Pentagon proposes more funds to boost Yemen’s forces

The U.S. military’s Central Command has proposed pumping as much as $1.2 billion over five years into building up Yemen’s security forces, a major investment in a sign of Washington’s fears of al-Qaeda’s growing foothold on the Arabian Peninsula.
 
The timing and the final funding amount will depend on how supporters of the effort overcome resistance from some officials at the State Department and the Pentagon, who have doubts about the ability of the Yemeni  government, seen by many as corrupt, to effectively use a flood of American-taxpayer money, said the Wall Street Journal.
 
The threat to the U.S. from al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen has become a priority concern for the Obama administration,
 
fueling a robust internal debate over how to calibrate assistance to address what many officials see as the biggest counterterrorism challenge outside Afghanistan and Pakistan.
 
Central Command, which oversees military operations across the Mideast and South Asia, argues a large infusion of cash is necessary to stanch al-Qaeda gains and enable Yemen’s security forces to conduct more effective counterterrorism operations, U.S. military officials and diplomats say. The money would be used primarily for training and equipment.
 
But senior U.S. diplomats and experts warn of a widening imbalance between fast-growing U.S. military support and the slow pace of civilian development assistance, which is aimed at peeling away popular support for Islamists. “It tends to encourage a negative perspective in Yemen that all we care about is U.S. security,” said a senior U.S. official.
 
More safeguards are needed, officials say, to ensure U.S. equipment and resources aren’t diverted by the Yemeni government to its fight against domestic rivals. In addition to battling the homegrown group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the government in San’a faces rebels to the north and secessionist groups in the south of the country.
 
The U.S. military accelerated strikes against Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula following December’s failed attempt by the group to blow up a Detroit-bound American airliner.
 
Over the past nine months, the U.S. military has carried out a handful of missile strikes on alleged al Qaeda operatives in Yemen, according to U.S. officials briefed on the operations. All of the strikes were approved by Washington’s then-ambassador to San’a, Stephen Seche, the officials said. Mr. Seche recently returned to Washington.

The White House is now weighing a proposal to add armed, aerial drones operated by the Central Intelligence Agency to the arsenal against al Qaeda in Yemen, mirroring the CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan.
 
Tensions between Central Command and the State Department have simmered for months over the size and scope of the U.S. military’s security assistance to Mr. Saleh’s government, according to U.S. officials.

U.S. officials said Central Command originally floated the idea of a bigger, $1.6 billion package for Yemen, but scaled it back after objections from the State Department and some in the Pentagon.

Mr. Seche and others have argued that Yemen doesn’t have the capacity to absorb such large sums, according to officials involved in the deliberations. They also voiced concerns that the Pentagon’s plans risked overly militarizing Yemen, and potentially fueling a wider insurgency in the country.
 
Aid to Yemen under the U.S. government’s main counterterrorism program has grown from less than $5 million in fiscal 2006 to more than $155 million in fiscal 2010, the Pentagon said. But that effort has been piecemeal, prompting calls within the military for a more concerted, sustained campaign.

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