The new best friends in Yemen

Thanks to the Christmas So-called Bomber, we cannot fly to the US with checked baggage and may soon be subjected to body scanning... Just as we can no longer carry water bottles because of a previous idiotic attempt on an aircraft, just as we have to remove our shoes at "Security", just as we have security at all.....

How close did the "bomber" come to achieving his objective? About as close as previous zealots have - that is, not at all. See: http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/how-close-did-christmas-plane-bomber-get 

"It appears that this latest attempt had little chance of success. An expert tells NRC: “ Most explosives have to be packed under pressure for an explosion to take place. That was not so in this case. Eighty grams of PETN burns up in a second.”"

But as a result of this doomed act of terrorism, the US is about to open yet another front in order to help out a "vital counter-terrorism partner"....

Gee, I didn't realise the US were partners with - of all countries - Yemen!!

It appears that others didn't realise it, either....

Russia, China keep toehold in Yemen
By Thalif Deen

NEW YORK - Russia has stolen a march over the United States in the multimillion-dollar arms market in cash-strapped Yemen, whose weapons purchases are being funded mostly by neighboring Saudi Arabia.

The Yemeni armed forces, currently undergoing an ambitious modernization program worth an estimated $4 billion US, are equipped with weapons largely from Russia, China, Ukraine, eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics.

With the attempted bombing of a US airliner on Christmas Day by a Nigerian student, reportedly trained by al-Qaeda in Yemen, the administration of President Barack Obama has pledged to double Yemen’s military and counter-terrorism aid, to nearly $150 million, to strengthen the besieged government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. 

Yemen receives assistance under several US-funded programs, including Foreign Military Financing, International Military Education and Training, Non-Proliferation, Anti-terrorism and De-mining, and Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction.

But the proposed military aid to Yemen - all of it gratis - along with US arms supplies, is negligible compared with weapons, military training and technical expertise from non-US sources.....

Dr Paul Holtom, director of SIPRI's Arms Transfers Program, said Russian media have reported that Yemen has signed a deal to buy an estimated $1 billion worth of arms from Moscow (with some reports giving figures as high as $2.5 billion)....


Dan Darling, Europe and Middle East Military Markets analyst at the Connecticut-based Forecast International Inc, a leading provider of market intelligence on the military, said that in terms of primary arms suppliers to Yemen, "almost everything revolves around Russia"....

China provided $200 million worth of armaments, while about $400 million in arms were from a mix of former Soviet republics and eastern European nations (mainly Ukraine, but also Belarus, the Czech Republic and Poland) as well as Italy.

A resource-starved Middle Eastern nation, Yemen has negligible quantities of oil and is categorized as one of the world's poorest countries. The US State Department has described Yemen as "desperately poor" but a "vital counter-terrorism partner"....

Because some dim bulb decided to play at being a terrorist, Canadians are either checking their one bag and thinking about having their private parts on display, or not doing business at all in the US. I'd recommend the latter choice, except that - for many people, it isn't a choice at all. Sure we can always fly to Cuba for some sunshine in February, but too many people who do business in the US have mortgages they need to pay.

I'm fed up. The terrorists are being allowed to win this one, regardless of how hapless they are, by our governments' over-reactions. I'm just not sure why the people we elect to govern us can't see this. Or, maybe they do....