December 22, 2009
ABC News

Obama Ordered U.S. Military Strike on Yemen Terrorists

Brian Ross et al

On orders from President Barack Obama, the U.S. military launched cruise missiles early Thursday against two suspected al-Qaeda sites in Yemen, administration officials told ABC News in a report broadcast on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.

One of the targeted sites was a suspected al Qaeda training camp north of the capitol, Sanaa, and the second target was a location where officials said "an imminent attack against a U.S. asset was being planned."

The Yemen attacks by the U.S. military represent a major escalation of the Obama administration's campaign against al Qaeda. . . .

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"Oil Reserves in Yemen," oilgasarticles.com, September 1, 2006

"Yemen: New frontier in US 'war on terror'," BBC News, December 24, 2009

[Al-Alaimy told parliament that 23 militants were killed, including Yemenis, Saudis, Egyptians and Pakistanis. Witnesses, however, put the number killed at more than 60 in the heaviest strike but that the dead included mostly civilians.--"Al-Qaida fighters killed in Yemen air strikes," Guardian, December 24, 2009]

Eric Schmitt and Robert F. Worth, "U.S. Widens Terror War to Yemen, a Qaeda Bastion," New York Times, December 27, 2009

[The Haskells have claimed the man spoke for Abdulmutallab and attempted to get him aboard Northwest flight 253 without a passport.--Anthony France and Alex West, "25 Brits in jet bomb plots," Sun, December 27, 2009]

Chris Floyd, "Instant Karma: New US War Target Gets Its Own Terror Icon," chris-floyd.com, December 27, 2009

"Al Qaeda: We Planned Flight 253 Bombing," CBS News, December 28, 2009

Parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

["Yemen is the place you play Saudi Arabia against Iran . . . create Al-Qaeda fighting force in Yemen . . . Baluchistan and Pashtunistan rebel . . . Sunni-Shia . . . bombing of the US mosque was US . . . Al-Qaeda was created to prevent Sunni and Shias uniting against invasion--"Tarpley: Underwear Bomber 'Establishment Controlled Patsy!'," Alex Jones Show, December 31, 2009]

[In 2009, renewed resistance against the Yemeni regime began in southern Yemen led by leftist-leaning forces. Yemeni military forces have met this popular uprising with overt and often violent repression. . . . the group that calls . . . it is reasonable to say that its members are inspired by the philosophy and actions of groups nominally known as Al Qaida. However, as far as the Yemeni regime is concerned, its existence in Yemen in the minds of Washington and the rest of the west is quite useful. . . . the entire goal of this operation to provoke a civil war in Pakistan so these pipelines canot be built. . . . the main goal of the US and the British is to block the peaceful development of everyone else.--Ron Jacobs, "War on Terror or War on Disaffected Yemenis?," counterpunch.org, January 1, 2010]

Eileen Dannemann, "US-Israeli Complicity in Terror Plots Exposed, Media Cover-Up Flight 253 Plot," ccun.org, January 4, 2010

Thalif Deen, "Russia, China keep toehold in Yemen," Asia Times, January 7, 2010

[They finally found a WMD. Not in the desert wastes of Iraq, nor in the cellar of one of Saddam Hussein's palaces. Not in an Iranian nuclear facility. In Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's underwear.--Alexander Cockburn, "Acting Responsible," counterpunch.org, January 8, 2010]

[The intervention of the United States in Yemen - in whatever form it takes - is not simply a matter of hunting down al-Qaeda. The focus on this strategic country, along with engagement with Somalia and Kenya, is a manifestation of the increasingly cozy three-way US-Israel-India alliance that is the emphatic counter to China's surge.--M K Bhadrakumar, "Obama's Yemeni odyssey targets China," Asia Times, January 9, 2010]

[The Asia Times' M.K. Bhadrakumar, a career Indian diplomat who served in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Pakistan, and Turkey, argues that the current U.S. concern with Yemen is actually about the strategic port of Aden.--Conn Hallinan, "Terrorist Haven or Chess Piece?," counterpunch.org, January 22, 2010]

"Amnesty Int'l Report Claims U.S. Used Cluster Bombs on Yemeni Children," alternet.org, June 7, 2010

[Navy Seals, Delta Force troops, and intelligence units are working closely with the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, providing weapons, training and intelligence. And sometimes more.--Conn Hallinan, "A Lethal Blend: The US and Yemen," counterpunch.org, August 6, 2010]

David Randall and Andrew Johnson, "Yemen, the new crucible of global terrorism," Independent, October 31, 2010

Adam Entous et al, "Americans Move to Bring In Equipment and Operatives and Propose New Bases for Fight Against al Qaeda Affiliate," wsj.com, November 16, 2010

[This is the real Yemen. It is not al-Awlaki's falsified narrative of a West-hating, militant-training Yemen. It is a country of over 22 million people - over 70 per cent of whom are under the age of 25 - struggling for development--Alice Hackman, "Much more to Yemen than what we see in the news," commongroundnews.org, December 7, 2010]

[Indeed, the First Amendment not only protects the mere "attending" of a speech "promoting the violent overthrow of our government," but also the giving of such a speech. The government is absolutely barred by the Free Speech clause from punishing people even for advocating violence. That has been true since the Supreme Court's unanimous 1969 decision in Brandenburg v. Ohio, which overturned the criminal conviction of a Ku Klux Klan leader who had threatened violence against political officials in a speech. . . .

What has made Awlaki of such great concern for American officials is not any alleged operational role in Terrorism, but rather the fact that he advocates violent jihad and does so with some degree of efficacy.--Glenn Greenwald, "Criminalizing free speech," salon.com, June 1, 2011]