The ugly truth: Yemen lets Al Qaeda leaders operate in the open

But for years Yemen has refused to keep wanted al Qaeda operatives behind bars or transfer them to the US for trial. Two wanted al Qaeda operatives, Jamal Ahmed Mohammed Ali al Badawi and Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al Quso, have operated openly in Yemen despite being wanted for their role in the Oct. 12, 2000, bombing of the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen that resulted in the death of 17 US sailors.

Another wanted al Qaeda operative, Jaber A. Elbaneh, was a member of the Buffalo Six, an al Qaeda cell based in Lackawanna, New York.

The US government has a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrests of Badawi, Elbaneh, and Quso, yet the Yemeni government has rebuffed efforts by the US to have them extradited to the US.