Skip to comments.

Posted on 10/30/2001 9:26:56 AM PST by Jean S

In the wake of Osama bin Laden's murderous attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the widow of a sailor who died in the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole says she blames ex-President Clinton for not stopping the Mideast madman after he bombed other U.S. facilities in 1990's.

"Each time these events happen and it was all words and nothing ever happened," said Sharla Costelow, wife of Chief Petty Officer Richard Costelow, who died aboard the Cole as it refueled in Yemen on October 12, 2000.

Mrs. Costelow delivered the stinging indictment to WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg last week, in an a gut-wrenching interview that has been completely overlooked by the mainstream media.

The Navy widow listed the ways in which she thought the ex-president was partly responsible for her husband's death.

"I think I would start with the fact that Clinton down-sized our military so much that we no longer had ships to come and fuel our ships. This is something that my husband and I discussed many times, relying on other countries to do it," Costelow told Malzberg.

She also blamed the ex-Commander in Chief for ignoring warnings that U.S. ships were on bin Laden's target list.

"I didn't realize this until after it had happened," she told the WABC host, "that bin Laden had given (a message) to bomb one of our ships in the year 2000, and we didn't heed that warning. Worse than that, we sent one of our destroyers all alone into a terrorist harbor with no protection, no security, no safety zones whatsoever."

The bin Laden terror victim said Clinton was also clearly wrong in removing Yemen from the list of nations that sponsor terrorism.

"This never should have happened when Yemen still had terrorist activity going on, and certainly knowing the connection that bin Laden had there."

Mrs. Costelow said she thinks the ex-president should be held accountable for such an egregious national security failure.

"My husband, a communications expert, worked for Clinton," she told Malzberg. "He was a very hard worker and dealt with White House communications and saved the government a lot of money. I know if my husband made a mistake that could have jeopardized President Clinton's security... my husband would have been held accountable. I just expect the same of him [Clinton]."

"It was completely preventable and it never should have happened," she added.

Besides his wife Sharla, Chief Petty Officer Costelow left behind three young sons - Dillon, 14, Brady, 6, and Ethan, 4. Contributions to the Costelow children's memorial trust fund should be sent to:

Memorial Fund
NFCU-Costelow Family
Patuxent River MSC
22598 MacArthur Blvd.
California, MD 20619

Read Steve Malzberg's weekly column exclusively on NewsMax.com at www.newsmax.com/malzberg.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.