Posted on 09/17/2002 6:16:52 PM PDT by mikegi
Sept. 17 — The CIA and U.S. military are standing by off Yemen, ready to mount an operation to grab or kill what officials fear could be a growing number of al Qaeda fighters there, intelligence sources told ABCNEWS.
The United States has assembled an unusual collection of elite soldiers and capabilities in the area should President Bush decide to act.
Military sources say more than 800 special operations troops — including some from the secret Delta group that specializes in "snatches" of accused criminals on foreign soil — have been gathered in the nearby nation of Djibouti.
The U.S. force is being kept secure, sources say, within a French military base there — the largest such French facility outside of France.
Also part of the package is a large amphibious ship, the USS Bellieu Wood, which has been detached from other duties and is standing by off the coast of Yemen to act as a floating launch platform, what the military calls a "lily pad."
It would allow an American force to assemble and launch without being observed, and if prisoners were taken, to immediately remove them from Yemen.
Sources say the CIA is running the operation and has its own small paramilitary force in the area.
Since the United States drove so many al Qaeda fighters out of Afghanistan, American officials have been increasingly concerned that Yemen — the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden's father — would become a safe haven and "underground railroad" for terrorists on the run.
Parts of Yemen remain beyond control of the central government, especially the vast eastern third of the country known as the Hadramawt. U.S. sources say Yemeni leaders are secretly negotiating over allowing an American operation within their borders. A further complication, officials say, is the constant movement of potential terrorist targets in Yemen.
During the clinton regime, it was decided to add to the moslems' self esteem by visiting the port of Aden, long a stronghold of arab thugs. Another brilliant move by the ABC crowd (Albright/Berger/Clinton-Cohen).
The rest, as they say, is history.
They can then sustain combat operations for a full month without resupply.
Not bad.........considering they can do it in two hours.
Add 4 more gator freighters and a Carrier and you can wreck some real damage.
i know for sure that i promised you a ham sammich if we went into somalia next...
i honestly don't remember for certain that i even picked a country. do you recall?
on the up-side, i am good for my commitments.
on the down-side, i'm getting old enough that i won't know what day it is if my watch ever breaks.
Ditto when you come to Mobile, make that a fresh seafood dinner when you get to Mobile, huh?
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