“…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 […]
Category: quotes
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 […]
8/20/1998
Counterterrorism czar “Richard Clarke was the official…who told the Washington Post that the U.S. government was ‘sure’ Iraq was behind the VX [nerve gas] precursor produced at the al Shifa factory [in Khartoum, Sudan] destroyed [on August 20, 1998] in response to the [August 7] 1998 al Qaeda attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa. ‘Clarke […]
8/20/1998
“Responding to very time sensitive intelligence information, President Bill Clinton ordered a cruise missile attack [on August 20, 1998] on a training camp in Afghanistan where bin Laden was expected to meet with some of his cadres. The attack failed in its mission when bin Laden did not appear at the scene at the exact […]
8/20/1998
From a New York Times article on August 20, 1998: “When pressed after the two African [embassy] bombings in [August 7] 1998 to turn him [bin Laden] over, [Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad] Omar refused: ‘Even if all the countries of the world unite, we would defend Osama with our own blood.’ “ – Bruce Riedel, […]
8/20/1998
“The unsuccessful [U.S.] cruise missile strike against bin Laden raised the profile of al Qaeda’s leader. Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor of Al Quds al Arabi newspaper, recalls this [in a June 2005 interview with Peter Bergen]: ‘It was [20] August 1998. …On my way from the airport to my office, Mohammed Atef [al Qaeda’s […]
8/20/1998
Following President Bill Clinton’s attacks on al Qaeda compounds in Afghanistan on August 20, 1998, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar “called an Afghan news agency in Peshawar [Pakistan] to denounce the American intervention as ‘a demonstration of enmity’ for the Afghan people. He declared defiantly, ‘We can never hand over Osama to America.’ “ – […]
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 […]