[Peace-discuss] Jonathan Marshall: How US Policy Helps Al Qaeda in Yemen

Thu Aug 3 20:40:54 UTC 2017

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/08/01/how-us-policy-helps-al-qaeda-in-yemen/

How US Policy Helps Al Qaeda in Yemen
August 1, 2017

*Exclusive:* President Trump – like President Obama – is working at cross
purposes in supposedly fighting Al Qaeda in Yemen while helping Saudi
Arabia kill Al Qaeda’s chief Yemeni enemies, as Jonathan Marshall explains.

By Jonathan Marshall

In a world of bad actors, one of the “baddest” of all is the Yemen-based
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which the CIA once branded
<https://www.cia.gov/news-information/speeches-testimony/speeches-testimony-archive-2011/statement-on-the-terrorist-threat-after-9-11.html>
“the
most dangerous regional node in the global jihad.” It masterminded
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda_in_the_Arabian_Peninsula> the
bombing of the USS Cole in 2000; nearly blew up a U.S. passenger jet flying
into Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009; brought down a UPS cargo plane in
2010; and sponsored the 2015 attack on the offices of *Charlie Hebdo* magazine
in Paris, killing 11 and wounding another 11.

All of which raises an embarrassing question: Why is the United States
supporting AQAP’s main ally in Yemen, Saudi Arabia?

The respected news publication *Middle East Eye reports
<http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hold-al-qaeda-terrorists-who-are-tv-celebs-saudi-arabia-337403360>*
that
Abdulmajid al-Zindani, a Yemeni cleric, “veteran al-Qaeda supporter,” and
“former spiritual adviser to Osama bin Laden,” has been operating freely in
Saudi Arabia, even posting YouTube videos lauding the Saudi war in his home
country.

Apparently no one in Riyadh cares that he’s been on the U.S.
Treasury’s Specially
Designated Global Terrorist List
<https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/js1190.aspx> since
2004, identified as a recruiter for terrorist training camps and a key
purchaser of weapons for al-Qaeda and other extremist groups. Indeed,
Zindani “has been warmly received by senior clerics and officials,”
including one adviser to the Royal Court, according to *Middle East Eye*.

The publication’s sources further allege that “at least five Yemenis
designated as terrorists by the U.S. Treasury have advised and coordinated
Saudi operations in Yemen with allied forces on the ground.” One senior
al-Qaeda supporter in Yemen, Nayif al-Qaysi, has been repeatedly
interviewed in Saudi Arabia by fawning television stations. He served as
governor of the Yemeni city of Bayda until late July.

Most bizarre of all, one notorious al-Qaeda fundraiser, who has lived in
Saudi Arabia for nearly three years, turned up on a list of terrorists whom
Saudi Arabia accused Qatar of harboring. Saudi Arabia and four other Arab
states broke diplomatic and economic ties
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/05/world/middleeast/qatar-saudi-arabia-egypt-bahrain-united-arab-emirates.html>
with
Qatar in early June, in part over allegations that Doha supports extremists.

*The Devastation of Yemen*

Since March 2015
<https://consortiumnews.com/2015/04/13/how-washington-adds-to-yemens-nightmare/>,
Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and other Arab allies have been
laying waste to Yemen with logistic support from the United States. They
are fighting to wrest control of the country from Houthi militants and
their ally, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Riyadh aims to reinstate
Saleh’s rival, President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, whose legal mandate ended
in January 2015.

Tens of thousands of Yemenis have died from the fighting, historic cities
have been pulverized by criminal
<http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-saudi-yemen-idUSKCN12A0BQ> Saudi
bombing raids, and more than 400,000 people have contracted deadly cholera
<http://www.ipsnews.net/2017/07/yemen-records-400000-cholera-cases/>.
Almost two million children and millions more adults suffer from
malnutrition owing to war-related disruptions of food supplies and a Saudi
blockade of Yemen’s ports.

Suffering and chaos provide ideal breeding grounds for AQAP
<https://consortiumnews.com/2016/02/25/how-us-helps-al-qaeda-in-yemen/>,
which took control of a provincial capital and one of Yemen’s largest ports
for many months. A special report last year by Reuters concluded
<http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/yemen-aqap> that “the
Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, . . . backed by the United
States, has helped Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to become stronger
than at any time since it first emerged almost 20 years ago.”

Even the UAE newspaper *The National* conceded
<https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/al-qaeda-exploits-schisms-and-shortages-to-thrive-in-yemen-1.612781>
last
month: “In the absence of a political resolution that addresses local
grievances and builds and empowers a central state that can provide jobs
and services, Al Qaeda has filled vacuums and its fighters have found a
role, while a sectarian narrative that is promoted by the group has
increasing traction.”

This matters not only because of AQAP’s potential threat to U.S. security,
but because the only possible legal rationale for continued U.S. military
involvement in Yemen is the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force
Against Terrorists, which approves operations *against* al-Qaeda, not in
support of its allies. Members of Congress are growing restive
<http://lobelog.com/congress-takes-a-stand-against-u-s-involvement-in-yemen/>
about
such legal issues as U.S. tax dollars fund the ongoing humanitarian
catastrophe in Yemen, with no end in sight.

*Getting Stronger*

*AQAP has gained traction by taking advantage of growing local resentment
<https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/al-qaedas-base-in-yemen> toward
U.S. and UAE counterterrorism operations that result in the murder
or torture
<https://apnews.com/4925f7f0fa654853bd6f2f57174179fe/US-interrogates-detainees-in-Yemen-prisons-rife-with-torture>
of
suspects.*

In a weird twist, typical of the war’s endlessly shifting alliances, AQAP
has also joined pro-Saudi forces
<http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/yemen-war-al-qaeda-trying-take-control-taiz-city-730077656>
in
bloody offensives to retake the southern city of Taiz from Houthi rebels.

“We fight along all Muslims in Yemen, together with different Islamic
groups,” against the Houthis, said
<http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/al-qaida-leader-group-fought-alongside-us-backed-47125267>
Qasim
al-Rimi, the senior military commander of AQAP, this spring.

Although the United States put a $5 million price
<https://rewardsforjustice.net/english/qasim_al_rimi.html> on al-Rimi’s
head, Associated Press reported that his forces “regularly receive funds
and weapons from the U.S.-backed Saudi led coalition.”

Ironically, just hours before U.S. commandos killed another prominent
AQAP-linked tribal leader in late January (along with several children),
that leader had arranged for the Saudi-backed coalition of President Hadi
to pay his tribal fighters
<http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2017/03/resolving-the-conflict-in-yemen-u-s-interests-risks-and-policy.php>
$60,000
to join in the fight against Houthi rebels.

No wonder the International Crisis Group recently reported
<https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/gulf-and-arabian-peninsula/yemen/174-yemen-s-al-qaeda-expanding-base>
that
“The Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda is stronger than it has ever been,” and that
AQAP “is thriving in an environment of state collapse, growing
sectarianism, shifting alliances, security vacuums and a burgeoning war
economy.” AQAP, it added, has “emerged arguably as the biggest winners of
the failed political transition and civil war that followed.”

Targeting Islamist tribal leaders with more bombs, drones, and military
raids — as the Trump administration seems inclined to do
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-weighs-deeper-involvement-in-yemen-war/2017/03/26/b81eecd8-0e49-11e7-9d5a-a83e627dc120_story.html>
—
will simply aggravate civilian suffering and strengthen AQAP’s political
base. There’s only one way to dry up its support: the international
community must demand a cease-fire, send foreign armies packing, promote a
political settlement among all Yemeni stakeholders, and send food and
medical aid to alleviate the population’s extraordinary suffering.

*Jonathan Marshall is a regular contributor to Consortiumnews.com.*

===

Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1 <(202)%20448-2898>

Force Vote on Saudi-Yemen War to Save a Million Kids from Cholera
https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/force-vote-on-saudi-war?r_by=1135580
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