Exhibit A

al Qaeda terrorists appear to have successfully sprung 23 extremely dangerous prisoners including several al Qaeda terrorists involved in the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 US Navy sailors and wounded 39 others.

The 17 sailors killed by al Qaeda on that October day:
Lakeina Monique Francis, 19
Information Systems Technician Tim Gauna, 21
Signalman Seaman Recruit Cherone Louis Gunn, 22
Ensign Andrew Triplett, 30
Petty Officer 3rd Class Ronchester Santiago, 22
Seaman Craig Wibberley, 19
Kevin Shawn Rux, 30
Seaman Recruit Lakiba Nicole Palmer, 22
Hull Maintenance Technician 3rd Class Kenneth Eugene Clodfelter, 21
Engineman 2nd Class Marc Nieto, 24
Electronics Warfare Technician 3rd Class Ronald Scott Owens, 24
Electronics Technician 1st Class Richard Costelow, 35
Fireman Apprentice Patrick Roy, 19
Engineman Fireman Joshua Parlett, 19
Fireman Gary Graham Swenchonis, 26
Seaman James Rodrick McDaniels, 19
Operations Specialist 2nd Class Timothy Lamont

That's 17 reasons why we cannot consider this war to be treated as a law enforcement action where reliance on the prison system is sufficient. We are only as safe as the least secure prison system where these terrorists are being held.

At the present, it's unknown whether the terrorists had assistance from the inside. Thus far, it appears that the terrorists dug tunnels from both within the prison walls and from outside. This escape took place this past Friday.

A Yemeni security official announced the escape of convicted al-Qaida members Friday but did not provide any details or names. The official said only that the escapees had all had been sentenced last year on terrorism-related charges.

Interpol said in a statement that at least 13 of the 23 escapees were convicted al-Qaida fighters.

The convicts escaped via a 140-yard-long tunnel "dug by the prisoners and coconspirators outside," Interpol said. The Yemeni official said the prison was at the central headquarters of the country's military intelligence services in a building in the center of the capital.

Another of the 23 escapees was identified as Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeiee, considered by Interpol to be one of those responsible for a 2002 attack on the French tanker Limburg off Yemen's coast. That attack killed a Bulgarian crew member and spilled 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden.

Al-Rabeiee also was convicted for an attack on a helicopter carrying Hunt Oil Co. employees a month later and the detonation of explosions at a civil aviation authority building.

These guys are now on the loose and are going to try and commit more acts of terrorism. And the escape also means that a trial that was supposed to get underway against other terrorists has been postponed indefinitely:

The escape came a day before the expected start of a trial of 15 people charged with involvement in terror operations in Yemen, including Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal, another suspected plotter of the Cole and Limburg bombings.

The trial was postponed indefinitely.

UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin has more.

UPDATE:
The Jawa Report and Captain Ed.