U.S. eyes military assistance for Yemen

Counterterrorism aid to Philippines cited as a model

Washington Post
February 28, 2002
By Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post Staff Writer

The Bush administration is considering providing military aid and other counterterrorism assistance to the government of Yemen, the commander of the war in Afghanistan said yesterday as he outlined the emerging U.S. strategy for broadening the war on terrorism.

Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the chief of the U.S. Central Command, told a congressional committee that the United States is looking at providing assistance to several countries where it believes international terrorist groups are active. He said discussions are underway with Yemen, among others.

Franks warned against assuming that the United States will soon be launching combat operations outside Afghanistan. "We will not use the Afghanistan model" of first bombing and then sending in conventional ground forces, Franks testified.

Rather, he said, diplomatic and military tools will be used mainly to help friendly governments squelch terrorist organizations on their soil. That is the pattern of U.S. counterterrorism assistance that emerged first in the Philippines and more recently in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

"That is the answer of where we go next," Franks said.

Franks indicated that discussions with Yemen are well underway. Yemen's ambassador to the United States went even further, saying in an interview that Yemen has already asked for military assistance, ranging from training for Yemeni troops to helicopters, communications equipment and other military gear. "We're asking for everything," said the envoy, Abdulwahab Alhajjri. "You name it, we want it."

The testimony of Franks and comments from other officials underscore that in the post-Afghanistan stage of the U.S. war on terrorism, the model for U.S. military operations could be the one first seen in recent weeks in the Philippines, where the government is combating Abu Sayyaf, a militant Islamic group.

The United States is giving Philippine forces military better equipment, such as more secure radios, and has deployed 600 troops to provide training in counterterrorism tactics, such as hostage rescue. It is also providing intelligence gathered by Navy and Air Force aircraft that specialize in imagery and signals interception. But the United States plans, for the most part, to rely on local forces for any ground action.

Likewise, the United States has also begun training forces in the former Soviet republic of Georgia and providing the Georgian military with attack helicopters to help the government in its battle against what it says are al Qaeda members and other militants.

During a visit to North Carolina yesterday, President Bush offered his view of the expanded U.S. mission. "Obviously, we've got a presence in the Philippines because there's an al Qaeda-affiliated group of people there. And we've had some successes in Yemen, where we're working. We're working around the world."

Pentagon officials had expected to escalate the U.S. military efforts in Colombia, but the expansion of the counterterrorism war there was rejected, at least temporarily, in a White House meeting on Tuesday night, administration officials said.

In recent months, the international environment for such counterterrorism efforts has improved dramatically, said Peter Rodman, assistant secretary of defense for international affairs, who testified alongside Franks. "Our leverage with other countries in pushing for this kind of cooperation is way up," he said.

Yemen is perhaps the most extreme example of countries to which the United States is considering providing assistance. It is not as friendly with the United States as the Philippines and the republic of Georgia are, and its government remains uneasy about any U.S. troop presence. The Yemeni ambassador, however, said his government might welcome the temporary deployment of small numbers of American military trainers.

There is also a lingering nervousness about Yemen on the U.S. side. Indeed, Franks listed Yemen with Sudan, Somalia, Iran and Iraq as states in his area of operations -- which stretches from the Horn of Africa to Central Asia -- that continue to concern him. Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader blamed by the United States for the Sept. 11 attacks, was born in Yemen, and his terrorist network has long been active there. Scores of the prisoners being held by the United States from the war in Afghanistan are natives of Yemen.

The USS Cole was bombed in the Yemeni port of Aden in October 2000, and the lack of Yemeni government cooperation in the investigation led to widespread grumbling by U.S. officials.

But Yemen has been far more helpful since September, officials said yesterday. "This is a country that has taken a lot of visible steps against terrorists in their midst," Rodman said in a brief interview. "They've been cooperating since September 11th. They would like to put themselves in the category of friend."

The question that remains, Rodman said, is whether "they have the will to do things."

Over the past month, a parade of top U.S. officials has visited Yemen. CIA Director George J. Tenet, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and Franks went there, and Bush telephoned Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Salih on Feb. 11.

Franks said in his written testimony that the United States believes that in recent months al Qaeda and groups associated with it have targeted "western interests" in Djibouti, which lies just across the Red Sea from Yemen. He also said that suspected al Qaeda members in Somalia, just to the south, have moved "in and out of the country" in response to rumors that the United States was preparing to attack them.

Original link

 
_____
Nieuwe Oorlog 2002 | Ander Nieuws week 10