Prison Escape: The Great Escape alarms the world

http://www.egyptindependent.com/

The escapes of Al-Qaeda members from the Al-Kuwayfia prison in Libya, the Abu Ghraib and Al-Tagi prisons in Iraq, and another Pakistani prison have alarmed the world. Last week, prisoners escaped in nine different countries, which raised speculations as to whether it was a coincidence. CIA investigations say this was a new strategy for Al-Qaeda, which has actually claimed responsibility. President Barack Obama closed 25 diplomatic missions following an interception of a call between Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and the leader of the Yemen branch Nasser al-Wahishi, in which Zawahiri ordered operations against U.S. and Western installations to be more violent than those of 11 September 2001. On 27 July, more than 1200 prisoners escaped in Libya as gunmen opened fire from outside the prison and clashed with the guards, while the prisoners burned the facility from the inside. Two days later in northwest Pakistan, militants blew up the gates of a prison, letting 250 prisoners out, of which many were Islamist militants. Twelve people were killed in the attack, including five police officers. In the same week, two Iraqi prisons were attacked by suicide bombers, and more than 500 prisoners escaped, including a number of senior Al-Qaeda members. The Interpol warned security authorities in all countries of the world of the potential consequences of these jailbreaks. On Saturday, US diplomatic missions opened again after closing for a week in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Cairo, Riyadh, Dhahran, Jeddah, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain, Muscat, Sanaa, Tripoli, Antananarivo, Bujumbura, Djibouti, Khartoum,Kigali, and Port Louis. US allies, including Britain, France, Germany and Norway, followed suit and closed a number of their diplomatic missions as well. US reports view this development as failure on the part of the US to help these countries achieve security and stability, and to combat Al-Qaeda activity. Experts found a pattern for the jailbreaks, namely suicide bombers, gunmen targeting prison walls, and the use of mortars and RPGs. Other common denominators are that all those countries have weak ruling institutions and security and intelligence bodies despite US support in this regard.