Nando Times

Terrorists in USS Cole bombing tried earlier attack, official says

By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (November 10, 2000 6:29 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Some of the same terrorists thought to have attacked the USS Cole tried unsuccessfully to mount a similar attack 10 months ago against another ship in Yemen's Aden harbor, an intelligence official said.

The target was a U.S. warship that had stopped to refuel, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The aborted bombing attempt in January was planned around the millennium celebrations.

It was aborted when the attackers discovered their boat had been overloaded with explosives and was not seaworthy, the official said.

The small boat did not sink, but was not able to complete the mission and may have been the same craft used for the October attack on the Cole, the official said.

ABC News, citing intelligence sources, reported the target was the USS The Sullivans, which refueled in Yemen on Jan. 3.

The Pentagon announced Thursday, with few details, that Defense Secretary William Cohen will leave Tuesday to visit the Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as Israel, Jordan and Egypt. He will consult with his counterparts in those countries, meet with other government officials and visit U.S. troops in the region.

U.S. forces have been on a heightened state of alert since the Oct. 12 terrorist bombing of the Cole that killed 17 U.S. sailors.

The Navy meanwhile announced after weeks of deliberation that the Cole will be repaired at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., where the $1 billion destroyer was built.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), November 10, 2000

Answers

errorists Missed Three Times

USS Cole Attack Fourth Attempt At Targeting Servicemen Abroad Yemeni Security Thwarted One Attempt By Finding, Defusing, Bombs Terrorism Campaign Appears To Be Sustained, Financed

ADEN, Yemen, Nov. 11, 2000 AP / CBS (Reuters) At least three plots against American targets in Yemen failed in the past year before last month's suicide bombing of the USS Cole, Yemeni sources close to the investigation said Saturday.

More than one suspect in Yemeni custody being questioned in connection with the Oct. 12 Cole bombing has admitted to involvement in a campaign targeting Americans in Yemen, the sources said, insisting on anonymity. They did not provide a specific number but did say the suspects belong to the Islamic Jihad and other Islamic groups.

The Islamic Jihad is linked to America's No. 1 terror suspect, Osama bin Laden.

In the first week of November 1999, Yemeni authorities foiled plans to blow up a convoy of U.S. military personnel heading to Yemen's National Center for the Removal of Land Mines hours before the operation was to be carried out, the sources said. Yemeni security forces discovered the explosives B planted about one mile away from the hotel where the Americans were staying B and defused them, sources said.

Suspects being questioned in the Cole explosion gave detailed information regarding the route the Americans took to and from the center, where U.S. military personnel give Yemenis technical training on removing land mines, the sources said. It is estimated that more that than 30 Americans B all military B were at the center when the explosives were set to go off.

When that attempt fell apart, the sources said the suspects made plans to attack the Royal Hotel, near the port in Aden, where most of the American servicemen were staying. It wasn't immediately clear when that operation was to be carried out, and no details were available on why it failed.

An attack similar to the one carried out on the Cole was aborted in January when the attackers realized their boat had been overloaded with explosives and was not seaworthy, the sources said. ABC News, citing intelligence sources, has reported that the target of that attack was the USS The Sullivans, a destroyer that refueled in Yemen on Jan. 3.

In Washington, a U.S. intelligence official has confirmed that some of the same people thought to have been involved in the Cole attack botched a similar attack 10 months ago against a U.S. warship that had stopped to refuel in Aden harbor.

Seventeen sailors were killed and 39 others were injured when the Cole was bombed Oct. 12.

http://cbsnews.cbs.com/now/story/0,1597,244022-412,00.shtml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), November 12, 2000.

Nando Times

Suspect claims Cole attack planned from outside Yemen

By AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press

ADEN, Yemen (November 12, 2000 3:47 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Last month's deadly USS Cole attack was planned by an Arab man who telephoned the bombers from the United Arab Emirates, a source close to the investigation said Sunday.

A suspect detained in Yemen said the attackers received their instructions and finances from the Arab man, a veteran of the 1980s Afghan war against the Soviets, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. He did not give the man's nationality.

The detained suspect admitted purchasing the attack boat used in the bombing in the Emirates, said the source. He also bought a video camera to record the attack, but got nervous and left the city the day before the Oct. 12 boat bombing, the Yemeni source added.

The source did not say if the suspect met the mastermind while he was in the Emirates. He said the group worked in small cells of two or three people, and many suspects did not know each other.

Suicide bombers in a small, explosives-laden boat apparently approached the Cole while it was refueling in Aden harbor and detonated the explosives, ripping a 40-foot-by-40-foot hole in the steel hull. The blast killed 17 American sailors and injured 39.

On Sunday, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat published a statement by Rifai Ahmed Taha, a former leader of the Egyptian Al-Gamma`al-Islamiya (Islamic Group), that said the boat used in the attack was locally made and powered by an engine stripped from a farm tractor.

Taha said the operation cost between $5,000 and $10,000.

The debris and the car which pulled the boat to the port were shipped Sunday to the United States for further forensic tests, a Yemeni official said.

Some 60 suspects remain behind bars after more than 20 were released, the official said on condition of anonymity. Police on Friday jailed an Islamic Jihad suspect they had been pursuing since Tuesday. The suspect escaped from jail in 1993 after being convicted of blowing up two Aden hotels frequented by foreigners.

The Islamic Jihad was formed by Arab veterans of the Afghan war and is linked to Osama bin Laden, America's top terror suspect.

The Yemeni official said American investigators were allowed this week to interview witnesses and to show composite sketches to suspects and eyewitnesses.

Reports in the U.S. media have suggested strained relations between the FBI and the State Department over how far to push the Yemeni government for increased access to suspects and sources. Some FBI officials reportedly believe that some evidence may implicate high-ranking Yemeni officials.

Barbara Bodine, the U.S. ambassador to Yemen, denied reports of friction between the U.S. and Yemeni investigators.

"The (reports) do not reflect the relationship, at all levels, between the FBI, the State Department, and the Embassy, nor the cooperation between the U.S. and Yemeni government on the USS Cole investigation," Bodine said in a statement read to The Associated Press by an Embassy spokesman.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), November 12, 2000.

Cole attack masterminded by someone outside of Yemen The October 12 attack ripped this hole in the Cole and killed 17 sailors November 12, 2000 Web posted at: 4:37 PM EST (2137 GMT)

ADEN, Yemen (AP) -- Last month's deadly USS Cole attack was masterminded by an Arab man who telephoned the bombers from the United Arab Emirates, a source close to the investigation said Sunday.

A suspect now in detention in Yemen said the attackers received their instructions and finances from the Arab man, a veteran of the 1980s Afghan war against the Soviets, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. He did not give the man's nationality.

The detained suspect admitted purchasing the attack boat used in the bombing in the Emirates, said the source. He also bought a video camera to record the attack, but got nervous and left the city the day before the October 12 boat bombing, the Yemeni source added.

The source did not say if the suspect met the mastermind while he was in the Emirates. He said the group worked in small cells of two or three people, and many suspects did not know each other.

Suicide bombers in a small, explosives-laden boat apparently approached the Cole while it was refueling in Aden harbor and detonated the explosives, ripping a 40-foot-by-40-foot hole in the steel hull. The blast killed 17 American sailors and injured 39.

On Sunday, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat published a statement by Rifai Ahmed Taha, a former leader of the Egyptian Al-Gamma'al-Islamiya (Islamic Group), that said the boat used in the attack was locally made and powered by an engine cannibalized from a farm tractor.

Taha said the operation cost between $5,000 and $10,000.

The debris and the car which pulled the boat to the port were shipped Sunday to the United States for further forensic tests, a Yemeni official said.

Some 60 suspects remain behind bars after more than 20 were released, the official said on condition of anonymity. Police on Friday jailed an Islamic Jihad suspect they had been pursuing since Tuesday. The suspect escaped from jail in 1993 after being convicted of blowing up two Aden hotels frequented by foreigners.

The Islamic Jihad was formed by Arab veterans of the Afghan war and is linked to Osama bin Laden, America's top terror suspect.

The Yemeni official said American investigators were allowed this week to interview witnesses and to show composite sketches to suspects and eyewitnesses.

Reports in the U.S. media have suggested strained relations between the FBI and the State Department over how far to push the Yemeni government for increased access to suspects and sources. Some FBI officials reportedly believe that some evidence may implicate high- ranking Yemeni officials.

Barbara Bodine, the U.S. ambassador to Yemen, denied reports of friction between the U.S. and Yemeni investigators.

"The (reports) do not reflect the relationship, at all levels, between the FBI, the State Department, and the Embassy, nor the cooperation between the U.S. and Yemeni government on the USS Cole investigation," Bodine said in a statement read to The Associated Press by an Embassy spokesman.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/11/12/yemen.cole.ap/index.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), November 13, 2000.

November 12, 2000 Cole Inquiry Provokes Bitter U.S. Dispute By JOHN F. BURNS

ANA, Yemen, Nov. 11 B A month after the bombing of the destroyer Cole, a bitter dispute has erupted within the Clinton Administration over whether to accept Yemeni limits on the American investigation here or press for a wider ranging inquiry that F.B.I. officials believe could potentially lead to powerful people linked to the Yemeni government itself, American officials on both sides of the dispute say.

The dispute has become so heated, according to officials in Washington, that it has featured sometimes personal exchanges between leading American officials on opposing sides. Two of the principal figures in the dispute, with sharply conflicting views, according to those officials, have been Louis J. Freeh, the F.B.I. director, and Barbara K. Bodine, the American ambassador to Yemen.

According to a report this week in Al Hayat, an Arab-language newspaper published in London whose reports have accurately prefigured many disclosures in the Cole case so far, the F.B.I. wanted the American Embassy in Yemen to demand that the Yemeni investigation be extended to "social, political and military figures" with close ties to the Yemeni government. The State Department has resisted, American officials say, for fear of alienating Yemeni government officials and souring the atmosphere surrounding the investigation still further, and because of a reluctance to upset an already delicate, strategic relationship with Yemen.

The Al Hayat account was indirectly confirmed by an F.B.I. official, who said a critical aspect of the case B whether the bombers had help from powerful figures within Yemen and if so to what extent B was difficult, if not impossible, to determine as long as the Yemeni government decided exclusively whom to detain and interview.

Asked about the issue, a senior State Department official in Washington refused to comment, but said it was true that the inquiry needed to go beyond "the first and second levels," meaning who was immediately responsible for the attack, "all the way back to the spider in the web."

Despite the strains, senior American and Yemeni officials said in recent days that the dispute over Yemeni limits on the F.B.I. investigation was close to being resolved after weeks of confrontations between senior officials of the two governments. The deal now being worked out, both governments say, would allow the F.B.I. close access to suspects for the first time by permitting its agents to watch Yemeni interrogators by live television relay or through a one-way mirror, and to pass written questions to the Yemenis.

The F.B.I. has reacted coolly to the deal, partly because decisions on whom should be questioned would remain exclusively with the Yemenis. But by Friday the dispute appeared to be cooling, with F.B.I. officials saying that the Yemenis, under criticism for their seemingly reluctant cooperation so far, had handed over a large file of transcripts from interviews in the case, and that those, and other new evidence, included valuable details that should help move the investigation forward.

On the Yemeni side, the American- educated prime minister, Abdel Karim al-Iryani, said today that American officials were no longer "making an issue" over access to suspects, having accepted that Yemen was doing its best to solve the case and that nobody in the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh was involved. On the contrary, Mr. Iryani said, whoever planned the bombing intended to damage Mr. Saleh and his government's ties with the United States. "We are not hiding anything, and the Americans have accepted that," he said.

Still, the new terms for the F.B.I. role appear to fall far short of the free-ranging role the bureau demanded B and the State Department vetoed B in an internal dispute in Washington. The dispute, American officials say, drew in Mr. Freeh, the F.B.I. director, Ms. Bodine, the ambassador, and the White House.

Moreover, American officials say, the new arrangements could still fall apart over Yemeni counterdemands for access to information on the bombing that the F.B.I. gathers outside Yemen.

The issue, the State Department official said, was whether getting to the people ultimately responsible for the attack, in Yemen or elsewhere, would be more likely to be accomplished by accepting restraints on the F.B.I. that respected Yemeni sensitivities about its sovereignty, or by pressing for much wider access that would alienate President Saleh and other powerful figures in Yemen, and perhaps cause them to become even less cooperative.

The State Department official was scathing about the F.B.I.'s demands, saying the bureau lacked experience operating in countries with sharply different cultures, had no understanding of Yemeni sensitivities about "having a large Westerner standing in a room during the interrogation of a Yemeni," and had allowed the urgency of the case to override its judgment.

"The idea that you do whatever you like, in spite of where you are, is just silly," the official said. "Not all murder cases can be solved in the space of a 50-minute TV show."

Earlier in the investigation, the F.B.I. reacted to what it considered minimal Yemeni cooperation by removing most of the bureau's 150- member contingent in Aden from a harbor hotel and billeting them aboard a Navy ship, the Duluth, 10 miles out at sea. Later, most of the contingent returned to the United States, leaving only 20 agents, many of them deeply disgruntled, cooling their heels at another Aden hotel.

Until the transfer late this week of a rich new dossier of Yemeni interviews with suspects, most of the information reaching the F.B.I. came in the form of poorly translated, heavily edited transcripts, some of them days late. In addition, F.B.I. agents visiting safe houses and other locations used in the bombing were forbidden to talk to Yemenis who had met the bombers, and some of those potential witnesses told American reporters later that they had not been questioned by Yemeni investigators, either.

According to American officials, one issue that deepened suspicions in the F.B.I. turned out to be a misunderstanding. Days after the bombing, the Yemenis acknowledged to the F.B.I. that they had film of the bombing from a harbor surveillance camera. But when this was handed over, the F.B.I. was furious to find that it did not show the actual bombing and that the sequence it did show, after the blast, had been jerkily edited.

Angry representations were made to the Yemenis, who said that the surveillance cameras were set up to be used only as needed, after harbor officials spotted something wrong. In addition, the Yemenis said, the cameras were mounted on stanchions well behind the Cole's mooring point and on the side of the ship opposite the one where attack occurred.

The issues behind the dispute between the F.B.I. and the Yemenis could hardly be more critical, either for the prospects of a successful investigation of the attack or for the future of American relations with Yemen, which has emerged as a linchpin of American policy in the region. In fact, the wrangling mirrors policy conflicts that preceded the decision in 1999 to start sending American warships into Aden for refueling B a decision that ultimately led to the Cole bombing, which killed 17 American sailors.

That initial policy decision pitted officials in the Pentagon, the State Department and American intelligence agencies who wished to encourage closer ties with Yemen against others in the same agencies who warned of the dangers involved in entrusting the safety of warships to a country that had long been a sanctuary for terrorist groups.

So far, both the F.B.I. and the State Department say, the Yemenis have been energetic in finding answers to the first issue in the bombing: how it was done. F.B.I. and Yemeni investigators say they know that the men who guided the skiff that carried the bomb B and who for months monitored American ships entering the harbor B used the names Abdullah Ahmed Khaled Ali al-Musawah and Muhammad Ahmed al- Sharabi, that those were false identities, and that the two men were linked to a network of Islamic terrorist groups that have had bases in southern and eastern Yemen for much of the last decade.

But among the critical questions that remain unanswered, F.B.I. officials say, is whether the Islamic terrorists relied on an old network of connections between the terrorist groups and high-ranking figures in Sana, the capital. Those ties were forged in the early 1990's when Mr. Saleh's government was looking for allies in its struggle with a Socialist government that had ruled a separate state in Aden since the late 1960's.

In 1994, Mr. Saleh's forces, with crucial support from armed Islamic groups, won a brutal civil war and took control of Aden, but American intelligence reports have shown that the links from that time, despite American-financed efforts by the Saleh government to crack down on the terrorist groups, have persisted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/12/world/12SHIP.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), November 14, 2000.