Snap Fact #188 - The 2 Part Story Of The President's Success In Yemen Is One That You REALLY Need To Know!

Here is Part 2 of our story. Yesterday we learned of the infrastructure that the Obama administration set up in Yemen to vigorously combat AL-Qaeda in its most deadly haven. We learned that the President established a working relationship with the government, trained and supported Yemeni armed forces, and activated effective drone attacks with Yemeni government approval. How could this be done so effectively in such a short time? Surely it was not blind luck, it was a carefully planned program. At its heart was a brave and dedicated secret agent who penetrated the highest elements of AL-Qaeda and who was instrumental in making the plan work. We probably will never know this hero's name but he has our appreciation. The following is a direct report from the "SGlobe and Mail". 

An announcement from the Pentagon came a day after the Obama administration announced what it described as a failed terror plot linked to al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based affiliate.

Officials said militants appeared to be planning  to send a suicide bomber, wearing an underwear bomb that was an improved version of one used in the 2009 attempt to sabotage a Detroit bound plane, onto a U.S- or Western-bound flight.

That alleged plot was the latest manifestation of what the Obama administration believes is a serious threat from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen, a poor, lawless country that has seen mass protests and upheaval in the past year.

The agent penetrated al-Qaeda's deadly affiliate and tracked the bomb's movement for weeks before smuggling out the device out of the country and into the hands of American authorities.

The mole, a Saudi, is believed to have escaped safely out of Yemen and into Saudi Arabia with the device two weeks ago, leaving the US clear to kill several of the other plotters with a drone strike.

The sting operation demonstrates the extent of the US's penetration of the terrorist network but also the vital role played by Saudi intelligence, which has previously infiltrated al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) inside Yemen.

“We know the route this thing took in terms of its movement,” a US official told the Washington Post.

The agent's identity is a closely-held secret and both he and his family are understood to have been moved to safe houses out of fear of retaliation from al-Qaeda's operatives.

While the revelation that the bomber was controlled by the US and Saudi Arabia means there was no immediate danger to western aircraft, the advanced technology used in his device caused alarm among intelligence agencies.

It is believed to have been built by al-Qaeda's master bomb maker and explosives experts say it is more sophisticated than the bomb which almost brought down a transatlantic airliner to Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009.

There are fears that the bomb-maker, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, has built other devices, including ones that can be surgically implanted, and may have passed on his skills to others.

John Brennan, the White House counter-terrorism adviser, told ABC News that he could not rule out that other bombers are still at large. Flights to the US from Britain have also been carrying scores of extra air marshals amid fears of co-ordinated attacks on aircraft using the same bombs.

American counter-terrorism officials sent the gun-carrying undercover officers to Europe last week as they insisted on the extra cover

Every flight from Gatwick was carrying armed officers, according to one report.

The Department for Transport refused to comment last night. Around 1,000 US air marshals operate in teams of two or three and undergo intense firearms training to allow them to open fire on a crowded aircraft.

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said the latest plot indicated that terrorists "keep trying to devise more and more perverse and terrible ways to kill innocent people".

The Saudis have previously cracked a plot by al-Asiri to blow up airliners, including one traveling through Leicestershire, using devices disguised as desk-top printers.

The latest underpants device was handed over two weeks ago and President Barack Obama was informed as the CIA then targeted those who gave it to the agent.

On Sunday, a senior planner with AQAP called Fahd al-Quso was hit by a missile fired from an unmanned drone as he stepped out of his vehicle in Rafd, a mountain valley in the southern Yemeni province of Shabwa.

Quso, 37, who had a $5 million bounty on his head, was indicted in the US for his role in the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, which killed 17 American sailors. He was also one of the most senior al-Qaeda leaders to meet Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Detroit underpants bomber, in Yemen before he left the country to launch his attack.

Al-Asiri is one of the most wanted terrorist leaders in the world. The son of a former officer in the Saudi armed forces, he has been described by US intelligence officials as the most "ruthless and fanatical of all al-Qaeda's followers".

He recruited his brother, Abdullah, to join al-Qaeda, and in one of his most chilling attacks, sent him back to Saudi Arabia for a meeting with Muhammad bin Nayef, the security minister.

Abdullah blew himself up using a prototype underpants bomb, but left the minister with only minor injuries.

Under a trigger finger Republican administration with a “my way or the highway” mentality America became embroiled in two ruinous wars with little accomplished to protect the Homeland. President Obama has accomplished more effective and less costly results. He has a string of victories that separately and together have significantly weakened al Qaeda while costing the U.S. little in money and nothing in blood. Based on this alone, who would you want running America the next 4 years?