Have you heard the one about the Nigerian from Yemen?

BLOG POST posted on December 29, 2009 by isaac

Because this is getting ridiculous. They're already making me take off my shoes and put them through the scanner at the airport. What next?

This fella tries to blow up a North West Airlines flight. He's Nigerian. But here's the thing - he kind of somewhat sort of spent time in Yemen. And the cries have been LOUD. UPI reports that Yemen has become the focus of the attack investigation, pointing to Al Qaeda activity in the area. Here's a lovely little ditty they threw in - the US just threw Yemen $75 million to fight terrorism. I'm sure the uncorrupt prez will do exactly that.

And the country's quickly becoming a target. Talking heads are already calling Yemen the new Afghanistan tribal region, screaming Al Qaeda like no one's business. Joe Lieberman threw in this scary quote:

Somebody in our government said to me in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, Iraq was yesterday’s war. Afghanistan is today’s war. If we don’t act preemptively, Yemen will be tomorrow’s war

To add fuel to the fire, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi said that there might be up to 300 Al Q boys in his country. And so Yemen's on the list. One little thing al-Qirbi forgot to mention is how any Al Qaeda lads in Yemen are most likely there from Pres. Ali Saleh's little experiments to try and get them to fight Shi'ites in the country.

Justin Raimondo writes about the questions left open by this attack; if nothing else, he shows that the world asks questions more now than eight years ago. He brings into question many things, including the part played by some Indian-looking gentlemen in this plot. To summarise his investigation:

We are asked to believe that a highly privileged young man, with everything to live for, was suddenly seized with a desire to commit suicide as an act of jihad: that he disappeared from his life of ease, on a street lined with Mercedes Benzes and Ferraris, in a fashionable district of London, and traveled to Yemen, where he received what may have been a defective bomb, which was sewn into his underwear by his jihadist trainers.

We do live in quite the tabloid age. The Guardian went off and found Umar's (the alleged bomber) online postings about how conflicted he felt as a Muslim. Sorry; there's nothing about how he was touched by his uncle as a child.

It's also a nice coincidence how we're all so shocked about this NWA thing and thus too busy to notice how the Saudis have been bombing the Yemeni countryside, killing 50 civilians as a result.

There is one bit of media that seemed unconcerned by this event: almost all Arab media, in fact. What does this mean? The Arabist termed it this way:

...the Arabs have gotten over (never fell for?) the mystification and fetishization of al-Qaeda. Their governments now concentrate on its security element, which ultimately is partly a policing matter, partly about preventing failed states and lawless areas in the region, and in the case of Saudi Arabia about curbing tolerance for jihadism within the regime. When will the Americans follow suit? This is not to underplay the threat of al-Qaeda inspired terrorism (as the recent arrests suggests it is all too real), but rather to take the grand teleological meaning it is ascribed by so many.

Not that we don't realize that this will mean increased profiling at the airports; it's just that Arab media focused on really important things, such as the anniversary of Israel's big attack of Gaza last year. People around the world commemorated the event, even in France.

Of course not everyone wanted the protest to go off without a hitch. No, not Israel. That country jsut got its arse handed to it by, uh, itself, when the Supreme Court allowed Palestinians to use parts of highways that had for decades been part of the plan to isolate Gaza and the West Bank. Rather it was Egypt that was being the bee in the bonnet by stopping international protesters from crossing from Rafah to Gaza. This in turn began a hunger strike against Egypt (one of the two turncoat Arab countries that sides with Israel). The worldwide protest against Israel includes a nice little old lady called Hedy Epstein. She's 85 and a Holocaust survivor. 'Course, you won't find much about this in the US press.

Speaking of the US, a Somali detainee from Guantanamo just got released and called the place "hell on earth." John Yoo I'm sure would disagree. He's the lad that spent a good amount of time trying to legalize torture.

Iran's a bit weary nevertheless, even with US attention suddenly focussing on Yemen, especially with all the evidence of foreign interference behind the unrest there. Not saying that it wouldn't be tikkety boo to have those fundies in Iran out of power, but instead that it's good to remember that the US hasn't got a reputation of backing non-genocidal non-maniacs as leaders after coups.

The Great Bear seems to be far less cloak and daggery about things. Putin just recommended getting better offensive missiles to get past US defensive shields. I don't think Putin gives a shit anymore; he's pretty straight up with his plans. Yes, we're planning to take on the US for round two at some point, is his meaning.

It all came to a conclusion with our man Chavez, who accused US of colluding with Columbia in a plot against him, and also told the world how the Obamillusion is quickly evaporating.

Here in Canada: people think it's okay to use blackface, and protesters in Guelph collided with the Olympic torch.