20120601_453 cip yemen drone blowback

UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY


Websites included in OSINT products are subject to monitoring by U.S. and foreign government agencies, and should not be viewed on U.S. government or personal computers.

Author: OSINT – Open Source Intelligence (CCJ2-JOWO)

Title: Yemen Drone BlowbackAnalyst: CZRef#: 20120601-453 CIPICOD: 20120601Country/Topic: Yemen

Analyst Comment: From open source reporting both in western and AOR sources, negative public opinion resulting from drone strikes is mounting due to civilian collateral deaths. An example is the statement by a Yemeni business man, “These attacks are making people say, ‘We believe now that al-Qaeda is on the right side.” Prominent supporters of this view include Nobel Peace Prize recipient Tawakul Karman who says U.S. drone attacks have done more harm than good in Yemen and accused the United States of killing civilians in southern Yemen while attempting to eliminate al-Qaeda operatives. “Every time the American attacks increase, they increase the rage of the Yemeni people, especially in al-Qaeda-controlled areas,” said Mohammed al-Ahmadi, legal coordinator for Karama, a local human rights group. “The drones are killing al-Qaeda leaders, but they are also turning them into heroes.” [...] Additionally, the strikes are supposedly clandestine, but Yemeni social media is often tweeting in real time as events occur, thus providing transparency to the civilian populace.

Supporting Documentation:

01 Jun 2012Washington PostIn Yemen, U.S. Airstrikes Breed Anger, and Sympathy for Al-QaedaBy Sudarsan Raghavan

(U) Khaled Abdullah/Reuters - Protesters in Sanaa, Yemen, shout during a May 29 march marking an attack last year by security forces on an anti-government camp in the southern city of Taiz.

Across the vast, rugged terrain of southern Yemen, an escalating campaign of U.S. drone strikes is stirring increasing sympathy for al-Qaeda-linked militants and driving tribesmen to join a network linked to terrorist plots against the United States.

[email protected] PH: 813-827-1441UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY





After recent U.S. missile strikes, mostly from unmanned aircraft, the Yemeni government and the United States have reported that the attacks killed only suspected al-Qaeda members. But civilians have also died in the attacks, said tribal leaders, victims’ relatives and human rights activists.

“These attacks are making people say, ‘We believe now that al-Qaeda is on the right side,’ ” said businessman Salim al-Barakani, adding that his two brothers — one a teacher, the other a cellphone repairman — were killed in a U.S. strike in March.

Since January, as many as 21 missile attacks have targeted suspected al-Qaeda operatives in southern Yemen, reflecting a sharp shift in a secret war carried out by the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command that had focused on Pakistan.

But as in the tribal areas of Pakistan, where U.S. drone strikes have significantly weakened al-Qaeda’s capabilities, an unintended consequence of the attacks has been a marked radicalization of the local population.

The evidence of radicalization emerged in more than 20 interviews with tribal leaders, victims’ relatives, human rights activists and officials from four provinces in southern Yemen where U.S. strikes have targeted suspected militants. They described a strong shift in sentiment toward militants affiliated with the transnational network’s most active wing, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.

“The drone strikes have not helped either the United States or Yemen,” said Sultan al-Barakani, who was a top adviser to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. “Yemen is paying a heavy price, losing its sons. But the Americans are not paying the same price.”

In 2009, when President Obama was first known to have authorized a missile strike on Yemen, U.S. officials said there were no more than 300 core AQAP members. That number has grown in recent years to 700 or more, Yemeni officials and tribal leaders say. In addition, hundreds of tribesmen have joined AQAP in the fight against the U.S.-backed Yemeni government.

As AQAP’s numbers and capabilities have grown, so has its reach and determination. That was reflected in a suicide bombing last week in the capital, Sanaa, that killed more than 100 people, mostly Yemeni soldiers.

On their Web sites, on their Facebook pages and in their videos, militants who had been focused on their fight against the Yemeni government now portray the war in the south as a jihad against the United States, which could attract more recruits and financing from across the Muslim world. Yemeni tribal Web sites are filled with al-Qaeda propaganda, including some that brag about killing Americans.

“Every time the American attacks increase, they increase the rage of the Yemeni people, especially in al-Qaeda-controlled areas,” said Mohammed al-Ahmadi, legal coordinator for Karama, a local human rights group. “The drones are killing al-Qaeda leaders, but they are also turning them into heroes.”

An escalated campaign

Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, has publicly defended the use of drone strikes, arguing that their precision allows the United States to limit civilian casualties and lessen risks for U.S.






military personnel. The decision to fire a missile from a drone, he said, is taken with “extraordinary care and thoughtfulness.”

(U) (The Washington Post/The Long War Journal) - U.S. drone strikes on rise in Yemen

in Yemen is “guided by the view that we must do what is necessary to disrupt AQAP plots against U.S. interests” and to help the Yemeni government build up its capabilities to fight AQAP.

“While AQAP has grown in strength over the last year, many of its supporters are tribal militants or part-time supporters who collaborate with AQAP for self-serving, personal interests rather than affinity with al-Qaeda’s global ideology,” Vietor said. “The portion of hard-core, committed AQAP members is relatively small.”






(U) U.S. drone strikes on rise in Yemen - (The Washington Post/The Long War Journal)

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said the administration’s counterterrorism strategy

The dramatic escalation in drone strikes in Yemen followed foiled plots by AQAP to bomb a U.S. airliner headed to Detroit in 2009 and to send parcel bombs via cargo planes to Chicago the following year. In April, Saudi intelligence agents helped foil an AQAP plot to plant a suicide bomber on a U.S.-bound plane.

On May 6, a U.S. drone strike killed Fahd al-Quso, a senior al-Qaeda leader who was on the FBI’s most-wanted list for his role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden, an attack that killed 17 American sailors. The drone strike in Shabwa province also killed a second man, whom U.S. and Yemeni officials described as another al-Qaeda militant.

But according to his relatives, the man was a 19-year-old named Nasser Salim who was tending to his farm when Quso arrived in his vehicle. Quso knew Salim’s family and was greeting him when the missiles landed.

“He was torn to pieces,” said Salim’s uncle, Abu Baker Aidaroos, 30, a Yemeni soldier. “He was not part of al-Qaeda. But by America’s standards, just because he knew Fahd al-Quso, he deserved to die with him.”






Out of anger, Aidaroos said, he left his unit in Abyan province, the nexus of the fight against the militants. Today, instead of fighting al-Qaeda, he sympathizes with the group — not out of support for its ideology, he insists, but out of hatred for the United States.

‘More hostility’ toward U.S.

The U.S. strikes, tribal leaders and Yemeni officials say, are also angering powerful tribes that could prevent AQAP from gaining strength. The group has seized control of large swaths of southern Yemen in the past year, while the government has had to counter growing perceptions that it is no more than an American puppet.

“There is more hostility against America because the attacks have not stopped al-Qaeda, but rather they have expanded, and the tribes feel this is a violation of the country’s sovereignty,” said Anssaf Ali Mayo, Aden head of al-Islah, Yemen’s most influential Islamist party, which is now part of the coalition government. “There is a psychological acceptance of al-Qaeda because of the U.S. strikes.”

Quso and Salim are from the Awlak tribe, one of the most influential in southern Yemen. So was Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni American preacher who was thought to be a senior AQAP leader and was killed in September by a U.S. strike. The following month, another U.S. strike killed Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, also an American citizen, generating outrage across Yemen.

Awlak tribesmen are businessmen, lawmakers and politicians. But the strikes have pushed more of them to join the militants or to provide AQAP with safe haven in their areas, said tribal leaders and Yemeni officials.

“The Americans are targeting the sons of the Awlak,” Aidaroos said. “I would fight even the devil to exact revenge for my nephew.”

In early March, U.S. missiles struck in Bayda province, 100 miles south of Sanaa, killing at least 30 suspected militants, according to Yemeni security officials. But in interviews, human rights activists and victims’ relatives said many of the dead were civilians, not fighters.

Villagers were too afraid to go to the area. Al-Qaeda militants took advantage and offered to bury the villagers’ relatives. “That made people even more grateful and appreciative of al-Qaeda,” said Barakani, the businessman. “Afterwards, al-Qaeda told the people, ‘We will take revenge on your behalf.’ ”

In asserting responsibility for last week’s bombing in Sanaa, Ansar al-Sharia — the name by which AQAP goes in southern Yemen — declared that the attack was revenge for what it called the U.S. war on its followers.

The previous week, al-Qaeda’s supreme leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, released a video portraying Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who took office in February and vowed to fight AQAP, as an “agent” of the United States.

In some cases, U.S. strikes have forced civilians to flee their homes and have destroyed homes and farmland. Balweed Muhammed Nasser Awad, 57, said he and his family fled the city of Jaar last summer






after his son, a fisherman, was killed in a U.S. strike targeting suspected al-Qaeda militants. Today, they live in a classroom in an Aden school, along with hundreds of other refugees from the conflict.

“Ansar al-Sharia had nothing to do with my son’s death. He was killed by the Americans,” Awad said. “He had nothing to do with terrorism. Why him?”

No Yemeni has forgotten the U.S. cruise missile strike in the remote tribal region of al-Majala on Dec. 17, 2009 — the Obama administration’s first known missile strike inside Yemen. The attack killed dozens, including 14 women and 21 children, and whipped up rage at the United States.

Today, the area is a haven for militants, said Abdelaziz Muhammed Hamza, head of the Revolutionary Council in Abyan province, a group that is fighting AQAP. “All the residents of the area have joined al-Qaeda,” he said.

31 May 2012Salon.comLosing Yemeni Hearts and MindsBy Letta Tayler

*(U) Destroyed houses in the mountainous area of Arhab, north of Sanaa, Yemen. (Credit: Reuters/Mohamed al-Sayaghi)

During meetings with young, reform-minded activists last month in Yemen, the talk invariably turned to accelerating CIA drone strikes against Islamist militants, and the temperate voices quickly turned angry. The youths’ comments underscored how swiftly the U.S. is losing hearts and minds as it battles Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and its local affiliate, Ansar al-Sharia.






“These drone strikes are stupid policy,” said a secular female activist from Taizz, a city that is considered Yemen’s intellectual capital. “Every time they kill Yemeni civilians they create more hatred of America.”

The youth activists sounded a lot like residents in a new Washington Post feature about how the dramatic increase in U.S. drone strikes in southern Yemen — at least 21 attacks since January — is breeding anger and sympathy for al-Qaida. The Post primarily quoted tribal leaders in areas under attack or residents whose loved ones were killed by drones. In contrast, the activists I met hailed from cities far from the militant safe-havens that drones are targeting. Most were political moderates eager for reforms — just the sort of potential leaders the U.S. should be cultivating as it seeks to steer Yemen toward a rights-respecting democracy after three decades under its autocratic former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The U.S. has good reason to be concerned about armed Islamist groups in Yemen. This month, AQAP tried for the third time since 2009 to blow up a U.S.-bound jetliner. Ansar al-Sharia claimed responsibility for last week’s attack on a military parade rehearsal that killed nearly 100 soldiers in the heart of Sanaa; it also controls cities and towns in southern Abyan province, where it has imposed a brutal interpretation of Islamic law.

The U.S. also is aware of the need to strike with caution, whether with drones, missiles or conventional aircraft. After a couple of horribly botched U.S. drone and cruise missile strikes in 2009 and 2010, many tribal leaders and residents no longer allege a broad pattern of civilian casualties. That gives credence to the U.S. diplomat in Yemen who told me recently that “the notion of trigger-happy Americans sitting around in some remote room with their computers, killing Yemenis without thought to whether they are genuine militants, is utterly false.”

But solid information is hard to find because Washington shrouds its drone program in secrecy, leading to widespread speculation over how many civilians have been killed and in what circumstances. States are obligated under international law to conduct targeted killings only under circumstances permitted by international human rights or humanitarian law, and they are required to investigate credible allegations of unlawful attacks. While the U.S. provides minimal information on drone strikes by the U.S. military, it has refused to provide almost any details on drone attacks under CIA command, citing the need to respect the covert nature of the agency. In this climate, even one confirmed civilian casualty can sway public opinion against the U.S. Some Yemenis who did not take issue with the U.S. drone strike last September that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical Yemeni-American cleric whom the Obama administration called an AQAP operative, remain furious over another U.S. airstrike a month later that killed Awlaki’s teenage son Abdulrahman, also a U.S. citizen. In particular, they point to the U.S. failure to officially acknowledge the boy died in a U.S. attack.

AQAP and Ansar al-Sharia also kill inside Yemen, but they mostly target Yemeni security forces or foreigners. Moreover, their propaganda machine remains resilient. When Ansar al-Sharia blew up parading Central Security force members on May 21 in Sanaa, it brazenly claimed it was avenging deadly attacks by that unit on protesters during last year’s uprising — attacks that risk going unpunished thanks to a U.S.-backed Yemeni law granting immunity to Saleh and all his aides in exchange for the president’s resignation.

To win Yemenis’ confidence, the U.S. should transfer command of all drone strikes from the CIA to the U.S. military and provide a detailed rationale of why its targeted killings in Yemen are legal under international law. It should insist on more transparency as well from the U.S. military’s Joint Special






Operations Command, which also reportedly conducts drone strikes in Yemen under a veil of secrecy approaching that of the CIA. That will not only give Yemenis information about U.S. strikes but also allow them to seek redress for any unlawful attacks.

The U.S. also should do far more to show Yemenis that it cares not just about defeating Islamist militants but also about putting their country back on track. Yemen is still reeling from the yearlong uprising that removed Saleh but left his brutal security forces intact and allowed already acute poverty, unemployment and internal displacement to reach crisis proportions. At a meeting last week of the Friends of Yemen, a group of western and Arab states seeking to jumpstart the Yemen economy, the U.S. pledged $80 million — a sum that seems like pocket money compared to the $3.25 billion promised by Saudi Arabia.

Until the U.S. takes such steps, Yemenis are likely to become increasingly disinclined to give Washington the benefit of the doubt — much to the delight of groups such as AQAP.Continue Reading Close

During meetings with young, reform-minded activists last month in Yemen, the talk invariably turned to accelerating CIA drone strikes against Islamist militants, and the temperate voices quickly turned angry. The youths’ comments underscored how swiftly the U.S. is losing hearts and minds as it battles Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and its local affiliate, Ansar al-Sharia.

“These drone strikes are stupid policy,” said a secular female activist from Taizz, a city that is considered Yemen’s intellectual capital. “Every time they kill Yemeni civilians they create more hatred of America.”

The youth activists sounded a lot like residents in a new Washington Post feature about how the dramatic increase in U.S. drone strikes in southern Yemen — at least 21 attacks since January — is breeding anger and sympathy for al-Qaida. The Post primarily quoted tribal leaders in areas under attack or residents whose loved ones were killed by drones. In contrast, the activists I met hailed from cities far from the militant safe-havens that drones are targeting. Most were political moderates eager for reforms — just the sort of potential leaders the U.S. should be cultivating as it seeks to steer Yemen toward a rights-respecting democracy after three decades under its autocratic former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The U.S. has good reason to be concerned about armed Islamist groups in Yemen. This month, AQAP tried for the third time since 2009 to blow up a U.S.-bound jetliner. Ansar al-Sharia claimed responsibility for last week’s attack on a military parade rehearsal that killed nearly 100 soldiers in the heart of Sanaa; it also controls cities and towns in southern Abyan province, where it has imposed a brutal interpretation of Islamic law.

The U.S. also is aware of the need to strike with caution, whether with drones, missiles or conventional aircraft. After a couple of horribly botched U.S. drone and cruise missile strikes in 2009 and 2010, many tribal leaders and residents no longer allege a broad pattern of civilian casualties. That gives credence to the U.S. diplomat in Yemen who told me recently that “the notion of trigger-happy Americans sitting around in some remote room with their computers, killing Yemenis without thought to whether they are genuine militants, is utterly false.”

But solid information is hard to find because Washington shrouds its drone program in secrecy, leading to widespread speculation over how many civilians have been killed and in what circumstances. States are obligated under international law to conduct targeted killings only under circumstances permitted by






international human rights or humanitarian law, and they are required to investigate credible allegations of unlawful attacks. While the U.S. provides minimal information on drone strikes by the U.S. military, it has refused to provide almost any details on drone attacks under CIA command, citing the need to respect the covert nature of the agency. In this climate, even one confirmed civilian casualty can sway public opinion against the U.S. Some Yemenis who did not take issue with the U.S. drone strike last September that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical Yemeni-American cleric whom the Obama administration called an AQAP operative, remain furious over another U.S. airstrike a month later that killed Awlaki’s teenage son Abdulrahman, also a U.S. citizen. In particular, they point to the U.S. failure to officially acknowledge the boy died in a U.S. attack.

AQAP and Ansar al-Sharia also kill inside Yemen, but they mostly target Yemeni security forces or foreigners. Moreover, their propaganda machine remains resilient. When Ansar al-Sharia blew up parading Central Security force members on May 21 in Sanaa, it brazenly claimed it was avenging deadly attacks by that unit on protesters during last year’s uprising — attacks that risk going unpunished thanks to a U.S.-backed Yemeni law granting immunity to Saleh and all his aides in exchange for the president’s resignation.

To win Yemenis’ confidence, the U.S. should transfer command of all drone strikes from the CIA to the U.S. military and provide a detailed rationale of why its targeted killings in Yemen are legal under international law. It should insist on more transparency as well from the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations Command, which also reportedly conducts drone strikes in Yemen under a veil of secrecy approaching that of the CIA. That will not only give Yemenis information about U.S. strikes but also allow them to seek redress for any unlawful attacks.

The U.S. also should do far more to show Yemenis that it cares not just about defeating Islamist militants but also about putting their country back on track. Yemen is still reeling from the yearlong uprising that removed Saleh but left his brutal security forces intact and allowed already acute poverty, unemployment and internal displacement to reach crisis proportions. At a meeting last week of the Friends of Yemen, a group of western and Arab states seeking to jumpstart the Yemen economy, the U.S. pledged $80 million — a sum that seems like pocket money compared to the $3.25 billion promised by Saudi Arabia.

Until the U.S. takes such steps, Yemenis are likely to become increasingly disinclined to give Washington the benefit of the doubt — much to the delight of groups such as AQAP.

31 May 2012Al ArabiyaYemeni Nobel Laureate Accuses U.S. Drones of Killing Civilians






(U) Nobel Peace Prize recipient Tawakul Karman says U.S. drone attacks have done more harm than good in Yemen. (Reuters)

Prominent Yemeni activist and winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Tawakul Karman accused the United States of killing civilians in southern Yemen while attempting to eliminate al-Qaeda operatives.

“U.S. drones do not actually kill terrorists as they are supposed to do, but instead they kill women and youths,” Reuters quoted Karman as saying in an interview she gave Thursday in the Qatari capital Doha.

The United States has been intensifying its attacks on the strongholds of extremists whose growing influence in several parts of Yemen has become increasingly alarming for both the West and Gulf nations. The U.S. has also been training the Yemeni army to combat al-Qaeda operatives.

Several tribes’ chiefs in Yemen agree that U.S. attacks usually backfire not only because the victims are largely civilians, but because the attacks make the Yemeni people turn against their government and Washington.

Karman, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for her role in leading anti-regime protests, accused former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who stepped down in February, of being the main cause for the presence and influence of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The situation, she argued, will be different with the current President Abd Rabbuh Mansur al-Hadi.

“I am satisfied with the democratic transition in Yemen and we are all sure that the new president will be capable of eliminating al-Qaeda.”

Karman called upon Hadi to dismiss all Saleh’s relatives from security institutions so that the people would really feel that the regime was toppled.

“Yemenis will keep protesting until all their demands are met,” she concluded.

30 May 2012Baltimore Sun, ReutersYemeni Nobel Laureate Says Drone Strikes Ineffective






Nobel Peace Prize-winning Yemeni opposition activist Tawakul Karman said on Wednesday U.S. drone strikes were ineffective because they were hitting mainly civilians in south Yemen rather than their intended target, al Qaeda-linked militants.

The United States and its Gulf Arab allies have watched with mounting alarm as Islamist insurgents, emboldened by political upheaval in Yemen, have launched a series of audacious attacks and seized swathes of territory including some major towns.

Washington is trying to counter the threat by stepping up drone strikes to kill suspected militants and training the Yemeni army to fight them and stop the country being used as a springboard for attacks on Western targets.

"We are against drone strikes because they will not kill the real al Qaeda, they will only target women and youth," Karman said in an interview in the Qatari capital Doha on Wednesday.

Tribal leaders in parts of Yemen where drone attacks aimed at al Qaeda have killed civilians say the strikes have been turning more and more Yemenis against the Sanaa government and Washington.

Backed by Washington, the Yemeni army has launched a major aerial and ground offensive in south Yemen where militants have gone on the rampage in recent months, looting ammunition depots and killing scores of soldiers.

Karman said former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who quit in February after a year of mass protests, was the "real hand" behind the strength of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula state.

"Fighting terrorists is a goal of our revolution, and we welcome the participation of the U.S. and the international community, but the only ones with the interest to combat al Qaeda in our country are the Yemeni people," Karman said.

LACK OF TRUST

Saleh long enjoyed Saudi and U.S. backing as their point man in fight al Qaeda militants based in Yemen.

But Saleh's opponents repeatedly accused him of manipulating the threat of militancy and even encouraging it to scare the United States and Saudi Arabia into backing him as a bulwark against al Qaeda and thereby help him cling to power.

"We were uncomfortable with the U.S. approach to combat al Qaeda with Saleh. I told them, ˜You have to be careful with Saleh. Don't trust him.' I can't believe that (the U.S.) didn't know of Saleh's connection with al Qaeda," Karman said.

"Now with Hadi, we are confident he will stop al Qaeda."

Karman said she was happy with the transition under new President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who U.S. officials say is proving a more effective partner than Saleh against militants.






At least 20 militants and seven soldiers were killed in Yemen on Wednesday when government troops fought off an ambush on the edge of a southern town controlled by an al Qaeda-linked group, an army official said.

"We are happy and we see progress. That is our victory. He is the president the revolution chose, and we are satisfied. But we are not satisfied with the situation of the army and security forces. Until now, there has been no unification," Karman said.

"It's very important that the international community (exerts) more pressure. They haven't done enough. We need support in sacking all of Saleh's family from the security forces. They support al Qaeda," she said.

Karman said reform activists were focusing on rooting out corruption and restructuring the army and security forces.

"But we (protesters) are still in the squares. The tents are still there and we will not leave until we achieve all of our goals," she said.

Karman won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her role in leading protests against Saleh. She shared the prize with Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Liberian peace campaigner Leymah Gbowee.

30 May 2012Common DreamsBlowback: In Yemen, US Drone Attacks Backfiring

(U) Protesters in Sanaa, Yemen, during a May 29, 2012 march marking an attack last year by security forces on an anti-government camp in the southern city of Taiz. (Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)

New reports suggest that the growing US drone war in Yemen may be backfiring -- inspiring a new generation of enemies of the US and strengthening Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The Obama administration's spreading covert war in Yemen has brought ”a marked radicalization of the local population” and is “driving tribesmen to join a network linked to terrorist plots against the United States,” according to a report in today's Washington Post.






And in last night's PBS Frontline show Al Qaeda in Yemen, correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad went deep inside the country’s heartland to investigate Al Qaeda’s rapid rise in Yemen, and its efforts to win over the local population.

Journalist Michelle Shephard, who has covered the war in Yemen, told Frontline: "If the use of ‘signature [strikes]‘ – those that target regions instead of individuals – erroneously kill tribal leaders, women or children, the blowback is an increase in anti-U.S. sentiment of which AQAP will deftly capitalize.”

Journalist Jeremy Scahill, The Nation magazine's national security correspondent, testified in December 2010 before the US House Judiciary Committee on the US's shadow wars in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere:

As the war rages on in Afghanistan and--despite spin to the contrary--in Iraq as well, US Special Operations Forces and the Central Intelligence Agency are engaged in parallel, covert, shadow wars that are waged in near total darkness and largely away from effective or meaningful Congressional oversight or journalistic scrutiny. The actions and consequences of these wars is seldom discussed in public or investigated by the Congress.

The current US strategy can be summed up as follows: We are trying to kill our way to peace. And the killing fields are growing in number.

Among the sober question that must be addressed by the Congress: What impact are these clandestine operations having on US national security? Are they making us more safe or less? When US forces kill innocent civilians in "counterterrorism" operations, are we inspiring a new generation of insurgents to rise against our country? And, what is the oversight role of the US Congress in the shadow wars that have spanned the Bush and Obama Administrations?

* * *

The Washington Post reports:

Across the vast, rugged terrain of southern Yemen, an escalating campaign of U.S. drone strikes is stirring increasing sympathy for al-Qaeda-linked militants and driving tribesmen to join a network linked to terrorist plots against the United States.

"If the use of ‘signature [strikes]‘ – those that target regions instead of individuals – erroneously kill tribal leaders, women or children, the blowback is an increase in anti-U.S. sentiment of which AQAP will deftly capitalize.” After recent U.S. missile strikes, mostly from unmanned aircraft, the Yemeni government and the United States have reported that the attacks killed only suspected al-Qaeda members. But civilians have also died in the attacks, said tribal leaders, victims’ relatives and human rights activists.

“These attacks are making people say, ‘We believe now that al-Qaeda is on the right side,’ ” said businessman Salim al-Barakani, adding that his two brothers — one a teacher, the other a cellphone repairman — were killed in a U.S. strike in March. [...]

The evidence of radicalization emerged in more than 20 interviews with tribal leaders, victims’ relatives, human rights activists and officials from four provinces in southern Yemen where U.S. strikes have






targeted suspected militants. They described a strong shift in sentiment toward militants affiliated with the transnational network’s most active wing, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.

“The drone strikes have not helped either the United States or Yemen,” said Sultan al-Barakani, who was a top adviser to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. “Yemen is paying a heavy price, losing its sons. But the Americans are not paying the same price.”

In 2009, when President Obama was first known to have authorized a missile strike on Yemen, U.S. officials said there were no more than 300 core AQAP members. That number has grown in recent years to 700 or more, Yemeni officials and tribal leaders say. In addition, hundreds of tribesmen have joined AQAP in the fight against the U.S.-backed Yemeni government.

On their Web sites, on their Facebook pages and in their videos, militants who had been focused on their fight against the Yemeni government now portray the war in the south as a jihad against the United States, which could attract more recruits and financing from across the Muslim world. Yemeni tribal Web sites are filled with al-Qaeda propaganda, including some that brag about killing Americans.

“Every time the American attacks increase, they increase the rage of the Yemeni people." “Every time the American attacks increase, they increase the rage of the Yemeni people, especially in al-Qaeda-controlled areas,” said Mohammed al-Ahmadi, legal coordinator for Karama, a local human rights group. “The drones are killing al-Qaeda leaders, but they are also turning them into heroes.” [...]

In some cases, U.S. strikes have forced civilians to flee their homes and have destroyed homes and farmland. Balweed Muhammed Nasser Awad, 57, said he and his family fled the city of Jaar last summer after his son, a fisherman, was killed in a U.S. strike targeting suspected al-Qaeda militants. Today, they live in a classroom in an Aden school, along with hundreds of other refugees from the conflict.

“Ansar al-Sharia had nothing to do with my son’s death. He was killed by the Americans,” Awad said. “He had nothing to do with terrorism. Why him?”

No Yemeni has forgotten the U.S. cruise missile strike in the remote tribal region of al-Majala on Dec. 17, 2009 — the Obama administration’s first known missile strike inside Yemen. The attack killed dozens, including 14 women and 21 children, and whipped up rage at the United States.

Today, the area is a haven for militants, said Abdelaziz Muhammed Hamza, head of the Revolutionary Council in Abyan province, a group that is fighting AQAP. “All the residents of the area have joined al-Qaeda,” he said.

19 May 2012Juancole.com (Blog)Frantic Civilian Tweets Map Out US Drone Strikes in Yemen (Woods and Serle)Posted on 05/19/2012 by Juan

Chris Woods and Jack Serle write at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Though the hour was late, Yemen’s social media was still very much awake.






A US drone’s missiles had just slammed into a convoy of vehicles in a remote part of Yemen, killing three alleged militants.

The attack – like all other US drone strikes outside warzones – was supposed to be clandestine. Yet within minutes Sanaa-based lawyer Haykal Bafana was reporting the strike in almost-realtime. Just after 1am on May 17 he posted the following on Twitter:

Haykal Bafana @BaFana3

#Yemen NOW | Missile strike on car in Wadi Hadhramaut. Near city of Shibam. Suspected US drone attack. 16 May 12

As Bafana later explained to the Bureau, his relatives live in Shibam, a town of 30,000. ‘When the drone struck, the town – which was then experiencing a power cut – had completely lit up. My relatives got straight on the phone to tell me about the attack.’

‘No attacks so far’The day prior to the strike Bafana had already tweeted that drones were behaving suspiciously in the area. Hadhramaut province, a sparsely-populated former sultanate, is far from Yemen’s troubled south, where most of the fighting and US drone strikes are currently taking place.

There has been militant activity there for some years, report locals, and surveillance drones have been active at night since 2010. But until now there had never been a drone strike. ‘But suddenly four or five days ago, my relatives were reporting drones over them in daylight, all the time, which was rare. Militants were also being seen moving about in the area, maybe preparing the way for an evacuation from the fighting in the south. Everyone was expecting something to happen’, Bafana recalls. He tweeted the news to his followers.

Haykal Bafana @BaFana3

#Yemen | Hearing multiple claims of drone sightings in Hadhramaut, especially in Shibam/Qatn directorates (KSA route). No attacks so far. 15 May 12

When the deadly attack finally came in the early hours of Thursday morning, the target itself was hardly a secret.

Earlier, Arabic-language online media in the provincial capital of al-Mukalla had reported that a convoy of alleged al Qaeda rebels was heading north. That news was also swiftly tweeted.

Others were clearly also charting the convoy’s progress. As the vehicles approached Shibam at around 1am local time, at least one car, a Toyota Hilax, was destroyed by missiles from above. Yemen’s own air force has neither the know-how nor the equipment to launch a precision strike on moving vehicles in the dark.






With drones the issue has always been the civilian casualties. And they are piling up, especially now.’

Lawyer Haykal Bafana

News agencies would later report the attack as a drone strike, naming two of the dead as Zeid bin Taleb and Mutii Bilalafi, both described as local al Qaeda leaders. Like the dozens of US drone strikes in Yemen that preceded it, Thursday’s attack was supposed to be secret. Yet Twitter and other social media were tracking in near-real time the events surrounding the operation.

‘It is incredible how the same type of technology used by the CIA to kill people with drones in the Yemen, is empowering the Yemenis to tweet the attacks as they are happening,’ Noel Sharkey, professor of robotics at the University of Sheffield told the Bureau.

‘They can send us all pictures and bring us closer to the horror they are experiencing. Technology in the small may eventually bring down the over-use of military technology in the large.’

#No DronesSocial media tools like Facebook and Twitter – which played an important role in Yemen’s Arab Spring uprising – are now being used by activists to draw attention to a large increase in US drone strikes in recent weeks.

As Haykal Bafana notes, within minutes of his tweeting Monday’s attack the news was also posted on Facebook and on local Arabic micro-news sites. ‘Web use is as low as 2% here in Yemen. But it still makes a big difference. Many people get their news from the small local media sites rather than from foreign or state agencies. And Twitter is increasingly important.’

When President Obama’s chief counter terrorism adviser John Brennan visited Sanaa on Sunday, Twitter witnessed an online protest with the hashtag NoDrones.

عربية NoonArabia@ نون

Brennan do you hear us?!!! We say #NoDrones #NoDrones #NoDrones. You are killing innocent people and creating more enemies in #Yemen. 13 May 12

Yemen-based youth activist Sadam al-Adwar (@sadamtweety), for example, said ‘I’m against #terrorism & #extremism, I’m also against #drones. It’s counter-productive & fuels more extremism.’

And @WomanFromYemen, otherwise known as NGO consultant Atiaf al-Wazir, told her more than 8,000 followers: ‘For every headline you read regarding “militants” killed by drones in #Yemen, think of the civilians killed that are not reported. #NoDrones.’

Liveblogging without knowing itYesterday’s Yemen drone strike appears to be the first in which events were reported on in real time.






‘I’ve never heard of an example of people tweeting while drones were actually in the area,’ said Dr Micah Zenko of the Council on Foreign Policy, an expert on Yemen security issues.

‘It really gets to the myth that you can keep these strikes covert, and if you do not have an information campaign that supports their use, you leave yourself flat-footed by people reporting what is being done in real time.’

There is a precedent. Last year a Pakistani man unknowingly tweeted the presence of US Special Forces attack helicopters on the way to kill Osama bin Laden. On May 1 last year Pakistani IT consultant Sohaib Athar tweeted the following.

Sohaib Athar @ReallyVirtual

Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event). 1 May 11

After a ‘huge window shaking bang’ he debated the significance of the night’s events on Twitter, even as US Special Forces carried out their controversial raid. He quipped to a follower that ‘moving to Abbottabad was part of the ‘being safe’ strategy.’

But as the news of Bin Laden’s death broke Athar lamented ‘Uh oh, now I’m the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it.’


20120601_453 cip yemen drone blowback

Documents

Transcript of 20120601_453 cip yemen drone blowback