Another media-generated radical Imam Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen. The Imam, who communicated with Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Hasan and called him a hero, was once arrested in Yemen on suspicion of involvement with al-Qaida.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Financial Times
By Jean Eaglesham in London and Anna Fifield in Washington
Published: January 1 2010 19:07
Western governments have convened a top-level meeting for this month to discuss strategies to counter Yemen’s growing role as a recruitment base for terrorists, in the wake of last’s week failed attack on a US-bound airliner.
The decision to hold the meeting, called on the initiative of Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, came amid urgent efforts by the Obama administration to try to close holes in its intelligence system.
Mr Brown will host the talks in parallel with the conference on Afghanistan being held in London on January 28.
The Yemen summit has “strong support” from the US and European Union, and the UK hopes to secure the backing of Saudi Arabia and Gulf states, the premier’s office said on Friday.
British and American security services believe Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian who boarded a Christmas day flight to Detroit with 80 grammes of explosive in his undergarments, was recruited by al-Qaeda in Yemen after leaving the UK in 2008.
“Abdulmutallab has told the FBI that he was radicalised and trained in Yemen, apparently in the last six months,” a UK insider said on Friday. “We believe this account to be true.”
The London talks are designed to raise global financial support for Yemen and improve co-ordination of anti-terrorist efforts in the region, according to the British government. “The international community must not deny Yemen the support it needs to tackle extremism,” Mr Brown said.
But analysts have warned that the west must be careful in how it approached Yemen’s unstable government, as al-Qaeda extremists could use foreign intervention as propaganda to recruit new members.
Separately, President Barack Obama will this weekend study early reports on intelligence lapses that allowed Mr Abdulmutallab on to the flight.
He has received a preliminary briefing on the incident and will discuss “security enhancements and intelligence-sharing improvements in our homeland security and counter-terrorism operations” with agency heads on Tuesday.
Intelligence agencies had been warned in August of a plot being planned from Yemen that involved a Nigerian man.
The “human and systemic failures” described by Mr Obama have forced intelligence agencies on to the backfoot.
Admiral Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence who oversees the National Counterterrorism Center, a database of suspicious individuals created on the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, said in a memo to staff that “this is a tough message for us to receive”.
“The president was direct in his assessment that intelligence failures were a contributing factor in the escalation of this threat,” Admiral Blair said. ”I have no doubt in our ability to close the gaps that these attacks exposed.”
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