WHAT DIMWIT PLANNED USS COLE VISIT TO ADEN? (CLINTON'S WAR ON TERROR A JOKE)

WORLD TRIBUNE.COM | October 18, 2000 | John Metzler

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

Zinni is routinely lionized by the liberal-stream media, and there is NEVER any mention of the Cole issue.

Considering that Zinni wasn't in command at the time (Franks had relieved him), it's kind of understandable.

[detch]

Why would the President not be aware of a request to go into a port of a recent Soviet client state that was known to harbor terrorists?

Here are a few paragraphs from the link you provided...

But Aden was not Nairobi. Years of Soviet and militant Muslim propaganda had made Yemen’s police and internal security services skeptical of America.

And, Clarke said, no one in the upper echelons of the Clinton Administration knew that CENTCOM, which supervised the deployment of Navy ships across the Middle East, had begun monthly refueling operations in Aden.

Cohen also noted that General Anthony Zinni, then head of CENTCOM, was concerned that a major bombing campaign would cause domestic unrest in Pakistan (where bin Laden enjoyed strong support among extremists) and hurt the U.S. military’s relationship with that nation.

[Non-Sequitur]

In 2000 the Navy had the following oilers in commission. Five Cimarron class oilers: Cimarron, Monongahela, Merrimack, Willamette, and Platte. Five Supply class fast combat support ships, which are ships capable of refueling and resupply: Supply, Ranier, Arctic, and Bridge. Four Sacramento class fast combat supply ships: Sacramento, Camden, Seattle, and Detroit. In addition there were 13 Kaiser class replenishment oilers in the Sealift Command refueling ships at sea for a total of 27. Source is naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World: 1999-2000. That was a reduction of 9 oilers from 5 years before but is still 10 more than we currently have, according to the Navy website. If there was a shortage of oilers in 2000 then what do we have now?