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A naive and muddleheaded multiculturalist ambassador impedes anti-terror efforts. "Coddling Terrorists In Yemen," by Ali H. Soufan, an FBI supervisory special agent from 1997 to May 2005, in the Washington Post (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):
Seven years after al-Qaeda terrorists Jamal al-Badawi and Fahd al-Quso confessed to me their crucial involvement in the bombing of the USS Cole, and three years after they were convicted in a Yemeni court -- where a judge imposed a death sentence on Badawi -- they, along with many other al-Qaeda terrorists, are free. On Oct. 12, 2000, when I flew to Yemen to lead the FBI's Cole investigation, I had no idea how uncooperative the Yemeni government would initially be. Nor could I have imagined how disconnected from reality the U.S. ambassador to Yemen then, Barbara K. Bodine, would prove.I have hesitated in the past to share my view of the conflict between Bodine and the FBI's counterterrorism leader, John O'Neill. I feel compelled, however, to respond to Bodine's recent comments, which slander the efforts of many dedicated counterterrorism agents and divert attention from the significant terrorist problem within Yemen, our "ally" in the "war on terror."
A recent Post report on Yemen allowing al-Qaeda operatives to go free offered insight into the challenges the FBI faced. Bodine was quoted in the article not urging the Yemeni government to rearrest the terrorists but, instead, denigrating the agents who investigated the attack. She faulted the FBI as being slow to trust Yemeni authorities and said agents were "dealing with a bureaucracy and a culture they didn't understand. . . . We had one group working on a New York minute, and another on a 4,000-year-old history."
In fact, our team included several Arab American agents who understood the culture and the region. Even so, such comments were irrelevant. The FBI left Yemen with the terrorists in jail.
It is true that while tracking the terrorists we worked "on a New York minute." We owed that much to the sailors murdered on the Cole and to all innocent people who remained targets as long as the terrorists were free.
It is also true that we did not trust some Yemeni officials. We had good reason not to:
When the FBI arrived in Yemen, some government officials tried to convince us that the explosion had been caused by a malfunction in the Cole's operating systems. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh even asked the U.S. government for money to clean up port damage the United States "caused."...
Read it all.
Posted by Robert at May 18, 2008 7:29 AM
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yet another example of have incompetent people in important positions. Apparently this female ambassador knew very little of Islam or the people in Yemen. She was either appointed to the position because no one else wanted the job or because someone just liked her. Her appointment apparently did not require any knowledge of Islam.
If she was the best the US could send, then close the embassy.
Posted by: pulsar182![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 18, 2008 8:10 AM
The reality in these Muslim countries is that even if we find government officials who are truly cooperative, and they are few, their cooperation only lasts as long as they are not threatened by radical elements. Should they continue with their cooperation they will go the way of Sadat -- cooperative unto death.
Posted by: Rahman bin Rahman at May 18, 2008 8:42 AM
A Woman Ambassador in Yemen? How bright is that idea in the first place?
Posted by: flowerknife_us at May 18, 2008 8:52 AM
Here's the court scene in Midnight Express. Dedicated to our friends the Yemenis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcV0Itg4bzg
Posted by: Bingo at May 18, 2008 9:05 AM
Barbara K. Bodine, Jethro's cousin? She probably went to Oxford (Oxen Ford) too.
Posted by: Pelayo at May 18, 2008 9:27 AM
How about we not only fire this dhimmi ambassador, but also ban her from political employment, charge her with libel and being an accessory, after the fact, to terrorism!!! Her statements could just as well have been a press release from CAIR!
Posted by: NamFrank at May 18, 2008 10:18 AM
A Woman Ambassador in Yemen? How bright is that idea in the first place?
Posted by: flowerknife_us
My exact initial impression...
Posted by: duh_swami at May 18, 2008 10:44 AM
those who have been apologists, for Islam, one way or another, in the State Department, deserve to be demoted or replaced. Those, for example, who by putting their faith, or at least urgiing others to put their faith, in our "friend" and "ally" Saudi Arabia, and who therefore have, since 1973, prevented much higher taxes on gasoline and oil which might, long ago, have not only dampened demand and encouraged other kinds of energy production, but also have recaptured a trillionr or more in oligopolistic renets, should no longer be listened to. Those who, as Arabists, have gone native, have come to see the world through Arab eyes, which also means through Muslim eyes, need to be pushed out -- these are not the people appropriate for the task at hand, which is to make sure that the countries of the historic West do not succumb to the combined effect of the Money Weapon, Da'wa, and demopraphic conquest, but together with the United States (and Canada, if it is willing) take whatever measures they must to halt, and then reverse, the growing presence of Muslims, and power of Islam, in the lands of Western Europe.
Finally, those who keep tediously, and vainly, attempting to find through negotiations and treaties a "peace" between Israel and those who do not, and will never, accept the permanent existence of an Infidel nation-state on land that was once possessed by Muslims, either because they remain wilfully ignorant of Islam, or because they know exactly what Muslim Arabs think but because of their cruelty and malevolence, wish Israel ill, wish it to have to endure the slow steady whittling away of its position that the Slow Jihadists of Fatah have decided to pursue, for they are more intelligent -- and also more immediately greedy and eager for Infdiel Jizyah to flow -- than the less compromising, more truth-telling Fast Jihadists of Fatah.
Get rid of all of these people. Put in place those who have an idea of what the West is all about, and who, possibly because they have studied or lived in Western Europe, know what is at stake. These should be the people dealing with all matters having to do with Islam -- and that includes the parts of the world now assigned, quite dangerously, to Arabists who are often a self-selected group, people who chose that field because they found the Arabs so appealing, or -- and this has not been sufficiently recognized -- their mental pathologies find a suitable and respectable outlet in the pursuit of policies that can cause mortal harm to the single and vulnerable Jewish state, Israel.
Rearrange the offices. Hire, and fire, or at least demote.
Do it for the environment. Do it for the sake of the continued existence of the West, and of the civilizational legacy that cannot continue without the nations of Western Europe, that need to be able, with American coopoeration and understanding, to do what they must to contain Islam.
Posted by: Hugh at May 18, 2008 11:46 AM
Don't blame the ambassador. More than likely she was operating on direct instructions from Foggy Bottom or the White House. The buck stops with Bill Clinton, who appointed her.
Posted by: PMK at May 18, 2008 11:49 AM
""We had one group working on a New York minute, and another on a 4,000-year-old history.""
Try 1400 year history. It's the Jews who have a 4000 year history.
Posted by: kevin at May 18, 2008 12:15 PM
Why do our ambassadors, after a period of time, come to identify with the host country and not the US, and thence come to advocate for the interests of their host country rather than (and even in opposition to) the US? It can't just be about the corruption of money.
Posted by: aynrandgirl at May 18, 2008 12:49 PM
If I've read this article with full comprehension, it appears that its author, Ali H. Soufan, is a Muslim (at least his name suggests this) who worked, and may still work, for the FBI. He is on our side, and kudos to him. I would assume that he is not a True Believer, if indeed he was raised Muslim.
Posted by: commonsense at May 18, 2008 1:00 PM
It seems our State department is populated by Swedes from Stockholm. It would explain so much.
Posted by: Jewel Atkins at May 18, 2008 1:10 PM
Well no wonder John O'Neill locked horns with her!! If you remember him, he was the FBI guy who resigned (after clashing with certain people about methods of investigation into the USS Cole) and went to head up the security at the WTC just prior to Sept. 11. He KNEW what was coming, call it a gut feeling or whatever. He perished in the attacks on New York ;o(
And I second the motion....what the heck were they thinking when they sent a woman ambassador to Yeman??? Guess that should tell us all something.
Posted by: gymgal at May 18, 2008 1:49 PM
Her Hindrance of O'Neill is further detailed in Lawrence Wright's book: "The Looming Tower: Al- Qaeda and the Road to 9-11". This is the same Bodine who in 2003 was appointed "coordinator for central Iraq in charge of Baghdad" only to be fired by the Coalition Provincial Authority.
Posted by: We need G.C. Scott at May 18, 2008 3:30 PM
The US needs to get really tough with those gov't officials of Yemen, to start boot out their diplomats.
Posted by: ZenaWarriorPrincess at May 18, 2008 4:14 PM
And then the same Barbara Bodine reappeared in Baghdad, as the Typhoid Mary of the US national security disaster, appointed the top US official there! For 3 crucial first months of the US presence there, she just sat there, doing nothing, as the US was losing control of the situation and Iraq was rapidly descending into bloody chaos that has been raging there ever since.
Ruslan Tokhchukov, EnragedSince1999.
Posted by: Enragedsince1999 at May 18, 2008 9:16 PM
I remember when the USS Cole bombing took place and the King or President of Yemen said that America was lying. He claimed that we had an explosion 'ON' the boat and was trying to blame his country. He went on a rampage that we did it.
Then he went down and saw the USS Cole with the gaping hole and the metal hull folded into the ship instead of out, to show that the explosion took place outside the ship. He then claimed we still did it. He continued claimed we did it until the State Department met with him.
He then silenced his rant and acted like all was well. I have always wondered what his price was and how much the State Department paid him to shut up.
Posted by: alaskan1000 at May 19, 2008 1:38 PM
"I remember when the USS Cole bombing took place and the King or President of Yemen said that America was lying. "
Posted by: alaskan1000
do you remember this?
BOB KERREY BUSTED!
You have probably seen or heard about that portion of the Rice testimony yesterday when former Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey asked Dr. Rice why there had been no response to the attack on the USS Cole in that harbor in Yemen. This was in the context of Bush's "I'm tired of swatting at flies" comment.
Well .. we have two problems here with Bob Kerrey. The first problem would be that George Bush was not president at the time of the attack on the USS Cole, and Condoleezza Rice wasn't the National Security Advisor. That "why didn't we respond" question should have been directed at Clinton later yesterday afternoon, not Condi Rice. My guess is that Bob Kerrey abandoned that line of questioning as soon as Clinton showed up.
The second problem with Kerrey's line of questioning arises from his own words. On the floor of the U.S. Senate, on October 19, 2000, immediately following the attack on the Cole, Bob Kerrey said:
"In my opinion [the attack on the Cole] is part of a military strategy designed to defeat the United States as we attempt to accomplish a serious and vital mission. I hope we will direct the anger and desire for vengeance we feel away from Yemen and towards Saddam Hussein ... I can think of no more fitting tribute to the 17 sailors lost on-board the Cole than completing our mission and helping the Iraqi people achieve freedom and democracy."
Well, folks. Isn't that exactly what we're doing right now?
How many examples can we find of Democrats, and that would include the one about to receive his party's nomination to run for president, stridently demanding the ousting of Saddam Hussein before George Bush was elected president? The number of such statements is surely in the hundreds ... and you just heard another one from Bob Kerrey.
Posted by: pulsar182 at May 19, 2008 8:47 PM
We have been fighting the Yemeni regime, and two american administrations for over seven long years now to obtain some measure of justice for our murdered loved ones. I for one am happy that a FBI agent came forward and spoke the truth after all these years. My senators recently just told me that they would address my issues concerning the botched investigation of the Cole attack, and our own governments continued support a a petty dictator that supports and aids terrorists.
As for Bodine. She is a idiot. She threw away the opportunity to not only help bring the bombers of the Cole to justice, but also due to her incompetency the FBi lost the chance to take advantage of all the clues leading to the pending attack on 9/11. Yet Bush later promoted her. Granted he fired her in less than 3 months.
In my book she was and is a traitor. Instead of backing the FBI in a phone call to Clinton, she told him that they needed to be pulled back. To let the Yemenis take the lead. They did alright. And look at the mess now.
Posted by: Bobster67 at May 19, 2008 11:36 PM
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