I remember back in 2000, before I knew anything about politics, I was working at a residential treatment facility for adjudicated youth. One morning I arrived at work and as the boys were getting ready to start the day, I picked up the paper and read the headline “Suicide Bombers Attack USS Cole.”
Seventeen of my shipmates were killed by some low life terrorists on a suicide boats.
I read the article thinking about how many ports I had entered in the Middle East. I read it thinking about what these men were focused on. Liberty.
I had been out of the Navy for a little over 5 years, but I knew how it felt to pull into a port for some time off.
I wanted justice. Bill Clinton did nothing.
Nothing.
When Bush entered office, it wasn’t long before America was in a world war with Islamic radicalism. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the man behind the attack was captured and the CIA took it from there.
Then came Obama.
I still want justice for the sailors killed on the Cole.
I’m not going to get it from this administration: 
The Obama administration has shelved the planned prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged coordinator of the Oct. 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, according to a court filing.
The decision at least temporarily scuttles what was supposed to be the signature trial of a major al-Qaeda figure under a reformed system of military commissions. And it comes practically on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the attack, which killed 17 sailors and wounded dozens when a boat packed with explosives ripped a hole in the side of the warship in the port of Aden.
In a filing this week in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the Justice Department said that “no charges are either pending or contemplated with respect to al-Nashiri in the near future.”
Why not?
“It’s politics at this point,” said one military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss policy. He said he thinks the administration does not want to proceed against a high-value detainee without some prospect of civilian trials for other major figures at Guantanamo Bay.
At risk of writing something that I’ll regret, I’ll just stop writing now.
Feel free to sound off in the comments.
