December 28, 2009 - Yemen, where Abdulmutallab reportedly received his training to bomb the Northwest flight landing in Detroit on Christmas Day, is the new hotbed of Islamic terrorism, replacing both Iraq and Afghanistan as the most concerning. Nearly half of Yemen's population is under age 15, and fewer than half the people are literate. Yemen was reunified in 1990 after being divided in two since the end of World War II. The southern portion was overrun by Marxists after the British abandoned its protectorate in 1967. The north was run by an Islamic theocracy until 1962. Now, political parties are divided into Islamic reformist groups, socialists and a Ba'athist Party similar to Saddam Hussein's in Iraq, among others. The Muslim Brotherhood, a pan-Arab, Sunni group that wants to spread Islamic law to secular governments, is an influential pressure group. "The Yemeni government now is facing three confrontations -- one with the south, one with Al Qaeda and one in the north" that is supported by the Iranians as part of its proxy war with the West and U.S. ally Saudi Arabia, said terrorism expert Walid Phares. Click below for story.
Following Path of Least Resistance, Terrorists Turn Yemen into Poor Man's Afghanistan
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