04/28/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09851

U-S-S COLE REJOINS THE FIGHT

The U-S-S Cole is back in service just eighteen months after al-Qaida suicide bombers tried and failed to sink it. On October 12^th, 2000, terrorists in a small boat packed with several hundred pounds of high explosive crashed into the guided missile destroyer while it was in the port of Aden, Yemen. Seventeen American sailors were killed and thirty-nine others were wounded.

The Cole's crew overcame danger and hardship to recover their dead and wounded, and prevent the ship from sinking. As a U.S. Navy lieutenant working through the night with rescue crews put it, "the U-S-S Cole and her crew are sending a message . . . even acts of cowardice and hate can do nothing to the spirit and pride of the United States." Refitted with new armor plating, the Cole joins the rest of the U.S. Navy in the war against international terrorism.

Al-Qaida leaders directed the attack on the Cole from the safe haven of Taleban-controlled Afghanistan. That safe haven no longer exists, thanks to the U.S.-led coalition and Afghan resistance forces.

Many al-Qaida terrorists and their Taleban allies are now dead, captured, or on the run. Al-Qaida suffered a major blow with the arrest of its operations chief, Abu Zubaydah [ah-boo zoo-bay-dah], by Pakistani police. Abu Zubaydah is now in U.S. custody in an undisclosed location.

Zubaydah is believed to have played a key role in organizing al-Qaida cells in many countries. He is thought to have taken part in planning the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and of the Cole, as well as other terrorist attacks.

By bombing the Cole, al-Qaida sought to intimidate the U.S. and separate it from its allies in the Middle East. By bombing the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, al-Qaida sought to terrorize the American people and separate them from their friends across the world.

Instead, as President George W. Bush said, "A mighty coalition of civilized nations is now defending our common security. Terrorist assets have been frozen. Terrorist groups have been exposed. A terrorist [Taleban] regime has been toppled from power. Terror plots have been unraveled, from Spain to Singapore. And thousands of terrorists have been brought to justice and are in prison, or are running in fear of their lives."