"Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has an estimated 300 hard-core members, and is not seen as capable of seizing control on a wide scale."
That sure isn't the way my paper has portrayed things all these months.
"Yemen bombing stokes fear of militants" June 25, 2011|By Ahmed Al-Haj, Associated Press
SANA, Yemen — A car bomb believed to have been set off by a suicide attacker killed three Yemeni security personnel yesterday in the southern city of Aden, the government said, as residents grew fearful of a possible attempt by Islamic militants to seize control of the strategic port city.
With a 300-man army?
The government quickly said it suspected Al Qaeda was behind the bomb in Aden’s free-trade zone, which went off after antigovernment demonstrators in the city and across the nation again held large weekend rallies....
What an obvious false flag.
Related: Yemeni Army Evicting "Al-CIA-Duh"
CIA Sees Window in Yemen
Yeah, who are the "terrorists" again?
Regime opponents have accused the government of exaggerating the Al Qaeda threat to try to hang on to Western support, and local investigators in Aden said it was too early to tell what caused yesterday’s blast.
Oh, government would never do that (as blog editor rolls his eyes skyward).
The months of political turmoil have raised fears, perhaps most acutely in the United States, that Yemen’s Al Qaeda franchise will seize the opportunity and carve out more room to operate freely and plot attacks on the West from its redoubts in the country’s remote and mountainous hinterlands.
Residents of Aden said their worries of a possible militant takeover were fueled by the sudden and unexplained withdrawal of military forces loyal to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh from checkpoints at the entrances to the city and other key positions. A similar government withdrawal preceded the recent takeover of two nearby towns by hundreds of Islamic militants, some of them thought to be linked to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula....
See what happens when withdraw, America? The "Islamic terrorists seize control."
Some residents of Aden said gunmen appeared around the city in recent days, sometimes firing randomly in the air or at strategic buildings, such as the Central Bank.
A takeover of Aden would put extremist fighters in control of a major port at the southern entrance to the Red Sea and the vital shipping lane to and from the Suez Canal.
Where the U.S. and the world have a NAVAL PRESENCE because of Somali pirates?
Yemen’s president is clinging to power despite the daily protests against him and an attack on his palace this month that badly wounded him and forced him to flee to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment.
Wasn't he supposed to have returned by now?
See: Saleh Seriously Wounded
The crisis began in February with protests by largely peaceful crowds calling for Saleh to end his rule over the impoverished country on the southern edge of Arabia. A government crackdown on unarmed protesters has killed at least 167 people, according to Human Rights Watch.
The UN’s human-rights office said yesterday that it plans to send a team of investigators on a 10-day visit to Yemen starting Monday to examine allegations of serious human-rights abuses.
What took you so long?
In New York, the UN Security Council yesterday expressed its “grave concern’’ about the deteriorating situation and called on all sides to show maximum restraint and engage in dialogue.
Not exactly an impartial observer, are they?
Amid the disorder, there are signs that Islamic militants — some who have battled Yemen’s government and others who have been drawn into occasional alliances with it — are making gains.
But the propaganda must not be taking very well, otherwise they wouldn't keep repeating it.
This week, nearly 60 Al Qaeda suspects broke out of a prison in Yemen.
Translation: they were released.
The recent takeovers of Jaar and Zinjibar, a short distance to the east of Aden, were carried out with little resistance as security forces had pulled out.
That raised accusations that President Saleh allowed the militants to sweep in to bolster his assertions that without him in power, Al Qaeda would seize control of the country.
Sure looks that way, and we got the narrative already!
Saleh’s opponents have dismissed his warnings as overblown. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has an estimated 300 hard-core members, and is not seen as capable of seizing control on a wide scale.
What? After all that came before in this pos propaganda?
--more--"
Next Day Update:
"Hundreds of thousands of antigovernment protesters rallied across Yemen yesterday, demanding that President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s powerful sons and other members of his inner circle leave the country....
Yesterday, protesters in the cities of Sana, Ibb, Taiz, and others, chanted slogans calling for Saleh to step down and for his sons and other family members to flee....
The question now is can they take a hint?
--more--"
