Refueling in Yemen Part of Engagement

Oct. 14 -- Despite persistent concerns about terrorist activity in Yemen, more than a dozen U.S. Navy ships had refueled at the port of Aden before the USS Cole was attacked by terrorists Thursday morning.

The refueling visits, Navy and other defense officials say, were part of a policy a policy of engaging Yemen to improve relations with the troubled republic.

The Cole was refueling at Aden early Thursday when a small boat pulled alongside it and exploded in a terrorist suicide attack. The blast killed seven U.S. sailors and another 10 are missing and presumed dead.

Officials say the White House, State Department and Defense Department all were involved in the decision to use the port for refuelings.

“The government made a government-wide decision to use Aden and to engage with the country of Yemen in a variety of ways, one of which involved port visits to Aden,” Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said Friday. “So this was an interagency decision that was made at an interagency level and reviewed at an interagency level.”

Engagement Policy

U.S. relations with the Yemeni government were said to be improving steadily over the past 10 years. Yemen was taken off the State Department’s list of states that support terrorism a decade ago and there was a sense that the Yemeni government was making efforts to crack down on terrorist groups based in the country.

As part of a broader effort at engaging Yemen, Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, former regional commander for the Middle East and South Asia, reportedly had been working to strengthen military ties and counter-terrorism efforts with the country.

Zinni had made a visit to the country in May 1998 and April 1999, meeting with President Ali Abdallah Saleh. The port of Aden was first used for refueling of Navy ships in the spring of 1999.

“We have been working to improve our relations with Yemen for some time and I am sure that that was at the heart of the commanders’” decision to establish refueling operations at Aden, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark said at a Pentagon briefing Thursday.