Think Progress

Letting More Al Qaeda Terrorists Slip Away

Twenty-three more al Qaeda members are on the loose after a prison escape last Friday in Sanaa, Yemen. The group includes Jamal Mohammed al-Badawi, the mastermind behind the USS Cole attack that killed 17 US sailors in Yemen in October 2000.

Why would the Bush administration allow terrorists with American blood on their hands to be held in an insecure location? This was not the first time that suspected Al Qaeda members escaped from prison in Yemen -– at least 10 members escaped from a prison in Aden in 2003.

And this latest escape comes just a few months after an escape by four top Al Qaeda suspects who were held by US forces in an American military detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan last year.

President Bush continues to talk tough on terrorism, but more than four years after the 9/11 attacks, what does he have to show for all of his talk?

– Global terrorist attacks have tripled on President Bush’s watch;

– The Bush administration has received failing and mediocre grades on fighting terrorists by the 9/11 Commission;

– By invading Iraq without a plan to stabilize the country, President Bush created a new haven and terrorist training ground for Al Qaeda; and

– The Bush administration let top Al Qaeda leaders slip away in the early days of the war in Afghanistan.

The Bush failures in the fight against terrorism keep piling up, and Americans are less safe because of them.

Brian Katulis



56 Responses to “Letting More Al Qaeda Terrorists Slip Away”

  1. Figureitout says:

    Bush = Safe. Don’t bother me with facts.


  2. dlet says:

    Well Bushie has to have an enemy out there. How can you use scare tactics to usurp more power without scary people in the shadows. As an angler I use the same logic. Catch and Release. I may eat one out of ten that I catch and its never the biggest one. You have to let that one go and reproduce others to keep you with a good supply.


  3. Massachusetts Liberal says:

    Why? Because the more terrorists there are on the loose, the better the excuse for the big clampdown. That’s all they care about: total control. Fear is the tool.


  4. Badmoodman says:

    Jamal Mohammed al-Badawi was being held in Yemen so we could have him tortured yet not tortured at the same time. It was a win/win until, you know, he escaped. Think he’ll be a bit peeved over the “hospitality” he was shown in prison? We’ll show him though…quick, someone draw a cartoon mocking Mohammed.


  5. mr ho says:

    Bush Weakens National Security


  6. yankeluh says:

    More and more I am thinking 9/11 was not entirely Al Qaeda. Sure is a coincidence that they get away so often.


  7. progressive and proud says:

    They are clearly more focused on domestic spying. Their efforts are here at home, trying to win elections and maintain power. That is all they care about – winning by any means. The spying program was not necessary and we all know it. Bush could have gotten any warrant at any time before or after the fact for anyone he wanted. This has nothing to do with terrorism and we all know that too.


  8. Don says:

    I’ll go with ML. Could these people have bee allowed to escape? A tunnel? Come on. The government needs to sustain its bogeyman roster so it can increase Pentagon spending, cut social programs, take away our civil rights and keep us all in a high state of fear.


  9. mr ho says:

    Say where are the Trolls today?

    Must be gittin their daily FAUX points of type


  10. ne-right-ne says:

    Time to stop personal attacks. No more Bushie, Bushco, repug etc. The facts show that President Bush has failed to provide proper leadership, failed to secure afghanistan and Iraq. Fear is not a good tool for a Democratically elected offical to use. Especially for this long.


  11. Smedley says:

    Those who doubt that the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld team will attack Iran, while so conspicuously overextended in Iraq, are ignoring the subtleties of the administration’s Middle East strategy.

    Link


  12. Str8UpNoChaser says:

    I knew this administration wasn’t really interested in combatting terrorism when Dubya said that he didn’t know where Osama was and wasn’t concerned about him. Look at our borders. What has been done in the 4 years since 9/11 to improve border security? Have our harbors/ports been secured? Nobody has updated us on the theft of thousands of pounds of explosives in New Mexico. How did it happen? Where are the explosives? Have we made any gains in securing the world’s loose nuclear material? Nope, not even on the radar. I’d give my right arm for an intelligent, rational president who values action and results over photo ops and soundbites. *sigh*


  13. ALYCE says:

    fear is being fed to Americans everyday, next will be martial law.


  14. GeniusBoy says:

    I wonder why the Dems don’t read these and other blogs. Every angle is nuanced and clear. They could pick their approaches. Some aren’t runnng for re-election, so why not fucking STEP UP? Hee’s why: it’s the cushy DC world of fabulous dinner parties, tennis and travel. The slugs just don’t want to rock their gravy train. Flush the guilty ones down the tube! SOBs!


  15. RemoveBush says:

    It’s my opinion that NO was a trial run at performing martial law. This might explain the reason that Bush did not respond to the crisis (I doubt it, but just offering other ideas).

    It was proven that during Katrina, the government could in fact get away with much more than what it could have without the storm. Look at the private malitia taking personal weapons from people. This is CLEARLY a breach against the constitution.

    Just my 2 cents.


  16. For Truth says:

    #15

    Right to bear arms only applies during stable times when the NRA is voting Republican.


  17. For Truth says:

    The nitwits at the NRA are sure gonna be surprised when thier own government is taking away their rifles.


  18. OldManAround says:

    “Why would the Bush administration allow terrorists with American blood on their hands to be held in an insecure location?”

    For the same reason Captain Amazing wanted Casanova Frankenstein out of prison. I knew Bush couldn’t change, and I knew you’d know I’d know you knew. Did you know that?


  19. Zookeeper says:

    Since the attack on the USS Cole happened during the Clinton years, maybe GWB just figured he didn’t have to pay too much attention (like with Osama bin Laden), and if anything happened he could just blame it on Clinton.


  20. mr ho says:

    Inside help suspected in al Qaeda prison break

    Updated Mon. Feb. 6 2006 11:33 PM ET

    Associated Press

    SANAA, Yemen — Investigators are looking into the possibility that Yemeni intelligence officers helped 23 al Qaeda prisoners — including a militant convicted in the 2000 USS Cole bombing — escape from an underground prison located beneath a heavily guarded security headquarters, officials said Monday.

    The prisoners escaped Friday, apparently by digging a tunnel some 180 metres long that emerged at a mosque, the security officials said.

    It was not the first major prison escape for al Qaeda militants. At least four members of the group broke out of a prison at Bagram, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan in July. Among them was Omar al-Farouq, a top leader of al Qaeda in Southeast Asia.


  21. Jay Randal says:

    Bush’s so-called War on Terrorism is total baloney > the Mexican border is wide open for anyone to walk across, our airports are not defended by soldiers, our seaports are undefended too!


  22. mr ho says:

    #Time to stop personal attacks. No more Bushie, Bushco, repug etc. The facts show that President Bush has failed to provide proper leadership, failed to secure afghanistan and Iraq. Fear is not a good tool for a Democratically elected offical to use. Especially for this long.

    Comment by ne-right-ne — February 7, 2006 @ 11:45 am

    Is that you IRI?
    Okay I agree that I have used those words from time to time.
    And in the Interest, which has always been my uderlying goal, of removing the Corruption in Office. This Soverign Citizen will refrain from using those words.


  23. I-RIGHT-I says:

    The Bush failures in the fight against terrorism keep piling up, and Americans are less safe because of them.

    – Brian Katulis

    To hear this coming from a terrorist appeasing, enemy combatant supporting bunch who have already forgotten 9-11 is past the point of laughable and is now pathetic. Where are the men on the Filthy Left? You people forfeited your right to criticize the war on terror when you appointed yourself the legal guardians of Islamic throat cutters and baby killers.


  24. Kyle Hasselbacher says:

    Americans are less safe

    No, no, no! Saying we are “less safe” implies that we are still safe, but not as much. If you think September 11 demonstrated our vulnerability and that President Bush has made that situation worse, then the obvious way to describe that is that we are more vulnerable.


  25. mr ho says:

    Corrupt Iraq officials ‘fund rebels’
    By Oliver Poole in Baghdad
    (Filed: 07/02/2006)

    Iraq’s insurgency is receiving millions of dollars from smuggling oil through a network of supporters working in its oil industry, the government and American officials say.

    The director of an oil storage plant near Kirkuk was arrested with several of his employees and charged with helping to orchestrate a mortar attack on the plant last week.

    Iraq factfile

    The bombardment resulted in a huge pipeline fire that shut down all oil operations in the area. The attack is believed to have been launched after anti-corruption agents uncovered insurgent thefts being orchestrated from the plant.

    Hey their is IRI =)
    What do you think about this? more Corruption?
    Gee golly Mr IRI. These Corrupt people. They seem to be helping the terrorists more than anyone else.
    Are you corrupt too IRI?


  26. mr ho says:

    And these corrupt Congressman IRI
    Why do they help destroy our Constitution?
    Arent you ONE of them?


  27. Jeanne says:

    This break out was a set up. Look at the timing. Bush wants to go into Iran. So let one of the most active terrorists go to terrorize. And if he doesn’t, Bush and his crew will make it look like he has.


  28. mr ho says:

    IRI wont ever answer me, he says Im diligent.

    HEY IRI did you figure out your friend Karl Marx is actuall LEVY yet?
    Mr Global Capitalist should know that..
    Why didnt you KNOW mr CapIcom?
    Are you fibbing again IRI?


  29. RemoveBush says:

    “To hear this coming from a terrorist appeasing, enemy combatant supporting bunch who have already forgotten 9-11 is past the point of laughable and is now pathetic. Where are the men on the Filthy Left? You people forfeited your right to criticize the war on terror when you appointed yourself the legal guardians of Islamic throat cutters and baby killers.

    Comment by I-RIGHT-I ”

    Hey IRI, show me the names of the arhabs of 9/11 on the airline manifests. You can’t because they don’t exist.

    So perhaps you should do some research and really determine who caused 9/11, here’s a hint. Look at that big white building in D.C.

    Show me the names of the Arhabs on these flights. I would really love to see the names of the terrorists that the government says was flying those planes. You won’t be able to though because they are not on them.


  30. Gerald Gibson says:

    I-RIGHT-I

    You sure can make assertions… Your epeen is really sticking out there …but you just keeping digging yourself deeper and deeper into the stupidity hole.

    The left lead us through WWII … your kind was supporting the conservatives in germany up to that point ..you know the conservatives that didnt like blacks just like your racists friends in the republican party. Yep thats right they were supporters of nazis. But suddenly became patriot Americans when they realized they were on the wrong side.

    Liberty followers are going to fight to the death for truth, reasoning, liberty… GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH! … Just like Jesus choosing the cross instead of lieing to his people. You give liberals a fight based on truth and honor and you will see us there fighting for it. Where as you sheep on the right will fight against your own stated morals just so long as someone will lead you there. You blindly kill anything as long as told to do so. Nevermind they happen to be innocent Jews or Blacks.


  31. mr ho says:

    Hey IRI, if Brehmer ‘lost’ 8 billion in IRAQ wasnt that, in effect, an pretty good appeasement for the Terrorists?


  32. Badmoodman says:

    “bunch who have already forgotten 9-11…” The Commander in Chief sitting stone-faced and paralyzed in a children’s school classroom for SEVEN minutes while Americans were being killed in New York City. That’s MY memory of 9/11. Don’t ever confuse Democrat for pacifist.


  33. Gerald Gibson says:

    Anybody see the big jetliner in the sky…it is right next to waldo…this is the video of the first tower being hit.

    http://www.cnn.com/video/us/2001/09/12/first.plane.hits.gp.med.qtref.mov

    Look at the videos of the second tower being hit … the jetliner is clear to see…where is it in the first video? Something hit that tower ..so where is this big jetliner at?

    And the Bush family bestest friends in the whole world..the ones that were allowed to escape the FBI right after 911 with help from republicans…
    http://www.nationalreview.com/document/document042602.asp

    Where republicans loyalties lie


  34. mr ho says:

    gee golly and gosh durn beav.
    your right wally
    mr brehmer appeased them.
    Terrorists…Hey wait Bush said they were freeing them?
    Say IRI are you freeing the terrorists or the People?
    or are the people terrorists?
    Actually you see all Muslims as terrorists dont you?
    In that twisted mind of yours somehow, you see everyone that isnt ‘YOU’, A hater of America and the Constitution, a terrorist?

    What an ODD way of thinking. How do you hold so much hatred inside without imploding. Oh wait, By your Verbal attacks as of late have gotten to the point of Name calling. nothing more.

    IRI the Great third Grade Diatribe!
    HAIL THEE GREAT HATER!


  35. ne-right-ne says:

    #30 and #32 rock on. No Mr ho I am not IRI. Just someone reading for a long time and won’t keep quiet any longer


  36. DrearyUrbanite says:

    What if this administration is not totally incompetent? What if everything with that appearance is a just a smokescreen to take every single current and future red cent from as many people as possible and put it into the pocket of a select few. Thus far that is the only thing that I have seen this administration do well and perhaps that is its only goal. Perhaps letting a few terrorist “escape” is just part of that plan.


  37. mr ho says:

    Caption contest#33

    Bush “All of this can be yours (sweeps hand) if you give me your Oil.”


  38. mr ho says:

    #30 and #32 rock on. No Mr ho I am not IRI. Just someone reading for a long time and won’t keep quiet any longer

    Comment by ne-right-ne — February 7, 2006 @ 12:49 pm

    Aye, its hard to tell somedays, what you said was quite unlike IRI, and so I posted friendly to it, And I do agree with what you said.
    Welcome Aboard!


  39. chuck despres says:

    As long as folks are suckered into feeding on FEAR-BASED RHETORIC, as opposed to dialog-inducing rhetoric (”seekers of peace”, “conflict resolution”, “eliminating the causes of conflict”, “seeking conciliation and reconciliation”), folks will be fed “fight-or-flight” (adrenaline-inducing)rhetoric.

    George Bush may be intellectually challenged, but he is a consumate cheerleader. When I was a student at Andover Academy in 1960-1961, G.W. Bush was hands-down the “best-with-the-megaphone” cheerleader at Andover (in his very first year there).

    It is his CHEERLEADING CANNINESS that has made him a dangerous national politician…and EVEN MORE DANGEROUS ACTOR ON THE WORLD “STAGE” (the man has had megalomanial
    delusions for a very long time.)


  40. mr ho says:

    Very Interesting Chuch Depres.
    Have you any others?. Its quite Hard getting an inside View unto this mans persona, or lack of one. Being a member of the ‘HERD’
    we hear mostly MSM misleads.
    Your post was interesting. Please do continue. –mr ho


  41. For Truth says:

    Nice one #23, that was good, too bad those talking points are completely worn out, you’re going to get written up by HR for that.


  42. whiskeypete says:

    Gerald Gibson:

    Very interesting footage. Judging by the direction of the explosion and smoke, either a jet hit it from the backside and not in the camera’s view, or explosives planted inside the building caused that great outrush of fire and smoke.

    I’m gonna go with #2….


  43. Badmoodman says:

    “Comment by I-RIGHT-I, #23″… Shouldn’t you be collating those T.P.S. reports?


  44. whiskeypete says:

    DrearyUrbanite:

    BINGO!!!


  45. whiskeypete says:

    DrearyUrbanite:

    What else would explain seemingly insane tax cuts and rising defense spending, plus 250 billion for Iraq. Where does all that Pentagon money go?

    Republican associates like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Halliburton, the company that makes the substandard body armour and blocks kids from buying their own better armour,
    add defense contractor of your choice

    A big fat smokescreen to steal the oil, steal the treasury, and attack enemies of Israel in the region, all while getting their GOD complex fix at home.

    Vote them all out, if you still can…


  46. Gerald Gibson says:

    #42 …if you play that video with speakers you can hear the something coming from the right and fly over head to the left which is why the camera man looked up that way. It was not hit from the backside and it wasnt explosives on the inside ..something was in the air. Something so small that you cannot see it as you would a large jetliner.


  47. whiskeypete says:

    Caption contest #33:

    Bush: “Unlike you King, I have only one woman in my harem, and as you can plainly see, she isn’t much of a looker. Anyway, as if you haven’t noticed yet, I’m into men.


  48. Marie says:

    Bushie likes to keep “terrists” out there. This is in lieu of another video or audio tape from Bin Laden or Al-Zawahiri.
    His is a war without end and he will keep it that way.
    There is nothing that occurs today that doesn’t call for a a review of “how does this help Bush?”


  49. DrearyUrbanite says:

    Perhaps they were running low on “number 3″ men and needed to replenish their supply of potential candidates to kill off later.


  50. Pete Bogs says:

    this actually supports the idea that the US should keep custody of Saddam until he’s put away for life or executed… they don’t really manage the prisons well over there… of course, neither do we…


  51. whiskeypete says:

    #46

    Now that you mention it, that jet sound sounds very military to me. Not much like a commercial airliner.


  52. Paul in LA says:

    PNAC: we plan on attacking “(Iraq), Syria, Lebalebalon, Yemen, Iran, Sudan, & Somalia.”

    Q: “Why would the Bush administration allow terrorists with American blood on their hands to be held in an insecure location?”

    A: As good an excuse as any to invade.

    Now try this one:

    • Why would the Bushies MURDER A QATARI SHEIK?

    Oh wait…that one’s different.

    A: To make George Clooney an Oscar nominee.


  53. Jay Randal says:

    Karl Rove keeps I-Right-I busy as a beaver on here > lol.


  54. charlie morrison says:

    I am sooooo tired of Bush playing games with the emotions of the American people and creating more enemies around the world. Everyone hates us and we aren’t all like that f….. that stole the presidency.He is destroying our country and our economy is down the sh…… I am so angry that without using low brow language the message doesn’t quite get accross. There is nothing worse for our country than him and Cheney as well as his cronies. We are in the worst possition ever since this country was founded. How can anyone say America is better? How can we follow the laws of the land if the President doesn’t? How is it that the President says Democracy is the best way when he tries to run ours like a dictatorship and distroy what democracy procedures and values we have left? How can he say he is a christian when he breaks all of the ten commandments repeatedly? He is a liar,thief,murderer,exploiter of all so called evils. I can’t say enough bad things of this spoiled little monster.Let’s impeach him now.


  55. bill arnold, washington dc says:

    What a bunch of idiotic conspiracy theorists. You blame Bush for everything under the sun–including a prison escape in Yemen?! The Al Qaeda prisoners were serving time in Yemen because that’s where they were TRIED. If Bush somehow forced all other countries to hand over their terrorists so they could be imprisoned in the United States, I’m sure you anti-Bushies would be hooting and hollering about that being further evidence of his imperialistic ways!!


  56. Smedley says:

    Uk has 151 MPs signatures to impeach Blair. we need 200 since january weve had another 42 MP signatures ….MP’s will suddenly jump , as MPs will do this to get him nailed at the post http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=29437&SESSION=875

    http://www.impeachblair.org/ and click Early Day Motions

    we will have this in the BAG by the time bush starts war By March Blair is the loose link in the chain



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