USS Cole Bombing

Nearly one year before the attacks of 9/11, the U.S. Navy ship Cole, located off the coast of Yemen, was attacked by suicide bombers. The attack was later attributed to a cell within the Al Qaeda network; it had been supervised by Osama Bin Laden. The Cole bombing alerted Americans of the reality of terrorism, though, even when the connection to Al Qaeda was established, the threat represented by the Al Qaeda network remained generally underestimated.

October 12, 2000

On Thursday, October 12, 2000, while refueling at a port in Aden, Yemen, the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole was attacked by a two suicide bombers navigating a small motorboat full of explosives. The explosion occurred at 11:18 a.m. Bahrain time, killing 17 crew members and wounding 40 others.

Witnesses later said the boat, which sidled up along the ship’s port side, came so close prior to the explosion that sailors aboard the USS Cole exchanged greetings with the two suicide bombers, who stood at attention just before the explosives detonated. The explosion occurred as crewmembers had begun lining up for lunch in the galley, and blew a hole 40 feet wide in the side of the ship. The blast was likely caused, CIA officials believe, by a “shape charge;” explosives molded into the hull of the boat.

The ship, which was carrying a crew of 293, was en route to the Persian Gulf to help enforce an oil embargo against Iraq. Though the port in Aden had once been off-limits to U.S. ships as a safety measure, it had been reopened both because of, and to help further, improved U.S.-Yemen relations. The day of the bombing, U.S. President Bill Clinton said in a statement, “If, as it now appears, this was an act of terrorism, it was a despicable and cowardly act.” The attack represented the first major international terrorist attack on a U.S. facility since the 1998 bombings of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the deadliest against a U.S. Naval vessel since the USS Stark came under Iraqi attack in 1987.

Aftermath

The USS Cole bombing investigation was one of the largest FBI investigations for a crime occurring outside of the United States.

Soon after the bombing, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said the attack was "a very well-planned operation, and it seems it was prepared a long while ago." Senior Navy personnel also suspected that the attackers had attained the ships layout and schedule, since the attack seemed to have been positioned and timed for maximum bloodshed.

Al Qaeda was immediately suspected as they had attempted a similar attack on the USS The Sullivans on January 3, 2000. This attack had failed, but the boat and the explosives were salvaged, and officials believed they were then used in the attack on the USS Cole.

A team of FBI agents arrived in Aden the day after the bombing, soon followed by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the CIA. Despite initial friction between American agencies and the Yemeni authorities, U.S. and Yemeni investigators quickly succeeded in identifying the ringleader of the attack as Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who acted as operations chief for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He is also suspected of being involved in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Arrested in 2002, al-Nashiri is now held in a Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

It eventually became clear that Bin Ladin was directly involved in the attack, having chosen the target and location, and providing necessary financial aid to his operatives, among them Fahd al Quso, who was tasked with filming the attack. Fahd al Quso and another operative, Jamal al Badawi, were arrested by Yemeni authorities in the first weeks after the attack.

The suicide bombers were identified as Yemeni nationals, Ibrahim al-Thawr and Abdullah al-Misawa. In total, six men were arrested and charged with aiding and planning the USS Cole bombing. The alleged mastermind, Abu Ali al-Harithi, was killed in November of 2002, in a missile attack.

Everyone convicted in Yemen of the terrorist attack on the USS Cole has now escaped or was freed from prison by May of 2008.

The bombing had a significant impact on America’s view of the threat of Islamic terrorism. In response, officials recommended that counterterrorism take on a central role in the agenda of the Secretary of Defense and that an Assistant Secretary be named to focus on the implementation of counterterrorism strategies. However, many of the recommendations were not adopted until after 9/11, which occured less than a year later, too soon for significant changes to counterterrorism efforts to take effect.

Meanwhile, the bombing served to bolster Al Qaeda’s popularity among jihadist movements. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Al Qaeda used images of the attack to rouse support and increase recruitment.

USS Cole Today

The damaged USS Cole was returned to the United States on October 31, 2000, by way of the S.S. Blue Marlin, a Norwegian heavy lift ship, and arrived in December of that year at a facility in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

On October 12, 2001, the USS Cole Memorial dedication ceremony was conducted at the Naval Station in Norfolk, VA. The Memorial was funded by the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, and designed in large part by USS Cole crew members.

The USS Cole was recommissioned in Mississippi on April 19 2002, and departed in November of 2003 for its first six-month deployment since the bombing. The Cole is currently home ported in Norfolk, VA.

Sources

“Burden of Proof”
October 18, 2000
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0010/18/bp.00.html

“Crisis in the Middle East; The USS Cole Attacked”
October 12, 2000
http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0010/12/se.03.html

“Probe of USS Cole Bombing Unravels: Plotters Freed in Yemen; US Efforts Frustrated.”
May 4, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/03/AR2008050302047.html?

“Yemeni pair charged in USS Cole bombing”
May 15, 2003
http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/05/15/cole.bombing.charges/index.html

“Two sentenced to death for Cole bomb”
September 29, 2004
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/09/29/yemen.cole/index.html

“Military to seek death penalty for USS Cole suspect”
June 30, 2008
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/06/30/cole.charges/index.html

“Judge: Sudan responsible for USS Cole attack”
March. 14, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17598388/

“Seaman Recalls a Day When Quiet Turned to Chaos”
October 17, 2000
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E5DE163EF934A25753C1A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

“Profiles of the USS Cole Victims”
October 16, 2000
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/10/13/shipattack.thumbnails.02.ap/index.html

“USS Cole survivor recalls aftermath of the explosion”
October 16, 2000
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/10/16/uss.cole.injured/

National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. (Philip Zelikow, Executive Director; Bonnie D. Jenkins, Counsel; Ernest R. May, Senior Advisor). The 9/11 Commission Report. New York, N.Y.: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004 Jul 22.