The Betrayal of the USS Cole
By Daniel Greenfield
SUltanKnish.Blogspot.com
On Thursday morning, sailors on board the USS Cole
were lining up for an early lunch. Seventeen of them
died as an Al Qaeda bomb on board a fishing boat
tore through the hull outside the galley. The dead
included 15 men and 2 women, one of whom had a young
child. For three weeks the crew of the USS Cole
struggled to keep their ship from sinking while
working waist deep in water with bucket brigades,
sleeping on the deck and living surrounded by the
terrible aftermath of the terrorist attack.
The
survivors, wounded and whole, received the words
"Glory is the Reward of Valor" written on the bent
steel removed from the site of the explosion that
tore through their ship and their lives.
The President of the United States promised that
justice would be done. “To those who attacked them
we say: You will not find a safe harbor. We will
find you and justice will prevail.”
Despite Clinton’s words, justice did not prevail.
The father of Hull Maintenance Technician Third
Class Kenneth Eugene Clodfelter believed that there
would be justice, but he was to be disappointed. “I
just felt, for sure, you know, they’re not going to
go ahead and just kiss off the lives of 17 U.S.
sailors,” he said. “In fact, they didn’t do
anything.”
Walid bin Attash, a planner of the USS Cole bombing
and who also played a role in the 9/11 attack, is
still at Gitmo. His trial continues to drag on while
he and his lawyers play games. Rahim Hussein
al-Nashiri, another of the planners, is still
awaiting trial. But Mashur Abdallah Ahmed al Sabri,
one of the members of the USS Cole cell, has already
been released by Barack Obama from Guantanamo Bay.
Sabri was rated as a high risk terrorist who is ”is
likely to pose a threat to the US, its interests,
and allies”, but that was no obstacle for Obama who
had already fired one Secretary of Defense for being
slow to free dangerous Al Qaeda terrorists and was
browbeating his latest appointee over the same
issue.
The very paperwork that was used as the basis for
the decision to free Sabri describes him as “a
member of a Yemeni al-Qaida cell directly involved
with the USS Cole attack”. This cell “conducted
surveillance” on the targeted vessel and “prepared
explosives for the bombing”. Sabri had been arrested
in Yemen for his involvement in the attack before he
managed to make his way to Afghanistan.
Now he has been sent to the homeland of terrorism,
Saudi Arabia.
After praising the “beautiful religious tradition”
of Islam, which the USS Cole terrorists had
“twisted”, President Clinton had promised that,
“America will not stop standing guard”.
But under him, it never even started standing guard.
While Osama bin Laden prepared for US retaliation,
evacuating Kandahar and escaping into the desert,
President Clinton rejected military action against
the terrorists claiming that the evidence against
Bin Laden was not strong enough. The State
Department warned that attacking Bin Laden would
“inflame the Islamic world”.
Very little has changed since then. Muslim
terrorists strike and we are told to close our eyes
and appease harder or we risk inflaming the tender
sensitivities of the Muslim world.
Most Americans have grown numb to the parade of
Islamic terrorists triumphantly exiting Gitmo as
free men. No matter their risk rating, the Arabic
names, the dark smirks and scowls all come to blend
together. But Sabri is not just another Bin Laden
bodyguard or operative. His cell has American blood
on its hands.
The USS Cole attack was the final step on the road
to 9/11. Our government’s inaction sent a message
that America could be hit hard and we would not
retaliate. It told Al Qaeda that American blood was
dirt cheap and that the murder of our people came
with no price.
These days we are sending that same message all over
again.
Obama’s release of Sabri is yet another page in that
same dark history. It is a betrayal of the dead and
the wounded. And of their families. It is a betrayal
of the promise made by his Democratic predecessor,
vowing, “After all they have given us, we must give
them their meaning.”
In 2009, Obama had met with USS Cole families and
promised them swift action. But a year later the
families were accusing his administration of
inaction and broken promises. His statement on the
tenth anniversary of the attack made no mention of
bringing the attackers to justice. Instead he stated
that, “We will honor their legacy of selfless
service by advancing the values that they stood for
throughout their lives.” What were these values and
how did they justify releasing one of the Cole cell
terrorists?
From Clinton to Obama, there has been a long
shameful tradition of substituting vague generic
sentiments for justice. Of speaking of honor and
healing, of pain and history, of tragedy and
courage, while giving the killers behind the attack
yet another pass. There is neither honor nor courage
in that. Mashur Abdallah Ahmed al Sabri has left
American custody as a free man. It is not
inconceivable that Obama will free even the
masterminds of the USS Cole attack. As he empties
Guantanamo Bay of the monsters squatting in its
darkest corners, he slowly works his way toward the
worst of the worst with an eye to letting them all
go.
After the USS Cole attack, President Clinton
contended, “If, as it now appears, this was an act
of terrorism, it was a despicable and cowardly act.”
This uncertainty and lack of conviction continues to
haunt our War on Terror. Behind every statement
about courage and honor, there is an “if”. Lurking
behind every promise of action is yet another “if”.
And these “Ifs” keep anything from being done.
Clinton’s fight against Al Qaeda lacked any
conviction that we were right and they were wrong.
And that is why during the Clinton years, we lost
and they won. Obama is not bothered by the hanging
“If”. He knows that we are wrong and if the
terrorists are not quite right, they are still more
right than we are.
That is why Obama freed Sabri. It is why he freed a
legion of other Gitmo inmates. It is why he has made
shutting down the prison for Islamic terrorists into
one of the major goals of his administration.
The USS Cole attack sent a message to Islamic
terrorists that American lives did not matter to our
government. Obama’s release of Sabri tells ISIS, Al
Qaeda and its brethren the same thing once again.
“They have given us their deaths, let us give them
their meaning,” President Clinton declared. After
all these years have passed, their deaths remain a
debt that this country has yet to repay with
meaning. The dead do not ask us for glory. Despite
the promises of past governments, they have been
forgotten beyond the close circles of their
shipmates and their families. But they have a right
to justice.
The valorous dead of the USS Cole have been betrayed
too many times to count by each administration.
Somewhere their restless spirits wait for a safe
harbor in a better America that will see justice
done.