A Terrorist Walks Free
Cole bomber Jamal al-Badawi already escaped from jail once. This time the government opened the door.
One of the first big breakthroughs in the U.S. government's war against Al Qaeda came in January 2001, when a grimly determined FBI agent named Ali Soufan broke Jamal al-Badawi. A fanatic Yemeni follower of Osama bin Laden, Badawi had been arrested on suspicions that he was involved in the suicide bombing of the USS Cole—an attack that killed 17 American sailors, wounded 39 others and shocked counterterrorism officials in Washington. At first, as Yemeni security agents looked on in an austere interrogation room, Badawi swore on the Qur'an he had no role in the attack. But Soufan wore him down, confronting him with inconsistencies in his story. After a few days, Badawi cracked and confessed to planning virtually every detail of the bombing—under orders from two of bin Laden's senior lieutenants. "He was the guy who recruited the bombers," says Soufan, who was the case agent on the bombing. "He was the local mastermind."
Last week Soufan (now retired) and other FBI veterans of the Cole case were outraged to learn that the Cole killer is now a free man. Three years ago Badawi was sentenced to death by a Yemeni court for his role in the bombing. He later escaped from a Yemeni prison with 22 cohorts—a breakout that U.S. officials suspected was an inside job. Then, mysteriously, in early October he turned himself in and pledged allegiance to the country's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Last week Badawi was set free, and was reportedly receiving well-wishers at his home outside Aden. "This guy has the blood of 17 sailors on his hands—and they just let him go?" said Soufan. "Mark my words. This guy will kill again."
The news of Badawi's freedom was another setback for the Bush administration, whose inability to find Badawi's ultimate superiors—starting with bin Laden himself—has been a continuing source of embarrassment. Spokesman Tony Fratto said the White House was "dismayed and deeply disappointed" by the Yemeni government's decision. The timing couldn't have been more awkward. Only last month the Millennium Challenge Corporation—set up by the U.S. government to distribute aid to poor countries—had approved a $20.6 million funding package for Yemen, in part as a reward for its efforts to improve "the rule of law." John Danilovich, the MCC's president, was scheduled to fly to Aden this week to announce the aid package. But last week, after an inquiry from NEWSWEEK, a spokesman said Danilovich's trip had been canceled and that the aid package was "postponed."
White House aide Fratto said the administration still intends "to work with the Yemeni government to ensure al-Badawi is held accountable." (The Yemeni is under indictment in New York for the Cole bombing.) Yemen has often pledged cooperation, and last week a Yemeni official said Badawi remains "under close scrutiny." But veteran counterterror fighters like Soufan are skeptical: anti-U.S. sentiment is high in Yemen, and sympathy for Al Qaeda is widespread. Bin Laden hails from a Yemeni family; after the Cole bombing, he videotaped himself reciting a poem celebrating how the U.S. destroyer had gone down "to her doom." Whatever ultimately happens to Badawi, it is likely that bin Laden—wherever he is—is celebrating again.
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Michael Isikoff has been an award-winning investigative correspondent for Newsweek since 2004. He has written extensively on the U.S. government's war on terrorism, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, presidential politics and other national issues. His book, "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," co-written with David Corn, was an instant New York Times best-seller when it was published in September, 2006. The book was hailed by the New York Times Book Review as "fascinating reading" and "the most comprehensive account of the White House's political machinations" in the run up to the war in Iraq. Since January 2009, Isikoff has been an MSNBC contributor, making regular appearances on the Rachel Maddow Show and Hardball w/ Chris Matthews.
Ever since the events of September 11, Isikoff has broken repeated stories about the U.S. government's war on terror and won numerous journalism awards. His blog "DeClassified: Investigative Reporting in Real Time," which appears regularly on Newsweek's Web site and is written with MarkHosenball, has become a must-read for senior U.S. intelligence officials. Isikoff and Hosenball won the 2005 award from the Society of Professional Journalists for best investigative reporting online.
Isikoff's June 2002 Newsweek cover story on U.S. intelligence failures that preceded the 9-11 terror attacks, along with a series of related articles, was honored with the Investigative Reporters and Editors top prize for investigative reporting in magazine journalism. He was honored, along with a team of Newsweek reporters, by the Society of Professional Journalists for coverage of the Abu Ghraib scandal. For that coverage, Isikoff obtained exclusive internal White House, Justice Department and State Department memos showing how decisions made at the highest levels of the Bush administration led to abuses in the interrogation of terror suspects. Isikoff was also part of a reporting team that earned Newsweek the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2002, the highest award in magazine journalism, for their coverage of the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks.
Isikoff's exclusive reporting on the Monica Lewinsky scandal gained him national attention in 1998, including profiles in The New York Times and The Washington Post and a guest appearance on "Late Show with David Letterman." His coverage of the events that lead to President Bill Clinton's impeachment earned Newsweek the prestigious National Magazine Award in the Reporting category in 1999. Isikoff's reporting also won the National Headliner Award, the Edgar A. Poe Award presented by the White House Correspondents Association and the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Reporting on the Presidency. In 2001, Isikoff was named on a list of "most influential journalists" in the nation's capital by Washingtonian magazine.
Isikoff is the author of "Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story," a book that chronicled his own reporting of the Lewinsky story and was hailed by a critic for The Washington Post-Los Angeles Times news service as "the absolutely essential narrative of the scandal with revelations that no one would have thought possible." The book, also a New York Times bestseller, was named Best Non-Fiction Book of 1999 by the Book of the Month Club.
Isikoff came to Newsweek from The Washington Post, where he had been a reporter since September 1981. There he covered the Justice Department and the Persian Gulf War, reported on international drug operations in Latin America and worked on the Post's financial news desk. Isikoff graduated from Washington University with a B.A. in 1974 and received a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 1976.
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