pemerintah YEMEN memerangi al-Qaeda.
itu gilanya Al-Qaeda.
Yemen on offensive against al-Qaeda group
PATRICK MARTIN
Amman From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Nov. 02, 2010 8:23PM EDT
Last updated Wednesday, Nov. 03, 2010 2:05AM EDT
The government of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has gone on the offensive
against Al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula dispatching security forces to root
out the Saudi bomb maker behind a year-long wave of bombing attempts, and
pressing charges against a U.S.-born imam who is on the CIA's
wanted-dead-or-alive list.
More related to this story
* Officials suspect Sept. dry run for Yemen bomb plot
* Yemen a gateway for al-Qaeda efforts to recruit Westerners
* Suspect in Yemen bomb plot considered key al-Qaeda figure
Parcels are placed on a fork lift at the International Cargo Airport in
Cologne, western Germany, Monday, Nov. 1, 2010. After intercepting two mail
bombs addressed to Chicago-area synagogues, investigators found out that
packages that terrorists in Yemen attempted to smuggle onto aircraft in a
brazen al-Qaida terror plot, were moved through Cologne
Video
Canada bans air cargo from Yemen
Video
Bomb scare cuts flights from Yemen
But, no sooner had the announcement been made about deploying troops to the
troublesome central and southern Yemeni provinces of Maarib and Shabwa, when
word came that a group, believed to have been part of the AQAP network, bombed
a major oil pipeline in Shabwa, just 12 kilometres outside the provincial
capital. The twin blasts sent flames and black smoke into the sky and dealt yet
another blow to the country's teetering economy.
The unusual step of charging and trying in absentia the American-Yemeni citizen
Anwar al-Awlaki caught most observers by surprise and is seen more as a sop to
U.S. critics than a serious counterterrorism measure.
The bearded, bespectacled Mr. al-Awlaki, 39, was born in New Mexico and moved
to Yemen several years ago. He is alleged to have encouraged a U.S. Army
psychiatrist to kill 13 people in a shooting rampage last year at Fort Hood,
Tex., and to have inspired several other people to take up militancy, including
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted to blow up an airliner over Detroit
last Christmas.
But until now, Mr. al-Awlaki was not regarded as a major figure in AQAP.
His prosecution is "obviously something the Yemeni government is doing because
it realizes that he has become a pet project of the Pentagon, someone they are
obsessed with," said Gregory Johnsen, a respected Yemen scholar at Princeton
University. The government "is hoping that steps like this can pre-empt
possible U.S. actions in Yemen," Mr. Johnsen wrote Tuesday on his blog.
But Mr. al-Awlaki is a red herring, he said.
"The more Western media and the Obama administration focus on al-Awlaki, the
more AQAP pushes him to the front, essentially taking advantage of all the free
advertising."
The real threat, Mr. Johnsen said, is from Ibrahim Asiri, the Saudi man
apparently behind Friday's airborne package bombs, and who last year dispatched
his brother to carry out a suicide bombing of the Prince who heads Saudi
Arabia's counterterrorism efforts. His brother died; the Prince did not.
The latest steps taken by Yemen are unlikely to be effective, said Mr. Johnsen,
who added that he is "incredibly worried about the increasing militarization of
U.S. policy toward Yemen" a development that will only make the situation worse.
He noted that ominous warnings have begun to appear in some recent AQAP
announcements threatening retaliation for a December attack by the United
States on a village in south Yemen, in which a large number of women and
children were mistakenly killed.
U.S. forces maintain a fleet of aerial unmanned drones that patrol Yemeni skies
on an almost daily basis. Many U.S. officials and politicians now argue that a
greater U.S. role must be played.
"The U.S. can get to where it wants to get in Yemen," Mr. Johnsen said Tuesday,
"but it can't get there in the speed that modern politics demands. Instead it
will need to take a patient approach that utilizes more than just military
options."
"There needs to be a parallel economic track," said Jalal Yacoub, Yemen's
deputy finance minister who worries about the effects of things such as
Tuesday's pipeline bombing. Oil and, increasingly, natural gas, are the
country's only hope to stave off economic failure, and that is the key to
ending the terrorism, Mr. Yacoub believes.
"Efforts at security must be accompanied by economic steps to support
development," he said. "It will take forever to eliminate extremism by security
measures alone."
It's too bad Washington didn't realize this years ago, Mr. Johnsen said.
"One of the most depressing things is that if the U.S. had actually taken a
proper approach to Yemen in the days after Sept. 11, it wouldn't be in the
situation it is in today," he argued.
"Unfortunately, the U.S. forgot about Yemen and now it is reaping the
consequences of years of neglect and inattention."
More related to this story
* Mail bomb scare prompts Canada to ban all air cargo from Yemen
* Parcel bomb plot undermines Yemen
* Arrested Yemeni woman didn't make bombs, released on bail: official
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