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USS Cole plotter “released”

October 27, 2007

Yemen seems like a pretty good country, as emerging poverty-stricken Islamist democracies go.  At least they elect their leaders and they’re trying for economic reform. But you know the drill – no law may contradict the Quran, etc.  And then they let that USS Cole bombing conspirator Jamal al-Badawi off lightly, after first giving him a death sentence, then commuting it to 15 years, then he escapes, and turns himself in for “virtual house arrest”.  Next I suppose he’ll be allowed out into town and eventually he’ll just drift out of sight.

Funny thing is, you can indeed be executed in Yemen for being gay.  But conspire to blow up a ship and kill 17 sailors and it’s “house arrest” for you.  According to AP reports, “Witnesses said al-Badawi was “receiving well-wishers at his home” in Aden, Yemen”.

If al-Badawi ever shows his face around here, you can make a cool $5m for turning him in.  Somehow I doubt the US would forget to keep him locked up.

Categories: Law, Politics
  1. October 27, 2007 at 16:18 | #1

    Man it might be worth it to take a trip to Yemen to collect $5 mil… Oh wait, I’m actually not an ex Green Beret Badass…

  2. October 27, 2007 at 17:28 | #2

    It’d be a good movie plot, sure.  Unfortunately in real life that SOB will just go on plotting new crimes. On the other hand we have gained some very important information about Yemen. Previously we only suspected they cannot be trusted, now we can be certain.

    In just three years he went from death sentence to house-arrest, how?  By “renouncing terrorism” and “pledging allegiance to Yemen’s president”.  I wonder if he held his heart over his hand while he recited the pledge?  And did he wear a Yemeni flag pin?  Since that is how we can measure sincerity.

  3. Ted
    October 27, 2007 at 19:04 | #3

    Unfortunately in real life that SOB will just go on plotting new crimes. On the other hand we have gained some very important information about Yemen. Previously we only suspected they cannot be trusted, now we can be certain.

    How do you know this for sure? Of all the people we’ve arrested here, how many were prosecuted to legal standards?

    We have very different standards here, and the criminal justice system in general doesn’t seem to make much sense. We have over 2M people in jail in the US. Sure they need to be there? There’s an noverwhelming view that more people should be incarcerated, (because we have such clear inner criteria for punishment). Us being moral, need to punish the immoral. If not us, who?

    It’s difficult to have these conversations because so much has changed in the last 25 years. We used to say that “political prisoners” were not “real” prisoners, and shouldn’t be incarcerated. Unless we categorize one class of political prisoners as terrorists that is. But them who doesn’t. I recall that Mandela was a terrorist, and that he did not renounce violence.

    The Cole story is complicated. Just prior to Cole,  Zinni was over there looking for new bases in the Gulf and looking for new allies. There was heavy political overtones to the expansion. A part of the military mindset is that the sailors, soldiers and airmen, know that they are in danger because they represent the national interests of the US. Well, those that are awake realize it.

    When all is said and done, the US warship was off the coast of Yemen. Who was at home when this occurred? The Yemeni or the US ship?

    Just $5M for this guy? Is George paying it out of his pocket or just adding this to the taxpayer bill?

  4. October 27, 2007 at 21:16 | #4

    We have way too many people in jail in this country.  Conspiratorial murderers belong there.

    The Cole was not attacking Yemen when it was bombed.

  5. Ted
    October 28, 2007 at 07:09 | #5

    The Cole was not attacking Yemen when it was bombed.

    Ah, well, Iran wasn’t attacking the US when we engineered the coup of ‘53. Sometimes we don’t know the mechanics of foreign policy until years later. The Cole is not a “LOve Boat” type cruise ship, it is a symbol (and instrument) of US power projection.

    Do all the people that haphazardly send ordnance downrange belong in jail? Some estimates of dead Iraqis go as high as 1M. Others estimate at about 150K. The truth is somewhere in the middle.

    You know, from a fairness and deserving punishment perspective, we must have sent a lot of people to jail for all the unnecessary death, torture, incarceration over there. And how many people spent time in jail for Air Flight 655?

    Just seems quite selective the way we gather up strength to move-on in some matters and less so in others.

  6. October 28, 2007 at 09:19 | #6

    If Yemen wants to say he didn’t do it, they should make that case.  But apparently they’re satisfied he did do it and they’re letting him walk.  I have already seen this used on Faux News as an argument in favor of rendition and Gitmo.

    I don’t follow the logic that it’s OK to violently attack symbols of other countries we don’t like.  It isn’t OK when we do it, and not OK when others do it.  And Air Flight 655 was a tragic mistake, not a secretive, deliberate conspiracy.  That would be the basis for selectivity. 

    (I would like to see us be a hell of a lot more selective in where and how we project our power.  That has been at the root of “liberal” disagreement with the present administration.)

  7. Ted
    October 28, 2007 at 10:42 | #7

    If Yemen wants to say he didn’t do it, they should make that case.  But apparently they’re satisfied he did do it and they’re letting him walk.

    It’s almost like they have their own legal system. Are you aware that in many countries around the world, a sentence of 10-15 years is viewed as extremely severe? Even in assassination attempts of heads of state, a sentence of no more than 10 years is imposed. (that’s to compare with the 3-strikes laws that our rule-of-law citizenry are keen on, that incarcerates people for life based on three, possibly minor crimes—but that’s because we NEED to keep the immoral away from our children. OUR moral clarity demands being fair but rough.)

    Still, the $5M bounty can throw some interim work over to Blackwater these days if they choose so and our national credibility can handle the results. Prince is much more legit, politically connected and photogenic than Dog the Bounty Hunter.

    I don’t follow the logic that it’s OK to violently attack symbols of other countries we don’t like.

    Let’s just agree to disagree. If I saw a heavily armed guy, ideologically opposed to me, walking back and forth in my neighborhood, and specifically, in front of my house, I’d feel, oh, alarmed(?). I may even get the conspiratorial view that the corrupt neighborhood association was willing to sell me out for a few shekels.

    But hey, that’s just me.

    For the record, having this guy in jail here in the US does nothing for me, since we made bazzilions of enemies since then that would outweigh any principles of deterrence by example. Once things become emotional, logic flies out the window.

    WRT to the Vincennes, a tragic mistake? I’m sure it was. I’d hate to think it was a precursor for Lockerbie because of a cowboy at the controls (the cowboy subsequently awarded medals for his action). I saw on Denialism blog that there’s some newly minted principle that we should assign incompetence rather than malice to anything complex that can be potentially explained by incompetence.

    Boy, that sure simplifies things.

  8. October 28, 2007 at 11:53 | #8

    Well if I’m looking for a point of agreement here’s one:

    we made bazzilions of enemies since then that would outweigh any principles of deterrence by example.

    As I mentioned before, we need to start being a hell of a lot more careful how and where we throw our weight around.  I am researching an upcoming post on that topic, probably be January before I finish it.

    It’s difficult to tell if 655 was a precursor to 103, the former being in Iran in July, the latter carried out (to the best of our knowledge) by Lybia in December.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it gave them additional motivation.

    I’m on the same page about 3-strikes laws too; pure emotionally-driven legislation and a part of the reason we have so many people in prison.  But if 15 years is a super-severe sentence for murder, what’s execution for gay sex?

  9. Red
    October 28, 2007 at 12:44 | #9

    But if 15 years is a super-severe sentence for murder, what’s execution for gay sex?

    The influence of religion on law and culture? I think our own religious nuts would go for it if it was socially acceptable to the group under the right circumstances.

    Why do I think that? It’s based on the quick turnaround on acceptance of torture, disappearances, renditions, habeas corpus, that so many of our people accepted with minimal prompting. We trade moral ethics at the drop of the hat when it became socially acceptable. To view torture as bad is sooooo September 10.

    Bottom line; the Yemenis treat the guy differently than we would, based on their prerogative as a somewhat backwards, sovereign country. If we don’t like it should invite (make) Yemen to be the 52nd state, that way we can hold them to our legal standards.

  10. October 28, 2007 at 13:40 | #10

    Nahh, then we’d have to get new flags and make grade school kids remember “Yemen” as one of the states.  Too much trouble.

    Funny thing about the religious righties who accept torture now that we’ve been attacked is, they’re quick to go after secularists for “moral relativism”. You have to have absolutes, you know, or just anything could happen.

    I forgot to mention, assigning incompetence instead of malice doesn’t change anything.  As I just said one thread over, any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.  At best, it’s a distinction without a difference.

  11. Lucas
    October 29, 2007 at 03:35 | #11

    I have to admit that I find the view that terrorists and political prisoners are indistinguishable very odd.  There are certainly gray areas (e.g. the imam who we believe but cannot prove orders terrorist strikes), but *actually bombing something* is a violent assault.  If Yemen wanted to make the case that we should keep our warships out of its territorial waters, they could probably handle this in the form of a diplomatic memo or a request at the UN.  I think the US would respect such a request in most circumstances.  However, they made no such request, and the bombing of Cole was a violent attack—which should be (and apparently is) illegal in Yemen.  By Ted’s logic, we shouldn’t arrest and punish:
    (1) The unabomber
    (2) Timothy McVeigh
    (3) Abortion clinic bombers
    (4) Ecoterrorists and animal rights terrorists
    etc.

  12. Ted
    October 29, 2007 at 11:49 | #12

    However, they made no such request, and the bombing of Cole was a violent attack—which should be (and apparently is) illegal in Yemen.

    I didn’t say it wasn’t illegal. I said they prosecuted to their standards. They’re not as enlightened as us I guess.

    By Ted’s logic, we shouldn’t arrest and punish

    Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think I said that either.

    I said that the definition of political prisoner is ill defined. We used to make a big deal with that definition back in the day of Soviet Union and gulags. Not so much any more.

    And I’d be interested to hear your current definition if you have one. I think it’s in the interest of the “system” to define in criminal terms, vs political.

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