Word: saudi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...remains skeptical that the Yemenis would be as effective at running such a program as the Saudis, because Saudi Arabia's survival as a regime depends on suppressing its extremist threat. In Yemen, with little government ability to monitor released former Gitmo detainees in the hinterlands of the nation, a program could probably not guarantee the Saudi level of success. And even Saudi Arabia's 15% recidivism rate is problematic: the No. 2 leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group that allegedly trained the Christmas Day bomber, is a graduate of the Saudi program...
...decision to repatriate the Yemenis is complicated by their government's relatively rudimentary approach to rehabilitation. Essentially, it holds returnees for an indeterminate period of monitoring and then simply lets them go. In neighboring Saudi Arabia, by comparison, the government has set up a much-hailed rehabilitation program that U.S. officials say has an 85% success rate. Yemen has requested financial support from the U.S. to create a similar facility...
...Troubled History Stretched around the southern heel of the Arabian Peninsula and home to 23.8 million people - compared with 28.7 million in neighboring Saudi Arabia - Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Middle East. It has a long history of being both a source of militants and a staging ground for jihadist attacks. In 2000, al-Qaeda fighters rammed an explosives-packed speedboat into the U.S.S. Cole in the port of Aden, killing 17 sailors. Militants have also attacked the U.S. embassy in Sana'a several times...
...More ominously, Yemen's social and economic problems have created a vacuum for al-Qaeda to fill. Squeezed out of Iraq and Afghanistan, al-Qaeda operatives have regrouped in Yemen's lawless mountain regions east of Sana'a and have merged with al-Qaeda's Saudi branch to form al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Led by Naser Abdel-Karim Wahishi and Saeed Ali Shehri, a Guantánamo detainee who was released in 2007, AQAP may constitute 200 core members supported by thousands of locals. Terrorism experts worry that with a firm footing in Yemen, al-Qaeda...
...Obama had already announced a number of changes to deal with these oversights, and he promised more on Tuesday. Security screening has been beefed up at both domestic and foreign airports, especially for the citizens of countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Sudan. More air marshals have been added. More names have been added to the no-fly list. "The State Department is now requiring embassies and consulates to include current visa information in their warning on individuals with terrorist or suspected terrorist connections," Obama said on Tuesday, citing a new effort that had been announced in the Situation...