Former CIA Director George Tenet quoted one of eight personal letters he wrote to President Bill Clinton and most of the national security community during his tenure: “In the first letter, dated December 18, 1998, I wrote: ‘I am greatly concerned by recent intelligence reporting indicating that Usama Bin Ladin [UBL] is planning to conduct […]
12/16/1998
“On December 16, 1998, President Bill Clinton ordered the extensive bombing of Iraqi targets, a four-day campaign called Desert Fox which he told the American people about in a televised speech that evening.” – Eds. Micah L. Sifry and Christopher Cerf, The Iraq War Reader, Page 205 […]
12/16/1998
On December 16, 1998, Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said: ” ‘Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region…and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspections process.’ ” – Dick Cheney, In My Time, Pages 365-366 […]
12/16/1998
“In a prime-time address from the Oval Office in December [16] 1998, President Clinton explained [why he launched Operation Desert Fox, a series of strikes against Iraq]: ‘The hard fact is that so long as Saddam remains in power, he threatens the well-being of his people, the peace of his region, the security of the […]
12/16/1998
“Operation Desert Fox lasted for some seventy hours over December 16-19, 1998, and involved cruise missile and bombing attacks against a range of Iraqi military targets and facilities suspected of being tied to missile and illicit nuclear, chemical, and biological programs. While the attack destroyed some of these targets, it in no way changed Iraqi […]
12/16/1998
“On 16 December, 1998 [President Bill] Clinton ordered large-scale air strikes against Iraq, aimed not only at weapons sites but at the heart of the regime’s security and military apparatus. Operation Desert Fox was designed not only to punish the regime for non-cooperation with UNSCOM [United Nations Special Commission, the inspection group that searched for […]
12/16/1998
“The air strike that President Clinton launched [against Iraq] in December [16-19] 1998 garnered a House vote of 417-5, resolving that the United States should ‘support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government.’ ” – Condoleezza Rice, No Higher Honor, […]
12/16/1998
“Since 1996, the UN inspections regime had been increasingly obstructed by Saddam Hussein. The United States was threatening to attack unless unfettered inspections could resume. The Clinton administration eventually launched a large-scale set of air strikes against Iraq, Operation Desert Fox, in December [16-19] 1998.” – 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, Page 119 […]
12/16/1998
“In mid-December [16-19] 1998, President [Bill] Clinton [responded to Saddam’s lack of cooperation with UN resolutions] with seventy hours of bombings and cruise missile strikes on Iraq. The campaign, dubbed Operation Desert Fox, did not move Saddam. As it got under way, members of Congress, including liberal Democrats, spoke out on the perils of Saddam’s […]
12/15/1998
From a December 1998 interview with Osama bin Laden: “TIME: America, the world’s only superpower, has called you Public Enemy Number One. Are you worried? bin Laden: ‘Hostility toward America is a religious duty, and we hope to be rewarded for it by God. To call us Enemy Number One or Two does not hurt […]