Thomas at The Galvin Opinion has put together a post recounting the events and political repercussions arising out of the Oct 12, 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. From the introduction:
Despite the fact that bin Laden had declared war on America in 1998 the Clinton Administration never countered that we were at war with terrorists. In a radio address on October 14, two days after the attacks, Bill Clinton said "even when America is not at war, the men and women of our military risk their lives every day." In an October 18 memorial service, Clinton only devoted one small paragraph to the terrorists. He never mentioned any grave threat by name, not even Osama bin Laden or Al Qaeda. In a "Meet the Press" interview just 3 days after the attack, National Security Advisor Sandy Berger did not even bring up Al Qaeda or the risk it posed to Americans. His neglect to address the subject of our biggest enemy came just one month before the 2000 election. Top officials like Madeleine Albright and William Cohen ignored Richard Clarke's calls for attacking Al Qaeda targets for fear of derailing the Arab-Israeli peace process and creating perceptions that America is indiscriminately bombing Muslims. All of this despite the fact there was a foiled attempt on 3 U.S. targets on January 3, 2000, including an attack on "The Sullivans" in, of all places, the port of Aden, Yemen.
Go read the "Failing The USS Cole." Be prepared to become very angry.
Damm, thats the name of the ship in the previous attempt in Yemen.
"The Sullivans"
In commenting on another blog I just couldn't the name, just the fact it happened.
You can bet Al Qaeda was mighty pissed because they missed such a symbolic target in The Sullivans. You know damm well it was targeted because it was named after the five brothers that were killed in WW2.
Posted by: Cranial | Saturday, April 10, 2004 at 10:20 AM