-Caveat Lector- http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39e7bb6e227a.htm Destroyer attack required advance knowledge: US admiral Source: Yahoo News via AFP Published: 10/13/00 WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (AFP) - The attack on the USS Cole in Yemen that left 17 sailors dead or missing required careful planning and advance knowledge of when the destroyer was due in the port of Aden, the US navy chief said Friday. But more than 24 hours after a small boat exploded alongside the Cole, blowing a gaping hole into its side, the investigation into the apparent suicide bombing was only getting under way in Yemen. In Germany, the flag-draped coffins of five sailors killed in Thursday's explosion were received in silence by honor guards on a rain-slicked tarmac at Ramstein Air Base after arriving aboard a military transport plane. Navy personnel paid visits to the next of kin of the seven dead and 10 missing sailors, including two women, amid fading hopes that those unaccounted for survived the blast. "We have not told the families of the missing they're presumed dead," said Rear Admiral Joseph Henry. But he added: "We're not extremely optimistic that we're going to find anything else but that." Thirty of the injured were being flown to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, while three others were in a hospital in Djibouti. Henry said all the injured should be in Germany by Saturday. Two US warships -- the frigate USS Hawes and the destroyer USS Donald Cook -- with reinforcements to relieve the weary, emotionally battered crew of the Cole, officials said. Meanwhile, US investigators converged on Aden, officials said. Fifty US Marines, members of a fleet anti-terrorism unit, were among the first to arrive and were joined by 50 members of an emergency response team with officials from the FBI, State Department and Justice Department, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said. More than 100 additional FBI agents were due to arrive over the next day or two, he said. "It is very clear to me that this was a very deliberate attack," Admiral Vernon Clark, chief of naval operations, said in an interview with CBS television. "This kind of attack could not have been conducted without a great deal of planning and knowledge about what our movements were going to be and when the ship was going to arrive, and all of the pieces that would make it possible for an attacker to come into proximity of the ship like they did," he said. In Beirut, a previously unknown group calling itself the Islamic Deterrence Forces claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in "defense of the honor and dignity of the Islamic nation and to avenge the blood of the oppressed Muslim nation in Palestine." But US officials still had few answers to how suspected terrorists were able to slip through navy security. The attackers took advantage of a four- to six-hour refueling stop in Aden, using a seemingly routine mooring operation by harbor craft as cover to get close enough to strike the billion dollar ship, one of the most technologically advanced in the US navy. US Navy ships have made a dozen refueling stops in Aden in the past 15 months as part of a US effort to improve relations with Yemen, a senior US navy official said. A Navy ship also made a full fledged port call in Aden in May, 1998, the official said. The US embassy in Yemen, which makes local arrangements for US ship visits, would have notified the Aden port authorities of Cole's estimated time of arrival 10 to 12 days in advance, Clark said at a press conference Thursday. Navy officials said hours can elapse between the time a ship appears on the horizon and when it anchors, giving potential attackers a crucial early warning. In this case, access to the ship would have required advance planning because it moored at a floating refueling facility in the middle of the harbor. It was not known whether the harbor craft assisting in the operation were owned by the government or private contractors. But Clark said that the destroyer's commander had no reason to suspect that a terrorist boat bomb was among the craft coming to help it moor. "We don't automatically suspect people that are sent forward to help us in an official way," he told reporters Thursday. Officials said crew of the Cole succeeded in containing flooding in the ship, and had restored some power and communications. Divers inspected the destroyer's keel and found that it was undamaged, but Bacon said it may be a week or more before it can be moved from the port. ================================================================= 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. ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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