USS Cole Mastermind.. Still in custody.

[SirNitram]

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(CNN) -- Jamal al-Badawi, one of the masterminds of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, was still in Yemeni custody Monday, authorities said, responding to reports that he had been freed.

A Yemeni Interior Ministry official said al-Badawi was in prison Monday, and a report from the state-run news agency, SABA, quoted a security source as saying the alleged bomber remained in custody.

The Interior Ministry official said that when al-Badawi surrendered earlier this month, he asked to meet with his family before going back to prison.

Al-Badawi was convicted in 2004 of plotting and assisting in the suicide bombing of the U.S. guided-missile destroyer in the port of Aden. Seventeen U.S. soldiers were killed and 39 more were wounded.

Al-Badawi initially received a death sentence, but it was later commuted to 15 years in prison.

One of the FBI's most-wanted terrorists, al-Badawi escaped from prison in 2003, was recaptured in 2004 and escaped again in 2006. According to SABA, he turned himself in October 16.

U.S. officials blasted Yemeni officials Friday after news reports surfaced that al-Badawi had been freed and was receiving visitors at his home.

The news reports said that he had been freed after renouncing terrorism and pledging allegiance to President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Presidential contender Rudy Giuliani urged the U.S. to cancel aid to Yemen. The retired commander of the Cole called the report "disappointing."

Justice Department officials said it was "dismayed and deeply disappointed" and that the move did not represent the ongoing cooperation among U.S. and Yemeni counterterrorism officials.

Added a U.S. law enforcement official on condition of anonymity: "He's got American blood on his hands. He confessed to what he did ... and they let him go."

Posted by request.