President Bill “Clinton signed a Top Secret ‘Memorandum of Notification’ within days of the [August 7, 1998, African] embassy bombings to authorize the CIA or its agents to use lethal force if necessary in an attempt to capture bin Laden, [Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader] Ayman al-Zawahiri, and several other top lieutenants. …His memo provided legal authority for CIA covert operations aimed at taking a specific list of al Qaeda leaders into custody for purposes of returning them to the United States for trial on federal charges of terrorism and murder.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Steve Coll, Ghost Wars, Page 423