WASHINGTON – After receiving reports that the Yemeni government has provided information concerning the specific perpetrators who carried out the attack on the USS COLE, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., today urged Reps. C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., and Sonny Callahan, R-Ala., to consult with U.S. officials involved in the investigation before going forward with proposed legislation which would make aid to Yemen contingent on assurances that Yemen is fully supporting the investigation.
In conversations with General Tommy Franks, the Commander of Central Command, and U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine, Levin was informed that the Yemeni officials have been "fully, actively and completely cooperating"and have provided information that has been "vital, critical and fundamental" to U.S. officials involved in the investigation. Based on this information, Levin urged Young and Callahan to consult with General Franks and Ambassador Bodine before taking any further steps on the proposed legislation.
"I am concerned that your recent proposal that Congress should make any aid to Yemen contingent on assurances that Yemen is fully supporting the ongoing investigation into the attack on the USS COLE – when it clearly appears the Yemeni Government is already fully cooperating with us – could have the opposite effect from what you intend," Levin wrote to Young and Callahan. "It could be a negative and perhaps disheartening signal to them instead of the positive signal their full cooperation deserves."
And even more interesting is that Bodine's name came up when I was doing research for a post on the thread "Homeland Insecurity [FBI: Clinton diverted resources away from Arab Terror to focus on Christians]"
Bodine was a Clinton appointee.