Resolve Is Not Enough

U.S. officials have given their investigation of last week’s deadly attack on the destroyer Cole the code name “Determined Response,” an implicit promise of bold action to identify and punish those responsible for killing 17 members of the ship’s crew and injuring 39 others. But while Washington’s resolve cannot be doubted, its ability to act appears far less certain. Much depends on how much cooperation is provided by Yemen. The Cole was preparing to refuel at its port of Aden when suicide terrorists drew alongside and set off a powerful explosion.

On Monday, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh described the assault as a “planned criminal act.” This represents some progress, given Saleh’s initial insistence that last Thursday’s explosion could not have been deliberate. But Saleh is only conceding the obvious. It’s what comes next that’s crucial to the investigation.

Yemeni officials must know by now the names and nationality of the two men aboard the attacking boat and whether they worked for the private company hired to refuel the Cole and the several dozen other U.S. warships that had preceded it into Aden since early 1999. If they were infiltrators, investigators should be able to figure out how they were able to make their way around the harbor in their explosive-laden boat. The attack plainly took time to prepare. A key need is to find out how word of the ship’s planned stop got out. The first places to look for this breach of security are in the offices of Aden’s port authority and the refueling contractor, which had 10 or 12 days’ notice of the Cole’s arrival.

Saleh is believed to want good relations with the United States. But Yemen is a country in a perpetual state of tribal violence, the host--willing or not--to Palestinian, Sudanese, Libyan and other terrorist groups, along with Iraqi government operatives. The exiled Saudi terrorist Osama Bin Laden also has connections there. In short, there is no dearth of suspects. Neither is there any shortage of reasons for the nervous Saleh government to avoid working too closely with the United States or pursuing the Cole investigation too vigorously.

Four years ago terrorists blew up a U.S. military barracks in Saudi Arabia, a country with far closer ties than Yemen to the United States. American and Saudi officials worked together trying to trace those responsible for the bombing. The evidence soon strongly implicated Iran. But at that point the Saudis began to stonewall, withholding crucial information from U.S. investigators. Personal appeals from the highest levels in Washington failed to budge the Saudis. The investigation hit a dead end, and pledges from U.S. officials to identify and punish those responsible for the bombing are unredeemed.

The attack on the Cole achieved its purpose. It showed that the United States, for all its power, is vulnerable. That serves the interests of many in the roiling Middle East. And it could be an incentive for more attacks against other American targets in the region.