In October 2000 the destroyer U.S.S. Cole was attacked and damaged by two suicide bombers in a plot hatched by al-Qaeda

National Review, June 2, 2008

In October 2000 the destroyer U.S.S. Cole was attacked and damaged by two suicide bombers in a plot hatched by al-Qaeda. Seventeen U.S. sailors died and 39 were injured. This happened while the Cole was refueling in Aden, which is the main port of Yemen, the poorest and most backward state on the Arabian peninsula (ranked 153rd among the 177 countries listed in the U.N.'s human-development index).

Six of the Cole plotters were tried in Yemeni courts and given long sentences. Mysteriously, all either escaped or were released by the Yemenis. Jamal al-Badawi, a ringleader of the plot, was actually sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted; he escaped from jail and was recaptured twice; then he was officially released by the Yemenis in 2007. After U.S. protests he was re-arrested, but it is widely suspected that his cell is empty. FBI director Robert Mueller visited Yemen in April to ask for extradition of al-Badawi and the other plotters, but the Yemenis declared that their constitution does not allow extradition. Our good friends the Saudis are poor Yemen's rich next-door neighbors. Would it be too much to ask for them to help us get our hands on these terrorists? Yes, it probably would.