A New York Case

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

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NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

Government Web sites in Yemen yesterday were claiming that Jamal al-Badawi, accused of helping to plan the bombing in October 2000 of the USS Cole, was being detained by the interior ministry. If true, it is an improvement; the Associated Press reported that al-Badawi had been “set free after he turned himself in earlier this month and pledged loyalty to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.” The wire said witnesses at the time told it that “al-Badawi was receiving well wishers at his home in the al-Buraika district in Aden.” That had prompted the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, on Friday to call the reports that Mr. al-Badawi was free “disturbing.”

The wires sent us to our files on the Cole bombing, in which 17 American sailors were killed in an attack that has been interpreted as a precursor to September 11, 2001. One thing that popped out was a Justice Department press release from May 15, 2003, headlined, “Al Qaeda Associates Charged in Attack on USS Cole.” The indictment charged Mr. al-Badawi and Fahd al-Quso with, as the press release put it, “50 counts of various terrorism offenses, including murder of U.S. nationals and murder of U.S. military personnel. Badawi was also charged with attempting with co-conspirators to attack the U.S. naval vessel the USS The Sullivans in January 2000, while that vessel was refueling in the port of Aden.”

The press release went on: “According to the indictment, Badawi, a key al Qaeda operative in Aden recruited by members of Usama bin Laden’s inner circle, helped procure safehouses in Aden for the terrorists, and obtained the attack boat and the trailer and truck used to tow the boat to Aden harbor.” Mr. al-Badawi would have been eligible for the death penalty if convicted. Among those quoted in the Justice Department press release were the assistant attorney general, Michael Chertoff, who said, “This indictment reminds the world that we must never falter in our pursuit of justice for crimes committed anywhere, anytime, against innocent people.” Mr. Chertoff is now secretary of homeland security.

Also quoted was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, James Comey, who brought the case. “The men and women who gave their lives on the Cole paid the ultimate price,” he said. “For their sacrifice, we owe those fallen sailors, and their families, a debt of gratitude and justice. Today’s indictment can never bring back those brave souls, but we hope it provides some measure of comfort by demonstrating that we will never rest in tracking down terrorists.” Mr. Comey has since been lionized by Democrats in Congress for his criticism of the Bush administration’s firings of federal prosecutors and its handling of wiretapping. Will the Democrats and the press prove as interested in Mr. Comey’s view of the Cole?

Also in the files was an editorial of March 31, 2000, that appeared in the Forward. Headlined “Toasting a Tyrant,” it appeared on the eve of a “festive” lunch at the Waldorf-Astoria hosted by the Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation honoring the strongman who had ruled Yemen since 1990, Ali Abdullah Saleh. The editorial enumerated Mr. Saleh’s human rights abuses, his crackdowns on press freedoms and on trade unions, his rantings against Israel. It concluded that the guests at the Waldorf-Astoria “should have a clear view of the record of the tyrant they are sitting down to honor.”

Americans may debate whether Mr. al-Badawi deserves to get a criminal trial in a New York courtroom or to rot at Guantanamo Bay until the end of the war. But it seems clear that a man America has charged with killing 17 American sailors should meet justice at the hands of America, rather than at the hands of the Yemeni interior ministry. The Yemeni government might or might not be more lenient than America. American justice is not perfect. But neither is it likely that, once in the grasp of America, a person accused of killing 17 American sailors would be left to receive well-wishers in his home after pledging loyalty to a dictator.

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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