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Wednesday, October 25, 2000
Trail of clues points to expertise, patience of Cole attack suspects
Men suspected in Oct. 12 bombing grilled fishermen about harbor comings, goings
By Donna Abu-Nasr
Associated Press
ADEN, Yemen - Behind a cinderblock fence, two men prepared their fiberglass boat, welding metal pockets inside to carry a load of explosives.
From a hilltop apartment with a roof commanding a sweeping view of the harbor, they spied on ships that stopped to refuel, probably using a pair of binoculars investigators found at the site.
They were sometimes joined by a few other men. At two other locations, they built the bombs that would blast a hole in the USS Cole, killing 17 American sailors and injuring 39 others.
The picture that emerges of the men authorities believe were behind the Oct. 12 attack indicates they had resources, expertise and patience.
Brig. Gen. Abdullah Ali Eleiwah, head of the Yemeni investigative team, would only say Tuesday that the probe is "moving forward."
A few days before the attack, the two men told neighbors they were going to Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage and planned to return in late December after the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
They have not been seen since the blast in the Aden harbor, which U.S. officials believe was the work of suicide bombers.
The men hardly talked to their neighbors. But they spent a lot of time on the beach, grilling fishermen about the comings and goings of ships in the harbor and how far they could go in their boats.
They paid at least $530 a month - a lot of money in Aden - in rent for three locations Yemeni officials believe were used for the attack. The two men introduced themselves to some as investors.
A rock-strewn footpath near the historic Rock Hotel in the Tawahi district climbs to the tiny hilltop apartment believed to have been used by the two as a reconnaissance base. Tawahi, around the western tip of Cape Aden, was an international port during 30 years of British rule of Aden that ended in 1967.
About halfway across the harbor a side street leads to a low-income area called Madinat ash-Shaab. There, a cinderblock fence hides a room the two men rented about two months before the explosion and used to weld the linings into the boat, officials said.
Nearby on Tuesday, children waiting for their school bus skipped in front of a cinderblock shack that serves as a grocery.
Further along the coastline is the Buraika neighborhood, home to senior government officials and military officers. There, the two men lived in a residential neighborhood near a huge oil refinery. The detached houses with sloping roofs and low fences were built by the British for their oil workers.
Seif Salim al Murousi, who lives nearby, said he remembered only that one tenant was bearded and he had occasionally seen them wearing traditional Yemeni dress, a brightly colored wrap similar to a sarong.
On the day of the blast, the two men left their car - described as a light-colored four-wheel drive vehicle - near a bridge over an inlet between the shack and their main residence. They are believed to have walked down a slope and into the water, where fishing boats are usually moored, before setting off on their journey.
The Cole had passed through the Suez Canal a few days before, making its way along the Red Sea toward Aden to refuel before heading to the gulf to help enforce the U.N. embargo against Iraq.
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