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| Africa: Horn |
| Sudan accused of supporting USS Cole attack |
| 2005-03-21 |
| A judge has set an Aug. 23 trial date in the case filed against the Republic of Sudan by the families of the victims of the 2000 attack on the destroyer Cole. Sudan is accused of providing the financing and training for al-Qaida terrorists who carried out the attack. U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar, who is presiding over the suit, ruled Wednesday that the case will go forward even though Sudan has never responded to the legal action. The suit, initially filed in July by seven victims' relatives, now includes all 17 families of those killed in the blast. They will be seeking tens of millions of dollars from the East African nation. The attack on the Norfolk-based Cole in the harbor at Aden, Yemen, killed 17 sailors on Oct. 12, 2000. Six suspected al-Qaida operatives were charged in Yemen with plotting the attack. Six of the sailors and their families lived in Norfolk at the time. Three widows remain here, but they have been reluctant to speak publicly due to the legal action. There are 58 family members involved in the suit, including 10 children, according to James Cooper-Hill, a Texas attorney for the Cole plaintiffs. "Understandably, for many, it's a very emotionally draining situation," Cooper-Hill said Thursday . "Some people really don't want to testify. It's very painful for them." He said he plans to have six to eight relatives of Cole victims testify at the Aug. 23 trial. He and other attorneys involved are scheduling depositions with all family members. Initial court filings said that the suit would seek $105 million for the seven families that filed first. The total amount sought for all 17 families has not been disclosed. Cooper-Hill said he realizes that Sudan is a poor nation. He and the other attorneys have sought congressional approval for payment from $29 million in Sudanese assets that the United States has frozen. A number of families initially did not want to sue and instead sought compensation through the Sept. 11, 2001, fund set up by Congress, Cooper-Hill said. When legislation to add those names failed to get approval, those families joined the suit. Sudan has not responded to the lawsuit and is not expected to participate in the trial. Papers were served at the country's Washington embassy and with officials in Khartoum, the nation's capital. Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden operated training camps in Sudan through the 1990s. It was at those camps that al-Qaida militants trained to manufacture and detonate explosives, the lawsuit says. The Sudanese government allowed bin Laden to ship explosives out of the country, including four crates of explosives used in the Cole bombing, the lawsuit alleges. Bin Laden fled Sudan sometime after 1996 and is believed to be hiding in a remote region bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan. U.S. forces continue hunting him. Six al-Qaida operatives were charged in Yemen with plotting the attack. One of the six, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, believed to be an al-Qaida leader in the Gulf region, has been sentenced to death in Yemen. Another organizer had his death sentence commuted last month to 15 years in prison. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #4 They just keep "escaping". Or 'repenting'. |
| Posted by: Raj 2005-03-21 12:37:41 PM |
| #3 Maybe they were surrounded. |
| Posted by: Spot 2005-03-21 8:35:41 AM |
| #2 No, they got plenty of Yemenis to put in the jug. They just keep "escaping". |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-03-21 8:13:01 AM |
| #1 So they've run out of Yemenis to put in jug? |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-03-21 2:49:14 AM |