-Caveat Lector-
Tuesday October 17 5:42 PM ET
USS Cole Attack Linked to Two Men
By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer
ADEN, Yemen (AP) - Investigators found bomb-making equipment in
an apartment near the port of Aden and believe two former
occupants may have carried out the suicide bombing that killed 17
sailors aboard the USS Cole, security officials said Tuesday.
U.S. authorities would not comment directly on the disclosure.
But the ambassador, Barbara Bodine, described the investigation
as advancing ``a quantum leap.''
``We are very hopeful we are going to get to the bottom of
this,'' she said.
Yemeni officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, identified
the missing men only as non-Yemeni Arabs. Other Yemeni officials
said they were from neighboring Saudi Arabia.
Moments before the huge blast Thursday, two men were seen
standing on the deck of a small vessel alongside the destroyer,
U.S. authorities said. A 40-by-40-foot hole was blown into the
Cole's hull and the attack ship disintegrated into ``confetti
size'' pieces.
On Tuesday, divers and other crew members using metal-slicing
torches and crowbars pulled six more bodies from the tangled
bowels of the Cole. Officials initially said seven bodies were
recovered Tuesday, but later corrected the figure. Six victims
remain trapped near the blast site.
...
Speaking about the two suspects, the Yemeni officials said the
apartment was searched Monday, when Yemen reversed an earlier
position and called the blast ``a premeditated criminal act.'' A
senior Saudi intelligence official visited Aden on Monday, but no
details of the meeting were made public.
The Yemeni officials would give no further information on the
material found, but said the missing men arrived in Yemen four
days before Thursday's attack.
Bodine declined to comment on details of the case or speculate on
possible links to larger terrorist groups, including that of
Afghan-based Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden. She stressed that
the investigation would continue.
``We want this investigation to go further ... to see how far
back we can walk this. And those kinds of investigations can
sometimes take some time,'' she said.
The Yemeni find could be a key break on the first day of work for
a joint FBI (news - web sites)-Yemeni task force. The hunt,
however, is already well under way.
So far, Yemeni security forces have interrogated hundreds of port
workers and others, including the head of the company that
services U.S. warships. Some fragments from the blast were
shipped to the United States for analysis by the first FBI agents
to arrive after the attack. That initial evidence arrived on U.S.
shores Monday night.
There has been no credible claim of responsibility for the
deadliest terrorist attack on the U.S. military since the 1996
bombing of an Air Force barracks in Saudi Arabia that killed 19.
Immediate suspicion fell on bin Laden, accused in the 1998
bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224
people. In retaliation, the United States fired dozens of
Tomahawk cruise missiles at his suspected stronghold in eastern
Afghanistan.
In his first statement since December 1998, bin Laden said
Tuesday that another such attack would not kill him or deter his
battle against the ``enemies of Islam.'' He made no direct
reference to the Aden attack. Afghanistan's Taliban rulers on
Monday denied bin Laden was involved, but also said Tuesday that
he could not have issued a statement because all means of
communications have been denied him.
FBI Director Louis Freeh transferred the investigation from
Washington to the command of John O'Neill in the New York field
office, which handled the East African embassy bombing cases. But
U.S. officials denied this meant they could link the blast to bin
Laden at this point.
The full FBI team is expected to swell to 100 agents. Seventy are
already in Aden, and 30 others are waiting in Germany for
accommodations to be arranged.
Many Yemenis have said they do not believe the attack was the
result of a homegrown plot, and Tuesday's disclosures put the
spotlight on Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden is a Saudi national of
Yemeni heritage.
Border disputes have marred relations between Yemen and Saudi
Arabia, but an agreement was signed in June to seek a solution.
Yemen has long contested the Saudi claim to three Red Sea islands
and parts of the Empty Quarter, a vast desert region with
potentially lucrative oil deposits.
Aboard the stricken Cole, wreckage specialists fought their way
through collapsed bulkheads and a maze of twisted metal to reach
bodies. Above the oily harbor water, blowtorches cut slowly
throughthe reinforced steel. Beneath them, in the cavern created
by the blast, divers poked slowly through murky passages and
fissures.
The divers - some of whom plucked victims from the doomed TWA 800
flight near Long Island in 1996 - carried tools to try to pry
apart the metal trapping the bodies.
The bodies recovered Tuesday were found above and below the water
line, said Rear Adm. Mark Fitzgerald, who is leading naval
operations in the area. The cause of death: ``trauma from the
blast,'' he said.
Five bodies were recovered last week and were flown back to the
United States.
A memorial service for victims of the bombing is scheduled
Wednesday at Norfolk Naval Station, the Cole's home port in
Virginia. President Clinton (news - web sites) and Defense
Secretary William Cohen plan to attend.
Security worries in Aden have mounted as more American
investigators arrive in a nation the State Department described
as a ``haven'' for terrorists. Efforts are made to keep most
personnel either on other U.S. warships just offshore or in a
hotel guarded by Yemeni soldiers and U.S. Marines.
U.S. Navy officials say it could be weeks before the Cole can be
raised onto a heavy lift ship and transported back to the United
States for repairs.
Nearly a week after the blast, one Cole sailor said she still has
difficulty absorbing the aftermath.
``The first time I got a chance to sleep for an hour or so ... I
woke up and I forgot,'' said Lt. Ann Chamberlain, of Washington,
D.C.. ``It's weird.''
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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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