webmaster
© Copyright DEHAI-Eritrea OnLine, 1993-2010
All rights reserved
From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Thu Aug 26 2010 - 08:05:55 EDT
"Constant war is regarded as preferable to seeing fundamentalists take
over, so corrupt officials from the central government are supported
over local self-determination, and a blind eye is turned to what
regional allies like Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia do, without reflecting
that this only increases sympathy for the enemy. Stability should
really be the highest aim in any security policy, but in Somalia and
Yemen, the opposite is achieved."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,713899,00.html
The World from Berlin
The West Is 'Playing the Wrong Card' in Yemen
The failed bombing of an airliner on Christmas Day brought the
possible threat posed by radical Islamists in Yemen firmly into focus.
Media reports this week suggest that the US is now looking to escalate
its military operations in the Arab country. Some in the German press
warn that this could be a mistake.
The US may become further embroiled in the fight against al-Qaida's
offshoot in Yemen.
A report in the Washington Post this week said that the CIA believes
that al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has surpassed its parent
organization, Osama bin Laden's Pakistan-based al-Qaida, as a threat
to the United States. The newspaper reported that the CIA wants to
increase clandestine military operations in Yemen, including the use
of covert armed drones.
On Wednesday, a counter-terrorism official told Reuters that the
terrorists in Yemen were "not feeling the same kind of heat -- not yet
anyway -- as their friends in the tribal areas." Speaking on condition
of anonymity the official said that al-Qaida was still "extremely
dangerous" in Pakistan, but while the pressure had to be kept up
there, "we have to spread it to al-Qaida's nodes and affiliates
elsewhere."
The radical Islamists in the impoverished Arab country have
increasingly become a priority in Washington following the failed
attempt to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas
Day, 2009. The suspect is thought to have been trained by the Yemeni
group.
On Wednesday, senior officials told the Associated Press that the
White House was now considering the use of armed Predator drones in
Yemen. One unnamed official said that planning was in the early stages
and would only be done with the cooperation of the government in
San'a.
However, the Yemeni government has previously indicated its opposition
to the use of drones in the country. Yemen's ambassador to the UN,
Abdullah al-Saidi said earlier this year that it would only build
support for radicalization. "Yemen will not allow it," he told AP.
The central government, which is fighting a rebellion by Shiite
tribesmen in the north and a separatist movement in the south, is wary
of becoming even more unpopular as a result of any civilian casualties
caused by US operations.
On Thursday, some of Germany's editorialists take a look at the US
plans to focus more on Yemen.
The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:
"Yemen's al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and the increasingly strong
and aggressive al-Shabab militia in Somalia are acting to destabilize
not only their own countries but the entire region of the Arabian
Peninsula and East Africa. If they were to have success in San'a or
Mogadishu then it would be the greatest triumph of radical Islam since
Sept. 11, 2001."
"Somalia has long been a failed state and Yemen is not too far from
becoming one. In both countries there are areas where the rule of law
does not apply, a factor that can be exploited by international
terrorists. And they are tolerated by the local population because the
West continues to play the wrong card. Constant war is regarded as
preferable to seeing fundamentalists take over, so corrupt officials
from the central government are supported over local
self-determination, and a blind eye is turned to what regional allies
like Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia do, without reflecting that this only
increases sympathy for the enemy. Stability should really be the
highest aim in any security policy, but in Somalia and Yemen, the
opposite is achieved."
The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:
"The terrorist group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula can make use of
Yemen for two reasons: the continuing weakness of the central
government in San'a and the tensions between some rival tribes and
clans. Where the central power is weak -- as in Afghanistan, Yemen or
Somalia (where it really only exists on paper) -- then the terrorists
can move all the more freely. In Washington, the analysis is that the
situation will only escalate further militarily. The outlook is not
good for countries in the strategically important Horn of Africa."
-- Siobhán Dowling
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----