Eight years after the bombing of the USS Cole — an attack that killed 17 US Sailors and wounded another 40 — most of those involved in the attack are on the loose again. Jamal al-Badawi who helped plan and organize the attack has escaped from prison in Yemen twice. He has been recaptured, but has been seen at his home and can apparently come and go as he pleases. Fahd al-Quso, another defendant in the case, was freed last year. FBI director Robert Muller flew to Yemen last year to demand that both men be extradited to New York to face justice. So far, Yemen has said no.

Yemeni officials have released some of the conspirators because they have taken part in a dialogue and reconciliation program designed to reform Al Qaeda terrorists.

Yemeni officials have said that some of the Cole defendants have been let go because they’ve helped authorities track down other suspected terrorists, or because they’ve taken part in a “dialogue and reconciliation” program to reform al-Qaeda members.

In other GWOT news, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee — who had been released — has apparently blown himself up in Mosul Iraq.

A friend of Abdullah Saleh al-Ajmi in Iraq informed his family that Abdullah carried out the attack in Mosul, his cousin Salem told the Dubai-based television channel.

“We were shocked by the painful news we received this afternoon … through a call from one of the friend’s of martyr Abdullah in Iraq,” said Salem al-Ajmi in a telephone interview aired by Arabiya.

He did not say when the suicide bombing happened.

Abdullah had been missing for two weeks and his family learned he left Kuwait illegally for Syria, he said. Abdullah had sent messages to his wife from Iraq.

Yeah, those terrorist reform programs work so well.

1. This has happened because Bill Clinton didn’t have what it took to get the job done. It will, of course, be blamed on President Bush. But the fault lies much deeper and further back then that - indeed, it’s with Jimmy Carter. But the specific USS Cole tragedy and the subsequent lack of action lies squarely on the shoulders of ole Billy Boy.

   Comment by Kris, in New England — 5/8/2008 @ 08:06

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2. Oh, I know it rests on Bill. My point was I’m not interested in reforming terrorists. I say get rid of them right there on the battlefield unless they hold some sort of intelligence value. Either that, or if we have to jail them, it had better be for the rest of their lives with no possibility of release.

   Jim C

   Comment by Jim — 5/8/2008 @ 09:50

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