Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - USS Cole equipped to protect itself, defend other ships

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Friday, October 13, 2000

USS Cole equipped to protect itself, defend other ships
Investigation begins with recovering evidence of explosives
By David Briscoe
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The USS Cole, a 505-foot U.S. Navy destroyer, was well-equipped to protect itself against almost anything - except the small, bomb-carrying boat the Navy says rammed into the Cole during a routine mooring.
   The massive but speedy $1 billion ship, powered by four jet engines, is one of the Navy's most advanced, built around the high-tech Aegis combat system which employs the latest anti-aircraft and anti-submarine technology.
   Its weapons include batteries of anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles, a cannon that can launch five-inch shells more than 10 miles and two Gatling guns that each can fire 50 bullets a second.
   The primary mission of the USS Cole, an Arleigh-Burke-class guided missile destroyer, is to defend some of the Navy's biggest ships in aircraft carrier battle groups from multiple air, surface and submarine attacks.
   It was blown open in the Yemen port of Aden, where it had stopped to refuel early Thursday, by one of the smallest crafts on the water.
   A variety of terrorist groups have bases in Yemen, including alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, whose family has roots on the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Some analysts suspected Saddam Hussein, since the Cole was on its way to enforce enforcing the U.N.-ordered oil embargo against Iraq.
   U.S. intelligence has tracked members of bin Laden's al Qaeda organization routinely traveling through Yemen on their way back and forth between Pakistan and Africa, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official.
   But Abdulhakim Mujahid, a spokesman for Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, said it would have been impossible for bin Laden, who is in Afghanistan, to have directed the attack because the Taliban has denied him any outside contacts.
   Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright called the incident "a great tragedy," adding that "if it is a terrorist attack, we obviously will take appropriate steps."
   American investigators at the scene of the apparent terrorist bombing of a Navy ship will look for clues about the type and strength of explosive or detonator involved, terrorism experts and outside investigators said Thursday.
   The United States dispatched crime scene investigators, intelligence experts and diplomats to the site of the explosion in Yemen, and the government of that country promised to cooperate.
   Initially, the explosion site will be treated like a crime scene - with work focused on recovering evidence. FBI forensic investigators and Navy ordnance experts will look first at the hole in the USS Cole's side, to tell the direction of the blast, and at whatever explosive material might remain in or on the ship, said Chip McCord, a Navy official formerly in charge of recovering evidence from plane crashes, explosions and accidents.
   Remnants of the explosive would tell investigators a great deal, perhaps pointing to certain groups with access to that material, said Bernard Reich, a terrorism expert at George Washington University.

| Talk about this story | Next Story | Home |

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND

[an error occurred while processing this directive]