(CNN) -- In his weekly address, President Obama said that the Christmas Day airline bomber acted under orders from an al Qaeda branch in Yemen, which "trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for America." Vowing to hold accountable all those involved in the attempted act of terrorism on Christmas, Obama sent a letter to his Yemeni counterpart, Ali Abdullah Saleh, delivered by Gen. David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, in which he pledged to double the $70 million in counterterrorism aid to the poverty-stricken country in 2009, a figure that does not include covert programs run by U.S. special forces and the CIA.
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Al Qaeda is benefiting from civil unrest and economic woes in Yemen, says Fawaz Gerges
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He says sending more aid, focusing on counterterrorism won't be a successful policy
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He says Arab nations should take the lead, with U.S., Britain helping in the background
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Gerges: It's crucial to tackle Yemen's social and political crisis
After more than three decades in power, President @placeholder's ability to co-opt adversaries and maintain friends has shrunk considerably, plunging Yemen into an uncertain future.