-Caveat Lector-
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 15:15:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Cole Attack: Forwarded Copy opf 10/13 Electronic Telegraph
Article
I was kindly referenced to the ET article below on the Cole
attack. The article states:
<< An intelligence officer told The Telegraph it was clear that
the security breach which led to the "target of opportunity"
bombing of the Cole had been on the part of the Yemenis, rather
than a lapse in American safety procedures. >>
I disagree.
There likely WAS a security breach on the part of the Yemenis,
but that the possibility of a Yemeni security breach mattering
was itself caused by inadequate American safety procedures (e.g.,
using a local contract boat to handle the mooring to the
refueling buoy or "dolphin" rather than the ship's own boats --
probably four, including the two 25 foot rigid/inflatables
mentioned in prior posts and below).
Other American security breaches (and general stupidity, based
upon the information available to me at present) are mentioned in
my prior posts.
There will be a tendency on the part of the mainstream media to
blame the Yemenis, not the US -- this close to the elections, the
establishment view will be that such a serious loss of US
military lives had nothing to do with US failures and everything
to do with "clever" terrorists (who weren't so clever as I have
described previously), who don't fight fair, and their links to
the Yemeni government. Any state department pressure on the Navy
(which is not certain yet) to refuel in Aden as a sop to State
Department efforts to snuggle up to the current Yemeni government
will receive short shrift in the mainstream media (or so I would
think). If you lay the blame on the USG, that blame percolates
up the chain of command.
It is interesting to speculate at this point if the USN fought a
security plan for Aden refuelings that was forced on it by the
State Department or other USG agencies or resisted having to put
in to refuel at all for security reasons.
Those with long enough memories will recall the US military's
requests for armor in Somalia that was denied by DefSec Les Aspin
because the administration did not want to raise the profile of
Somalia.
The lack of US armor in Somalia (the UN armor consisted of
ancient APCs with not enough armor protection -- APCs that were
not under US control and therefore could not be brought into
action quickly to boot) resulted in much loss of life in Somalia
by the US Rangers (and a coupla D-Boys as I recall; not to
mention hjundreds of dead Somalis in related engagements) in
connection with the Blackhawk shootdown and was the main reason
Aspin (an MIT grad by the way) resigned.
Final note: the graphic of the Cole in the photo accompanying
the article below (though I am sure intended to be only an
approximation of what the ship looks like) actually shows the two
inflatable/rigid ~25-foot boats, to which I referred in my post
to CAS yesterday, on deck on the port side of the Cole somewhat
aft of the point of the explosion.
These are the boats that should have been used in two ways (as
described in yesterday's and todays posts to CAS) to prevent a
successful attack on the Cole like that she suffered yesterday.
Warm regards,
Hugh Sprunt
----------------------Article Text:
The Electronic Telegraph
ISSUE 1967 Friday 13 October 2000
21st century ship holed by a dinghy
By Ben Fenton in Washington
17 Americans die in bomb attack on warship
THE devastating suicide bomb attack on the USS Cole will be a
grave embarrassment to the Pentagon and to the Yemeni
authorities, hosts of its visit to the country's main port,
sources in Washington said yesterday.
It is a blow to State Department attempts to improve relations
with Yemen in order to stabilise the Horn of Africa region and
will look like a misjudgment on behalf of the United States navy
in allowing vessels to dock in a country with a recent history of
terror attacks against western targets.
An intelligence officer told The Telegraph it was clear that the
security breach which led to the "target of opportunity" bombing
of the Cole had been on the part of the Yemenis, rather than a
lapse in American safety procedures.
The Free Port area of Aden is supposed to be closed to the public
and the ships that tend visiting vessels are meant to be under
the control of the port authorities. Although the US navy has
begun to use Aden as a refuelling stop, visits are rare events
and are not publicised, so information about the Cole's stop is
likely to have been leaked there.
But the vulnerability of sophisticated warships in foreign ports
was underlined by the crippling of the Cole by a small craft
loaded with explosives. The Cole is designed to survive 21st
century warfare including nuclear air blasts, missile or
submarine attacks and even biological warfare, but it was
apparently crippled by "fireship" tactics that would have been
familiar to Sir Francis Drake. In a further irony, the Cole was
struck during a four-hour stop for fuel in precisely the
situation that ships' captains had recently been warned about by
intelligence agencies.
During the Cold War, torpedoes and missiles were the main threat
to the US navy, but terrorism in port had been identified by
military intelligence as the most likely cause of losses in
reports circulated around fleets in recent years. The explosion
in Aden tore a hole in the hull of a class of vessel that the US
navy calls the "most survivable surface ship in the world".
As part of a carrier battle group, the Cole's main role is to
defend its aircraft carrier from attack by submarine or aircraft.
It has Aegis, perhaps the most advanced radar command and control
system in the world, and can fire up to 90 Mk-41 Vertical Launch
System anti-aircraft missiles.
The Arleigh Burke class destroyers, of which there will be 51 by
2008, also carry Tomahawk cruise missiles with 1,000lb
conventional warheads and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. On either
side of the ship there is a Phalanx Mk15 gatling gun that can
fire 20mm depleted-uranium bullets at up to 4,500 rounds per
minute. These are designed as a last-ditch defence against
missiles or suicide aircraft, but could also be used to defend
against small surface vessels, although using them in a busy port
would be extremely dangerous.
As far as armour is concerned, the Arleigh Burkes are protected
by a twin-skin system developed in the light of the lessons
learnt by the Royal Navy in the Falklands and from the Exocet
attack by Iraqi aircraft on the American frigate Stark in 1987.
The outer steel skin is made in such a way that missiles fragment
on impact and then the force of that shrapnel should be absorbed
by a second skin. Up to 70 tons of Kevlar armour wrap the
vessel's bridge and weapons control centre.
END END END
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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