On April 18, 1983, a group of Shi’ite terrorists “drove a nondescript van next to the U.S. embassy in Beirut [Lebanon] and detonated a bomb consisting of two thousand pounds of high explosives, killing sixty-three people, including seventeen Americans. Among the casualties were most of the staff of the embassy’s CIA station, including the CIA’s […]
Category: quotes
12/4/1982
On December 4, 1982, the first day of the trial for the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, defendant Ayman al-Zawahiri addressed the members of the international press on behalf of the 300 accused Islamists: ” ‘We want to speak to the whole world. Who are we? Why did they bring us here and what […]
7/15/1982
“In July 1982, a convoy carrying the President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was fired upon by unknown individuals as it was visiting the town of Al Dujail. In response to what the President perceived as an assassination attempt but which did not injure anyone, a systematic attack was launched against the residents of Al Dujail […]
6/15/1982
In a message broadcast on Al Jazeera in late October 2004, Osama bin Laden said, ” ‘The events that directly affected me, weighing heavily on my soul, commenced in 1982 and continued thereafter–when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon [in June 1982] with the aid of the American Sixth Fleet. They started a bombardment, […]
3/15/1982
In The Iraq War Reader, Murray Waas wrote: “In March of 1982, reports began filtering back to the State Department from the U.S. embassy in Amman [Jordan] that Jordan’s King Hussein was pressing for the U.S. to militarily assist Iraq. Iraq was suffering serious reverses in its war with Iran. The Ayatollah’s forces had leveled […]
2/15/1982
“As a first step toward resolving fifteen years of mutual hostility between Washington and Baghdad, the State Department in [February] 1982 took Iraq off its list of countries suspected of supporting international terrorism.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Con Coughlin, Saddam: His Rise and Fall, Page 213 […]
2/15/1982
At the onset of the Iran-Iraq War, “Washington feared that the entire region, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, would be destabilized, threatening oil supplies. Thus the Reagan administration backed Iraq, which was removed from the State Department’s list of known terrorist countries in February 1982, despite strong objections from Congress. [The 15th of the month […]
2/15/1982
In February 1982, “Despite objections from Congress and reports that Iraq was still sponsoring known terrorist groups, the Reagan Administration removed Iraq from its list of known terrorist countries. This opened the door for United States exports to Iraq.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Philip Taylor, The […]
12/4/1981
President Ronald Reagan’s Executive Order 12333, issued on December 4, 1981, amends [according to the National Archive] EO 11905 in Part 2.11 by removing the word political before assassination: “No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.” – Ronald Reagan’s Executive Order, […]
10/28/1981
“Thanks to the lobbying of Prince Bandar [of Saudi Arabia] and the support of Vice President George H.W. Bush, the U.S. Senate narrowly approves the $5.5-billion sale of AWACS aircraft to Saudi Arabia on October 28 [1981]. It is the birth of a policy that eventually sends approximately $200 billion in U.S. weapons to Saudi […]