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
“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
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 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
“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 […]
10/12/2000
“On October 12, 2000, al Qaeda operatives on a small boat laden with explosives attacked a U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Cole, killing 17 members of the ship’s crew and wounding at least 40. The plot…was a full-fledged al Qaeda operation, supervised directly by Bin Ladin.” – 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, Page 190 […]
10/12/2000
“At 10:45 A.M. on the morning of October 12 [2000], two al Qaeda suicide bombers loaded a device made of C-4 explosive into a small skiff and took off across the harbor in Aden, Yemen. The U.S.S. Cole, an advanced guided missile destroyer, was at the refueling dock… when the white fiberglass boat pulled alongside, […]
10/12/2000
“There had been no specific tactical warning that the [USS] Cole was a target [when it was attacked on October 12, 2000]. The CIA had circulated a classified analysis the day before the attack that highlighted the growing al Qaeda threat in the region, but it provided no specific warning about the Cole.” – Steve […]
10/11/2000
During the second presidential debate, on October 11, 2000, Republican nominee George Bush said: ” ‘[Somalia] started off as a humanitarian mission then changed into a nation-building mission, and that’s where the mission went wrong. …And so I don’t think our troops ought to be used for what’s called nation-building.’ ” – Craig Unger, The […]
10/11/2000
In a debate between presidential nominees Al Gore and George Bush at Wake Forest University on October 11, 2000, “When moderator Jim Lehrer brought the debate around to international issues and asked, ‘How would you project us around the world, as president?’ Bush said, ‘It really depends upon how our nation conducts itself in foreign […]