The US State Department is defending the US ambassador to Yemen, Barbara K. Bodine, in a dispute with the FBI over its probe into the October bombing of the Navy destroyer USS Cole in the port of Aden, reported the Washington Post on Saturday.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said he expected that Bodine would allow FBI agents to return to Yemen to resume their investigation, despite differences over the bureau's aggressive handling of the probe.
But US officials said Bodine had barred the FBI team leader, John O'Neill, who is in charge of national security cases in the bureau's New York office, from returning to Yemen.
The FBI pulled its team out of Yemen last month, citing threats against Americans in the Middle East and in particular against those investigating the Cole attack, which killed 17 US sailors last October, according to the Post.
"At the time the FBI came out, they said they would review what they had, the information they had and what they needed, and if they needed to go back in they would . . . when the threat allowed it," Armitage said. "I think Barbara's position would be, if they need to come back in, of course they would come back in."
But a senior US government official told the paper the FBI had yet to receive permission from Bodine to send its agents back to Yemen.
"We do have an interest to go back. We need to go back. We have a lot of work to get done," the senior official said. "We're obviously looking for State Department support of us doing our mission. If the US government wants us to investigate this safely and thoroughly, we'll continue."
Early in the investigation, the FBI sent in scores of investigators and wanted its agents to carry guns. US diplomats in Yemen advocated a smaller, more discreet presence for security reasons and to avoid inflaming Yemeni political sensitivities. The FBI subsequently scaled back its team to about 15 members, said the report.
The disagreement between the State Department and the FBI flared again last month, when the FBI pulled all its agents out of Yemen because of the danger of terrorism.
The State Department kept its diplomats in place, and some department officials were caustic about the FBI's decision to withdraw.
"There was a difference of opinion about the threat," Armitage said on Friday. "We felt in the Department of State, given the fact that we had augmented our protection and that the ambassador there is the president's representative and, hence, in charge on station, that she had made the right call. The FBI clearly had other views."
A Yemeni official confirmed the imminent return of the US investigators to Yemen, where the US embassy was reopened after four weeks of closure.
The embassy reopened to the public on Saturday and consular services were restored after a closure due to potential terrorist threats.
"The embassy resumed its normal activities this morning and the consular service has started to see the public again," a US diplomat told AFP.
But the official said the consulate in Sanaa had introduced "new organizational measures" and that the public would be received in small groups within the embassy compound.
Washington closed the embassy to the public on June 9 for fear of attack, but Yemen's Interior Minister Rashad Al Alimi said the threats were not serious and aimed merely at damaging ties between Washington and Sanaa.
On Monday, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs William Burns is due in Yemen for talks expected to cover the bilateral strains caused by terrorism, said the agency.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh already held talks in Sanaa last month with Vann H. van Diepen, US assistant undersecretary for security affairs, on ways to boost cooperation in security matters.
Security has since been stepped up around the embassy in central Sanaa, with huge concrete blocks placed around the compound, according to AFP – Albawaba.com
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