Detained American on no-fly list says he was beaten in Kuwait during interrogations

The NY Times reports that an American teenager detained in Kuwait two weeks ago and placed on an American no-fly list claims that he was severely beaten by his Kuwaiti captors during a weeklong interrogation about possible contacts with terrorism suspects in Yemen. The teenager, Gulet Mohamed, a Somali-American who turned 19 during his captivity, [...]

Yemen deputy Prime Minister admits lying to Parliament on US involvement of bombings

In a meeting (see cable 10SANAA4) between David Petraeus and President Saleh of Yemen the US involvement in Yemen’s fight against terrorism was discussed: President Obama has approved providing U.S.  intelligence in support of ROYG ground operations against AQAP targets, General Petraeus informed Saleh.  Saleh reacted  coolly, however, to the General’s proposal to place USG  [...]

U.S. deploying drones in Yemen to hunt for Al-Qaeda, has yet to fire missiles

The United States has deployed Predator drones to hunt for al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen for the first time in years but has not fired missiles from the unmanned aircraft because it lacks solid intelligence on the insurgents’ whereabouts, senior U.S. officials said on Sunday in the Washington Post.

The EU as a counter-terrorism actor abroad

This paper by the EPC looks at thehandling of counter-terrorism in the ensemble of EU external relations and assistance vis-à-vis five countries of recognised importance for European interests: Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, Pakistan, and Indonesia.

Yemen begins in absentia trial of Al Awlaki

Two others are on trial along with al Awlaki: a relative, Othman al Awlaki, and Hisham Mohammed Assem, a gunman who killed a Frenchman at the site in Yemen of the Austrian oil and gas company OMV last month. They are also being tried in absentia. The prosecutor, reading out the charges, aid the three [...]

Foiled Yemen Bomb Plot Heightens Talk of Putting Elite U.S. Squads in CIA Hands

The Wall Street Journal reports that support was growing both within the military and the administration for shifting more operational control, including putting “elite U.S. hunter-killer teams” that operate secretly in the country, under CIA authority in Yemen. Allowing the U.S. military’s Special Operations Command units to operate under the CIA would give the U.S. [...]

US accused of Yemen proxy detention

Al Jazeera reports that Yemeni security agents abducted and detained Sharif Mobley, an American citizen living in Yemen, on behalf of the US government. Mobley disappeared after visiting the US embassy in in Sana’a. Mobley says he was chained, blindfolded, to a hospital bed, being interrogated by two men who introduced themselves as “Matt and [...]

The fight against terrorism in Yemen

The White House is allegedly considering adding the CIA’s armed Predator drones to the fight against al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen. The idea is to reassign some of the Predator drones already hunting high-value militant targets in Pakistan’s tribal regions to the U.S. special operations forces assisting local counterterrorist forces in Yemen. But U.S. officials may [...]

Causes of radicalisation in Yemen

The Guardian spent two months in  Yemen, travelling to the tribal regions of Abyan and Shabwa, where al-Qaida has set up shop and where suspected US drone attacks have killed scores of civilians and few insurgents. Speaking to jihadis, security officials and tribesmen, it became clear how a combination of government alliances, bribes, broken promises [...]

Obama’s fight against terrorism secretly widens on two continents

The NYT has a new serie on the US’s “secret expansion” of the fight against terrorism, which increasingly is becoming a ‘covert war’. It comments: Yet such wars come with many risks: the potential for botched operations that fuel anti-American rage; a blurring of the lines between soldiers and spies that could put troops at [...]