Yemen---the Next Middle East Parking Lot

We'd bomb 'em back to the Stone Age, but they're already there:

Unlike their less fortunate brothers hiding in the musty caves of southern Afghanistan, senior al Qaeda officials in Yemen function freely and with impunity. A Saudi newspaper recently quoted a Yemeni ambassador charging that al Qaeda "has infiltrated the higher ranks of the Yemeni army." Ahmad Abdullah al-Hasani -- an ambassador and former naval commander -- made the claim two weeks after applying for political asylum in the U.K. Mr. Al-Hasani alleges that President's Saleh's half brother, the army commander Ali al-Muhsin al-Ahmar, has established terrorist training camps in Yemen, and was a major player in the 1998 kidnapping of 16 western tourists. (Twelve Britons, two Americans and two Australians were abducted while touring the town of Mudiah, despite having a police escort. During a shoot-out between the al Qaeda kidnappers and Yemeni security forces three Britons and an Australian were killed.)

While providing lip service to the U.S., the Yemeni government has been busy freeing 113 al Qaeda members -- including at least five involved in the 2000 USS Cole bombing -- after the terrorists signed pledges to refrain from future terrorist acts.

Not that these pledges are worth the goatskin they are printed on. It was, after all, no less an authority than the prophet Mohammed who said, "War is deceit." And anyone with an ounce of sense knows a terrorist's word not to kill people is about as good as Bill Clinton's promise to keep his pants on in a sorority house.


IN JANUARY FOX NEWS reported that President Saleh planned to release more than 1,800 prisoners, including al Qaeda suspects, during Ramadan. Many of those not granted amnesty have managed to escape. In 2003, no fewer than ten USS Cole bombing suspects escaped from Yemeni prisons. Curiously the story made front-page news in a country that never reports prison escapes (unless it is in its interest to do so), notes Yemen-expert Jane Novak.

The Yemeni government continually boasts that there haven't been any terrorist attacks on its soil since October 2002. One possible explanation for this appeared in February 2004 in the Yemeni opposition newspaper Al Sahwanet. According to the report, Osama bin Laden offered a deal to President Abdullah Saleh to "end attacks against Western interests in Yemen in exchange for allowing insurgents freedom of movement." (The Saleh government reportedly rejected the offer.)

Though one of the world's poorest countries, Yemenis seem able to come up with plenty of cash when it comes to financing terror. The Council of Foreign Relations suspects numerous Yemeni corporations -- in particular those involved in the lucrative honey trade -- of funding bin Laden's terrorist network. And despite a UN Security Council Sanctions Committee order to freeze 144 terrorist-affiliated accounts, only one bank account has been frozen, Novak says.

Besides al Qaeda, Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have opened shop in Yemen; terror groups from Algeria, Egypt, and Libya also call Yemen home. Shortly after the collapse of Afghanistan's Taliban regime, al Qaeda members found refuge in and around Hadramawt, the bin Laden ancestral home. Islamic militants, in fact, have a saying: "In times of crisis, go to Yemen; run to Yemen."

Terrorism is like a weed---one must root it out relentlessly, and not allow it any purchase for growth.