Grossman Marc - High-value target countering al Qaeda in Yemen

HIGH-VALUE
TARGET

ADST-DACOR DIPLOMATS AND DIPLOMACY SERIES

Series Editor: Margery Boichel Thompson

Since 1776, extraordinary men and women have represented the United States abroad under all sorts of circumstances. What they did and how and why they did it remain little known to their compatriots. In 1995 the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST) and DACOR, an organization of foreign affairs professionals, created the Diplomats and Diplomacy book series to increase public knowledge and appreciation of the role of American diplomats in world history. The series seeks to demystify diplomacy through the stories of those who have conducted U.S. foreign relations, as they lived, influenced, and reported them. Edmund J. Hulls High-Value Target, fortyfourth in the series, provides a timely example and useful lessons.

OTHER TITLES IN THE SERIES

HERMAN J. COHEN, Intervening in Africa: Superpower Peacemaking in a Troubled Continent

CHARLES T. CROSS, Born a Foreigner: A Memoir of the American Presence in Asia

BRANDON GROVE, Behind Embassy Walls: The Life and Times of an American Diplomat

PARKER T. HART, Saudi Arabia and the United States: Birth of a Security Partnership

CAMERON R. HUME, Mission to Algiers: Diplomacy by Engagement

DENNIS KUX, The United States and Pakistan, 1947-2000: Disenchanted Allies

JANE C. LOEFFLER, The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building Americas Embassies

TERRY MCNAMARA, Escape with Honor: My Last Hours in Vietnam

WILLIAM B. MILAM, Bangladesh and Pakistan: Flirting with Failure in Muslim South Asia

ROBERT H. MILLER, Vietnam and Beyond: A Diplomats Cold War Education

DAVID D. NEWSOM, Witness to a Changing World

RONALD E. NEUMANN, The Other War: Winning and Losing in Afghanistan

RICHARD B. PARKER, ed., The October War: A Retrospective

YALE RICHMOND, Practicing Public Diplomacy: A Cold War Odyssey

HOWARD B. SCHAFFER, The Limits of Influence: Americas Role in Kashmir

HOWARD R. SIMPSON, Bush Hat, Black Tie: Adventures of a Foreign Service Officer

ULRICH STRAUS, The Anguish of Surrender: Japanese POWs of World War II

JAMES STEPHENSON, Losing the Golden Hour: An Insiders View of Iraqs Reconstruction

COUNTERING AL QAEDA IN YEMEN

AMB. EDMUND J. HULL (RET.)

FOREWORD BY AMB. MARC GROSSMAN

An ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Book

Copyright 2011 by Edmund J. Hull

Published in the United States by Potomac Books, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hull, Edmund J. (Edmund James), 1949

High-value target: countering al Qaeda in Yemen / Edmund J. Hull; foreword by Marc Grossman. 1st ed.

p. cm. (ADST-DACOR diplomats and diplomacy series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-59797-679-4 (hardcover: alk. paper)

1. TerrorismYemenHistory20th century. 2. TerrorismPrevention. 3. YemenPolitics and government. 4. Qaida (Organization)History. 5. YemenForeign relations21st century. 6. YemenForeign relationsUnited States. I. Title.

HV6433.Y4H85 2011

363.32509533dc22

2011004712

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standards Institute Z39-48 Standard.

Potomac Books, Inc.
22841 Quicksilver Drive
Dulles, Virginia 20166

First Edition

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my wife, Amal, who shared the risks and the rewards,
and to the American and Yemeni staff of Embassy Sanaa,
whose will found ways.

YEMENI OFFICIALS

Ali Abdullah Saleh, president of the Republic of Yemen

Abdulkarim al-Iryani, presidential adviser

Abu Bakr al-Qirby, minister of foreign affairs

Rashad al-Alimi, interior minister

Col. Yahya Saleh, commander of the Central Security Forces (nephew of the president)

Abdulwahab al-Hajri, Yemeni ambassador in Washington

AL QAEDA

Qaed Salim Sinan (Abu Ali al-Harithi), leader of al Qaeda in Yemen

Mohamed Hamdi al-Ahdal (Abu Assem al-Mekki), al Qaeda financier and subordinate leader in Yemen

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, chief of al Qaeda operations in the Arabian Peninsula

Jamal al-Badawi, co-conspirator in attack on the USS Cole

Jaber A. Elbaneh, American Yemeni on FBIs Most Wanted Terrorists list

Fawaz al-Rabia, de facto leader of al Qaeda in Yemen following Abu Alis death

Nasir al-Wahayshi, leader of revived al Qaeda in Yemen and later Arabian Peninsula

Amb. Edmund Hull has written a timely and important book that describes how active, comprehensive, and modern American diplomacy protects and promotes U.S. interests at home and abroad. Ambassador Hulls description of his years as U.S. ambassador to Yemen will appeal to experts who study that difficult and fascinating country, to citizens committed to understanding what it will take to defeat violent extremism, to students of diplomacy, and, crucially, to those who hope to pursue a career in diplomacy.