The Failed US Policy in Yemen

The US-Yemen relationship has become a hot topic recently, especially after former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the man whom the US relied on and strongly supported in it's fight  against "Qaeda" recently stepped down. According to Ibrahim Sharqieh, a conflict resolution expert at the Brookings Doha Center who writes extensively about the conflict in Yemen, "in the past, over 90 percent of U.S. financial support went to support security and military institutions to fight al-Qaeda". The Saleh regime, opened Yemen's land, air and sea for US strikes against Al Qaeda by exploiting it's threat, taking advantage of US counterterrorism policy as a cash cow for its own survival and at times even fed the US misleading intelligence to combat its political opponents. Jeremy Scahill, an investigative journalist and national security correspondent for the Nation who writes often about Yemen, points out in his last piece in the Nation "for years, Saleh allowed the United States to regularly strike against AQAP in Yemen, and US Special Operations forces built up the specialized units, run by Saleh’s family members, that were widely seen as US surrogates'. He adds "rather than fighting AQAP, these US-backed units—created and funded with the explicit intent to be used only for counterterrorism operations—redeployed to Sanaa to protect the collapsing regime from its own people." 

Yemeni journalist Shayi was the first journalist to allege US involvement in authorizing dropping of cluster bombs on civilians in Yemen, he was detained and sentenced to 5 years as a result. Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Philip Luther pointed “there are strong indications that the charges against ‘Abdul Ilah Shayi’ are trumped up and that he has been jailed solely for daring to speak out about US collaboration in a cluster munitions attack which took place in Yemen", in December 2009. Days after  he was sentenced in January last year, former president Saleh granted the journalist a presidential pardon, but a phone call from President Obama has managed to keep him in jail until today.

Many analysts agree that the US policy in Yemen has predominantly been viewed from the terrorism prism, but one doesn't need to be an expert to notice that it has not been successful so far and has in fact backfired on the US. The use of drones on Yemeni soil to kill "suspected" al Qaeda leaders, the unjustified killing of a teenager and many other innocent civilians commonly referred to as "collateral damage" and the illegal detention of a journalist, has fostered more animosity towards the US.
Furthermore US's rethoric in supporting democracy in Yemen has been reflected differently in its actions towards the revolution, backing Saleh's corrupt regime and hosting him in the US under the pretext of "medical treatment" enraged many Yemenis. Mr. Gerald M. Feierstein's, US's Ambassador in Yemen, provocative statements against the youth and against the "Life March", calling for an end to the uprising in the military institution, and his last interview with journalist Tom Finn raised a lot of concerned question marks regarding the long awaited military reform and created more anti-American sentiments leading to a march demanding the ambassador to leave Yemen and the burning of the US flag.

The majority of Yemenis do not consider the US Ambassador an "honorary Yemeni citizen" but rather a detested "foreign diplomat" for many reasons besides those mentioned above. His personal relationship with the Salehs and the general feeling among Yemenis that he is the man currently running the show in Yemen, only adds complexity to the already complex US-Yemeni relationship.

US clearly needs to re-evaluate its counter-terrorism policy in Yemen by addressing the socio-economic underlying causes that produce terror. Rather than focusing it's aid solely in the fight against al "Qaeda" and continuing with the drone attacks which kills innocent people, alienates, angers and aggravates the general Yemeni public, giving extremists a motive to join militant groups, Sharqieh recommends that both the United States and Gulf states should change their trend in foreign aid in Yemen. They should "give aid that will provide genuine comprehensive development, helping job delivery, building transparent state institutions and work to fight corruption within them." He adds, "this would be the ultimate solution to dealing with terrorism and other security problems; dealing with the underlying causes that produce terror." 
Finally the message to US Deputy National Security Advisor, John Brennan, is loud and clear violence only breeds more violence, its about time to make a change in the US policy in Yemen, and elsewhere, by trying to make friends rather than creating more enemies. 

Related Links:

America's Dangerous Game (Video)
Washington's War in Yemen Backfires
An American Teen-Ager In Yemen
Yemeni journalist jailed after alleging US involvement in missile attack
Yemen: Shaye Commences hunger Strike
Detained Journalist On Hunger Strike To Press For Release
Butt Out: US Ambassador to Yemen Interferes With Protests
US has 'direct interest' in Shaye's case
Yemen: A story of lost foreign aid and future gains?
Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan press roundtable
Tom Finn Interview with US Ambassador to Yemen Gerald M. Feierstein
A New President and an "American Sheikh' Deal With Post-Saleh Yemen
Recipe for Failure: American Strategy toward Yemen and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
The civilian massacre the US neither confirms nor denies
Yemen - reported US covert actions since 2001
Yemen : Anger at Expansion of US Drone War
Why The U.S Is Aggressively Targeting Yemen

Terrorism Is Not A Religion...It Is Not Islam

My heart goes out to all the families of the 77 innocent victims (reportedly killed so far). I watched in pain and dismay the news about the Oslo blast and the Utoya Island shooting as many around the world did. Yet as the news was being reported, fingers were already pointing at Muslims, Islamist militants, al Qaeda...etc. As much as the loss of lives trouble me, so did accusing Muslims.

David Crawford ran an article on the Wall Street Journal where he argues that it was most likely Islamist extremists. Another article ran on the Guardian by the title "Oslo bomb: suspicion falls on Islamist, where Peter Beaumont blatantly accuses al Qaeda and mentions Yemen (my country)! The article was removed the next day, thus the broken link and replaced by this one "Norway attacks suggest political motive".  Jennifer Rubin's article on the Washington Post asserted that Muslims were responsible for the Norway bombing. Yet that article was neither removed, corrected nor updated as James Fallow noted. And this just to cite a few.
As more investigations were made, news unfolded that the suspect was a tall blond male who had Nordic features. Eventually we knew more, that his name is Anders, aged 31, had a  Facebook page with postings, uploaded a disturbing youtube video, has a Twitter account with one tweet (yet keeps piling followers!), that he is Norwegian, a right wing extremist, a conservative Christian and an anti-Islamist.
These were my tweets in the past two days:
 "Terrorism has no religion, race, or country. Terrorism is everyones enemy" and
 "Extremism, Racism & Terrorism is Condemned and Rejected no matter what Race, Religion, Region, Organization or individual is behind it".
I also added: "Norway Oslo blast and Utoya shooting wasn't described as a terrorist act in most media? It seems this label is exclusively given to Muslims."

Some tweeted back that the definition of terrorism is not aplicable in this case because the act was carried out by one individual. Well if killing 77 is not an act of terrorism than what is? And had that one individual been a muslim, wouldn't the term "terrorist" have been flashing all over him? In fact not all terrorists are Muslims.
Why has terrorism become linked to Muslims only? Why are Muslims the first to blame for any terrorist act? Glenn Greenwald  highlighted this point in his article called "The omnipotence of Al-Qaeda and the meaninglessnes of "Terrorism". There is also a hashtag trending on twitter called #blamethemuslims. 

The Norway massacre highlighted the Islamophobia that most people have but don't like to admit. Others like the Norway bomber don't deny it, he actually admits his extreme hatred towards muslims. Islam is not al Qaeda! The vast majority of muslims condemn it and hate it for giving Islam this association, especially after 9/11.
There are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world, a fifth of the (7 billion) Earth population. The majority of Muslims can not be labelled according to violent actions of a few extremist.
Islam in Arabic means submission to God's will, and derives from a word meaning Peace, "Salam". Islam is a religion of Tolerance, Equality and Compassion. There are a lot of misconceptions about Islam that might lead people to fear it. And hence one should make a little effort to know and learn more about Islam before passing judgment.

There is nothing in the Holy Quran that says one should kill. On the contrary there is a verse in the Quran that explicitly says: "the one who kills a soul not in retaliation for murder or (and) spread of mischief in the land it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one it is as if he had saved mankind entirely" Chapter 5, Verse 12.  Also the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) said "The biggest of Al-Kaba'ir (the great sins) are 9, (1) to join others as partners in worship with Allah, (2) to murder a human being, (3) to be undutiful to ones parents,...etc
Islam acknowledges all prophets including Moses and Jesus. Therefore Islam actually encompasses all previous religions (Judaism and Christianity) and does not oppose them. A muslim is not a true believer unless he believes in all of God's Messengers and the sacred scriptures. Virgin Mary is mostly esteemed in Islam and has a status unequal to any woman. An entire chapter (19) in the Quran is named after her "Maryam" and recounts her story.
If only we just make a little effort to accept, understand and respect each other, the world would be a much better place. Peace to all.

For further readings:
The Holy Quran (In many languages)
What is Islam
Understanding Islam 
Understanding Islam and Muslims
Meaning of the word Islam
Meaning of Islam
Islam in Brief (in many languages)
Bridges Foundation: Peace Making Through Education
1001 Inventions and the Library of Secrets (Islamic)


N.B: This post was retweeted and shared by Rachel Maddow on her Facebook page

Understanding Islam and Muslims