A forgotten day of infamy: 10-year anniversary of the Cole bombing — and still no justice; Update: White House finally releases statement
Scroll for updates…4:56pm Eastern…the White House finally releases statement…
Did you remember? Before 9/11, there was 10/12. The USS Cole bombing, ten years ago today, should have taught us all that the jihadists’ war on the infidel West started a long, long time ago.
Remember: The flame of Muslim outrage is eternal.
Never forget: The American heroes who gave their lives.
Electronics Technician 1st Class Richard Costelow
Mess Management Specialist Lakina Francis
Information Systems Technician Tim Guana
Signalman Seaman Recruit Cherone Gunn
Seaman James McDaniels
Engineman 2nd Class Mark Nieto
Electronics Warfare Technician 3rd Class Ronald Owens
Seaman Recruit Lakiba Parker
Engineman Fireman Joshua Parlett
Fireman Apprentice Patrick Roy
Electronics Warfare Technician Kevin Rux
Petty Officer 3rd Class Ron Santiago
Operations Special 2nd Class Timothy Sanders
Fireman Gary Swenchonis Jr
Ensign Andrew Triplett
Seaman Apprentice Craig Wibberly
Hull Maintenance Technician 3rd Class Kenneth Clodfelter.
***
Flashback October 12, 2001…
A forgotten day of infamy
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
10/12/01
BEFORE 9-11, there was 10-12. On this dark day, one year ago, a bomb ripped through the U.S.S. Cole – and tore apart the lives of 17 American families who lost loved ones in the terrorist attack. The Cole, a guided missile destroyer sent to enforce the United Nations embargo on Iraq, had been refueling at the Yemeni port of Aden when a pair of suicide bombers rammed their explosive-packed skiff into the American ship.
A year later, the Cole crewmembers and their families have been largely forgotten. Despite former President Clinton’s swaggering promise to track down the attackers (“We will find out who was responsible and hold them accountable.”) not a single suspect has answered for the despicable murders on Oct. 12, 2000. Yemen – long a safe haven for terrorists — refuses to cooperate with our Federal Bureau of Investigation. Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind both the 10-12 and 9-11 attacks, continues to breathe free while American widows grieve.
One of those young widows is Sharla Costelow. Her husband Richard, a chief petty officer on the Cole, died while lunching in the chief’s mess when the explosion hit. A communications technology whiz, he had been promoted at sea a month before the attack. In a paper he wrote during his Chief’s initiation process, Costelow reflected on his new responsibilities: “To instill excellence in today’s generation is a tough job. A Chief must be ready for the challenges that this job creates. I will be ready. I have to be. The future of the Navy depends on it. I will not sit back and take it easy. I will strive for excellence in all that I do.”
Chief Costelow — 35, dedicated to the defense of his country, and devoted to his family — now lies buried in a field of fallen heroes at Arlington National Cemetery.
“There are still days when I get depressed, and angry, and can’t stop crying,” Mrs. Costelow told me in a phone interview earlier this week. The pain, she said, “didn’t end with the death of my husband. It’s part of our daily lives.” She preserves the memory of her husband and the Cole by maintaining a website and writing letters to Congress — which have been ignored.
The great Christian author C.S. Lewis wrote: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Shame on those government officials who refuse to hear the Cole families’ pleas for answers – and accountability. “It’s been swept under the rug,” Mrs. Costelow noted. But she won’t be silenced. She supports the current action in Afghanistan against bin Laden, but she is upset that “so many people had to die because of these terrorists. I feel strongly that our government at the time of the Cole attack was totally negligent.”
Mrs. Costelow wants to write a book about her experience, but in the meantime, her children (Dillon, 14, Brady, 6, and Ethan, 4) keep her going — along with her religious faith. On her website memorial to her husband, Mrs. Costelow posted an image of an eagle along with a scriptural passage that inspires her: “Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary (Isaiah 40: 31).”
The most difficult thing to deal with, Mrs. Costelow said, is the irreplaceable loss suffered by her boys. “The love of their father, the look in his eyes, the feeling from his heart – they won’t ever have that again.” Her youngest son, Ethan, still has trouble sleeping sometimes because “he’s afraid the bad guys will come and get him like they got his dad.”
Never forget Ethan Costelow’s fear. Never forget his father’s bravery and his mother’s grief. This is why we are at war with the evil forces of terrorism. This is why we must win.
***
Cassy Fiano remembers at Hot Air.
Blood-boiling: Ten years later, still no trial.
Pentagon officials have been repeatedly blocked in their efforts to revive charges against the alleged architect of the bombing of the USS Cole due to political wrangling within the Obama administration over how and where to try accused terrorists, administration officials tell NBC News.
Military prosecutors had originally charged Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri — known to law enforcement investigators as al-Qaida’s “maritime commander” — with engineering the Oct. 12, 2000 bombing of the Cole, a U.S. naval destroyer, off the coast of Yemen, killing 17 U.S. sailors and injuring 39.
But, in a move that rankled many Cole survivors at the time, the charges against al-Nashiri were withdrawn by President Barack Obama shortly after he took office last year. His administration wanted to review how to handle the prosecution of high-value Guantanamo detainees.
As family members and crew assembled in Norfolk, Va., on Tuesday to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the attack, the president’s decision to withdraw the charges — and his administration’s failure so far to revive the case — has re-emerged as an angry source of contention.
When the Justice Department recently filed a motion saying there were no immediate plans to bring new charges against al-Nashiri, “We were stunned,” Kirk Lippold, commander of Cole at the time of the attack, told NBC. “The crew was very upset. … It’s almost like the victims themselves are being disregarded for the sake of larger political purposes.”
The US Department of Social Justice continues to spit on the graves of the fallen.
***
I searched the White House website today for any mention of the USS Cole bombing anniversary.
This is the result:
Searching without the periods – “USS Cole” yields a few articles — most recent one in May 2009.
Obama issued a statement celebrating the 10th anniversary of the “Community of Democracies.”
The 10th anniversary of the Cole bombing…not worthy.
Dear White House press office: Hurry up. There’s still time left in the day to acknowledge this brutal attack and the men who gave their lives.
Upate – 4:58pm Eastern – I tweeted Robert Gibbs at 3:16pm Eastern. The White House finally released a statement acknowledging the 10th anniversary of the Cole bombing. Better late than never.
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Categories: Islam,Terrorist attacks,War
Sister Toldjah
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We have been fighting these lunatics since the Republic was founded. What do you thing “to the shores or Tripoli” comes from?
Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.
Er, rather, “where do you think “to the shores of Tripoli” comes from?
Late night…
Thank you Michelle for posting this. I pray God has each of those killed in the Cole bombing in His arms and will give the families comfort.
L
Obama believes there will be justice when America is hit again by Al Qaeda. He has invited an attack many times and in my opinion, almost is communicating directly with Osama by constantly saying in public that America could absorb another attack. I bet any money Obama is a secret Al Qaeda agent, a sleeper cell member of the terrorist group. If America is hit, Obama will be summoned in his bedroom and upon first hearing the news, he will give a fist pump and a shout out to his boy Osama. Obama is Muslim and hates America. Osama is Mulsim and hates America. They both want to see the country diminished and destroyed.
Justice delayed is justice denied, as all the leftists say when it’s their cause. Only, it’s their cause, too, if they had any honor or brains. Holder is a shameless disgrace. This is beyond infuriating, it’s practically treasonous.
Welcome to the world of DemocRat Politics.
Yes.
Indeed!
Q: When Did Unprovoked Muslim Terrorism Against the U.S.A. Begin?
A: In the 1780′s, before George Washington took office as President.
“Out here due process is a bullet.”
—- John Wayne, The Green Berets
The Man Who Knew -
John O’Neill of the FBI’s couterterrorism section.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/
Some people in the government had some idea of the impending disaster and tried to push the issue ‘up the chain’. Few, if any, listened and thousands died as a result. The USS Cole was the 2nd or 3rd in a series of ‘human-made disasters’ which served as a prelude to the 9/11 attacks (in addition to the Khobar Towers attack [1996], the African Embassy bombings [1998], of course the USS Cole in 2000, etc)
Not all those with sharp elbows, edgy demeanor or those with unconventional ways should be summarily ignored or dismissed. Sometimes, just sometimes, those are the people we should be paying the MOST attention to.
Thanks to those in the US Navy that protect that country. Thanks to the FBI (and other) folks that protect us from terrorists. God Bless and best wishes to the fallen sailors on the USS Cole.
God grant them all eternal rest.
As the daughter and daughter-in-law of retired Navy veterans, that branch of the armed forces holds a particularly special place in my hearts. So much so we had the “Navy Hymn” – “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” – played as a prelude piece at our wedding:
And yet, the nation fails to remember the fallen on these occasions that are not “celebrated.” Somber reflection is required, and some people just don’t have the stomach for it anymore.
I remember the pictures sent to me by an Army friend of mine (yes, Marines have friends in the Army). It was of the stricken Cole being returned on a piggy-back ship. His sarcastic words: Sleep well, America! Not long after, we were hit again.
I pray that these deaths will wake us again — and even more — so that we can vanquish the enemy once and for all.
Well isn’t al-Nashiri just a guy in Obama’s neighborhood? Oh wait, that’s the other terrorist bomber that’s Obama’s friend.
So many more have died since then, and yet we still have not even identified the enemy who is ordering the attacks against the West: The Prophet Muhammed.
Anyone who doubts that fact should read the damnable warmongering trash known as the Koran. There is simply no excuse for not having done so by now.
Our ‘victory’ in Iraq has only succeeded in strengthening Islamic law in Iraq, virtually wiping out the remaining Iraqi Christians and establishing an openly Islamic State. Any ‘victory’ in Afghanistan will do the same thing, only since there were no Christians to start with, it will be wiping out any tribal resistance to Islamic law as interpreted by the Pakistani ISI.
Americans need to wake up and realize since the Soviets fell the American military has been being used primarily to advance Islam throughout the world.
It is insane. It is suicidal. It is stupid beyond belief.
So they could find any and all legal technicalities to get them off.
Holder is a shameless disgrace. This is beyond infuriating, it’s practically treasonous.
Al Quiada is not a threat. The State of Arizona, now that is a threat.
On October 12th, 2010 at 3:30 pm, Roland said:
And our military was directed to confiscate and destroy Bibles.
Indeed.
Absolutely.
I guess the only calendar that the White House looks at daily is upcoming open tee times at the links. They never look at yesterday.
I pedict that after The One leaves office, the only books written about his Presidency in a positive slant will be his own. And ghost written at that.
Obama and company: friends of all the enemies of this Country. I’ve run out of words to describe my contempt.
************************************
RIP fallen heroes of the USS Cole. We will never forget. Thanks Michelle for remembering them.
The Cole
USS Liberty June 8, 1967
USS Pueblo January 1968
All unavenged. Weaklings, cowards and traitors sending young men into harms way and refusing to aid them in distress-treason is NOT too strong a word. The same cowards who allowed the Liberty and Pueblo incident sat on their hands, made us sit on our hands, while the North Vietnamese prepared for Tet January 31, 1968.
But what are dead Americans to the elite? Just numbers on a report to be buried. May the cowards burn in hell.
Yes it is.
Just because someone fails to do something it does not make them a traitor. They may be dumb, stupid, incompetent or even a coward, but not necessiarily a traitor. Using the term this loosely cheapens the term and makes real treason seem less heinous when it actually occurs.
because NO thing was done -no reprisals- for the terror attack on the Cole- and other attacks- we got 9/11 ..
the RoEs stated that the BEST on our ships could not fire upon -a strongly suspected terrorist assault team…PC got our BEST killed then and PC is getting our BEST killed now….
C-CS
May the Good Lord Bless these fallen heroes.
Now lets remove our eternal enemies… their words. Their on our shores, in our schools, in our communities, in our government(the White House IMO) and anyone that thinks these so called moderates will turn their backs on their brethren had better think twice.
May these Sailors rest in peace, and may their families be comforted in knowing they are not forgotten.
Americans will never forget.
Then they support the judge who put a moratorium on “don’t ask, don’t tell”. As most people who have served in the military will tell you, openly gay activity (and that is what this means), will have a devastating effect on the military. In fact it will no doubt mean a future of an almost all gay military, as straight males will abandon the military like the plague.
You know it’s only because of your pressure, Michelle.
Thank you.
Not all ‘gay.’ Just limiting it to people who have casual attitudes about sex in general. Anyone who is ‘uptight’ about promiscuity need not apply.
To the left, weakening the American military and making it more obedient when it come time to act against bitter-clingers is a splendid feature, not a bug at all.
I was half-expecting an apology from Obama for parking a US battleship in a “no parking” zone and facing the wrong direction. At least he didn’t pay respect to the “moderate Muslims” who also lost their lives steering the attack boat into the USS Cole.
The tactic for dealing with the islamic thugs by our gov has been to stick their collective heads in the sand. If nobody looks, they will all go away. That was the tactic in the 70s when we had all those plane hijackings. Yeah, the thugs gave it up for a while then returned with a more deadly way to use planes. All the talk about securing the cockpits wasn’t done till we had 9/11. Our gov isn’t doing us any favors to sit on their hands and ignore the threat. They can’t even face the reality of what that threat is. They have spent more time producing flowery words so as not to offend our enemies. The only good enemy is a dead one!
You know, I started to read the ‘statement’ released by the WH, but then stopped. I don’t want to hear, read nor see one more word from that band of no-goodniks. Jeesh, I’m fed up with their twaddle.
Don’t worry folks. Due to the CFR controlled State Department, and the Homeland Security bull dike, the enemy is increasing here within these United States.
The enemy are those who follow Mohammad, and illegal alien MS 13 types doing the home invasion, rape, and murder Americans will not do.
BZO, or Die!
I was watching Cavuto on Fox and he had a dad who’s son died in the Cole murder. His family lives about 25 miles from me. I am so sorry I did not know this. If you get a chance to see how Cavuto was almost in tears talking to this man, please listen and thank Fox for giving a forgotten day ten years ago. Also, thank MM, HA, and a handfull of sites that give our best and finest that died a memorial to remember them. God will see to it that these men and women have His arms around them. The fact this bho or this scum mention this, is more they have no idea what our Republic is about.
L
From the statement: keep the memory of this tragic event alive in our nation’s conscience…
This was no “tragic event,” it was a craven terrorist attack–an atrocity. A “tragic event” is a fatal car accident or a bad fall. These jackasses can’t even appreciate the language enough to call it what it was.
I hope (there’s that word again) I live to see the day when a contingent of Marines put handcuffs on Obama and/or Osama and bring them to justice for their crimes against America.
Do you think “Dilbert” Gibbs had an “Oh S***!” moment when he got your tweet?
You should have tweeted him tomorrow.
Obama maybe. I just want Osama dead and buried in the rubble in one of his caves.
Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord,
And let Perpetual Light shine upon them.
May their Souls
And the Souls of all the faithful departed
Through the Mercy of God
Rest in Peace.
Amen
They would rather ignore this violent tragedy than deal with it. I feel sorry for all the family and friends that lost loved ones because there is no justice. Only the grace of God can help them.
Those VALUES you speak about, Mister President, are as follows:
to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same;
When are you going to start Mister President?
“
The US Department of Social Justice…Obama… continues to spit on the graves of the fallen.”One of the most odious failures of the Clinton Administration, which is why the media won’t report on it and no one will do boo about the Cole (though granted, the Bush Admin failed to do anything as well).
First off, it was a mistake to let the Cole anchor in Yemen, long known to be a snakepit of Muslim terrorism. And the reason why the poet running DOD at the time sat on his hands? The same reason why the Clinton Admin failed to do anything about Khobar Towers, bombed an aspirin factory in response to the African embassy bombings, wouldn’t take Osama Bin Laden from Sudanese custody, and treated the first attack on the World Trade Center as criminal hijinks, not as international Islamist terrorism. They wanted so desperately to win the prize of solving the Israeli-Palestinian kerfluffle, they didn’t want to upset the A-rabs or Yasser Arafat by attacking fellow Muslims. Seriously. That was it. Clinton practically sent an engraved invitation to Osama Bin Laden to attack America because he wanted the Middle East to be his legacy. Thousands of Americans were human sacrifices for this jerk’s vanity. Why do you think the Democrats packed the 9/11 commission with so many Clintonistas? Why do you think Sandy Burglar stuffed those documents in his pants? They were in CYA mode.
“I would just like to point out that my
good friendjust a guy in the neighborhood and supporter Bill Ayers is not the bomber responsible. When’s my tee time?”One significant point I wondered after the attack on the Cole took place, and I still have no idea what the answer is to this question.
why did the US Navy not have 24/7 security on the ship and surrounding the ship, prepared to take out anyone and anything which approaches the ship without authorization?
The same took place in Texas with the Muslim officer shooting up a crowd of US military pesonnel. You would think that after the first one or two shots the guy would have been D . E . A . D, but he wasn’t. He had time to kill and injure many people before someone, or two someones, stopped the perpetrator.
On 9/11/2001 many people probably assumed that calling the police, or notifying the government was all that was necessary to prevent terrorists from taking over aircraft and killing people. Now it turns out that the entire nation, the government, the Pentagon, the police, fire depardments, flight traffic controllers, the airlines, everyone was caught with their pants down and had no clue what to do, how to do it, or when to do it.
Scrambling aircraft took forever, with some claims that fighter jets were far far away and some had no ordinance on board, so they couldn’t even shoot them down.
While I was growing up in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, etc., we were under the impression that if anyone tried to enter US airspace, they wouldn’t last but a few seconds and they would be shot down. Now I realize that one to four people can comandeer an aircraft, kill everyone on board, and crash the aircraft into tall buildings in a major metropolitan area and there is nothing anyone can do about it. There are no crack marksmen sitting atop skyscrapers in New York City with shoulder launched missiles to shood down wayward aircraft, nor are there any anti-aircraft high tech mechanisms already in place and fully functional to eradicate any airborn threat.
We also are aware that TAS has repeatedly been tested and discovered to allow numerous weapons, and other banned objects and materials to get through airport security.
What about the repeated news broadcasts regarding possible threats, such as railroads, subway systems, bus stations kairports, etc.? Anyone can be walking around with a nuclear device and no one can stop them, and anyone can be walking around with biological or chemical weapons and walk right into a train station, and no one will know it until after the dead bodies start to pile up.
Then consider the terrorist style of attacking people in the public square, such as the outdoor shopping area, the bus station a reastaurant, shopping mall, crouded cars sitting at a traffic light at an interseciont, etc.
We are sitting ducks, and many US soldiers here on US soil, as well as civiliants, auch as the Students at Universithy of North Carolina, the people working at the Jewish Communithy Center in Seatle, Washington, the civilians and police officers, etc. just going about their business in the Washington, D.C. Montgomery County, MD area, all were targeted by Muslim militant, violant thugs.
There are more cases than the aforementioned, but the bottom line is, how can a US military ship, military base, etc. not be more secured, and how can airlines, fighter jets, etc., be so disorganized that they don’t know what to do in cases such as the 9/11/2001 attack, in which they fell all over themselves, or tripped all over themselves, not knowing handled what, and each person handed responsibility off to someone else?
William,
The attitude of our elites was summed up quite nicely in Obama’s remark about our being able to absorb strikes against us like 9/11.
They see it as a crime problem with a cost/benefit ratio. How much do they have to spend to prevent the terrorism? How much ‘damage’ can the terrorists really do? And any plan no matter how good will can awry to some degree.
Our elites will just let us be sitting ducks until the terrorists show us where particular weaknesses are, and then maybe our elites will fix the weaknesses.
After all, we don’t want to ‘live in fear,’ because that will mean ‘the terrorists have won.’
If you understand our elites surrendered us (the little, unimportant people of the West) to their rich ‘moderate’ muslims associates long ago, even before 9/11, it all makes a lot more sense.
Since the Soviets fell the American military’s primary function has been to advance Islam. We contained Saddam from threatening the Saudi’s and we kicked him out of Kuwait. We bombed the Serbs for trying to defend Kosovo from the invasion of Albanian muslims and the terrorist KLA. We have given massive military help to the Indonesians and the Pakistani’s. We’ve established an Islamic State in Iraq, and now we are pouring out blood and treasure into trying to establish and strengthen another Islamic state in Afghanistan.
You get the idea. What else has our military actually done since the Soviets fell other than to advance Islam?
My words to my co-workers when we stood and watched the planes fly into the WTC on that September morning.