Word: yemen
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Harthi was believed by Western and Yemeni authorities to be a close friend of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda's key operative in Yemen. Washington believes he orchestrated the suicide attack on the U.S.S. Cole that killed 17 Americans in October 2000. Both governments suspect that at the time of his death, he was involved in planning further attacks...
...unambiguously chosen Washington's side in its war with al-Qaeda, arresting scores of al-Qaeda suspects - even, reportedly, bin Laden's youngest wife, 20-year-old Amal al-Saddah. But despite the crackdown, al-Qaeda elements have found support among tribal chieftains in more remote parts of Yemen, where they have taken shelter, and the government's ability to act against them has been limited. Indeed, it is the very weakness of the Yemeni state that makes it such an attractive base for bin Laden...
...That's because it only really becomes feasible in situations where the sovereign power is either both hostile to the U.S. and unable to police its own airspace (as was the case in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan), or else where it is unable to enforce its own writ, as in Yemen and one or two other weak states such as Somalia. If U.S. intelligence had discovered al-Harthi hiding out in Pakistan rather than Yemen, it would have been more likely to send rely on the local security forces to roll...
...Yemen has it's own reasons for wanting to rid itself of al-Qaeda. The country sent thousands of young men to join the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and hundreds more drifted over there in the 1990s and became disciples of bin Laden. That left Yemen with one of the Arab world's largest concentrations of al-Qaeda supporters, which threatens President Saleh's plans to strengthen ties with the West. Recent suspected al-Qaeda operations in Yemen have included attacks on a French oil tanker and a U.S. oil company, underscoring the terrorist threat...
...Some Americans may question the evidentiary standards used to determine just who is eligible for summary execution-by-drone, but such qualms are likely to be muted by claims that the Yemen strike eliminated an active al-Qaeda kingpin. The danger arises when such operations go awry, particularly on the basis of bad intelligence - as has happened more than once in air strikes over Afghanistan. Positively identifying suspects usually requires human intelligence input from the ground, and therein lies considerable room for both mistakes and manipulation. Such mistakes cost the U.S. dearly, and officials are likely to demand extra precautions...