Before they do that, however, U.S. officials want to make sure that the indictment returned against Badawi by a federal grand jury in New York in May 2003  is still solid and he can be successfully tried by federal prosecutors there, according to a senior official involved in the case who like others interviewed declined to be identified.

The indictment of Badawi, and an associate, Fahad Al-Quso, was in part based on the confession that Badawi first made to an FBI agent in January 2001. According to a Justice Department press release at the time of the indictment, Badawi had been recruited by members of Osama bin Laden's inner circle to play a lead role in a brazen terrorist attack that illustrated Al Qaeda's determination to kill Americans across the globe.

In the October 2000 bombing, a small boat laden with high explosives pulled alongside the Cole, a naval warship, in the harbor of Aden while it was briefly docked for refueling while it was on its way to the Persian Gulf for support of U.S. operations aimed at enforcing international sanctions against the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Suicide terrorists detonated the bomb, ripping a 40-foot hole in the side of the Cole, killing 17 and wounding 37 other sailors.

Badawi "helped procure safehouses in Aden" for the terrorists involved in the operation, and obtained the small boat that was used in the bombing, according to the Justice release.

"It has been almost three years since the attack on the USS  Cole," Attorney General John Ashcroft said in the press release at the time of the indictment. "But for those who lost loved ones on October 12, 2000, the wounds on the heart can still be felt."

That same point was underscored this week by Kirk Lippold, the former commanding officer of the Cole. "I will tell you that families [of Cole members killed in the attack] are upset to an unbelievable degree," he told NEWSWEEK. "I'm getting e-mails from crew members I haven't spoken to in years saying, 'I can't believe this is happening'."