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(AP) SANAA, Yemen - U.S. airstrikes targeting leaders from Yemen's active al Qaeda branch killed four suspected militants, including a man suspected of involvement in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, officials said Tuesday. Yemeni security and military officials said missiles struck a school and a car late Monday in the southern Abyan province, which has seen large swaths fall under the influence of al Qaeda as the militants seek to exploit the security vacuum since an uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh began last year. Tribal officials in the area said the strike hit the militants late Monday...

Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba -- November 9, 2011 Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was escorted into a top security courtroom at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station Wednesday morning by an army of military officers. Clean shaven and with short-cropped hair, the al-Qaeda terrorist charged with orchestrating the 2000 attack on the Navy destroyer USS Cole chose to wear his white prison jump suit to the arraignment of his military tribunal. In fact, he told the judge through his Arabic interpreter that he “intended to show up” in his “prison uniform” though he knew of his right to wear civilian clothes. Al-Nashiri...

In October of 2000, the Navy suffered a tremendous blow in the USS Cole attack. To this day, it greatly affects the way we execute force-protection. One of the ringleaders of the assault is finally facing a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay. As a former Gitmo Sailor, I wholeheartedly endorse the tribunal process as a vehicle to prosecute enemy combatants. It truly is the best option, after we extract the intel they carry:

A Pentagon legal official has approved charges that carry a possible death penalty for a Guantanamo prisoner accused of planning the attack on the Navy destroyer Cole, the U.S. Defense Department said Wednesday. Abd al-Nashiri would face charges that include murder in violation of the law of war for allegedly planning the attack that killed 17 sailors and wounded 40 while the ship was stopping in Yemen on Oct. 12, 2000. The United States must now bring him before a judge within 30 days for his arraignment before a military judge at the U.S. base in Cuba. This would be...

The 250 sailors of the USS Cole, the Navy destroyer that survived a terrorist attack that killed 17 sailors in Yemen in October 2000, started three days of shore leave after the warship docked at Port Everglades Thursday morning. As the ship offloaded it sewage and took on fuel, lucky sailors were climbing into shuttle buses and taxis to enjoy time off in South Florida.

Thousands of pages of previously secret military documents about detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison now put a name, a history and a face on hundreds of men in captivity there. The documents include details on 158 men on whom no information has ever been released. The hundreds of classified documents - marked "secret" and "noforn" meaning the information is not to be shared with representatives of other countries - are assessments, interviews and internal memos from the Pentagon's Joint Task Force at Guantanamo. The task force was supposed to determine who the detainees were, how they might be connected...

On Sept. 11, 2001, the core of al-Qaeda was concentrated in a single city: Karachi, Pakistan. At a hospital, the accused mastermind of the bombing of the USS Cole was recovering from a tonsillectomy. Nearby, the alleged organizer of the 2002 bombing in Bali, Indonesia, was buying lab equipment for a biological weapons program. And in a safe house, the man who would later describe himself as the intellectual author of the Sept. 11 attacks was with other key al-Qaeda members watching the scenes from New York and Washington unfold on television.

WASHINGTON, April 20, 2011 – The chief prosecutor of the Defense Department’s Office of Military Commissions has recommended that capital charges be brought against the alleged mastermind behind the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, a Pentagon spokesman said today. The charges assert that Abd al Rahim Hussayn Muhammad al Nashiri was responsible for planning and preparing terrorists to attack the U.S. Navy warship in the Yemini port of Aden, Navy Capt. Darryn James said. The Cole was in the harbor for a routine fuel stop when a small watercraft approached the ship’s port side and exploded. The bombing...

ASHINGTON, June 7— A re-examination of years of terrorist plots and attacks around the world, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, suggests that American intelligence agencies profoundly underestimated Al Qaeda's reach and aspirations for more than a decade as it grew from obscurity into a global terrorist threat, lawmakers and investigators said this week.As Congressional investigators look back far beyond the series of signals missed before the Sept. 11 attacks, they are seeking answers to many questions about Al Qaeda that law enforcement and intelligence agencies still cannot answer themselves, officials said.In particular, they said, Congressional investigators are trying...

Four of the nation's most highly valued terrorist prisoners were secretly moved to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2003, years earlier than has been disclosed, then were whisked back into overseas prisons before the Supreme Court could give them access to lawyers, The Associated Press has learned. The transfer allowed the U.S. to interrogate the detainees in CIA "black sites" for two more years without allowing them to speak with attorneys or human rights observers or challenge their detention in U.S. courts. Had they remained at the Guantanamo Bay prison for just three more months, they would have been afforded those...

Leadership: The president misses the 10th anniversary of a terrorist attack on a U.S. warship that killed 17 American sailors as the case against its mastermind stalls. Yet there was time to meet with George Clooney. On Tuesday, families of the sailors killed aboard the destroyer Cole as it lay at anchor in a Yemeni port gathered in Norfolk, Va., to observe the 10th anniversary of the tragedy and honor their memory. The White House issued a pro forma statement, but President Obama himself had better things to do. He was in Washington, less than an hour away via presidential...

...So at 4:37pm yesterday, the White House finally put out a statement by the President commemorating briefly discussing the attack of ten years ago. In his four-whole-paragraph communique, the President mentions the following: “I will never forget meeting with some of the families of the victims of this bombing in February 2009. I am deeply grateful to them for their sacrifice, and their efforts to keep the memory of this tragic event alive in our nation’s conscience. Wait… what? He met with the families of the victims less than three weeks after being sworn in as President? Why on earth...

On the 10-year anniversary of the USS Cole bombing, survivors and families are enraged at Barack Obama and his administration for relentlessly dragging their feet regarding bringing prosecution to the terrorist responsible. The Cole was attacked 10 years ago yesterday on October 12, 2000. Despite empty promises by Obama that he would have his Justice Department take swift action to finally prosecute the USS Cole bombing’s mastermind—Saudi-born Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri—the case has languished in inefficiency and has been put on the back burner by the Obama Administration. As a direct result, many survivors of the bombing and family members of...

The 10th anniversary of the bombing of the USS Cole on Tuesday conjured up painful memories for the families of the 17 Navy sailors who died in the terrorist attack, but it also revealed simmering anger at the Obama administration over the lack of concrete progress in bringing an alleged perpetrator to justice. In February 2009, less than three weeks after his inauguration, President Barack Obama held an emotional meeting with family members of victims of the Cole bombing and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Families said the new president promised swift action yet pleaded for their patience so his...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2010 – Navy officials, current and former crew members and families of the fallen gathered today at Norfolk Naval Station, Va., to remember the 17 sailors killed and 39 others wounded in the al-Qaida attack on the USS Cole 10 years ago today. Suicide bombers launched the surprise Oct. 12, 2000, attack on the Arleigh Burke-class, Aegis-equipped guided missile destroyer as it was anchored in Aden, Yemen, for a routine refueling stop. The attackers detonated an explosive-laden boat against the ship’s port side, tearing a 40-by-40-foot hole in the hull and sending seawater gushing into the engineering...

10 years ago today, two Al Qaeda terrorists pulled alongside the USS Cole during a routine refueling in Aden, Yemen and detonated a suicide bomb. It was the deadliest attack on a United States naval vessel since 1987. 17 sailors were killed. 39 more were wounded. The 17 sailors who died left behind 11 children. Never forget the names of the fallen who gave their lives in service to our country. 1. Electronics Technician 1st Class Richard Costelow 2. Mess Management Specialist Lakina Francis 3. Information Systems Technician Tim Guana 4. Signalman Seaman Recruit Cherone Gunn 5. Seaman James McDaniels...

So, 20% of Americans think Obama is a Muslim. How could they possibly think that? I’m not going to say that he is, or that he isn’t, I don’t know; but I can certainly understand why 1/5 of us think so; and that number is growing. 1. Wait a minute! Didn’t Obama spend 20 years in Rev. Wright’s church? Oh, that’s right. That church is a black liberation-theology church that preaches hatred of whites and hatred of America, and Obama never heard anything that Wright said. 2. Well let’s look at his school, college and graduate school records and writings,...

It’s a sleepy Friday in late August, the president is on another vacation, Congress is out of town, no one is paying much attention. What better time for the Obama administration to pull the plug, once again, on military commissions? This time, it has halted the case of top al-Qaeda operative Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who was to be prosecuted by a military court for the Cole bombing. The Washington Post report is here, and Jen Rubin has thoughts at Contentions. None of this is terribly surprising. Prosecuting the Cole case by military commission sticks in the Left’s craw because it...

ORIGINAL FR DISCUSSION THREAD I had the great pleasure to speak with Gloria Clodfelter, whose son Kenneth was one of the 17 US sailors who died in the terrorist attack on the USS Cole. I contacted her after reading the article. She is, indeed, very outspoken about this. We need her voice on talk radio. Apparently, the man who is unfortunately temporarily our commander in chief has little interest in vigorously prosecuting anything to do with terrorist acts of his Muslim buddies. Is there any wonder that there is a growing belief among many Americans that the Chicago community...

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri is a man with blood on his hands. A year before 9/11, the Saudi al Qaeda operative masterminded the bombing of the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole, killing 17 sailors as the vessel refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden. A Guantanamo tribunal was ready to arraign him last year, but since the Obama administration took office, it's been a case of trial and error. No trial -- plenty of error. As the 10th anniversary of the Oct. 12, 2000, attack looms, the White House has inexplicably frozen the prosecution. The Justice Department said this week that "no...

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The Obama administration has shelved the planned prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged coordinator of the Oct. 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, according to a court filing. The decision at least temporarily scuttles what was supposed to be the signature trial of a major al-Qaeda figure under a reformed system of military commissions. And it comes practically on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the attack, which killed 17 sailors and wounded dozens when a boat packed with explosives ripped a hole in the side of the warship in the port of Aden.

The Obama administration has shelved the planned prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged coordinator of the Oct. 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, according to a court filing. The decision at least temporarily scuttles what was supposed to be the signature trial of a major al-Qaeda figure under a reformed system of military commissions. And it comes practically on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the attack, which killed 17 sailors and wounded dozens when a boat packed with explosives ripped a hole in the side of the warship in the port of Aden. In...

ARLINGTON, Va. — After his son was killed in the attack on the USS Cole, Jesse Nieto put decals on his car that included “Islam=Terrorism” and “We Died, They Rejoiced.” But the Marine Corps deemed the decals offensive and told them he had to remove them or he could not park on federal installations. So he went to court, and won. Nieto works at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune, which bans “extremist, indecent, sexist and racist” decals, court records say. But a federal judge ruled Wednesday that the base cannot ban anti-Islamic decals while allowing decals that say “Islam is Love”...

ANN ARBOR, MI – Jesse Nieto is one of those many unsung patriotic Americans. He served 25 years in the Marine Corps, including two combat tours in Vietnam.  His youngest son, Marc, and 16 of Marc’s shipmates were killed on October 12, 2000, by Islamic terrorists who bombed the USS Cole.  Nieto has worked as a civilian employee at Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina since 1994. Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Malcolm J. Howard delivered good news to Mr. Nieto. He ruled that Camp Lejeune officials violated his free speech rights when they ordered him to remove...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Camp Lejeune officials violated the rights of a military veteran who came to his job on base in a vehicle emblazoned with anti-Islamic decals after his son died in a terrorist bombing, a federal judge ruled. Jesse Nieto's stickers included one that said "ISLAM (equals) TERRORISM" and another with a threat to defecate on the Quran. He also had a decal to commemorate the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, in which 17 shipmates died including Nieto's youngest son. "His vehicle is a way to express his mourning and anger," said Nieto's attorney...

… the remarkable reach of the global-terror network A little-noticed investigation by Swiss federal police has uncovered the existence of an apparent terror-support network with ties to the upper levels of Al Qaeda — including an operative believed to have played a role in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the May 2003 bombing of a housing complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The discovery of a largely invisible Al Qaeda network in the peaceful alpine nation has gotten virtually no public attention outside of Switzerland. But criminal charges outlined in a July 30 Swiss prosecutor’s report —...

Recently, VoteVets.org began running a television commercial designed to tear down Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) as he seeks the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-Mo.). Unfortunately for the folks from the liberal group purporting to represent veterans, my Kansas City friend Bungalow Bill did some research and found several holes worth noting in the 30-second spot.

Al Qaeda will soon return to attacking America interests at sea, a prominent contributor on a jihadist forum posted Monday. The message, from a writer called Abu Raghd on the Al-Falluja forum, says that the terrorist organization will take up the policy of “a blow for a blow and a raid for a raid” against the U.S., according to a translation from the Washington D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute. Less than two weeks after a botched Christmas Day attack on an American airliner by a Nigerian-born militant, Abu Raghd threatened future strikes “on an extravagant scale.”

Bleeding Hearts and Jihadi Revolving Doors Michelle Malkin Wednesday, December 30, 2009 Sen. Joe Lieberman was right to sound the alarm about Yemen in the wake of the Undy-Bomber's Christmas Day terror attack over American skies. But he was wrong to call it "tomorrow's war." The Yemen-based jihadist network has been at war with us for years -- since before the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions, since before Sept. 11 and well before our current commander in chief had begun his vaunted work as a community organizer. The bleeding-heart ostriches of the left are blaming (who else?) cowboy George W. Bush...

Security: Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the attempted destruction of Flight 253 were released from Guantanamo two years ago. The case for indefinite detention has been made once again, and not in Illinois. Sometimes America's chickens do come home to roost. In a statement released Monday, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which counts among its leadership two former Guantanamo detainees, claimed responsibility for the attempted destruction of Northwest Airlines Flight 253. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the crotch bomber, told FBI agents he was trained for his Christmas Day mission in Yemen by top leaders of the group who provided...

Sailor Who Survived USS Cole Attack Dies At 31 Family believes he died from a panic attack while he slept HOMESTEAD, Fla. - A survivor of the suicide bombing on the USS Cole in Yemen 10 years ago has died at his Florida home. U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Johann Gokool was found dead in his bed last Wednesday, a week after his 31st birthday. His sister, Natala Gokool, says her brother suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had frequent, violent panic attacks. Natala Gokool said her brother never recovered from the attack. "He didn't like to be in...

In early November, retired Senior Chief Jeffrey Sparenberg was the guest of honor at military heritage day in Delaware. Sparenberg spent 23 years in the Navy, including time on the destroyer Cole, and he was at Fort DuPont State Park that day to donate a flag that he said flew over the Cole shortly after it was attacked nine years ago. The flag, he hoped, would be put on view at the planned Delaware Military Museum. A photograph from the ceremony shows Sparenberg on the steps of a shuttered brick building. The left side of his chest is covered with...

There is evidence that officials at high levels in Syria, Germany and even inside the Central Intelligence Agency had information about the 9/11 terror hijackers' hatred for Americans and their desire to attack the U.S. before the mass murders were carried out, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. Evidence suggests that authorities may not have known the specific plans to hijack passenger jets and turn them into flying torpedoes but they knew something was developing. And some of the information, heretofore not even provided to the 9/11 commission, known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon...

Today, prosecutors in the Office of Military Commissions announced they intend to ask the convening authority to refer new charges under the recently-enacted Military Commissions Act of 2009 against Abd al-Rahim Hussein Muhammed Abdu al-Nashiri, in connection with the bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, in October 2000. The bombing resulted in the deaths of 17 sailors and injuries to many more. This announcement follows the attorney general's determination on Nov. 13, 2009, that a military commission was the proper forum for prosecution of al-Nashiri. The prosecutors are reviewing this and other cases identified by...

SAN`A, Yemen (AP) - A Yemeni politician and religious figure - designated a suspected terrorist by the United States - declared his innocence Saturday and called on Washington to substantiate its allegations. On Tuesday, Sheik Abdulmajid al-Zindani, an Afghan war veteran and the spiritual leader of the Islamic-oriented Islah Party, was added to a U.S. Treasury Department list of those suspected of supporting terrorist activities. The allegation claimed al-Zindani, who is in his 60s, had "a long history of working with Osama bin Laden, notably serving as one of his spiritual leaders." The Treasury Department said al-Zindani had actively recruited...

Note: The following text is a quote: IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 917-09 November 20, 2009 DOD Announces Military Commissions Actions Today, prosecutors in the Office of Military Commissions announced they intend to ask the convening authority to refer new charges under the recently-enacted Military Commissions Act of 2009 against Abd al-Rahim Hussein Muhammed Abdu al-Nashiri, in connection with the bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, in October 2000. The bombing resulted in the deaths of 17 sailors and injuries to many more. This announcement follows the attorney general's determination on Nov. 13, 2009, that a military...

This week on "Take AIM," Accuracy in Media's Thursday morning show on BlogTalkRadio, Congressman Mike Rogers (R-MI) discusses health care reform. Commander Kirk Lippold, senior military fellow with Military Families United, discusses the Obama administration's release of Guantanamo Bay detainees, as well as his experiences as commanding officer of the USS Cole when it was attacked. AIM chairman Don Irvine and media analyst Roger Aronoff host. Listen live on Thursday, September 10, at 11:00 am Eastern here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Accuracy-In-Media/2009/09/10/Take-AIM For more information about our guests, see www.mikerogers.house.gov and www.militaryfamiliesunited.org. Take AIM airs every Thursday at 11:00 am Eastern on BlogTalkRadio. Can't...

(CNSNews.com) - A terror suspect charged with the attempted murder of two U.S. soldiers -- before a judge ruled that his confession was coerced and inadmissible -- returned home to Afghanistan on Monday, the same day news broke of a policy change in interrogations. After many Democrats and some Republican lawmakers called the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation techniques such as playing loud music and waterboarding “torture,” President Barack Obama reassigned interrogation responsibilities from the CIA to the National Security Council – which is run out of the White House, the Washington Post first reported.

WASHINGTON -- The CIA's internal investigator found that interrogators conducted mock executions of terror suspects and in one case threatened a detainee suspected in the USS Cole bombing with a gun and power drill, congressional officials said late Friday. The disclosure is contained in a 2004 report by the CIA's inspector general, which has keep secret and is to be released next week, two officials told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not yet been cleared for release. The report's findings were first reported by Newsweek on its Web site Friday night. In...

A long-suppressed report by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general to be released next week reveals that CIA interrogators staged mock executions as part of the agency's post-9/11 program to detain and question terror suspects, NEWSWEEK has learned. According to two sources—one who has read a draft of the paper and one who was briefed on it—the report describes how one detainee, suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was threatened with a gun and a power drill during the course of CIA interrogation. According to the sources, who like others quoted in this article asked not to be named...

Investigators are trying to determine whether a San Diego sailor passed Navy secrets about security weaknesses and warship movements to a British man accused of having terrorist links, according to court documents unsealed yesterday. E-mail messages from the unnamed sailor, sent in late 2000 and 2001 before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, were found in December in computer files belonging to Babar Ahmad, who was detained Wednesday in London, according to the 31-page arrest affidavit. The computer files contained details about security arrangements and movements of the San Diego-based Constellation carrier battle group, which included the destroyer Benfold, on which...

San Diego – A former sailor aboard a San Diego-based ship allegedly praised a deadly terror attack on a U.S. destroyer and communicated with a British man arrested on suspicion of having terrorist ties, according to a court document unsealed Friday. The sailor on the USS Benfold, whose name has not been released, allegedly sympathized with the jihad cause and sent e-mails to anti-Western Web sites run by Babar Ahmad. British police arrested Ahmad, 30, earlier this week on a U.S. extradition warrant charging that he used the Internet to help Taliban fighters recruit and raise money. The USS Benfold...

The sister of Seaman James McDaniels, a sailor killed in the terror attack on the U.S.S. Cole wants President Barack Hussein Obama impeached over his decision to withdraw charges against the al Qaeda mastermind of the attack.Diane McDaniels, the mother of the slain sailor, related her daughter's outrage over the President's decision during an interview on the Fox News Channel show Your World with Neil Cavuto this afternoon.Ms. McDaniels also expressed her own regret for having voted for Obama last November. She declined an invitation to meet Obama with other Cole family and crew members and 9/11 families at the...

[L]ast week, after more delays in the process, the administration called victims of the Cole, Bali and Sept. 11 attacks together again to receive an update about the work of the Detainee Review Task Force. The meeting was emotional and heart-wrenching. Each person was given the opportunity to speak about the impact the president's decisions were having on him or her and loved ones. The brave families of our heroes showed true courage in that room. Once again, they had traveled to Washington to express their frustration at seeing justice delayed. If they were truly involved, and the administration were...

In Washington today and tomorrow, the DOJ's Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism (OVT) is briefing American family members of those murdered by terrorists, as well as those injured during terrorist attacks. The stated purpose of the briefing is to: ...[offer] those interested the opportunity to meet task force members, hear an overview of task force work, and express views about the policy questions the Detention Policy Task Force is studying. Please click on the link for the Detention Policy Task Force to see some of the questions that the task force is considering. ... For those unable...

News reports described the meeting as a touching and powerful coming together of the president and these long-suffering families. Mr. Obama had won over even those who opposed his decision to close Gitmo by assuaging their fears that the review of some 245 current detainees would result in dangerous jihadists being set free. “I did not vote for the man, but the way he talks to you, you can’t help but believe in him,” said John Clodfelter to the New York Times. His son, Kenneth, was killed in the Cole bombing. “[Mr. Obama] left me with a very positive feeling...

Original Article: Accused Terrorist on Trial in Jordan Attended Classes at Sac State; Initiation to Terrorism May Have Started in Sacramento, According to Published Reports. Layla Bohm State Hornet (Student Newspaper) November 27, 2001 Former Sacramento State student Raed Hijazi at his trial in Jordan Nov. 26. Hijazi pleaded innocent to nine charges stemming from a plot to execute terrorist attacks on America and Israel during Millenium celebrations in December 1999. Courtesy Photo/A He was a typical California student. Born in San Jose Dec. 3, 1968, Raed Hijazi eventually attended Sacramento City College, took a Sacramento State extension course...

EC interviews USS Cold dad Gary Swenchonis, and US Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) about the betrayal of our troops, and islamophilia in the White House at 11:30 on BTR

Militants who have had terrorist training or are affiliated with terrorist organizations are supposed to be excluded from entering our country — even when we are not in a state of war against them — under U.S. statutory law. As NR's editors observed in October: In the 2005 REAL ID Act, Congress explicitly provided for the exclusion from the U.S. of any alien who has received terrorist training or has belonged to an organization that promotes terrorism — against anyone. The Uighurs are ineligible on both grounds: Even if one accepts, for argument’s sake, the contention that their dispute is...