Failing to eradicate the al Qaida presence by force, Salah summoned the tribal chiefs
harboring al Qaida centers and through them offered to pay the Islamists to
the country. The bribe of an estimated $15-20 million was accepeted al Qaida leaders, presenting themselves to the Somali Al-Shebab Islamist rebels as emissaries of Al
Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), turned up in Somalia to scout suitable areas
under rebel control for new bases, their pockets well lined with US dollars to pay for
their lease.
Our counter-terror sources report that the al Qaida group, which is still traveling around Somalia, has no intention of liquidating its bastions in Yemen, but is using the windfall for expansion to Somalia.
On an Internet and radio address taped from his year-end vacation in Hawaii,
Obama offered his most detailed public account yet of the ties between Al Qaida
and bombing-attempt suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, saying it appeared
that a Yemen affiliate of the terror group "trained him, equipped him with those
explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for America.
Meanwhile, Gen. David H. Petraeus, who oversees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,
arrived in Yemen on Saturday to meet with President Ali Abdullah Saleh and
announce that the United States will more than double its counterterrorism aid to
Yemen in the coming year. Yemen's government deployed several hundred extra
troops to two mountainous eastern provinces that are Al Qaida's main
strongholds in the country.
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