According to Time.com article "Yemen:Al-Qaeda's News Staging Ground?" posted on December 28,2009 Yemen is the poorest country in the middle east. The country has a population of 23.8 million people and is located south of Saudi Arabia.According to globalsecurity.org al-Qaeda is a global terrorist organization run by Osama bin ladan that began in 1988. The conflict between the country of Yemen and the al-Qaeda is a relatively new conflict. Within the last two years the al-Qaeda have resurfaced and regrouped in Yemen. The US director of intelligence said that Yemen was "re-emerging as a jihuadist battleground and potential regional base of operations for al-Qaeda".The United States is concerned about the al-Qaeda being in Yemen because of its geographical location. The al-Qaeda could launch an attack on the Red Sea gateway to the Suez canal Saudi Arabia or the Persian Gulf.