News To Get Your Blood Boiling -- USS Cole Terrorists Are Now Free

On May 4, 2008, The Washington Post published the following story:

Probe of USS Cole Bombing Unravels

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.

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However there is more ....

Bounties a Bust in Hunt for Al-Qaeda -- Washington Post

SANAA, Yemen -- Jaber Elbaneh is one of the world's most-wanted terrorism suspects. In 2003, the U.S. government indicted him, posted a $5 million reward for his capture and distributed posters bearing photos of him around the globe.

None of it worked. Elbaneh remains at large, as wanted as ever. The al-Qaeda operative, however, isn't very hard to find.

One day last month, he shuffled down a busy street here in the Yemeni capital, past several indifferent policemen. Then he disappeared inside a building, though not before accidentally stepping on a reporter's toes.

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But it appears that while there is a lot of blame that can be directed at the Yemen Government, it appears that U.S. officials have also acted without honor.

From The Jawa Report:

When I was reading this excellent WaPo about the USS Cole bombers all being free, I was focused on this: "Diplomatic relations soured further in February, when the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa learned that Fahd al-Quso, another Cole conspirator, had been secretly freed nine months before. Like Badawi, Quso faces U.S. charges in the Cole case and has a $5 million bounty on his head." While my head was exploding, I entirely failed to notice this quote from former US Ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine, who Gary (Jawa pal and father of one of the murdered sailors) and I view as an impediment to the FBI's efforts: Bodine said the FBI was slow to trust Yemeni authorities....The FBI was "dealing with a bureaucracy and a culture they didn't understand," she said. "Yemen operates on a different timeline than we do. We had one group working on a New York minute, and another on a 4,000-year-old history." The FBI and some White House officials, in turn, suspected Bodine was too sympathetic toward the Yemenis. The FBI special agent in charge, John O'Neill, was forced to return to New York after butting heads too many times with the ambassador.

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Previous Post: U.S. Frustrated By Freed Terrorists

UPDATE ... UPDATE: Report gets results in Yemen, Jaber Elbaneh arrested.

My Comment: We can never win this war on terror with an altitude that refuses to recognize the grim fact that many people in the world hate us for who we are, and will go to great lengths to do us harm. And on top of all of that .... our "allies" are aiding our enemies.

But what is really amazing is that Barbara Bodine has an incredible history in the diplomatic/intelligence community ..... she has served for a number of years in a number of sensitive and crucial positions ..... being Associate Coordinator for Operations and then serving as the Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism!!!

After leaving Yemen and working in the academic community, she was then appointed coordinator for central Iraq in charge of Baghdad in the spring of 2003!!!! I guess people started to realize she was not up to the job ..... she was fired by the Coalition Provisional Authority a few weeks later.

Question ...... was this person really qualified to do the work that was assigned to her? Was she the right person? Would it have made a difference? I personally do not know the answer, but clearly this is a person who has ruffled the feathers of a number of people, who even after all of these many years are still questioning her qualifications, influence, and competency.