Posted on 12/27/2009 6:27:14 PM PST by maggief
WASHINGTON — In the midst of two unfinished major wars, the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against Al Qaeda in Yemen.
A year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency sent many field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country, according a former top agency official. At the same time, some the most secretive Special Operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counterterrorism tactics, senior military officers said.
The Pentagon is spending more than $70 million over the next 18 months, and using teams of Special Forces, to train and equip Yemeni military, Interior Ministry and coast guard forces, more than doubling previous military aid levels.
As American investigators sought to corroborate the claims of a 23-year-old Nigerian man that Qaeda leaders in Yemen had trained and equipped him to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines jet on Christmas Day, the plot casts a spotlight on the Obama administration’s complicated relationship with Yemen.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/us/politics/28homeland.html
Although Ms. Napolitano said it would be “inappropriate to speculate” on such ties, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation over the weekend said that the claims of the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, were plausible, and that he saw no reason to discount Mr. Abdulmutallab’s account that he had obtained explosive chemicals and a syringe sewn into his underwear from a bomb expert in Yemen associated with Al Qaeda.
Asked if Mr. Abdulmutallab was part of a bigger plot or whether he was a “lone wolf,” Ms. Napolitano replied, “Well, right now, we have no indication that it’s part of anything larger, but obviously the investigation continues.”
//
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415981/posts
25 Brits in jet bomb plots (returning Yemen to UK early 2010-await instructions)
The Sun ^ | December 27, 2009 | ANTHONY FRANCE Crime Reporter and ALEX WEST
COPS fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners.
The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen.
It was there London-educated Umar Abdulmutallab, 23, prepared for his Christmas Day bid to blow up a US jet.
The British extremists in Yemen are in their early 20s and from Bradford, Luton and Leytonstone, East London.
They are due to return to the UK early in 2010 and will then await internet instructions from al-Qaeda on when to strike.
A Scotland Yard source said: “The great fear is Abdulmutallab is the first of many ready to attack planes and kill tens of thousands.
//
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415757/posts
Al-Qaida member in Yemen issued bomb threat ahead of botched Christmas operation
Star Tribune (AP) ^ | December 27, 2009 | JOSEF FEDERMAN
CAIRO - An Al-Qaida operative in Yemen threatened the United States and said “we are carrying a bomb” in a video posted online four days before the botched Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight.
The video does not contain any clear evidence that the speaker was anticipating Friday’s attempt, but it has attracted scrutiny because of reports that the bombing plot may have originated in Yemen.
Connecting a few more dots ...
SECRET no more, thank you New York Times ...
So now we know why WH spinmeisters were out in force during Sunday morning talk shows.
Please explain further - I didn’t see the WH spin doctors on Sunday TV programs.
Saw this report earlier yesterday re: our good guys attacking somebody in Yemen who supposedly had a connection to the Ft.Hood bomber.
At the time, my thought was - Yahoo! Somebody in the Defense Dept (or CIA?) is still doing good things despite Yohaha’s anti-war on terror stance.
Defiance of Yobambi?
Was the attack on Yemen the reason for the attempted attacks on the Detroit Airliners?
Quietly? Bullocks. More like closing the barn door after the horse gets out, thanks to the Ft. Hood bomber.
IOW they’re just fighting back?
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jqW-cgpJ0KUm99xppjaDsWHPO46A
In a December 21 video, the al Qaida operative delivered a eulogy for militants killed in a Yemeni airstrike on a militant training camp four days earlier. The speaker said he had no agenda against Yemeni soldiers, but warned them against co-operating with Americans.
“We are carrying a bomb to hit the enemies of God,” the speaker says.
“O soldiers, you should learn that we do not want to fight you, nor do we have an issue with you. We only have an issue with America and its agents, and beware of standing in the ranks of America,” he says.
“You should not defend these regimes. The soldiers and even Obama cannot put out the light of Islam.”
The video was posted on extremist websites affiliated with al Qaida. The websites identified the speaker as Mohammed al-Kalwi, an al Qaida activist reportedly killed in another airstrike on Thursday.
The video showed the bearded militant, wearing a headdress and green military-style jacket over a long Arab robe, addressing a group of armed followers as he stood on top of a car. The followers repeatedly interrupted the address with calls of “God is great”.
Good if he was killed!
But what does that have to do with the Sunday talk shows and Obambi?
It seems these strike(s) are against 0bama’s WH. His minions are out in full spin mode, with the help of MSM.
You actually think Obambi ordered the strikes in Yemen?
Perhaps but I find that very hard to believe.
Perhaps our good guys found a link to Ft. Hood shooter and took it/them out. I like that very much.
But I would give Zero no credit for getting that done!
Of course the stupid Yemeni’s see all Americans as anti-Allah even though we know Zero is one of them....
So mayber the attacks are a response against America, not specifically against Obamao. HE is certainly not hurt one bit by hundreds of innocent airline passengers being killed.
Now, had the Jihadists managed to bomb his vacation spot in Hawaii - THAT would have gotten O’s attention.
Yemen airstrikes target imam consulted by Fort Hood suspect
12:49 PM CST on Friday, December 25, 2009
Well, well, well. The dots are connecting quite easily aren’t they, maggief?
Looking more and more likely that Nappy’s remarks that terrorist acted alone came on directions from WH.
Thanks for that link - most info I’ve read so far on that subject.
But I still don’t know what was said on the Sunday morning news shows by Obambi’s people doing cya.
I am VERY GLAD the US assisted the Yemeni’s in killing off some Al Quaida leaders - esp the ones connected with Hasan.
Should such attacks have prompted an increased alert level in this country which could have prevented the Detroit plane’s terrorist from getting on that plane? YES but so should the terrorist’s father’s turning his son’s name into the US Embassy in Nigeria have prompted HIS BANNING from flying into this country.
I put 100% of the blame for his being able to get on that plane upon the Obama administration - the State Dept - and Hillary Clinton who heads it up.
That somebody is Falls Church, Va. Imam Anwar al Aulaqi, sometimes spelled al-Awlaki, and he was an imam at a mosque attended by Major Hasan. That same mosque was also attended by three 9/11 hijackers, two of whom had followed Aulaqi there from San Diego, where Aulaqi had been an imam at the Rabat mosque. Another speaker at that mosque in Virginia was Ali A. Timimi, an American with parents of Iraqi heritage. It is said by musllims in the area that there was a falling out at the mosque and Timimi left to formed another storefront mosque a short distance away where he was spiritual advisor for the group known as the "Paintball Cell" of Virginia jihadists. Timimi is currently serving an incredibly long prison sentence relative to other convicted terrorists, perhaps because he was also involved in the anthrax investigation as a suspect researcher. More recently, a group of five Americans also connected to Aulaqi's mosque- albeit perhaps under a different imam- has been captured in Pakistan whilst planning terrorist acts. Among that group are two jihadists with Yemeni roots.
Aulaqi fled the United States for Yemen after 9/11 and was the guy who in Yemen directed the Christmas crotch bomber Abdulmutallab to go to a certain explosives guy who then designed and fitted him with the bomb.
Some reports say the US strikes lately in Yemen took Aulaqi out, but I don't think this has been confirmed.
DECEMBER 1992 : (YEMEN : AL QAEDA'S FIRST ATTACK ON THE US TARGETS US MARINES HOUSED IN TWO HOTELS IN ADEN) MINITER: "Indeed, it is possible that Clinton and his national-security team learned of bin Laden even before the 1993 World Trade Center attack. My interviews and investigation revealed that bin Laden made his first attack on Americans was December 1992, a little more than a month after Clinton won the 1992 election. His target was 100 U.S. Marines housed in two towering Yemen hotels. Within hours, the CIA's counterterrorism center learned that the Yemen suspected a man named Osama bin Laden. (One of the arrested bombing suspects later escaped and was detained in a police sweep after al Qaeda attacked the USS Cole in 2000.) Lake says he doesn't remember briefing the president-elect about the attempted attack, but that he well might have.So it is safe to conclude that Clinton knew about the threat posed by bin Laden since 1993, his first year in office."----- "Clinton’s Loss? How the previous administration fumbled on bin Laden. A Q&A by Kathryn Jean Lopez, September 11, 2003, 11:45 a.m
....
In late 1992 bin Laden was involved in the bombings of hotels in Aden, which hosted American soldiers en route to serve in the framework of the United Nations troops in Somalia. Bin Laden confirmed this fact in an interview with a Pakistani newspaper and boasted that “the US received the warning and gave up the idea of setting up its military bases in Yemen.”[3]
----------- "The Bombing of the USS Cole : An Analysis of the Principle Suspects," Dr. Ely Karmon ICT , Oct 24, 2000, http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=138
JANUARY 1993 : (BILL CLINTON TAKES OFFICE; ATTACKS ON US TROOPS IN ADEN, YEMEN HOTELS GO UNANSWERED?)
JUNE 24, 2002 : (AL HANOOTI FLIES TO FALLS CHURCH VA FOR "CONSULTATION" AT THE DAR AL HIRJAH MOSQUE --- --- SEE HAMAS, IAP, 1993 WTC BOMBING) I flew there [ Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va.] Monday [JUNE 24, 2002] for consultation. ... I am a great scholar and one of the few scholars in the United States who are authoritative (on Islam).'' --- "Religious leader tied to terror Imam of Capital Region mosque disputes FBI report he raised funds for Hamas, condemns terrorism against U.S.," By BRENDAN LYONS, Staff writer , Times Union, First published: Sunday, June 30, 2002
Al Hanooti is connected to an Albany NY cell which has a lot of people of Yemeni heritage associated with it.
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