Gregory Johnsen
Near East Studies Scholar, Princeton University
Gregory Johnsen, a former Fulbright Fellow in Yemen, is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Johnsen has written for a variety of publications on Yemen including, among others, Foreign Policy, The American Interest, The Independent, The Boston Globe, and The National. He is the co-founder of Waq al-Waq: Islam and Insurgency in Yemen Blog. In 2009, he was a member of the USAID's conflict assessment team for Yemen.
One question that came to mind after reading through the second issue of Inspire is: Does the US now put Samir Khan on the CIA hit list now that he […]
I am attempting to maintain good humor, but as a warning to those who read this blog: please properly cite the material you gain from this blog. Much of what […]
ABC News corrected its story that Muhammad al-‘Awfi was involved in planning the Christmas Day attempted attack. This has only been one of many errors that the eagle-eyes at Waq […]
Al-Sharq al-Awsat and al-Quds al-Arabi both have stories today on the death sentence handed down to ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Yahya Hamud al-‘Ubadi for his killing of a Jewish citizen in December.This […]
I have thought for some time now that a book that is really needed is some sort of jihadi dictionary, explaining common words phrases and allusions that often pepper jihadi […]
Available videos of talks on al-Qaeda in YemenJanuary 2010: The Yemen Crisis: Some Ground Truths (Princeton)January 2010: Big Think Interview, Big ThinkDecember 10, 2009: Yemen’s Three Layers of Crises, National […]
Friday December 17 marked the one year anniversary of the US air strikes in Majalla, which killed, along with some al-Qaeda operatives, a number of women and children. The incident […]
Despite the warnings of my better angels, I couldn’t resist a quick read through of the Nasir al-Wahayshi interview posted to jihadi sites. What can I say, for me a […]
Earlier this year Sultan al-Sam’ai, a MP for YSP from Ta’izz, helped to form the “Popular Movement for Justice and Change,” which as this piece from al-Tagheer points out is […]
Here is the transcript and video from the PBS News Hour yesterday.
Over the past several days I have been asked numerous times to explain what I think the US should do in Yemen, and while I am not a policymaker and […]
As Ibn Silliqi and others have been pointing out to me it has been a busy few days in Yemen – AQAP is out with a new video on the […]
I read the ICG’s most recent report on Yemen: Defusing the Saada Time Bomb this morning, and despite my quibbles with its transliteration, I was quite impressed with the report. […]
The New York Times is out with a new report on Guantanamo and recidivism rates, claiming that 1 in 7 released detainees find their way back to the battlefield.Much of […]
Al-Tagheer is reporting that President Salih has replaced the head of the 35th Armored Division, Muhammad ‘Abdullah Haydar with Faysal Rajib. I have heard some disquieting and quite scary news […]
The Drone/UAV issue that we wrote about here now appears to be solved or at least partially so.Trey very helpfully posted a video of UAVs being launched in and around […]
As I’m sure everyone who reads or follows (yes, you too can follow Waq al-waq) this blog is aware a new issue of Inspire magazine is out. I haven’t commented […]
As everyone’s attention is rightly focused on the north and the Huthi conflict, the south is still hanging around. In Abyan clashes between an Islamist militia (not al-Qaeda) and security […]
I have been a bit hard on some of the NY Times’ reporting coming out of Yemen lately, but I like to think that it is a loving criticism. Still, […]
News Yemen, and a number of other outlets, are reporting that the Ministry of Information has a new guide book for the country’s most wanted. Al-Ghad attempts to fit all […]
While the attention of most continues to be occupied by the south (unintentional, I swear) the fighting over the past couple of days has picked up in the north. One […]
I returned home from vacation to find that apparently both Brian and the readership of this blog also decided to take a few days off. The news, however, did not. […]
After a nice weekend away from work – thanks Manayunk Brewery – I’m back and ready to re-start the morning papers portion of the program.First, however, a few comments on […]
The Yemeni government is attempting to take the fight to al–Qaeda, using helicopters to comb the governorates of Marib, Shabwa, Hadramawt, and probably al–Jawf. (All of this makes me wonder […]
Most of the papers this morning are full of the news that al–Raymi and everyone else survived the attack late last week, which the Yemeni government had claimed killed six […]
There are now three conflicting narratives about what exactly happened in Marib last week in the fighting between al-Qaeda and the Yemeni government. There is a media narrative, a government […]
I realize that most of Waq al-waq’s long-time and loyal readers (as silent as you usually are) are well aware of the complicated tribal politics in Yemen, but since Waq […]
Al-Arabiyya and numerous other outlets are reporting that two al-Qaeda suspects have been killed and other was taken into custody today at a checkpoint in the southern Saudi city of […]
Given this week’s attack on al-Qaeda sites in Yemen, I would like to point out a new article from Alistair Harris and Michael Page entitled: The State of Yemen. This […]