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Monday, January 4, 2010

U.S. Closing Embassy in Yemen

I was reading in the USA Today that the United States is closing down its embassy in Yemen in the face of what administration officials described as active plans by Al-Qaeda to strike U.S. targets in the capital, Sana. Jon Brennan, the top White House counterrorism adviser said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union", "We keep thwarting their attacks, but they keep pressing." It was an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen that provided training and equipment for the Nigerian who allegedly tried to blow up a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas day, according to President Obama. Brennan, who is leading a White House review of the incident, denied there were parallels to the intelligence shortcomings before the 9/11 attacks. "Clearly the system didn't work," said Brennan, who made the administration's case on four Sunday TV shows. "We had a problem in terms of why (Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab) got on that plane." He said there was still no "smoking gun" and no deliberate attempts by agencies to withhold information from one another. I don't understand what Brennan is implying by suggesting there's no clear smoking gun. Given the fact that Abdulmutallab's father warned U.S. Embassy officials about his strange behavior and as well as he being on the no-fly list should've been sufficient evidence to have not allowed Abdulmutallab to board the airliner.

The foiled bombing plot has intensified the focus on Yemen given that it's considered a haven for Al-Qaeda terrorists. Yemen is at the top of the Arabian Peninsula, which borders Saudi Arabia and Omen. It is a predominantly Muslim country. In 1990 it was created as the Republic of Yemen when North and South Yemen united. It is known as the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden and a growing haven for Al-Qaeda. Yemen is also home to American-born foreign cleric Anwar al-Awlak, who has been linked to the alleged Christmas Day attack and the alleged gunman in November's massacre at Fort Hood Army base in Texas.

What's really scary is the Obama administration, in it's attempt to close Gitmo in Cuba, has made plans to send about half of the 90 Yemenis now in Cuba back to Yemen. "We should review again where we're going to send the detainees," California Rep. Jane Harman, a member of the Homeland Security Committee said on ABC's "This Week." Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, (I) who opposes closing Guantanamo, said "We know from past experience that some of them will be back in the fight." What's disturbing was that former President Bush sent a couple of them back to Yemen and they are back in the fight. That was very appalling when you consider that President Bush supposedly was trying to "fight a war on terrorism." It contradicts everything Bush was supposedly trying to do. The Obama administration returned six Yemenis last month and has planned to send more. It's irrational that the Obama administration would send the Gitmo detainees to Yemen considering they're a terrorist haven. Of course, Obama doesn't want to acknowledge that we're "fighting a war on terrorism." He doesn't like to use that phrase. It's very dangerous to send detainees to a country that harbors Al-Qaeda. They'll join in the fight and will plot against America. The policies that the U.S. is utilizing in fighting this war is asinine! The incident with the foiled terrorist plot on Christmas day is a startling revelation that America isn't as safe and secure as most Americans had originally desired to believe.

The Obama administration has no business sending Gitmo detainees to Yemen or any other terrorist haven. First of all, there needs to be a military tribunal created to try all the detainees. That won't happen, but war criminals shouldn't be tried as civilian criminals. It should be classified as a war against America. Therefore, they should be tried in a military court. However, the Obama administration supports the Muslim world in the Middle East. Hardly anyone in our government has the audacity to say that we're at war with Islamic extremists. The Islamists desire to alter our way of life in America. Our elected elite are allowing them to do this. We're giving them the open door to come into America to blow up our airliners, our monuments, and our cities. We wouldn't leave our doors open in our own houses to allow a thief to come in and rob us. However, not treating these acts of terrorism as terrorism is making America vulnerable to further attacks.

The U.S. needs to send special forces to decimate Al-Qaeda in Yemen. We need to wipe out all their hideouts and we need to capture some of the terrorists and allow the military to ask them questions about any other possible Al-Qaeda terror attacks. I'm not proposing a land invasion where we try to make a democracy out of Yemen. We don't need to be involved in nation-building like we attempted to do both in Afghanistan and Iraq. We don't need to wage a protracted war with no end in sight. We need to use overwhelming force to crush the Al-Qaeda forces and exit Yemen as soon as possible. I believe we need to rely on mostly air power and a few ground forces to wipe up the mess. We need to use whatever means possible to eliminate Al-Qaeda and any future terrorist threats. The U.S. policy on terrorism should be to eliminate all forms of terrorism that could prove to be a threat to the U.S. and the West. We should weaken Al-Qaeda to the point that they are irrelevant and no longer a threat to the world.

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