“After the outcry over the [unsuccessful] missile strikes [on August 20, 1998], [President Bill] Clinton directed that the campaign against al Qaeda be a covert one conducted by the CIA, with an emphasis on disrupting their operations. He also authorized lethal force only if they found bin Laden or other top al Qaeda leaders.” – […]
Category: quotes
8/20/1998
National Security Advisor Sandy “Berger was particularly rankled by an editorial in the [August 29, 1998, issue of] Economist that said that only the future would tell whether the U.S. missile strikes [which targeted, but failed to kill Bin Ladin on August 20, 1998] had ‘created 10,000 new fanatics where there would have been none.’ […]
8/20/1998
“Tracing al Qaeda through communications intercepts was no longer easy. Once, Osama bin Laden had used a satellite phone for everything from positioning his forces to chatting with his mother in Saudi Arabia. But Osama had abandoned the practice after press leaks revealed that the August [20] 1998 TLAM [Tomahawk Land Attack Missile] strikes after […]
8/20/1998
Regarding the August 20, 1998, attack on bin Laden, President Bill Clinton said: ” ‘…we were told he was going to be at that training site…and he left a couple of hours before [the missiles hit]. So what did I have? A 40 percent chance of knowing we could have hit it. But there were […]
8/20/1998
President Bill Clinton was looking to retaliate against bin Laden and al Qaeda following the August 7, 1998, African embassy bombings. “On August 17, 1998, CIA director [George] Tenet presented the White House with evidence that the al Shifa pharmaceutical plant on the outskirts of Khartoum [Sudan] was involved in the production of VX nerve […]
8/20/1998
“The offer of Sudanese assistance [to arrest bin Laden] evaporated in August 1998 when President [Bill] Clinton ordered US military forces [on August 20, 1998] to destroy the pharmaceutical plant in Sudan that was suspected of being a chemical arms factory. …The Clinton administration turned down an official government offer of cooperation against terrorism in […]
8/20/1998
“Hours after the [U.S. missile] attack [on a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan on August 20, 1998], Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council issued a statement on Iraqi television condemning the attacks, and called for Arabs to ‘reeducate’ America about its policies in the region. The Iraqi regime accused the United States of ‘systematic international terrorism’ and vowed […]
8/20/1998
“…the ability to intercept Osama bin Laden’s Inmarsat [satellite telephone] calls was lost shortly after America’s August [20] 1998 bombing strikes on Afghan terrorist training sites. One official told me [columnist Bill Gertz] that the link went silent after a report in the Washington Post quoted a former U.S. intelligence official as saying that the […]
8/20/1998
Following the August 20, 1998, missile attack on a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan that was linked to Iraq and bin Laden, “Iraq denied any involvement. The political editor of Radio Iraq read a statement on the air, saying that ‘the Clinton government has fabricated yet another lie to the effect that Iraq had helped Sudan […]
8/20/1998
“When military action was finally taken against bin Laden, it proved to be ineffective and even counterproductive. On August 20, 1998, U.S. warships in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf fired a series of cruise missiles at four terrorist training camps. …The bombing of the terrorist training camps was carried out even though bin Laden […]