October 6, 2002
TERRORISM OR ACCIDENT?:
Oil tanker explodes off Yemen (BBC, 6 October, 2002A French-owned oil tanker is on fire off the coast of Yemen after an explosion on board.Yemeni officials say they do not consider the blast an act of sabotage, but a diplomat at the French embassy told the AFP news agency it was believed to be a terrorist attack. "The oil tanker was rammed by a small boat stuffed with explosives," the French Vice-Consul, Marcel Goncalves, said. [...]
"It seems to be an attack in the same style as the USS Cole," said the diplomat, referring to the attack on the American warship in which 17 US servicemen were killed.
But Yemeni officials are adamant the incident is nothing like that attack, blamed on al-Qaeda, two years ago in the port of Aden.
Whose version do you trust: the Yemenis or the French? Posted by Orrin Judd at October 6, 2002 6:04 AM
That's a tough one . . .
Posted by: Paul Cella at October 6, 2002 5:43 AMThe Fremenis, of course
Posted by: Peter at October 6, 2002 8:36 AMI thought French "diplomacy" had innoculated them against the threat of terror attacks? Oh well, I'm sure George Bush's unilateralism is somehow to blame. :)
Posted by: Kevin Whited at October 6, 2002 9:51 AMOf course, it's the French, so if it turns out to be terrorism they're likely to nuke someone.
Posted by: oj at October 6, 2002 10:21 AMFantasy: The Effiel Tower is felled by a terrorist bombing -- utterly destroyed, turned into a pile of crap iron. Amazingly, not one single person is killed. But then the French have to deal with it. How do these sanctimonious moral cowards and civilisational has-beens react or over-react to "l'insulte"? No one was killed! It is this type of exercise that allows an opportunity to analyse peoples. The Americans, led by their imbecile cowboy, were expected
to drop nuclear weapons in response to thousands of its citizens murdered in ice cold blood. But dashing the secret and fervent hopes of European "intellectuals" we didn't so that. In fact, we responded with an intelligence, control, and clarity unheard of in 20th Century European history.
Screw'em. Screw their tanker.
My boycott of any and all French products and exports stands, and when I close my eyes, I can still see American blood mingling with the granules of sand on Omaha Beach.
After a little thought, I've figured it out -- it IS Bush's unilateralism at work (and his friends in "big oil"). See, it's a Bush plot to get Harken and Anadarko and ChevronTexaco and ConocoPhillips IN to Iraq (ChevronTexaco is already IN Yemen, so there ya go) once he liberates it, while at the same time striking fear into TotalFinaElf and other Frenchies. Yeah, that's it!
Man, the Left should bring me into the fold. I can come up with conspiracy theories even better than theirs!
There's something morbidly funny about the possibility that France, not India or Pakistan or the usual suspects, will be the first nation to use nukes in this war.
Posted by: Just John at October 6, 2002 2:11 PMOops, wrong red and blue flag....?
Posted by: Barry Meislin at October 6, 2002 3:43 PM