26 January 2010

Clinton to Attend Yemen Security Conference in London

Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, met with Yemen’s Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi January 21 in Washington.

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington — Supporting Yemen as it faces security challenges posed by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is a significant part of the U.S. strategy with Yemen’s leaders, but there are also efforts to help with economic, governance and social issues, says the State Department’s senior counterterrorism official.

A Yemen security conference, chaired by British Foreign Minister David Miliband, is being held January 27 in London, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will join 20 other world leaders to discuss political and economic issues that face the country, says Daniel Benjamin, the U.S. counterterrorism coordinator.

The British Foreign Office said in London January 26 that the short conference will focus on “how to assist the Yemen government to improve security, root out al-Qaida and promote economic and social development.” The meeting was called following the failed Christmas Day 2009 terror attack by a Nigerian man on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam that was about to land in Detroit.

“I should say that we are very pleased by the strong stance that [Yemeni] President [Ali Abdullah] Saleh and his government have taken in terms of confronting al-Qaida,” Benjamin said at a January 25 briefing.

“It may appear on the surface to be a suddenly new involvement in things Yemeni for the United States, but in fact this administration has been engaged on Yemen really since the very beginning,” Benjamin added.

While helping Yemeni authorities increase their ability to address security threats, it is also vitally important to help Yemen through long-term engagement to deal with the other issues it faces, he said. Yemen has substantial economic issues, including the depletion of natural resources, demographic challenges, a depleting water table, and issues of governance, Benjamin said.

The United States has a three-year, $121 million economic assistance program with Yemen, and separately is providing $70 million in military assistance. Yemen’s foreign minister, Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, was in Washington January 21 for consultations with Clinton in advance of the security summit in London.

AL-QAIDA IN YEMEN

Benjamin said Yemen has struggled with terrorists for some time, even though the al-Qaida term hasn’t been used until recently. The first known attack inspired by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden took place in December 1992 at a hotel in Aden where U.S. troops were staying.

In October 2000, the Navy destroyer USS Cole was attacked by a suicide bomber while the ship was in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 U.S. sailors in addition to two terrorists.

A federal indictment issued in Michigan January 6 alleges that 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab of Nigeria attempted to detonate a makeshift bomb on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on December 25, 2009. Abdulmutallab, who claimed he was trained by al-Qaida in Yemen, was arrested by federal agents after the airplane with 289 passengers and crew aboard landed safely at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

After the attempted attack, bin Laden, the leader of the transnational terrorist group al-Qaida, purportedly issued an audio tape taking credit for the failed attack, and warning that more attacks would be coming. Benjamin said, however, that “He’s … associating himself with it and … trying to get some of the reflected ... glory of the moment, if you can call it that.”

Benjamin indicated it was unclear if Bin Laden was actually responsible: “Bin Laden has been trying to put his fingerprints on just about everything that’s happened for years. And in that regard, I think ... we’re kind of used to it.”

Benjamin said one of the problems in fighting terrorism is that terrorists usually do not defend a lot of territory and remain quite mobile.

“Part of the reason that AQAP [al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula] has become a more potent threat in recent years is that Saudi Arabia did such a superb job in ramping up its counterterrorism efforts in the wake of the May 2003 attacks there, and as a result, really, al-Qaida within Saudi Arabia was put out of business for quite a while,” Benjamin said.

“But a number of the most dangerous operatives did move from Saudi Arabia to Yemen and sort of swelled the ranks of the AQAP core there,” he said.