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U.S. Warships Ordered to Steer Clear of Suez Canal over Threat of Terrorism

Aired October 30, 2000 - 6:01 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: New terrorism warnings have the United States taking unusual precautions to ward off attacks. Sources tell CNN's military affairs correspondent Jamie McIntyre that American warships have been ordered to stay out of the Suez Canal for fear the narrow waterway is vulnerable to strikes, such as the deadly attack on the USS Cole in Yemen earlier this month. We get more in this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CNN has learned that the Suez Canal, vital link between the Mediterranean and Red Seas, is now off limits to U.S. warships, denying them the fastest route from the east coast of the United States to the Persian Gulf.

The Pentagon is taking seriously a threat made one week after the suicide bombing of the USS Cole by Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, a leader of the armed Islamic Jama-ah in Egypt, who appeared in a recently-released videotape alongside accused terrorist Osama bin Laden. Taha was quoted in an October 18th broadcast report from the region as calling on "Egyptian soldiers and citizens...follow the example of those who attacked the Cole." and pointedly noted that U.S. warships "always travel through the Suez Canal."

In response, Pentagon sources say, several U.S. warships that were scheduled to pass through the Suez Canal this month, where they might have been vulnerable, were rerouted, and future transits were postponed.

Nevertheless, Pentagon sources say, the heavy-lift transport ship Blue Marlin, which is carrying the Cole to the United States, will not take the shortest route through the canal and into the Mediterranean. Instead, the Blue Marlin will ferry the crippled destroyer around the tip of Africa, a route that will stretch the month-long trip to about five weeks. American commercial ships continue to use the Suez Canal, which handles roughly 80 ships a day.

(on camera): Pentagon sources say the U.S. is consulting with Egypt about security along the narrow, 101-mile long waterway and that the decision whether to send ships through the Suez is being made on a day-by-day basis. Still, that has complicated life for a few U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf, which may have to miss a port call and take the long way home. Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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