It wasn't long ago that a Yemeni political analyst noted: "Yemen is like a bus station — we stop some terrorists, and we send others on to fight elsewhere ... We appease our partners in the West, but we are not really helping."
Friend and Ally Update. "American Among FBI Most Wanted Terrorists Appears in Yemen Court, Walks Free," from the Associated Press:
SAN`A, Yemen — A Yemeni-American, one of the FBI's 26 "most wanted" for terrorism, appeared at a session of his trial in a Yemeni court Saturday with bodyguards and then walked free, apparently not subject to any form of incarceration, eyewitnesses said.
The 41-year-old Jaber Elbaneh attended a session of the trial for him and 22 other Al Qaeda members charged for a series attacks on oil facilities, an eyewitness said speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
Footage of the suspect entering and leaving the court unimpeded also appeared on the Dubai-based pan-Arab satellite channel, al-Arabiya.
"He entered the courtroom surrounded by four bodyguards, introduced himself to the judge then he left," the eyewitness said about Elbaneh who is believed to be living with his family in the province of al-Dalai, some 220 kilometers south of San'a, despite being on trial.
According to the FBI Web site, the State Department is offering up to US$5 million for information leading to his arrest.
Elbaneh was convicted and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in November in a lower court on charges of masterminding two attacks in the eastern Marid and Hadramawt provinces in Sept. 2006.
He and 22 other Al Qaeda prisoners broke out of their Yemeni jail in February 2006 by digging a tunnel to a nearby mosque.
He surrendered in May to Yemen authorities but was then never sent back to jail despite the ongoing trial.
Security authorities have declined to comment about Elbaneh legal situation.
In May 2003, U.S. prosecutors charged Elbaneh in absentia with conspiring with a group, known as the "Lackawanna Six" after their New York state hometown, to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.
The U.S. then asked Yemen to hand over Elbaneh and while he was subsequently arrested by authorities in January 2004, he was never extradited.
Elbaneh is a former resident of Lackawanna, N.Y. He left the United States in spring 2001 as part of a larger group that traveled to Usama bin Laden's al-Farooq training camp in Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda has an active presence in Yemen despite government efforts to destroy the network. The group was blamed for the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole destroyer in Aden that killed 17 American sailors and the attack on a French oil tanker, the Limburg, that killed one person two years later.
Things like this certainly call into question the sincerity of those "government efforts to destroy the network."
Question the sincerity -- how? It never existed.
The Bush Doctrine is in complete tatters, so tattered in fact that one could say that the emperor has no clothes.
Then again, I suppose that to say we consider X regime 'hostile' doesn't say we're going to DO anything about it.
Is Yemen still a port-of-call for American naval vessels? Do Yemeni goods still enter this country? What would or should the American government do, what will it take, to get the attention, and cooperation -- not the love, not the friendship, forget about that, but the attention and the cooperation -- of the government of Yemen?
Are Yemenis still allowed into this country, and if so, on what theory? That they can become, with the same likelihood of success, in the same percentages, loyal citizens of this country as, say, immigrants from 1) Great Britain 2) Canada 3) Italy 4) Czech Republic 5) Bulgaria 6) Your non-Muslim country or people here? That they will have no trouble accepting the legitimacy of the legal and political institutions of this country? Its social arrangements? Will pose no likely threat to the wellbeing of non-Muslims in this country? What is the theory? Where is the thought? Why does this happen?
Here's an idea. Take out Elbanah with a Predator launched Hellfire missile, then inform the Yemeni government that rogue elements within the U.S. military had hijacked the Predator program and launched an unauthorized strike, but had subsequently been taken into custody and would be dealt with per the UCMJ. Proceedings would remain secret for national security reasons, naturally. If Yemen didn't like it, well, they could always file a formal complaint with the U.N.
Elbaneh was convicted and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in November in a lower court on charges of masterminding two attacks in the eastern Marid and Hadramawt provinces in Sept. 2006.
He and 22 other Al Qaeda prisoners broke out of their Yemeni jail in February 2006 by digging a tunnel to a nearby mosque.
"He and 22 other Al Qaeda prisoners broke out of their Yemeni jail in February 2006 through a tunnel which originated in a nearby mosque." is no doubt much closer to the mark.
Yemen sounds like the PA redux. Now for the State Department handwringing and whining about Yemen's duty to fight terror. The next think yuo know, we'll be asked to pony up some jizya to get them to cooperate.
Yemen, Shmemen - just find this shmo and kill him. Yeah, man, Yemen.
The revolving doors of the Islamic prisons. Arafish lead the way.
Lex sez:
Take out Elbanah with a Predator launched Hellfire missile, then inform the Yemeni government that rogue elements within the U.S. military had hijacked the Predator program and launched an unauthorized strike, but had subsequently been taken into custody and would be dealt with per the UCMJ.
That would be the way to deal with this. But this administration is simply to dumb to come to terms with this Muhammedan scum...
Yemen may be turning loose deadly terrorists but then Olmert in Israel does it, why shouldn't they?
Lex,Hugh and Sheik YM
Just, what you said...no words...what would Janet Reno do..jeez, those Branch Dividians who never would come out of their compound,,,damn, now these Yememies(?),,,so far away(from Texas, Utah..does anyone remember?)
About the above post, I meant the Davidians IMHO got too much justice from the FBI and the Yemenies (God, who can spell the plural of that)will get too little and thanks ya'll for suffering from the double posts
Ooooh,I just read a book about the Lackawanna six.From a lot of thinfs I've read,I think that mostly they were guilty of being stupid. they wanted to be "good muslims",but ultimately, I do not think they were "evil" in the sense that I believe most jihadis are evil.Dumb and misguided, absototalutely!!
However,I believe Elbaneh(I'm not 100% sure, my memory is not what it once was) and 1 other guy,(I forget his name) were "ringleaders" in that they exhorted these Yemeni-American young men about the "glamouressness"(sic)of Wahhabism & Jihaddism.They were smart ,they did it slowly,little by little brainwashing them.Apparently,most of 'em hated the taliban camp...too lazy .It WAS an interesting book, and I didn't get the feeling that the author was extremely biased either way(i.e either they are completely innocent or completely complicit-from what I've read AT THIS POINT I'm assuming something in the middle.
Have a good night all,
kittyBootz
Oh,I didnt mean that Elbaneh was naive.Whether he was a ringleader or the one guy of Lackawanna Six who got "really into" the evil Jihadhi cause and stayed overseas to "learn" more.This one was not misguided by any stretch of the imagination.
bye again,
K.Bootz
"what would Janet Reno do..jeez, those Branch Dividians who never would come out of their compound"
The Branch Davidians were white Christians: therefore no significant impediments existed to responding rationally against their threat (however minuscule it was comparatively) with government military force.
With the problem of Muslims, enormous impediments exist to obstruct our rational analysis and action -- and for the most part, these impediments function as givens in people's minds and woven into the fabric of our dominant sociocultural worldview. They are therefore that much more effective. For the most part, the West is voluntarily hampering itself; it is not being hampered externally (nor is one small diabolical part manipulating the vast majority of decent, sincere sheep).
What a joke.
Every Muslim is an enemy. No Muslim is a friend.
amend-ruebacca
amend. ruebacc
These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, will do exactly what?
Yes the Bush doctrine is in tatters but lets not forget whom has undermined Bush at every turn, the American hating Left. How else is one to explain the Left’s refusal to acknowledge that we have the right to defend ourselves against an evil enemy except that they have a deep loathing of the American experiment? Bush’s greatest failure as a war leader has been his refusal to challenge the Left on their core hatred of America. Waging war on a tactic will bring us nothing but tears. But to recognize that our enemies hew to the central tenets of Islam requires that we as a people forsake the false gods of political correctness. Yet who will lead Americans to reach into themselves and find the courage to name the enemy? Who will rally the nation to do what must be done to confront the evil that is Islam? We have had three elections since that terrible day, 9/11, and after each election our will to wage war with the brutal ferocity necessary for victory has diminished. Now we are on the cusp of a new election, the results of which could be catastrophic those of us who believe this land is worth defending.
So what do those of us who still love America do? Pray, pray, pray....................
What city do you think good Muslims will nuke first?
Ralph127
I get the feeling some current Candidates are offering the American People a Surrender Dividend.
If we are unable to secure our Borders during a time of active Military engagement with the Enemy. Then there will be no hope of it what so ever, when we unilaterally run away. while spending that Money on everything other than National Defense.
The Political Left in this Country remind me of a Pie. Where the Crust is extremely flaky and it's filled with lots of Fruits.
But Yemen is counted as a US ally. Go figure.
The Three Card Monte game we play with the Islamic world will continue until we become honest with ourselves.
The solution to the problem should be found in Alexander's solution to the Gordian Knot.
Our approach will need to parallel that of Rome's in the Third Punic War.
We ignore the lessions of 1693, 1492, 742 at our peril.
1683.
Here's the Wikipedia (yes, I know, too lazy to look it up myself):
A member of the Lackawanna Cell, Jaber A. Elbaneh, is still at large after joining a successful group prison break in Yemen. He was believed to have fled the United States, and become imprisoned in Yemen. Elbaneh was then named as one of 23 people, 12 of them Al-Qaeda members, who escaped from a Yemeni jail on February 3, 2006.
On February 23, 2006 the U.S. FBI confirmed the escape, as they issued a national Press Release naming Elbaneh as one of the first new additions, since inception in 2001, to the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list.
On May 20, 2007, Elbaneh turned himself in to Yemen authorities on the condition that his prison sentence would not be extended.
Enough is enough: "they" have to stop insulting the West.
To get "them" to do so the West has to punish "them", everytime a supposedly cordial relationship is being slighted this way
"We" are the laughingstock of the umma
Allowing acts so blatantly derisive to go unpunished is incomprehensible for people from a shame and honour-cult like islam, and can only lead to more insults, and to strengthening the conviction that the West is weak and lazy, and will not defend itself
"We" are inviting more acts of war by being patient and benevolent, and that is very irresponsible.