Plot to Bomb U.S. Plane in Bahrain Reportedly Detected

U.S. intelligence agencies have detected a specific threat that a suicide bomber might try to drive a vehicle loaded with explosives onto a runway under a U.S. aircraft in Bahrain, as well as terrorist threats to American embassies there and in nearby Qatar, a U.S. intelligence official said Wednesday.

The threats were deemed credible enough that the Pentagon on Monday ordered U.S. forces in the two tiny Persian Gulf states to go to the highest security alert status since the deadly bombing of two U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998.

Although the threats remain unsubstantiated, the dramatic move to highest alert means the Pentagon believes further attacks are likely. U.S. experts have not determined if the threats are part of a coordinated terrorist plot or were made independently, said the intelligence official, who is familiar with the details but who asked not to be identified.

The official said experts fear that the Oct. 12 suicide bombing attack on the U.S. warship Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden “might be the first of several” attacks on U.S. targets.

In a separate development, a congressional committee was told Wednesday that a Pentagon intelligence analyst specializing in Persian Gulf terrorist groups quit his job the day after the Cole bombing to protest the way defense officials allegedly ignored his warnings of possible attacks.

The expert, a mid-level analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency, or DIA, who was not identified, contended that his reports were not distributed to military field commanders and thus were not available to help prevent calamities such as the attack on the guided missile destroyer, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee said during a hearing.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said the expert claimed in his resignation letter that he had warned that “two or three other major acts of terrorism could potentially occur in the coming weeks or months.”

Defense officials insisted that they always notify commanders of credible and specific threats. They disputed whether the analyst’s work might have averted the Cole attack, which killed 17 U.S. sailors and injured 39.

A Pentagon statement quoted DIA Director Vice Adm. Thomas Wilson as saying the analyst “did good work” at the agency. But the statement said the analyst had acknowledged to Wilson that “he did not have information that would have provided tactical warning of the attack on the USS Cole.”

Another U.S. official familiar with the case said the analyst had “a personality conflict” with his supervisor and was “unhappy with his work.” He added that “no one had a sense this guy had information no one else had. I think there’s less here than meets the eye.”

The DIA analyst quit Oct. 13 and sent his letter of resignation to Wilson the next day. He spent six hours telling his story to staff members of the Senate Intelligence Committee but did not appear at Wednesday’s Armed Services Committee hearing.

The latest threats to U.S. forces in Qatar and Bahrain, home to the U.S. 5th Fleet, as well as less specific threats to attack U.S. fighter jets at an air base in Incirlik, Turkey, came after the Cole bombing, the intelligence official said. The threatened attack on the U.S. plane in Bahrain was to take place at the international airport, part of which is used by the U.S. military. The official said it is not clear who made the threats.

“No one called in and said this is going to happen,” the official said. “This is intelligence that is picked up. It’s not verified, or verifiable perhaps. But it’s plausible and certainly worth taking precautions about.”

The official said a “flood of threats, rumors and reports” have come in recent days from a variety of sources, including other intelligence services, reports from agents and other people on the ground and the electronic interception of communications.

The specific threats against U.S. forces in Bahrain and Qatar were first reported Wednesday by ABC News.

In another disclosure before the Senate panel Wednesday, Pentagon officials said the U.S. ambassador to Yemen, Barbara Bodine, had rejected a proposed port call by a Navy ship to Yemen as recently as March because she believed the visit would pose too much danger to sailors.

Defense officials said Bodine’s move should not be used to judge the safety of the Cole’s refueling stop. They said port calls typically last for days rather than a few hours and require docking the ship rather than refueling it at a floating barge in the harbor.

The Senate hearing, the second on the Cole in a week, had contentious moments, and at times a partisan cast.

Democrats generally defended the Defense Department and sought to defer questions until a closed committee session later Wednesday or until the conclusion of three pending official investigations that may continue for months. Republicans sought to flush some sensitive issues into the open, citing the need of military personnel and family members to know what happened in the attack.

Though no lawmakers have challenged the conduct of the Cole’s officers or crew, Republican senators probed the intelligence analysis that preceded the bombing and questioned whether the ship should have visited a nation officially described as a “safe haven” for terrorists.

The DIA, the Pentagon’s intelligence service, is conducting an inquiry into the former employee’s charges. He has declined to meet with Wilson to answer questions, according to one official, who asked for anonymity.

Defense and State Department officials contend that Aden is no more dangerous than many other stops in the Middle East and that, before the bombing, it was believed to be safer than others. U.S. warships had stopped at Aden 25 times without incident before the Cole visit.

But some senators cited official documents that present a more ambiguous picture of the risks in Aden.

Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) noted that the State Department’s annual report on global terrorism has described Yemen as a safe haven for terrorists every year since 1997. He also noted that a recent DIA report cited Yemen as a “high threat” and the African port of Djibouti, about 160 miles southwest of Aden, as a “low threat.”

“Why Yemen, not Djibouti, not Oman?” Warner asked. “Those are legitimate questions that we have to dwell on.”