Graphic source: U.S. Navy / AFP file.This photo from Oct. 12, 2000, shows the damaged port side of the guided missile destroyer USS Cole after an attack blamed on the al-Qaeda terror network during a refueling operation in the Yemeni port of Aden. Quote courtesy of MSNBC.
U.S. Sailors Dead; killers freed.
As frustating as that statement may be, that is about the size of it. The probe of the USS Cole bombing unravels as the plotters are freed by the state terrorists running Yemen. 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 on Oct. 12, 2000, has broken out of prison twice. He was recaptured both times, but then secretly released by the government last fall. U.S. officials have demanded the right to ensure he is actually jailed.
Two suspects, described as the key organizers, are being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, beyond the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. They may never be tried by the military.
The United States government failed to bring al-Qaeda operatives to justice.
Other Cole conspirators have been freed after short prison terms and at least two went on to commit suicide attacks in Iraq.
Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent and a lead investigator into the bombing, was one of the most valuable assets the country had in the investigation and his frustration with the case is palpable. A riveting account of Soufan's clever investigation informs Lawrence Wright's, The Looming Tower about al-Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda celebrates the Cole attack as one of its signature victories. They are correct. The U.S. response has been tepid at best.
Very few of the individuals and countries who played a role in the Cole assault have been questioned.
The Cole investigation paled after 9/11.
Once dispatched to Yemen, the investigation was bogged down by internal bickering and the clash of culture between sophisticated FBI techniques and the backwardness of Yemeni culture.
The U.S. investigation, headed up by the FBI however, identified the ringleader as Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi national of Yemeni descent who served as al-Qaeda's operations chief in the Arabian Peninsula.
The Yemeni authorities protected him and U.S. officials could not arrest him.
Nashiri eventually left Yemen to prepare other attacks on U.S. targets in the Persian Gulf, U.S. officials said. He was captured in the United Arab Emirates in November 2002 and handed over to the CIA. He was detained in the CIA's secret network of overseas prisons until he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in September 2006.
Another al-Qaeda leader, Tawfiq bin Attash, who also played an organizing role in the Sept. 11 hijackings, was arrested in Karachi, Pakistan, in May 2003 and confessed last year to overseeing the Cole plot.
Bin Attash and Nashiri were both named unindicted co-conspirators in the Justice Department's investigation into the Cole attack. A decision was made not to indict them because pending criminal charges could have forced the CIA or the Pentagon to give up custody of the men.
Quotes courtesy of © 2008 The Washington Post Company, URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24449741/.
Posts
