Editing USS Cole bombing (section)

== Responsibility ==
On 14 March 2007, a federal judge in the United States, [[Robert G. Doumar]], ruled that the Sudanese government was liable for the bombing.<ref name=Michael2->{{cite web
| url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna17598388
| title=Federal judge rules Sudan responsible for USS ''Cole'' bombing in 2000
| access-date=14 March 2007
| publisher=NBC News
| author=NBC News
| date=14 March 2007
}}</ref>

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 said: {{quote|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.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D02E5DC1E31F936A25750C0A9619C8B63 | work=The New York Times | title=Judge Finds Sudan Is Liable in Cole Case | date=15 March 2007 | access-date=27 May 2010}}</ref>}}

On 25 July 2007, Doumar ordered the Sudanese government to 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.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6916598.stm Sudan must pay USS ''Cole'' victims]. 25 July 2007.</ref> The following day, Sudan's Justice Minister Mohammed al-Mard said Sudan intended to appeal the ruling.<ref>[http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/B868384.htm Sudan to appeal verdict in USS ''Cole'' bombing case]. 26 July 2007.</ref>

In March 2015, U.S. federal judge Rudolph Contreras found both Iran and Sudan complicit in the 2000 bombing of the USS ''Cole'' by al Qaeda, stating that "Iran was directly involved in establishing Al-Qaeda's Yemen network and supported training and logistics for Al-Qaeda in the Gulf region" through Hezbollah. Two previous federal judges had ruled that Sudan was liable for its role in the attack, but Contreras's "ruling is the first to find Iran partly responsible for the incident."<ref>{{cite news|last=Hsu|first=Spencer S.|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/judge-orders-sudan-iran-to-pay-75-million-to-family-of-uss-cole-victim/2015/03/31/a2105dd8-d7b8-11e4-ba28-f2a685dc7f89_story.html|title=Judge orders Sudan, Iran to pay $75 million to family of USS ''Cole'' victim|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=2015-03-31|access-date=2017-05-02}}</ref>

By May 2008, all defendants convicted in the attack had escaped from prison or been freed by Yemeni officials.<ref>{{cite news
|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/03/AR2008050302047.html
|title=Probe of USS ''Cole'' Bombing Unravels: Plotters Freed in Yemen; U.S. Efforts Frustrated
|first=Craig
|last=Whitlock
|newspaper=The Washington Post
|date=4 May 2008}}</ref> On 30 June 2008, [[Brigadier General]] [[Thomas W. Hartmann]], legal advisor to the U.S. military tribunal system, announced that charges were being sworn against [[Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri]], a Saudi Arabian citizen of Yemeni descent, who had been held at the [[Guantanamo Bay detention camp|military prison]] in [[Guantanamo Bay Naval Base|Guantanamo Bay]], Cuba, since 2006. Pentagon officials said the charges "organizing and directing" the ''Cole'' bombing still needed approval by a [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]] official who oversees [[Guantanamo military commission|military commissions]] set up for terrorism suspects. Pentagon officials said they would seek the death penalty.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hr9LuImkGdEIRBsAHVkttBHKPF3QD91KI6000
|title=Pentagon announces charges in USS ''Cole'' bombing
|first=Pauline
|last=Jelinek
|publisher=Associated Press
|date=30 June 2008
}}{{Dead link|date=January 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

=== Alleged mastermind ===
Several people have been described as the ''Cole'' bombing mastermind.{{refn|<ref name=Cnn2002-11-21>
{{cite news|url=http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/11/21/alqaeda.capture/index.html|title=U.S.: Top al Qaeda operative arrested|date=21 November 2002|publisher=[[CNN]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425070312/http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/11/21/alqaeda.capture/index.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=25 April 2009}}</ref><ref name=CbsNews20021109>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lackawanna-6-link-to-yemen-killings-04-11-2002/|title='Lackawanna 6' Link To Yemen Killings?|publisher=[[CBS News]]|date=8 November 2002|access-date=20 September 2007}}</ref><ref name=TheAge20021106>{{cite news| url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/11/05/1036308311314.html?oneclick=true |title=US missiles kill al Qaeda suspects|date=6 November 2002|author=Walter Pincus|newspaper=[[The Age]]|access-date=20 September 2007|author-link=Walter Pincus}}</ref><ref name=TheJuristOpinion20021107>{{cite news|url=http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forum/forumnew68.php|publisher=[[The Jurist]]|title=The Yemen Attack: Illegal Assassination or Lawful Killing?|author=Jeffrey Addicott|date=7 November 2002|access-date=20 September 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060418144456/http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forum/forumnew68.php|archive-date=18 April 2006|df=dmy-all|author-link = Jeffrey Addicott}}</ref><ref name=MitTech20021108>{{cite news|date=8 November 2002|url=http://tech.mit.edu/V122/N54/long4-54.54w.html|title=U.S. Citizen Among Those Killed in Yemen Predator Missile Strike|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|author=Dana Priest|access-date=20 September 2007|author-link=Dana Priest|archive-date=3 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203204727/http://tech.mit.edu/V122/N54/long4-54.54w.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>}} A Guantanamo Military Commission said [[Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri]],<ref>[[Salon.com]], [http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/12/23/guantanamo/ Goodbye to Guantanamo?], 23 December 2008</ref> captured in late 2002, was the planner.<ref name=Cnn2002-11-21/> Al-Nashiri was one of the three "[[high-value detainees]]" the [[George W. Bush]] administration would acknowledge had been subjected to [[waterboarding]] and other "[[enhanced interrogation techniques]]."

[[Abu Ali al-Harithi]] was one of the first suspected terrorists to be targeted by a missile-armed [[Predator drone]].{{refn|<ref name=CbsNews20021109/><ref name=TheAge20021106/><ref name=TheJuristOpinion20021107/><ref name=MitTech20021108/>}} He, too, was described as the mastermind of the ''Cole'' bombing.

In 2003, the U.S. Justice Department indicted two people who were believed to have been the last main co-conspirators who were still at large, [[Jamal Ahmad Mohammad Al Badawi]] and [[Fahd al-Quso]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.justice.gov/archive/ag/speeches/2003/051503agremarksusscole.htm|title=#05-15-03: Attorney General John Ashcroft Announces Indictment for the Bombing of the U.S.S. Cole|website=www.justice.gov|access-date=21 October 2018}}</ref> Jamal Ahmad Mohammad Al Badawi was convicted in Yemen and sentenced to death.<ref name=FoxNews2006-02-06>
{{cite news
| url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/uss-cole-bombing-mastermind-escapes-prison
| title=USS Cole Bombing Mastermind Escapes Prison
| date=6 February 2006
| quote=Yemeni officials said Jamal al-Badawi – a man convicted of plotting, preparing and helping carry out the Cole bombing – was among the fugitives, Interpol said. Al-Badawi was among those sentenced to death in September 2004 for plotting the attack, in which two suicide bombers blew up an explosives-laden boat next to the destroyer as it refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden on October 12, 2000.
| publisher=[[Fox News Channel|Fox News]]
| url-status=live
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080430024300/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183911,00.html
| archive-date=30 April 2008
}}</ref> Fahd al-Quso was killed by a U.S. drone strike on 6 May 2012.<ref>{{Cite news | url = https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/airstrike-kills-senior-al-qaida-leader-yemen-16290426#.T6bXqu3IY20 | work = ABC News | access-date = 6 May 2012 | date = 6 May 2012 | title = Airstrike Kills Senior Al-Qaida Leader in Yemen | author = Ahmed Al-Haj}}</ref> Al-Badawi, also called a "mastermind" of the ''Cole'' bombing, was one of seventeen captives who escaped through a tunnel from a Yemeni jail in 2006. Al-Badawi was killed in a drone strike on 1 January 2019 in the Marib governate, Yemen.<ref>{{cite news |title=USS Cole bombing mastermind killed in US airstrike, says report |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/uss-cole-terrorism-jamel-ahmed-mohammed-ali-albadawi-alqaeda-yemen-911-killed-latest-a8712106.html |access-date=6 January 2019 |work=The Independent |date=4 January 2019 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/secret-u-s-missile-aims-to-kill-only-terrorists-not-nearby-civilians-11557403411|title=Secret U.S. Missile Aims to Kill Only Terrorists, Not Nearby Civilians|author=Gordon Lubold and Warren P. Strobel|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|date=9 May 2019}}</ref>

[[Tawfiq bin Attash]], who was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and is currently{{When|date=February 2017}} being held in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, was "considered the mastermind" of the bombing.<ref name=2006-03-28>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/03/28/moussaoui/index.html|title=Al Qaeda witnesses saw Moussaoui as a bumbler|date=28 March 2006|author=Phil Hircshkorn|quote=Tawfiq Bin Atash, a senior al Qaeda operative considered the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing in 2000, also assisted the 9/11 plot.|publisher=[[CNN]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090703104421/http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/03/28/moussaoui/index.html|url-status=live|archive-date=3 July 2009}}</ref> An Al-Qaeda commander in Yemen also confirmed that another co-conspirator in the bombing, Abdul Mun'im Salim al-Fatahani, was killed in a [[Drone attacks in Yemen|U.S. drone strike]] on 31 January 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/02/aqap_operative_kille.php|title=AQAP operative killed in recent drone strike in Yemen|work=Long War Journal|date=3 February 2012|publisher=[[Foundation for Defense of Democracies|FDD]]|access-date=21 October 2018}}</ref> On 6 May 2012, officials from the Yemen government reported that al-Quso was killed in an airstrike earlier in the day in southern Yemen.<ref name=ippqpvzbcage>{{cite web | last=Al-Haj | first=Ahmed | url = https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iUjpp3Oa6oTLUEqW1-7oU_gSJOcw?docId=891f126ccd454599a252dd2ac3ee685f | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120509015546/http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iUjpp3Oa6oTLUEqW1-7oU_gSJOcw?docId=891f126ccd454599a252dd2ac3ee685f | url-status = dead | archive-date = 9 May 2012 | title = US airstrike kills senior al-Qaida leader in Yemen | date = 6 May 2012 | publisher = [[The Associated Press]] }}</ref> The report was later confirmed by U.S. officials and Al-Qaeda's media network [[As-Sahab]].<ref name=ippqpvzbcage />