“Having shorn bin Laden of most of his net worth [by taking possession of his businesses], the Sudanese government thoughtfully chartered him an antique Soviet Tupolev jet. …Two of bin Laden’s young sons, Saad and Omar, were with him, and a couple of bodyguards. Bin Laden left on May 18, 1996 [for Afghanistan]. His family […]
Category: quotes
5/18/1996
“On May 18 [1996], in an Ariana Afghan airliner leased by the Sudanese government, Bin Laden landed in Jalalabad [Afghanistan] with three wives, several children, and scores of aides and assistants. He arrived back in Afghanistan just as a new group was consolidating its hold over much of the country. The Taliban, a previously obscure […]
5/18/1996
“The Sudanese told bin Laden to leave, confiscated his construction equipment, and forced him to sell all his assets at a fraction of their worth. Perhaps fearing that Sudan would turn him over to his enemies if he stayed much longer, bin Laden left Khartoum on May 18, 1996, on his own initiative. He returned […]
5/18/1996
“When an angry Osama, his family and retainers flew out of Khartoum [Sudan] on May 18 [1996] on a chartered Ariana Afghan B-727, for his third and perhaps final stay in Afghanistan, Clinton administration policy-makers exulted. They felt they were solving the immediate problem as best they could. Osama was on his way…to the beleaguered […]
5/15/1996
“When the CIA ousted [the Soviet’s puppet President of Afghanistan, Mohammad] Najibullah, they walked away and left the door wide open for Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, a group of radical Islamic fundamentalists, to walk right in. Bin Laden arrived by chartered…jet in May 1996, and by the summer of that year the Taliban, […]
5/15/1996
“In May 1996, Osama bin Laden, the seventeenth son of a Saudi Arabian billionaire, had flown into Afghanistan on his own Ariana Afghan Airlines jet. He brought with him scores of hardened Arab radicals fired by visions of global Islamic war. He arrived initially in Jalalabad, a dust-blown Afghan provincial capital east of Kabul, where […]
5/15/1996
In a June 16, 2004, report on the history of al Qaeda, the 9/11 Commission “detailed Bin Ladin’s return to Afghanistan in [May] 1996 and merger with the terrorist group Egyptian Islamic Jihad, estimating that ‘as many as 20,000’ people trained in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan between May 1996 and 9/11.” [The 15th of […]
5/15/1996
In May 1996, “The Sudan expels bin Laden because of international pressure by the United States and Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden then moves back to Afghanistan.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – “Hunting Bin Laden; Who is Bin Laden & What Does He Want? A Chronology of His Political […]
5/15/1996
According to Sudan’s former Minister of State for Defense, Fatih Erwa, in mid-May 1996, “bin Laden had been contacted by the Sudanese Mukhabarat [intelligence service]… He was told that Sudan was ‘no longer safe for him’ and that his presence was causing the government immense diplomatic and economic problems…” [The 15th of the month used […]
5/15/1996
“In May 1996 Osama bin Laden flew into the eastern city of Jalalabad [Afghanistan] with his wives and around 150 supporters on a chartered C-130 transport plane. American strategists had made a huge mistake. By increasing pressure on Sudan they had allowed the most dangerous terrorist financier in the world to move to an impenetrable […]