The way I see things, the Government of Sudan is going to have a more and more difficult time unless they find a big brother. This week a judge found them liable in the bombing of the USS Cole.
The first thing I think is what? I thought that was Yemeni doing. After all, it happened in Yemen. I've always had this nagging feeling that Yemen has got something on us. You may recall the controversial movie about John O'Neill, The Path to 9/11, in which Barbara Bodine, the Ambassador to Yemen, kicks O'Neill out of her office like he was a foaming dog. And not long after that the Cole gets bombed. So I'm figuring that Bodine was out of a job. But no scandal has attached to Bodine and she's doing just fine. Obviously, the Ambassador wasn't responsible but she clearly didn't help the FBI discover what might have been discovered.
Now the other thing about Yemen was that I can recall a story about North Korean missle parts heading that way. In fact, it was 15 Scuds. Our friend Ari Fliescher said:
"There is no provision under international law prohibiting Yemen from accepting delivery of missiles from North Korea," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "While there is authority to stop and search, in this instance there is no clear authority to seize the shipment of Scud missiles from North Korea to Yemen. Therefore, the merchant vessel is being released." (The law on sea searches)
One U.S. military official said, "The merchant vessel has now been released, yet the boarding should send a strong message to proliferators everywhere."
Yeah right. Anyway, I think Yemenis are getting away with murder as the Sudanese have, but at least there is this good news.
A federal judge ruled yesterday that the Sudanese government caused the terrorist bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 and will be liable for paying damages to the families of the 17 sailors killed in the attack. U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar said in Norfolk, Va., that he would issue a written opinion later. The families of the Cole sailors sued Sudan, contending that the attack could not have happened without the nation's support of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. Sudan tried to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that too much time had passed between the bombing and the filing of the lawsuit in 2004.
I seem to recall reading somewhere that although lawyers for the plaintiffs asked for something over 100 milion, the judgment will be around 25 million, and it will come out of accounts already frozen but US banks.
The pressure is building.
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