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Politics : Leftwing Agenda to Destroy the US -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neeka who wrote (454)	4/18/2006 2:05:19 PM
From: paret	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 908

Rumsfeld Critic Zinni: USS Cole Blunder My Fault NewsMax.com ^ \| April 18, 2006 \| Carl Limbacher Former CENTCOM Commander, Gen. Anthony Zinni - who has called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign because of his alleged incompetence in running the Iraq war - admitted six years ago that he made the disastrous decision to have the U.S.S. Cole use the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling, where the ship was blown up by al Qaeda terrorists. Worse still, at least one report indicates that Gen. Zinni may have played a role in an August 1998 leak that tipped off Osama bin Laden to an impending U.S. cruise missile attack - allowing the top terrorist to escape. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in October 2000, a week after the Cole attack, the then-recently retired Zinni said: "I pass that buck on to nobody." The Rumsfeld critic explained that he personally signed off on berthing the Cole in Yemen even though "their coast is a sieve for terrorists." "The threat conditions in Aden were better than elsewhere," he insisted, citing risk assessments for Sudan and Saudi Arabia. Gen. Zinni said that cutbacks in the size of the Navy's fleet during the Clinton years made it necessary to use regional ports for refueling, noting: "Ten years ago, we did all refueling at sea" using Navy oilers. Still, prior to the Cole attack, there's no record that Gen. Zinni ever complained about Clinton era defense cuts. In what may be an even more troubling development, a report indicates that the leading Rumsfeld critic may have inadvertently played a role in tipping off Osama bin Laden to an impending U.S. cruise missile attack two years before the Cole episode. Two days after President Clinton ordered the attack on bin Laden's encampment in Khost Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported: "Kuwait's Al-Watan newspaper, quoting unidentified sources in London today, reported that Pakistan leaked to bin Laden news about an impending U.S. strike. The sources said the leak was aimed at limiting casualties, so that bin Laden would have less justification for a counterattack. "A Pakistani government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Gen. Anthony Zinni, commander of the U.S. Central Command, was in Peshawar the day before the attack to meet with Pakistani officials. "Other Pakistani sources said Zinni came with a team of U.S. intelligence experts whose task was to pinpoint the camps and determine bin Laden's exact whereabouts."

To: Neeka who wrote (454)	4/18/2006 2:07:04 PM
From: paret	Respond to of 908

Turban Durban not considering resigning.

To: Neeka who wrote (454)	4/18/2006 2:09:11 PM
From: PROLIFE	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 908

Dirtpin is a disgrace. He should know a vote such as that just further divides the country.

To: Neeka who wrote (454)	4/18/2006 2:28:34 PM
From: paret	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 908

The Cole was vulnerable for 3 reasons, it was a interdiction ship capturing oil smugglers from Iraq, Yemen was an enemy port, but General Zinni had this incredibly stupid idea that our sailors are diplomats so sending them into the hands of the enemy is good diplomacy. They were not allowed to defend themselves in port, no weapons were allowed on the quarterdeck. When the boat came at them, they could not respond because their firearms were locked up by orders of the Central command (diplomats don't need guns you know). In other words, our foreign policy made the USS Cole a sitting duck. The bombing was an act of war perpetrated on sovereign US territory (a navy ship) and this fact was artfully dodged by the press and the government officials responsible for those dead sailors.