A Top Reporter In Yemen Explains What's Really Going On In The Country's
Secret US Drone War
Michael Kelley <
http://www.businessinsider.com/author/michael-kelley> |
Jul. 11, 2012, 2:03 PM | 2,511 | 10
<
http://www.businessinsider.com/top-reporter-in-yemen-explains-whats-really-
going-on-in-the-covert-us-war-there-2012-7#comments>
One of the top journalists in Yemen recently
<
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/07/09/al-qaeda-down-but-not-out-s
ays-top-yemen-reporter/> spoke with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism
(BIJ) about the fight against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and
the covert U.S. drone war.
Hakim Almasmari, a reporter for
<
http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/cnn> CNN and the Editor-in-Chief
of the English-language <
http://yemenpost.net/> Yemen Post, is an American
of Yemeni descent who moved to Yemen's capital of Sanaa 10 years ago.
The U.S. now believes that the biggest terrorist threat resides in the
impoverished Gulf state - BIJ details how
<
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/07/02/yemen-strikes-visualised/>
U.S. drone strikes have spiked there this year - and Almasmari gave a first
hand account of the conditions on the ground after AQAP and its local allies
were driven out of their southern strongholds.
It's a
<
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/07/09/al-qaeda-down-but-not-out-s
ays-top-yemen-reporter/> very informative interview, and we've summarized
some of Almasmari's most revealing points:
* There will be a sharp increase in suicide attacks and assassination
attempts as AQAP changes its strategy from holding towns, which is very
costly, to traditional guerrilla tactics.
* AQAP evacuated south Yemen because it struck a deal with Yemen's
government. Almasmari cites the fact that 88 suspected AQAP militants have
escaped prison in the last four months, including five senior members from a
high security prison last week.
* Yemeni officials have confirmed that there are three kinds of U.S.
strikes - drone strikes, jets coming from Djibouti and strikes coming from
U.S. navy ships - and all of them have been used in different ways.
* The Yemeni air force is weak and conducts strikes with few
casualties while U.S. drones strikes are increasing without any coordination
with the Yemen Defense Ministry. Yemeni officials told Almasmari that very
few ministry officials know details of U.S. strikes.
* The Yemeni government will never be transparent about U.S. drones
because it would cause a major uprising in Yemen, so official statements
lack credibility.
* It is extremely difficult to report on drone strikes because many
are now occurring in mountainous regions or areas where very few people
live. Furthermore, one needs multiple sources who can confirm that a strike
was from a drone before reporting it.
Some quotes from Almasmari paint a particularly devastating picture:
"The U.S. is helping Yemen become more of a dictatorship rather than an
institutional nation. By allowing the drone strikes and no one knowing about
it, this way people cannot stand against it or approve it."
"The only time when [civilian casualties] are reported is when independent
sources confirm the news to me and the government officially acknowledges
those civilian casualties. But most of the time they are never reported,
only when the government is forced to report it."
Almasmari's insights echo events from the other frontiers of covert U.S.
drone operations: U.S. commanders in Afghanistan have
<
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-releasing-high-level-afghan-militants-in-
attempt-to-keep-peace-2012-5> released high-level insurgents to make peace,
Pakistan says it has
<
http://www.brecorder.com/top-news/1-front-top-news/66903-sherry-rejects-imp
ression-pakistan-allowing-drone-attacks-after-us-apology-.html> not given
permission for any U.S. drone strikes in exchange for Washington's apology
for the killing of Pakistani troops in November and the
<
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/05/08/yemen-reported-us-covert-ac
tion-2012/> BIJ's statistics show how difficult it is to track civilian
casualties.
Read more:
<
http://www.businessinsider.com/top-reporter-in-yemen-explains-whats-really-
going-on-in-the-covert-us-war-there-2012-7#ixzz20JvhRhPb>
http://www.businessinsider.com/top-reporter-in-yemen-explains-whats-really-g
oing-on-in-the-covert-us-war-there-2012-7#ixzz20JvhRhPb
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Received on Wed Jul 11 2012 - 09:31:42 EDT
