Increased US military involvement in Yemen could boomerang

[G_j]

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5073006,00.html

Increased US military involvement in Yemen could boomerang

The Obama administration has in recent months stepped up its intelligence support and funding of Yemeni security forces in a bid to counter threats by al Qaeda to attack Western and Arab targets in the Gulf.

Yemeni officials say more than 30 operatives of al Qaeda's Yemeni offshoot, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), were killed and 29 others captured in raids in recent weeks that foiled attacks on the British embassy in the capital Sana'a and Yemeni oil facilities. Human rights activists and al Qaeda charge that scores of innocent civilians died in the attacks.

US support for the raids reflects concerns on both sides of the Atlantic that multiple conflicts in Yemen - including the fight against al Qaeda, a five-year war against tribal rebels in the north that has dragged neighboring Saudi Arabia into the hostilities, a secession movement in the south, rampant inflation and unemployment, dwindling oil revenues and an acute water shortage - could turn Yemen into the strategic region's next failed state alongside Somalia.

"We are already a failed state. We can no longer protect the rights of our citizens," said Yemeni opposition politician Abubakr Badeeb. "Al Qaeda is renewing itself and has sympathizers in the Yemeni security and intelligence forces," terrorism expert Said Ali Jemhi told Deutsche Welle.

Analysts say the US intelligence and military support kicked in since the Yemeni government recently bowed to US, European and Saudi pressure to focus more on battling al Qaeda rather than exclusively on squashing a tribal revolt in the north by Al-Houthi rebels and secession in the south. Yemeni officials complained as recently as October that the country's allies were ignoring problems that constituted as much a threat to Yemen's stability and territorial integrity as does al Qaeda.

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[G_j]

1. --

[StarfarerBill]

2. K&R

[G_j]

3. k

[MisterP]

4. cons don't believe in blowback: anything bad that happens to Americans

is because our foreign policy "gave the appearance of weakness" by withdrawing from a quagmire or not blowing up enough villages

they literally live in their own world: Rios Montt created an earthly paradise, Charles Taylor is a nice guy being railroaded by judgmental and hypocritical Europeans, El Mozote was a fabulation by someone duped by the Communist terrorists, and Srebrenica was self-defense by "Western culture" against Islamofascists. I'm not saying all this rhetorically: this is the gist of their arguments.

[Vidar]

5. "Could" should read "will", but still worth recommending.

[G_j]

6. --

[G_j]

7. UK And US Embassies In Yemen Closed

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/UK-And-US-Embassies-In-Yemen-Closed-As-UK-And-America-Unite-To-Tackle-Terrorism-In-Gulf-State/Article/201001115513344?f=rss

UK And US Embassies In Yemen Closed
Huw Borland, Sky News Online

The UK and US embassies in Yemen have been closed because of an active threat from al Qaeda.


The move comes after Britain and America said they would jointly fund a counter-terrorism unit in Yemen, where suspected Christmas Day airline attacker, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, is thought to have been radicalised.

One security adviser to the Obama administration in the US says there are indications that al Qaeda was planning to attack "a target in Sana'a".

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the British embassy was closed on Sunday "for security reasons" and a decision would be taken later as to whether it would reopen on Monday.

A statement from the US embassy said it was closing: "... in response to ongoing threats by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to attack American interests in Yemen."

Yemeni staff at the US embassy told reporters they had been asked to stay in their homes