NEWSWEEK: Insiders at Yemen's Intel Agency Involved in Terrorists' Escape

[PhilipShore]

PR Newswire (press release)
NEWSWEEK: Insiders at Yemen's Top Intel Agency 'Must Have Been Involved' in
Suspected Terrorists' Escape
Feb. 12

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-12-2006/0004279912&EDATE=


Suspects Left to Themselves for Two Months, Knew Exactly Where to Dig; 'Lack
of Obvious Security Measures' After Escape

Not all the details of the latest great escape are yet clear. But it is highly
unlikely it could have succeeded without help from members of the Yemeni government,
which has been an ally in the war on terror....

NEW YORK, Feb. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- As described by Yemeni and U.S.
officials, 23 suspected al Qaeda terrorists, left to themselves in a locked
basement beneath the Political Security Office (PSO), Yemen's main
intelligence service, spent two months digging a 143-foot tunnel. For tools,
they used a broomstick with a sharpened spoon lashed to the end as a spade,
along with another jerry-built device: three pots tied together as a U-shaped
scoop. The plotters also had a soccer ball that they kicked around indoors,
apparently to make enough noise to drown out the digging. At about 4:30 a.m.
on Feb. 3, the prisoners crawled through the tunnel, broke through the floor
of a nearby mosque, somehow emerging in the women's bathroom -- the least
frequented part of the mosque -- and disappeared into the darkness. And while
the Bush administration has been generally happy with assistance from Yemen,
Osama bin Laden's ancestral homeland, privately, U.S. officials say the
plotters must have had serious -- possibly high-level -- help at the PSO,
report Senior Editor Michael Hirsh, Investigative Correspondent Mark Hosenball
and Chief Foreign Correspondent Rod Nordland in Newsweek's February 20 issue
(on newsstands Monday, February 13).
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060212/NYSU010 )
Last Friday, a U.S. Embassy cable sent from Yemen's capital, Sana,
described to Newsweek by a U.S. official, noted "the lack of obvious security
measures on the streets" after the escape and concluded: "One thing is
certain: PSO insiders must have been involved." Officials found it
particularly suspicious that the escapees knew exactly where to dig. The cable
also cited Yemeni sources who suggested alternative theories, including "that
elements of the government liberated the prisoners to engage them in covert
operations."
U.S. investigators say the PSO's rival agency, the National Security
Board, is now leading the probe, detaining and questioning everyone who worked
at the PSO. Ali Mutahar al-Qamish, head of the PSO, was said to be under
suspicion.

(Complete article can be read at http://www.Newsweek.com.)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11299610/site/newsweek/

[DS1]

1. The only surprising aspect of this article is the women's bathroom in

the mosque :eyes:

[bettyellen]

2. we recently severely cut financial aide to yemen, and this was the

predicted consequence.

[PhilipShore]

3. St. Paul Star Tribune: Bush's Foreign Policy Revolution: A Radical Change

Bush's Foreign Policy Revolution: A Radical Change
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, September 26, 2004

http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/daalder/20040926.htm

President Bush has launched a foreign-policy revolution that has discarded or redefined many of the key principles governing how America engages the world. He has relied on the unilateral exercise of American power rather than on international law and institutions to get his way. He has championed a doctrine of preemption and abandoned the tested strategies of deterrence and containment. He has preferred regime change to direct negotiations with countries and leaders that he loathes. It has been a radical change of direction—one that has left America worse off.

[bettyellen]

4. we pay people not to fuck us over

and then they do. when we don't pony up.
we ain't winning any hearts and minds, are we?

[PhilipShore]

6. Bush won't deal with terrorists -- but he routinely cooperates...

with nations -- that support and finance Terrorism?

[WhiteTara]

7. Wow and I thought the Brookings Institute

was republican? Am I wrong here? This is damning!

[niallmac]

5. Wow! Revelations and all! One of our few actual confirmed bad guys

is sprung from his Yemen holding tank by sympathizers. Where in the middle of a totally Muslim raked over by the U.S. of A world did
anti American sympathizers come from? (stick sarcasm thingy here.)
This war on terror is a sham. It is created to steal our democracy and in that sense it is awesomely powerful.

[Auntie Bush]

8. Bush misjudges again and now we are in more danger!

First he thinks the Northern Alliance is trustworthy enough to go after OBL. Wrong! They got away! Then he thinks Yemen is trust worthy enough to watch over the al Qaeda prisoners! Wrong! They got away!Bush just lacks good judgement!
And to think the majority of people think this Bozo can be trusted to keep us safer than Dems.

Bush is not only wrong in his judgement...he is the wrong president. He has done nothing right! Nothing!