Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #USSCole
Most recents (4)
1/NEWEST LAWSUIT:
Tonight I filed another prepublication classification review lawsuit against @DeptofDefense. This time it was for @KellySKennedy for her forthcoming book "The Activity: My Life Inside America’s Most Secret Unit".
More info here: amazon.com/Activity-Insid…
Tonight I filed another prepublication classification review lawsuit against @DeptofDefense. This time it was for @KellySKennedy for her forthcoming book "The Activity: My Life Inside America’s Most Secret Unit".
More info here: amazon.com/Activity-Insid…
2/Book tells story of “Ameen al-Gammal,” who immigrated from Egypt at 19, unable at time to speak English. He joined @USArmy to pay back debt he felt he owed his new country. He then rose through ranks to join military’s most secret unit.
3/"Ameen" served as command Sergeant Major in U.S. military’s most elite—and most secretive—unit. For more than 10 years, he was only Muslim Arab-American in Army Intelligence Support Activity tasked to collect actionable intelligence in advance of missions by the “Activity”.
Thread: Today is 20 years since the USS Cole was attacked by Al Qaeda in the port of Aden in Yemen. It's really difficult to overstate the change that ensued for those of us that served during that time. #USSCole 
2/Most of us think of 9/11. And some point out that the Cole was the canary in the coal mine. But neither are true. The attack was more akin to reminding us that there was a coal mine...and all there were actual dangers. Which means what's really more remarkable...
3/...is the state we were in the years leading up to it. At the time, I had just finished up (or was finishing) ship's engineering school and had received orders to one of the Cole's sister guided missile destroyers. I had a classmate from Annapolis on the ship who survived.
In preview of #SOTU on national security, @POTUS expected to say, "As a candidate for President, I pledged a new approach. Great nations do not fight endless wars"
re #Syria #Afghanistan #Iraq?
re #Syria #Afghanistan #Iraq?
I've been trying to figure out what the "Intelligence-Gathering Vessel" was that the @RoyalNavy (infuriatingly) wouldn't name or post pictures of that crossed the English Channel on Christmas Eve. Because of the timing, I strongly suspected it was the Viktor Leonov AGI. #SpyShip
I can now say, with a high degree of confidence, a Russian Navy AGI stopped in Trinidad & Tabago 2018-01-11 to restock, and they have likely left by now. I suspect, but cannot yet confirm, that AGI is the Viktor Leonov|Виктор Леонов, the Vishnya-class intelligence ship. #SpyShip
You may remember the collective freak-out when there was a Russian Navy intelligence gathering vessel off the US East Coast last Feb-Mar. That info was Secret(or higher)-classified Navy intelligence, leaked by the Pentagon, but there was no investigation or pursuit of the leaker.
