The October 12 bombing of the USS Cole in the port
of Aden in Yemen was not a direct reaction to intensifying
Israeli-Palestinian violence, but most likely part of a long-term
campaign to drive American influence out of the Middle East,
overthrow moderate Arab governments, and replace them with radical
anti-Western regimes. The terrorist operation apparently was
planned far in advance of the Cole's arrival and probably would
have occurred regardless of the events unfolding in Israel and the
Palestinian territories. The chief suspects in the bombing--Osama
bin Laden's terrorist network and Iraq--share a virulent hostility
to the United States and to Arab governments that cooperate with
it. The United States must take steps to prevent similar bombings
in the future by improving security around its naval vessels,
avoiding insecure ports, and bringing the terrorists to justice.
Beyond this, Washington must develop a systematic policy for
uprooting terrorists from sanctuaries such as Afghanistan and
imposing stiffer penalties on states and clandestine groups that
resort to terrorism.
Prime Suspect: The bin Laden
Network
Although the Cole bombing occurred during a period of
heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions, it probably was unrelated
to that struggle. Palestinian terrorist groups that have resorted
to suicide bombings--Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad--have
never targeted American military personnel and would be much more
likely to strike Israeli targets. Lebanon's Hezballah organization,
which also has sympathizers in Yemen, conducted suicide truck bomb
attacks in 1983 against the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in
Beirut but has focused its terrorist campaign against Israel since
releasing its last American hostages in 1991.
The
bombing of the Cole bears a close resemblance to several other
terrorist operations conducted by the loose terrorist network
headed by the exiled Saudi, Osama bin Laden, now based in
Afghanistan. Like two previous bin Laden terrorist bombs
detonated in Saudi Arabia in 1995 and 1996, the operation involved
a huge bomb targeted against U.S. military personnel. Moreover, bin
Laden is known to have followers in Yemen and has launched
terrorist operations there in the past. His first terrorist bombing
is believed to have been the 1992 bombing of a hotel in Yemen used
by American military personnel en route to humanitarian operations
in Somalia.
Significantly, investigators probing the
Cole bombing reportedly have linked several suspects to the
Hadramawt, a region in eastern Yemen that was the birthplace of bin
Laden's father and now contains tribal fiefdoms that are
strongholds of Islamic radicalism.
Iraq
also may have been involved in the Cole bombing. The sophisticated
nature of the bomb, which was shaped and placed within a metal
container to channel the blast into the hull of the warship,
suggests state involvement. Iraqi officials are known to have made
contact with bin Laden in Afghanistan, and Iraq has used terrorist
surrogates in the past. Saddam Hussein shares bin Laden's goal of
expelling American military forces from the Arabian peninsula, and
the USS Cole was bound for the Persian Gulf to help maintain the
naval quarantine of Iraq.
It
will take time to determine who is responsible for the attack, but
the presence of bin Laden's supporters and other terrorist groups
in Yemen calls into question the prudence of the port visit. The
Pentagon should rule out port visits in Aden until terrorist groups
are expelled from Yemen and port security is greatly improved. The
Pentagon also should reevaluate the security situation in other
ports frequented by the U.S. Navy. Oilers should be dispatched from
other theaters to the Middle East-South Asia region to reduce the
need for U.S. vessels to refuel in potentially dangerous ports. The
Navy should develop more aggressive anti-terrorist tactics for
ships entering foreign ports; any vessel approaching an American
warship should be stopped and inspected. The Navy should consider
deploying barriers similar to the plastic barriers used to contain
oil spills to protect its ships from small-craft suicide bombers in
high-risk situations.
The
USS Cole was put in a vulnerable position partly because the U.S.
Navy has been stretched thin to meet its global commitments. Since
1992, the Navy has shrunk from 393 ships to 316. This has forced it
to break up its battle groups by deploying individual ships on
missions unsupported by oilers and other support ships that could
reduce the need for frequent port visits. The United States needs
to reverse the decline in naval strength, particularly in the
number of support ships that could resupply and refuel vessels at
sea, thereby reducing their vulnerability to terrorist attacks.
Washington also should reduce the number
of peacekeeping and humanitarian missions that divert its military
forces from their primary military missions. U.S. Navy ships and
military personnel are symbols of American power targeted by
terrorists regardless of the reason for their deployment. This
should be factored into any decision to commit U.S. military forces
to humanitarian missions such as the 1982-1984 multinational
peacekeeping deployment in Lebanon or the 1992-1995 deployment in
Somalia.
Conclusion
The United States has been targeted repeatedly in a
low-intensity terrorist war waged by Osama bin Laden's global
terrorist network, which is determined to expel U.S. and Western
influence from Muslim lands and replace moderate governments with
radical Islamic regimes. The United States can reduce its
vulnerability to terrorist attacks, but it cannot end such attacks
until it has destroyed bin Laden's organization.
Washington must relentlessly hunt down the
culprits behind the Cole bombing and bring them to justice. But it
should look beyond the terrorist pawns deployed by bin Laden and
take action against the states that support him: the Taliban regime
in Afghanistan that gives him sanctuary and possibly Saddam
Hussein's Iraqi dictatorship. The U.S. goal should be to oust these
regimes, not merely to contain them, because as long as they remain
in power the United States and its allies face a heightened threat
from international terrorism.
James
Phillips is Research Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs in
the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International
Studies at The Heritage Foundation.