In his Address to the Nation on August 20, 1998, President Clinton said: ” ‘Today I ordered our armed forces to strike at terrorist-related facilities in Afghanistan and Sudan because of the imminent threat they presented to our national security. …Our target was terror, our mission was clear–to strike at the network of radical groups […]
Category: quotes
8/20/1998
“The destruction of the al Shifa [pharmaceutical] plant [in Sudan, on August 20, 1998] was not a near miss but a genuine blunder. The decision to target it was based on a single soil sample collected by a CIA operative across the road from the plant (which supposedly revealed traces of EMPTA, a precursor chemical […]
8/20/1998
Regarding U.S. retaliation on August 20, 1998, for the bombing of the East African embassies: ” ‘I think that raid really helped elevate bin Laden’s reputation in a big way, building him up in the Muslim world,’ said Harlan Ullman, a defense analyst. …’My sense is that because the attack was so limited and incompetent, […]
8/20/1998
Following the August 7, 1998, African embassy bombings, “…the simultaneous cruise missile reprisals against Afghanistan and Khartoum that [President Bill] Clinton ordered thirteen days later, on August 20 [1998], and their unintended consequences coincided with the lowpoint of his presidency. The missiles struck with sophisticated military efficiency, but proved to be embarrassments for the administration. […]
8/20/1998
“Just after the American air strike on Khowst [Afghanistan] in August [20] 1998, according to Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai, ‘three men financed by the Saudi government’ were arrested by the Taleban before they could attack bin Laden. From his talks with bin Laden and [Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader Ayman] al-Zawahiri, Yusufzai learned that the team’s […]
8/20/1998
“On the same day that we sent cruise missiles into Afghanistan [August 20, 1998], President [Bill] Clinton signed Executive Order 13099, imposing sanctions against Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.” – Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies, Page 190 […]
8/20/1998
“The Navy’s cruise missiles that hit Osama’s training camps on August 20 [1998] did not kill Osama and indeed served principally to magnify his reputation to near-mythic proportions. The episode encouraged even more Muslim volunteers to flock to his Afghan training camps.” – Jonathan Randal, Osama, Pages 239-240 […]
8/20/1998
On August 20, 1998, 13 days after the African embassy bombings, “The US responded with a series of attacks on seven targets in Afghanistan and Sudan, which resulted in public-relations damage both at home and abroad. At a cost of more than $56,250,000 (the price alone of the seventy-five Tomahawk missiles deployed at £750,000 each) the […]
8/20/1998
On August 20, 1998, “President [Bill] Clinton and all his principal advisers had agreed to strike Bin Ladin camps in Afghanistan near Khowst, as well as hitting al Shifa [a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, Sudan, which, according to reports, was being financially backed by Bin Ladin to manufacture a precursor ingredient for nerve gas]…Later on […]
8/20/1998
On August 20, 1998, “US adds bin Laden’s name to list of terrorists whose funds are targeted for seizure by US Treasury in order to shut down the financial pipelines that allegedly subsidize bin Laden’s terrorist activities.” – “Hunting Bin Laden; Who is Bin Laden & What Does He Want? A Chronology of His Political […]