US uses bomb scare to increase Yemen operations

A team of US investigators was heading to Yemen today to help search for suspects in the cargo bomb plot.

The White House’s top counter-terrorism official, deputy national security adviser John Brennan, told Yemen’s president yesterday that his country has the lead in responding to the terrorists.

The brief phone conversation between Mr Brennan and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh came as Mr Brennan led a team of national security and intelligence officials in a second day of meetings assessing the best options in striking back at the al Qaida offshoot suspected of trying to post bombs to the US.

The Yemen-based al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has been linked to the bomb plot because of the use of the explosive PETN, which was used by the group in last Christmas Day’s bombing attempt of a Detroit-bound airliner.

US authorities also had intelligence that Yemeni al Qaida was planning this operation, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

While the close calls with the package bombs exposed another weakness in international security, the incident also presented an opportunity for the White House to persuade Yemen to widen its war on terror by allowing Americans a more active role.

Yemen’s government has worked closely with US counter-terrorist advisers from military special operations units, and Yemen’s president acknowledged on Saturday that his government is working with the CIA.

But Mr Saleh has been reluctant to allow expanded use of armed drones or regular raids by US special operations units on Yemeni soil, for fear of being labelled an American stooge, by the militants or his own people.

The mail bomb plot could pressure him to reconsider.

The Obama administration launched a clandestine war against Yemen’s al Qaida branch just months after President Barack Obama took office, and stepped up the tempo in the aftermath of the Christmas attack.

The operations are co-ordinated from an intelligence command centre the US runs with the Yemenis, where it shares intelligence gathered by satellite, manned aircraft and unmanned drones – some of which were observed last week.

Building on that, the White House could push for more unilateral clandestine missions on Yemeni soil as well as an increased operational tempo against the militants – as the US has done against Taliban and al Qaida targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The administration could also ask to fly Predator and Reaper drones from inside Yemen, something Yemeni officials say they have already requested.

Currently, drones and other observation platforms must be based off US ships or fly from other US air bases in the region, limiting the amount of fuel they have left by the time they reach a target or observation point. Some of those drones are overseen by the Pentagon’s special operating units, others by the CIA.

The White House is quick to point out that the counter-terrorist operations only comprise one part of their aid to Yemen. The US has expanded military and economic aid to augment the counter-terrorist programme, in what it calls a “whole of government” approach.

Senior administration officials said the economic aid, along with working with the Yemeni government to improve its human rights record and provide better services to its people, is designed to dry up the roots of the conflict.