Rumsfeld Critic Zinni: USS Cole Blunder My Fault

NewsMax.com ^ | April 18, 2006 | Carl Limbacher

[Carl/NewsMax]

Former CENTCOM Commander, Gen. Anthony Zinni - who has called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign because of his alleged incompetence in running the Iraq war - admitted six years ago that he made the disastrous decision to have the U.S.S. Cole use the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling, where the ship was blown up by al Qaeda terrorists.

Worse still, at least one report indicates that Gen. Zinni may have played a role in an August 1998 leak that tipped off Osama bin Laden to an impending U.S. cruise missile attack - allowing the top terrorist to escape.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in October 2000, a week after the Cole attack, the then-recently retired Zinni said: "I pass that buck on to nobody."

The Rumsfeld critic explained that he personally signed off on berthing the Cole in Yemen even though "their coast is a sieve for terrorists."

"The threat conditions in Aden were better than elsewhere," he insisted, citing risk assessments for Sudan and Saudi Arabia.

Gen. Zinni said that cutbacks in the size of the Navy's fleet during the Clinton years made it necessary to use regional ports for refueling, noting: "Ten years ago, we did all refueling at sea" using Navy oilers.

Still, prior to the Cole attack, there's no record that Gen. Zinni ever complained about Clinton era defense cuts.

In what may be an even more troubling development, a report indicates that the leading Rumsfeld critic may have inadvertently played a role in tipping off Osama bin Laden to an impending U.S. cruise missile attack two years before the Cole episode.

Two days after President Clinton ordered the attack on bin Laden's encampment in Khost Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported:

"Kuwait's Al-Watan newspaper, quoting unidentified sources in London today, reported that Pakistan leaked to bin Laden news about an impending U.S. strike. The sources said the leak was aimed at limiting casualties, so that bin Laden would have less justification for a counterattack.

"A Pakistani government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Gen. Anthony Zinni, commander of the U.S. Central Command, was in Peshawar the day before the attack to meet with Pakistani officials.

"Other Pakistani sources said Zinni came with a team of U.S. intelligence experts whose task was to pinpoint the camps and determine bin Laden's exact whereabouts."

[7thson]

Try him for treason!

[Nomorjer Kinov]

Thanks for the research Carl.

As the saying goes ...a short pencil is a lot better than a long memory.

Apparently too many of the whiners can be tripped by their own quotes. Thanks for doing the work the MSM refuses to do (to liberals).

[TexasCajun]

I thought Richard "Dick" Clarke make calls to the UAE, whose leaders were falcon hunting with OBL?

And now this general is found to have been sharing intel with Pakistanis on OBL's location?

Are these two different times?

[Ann Archy]

Carl....PASS THIS ON TO RUSH AND MICHAEL MEDVED AND SEAN AND TONY AND HUGH HEWITT!!!!!!! This is HUGE!!!.

[Frank_Discussion]

And the press is worried about the Plame nonsense?! We could have obliterated OBL long before 9-11, and this SOB has the gall to criticize Rummy?

Just D*MN!!!!

[Ann Archy]

Carl, Zinni is also anti-Israel....can you write about that fact also?? Thanks.

[TNdandelion]

I'm betting that Clinton ordered the leak because he didn't really want to go to the trouble (and face criticism) of actually getting Bin Laden...he just wanted to look like he was trying.

[Personal Responsibility]

What was it that I remember Zinni for other than being one of the newly-annointed Six Generals of Discontent.

He did something else, worked on the Israeli - Palestinian thing maybe? I just cannot recall.

[hedgetrimmer]

Rumsfeld Critic Zinni: USS Cole Blunder My Fault

Because of his political philosophy of using US sailors and soldiers as "citizen diplomats". It got us into trouble in Somalia as well.

***

The Cole was vulnerable for 3 reasons, it was a interdiction ship capturing oil smugglers from Iraq,

Yemen was an enemy port, but General Zinni had this incredibly stupid idea that our sailors are diplomats so sending them into the hands of the enemy is good diplomacy.

They were not allowed to defend themselves in port, no weapons were allowed on the quarterdeck. When the boat came at them, they could not respond because their firearms were locked up by orders of the Central command (diplomats don't need guns you know).

In other words, our foreign policy made the USS Cole a sitting duck. The bombing was an act of war perpetrated on sovereign US territory (a navy ship) and this fact was artfully dodged by the press and the government officials responsible for those dead sailors.

20 posted on 03/16/2004 7:12:59 AM PST by hedgetrimmer

[TexasCajun]

I'd love to see another story on "Operation Merlin"

In a hairbrained scheme that was personally approved by then-President Clinton, the CIA deliberately gave Iranian physicists blueprints for part of a nuclear bomb that likely helped Tehran advance its nuclear weapons development program.

You and your team do great work.

[robowombat]

Zinni, no stupid man whatever you may think of him had clearly grasped the big lesson of the Somalia Ranger debacle. After that unfortunate event the GO's on site all took responsibility for any downside. (Considering the tactically flawed nature of the operational plan that was well and good.) The real goal was to provide cover for the White House over signing up for a problematic operation such as UNOSOM II. The White House had transmitted the desired message to the field and in return for the truncated candor no heads rolled.

After the USS Cole incident our hero
"testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in October 2000, a week after the Cole attack, the then-recently retired Zinni said: "I pass that buck on to nobody."

The real reason for this dopey arrangement involving bunkering operations was a State Department feel good initiative for the US to show its positive feelings towards the Yemeni regime and pump a few bucks into Aden ports flat tired economy. Zinni steps up to the plate ans says 'Yep I screwed up.' Knowing full well the Slimemaster in Chief would smile upon him.

[manwiththehands]

Oops!

[RetiredArmy]

Gen. Zinni said that cutbacks in the size of the Navy's fleet during the Clinton years made it necessary to use regional ports for refueling, noting: "Ten years ago, we did all refueling at sea" using Navy oilers.

Yet another reason to elect a socialist democrat. We could elect another Klinton and downsize the entire military force, decommission all our ships, mothball all our tanks and planes, and put the troops to working in national parks and city parks picking up trash and cutting grass and weeds. This would be PERFECT!!! /sarcasm on and hot!

[george76]

"Gen. Zinni may have played a role in an August 1998 leak that tipped off Osama bin Laden to an impending U.S. cruise missile attack - allowing the top terrorist to escape..."

Nice.../s

[TexasCajun]

Slick The Presidential Slacker

Presiding over a Know-Nothing Do-Nothing Administration!

...that is unless you were a Branch Davidian or a little boy from Cuba.

[Wristpin]

Clinton also spent more on procuring Anthrax vaccine for troops rotating through CENTCOM than he did on Body Armor.

Zinni the Pooh ran CENTCOM.

[upchuck]

... where the ship was blown up by al Qaeda terrorists.

I guess that depends on your definition of "blown up."

Did it sink, like the ships at Pearl Harbor, as a result of being blown up?

[middie]

As commanders we all have made errors in decisions. So what's the point? None of the Rumsfeld critics complain about any specific decision either in tactics,strategy or operationally. The umbrella of disdain for him as SecDef relates to his recurrent refusal to even listen to or consider differing perspectives in management. Commanders always --or should always--listen to all points of views, suggestions and alternatives as presented by staff members. In the end, the decision is his alone and Zinni doesn't shirk from the burden of the results of his decisions that went badly.

When JFK's entire cabinet expressed thier individual points of view on a matter during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, he listened and announced that the vote was 9 to 1 (his)and thus, the majority of one carried the decision. Harry Truman did the same regarding the relief from command of General MacArthur, he was the lone voice in the cabinet room for that result.

The supervailing point being that staff and advisors are there to be the collective Devil's Advocate for the position that differs from the boss. And, after considering their views, the boss makes a decision on his own since the ''buck'' stops with him. In Rumsfeld's case, he wouldn't even listen and punished any officer with a pre-decision differing point of view than that widely known by the group to be that of the boss. It would be the rare senior staff officer who hadn't served under a superior having a similar management methodology. It would also be the rare agency, operational entity or unit that saw such a superior's survival after a series of his unilateral decisons made in direct contradiction to the senior staff experts in any given area of operations, logistics or policy, they get replaced after a pattern of failure develops.

[OldFriend]

OMG