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The U.S. cited threats from al-Qaeda Sunday as it closed its embassy in
Yemen. SAN'A, Yemen (AP) Western embassies in Yemen locked up Sunday after
fresh threats from al-Qaeda, and the White House expressed alarm at the
terror group's expanded reach in the poor Arab nation where an offshoot
apparently ordered the Christmas Day plot against a U.S. airliner.
President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, cited
"indications al-Qaeda is planning to carry out an attack against a
target" in the capital, possibly the embassy, and estimated the group
had several hundred members in Yemen. Security reasons led Britain to
act, too; it was not known when the embassies would reopen. The U.S. is worried about the spread of terrorism in Yemen, a U.S. ally
and aid recipient, Brennan said, but doesn't consider the country a
second front with Afghanistan and Pakistan in the fight against terrorism. As to whether U.S. troops might be sent to Yemen, Brennan replied:
"We're not talking about that at this point at all." He pledged to
provide the Yemeni government with "the wherewithal" to take down al-Qaeda. Britain and the United States are assisting a counterterrorism police
unit in Yemen as fears grow about the increasing threat of international
terrorism originating from the country. The Obama administration claims that the suspect in the plot against the
Detroit-bound plane was trained and armed by the al-Qaeda affiliate in
Yemen. Brennan blamed a series of what he called lapses and human errors
in U.S. intelligence and security defenses for allowing a Nigerian man
to board the plane with explosives. He tried to detonate them as the
aircraft approached Detroit on Dec. 25. The Transportation Security Administration announced Sunday that,
starting Monday, passengers flying into the United States from Nigeria,
Yemen and other "countries of interest" will be subject to enhanced
screening techniques, such as body scans and pat-downs. Yemen is a poor, decentralized and predominantly Muslim country on the
Arabian Peninsula. It is the ancestral homeland of al-Qaeda leader Osama
bin Laden, and the site of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which
killed 17 U.S. sailors. A 2008 attack on the U.S. Embassy killed one
American. Given the active threat from al-Qaeda, "we're not going to take any
chances," Brennan said from Washington during appearances on four Sunday
talk shows. Sen. Joe Lieberman identified three instances in which terrorists or
sympathizers penetrated or evaded U.S defenses last year shootings at
a military recruiting station and an Army base and the airline attack
and said all three were linked to Yemen. "We've got to focus there pre-emptively, and I'm confident we will,"
said Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut. The Yemeni government, which issued no official comment on the embassy
closures, is friendly to the West but the population is often
mistrustful of Western motives and influence. Yemen has pledged to clamp
down on militancy, but government control is weak outside the capital
and the country has a history of freeing some alleged militants and
tolerating others. The Obama administration is growing more vocal about both the threat and
the San'a government's limitations. Brennan said Westerners are at risk
in Yemen until the government gets a better handle on extremism. The U.S. will look case by case at whether to repatriate the remaining
approximately 90 Yemeni detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison
camp, Brennan said. Seven of 42 Guantanamo detainees freed by the Obama administration were
returned to Yemen, Brennan said, but doubts about the country's ability
to police further freed detainees is a major obstacle to Obama's plan to
shut down the facility. Brennan reaffirmed the U.S. administration's
support for the closure, but said that with regard to the Yemeni
detainees, nothing would be done to put U.S. citizens at risk. U.S. officials say terrorists are seeking new places to operate,
including Yemen, Somalia and Southeast Asia, in part because of pressure
on their previous sanctuaries in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Some U.S. officials have said privately that Yemen's location at the
heart of the Arab world, its history of tribal control, poverty,
corruption and an ongoing civil war could make it the crucible of a
future war. Brennan said the Obama administration is trying to head off
the threat now. Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. general who oversees the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, made a surprise visit to Yemen over the weekend. Following
meetings with President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Petraeus announced that
Washington this year will more than double the $67 million in
counterterrorism aid that it provided Yemen in 2009. The U.S. and Britain are funding a counterterrorism police unit in
Yemen, and Britain plans to host an international conference Jan. 28 to
come up with a strategy to counter radicalization in Yemen. The United States has increased military cooperation with Yemen, with
intelligence and other help to back two Yemeni air and ground assaults
on al-Qaeda hide-outs last month that were reported to have killed more
than 60 people. Yemeni authorities said more than 30 suspected militants
were among the dead. The U.S. has stepped up intelligence, surveillance and training aid to
Yemeni forces during the past year, and provided some firepower, a
senior U.S. defense official has said. Some of that assistance may be
through the expanded use of unmanned drones, and the U.S. is providing
funding to Yemen for helicopters and other equipment. Officials,
however, say there are no U.S. ground forces or fighter aircraft in Yemen. On Thursday, the U.S. Embassy sent a notice to Americans in Yemen urging
them to be vigilant about security. Yemeni security officials said over the weekend that the country had
deployed several hundred extra troops to Marib and Jouf, two mountainous
eastern provinces that are al-Qaeda's main strongholds in the country
and where airliner suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab may have visited
last year. U.S. intelligence agencies did not miss a telltale sign that that could
have prevented the 23-year-old Nigerian man's alleged attempt to blow up
the airliner, Brennan said. "There is no smoking gun," Brennan said. "There was no single piece of
intelligence that said, 'this guy is going to get on a plane."' Brennan is leading a White House review of the incident. Obama ordered a
thorough look at the shortcomings that permitted the plot, which failed
not because of U.S. actions but because the would-be attacker was unable
to ignite an explosive device. The president has summoned homeland
security officials to meet with him in the White House Situation Room on
Tuesday. Brennan cited "a number of streams of information" the suspect's name
was known to intelligence officials, his father had passed along his
concern about the son's increasing radicalization and "little
snippets" from intelligence channels. "But there was nothing that
brought it all together." "In this one instance, the system didn't work. There were some human
errors. There were some lapses. We need to strengthen it." Brennan didn't say whether anyone is in line to be fired because of the
oversights. He stood by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano,
although he acknowledged she has "taken some hits" for saying that the
airline security system had worked. It didn't, and she clarified her
remarks to show she meant that the system worked only after the attack
was foiled, Brennan said.
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