He had,in fact,planned to organize an army of slaves to fight for their freedom.
VOA: special.2009.07.02
The march broke the typical cliches of Yemen as a country of bombs and terrorists and, if covered, could have shown the whole world that Yemen is anarmy of liberation -- demonstrating hope for all those who seek freedom but lack the means to achieve it.
The full-dress welcome organised by the armyfor a man who owed his freedom not to a finding of innocence but to an act of mercy (a quality rare in his own regime) was defiant.