U.S. failure to retaliate for USS Cole attack rankled then — and now

Today crew and family members gather at a U.S. naval base to mark the 10th anniversary of the bombing of the USS Cole; the bombing killed 17 U.S. sailors and injured 38. In October 2000 the Cole was hit by a small skiff manned by two al- Qauda suicide bombers, while being docked off the coast of Yemen for refueling. The bombing ripped a 60-by-40-foot hole in the ship’s hull, trapping the bodies of many of the dead crew members. Clinton never retaliated against al-Qaida telling the 9/11 commission that he had no hard proof that Osama bin Laden’s operatives were behind the attack. The U.S. counterterrorism and other U.S. officials said otherwise. “Within two weeks we had significant information (that) we felt … was solid evidence that the attack was linked not only to al-Qaida but to Osama bin Laden,” said Mark Fallon, chief of the U.S. Navy investigative task force. The Bush administration also ignored repeated warnings from counterterrorism officials that bin Laden was taking credit for the bombing.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39622062/ns/us_news-security

Posted by Christine Steinbeiss