports, also bore wounds from fighting US and Iraqi troops.

Mr. al-Baadani acquitted them all.

Reason: "Islamic Sharia law permits jihad against occupiers" of Moslem lands.

It is against Yemeni and Sharia law to attack US or other Western targets outside occupied lands (e.g the recent foiled airline attacks)

Similarly, it's against Sharia and Yemeni law to attack in Yemen (as for instance the 2000 attack on the US Cole.---Yemen is not occupied by non-Islamic forces.

But in the case of Yemenis fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq the governing principle is jihad: either a Moslem's personal struggle against evil, or more typically, the "Islamic obligation to fight nonbelievers encroaching on Moslem lands."