Sunday Coffee--Yemen--Appropriately

While the U.S. has been conducting military operations against Al Qaeda in Yemen, Senator Joey Lieberman says we have to act pre-emptively there--which is of course what we have been doing. After U.S. drone attacks, the Saudi air force pummeled Yemen this morning. From the early reports on the Northwest airline incident in Detroit, it appears the would-be terrorist received his explosives from an Al Qaeda operative in Yemen. It seems the M.O. was the same as the Shoe Bomber. How much of this incident is a symptom that Al Qaeda's recruits are getting even lower in quality and that the organization has been crippled recently? Are the recent anniversary 9-11 plot and the recent pickup of the North Virginia youths the last gasp of a dying group? Or is this the regrouping using Western Muslims, who have not assimilated to their new host countries?

Do you prefer the color terror alerts and the constant appearances of administration officials on television, spreading fear and panic or the very subdued approach by the Obama Administration? I think it depends on which narrative of recent history you prefer. If you think that the central fact of life is a global struggle against Islamic terrorism, then you want all the bells and whistles and Dick Cheney scowling about "mushroom clouds". If you think that terrorism is a side issue to the many other problems we face then you want the whole approach to be more professional and low-key. A high decibel response demands we act in a manner that may have enormous downsides once we think it through.

The question that is very puzzling--and it has plagued the whole counter-terrorism effort from the beginning is a total lack of coordination. The Nigerian apprehended in Detroit was on our terrorism watch list but not included on the Don't Fly List. This is a ten-year old problem. And with Republicans howling at the Obama Administration it is useful to point out that the student received his visa to the United States from the Bush Administration.

Anyone reading this blog will recall my jokes about Cheney's Raiders in Yemen. The Bush Administration released a series of Saudi and Yemeni detainees from Gitmo event though they were on the Saudi most wanted list for ties to Al Qaeda. None of the Administration even consulted Prince Bandar, who heads Saudi intelligence and is practically a member of the Bush family, about this. Coupled with this, the radical cleric who was in e-mail correspondance with the Ft. Hood soldier was allowed to leave the United States for Yemen, despite his running a jihadist website. He was a target of the recent American raids against Al Qaeda. Are we now experiencing blowback from the previous administration's failures?

It's almost like the Bush-Cheney Administration deliberately set in motion endless threats against the United States to keep the Long War going.