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| 36 US citizens in Yemen may pose threat: report |
| 2010-01-21 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Some U.S. citizens suspected of training in al-Qaeda camps in Yemen, including dozens who converted to Islam in prison, may pose a serious threat to the United States, a report by a U.S. Senate committee said as the Security Council added the Yemen-based al-Qaeda wing to a U.N. blacklist. Two groups of Americans based in Yemen are causing concern for U.S. counter-terrorism experts in the Gulf region, according to the report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff. The report was prepared for release at a committee hearing on Wednesday on al-Qaeda and Yemen. Most worrisome is a group of up to 36 former U.S. criminals who converted to Islam in prison and arrived in Yemen in the past year, ostensibly to study Arabic, the report said. Radicalization Some members of the group have disappeared and it is feared they were "radicalized in prison and traveled to Yemen for training," the report added. Another group includes nearly 10 non-Yemeni Americans who traveled to Yemen, converted to Islam, became fundamentalists and married Yemeni women so they could stay in the country, the report said. This last group of people "fit a profile of Americans whom al-Qaeda has sought to recruit over the past several years," and most reside in Sanaa, Yemen's capital, the report said. The report comes amid rising concern in the United States and elsewhere about al-Qaeda's activities in Yemen. Instability in Yemen has prompted fears that al-Qaeda may exploit the chaos to strengthen its foothold in the poorest Arab country and plan attacks against U.S. and other targets. U.S. officials have said the Nigerian man accused of attempting to blow up a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner on Dec. 25 was trained by al-Qaeda in Yemen. U.S. diplomats and law enforcement officials said they had no evidence yet that any of the Americans in Yemen had received training, according to the report, prepared by staff working for Senator John Kerry, the committee's Democratic chairman. "They (the U.S. officials) said they are on heightened alert because of the potential threat from extremists carrying American passports and the related challenges involved in detecting and stopping home-grown operatives," it said. The report said the botched Christmas Day bombing attempt was a "nearly catastrophic illustration of a significant new threat" from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the al-Qaeda offshoot operating in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #10 Yes, but how do they back get to the US without flying, ed? Surely we share our no-fly list with Canada, and the Mexican border is tighter than it used to be. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-01-21 17:22 |
| #9 It not just a no fly list. They can return to the US at any time and set up new recruiting, recon, logistics and action cells. Wait a few years then launch mass casualty attacks. |
| Posted by: ed 2010-01-21 15:04 |
| #8 If there are only thirtysix, which I doubt, it shouldn't be too hard to get their names, and even to find many of them -- I'm sure foreigners stick out there, if only by their walk and their height. After that it's a matter of putting their names and passport information on the no-fly list, which even the State Department should be able to handle. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-01-21 13:58 |
| #7 Problem is they will be Yemen for advanced training. And they still have US passports. |
| Posted by: ed 2010-01-21 11:28 |
| #6 Oooh, good catch, ed. It would be nice to know they're over there instead of wandering our countryside. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-01-21 11:17 |
| #5 Jamaat al-Fuqra aka Muslims of America |
| Posted by: ed 2010-01-21 10:26 |
| #4 This sounds a lot like the Jamaat al-Fuqra prison converts who had that terrorist training compound in NY - Islamburg. They disappeared en mass, until now. |
| Posted by: ed 2010-01-21 10:24 |
| #3 Or by that act. PIMF!! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-01-21 08:53 |
| #2 I don't have a problem with someone who converted and moved to Yemen to live a fully Muslim life. His children will inherit his American citizenship -- should he choose to pass it on -- but his grandchildren will not unless they are born on American soil. It's the ones that go over to become jihadis who should be that act give up their citizenship. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-01-21 08:52 |
| #1 Can we please distinguish between "legally entitled to claim US citizenship" and Real Honest-To-God US citizen? Sounds Starship Trooperish, but it's a worthy distinction nonetheless... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2010-01-21 00:16 |