“When the Iran-contra disclosures broke, [Vice President George H.W.] Bush told the Washington Post that he had not been aware that [Secretary of State George] Shultz and [Secretary of Defense Caspar] Weinberger had raised serious objections to selling weapons to Iran. ‘If I had sat there and heard George Shultz and Cap [Weinberger] express it […]
5/17/1987
“On May 17 [1987], the USS Stark was struck by two Iraqi missiles, with some three dozen U.S. sailors dying as a result. The Iraqis apologized and years later paid fair compensation, although whether it was in fact accidental remains unclear.” – Richard N. Haass, War of Necessity, War of Choice, Page 29 […]
5/15/1987
“The most significant manifestation of the pro-Iraqi bias of U.S. policy was the reaction to a Kuwaiti request in late 1986 that outsiders protect its [oil] tankers from the threat posed by Iran [during the Iran-Iraq War]. After months of diplomatic back-and-forth…the United States agreed to place American flags on eleven Kuwaiti tankers. The U.S. […]
5/15/1987
“Jihad magazine, issue 53, April 1989, explained that accounts of the Jaji battle [in which Osama bin Laden’s Arab mujahideen prevailed over Soviet forces in Afghanistan] were a tremendous recruiting device for Arabs drawn to the Afghan jihad. ‘After the victorious battle of Masada [in Jaji] in [May] 1987 the youths started coming in waves. […]
4/17/1987
“On April 17, 1987, Soviet helicopters and bomber jets hit Osama bin Laden’s new fortified compound at Jaji [Afghanistan], an assemblage of small crevices and caves dug into rocky hills above the border village. …The battle of Jaji marked the birth of Osama bin Laden’s public reputation as a warrior among Arab jihadists. …After Jaji […]
4/15/1987
On April 15, 1987, bin Laden’s mentor Abdallah Azzam published the book Join the Caravan, a call to jihad. In it, he wrote: ” ‘Jihad, which entails donating one’s money and risking one’s life, is an individual duty in every place conquered by the unbelievers, and remains so until every piece of land that was […]
4/15/1987
On April 15, 1987, bin Laden’s mentor Abdallah Azzam published the book Join the Caravan, a call to jihad. In it, he quoted from the Prophet Muhammad: ” ‘The martyr is granted seven special favors by God: He is forgiven his sins with the first drop of his blood, he sees his place in Paradise, […]
3/2/1987
On March 2, 1987, “Vice President George H.W. Bush meets with Iraqi ambassador Nizar Hamdoon and tells him that two requests by Iraq for sensitive American technology had been approved over objections from the Defense Department.’ ” – Philip Taylor, The War in Iraq, Page 12 […]
2/18/1987
On February 18, 1987, The Washington Post “approvingly quoted [President Ronald] Reagan: ‘[W]e must not, and need not, give recognition and protection to terrorist groups as a price for progress in humanitarian law.’ ” – Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, Page 561 […]
2/17/1987
From a New York Times article on February 17, 1987: ” ‘President [Ronald] Reagan has faced more important but probably no tougher decisions than whether to seek ratification of revisions to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. If he said yes, that would improve protection for prisoners of war and civilians in wartime, but at the price […]