Apr

Today in History: USS Cole Bombers Escape Yemeni Prison

Posted by: Scott @ 5:25 am in Iraq/Al-Qaeda Connection, Middle East, Military, Saddam Documents, The Iraqi War, War On Terror

Visited 770 times, 4 so far today

Five years ago: Ten of the main suspects in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole escaped from prison in Yemen. American troops took the northern Iraqi city of Mosul without a fight. In Cuba, three men convicted of hijacking a passenger ferry the previous week were executed by firing squad, a swift response by Fidel Castro’s government to a recent string of hijackings to the United States.

link

How ironic that it comes:

two weeks after a US Navy ship in the Suez Canal fired upon a small boat approaching in a manner identical to the attack on the USS Cole
the same day as Iranian terrorist speedboats made a run on a US Navy ship in the Persian Gulf in a manner similar to the attack on the USS Cole
less than a month after a Pentagon report revealed that captured documents from Saddam’s regime showed they had prepared for an operation almost identical to the attack on the USS Cole called Operation Basra Revenge

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 12th, 2008 at 5:25 am and is filed under Iraq/Al-Qaeda Connection, Middle East, Military, Saddam Documents, The Iraqi War, War On Terror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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10 comments so far

CentFla

Scott are you suggesting that Saddam had something to do with the Cole?

Cole type attacks have been taking place since 1983 when the truck bomb blew up hundreds of Marines in Lebanon. Fill a vehicle with bombs, drive that vehicle into our troops. The fact that Saddam had such a plan is certainly not news.

April 12th, 2008 at 8:17 am

Dreadnought

He never said that, CentFla, and you know it. The claim is simply that Saddam like the idea and planned to copycat the tactic on US ships in the Persian Gulf.

April 12th, 2008 at 9:13 am

CentFla

calm down Dread, just asking why point that out when everyone in the region that hates us has the exact same plan. I hear that Saddam also manipulated his country’s press into less than flattering angles on the news in Iraq while he was in power.

just curious, why dreadnoght and not dreadnaught?

April 12th, 2008 at 9:27 am

Scott

CentFla,
I specifically did NOT say Saddam was behind the USS Cole attack, but I will admit that after reading the text of the captured documents, and after comparing them to the timeline of the USS Cole attack as well as the unique details of it, I do have my suspicions. Even more specifically, I believe that Saddam’s deputy/#2 man (thug in chief, Izzat Ibrahim al Douri; also Saddam’s successor and current leader of the exiled Iraqi Baath Party) met with al Queda’s #2 man Dr Ayman al Zawahiri, and that the plans for Iraq’s Operation Basra Revenge were conveyed to Al Queda. Surely out of pure coincidence, the plot to attack the USS Cole was set in motion immediately after their reported meeting, and purely coincidentally Operation Basra Revenge was halted. Also-purely coincidentally, supplies matching the needs for the attack on the USS Cole were sent by Iraq’s Saddam Fedayeen to the Iraqi IIS in Yemen to be dispatched as they saw fit. Again, purely coincidentally, one of the only 3 people waterboarded by the US (head of the USS Cole plot) admits that he arranged for the purchase of the Russian RDX and other bomb matls in Yemen at the same time (Russian media claimed in 2000 that the bomb was made from Russian RDX shipped by Iraq to Yemen as well, and Clinton Admin FBI Dir Louis Freeh says in his book, pg 182, that he personally called his counterpart at the Russian FSB[KGB] to confirm what the FBI lab found: it was Russian RDX and a LOT of it). Not much later, 8 Iraqis were arrested in Amman which triggered off the chain of Jordanian intel arrests which later (Dec99) alerted the US to the Millenium plot of which the attack on the USS Sullivans was a part. The Sullivans plot failed. Allegedly Iraqi IIS or Fedayeen bombmakers “tutored” the Al Queda misfits who couldn’t manage to build a boat as to how to make a sophisticated shaped charge (Clinton Admin CIA Counter Terrorism Unit leader, Cofer Black, called it a “wafer charge”) as was used on the Cole.

Ultimately, I’m still looking into this for one reason: too many coincidences. I’m also not presenting a documented, linked post on it yet because I’m still waiting (been 3yrs now) for the FBI to send me the bomb residue analysis of the USS Cole bomb via my FOIA req. If the residue matches that of the Russian RDX that was sent by Iraqi IIS to use in the assassination attempt on Pres Bush sr., then the smoking gun is there imo.

Ya know, you’re very right that car and vehicle bombs have been in use since 1983 (actually for decades, but fact is a long time before the Cole). Still, the docs in the Pentagon report were extremely specific and matched several other historically documented events as well as unique details of the bomb attack on the Cole (I think we can all agree that every bombing is unique or has a signature).

Believe me, if the FBI ever gives up their bomb residue analysis (I’ve got the one for the Bush Assn attempt), then I’ll post my findings. The timeline alone is proof enough to back what I’ve said here. To say more would be likely, but not necessarily a factual correlation.

Please feel free to check or ask about any facts listed above. I’ve mutliple sources for all, and none-repeat NONE are Fox, WND, Freerepublic, Newsmax etc. They are all msm sources often CNN and tell all books from Clinton Admin officials.

I will say this much about the Cole without any reservation AT ALL:
1) The Clinton Admin KNEW CATEGORICALLY that the Cole was going to be attacked, relayed the information, the crew was briefed, and they still let their guard down
2) The “investigation” into the Cole bombing was a useless endeavor beyond Oct 23, 00. It served absolutely no other purpose than to pass the buck to the next administration and to prevent Al Gore (who was vulnerable on Nat Sec polling) from losing the election in the midst of yet another Clinton war (they happened every 4-6 months for 8yrs if anyone cares to recall).

Docs proving both claims are avail upon req or go here:
http://www.abledangerblog.com/2007/09/revisiting-cole.html

April 12th, 2008 at 9:37 am

Dinah Lord

News to me!

And in my view certainly worth remembering…

A father of a USS Cole sailor killed in the attack has a great blog here.

It’s really worth a look-see.

(linking you, Flopping)

April 12th, 2008 at 9:45 am

Dreadnought

just curious, why dreadnoght and not dreadnaught?

You forgot the ‘u’. Anyway, it’s the name of a ship I studied a lot, and which kicked off probably the most outrageous arms race in history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dreadnought_%281906%29

April 12th, 2008 at 10:18 am

Gary G. Swenchonis

Thank you for keep the Cole attack in peoples memories. Our son was murdered in that attack.
Yes. The Clinton admin. did know that an attack was planned in the area that the Cole was in in. But I cannot stress this enough. The Captian was not given that information, nor did they have ammor for the deck guns, the ammo was below decks. The embassy was closed due to a potential terrorist attack. They tried to blame the Captian, but they the brass and the DoD knew they had dropped the ball big time. They finally admitted that it was their fault. Cohen made the announcement just hours before they had to leave their offices to make room for the Bush team. That way the announcement got very little press. You can see it own my site. The New York Times for one. They could have refueled at another port. But Ambassador Bodine of Yemen did not warn them that things were extemely hot in Yemen. Yet she did not go to work that day. Coward. She also kicked out the lead FBI John O’Niel because he knew that the Yemeni regime had had a part in the bombing and wanted access to them. It later came out at a trial by mistake that they did in fact helped with the bombing. I am now in contact with the Former Yemeni Navy Commander who knows that they helped Al-Qaeda. he is in exile. As other Yemeni politicians are too who I am in contact with. But now President Salehs doubledealings have caught up with him, I hope! I think Bush may actually be ready to cut off the money and supplies to his regime. Two weeks ago we got a letter from the DoD that they are going to demand that at least one of the planners be extridicted back here to America. He was given a pardon like many of the other Cole planners by the Yemeni regime. I am also demanding that our government find out where Hamdi is hiding out at in Yemen. President Saleh let him go too. He was the money man in the Cole attack, and other terrorist attacks as well. I know my response was long. I apoligize for that. But it has taken me years and alot of money to track down these scum bags, and the true story behind the Cole attack. Of which this is only a small bit. I really do appreciate people who still remember the the USS Cole attack, and those killed.
The Cole attack was Americas wake up call. Our leaders slept right through it. And then 9/11.
How sad. Thank-you again.
Gary G. Swenchonis, Sr. “Remember the Cole!”

April 24th, 2008 at 9:34 pm

Jane

Good work, Scott.

April 29th, 2008 at 9:19 am

Scott Malensek

Thanks Jane. And of course there’s this news today:
“2nd USS Cole Bomber, Fahd Al-Quso, Also Free In Yemen” April 28, 2008
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/192500.php

April 29th, 2008 at 9:22 am

Jane

Yes I posted that piece at Jawa about al-Quso . Its sickening after the fiasco with al-Badawi’s release on house arrest in October. Both al-Quso and al-Badawi were convicted in a Yemeni court for the USS Cole bombing as well as indicted on 50 counts of terrorism in the US after their first escape.

Bill Roggio posted this article of mine at LWJ, which has an interview with Yemen’s former foreign minister where he says, as I have been saying for years, that the Yemeni government facilitates the jihaddists going to Iraq:

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/04/al_qaeda_in_yemen_me_1.php

That also irks me tremendously.

OT: wow, nice edit feature in the comments! I never saw that before. Sweet. I may never get out of here though.

See I’m back again: this is the article I wrote on the recent anniversary of the attack on the USS Cole but I see now I had it wrong, according to what you are saying, and the ship did actually recieve the warnings:

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/189744.php

Also Saddam and the President of Yemen, Saleh had very strong ties for years and many of the Iraqi generals fled to Yemen with the fall of Saddam. There’s one theory out there that the bombing of the USS Cole was related to the fact that it was enroute to enforce the sanctons on Iraq.

April 29th, 2008 at 12:13 pm