Justice may be knocking for FIFA’s Sepp Blatter

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NEED TO KNOW:

If you can believe it, there was a time when getting kidnapped in Yemen wasn't so bad. If you were the sort of traveler unburdened by return flights and things like jobs, being kidnapped by a Yemeni tribe was an experience some actually wished on themselves.

Before the millennium turned, to be kidnapped in Yemen meant little more than compulsory hospitality and infinite cups of tea. GlobalPost Senior Correspondent Laura Dean reports that Yemeni tribes would frequently kidnap Westerners in the '80s and '90s to extract reasonable concessions from the captors' government — things like a new school or hospital in their area. Usually the captives were treated well.

Things have changed. Yemeni kidnappers now take captives in the hopes of getting very rich. Many captives are sold on to Al Qaeda or others who hold them indefinitely and in sometimes terrible conditions while they wait for foreign governments or families to put together enough money to pay a large ransom.

While the violent spectacle of beheadings and firing squads used by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has yet to make its way to Yemen, the chaos of a war between Shia Houthi forces and a Saudi-backed coalition of Arab states (who have American support), has made the country ever more dangerous for everyone, including Westerners.

Isabelle Prime, a French consultant in Yemen, was kidnapped in February. She appeared in a kidnapping video that was authenticated by the French government on Monday. In it, she says she has tried to kill herself several times. The identity of her kidnappers is unknown. Casey Coombs, an American journalist, was just released by the Houthi rebels after being taken on May 17.

“This conflict is having a severe impact on the social fabric in Yemen and social norms in Yemen [in the past] worked to protect foreigners,” a security analyst told Dean. “There is going to be an erosion of those social norms and fragmentation among existing groups, and more criminal groups emerging.”

WANT TO KNOW:

FIFA President Sepp Blatter has resigned. If Blatter ran FIFA like his own little dictatorial fiefdom, a dramatic foreign-led intervention has just hastened his downfall. But will there be a trial? Will the former ruler be tried for leading what many say was a dangerously corrupt regime?

It kind of feels like justice may be knocking. It would explain Blatter's abrupt turnaround. Just a few days ago he was celebrating an election victory that gave him a glorious fifth term, extending his 17-year reign. He was classically defiant as any long-time world leader might be in the face of accusations of abuse from foreign governments. He even insinuated that the United States, which led the investigation, was getting back at FIFA for not awarding it the World Cup.

What a difference a weekend makes. By Monday he was quiet. By Tuesday he was gone. It's hard not to imagine that the now former head of world soccer's governing body is getting a little nervous that his own freedom is under threat. Last week, FIFA executives and other FIFA partners were falling all around him, arrested and charged with serious crimes. Did one of them flip? And today, Interpol got in the game, issuing wanted person alerts for two former senior FIFA officials and four corporate executives.

Even FIFA's loyal sponsors, which are essentially its closest friends, are jumping ship. In reaction to Blatter's resignation, brands like Adidas and Coca-Cola are saying things like, “We welcome FIFA's commitment to change,” and “The announcement today is a positive step.” Ouch.

STRANGE BUT TRUE:

Here is a possible Trivial Pursuit question of the future: What three related American presidents oversaw three separate wars in the same country? Answer: George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and, the otherly named, Jeb Bush.

Bush-the-most-recent hasn't actually announced he will run for president. But he is criss-crossing the country and raising cash about as frenetically as Clinton-the-most-recent. So it's a safe bet. If he does run, Jeb Bush would be an easy frontrunner. And he has some interesting ideas — like his likely Republican opponents — about how to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

But even before he can begin to think about the next war in Iraq, Jeb Bush is going to have to answer a lot of questions about the last war, the one his brother brought to the world. There is a fair argument that the brother's war enabled the conditions that gave rise to the Islamic State.