[OESY]

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE:

They bomb pharmacies, don't they?

When Clinton really had to look "presidential" for a day, he simply launched cruise missiles against a sort of Arab version of Ken Starr.

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BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, Slate.com, September 23, 1998

On Aug. 20, 1998, President Clinton personally ordered the leveling of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant on the outskirts of Khartoum. More or less simultaneously, another flight of cruise missiles was dropped on various parts of Afghanistan and also -- who's counting? -- Pakistan, in an apparent effort to impress the vile Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden, of course, hopes to bring a "judgmental" monotheism of his own to bear on these United States, and is thus in some peoples' minds a sort of Arab version of Ken Starr.



Sources in U.S. Intelligence apparently claimed that there was only one "window" through which to strike at bin Laden, and that the only time they could hope to hit his Afghan fastness by this remote means was on the night of Monica Lewinsky's return to the grand jury....

-- http://www.salon.com/news/1998/09/23news.html


COMMENT: The obvious intent of this bombing was to ensure Osama had no aspirin to take on the arrival of his next headache in November 2000: President George W. Bush

QUOTE: "I think the end is near" because "this time I think the Americans are serious, Bush is not like Clinton." -- Uday Hussein, April 6, 2003

[Howlin]

On Aug. 20, 1998, President Clinton personally ordered the leveling of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant on the outskirts of Khartoum.

Let's put this in context:

August 17, 1998: President Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting president to testify before a grand jury investigating his conduct. After the questioning at the White House is finished, Clinton goes on national TV to admit he had an inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

August 19, 1998: Word that Starr has requested and received a sample of Clinton's DNA becomes public.

August 20, 1998: Monica Lewinsky testifies before the grand jury for a second time.

Also:

December 12, 1998: The House Judiciary Committee approves a fourth and final article of impeachment against President Clinton, accusing him of making false statements in his answers to written questions from Congress. A Democratic proposal to censure Clinton instead goes down to defeat.

December 15, 1998: In a blow to White House hopes, 11 moderate House Republicans announce they will vote to impeach the president.

December 16, 1998: In a coordinated strike, U.S. and British forces attack Iraq in retaliation for its failure to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors. Because of the military action, House Republican leaders delay a planned impeachment debate and vote set to begin Thursday, December 17