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1. This week I’m going to be addressing the suicide attack on the USS Cole by bombers affiliated with al Qaeda. To answer the first part of the question posed, the attack was most certainly terrorism and for a number of reasons that are related to the use of an IED against a warship.
First, because of the involvement of senior al Qaeda operatives in the plotting and facilitation phases of the attack we can draw the conclusion that the terror organization committed this attack to further their political goals in forcing the US to withdraw from the Middle East, a long standing goal of the organization back in the last 90s and early 00s. The operatives that did not die in the resulting bombing were quickly apprehended and confessed to working with al Qaeda plotters associated with Osama bin Laden, an opponent of the US at the time and one behind a number of plots including the eventual 9/11 attacks.
The resulting investigation by the US and Yemeni law enforcement revealed much of this information in a timely and effective manner, despite several roadblocks to the investigation. The resulting retaliation that President Clinton promised never materialized however and that didn’t sit well with many in his administration. Additionally, the lack of retaliation may have emboldened existing al Qaeda cells within the country and allowed them to grow in size and strength to become the organization that would eventually aid in the downfall of the current Yemeni government.
