Life on the List | Caitlin L. Chandler

Life on the List recounts how Naif al-Qaysi, then governor of Yemen’s Al-Bayda province, was designated by the U.S. as a terrorist financier connected to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. In May 2016, while traveling from Riyadh, colleagues learned from a phone notification that the U.S. Treasury under President Barack Obama had placed him on a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” list, triggering an asset freeze and travel ban. Naif rejected the charge as a mistake, despite a prior attempted assassination by AQAP. After the listing, community leaders from Al-Bayda, Marib, and Al-Jawf held a press conference contesting the accusations and urging the U.S. to back freedom and democracy. Naif said he offered to resign to Yemen’s then president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, who expressed support.