Defense official resigned after Cole attack, says warnings were ignored

Pentagon officials tell Senate panel no such threat existed

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Wednesday that a Department of Defense intelligence analyst quit his post days after the USS Cole was attacked because he believed his repeated warnings were ignored by Pentagon officials.

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, raised the matter as the panel held a second round of hearings on the events leading up to the October 12 bombing of the state-of-the-art Navy destroyer as it refueled in the Gulf state of Yemen.

Sen. Pat Roberts

The actual warnings of a threat the intelligence official provided have not been made public. Roberts said the official provided a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday, and was subsequently interviewed by staff members for six hours.

The Defense Intelligence Agency said Wednesday that the officer in question did indeed resign on October 14, two days after the attack on the USS Cole. Officials with the agency identified the man as Kie Fallis, a mid-level analyst.

A Defense official who spoke with CNN on condition of anonymity described the analyst as someone who "feels he did not get enough notice from management." The official also described him as an "intense person."

Earlier on Wednesday, Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said his panel would not release its copy of the letter from Fallis.

"What he felt is that his assessment was not given that proper level of consideration by his superiors and, as such, was not incorporated in "the final intelligence reports provided to military commanders in the Gulf," Warner told reporters after the hearing.

Roberts said the official resigned from the Pentagon's Office of Counterterrorism Analysis on October 13, the day after the attack. He said the official's resignation letter refers to an intelligence assessment in June that apparently predicted a terrorist attack in the Gulf.

"He indicates his analysis could have played a critical role" in the Defense Intelligence Agency's "ability to predict and warn of a potential terrorist attack against U.S. interests, and goes further to say he is very troubled by the many indicators contained in the analysis that suggests two or three other major acts of terrorism could potentially occur in the coming weeks or months," Roberts said.

The letter, which was reviewed by CNN, said "many indicators" could have been used to "suggest two or three major acts of anti-U.S. terrorism could potentially occur in the coming weeks, month(s)."

The Pentagon denies the charges levied by Fallis. Defense sources familiar with his resignation told CNN that the analyst held a Pentagon briefing on terror threats in the region in the "May-June timeframe," but did not participate in the daily analysis of intelligence data after that time.

The Pentagon did announce Tuesday that in response to specific terrorist threats against U.S. forces in the Gulf states of Bahrain and Qatar, troops based there have been put on the highest possible state of alert. The Pentagon has refused to reveal the nature of those threats.

Roberts said he wanted to know in closed-door hearings Wednesday afternoon if the official's warning played a role in the decision to place those forces on alert.

During earlier testimony, U.S. officials insisted that there were no intelligence warnings of specific threats in advance of the Cole attack. Gen. Tommy Franks, commander in chief of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, told the committee that the decision to refuel at the Yemeni port of Aden was made on sound military judgement.

Sen. John Warner

"Leading up to the attack on USS Cole on October 12, we received no specific threat information for Yemen or for the port of Aden," he said. "Had such a warning been received, action would have been taken by the operating forces in response."

Franks was joined at the morning hearing by Walter Slocombe, the undersecretary of defense for policy, and Edward Walker, assistant secretary of state. The committee will hear closed-session testimony later in the day from Adm. Vern Clark, the chief of naval operations, and other defense officials. The same group testifies Wednesday afternoon to the House Armed Services Committee.

Hundreds of FBI and defense officials are in Yemen scrutinizing events that led to the attack on the Cole, trying to determine how explosives aboard a small boat that pulled alongside the ship killed 17 U.S. sailors and injured 39 others.

"The Congress has constitutional responsibilities for the safety and welfare of the men and women of the armed forces and their families wherever they are in the world," Warner said. "The oversight hearings which we are now conducting are a vital part of that process."

Last week, the committee convened hearings with former commander in chief of the central command, Gen. Anthony Zinni, the man who made the decision to enter into a ship-servicing contract with the Yemeni government.

"As Gen. Zinni testified, the decision to use Aden as a refueling port was based on solid military judgment. And I agree with that judgment," Franks told the committee.

'Why Yemen?'

Franks said U.S. warships had made nearly 30 safe visits to Aden since January 1999, but he conceded the military and U.S. intelligence agencies knew Yemen had been a haven for anti-American terrorist groups.

Gen. Tommy Franks

As he did last week, Warner raised questions about why U.S. Navy vessels began refueling in Aden in 1999, despite travel warnings from the State Department. "Why Yemen, when there are continued State Department travel warnings in effect for that country?" he asked.

"Put yourself in the position of a member of the family of the Cole or citizens across this country who are absolutely shocked and appalled at this incident, where one branch of government says to travelers 'don't go' and the other branch of the government, the Department of Defense, actually says 'go,'" he said.

Walker said that the ambassador to Yemen, Barbara Bodine, advised Central Command in March 2000 not to authorize port calls in Aden, citing "general tension in the region and the feeling that there was a requirement or a need for a new review of the security situation in general in Yemen."

But Walker said that were no such warnings against refueling stops, which usually last a few hours and don't require sailors to leave the ship.

Franks: Navy reviewed port

Franks told the Senate committee that 19 of the 25 nations in Central Command's jurisdiction are considered "high-level" threats, including Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Of the 186 port stops conducted in the region this year, he speculated that "less than 10" took place in low-threat nations.

Although published reports have said the United States received vague intelligence reports about a possible attack against a U.S. warship ahead of the Cole bombing, Pentagon officials emphasized they were not specific enough to issue a warning to American forces.

"Information of that kind -- had it existed, which it didn't -- would have been disseminated on a most urgent basis to all those affected by it," Slocombe told the committee.

Franks said that the Navy had conducted its own review of the security situation in Yemen before allowing the Cole to proceed to Aden for its refueling stop.

"The process that is gone through is a force protection board that our naval commander sets every week and reviews every port call. And this one was no exception, both the last week of September and the first week of October."

Sen. Bob Smith

However, Sen. Bob Smith, R-New Hampshire, questioned the necessity of Aden as a fueling stop and asked the panel how much fuel the Cole had in reserve when it entered the harbor on October 16.

Franks said that the Cole had "topped off" its tanks before entering the Suez Canal earlier in the month, and put into Aden "at between 50 and 55 percent fuel." The Navy prefers combat-ready ships to stay above 50 percent levels, he added.

Franks testified as the United States continued an intensive investigation of the attack, which has thus far not pinpointed any groups responsible. Among those being investigated, according to U.S. officials, is Saudi Arabian exile Osama bin Laden.

"We will find the facts we need to find, and we'll use the lessons that we learn from Cole to provide the best possible force protection for our troops in one of the most dangerous regions of the world," said Franks.

CNN National Security Producer Chris Plante, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report, which was written by CNN.com writer Mike Ferullo.