February 6, 2006 -- ESCAPES YEMEN JAIL

A dozen al Qaeda convicts, including the mastermind of the attack on the USS Cole, are on the loose following a daring escape from a Yemen prison, Interpol said yesterday.

Jamal al-Badawi, who planned the October 2000 attack on the U.S. Navy vessel, which killed 17 sailors, was among 23 prisoners who escaped Thursday night through a tunnel longer than a football field, Interpol said.

The 460-foot tunnel was discovered Friday; it ran from the prison, in the capital city of San'a, to a nearby mosque, Interpol said.

It was "dug by the prisoners and co-conspirators outside," the agency said.

Interpol yesterday issued an "urgent global security alert" to all of its 184-member nations, calling the escapees — at least 13 of which are convicted al Qaeda members — a "clear and present danger to all countries," and urged extra precautions at borders.

Yemeni officials have not sent Interpol complete rap-sheet information and warrants on each individual that would allow so-called red notices to be issued, the agency said.

"Red notices can only be issued . . . if they are supported by underlying national arrest warrants," an Interpol statement said.

Interpol's secretary-general, Ronald Noble, said the notices were urgently needed, or else the fugitives would be "able to travel internationally, to elude detection and to engage in future terrorist activity."

However, a Yemen official said, "The Interior Ministry sent an official letter to Interpol with the names of the fugitives, their photographs and fingerprints. It asked them to circulate the list worldwide, fearing they might escape Yemen."

In Washington, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN that she was troubled by the security lapse.

"I feel very uneasy about this development," she said. "We have so-called allies in the world that are saying they want to help us, and yet how do 23 people 'escape'? It raises some terribly difficult questions."

Yemeni officials confirmed Badawi, originally slated to be executed but who later had his sentence reduced to 15 years, was part of the jailbreak.

The breakout is a major embarrassment for Yemeni authorities, who have positioned themselves as U.S. allies in the war on terrorism. Yemen is Osama bin Laden's ancestral homeland. With Post Wire Services