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USS Cole in Aden - Another USS Liberty? Copyright Joe Vialls, 15 October 2000 Senior American military contacts suggest the State of Israel launched a remote air attack on the USS Cole as she entered Aden Harbour in South Yemen. If the detailed information provided is accurate, this would be the second time Israel has attacked an American ship in international waters. The first was a cowardly but ruthless attack on the unarmed American signals intelligence (SIGINT) ship USS Liberty, by Israeli warplanes in 1967. Though the powerful Jewish lobby in Washington managed to suppress all details of the attack at mainstream media level, the cowardly attack is remembered by most members of the American military. For those interested in the full story of the USS Liberty, a link is provided at the end of this report. Though the Pentagon does not yet have full details, current analysis is that the USS Cole was attacked in a "false flag" operation designed to drag America into the current Middle East conflict, firmly in the side of Israel. This makes sense. If the "Dirty Ayrabs" are attacking Israeli and American assetts at the same time, then "obviously" both injured parties should join together as allies in a formal response. The mystery currently surrounding two militant Arabs standing to attention in a small rubber boat seconds before self-destructing against the hull of the USS Cole, is no mystery at all. There was no rubber boat and there were no militant Arabs present. One moment the USS Cole was making a slow approach to her mooring, and the next the engine room suddenly exploded, killing six crew members and vapourizing another ten or eleven. Damage was massive, with a 20 x 40 foot hole in the hull, main engines destroyed, bulkheads torn apart, and severe damage inflicted on the keel. Significantly, although the strike was on the engine room(s), there was no fire. This particular point will make sense to explosives experts. The pattern of the damage, and microscopic fragments recovered from the engine room and its environs, suggest the USS Cole was struck by a television guided Rafael Popeye 2, similar to that shown in the picture below. The Popeye 2 differs only slightly from the American AGM 142A Raptor, being a little shorter in overall length and with a slightly smaller warhead. Popeye 2 is designated AGM 142B by the US military, but has never been purchased by American forces. The only nations currently known to possess and use this missile are Israel, Turkey and North Korea. Popeye 2 is a very smart weapon. Unlike most air-to-ground and anti-ship missiles which use radar or infra-red guidance, Popeye is steered manually from the strike aircraft by use of a tiny television camera in the nose of the missile. The operator in the launch aircraft watches a small TV screen, and steers the missile to its target by use of a tiny joystick - very similar to that used for computer games. Because of its guidance system Popeye is largely undetectable, and normal counter measures including chaff (anti-radar guided missiles), and flares (anti-infra red missiles), simply do not work. If the ship detects the launch aircraft and suspects an attack, close-in protection is sometimes possible with Phalanx Gatling guns mounted on the deck of the ship, but the chances of a direct hit are few, because the tiny missile comes in just above sea level at Mach 0.9, about 680 m.p.h. in standard atmospheric conditions. Popeye can be launched at a range of 50 miles (80 kilometres), has pinpoint accuracy and commonly hits a four foot-square target bullseye. The missile can be fitted with a blast-fragmentation warhead, or a "directed-energy" micro nuclear warhead delivering a 10 ton TNT (equivalent) punch. Because of the massive damage inflicted on the USS Cole by this single missile, the latter warhead seems a certainty. Those interested in specific blast effects might like to study the picture of the USS Cole shown at the bottom of this page. First, the epicentre of any blast is normally in the centre of the visible damage, which in this case would put the point of impact about eight to ten feet above the waterline, a classic strike position designed to break the ship in half. Damage to the keel supports this completely. Second, after penetration of the armored hull by a Mach 0.9 missile, the subsequent internal explosion would cause outward rippling of te hull at the entry point. This is shown very clearly by the (outward) buckled hull plates at the rear of the 20 x 40 foot hole in the hull. Whether or not the American military will make its preliminary findings public on an official basis is currently unknown, but assumed unlikely. Earlier experience at the time of the USS Liberty sinking has taught the Pentagon very well that accurate damage assessments like this, pointing the finger firmly at America's "ally" Israel, will be swept under the carpet by those in the Jewish lobby who effectively control the American media. |
