A Death Sentence on page A5? Speculation at Plastic that the Justice Dept. has arranged for the New York Times to publicize details of an unsuccessful plea bargain by Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-‘Owhali, one of four defendants in the imminent trial for the bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi in August 1998, in which he tipped authorities to what might subsequently turn out to be the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen. That way, if his prosecution for the Embassy bombing is not successful, he’ll be extremely unpopular with his jihadist former comrades. In receiving Mr. al-‘Owhali’s tip, the FBI reportedly assured him the information would not be ‘used against him’, of course. The New York Times reporting doesn’t flesh out this prosecutorial blackmail, focusing instead on whether the information might have prevented the attack on the Cole, whihc resulted in 17 U.S. deaths.