” ‘The U.S. is neutral on Afghanistan. We want to see an Afghanistan at peace under a broad-based, multiethnic government that is engaged in the great task of rebuilding the country and respects international norms of behavior,’ [Assistant Secretary of State Karl ‘Rick’] Inderfurth’s talking points of August 23, 1998 began. ‘In launching the strike […]
8/23/1998
In a Washington Post article on August 23, 1998, Osama bin Laden “Spoke of Islam’s wrath and his determination to evict Christian ‘Crusader’ military forces from Muslim lands, especially Saudi Arabia. ‘The concentration at this point of jihad is against the American occupiers,’ he told a CNN interviewer.” – Steve Coll, Ghost Wars, Page 341 […]
8/22/1998
From a declassified U.S. Department of State cable, dated August 22, 1998: ” ‘[Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed] Omar warned that the [U.S. cruise missile] strikes [against bin Laden] would be counterproductive to the U.S. They could spark more, not less, terrorist attacks. And they would further increase Islamic solidarity against the U.S. The Islamic world […]
8/22/1998
“On August 22 [1998], the reclusive [Taliban leader] Mullah [Mohammad] Omar told a working-level State Department official that the strikes [against Bin Ladin on August 20] were counterproductive but added that he would be open to a dialogue with the United States on Bin Ladin’s presence in Afghanistan.” However, when the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, […]
8/22/1998
According to The Independent on August 22, 1998, ” ‘America’s continued military presence in Saudi Arabia, its refusal to bring Israel to heel as it continues to build Jewish settlements in violation of the Oslo agreement, its almost lip-smacking agreement to continue sanctions which are clearly culling the civilian population of Iraq – Arab fury […]
8/21/1998
On August 21, 1998, the day after launching retaliatory strikes against bin Laden’s facilities in Sudan and Afghanistan, President Clinton said “that Afghanistan ‘had been warned for years to stop harboring and supporting these terrorist groups. But countries that persistently host terrorists have no right to be safe havens. …There will be no sanctuary for […]
8/21/1998
Journalist Abdel Bari Atwan wrote: “On 21 August 1998, in the wake of the US bombardment [in retaliation for the August 7, 1998, African embassy bombings], Muhammad Atef (then al Qaeda’s military chief) telephoned me at the paper [Al-Quds al-Arabi] to declare that the US bombardment had failed to accomplish its objectives: Osama bin Laden was […]
8/21/1998
In a press conference on August 21, 1998, the day after the U.S. launched a missile attack on the al Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, National Security Advisor Sandy Berger said: ” ‘Let me be very clear about this. There is no question in my mind that the Sudanese factory was producing chemicals that are […]
8/21/1998
“According to David Kay, a former United Nations weapons inspector, traces of VX [nerve agent] were found on SCUD missiles in Iraq following the Gulf War. He says Iraq may even have helped build the al-Shifa plant in Sudan [one of the Clinton Administration’s retaliatory targets following the East African embassy bombings of August 1998]. […]
8/21/1998
“As for Osama himself, he was not in the Afghan camp when the U.S. missiles struck, killing some two dozen trainees… The next day [August 21, 1998], Ayman al-Zawahiri, his right-hand man and leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad…used his satellite phone to call a Pakistani reporter with a defiant message: Osama had survived. ‘Tell […]