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.’ […]
Category: quotes
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
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
“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
“…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
“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
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.’ “ – […]
8/20/1998
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 […]
8/19/1998
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 […]