November 22, 2008
Terrorists tunnel free
At least 13 al-Qaid members - including USS Cole bombing mastermind - escape from prison in Yemen
U.S. Navy Guided Missile Destroyer USS Cole is shown in this undated file photo. The Defence Department said the ship was attacked by a terrorist suicide mission during the early morning hours of Oct. 12. Reports indicate that the explosion caused a 20-by-40-foot gash in the port side of the ship. The explosives are believed to have been delivered using a small Zodiac-type boat. (AP/U.S. Navy)
BEIRUT, Lebanon - They dug their way out of jail.
An al-Qaida member who masterminded the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 was among a group of convicts who escaped from prison Friday by digging a 140-yard tunnel in the middle of Yemen's capital, Interpol officials said yesterday.
The operative, Jamal Badawi, was sentenced to death by a Yemeni court for the bombing of the Navy destroyer, which killed 17 American sailors. He was among 23 inmates - including at least 13 al-Qaida members - who fled from the prison in Sanaa, Yemen's capital, according to a security alert issued by Interpol.
The global police agency took the unusual step of publicizing the prison break after Yemeni officials released few details about it. Interpol said the escapees pose "a clear and present danger to all countries."
Interpol's secretary general, Ronald Noble, urged Yemen to provide the names, photos and fingerprints of all the escaped prisoners so the agency can issue wanted notices for them. "Al-Qaida terrorists have been deemed a serious threat to the entire world community," Noble said in a statement. "Their escape cannot be considered an internal problem for Yemen alone."
Yemeni officials told news agencies that they had set up checkpoints around the capital to try to prevent the fugitives from fleeing into Yemen's mountainous tribal areas, where the central government has little authority.
The inmates fled through a tunnel "dug by the prisoners and co-conspirators outside," Interpol said. They had been held at the central headquarters of Yemen's military intelligence service.
Unless the prisoners are tracked down, "they will be able to travel internationally, to elude detection and to engage in future terrorist activity," Noble warned.
Badawi was among a group of al-Qaida operatives sentenced to death in September 2004 for the Cole attack, in which two suicide bombers blew up an explosives-laden boat alongside the destroyer as it refueled in Aden, a Yemeni port, on Oct. 12, 2000.
Interpol identified another of the fugitives as Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei, one of the planners of a 2002 attack on the French tanker Limburg off Yemen's coast. That bombing killed a Bulgarian crew member and spilled 90,000 barrels of oil.
The prison break took place one day before the start of a trial of 15 suspects in terror attacks, including the Cole and Limburg bombings. The trial has been postponed, and Yemeni officials have not said how many of the defendants were among the escapees.
Yemen has long been a haven for militants. Osama bin Laden's father was born in Yemen and later moved to Saudi Arabia. That gave bin Laden important familial ties to Yemen, a largely tribal country.
In the 1960s, Communists took over the country's southern regions and created a Marxist state called South Yemen, which supported many left-wing terrorist groups. South Yemen fought for decades with North Yemen, a collection of tribal fiefdoms. In 1990, the two countries were reunified.
Bin Laden developed ties in Yemen through his tribal connections and the recruitment of thousands of Yemenis to fight Soviet troops occupying Afghanistan in the 1980s. In turn, several thousand Arab and Afghan fighters, known as mujahideen, made their way to Yemen after the CIA-financed war in Afghanistan ended in 1989. They set up Islamic projects and bases, often with the Yemeni government's tacit approval. Throughout the 1990s, bin Laden continued to finance Islamic groups and charities in Yemen.
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