The former commander of the USS Cole is pleased that a key al-Qaeda terrorist tied to the attack on his ship was taken out in a recent drone strike.
Fahd Mohammad Ahmad al-Quso had been on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list in connection with the October 2000 bombing of the Navy's USS Cole while it was in port in a Yemeni harbor. The al-Qaeda terrorist was sentenced to ten years in prison in 2004 for his role in the bombing, but he escaped a year later. Now, U.S. officials have confirmed that al-Quso was one of two operatives killed in a CIA drone missile strike in southern Yemen's Shabwa on May 6.Cdr. Kirk Lippold (USN-Ret.) is a senior fellow at Military Families United. He commanded the USS Cole during the terrorist attack and says al-Quso was a key al-Qaeda operative. "He was actually supposed to film the attack to create a recruiting video for al-Qaeda and was sitting filming from the safe house window up in the hills overlooking the harbor where al-Qaeda had been observing Navy ships going in for about 18 months," Lippold details. "He was a key guy. He wasn't just a guy out there with a video camera; he was a guy following the attack on the USS Cole that began to grow his intelligence contacts within al-Qaeda, grow his capability and actually was a major member of the al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula, plotting to kill more Americans." The retired Navy commander adds that the FBI had a $5 million bounty on al-Quso's head, so the U.S. military had to do whatever necessary to take him out.
Fahd Mohammad Ahmad al-Quso had been on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list in connection with the October 2000 bombing of the Navy's USS Cole while it was in port in a Yemeni harbor. The al-Qaeda terrorist was sentenced to ten years in prison in 2004 for his role in the bombing, but he escaped a year later. Now, U.S. officials have confirmed that al-Quso was one of two operatives killed in a CIA drone missile strike in southern Yemen's Shabwa on May 6.Cdr. Kirk Lippold (USN-Ret.) is a senior fellow at Military Families United. He commanded the USS Cole during the terrorist attack and says al-Quso was a key al-Qaeda operative. "He was actually supposed to film the attack to create a recruiting video for al-Qaeda and was sitting filming from the safe house window up in the hills overlooking the harbor where al-Qaeda had been observing Navy ships going in for about 18 months," Lippold details. "He was a key guy. He wasn't just a guy out there with a video camera; he was a guy following the attack on the USS Cole that began to grow his intelligence contacts within al-Qaeda, grow his capability and actually was a major member of the al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula, plotting to kill more Americans."
The retired Navy commander adds that the FBI had a $5 million bounty on al-Quso's head, so the U.S. military had to do whatever necessary to take him out.
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