For some time he had been telling his bosses and whoever would listen that Yemen, where the attack on the USS Cole took place, held the key to unraveling Bin-Laden’s network.Bodine's BioThe Yemenis, he felt, like the Saudis, had been withholding crucial evidence about Al Qaeda. In one trip to Saudi Arabia intended to allow him to interrogate suspects, he discovered on his arrival in the country that the suspects had been executed.
He had not expected much more from the Yemenis when he arrived in Aden, the Yemeni capital, in 2000.
What he had not anticipated was that the US State Department, through its representative in the country, Barbara Bodine, would seek to stymie his investigation.
Bodine would later describe her first meeting with John O’Neill in an Aden hotel in terms which were less than glowing. In fact, she trivialized the episode by saying that when she saw him walk into her hotel room she thought, “You’d better get rid of that suit” in this climate.
The fact was that Bodine was there to smooth out the political relationship with the Yemen government. O’Neill was there to find the terrorists who bombed the USS Cole and the masterminds behind it. Of all the intelligence he had, there was one crucial piece: satellite phone intercepts had identified a leading Al Qaeda operative in Aden who had been regularly in touch with Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan.
While Bodine wanted to play footsie with the Yemenis, John O’Neill wanted results and he had arrived there prepared to kick in doors to get them.
His other genuine concern had been for the safety of his large team of agents and others he had planned to arrived in the country. He told Barbara Bodine that they needed to have the necessary firepower to protect themselves – not their customary .38, 9mms or .45 semi-auto pistols. That had not sat well with Bodine who insisted that O’Neill and his agents should maintain a low profile. He had known better what he was up against. He and his men would be a target and a vulnerable one if not properly armed.
After heated arguments, Bodine with the approval of her bosses in the State Department in Washington reluctantly agreed that 25 FBI agents could carry automatic weapons. Her dislike of John O’Neill’s brusque, no-nonsense style – the only one likely to be effective – led to her firing off complaints to Washington that O’Neill’s tactics could damage US-Yemen relations. In effect, she quickly won the battle but lost the war. Her constant sniping at O’Neill reached the media in the US. I wrote to John O’Neill an off-beat piece about Bodine and later talked to him about her.
What she had failed to understand – and it would become apparent later – the Yemeni who had been in contact with Bin-Laden turned out to be an uncle of the one of the 9/11 hijackers. The coverage of the O’Neill-Bodine dispute led to the State Department lobbying the White House and the FBI Director, Louis Freeh, to remove John O’Neill from Yemen. Freeh had been reluctant to do so but had to give way to the pressure on Capitol Hill.
It would prove to be a crucial error by Bodine and her allies in Washington. The one man with an intimate knowledge of Al-Qaeda had been removed from the case.
She was a Clinton appointee. Upon further research on her...I found this...
In conversations with General Tommy Franks, the Commander of Central Command, and U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine, [Carl] 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 [which would make aid to Yemen contingent on assurances that Yemen is fully supporting the investigation. ].Funny thing too...I just read the story Yemeni admits smuggling $500,000-plus to Mideast a few minutes ago.
Are we sure her middle name was not Jethro?
One of those facts that is still unresolved is what parts the relocated Iraqi Troops to the area had in the event. Those soldiers were brought in by GHWBush and approved by Clinton. WHY? That hasn't been answered. It is only NOW being floated by the government that Iraqis probably played a part in the bombing.
The same issue is obvious in the WTC event: Saudis were in it to the max. Some of the participants were on International Terrorist Lists that were supplied to our intel functions, including the FBI and CIA. WHY were they allowed to travel freely in this Country, even to the point of being TRAINED here?
There is no legitimate excuse for faulting only ONE administration, the Democrats, in our current situation. And as painful as it appears to be to the True Believers, BOTH parties have agendas that are not beneficial to Our Nation.