Terrorism can strike when it is least expected.
On Christmas Day, there was a young man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab that attempted to detonate explosives that were hidden in his underwear on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian native, was allegedly trained by the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
Although, this attempted terrorist attack has been the catalyst for change in Yemen, this is not the first terrorism link to Yemen. Yemen has come under increased scrutiny from American counterterrorism agencies since November, after the following events emerged.
- The Senate Foreign Relations Committee reported that as many as 36 American Muslims who converted to Islam in prison, have moved to Yemen and may have joined extremist groups there.
- It emerged that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Ford Hood, Tex., had exchanged e-mail messages with Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Yemeni-American cleric, in hiding in Yemen.
- Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 24, opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle on a military recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas, killing one soldier and wounding another. Recently, Mr. Muhammad wrote in a note to an Arkansas judge that he was a member of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a terrorist group based in Yemen.
What is the common thread in every incident? Yemen.