Dead Men Rising

A telephone conversation between al-Qaida leaders precipitated an unparalleled “red alert” to the U.S. government.

Al-Qaida can’t be allowed to die. That “terror network” — already declared dead and buried several times over — appears to be giving stage directions to cowering Western governments. The airport in Yemeni capital Saana is bustling with activity because both the U.S. and British governments are occupied with hastily evacuating embassy personnel and other citizens. Both governments have suspended their diplomatic activities in Yemen, with France and Germany soon to follow suit. Other nations have undertaken “precautionary measures”; Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands have advised their citizens to leave Yemen as soon as possible. The alert appears to apply to the entire region, with 19 U.S. embassies and consulates across North Africa and the Middle East having closed since Sunday. The alert is expected to last until the weekend.

Skeptics suspect the action was staged by the United States in an attempt to justify the legitimacy and necessity of its gigantic spy programs targeting telephone and Internet communications. On the other side of the coin, President Obama now has to put up with Republican criticism that his announcements of victory over al-Qaida were premature, unrealistic and frivolous. That is far too high a political price to pay to achieve what amounts to just pure propaganda. One may assume the United States does, in fact, fear further attacks or at least cannot rule them out. The memory of the Libyan insurgent attack on the consulate in Benghazi in June 2012 remains vivid. That incident, to which the U.S. government response appeared inadequate, is still being mercilessly exploited by the Republicans.

Meanwhile, the cause of the current panic is neither impressive nor convincing: Some unnamed U.S. agency overheard a telephone conversation between al-Qaida head Ayman al-Zawahiri and the former head of the Yemeni al-Qaida branch, Nasser al-Wahishi. Al-Zahawiri ordered an attack to be carried out to coincide with the end of Ramadan. No details as to the type or place of the attack were mentioned. Just recently, it was reported that the 36-year-old al-Wahishi had been promoted to “general manager” of the international network, a post that includes responsibility for terrorist operations.

But what if the two men were simply putting their American observers on? The White House let it be known that in addition to the monitored telephone conversation, there were other credible indications that an attack was in the making, but again, no concrete evidence was presented. The Yemeni government added that in recent days, “dozens” of al-Qaida members from all over the world had converged on the country to blow up oil pipelines and seize ports. In Sanaa, troops and armored vehicles patrolled the streets on Tuesday, securing key buildings.

On Wednesday, eight men in a remote part of South Yemen were killed by an American unmanned drone. They were reportedly underway in two separate vehicles. This was the fifth such attack since July 28 in which a total of some 20 people were killed. The United States government, as usual, had no comment. Local media reported that several of the victims were members of a group “connected” to Ansar al-Sharia, the Yemeni branch of al-Qaida. Yemen is currently leading Pakistan as the preferred target for U.S. unmanned drone attacks. America has tripled the number of such attacks in Yemen, increasing them from 18 during 2011 to 53 last year.