On the October 29 edition of Your World with Neil Cavuto, Fox News hosted retired Navy Commander Kirk Lippold, who was commanding officer of the U.S.S. Cole when it was attacked by terrorists, to comment on the ongoing measures to mitigate a current terrorist threat. Lippold criticized three administrations for their response to the Cole bombing, saying, “Well, in the case of Cole there was clearly nothing done across multiple administrations including the current administration.” Lippold also explained that he wanted to hear from President Obama to describe the measures being taken to prevent terrorist attacks:

LIPPOLD: I want to hear what his intentions are with respect to building an intelligence picture that is going to allow us to not react to these types of events, but in fact proactively take them down. Because we need to hear that we are in fact, this many incidents occurred, or where they occurred, we don't need to know the details, Neil, but we need to know as a nation that al Qaeda's still out there. You do not want to have the familiarity breeds contempt settling in over us because an attack has not occurred. We need to be kept informed as an American people on what our government is doing to keep us safe.

[...]

LIPPOLD: I think quite frankly, Neil, today a lot of people are quite concerned and worried about what is happening. We know what we found so far, but it what we don't know that I think is worrying people and people need to be told by the president that he in fact is taking measures necessary to defend this nation. We just need to know what some of the measures are.

Nowhere in the segment did Cavuto or Lippold address the allegations of negligence that Lippold faced following the Cole bombing. The New York Times reported in 2001 that investigations following the Cole bombing “raised the possibility that Commander Lippold be disciplined for his lapses.” From the May 4, 2001, Times article:

The Navy's initial inquiry into the Cole bombing found that the captain and crew of the warship were lax about following a number of strict security procedures before a skiff packed with explosives exploded alongside it in Aden, Yemen, killing 17 sailors and severely damaging the ship.

The Cole, like all warships at sea, filed a detailed security plan before it stopped in Aden to refuel, based on guidelines set by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for dealing with ''shipboard terrorist threat conditions.''

Under the threat condition in Aden -- bravo, the third highest -- the ship's crew was required to follow at least 62 separate measures. But investigators found that the commander, Cmdr. Kirk S. Lippold, failed to follow about half of those procedures, including 12 that might have prevented or mitigated the explosion.

For instance, the ship's watchmen did not properly identify and monitor harbor boats coming near the destroyer, and Commander Lippold did not order the crew to prepare fire hoses that could have been used to repel attackers. The investigation raised the possibility that Commander Lippold be disciplined for his lapses. [emphasis added]

Fox has a habit of neglecting to mention the less than sterling records of the former officers they host to attack the Obama administration. Glenn Beck has taken up the cause of retired Lt. Colonel Allen West, defending the Florida GOP congressional candidate's assault on a detainee during an interrogation in Iraq. West has also appeared on Fox & Friends to criticize the Obama administration's handling of terrorism; co-host Brian Kilmeade noted that West's “personal enhanced interrogation tactic” got him “essentially a forced retirement” from the Army, but did not detail the extent of what he did. For Fox, all that matters is that you're willing to criticize the Obama administration.