NEWS & LETTERS, Janurary-February 2010
World in View
Yemen in U.S. sights
by Gerry Emmett
The December bombing of alleged al-Qaeda camps in the impoverished Sa'ada province of Yemen killed 120 people and injured many more. This represents a dangerous new escalation of the U.S.'s "war on terror." This endless war has already moved from Afghanistan to Iraq, then Pakistan, and now Somalia and Yemen are feeling its effects.
It is particularly ominous viewed against the regional backdrop of increasing militarization. Across the Gulf of Aden is the violent chaos of Somalia where al-Shabaab militants attack and murder relief workers, whip women wearing bras, and desecrate Sufi Muslim shrines and mosques. The U.S. has supplied arms to the Somali government, and staged an attack on al-Qaeda in southern Somalia last September.
Thousands of young Somali refugees have fled the fighting there and sought refuge in Yemen, many to avoid becoming child soldiers. In Yemen they are stigmatized as potential al-Qaeda recruits.
Yemen's own government is divided, with one intelligence agency, the Political Services Organization, having historical links to al-Qaeda. It has been accused of complicity in the escape from prison of dozens of al-Qaeda members, including Nasir al-Wahayshi, leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Thus U.S. pressure has resulted in the creation of a second intelligence service, the National Security Agency. Ironically, it is staffed in part by former Baathist members of Saddam Hussein's secret service. (Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh was a great friend and admirer of the Iraqi dictator.) This agency took credit for targeting the camps bombed by the U.S.
However, there is another aspect. The area bombed by the U.S. is also the home of Houthi rebels, of the Shi'a Zaidiyyah sect. They have been fighting against the Yemeni government which they see as dominated by Sunnis and particularly the Saudi-aligned Wahhabis. Thousands have died since this conflict flared up in 2004, and the Houthis have been condemned by relief agencies for the use of child soldiers.
This comes against the background of huge new U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Egypt had not been allowed to purchase U.S. arms during the Bush administration. These arms sales are aimed at Ahmadinejad's repressive, corrupt and discredited government today. In the hands of such reactionary and repressive regimes, these missiles and bombs will equally be aimed at a potentially revolutionary new government in Iran. The horrors of that possible scenario were played out through the 1980s in the Iran-Iraq War and must not be allowed to repeat.
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