yemen matters. the people of yemen matter. and as president obama has made clear, our common humanity can access to those yemenis who are struggling to make ends meet, and to live in freedom and dignity. all of these challenges have made not only yemen right for internal instability, they've made the country an attractive recruiting and training ground for al qaeda. indeed, al qaeda in the arabian peninsula is now the most operationally active note of the al qaeda network. so who are these terrorists? al qaeda of course has had a presence in yemen in saudi arabia for well over a decade. for its part al qaeda in the arabian peninsula is a hybrid of old guard operatives with a close tie with osama bin laden, as well as new generation elements of al qaeda who have embraced bin laden's mandate to attack the united states and the west. it was al qaeda operatives in yemen to attack the the uss cole in 2000, and a french oil tanker in 2000 do. some of the individuals responsible for the attack on the cole and escaped prison as part o

what about in yemen? >> saleh: it's part of the region. ( laughter ) >> kroft: the government's official position is that the u.s. can't be involved militarily here and needs to let the yemenis take on al qaeda, a political decision intended to appease muslim sensitivities. but there is no question u.s. military involvement goes far beyond the 50 trainers. whatever else the u.s. may be providing to yemen in the way of military assistance is highly classified. there are certainly drones overhead doing reconnaissance and gathering intelligence, as well as navy cruise missiles offshore that have already been used to kill al qaeda militants and, unfortunately, some innocent civilians. 41 civilians were killed in two american missile strikes in december 2009, and another one last may inadvertently killed a government official, creating an uproar and major protests in the northern provinces. but leaked diplomatic cables show that yemen has tolerated the attacks. and collateral damage is unlikely to deter the u.

that substantial and not just talking points well yemen is an incredibly poor country yemen obviously needs all the aid that it can get especially when it comes to civilian aid but i just feel like we're pretending here you know i why were we so interested in sending civilian aid and worry about women's rights in yemen until they become a hotbed of terrorism well look yemen is not on the verge of collapse yemen is not a failed state there's a lot of issues here but when we look at it in comparison with other gulf countries there's a to a certain extent some democracy happening there that we could be working on more and that isn't going to be just through government programs i would say it's mostly through non-governmental assistance but to get back to your point i think if we want to deal with the international terrorism issue we have to make it an international community issue we need to get the gulf cooperation council more involved the european union the u.n. the u.s. is not going to solve yemen's supposed terrorist problems by itself so much like we're not solving the terrorist pr

>> tunisia so far and now, gypt. >> -- egypt. >> you have yemen also. >> tell me about yemen. >> yemen, he has been in power for 20 years. he's a dictator. but he is an ally in the war on terror. >> do we have troops in yemen? >> special troops in and out of the. >> what about across the water. >> somalia? you got them too. but what about hezbollah? anybody who thinks this is going to be a democratic revolution, doesn't understand the forces there. there are too many in egypt. the army has the hard power and the muslim brother has the soft power. muslim brotherhood won 60% of the contested seats. >> where is the sixth fleet? >> in the mediterranean where it has always been. >> where is jabutte -- jabuttei. >> where is it in realization to -- relation to yemen? >> across the city sea. >> how many american troops are in there now? >> i think there's a thousand. >> me, too. >> mubarak has kept this country frof political ideology there. ive that the only alternative to his repression is what pat is talking about, the muslim brotherhood. albaraday is saying there is a whole rainbow of poli

tens of thousands are out in yemen. the third day of protests in egypt after an offer of talks from the ruling party. a second night in the hospital for nelson mandela for what are being described as routine tests. welcome to "bbc news". the penalty paid by gay activists in uganda. he is murdered at his home. the couple who got married, divorced, and 57 years later, decided to tie the knot again. >> he said i have an idea. let's get married. that was it. all very different countries but in each an unprecedented level of popular protests. tinny jet and anti-government this -- demonstrations in yemen. thousands on the streets calling on their leader to leave. in egypt, demonstrations have run into a third day despite a security crackdown. we will have the latest from there. first, the tensions in yemen. >> sanaa, the capital. the protests echoed those from the streets of today's jet and egypt. a wycombe call to authoritarian leaders throughout the -- a wake-up call to authoritarian leaders to end corruption. it will not b

. >> anti-government protests spread to a new country, now tens of thousands are out in force in yemen. a third day of protests in egypt. a second night in hospital for nelson mandela for what is described as routine tests. welcome to bbc world news. the penalties paid by gay activists in you gotta -- uganda. a couple i got married and divorced and then decided to tie the knot again. >> what is the idea, let's get married. >> very different countries but in each an unprecedented level of protests. yemen is now the latest country to see thousands on the streets calling on their leaders to leave. on the third day of the egyptian protests, police have killed a protester. now the ruling party has responded to the unrest with an offer of dialogue. one of the leading opposition leaders has just returned. >> in a small town in the desert, young man joined the protests. one is shot. his friends could do nothing to save him. he died later. flying into cairo tonight, the nobel peace prize winner and would-be candidate for egyptian president. he said he would join the demonstrations. on the stree

has used them in yemen and used them in the horn of africa. how do you see that as, in terms of engaging the u.s. or disengaging the u.s. in the region? >> well, the overarching narrative of how efforts that we have undertaken to respond to perceive terrorist threats has, in fact, had the opposite effect ofncreasing anti-americanism and making some groups, you know, more militant, making the ground more fertile for, for shabab or al-qaeda. i think is true, and there is a particular aspect of drone aircraft. the somalis believe that there are drone aircraft constantly overhead. and i don't even know if that's true, but it's part of this larger sense how the united states is responsible for everything. if something, they're not getting what they need, it's because the united states is somehow against them. and i, and i think that's a, that's a problem. it is part of the winning hearts and minds, but if we, if that becomes the, that's part of the globalization of the conflict that i think is so, so worrisome. if the somalis are able to focus on t

thousands of protesters are looking to oust yemen's president. why is yemen important? the list is long and frightening. a training ground for al qaeda, the home of anwar al awlaki, a terror leader more dangerous than osama bin laden -- tied to the failed christmas day and times square bombing -- and calling for more attacks. if the yemeni government falls, no one will be there to challenge the terrorists. >> yemen becomes an absolute mess. i think the fear is that this would simply fall apart. >> reporter: so, while protests may be cause for cheering in some places, in others, these scenes should make america very nervous. martha raddatz, abc news, washington. >> and martha spent so much time in those enflamed regions. >>> also tonight, nelson mandela, the 92-year-old icon of the fight for equality and then forgiveness in south africa, is in a johannesburg hospital with a collapsed lung. his family is gathered in his hospital room and outside the hospital, a sea of journalists. mandela's foundation says he's undergoing routine tests, is in no danger and is in good spir

sama this is more toward the saudi, yemen region of the gulf.an is wearing a traditional yemeni dress from a mountain region. this is a traditional form of a tire -- attire. ♪ ♪ >> this is the last part of our show. this is the part of the show that features lebanon, jordan. she is wearing traditional garb from damascus. i do not know if you can tell but there is a lot of handstitched detail at the top. lena is wearing a traditional jordanian start out with handstitched work. these stars represent different countries. this dress is more of a jordanian style. this is a palestinian dress with hand importers from the top to bottom. -- embroidery from the top to bottom. this is all handstitched. could the other models join the girls on the floor? [applause] >> let's have another round of applause for the models. thank you for participating and showing not only the diversity of our culture and region. through our clothing, it says a lot about how diverse the arab people are. thank you all for coming out tonight. ♪ again, thank you to everyone who has

thousands of protestors lack to go oust yemen president. why is yemen important? the list is long and frightening. training ground for al qaeda. home of l terror leader more dangerous than osama bin laden. tied to the failed christmas day and time square bombing and calling for more attacks. if the yemen government falls no one will be there to challenge the terrorist. >> yemen is an absolute mess. fears this would simply fall apart. >>reporter: protest may be cause for cheering in someplac someplaces, in others these scenes should make america very nervous. this is abc news, washington. >>> back at home surprise decision tonight by the department of agriculture. item approved the use of genetically modified alfalfa without restriction this ace sharp reversal. alfalfa the the fourth biggest crop in the united states. usda strongly suggested would it pace growing restriction on modified alfalfa to protect organic growers. the professor calls this a disaster for organic agriculture o. point say they will good to court to try to stop the planting scheduled for this s

thousands of protesters are looking to oust yemen's president. why is yemen important? the list is long and frightening. a training ground for al qaeda, the home of anwar al awlaki, a terror leader more dangerous than osama bin laden. tied to the christmas day and times square bombing pep and calling for more attacks. if the yemeni government falls, no one will be there to challenge the terrorists. so, while protests may be cause for cheering in some places, in others, these scenes should make america very nervous. martha raddatz, abc news, washington. >>> and we will have much more on this developing situation, later today on "good morning america." >>> well, things are slowly getting back up and running in the northeast, after a monster storm that claimed at least seven lives. >> new york city got a lot more snow than expected. 19 inches, making it the snowiest january in city history. and with so many cars buried, y from maryland up to maine, there's still a whole lot of digging out to do this morning. jeremy hubbard has more, now, from boston. >> reporter: rob, vini

in 2011, i definitely want to go back to yemen. i went to yemen on new year's eve. that was after the attempted christmas day bombing on an aircraft. i went to yemen. that was it important place to watch in 2011. we focused on afghanistan, pakistan and safe havens in pakistan. yemen has a lot. >> what about afghanistan? how many times have you been there? >> i carefully counted my trips to iraq, but i don't know about afghanistan. i do know that i had been there six times. it is difficult to get there. it takes a couple of days to get there and a couple of days to get back. it is a little harder to get in and out of afghanistan. >> how do you go? >> you go by commercial airline. i took a flight to dubai for 14 hours. it is all commercial. the airline, when you go into kabul, but also fly from frankfurt. they have the greatest in- flight magazine. it has advertisements for armored cars. it is very frank about what you are getting into. most glossy magazines say to try this restaurant and avoid here and avoid there. it has a richness in kabul. there are things about d

sama this is more toward the saudi, yemen region of the gulf.an is wearing a traditional yemeni dress from a mountain region. this is a traditional form of a tire -- attire. ♪ ♪

protests inspired by the revolt in tunisia have domino along egypt yemen and algeria some of drawing comparisons to the color revolution seen in post soviet countries well to discuss this i'm joined live by william and ali is the author of the book full spectrum dominance totalitarian democracy in the new world order good to see you here in r.t. thanks very much for joining us now thousands holding rallies crowds overthrowing presidents do you think there is any comparison to what happened in georgia ukraine and kind of a stand. no question about it what happened in georgia with the orange revolution or rather the rose revolution in georgia in ukraine with the orange revolution two thousand and three two thousand and four was part of a long term strategy orchestrated by the pentagon the state department and various u.s. financed and geos like the freedom house and national endowment for democracy to create nato regime change in those former soviet union areas and to literally encircle russia now the what what's going on in the middle east with the jasmine revolution in tunisia that w

we think he went to yemen. but we're not sure. yemen today is a pretty rough terrain. then even more so because we knew less about it. what happened was that winston and his crew simply left rome, went off to yemen and were there for three weeks without communicating with new york but when they emerged in cairo as it turned out one morning they got in touch with new york and their stuff was so fabulous, their report from yemen, that cbs put a special on that night. and that's the kind of remarkable self generating news that was possible in those days. absolutely out of the question today. every news person walks around with a bookkeeper. everything has to be measured. how much money does this cost or that cost? when you're doing a program, if your program is not making money, you're out. there's no love affair as there was in the old days. it is business. and if you don't produce, you're out. profits ubit olis. up and up with the profits. that has to do with a mind-set. what happens when that kind of pressure is on you every single day? every hour. literally, if you're

, >> africa, yemen... those are all in a very real way the product of america's response to 9-11. >> umm... >> go ahead malou. >> umm, yeah, i mean, i just, uh, another lesson that we must take away is the coercive occupation of states where terrorists operate is profoundly flawed. uh, the 9-11 masterminds, they actually operated in the united states and germany and pakistan so there is no one central base that al qaeda or other groups need to really operate. and that's going forward as far as a stance is concerned, we need to understand that, umm, while 9-11 did originate from this region, uh, the, the terrorists don't necessarily need afghanistan to launch future op...operations. >> they can go elsewhere to do it. >> absolutely. >> we haven't talked about nuclear, uh, the nuclear threat up to this point and i want to make sure that we turn to that. uh, people are concerned about the possibility that nuclear weapons or the precursors for nuclear weapons could fall into the wrong hands, could fall into a t

martha raddatz, abc news, yemen. >> incredible young woman. >>> up next, the iphone glitch that made so many people late today. it also made many people eopleber y2k. remember y2k. male announcer ] prilosec otc traveled to the front lines of nfl training camp to put our 24-hour frequent heartburn protection to the test for two weeks. [ diehl ] people think we're indestructible, but if you're out there and you're feeling burning it's gonna affect the way that you play. prilosec otc is the one thing i can count on to block my heartburn. when i take it in the morning i'm ready to go for the rest of the day [ male announcer ] prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn! buy two 42-count boxes of prilosec otc. get $25 back. if you skip this latte and opt for the smaller low-fat one, you'll cut about 12 grams of fat. then take alli with it to help boost your weight loss. so for every 2 pounds you work to lose, alli can help you lose 1 more. alli. how healthy works. chevy gave more this year but we can't give you more time. so hurry in now because the great holiday offers on most

sama this is more toward the saudi, yemen region of the gulf.an is wearing a traditional yemeni dress from a mountain region. this is a traditional form of a tire -- attire. ♪ ♪ >> this is the last part of our show. this is the part of the show that features lebanon, jordan. she is wearing traditional garb from damascus. i do not know if you can tell but there is a lot of handstitched detail at the top. lena is wearing a traditional jordanian start out with handstitched work. these stars represent different countries. this dress is more of a jordanian style. this is a palestinian dress with hand importers from the top to bottom. -- embroidery from the top to bottom.

yemen nature. everybody went way too far. the notion that simply that there is, i don't think any of us myself it was a just because you're not a government contract sum up we'll get to some level of guarantee that means you'll get alone. i think it still needs to be -- >> tom conti talked about this idea to market has to run its course. does this seem like a market that should be allowed to run its course? or in that instance is the role for government to get greece the wheels to make something happened? >> first of all the governments the towards a slow pace so i'm not sure i -- [laughter] >> i don't think it's an either or situation. >> your advice is to get out of government work? >> i think it's some of both. i think, you know, it's hard to change this in hand feeling that the lending officer or his superior that we need to be awfully damn careful because look how close we came to falling over the edge. we survived, but were not going to make the same mistakes again. the biggest issue that i see when the government could

this is her first visit to yemen. -- needs to broaden ties with yemen. doctors treating the american congress woman gabrielle deferreds says she is breathing on her own and is less -- gabrielle giffords says she is breathing on her own and is less sedated. six people were killed in the attack, including a nine-year old girl. krupp former president bill clinton paid tribute and shared his thoughts on the tragedy. >> know when it intends to do anything that encourages -- no one intends to do anything that encourages this kind of behavior, but we cannot be unaware of the fact that there is a huge effort, and anything any of us says falls on the hinged and be unhinged alike. this is an occasion to reaffirm our political differences shouldn't create the sense that if you do not agree with me, you are not a good american. that is what i would like to see. >> bill clinton there. china has conducted its first test of a stealth fighter jet. the u.s. defense secretary at the flight confirmed to him by his chinese counterpart in a meeting in beijing. there are conc

we are spreading the war on terror, or of their into yemen, somalia and elsewhere. the yemeni government is the worst regime in the region now that saddam has been removed. this is a regime in yemen the that bombs the north this point hundreds of thousands. this huge al qaeda threats of weapons and money from the u.s. to use against domestic opposition. we have dyed herself to them. we're getting ourselves deeper and deeper into conflict that has nothing to do with american national security. anyway, i guess i will take questions now. >> thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. if you have questions, please keep your questions brief and please identify yourself when you're asked a question. [inaudible] >> hias far as foreign policy goes? >> now with only 40,000. they'll have a long-term presence in iraq i think, continue to train the iraqi military, air force, that kind of thing. but they have early reduce their presence. you can't call iraq an occupied country any more because it's not the americans controlling things on a day-to-day basis. in afghanistan thou

. -- off the coast of yemen. most of the passengers are feeding grounds. another boat carrying up to 40 people capsized. in the northern australian states of queensland, military aircraft are ferrying supplies to people stranded by record flooding that has killed three and cut off roads and ports. officials have issued storm warnings, and they say that heavy rains and flash floods are expected in the days ahead. >> home to 75,000 people, now a ghost town. those who did not heed the call to evacuate can no longer leave. the last road out of the city is now flooded. water levels are expected to peak, submerging about 40% of the city. >> we have message community impact. what is happening here is, well, i do not think we will see it again for another 50 to 100 years to get that is the nature of this event. >> the flooding subsided in another area, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake. >> terribly hard. to end up with nothing in the end. >> the agricultural sector has also been hard hit. the floodwaters have with the livelihoods of many farmers and other

to do about the fact that you know there are also after tunisia there are now massive protests in yemen there are protests in saudi arabia how does the u.s. approach all of these countries as well well the key players egypt obviously you know being the largest country in the region being you know the strongest ally the united states in the region in my opinion it's first the kind of you know what dress what's going on in egypt and in my opinion if the united states if the united states takes a democratic stance a stance in favor of human rights that could actually quell the movement in yemen it could actually quell the movement in tunisia and again it could really galvanize the people in support of the united states if they take an affirmative and clear stance in support of human rights immediately i think you have to analyze each situation differently mikko that to a point in jordan it has been a bit more extremist groups that have encouraged this it has been the muslim brotherhood directly in yemen they are certainly we know that that country is so i think if the approach was very dif

here on the show we've told you about the shadow war in yemen but it looks like the u.s. is really going the extra mile to extend a helping hand to the yemenis and by extra mile we really mean extra cash and military supplies and attempts to fight terrorism the u.s. has continually supply the yemeni military with powerful ships by august the u.s. will send over two hundred eighty seven foot protector class coastal patrol boats now we couldn't find an exact figure for the cost of each boat but a report from two thousand and five said that it would cost three point five million dollars to make each one and surely the cost of gone up since then considering the report is six years old now on top of the patrol boats the u.s. plans to help out yemenis yemen's interior ministry by sending over an additional seventy five million dollars as was approved in the defense appropriations bill that i just mentioned and back in two thousand and eight the u.s. sent over twenty nine million worth of ships and supplies so well that is at least a whopping hundred eleven million dollars in u.

as of today, yemen and the world is watching as the clock ticks down to what has been planned as a day of rage tomorrow against egypt. richard engle is on the banks of the nile in cairo tonight on what could be the eve of something big there. richard, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. many people are very concerned about tomorrow. the demonstrators say they will start out from at least seven mosques and three churches here in cairo, and then plan to march to the center of the city. they hope to draw tens of thousands of people. the most violent clashes today were outside cairo. near the strategic suez canal, demonstrators torched a police station and a firehouse. witnesses say they stole weapons and opened fire on security forces. egyptian police tell nbc news 87 policemen were injured, one was killed. and this unprecedented popular arab revolt is spreading. in yemen, the arab world's poorest nation, thousands demonstrated today at a university, demanding reform and lower prices. in tunisia, where this movement began just last month, the emerging new government caved to p

remember, tunisia, algeria, yemen and egypt. especially egypt right now puts the u.s. in this delicate position. we talk about foreign aid. here's a figure. as much as $1.5 billion egypt receives from the u.s. every year. nbc's andrea mitchell with us from our washington newsroom tonight with more on how this day played out and how this crisis is playing out. andrea, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the uprising against egypt's president created a crisis for president obama. for decades under democratic and republican administrations, mubarak has been america's closest ally in the middle east. even before the president spoke as hosni mubarak began losing control of the streets, the u.s. had started toughening its response. >> these protests underscore that there are deep grievances within egyptian society. and the egyptian government needs to understand that violence will not make these grievances go away. >> reporter: the president had an extended intelligence briefing and until tonight did not try to call mubarak. for decades egypt has received billion

and yemen is a very important place to watch in 2011. yemen has a lot of safe havens. >> what about afghanistan? how many times you been there? >> it's one of those things, i so carefully counted my trips to iraq. i don't know. i was there six times in 2010. every other month i would be there. it's difficult to get there, it takes a couple of days to get there and back. so it's a little harder to get in and out of afghanistan. >> how do you go? >> you go by commercial airlines. i take a nonstop flight to dubai. which is about 14 hours. so i quite familiar with that flight. and then there is a dreadful layover of eight hours in dubai. and then four-and-a-half hours from dubai to kabul. and there is an airline called safai air ways. and they h troops coordinates with the fighter jets, as we fly to surrounding mountain tops to valleys. and we link up to a fuel tanker and traveling at 300 knots. the boom is lowered to deliver gas. no soon are our jets refuelled than we hear a transmission. >> the f-15's get a call that an rpg has been fired

demonstrations also erupted in yemen for the first time. on the "newshour" tonight vice president biden said the united states was encouraging both the protestors and governments in the region to act peacefully. and, air and road travel are returning to normal in the northeast after being walloped over night by a major snowstorm. and to hari sreenivasan for what's on the "newshour" online. hari? >> sreenivasan: we checked in with a "globalpost" reporter in cairo for more on the protests in egypt. paul solman looks at key players in the european debt crisis with the help of something unexpected: country music. today's tune is on germany. if you want to try your hand at writing some lyrics on the matter, leave a comment on paul's "making sense" page. plus on "art beat," jeff talks to oscar-winning director kevin macdonald about "life in a day"- - a user-generated documentary making its premiere on youtube tonight and at the sundance film festival tomorrow all that and more is on our web site: newshour.pbs.org. jeff? >> brown: and that's the "