INTERVIEW – Commander KIRK LIPPOLD – former commander of the USS Cole

• BIO: Commander Kirk S. Lippold, USN, was the Commanding Officer of the USS Cole on October 12, 2000, when the ship was attacked and bombed by al-Qaeda terrorists during a refueling stop in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 U.S. sailors.
• The White House @WhiteHouse: U.S. Central Command has confirmed that Jamal al-Badawi was killed in a precision strike on 1/1/19. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2003, charged with 50 counts of various terrorism offenses, and was wanted for his role in the terrorist attack against USS Cole.
• President Donald Trump confirms death of alleged USS Cole plotter killed in US airstrike. President Donald Trump confirmed that a U.S. military strike in Yemen last week killed Jamal al-Badawi, an al-Qaeda operative believed to be involved in the deadly 2000 attack on the USS Cole. Trump tweeted on Sunday that the U.S. military had “delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded” in the attack. “Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole,” Trump tweeted.” We have just killed the leader of that attack, Jamal al-Badawi. Our work against al Qaeda continues. We will never stop in our fight against Radical Islamic Terrorism!” The U.S. military later confirmed what the president tweeted. “U.S. Central Command has confirmed that Jamal al-Badawi was killed in a precision strike in Marib governate, on Jan. 1,” said Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command.