.36 US citizens in Yemen may pose threat: report
[Al Arabiya Latest] Some U.S. citizens suspected of training in al-Qaeda camps in Yemen, including dozens who converted to Islam in prison, may pose a serious threat to the United States, a report by a U.S. Senate committee said as the Security Council added the Yemen-based al-Qaeda wing to a U.N. blacklist.
Two groups of Americans based in Yemen are causing concern for U.S. counter-terrorism experts in the Gulf region, according to the report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff. The report was prepared for release at a committee hearing on Wednesday on al-Qaeda and Yemen.
Most worrisome is a group of up to 36 former U.S. criminals who converted to Islam in prison and arrived in Yemen in the past year, ostensibly to study Arabic, the report said.
Radicalization
Some members of the group have disappeared and it is feared they were "radicalized in prison and traveled to Yemen for training," the report added.
Another group includes nearly 10 non-Yemeni Americans who traveled to Yemen, converted to Islam, became fundamentalists and married Yemeni women so they could stay in the country, the report said.
This last group of people "fit a profile of Americans whom al-Qaeda has sought to recruit over the past several years," and most reside in Sanaa, Yemen's capital, the report said.
The report comes amid rising concern in the United States and elsewhere about al-Qaeda's activities in Yemen. Instability in Yemen has prompted fears that al-Qaeda may exploit the chaos to strengthen its foothold in the poorest Arab country and plan attacks against U.S. and other targets.
U.S. officials have said the Nigerian man accused of attempting to blow up a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner on Dec. 25 was trained by al-Qaeda in Yemen.
U.S. diplomats and law enforcement officials said they had no evidence yet that any of the Americans in Yemen had received training, according to the report, prepared by staff working for Senator John Kerry, the committee's Democratic chairman.
"They (the U.S. officials) said they are on heightened alert because of the potential threat from extremists carrying American passports and the related challenges involved in detecting and stopping home-grown operatives," it said.
The report said the botched Christmas Day bombing attempt was a "nearly catastrophic illustration of a significant new threat" from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the al-Qaeda offshoot operating in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Al Arabiya
Two groups of Americans based in Yemen are causing concern for U.S. counter-terrorism experts in the Gulf region, according to the report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff. The report was prepared for release at a committee hearing on Wednesday on al-Qaeda and Yemen.
Most worrisome is a group of up to 36 former U.S. criminals who converted to Islam in prison and arrived in Yemen in the past year, ostensibly to study Arabic, the report said.
Radicalization
Some members of the group have disappeared and it is feared they were "radicalized in prison and traveled to Yemen for training," the report added.
Another group includes nearly 10 non-Yemeni Americans who traveled to Yemen, converted to Islam, became fundamentalists and married Yemeni women so they could stay in the country, the report said.
This last group of people "fit a profile of Americans whom al-Qaeda has sought to recruit over the past several years," and most reside in Sanaa, Yemen's capital, the report said.
The report comes amid rising concern in the United States and elsewhere about al-Qaeda's activities in Yemen. Instability in Yemen has prompted fears that al-Qaeda may exploit the chaos to strengthen its foothold in the poorest Arab country and plan attacks against U.S. and other targets.
U.S. officials have said the Nigerian man accused of attempting to blow up a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner on Dec. 25 was trained by al-Qaeda in Yemen.
U.S. diplomats and law enforcement officials said they had no evidence yet that any of the Americans in Yemen had received training, according to the report, prepared by staff working for Senator John Kerry, the committee's Democratic chairman.
"They (the U.S. officials) said they are on heightened alert because of the potential threat from extremists carrying American passports and the related challenges involved in detecting and stopping home-grown operatives," it said.
The report said the botched Christmas Day bombing attempt was a "nearly catastrophic illustration of a significant new threat" from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the al-Qaeda offshoot operating in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Al Arabiya
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