SAN'A, Yemen (AP) - Yemen has set free one of the al-Qaida masterminds of the USS Cole bombing in 2000 that killed 17 American sailors, a senior security official said Thursday.

Jamal al-Badawi, who is wanted by the FBI, was convicted in 2004 of plotting, preparing and helping carry out the USS Cole bombing and received a death sentence that was commuted to 15 years in prison. He and 22 others, mostly al-Qaida fighters, escaped from prison in But al-Badawi was granted his freedom after turning himself in 15 days ago and pledging loyalty to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The official said police were told by the government to "stop all previous orders concerning measures adopted against al-Badawi."

...Yemen does not have a law that criminalizes Jihad, or holy war. Detainees remain in prison until they either renounce their commitment to Jihad or are released under pressure from family and human rights groups. Since the suicide attack in July that killed eight Spanish tourists visiting an ancient Yemeni temple, President Saleh has said in several interviews with local papers that al-Qaida had reached a truce with the government.
If there's an argument against rendition it's this -- the host country might just free the terrorist, in part with thanks to "human rights groups." And, tell me, what of the "human rights" of the 19 American sailors murdered from al-Badawi's bombing? I guess their rights don't matter.

Yemen's deal with the devil also underscores the myth of noncooperation between religious fanatics and "secular" Middle East royal families and autocrats. "Oh, no, these groups are enemies who would never cooperate with one another," we're told incessantly by our self-absorbed, narrow-minded media and so-called experts. They apply their Western mindsets to Eastern philosophy, and are wrong every time. They seem to think all our problems from Iraq to Iranian proliferation to terrorism to North Korea, and so on, will miraculously disappear on January 20, 2009.

They are in for quite the rude awaking. Islamic fanatics don't ask to see your party affiliation card before they cut your head off. They just cut your head off.

Labels: al qaeda, Islamic extremism, secular despot myth, war on terror