Cole probe's collapse typifies U.S. failures against al-Qaeda

May 4, 2008

ADEN, Yemen – Almost eight years after al-Qaeda nearly sank the Navy destroyer 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.



AdvertisementYemen has refused to extradite al-Badawi and an accomplice to the United States, where they have been indicted on murder charges. Other Cole conspirators have been freed after short prison terms. At least two went on to commit suicide attacks in Iraq.
Two suspects, described as the main organizers, were captured outside Yemen and are being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Many details of their alleged involvement remain classified. It's unclear when – or if – they'll be tried by the military.

The collapse of the Cole investigation offers a revealing case study of the U.S. government's failure to bring al-Qaeda operatives and their leaders to justice for some of the most devastating attacks on American targets over the past decade.

more:http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080504/news_1n4cole.html

You can add the failure to bring anyone to justice on the bu$h regime.

The Cole happened before he was in the White House but his regime screwed up the investigation.

Let's be real about this. Members of the tribe in power are going to get special treatment, pardons, golden parachutes, cushy exiles, medals, praise and pensions.

Just look at BushCo and Wall Street, for example. There's no difference, and why W or the GOP think that they are entitled to special rules and special treatment because they are SO Special, has never made any sense. History shows that you can never be special enough.

I mean, we've seen this behavior in a few other places. The Palestinian Authority come to mind. There are the written laws, but there are the unwritten traditions of ethnic/tribe/clan/family ~ party/mosque loyalty. I usually just reduce to "tribal" loyalty, or in-group loyalty, letting "tribe" cover religious affiliation, ethnicity, or nationality (etc.) as appropriate.

You cover your own tail first; making sure that members of your group are safe is the priority. This might mean making sure the "terrorists" don't hurt others in your "tribe" (at whatever level you interpret it), or making sure that the "terrorists" (who at some level are in your tribe) are safe. "Safe" can include persons, property, or abstract possessions like "honor". In any event, at some point in the hierarchy the "terrorists" are in the same tribe as "law enforcement", while the US is definitely out-group--and therefore not worthy of respect, unless it's in the interests of the locals to oblige. It makes it sound mercenary; so what, it is mercenary, but such is the history and traditions of the area where honor and dignity are must-have commodities while out-group allegiance is a luxury.

Now, we can try to force them to comply with their written laws. But enforcement means sanctions, which may be against our interests--nothing like pushing an honor-based society, the only thing you get is resentment and less cooperation.

Enforcement could also mean invasion, something that's not likely. Or kidnapping, something we frown upon severely here (unless, perhaps, it were UBL or Zawahriy involved). Assassination's an option, but that could backfire--and would be unpalatable to many.

What options are left over?