January 4, 2010, - 11:44 am
Newsflash: Yemen Not “New” Terrorist Hotbed – American Victim Dies
Even though Northwest Airlines Flight 253 Islamic terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was apparently radicalized in Great Britain, we’re now finally focusing–sort of–on the danger Yemen has been for years. As I’ve noted on this site, the Yemeni government and its minions have repeatedly helped Islamic terrorists, including those who committed the 2000 U.S.S. Cole terrorist bombing, to escape from jail, etc. And a Saudi Arabian of Yemeni descent, Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri, and two Yemeni citizens, Jamal Badawi and Abu Ali-Harithi, planned and organized the Al-Qaeda attack on the ship. Although the Sudanese government played a large role in the attack, the men who carried it out were largely Yemenis, and they were sheltered in Yemen afterward.
Johann Gokool, Victim of Yemeni Islamic Terrorism, Rest In Peace
And as I noted, regarding a 2008 terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Sana’a, Yemen, the Lackawanna Six terrorists (of suburban Buffalo) were not only of Yemeni descent, but the only victim of that attack, was an American relative of Jaber El-Baneh, the seventh member of the Lackawanna Six, who remains a fugitive.
Sorry, but all of these politicians and so-called “terrorism experts” who are all over your TV screen telling you that Yemen “will become the next terrorist hotbed” simply haven’t been paying attention. In many ways, it was the FIRST terrorist hotbed. And has remained a terrorist base for years and years. This isn’t a new development.
But, speaking of the Cole, it remains the first Yemeni “gift that keeps on giving.” Just before Christmas, the Cole terrorists claimed the life of Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Johann Gokool. And, in the shadow of the Flight 253 attack, barely anyone noticed.
U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Johann Gokool lost his left foot when a bomb ripped a hole in the side of the USS Cole nearly a decade ago, but the injury was nothing compared with the mental torment that ravaged him almost daily.
He returned home to Florida suffering severe post-traumatic stress disorder and frequent panic attacks so violent he would launch into seizures and even fractured his own wrist several times as he flailed, sister Natala Gokool said Tuesday.
One of the brothers he lived with found him dead in their home last Wednesday, just a week after his 31st birthday, Natala Gokool said. . . .
The family believes the seizures just became too much for his body to handle. Gokool was an electronic warfare technician aboard the Cole when suicide bombers rammed a small boat packed with explosives into it on Oct. 12, 2000, during a refueling stop in Aden, Yemen. It triggered a string of deadly fires. Seventeen U.S. sailors were killed and 39 others injured.
His sister said he soon began having panic attacks.
“Every year around the anniversary of the attack on the Cole, it seemed to get worse and more violent and more frequent,” she said. . . .
Born in Trinidad, he moved with his family to South Florida as a young boy, and joined the military right out of high school.
He was in the ship’s mess hall during the attack.
“When the explosion went off, everything was in slow motion, like a movie,” Gokool told The Miami Herald in 2005. “My body spun around and I could smell smoke and fuel.”
After being knocked unconscious, Gokool said he woke up and slowly dragged himself up a ladder to rescue.
“I don’t want to die here,” he said he thought to himself.
Doctors later removed his badly injured left foot. . . . It was the panic attacks that scarred him. He couldn’t work and stayed home when he felt them coming on, which was sometimes too often for him to live any normal life. . . .
While Gokool’s death was sudden, “my parents and my brothers and I always knew that unless somebody could figure out what was wrong with him, it would probably kill him,” she said. “A part of us always knew that would be his demise.”
More:
Gokool’s brother said Johann’s upbeat day-to-day personality remained unchanged, but he experienced severe panic attacks.
He would describe them to me like a spirit taking over his body. He was conscious, but when the attacks hit he would just fly all over the place, move his arms around,” said Anjelo Gokool who added that his brother was powerless to stop the attacks. “He knew when they were coming on, but it was like he had to do whatever this spirit wanted. He couldn’t stop it.” . . .
He was particularly close to many of the men he served with on the Cole. . . .
“He was one of those guys. It would take an act of God to break his spirit,” said Gokool.
And the act of Islamic terrorists from Yemen.
Yes, Yemen is not “the next terrorism hotbed.” And anyone who believes it is, simply hasn’t been paying attention to Yemen for the last two decades. Sadly, that’s far too many of our ignorant “leaders” and federal counterterrorism officials.
Johann Gokool’s death is yet another sad reminder of that. Johann Gokool, American hero and patriot, Rest In Peace.
Tags: 2000, Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri, Abu Ali-Harithi, al-Qaeda, Cole bombing, Islam, Islamic Terrorism, Islamic terrorist, Jaber El-Baneh, Jamal Badawi, Johann Gokool, Lackawanna Six, Muslim, Northwest Flight 253, terrorism hotbed, terrorism hotspot, U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class, U.S.S. Cole, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, USS Cole, Yemen, Yemeni
Debbie, incredibly enough our officials want to send more terrorists home to Yemen from Gitmo. The situation is so dangerous in that country the US Embassy has been closed there. To make things really surreal, the US has no plan to deal with the terrorist base of operations in Yemen.
That’s how we pay tribute to those killed on the USS Cole and to Johann Gokool’s memory – by doing nothing to those who murdered them.
America – desperate but not serious about fighting terrorism abroad.
NormanF on January 4, 2010 at 12:02 pm