By Michelle Mittelstadt, The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON - Two suspected al-Qaeda terrorists who broke out of a prison in Yemen last month have been indicted by the U.S. government on charges that they helped carry out the 2000 attack on the destroyer Cole, which killed 17 sailors.
Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller described the indictment, unsealed yesterday, as a necessary step in securing the extradition of the fugitives if they are apprehended.
“With today’s indictments, they are now international fugitives, a status that increases the probability of their speedy capture,” Mueller said at a news conference at FBI headquarters. “We will do what is necessary to locate them. We will continue to work closely with our counterparts in Yemen, and we will bring these terrorists to justice.”
The 50-count indictment, returned Monday in New York, charges Jamal Ahmed Mohammed Ali al-Badawi and Fahd al-Quso with terrorism-related counts that could bring the death penalty.
The Yemenis “were schooled in Osama bin Laden’s hate, and vowed to attack and kill Americans wherever and whenever they could, especially American nationals on the Arabian Peninsula,” Ashcroft said.
The indictment alleges that al-Badawi rented the safe houses in the port of Aden used by the terrorists and procured the boat that was laden with explosives and steered next to the Cole to bomb it.
Al-Quso was tasked with filming the attack on the Cole from an apartment overlooking Aden’s harbor. Prosecutors speculate that the tape, which was not recovered, was to be used for al-Qaeda propaganda purposes.
Seventeen sailors, including Lakiba Nicole Palmer of San Diego, were killed and more than three dozen were wounded in the Cole assault, which came nine months after an attempt to bomb the destroyer The Sullivans in Aden failed when the overloaded attack boat capsized.
The terrorists, according to the indictment, salvaged the capsized boat, refitted it with a stronger hull and bigger gas tanks and had al-Qaeda’s explosives master test the salvaged explosives before using them in the Cole attack.
Al-Badawi and al-Quso were taken into custody afterward but escaped with eight other inmates last month from a tightly guarded intelligence prison in Aden. Yemen has launched a major manhunt, offering rewards for their capture.
The indictment offers new detail about the ties between the Cole operatives and the plotters of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Nine months before the Cole attack, the indictment alleges, al-Quso and one of the Cole suicide bombers, Ibrahim al Thawar, traveled to Thailand, where they delivered $36,000 to a key al-Qaeda operative, Tafiq Muhammed Saleh Bin Roshayd Bin Attash, also known as Khallad.
U.S. investigators believe Khallad, a Saudi captured last month by Pakistani authorities, was integral to the Sept. 11 planning.
Families of the Cole victims were invited to Washington, D.C., where Ashcroft and Mueller reassured them yesterday that the investigation hasn’t taken a back seat to the Sept. 11 inquiry. They also were briefed about the indictment before it was publicly announced, and the head of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, Pat D’Amuro, gave them a status report on the Cole investigation.
“One of the messages we had for the families is that ‘You are not forgotten,’ ” said U.S. Attorney James Comey, whose New York office drew up the indictment.
Ashcroft, whose son is in the Navy, said the nation will not forget the attack on the Cole, “and we have not forgotten the victims or their families. We’ve not forgotten this nation’s commitment to bring to justice those who plot murder and orchestrate terror, no matter how long they run or how far they flee.”
While the news of the indictments offered family members some solace, many remained upset by what they called the government’s lack of attention to their concerns.
“We’ve been overlooked,” said Olivia Rux, whose husband was killed aboard the Cole.
Family members said they had tried repeatedly to meet with government officials from President Bush on down to find out why the investigation appeared to be proceeding so slowly and why the United States had not acted more aggressively to bring in suspects.
John Clodfelter, whose son was killed aboard the Cole, said family members felt that government officials often shunted aside their concerns, offering them “many promises” but little action.
He questioned why the United States was unable to bring al-Badawi and al-Quso back to the United States to face punishment before they managed to escape.
Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., said he shared the families’ concerns, and he wrote to Ashcroft and to Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday to say he was “deeply disturbed” by the government’s failure to provide Congress with information on the case.
“Why weren’t we monitoring the prison where they were being held?” Feingold asked. “We should have been doing something to make sure they didn’t escape. There’s the possibility someone was asleep at the switch here.”
The indictment charges the two Yemeni men with the murder of Americans, murder and attempted murder of U.S. military personnel, use of a weapon of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder and providing military support to al-Qaeda.
Ashcroft and other federal officials said that even though the men have been indicted on criminal charges, the government is not obliged to prosecute them in civil court and could decide to bring them before a military tribunal.
The New York Times News Service contributed to this report.