“On August 20, 1998, [Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader Ayman al-] Zawahiri, speaking with the Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai by satellite phone, delivered this statement on bin Laden’s behalf [:] ‘Bin Laden calls on Muslims to continue jihad against Jews and Americans to liberate their holy places. In the meanwhile, he denies any involvement in the […]
Category: quotes
8/20/1998
” ‘Our target was terror,’ President [Bill] Clinton said in disclosing a near-simultaneous cruise missile attack against targets near Khost [Afghanistan] and in Khartoum, Sudan [on August 20, 1998]. Bin Laden had launched a ‘terrorist war’ against the United States, Clinton said, and ‘our mission was clear: to strike at the network of radical groups […]
8/20/1998
Retaliation for the August 7, 1998, African embassy bombings took place on August 20, 1998. “When the smoke cleared following the hit by sixty-five U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles, costing about $750,000 each… Bin Laden and top members of Al Qaeda were not among them [the casualties]. …In the end, the only winner was Osama bin […]
8/20/1998
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 […]
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 […]
8/19/1998
On August 19, 1998, “an Islamic front created by the bin Laden network, and calling itself the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders, praised the bombings of our [American] embassies and warned that, ‘America will face a black fate… strikes will continue from everywhere, and Islamic groups will appear one after […]
8/19/1998
On August 19, 1998, “the eve of the American missile strikes [that were a response to the August 7, 1998, African embassy bombings], [Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad] Omar made an irrevocable pledge: ‘We will never hand Osama over to anyone and will protect him with our blood at all cost.’ He repeated this commitment the day […]