Obama Aid to Yemen Could Risk Backlash in Arab World

[StarfarerBill]

By Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's decision to boost U.S. aid to Yemen to help the small Arabian Peninsula country fight al Qaida risks tying the U.S. more closely to an autocratic ruler whose repression of economic and political grievances is strengthening the terrorists and pushing his impoverished nation toward breakup.

"Any association with the (Yemeni) regime will only confirm al Qaida's narrative, which is that America is only interested in maintaining corrupt and despotic rulers and is not interested in the fate of Arabs and Muslims," warned Bernard Haykel, a Princeton University professor.

The State Department's latest international human rights report cited allegations that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime tortures and assassinates suspected opponents, operates secret prisons and muzzles independent media.

Security forces run by Saleh's close relatives and reportedly advised by former officers of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard are accused of using "excessive force" against a four-year-old Shiite Muslim rebellion in north Yemen, uprooting thousands of civilians.

In the once independent south, meanwhile, a crackdown on what had been a peaceful movement against alleged political and economic marginalization has ignited demands for secession and violence.

A major risk for Obama, experts said, is that Yemenis, Saudis and others will be drawn in greater numbers to join al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the network's Yemen-based franchise, to fight the unpopular Saleh or stage attacks on his U.S. benefactor.

Stepping up U.S. security aid to Saleh "can actually play into the hands of al Qaida," warned Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who's been warning for years about a growing terrorist threat from Yemen.

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/15-3