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To: Sarmad Y. Hermiz who wrote (110473)	10/14/2000 12:12:30 PM
From: Eric Wells	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164685

Sarmad - thanks for your reply. It's interesting to note that responsibility for the bombing of the USS Cole has already been claimed by two "militant Islamic groups" (the BBC's words, not mine) as stated in the following article from the BBC web site: news.bbc.co.uk And this morning, the Yemen government appears to be rejecting the notion that the explosion was an act of terrorism: vny.com You claim that there is not much news coverage of the event. Sarmad, I assume you live in the United States - and if so, you know that most news programs, including CNN, report news in sound-bite detail. CNN mentions the explosion every half hour, but gives it only a minute or two. Last night when I returned home from my office, I watched an interview with Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon on C-Span, and I watched an interview with Secretary of Defense Cohen and US Naval Chief of Operations Adm Vern Clark on The News Hour on PBS (you can read the transcript at pbs.org. Both Cohen and Bacon stated that "terrorism" was a "potential" cause of the explosion - but that they had not yet reached a conclusion as investigations had not been completed. I believe the Navy is being a bit tight-lipped about the incident because it occurred with one of our most advanced warships, and I'm sure there is some embarrassment about the incident as well. How could our Naval security be so lax as to let one of our ships be blown up by a small boat. As for the missing men, the Defense Dept is claiming that they are presumed dead. I would think that the Navy probably knows that their bodies were completely destroyed by the explosion, making it impossible to find them much less identify them. But perhaps the Navy is exercising some respect toward the families of the victims by not releasing a public statement stating such. You say that hardly any American news agencies have bothered to send reporters to Yemen - well CNN has a team there - and they've apparently attempted to talk to some of the local people: cnn.com As for why other boats were not damaged from the explosion - the Navy is claiming that the flotilla of boats that were helping to moor the USS Cole were done with the mooring and were moving away from the ship when the one alleged boat containing the explosives returned to the ship. Keep in mind that the USS Cole was at a refueling station in the middle of the harbor, apparently not that close to other boats. The fact that the USS Cole was in the middle of the harbor would also make it difficult for news agencies to photograph the ship - and I'm sure the US Navy was not letting any get near the ship. And since the explosion, I believe the ship has been moved to an even less accessible location I agree that there is a possibility that an external event set off an internal explosion on board the ship - that is a possibility. But what was the external event? And yes, you are right, most, if not all, of the information on this event is coming from the US Defense Dept. - and while they have provided some information, they have not disclosed everything. Should the US Defense Dept be considered an unbiased source of information? No. But keep in mind that they have not yet stated anything conclusive. And as of yet, they have not said or done anything with regard to this incident that has caused me to be suspicious. As for why US news agencies are showing more grieving relatives rather than live footage from Aden - well, I see a few reasons. If television news agencies were to report from Aden what could they show - they couldn't show much, because they can't get close to the ship. Could they talk to local Yemenis - well if you believe the CNN reporter in the article above, it seems that some of the locals are hesitant to talk. So instead we see more pictures of grieving relatives - which is news, by the way. And it is much easier news to report. You must understand that US television news has an entertainment component - the networks don't do in-depth reporting. The news agencies report what is easiest to report and what they feel the audience will find most entertaining (forgive me if I'm being overly cynical here) - and what fits best in the sound-bite format. But this has nothing to do with the explosion. As for how the US Defense Dept could speculate that it was a 400 pound bomb without actually seeing it? I don't know if you ever studied physics - I took two years of it in college. Using physics and mathematics, you can determine that amount of "general" explosives that would be required to create a hole in the side of a ship of the steel construction of the USS Cole. This could all be done without seeing the bomb. As for your questioning how a terrorist group could know that the USS Cole was going to be coming into port and be able to plan this explosion? Last night on The News Hour, William Cohen stated that the port of Aden had been established as a refueling stop for US Navy ships just within the past 15 months - and that the port had been used for such purposes by US Navy ships only about 12 times. Cohen himself stated that if the explosion was caused by a terrorist group that it would have required some advanced and sophisticated planning - yet the Port of Aden had a 14 day advance notice that the USS Cole was going to be visiting for a refueling stop. Is it possible that a terrorist group had prepared the bomb in advance and was just waiting for the ship to come in? Yes, it is possible. What is ironic about this situation is that the US Defense Dept. and two terrorist groups are in agreement on the fact that a terrorist group was responsible for this explosion - while the Yemen Government appears to disagree (I don't know what evidence the Yemen government has). As for those terrorist groups which are claiming responsibility - I suppose the desire to have committed, the celebration of and the claiming responsibility for a murderous act is not quite as bad as actually committing the act itself. Thanks again for your detailed reply to my post. -Eric

To: Sarmad Y. Hermiz who wrote (110473)	10/14/2000 2:52:52 PM
From: GST	Respond to of 164685

Sarmad "The missing sailors" the horrible truth here is nothing would survive in one piece. You would not expect to find bodies.