In November 1996, FBI agent assigned to the CIA Counterterrorist Center, Daniel “Coleman traveled to an American military base in Germany with two United States attorneys, Kenneth Karas and Patrick Fitzgerald. There in a safe house was a jittery Sudanese informer named Jamal al-Fadl, who claimed to have worked for bin Laden in Khartoum. …[al-Fadl […]
11/15/1996
“In November 1996, Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor of the newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi, traveled to meet bin Laden at his base in a cave in the Afghan mountains. …Atwan recalled the visit: ‘…I found him to be sincere, simple, not trying to impress. He never portrayed himself as an Islamic leader. He told me that […]
11/5/1996
2nd Term -William J. Clinton – Democratic president elected -Albert A. Gore – Vice President – […]
10/21/1996
” ‘The Americans do not have a real policy in this region,’ observed [Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah] Massoud not long after his retreat from Kabul [Afghanistan, in an interview with Le Figaro on October 21, 1996]. ‘They rely entirely on the Pakistanis, who told them the Taliban would bring stability [and] an end to […]
10/15/1996
In October 1996, “bin Laden revamped an organization he established during the war called al Qaeda (‘The Base’), with the help of Muhammad Atef, the militant earlier ‘loaned’ to bin Laden by Ayman al-Zaawahiri, the head of Islamic Jihad. Although for many years al Qaeda was little more than an umbrella organization for various bin […]
10/15/1996
“…bin Laden sat for an interview with Australian Muslim journal Nida’ul Islam, [published in October/November 1996] in which he summed up his life to this point. …he sought to get out his message and prepare the world for what was coming: the most intense terror campaign ever waged against America.” [The 15th of the month […]
10/15/1996
“In October 1996, the Intelligence Community obtained information regarding an Iranian plot to hijack a Japanese plane over Israel and crash it into Tel Aviv. A passenger would board the plane in the Far East, commandeer the aircraft, order it to fly to Tel Aviv, and crash the plane into the city.” [The 15th of […]
10/12/1996
“The arch-terrorist [bin Laden] first publicly declared war on America on October 12, 1996. ‘It is the duty of every tribe in the Arabian peninsula to fight jihad and cleanse the land from these Crusader occupiers. Their wealth is booty to those who kill them.’ ” – Richard Miniter, Losing Bin Laden, Page 161 […]
10/10/1996
“On 10 October 1996, deposed [Afghan] president [Burhanuddin] Rabbani, [Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah] Masud, [Uzbek warlord General Rashid] Dostum and the Hazara leader Karim Khalili met in Khin Jan [Afghanistan] on the highway and formed a ‘Supreme Council for the Defence of the Motherland’ to counter the Taliban. It was the beginning of a […]
9/28/1996
“When they [the Taliban] captured Kabul [Afghanistan] in September 1996, to be initially welcomed as liberators, many Kabulis and the world turned away in disgust after the Taliban tortured and then [on September 28, 1996] publicly hanged former President [Mohammad] Najibullah, the ex-communist strongman who for four years had been living in a UN compound […]