WASHINGTON - United States Defence Secretary William Cohen plans to order a new review into security lapse accountability in the bombing of the USS Cole last October.
A defence official said Cohen had not reached any conclusion on accountability in the attack on the destroyer.
But he felt it might be necessary to broaden a just-completed Pentagon probe aimed at improving security for American forces moving around the globe.
Cohen ordered the report, which will be released by a defence commission this week, after the apparent suicide bombing in Aden that blasted a huge hole in the side of the Cole and killed 17 US sailors.
"He [Cohen] is going to find a way to ask the question if there is accountability in the chain of command beyond the ship," said the official.
Defence officials said last week that the Cole commission, headed by retired Navy Admiral Harold Gehman and retired Army General William Crouch, had found US security shortcomings in the Gulf region before the attack.
It would call for improvements in the region and around the globe.
A separate Navy investigation, which has focused on actions on board the Cole before the bombing as it refuelled in Yemen en route from the Mediterranean to the Gulf, has concluded that the ship's captain and crew failed to follow the Cole's own security procedures on the morning of the attack.
But the Navy has not yet determined if it will punish Commander Kirk Lippold, the Cole's captain, or any crew members.
Navy officials have questioned whether US intelligence could have provided a specific threat warning for Aden, which would have prompted the Cole to go to a higher state of alert than "Threat Condition Bravo" - the second-highest of four alert levels - as it entered the harbour.
The senior defence official said Cohen felt that perhaps a further review of the separate Pentagon commission report could determine whether any security blame should rest on the chain of command in the Gulf, including Navy and intelligence officers.
"That review could establish whether we should even pursue the question of personal accountability - whether that is an issue here," the official said.
Cohen and the Navy are expected to announce the results of their separate probes this week.
But defence officials have said that even if there were security lapses, it was unlikely the bombing by apparent anti-Western guerrillas on board a small boat could have been avoided, short of not refuelling in Yemen.
They said it was likely that any major future changes in US security in the region and around the world would be kept secret.
The Cole was ripped open by a blast from an explosives-laden small boat that drew up next to the hull of the warship as it took on fuel in mid-harbour.
The United States has said exiled Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, whom it accuses of masterminding attacks on two US embassies in Africa in 1998, may have been behind the bombing. He has denied responsibility.
- REUTERS
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US plans review of security lapse on bombed ship
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