CIA builds base for Yemen strikes
Image via WikipediaThe Central Intelligence Agency is building a secret air base in the Middle East to serve as a launching pad for strikes in Yemen using armed drones, an American official said Tuesday.They are not saying where the base is, but the Joint Special Operations command has been operating out of Djibouti for several years along with a contingent of Marines. Djibouti is north of Somalia on what is called the Horn of Africa. It is also just across the red Sea from Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula.
The construction of the base is a sign that the Obama administration is planning an extended war in Yemen against an affiliate of Al Qaeda that has repeatedly tried to carry out terrorist plots against the United States.
The clandestine American operations in Yemen are currently being run by the military’s Joint Special Operations Command, with the C.I.A.’s assistance and with the approval of Yemen’s fragile authoritarian government.
But with Yemen’s embattled government on the brink of collapse, Obama administration officials are concerned that a future government might not support American operations. By putting the operations under C.I.A. control, they could be carried out as a “covert action,” which can be undertaken without the support of the host government.
The construction of the base, first reported by The Associated Press, is further evidence that the administration sees armed drones as the weapon of choice to hunt and kill militants in countries where a large American military presence is untenable. Since he took office, President Obama has drastically escalated the C.I.A.’s bombing campaign in Pakistan using armed drones, and the spy agency has carried out more than 25 strikes there this year.
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I think the attacks against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are within the authorization for combat operations granted after 9-11, so they do not present any war powers issues like the operations in Libya. I think they are also a much needed operation to deal with a group that has been the most direct threat to the US mainland over the last 18 months.
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