As 2002 progressed, so did al Qaeda’s plotting in Yemen. The bombing campaign by the Sympathizers with Al Qaeda group in Sanaa had not had its intended effect. The prisoners of interest to al Qaeda were not released. The Yemeni government persisted in its counterterrorism cooperation with the United States. Publicly, Saleh and his government identified themselves as part of the international coalition against al Qaeda, whose vision of Yemen as an alternate to Afghanistan was being frustrated. From outside Yemen, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, al Qaeda’s operations chief in the Arabian Peninsula, escalated operations.
The plot against Yemen’s oil infrastructure continued. As proposed by al-Nashiri and Abu Ali, Walid al-Shaibah and his group pursued its preparations in Al Mukalla. The attack boat purchased in Al Hudaydah had been moved in place. Omar Jarallah, Fawzi al-Hababi, and Mohammed al-Amari undertook to rig the boat with explosives. The suicide bombers, Hasan al-Badawi and Naser Awadh, had accepted their roles. As in Aden in 2000, their activity passed unnoticed by the Yemeni security authorities and unreported by the local Yemenis who witnessed it. We perceived ongoing al Qaeda activity, but did not focus on Al Mukalla, rather on Al Hudaydah and Aden. As we assessed likely targets, the Saafir, Yemen’s supertanker storage terminal just north of Al Hudaydah, appeared most vulnerable and most likely.
Given al Qaeda’s success in attacking the embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998, we also assumed the embassy was a prime target. The EAC met regularly to assess threats and adopt countermeasures. Some of the countermeasures were permanent. Jim Stone, a local American contractor, had strung concertina wire procured as excess from the U.S. military along the top of the embassy perimeter wall.1 He had also replaced the grillwork that constituted the perimeter barrier at the embassy front with a reinforced wall. This wall proved useful on March 15, 2002, when a young Yemeni man, angered by U.S. support for Israel in the midst of the second Palestinian Intifada, threw two hand grenades at the embassy. One made it over the wall, and the other bounced off it. Both exploded, causing little damage and no injuries. The embassy’s local guard force and CSF personnel subdued the man.2
Our Marine security guards handled their routine responsibilities and the occasional crisis with the utmost professionalism. In other postings, Jerusalem and Cairo, I had dealt with incidents of young Marines running afoul of local customs, but the detachment in Sanaa was known throughout the battalion for exceptionally high standards.3 The influx of U.S. military personnel—trainers and liaison officers—significantly boosted the embassy’s human resources, and the regional security officer integrated this considerable talent into the internal defense plan. These specialists also willingly trained our Foreign Service officers and local staff to detect tampering with their vehicles and helped us assess our vulnerabilities to mortars, rockets, and even surface-to-air missiles. State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security also provided full support: chem/bio trainers and equipment, surveillance detection training, and VIP protection training. Our colleagues in Washington were undertaking extraordinary efforts to safeguard us.
In Interior Minister al-Alimi, we had a most reliable partner. Many American ambassadors elsewhere had to plead or even threaten to get enhanced protection. Al-Alimi responded willingly and often went beyond my requests, even once closing off to traffic the two lanes of the avenue bordering our front wall. Col. Yahya Saleh, commander of CSF, took a personal interest in our security as well. He was known to visit his troops late at night to assess their readiness and personally investigated incidents such as the grenade attack. No defense provides guarantees, but the embassy was a hard target.
And targets we were. In the wake of its failed campaign against Yemeni security forces, al-Nashiri and Abu Ali directed that al Qaeda’s bombing campaign shift from Yemeni officials to diplomatic targets. The American, British, German, French, and, inexplicably, the Cuban embassies made their list.4 The Walid al-Shaibah group, still undertaking the Al Mukalla plot, was merged with the Fawaz al-Rabi’a group, which had undertaken the earlier bombing campaign in Sanaa. Most of their activity focused on the American embassy.5
The plotters rented a house on Socotra Street in the Al Qadissiyya district of Sanaa and purchased two cars. At least four of the plotters—Fawzi al-Wajeeh, Fawzi al-Hababi, Abu Bakr al-Rabi’a, and Ibrahim Howaidi—cased the American embassy.6 Given the embassy defenses, the plotters decided a rocket attack was most feasible. Abu Ali help the plotters procure rockets and explosives from the Talhi arms bazaar north of Sa’dah. They transported two rockets, 337 kilograms of TNT, and rocketpropelled grenades with launchers from Sa’dah to Sanaa in plastic cartons covered with pomegranates. Circuit boards and Casio watches were rigged as triggers.7
Meanwhile, Yemeni-U.S. counterterrorism cooperation continued to suffer from serious growing pains. In Washington pressure mounted to get results in Yemen, and there were semiserious suggestions to invade the country. To those of us who knew its rugged terrain and fiercely independent tribes, that course of action appeared extremely costly and fraught with risks. The discussions indicated that the “target versus partner” debate was far from resolved.
The FBI had also detected suspicious activity among an expatriate group of Yemenis in upstate New York. Individuals deemed to have terrorist links had stockpiled thermoses and night-vision devices. The bureau theorized that the thermoses could be rigged as bombs to threaten airplanes, and the night-vision devices could be used for other terrorist operations. The Immigration and Naturalization Service issued an order to subject all Yemenis to secondary inspections at ports of entry and departure.
They naturally resented being singled out from other nationalities. The minister of foreign affairs suggested less insidious explanations for Yemeni nationals’ interest in thermoses and night-vision devices. The former were ubiquitous at Yemeni khat chews; the thermoses kept warm the sweet tea that countered the dehydrating effects of chewing khat. The latter were extremely handy for Yemeni farmers guarding khat groves from nighttime prowlers.8 In the superheated security climate following 9/11, such explanations carried little weight. While noting less menacing explanations, we pressed for the FBI to conclude its investigation and establish the facts one way or another. Initially, political relief came from the opposite direction: Pakistanis and Saudis were subjected to similar treatment. The miserable Yemenis loved the company.
The escalating Palestinian Intifada created its own political headwind for our efforts in Yemen. The Arabic news channels and print media supplied a steady stream of graphic images that inflamed Yemeni sentiment and prompted the embassy grenade attack. The negative impact was palpable. Discussion of Yemeni-U.S. cooperation often took place literally with an Al Jazeera broadcast of suffering Palestinians in the background.9 President Bush’s promotion of a two-state solution in his June 24 speech as well as Secretary Powell’s and Bill Burns’s efforts to define the “road map” to that solution helped us significantly manage the issue’s corrosive effects on counterterrorism cooperation.
By summer 2002 that cooperation was taking increasingly tangible form, but not without considerable friction. U.S. Special Forces soldiers and Marines were well along in training the YSOF. The Yemeni recruits provided excellent raw material. They were tough and motivated. According to my Special Forces advisers, their basic skills were surprisingly good. Their Jordanian trainers provided both interpreters and model soldiers. But two questions haunted the program. First, the YSOF’s real mission proved elusive. In their command briefing, counterterrorism was emphasized. However, they had not deployed for the December 18 fiasco, and their deployments generally seemed more in keeping with a praetorian guard than a true special operations force. As in most Arab countries, regime protection appeared to be the priority. Second, they lacked noncommissioned officers. As in most of the Arab world, there was a gap between the officers, who were making a career of the military, and the recruits. Nevertheless, the first trainees graduated in July. Their impact in the struggle against al Qaeda remained a question mark as we helped the Yemenis develop plans and intelligence to test the YSOF’s effectiveness.
An allied country, Britain, played a role in training the Yemenis as well.10 We greatly respected their expertise and welcomed a partnership. With fewer resources and limited time, they agreed to focus on the Interior Ministry’s CSF, led by Col. Yahya Saleh. When the British finished their initial training, their U.S. counterparts took over the mission. The British government eventually agreed to renew the effort, and we alternated in continuous CSF training thereafter. This related effort unfortunately included no equipping, but the United States stepped in to provide equipment equal to that supplied the YSOF.
Unfortunately, progress on the training grounds was not lubricating the support flights with their diplomatic pouches. Washington, including the vice president, had been helpful. I had had my own heart-to-heart with the president. All to little avail.
Each support flight became a drama. Material for Yemeni use was quickly approved. Material for embassy use and classified pouches were questioned and subject to delay. Radios, weapons, and blood for use should American trainers suffer an injury were held up and only reluctantly allowed in. These frictions not only hampered our local efforts, but they also began to impact Washington’s assessment of Yemen’s commitment to counterterrorism. I briefed Presidential Adviser al-Iryani and asked him to share my concern with President Saleh. Meanwhile, the foreign minister made a good faith effort to coordinate among the Yemeni players a compromise on diplomatic pouches.
In some ways, Americans and Yemenis were adopting mirror positions. Spooked by the thermoses and night-vision devices in upstate New York, U.S. authorities had imposed draconian measures on all Yemenis entering or leaving the United States. Of course, we understood these measures to be prudent precautions given our experience on September 11. The Yemenis, particularly the PSO, had reciprocal doubts about U.S. intentions and activities. Was equipment for the stated purpose of fostering the partnership or a more nefarious purpose? Was Yemen a partner or a target?
We, including Vice President Cheney, had exercised diplomatic leverage and practical leverage, such as holding up Yemeni equipment, but had not forced a solution. Some in the embassy and back in Washington wanted to escalate. A few embassy sections opted for all-out confrontation, convinced that Saleh would and could be compelled. Relations with some counterparts deteriorated dramatically. I thought it was the wrong tactic and the wrong issue. With Yemeni officials and with the Yemeni public, a confrontation over the country’s control of entry and exit of material or people would be perceived as a confrontation over its sovereignty. Yemeni pride would be engaged; no practical price would be deemed too high.
Moreover, in critical ways, cooperation was progressing. Haltingly, we were developing realistic options for striking al Qaeda in Yemen. Admittedly, there were problems—often from Yemen but sometimes from the United States as well. Equipment went down, the weather impeded. Not surprisingly, Washington began to consider other approaches, seeking to apply the relative success in Afghanistan to a radically different situation in Yemen. The embassy and CENTCOM supported each other as voices of reason to temporarily restrain Washington’s more bellicose players.
We were at a tipping point, and al Qaeda came to our assistance. On August 9 Walid al-Shaibah and Bashir al-Safari were preparing their rockets for the attack on the embassy, which was scheduled for Tuesday, August 13. One rocket misfired and impacted one of the terrorists in the chest. He died immediately. The other had his hand blown off and died while being taken to the hospital. Fawaz and Abu Bakr al-Rabi’a were in the next room. They escaped.
Saleh urgently summoned me the following day. It appeared to him that the plotters may have been targeting the president himself, and he welcomed assistance in investigating the plot. From the embassy, my counterterrorism team reached back for help. NCIS was first off the mark. They had resources in the area and knew Yemen well from the USS Cole investigation. Their representative on the Country Team had investigators on the ground within hours. Initially, the FBI hesitated. No Americans had been harmed, and at this stage it was not known that the terrorists’ target was the American embassy. Within hours, however, the FBI also reached the decision to send specialists. Since NCIS and the FBI had worked hand in glove on the Cole investigation, I had no concerns with coordination.
Admiral Keating, my interlocutor at the Pentagon on 9/11 and now commander of the Fifth Fleet, arrived on a previously scheduled visit on August 12 and found his NCIS investigators at work. He graciously agreed to visit Aden as well, where he could see firsthand the Yemeni demining program, which his command was also supporting, and Aden Port. We met with the port authority and Yemeni officials. He agreed with me that the U.S. Navy’s resumption of refueling was feasible.
In late August Saleh addressed the ruling party’s congress and focused on terrorism. Previously, he had been characteristically erratic on the issue of al Qaeda, at times denying publicly that they had any presence in Yemen. Perhaps sobered by the Al Qadissiyya incident, he acknowledged that al Qaeda was present. He held al Qaeda accountable for attacks against the country’s interests but offered them a chance to surrender. They would not be handed over to the Americans but rather subject to Yemeni justice and be considered innocent until proven guilty.11 Yemeni efforts to convince Abu Ali to surrender continued but failed to produce a result.
On September 21, CSF took down a house in Rawdah, a northern suburb of Sanaa near the international airport. The operation had not been coordinated with the PSO, and the scene was confused. The target, Yahya al-Majali, had terrorist connections and fought to the death. A security force officer suffered a serious wound to his leg. Minister al-Alimi invited us to help process the scene and asked our assistance in treating his wounded man. We were well prepared to help with the crime scene.12 Aiding the wounded proved problematic, however. U.S. agencies had been generous in providing medical treatment of Yemeni security personnel harmed in joint training. They were understandably cautious, however, about taking responsibility for those injured in unilateral Yemeni operations and declined to assist.
The Yemeni officer’s condition quickly deteriorated as gangrene set in. The embassy physician, Curt Hofer, a former U.S. Army doctor well versed in combat injuries, reported that the leg needed to be amputated. The patient reluctantly agreed. Once again, I had recourse to our Jordanian friends. I knew that Amman’s King Hussein Medical Center offered first-class treatment. I asked my Jordanian counterpart, Amb. Mohamed al-Khaldi, for help and also asked our embassy in Amman to weigh in. The Jordanians had been relatively generous in their counterterrorism assistance to the Yemenis and had not always been recognized for it. They shared our agencies’ reluctance to take responsibility for the injured man. With only vague assurances, we found the means to transport the man to Amman, and the Jordanian government came through as both Mohamed and I had expected they would. The Yemeni’s life had been saved.
The Ministry of Interior and particularly CSF demonstrated in Rawdah a willingness to put U.K.-U.S. training and equipment into the battle against terrorism. The will of the YSOF remained questionable, although its capability had clearly been enhanced by our efforts, and we witnessed an impressive exercise of that improved capability at the end of September.
Al Qaeda made the next move. The long-prepared Al Mukalla plot culminated in an attack on the French oil tanker M/V Limburg on October 6. One crewman, a Bulgarian, was lost overboard and died. Initial reports were sketchy and misleading. As with the Cole, there was initially a possibility that the explosion was an accident. With only photos of the damage, U.S. experts initially credited this explanation.
The embassy had now been through a number of such incidents. Our policy was simple. Withhold judgment and get professional investigators on the scene to collect the facts. Having learned its lessons well, the Yemeni government issued cautious public statements.
Foreign Minister al-Qirby asked for U.S. help in the investigation. Again, NCIS, followed by the FBI, was there within hours. Based on the material evidence and eyewitnesses, they and the Yemenis quickly agreed it was a terrorist act. The U.S. investigators then found conclusive evidence linking the M/V Limburg attack to known al Qaeda operatives.
Yemeni reaction, both official and popular, was immediate and outraged. Terrorists had struck at Yemen’s economic jugular. Fortunately, damage to the tanker was limited. It had not yet loaded its cargo, so the resulting spill was also limited. Nevertheless, fishing beds were polluted. Insurance premiums for vessels using Yemeni ports skyrocketed.
Yemen did not lack high-level U.S. attention in the aftermath of the M/V Limburg attack. The State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator, Frank Taylor, arrived on October 8 and was most welcome. In our initial briefing of then secretary-designate Powell in December 2000, I had pressed him to make the appointment of State’s counterterrorism coordinator a high priority. Having witnessed with admiration Mike Sheehan’s galvanizing effect on our counterterrorism diplomacy, I had done my best to fill Mike’s shoes when he departed in December 2000. Frank had more than adequately filled mine since July 2001. From his resources, he supplied the embassy every support possible: experts such as Tom Hastings, funding for TIP, Anti-terrorism Assistance, and his own strong voice of reason in Washington policy circles. Frank found President Saleh “feisty but friendly.”
General Franks followed with a visit in mid-October. On October 28, Yemen was finally added to CENTCOM’s coalition list in the global war on terror, thereby formally designating the country a partner, not a target.
Ever welcome, Bill Burns showed up in late October. Saleh praised his attendance and speech at the Paris meeting of the donors’ coordinating group. As Saleh had not unreasonably decided that Yemen could benefit greatly from a free trade agreement, Bill was an ideal interlocutor on the subject since he had managed a success in Jordan as ambassador there.13 Both Palestine and Iraq were very much on Saleh’s mind. On Palestine, Bill briefed authoritatively on the continuing efforts of the Quartet (the United States, Russia, European Union [EU], and United Nations) to implement the road map to President Bush’s proposed two-state solution. On Iraq, however, we shared little common ground. Saleh usefully made clear that agreement on neither Palestine nor Iraq was a condition for counterterrorism cooperation.
On Iraq, Saleh was nevertheless determined to do what he could to avert the looming U.S.-Iraqi confrontation. Yemen had paid dearly for its failure to support Operation Desert Storm in 1990, and Saleh did not want a repeat. Presidential Adviser al-Iryani was Saleh’s designated envoy to advise Saddam Hussein that he had no alternative but to accept UN Security Council demands. After his visit to Baghdad at this time, al-Iryani provided me his impressions. He had found Saddam buoyed by his recent overwhelming election as president, which, al-Iryani observed sardonically, had been in true Arab fashion, with more than 99 percent of the vote. Saddam, al-Iryani also reported, was convinced that the United States was determined “to get” him. Iraq would cooperate for the sake of the international community and its friends, but Iraqi officials knew such cooperation would not save it from America’s wrath. They offered Yemen 5 million barrels of oil for political consideration.14 Yemen had been among Iraq’s most stalwart supporters in the first Gulf War, but Baghdad now realized how far Sanaa had shifted since then. Tommy Franks’s visit was the symbol of improved U.S.-Yemeni relations, and Iraqi vice president Taha Ramadan was furious about it, according to al-Iryani.
As we entered November 2002, the embassy’s counterterrorism team had cause for optimism. True, our intelligence continued to indicate clear and present threats, but cooperation with the Yemenis had improved significantly. Personnel changes had created a new consensus in the embassy to work around the pouch issues, and bilateral strains had eased.
Al Qaeda had also committed serious mistakes. Targeting the M/V Limburg and Yemen’s oil lifeline had rallied the government and considerable parts of the population against it. Belatedly, the Yemeni government had come to realize that its public had a role to play in counterterrorism. Saleh’s media adviser, Faris Sanibani, told us that the president had noted that an ordinary American citizen had been instrumental in the arrest of the snipers who had recently been stalking the Washington, D.C., area. If Americans could help their government confront the snipers, why couldn’t Yemenis provide similar help against terrorists? The Yemeni media machine shifted into a higher gear, and ordinary citizens for the first time were enlisted in the cause.15
The misfire in Al Qadissiyya had also removed al Qaeda’s most effective operator, Walid al-Shaibah, from the scene, exposed the al Qaeda operation against the American embassy, and alarmed Saleh. Abu Ali was still masterminding overall al Qaeda operations in Yemen, but he was on the run. In one embassy meeting, I expressed cautious optimism. I likened our situation to an American football team that had advanced the ball within the twenty-yard line: we were “in the red zone.”
Al Qaeda quickly shifted its tactics. Its previous primary target, the American embassy, had proven too hard. Even if al-Shaibah had successfully modified his rockets, a standoff attack with them (that is, one allowing them to avoid defensive fire) would have probably produced relatively few casualties and little damage. Fawaz al-Rabi’a and Abu Bakr al-Rabi’a had themselves barely escaped from the scene of the August 9 misfire. Abu Ali now instructed them to focus on a softer target: the Hunt Oil Company’s helicopter.
Hunt’s helicopter was easier on several counts. First, it was not and could not be hardened to any great extent. More importantly, its operation was predictable. It flew on schedule either eastward to the Ma’rib production facility or westward to the Saafir supertanker storage facility off Al Hudaydah. Fawaz al-Rabi’a took the lead. Beyond planning the operation, he was responsible for firing the missile at the aircraft. An associate, Hizam Majali, would simultaneously shoot at the helicopter with a machine gun. Mohamed al-Dailami would drive the getaway car, and Abu Bakr al-Rabi’a would videotape the operation. The group, which also included ‘Aref Majali, collected SAM-7s (Soviet-designed surface-to-air missiles), a machine gun, and four AK-47s for the assault. 16
On November 3 at about 6:45 a.m., Ibrahim Howaidi was in position to monitor the helicopter’s movement from a building at the airport. He informed the assault group as it took off in the direction of Ma’rib. Fawaz al-Rabi’a fired the missile but missed. Hizam Majali had better results. Two bullets hit the helicopter, one of which slightly injured two of the Hunt employees on board.17 The helicopter returned safely to Sanaa International Airport within minutes.
One of the attackers, ‘Aref Majali, had been injured. Investigators found a bloody sandal at the attack site. With the help of a local citizen, the Yemeni authorities were able to follow his movements to the Saudi-run hospital in Sa’dah and quickly arrested him. Tracking down Fawaz al-Rabi’a and the other conspirators would prove to be more problematic; they were still very much a threat.
When the shooting occurred, I was also heading to Ma’rib but by road.18 We had made sufficient progress on our projects to justify a return visit to take another look at the regional hospital and explore how we might create a more ambitious development effort there.19
While in Ma’rib, I remained in touch with the embassy concerning another dramatic development: the elimination of Abu Ali al-Harithi, al Qaeda’s senior leader in Yemen, as a result of cooperation between the Government of Yemen and the United States.20 The successful operation quickly made the headlines of leading news media. One report stated:
A missile fired by a U.S. Predator drone over Yemen Sunday [November 3] killed six suspected al Qaeda terrorists in a vehicle about 100 miles east of the nation’s capital, the first time the United States has used the unmanned weapon outside Afghanistan…. 21
Subsequent reports provided additional details:
On November 3, 2002, in Room 3E132, personnel assigned to the [National Security] agency’s Special Support Activity, which provides sensitive assistance to military commanders around the world, were in constant touch with a Cryp tologic Support Group team in Yemen. The CSG—an NSA in microcosm, designed to be sent to critical areas on short notice—was part of a U.S. National Intelligence Support Team working with Yemeni intelligence officials to try to track down al-Qaeda members. Completing the team were Yemen-based CIA officials and their battery of unmanned Predator drones, each armed with deadly Hellfire missiles, based across the Red Sea in Djibouti. From there, the drones could easily reach anywhere in Yemen.
The CSG team was also patrolling the ether, hunting for any signals linked to its targets. High among those targets was Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi [aka Abu Ali al-Harithi], a native Yemeni suspected of belonging to al-Qaeda and planning the attack on the USS Cole two years before. But like most of the NSA’s new targets, Harethi knew that the United States was searching for him with an electronic dragnet, hoping to snag a brief satellite phone call and determine his location. He carried with him up to five phones—each one, analysts suspect, equipped with multiple cards to change its number. The NSA had a partial list of his numbers and, because Harethi was such a high-priority target, had set up an alarm to go off if any of them was used.22
Publicly, the Yemenis put out a cover story. An incident had occurred near Ma’rib. It was thought that the vehicle was transporting a gas canister that had exploded. No link was made to al Qaeda.
Washington could not be discreet. A significant blow had been struck in the war on terror. News of it began to leak, but the articles had vague sourcing that could be absorbed in the static of unending news in the Middle East. However, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz was being interviewed by CNN. Much of the interview dealt with the war on terror generally and specifically Indonesia, where he had been ambassador. The incident in Yemen arose. Wolfowitz saw no reason to obfuscate the U.S. role. Acknowledging U.S. involvement, he told the interviewer that “one hopes each time you get a success like that, not only to have gotten rid of somebody dangerous, but to have imposed changes in their tactics and operations and procedures.”23
A senior American official on CNN directly contradicting the Yemeni cover story produced the predictable effect on the Saleh presidency. I began receiving calls of mounting concern. I quickly communicated that concern to Washington and found sympathy, but little could be done. CNN naturally replayed its Wolfowitz clip again and again, creating an impression, in a country where the government controlled the media, that the U.S. government was insisting on undermining the official Yemeni version. Saleh drew a lesson: while counterterrorism cooperation with the Americans could be effective, it could not be discreet.
The bodies of Abu Ali and his associates were returned to Sanaa for further identification. The interior minister was charged with liaising with the tribes and handing over the remains. The process was particularly sensitive. By Yemeni tribal law and custom, the family of a victim could lodge a blood claim against the party responsible for the death. Abu Ali’s clan was large and influential. Such a claim might poison relations between the government and the tribes. I was reliably briefed on the identification and the hand-over. The family representative positively identified Abu Ali and then commented, “He chose his path, and it has led here.” His terrorism was a personal affair, not a tribal one.
For Washington, the significance of the operation was underscored by President Bush himself three months later. In his State of the Union address of January 28, 2003, he summed up major counterterrorism accomplishments in the first year following the 9/11 attacks:
There are days when our fellow citizens do not hear news about the war on terror. There’s never a day when I do not learn of another threat, or receive reports of operations in progress or give an order in this global war against a scattered network of killers. The war goes on, and we are winning. To date we have arrested or otherwise dealt with many key commanders of Al Qaida. They include a man who directed logistics and funding for the September the 11th attacks, the chief of Al Qaida operations in the Persian Gulf who planned the bombings of our embassies in East Africa and the USS Cole, an Al Qaida operations chief from Southeast Asia, a former director of Al Qaida’s training camps in Afghanistan, a key Al Qaida operative in Europe, a major Al Qaida leader in Yemen.24
Al Qaeda in Yemen had suffered a staggering blow. Its leader and his key associates had been eliminated. However, Fawaz al-Rabi’a and his associates were still at large and determined to repay—in kind. They would apply the law of the talon, “an eye for an eye,” if they could.