Mar. 10, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is
planning to restart programs that would fund military training and equipment in
Yemen, nearly a year after they were shut down because of escalating chaos in
the embattled country.
While no agreements have been
cemented, U.S. defense officials said as much as $75 million in military
assistance could begin to flow later this year. The officials said the Pentagon
and State Department are putting together a letter to send to Congress to
request the aid be restarted.
The plan is in line with the Obama
administration's intention to provide significant security and civilian aid to
Yemen in 2012-13 as long as the Middle Eastern country continues to move toward
a new government and funding is kept out of the hands of insurgents. One senior
military official said discussions have begun over how best the United States
can help Yemen, which is putting a new U.S.-backed government in place. The
official said it may be difficult to relaunch the counterterrorism training
that was suspended about a year ago because Yemeni forces are engaged in battle
with the al-Qaida-linked insurgency.
Instead, the training program
could shift to focus less on fighting tactics and more on how to plan combat
operations and strategize against the enemy.
Officials spoke on condition of
anonymity because no final decisions have been made. Yearlong protests across
Yemen, coupled with pressure from the U.S., led to the ouster of longtime
Yemeni ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh. U.S. leaders have said they believe that newly
inaugurated Yemeni president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, will be a good partner
to the U.S. The renewed effort come as the threat from al-Qaida in the Arab
Peninsula also goes through its own transition. While often described as the
top terror threat for strikes inside the U.S., the group hasn't surfaced as a
key player in any domestic threats for more than a year.
The killing in a U.S. drone strike
last fall of Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born radical militant cleric, has set
back the group's terror efforts outside Yemen. Al-Awlaki has been linked to the
planning and execution of several terror attacks targeting U.S. and Western
interests, including the attempt to take down a Detroit-bound airliner in 2009
and the plot to bomb cargo planes in 2010.
But it's hard to tell how long the
lull may last.
"What we don't necessarily
know is are they going to be focusing much more on Yemen, or is it a short term
thing, to be able to build up time and capacity to be able to strike at a far
enemy," said Frank Cilluffo, director of a homeland security studies
program at George Washington University who served as White House domestic
security adviser to President George W. Bush.
Officials warn that the group has
taken broad advantage of the unrest in Yemen to expand its foothold in the
south, capture weapons, ammunition and equipment and score successes against
the Yemeni military.
Al-Qaida in the Arab Peninsula
"has been degraded by the strike and the loss of al-Awlaki, but that
doesn't mean they are not a threat," said Stewart Baker, a former
assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security who is now with the
law firm of Steptoe & Johnson. "Their talent pool was thin and made
thinner."
But counterterror experts
cautioned that the al-Qaida affiliate has proved that it is willing to attempt
attacks and fail, in the hopes of getting one success through. And Cilluffo
said the group still represents the most active and focused domestic threat to
the U.S., largely because the group's bomb-maker Ibrahim al-Asiri is still
alive and active.
The U.S. has poured more than $326
million in security and civilian assistance into Yemen since 2007, fueled by
the escalating terrorist threat from al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which
is based there. The funding flow, however, was abruptly turned off last year as
political and security unrest raged.
Initial plans by the Pentagon to
send at least $150 million in aid to Yemen last year were shut down and no new
military aid was approved.
Pentagon leaders have as much as
$350 million to spend on military aid to foreign countries this year, and
according to congressional restrictions up to $75 million can be spent on
Yemen. Congress also requires the Pentagon and State Department to defend the
spending, including assurance that any assistance will be properly used.
On the civilian side, the State
Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, under a directive
from the National Security Council, have begun a new review to assess the
situation in Yemen following the recent presidential election and to determine
how best to provide development support, according to a newly released
government report. Since 2007, Yemen has received about $316 million in U.S.
civilian aid, including humanitarian, education, development and refugee
assistance.
The military funding, in addition
to providing counterterrorism training, has also paid for aircraft, radios,
rifles, patrol boats, trucks and other equipment.
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