1970: Murder of American University of Beirut President, Malcolm Kerr, in Beirut, Lebanon.
September 1970: TWA #741 and Pan Am #93 hijacked by the PFLP and flown to Amman, Jordan.
March 1973: U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel & DCM George Moore murdered in Khartoum, Sudan.
June 1976: U.S. Ambassador, Francis Meloy and two other Americans killed in Lebanon.
JUNE 13, 1976 The town of Shikka in the north of Lebanon was attacked. Thirty people were massacred. Among them were women, children and elderly. Palestinian responsibility U.S. Ambassador in Lebanon Francis Melloy was assassinated by Palestinian gunmen and the killer was apprehended by Lebanese authorities and jailed. The killer was released by the Lebanese court under pressure by the Palestinians and Syria. The U.S. protested unsuccessfully. Palestinian and Syrian responsibility.
1979 Afghanistan : Communist insurgency in Afghanistan going on for quite a while, mass killings; US ambassador killed ; Taraki is killed and Hafizullah Amin takes the Presidency. ; Amin is executed, and he is replaced with Babrak Karmal. ; Soviet Union (Russia) invade in December.
1979- January 20, 1980: U.S. Embassy in Iran seized, embassy officials held hostage for 14 months.
April 18, 1983 : US Embassy suicide bombing, Beirut, Lebanon. The guy responsible seems to be Imad Mugniyah -- a founder of the Lebanese Islamic militia Hezbollah -- responsible for the deaths of more Americans around the world than anyone else.
October 23, 1983 : Marine Barracks bombing, Beirut, Lebanon
December 3, 1983 : two F-14s flying over Lebanon were fired upon by Syrian antiaircraft artillery.
December 4, 1983, aircraft from Kennedy and Independence were launched against Syrian targets; two were shot down, and one U.S. airman was taken prisoner by Syrian troops.
March 16, 1984 : Hizbullah kidnaps the CIA Station Chief in Beirut, William Buckley, and over a period of months, tortures him.
June 1984: TWA #847 to Athens hijacked to Beirut; U.S. Navy diver, Robert Stethem murdered.
September 20, 1984: U.S. embassy annex in East Beirut bombed; 8 killed, 2 Americans
June 3, 1985 : Kidnapped CIA Chief William Buckley is murdered before William Casey can arrange a rescue. (Part of several attempts to regain US personnel held hostage in the middle east that would lead to the Iran-Contra affair. March 16, 1985 : Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was abducted in Beirut; he was released in December 1991. October 1985 : Four heavily armed Palestinian terrorists hijack the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, carrying more than 400 passengers and crew, off Egypt. The hijackers demand that Israel free 50 Palestinian prisoners. The terrorists kill a disabled American tourist, 69-year-old Leon Klinghoffer, and throw his body overboard with his wheelchair. After a two-day drama, the hijackers surrender in exchange for a pledge of safe passage. But when an Egyptian jet tries to fly the hijackers to freedom, U.S. Navy F-14 fighters intercept it and force it to land in Sicily. (Ollie North involved) The terrorists are taken into custody by Italian authorities. Counter- terrorist units from the U.S responded, including elements of Delta Force and SEAL Team Six, however the situation was resolved before an assault became necessary.
September 1986: Pan Am #73 hijacked to Karachi, Pakistan; 17 people killed, 150 wounded.
1987 North Korea state-sponsored: terrorism evidently ceased after a KAL airliner was bombed in flight. However, North Korea is believed to maintain contacts with groups that practice terrorism.
1988 : US Secretary of State Schultz's motorcade attacked in Bolivia by FALZW (Zarate Willka Liberation Armed Forces) February 1988: William Higgins kidnaped in Lebanon and murdered.
December 1988: Pan Am #103 bombed over Lockerbie, Scotland; 270 people killed.
1989 : Murder of two Mormon missionaries in Bolivia
1990 : US Marine House in Bolivia attacked by CNPZ (Commission Nestor Paz Zamora) terrorists. The captured terrorist's testimony assisted government prosecutors in deflating attempts to overturn the lengthy sentences for those FALZW members already in prison. The government also moved forward with the trial of the Commission Nestor Paz Zamora (CNPZ) terrorists who attacked the US Marine House in 1990.
1990 ElSayyid A. Nosair assassinates Jewish activist Meir Kahane in New York. Nosair is a follower of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who later is linked to the World Trade Center bombing and a U.N. bomb plot.
1992 and 1993 Mohamed Atef travelled to Somalia on several occasions for the purpose of organizing violence against US and UN troops stationed in Somalia. On each occasion he reported back to Usama Bin Laden at his base in the Riyadh district of Khartoum.
January 8, 1992 : Columbia : There were also six reported cases of international kidnapping. Two kidnap victims, one US and one British citizen, were killed by their captors. The American, naturalized US citizen Jose Lopez, was kidnapped on 8 January by members of the National Liberation Army at his place of work. He was subsequently killed, although his kidnappers withheld this information until after the family had paid ransom.
1992 : Bolivian Government counterterrorist forces captured the current leaders of the Tupac Katari Guerrilla Army (EGTK), one of Bolivia's indigenous Indian-based terrorist groups, severely affecting the organization. Also apprehended was one of the remaining perpetrators of the Zarate Willka Liberation Armed Forces (FALZW) attacks on Secretary of State Shultz's La Paz motorcade in 1988 and of the murder of two Mormon missionaries in 1989.
1992 : In Bolivia, the National Liberation Army (ELN), thought to contain elements of several Bolivian radical groups, resurfaced and claimed responsibility for several minor bombings of government buildings and power pylons. In Bolivia, two attacks on Mormon churches were claimed by the EGTK.
1992: Chile - While terrorist organizations have steadily lost their popular appeal as Chile solidifies its return to democracy, some old-line leftwing groups remain active and continue to present a limited terrorist threat. There were 39 international terrorist incidents in Chile in 1992, down from 52 in 1991, with the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) and the Latauro Youth Movement (MJL) the groups deemed responsible for these and the vast majority of domestic terrorist attacks. Virtually all of these attacks were minor, resulting almost exclusively in property damages only.
1992 : The Communist-affiliated FPMR generally sought to attack Chilean targets, particularly government buildings and banks, as well as politicians and members of the uniformed national police, the Carabineros. The MJL claimed responsibility for 27 attacks on Mormon churches throughout Chile, as well as bank robberies and extortions of local businesses. Virtually all the attacks on Mormon churches were small-scale bombings that caused minor property damage and no serious physical injuries. Both groups carried out low-level, largely symbolic bombings of foreign interests to protest the Columbus anniversary celebrations in October, including the bombing of the Abraham Lincoln memorial near the US Embassy.
1992 : Colombia There were 68 international terrorist incidents in Colombia in 1992, five more than in 1991. This is the largest number of terrorist incidents in any nation. Even with this large number of incidents, international terrorism was overshadowed by the marked increase in domestic political violence in the latter half of the year. Continued terrorism by the Colombian guerrilla organizations, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and the umbrella group the Simon Bolivar Guerrilla Coordinator (CGSB) was compounded by narcotraffickers seeking to prevent the recapture of Medellin narcotics kingpin Pablo Escobar, who escaped from prison in July.
1992 : Peru ; Guerrillas of the Maoist Peruvian Communist Party, commonly known as Sendero Luminoso (SL), and the Cuban-style Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) continued to make Peru the most dangerous country in South America in 1992. Peruvians suffered by far the most, with a large number of terrorist attacks of various origins claiming many civilian lives. There were 13 attacks against foreign interests in Peru, chiefly in Lima, down from 59 in 1991. Targets included embassies, banks, and international businesses. SL was responsible for most of the incidents, as the group mounted its most serious threat yet to the government. In well-planned urban campaigns in February, May, and July, Sendero used ''armed strikes`` against public transportation, assassinations, and car bombings to sap public morale and give weight to its claim of having reached a position of strategic equality with the government. In one of its boldest attacks, SL terrorists set off a massive car bomb at the American Ambassador's residence in February. The blast killed three Peruvian policemen and caused extensive damage to the residence. During 1992 two foreign deaths were attributed to SL, an Italian priest killed in August and a Yugoslav engineer in September. These were the first terrorism-related deaths of foreigners in over a year.
March 17, 1992 : a car bomb virtually destroyed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 29 people and injuring 242. The Islamic Jihad organization, an arm of the Lebanese Hizballah, took responsibility for the attack, claiming it was in retaliation for the Israeli attack that killed Hizballah leader Sheikh Musawi in February. When the authenticity of this claim was questioned, the group responded by releasing a videotape of the Israeli Embassy taken during surveillance before the bombing. The bombing focused attention on Hizballah activity in Latin America, where communities of recent Shiite Muslim emigres in the remote border areas of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay could provide cover for international terrorists.
June 10, 1992 : Panama One of two American fatalities from terrorism in Latin America in 1992 occurred in Panama just before a visit by President Bush in June. On 10 June, Sgt. Owell Hernandez was killed in Panama when the US Army vehicle he was driving was raked by automatic gunfire from a passing car. Anti-US forces associated with the former Noriega regime have attacked US interests and are believed responsible for the fatal shooting, as well as for two other low-level bombings at American military installations in Panama in 1992. Terrorists operate under a variety of names in Panama, and it is likely that the so-called M-20 group that has claimed many of the bombings is actually made up of adherents of various terrorist groups. Although small and lacking widespread popular support, these groups contain a high proportion of trained ex-military personnel. Access to arms and explosives in Panama makes these groups potential threats to US interests.
October 1992 : Peru - A mortar attack on the US Ambassador's residence but there was little damage and no casualties
October 1992 : Columbia : The wave of terrorism began in earnest in October and showed no signs of abating as the year ended. Most disturbing was evidence that the ELN, possibly assisted by narcoterrorists, had developed sufficient urban infrastructure to carry out a sustained terrorist offensive in Bogota. In addition to the largely symbolic foreign targets attacked during the Columbus anniversary in October, there were nearly 50 attacks on the oil pipeline jointly owned by Ecopetrol of Colombia and a consortium of US and West European countries, a traditional Colombian guerrilla target.
November 1992 : Peru - attack on a US Embassy warehouse caused little damage and no casualties.
December 1992 : Bombing of a hotel in Yemen used by American soldiers en route to humanitarian operations in Somalia, thought to be bin-Laden's earliest work against the US.
December 1992 : Peru ; In late December, Sendero attacked several foreign embassies, hitting the Chinese twice, to mark the centenary of the birth of Mao Tse-Tung. In the countryside, government counterinsurgency forces are stretched thin, and SL units continue to operate freely in many areas. Sendero has a relatively secure base area in the coca-growing region of the Huallaga River Valley and exploits the drug trade in various ways to finance group operations.
Jan. 1993 Mir Amal Kansi, a Pakistani, murders two CIA employees in a random shooting outside the Langley, VA headquarters and flees the country. He entered the United states in 1990 on a visa issued in Karachi, Pakistan. In 1992, he applied for political asylum in the United States and was routinely released with a work permit. Records indicate that he had been involved in anti-U.S. demonstrations in Pakistan. He had purchased an AK-47 assault rifle in Virginia.
1993 Spring Atef, Saif al Adel, another senior member of Al-Qaida, and other members began to provide military training to Somali tribes for the purpose of fighting the United Nations forces.
1993: "Afghan arabs," trained by bin Laden, allegedly assisted in killing 18 American soldiers in Somalia February 26, 1993 Under the influence of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef organizes Mohammed Salameh and three others in plotting and carrying out a bombing at New York's World Trade Center that caused mass destruction, six deaths and more than a thousand wounded. The group is comprised of Egyptians and Palestinians. Yousef, travelling on an Iraqi passport, entered the United States in September 1992 without a visa, but was allowed to enter the country provisionally after asking for asylum, because of lack of detention space. His companion, a Palestinian named Ahmad Ajaj, who arrived on a fake Swedish passport, was arrested and found to have bombmaking videos and manuals in his luggage. Salameh entered the United States in 1988 (BEFORE THE GULF WAR) on a Jordanian passport and a visitors visa issued in Amman, Jordan. He applied for legal residence status [presumably asylee status], was turned down, and continued to be in the country on appeal of that decision. AbdelRahman, an Egyptian religious leader charged with inciting a 1989 riot in Egypt, obtained a visa in Khartoum, Sudan which had no automated lookout system that would have identified him as a security threat. He entered as a tourist and applied for political asylum and received legal residence. An immigration judge ordered him deported in March, 1993, but he was still in the country four months later when he is arrested for terrorist acts.
April 1993: Attempted assassination of former President Bush in Kuwait was the most brazen Iraqi act of terrorism in 1993. Kuwaiti officials discovered the elaborate scheme to kill former President Bush with an enormous car bomb shortly before he arrived for a visit. The group arrested for the assassination attempt was also planning a bombing campaign to destabilize Kuwait. The 14 suspects--11 Iraqis and three Kuwaitis- -went on trial in June. Several of the Iraqi defendants worked for Iraqi intelligence, according to testimony in the trial. Forensic evidence also clearly linked Iraq to the abortive attack.
June 1993 : Eight militant Muslim fundamentalists are arrested in New York for plotting to blow up the United Nations headquarters, tunnels under the Hudson River and a federal office building. The arresstees were from Sudan, Egypt, the Israeli West Bank and Gaza, Jordan and Pakistan. To read the Department of Justice Inspector General's report on this incident, click here
October 3- 4, 1993 operatives of Al-Qaida participated in the attack on US military personnel serving in Somalia as part of operation 'Restore Hope.' Eighteen US military personnel were killed in the attack.
late 1993 - members of al-Qaida in Kenya began to discuss the possibility of attacking the US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya in retaliation for US participation in Operation restore hope in Somalia. Ali Mohamed, a US citizen and admitted member of Al-Qaida, surveyed the US embassy as a possible target for a terrorist attack. He took photographs and made sketches which he presented to Usama bin Laden while bin Laden was in Suan. He later admitted he had trained terrorists for al-Qaida in Afghanistan in the early 1990s and that some of those he had trained included many who woud go on to be involved in the East African embassy bombings in August 1998.
Mar. 1994 Rashad Baz, an immigrant from Lebanon, and two others shoot up a van full of Hasidic students, wounding four, on the Brooklyn Bridge. Baz entered on a student visa in 1984. (BEFORE THE GULF WAR) He attended courses parttime at a community college in 1984-85. He married a U.S. citizen in 1989 and applied for legal residence in 1991. Baz was accompanied by Bassam Mousa Reyati, a Jordanian, who entered as a student in 1989 (BEFORE THE GULF WAR) and received residency in 1992 on the basis of marriage to a U.S. citizen. Hlal Mohammed, a Jordanian, was the third terrorist.
Jan 1995 (According to the German paper 'Die Welt') AFP - Western secret services knew as far back as 1995 that suspected terror mastermind Osama bin Laden planned to attack civilian sites using commercial passenger planes, German newspaper Die Welt said. Quoting sources close to western intelligence services, Die Welt said authorities did not take seriously the threat of the plan, known as Project Bojinka. Phillipine police, investigating a possible attack against Pope John Paul II on a visit to Manila, found details of the plan in a computer seized in an apartment used by three men who were part of bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. It provided for 11 planes to be exploded simultaneously by bombs placed on board, but also in an alternative form for several planes flying to the United States to be hijacked and flown into civilian targets. Among targets mentioned was the World Trade Centre in New York, which was destroyed in the September 11 terror attacks in the United States that killed thousands. Other targets mentioned were CIA offices in Virginia and the Sears Tower in Chicago, Die Welt said. The plot re-surfaced during the trial in New York in 1997 of Pakistani Ramsi Youssef, the mastermind of the attack on the World Trade Centre in 1993. (The computer seized by Philippine police was that of 1993 WTC bomber Ramzi Yousef, who got to watch his dream of destroying the WTC become reality from a luxury prison cell (complete with TV) in Colorado.) March 1995: American employees of the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan killed in response to arrest of World Trade Center bombing suspect.
April 1995 : Ron Brown, Commerce Secretary, dies in suspicious plane crash- see Clinton bodycount
April 19, 1995 Bomb rips through the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, killed 168 and injured more than 500. Timothy McVeigh was convicted of federal murder charges and executed in June.
November 1995: U.S. troops attacked in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; five Americans killed.
1996 - Saudi al-Qaida member Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al 'Owali, later to become a bomber of the US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, underwent training in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan in explosives, hijacking, kidknapping, assasination and intelligence techniques. With Usama bin Laden's express permission, he fought alongside the Taleban in Afghanistan. He had met Usama bin Laden personally in 1996 and asked for another 'mission.' Usama sent him to East Africa after extensive specialized training at camps in Afghanistan.
February 24, 1996: Shootdown of two small US civilian aircraft over the straits of Florida by Cuba. According to a report from the Organización de Aviación Civil Internacional (OACI) [International Civil Aviation Organization, known as ICAO], the events took place on February 24, 1996 at 15:21 and 15:27, respectively, in international air space. The air-to-air missiles fired by the MIG-29 disintegrated the civil small aircraft, producing the instantaneous deaths of Armando Alejandre, Jr., 45 years of age; Carlos Alberto Costa, 29 years of age; Mario Manuel de la Peña, 24 years of age; and Pablo Morales, 29 years of age. (See http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/oasfeb24rep.html )
Apr. 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) is enacted. It provides for expeditious removal of mala fide asylum applicants, restricts judicial review of deportation, increases penalties and RICO investigation powers for terrorism investigations. The State Dept. was required to develop a list of foreign terrorist organizations. President Clinton signed, but said at the time that he considered some of the changes "illadvised." Subsequently the Administration tried unsuccessfully to strip summary exclusion from the law through the Leahy amendment to the Illegal Immigration Reform Act. In the end, the later act softened some of exclusion process for asylum claimants. Surviving in the INA are AEDPA amendments to Section 219 ("Designation of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.")
May 1996: Saudi and American diplomatic pressure led Sudan to expel bin Laden, and he returned to Afghanistan, where the radical Taliban was gathering momentum. Like Lenin returning to Russia, bin Laden’s return was timely. He promptly gave the Taliban $3 million to finance the successful capture of the cities of Jalalabad and Kabul. He established a close relationship with Mullah Omar, and threw his support behind the Taleban. Usama Bin Laden and the Taleban regime have a close alliance on which both depend for their continued existence. They also share the same religious values and vision. Usama Bin Laden has provided the Taleban regime with troops, arms, and money to fight the Northern Alliance. He is closely involved with Taleban military training, planning and operations. He has representatives in the Taleban military command structure. He has also given infrastructure assistance and humanitarian aid. Forces under the control of Usama Bin Laden have fought alongside the Taleban in the civil war in Afghanistan. Omar has provided Bin Laden with a safe haven in which to operate, and has allowed him to establish terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. They jointly exploit the Afghan drugs trade. In return for active Al Qaida support, the Taleban allow Al Qaida to operate freely, including planning, training and preparing for terrorist activity. In addition the Taleban provide security for the stockpiles of drugs.
June 25, 1996: Terrorists attack the U.S. military complex at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 Americans and wounding hundreds more.
August 6, 1996 - Officials announced the Air Force had punished 16 officers in connection with the crash that killed Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and 34 others the previous April.
Sept. 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Alien Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRARA) changes summary exclusion to expedited exclusion for mala fide asylum applicants. The new standard allows an appeal to an Immigration Judge. Also included is a provision to make activities that "incite terrorism" or represent a danger to the community or security of the United States as a grounds for exclusion from the United States. The IIRARA also expanded detention facilities and broadened the definition of an aggravated felony for purposes of deportation. October 12 1996 Osama bin Laden issued a declaration of jihad as follows:
"The people of Islam have suffered from aggression, iniquity and injustice imposed by the Zionist-Crusader alliance and their collaborators..."
It is the duty now on 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.
My Muslim brothers: your brothers in Palestine and in the land of the two Holy Places (i.e. Saudi Arabia) are calling upon your help and asking you to take part in fighting against the enemy - the Americans and the Issraelis. They are asking you to do whatever you can to expel the enemies out of the sanctities of Islam."
Later in the same year Osama said, " Terrorizing the American occupiers (of Islamic Holy Places) is a religious and logical obligation."
December 1996 : Ali Hassan Abu Kamal, a Palestinian, arrives in the US. several weeks later he kills seven tourists at the Empire State Building
Feb. 1997 Ali Hassan Abu Kamal, a Palestinian teacher who arrived in the United States in December, 1996 on a tourist visa kills seven tourists with a 14 shot semiautomatic pistol at the Empire State Building before killing himself. He bought the gun in Florida despite federal law prohibiting sales to aliens who do not have at least 90 days of residency. Abu Kamal wrote that he was taking vengeance against enemies of the Palestinian people.
Mar. 1997 Legislation is introduced to extend firearm restriction to legal resident aliens, except for hunting and sporting, unless they have been in the U.S. for one year. Bin Laden told CNN in March 1997 that he had trained the "Afghan Arabs" who helped to kill 18 American soldiers in Somalia in 1993
1997 massacre of 80 Western tourists near Cairo. Egypt's most powerful Islamic militant group -- al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya -- claimed responsibility Tuesday for the 70 deaths, which also included the attackers, police officers and several Egyptians. (There were some attacks on tourists prior to this as well.) In a statement faxed to The Associated Press, the group said the tourists were killed Monday while its gunmen were trying to take them hostage in an attempt to secure the release of the group's spiritual leader, Omar Abdel Rahman. The cleric is in a U.S. prison for conspiring to blow up New York landmarks, including the World Trade Center in 1993.
July 1997 Two Palestinians and a Pakistani are arrested on a tipoff to New York City police and are found to have suicide bombs and a note indicating they intend a terrorist attack in the city's subways. Ghazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer, a Palestinian, entered the United States (in Washington state) illegally from Canada three times and was apprehended and returned to Canada. He entered Canada as a student, but requested and received political asylum. After his last U.S. entry the Canadians would not take him back because he had committed crimes in Canada. He applied for asylum, and a judge ordered a hearing for 1998 and released him. Abu Mezer said that he had been accused by the Israeli government of belonging to Hamas, a terrorist organization a claim denied by his family in Israel. On June 23, at a hearing on his asylum application, he withdrew it, and the judge gave him 60 days to depart the country. Lafi Khalil, the second terrorism suspect entered the country on a tourist visa and stayed on illegally.
The Administration, represented by the INS and the State Department, support adoption on a permanent basis of the adjustment of status provision for illegal aliens — INA Section 245(i) — that facilitates legal residence status for persons entering without inspection or overstaying their visa without having to leave the United States for investigation of their possible ineligibility for immigrant status in their native country.
Aug. 1997 The State Department acknowledges that it still has not prepared the list of international terrorist organizations required by the Antiterrorism Act in 1996. A Dept. State spokesman says the report is overdue because any group designated as a terrorist organization will have the right to challenge that designation in U.S. courts. The designation will cause U.S. fundraising activities for the group to be cut off and members of the group will be barred from entering the United States.
In interviews broadcast on US television in 1997 and 1998 Osama bin LAden referred to the terrorists who carried out the earlier attack on the world Trade Center in 1993 as "role models." He went on to exhort his followers "to take the fighting to America."
February 1998: Osama bin LAden issued and signed a 'fatwa' which included a decree to all Muslims:
"...the killing of Americans and their civilian and military allies is a religious duty for each and every Muslim to be carried out in whichever country they are until Al Aqsa mosque has been liberated from their grasp and until their armies have left Muslim lands."
In the same 'fatwa' he called on Muslim scholars and their leaders and their youths to :
"...launch an attack on the American soldiers of Satan."
and concluded:
"We- with god's help - call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill Americans and plunder their money whenever and wherever they find it. We also call on Muslims... to launch the raid on Satan's US troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them."
When asked in 1998 about obtaining chemical or nuclear weapons he said:
"acquiring such weapons for the defense of Muslims (was) a religious duty"
In an interview aired on Al Jazira (Doha, Qatar) television, he stated:
"Our enemy is every American male, whether he is directly fighting us or paying taxes."
1998 Montes (Later determined to be a spy for Cuba) accompanied two senior aides to Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) on a trip to Cuba; Helms was at that time the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of the most vehement opponents of Cuba’s leftist government.
May 1998 Secretary of Defense William Cohen testified in Congress that Cuba possesses advanced biotechnology and is capable of mass-producing agents for biological warfare.
1998: An Egyptian terrorist belonging to al-Gamal al-Islamiya entered Colombia illegally in 1998 to hold talks with FARC and was arrested and turned over to U.S. authorities. — He was wanted in connection with the 1997 massacre of 80 Western tourists near Cairo.
June or July 1998 : two al-Qaida operatives, Fahid Mohammed Ali Msalam and Sheik Ahmed Salim Swedan, purchesed a Toyota truck and made various alterations to the back of the truck.
July 1998: A Nissan Atlas truck was purchased in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, by al-Qaida operatives Ahmed Khfaklan Ghailani and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan.
Early August 1998: operatives of al-Qaida gathered in #43 New Runda Estates, Nairobi to execute the bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.
August 7, 1998: Assam, a Saudi national and al-Qaida operative, drove the Toyota truck (with a large bomb in back) to the US embassy in Nairobi. Also in the truck was Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al 'Owali, another Saudi who by his own confession was an al-Qaida operative, who from about 1996 had been trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan in explosives, hijacking, kidknapping, assasination and intelligence techniques. With Usama bin Laden's express permission, he fought alongside the Taleban in Afghanistan. He had met Usama bin Laden personally in 1996 and asked for another 'mission.' Usama sent him to East Africa after extensive specialized training at camps in Afghanistan.
As the truck approached the US embassy, Al 'Owali got out and threw a stun grenade at a security guard. Assam drove the truck up to the rear of the embassy, got out, and then detonated the bomb, which demolished a multi-storey secretarial college and severely damaged the US embassy and the Cooperative Bank building. The bomb killed 213 people and injured 4500. Assam was killed in the explosion.
Al 'Owali expected the mission to end in his death. He had been willing to die for al-Qaida, but at the last minute he ran away from the bomb truck and survived He had no money, passport or plan to escape after the mission because he had expected to die.
Another person arrested in connection with the Nairobi bombing was Mohammed Sadeek Odeh. He admitted to his involvement. He identified the principal participants in the bombing. He named three other persons, all of whom were Al-Qaida or Egyptian Islamic Jihad members.
August 7, 1998: In Dar es Salaam (Tanzania?) at about the same time as the bombing at the US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, operatives of al-Qaida detonated a bomb at the US embassy, killing 11 people. The al-Qaida operatives involved included Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil and Khaflan Khamis Mohamed. The bomb was carried in a Nissan Atlas truck, which Ahmed Khfaklan Ghailani and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, two al-Qaida operatives, had purchased in July 1998 in Dar es Salaam. Khaflan Khamis Mohamed was arrested for the bombing. He admitted membership in al-Qaida and implicated other members of al-Qaida in the bombing.
August 7, 1998: Terrorists bomb U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in Africa, killing 224 people including 12 Americans and injuring thousands. U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania bombed by terrorists linked to Osama bin Laden.
August 7 and 8, 1998: Two other members of al-Qaida disseminated claims of responsibility for the two bombings by sending faxes to media organizations in Paris, Doha in Qatar, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
August ? ,1998 : A few days after the embassy bombing in Nairobi, Kenya, surviving terrorist Al 'Owali called a telephone number in Yemen to have money transferred to him in Kenya. The numer he rang in Yemen was contacted by Usama Bin Laden's phone on the same day as Al 'Owali was arranging to get the money.
Additional evidence of al-qaida involvement in the East African embassy bombings came from a search conducted in London of several residences and businesses belonging to al-Qaida and Egyptian Islamic Jihad members. In those searches a number of documents were found including claims of responsibility for the bombings in the name of a fictitious group, the 'Islamic Army for the liberation of the Holy Places.' Al O'wali, the would-be suicide bomber, admitted he was told to make a video tape of himself using the name of the same fictitious group.
The faxed claims of responsibility were traced to a phone number which had been in contact with Usama bin Laden's cell phone. The claims disseminated to the press were clearly written by someone familiar with the conspiracy. They stated that the bombings were carried out by two Saudis in Kenya, and one Egyptian in Dar es Salaam. they were probably sent before the bombings had even taken place. They referred to two Saudis dying in the Nairobi attack, when in fact, because of Al 'Owali fleeing at the last minute, only one Saudi died.
1998 (near the end of the year) The source added that Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which has now effectively merged with al-Qaeda, maintained regular contacts with Iraq for many years. He confirmed the claims first made by the Iraqi National Congress - that towards the end of 1998, Farouk Hijazi, Iraq's ambassador to Turkey and a key member of the Mukhabarat leadership - went to Kandahar in Afghanistan, where he met bin Laden.
February, 1999: Three Americans are abducted and killed by Colombian guerrillas.
March 1, 1999: Congo-based Rwandan rebels kill two Americans along with six other foreign tourists in Uganda.
March 31, 1999: Air traffic controllers at Kennedy Airport, New York were forced to use portable, hand-held radios to guide pilots to safe landings and departures after a power failure knocked out the control tower's communication system for nearly two hours March 31. The power failure, at the height of the evening rush hour, shut down a computer controlling eight radio frequencies and three telephone lines used to communicate with pilots in the air and on the ground. "It was hectic with the portable radios because we kept cutting each other off with our transmissions," said Barrett Byrnes, an official of the controllers' union who happened to be on duty.
May 13, 1999 An incident recorded by the Federal Communications Commission in which Cuban electronic-warfare specialists penetrated New York's air-traffic-control system by simulating U.S. Air Force flight codes. The signals, which seriously threatened to disrupt air traffic, were traced to a 1,500 kilowatt transmitter operating west of Havana.
(The Chinese have also established for themselves a sophisticated network of electronic espionage in Cuba to be used against the U.S. The bases are operating under the cover of Radio China short wave transmissions to Latin America and the U.S. Their principal bases are at Bejucal and near Havana. They are capable of interfering with U.S. air traffic control, according to the FCC. On the 13th of May at 4:48 p.m., the Chinese sent a communication to the air traffic control in New York, falsely identifying themselves as OPEC21, a U.S. Military C130 plane. )
Sept 12, 1998: Ten people allegedly operating as a Cuban spy ring "have been arrested and accused of collecting information on U.S. military installations and anti-Castro groups in Florida, federal officials announced today. The arrests, carried out Saturday [12 Sep. 1998], ended the most extensive espionage effort involving Cuban agents ever uncovered here, U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Scott said."
December 33, 1998 : Usama Bin Laden was asked by Time magazine whether he was responsible fo rthe August 1998 attacks. He replied:
"The International Islamic Jihad Front for the Jihad against the US and Israel has, by the grace of God, issued a crystal clear fatwah calling on the Islamic nation to carry on Jihad aimed at liberating the holy sites. the nation of Mohammed has responded to this appeal. If intigation for jihad against the Jews and the Americans... is considered to be a crime, then let history be a witness that I am a criminal. Our job is to instigate and, by the grace of God, we did that, and certain people responded tot his instigation."
He was asked if he knew the attackers:
"...those who risked their lives to earn the pleasure of God are real men. They managed to rid the Islamic nation of disgrace. We hold them in the highest esteem. "
And what the US could expect of him:
"...any thief or criminal who enters another country to steal should expect to be exposed to murder at any time... The US knows that I have attacked it, by the grace of God, for more than ten years now... God knows that we have been pleased by the killing of American soldiers (in Somalia in 1993.) This was achieved by the grace of God and the efforts of the mujahadeen... Hostility towards America is a religious duty and we hope to be rewarded for it by God. I am confident that Muslims will be able to end the legend of the so-called superpower that is America. "
December 23, 1998, three Cuban diplomats at the United Nations were ordered to leave the United States. "The three men were linked to espionage after an investigation by the FBI that led to the arrest and indictment of 10 suspected Cuban agents in Miami three months ago. The three men in New York have diplomatic passports, which give them immunity from prosecution as spies."
Dec. 1999 Ahmed Ressam, who was admitted to Canada as an asylum applicant in 1994 despite being expelled from Algeria and France for suspicion of terrorist activities, was arrested in Port Angeles, Wash. attempting to enter the U.S. from Canada with a carload of bomb-making materials destined for Los Angeles airport. A terrorist cell linked to al-Qaida was discovered trying to carry out attacks inside the United States. An Algerian, Ahmed Ressam, was stopped at the US-Canadian border and over 100 lbs of bomb-making material was found in his car. Ressam admitted he was planning to set off a large bomb at Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Day. He said that he had received terrorist training at al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and then been instructed to go abroad and kill US civilians and military personnel.
January, 2000 Kenneth White, an American oil executive, is kidnapped in Yemen. He was released 16 days later.
January 3, 2000: A group of al-Qaida members and other terrorists who had trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan attempted to attack a US destroyer, USS The Sullivans, with a small boat loaded with explosives. Their boat sank in the port of Aden, aborting the attack. ( Huh? Around the same time, U.S. law enforcement personnel arrested Ahmed Ressam, who they believed was planning several terrorist attacks on West Coast targets, including Los Angeles International Airport, coinciding with the Millennium celebrations. )
February 10, 2000 : American oil executive Kenneth White released in Yemen. At Stansted, England, 9 hijackers surrendered and released all hostages of the Afghan jetliner. Police arrested 21 [22] people and recovered arms. Half the hostages requested asylum
Feb 2000: Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) official Mariano Faget, charged in February 2000; he was subsequently convicted of using classified information for business purposes, a technical violation of the U.S. Espionage Act, and was sentenced to five years in jail As of this time he was the highest ranking Cuban spy known to operate in the US.
March 2000, Amarylis Silverio Santos and her husband, Joseph Santos, along with several (14?) others of the group, pleaded guilty to "charges of acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government." John Elvin, "Jail Time for Cuban Spies," Insight on the News, 6 Mar. 2000.
May 2000: Castro visits Iran
August 2000: Three Afghani nationals and suspected al-Qaeda members caught trying to deposit $2 million in a bank in the Cayman Islands were found to have entered the British colony on a commercial flight from nearby Cuba using false Pakistani passports.
September 4-15, 2000 : Hijacking suspect Moussaoui was in Malaysia between September 4 and 15.
October 5, 2000 : Hijacking suspect Moussaoui was in Malaysia on October 5 in 2000
Oct. 12, 2000: USS Cole was refueling in the Yemeni port of Aden when a small harbor skiff pulled alongside it and detonated explosives, killing 17 sailors, injuring 39 or 40 others. Several of the perpetrators of the Cole attack (mostly Yemenis or Saudis) were trained at Usama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan. Al 'Owali (a surviving terrorist of the Nairobi US embassy bombing) has identified the two commanders of the attack on the USS Cole as having participated in the planning and preparation of the East African US embassy bombings.
April 17, 2001: (double check this) the Czechs expelled al-Ani, who had diplomatic cover, as a hostile spy. Last night, a senior US diplomatic source told The Observer that Atta was not the only suspected al-Qaeda member who met al-Ani and other Iraqi agents in Prague. He said the Czechs monitored at least two further such meetings in the months before 11 September. The senior US intelligence source said the CIA believed that two other hijackers, al-Shehri and Jarrah, also met known Iraqi intelligence officers outside the US in the run-up to the atrocities. It is understood these meetings took place in the United Arab Emirates - where Iraq maintains its largest 'illegal', or non-diplomatic, cover intelligence operation, most of it devoted to oil exports and busting economic sanctions. See this http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/568298/posts"
May 10, 2001: Agence France-Presse reported that Castro, in an apocalyptic speech, told his Muslim audience in Iran: "America is weak. I have studied its weaknesses from very close by. I tell you, the imperialist king will finally fall."
May 25, 2001: The U.S. says that agents copied incriminating material from a computer in (Cuban spy) Montes’ home.
2001 - Propaganda videos were distributed throughout the Middle East and Muslim world by al-Qaida in which Usama bin Laden and others were shown encouraging Muslims to attack American and Jewish targets. Similar videos extolling violence against the United States and other targets were distributed before the US embassy bombings in Africain August of 1998. Usama's propaganda claimed that those who died in the course of carrying out such attacks would be carrying out God's work.
June 13, 2001: In an interview on French television on Monday, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt spoke in specific terms about the threat, saying that "on June 13 of this year, we learned of a communiqué from bin Laden saying he wanted to assassinate George W. Bush and other G8 heads of state during their summit in Italy."
June 2001 a U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, specifically identified Saudi Hizbullah as the party responsible for the 1996 killing of 19 U.S. servicemen in al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Another 372 were wounded in this attack. The indictment specifically notes: "Because Saudi Hizbullah was an outlaw organization in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, its members frequently met and trained in Lebanon, Syria, or Iran."
June 2001, in the face of mounting evidence of the Al Qaida threat, the United States warned the Taleban that it had the right to defend itself and that it would hold the regime responsible for attacks against US citizens by terrorists sheltered in Afghanistan. In this, the United States had the support of the United Nations. The Security Council, in Resolution 1267, condemned Usama Bin Laden for sponsoring international terrorism and operating a network of terrorist camps, and demanded that the Taleban surrender Usama Bin Laden without further delay so that he could be brought to justice.
Despite the evidence provided by the US of the responsibility of Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida for the 1998 East Africa bombings, despite the accurately perceived threats of further atrocities, and despite the demands of the United Nations, the Taleban r?me responded by saying no evidence existed against Usama Bin Laden, and that neither he nor his network would be expelled.
A former Government official in Afghanistan has described the Taleban and Usama Bin Laden as "two sides of the same coin: Usama cannot exist in Afghanistan without the Taleban and the Taleban cannot exist without Usama."
Aug 1, 2001: Mysterious predictions about some catastrophic event in the United States began to circulate in the electronic traffic and even were voiced by Russia's Pravda under the headline, "The Dollar and the U.S. Will Fall." Based on interviews with the Malaysian ambassador to Moscow and a group of Russian economists, the report was taken seriously enough for members of Russia's parliament, the Duma, to advise Russian citizens to cash out dollars. An adviser to the Duma's Commission on Economic Politics, Tatyana Koryagina, even specified late August or early September as the likely time for an attack on the United States that would lead to its economic collapse. Not known to the US at the time, Bin Laden himself asserted before Sept 11 that he was preparing a major attack on America.
In August 2001, a suspected Algerian terrorist, Zacarias Moussaoui, was picked up in Minnesota on immigration charges after a flight simulator training school tipped off authorities that Moussaoui had offered cash to learn only how to "steer" a jumbo jet and apparently wasn't interested in practicing take-offs and landings.
When told of Moussaoui's arrest, French intelligence authorities notified the FBI that Moussaoui was linked to bin Laden and that the Saudi dissident was training his terrorists to fly commercial aircraft. The French, having thwarted an attempt by hijackers to crash an airliner into the Eiffel Tower in 1994, apparently understood the seriousness of the matter.
Despite these ominous signs, U.S. authorities did not alert commercial airlines to be alert of the possible takeover of cockpit controls by terrorists, nor did they increase the alert status of U.S. fighter aircraft should an interception be neccessary. (BTW, INS computers were not linked to FBI computers- Moussaoui's arrest on immigration charges may not have been flagged by the FBI)
August 31, 2001: George and Marisol Gari were arrested and charged with "conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government without proper identification or notice to the attorney general." U.S. authorities say that they were members of "the largest Cuban spy ring ever detected,... 'La Red Avispa,' or the Wasp Network, five members of whom were convicted in June of conspiring to spy on the United States for Fidel Castro's regime."
August and September 2001 - close associates of Bin Laden were warned to return to Afghanistan from other parts of the world by 10 September. Immediately before the 11th of September known associates of bin Laden were naming the date for action as on or around September 11, 2001. One of Bin Laden's closest and most senior associates was responsible for the detailed planning of the attacks.
Sept 11, 2001: Hijacked passenger jets slam into the World Trade Centre and Pentagon, killing thousands. Bin Laden and his al Qaeda terror network are immediately suspected as being behind the attacks.
Sept 11, 2001: Castro was ordering a military alert in Cuba and calling up reserves.
September 12, 2001 : US President George Bush announces he will make no distinction between the perpetrators of the atrocities and those who harbour them. Bin Laden congratulates the people who carried out the US strikes but denies responsibility, Abu Dhabi television reports.
September 13: Bin Laden confirmed as a suspect by US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
6:30 p.m. on Sept. 14, 2001: Ana Belen Montes, a senior analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), walked into a public telephone booth outside Washington's National Zoo and made two calls to pager numbers later traced by federal agents to Cuba's Directorate of General Intelligence (DGI). She already had compromised the identities of CIA agents, revealed U.S. military secrets and exposed the contents of classified files. But, as Montes sent repeated signals to her DGI handlers during the days immediately following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the FBI was given orders to act.
September 14: Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime, defends bin Laden against US accusations that he masterminded the terror strikes.
September 15: The United States is officially declared at war by President Bush, who says that bin Laden is their prime suspect.
Sept 21, 2001: Ana Belen Montes arrested
September 24: Governments across the world announce they are taking action to freeze the assets of bin Laden and the al Qaeda network. Television reports quote bin Laden as urging Pakistanis to fight any assault on Afghanistan by the "crusader Americans".
September 24, 2001, the United States froze the assets of the following organizations believed to be supporting terrorism:
Al Qaida/Islamic Army
Abu Sayyaf Group
Armed Islamic Group (GIA)
Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM)
Al-Jihad (Egyptian Islamic Jihad)
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)
Asbat al-Ansar
Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC)
Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya (AIAI)
Islamic Army of Aden
Usama bin Laden
Muhammad Atif (aka, Subhi Abu Sitta, Abu Hafs Al Masri)
Sayf al-Adl
Shaykh Sai'id (aka, Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad)
Abu Hafs the Mauritanian (aka, Mahfouz Ould al-Walid, Khalid Al-Shanqiti)
Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi
Abu Zubaydah (aka, Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, Tariq)
Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi (aka, Abu Abdallah)
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Thirwat Salah Shihata
Tariq Anwar al-Sayyid Ahmad (aka, Fathi, Amr al-Fatih)
Muhammad Salah (aka, Nasr Fahmi Nasr Hasanayn)
Makhtab Al-Khidamat/Al Kifah
Wafa Humanitarian Organization
Al Rashid Trust
Mamoun Darkazanli Import-Export Company
October 2, 2001 : Prime Minister Tony Blair speaks to the Labour Party conference in Brighton, warning the Taliban it should surrender bin Laden or "surrender power". Nato says the US has produced "conclusive evidence" that bin Laden was behind the attacks.
October 4, 2001 : Firm evidence links bin Laden to at least three of the hijackers, Mr Blair tells Parliament.
October 7, 2001 : First reports of explosions over the Afghan capital. President Bush speaks to the American people, confirming the "carefully targeted" air strikes and announcing that the war on terrorism is under way. Prime Minister Tony Blair said "the objectives to eradicate Osama bin Laden's network of terror" had been put in place. Ruling Taliban officials say they are "ready for jihad" - holy war.
October 8, 2001 : Bin Laden threatens more violence against America saying: "You will not feel safe or secure." Speaking on Al Jazeera he calls on Muslims around the world to join a war on America.
October 10, 2001 : Bin Laden's terror group al Qaeda calls for Muslims across the world to join a holy war against America and its allies, and claims there are "thousands of young people who look forward to death." Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime is showing signs of cracking under the strain of coalition air strikes, British defence sources claim. As US warplanes began a fourth straight night of bombing raids on Taliban defences, officials in London said the regime could collapse without the need to send in ground troops.
October 13, 2001 : Taliban rulers reject Mr Bush's second chance offer to surrender bin Laden and instead pledge to fight to "the last breath".
October 16, 2001 : US officials confirm for first time that a heavily-armed special forces AC-130 Spectre gunships have been in action attacking Taliban military bases. The lumbering AC-130 - adapted from the Hercules transport aircraft - is typically used to support special forces troops on the ground, intensifying speculation that such units are already operating inside Afghanistan.
October 17, 2001 : The US-led coalition begins to turn its firepower on Taliban troops fighting the rebel Northern Alliance in an effort to turn the screws on the Afghan regime. Northern Alliance fighters are reported to be close to capturing the key northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and to be threatening the capital, Kabul.
October 19, 2001 : The Taliban leadership continues to voice defiance after it emerges that US special forces are now operating behind the lines inside Afghanistan.
October 19, 2001: Putin announces that Russia will close its listening post at Lourdes, near Havana, Cuba- just hours before the APEC meeting in Shanhai which Bush would attend.
October 20, 2001: US special forces are parachuted into enemy territory, killing Taliban troops and destroying key targets in ground attacks. Later reports claim that the operation was bungled and led to 12 American soldiers being injured. Reports appear to be false, initiated by Seymore Hersch of the New Yorker magazine.
October 22, 2001 : Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon confirms that US warplanes have now turned their attention to Taliban positions facing Northern Alliance forces around the Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
October 23, 2001 : Mr Hoon says that all the al Qaeda terrorist training camps have been destroyed by the air strikes.
October 29, 2001 : The Pentagon says US warplanes have begun systematically bombing the cave complexes where bin Laden and his key lieutenants are believed to be hiding out.
October - November 2001 OSAMA BIN LADEN has for the first time admitted that his al-Qa'eda group carried out the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the Telegraph can reveal. The video had been circulating for 14 days prior to the news.telegraph.co.uk getting wind of it. The killing of at least 4,537 people was justified, he claims, because they were "not civilians" but were working for the American system. Bin Laden also makes a direct personal threat against Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, for the first time, and warns nations such as Australia, Germany and Japan to stay out of the conflict.