“In February 1999, [President Bill] Clinton authorized [CIA Director George] Tenet to enlist [Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah] Massoud as a ‘partner’ in the attempt to capture–but not kill–bin Laden. Considering that his front lines on the Shamali plains were hundreds of miles from Kandahar [Afghanistan], where bin Laden spent much of his time, the […]
2/15/1999
“By 1999 [Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al] Zarqawi had spent several years in the GID’s [Jordan’s General Intelligence Department’s] prisons for plotting against King Hussein but had been released in a general amnesty in February [1999], after the king’s death. He had gone back to Afghanistan and offered his services to bin Laden and [Taliban […]
2/15/1999
“For some of the ground level officers involved in the bin Laden chase the decision to hold fire [in a potential cruise missile strike against bin Laden while he participated in a February 1999 hunting trip with U.A.E. princes] seemed almost unforgivable.” In an interview on November 7, 2002, former CIA Islamabad station chief Gary […]
2/15/1999
“In February 1999, the intelligence community obtained information that Iraq had formed a suicide pilot unit that it planned to use against British and U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Peter Lance, Triple Cross, Page 191 […]
2/15/1999
“The CIA had become so used to relying on the U.N. for reporting on WMD that it was accustomed to doing without spies in Iraq’s weapons program. Its window on Iraq was shut in [August] 1998 when Saddam stopped cooperating with the inspectors. The U.N. monitors were recalled and the Clinton administration ordered the four-day […]
2/14/1999
On February 14, 1999, “The Washington Post ran an AP [Associated Press] story that ended this way: ‘The Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has offered asylum to bin Laden, who openly supports Iraq against Western powers.’ ” – Stephen F. Hayes, The Connection, Page 127 […]
2/12/1999
According to reports in February 1999 from the tribal contacts in Afghanistan, Bin Ladin was expected to be at a hunting camp meeting with Emiratis until the morning of February 11. On February 10, counterterrorism czar Richard “Clarke wrote to [National Security Advisor Sandy] Berger’s deputy [James Steinberg]…that the military was then doing targeting work […]
2/10/1999
A declassified CIA report from February 10, 1999, which focused on bin Ladin-related threats, claimed: “we have prevented the bombing of our Embassy in Tirana [Albania] and probably those [redacted] by running threats to ground.” – CIA, “[Excised] Talking Points: CIA Operations Against Usama Bin Ladin,” (CIA), The Central Intelligence Agency’s 9/11 File:, The National […]
2/8/1999
“A February 8, 1999, analysis of post-Cold War threats to U.S. security in the journal Policy Analysis stated: ‘A more likely threat [than a ballistic missile from a rogue nation or terrorist group] would be a cruise missile with a nuclear, biological, or chemical warhead launched by a rogue state or terrorist group from a […]
2/7/1999
Jordan’s “King Hussein died on February 7, 1999. The next day he was buried with full honors and in the presence of many world leaders. …In a short meeting after the ceremony, the new king, Abdullah II, told the president [Bill Clinton] that he was going to continue his father’s policies, which included offering pardons […]