Come join us in commemorating the lives of 17 brave sailors who sacrificed their lives in service to our country on October 12, 2000.They were killed in a suicide attack on the USS Cole, DDG 67, while it was anchored in the Yemeni port of Aden. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack.
What: Remember the USS Cole and Support Our Troops Rally
Where: Madison Ave and E. 27th Street, NYC (West side of Madison Ave)
Maplink: http://tinyurl.com/4vkldc
When: Sunday, October 12, 2008, Noon – 2pm
The seventeen sailors killed were:
- Hull Maintenance Technician Second Class* Kenneth Eugene Clodfelter, 21, of Mechanicsville, Va.
- Electronics Technician Chief Petty Officer* Richard Costelow, 35, of Morrisville, Pa.
- Mess Management Specialist Seaman Lakeina Monique Francis, 19, of Woodleaf, N.C.
- Information Systems Technician Timothy Lee Gauna, 21, of Rice, Texas
- Signalman Seaman* Cherone Louis Gunn, 22, of Rex, Ga.
- Seaman James Rodrick McDaniels, 19, of Norfolk, Va.
- Engineman Second Class Marc Ian Nieto, 24, of Fond du Lac, Wis.
- Electronics Warfare Technician Second Class* Ronald Scott Owens, 24, of Vero Beach, Fla.
- Seaman* Lakiba Nicole Palmer, 22, of San Diego, Calif.
- Engineman Fireman Joshua Langdon Parlett, 19, of Churchville, Md.
- Fireman* Patrick Howard Roy, 19, of Cornwall on Hudson, N.Y.
- Electronics Warfare Technician First Class* Kevin Shawn Rux, 30, of Portland, N.D.
- Mess Management Specialist Third Class Ronchester Manangan Santiago, 22, Kingsville, Texas
- Operations Specialist Second Class Timothy Lamont Saunders, 32, of Ringgold, Va.
- Fireman Gary Graham Swenchonis Jr., 26, Rockport, Texas
- Ensign Andrew Triplett, 31, of Macon, Miss.
- Seaman* Craig Bryan Wibberley, 19, of Williamsport, Md.
There will be a Muslim Day Parade proceeding down Madison Avenue past this location at approximately 1:30. Bring flags and signs/banners commemorating our fallen heroes and support for our troops.Contrary to our traditional American norm of separation of church and state, this is the only religious parade in New York City. The Gathering of Eagles will Remember the USS Cole along with other groups in attendance in opposition to Muslim fundamentalism and Islamofascism.
Go HERE>> for more Gathering of Eagles info.
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SOME MORE INFORMATION ON THE COLE:
Rules of engagement
Petty Officer John Washak said that right after the blast, a senior chief petty officer ordered him to turn an M-60 machine gun on the Cole‘s fantail away from a second small boat approaching. “With blood still on my face,” he said, he was told: “That’s the rules of engagement: no shooting unless we’re shot at.” He added, “In the military, it’s like we’re trained to hesitate now. If somebody had seen something wrong and shot, he probably would have been court-martialed.” Petty Officer Jennifer Kudrick said that if the sentries had fired on the suicide craft “we would have gotten in more trouble for shooting two foreigners than losing seventeen American sailors.”[14]
The destroyer’s rules of engagement, as approved by the Pentagon, kept its guards from firing upon the small boat loaded with explosives as it neared them without first obtaining permission from the Cole‘s captain or another officer.[13]
Related attacks
One of the 2000 millennium attack plots, the attempted bombing of USS The Sullivans, is widely seen as a trial run of the Cole bombing. This attack failed when the bombers’ boat, overloaded with explosives, began to sink.[31][32]
In June 2000 Tamil Tigers used a speedboat filled with explosives to attack the Sri Lankan naval vessel MV Uhana.[33] Rohitha Bogollagama, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka, compared the attack on the Uhana to the attack on the USS Cole bombing, four months later. He suggested that al Qaeda and the Tamil Tigers learned techniques from one another.
Responsibility
On March 14, 2007, a federal judge in the United States, Robert Doumar ruled that the Sudanese government was liable for the bombing.[5]
The ruling was issued in response to a lawsuit filed against the Sudanese government by relatives of the victims, who claim that Al-Qaeda could not have carried out the attacks without the support of Sudanese officials. The judge stated “There is substantial evidence in this case presented by the expert testimony that the government of Sudan induced the particular bombing of the Cole by virtue of prior actions of the government of Sudan.”[6] On July 25 2007, Doumar ordered the Sudanese government pay $8 million to the families of the 17 sailors who died. He calculated the amount they should receive by multiplying the salary of the sailors by the number of years they would have continued to work.[7] Sudan’s Justice Minister Mohammed Ali al-Mard has stated that Sudan intends to appeal the ruling.[8]
(Disgusting!!)
Thank-you for honoring the Cole attack. Our son was murdered in that attack. I am now in process of writing my annual letter to Saleh of Yemen. FYI. Our congresspeople in Texas have agreed to my request to hold Judicary committies on the botched investigation of the Cole, our governments continued support of the Yemei regime, etc… But thank you so much for not forgetting!
Gary G. Swenchonis, Sr
Remember the Cole!
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