Don't Mess With Yemen -- Steven Metz, New Republic
Not so long ago, few Americans, very much including policy wonks and military officers, knew anything about Yemen. Government officials couldn’t even find it on a map, though it was right there, sprawling across the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. Yet over the past year or so, a flood of reports were splashed across America's front pages, cautioning that Yemen was on the verge of being transformed into the next Afghanistan—a place where Al Qaeda could live, train, even thrive and plot with impunity. On Christmas day 2009, a Yemeni trained terrorist tried to detonate a U.S. passenger aircraft in Detroit. And now two packages have arrived from Yemen, addressed to synagogues in Chicago, but, according to official reports, rigged to blow up the planes transporting them. Within the space of a few hours, then, Yemen went from a desert strip many Americans had never heard of to the epicenter of the war between Al Qaeda and the West.
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More News On Yemen
Yemen’s Drive on Al Qaeda Faces Internal Skepticism -- New York Times
South Yemen car bomb kills two, wounds 22: security official -- AFP
Source: Syringes surface in Yemen terror inquiry -- CNN
Atop Yemen Al-Qaeda, a militant who vows to hit US -- Arab News
Al-Qaida in Arabian Peninsula Comes Into Its Own -- Voice of America
Germany bans passenger flights from Yemen -- Business Recorder
Inside Yemen: Impact of cargo and flight restrictions -- BBC
US Ban On Yemen Air Cargo To Be Lifted Within 2 Wks-Yemeni Exec -- Wall Street Journal
US Officials: Military Wants To Boost Aid To Yemen -- NPR/AP
US involvement in Yemen edging toward 'clandestine war' -- Christian Science Monitor
Yemen's local and global terrorism: No quick fixes -- The Economist
Western pressure on Yemen could backfire -- Mohideen Mifthah, Times Online
Why Yemen? -- Al-Ahram Weekly