Tik Root, Local Producer | Vice on HBO
Yemen, the fractured state in the Arabian peninsula, is at the top of the worry list for President Obama's national security team, and the rise of Al Qaeda there is only half the reason why. The Yemeni government, an American ally, has lost so much control over the years that many U.S. officials consider Yemen a failed state, declaring it the "next Afghanistan." The real trouble is a current threat posed by the little-known Houthi rebel movement in the north of the country - a grassroots army, allegedly funded by Iran, that has never granted access to any other Western film crew before. Ben Anderson went deep into Houthi-controlled territory to learn about the group that's fighting, and beating, Al Qaeda in the east, Saudi Arabia in the north, and Yemen's central government in the south.