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An update on this story. "Probe of USS Cole Bombing Unravels," by Craig Whitlock for the Washington Post, May 4:
ADEN, Yemen -- Almost eight years after al-Qaeda nearly sank the USS Cole with an explosives-stuffed motorboat, killing 17 sailors, all the defendants convicted in the attack have escaped from prison or been freed by Yemeni officials.
Jamal al-Badawi, a Yemeni who helped organize the plot to bomb the Cole as it refueled in this Yemeni port on Oct. 12, 2000, has broken out of prison twice. He was recaptured both times, but then secretly released by the government last fall. Yemeni authorities jailed him again after receiving complaints from Washington. But U.S. officials have so little faith that he's still in his cell that they have demanded the right to perform random inspections.
Two suspects, described as the key organizers, were captured outside Yemen and are being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, beyond the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. Many details of their alleged involvement remain classified. It is unclear when -- or if -- they will be tried by the military.
The collapse of the Cole investigation offers a revealing case study of the U.S. government's failure to bring al-Qaeda operatives and their leaders to justice for some of the most devastating attacks on American targets over the past decade.
A week after the Cole bombing, President Bill Clinton vowed to hunt down the plotters and promised, "Justice will prevail." In March 2002, President Bush said his administration was cooperating with Yemen to prevent it from becoming "a haven for terrorists." He added: "Every terrorist must be made to live as an international fugitive with no place to settle or organize, no place to hide, no governments to hide behind and not even a safe place to sleep."
Since then, Yemen has refused to extradite Badawi and an accomplice to the United States, where they have been indicted on murder charges. Other Cole conspirators have been freed after short prison terms. At least two went on to commit suicide attacks in Iraq.
"After we worked day and night to bring justice to the victims and prove that these Qaeda operatives were responsible, we're back to square one," said Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent and a lead investigator into the bombing. "Do they have laws over there or not? It's really frustrating what's happening." [...]
Jamal al-Badawi, a Yemeni who helped organize the plot to bomb the Cole as it refueled in this Yemeni port on Oct. 12, 2000, has broken out of prison twice. He was recaptured both times, but then secretly released by the government last fall. Yemeni authorities jailed him again after receiving complaints from Washington. But U.S. officials have so little faith that he's still in his cell that they have demanded the right to perform random inspections. [...]
Badawi surrendered about 20 months after his second escape. But Yemeni authorities cut him a deal. They said they would let him remain free if he would help them search for the other al-Qaeda fugitives.
The arrangement was kept secret until Yemeni newspapers reported shortly afterward that Badawi had been spotted at his home in Aden.
U.S. officials said they were stunned. After his first escape, Badawi had been indicted in U.S. District Court in New York for the Cole killings, and the United States had posted a $5 million bounty for his capture. But U.S. officials couldn't get their hands on him. "This was someone who was implicated in the Cole bombing," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at the time. "He needs to be in jail."
U.S. officials withheld $20 million in aid to Yemen and canceled a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Yemeni officials said they quickly put Badawi back behind bars. But reports persist that his incarceration remains a day-to-day affair.
In December, a Yemeni newspaper reported that Badawi had again been seen roaming free in public. One source close to the Cole investigation said there is evidence that Badawi is allowed to come and go, despite the periodic requests by U.S. officials to inspect his prison cell.
Read it all.
Posted by Marisol at May 5, 2008 12:01 AM
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Why can't our CIA just track down and kill these people, like the Israeli's did to the Munich terrorists? That's the only thing they respect.
Posted by: Bingo![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 5, 2008 12:23 AM
This is no surprise. It's because the Yemanis don't really care about dead Americans. They are just going through the motions. It was the same when I went through the Kuwaiti Airport security, probably the worst I've seen at any airport. They didn't care about jihad terrorism, in fact, they support it. They were just going through the motions, because their government had to keep up appearances, i.e., speak takiya to the infidels. That, and the shame they have that all that extra work is caused by Islam, and ultimately, Mohammad.
http://www.bravenewsworld.blogspot.com
Posted by: Max Publius at May 5, 2008 12:27 AM
Our government should just pay the Yemenis their bribe money and they'll execute these terrorists for us.
It's the MO-Mafia.
You have to grease their hands for real results.
Posted by: profitsbeard at May 5, 2008 1:06 AM
I say light up the place.. Give them a reason to fear us.
Posted by: lonewolf at May 5, 2008 1:26 AM
A week after the Cole bombing, President Bill Clinton vowed to hunt down the plotters and promised, "Justice will prevail."
To a Muslim, hearing Pres. Bill Clinton saying justice will prevail, would indicate that he approved of the attack.
American justice and Islamic justice have totally different meanings. The Yemeni authorities willingness to let al-Badawi go free, and lock him up again, when aid (jizja) payments are due, show that they don't give a hoot about American justice, or any infidel justice for that matter.
Posted by: Dsinc at May 5, 2008 2:31 AM
The revolving doors of the Islamic prisons.
No believer will be punished for killing a kuffar. (Abu Da’ud: No. 4506)
Obviously Chertoff and Condi didn't get the message yet...
Posted by: sheik yer'mami at May 5, 2008 3:37 AM
Dear Navy Seals,
Should you choose to accept this mission, you will have the thanks of a grateful nation.
Insertion: Submarine
Location: Port of Aiden, Yemen
Target: All known terrorists and their jailers
Rules of Engagement: None/Your Discretion.
USS Nimitz and USS Missouri standing off for naval gunfire support/airstrike support.
Come home safely, over and out.
at May 5, 2008 4:26 AM
So, this is what Billions of tax-dollars down the 'War-on-Terror' drain gets US. Then again, maybe we got it all wrong. War-on-terror is to help Islamic terrorists and guess what? It is working just fine. Just a matter of perspective.
Posted by: Alert at May 5, 2008 4:27 AM
Yemen is like the PA when it comes to incarcerating terrorists: every cell has a revolving door.
Those bombers need to be tracked down and locked in a freezer, the only place where they will receive just ice.
at May 5, 2008 6:01 AM
This exposes the extent of our muddle headed thinking. Our main weakness is that we think the main objective is to arrest our enemies and put them on trial, rather than to wipe them out. We treat a war that has been declared upon our civilization and way of life as merely a law enforcement matter, where our enemies are nothing more than criminals, rather than civilian-clothed terrorists and enforcers of Sharia who will stop at nothing and are prepared to murder our civilians and soldiers alike. We should be more like the Israelis of old, but in our stupidity, and courtesy of rank antisemitism amongst our media, we have emasculated the Israelis to the same extent as to which we have emasculated ourselves, because we are run by the spineless products of the 1960s and onwards ways of teaching, and the politically-correct postmodern multiculturalist idea that everybody is fundamentally the same and wish for the same things. That is why our enemies don't fear us, and instead only have scorn for us, because there are no dire consequences for them. The last 30 years of literally getting away with murder and our feeble responses has made them believe that we are a soft touch who will always turn the other cheek regardless of what they do to us. When anyone plans or carries out atrocities against us, they have to be hunted down and killed without mercy.
Posted by: Spirit Of 1683 at May 5, 2008 6:43 AM
Wow. Again, we simply cannot trust Islamic states.
Posted by: Henrik at May 5, 2008 7:03 AM
Remember--Yemen is just another way to spell enemy.
Posted by: Kay at May 5, 2008 8:08 AM
U.S. officials should withhold $20 million in aid to Yemen and canceled all VISAs untill Yemen extradites Badawi and an accomplice to the United States, where they have been indicted on murder charges.
Actually, even after they extradite we should end all jyza payments to all Mohammedan cesspools as a matter of principle. I have riped from my working hide to pay for the support of my government, not to pay tribute or buy friends (Your mother taught you, that you can't buy friends when you were in pre-school, have the idiots in the state department never learned anything in their lives?)
Posted by: senor doeboy at May 5, 2008 8:50 AM
Where there is no justice, there will be hit teams.
Glory glory halelullyah.
Pour encourager les autres.
Posted by: dgene at May 5, 2008 9:28 AM
Why can't our CIA just track down and kill these people, like the Israeli's did to the Munich terrorists? That's the only thing they respect.
Bingo,
Those days are gone. Now we have the World Court and the ICC. The CIA would be ripped to shreds if a leftist in America learns that a single person has died at their hands instead of being arrested and brought before a judge somewhere. Milosevic ended up in The Hague. Pinochet was arrested in Britain. How long before Rumsfeld, Cheney or Bush are arrested as war criminals if they leave the US? It won't happen everywhere, but it could happen one day. Such is the world we live in.
at May 5, 2008 10:53 AM
U.S. officials withheld $20 million in aid to Yemen and canceled a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice."
-- from the article above
Was $20 million the total of American aid to Yemen, or only part? Whatever the answer, there should be no American aid to Yemen, whatever it does or does not do to recapture and imprison those responsible for the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole. That should no longer be subject to discussion.
What can be done further? No stopping in Yemeni ports. Refusal to allow any transfers of money to Yemen by anyone in this country. A selective crackdown on Yemenis in this country, so that all those who are not citizens are deported, and those who have managed to obtain citizenship are scrutinized so that cases of fraud -- such as fraudulent marriagnes to American citizens, or hiding membership in organizations, or perjury in swearing allegiance to the American government and Constitution as part, one assumes, of the naturalization process -- will lead to stripping of citizenship. And, of course, no Yemenis ought to be allowed into this country, not for study, not for medical care, not for anything. And let that new policy be understood, and widely reported on, and not just in Yemen.
Posted by: Hugh at May 5, 2008 11:06 AM
Hugh,
You make too much sense. It's beyond the comprehension of most of our "leaders".
at May 5, 2008 11:36 AM
It is time we pass these words of wisdom to the State Department...and remind them it is time to remove thumbs from the butt and it is time to take immediate and postive action like the world leaders everyone assumes us to be..
THe world doesn't have to like it, especially the Islamic world. then we need to inform them it is going to get tougher..
It is time civilization returns...the time for Islam to quit dragging the world into the sewer should end now..and it could start with Yemen.
Posted by: pulsar182 at May 5, 2008 11:39 AM
According to the Associated Press, Yemen is a "key U.S. ally in the Middle East in the war on terror".
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/020874.php#comments
Well, with allies like this, who needs enemies?
Posted by: gravenimage at May 5, 2008 1:21 PM
Tabari IX:69 "Killing disbelievers is a small matter to us."
Ishaq:489 "Do the bastards think that we are not their equal in fighting? We are men who think that there is no shame in killing."
Narrated Abu Juhaifa:“....no Muslim should be killed for killing an infidel.” Bukhari Volume 4, Book 52, Num. 283.
Volume 4, Book 52, Number 66:
Narrated Abu Abs:
(who is 'Abdur-Rahman bin Jabir) Allah's Apostle said," Anyone whose both feet get covered with dust in Allah's Cause will not be touched by the (Hell) fire."
Volume 4, Book 52, Number 73:
Narrated 'Abdullah bin Abi Aufa:
Allah's Apostle said, "Know that Paradise is under the shades of swords."
.
at May 5, 2008 3:35 PM
SeniorDoeBoy- I agree with you. Cancel Yemeni travel to the Great Satan. We have to make an example of these "allies."
PMK- What you wrote it true, sadly. The CIA would be dragged before Congress if these terrorists expired early.
Posted by: Bingo at May 6, 2008 12:23 AM
According to Sharia Law and the Koran, if a Muslim kills non muslim it is not a murder; rather, it is a service to Allah (Devil or Satan).
Posted by: Lebanese at May 6, 2008 11:05 AM
Here's a classic text, from the Sira, or Life of Muhammad, by Ibn Ishaq:
Ishaq:231 - “Muslims are one ummah (community) to the exclusion of all men. Believers are friends of one another to the exclusion of all outsiders.”
Combine this with other equally nasty texts, such as those many texts forbidding any unfeigned or permanent friendship and/or formal alliance with non-Muslims, and those many texts expressing contempt for non-Muslims, and those declaring that the life of a non-Muslim is worth less than that of a Muslim and one can understand exactly why Yemen is casually letting out of jail Muslim jihadis who have killed infidels.
In their heart of hearts, the Yemenis may simply not be able to see that the jihadis have done anything wrong, by killing non-Muslim Americans. In any case: Islam trumps all. One must side with one's fellow Muslim no matter what he's done to the Infidel.
It isn't just Yemen. Indonesia has shown little real interest in seriously punishing Muslim jihadis who kill infidels (whether in the Bali bombing, or in the case of the Christian schoolgirls who were beheaded on their way to school), whereas two Christian men who were -quite probably, falsely - accused of killing Muslims (in a context in which jihadi raiders had been attacking and killing non-Muslims with abandon) were seized, tried, and executed, with indecent haste and zest.
at May 7, 2008 2:45 AM
Such a sad repeated scenerio. Put 'em all in a cardboard box and send them home to Mother.
Archived now at Jihad Watch with this link.......
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/017573.php
MK
Posted by: Melaria_Kidd at May 7, 2008 6:38 AM
More of Pink Floyd's music ruined in a You Tube video. Someone out there in video land is listening to Dr. Michael Savage. Remember The Cole!
This is 11 minutes long and the ending is a chiller!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aqFPdgBc78
Posted by: Melaria_Kidd at May 7, 2008 6:53 AM
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