Waq al-Waq

Feelings are difficult to quantify and contextualize.  By nature they are fleeting and nearly impossible to judge according to any accurate barometer and yet they are still there dancing around the margins of our mind, and whether we admit it or not they often shape the way we think. Over the ... Read More

As some of you may know, I recently took a short trip to Yemen to see for myself how things on the ground had changed since Salih was forced to step down as president.  I had several productive interviews and meetings and I'm currently writing up some of what I found.  Many of my impressions and ... Read More

Despite appearances I have not forgotten about Waq al-waq, and while I'll spare you the usual and tired excuses for my lack of posts I will direct you to the National, which today ran an op-ed I wrote on the US Embassy attack last week in Sanaa. Here is the first paragraph:  Forty years ago ... Read More

Ed: Brian O'Neill, the co-founder of Waq al-waq, returns home with this piece on today's attack on the US Embassy in Sanaa.   (Before we start, I’d like to thank Greg for inviting me to guest post.  Writing on Waq al-Waq is like returning home, if home had somehow moved to a newer, nicer ... Read More

Today Counterterrorism adviser John Brennan gave a detailed overview of US policy toward Yemen at the Council on Foreign Relations.  Marc Lynch over at Foreign Policy has provided the good and the bad of the today's talk - the bad was largely a disengaged, apparently twitter-addicted audience ... Read More

Postings at Waq al-waq will be suspended until some point in mid-July (depending on the fish and novels) at which point I will resume, what is for me, regular posting.  Read More

In Yemen, al-Qaeda often makes mistakes that open the group up to criticism. Most of the time this chance goes begging as the Yemeni government, popular clerics and tribal shaykhs neglect to speak out in any sustained fashion against the terrorist group. I think this is a mistake. My record, I ... Read More

I wanted to highlight three different pieces on Yemen that have been published in the last couple of days, mostly because they are written by a trio of bright individuals who take a different view of Yemen than I do and that can be a helpful corrective against any biases I bring to bear on the ... Read More

This morning Ibrahim Mothana, an incredibly smart and funny young Yemeni, has an op-ed in the New York Times on Drones, Yemen and blowback.  I would encourage you all to read it.  The op-ed raises a number of important points and is yet another in a growing number of excellent pieces on the US ... Read More

This morning Noah Shachtman and Spencer Ackerman have a thought-provoking piece on US military involvement - yes, lets call it a war - in Yemen.  At the end of their piece the pair ask some thought-provoking questions.  Basically: how does the US know when to stop bombing Yemen? Here is their ... Read More

Three interesting pieces on Yemen have hit the internet in the past couple of days, which people who follow Waq al-waq should definitely read. The first, and most important, is this interview that Qasim al-Raymi - AQAP's military commander - gave to a Yemeni journalist.  (The interview was ... Read More

Over the past few years as I've thought about al-Qaeda, Yemen and US policy I have returned time and time again to what I have termed "the Ghalib al-Zayadi problem." Basically, this is the idea that just because someone in Yemen has a beard, carries a gun and talks about Islamic law doesn't mean ... Read More

Earlier today an anonymous US official confirmed the death of Abu Yahya al-Libi.  Now, I don't have a lot to say about al-Libi - other than to say wait for an al-Qaeda confirmation before getting too excited - because A.) despite my flirtation with Urdu and Persian I don't really speak or read any ... Read More

On December 17, 2009 the US carried out a missile strike against what it believed to be an al-Qaeda training camp in the south Yemeni governorate of Abyan.  Unfortunately, what the US believed to be an al-Qaeda training camp turned out to be a bedouin encampment, and the NYT later described the ... Read More

Last night Frontline aired the film al-Qaeda in Yemen, which was reported by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad who writes for the Guardian and who, along with Declan Walsh when he was at the Guardian, used to be two of my favorite reporters to read on places I'd never been.  The film was spectacular and I would ... Read More