ARAB-US RELATIONS - Oct. 25 - Pentagon Accused Over Cole.

Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says the Pentagon's top intelligence expert on terrorist threats in the Middle East resigned on Oct. 13, the day after the Cole destroyer was bombed in Aden. The official quit in protest over what he believed was an unjustified lack of attention by his Pentagon superiors to warnings he had provided. (The warnings this official provided, and his name, have not been made public). Sen. John Warner, Republican of Virginia, chairman of the committee, says the panel decided not to make public a letter the Defence Intelligence Agency official provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Oct. 23. Roberts says the official was interviewed for 6 hours by the Intelligence Committee's staff. Warner says: "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. Roberts says the official referred 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 DIA's ability to predict and warn of a potential terrorist attack against US interests...(and) he is very troubled by the many indicators contained in the analysis that suggest two or three other major acts of terrorism could potentially occur in the coming weeks or months". US military officials have said there were no intelligence warnings of specific terrorist threats against American targets in Yemen at the time of the attack on the Cole, which killed 17 sailors and wounded 39.