10 Suspects in USS Cole Attack Escape Prison

Guardian UK ^ | 04/11/03

[visagoth]

Suspects in USS Cole Attack Escape Prison
Friday April 11, 2003 12:20 PM

SAN`A, Yemen (AP) - Yemeni authorities were hunting for 10 of the main suspects in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole after they escaped from prison Friday, officials said.

The fugitives, including chief suspect Jamal al-Badawi, had been jailed in the port city of Aden since shortly after the destroyer was bombed, killing 17 American sailors.

Officials at Aden's governor's office would not say how the men escaped early Friday. But they quoted intelligence sources as saying security forces were out in force in a major search operation.

Photographs of the men were distributed to police and houses of the escaped men's relatives were searched, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

The Oct. 12, 2000, attack was blamed on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

Al-Badawi allegedly helped buy the dinghy used by the two suicide bombers, who rammed the destroyer as it was refueling in Aden.

The 10 men, some of whom are believed to be linked to al-Qaida, were part of a 17-man group arrested after the Cole bombing.

Officials said that the men might have left Aden and headed to al-Qaida strongholds in the northern province of Shabwah.

Last July, Walid Abdullah Habib, a Yemeni member of al-Qaida who was arrested while trying to enter the country illegally, escaped from prison.

Habib was arrested this year in a desert area near the Oman-Yemen border and handed over to Yemeni authorities. Habib is from Shabwah.

Yemen, the ancestral home of bin Laden, has been a hotbed of terrorist activity.

Supporters of al-Qaida have claimed responsibility for several bombings targeting security officials and government offices in the past few months.

Yemen committed itself to joining the war on terrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks in America and has allowed U.S. forces to enter the country and train its military.

[Joe 6-pack]

"Why didn't Clintoon have them extradicted to the US? They killed 17 American soldiers and were probably ripe for extradition."

Because the Cole was bombed in the 11th hour of the clinton regime...billy jeff and her heinousness were far too busy preparing pardons for the likes of Marc Rich, and looting the White House.

That's why.

[Ligeia]

Yemen offers reward for information on escaped Cole suspects


Apr 24, 2003

SAN`A, Yemen (AP) _ Yemen offered a reward of $8,300 Thursday for information leading to the arrest of 10 fugitives wanted for the fatal bombing of the destroyer USS Cole.

The 10 men escaped from a prison in the southern port of Aden on April 11, embarrassing the Yemeni government and setting back the investigation of the suicide attack.

The reward was advertised in Yemeni newspapers Thursday.

Seventeen American sailors were killed when a small boat laden with explosives was detonated alongside the Norfolk, Va.-based Cole as it refueled in Aden port on Oct. 12, 2000.

Last week, Yemen suspended three Aden police officers responsible for security at the prison and questioned them about the escape.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/vaapwire/MGBNVBRKXED.html