Yemeni threat goes on line

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A U-S-born Yemeni cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, posted a video message on radical web sites today calling for the killing of Americans.He said Americans are from the “party of devils,” and no special religious permission is required to kill them. US investigators say al-Awlaki’s sermons may have inspired the man who tried to bomb an airplane over Detroit on Christmas day and the Army psychiatrist who shot 13 people in Fort Hood, Texas. The Christian science monitor correspondent Laura Kasinof reports from Sana’a.Download MP3

Yemen and national security

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Yemen didn’t feature in President Obama’s State of the Union address despite the country’s role in the attempted Christmas Day bombing. Washington has halted transfers of Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo because it’s concerned that some of them might join terrorist groups. Now Yemen says it will build a rehabilitation center for former detainees. The World’s Katy Clark looks at the success rate of such rehab programs. Download MP3

• In full: State of the Union address
• Audio Extra: Interview with terrorism expert John Horgan
• Yemen conference fails to excite Arab press interest
• On The World: Is Yemen in trouble?

Yemen

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On this week’s history podcast a look at the archaeology and history of Yemen. First we hear from University of Chicago archaeologist McGuire Gibson. He’s worked in Yemen since the 1970′s. Then Bernard Haykel, professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton, fills us in on Yemen’s recent history. Thomas Kuehn of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver tells us about Yemen under the Ottomans and how it might be relevant today. Among other things these folks emphasize Yemen’s strategic location and geography, its stunning beauty and its continuous and unbroken history going way back.

Yemen’s fight with al Qaeda

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The US and its allies helping Yemen fight al-Qaeda should not pressure it to carry out reforms or resolve other internal conflicts, Yemen’s foreign minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi said this week. Jeb Sharp speaks with Ali Muthana, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs for Yemen about his country’s relationship with the US. Download MP3 (Photo: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images)

• Embassy of Yemen in Washington DC
• Obama rules out sending US troops to Yemen
• The BBC’s Jeremy Bown: Yemen: Exotic, remote and ‘a little bit scary’

Fighting terrorism in Yemen

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The US and Yemen share an interest in stamping out the Yemen-based group, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has been blamed for the attempt to blow up flight 253 to Detroit on Christmas Day. So Washington has ramped up counter-terrorism aid to the Yemeni government. Jeb Sharp talks with the BBC’s Jonathan Head, who is currently in Sana’a. Download MP3

• BBC profile of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
• The World’s Matthew Bell on AQAP (Dec 30)
• Matthew Bell on counter-terrorism activities in Yemen (Dec 29)