He said these included withdrawing troops from Iraq, boosting troop levels in Afghanistan and targeting militants in Yemen, where the suspect spent time before the attack.
"All those involved in the attempted act of terrorism on Christmas must know you too will be held to account," he said.
Boosting troop levels in Afghanistan won't impact AQAP. By "targeting militants in Yemen" is he talking about the U.S. engaging in air strikes or just providing aid to the Yemeni Government to do so? I hope it's the latter.
The Somalian off-shoot of Al Qaida, al-Shabab, yesterday promised aid to AQAP and said it would send its militarily trained soldiers into Yemen to help them. The group held a public conference, inviting the news media, at which they introduced their new recruits. Al Shabab has always kept its attacks within Somalia, so now there are two groups intending on expanding attacks at least regionally.
Canada is instructing its warship. the HMCS Fredericton, to patrol the Gulf of Aden as part of the UN fight against piracy, to prevent al Shabab from making good on its threat. Yemen asked Canada for extra help building up its Coast Guard which is its first line of defense against the Somali terrorists.
The man who attacked the Danish cartoonist yesterday appeared in court today. He is Somalian with alleged ties to al Shabab.
Back to Yemen: The U.S. has been sending money and special forces troops "to help train and equip Yemeni forces and has provided sophisticated satellite and communications intelligence.
There are four leaders of AQAP:
- The head honcho, and the one they pledge allegience to is Nasser al-Wuhayshi. He escaped from a high-security prison in Yemen in February, 2006.
- The deputy leader is Said Ali al-Shihri, a Saudi who spent 6 years at Gitmo, went into the Saudi rehab program, but fled to Yemen. His brother-in-law, Yousef al-Shiri, also was returned to the Saudis from Gitmo and after going through the Saudi program, decided to join his brother-in-law. He was killed in a shootout at the Saudi-Yemen border in October when he tried to bring suicide vests into Saudi Arabia.
- The fourth leader is their spiritual Mufti, Ibrahim Suleiman al-Rubaysh, who also was repatriated to Saudi Arabia after Gitmo.
As for American born muslim cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, he is not believed to have an operational role in AQAP. He's a spiritual recruiter. Also, he is connected to a powerful Yemen tribe, the Awlakis, which offers protection to AQAP.
Abdulelah Hider Shaea, a Yemeni journalist who studies Al Qaeda and knows Mr. Awlaki, denied in an interview that the imam was a member of Al Qaeda, saying instead that he served as an articulate window to jihadism for English speakers.
As I wrote here:
Yemen will become a failed state without aid. Between the rebel tribes in the north, the secessionists in the south and al-Qaida, the Government is out-matched. Add to that its dwindling oil reserves, critical lack of water and horrendous prison system that just breeds more terrorists, and it's a certainty Yemen can't fix its problems on its own.
Saudi Arabia cleaned its country of al Qaida, but they didn't disappear, they just moved to Yemen because it was the easiest place to make a new start. They are co-opting the tribes people, offering them more than the Government offers, which makes them allies not enemies. That has to change.
Obama can threaten to militarily take out AQAP and increase counterterrorism aid but it's probably not possible in the short run. He needs to make the Yemenis reject al Qaeda, and that requires more focus on developmental aid and turning the tribespeople against al Qaeda.
Gen. David Petraus arrived in Yemen today to meet with the President of Yemen.
And Yemen has sent hundreds of additional troops to the two provinces it believes to be AQAP's biggest stronghold and where they may have trained Abdulmutallab: Marif and Jouf.
Yemeni security officials said Abdulmutallab may have travelled to Marif or Jouf provinces - remote, mountainous regions east of the capital where al-Qaida's presence is the strongest - though the officials cautioned that it was still not certain where he met up with members of the terror group.
Update: Here's the BBC's latest profile of AQAP.
