FROM..http://killtown.911review.org/flight77.html

October 12, 2000 - The USS Cole becomes victim of a "well-planned and sophisticated" terrorist attack reportedly by a pair of suicide bombers using a small boat with explosives onboard while refueling at a harbor in Yemen, which was scheduled to dock for only four to six hours, and is blamed on Osama bin Laden even though no-one has claimed responsibility.



History of USS COLE

"12 October 2000- USS COLE terrorist attack
While refueling in Aden Harbor, Yemen USS COLE was victim of terrorist attack. USS COLE was attacked on Port Mid-Ships by a small boat with explosives onboard. The result of which led to a 40 by 60 foot hole and the loss of 17 sailors." - cole.navy.mil



2000: Suicide bombers attack USS Cole

"At least six American sailors have been killed in what is thought to have been a suicide bomb attack on a US Navy destroyer in the Yemeni port of Aden.
Eleven others are missing and at least 36 wounded after a massive explosion left the USS Cole badly gashed along one side.
US President Bill Clinton said if the explosion was an act of terrorism it was "despicable and cowardly".
Witnesses to the explosion described it as being so powerful that buildings near the port shook.
It is thought an inflatable raft, packed with high explosives, rammed the USS Cole as it was apparently helping to moor the warship to a buoy.
The explosion left a gash up to 40 feet (12 metres) long in the left side of the destroyer, which is now listing badly.
No-one has claimed responsibility, however, and the Yemeni authorities say the explosion was not deliberate.
The attack on the USS Cole is the worst on an American target since the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania two years ago, in which 224 people died.
Analysts believe the man believed to be behind those attacks, Saudi-born Osama Bin Laden, could also be behind the bombing of the warship.
The ship was heading to the Gulf to join the US-led maritime interception operations in support of UN sanctions against Iraq.
Palestinian anger
A BBC correspondent in Cairo says American embassies in the region have already been the focus of angry demonstrations by crowds, who believe Washington is siding unfairly with Israel in the recent bout of renewed fighting with the Palestinians.
Just over an hour before the attack on the USS Cole, a mob lynched three Israeli soldiers after they took a wrong turning into Palestinian territory in the West Bank town of Ramallah. They mutilated their bodies before leaving them in the street." - BBC On This Day



Death toll rises in blast that tore into U.S. destroyer

"The Pentagon said Thursday the blast aboard the USS Cole was caused by a terrorist attack. U.S. officials said a pair of suspects steered a small boat loaded with explosives alongside the ship in Yemen and stood at attention as the small craft blew up.

No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion, and the two people on the small boat are unaccounted for.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has suggested a technical problem inside the Cole caused the explosion.

Because the Cole was scheduled to dock for only four to six hours during a routine refueling stop, and its presence in the port had not been advertised, Pentagon sources said any terrorist attack would have had to be "well-planned and sophisticated."

The admiral said the destroyer was on Bravo alert, a moderate security alert level that requires posting guards, controlling entry and other security measures.

But Clark said that because the small boat was involved in helping the Cole with mooring lines, it was not expected to be a threat.
After securing one line on a buoy, the pair steered their boat to the port side of the Cole and stood at attention just before their boat exploded, the sources said.

The region has been swept in recent weeks by demonstrations, some of them violent and often with an anti-U.S. tone, sparked by Israeli-Palestinian clashes in Israel and the Palestinian territories." - CNN (10/13/00)



U.S. official sees similarities between USS Cole blast and embassy attacks

"A senior U.S. counterintelligence official says that investigators working on the USS Cole bombing case see similarities between the deadly blast and the explosions at two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998.
The attack also showed a "great deal of sophistication with explosives," according to the top U.S. counterterrorism official in an interview aired Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes."
Richard Clarke, the National Security Council adviser who heads counterterrorism efforts, said U.S. and Yemeni investigators on the scene of the bombing had found valuable evidence linked to the blast.
'A sophisticated attack'
But Clarke said, "They were very large and did extensive damage. This one appears to have been very large and shaped so that the blast went into the ship."
Like the embassy bombings, the attack on the Cole was also well-planned, Clarke said." - CNN (10/23/00)



"Commander Kirk S. Lippold, USN (Ret.), was the Commanding officer of the USS Cole on October 12, 2000 when the ship was attacked and bombed by Al-Qaeda terrorists. Lippold assumed command of the Cole on June 25, 1999 and served until he was relieved on March 9, 2001." - wikipedia



(See also: 9/11 - Former USS Cole Commander says that it will take a "seminal event" to awaken American public to terrorism; 9/11 - Former lead USS Cole investigator and ex-FBI Agent, John O'Neill, is feared dead on his second day on the job at the WTC)


• October 19, 2000 - Afghanistan 'threat' to central Asia, produces 75% of the world's opium.

"Afghanistan has been accused of being the main source of instability in Central Asia by experts attending an international conference on drugs and security in the region.
Speaking at the meeting, which is being held in Uzbekistan, the United Nations Under-Secretary General, Pino Arlacchi, said Afghanistan produced 75% of the world's opium.
Mr Arlacchi - who is also the executive director of the UN's drug control agency - blamed Afghanistan for the mounting instability in central Asia.
The foreign minister of Kazakhstan, Erlan Idrisov, said Afghan-trained militias were carrying out armed incursions to protect drug-trafficking routes and spread Islamic extremism through central Asia.
Earlier this year, the UN threatened further sanctions against the ruling Taleban for, among other things, the continued production of opium.
In July, the Taleban leader, Mullah Omar, issued an edict banning the cultivation of poppies.
But a UN report published in September suggests that Afghanistan is still the biggest opium-producer in the world.
The Taleban argue that Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world and farmers need international assistance to switch to other crops." - BBC (10/19/00)

(See also: 1999 - U.S. pays entire salary of every Taliban official to secure a stable government in Afghanistan; July 2000 - Taliban bans the cultivation of opium; November 7, 2000 - Pakistan seeks Central Asia gas via pipeline through Afghanistan)