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Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Michael Conner Columbia Southern University This enemy attacks not just our people, but all freedom-loving people everywhere in the world. The United States of America will use all our resources to conquer this enemy. We will rally the world. We will be patient, we will be focused, and we will be steadfast in our determination. This battle will take time and resolve. But make no mistake about it: we will win (George Bush). This quote echoes what the enemy, terrorist organization, did to the United States on the 11th day of September of 2001. This day marked the beginning of a war having the sole purpose of protecting and preventing terrorism attacks against the United States and its allies. This has been an ongoing effort through the continuation of research, surveillance, and policies being created after the understanding of the organizations ideologies were understood. As time has changed, organizations have changed. These changes have created challenges in which the United States are having to change its way of thinking in order to stay ahead of these organizations. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the terrorist organization, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based on its ideology, structure, targets, and tactics as well as the policies Homeland Security are using to prevent, protect, and respond to this terrorist organizations attempts and attacks.

Ideology

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The history of the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula began with an ideology from a person by the name of Osama Bin Laden in the mid-nineties. This ideology was based on an urgent need for the Muslim people to expel all Western ways from the holy land and return their land back to the sharia law. The sharia law is a Islamic law, like a legal code in most Muslim countries, governing personal status law, a set of regulations that pertain to marriage, divorce, inheritance, and custody. The law originates from the Quran and Sunnas sayings, practices and teachings. With this ideology in hand the making of the al-Qaeda in the Arabian in Peninsula was being formed. Through Osama bin Ladens life, the ideology, which the al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula uses, began to develop during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and continued to maturity up to the point when he became Anti-Saudi around 1994. This point happened because of the royal familys decision to not allow bin Ladens men to protect its people after Iraq invaded Kuwait. This action fueled his fire against the Sudans royal family and the United States for being on the Muslim holy land. He made a declaration against America in which he declared to attack the United States because of its involvement in the war and the destroying of the Muslim holy land. Bin Laden organized the group al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. The purpose of this group was to overthrow the Saudi regime using car bombs and explosives in different Western housing compounds. The Saudi government did not sit by quietly and watch this take place. The Saudi government took action by having a comprehensive and persistent plan to dismantle the organization, which proved to work. The government also created a rehabilitation program for extremists, which provided them with religious education with psychological counseling and social support. This tactic on the government behalf was proven to be effective to a degree; however, it did not work

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on everyone. There were 11 known detainees of Guantanamo who relapsed and fled to join AQY and later became leaders of AQAP. For as the al-Qaeda in Yemen organization, the

Yemen government received pressure from the United States to conduct a counterterrorism operation. With help from the United States Special Forces and intelligence personnel, the AQYs leader, Abu Ali al-Harithi, was killed. With the organizations leader dead, the strength of the organization began to decline leaving several members to be captured and placed into a high-security facility or to flee across the borders to Yemen. After the victory of the Yemen government the United States, their attention shift with no regard of those captured being a threat. This was the moment, 23 men, former members of the AQY and sympathizers, escaped from the high-security facility and fled across the borders to Yemen. This was the rebirth of the AQY, but the number of members was limited. This began the formation of the new organization by merging both the Saudi Arabia and Yemen organizations under one name, al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). With this merger the AQAP was no longer considered a local terrorist organization but a national threat. The ideology of this organization had not changed from the ideology from the man who began it all, Osama bin Laden with the al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia organization. The ideology of the organization is that it is patient in everything that it does and each plan is calculated to form a bigger picture. The ideology of the organization believed it has a religious obligation in defense of Muslims against a defined enemy, not a speculative one. Its worldview is perceived as the United States and Israel having a global conspiracy against the Muslim people and that the Americans presence is affecting the Muslim nation. The main focus of the organization is to establish Islamic states wherever Muslims live so the Shari law could be established and enforced. The organization ideology is referred to being jihadism. Jihadism is a willingness

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to carry out armed struggles against those who try to prevent the establishment of an Islamic state. The goals of the organization seeks to attack the United States on its soil, attack the United States and western interests in Yemen, destabilize the Yemeni government, and assassinate members of the Saudi royal family. In one of the organizations magazine addition, the organization makes the statement of how they plan to attack the United States on its own soil. The organization will use small inexpensive attacks using frequency of the attacks to place fear in the American people, which will keep us on our toes. Attacking the United States and western interests in Yemen is being handled my attack every foreigner on the Muslim soil. If that person is not for the cause they are an enemy to the AQAP. Destabilizing the Yemeni government comes with attacks filled with hatred. The attacks are planned to cause enough chaos and violence within the government seeking historical injustice. The organizations goal is to create an Islamic caliphate in the Arabian Peninsula and defect the enemy, the United States, by breaking down current political states. This goal is to expel foreigners from the Arabian Peninsula and spread jihad to Israel to liberate Muslim holy sites and brethren in Gaza. Structure The structure of the organization has changed. The structure of the organization has seen from previous wars the mistakes it made, which caused the decline of the branches, and have learned from those mistakes and improved on them. One of the biggest reasons for the previous organizations decline was the loss of leadership. By knowing and understanding this, the new leader, Wuhayshi, has reconstructed the organization to withstand the loss of its key leaders by having people to take their place in the event of their leaders death or capture. He calls these

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people emirs or commanders. Each branch of the organization has one of these emirs in place ready to step up when it need be. The operation of this organization is designed based a philosophy on centralization of decision making and decentralization of execution. This means each leader of each branch has some form of flexibility in operating his branch. The United States two most wanted persons, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, who was Osama bin Laden secretary in Afghanistan and Qasim al-Raymi became the leader and commander of the AQAP by first resurrect al-Qaeda in Yemen and later welcoming two Guantanamo Bay detainees into the organization and it was then when the organization became al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). This organizations scoped changed from local targets to regional targets into international targets as the organization membership continued to grow at a steady pace. Leaders of the past was Yusef Salih Fahd al-Ayiri and current leader is Nasser al-Wuhayshi. Al-Qaeda does not rely on state sponsorship but on the sponsorship of multiple sources. This has cause this organization to become more of a threat because no one is able to control their financial network or track the where the money comes from. Most of the organizations money comes from wealthy donors and controlling the sea based maritime choke point in the southern end of the Red Sea. Targets The targets of the organization are the United States as well as the Yemeni government and Saudi monarchy. The attacks against the United States started limiting itself to the Americans on the Arabian Peninsula. Attacks like the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, killing Yemeni police and civilians as well as a previous attack which lead to the death of a security guard, school girl at a school and 19 others were wounded. The attacks expanded into

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the United States through aviation network bound for the United States with three failed attack. Then, the organization tried to send explosive-laden packages on a United States bound cargo flight by using ink cartridges, which was bound to arrive in Chicago-area synagogues. The organization continues by attempting to assassinate a member of the royal family, but the attempt was fail. Tactics The tactics of the organization has changed by now reaching out to English-speaking audience through the use of English-language propaganda, newsletters and magazines. This idea was developed from of its former members, who are dead, Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric, and Samir Khan, an American blogger and propagandist. This tactic is used to recruit new members which allow their ideology to be adopted and carried out globally. This poses a problem for the United States in its effort to fight the War on Terrorism. The problem is the United States has to fight both international and domestic terrorism al-Qaeda members. The next tactic the organization uses is to perform small and effective attacks at a high frequent pace, sending fear to the target people. Homeland Security Policies The United States involvement in Yemen first and foremost concerns the national security and the need of the United States to understand and adjust the counterterrorism strategies to those of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. With the United States having the necessary information available on the organizations motives and weakness, the nation is able to develop effective policies to help prevent and protect the citizens of the United States. But this is not enough. The United States has to pay attention to the pattern of the organization and look for

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the weak gaps. Knowing those weak gaps, the United States would be able to create policies and strategies to defeat the organization. Even though this sounds easy, it has been proven to not be as easy as the United States and Yemen thought it would be. The AQAP has developed new tactics and goals in order to defeat the Yemen military and the United States efforts in defeating the organization. Implicating US policies in regards of the war on terrorism has been handled delicate with the understanding from the Obama Administration to increase the assistance and intelligence cooperation to the Yemen military without creating too much of a presence of the US military. Policies are more geared to supporting those areas which has the greatest potential to hub terrorist organization where they can recruit and train. This growth could come in Yemen because of the instability of the government and the lack of wealth is decreasing as the population increases. With the population being in despair, the organization believes the area would be easier to overtake and control. Policies are being created to help the Yemen military to sustain order over the long terms. The American government believes through the efforts of strengthen the Yemen areas and other areas like it will help to protect and prevent terrorist attack because of the lack of places for an organization to dwell. There are two acts which has been created to help protect, prevent, respond, and recovery after an attack. The USA Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act are both act which was created to protect, prevent, respond, and recovery the United States after an attack. The USA Patriot Act was passed in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks which was to give law enforcement officials tools to prevent more terrorists attacks. This act gives the United States the ability to punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world. It allows the United States the ability to detect and prosecute international money laundering and financing,

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which helps to limit the financing of the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula financial network. This also allows the United States access to foreign financial institutions and classes of international transactions which helps the US to determine who help to aid terrorist organizations with their cause is. So with the USA Patriots Act it allows the United States to gather information on finances as well as the ability to prosecute the suspects responsible for the attacks. Conclusion As the AQAP continues to grow and changes it tactics to achieve its goals the United States is working diligently creating policies and relationships with Yemen. This may seem to be a small and expensive tactic on the US part but it can prove to be effective in preventing and protecting the citizens of the United States and its allies but taking the proper measures to respond to the ideologies of the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. They will endure in the hearts of our nation, because through their sacrifice they helped us make the America we are today, an America that has emerged even stronger (President Barack Obama).

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References Gunaratna, Rohan. (2005). Ideology in Terrorism and Counter Terrorism: Lessons from combating Al Qaeda and Al Jemaah Al Islamiyah in Southeast Asia. Retrieved from kms1.isn.ethz.ch/serviceengine/Files/ISN/44015/...03a4.../07.pdf. Qsman, Awo A. (2012). Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Counterterrorism Strategies in Yemen. Journal of Political Inquiry at New York University, 5(5), 1-14. Rollins, John. (2011). Al Qaeda and Affiliates: Historical Perspective, Global Presence, and Implications for U.S. Policy. CRS Report for Congress, 1-36.