Yemen Militant Ties Limburg Attackers to Bin Laden Sat Dec 25, 2004 02:00 PM ET http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7178465 SANAA (Reuters) - A Yemeni Islamist told a court on Saturday that he and other militants behind the bombing of a French supertanker had close ties to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. "(We) were very close to Sheikh Osama bin Laden," said Fawaz al-Rabe'ie, a leader of the group of 15 who are appealing their sentences for the bombing of the supertanker Limburg and other charges.
"We had given our pledge to Sheikh Osama to kill Americans," said Rabe'ie in his final statement to the appeals court in the clearest admission yet of the group's ties to bin Laden. A Yemeni court in August jailed five of the men to 10 years for bombing the Limburg, and sentenced to death another who plotted with them to kill the U.S. ambassador to Sanaa. Another nine were jailed for the assassination conspiracy and for plotting to attack Western embassies. The Limburg bombing off Yemen's coast in October 2002 killed one of the 25 crew and ignited a fire on board the supertanker loaded with 400,000 barrels of Saudi crude. Rabe'ie, who lived in Afghanistan like several other group members, did not give details of any contacts with bin Laden. Yemen, the ancestral home of bin Laden, has cooperated closely with the U.S.-led "war on terror" to shed its image as a hotbed for militants and has arrested hundreds of al Qaeda suspects since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. cities. In September, a court sentenced two al Qaeda militants to death for the 2000 bombing of the U.S. destroyer Cole which killed 17 sailors. The Cole was refueling in Yemen when two men on a small craft laden with up to 225 kg (500 lb) of high explosives rammed their boat into the guided missile destroyer. The court is expected to rule on the appeal on Feb. 5. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
