Debbie Schlussel: More Yemeni Soft on Terror
Bad enough that the Yemen, Al-Qaeda's key haven, allowed several Qaeda terrorists (including a member of the Lackawanna Six and others involved in the U.S.S. Cole bombing) to tunnel through prison and escape.
Now, Yemen has sentenced two teens to only five years in prison after being convicted of plotting to kill the U.S. Ambassador to Yemen.
The two men were sentenced to a "special prison" because of their ages. But, it's not like they are 12 years old. Hezam Ali Hassan is 17 and Khaled Saleh is 18. In the U.S., they'd be tried as adults, even in 2003, when the crime occurred. But not in Yemen, where a wink and a nod are the usual response to terrorists, or--at most--a slap on the wrist.
According to an indictment, the two followed the car of then-U.S. Ambassador Edmund Hull in the capital, San`a. Hassan _ carrying a pistol and two hand grenades he intended to throw _ then climbed the outside wall of a store that Hull had entered. Saleh waited outside with a machine gun.
The President should recall our Ambassador, just as he should have when one of the murderers of Robert Stethem was willingly released by Germany. But he won't. Because a lot of our "war" on terror is little more than a PR con job.
Posted by Debbie on March 6, 2006 10:41 AM to Debbie Schlussel