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Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!
FBI Joins Probe
NewsMax.com Wires
Saturday, Oct. 14, 2000
SAN FRANCISCO, (UPI) - A large U.S. team of
investigators
and experts began arriving in the Yemeni port of Aden
Saturday for the complex task of trying to determine
the cause
of Thursday's suicide bomb attack against the USS Cole
that
left 17 crew members dead and 39 injured.
Around 150 FBI agents and evidence and explosives
experts
and Defense Departments specialists from Washington were
expected to be engaged in investigating the bombing for
which two little-known Islamic radical groups have
claimed
responsibility. Arab and Western experts are taking the
claims
of the two organizations - the Islamic Deterrence
Forces and
Mohammed's Army - seriously, but they believe they may
be
terrorists from old militant outfits in the region that
have
assumed new names.
"We have no previous reports of their activities and
that's why
we believe it is old wine in new bottles," said an Arab
intelligence official who monitors the activities of
the so-called
Arab-Afghans, citizens of Arab states who participated
in the
Afghan war. Many of these Arab-Afghan fighters are now
associated with various militant groups. Since 1992,
when an
Arab militant group bombed the Egyptian Embassy in
Islamabad, killing 15 people, most Arab embassies in the
region maintain big intelligence outfits.
An American specialist in international terrorism
commented
that the bomb attempt was too ambitious for a newly
formed
group. "You do not form a group one day and the next
day you
go and attack an American warship," he said. "You need
a lot
of courage and practice for that."
You also need preparation. Eyewitnesses of the explosion
said the attack was made by a small watercraft that had
been
helping the Cole to dock before refueling. The boat,
which was
manned by two men, was packed with explosives, and the
two
men stood at attention just before the explosion ripped
into the
ship's hull.
Various experts have pointed out that the attack had to
be the
work of people with advance information about the Cole's
arrival in Aden on a refueling stop. A Pentagon
spokesman
said Friday U.S. fleet movements are not made public,
but the
port was routinely notified about 10 or 12 days in
advance of
the USS Cole's arrival so as to ensure that the fuel
would be
available.
Despite his silence, the Al-Quaida group of terrorism
suspect
Osama bin Laden remains one of the prime suspects.
Washington holds bin Laden responsible for masterminding
the August 1998 bombing of its two embassies in East
Africa
that killed 224 people.
Bin Laden has been hiding in Afghanistan since 1996 and
U.S. intelligence sources claim that he has at least
two major
training camps where he trains militants for his
Al-Quaida and
other Islamic groups. "He has a cadre of dedicated and
well-organized supporters who can do anything for him.
He
also has sympathizers across the Muslim world and is
capable
of striking wherever he wants," said an Arab diplomat.
But bin Laden has long had ties with Yemen, a country
where
several Islamic radical groups and terrorist
organizations
blend into a landscape of traditional tribal rivalries
and
old-fashioned bandits. Saturday Yemeni officials denied
U.S.
State Department claims that it harbored terrorism. But
observers said the Yemeni government was only in
control of
the towns, or about a third of the country, and
lawlessness
prevailed almost everywhere else.
Saudi dissident bin Laden has close contacts with
Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia, which has refused
to expel
him despite strict U.N. sanctions to force his
expulsion. After
the 1998 bombing of American embassies in East Africa,
the
United States launched missile attacks against bin
Laden's
bases in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical company in
Sudan
that had links with him.
The attacks apparently caused little damage to him and
his
capability to retaliate. Western and Arab intelligence
officials
say that the Saudi dissident has been quietly active
throughout
this period, maintaining and strengthening his links
with
militants across the Middle East.
Two other militant groups - the Egyptian Islamic Jihad
and the
Islamic Army of Aden - are also active in Yemen. The
Islamic
Army's leader, Zein Al-Abidine Al-Midhar, was executed
two
years ago for kidnapping two American and 14 other
Western
tourists, but his groups remains active in the area.
Also high on the suspect list are the Popular Front for
the
Liberation of Palestine and the Abu Nidal group. Both
have
been relatively quiet, but Western and Arab intelligence
officials say that they still maintain a close-knit
network of
supporters and sympathizers. Hamas and the
Iranian-backed
Palestine Islamic Jihad groups are also active in Yemen.
However, Western observers say that since Iran is
trying to
improve its relations with the West, the groups would
not
attacks U.S. targets at this stage.
"But disgruntled elements within these groups are
capable of
carrying out such attacks," said an Arab intelligence
official.
Another major militant group in the region, the Lebanese
Hezbollah, also has sympathizers in the region. But
since its
successful campaign to push the Israeli army out of
south
Lebanon, Hezbollah has lately been acting more as a
regional
army than a secretive organization. Experts believe
that it
would be reluctant to get involved in such attacks at
this stage.
Last week, however, the group captured three Israeli
soldiers
at the Lebanese-Israeli border. Like other militants in
the
region, it is seething with anger over the situation in
Israel
where clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians
have
killed 97 people, mostly Palestinians.
One thing is clear: Whoever may have arranged the
attack, the
Americans are determined to punish those responsible.
Describing it as "a despicable and cowardly act,"
President
Clinton has warned that the United States will "find
out those
responsible and hold them accountable." First, however,
it has
to pinpoint the group or groups responsible.
Copyright 2000 by United Press International. All rights
reserved.
*COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107,
any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use
without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational
purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ]
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