Editing USS Cole bombing (section)

=== 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 />