US Will Escalate Military Operations in Yemen

[K.Ingraham]

In a Major CIA Reassessment, US Will Escalate Military Operations in Yemen
Posted By John J. Xenakis On September 7, 2010 (4:27 am) In Afghanistan, Featured Story,

Obama administration officials are calling for an escalation of U.S. military operations in Yemen, the home of Al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). There are no plans to scale back operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Washington Post reported two weeks ago that this is a consequence of a remarkable change in assessment: That AQAP is now considered to be a greater threat to US security than the core al-Qaeda group in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Officials believe that unmanned Predator drone strikes had decimated al-Qaeda in Pakistan over the years, causing Pakistan’s al-Qaeda to be relatively less dangerous to American security than AQAP.

Pursuant to this revised policy, the US Armed Forces Central Command has proposed delivering up to $1.2 billion in weapons and related expenses for Yemen’s security forces, to be used in fighting AQAP.
In recent years, US military assistance to Yemen has expanded dramatically, costing $155 million in 2010 alone, according to AFP. In the past, the aid has included military helicopters, patrol boats, trucks, and training, while American special forces also work in Yemen.
American involvement is suspected of being deeper than that. In June, a story broke that missile parts from an American cruise missile were found in an al-Qaeda training camp, from an attack in Yemen in December. However, Yemeni authorities insist that the attack was carried out by their forces alone, according to the Independent.
This escalation has been building since December 25 of last year, when an attempted bombing of an airplane over Detroit failed, and it was learned that the perpetrator, the “underwear bomber,” had been trained by AQAP in Yemen.
In January, U.S. Gen. David Petraeus recommended providing additional security funds to Yemen, but said that no American troops would be involved, according to CNN.
The new weapons being considered for Yemen are armed, unmanned aerial drones operated by the CIA, mirroring the CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It’s not known whether the change in CIA assessment means that the question of US troops in Yemen is now on the the table, but the Yemenis themselves insist that US troops are not wanted, since the Yemeni troops can handle the problems by themselves, according to the Yemen Post. (See “1-Sep-10 News — Amsterdam arrests highlight Yemen confusion.”)
There are widespread fears for the Yemen government’s stability.
Yemen is fighting two separate wars at the same time. In northwest Yemen, the army is fighting a rebellion by ethnic Houthis. This fight spilled over the border into Saudi Arabia earlier this year, bringing Saudi airstrikes into the Houthi region of Yemen. It’s also suspected that Iran is supplying some weapons to the Houthi rebels, who practice a form of Shia Islam.
In the south, Yemen is fighting al-Qaeda militants, who have taken control of a large region and set up terrorist training camps. The CIA assessment is that AQAP is becoming more agile and aggressive, and capable of training many more suicide bombers, so that sooner or later one of them will succeed in launching a successful terrorist attack on American soil.
Al-Qaeda has turned into a kind of “virtual terrorist group,” a brand name for loosely linked local Sunni Muslim terrorist groups in countries from the Pacific, through Asia and the Mideast to Africa, and north through central Asia to Russia and the Caucasus. The objective of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda leaders is to replicate the success of the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran to create a Sunni Muslim state in some country. They’ve tried in Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and other countries, and they’ve failed so far, but they will not stop until they succeed.
The situation in Yemen is becoming increasingly serious, and the American involvement in Yemen continues to escalate. Whether or when American troops will be introduced into Yemen remains to be seen, but it seems certain that if a severe crisis develops in Yemen, then American troops may well be considered necessary.

Article taken from Big Peace - http://bigpeace.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
URL to article: http://bigpeace.com/jxenakis/2010/09/07 ... -in-yemen/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;