"As Yemen emerged as the breeding grounds for some of the most high-profile plans to attack the U.S. homeland, FRONTLINE journeyed to the south in 2012 to explore how Al Qaeda and affiliated militants had seized control of territory there — and were winning popular support. My digital reporting included:   UNDERSTANDING YEMEN'S AL QAEDA THREAT   Few understand how Yemen became an Al Qaeda stronghold, or how America's escalating war in the country is playing out on the ground. Turning to 11 Yemen experts acros a variety of disciplines,  I created the definitive primer  that lays bare the rise of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and the central debates surrounding its ascent.   AMERICA'S AIR WAR IN YEMEN   Since 2009, the U.S. ramped up a campaign of air strikes in Yemen.  In this interactive map , I plotted every single U.S. strike in Yemen over the last decade, visualizing important trends the program's escalation.   AL QAEDA'S NEW IMAGE OBSESSED MEDIA WING   A little-known but powerful element of Al Qaeda's grip on Yemen is a sophisticated media wing run by AQAP's local franchise Ansar al-Sharia. I dug deep into the operations of ""Madad News Agency"" as it sought to establish its presence among local Yemeni communities, while projecting a broader message to Yemenis online.   YOU AREN'T HEARING ABOUT YEMEN'S BIGGEST PROBLEMS   Every day headlines highlight Yemen's growing Al Qaeda threat, the terror plots to attack the U.S. homeland hatched from within its borders and America's escalating campaign of air strikes in the country. But some of Yemen's biggest challenges — many of which helped spark its democracy protests in 2011 — are largely absent from Western media. More conventional domestic and economic issues may define Yemen's stability, and in doing so define regional and global security. From severe droughts to a secessionist movements and proxy war, I broke down four of Yemen's biggest problems few Americans ever hear about."
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