AP source: US special ops target Yemeni al-Qaida with CIA drones to join from ne

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AP source: US special ops target Yemeni al-Qaida with CIA drones to join from

new base later

By Dozier, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 4 hours ago

WASHINGTON - The United States is building a secret CIA air base in the Persian

Gulf region to target terrorists in Yemen, preparing for the possibility that an

anti-American faction may take over Yemen and ban U.S. forces from hunting a

lethal al-Qaida faction there, The Associated Press has learned.

The anti-al-Qaida effort in Yemen is being run by the Joint Special Operations

Command, the top U.S. military counterterror outfit, and the CIA provides

intelligence support. Joint command forces have been allowed by the Yemeni

government to conduct limited strikes there since 2009 and recently have allowed

expanded strikes by U.S. armed drones and even warplanes against al-Qaida

targets trying to take advantage of civil unrest to grab power and territory in

the mountainous country at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

The new CIA base will provide a backstop, if al-Qaida or other anti-American

rebel forces gain control, one senior U.S. official explained. The White House

already has increased the numbers of CIA officers in Yemen, in anticipation of

that possibility. It has stepped up the schedule to construct the base, from a

two-year timetable to a rushed eight months.

The Associated Press has withheld the location at the request of U.S. officials.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because portions of the military and CIA

missions in Yemen are classified.

Drones like Reapers and Predators are unmanned aircraft that can be flown from

remote locations and hover over a target before firing a missile. Yemeni

officials have indicated their preference toward drones, versus allowing U.S.

counterterror strike teams on Yemeni soil, saying they are less apt to incense

the local population.

The planned CIA base suggests a long-term U.S. commitment to fighting al-Qaida

in the region, similar to the model used in Pakistan, where CIA drones hunt

militants with tacit, though not public, Pakistani government approval. Its

construction also indicates a possible shift in the internal debate in the

administration over whether U.S. special operations forces should continue to

lead the fight in Yemen, U.S. officials said.

While that policy debate plays out in Washington, U.S. special operations forces

based just outside Yemen are taking aim almost daily at a greater array of

targets that have been flushed into view by the unrest. U.S. forces have stepped

up their targeting as well, because of the besieged Yemeni government's new

willingness to allow U.S. forces to use all tools available against al-Qaida,

including armed drones and warplanes, as a way to stay in power, the U.S.

officials said.

The CIA would not confirm the White House decision to build the CIA base or

expand the agency's operations in Yemen.

CIA Director Leon Panetta said last week that agency officers were working in

Yemen together with JSOC, as well as other areas where al-Qaida is active.

The United States needs to keep the pressure on to break al-Qaida's momentum

there, the State Department's counterterror co-ordinator, , said

Tuesday. Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which U.S. officials

consider the most immediate terror threat to America, already is operating more

in the open and has been able to acquire and hold more territory, he said.

added said there are growing concerns that AQAP will use the chaos to

acquire more weapons, and also to fuel connections between al-Qaida-linked

militants there and al-Shabab insurgents in Somalia.

The Obama administration has been working for months in concert with the

mediation efforts of Yemen's Gulf neighbours to persuade President Ali Abdullah

Saleh to transfer power. Since Saleh left for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia,

the U.S. has continued to press for a deal in the hope that a political solution

could pre-empt any plan by the Yemeni leader of 33 years to return. That,

officials fear, could lead to further instability.

said he is hopeful that counterterrorism efforts will continue in

Yemen, as the political transition moves along and a new government takes hold.

But another U.S. official said Yemeni opposition groups have voiced criticism of

the U.S. counterterror program and vowed to stop it, should they take power.

Since 2009, Yemen has allowed JSOC to employ a mixture of armed and unarmed

drones, ship-fired missiles, small special operations teams working with

Yemenis, and occasional war plane bombing runs, Yemeni and U.S. officials say.

But permission was on a case-by-case basis, and waxed and waned depending on the

mood of the mercurial Yemeni president.

With al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula essentially in control of large swaths of

Yemeni territory, the Yemeni government now hopes U.S. targeting will remove

some of the enemies threatening the Saleh regime. That new target-at-will

attitude was reinforced after the attempt on Saleh's life when explosive devices

were placed in the palace mosque more than a week ago, both U.S. and Yemeni

officials say.

The U.S. forces also are taking advantage of the fact that more al-Qaida

operatives are exposing themselves as they move from their hideouts across the

country to command troops challenging the Saleh government.

The chaos also has led to arrests of al-Qaida operatives by Yemeni forces, and

those operatives are talking under joint U.S.-Yemeni interrogation, providing

vital information on al-Qaida operations and locations, U.S. officials said.

That intelligence led to the best opportunity in more than a year to hit

U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in early May. But a host of technical

difficulties meant three separate attempts, by two types of unmanned armed

drones and war planes all failed, prompting some grousing among intelligence

agencies that CIA-led strikes might net better results.

The CIA has neither the drones nor the personnel to take the lead in the

operation at present, at a crucial time in the fight against the AQAP

organization, two officials say.

U.S. officials say the United States is trying to take advantage of the al-Qaida

attempt to overthrow the Saleh government. Doing so has only exposed more of its

operatives to U.S. intelligence, U.S. officials say, enabling them to be

targeted.

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden had long urged the group to keep Yemen as a

haven from which to launch attacks against the United States, while AQAP leaders

argued that they should overthrow the Yemeni government. A record of that debate

between bin Laden and Yemeni al-Qaida leaders was found among the records at the

compound in Pakistan where bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces May 2.

___

Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Bradley Klapper contributed to

this report.