Preventing Future USS Cole-Style Attacks

W A S H I N G T O N, Jan. 9 -- Better training and intelligence could help avoid attacks similar to the bombing of the USS Cole, a Navy panel set up after last year's bombing in Yemen of the U.S. destroyer said today.

The panel, appointed by Defense Secretary William Cohen, said the U.S. military must make defense against “terrorist” attacks one of its top priorities and train all troops to protect themselves better.

It found the Navy and other military services generally react to terrorism rather than focus efforts to detect and deter threats before they can be carried out.

“Intelligence efforts must be refocused and tailored to overwatch transitingunits and to mitigate the terrorist threat,” said a 10-page unclassified version of the report of the so-called Cole Commission, headed by retired Adm. Harold Gehman and retired Army Gen. William Crouch.

The panel examined the circumstances behind the attack last October on the Cole, one of the world’s most modern warships. A small boat laden with explosives blew up alongside the Cole as it refueled in the Yemeni port city of Aden in October, tearing a hole in its side and killing 17 sailors.

Cohen said the review indicated there was no specific intelligence warning of the attack before the Cole was hit, although anti-American elements had been reported in the area in past.

The report also accused the U.S. military of reacting too slowly to emerging guerrilla threats after the Cold War, and recommended an assistant defense secretary be put in charge of the new effort.

At a news conference announcing the findings, Cohen said he had asked Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Henry Shelton to review the report “to see if it raises any accountability issues that should be pursued further.”

Cohen said he was not looking for scapegoats and made that referral “without any preconceived notion that someone in the chain of command was either inattentive or negligent.”

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Demands for a Perimeter