In interview, Yemeni president acknowledges approving U.S. drone strikes
By Greg Miller
<
http://www.washingtonpost.com/greg-miller/2011/03/02/ABDOymP_page.html> ,
30/09/2012
Yemen's leader said Saturday that he personally approves every U.S. drone
strike in his country and described the remotely piloted aircraft as a
technical marvel that has helped reverse al-Qaeda's gains.
President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi also provided new details about the
monitoring of counterterrorism missions from a joint operations center in
Yemen that he said is staffed by military and intelligence personnel from
the United States, Saudi Arabia and Oman.
Hadi's comments mark the first time he has publicly acknowledged his direct
role in a
<
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-drone-targets-in-y
emen-raise-questions/2012/06/02/gJQAP0jz9U_story.html> campaign of strikes
by U.S. drones and conventional aircraft targeting an al-Qaeda franchise
that is seen as the most potent terrorist threat to the United States.
"Every operation, before taking place, they take permission from the
president," Hadi said in an interview with reporters and editors from The
Washington Post in his hotel suite in the District. Praising the accuracy of
the remotely operated aircraft, he added, "The drone technologically is more
advanced than the human brain."
Hadi's enthusiasm helps to explain how,
<
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/in-yemen-revolution-continu
es-in-change-square-six-months-after-salehs-fall/2012/08/17/16752946-e7c6-11
e1-9739-eef99c5fb285_story.html> since taking office in February after a
popular revolt
<
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/yemens-new-president-sworn-in-as-car-bo
mb-kills-at-least-25/2012/02/25/gIQALG9lZR_story.html> ended President Ali
Abdullah Saleh's 33-year rule, he has come to be regarded by Obama
administration officials as one of the United States' staunchest
counterterrorism allies.
In a sign of Hadi's standing, he was greeted by President Obama during
meetings at the United Nations in New York last week and has met with a
parade of top administration officials in Washington, including Vice
President Biden, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan and
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
The pace of U.S. drone strikes in Yemen has surged in the past year, as
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula gained territory in the southern part of
the country and continued to mount attacks against the United States,
according to U.S. officials who said they disrupted an airline bomb plot
earlier this year that originated in Yemen.
The U.S. Joint Special Operations Command and the CIA have carried out 33
airstrikes in Yemen this year, compared with 10 in 2011, according to the
Long War Journal Web site, which tracks drone attacks.
In the interview, Hadi alluded to
<
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/in-yemen-us-airstrikes-bree
d-anger-and-sympathy-for-al-qaeda/2012/05/29/gJQAUmKI0U_story.html> civilian
casualties and errant strikes earlier in the campaign, which began in
December 2009, but he said that the United States and Yemen have taken
"multiple measures to avoid mistakes of the past."
He also described a joint operations facility near Sanaa, the capital, that
serves as an intelligence nerve center for operations against AQAP, as the
<
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/in-yemen-tribal-militias-in
-a-fierce-battle-with-al-qaeda-wing/2012/09/10/0cce6f1e-f2b2-11e1-b74c-84ed5
5e0300b_story.html> terrorist group's Yemeni affiliate is known. "You go to
the operations center and see operations taking place step by step," Hadi
said.
AQAP exploited political chaos in Yemen in the past year, seizing territory
in southern provinces and control of several cities, including Jaar and
Zinjibar. Hadi said that the Yemeni military's recovery of that southern
territory marks "the beginning of the total defeat of al-Qaeda on the
Peninsula" and that foreign AQAP fighters have fled to other countries
including Mali and Mauritania.
AQAP has been linked to a string of plots against U.S. targets, including an
attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airplane on Christmas Day 2009. An
American-born cleric who became an alleged operational leader in the
organization, Anwar al-Awlaki, was
<
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/world/al-aulaqi-killed-by-dron
e-strike/> killed in a drone strike last year.
Hadi emphasized that the toll in Yemen goes beyond the country's casualties
in its fight against al-Qaeda. He said the country has seen dozens of oil
exploration companies abandon projects in Yemen and that tourism has
evaporated, exacerbating the country's economic problems.
U.S. Special Operations drones patrol Yemen from a base in Djibouti, on the
Horn of Africa. The CIA aircraft are flown from a separate facility on the
Arabian Peninsula whose location has not been publicly disclosed.
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Received on Sun Sep 30 2012 - 07:11:04 EDT
