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.
President Salih met with Stephen Kappes, a CIA official, yesterday in Ta’izz. Following the meeting, Salih gave a speech suggesting that the supporters of secession had a virus like swine […]
Nayf Muhammad al-Qahtani’s article in Sada al-Malahim on Saudi’s most wanted list of 85 suspects gives some good background information on a handful of current leaders, particularly al-Wahayshi, Qasim al-Raymi […]
Here is a brief bio on Qasim al-Raymi that I wrote back in 2007. Qasim Yahya Mahdi al-Raymi (b. 1977): Al-Raymi is from Sanaa, and was also known by the […]
AQAP in a statement posted to jihadi forum has taken responsibility for the attempted attack on an airliner. Included in the statement is a photo of the attacker. One thing […]
For the past several weeks I have been following the efforst of Shaykh Husayn Abdullah Bahanhan of Al al-Faqih and his attempts to secure the release of eight individual, It […]
Unfortunately, I think a lot of people saw the fighting between Jahm and the government coming, particularly after the latest round of mediation failed. (I have written a bit about […]
As a couple of commentators pointed out in the comments section last night, issue 11 of Sada al-Malahim is now out. I downloaded it last night, but given my writing […]
Well it turns out DC didn’t have that much snow after all, but on the plus side I was able to renew my love affair with Amtrak, which even a […]
… check out this piece in The National by Mohammed al-Qadhi on the problems with the south. I would draw attention to this quote towards the end of the piece […]
قال مصدر مسئول في وزارة الدفاع بأن ما أعلنه عبدالملك الحوثي حول وقف الحرب ضد المملكة العربية السعودية وانسحابه من أراضيها التي تسلل وقام بالاعتداء عليها ليس سوى محاولة جديدة […]
Last night at a dinner in DC I had a chance to pose the question of spelling v. pronunciation of Jazan/Jizan to a Saudi official. He explained to me that […]
I am back from a short trip to DC and ready to catch up on all the Yemen news. Today the new issue of the CTC Sentinel from West Point […]
Several days ago I wrote an op-ed for the New York Times arguing that assassinating Anwar al-Awlaki would do little to keep the US safer from attacks stemming from AQAP. […]
A weekend of personal travel and holiday fun has put me behind in the blogging game, but I will try to catch up on all the news we missed over […]
In what is becoming a sad and sick habit lately, I’m desperately trying to meet a deadline and keeping various editors at bay, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have […]
As the Huthi rebellion continues to gain more international attention, I’m worried that we will start to see more reports like this one from NPR. There really isn’t much here, […]
Still little word on the remaining kidnapping victims, although Yemen says the search is on-going. Three are dead and one more wounded from the same family, which the government is […]
There is much going on in Yemen this morning, but briefly, the two main stories are al-‘Awfi’s confession and the fighting in Ja’ar. I first heard about al-‘Awfi’s confession last […]
For those who may have missed it, the new issue of the CTC Sentinel is out. Even though they don’t let me write for them anymore they still have good […]
Al-Sahwa is reporting that a mediation team headed up Shaykh Faris Mina’a is currently in the western district of Ghamr attempting to negotiate a settlement. The team is at Shaykh […]
Here at Waq al-waq we like to think that we only have a mild case of narcissism as opposed to the full-blown cases that we witness elsewhere. However, in an […]
For those of you who have not yet grown tired of hearing me talk – and trust me, at this point even I’m getting a bit sick of the sound […]
Yesterday at a graduation ceremony for Qur’anic students, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Majid al-Zindani commented on the growing calls for secession, claiming that while reform was necessary one should not confuse that […]
In my continuing efforts to turn Waq al-waq into my own personal calendar – it tends to work better than the plastic bags and scraps of receipts and newspapers I […]
Having finally caught up, at least for the day, with various projects I decided to tackle the multiplying piles of reading I had beside my desk. But an early article […]
For those of you in DC the next couple of days present a number of different options.Tomorrow the Henry L. Stimson Center is hosting Mustafa Alani to talk about Yemen […]
Al-Sharq al-Awsat has the run down of yesterday’s fighting in Zanjibar. From these news reports including the one in al-Quds al-Arabi and Mareb Press’ coverage of the clashes as well […]
According to a statement posted to jihadi forums, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is claiming responsibility for the suicide attack that killed four South Korean tourists and a Yemeni guide […]
It is a bit too late, after that last post, for another one on al-Qaeda so instead we have one on Bedouin poetry.This article features friend of this blog and […]
Keeping with our theme of aging politicians, News Yemen has this piece on former Prime Minister Bajammal’s return to San’a.