A MYSTERY IN YEMEN – AT 8:29 A.M. ET:  I don't think we'll be adopting "In Yemen We Trust" as a motto anytime soon.  From Britain's Telegraph: 

Fears of a terrorist strike against Western embassies in Yemen have grown amid claims a convoy of lorries laden with explosives had been smuggled into the country's capital city, Sana'a.

In an apparently botched surveillance operation, militants driving six trucks filled with weapons and ordnance succeeded in giving security forces the slip as they entered the city, according to local media.

And yet, the Washington Post is reporting this:

SANAA (Reuters) - The American embassy in Yemen reopened on Tuesday after a raid near Sanaa that killed two al Qaeda militants dealt with specific security concerns which had forced U.S. and European missions to close, the embassy said.

Violence flared in the Yemen-Saudi border area, where Shi'ite rebels waging a revolt against the central government said a series of Saudi air strikes on a market had flattened shops and homes, killing two people and wounding three more.

Not a good move.  If you're going to close your embassy, keep it closed for a time and beef it up.  If the embassy now gets hit, we will have shown irresponsibility in protecting our people, and we will look like fools.  Of course, in the Obama administration, looking like a fool seems to be a noble goal.

WaPo is also reporting this:

SANAA, YEMEN -- As the United States ramps up its counterterrorism role here, senior Yemeni officials are publicly playing down the partnership, fearing that the government could pay a heavy political price for aligning with the United States and appearing too weak to control al-Qaeda on its own.

The head of Yemen's national security agency declared over the weekend that the threat posed by al-Qaeda had been exaggerated and that Yemen is not a haven for militants, the state news agency Saba reported. The comments by Ali Muhammad al-Anisi came a day after Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, promised increased U.S. support for Yemen on a visit here. Since Anisi's statement, al-Qaeda threats have forced the U.S., British, German, French and Japanese embassies to close.

While playing down the U.S. role seems designed to prevent a domestic backlash, it also raises questions about the government's long-term commitment and will to fight al-Qaeda in the wake of the attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day, analysts say.

COMMENT:  Hey, no kidding.  There are questions.  Yemen has always been a problem.  It was in Yemen that the USS Cole was attacked in 2000.  But our State Department has always underplayed the danger.

January 5, 2010