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Monday, October 30, 2000

USS Cole leaves harbor
Navy mulls places to repair destroyer
Associated Press
ADEN, Yemen - Sailors aboard the USS Cole stood at attention as the national anthem played and the battered destroyer glided out of Aden port Sunday, towed by tugboats to a Norwegian heavy-lift ship that will take it home to repair the gaping hole in its side.
   For the sailors, the departure meant leaving behind the harbor where 17 shipmates were killed and 39 were injured on Oct. 12 in what officials believe was a suicide bombing attack.
   "She left with some help from her friends, but she still left very proudly," Barbara Bodine, the U.S. ambassador to Yemen, said of the Cole.
   The destroyer's journey began at 9:20 a.m. local time as the American flag was hoisted on a mast to a hearty cheer from the sailors. Two yellow tugboats steadily and slowly pulled the destroyer out to sea while two more pushed. Two U.S. patrol boats led the procession, and a helicopter made flying runs overhead.
   The "Star-Spangled Banner" soon gave way to "Cowboy," a rap song by Kid Rock that's about survival and rebellion. As the loudspeakers blared, "I wanna be a cowboy, baby," the song seemed to amplify the mood of the crew, which fought heroically to save their ship and their mates after two suicide bombers rammed a boat full of explosives into the Cole as it was refueling.
   The Cole's crewmembers, who have remained on their ship since the attack, were given the option to fly back to the United States on Sunday evening.
   Virtually all of them, however, decided to stay aboard and chaperone her to the Blue Marlin, a massive Norwegian heavy-lift ship waiting some 20 miles away in the deeper water of the Arabian Sea.
   "I'm not going to say they've put the attack behind them," said a Navy official who spent two days last week on the Cole. "But I think they're ready to move ahead."
   The trip back to the United States was expected to take about five weeks.
   Yemenis relieved
   As the Cole left the harbor, it passed a cluster of buildings where the two suspects in the bombing are believed to have lived as they planned the attack.
   Visible from shore was the 40-foot-by-40-foot blackened hole blasted into the ship's left side. Officials believe the bombers, who have not yet been positively identified, maneuvered a small boat packed with explosives next to the Cole and then detonated it.
   The departure of the Cole is a relief for ordinary Yemenis.
   There has been widespread anger at the United States here for what many Yemenis believe is U.S. bias toward Israel in its confrontations with the Palestinians. Also, tight security in the harbor had made it difficult for Yemeni fishermen to work in the weeks since the bombing.
   "It was like a boogeyman keeping our fishermen away. Thank God it has gone. The sight of an American ship in our waters is not a beautiful sight," said one resident, Ibrahim Ahmed.
   Bodine said the crisis support personnel who came to Yemen after the attack are beginning to leave.
   But, she said, the probe has not ended - the U.S. Embassy will maintain a presence in Aden to support the FBI investigation and a group of investigators based on Navy ships.
   The second phase
   "This will be the second phase," she said. "It will not be short. It will not be easy."
   The Cole was to be loaded aboard the Norwegian ship Blue Marlin today in deep waters far from shore.
   The Blue Marlin will fill its ballast tanks, slowly submerging its deck, and maneuver under the Cole.
   Then it will empty the tanks, rising and lifting the 8,300-ton destroyer out of the water.
   The process is expected to take at least 24 hours, but the timing isn't certain because the condition of the damaged ship will only be clear once it is lifted from the water.
   The Blue Marlin usually is used to lift and transport commercial cargo such as oil rigs.
   The Navy signed a $4.5 million contract with the Blue Marlin's owner, Offshore Heavy Transport of Oslo, Norway, just a few days after the Cole was attacked while refueling in Aden.
   The Navy has said it intends to repair the Cole and return it to service, although it has not yet decided where the work will be done.
   Talks with Congress
   Initially, the Navy said it planned to take the Cole back to its home port, Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia. But the ship also could go to Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., where it was built, or to the Bath Iron Works shipyard in Bath, Maine, which built other Arleigh Burke-class destroyers like the Cole.
   The Navy has told Congress it may take $150 million to repair the Cole, which cost $1 billion to build.
   At the urging of Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., senior budget writers have agreed to include the money as part of a final spending bill making its way through Congress in the closing days before adjournment.
   The bill includes language urging "that the welfare of the crew, and of the families of the crew, of the USS Cole shall be considered in the Navy's selection of the process and location for repair" of the ship.
   Navy officials said a decision will await further details on how extensively the ship is damaged, how long the work will take, and other considerations.


Knight Ridder Newspapers contributed to this report.

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