“On October 31, 1998, Baghdad announced an end to all UNSCOM [United Nations Special Commission on Iraq] activity, including monitoring inspections. Later that same day, President [Bill] Clinton signed the recently passed Iraq Liberation Act, a bill that directed U.S. support for Iraqi opposition groups, specifically, Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress. This gave the first […]
Category: quotes
10/23/1998
“…the 18th convention of the Islamic Group of Pakistan (Al-Jama’ah al-Islamiyyah), held in Islamabad between 23 and 25 October 1998 was attended by delegates from more than thirty other militant Islamic organizations. ‘All of them spoke about their countries, their movements and the need to unify the message of the Muslims,’ according to Ibrahim Ghosheh, […]
10/19/1998
In an October 19, 1998, US News & World Report article, former Deputy Director of Operations at the U.S. State Department’s Office of Counterterrorism Dick Gannon said: ” ‘We’ve got information about who’s backing bin Laden, and in a lot of cases it goes back to the [Saudi] royal family… There are certain factions of […]
10/19/1998
On October 19, 1998, “U.S. ambassador to Pakistan William Milam reports that [Taliban leader Mullah] Omar is ‘strongly committed’ to bin Laden. He says it is ‘questionable’ whether any U.S. or Saudi effort can influence Omar’s decisions and uncertain whether Pakistan can.” – Roy Gutman, How We Missed the Story, Page 160 […]
10/15/1998
“Unfortunately, news reports after the East Africa [embassy] bombings [on August 7, 1998] revealed that NSA [National Security Agency] was listening to bin Laden’s phone conversations. Two months later, in October 1998, bin Laden ceased using the satellite telephone, depriving NSA and the CIA of their best source of information about what bin Laden and […]
10/15/1998
“…in October 1998, using data from al-Qaeda intelligence officers, Taleban security apprehended a Saudi and three Pakistanis who were plotting to kill ‘the wealthy Saudi national Osama bin Ladin.’ The Taleban executed the Saudi; it is not clear what happened to the Pakistanis.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – […]
10/15/1998
“The focus on Iraq by senior Bush officials predated the administration. [Future Bush Administration members] Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith, and Richard Perle were among eighteen people who had signed a public letter from a group they named, ‘The Project for the New American Century’ calling for Saddam’s ouster. It is often forgotten, but regime change […]
10/15/1998
In October 1998, “The Sunday Times of London reports that bin Laden is sending Islamic mercenaries to Kashmir to support an Islamic secession campaign.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – “Hunting Bin Laden; Who is Bin Laden & What Does He Want? A Chronology of His Political Life,” PBS […]
10/15/1998
“In a message [Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud’s emissary Abdullah] Abdullah read to a Senate hearing in October 1998, Massoud said that southern Central Asia was in turmoil: ‘Some countries are on the brink of war… Ethnic and religiously motivated mass murders and forced displacements are taking place, and the most basic human and […]
10/15/1998
In an October 1998 Panorama documentary series airing on BBC Television titled ‘Osama bin Laden,’ Sudanese leader Hassan al-Turabi said: ” ‘They [Islamic militants] have developed Osama bin Laden as a champion, as a symbol of Islam for all young people, in the whole Muslim world… Even if they [the United States] reach him and […]