US, UK close Yemen embassies over al-Qaida threats - DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate

**Kafuuil** · 03-01-2010, 11:28 PM

Well here we go. A new front! Not really, it's been there all along.

US, UK close Yemen embassies over al-Qaida threats

SAN'A, Yemen – Western embassies in Yemen locked up Sunday after fresh threats from al-Qaida, and the White House expressed alarm at the terror group's expanded reach in the poor Arab nation where an offshoot apparently ordered the Christmas Day plot against a U.S. airliner.

President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, cited "indications al-Qaida is planning to carry out an attack against a target" in the capital, possibly the embassy, and estimated the group had several hundred members in Yemen. Security reasons led Britain to act, too; it was not known when the embassies would reopen.

The U.S. is worried about the spread of terrorism in Yemen, a U.S. ally and aid recipient, Brennan said, but doesn't consider the country a second front with Afghanistan and Pakistan in the fight against terrorism.

As to whether U.S. troops might be sent to Yemen, Brennan replied: "We're not talking about that at this point at all." He pledged to provide the Yemeni government with "the wherewithal" to take down al-Qaida.

Britain and the United States are assisting a counterterrorism police unit in Yemen as fears grow about the increasing threat of international terrorism originating from the country.

The Obama administration claims that the suspect in the plot against the Detroit-bound plane was trained and armed by the al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen. Brennan blamed a series of what he called lapses and human errors in U.S. intelligence and security defenses for allowing a Nigerian man to board the plane with explosives. He tried to detonate them as the aircraft approached Detroit on Dec. 25.

The Transportation Security Administration announced Sunday that, starting Monday, passengers flying into the United States from Nigeria, Yemen and other "countries of interest" will be subject to enhanced screening techniques, such as body scans and pat-downs.

Yemen is a poor, decentralized and predominantly Muslim country on the Arabian Peninsula. It is the ancestral homeland of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, and the site of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 U.S. sailors. A 2008 attack on the U.S. Embassy killed one American.

Given the active threat from al-Qaida, "we're not going to take any chances," Brennan said from Washington during appearances on four Sunday talk shows.

Sen. Joe Lieberman identified three instances in which terrorists or sympathizers penetrated or evaded U.S defenses last year — shootings at a military recruiting station and an Army base and the airline attack — and said all three were linked to Yemen.

"We've got to focus there pre-emptively, and I'm confident we will," said Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut.

The Yemeni government, which issued no official comment on the embassy closures, is friendly to the West but the population is often mistrustful of Western motives and influence. Yemen has pledged to clamp down on militancy, but government control is weak outside the capital and the country has a history of freeing some alleged militants and tolerating others.

The Obama administration is growing more vocal about both the threat and the San'a government's limitations. Brennan said Westerners are at risk in Yemen until the government gets a better handle on extremism.

The U.S. will look case by case at whether to repatriate the remaining approximately 90 Yemeni detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, Brennan said.

Seven of 42 Guantanamo detainees freed by the Obama administration were returned to Yemen, Brennan said, but doubts about the country's ability to police further freed detainees is a major obstacle to Obama's plan to shut down the facility. Brennan reaffirmed the U.S. administration's support for the closure, but said that with regard to the Yemeni detainees, nothing would be done to put U.S. citizens at risk.

U.S. officials say terrorists are seeking new places to operate, including Yemen, Somalia and Southeast Asia, in part because of pressure on their previous sanctuaries in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Some U.S. officials have said privately that Yemen's location at the heart of the Arab world, its history of tribal control, poverty, corruption and an ongoing civil war could make it the crucible of a future war. Brennan said the Obama administration is trying to head off the threat now.

Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. general who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, made a surprise visit to Yemen over the weekend. Following meetings with President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Petraeus announced that Washington this year will more than double the $67 million in counterterrorism aid that it provided Yemen in 2009.

The U.S. and Britain are funding a counterterrorism police unit in Yemen, and Britain plans to host an international conference Jan. 28 to come up with a strategy to counter radicalization in Yemen.

The United States has increased military cooperation with Yemen, with intelligence and other help to back two Yemeni air and ground assaults on al-Qaida hide-outs last month that were reported to have killed more than 60 people. Yemeni authorities said more than 30 suspected militants were among the dead.

The U.S. has stepped up intelligence, surveillance and training aid to Yemeni forces during the past year, and provided some firepower, a senior U.S. defense official has said. Some of that assistance may be through the expanded use of unmanned drones, and the U.S. is providing funding to Yemen for helicopters and other equipment. Officials, however, say there are no U.S. ground forces or fighter aircraft in Yemen.

On Thursday, the U.S. Embassy sent a notice to Americans in Yemen urging them to be vigilant about security.

Yemeni security officials said over the weekend that the country had deployed several hundred extra troops to Marib and Jouf, two mountainous eastern provinces that are al-Qaida's main strongholds in the country and where airliner suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab may have visited last year.

U.S. intelligence agencies did not miss a telltale sign that that could have prevented the 23-year-old Nigerian man's alleged attempt to blow up the airliner, Brennan said.

"There is no smoking gun," Brennan said. "There was no single piece of intelligence that said, 'this guy is going to get on a plane.'"

Brennan is leading a White House review of the incident. Obama ordered a thorough look at the shortcomings that permitted the plot, which failed not because of U.S. actions but because the would-be attacker was unable to ignite an explosive device. The president has summoned homeland security officials to meet with him in the White House Situation Room on Tuesday.

Brennan cited "a number of streams of information" — the suspect's name was known to intelligence officials, his father had passed along his concern about the son's increasing radicalization — and "little snippets" from intelligence channels. "But there was nothing that brought it all together."

"In this one instance, the system didn't work. There were some human errors. There were some lapses. We need to strengthen it."

Brennan didn't say whether anyone is in line to be fired because of the oversights. He stood by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, although he acknowledged she has "taken some hits" for saying that the airline security system had worked. It didn't, and she clarified her remarks to show she meant that the system worked only after the attack was foiled, Brennan said. US, UK close Yemen embassies over al-Qaida threats - Yahoo! News

**ExpodoDop** · 03-01-2010, 11:36 PM

Maybe Obama should have picked up a paper before now!

Terrorism Havens: Yemen
Updated: December 2005

Is Yemen a haven for terrorism?
Yes. Yemen, located at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is a poor Muslim country with a weak central government, armed tribal groups in outlying areas, and porous borders, which makes it fertile ground for terrorists. Its government has tried to help the United States after September 11, and the State Department calls Yemen “an important partner in the campaign against terrorism, providing assistance in the military, diplomatic, and financial arenas.” But experts say that terrorists live in Yemen, sometimes with government approval; Yemen-based corporations are thought to help fund Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network; and Yemenis affiliated with al-Qaeda have targeted U.S. interests in Yemen, including the October 2000 bombing of the navy destroyer U.S.S. Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden .

Which sorts of terrorists operate in Yemen?
According to the State Department, al-Qaeda’s operational structure inYemen has been “weakened and dispersed” since September 11. But Islamists affiliated with al-Qaeda still maintain a presence. Bin Laden’s group is thought to be behind the attack on the Cole, in which seventeen U.S. sailors died and thirty-nine were injured. Seventeen suspects—some thought to have connections to al-Qaeda—were arrested for the attack, ten of which escaped in 2003. Although al-Qaeda has not formally claimed responsibility for the attack, bin Laden praised those who “destroyed a destroyer that fearsome people fear” on a 2001 videotape.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are recognized legal organizations in Yemen and Hamas maintains offices in the country. Neither group has engaged in any known terrorist activities in Yemen , but conduct fundraising efforts through mosques and other charitable organizations.

Since the bombing of the Cole, has al-Qaeda planned other attacks against targets in Yemen?
Yes. In June 2001, local authorities in Yemen arrested eight Yemeni veterans of the 1979-89 Afghan war against the Soviets in connection with a plot to blow up the U.S. embassy in Sanaa, Yemen ’s capital. In July 2002, an accidental explosion that killed two al-Qaeda operatives led to the seizure of 650 pounds of plastic explosives from a Sanaa warehouse. A Kuwaiti citizen suspected of ties to al-Qaeda was arrested in Kuwait and admitted to plotting the October 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker off the Yemeni coast. Three American missionaries were killed in December 2002 in a southern Yemeni village, but it is unclear if the alleged killer, a local Islamist militant, had any links to al-Qaeda.

How big an al-Qaeda presence is there in Yemen?
It’s impossible to say precisely, but dozens of al-Qaeda operatives, including senior officials, may be at large in Yeme , experts say. Yemen was second only to Saudi Arabia in being the source of soldiers for the international Islamist brigade that fought against Soviet forces in Afghanistan and that gave birth to al-Qaeda. Thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of Yemenis fought in Afghanistan or trained in al-Qaeda’s camps there. Yemeni officials say that not every Yemeni veteran of the war in Afghanistan is an al-Qaeda member; nevertheless, Yemeni prisoners make up one of the largest national contingents of detainees at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba .

Does al-Qaeda have training camps in Yemen?
Al-Qaeda reportedly had several major training camps in Yemen until the late 1990s, when the Yemeni government uprooted them. U.S. officials say there may be a few smaller ones left. Terrorism Havens: Yemen - Council on Foreign Relations

**LClan439** · 04-01-2010, 01:18 PM

Looks like France is following suit.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8439201.stm

**agracias** · 04-01-2010, 01:23 PM

Wait... I just don't understand.

I thought that everyone would like us now... that's what we were told. Get rid of Bush, elect Obama and the world would LOVE US!

Then we did elect Obama and we were told that he would engage our enemies. Closing our Embassies doesn't seem like engagement to me

What happened? Why do they still hate us so?

**CreativeAcrobate** · 04-01-2010, 02:07 PM

Wait... I just don't understand.

I thought that everyone would like us now... that's what we were told. Get rid of Bush, elect Obama and the world would LOVE US!

Then we did elect Obama and we were told that he would engage our enemies. Closing our Embassies doesn't seem like engagement to me

What happened? Why do they still hate us so?

Yes, because that's exactly what was said! You're so right, as usual!

03-01-2010, 11:28 PM	#1
Kafuuil Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 381 Senior Member	US, UK close Yemen embassies over al-Qaida threats Well here we go. A new front! Not really, it's been there all along. US, UK close Yemen embassies over al-Qaida threats SAN'A, Yemen – Western embassies in Yemen locked up Sunday after fresh threats from al-Qaida, and the White House expressed alarm at the terror group's expanded reach in the poor Arab nation where an offshoot apparently ordered the Christmas Day plot against a U.S. airliner. President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, cited "indications al-Qaida is planning to carry out an attack against a target" in the capital, possibly the embassy, and estimated the group had several hundred members in Yemen. Security reasons led Britain to act, too; it was not known when the embassies would reopen. The U.S. is worried about the spread of terrorism in Yemen, a U.S. ally and aid recipient, Brennan said, but doesn't consider the country a second front with Afghanistan and Pakistan in the fight against terrorism. As to whether U.S. troops might be sent to Yemen, Brennan replied: "We're not talking about that at this point at all." He pledged to provide the Yemeni government with "the wherewithal" to take down al-Qaida. Britain and the United States are assisting a counterterrorism police unit in Yemen as fears grow about the increasing threat of international terrorism originating from the country. The Obama administration claims that the suspect in the plot against the Detroit-bound plane was trained and armed by the al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen. Brennan blamed a series of what he called lapses and human errors in U.S. intelligence and security defenses for allowing a Nigerian man to board the plane with explosives. He tried to detonate them as the aircraft approached Detroit on Dec. 25. The Transportation Security Administration announced Sunday that, starting Monday, passengers flying into the United States from Nigeria, Yemen and other "countries of interest" will be subject to enhanced screening techniques, such as body scans and pat-downs. Yemen is a poor, decentralized and predominantly Muslim country on the Arabian Peninsula. It is the ancestral homeland of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, and the site of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 U.S. sailors. A 2008 attack on the U.S. Embassy killed one American. Given the active threat from al-Qaida, "we're not going to take any chances," Brennan said from Washington during appearances on four Sunday talk shows. Sen. Joe Lieberman identified three instances in which terrorists or sympathizers penetrated or evaded U.S defenses last year — shootings at a military recruiting station and an Army base and the airline attack — and said all three were linked to Yemen. "We've got to focus there pre-emptively, and I'm confident we will," said Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut. The Yemeni government, which issued no official comment on the embassy closures, is friendly to the West but the population is often mistrustful of Western motives and influence. Yemen has pledged to clamp down on militancy, but government control is weak outside the capital and the country has a history of freeing some alleged militants and tolerating others. The Obama administration is growing more vocal about both the threat and the San'a government's limitations. Brennan said Westerners are at risk in Yemen until the government gets a better handle on extremism. The U.S. will look case by case at whether to repatriate the remaining approximately 90 Yemeni detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, Brennan said. Seven of 42 Guantanamo detainees freed by the Obama administration were returned to Yemen, Brennan said, but doubts about the country's ability to police further freed detainees is a major obstacle to Obama's plan to shut down the facility. Brennan reaffirmed the U.S. administration's support for the closure, but said that with regard to the Yemeni detainees, nothing would be done to put U.S. citizens at risk. U.S. officials say terrorists are seeking new places to operate, including Yemen, Somalia and Southeast Asia, in part because of pressure on their previous sanctuaries in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Some U.S. officials have said privately that Yemen's location at the heart of the Arab world, its history of tribal control, poverty, corruption and an ongoing civil war could make it the crucible of a future war. Brennan said the Obama administration is trying to head off the threat now. Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. general who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, made a surprise visit to Yemen over the weekend. Following meetings with President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Petraeus announced that Washington this year will more than double the $67 million in counterterrorism aid that it provided Yemen in 2009. The U.S. and Britain are funding a counterterrorism police unit in Yemen, and Britain plans to host an international conference Jan. 28 to come up with a strategy to counter radicalization in Yemen. The United States has increased military cooperation with Yemen, with intelligence and other help to back two Yemeni air and ground assaults on al-Qaida hide-outs last month that were reported to have killed more than 60 people. Yemeni authorities said more than 30 suspected militants were among the dead. The U.S. has stepped up intelligence, surveillance and training aid to Yemeni forces during the past year, and provided some firepower, a senior U.S. defense official has said. Some of that assistance may be through the expanded use of unmanned drones, and the U.S. is providing funding to Yemen for helicopters and other equipment. Officials, however, say there are no U.S. ground forces or fighter aircraft in Yemen. On Thursday, the U.S. Embassy sent a notice to Americans in Yemen urging them to be vigilant about security. Yemeni security officials said over the weekend that the country had deployed several hundred extra troops to Marib and Jouf, two mountainous eastern provinces that are al-Qaida's main strongholds in the country and where airliner suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab may have visited last year. U.S. intelligence agencies did not miss a telltale sign that that could have prevented the 23-year-old Nigerian man's alleged attempt to blow up the airliner, Brennan said. "There is no smoking gun," Brennan said. "There was no single piece of intelligence that said, 'this guy is going to get on a plane.'" Brennan is leading a White House review of the incident. Obama ordered a thorough look at the shortcomings that permitted the plot, which failed not because of U.S. actions but because the would-be attacker was unable to ignite an explosive device. The president has summoned homeland security officials to meet with him in the White House Situation Room on Tuesday. Brennan cited "a number of streams of information" — the suspect's name was known to intelligence officials, his father had passed along his concern about the son's increasing radicalization — and "little snippets" from intelligence channels. "But there was nothing that brought it all together." "In this one instance, the system didn't work. There were some human errors. There were some lapses. We need to strengthen it." Brennan didn't say whether anyone is in line to be fired because of the oversights. He stood by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, although he acknowledged she has "taken some hits" for saying that the airline security system had worked. It didn't, and she clarified her remarks to show she meant that the system worked only after the attack was foiled, Brennan said. US, UK close Yemen embassies over al-Qaida threats - Yahoo! News Share Share this post on Digg Del.icio.us Technorati Twitter
	Quote

03-01-2010, 11:36 PM	#2
ExpodoDop Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 388 Senior Member	Maybe Obama should have picked up a paper before now! Terrorism Havens: Yemen Updated: December 2005 Is Yemen a haven for terrorism? Yes. Yemen, located at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is a poor Muslim country with a weak central government, armed tribal groups in outlying areas, and porous borders, which makes it fertile ground for terrorists. Its government has tried to help the United States after September 11, and the State Department calls Yemen “an important partner in the campaign against terrorism, providing assistance in the military, diplomatic, and financial arenas.” But experts say that terrorists live in Yemen, sometimes with government approval; Yemen-based corporations are thought to help fund Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network; and Yemenis affiliated with al-Qaeda have targeted U.S. interests in Yemen, including the October 2000 bombing of the navy destroyer U.S.S. Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden . Which sorts of terrorists operate in Yemen? According to the State Department, al-Qaeda’s operational structure inYemen has been “weakened and dispersed” since September 11. But Islamists affiliated with al-Qaeda still maintain a presence. Bin Laden’s group is thought to be behind the attack on the Cole, in which seventeen U.S. sailors died and thirty-nine were injured. Seventeen suspects—some thought to have connections to al-Qaeda—were arrested for the attack, ten of which escaped in 2003. Although al-Qaeda has not formally claimed responsibility for the attack, bin Laden praised those who “destroyed a destroyer that fearsome people fear” on a 2001 videotape. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are recognized legal organizations in Yemen and Hamas maintains offices in the country. Neither group has engaged in any known terrorist activities in Yemen , but conduct fundraising efforts through mosques and other charitable organizations. Since the bombing of the Cole, has al-Qaeda planned other attacks against targets in Yemen? Yes. In June 2001, local authorities in Yemen arrested eight Yemeni veterans of the 1979-89 Afghan war against the Soviets in connection with a plot to blow up the U.S. embassy in Sanaa, Yemen ’s capital. In July 2002, an accidental explosion that killed two al-Qaeda operatives led to the seizure of 650 pounds of plastic explosives from a Sanaa warehouse. A Kuwaiti citizen suspected of ties to al-Qaeda was arrested in Kuwait and admitted to plotting the October 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker off the Yemeni coast. Three American missionaries were killed in December 2002 in a southern Yemeni village, but it is unclear if the alleged killer, a local Islamist militant, had any links to al-Qaeda. How big an al-Qaeda presence is there in Yemen? It’s impossible to say precisely, but dozens of al-Qaeda operatives, including senior officials, may be at large in Yeme , experts say. Yemen was second only to Saudi Arabia in being the source of soldiers for the international Islamist brigade that fought against Soviet forces in Afghanistan and that gave birth to al-Qaeda. Thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of Yemenis fought in Afghanistan or trained in al-Qaeda’s camps there. Yemeni officials say that not every Yemeni veteran of the war in Afghanistan is an al-Qaeda member; nevertheless, Yemeni prisoners make up one of the largest national contingents of detainees at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba . Does al-Qaeda have training camps in Yemen? Al-Qaeda reportedly had several major training camps in Yemen until the late 1990s, when the Yemeni government uprooted them. U.S. officials say there may be a few smaller ones left. Terrorism Havens: Yemen - Council on Foreign Relations Share Share this post on Digg Del.icio.us Technorati Twitter
	Quote

04-01-2010, 01:18 PM	#3
LClan439 Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 459 Senior Member	Looks like France is following suit. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8439201.stm Share Share this post on Digg Del.icio.us Technorati Twitter
	Quote

04-01-2010, 01:23 PM	#4
agracias Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 391 Senior Member	Wait... I just don't understand. I thought that everyone would like us now... that's what we were told. Get rid of Bush, elect Obama and the world would LOVE US! Then we did elect Obama and we were told that he would engage our enemies. Closing our Embassies doesn't seem like engagement to me What happened? Why do they still hate us so? Share Share this post on Digg Del.icio.us Technorati Twitter
	Quote

04-01-2010, 02:07 PM	#5
CreativeAcrobate Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 407 Senior Member	Wait... I just don't understand. I thought that everyone would like us now... that's what we were told. Get rid of Bush, elect Obama and the world would LOVE US! Then we did elect Obama and we were told that he would engage our enemies. Closing our Embassies doesn't seem like engagement to me What happened? Why do they still hate us so? Yes, because that's exactly what was said! You're so right, as usual! Share Share this post on Digg Del.icio.us Technorati Twitter
	Quote

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