THE AMERICAN ATTEMPTS to rehabilitate the Yemeni regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh have not succeeded. Yemeni authorities recently pardoned Jamal Al-Badawi, convicted mastermind of the 2000 USS Cole bombing. All the terrorists who bombed the American warship and killed 17 American sailors are free, except those dead or in U.S. custody.

Jamal Al-Badawi was originally sentenced to death in 2004 as the lead planner of the USS Cole bombing. The sentence was reduced to 15 years. He escaped twice, the last time in February 2006. He has been on the loose since. He spent less than three years physically inside a jail, where, by the way, he was very well treated. One of the FBI's top ten most wanted terrorists; he is currently at home receiving well wishers.

Yemeni President Saleh says openly that he has a truce with al Qaeda. However, it's more than a truce; it's a mutual support pact. That pact is long standing, mutually beneficial, and responsible for much of the carnage around the world, including the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

The first al Qaeda attack was a 1992 hotel bombing in Aden, Yemen. The bombing targeted US troops heading for Somalia. The Yemeni regime's relationship with al Qaeda was already well established by that point.

Presidential half brother General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar recruited fighters for bin Laden in the 1980's and set up training camps in Yemen. After the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan, the Yemeni regime welcomed thousands of both

Yemeni President Saleh uses these al Qaeda operatives as a domestic paramilitary. The Afghan Arabs fought for Saleh in Yemen's 1994 civil war. The war was framed as a jihad against Southern socialist "infidels." Some of these bin Laden loyalists who fought for Saleh in 1994 are now high ranking members of the Yemeni military and security forces, governors, ambassadors and other appointed officials. Consequently, covert administrative support for al Qaeda is substantial in total, varied in nature, and appears on multiple levels.

Through the 1990's, Osama bin Laden and Aiman Zawaheri regularly visited Yemen, meeting religious leaders and other prominent persons. Bin Laden delivered sermons in Yemeni mosques and purportedly held a six hour meeting with al-Ahmar in Sana'a airport in 1996.

In 1999, bin Laden bargained for the release of al Qaeda operative Tawfiq (Khallad) bin Attash who was arrested in Yemen. The Yemeni regime released Attash and promised not to confront al Qaeda. In exchange, bin Laden pledged not to attack Yemen. These terms mirror the current agreement which led to the release of al-Badawi. American aid, pressure, military training, and other coaxing have done little to alter the fundamental relationship between Saleh and al Qaeda.

In January of 2000, Attash, along with Yemeni Fahd al-Quso, attended a high level al Qaeda meeting in Malaysia at which the attacks on the USS Cole and the World Trade Center were discussed and planned. Both were later found guilty of organizing the Cole attack.