what he told a Senate subcommittee yesterday<\/a>: CIA and military drone strikes are strengthening al-Qaida\u2019s Yemeni affiliate and making average Yemenis hate America.<\/p>\n\u201cHe will meet with a working-level expert on Yemen policy,\u201d a White House official confirms, declining to provide the name of the official or the time of the meeting. In other words, he shouldn\u2019t count on an Oval Office sit-down with the President \u2014 or even a quick meet with Obama\u2019s chief counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco. And the meeting isn\u2019t a response to al-Muslimi\u2019s testimony yesterday.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s buzz now around al-Muslimi, a Sana\u2019a-based freelance writer on public policy. And that didn\u2019t exist the last time he came to Washington \u2014 when al-Muslimi\u00a0also<\/em>\u00a0had a White House meeting. In September, he recalls to Danger Room, al-Muslimi trudged from one drab policymaker\u2019s office to another \u2014 he declines to give specifics \u2014 while his interlocutors grew uncomfortable when he wanted to talk about the human costs of the drones. \u201cIt was a taboo,\u201d al-Muslimi says, \u201clike if you\u2019re talking in a conservative society about sex.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIn other words, don’t hold your breath that the Obama White House cares about al-Muslimi’s eye-witness testimony of the human costs of the secret bombing campaign in Yemen.<\/p>\n
Here is al-Muslimi’s powerful testimony to the Senate committee this week:<\/p>\n