CIA sees increased threat in Yemen

[maddezmom]

Source: wapo

By Greg Miller
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, August 25, 2010

For the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, CIA analysts see one of al-Qaeda's offshoots - rather than the core group now based in Pakistan - as the most urgent threat to U.S. security, officials said.

The sober new assessment of al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen has helped prompt senior Obama administration officials to call for an escalation of U.S. operations there - including a proposal to add armed CIA drones to a clandestine campaign of U.S. military strikes, the officials said.

"We are looking to draw on all of the capabilities at our disposal," said a senior Obama administration official, who described plans for "a ramp-up over a period of months."

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, stressed that that analysts continue to see al-Qaeda and its allies in the tribal areas of Pakistan as supremely dangerous adversaries. The officials insisted there would be no letup in their pursuit of Osama bin Laden and other senior figures thought to be hiding in Pakistan.

Indeed, officials said it was largely because al-Qaeda has been decimated by Predator strikes in Pakistan that the franchise in Yemen has emerged as a more potent threat. A CIA strike killed a group of al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen in 2002, but officials said the agency has not had that capability on the peninsula for several years.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/24/AR2010082406763.html

[JCMach1]

1. Hell no! Stay the hell out and let the GCC clean up its own mess!

[TexanRudeBoy]

13. We're already there

Obama ramped up drone attacks in Yemen long ago. That's where the US citizen he's trying to have assassinated without due process is supposed to be.

[Turborama]

2. Sunday's Observer: Al-Qaida in Yemen: Poverty, corruption and an army of jihadis willing to fight

Dubbed an 'urgent security priority' by the US, Yemen has become a regional hub for al-Qaida. In the first of two special reports, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad meets the group's new fighters

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Jaar
Sunday August 22 2010 21.30 BST

The market at Jaar, a small city in Abyan province in southern Yemen, is on a filthy, dusty road strewn with garbage, plastic bottles, cans and rotten food. Plastic bags fly on the hot wind and feral dogs sniff around the vegetable stalls. Minibuses and donkey carts jostle for space on the crowded street.

Standing in the middle of the chaos is one of the jihadi gunmen for whom the town has become famous. Thin, short, with a well-groomed beard and shoulder-length hair, he is dressed in the Afghan style: shalwar kameez, camouflage vest and an old Kalashnikov. He is either a bandit imposing a protection racket on the merchants or a rebel protecting them from the corrupt regime – and most probably a bit of both.

He waves cheerfully to the people passing by, but few give him a second glance. The jihadis – like the chaos and the filth – are an established part of the landscape of south Yemen. They attend state-run mosques and Quranic learning centres and help fill the ranks of the country's security forces.

Recently, their influence has grown more threatening. In the past two years al-Qaida has established a local franchise in Yemen, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has claimed responsibility for audacious attacks – including the attempt to assassinate the British ambassador to the capital, Sana'a, earlier this year.

full piece: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/22/al-qaida-yemen-ghaith-abdul-ahad

[dgibby]

7. Nothing like an armed game of Whack-A-Mole. n/t

[Turborama]

10. The Guardian spent two months in the country, travelling to the tribal regions of Abyan and Shabwa

It's a really informative article, if you're interested in what's going on there...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/22/al-qaida-yemen-ghaith-abdul-ahad

[dgibby]

11. Thanks for the link.

I'll definitely check it out.:hi:

[Demeter]

3. Yeah, Now that Iran Is Such a Bust as a Target

gotta drum up armament business somewhere....

[dkf]

4. Tina Brown had mentioned that Al Qaeda in Yemen are anticipating

An Isrseli or US attack on Iran and plan to launch attacks as retaliation.

[Javaman]

5. Yemen - CIA - The World Fact Book

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ym.html

Natural resources:
petroleum, fish, rock salt, marble; small deposits of coal, gold, lead, nickel, and copper; fertile soil in west

[bemildred]

6. The CIA is a bigger threat to US security than anybody in Yemen. nt

[Chulanowa]

8. CIA sees potential job security in Yemen

if the CIA isn't seeing immediate and deadly threats anywhere they look, then they lose some funding.

[Nihil]

9. Yep, that nailed it.

> if the CIA isn't seeing immediate and deadly threats anywhere they look,
> then they lose some funding.

The OP headline could almost have had "... so please don't cut our funding"
stuck on the end (instead of remaining implicit).

[defendandprotect]

12. Always some Boogeyman under the CIA's bed . . . !!!