“The intelligence summarized in the [Undersecretary of Defense Douglas] Feith memo [on October 27, 2003] included information that bin Laden’s top deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, ‘visited Baghdad and met with the Iraqi Vice President on 3 February 1998. The goal of the visit was to arrange for coordination between Iraq and bin Laden and establish […]
Category: quotes
1/27/1998
“Although there was no CIA budget for providing arms and ammunition to the Taliban and Unocal [American oil exporter] did not channel military support to the Taliban, the USA did support the Taliban through its traditional allies Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, accepting their provision of arms and funding to the Taliban. ‘The US acquiesced in […]
1/27/1998
” ‘It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime.’ From the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, passed 360-38 in the House of Representatives and unanimously in […]
1/26/1998
On January 26, 1998, “the neoconservative Project for a New American Century (PNAC) drafted a letter to President [Bill] Clinton calling for Saddam’s removal from power. …Specifically, it urged Clinton to ‘turn your Administration’s attention to implementing a strategy for removing Saddam’s regime from power. …If you act now to end the threat of weapons […]
1/26/1998
“[A] US right-wing think-tank, Project for the New American Century, had written to President [Bill] Clinton in January [26] 1998 to say that current policy towards Iraq was not succeeding and demanding military action to overthrow the regime. They were very critical of Clinton’s policy of containment. The letter was signed by Elliot Abrams, Richard […]
1/26/1998
“In all, thirteen out of the eighteen signatories to the [January 26, 1998] PNAC [Project for a New American Century] letter [urging the overthrow of Saddam] won appointments in the Bush-Cheney administration: Elliott Abrams, Richard Armitage, Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Bergner, John Bolton, Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, Francis Fukuyama (President’s Council on […]
1/26/1998
“In 1997, a group of conservative thinkers, including a preponderance of former Reagan and Bush administration officials, founded the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). Its first letter, written on January 26, 1998, called on President [Bill] Clinton to use military force to overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein. The letter states that it […]
1/26/1998
On January 26, 1998, the Project for the New American Century “released an open letter to President [Bill] Clinton, calling for removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power. The letter argued that diplomacy had failed and military engagement was required. In particular, it focused on the threat Hussein posed to ‘a significant portion of the […]
1/26/1998
“On January 26, 1998, a Washington, D.C. think tank called the Project for the New American Century published an open letter to President [Bill] Clinton signed by eighteen individuals, mostly former U.S. national security officials, declaring that the ‘current American policy toward Iraq is not succeeding.’ Observing that ‘ *containment* of Saddam Hussein has been […]
1/26/1998
“Despite the intelligence community’s dim view of Hussein as a serious and immediate threat to the U.S., a small group of hardcore neoconservatives in [January 26] 1998 lobbied the Clinton administration to support regime change in Iraq–by force if necessary. The group…sent Clinton a letter urging his administration to implement ‘a strategy for removing Saddam’s […]