Apart from spawning fresh debate over the legal fog surrounding America's drone war, the recent attack that killed American-born al Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki has put the spotlight back on Yemen as a potential haven for Islamist terrorists -- especially as the country edges closer to civil war.
At the very least, the al-Awlaki case offers a window onto what Carrie Giardino, the director of strategic initiatives at IDS International, a national security consulting firm based in the Washington area, calls a unique problem that Yemen presents for the U.S. counterterrorism effort.
Giardino told Trend Lines this week that a core challenge to the U.S. posture on Yemen stems from the often-overlooked fact that "there are tens of thousands of people in Yemen who either have a U.S. passport, or have a right to obtain one."