Suprising capabilities in Yemen
While doing searches at opensource.gov yesterday I came across an interesting report about activities in Yemen. When I saw “terrorist chemical attacks” I thought that i was really onto something important on the lines of a developing regional trend towards the use of chemicals by terrorists, follwing on from the attacks in Iraq in 2007. Admittedly including Yemen and Iraq in the same region is a bit of a stretch but it has been done before. Anyway, the article nd then a short discussion.
Yemen: Customs Step Up Efforts In Anticipation of Terrorist Chemical Attacks
GMP20080628416006 Alhadath (Internet Version-WWW) in Arabic 27 Jun 08
[Unattributed report entitled: Customs Imposed Tight Security Measures At Border Posts In Anticipation of Chemical Attacks.]
Text:
Sanaa — An official source said yesterday that the Customs Department deployed 270 chemists and physicists at all ports of entry to face any threats to the security and safety of Yemen and its people with chemical weapons. The source said in a statement to the press that the individuals mentioned above have been deployed in all Yemeni land, sea, and air border posts. They have been charged with the mission of detecting chemical or bacteriological weapons that some terrorist groups might be trying to smuggle into Yemen for the purpose of targeting the safety of its people and territories. The source added that these precautionary measures are in line with the regional security changes brought about by the deterioration of security in the Horn of Africa and Iraq. This situation, the source said, has generated concern among the countries of the region about the possibility that some of these weapons might fall into the hands of terrorist groups who will not hesitate to use them if they are given the chance.
The first thing I noticed in this report is that Yemen, and even more impressively Yemen’s customs agency, has 270 chemists and physicists to spare for this sort of activity. This seems a touch unlikely given that most developed nations do not have that many chemists and physicists deployed at their borders. I suspect that this is a classic example of poor reporting or alternatively a government trying to make its efforts look more impressive than they might actually be.
Unfortunately by making such a sensational statement the government official quoted in the report is missing the opportunity to highlight important achievements. I suspect that the point of the report is for the government to highlight that it has personnel trained to detect and respond to attempts to import hazardous chemicals or radiation sources. These may in fact be newly trained personnel but it seems more likely to me that these are retrained or upskilled existing personnel. They may have had as little as one short course introducing them to the question of chemical or nuclear weapons proliferation and transshipment combined with some training in the use of new detection equipment (most likely for radiation sources). This would be in line with ongoing efforts by the United States and other Yemeni partners to build the capacity of its customs agency, an effort that is not at all limited to Yemen.
Improving the capability of its customs agency to detect and interdict the movement of these materials is an important contribution to global efforts to reduce the risk of WMD terrorism. It has the further advantage of increasing foreign confidence in the ability of Yemen to administer its borders in such a way to reduce risk to trading partners which means Yemen will not be sidelined asa transshipment point. Of course the added benefit to the nation is that the improvements sponsored by developed world trading partners may signifcantly improve the ability of the agency to raise revenues.
It could be argued that a more alarming aspect of this report is that the Yemeni government believes there is a serious risk of chemical weapons or radiation sources being imported. This danger is probably being overstated by the spokesperson or the reporter. It is much more likely that a terrorist organization would be attempting to use Yemen as a transshipment point with a view to moving weapons closer to a more valuable target in Europe or North America. It is this transshipment concern that underlies much of the effort to support the modernization of national customs agencys.
Tags: chemical terrorism