“What’s next for Yemen”
Interesting article that examines how the political structure in Yemen must change to become more stable to prevent the rise of a Taliban-like state which could serve as haven for Al-Qaeda. From the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace >
“Map: A Nation on the Brink”
Fantastic map that shows the multitude of problems facing Yemen and their causes. From the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace >
“Thousands protest military crackdown in Yemen”
Thousands of people in Yemen are protesting the military crackdown in the south even while President Ali Abdullah Saleh has offered to hold talks with Southern separatists to hear their grievances. Demonstrations have been held in multiple cities which only adds to the country’s considerable problems including the fact that Al-Qaeda maybe exploiting this instability. From Al Arabiya News >
“Study abroad with Al-Qaeda”
A Vermont native, with a Ph.D. in literature, goes to Yemen and converts to Islam. In the process, he is both physically and mentally transformed. While he did not truly convert and take the religion to heart, he did learn the alarming reasoning why it’s so easy to recruit many of these young men into Al-Qaeda and terrorist networks. From Global Post >
“The Myth of Excluding Moderate Islamists in the Arab World”
This paper discusses how moderate Islamic groups that believe in peaceful co-existence with the west and respect the sovereignty of the state are being pushed out of the political arena by the US. What will happen to these groups if they continue to be excluded and become radicalized as a result? How should the US be dealing with these groups? From Brookings >
Javier Barrera Yemen
Yesterday, the U.S. government warned ships sailing off Yemen’s coast of the risk of al Qaeda attacks similar to a suicide bombing of the U.S. warship Cole in 2000.
“Information suggests that al Qaeda remains interested in maritime attacks in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden along the coast of Yemen,” the office said in a statement, citing an advisory by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Yemen has been a focus of international concern since December, when al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the failed attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, showing the group based in an impoverished and unstable corner of the Middle East had global reach.
Conditions in Yemen in the 1990s helped create fertile ground for young jihadis. While the country was off the radar screen of most in the U.S., it was about to become front page news.
On the morning of October 12, 2000, two al-Qaeda recruits launched a small 20-foot boat in the port of Aden, Yemen and steered it into the hull of the USS Cole, killing 17 soldiers and injuring 39 others.
Listen to firsthand accounts from retired U.S. Navy Commander Kirk Lippold, Lieutenant Elroy Newton, and retired Master Chief James Parlier.
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Javier Barrera Yemen
Princeton University Professor Bernard Haykel’s research and teaching interests lie at the juncture of the intellectual, political, and social history of the Middle East with particular emphasis on the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. America Abroad’s Christopher Williams sat down with Professor Haykel to discuss some of the key moments in Yemen’s history.
Read more…
Javier Barrera Yemen
Surviving in Yemen is hard and getting harder. Unemployment is in the range of 45%, and plummeting oil revenues are draining the state’s paltry coffers. But, it’s not just oil, the country is running out of water. Much of what little water there is, is being used to grow qat. That’s an amphetamine-like plant that roughly 80% of the men in the country chew habitually, and many spend half their daily earnings on the leaf. But, perhaps the biggest challenge, and threat to the US and the region, is Yemen’s youth bulge. Nearly 70% of the population is under the age of 25. The largely unemployed, under-educated and increasingly bored and frustrated youth are fertile recruits for terrorists, and one of the reasons people fear the country could slide from a fragile state to a failed one.
America Abroad’s Sean Carberry recently spent a few weeks in Yemen speaking with young people about conditions in the country and their lives.
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Javier Barrera Yemen
I applied for my press visa about three weeks before my planned departure to Yemen. I met with an assistant media affairs officer in the Yemen Embassy in Washington to discuss the purpose of my trip and go over any necessary details in order to get approval. She looked through my letter of intent and my materials and said that everything looked to be in order and that ideally I would receive my visa in about two weeks.
She warned that the Ministry of Information in Sana’a was being slammed with requests, so it could take longer, but inshallah, I would have the visa before my scheduled flight.
About 10 days after I submitted my request, I received an email from someone in the Ministry of Information. This is copied verbatim from the email:
I would like to inform you that I sent the approval for your request concerning your visiting to Yemen last saturday. I am preparing also the permission for the entrance of your equipment at the Airport and another permission for your travelling in Yemen, I will be your guide and accompany you during your staying in yemen,to offer all help and facilities to you to carry out your task properly, and I will recieve you at the Airport bringing with me the permission of the equipment.
Read more…
Sean Carberry Aden, Committee to Protect Journalists, press freedom, Sanaa, Yemen
A young Nigerian man with a bomb stuffed in his underwear nearly downed a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day. While Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab failed to take down the plane, he did raise the alert on the al Qaeda threat in Yemen. By now you’ve probably heard the long list of problems in the country: staggering unemployment, rampant corruption, declining oil revenues, soaring population growth, water drying up, a rebellion in the north, secessionists in the south, and al Qaeda setting up shop in the tribal hinterlands.
America Abroad’s Yemen in Focus explores some of the forces that have made Yemen a fragile state that threatens the U.S. and the international community.
Here’s a breakdown of the program:
- Sean Carberry travels to Yemen to explore the challenging economic, political, and social conditions facing the country’s large and growing population of young people.
- Deborah Amos speaks with Sean Carberry about the prospects for reform in Yemen.
- Deborah Amos traces the turbulent history that has made Yemen the divided and destitute country it is today, with Bernard Haykel, Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.
- Survivors of the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole tell the story of the day of the attack.
- Deborah Amos speaks with Juan Carlos Zarate, former Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser for Combating Terrorism from 2005 to 2009 and Thomas Krajeski, Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen from 2004 to 2007, about U.S. policy in Yemen since the bombing of the USS Cole and whether U.S. and Yemeni interests coincide or conflict when it comes to fighting al-Qaeda.
Listen to Yemen in Focus >
Javier Barrera Yemen
I sit typing this on the Dubai Metro having just flown in from Sana’a.* The sparkling new metro is quite pleasant, but there are a number of logistical bugs that I won’t get into now – suffice to say that in the typical fashion of the transportation policy world, there are unintended consequences of certain seemingly logical design conveniences.
Instead of kicking the Dubai dog while it’s struggling to get back up, I want to go back a couple of days to chronicle my travails in Sana’a on Wednesday. Since Yemen is on a Thursday-Friday weekend schedule, Wednesday is the de facto Friday. That meant that Wednesday was my last shot at a few interviews I was chasing.
I was still hoping to meet with the Counter Terrorism Branch to learn about their strategy for combating al Qaeda. But, despite getting green lights from the Ministry of Information, the Foreign Minister, and a presidential advisor, the CT people were declared off limits to journalists (at least according to a number of sources I spoke with). From what I understand, the President felt the CT Branch was spending too much time talking to the press so he shut down access – right around the time I rolled into town.
Read more…
Sean Carberry Dubai, State Department, Yemen
Well, another day of calling audibles in Aden. This morning I was supposed to interview a couple of people to talk about political issues in Southern Yemen, and the Southern Movement – the block of secessionists. I was expecting that my translation (more accurately, translator) problems from last night would be resolved.
Unfortunately, this morning the local fixer arrived with the same “translator.” Apparently he couldn’t find anyone else in the city to tag along and translate. Hard to believe that in a former British colony a local journalist can’t find a translator to work with him, but not much I can do about it.
We took a taxi to the first meeting. We exited the car in a little maze of side streets that of course had no clear markings, names, or street numbers. We walked around the same two blocks for about 10 minutes while the fixer made repeated calls to the interview subject.
Eventually, we had to walk out to a main street and wait for her to drive by. We hopped in her car and drove 50 feet to her office – which was right in the middle of one of the streets we had been wandering.
In all of this time, the fixer and translator had been unable to explain to me who this woman was, and why I was going to speak with her – exactly the same problem as last night. We sat down in her office, and I asked her to introduce herself and tell me a little about her work – usually a question that allows me to figure out enough to improvise through the interview.
Read more…
Sean Carberry Aden, qat, Southern Movement, Yemen
I will admit, I do complain from time to time about traveling to rough places, long stretches of work, spending extended periods of time in places with no alcohol, and other typical gripes of the working man. But, then there are moments like this afternoon when life just takes on a life of its own, and this job is just plain cool.
Today I traveled from Sana’a to Aden. Had a little trouble checking in at the airport because the security folks didn’t like my recording equipment and the fact that I was traveling alone. After 10 minutes of conversations, a few phone calls, and me standing around waiting as a security guy walked off the my recorder and passport, they came back, apologized for the delay, and sent me on my way.
After a short flight, and a quick taxi ride, I arrived at my hotel. My fixer here doesn’t speak English, so a friend of his called to tell me we had a meeting in about an hour. I had time to eat, and prepare my gear. Then, the woman called to tell me the meeting was canceled and they would pick me up at 5:30 for a different meeting.
At this point, I had three hours to kill, so I did the only thing I could think of, take a taxi to the center of town and walk around.
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Sean Carberry Aden, qat, Seera, Yemen
Taxis can often be the bane of a journalist’s time in the field. For example, in Syria, the drivers usually refused to use their meters, and would be petulant when negotiating a fare. And of course, they rarely knew where you wanted to go and would have to ask directions seven times along the way – actually, this is the case everywhere I’ve been in the Middle East except Dubai. It doesn’t help that no country I’ve visited in the region seems to have mastered the concept of addresses or street signs.
In Lebanon, taxi drivers were usually a tad mellower, but almost ten times as expensive as Syria. Egyptian and Moroccan taxi drivers also drove a pretty hard bargain with foreigners. Generally speaking, whenever I get into a taxi in the Middle East, I’m prepared for a fight over the fare, and for driving around in circles asking for directions.
In Yemen, the driving around asking for directions routine is constant – even when I have my fixer on the phone to tell the driver where I need to go. Unless I’m going to a major office building or landmark, there are always multiple iterations of stopping to ask people on the sidewalk for directions, or making additional calls.
But what’s been surprising here has been the attitude of drivers towards fares.
Read more…
Sean Carberry qat, taxis, Yemen
“What’s next for Yemen”
