From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Jan 26 2010 - 06:56:42 EST
Briefing on Yemen
Daniel Benjamin
Coordinator, Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism
Washington, DC
January 26, 2010
_____
MR. CROWLEY: Good afternoon, and welcome to the Department of State. This
week Secretary Clinton will travel to London. She'll leave tomorrow night
and will participate on Wednesday in an international meeting on Yemen, and
then Thursday at the international conference on Afghanistan.
But I thought to kind of put our current relationship with Yemen into
context and the ongoing efforts to work with Yemen on security, we thought
it would be a good time to bring to the briefing room Ambassador-at-Large
and Coordinator for Counterterrorism here at the State Department Dan
Benjamin, just to give a little background on this. And I'm sure you might
have some questions on activities over the weekend as well.
So with that, we'll start off with Dan Benjamin.
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: Thanks very much P.J. I'll be brief. As you know,
there's been a great deal of discussion about Yemen since the December 25th
conspiracy. The Secretary will be discussing Yemen, along with 21 other -
leaders from 21 other countries later this week at the conference in London.
Obviously, she views this as being an enormously important matter and is
missing the State of the Union for that reason.
There was a lot of Yemen-related activity last week. Assistant Secretary
Jeff Feltman and I both testified on matters in Yemen. In fact, I testified
multiple times. The Yemeni foreign minister was here last week and had a
very good meeting with the Secretary.
I think it's important to underscore a few points about what is going on in
our relationship with Yemen. First of all, it is very much a two-prong
strategy we have. There's been a lot of attention paid to the work we're
doing with the Yemeni Government to increase its ability to take care of its
own security threats and to take on, in particular, al-Qaida in the Arabian
Peninsula. That is vitally important.
But we also know that if we're going to have a sustainable long-term
engagement with Yemen, if we're going to deal with the threats that it faces
and that we face as well, it's going to require a sustained engagement to
deal with that country's very serious economic problems, particularly the
depletion of natural resources. It's got serious demographic challenges -
water, a depleting water table, and also its governance problems and social
issues. And so our assistance is very much aimed at doing that as well. We
can talk about it a little more in detail if you like.
I should say that we are very pleased by the strong stance that President
Salih and his government have taken in terms of confronting al-Qaida,
particularly since the December 17th engagements, operations that have
continued through until this month. But I should also note that this is not
- it may appear on the surface to be a suddenly new involvement in things
Yemeni for the United States. But in fact, this Administration has been
engaged on Yemen really since the very beginning. The new Administration
came in and recognized early on that al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula was
gaining strength and was going to pose a significant terrorist threat and
ordered up a comprehensive policy review to ensure that we were using all
the tools at our power to deal with the terrorist threat there. That review
was completed in the fall. We have been talking to the Yemenis consistently.
As you know, Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan has visited twice
and has been a regular interlocutor with the leadership there. General
Petraeus has been there, Secretary Feltman, and so on.
Al-Qaida in Yemen is certainly not a new phenomenon in itself. In fact,
al-Qaida in the region really appeared before we even used the term
"al-Qaida." Probably the first attack ever carried out by people inspired by
Usama bin Ladin happened in December of 1992; that is, while the first
President Bush was still in office, and involved a hotel in Aden in which
U.S. troops were staying as they were going and coming from Somalia.
Fortunately, no Americans were killed in that attack, although I believe two
other individuals were.
I should just - returning to the State Department, I should note that the -
that our designation - the Secretary's designation of al-Qaida as a Foreign
Terrorist Organization became official last week. It was - the ball was
actually rolling on that long, long before December 25th. It's a very -
I'm sorry?
QUESTION: Do you mean AQAP?
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: Yeah.
QUESTION: You said al-Qaida.
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: Sorry, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The - she
actually signed the documents that would trigger the congressional
notifications and that we use as a basis for going to the UN to make this a
designation under UN Security Council Resolution 1267, well before the 25th.
And we're pleased that this group and its top two leaders have been
designated there as well.
So, with that, why don't I stop? And I will - as P.J., mentioned, there's
been a lot of other activity in the terrorism areas, and so I'm happy to
answer your questions.
QUESTION: Can I just - when he was here last week, the Yemeni foreign
minister pretty much put the blame on everyone but him and his government
for things that are going wrong there. He complained about aid not getting
through from the previous pledging conference. And I'm just wondering, do
you agree with that assessment?
MR. CROWLEY: Well, I'm not sure I agree with your assessment of his remarks,
and I would say that a week or two before that I was actually on CNN with
him - he from Sanaa and I from Washington. And he acknowledged his own
government's blame for not always keeping al-Qaida front and center as it's
dealt with a number of different security challenges. But I would say that
the 2006 donors conference at the time seemed quite successful, but it is
true, in fact, that a lot of that money has not been delivered. So there is
a real issue there. And it is probably also true that, with a lot of other
things going on in the international community and a lot of other countries
in need of assistance, Yemen may have not gotten all the attention from the
international community that it deserved at various points.
QUESTION: So you would then agree with his assessment and you -
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: No, I would say that there's - he had - there was
certainly some truth in what he was saying.
QUESTION: His words were pretty strong. I mean, if you go back and look at
the transcript, I mean, he basically said that President Salih had made
courageous decisions on reform and that they were basically getting screwed
by the international community. So --
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: Well, I was standing there and that wasn't the sense I
had of it, but I'm not going to quibble with you over that. What I would say
is that the international community made a number of commitments to Yemen
and they haven't always been delivered, and Yemenis, as we know, have also
sometimes made commitments and haven't always fallen - followed through on
those. So the important thing is that the government's doing the right thing
now, and we want to use that as a basis for going forward.
QUESTION: Dan?
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: Yes, Elise.
QUESTION: A couple of things. Can you flesh out more about the conference
itself and what the division of dealing - helping Yemen deal with its
counterterrorism problem versus helping build the kind of long-term, stable
state that - you know, with social and economic development? I mean, what's
going to be the division of labor at the conference?
And then also, as you see what's going on in Yemen - not that you haven't
been paying attention to it before, but there are also other kind of states
in the region and elsewhere that are considered, I guess, failed states or
weak states and could have an opportunity for al-Qaida to flourish. And I
was wondering if there was any more attention - consideration being given in
the Department about how you have to do more preventative counterterrorism
than kind of reactive. Thanks.
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: Let me take the second question first. One of the
problems that you face in - when fighting terrorism is that terrorists are
usually not defending a lot of territory and are quite mobile. And part of
the reason that AQAP has become a more potent threat in recent years is that
Saudi Arabia did such a superb job in ramping up its counterterrorism
efforts in the wake of the May 2003 attacks there. And as a result, really
al-Qaida within Saudi Arabia was put out of business for quite a while and
has not really been heard from in some time. But a number of the most
dangerous operatives did move from Saudi Arabia to Yemen and sort of swelled
the ranks of the AQAP core there.
So we're always going to face that problem of mobility, and Yemen had some
attractions for the terrorists because of its geography and also because the
multiplicity of different actors in their domestic politics - the power of
tribes, the fact that some areas are more governed than others - that was
one of the things that was attractive.
Now, the one country, obviously, that we're really concerned about in this
when it comes to weak governance or non-governance is Somalia, and that
obviously is an enormous challenge for us, as it has been since the
government collapsed there decades ago. And we continue to work to
strengthen the TFG, the Transitional Federal Government, and to work with
Somalia's neighbors to ensure that any terrorism does not bleed out from
there.
If you look at the other countries right around there, certainly on the
Arabian Peninsula, there aren't any weak states of note; at least none are
coming to my mind. But we always have to worry about the possibility of un-
or under-governed areas becoming safe havens, and I think prevention is very
much what this Administration is about. And if you go back, for example, to
the Secretary's development speech, if you go back to John Brennan's speech
on counterterrorism in which he talked about the upstream factors that
contribute to the terrorist phenomenon, one of them is weak governance. And
it is absolutely true that we're focusing on that quite seriously. There are
a number of different programs going on. Border security is a big issue for
us in my particular office but also in other offices in the State Department
and in DOD and elsewhere around the government. So we are looking at that.
Now, on your first question, as I understand it, and I'm standing ready to
be corrected by P.J., the meeting itself will be two hours, and this is
going to be of the nature of a kickoff in an effort to consolidate a lot of
the different concerns that have been voiced and the initiatives that are
being taken right now, and then the real brass tacks work will continue in a
number of working groups that are going to be created there in the next
month or so. Because of the quickness with which - the rapidity with which
this came up and the fact that we have the Afghanistan conference as well,
it's not really the place where there's going to be a lot of detail work
done.
But this is very important for marshaling international support and making
sure that this effort gets off to a good start.
QUESTION: The Secretary, when she's talked about Yemen, said in the past
that the Yemeni Government would be held to specific - there would be
requirements imposed on it, that we're not just sort of ready to hand over
aid without looking for something in return. Can you talk a little bit about
what specifically we're looking for them to do that they aren't doing now?
And if you can go back to the 2006 conference, this $5 billion or whatever
it was that was pledged, what in fact was holding it up? Is it - was it
concern - was it that the government simply didn't produce the money that
they promised? Or was it concern that the Yemeni Government was somehow
going to misuse that money once it made it to the ground? And if it's the
latter, are those concerns gone now, or do we still have some concerns about
how they might use the money?
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: Well, I confess I wasn't in government in 2006 or in
the immediate aftermath, but my understanding is that a lot of that had to
do with a certain amount of donor fatigue, the concurrent claims of Iraq,
Afghanistan, and a number of other places, and clearly, December 25th had an
electrifying impact and made the international community, many members of
the international community, think that this was a time to get past the
excuses and get back to work.
There - to be quite frank, there have been questions at times about the
Government of Yemen's absorptive capacity. And that is something that we
monitor carefully and that the other donors will be monitoring carefully,
and one of the key things that we hope will come out of this is the kind of
coordination that leads to non-duplication, and to ensuring that resources
are being targeted where they can be productively used.
Now, the Secretary's remarks - it's important to note, first of all, that
most of our - virtually all of our assistance to Yemen outside of the
security sector goes straight to NGOs and other actors in the country who
are on the ground and who can put these funds to good work. I'm sure that
what the Secretary meant was a continued engagement on the threats that
we're very concerned about - AQAP - but also that these resources go towards
the kind of development goals that we know that will produce stability in
Yemen and a basis for a stronger government that can deal with the critical
problems it faces.
I think it would be premature to lay out a grid of benchmarks or anything
like that, but obviously, as with all of our assistance, we'll be watching
carefully how it will be used.
QUESTION: Can I ask another one? Can you talk - we've heard a little bit
about it, but could you talk about - the Saudis are claiming that Iran has a
big hand in what's going on in some of these conflicts in Yemen not only
with the Houthis, but perhaps supporting al-Qaida? Is there any evidence to
support those claims?
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: We do not have independent confirmation of Iranian
engagement in Yemen, in the Houthi conflict or, as far as I know, anywhere
else. But I know that most of the attention has been to the contention that
the Iranians were supporting the Houthis.
QUESTION: So you think it's just black market kind of - Yemen, I know, is
like, really kind of bazaar of weapons. But I mean, who's arming --
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: Well --
QUESTION: Who's arming these people? Where are they getting their support if
not from a country like Iran? Is it just kind of the black market bazaar in
Yemen where they're getting their --
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: Yemen has for a long time been one of the most heavily
armed countries in the world. And if there are additional weapons making
their way into the country, I don't know that we have identified a single
state backing them. Frankly, I don't have anything on that, but --
QUESTION: Thanks.
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: -- there are a lot of weapons in Yemen.
QUESTION: Can I ask a non-Yemen question?
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: Sure.
QUESTION: Back in September of last year, there was - there were some
threats reported in South Africa, the embassies - Embassy and consulates
closed down. And I'm just wondering, did that - did anything ever - was
anything ever resolved on that? And are there any concerns about the World
Cup?
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: There - I remember it and I remember the outcome, and I
know that the issues were sufficiently resolved that after the Embassy
closed, it was reopened because the security concerns had been dealt with.
What precisely happened and - is something that if you want to follow up
with me afterward, we can find out exactly what happened.
As for the World Cup, we know that all --
QUESTION: Was it at all related? It wasn't related, was it? World Cup and
what was - what -
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: No, it was not directly related to the World Cup. I
mean, it was well in advance of the World Cup --
QUESTION: Right. Right.
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: -- so I assume it would not be.
All large-scale sporting events are - because they bring so much of the
international community together, because they're high profile, because
there's an enormous amount of press attention - get extra concern as
possible targets. I know that the South Africans are taking this very
seriously. There have been discussions between many different security
institutions and the South Africans, and I know that they're working hard to
ensure that it'll be a safe tournament.
QUESTION: You're not aware of any outstanding threat against the
(inaudible).
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: I'm not aware of anything of a very serious nature.
QUESTION: What about the threat to the - sorry. What about the threat to the
Embassy in Yemen? I mean, I know that it's still a very high-risk area, but
have the kind of huge threats surrounding U.S. interests in Yemen that we
saw at Christmas - are you a little bit less -
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: It remains a pretty challenging security environment
for the Embassy. There's no question about that. And the insecurity in Yemen
wasn't built up - wasn't created in a day or a week, and we know that it
won't be resolved overnight. But if you recall, I think the Government of
Yemen put out an explanation at the time of either the operation on the 17th
or the 24th suggesting that it was dealing directly with some of the threats
that were at hand and that it had disrupted that operation.
QUESTION: Thanks.
QUESTION: I have one just kind of broad question. If you could kind of bring
us up to speed on your understanding of, kind of, the situation in Yemen
with regard to AQAP, and specifically with reports over the past year of it
becoming an increasing safe haven, as opposed to the Af-Pak border region,
and then people making that transition over to the lawless areas of Yemen?
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: I'm not aware of a lot of people going from - that is
to say a migration from the FATA to Yemen. What is true is that there are a
number of areas of Yemen that are, shall we say, under-governed, and they
have been attractive regions to militants for a long, long time. And as I
mentioned before, we've seen a migration of extremists from Saudi Arabia.
Undoubtedly, there have been others, but this is predominantly a
Yemeni/Saudi group, AQAP. And it has managed to do a pretty good job at
recruiting from within as well, and as a result, the threat has grown.
That's really the core of it.
QUESTION: And then to follow on that, if you could kind of give us your
sense of the coordination between Al-Shabaab and its activities inside
Yemen, especially in the Aden region.
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: I'm sorry, Al-Shabaab and?
QUESTION: And, inside Yemen and how they're trying to grow into, kind of -
especially the area around Aden. What's your assessment of how that's
progressing?
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: We have seen connections between Al-Shabaab and
al-Qaida in East Africa. We have not seen an enormous amount of Al-Shabaab
activity in Yemen. There is - there are a lot of Somali refugees in Yemen,
to be sure. Most of those refugees are fleeing the kind of chaos that
Al-Shabaab creates. So, obviously it's of great concern when you have
thriving al-Qaida or al-Qaida affiliates on both sides of the Red Sea, but
we haven't really seen a lot of evidence of that hookup yet.
QUESTION: And then just, on the other way, I guess going back the other way
with arms going back across to the Horn, is - are you seeing that
increasing, or -
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: Again, Somalia is a country that has so many weapons,
I'm not sure that whatever's going across the straits there is making a big
difference.
QUESTION: Speaking of Somalia, the last administration had made a - or at
least Jendayi Frazer had spoken about putting Eritrea on the list of state
sponsors. Is that going anywhere?
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: We are not on the moment working on that. I believe -
correct me if I'm wrong - that Eritrea is listed as non-cooperating --
QUESTION: Not fully cooperating.
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: Not fully cooperating --
QUESTION: Yeah. But -
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: -- on some CT issues. But we haven't taken it beyond
that, and we feel that's the right place right now in terms of working with
the Eritreans to resolve some of our issues.
QUESTION: Are you actually working with the Eritreans? My understanding was
that they pretty much weren't interested.
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: They're not the most communicative people on earth.
Let's - let me be -- (laughter).
QUESTION: Hey --
QUESTION: So - well, wait. So where does that leave it right now? Where --
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: Well, we haven't stopped communicating to them.
QUESTION: Okay.
QUESTION: Dan, on - Usama bin Ladin's claim on this tape that he -
AMBASSADOR BENJAIM: I was wondering when that was going to come up.
QUESTION: Yeah. That he was responsible and he masterminded and - the
Christmas Day attack. Do you believe this to be true? Do you see a lot of
coordination between, like, al-Qaida - AQAP, and the kind of al-Qaida
proper, or do you think that this is kind of jealousy or kind of posturing
for power?
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: If you look at the text, he doesn't actually say that
he was behind it. And he's doing what, for bin Laden, is sort of a
tried-and-true strategy of associating himself with it and, in that way,
sort of trying to get some of the reflected glory of the moment, if you can
call it that. But in terms of the relationship between AQAP and the FATA,
it's probably tighter than it is between al-Qaida senior leadership and any
of the other affiliates, but that doesn't mean that there was command and
control by any means. And I think that we would characterize the role of the
senior leadership in this context as being mostly about broad guidelines,
general targeting priorities, things like that, and generally sort of
pushing out an exhortation to do something, particularly because the
pressure on the group in the FATA is so great. So I think that's really what
it's about. You know bin Ladin's been trying to put his fingerprints on just
about everything that's happened for years, and in that regard I think we're
kind of used to it.
QUESTION: Thanks.
QUESTION: Thank you.
AMBASSADOR BENJAMIN: Sure, my pleasure.
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