WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- Two Yemenis fugitives have been indicted for the October 2000 bombing attack against the USS Cole that took the lives of 17 American sailors, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Thursday.
The two men, described by Ashcroft as "al-Qaida associates," had been in Yemeni custody until escaping from a prison in that country last month.
The two were identified as Jamal Mohammad Ali al-Badawi, about 40, and Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso, 39. Their wanted posters, including pictures and descriptions, are accessible on the FBI Web site at fbi.gov.
"They remain at large," Ashcroft said, adding that the United States did not know whether they were still in Yemen or had fled abroad. "We do not know where they are. We are asking people around the world to help us" find them, he added.
FBI Director Robert Mueller said the indictment unsealed Thursday "increases the probability of their speedy capture."
Mueller also praised former FBI official John O'Neill, who "worked tirelessly in the Cole investigation." The director said the good relationship between the FBI and Yemeni officials was "a direct result of his efforts."
O'Neill retired from the FBI in 2001 to become security director at the World Trade Center. He was killed on Sept. 11, 2001, when he re-entered the building to help evacuate it after airliners hijacked by terrorists hit the complex's Twin Towers.
The 50-count indictment in Manhattan in the Cole matter was unsealed Thursday.
It said Badawi was recruited by al-Qaida insiders for the plot in the spring of 1999.
That summer an unindicted co-conspirator "directed Badawi to procure a boat and a truck to tow the boat to Aden Harbor in Aden, Yemen."
Ashcroft said Thursday that Badawi bought the boat in Saudi Arabia and leased a "safe house" in Yemen to store it.
The conspirators first tried to blow up another American warship, the USS The Sullivans, in January 2000, says the indictment.
But they so overloaded the boat with explosives that when they launched it toward The Sullivans in Aden Harbor, the boat sank.
However, the conspirators regrouped, and after activity that included a trip to Bangkok, Thailand, to collect $36,000, allegedly returned to Yemen to try again.
Quso was allegedly recruited in September or October 2000. The indictment said his job was to videotape the attack on the USS Cole from an apartment. The tape was to be used as an al-Qaida recruiting and inspirational tool.
On Oct. 12, 2000, two suicide bombers boarded the explosives laden boat, now reinforced and refitted after the earlier disaster, and piloted it alongside the Cole.
The bombers "offered friendly gestures to several crew members, and detonated the bomb, ripping a hole in the side of the USS Cole approximately 40 feet in diameter, murdering 17 crew members and wounding at least 40 other crew members," the indictment said.
The two bombers also died in the attack.
Despite being badly damaged, the Cole was eventually brought back to the United States for repairs.
Named as unindicted co-conspirators in the indictment were Osama bin Laden, founder of al-Qaida, and several of his supporters. Al-Qaida and its members were charged in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa and are believed to have carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States.
If the two men are taken into U.S. custody and convicted of the alleged crimes, they could face the death penalty, Ashcroft said Thursday.
The attorney general said he met that morning with "many of the friends and family members" of the Cole victims, who had come to Washington to ask for progress in the investigation.
The attack is "still a fresh wound on their hearts," Ashcroft said, and the government will not put the Cole attack on a back burner even while U.S. agents pursue the Sept. 11 conspirators or try to prevent future attacks.
The families will not forget the Cole attack, and "neither will I," Ashcroft said.
Ashcroft also responded briefly to questions about the bombing attacks on Western compounds in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, earlier this week in week in which 34 people were killed, 8 of them Americans.
"Saudi Arabia has a terrorism problem, just like many nations of the world have terrorism problems," Ashcroft said, adding that the Saudis must face that fact and deal with it.
Ashcroft refused to be drawn into a discussion on whether the United States is receiving enough cooperation from Saudi officials.
"We believe that we have good cooperation with the Saudis," he said, but "we want to upgrade our cooperation."
A small FBI explosives team has arrived in Riyadh to help the Saudis investigate the bombings.
