War in Yemen

Yemen President: Foreign Forces Not Welcome
The Hindu | November 1, 2010

DUBAI: Faced with mounting international pressure to do more, the leadership in Yemen is sending out a message that it will not allow the West to run its counter-terror drive against Al-Qaeda.

During his late Saturday press conference, Yemen’s embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh stressed that Sana’a would not permit foreign forces to undertake counter-terrorism operations on Yemeni soil.

He added that Yemen would continue to participate in the war against terrorism, but in accordance with its “national potential,” state-run Saba news agency reported.

The press conference was held after two parcel bombs apparently originating from Yemen and bound for religious centres in Chicago were recovered on separate flights in Dubai and East Midlands airport in Britain.

On Sunday, Yemen’s Information Minister, Hassan Al Lawzi asserted that Yemen’s determination to counter terrorism is driven first by its national security perceptions and then by “regional and international” considerations.

Referring to the reportage on two suspicious package that were seized, he said that “there are unfortunately different and exaggerating reports on the issue [which are] serving Al-Qaeda and at the same time harming counterterrorism efforts”.

http://www.hindu.com/2010/11/01/stor...0156890900.htm

Associated Press | November 2, 2010

Support is growing in the US military and administration of President Barack Obama for shifting to the CIA operational control over elite special forces teams secretly in Yemen, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Citing unnamed officials, the newspaper said the foiled mail bombing plot by suspected Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen has added urgency to an administration review of expanded military options.

Officials said such a shift would allow the United States to strike suspected militant targets unilaterally with greater stealth and speed, the report said.

Allowing US Special Operations Command units to operate under the Central Intelligence Agency would also give the United States greater leeway to strike without the explicit blessing of the Yemeni government, the paper said.

In addition to streamlining the launching of strikes, it would allow the Yemeni government deniability because the CIA operations would be covert, The Journal said.

The White House is already considering adding armed CIA drones to the arsenal against militants in Yemen, the paper said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...a219011833.781

The CIA "Database" expands into Yemen.

31 October 2010 | The Independent

The axis of terror got bigger yesterday. After the presence of explosives in two packages bound for the US was confirmed – and a suspected 24 more discovered – their place of origin entered the big league as a crucible of deadly and disruptive terrorism. As Magnus Ranstorp, one of the world's leading experts on the issue, told The Independent on Sunday: "Yemen has become the new Afghanistan."

And, to go with this status, there comes to prominence one Yemeni who – in the eyes of America and some leading security specialists – is on a par with Osama bin Laden: **Anwar al-Awlaki.** Linked to three of the 9/11 bombers, the Fort Hood shootings, last Christmas's failed "underpants" bomber and the Times Square bombing, he has been described by a US representative as "No 1 terrorist", and yesterday by Sajjan M Gohel, director for international security for the London-based Asia-Pacific Foundation, as "the most dangerous ideologue in the world". This American Islamist preacher of Yemeni ancestry is the kingpin in al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula, the strongly suspected origin of the two package bombs found in the past two days. In April, Washington authorised the CIA to kill or capture Awlaki, the first such order ever to apply to a US citizen.

Disturbingly, there also came news that, while Yemen may be the most desolate and poorest part of the Middle East – a place, until last year, more associated with tribal warfare than global menace – the devices intercepted in Dubai and Britain were viable bombs, and of a technical complexity not hitherto seen. Dr Sally Leivesley, a former Home Office security adviser, said: "In terms of creating a significant bomb, in terms of an attack on the West, this is pretty sophisticated."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...m-2121364.html

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**Anwar al-Awlaki was reported by FOXNews to of been in the United States immediately before the 9/11 attacks meeting with top Pentagram brass officials, as well as Hani Hanjor, the Hijacker who apparently flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagram. See article here. He is the number 1 Al Qaeda threat, with American Adam Gadahn the 3rd. **

New York Times
November 4 2010

SANA, Yemen — As Yemen intensifies its military campaign against Al Qaeda’s regional arm, it faces a serious obstacle: most Yemenis consider the group a myth, or a ploy by their president to squeeze the West for aid money and punish his domestic opponents.

Those cynical attitudes — rooted in Yemen’s history of manipulative politics — complicate any effort to track down the perpetrators of the recent plot to send explosives by courier to the United States. They also make it harder to win public support for the fight against jihadist violence, whatever label one attaches to it.

“What is Al Qaeda? The truth is there is no Al Qaeda,” said Lutfi Muhammad, a weary-looking unemployed 50-year-old walking through this city’s tumultuous Tahrir Square. Instead, he said, the violence is “because of the regime and the lack of stability and the internal struggles.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/wo....html?emc=eta1