“Even after the [USS] Cole bombing [on October 12, 2000], [Counterterrorism Coordinator Richard] Clarke could not persuade Defense Secretary William Cohen or his top uniformed officer, Hugh Shelton, to take an offensive strike against al Qaeda or the Taliban seriously. ‘Although we fully shared Mr. Clarke’s anger and frustration,’ recalled [then-Secretary of State] Madeleine Albright […]
Category: quotes
10/12/2000
“On the morning of October 12 [2000], two al Qaeda suicide bombers load a device made of C-4 explosive into a small skiff and take off across the harbor in Aden, Yemen. The U.S.S. Cole, an advanced guided missile destroyer, is at the refueling dock. As the skiff approaches the ship…the bomb detonates, blowing a […]
10/12/2000
Following the attack on the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen, on October 12, 2000, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) specialist Kie “Fallis was disgusted. For the past year he had been tracking the al Qaeda terrorist network and found that the group was intimately linked to the government of Iran. …Fallis was angry that his repeated […]
10/12/2000
“On the day the [USS] Cole bombing was carried out [October 12, 2000], NSA [National Security Agency] produced a top secret intelligence report warning that terrorists were planning an attack on an American target in the Middle East. But the NSA report was not dispatched until several hours after the bombing.” – Bill Gertz, Breakdown, […]
10/12/2000
On October 12, 2000, author Jonathan Randal recalled “the BBC World Service radio account of the near-sinking of the USS Cole, a billion-dollar missile destroyer, in a terrorist attack during a refueling stopover in Aden, Yemen’s premiere port. Piloted by two kamikazes, a speeding fiberglass skiff loaded with high explosives, arranged in a shaped charge […]
10/12/2000
” ‘We had data just days before the [October 12, 2000] [USS] Cole bombing,’ says Lt. Col. [Anthony] Shaffer, ‘that Aden [Yemen] was a hot spot. I communicated this information to SOCOM [U.S. Special Operations Command] and they reportedly passed it on to CENTCOM [U.S. Central Command], but for unknown reasons the threat assessment was […]
10/12/2000
” ‘We’ve got to change the rules,’ the CIA’s [unidentified] bin Laden unit chief argued in the aftermath [of the USS Cole bombing on October 12, 2000]. It was time for the agency to try to break the policy stalemate about the Taliban. Al Qaeda was growing, and its sanctuary in Afghanistan allowed ever more […]
10/12/2000
On October 12, 2000, “the same day that the attack on the [USS] Cole occurred, NSA [National Security Agency] issued an intelligence report based on intercepts (most likely calls coming in and out of [al Qaeda operative] Ahmed al-Hada’s home in Sana’a [Yemen]) warning that terrorists were planning an attack in the region. However, the […]
10/11/2000
“On October 11 [2000], at the second presidential debate of the 2000 election, [presidential hopeful George W.] Bush wins over Arab Americans by saying he’s against the use of secret evidence to prosecute alleged terrorists and that he is against racial profiling of Arab Americans.” – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page […]
10/11/2000
” ‘I don’t think our troops ought to be used for what’s called nation building,’ he [Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush] said during a debate with Al Gore, the Democratic candidate [on October 11, 2000]. ‘I think our troops ought to be used to fight and win war.’ ” – Thomas E. Ricks, The […]