“On February 6, 1996, his final night in Khartoum [Sudan], [U.S. Ambassador Timothy] Carney had dinner with Ali Othman Taha, the Sudanese foreign minister. Carney demanded that Sudan expel bin Laden. A month later [March 1996], Maj. Gen. Elfatih Erwa, the Sudanese minister of state for defense, appeared in Washington for talks at which senior CIA officials repeated the demand. ‘Where should we send him?’ Erwa asked. ‘Just ask him to leave the country, but don’t let him go to Somalia,’ the U.S. officials responded. Informed that bin Laden would probably go to Afghanistan, they said, ‘Let him.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Roy Gutman, How We Missed the Story, Page 87