Ali H. Soufan was an F.B.I. special agent from 1997 to 2005.
By ALI H. SOUFAN
New York Times Op-Ed
TEN years ago, Qaeda terrorists blew a hole in the side of the Navy
destroyer Cole in Yemen, killing 17 sailors. Yet the attack’s mastermind
still hasn’t been prosecuted, and many of the men tried and imprisoned
for the bombing are again free.
As Washington debates whether to increase aid to Yemen, it should
first remember its duty to seek justice for those sailors — and to heed
the broader national-security lessons from the attack.
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As soon as the F.B.I. received news of the Oct. 12 bombing, I flew to
Yemen with a team to investigate. The bodies of sailors draped in flags
on a blood-stained deck, guarded by teary-eyed survivors, formed a
heartbreaking image that motivated us during the following months.
Our investigation faced difficulties from the beginning. Yemen’s weak
central government’s on-again, off-again relationship with extremists
meant that Al Qaeda had influential sympathizers in positions of
authority, as well as among powerful tribes in the country’s vast
desert. As a consequence, we regularly faced death threats, smokescreens
and bureaucratic obstructions.
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