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Yemeni president cites 'positive' developments in Cole attack probe
ADEN, Yemen (CNN) -- The investigation into the attack against the USS Cole has produced some "positive" preliminary results, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Wednesday, without elaborating.
Several people were being questioned Wednesday in connection with the October 12 explosion, including nationals from Algeria, Sudan, Egypt and Yemen, according to two senior Yemeni officials who spoke with CNN. Although dozens of people have been detained and questioned, no arrests have been made in the case. Shortly after the attack, bomb-making materials were found in an apartment near the harbor. Authorities found what they believe to be a hideout used by the attackers and a car and trailer that they suspect were used to put a boat carrying the explosives into the water. Investigators believe two suicide bombers maneuvered a small boat next to the Cole in the port and detonated the explosives. The attack on the destroyer killed 17 U.S. sailors and injured 39. New evidence suggests at least one of the bombers blown up in the attack might have been Egyptian, the two senior Yemeni officials said. One witness reportedly told investigators the bomber was Egyptian and had obtained fake identification. During an interview Wednesday on the Middle East Broadcasting Center, the Yemeni president said the people detained included members of the Islamic Jihad. He did not say whether he meant Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which has ties to accused terrorist kingpin Osama bin Laden, or Palestinian Islamic Jihad or some other group using that name. In a prior interview last Thursday with CNN, Saleh had specifically cited Al Jihad, an Egyptian based group. Saleh also said an Egyptian was a suspect, but when pressed on the man's nationality, he said he could not be sure. Asked about possible involvement by bin Laden, a wealthy hard-line Muslim fundamentalist born in Saudi Arabia but now living in Afghanistan, Saleh said it was wrong to "point fingers" until the investigation is completed. He told CNN last Thursday that "it could be" that bin Laden was responsible for the attack. Somali woman questionedMeanwhile, authorities in Yemen also have questioned a Somali woman who says she bought a car used by the bombers to haul their small attack boat, sources told CNN on Wednesday. The Associated Press, also citing sources, reported that a Yemeni carpenter detained by authorities allegedly helped the attackers modify the boat to carry explosives. Security officials in Taiz, northwest of Aden, said they had questioned a woman who said the men gave her money to buy a car in her name that they used to haul their boat to shore. The woman was identified only as a Somali. No other details were immediately available. The carpenter said Tuesday that he had helped two men refit a small boat to carry explosives and then helped them load the explosives into the boat, the AP report said. It was not immediately clear if the man knew what the two planned to do with the bomb-laden boat. He was not named. The carpenter had rented the men the house in Aden where they worked on the boat, the AP sources said. They said he had been detained since a day after the bombing, but only provided details of his involvement on Tuesday. Senators: Intelligence expert quit day after bombingIn Washington, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee said a U.S. intelligence expert on terrorist threats in the Persian Gulf region resigned the day after the Cole was attacked in Yemen.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, said the official quit in protest of what he believed was an unjustified lack of attention to terrorist threat warnings he had provided before the warship was bombed. The actual threat warnings this official provided have not been made public. Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, chairman of the committee, said the panel decided not to release a letter the unnamed Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) official provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday. Roberts said the official was interviewed for six hours by the Intelligence Committee's staff. "What he felt is that his assessment was not given that proper level of consideration by his superiors and, as such, was not incorporated in" the final intelligence reports provided to military commanders in the Gulf, Warner told reporters after the committee's hearing. The DIA dismissed reports that the official was a top intelligence expert, describing him as a mid-level analyst. Although published reports have said the United States received vague intelligence reports about a possible attack against a U.S. warship ahead of the Cole bombing, Pentagon officials have emphasized they were not specific enough to issue a warning to American forces. "Information of that kind -- had it existed, which it didn't -- would have been disseminated on a most urgent basis to all those affected by it," Undersecretary of Defense Walter Slocombe told the committee. U.S. forces in Gulf remain on highest alert
U.S. military forces in the Persian Gulf region -- including sailors on the crippled Cole -- remained on the highest state of alert Wednesday as a precaution against terrorist attacks. The alert, known as Threatcon Delta, was issued by the Pentagon over the weekend in response to what it said were specific terrorist threats against U.S. forces in the region. It would not describe the nature of the threats and said it had not determined whether they were credible. The order, which covers U.S. forces in Bahrain and Qatar, also includes keeping all ships in the Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet at sea "for the foreseeable future." U.S. forces in Yemen are covered, too: the crew of the Cole, plus military personnel on seven nearby U.S. ships providing support and security for Americans investigating the bombing and preparing the destroyer for transport back to the United States. The Blue Marlin, a giant high-tech tow ship on a mission to pick up the Cole, is scheduled to arrive in Aden on Saturday. The Associated Press contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: U.S. reports increase in terrorist threats RELATED SITES: Welcome to the Official Homepage of the Government of Bahrain | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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