............
THE ATTACK
HOW COULD two men in a small boat wreak so much damage on a $1 billion guided-missile destroyer equipped with all the latest defensive systems? Seventeen sailors died in the blast and the US Navy’s latest estimate of the cost of repairs is $240 million - $70 million more than at first thought. That is a quarter of the original construction cost, and it is conceivable that the ship may eventually be written off. The attack appears to have succeeded through a mis-match of technologies. American warships are well protected against the most sophisticated weapons that other countries might hurl against them, but they are far less well protected against a more basic kind of attack from an unexpected quarter.
The USS Cole left Norfolk Naval Station in the United States on August 8, 2000, for a five-month deployment which was to have included a port visit in Bahrain.
It passed through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea before arriving in Aden to refuel on October 12. According to Admiral Vern Clark, chief of Naval Operations, refuelling arrangements had been made 10 to 12 days earlier through the US embassy in Yemen - a standard procedure.
In Aden harbour, the ship did not dock at the quayside: refuelling takes place at a water-borne platform known as a dolphin. According to a US military source, the dolphin used by USS Cole is commercially-run and lies about 600 metres offshore, west of the historic Prince of Wales pier and about 100 metres east of CalTex island (see US Navy pictures of the location). The fuel contractor is Arab Investment and Trading, which is owned by a millionaire Yemeni living in London but also has heavy Saudi investment.
The propellers and shafts of the damaged destroyer USS Cole (DDG 67) on board the M/V Blue Marlin. Cole is being transported to the United States for repairs to damage sustained by the Oct. 12 terrorist bombing attack on the ship in the port of Aden, Yemen. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class J.B. Keefer.
The mooring operation was completed at 9.30 a.m. and, according to the US Navy, the ship began taking on fuel at 10:30 a.m. The ship’s records show that the explosion occurred at 11:18 a.m. - 47 minutes into the refuelling process, which takes four or five hours to complete.
There are some discrepancies in American accounts of the event, in particular timings. The US Navy initially said the explosion occurred at 12:15 p.m., while the ship was mooring. In this early version, the bombers’ boat was said to have aroused no suspicion because it seemed to be involved in the mooring operation, in which small boats are used to secure lines to the dolphin.
There may be a simple reason for these discrepancies. Naval sources suggest that since the explosion cut off the ship’s power and disabled its communications, the initial information reached the US second-hand and may have become garbled. However, a week elapsed before the navy issued its "corrected" version.
An important question for the US Navy is why lookouts on the USS Cole took no action to warn off the explosives-laden inflatable as it approached their ship. Depending on the precise rules of engagement, this may become a disciplinary matter, but it is worth noting that the early (now "corrected") version of events included a plausible excuse for the lack of action by the ship’s crew - i.e. the attackers’ boat was mistaken for a harbour craft assisting with the mooring. Early reports also mentioned that the two bombers stood to attention on their boat and saluted the USS Cole immediately before the explosion.
It later emerged that the guards on board USS Cole had instructions not to open fire unless fired upon, and that the weapons they carried were not loaded (AP, 14 November). Further internal investigations by the US Navy (AP, Reuters, ABC, 9 December) suggest that the crew - contrary to instructions - had failed to implement several basic precautions designed to protect the ship during refuelling:
- There was no co-ordinated effort to track the movement of small boats in the harbour;
- Fire hoses were not "at the ready" to drive away any small craft that came too close;
- The Cole's own small boat, which should have been used to investigate the approach of any suspicious craft, was not ready for launching.
Why these simple, obvious precautions were overlooked remains a mystery - especially in the light of previous threats and attempts to attack American interests in Yemen.
USS Cole is lifted by M/V Blue Marlin, a Norwegian dry dock vessel, off the coast of Aden, Yemen. Cole, damaged in an attack in Aden on Oct. 12, will be carried back to the United States by Blue Marlin over the next few weeks. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. M.C. Miller
THE CLAIM that the ship was attacked during the mooring process also gave rise to suspicions that the bombers must have had inside information about its impending arrival. But if the revised timings are correct, at least two hours would have elapsed between the USS Cole’s entry into the harbour and the moment of the attack.
If the bombers had already prepared the inflatable with its explosives and stored it somewhere in Aden, that should have been ample time to transport it to the sea, launch it and carry out the attack.
If more time were needed, then accomplices could easily have spotted the ship’s approach through the Suez Canal or at various points in the Red Sea. But there was probably no need even for that. Between three and six US naval ships were refuelling in Aden each month, so once the explosives were prepared it would only be a matter of waiting a few days for a target.
Aden’s natural harbour is large and the port facilities occupy only a small part of it. There are numerous places around the city from which shipping movements could be easily observed. Nor would there be any need for the bombers to sneak through port security: they could simply launch their craft elsewhere along the bay, outside the port area.
Yemen's initial reaction was that the explosion was probably not a bomb. The state-run television said that President Ali Abdullah Salih had spoken by telephone to US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and had "clarified to Albright that present information indicates that it was not a deliberate act."
Some Yemeni witnesses claimed there had been a fire on the warship before it exploded, and there were suggestions that it might have been caused by an accident during refuelling.
However, the Yemeni authorities moved swiftly to demonstrate their concern and an angry-looking President Salih was shown on television visiting the injured in hospital.
Once the Americans announced that the damage indicated an explosion from outside the warship, not from inside, the Yemeni authorities quickly accepted that it was a bomb.
THE BOMB
AMERICAN analysis of residues found in the wreckage indicates that the bombers used C-4, a military plastic explosive which has no non-military uses and is not available on the open market.. To some experts, this suggests the involvement of a state, or at least a well-organised group. C-4 was developed for the US in the Vietnam era. It has been sold by the US to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran (under the Shah), and several Nato countries possess it. The US also used it in the 1991 Gulf war.
The guided missile destroyer USS Cole (DDG 67) glides to sea this morning, passing Pascagoula area pleasure fishermen, to rejoin the U.S. Atlantic Fleet following 14 months of repairs after a terrorist bomb blew a hole in the port side of the ship while it was refueling in the port city of Aden, Yemen, on Oct. 12, 2000, killing 17 sailors. The repairs were done at the shipyard of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, Ingalls Operations. U.S. Navy photo by Stacey Byington
The formula for C-4 is not secret, and quantities have occasionally been stolen. About 20 years ago, a former CIA agent was convicted of shipping 21 tons of C-4 to Libya - allegedly for terrorist training.
C-4 does not deteriorate with age, so the explosives used in the Aden bomb could, conceivably, have been stolen at any time since the Vietnam war.
It is possible that further analysis may indicate where the explosive was manufactured and thus open up a line of investigation into how the bombers obtained it.
It is, perhaps, worth noting that the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, for which Osama bin Laden has been blamed, did not use C-4 explosives, though they used detonators containing the C-4 component, RDX.
It is thought that the bombers used 400-700 pounds of explosives. This is a large amount to conceal aboard an inflatable. Although no details of the size and type of craft used have emerged so far, the bombers seem to have had trouble keeping it afloat during a test run (or previous bombing attempt) in January.
The Cole memorial was dedicated Friday, Oct. 12, one year after the attack, at the Norfolk Naval Station's Vista Point. The 10-foot-tall monolith is encircled by 17 granite slabs overlooking where ships leaving and returning from sea pass by.
The choice of C-4 indicates that the bombers had a reasonable level of expertise, because ordinary or home-made explosives would have been less effective. But it takes no more than a quick search of the internet to discover that if you want to blast a hole in metal - tanks, ships, etc - C-4 is the explosive to use.
The shape of the USS Cole, with its sides bending outwards, and pictures of the damage, show that the force of the blast was directed both sideways and upwards. It was not the sort of attack that is expected in modern warfare - which may also help to explain the extent of the damage.
According to Paul Beaver, of Jane's Defence Weekly, the ship was "designed to withstand saturation attacks by Russian aircraft and all sorts of things," but "not designed for asymmetrical warfare … it's not what people expect these days."
Yemeni sources say the attack on the USS Cole was not the first attempt to blow up an American warship in Aden harbour. An attack on the American destroyer, USS Sullivans, in January 2000 had to be abandoned because the attackers' boat almost sank under the weight of explosives (AP 11 November, CNN 12 November). It appears that as a result of this the bombers called on an unnamed foreign expert for advice, and that the expert may have helped to shape the charge used against the Cole, maximising its effect.
Additional Sources: www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia
www.openbibleministries.com
www.al-bab.com
www.chinfo.navy.mil
www.cole.navy.mil
www.uss-rangerguy.com
www.norfolk.navy.mil
www.cargolaw.com
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on October 15:
0070 BC Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) poet Mantua Italy (Aeneid)
1542 Akbar Indian Mughal emperor (1556-1605)
1785 Jos‚ Miguel Carrera president of Chile (1811-14)
1816 Amiel Weeks Whipple Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1863
1818 Irvin McDowell Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1885
1829 Asaph Hall discovered satellites of Mars, Phobos & Deimos
1831 Helen Maria Hunt Jackson author (Ramona)
1832 Henry Harrison Walker Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1912
1836 Thomas Lafayette Rosser Mjr General (Confederate Army), died in 1910
1844 Friedrich Nietzsche Germany, philosopher/anti-semite (Ubermensch)
1858 John L Sullivan Mass, heavyweight boxing champ (1882-92)
1881 P.G. Wodehouse British-American writer (Stiff Upper Lip Jeeves)
1900 Fritz Feld actor (Jack Benny Show, At the Circus)
1902 William Edmundson Spokane Wash, vocalist (Southernaires)
1905 C P Snow England, novelist/scientist (Death Under Sail)
1907 John Cardinal Dearden US cardinal (1969-88)
1908 John Kenneth Galbraith writer (Affluent Society-1958 Hillman Award)
1909 Robert Trout Wake County NC, newscaster (ABC)
1917 Arthur Schlesinger Jr historian/author (1946 Pulitzer-Age of Jackson)
1921 Mario Puzo author (Godfather)
1924 Lee A Iacocca CEO (Chrysler Corp)
1926 Evan Hunter [Ed McBain], American writer (Blackboard Jungle)
1926 Jean Peters actress (Viva Zapata!, Apache, Deep Waters)
1935 Bobby-Joe Morrow US, 100m/200m dash (Olympic-gold-1956)
1937 Barry McGuire Oklahoma City, singer (Eve of Destruction)
1937 Linda Lavin Portland Maine, actress (Alice, Barney Miller)
1939 Carmelo Bossi Italy, light middleweight boxer (Olympic-silver-1960)
Gourmet Coffee Week Begins
1942 Penny Marshall Bronx NY, actress (Odd Couple, Laverne & Shirley)
1945 Jim Palmer NYC, Oriole pitcher/sportscaster/jockey underwear salesman
1946 Richard Carpenter New Haven Ct, vocalist (Carpenters-Close to You)
1951 Roscoe Tanner tennis player (Wimbledon Finals 1979)
1953 Tito Jackson singer (Jackson 5-ABC, Never Can Say Goodbye)
1955 Tanya Roberts [Leigh], Bronx NY, actress (Charlie's Angels, Sheena)
1959 Sarah Ferguson [Fergie], Duchess of York
1966 Jeffrey Jacquet Bay City Texas, actor (Mork & Mindy, Whiz Kids)
Deaths which occurred on October 15:
0892 Al-Mutamid calief of Abbasiden
1564 Andreas Vesalius anatomist, dies at 49
1817 Tadeusz AB Kosciusko, Polish lt-general/freedom fighter, dies
1910 Stanley "Midnight Assassin" Ketchel HW boxing champ, shot & killed
1917 Mata Hari Dutch dancer/German spy executed by firing squad in Paris
1944 Philip Mechanicus, journalist, executed in Auschwitz-Birkenau
1945 Pierre Laval former premier of Vichy France, executed
1946 Hermann Goering Nazi Reichmarshal, poisons himself in prison
1958 John Hamilton actor (Perry White-Superman), dies at 61
1964 Cole Porter composer, dies (Still of the Night, I've Got You Under My Skin...)
1968 Bea Benaderet NYC, actress (Kate-Petticoat Junction), dies at 62
1976 Carlo Gambino, US gangster, dies at 74
1981 Frank DeKova actor (Chief Wild Eagle-F Troop)
1983 Pat O'Brien actor, dies of heart attack at 83
Gourmet Coffee Week Gourmet Coffee Week Gourmet Coffee Week
Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1965 SCHULER ROBERT H. JR.---WELLSBURG NY.
1965 SIMA THOMAS W.---HANNASTOWN PA.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV]
POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.
On this day...
1501 English crown prince Arthur marries Catharina of Aragon
1520 King Henry VIII of England orders bowling lanes at Whitehall
1529 Ottoman armies under Suleiman end their siege of Vienna and head back to Belgrade
1582 Many Catholic countries switch to Gregorian calendar, skip 10 days
1641 Paul de Chomedy de Maisonneuve claims Montreal(has a cup of Gourmet Coffee to celebrate)
1655 Jews of Lublin are massacred
1789 1st presidental tour-George Washington in New England
1842 Karl Marx becomes editor-in-chief of Rheinische Zeitung
1846 Dr William Thomas Green Morton 1st public use of ether
1860 11-year-old Grace Bedell writes to Lincoln, tells him to grow a beard
1863 Cliff House opens in SF (1st of many on the site)
1864 Confederate troops occupy Glasgow, Missouri
1866 Great fire in Quebec destroys 2,500 houses (they really needed a cup of Gourmet Coffee)
1877 45th Congress (1877-79) convenes
1878 Edison Electric Light Company incorporated
1880 Cologne cathedral completed, 633 years after it begun
1881 1st American fishing magazine, American Angler published
1883 Supreme Court declares Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional
1885 Hoss Radbourne pitches his 60th win of the season
1890 Alabama Penny Savings Bank organizes in Birmingham
1892 An attempt to rob two banks in Coffeyville, Kan., ends in disaster for the Dalton gang as four of the five outlaws are killed and Emmet Dalton is seriously wounded.
1894 Capt Alfred Dreyfus arrested accused of espionage
1905 President Grover Cleveland wrote an article for "Ladies Home Journal", opposing women voters. "We all know how much further women go than men in their social rivalries and jealousies... sensible and responsible women do not want to vote."
1914 ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers) founded
1914 Clayton Antitrust Act passed
1919 14 horses begin 300-mile race from Vt to Mass for $1000 prize money and a cup of Gourmet Coffee
1923 NY Yankees 1st World Series win beating NY Giants, 4 games to 2 (World Series #20)
1925 Pitts Pirates beat Wash Senators, 4 games to 3 in 22nd World Series
Gourmet Coffee Week Begins
1928 German dirigible "Graf Zeppelin" lands in Lakehurst, NJ
1933 Philadelphia Eagles play 1st NFL game, lose to NY Giants 56-0
1935 NHL's St Louis Eagles fold
1937 Ernest Hemingway novel "To Have & Have Not" published
1939 LaGuardia Airport opens in NYC
1941 Jews caught outside the Polish Ghetto walls could be put to death
1946 Enos Slaughter scores from 1st on a single in the 43rd World Series
1949 Administration of territory of Manipur taken over by Indian govt
1949 Billy Graham begins his ministry
1949 Tripura accedes to the Indian union
1951 "I Love Lucy" debuts on CBS TV
1956 William J Brennan Jr appointed to the Supreme Court
1959 "Untouchables" premieres
1962 Byron R White appointed to the Supreme Court
1964 Craig Breedlove sets auto speed record of 846.97 kph
1964 Kosygin & Brezhnev replace Soviet premier Nikita Krushchev
1964 St Louis Cardinals beat NY Yankees, 4 games to 3 in 61st World Series (NY Yankees appears in 14 & win 9 of last 16 World Series)
Gourmet Coffee Week Begins
1965 Dodgers & Sandy Koufax win 7th game of 62nd World Series vs Twins
1966 LBJ signs a bill creating Dept of Transportation
1969 Bank of America World Headquarters (555 California) dedicated
1969 Madison Square Garden TV Network begins (Rangers vs North Stars)
1969 Oriole Earl Weaver becomes 1st manager ejected in a world series (World Series #66)
1969 Vietnam Moratorium Day; millions nationwide protest the war (no Gourmet Coffee for them)
1970 Baltimore Orioles beat Cin Reds, 4 games to 1 in 67th World Series
1974 National Guard mobilizes to restore order in Boston school busing
1974 Washington Capitals 1st NHL tie, playing LA Kings to 1-1 tie
1976 1st debate of major-ticket VP nominees Mondale (D) vs Dole (R)
1976 Ringo releases "A Dose of Rock 'n' Roll"
1977 Arkansas' Steve Little kicks a record tying 67 yard field goal
1977 Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life," goes #1 & stays #1 for 10 weeks
1983 Black Hawks & Maple Leafs combine for fastest 5 goals (84 seconds)
1983 Columbia beats Yale 21-18 in football, will lose next 44 games
Gourmet Coffee Week Begins
1983 US Marine sharpshooters kill 5 snipers at Beirut Intl Airport
1985 Shuttle Columbia carries Spacelab into orbit
1985 Shelley Taylor of Australia makes fastest swim ever around Manhattan Island, doing it in 6 hours 12 minutes 29 seconds
1987 NFL Players Assn orders an end to the 24 day strike
1988 Amnesty International's Global Concert Tour ends in Buenos Aires
1988 NCAA record rushing yardage (768 yards-Oklahoma)
1988 With 2 outs in bottom of 9th, an injured Kirk Gibson hits dramatic 2 run HR to gives Dodgers a 5-4 win in 1st game of 85th World Series
1989 Billy Graham is given the 1,900th star on Hollywood Blvd
1989 S Afr pres FW de Klerk frees Sisulu & 4 other political prisoners
1989 Wayne Gretsky passes Gordie Howes as NHL's all time top scorer
1991 Clarence Thomas is confirmed as Supreme Court Justice (52-48)
1993 The Pentagon censured three U.S. Navy admirals who'd organized the Tailhook Association convention in 1991, during which scores of women had been subjected to abuse and indignities by junior officers.
1993 Russia's ousted vice president, Alekandr Rutskoi, and the speaker of the parliament, Ruslan Khasbulatov, are charged with ordering mass disorders in the bloody street fighting between supporters and opponents of President Boris Yeltsin that left almost 200 people dead.
2001 A package containing a substance believed to be anthrax was opened in the personal office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
French Guiana : Cayenne Holiday
Tunisia : Evacuation Day
National Pet Peeve Week (Day 4)
National Grouch Day.
Gourmet Coffee Week Begins
American Magazine Month
Gourmet Adventures Month
National Sarcastics' Awareness Month
Religious Observances
US : National Day of Prayer
RC : Memorial of St Teresa of Avila, 1st woman doctor of the church
Ang : Feast of Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky, bishop of Shanghai
Forgerite : Gourmet Coffee Week
Feast of St. Gerard Majekla, patron saint of mothers, "the saint of happy childbirth".
Religious History
1784 Birth of Thomas Hastings, American sacred composer. Hastings was an albino afflicted with extreme nearsightedness, yet from his pen came such enduring hymn tunes as TOPLADY ("Rock of Ages") and ORTONVILLE ("Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned").
1790 Ann Teresa Mathews (aka Mother Bernardina) and Frances Dickinson founded a convent of Discalced Carmelites (a contemplative working order) in Port Tobacco, Maryland. It was the first Catholic convent founded in the United States.
1840 In Melville, Missouri, the Evangelical Synod of North America was founded. It later became one of the branches of today's United Church of Christ.
1900 Pentecostal evangelist Charles Fox Parham opened Bethel Bible Institute in Topeka, Kansas. It was here on January 1, 1901 that the first Christian in modern times was reported to have spoken in tongues: student Agnes Ozman.
1948 American missionary martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: '"They shall mount up with wings as eagles" (Isa. 40:31). These wings are not so typical of purity as they are of power -- strength to live above snares and everything ese...Thanks for wings, Lord.'
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness."
Gender Dictionary...
REMOTE CONTROL (ri-moht kon-trohl) n.
A. Female...A device for changing from one TV channel to another.
B. Male...A device for scanning through all 175 channels every 5 minutes.
Signs Your Cat is Planning to Kill You!...
You find a stash of "Feline of Fortune" magazines behind the couch.
The Ultimate Scientific Dictionary...
Spectrophotometry:
A long word used mainly to intimidate freshman nonmajors
Things you would like to say at work, but won't...
I'm not being rude. You're just insignificant
