Journalist Abdel Bari Atwan wrote: “On 21 August 1998, in the wake of the US bombardment [in retaliation for the August 7, 1998, African embassy bombings], Muhammad Atef (then al Qaeda’s military chief) telephoned me at the paper [Al-Quds al-Arabi] to declare that the US bombardment had failed to accomplish its objectives: Osama bin Laden was still alive, and so were all the leaders of al Qaeda. …He then added that Sheikh Osama bin Laden wished to send this message to US President Bill Clinton: that he would avenge this attack in a spectacular way and would deal a blow to America that would shake it to its very foundations, a blow it had never experienced before.”
– Abdel Bari Atwan, The Secret History of al Qaeda, Page 55