Yemen: Model for Our Counter Terrorism Efforts, but Not a Good Model

by Jack

“Sen. Richard Burr, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told The Daily Beast that unfolding events in Yemen portended a dire future for U.S. policy across the region.

“We’re totally out. Forward looking, this is what the region is going to look like if we don’t take care of al Qaeda, we don’t take care of ISIL, we don’t take Iran’s involvement with the Houthis,” Burr said, using the government’s preferred acronym for the so-called Islamic State.

“Yemen is going to be, in the president’s own words, a ‘model,’ [but] not of success, [instead] of absolute failure of our foreign policy!” (Thank you Mr. president)yemenpic56

Burr was referring to prior public assurances from President Obama that despite an escalating crisis in Yemen and waning U.S. influence there following the upheaval of the Arab Spring, counterterrorism operations were still a model of success and would inform future missions.

“It’s a big setback,” Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer with extensive experience in the Middle East, said of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Yemen, which now more than ever seems in the grips of an outright civil war. “Without both a U.S. presence on the ground or a reliable ally, it will be much more difficult to target al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” Riedel told The Daily Beast, referring to the terror group’s Yemeni branch—the one that U.S. intelligence officials say is most capable of attacking in Europe and the United States. “Much of eastern Yemen will be a chaotic no man’s land where al Qaeda can operate.”

In another area of the Obama chaos…ISIS just released names and addresses of 100 US military personnel they say are targeted. When the list first appeared online Saturday, defense officials said that they believed some of the troops listed had been named publicly but did not say they had often been on military sites. Defense officials said that 58 of those listed on the site served in the Air Force, 41 in the Navy or Marines, and one from the U.S. Army.

Pentagon officials declined to comment Monday on the discovery of the “hit list” names on public websites, saying the FBI is leading the investigation. Officials said they still are not certain the “hacking division” webpage is indeed affiliated with the self-proclaimed Islamic State.”

Prior to the above release, the division calling itself the Cyber Caliphate threatened troops and released a list of email addresses and phone numbers for top military brass and former officials in January during the CENTCOM social media hacking incident.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.