Incompetence in the War on Terror is apparantly not limited to the Bush Administration.
Their allies in Yemen, CNN is reporting, have somehow managed to allow about two dozen convicted members of Al Qaeda to escape from prison, including the mastermind of the attack against the USS Cole in 2000.
Who knew we were dealing with an organization of James Bond-like agents?
But how, you ask, were they able to escape? Surely they're carefully monitered, what with they're dangerous international terrorists and all of that, so that it would take a rather brazen and overwhelming force to free them from prison?
Or not...
They used the oldest trick in the book. Literally.
They escaped via a 140-meter (150-yard) -long tunnel "dug by the prisoners and co-conspirators outside," Interpol said.
If that weren't insulting enough, Yemeni authorities deliver this pearl of wisdom:
"Their escape cannot be considered an internal problem for Yemen alone."
YOU THINK?!
Of course, this isn't the first time we've seen Al Qaeda operatives slip through the cracks and escape from prison. Just six months ago, in fact, our own forces managed to allow several Al Qaeda suspects to break out and go free.
Not to worry, though! None of them was important... just low-level guys...
Al-Qaeda's former South-East Asian chief has escaped from a US military prison in Afghanistan, sparking anger and fears of fresh terrorist attacks.
....
Faruq, who was arrested in Indonesia in July 2002, provided vital intelligence on the al-Qaeda network and warned of a serious attack in Indonesia just before the Bali bombings.
The only thing worse than him escaping, though, was his appearance on video a short time later to brag about it.
Last week, the four escapees boasted about their breakout on a video provided to Dubai-based television station Al-Arabiya.
They claimed their flight, after picking a jail cell lock, was "remarkably easy", according to AL-Arabiya journalists. They said they fled on a Sunday, when most US personnel were off duty.
In the video, apparently filmed in Afghanistan, the men show fellow militants a map of the base and the location of their cell.
remarkably easy he says.
Has it occured to anyone else that maybe, just maybe, it's not beyond our capabilities to foresee that such criminal masterminds as these would think to pick a lock or dig a tunnel?!?!
Every day I'm more and more convinced that the Bush Administration is deliberately letting these guys slip away. I mean, let's not forget the most impressive Al Qaeda escape so far - from a little place called Tora Bora.
Osama bin Laden, his chief deputy in Indonesia, the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing... is it too much to ask that we at least put a decent effort into keeping these important Al Qaeda members in custody?
Or are we not allowed to impede the Bush Administration's ability to wage an un-ending war around the world?