Kill 'em or let them rot in Gitmo

[igloo]

Navy Ships Search Yemen Coast for Terrorists

Thursday, February 09, 2006

WASHINGTON — U.S. Navy ships are patrolling the coast of Yemen as part of a multinational coalition trying to find and recapture 23 terrorists who escaped from an underground prison last Friday.

Navy officials would not say how many or what types of ships were participating in the operation. The patrols began Thursday, nearly a week after the escape which included an Al Qaeda operative sentenced to death for plotting the USS Cole bombing in 2000.

The U.S. ships are part of a Dutch-led task force of ships from different countries that routinely patrols the international waters of the Gulf of Oman, the North Arabian Sea and other parts of the region.

According to Lt. Herb Josey, a Navy spokesman, the U.S. ships are there to counteract any attempts by terrorists to launch an attack or use the waters to escape. The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is in the region, and some 7,500 sailors are on the ships in the Roosevelt strike group.

The prisoners escaped Friday, apparently by digging a tunnel some 180 yards long that emerged at a mosque. The tunnel was dug with help from conspirators on the outside, according to Interpol.

The prisoners shared the same cell in an underground prison beneath the headquarters for the political security forces. Interpol has said the fugitives included Jamal al-Badawi — convicted of plotting, preparing and helping carry out the Cole bombing that killed 17 sailors in a Yemeni port.

Another escapee was identified as Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei, considered by Interpol to be among those responsible for a 2002 attack on the French tanker Limburg off Yemen's coast. That attack killed a Bulgarian crew member and spilled 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden.

U.S. officials have said they believe American Jaber Elbaneh, who has been charged along with the so called "Lackawanna Six," was also among those who escaped.