When 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmorallab attempted to blow-up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, a plot that misfired, with the help of passengers and crew, this terrorist plot led back to training in Yemen. Media has focused on Afghanistan and Pakistan as training grounds for al-Qaeda but there has been little mention of Yemen recently.

The first reaction was what went wrong with security that he was allowed on board – without luggage as it turned out and a ticket paid in cash – which should have already alerted the ground crew. Then there was the fact his name was on several lists of potential terrorists but not on the “No fly” list, due, according to an angered President Obama, to lack of coordination among the security organizations. His own father had reported to the American Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria that he feared his son had become “radicalized” on a trip to Yemen, but the experts that supposedly connect the dots of security information did not consider him a threat.

We had the famous “shoe terrorist” and now we have the “underwear terrorist” who had the explosive materials sewn into his underwear, which apparently did not show up in airport screening. When the attempted to ignite the explosives, passengers saw smoke and jumped on him and flight attendants rushed in with a fire extinguisher. Thus, 190 lives were saved, not by elaborate security precautions, but by the alertness and bravery of passengers and crew.

As it turns out, Yemen has been very much on the list of states that harbor terrorists since the bombing of the US Navy ship Cole in 2000 which killed 17 American sailors.

Both British and American advisors and funds have been sent to Yemen to fight terrorism, and the day following the aborted bombing of the Northwest plane, Gen. David Petraeus, the regional US military commander, called upon the President of Yemen to discuss cooperation on anti-terrorist measures.

After the Cole episode, the FBI launched a sweep in Yemen that either killed or imprisoned most of the perpetrators. Unfortunately, a jail break from a maximum security prison put them back in business. And they were further strengthened by a merger with the Saudi Arabian al-Qaeda, to form the al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula.

The day after the attempted bombing of the Northwest plane, both the US and UK closed their embassies in Yemen. The perpetrator had spent two years in London and was known to British intelligence to hang out with terrorists but he was not considered a threat to the national security.

In response to this latest attack, both the US and UK are sending funding to establish a special counter-terrorism police unit in Yemen, an impoverished mountainous country with a weak central government and vast areas under tribal control.

But Yemen is now back on our radar screen as a breeding ground for terrorists.