U.S. Grants Entry to Yemen President As Arab Spring Protesters Demand Accountability, Regime Change

"The New York Times reported Monday the Obama administration has decided in principle to allow embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to enter the United States to receive “legitimate medical treatment.” If the report is true, the United States will have agreed to Saleh’s arrival hours after his forces killed nine people demanding he be tried for deaths of protesters over the past year. Over the last several months, hundreds of thousands of Yemenis have been demonstrating across the country demanding Saleh face trial for charges ranging from corruption to deadly crackdowns on protests. Saleh agreed last month to step down in return for immunity from prosecution for himself and his family. “[The U.S.] has continued to attempt to hedge its bets and go a little bit down one road and a little down another road. The result being we have this mess in Yemen where the country is in danger of fragmenting and falling apart,” says Gregory Johnsen, a former Fulbright Fellow in Yemen. “If that happens, if the country of Yemen breaks into four or five different Yemens, then the security threat the United States and the international community will face from the tip of South Arabia is going to be much greater than it has been up to this point.”......"