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Timeline Of Terror
- 1980s: The CIA backs the Afghan Mujahideen in a bid to
throw Russia out of Afghanistan. Many Arab men who fought in the US-backed rebel
forces would later serve in the forces of Taliban or bin Laden. Osama bin Laden
was commander of one of these foreign legions.
- 1988: Osama bin Laden
forms al Qaeda to recruit, train, and support the faithful
warriors.
- 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait. Osama bin Laden makes an offer to
the King of Saudi Arabia to bring together a force of faithful warriors to
protect the kingdom. The King refuses and invites American forces. Outraged, bin
Laden vows to force Western forces (and their moral corruption) out of the
Middle East and to overthrow the Saudi government, which he regards as tainted.
On November 5, terrorist El Sayyid Nosir murders Jewish radical Meir Kahane in
New York but is convicted only of a minor weapons violation. Knowing that
captured terrorists in Egypt face torture and execution, Nosir decides that the
US is a soft target, a view that continues. Nosir's apartment included manuals
on making bombs and photos of the World Trade Center, but police dismiss such
plots as unlikely.
- 1993: In February, a van loaded with 1,500 pounds of
explosives damages the World Trade Center. Ali Mohamed, an Egyptian Army major
who had spent time in the US special forces and fighting with the Mujahideen in
Afghanistan, tells US intelligence that bin Laden was involved in supporting the
bombers.
- In October, a furious street battle in Mogadishu leaves 18 US
Army Rangers dead and forces the US to abandon its intervention in Somalia. This
(confirming the effects of the 1983 Beirut bombing) convinces many Islamic
radicals that the US will pull out of any troubled region if enough casualties
can be inflicted. Islamic radicals become convinced that the US has no stomach
for a fight. Osama bin Laden will later claim that many of those who fought in
the Mogadishu battle were graduates of his training schools and believers in his
goal of expelling the US from Islamic countries.
- 1994: In December,
terrorists from the Armed Islamic Group (an Algerian terrorist organization
which sent operatives to be trained in Afghanistan) hijacked a French airliner
and planned to crash it into the Eiffel tower. The problem is that none of them
are pilots and the Air France pilot lands the plane safely even while under
threat. A few months later, the first men later linked to the Al Qaeda
organization apply for admission to US airline pilot schools.
- 1995: A
plot to destroy 11 US airliners over the Pacific is foiled by US intelligence.
Two men arrested in the plot describe plans to fly a hijacked airliner into CIA
headquarters or another government building, plans the FBI dismisses as
grandiose and far fetched. The US begins to focus on Osama bin Laden as the
master of the terror network.
- 1996: Bin Laden issues his first fatwa,
calling on all Moslems to kill American soldiers. The US pressures Sudan into
expelling bin Laden, who moves to Afghanistan. This will later be seen as a
mistake, in that he was able to set up and run a larger infrastructure there,
and the Taliban government is effectively immune to international pressure. In
June, terrorists set off a massive truck bomb at the Khobar Towers military
housing complex in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis execute the suspects before allowing
the FBI to interrogate them. At the time, many theorize that the Saudis are
covering up for Iranians (seeking to avoid a regional crisis), but this attack
will later be thought to have its roots in the Al Qaeda network.
- 1997:
The US, aided by Egyptian intelligence, rounds up the bin Laden cells in
Albania.
- 1998: Osama bin Laden expands his fatwa to include killing
American civilians abroad and at home. In August, bin Laden orchestrates the
bomb attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. President Clinton signs a
"Lethal Finding," allowing the CIA to assassinate him, as he is technically not
a "leader of a foreign nation" protected by a 1975 executive order. Two years of
attempts fail. Ali Mohamed, the former Egyptian Army major, is involved in
planning the attacks; arrested, he confirms bin Laden's role and is convicted by
a US court in 1999.
- 1999: Just before the New Year, the US detects and
blocks a series of terrorist attacks linked to Algerian groups linked to al
Qaeda.
- 2000: In October, an attack orchestrated by Al Qaeda damages the
destroyer USS Cole, nearly sinking her. The attack was organized by Tawfiq
"Khallad" bin Atash, who is thought to have been the tactical leader of the 11
Sept 2001 attacks.
- 2001: All summer long, the Al Qaeda organization
floods US intelligence with dozens of phony rumors of impending attacks all
around the world. A merger between Al Qaeda and Islamic Jihad produces a much
more organized and dangerous network, but the WTC attacks predate this merger.
September 11, the largest terrorist attack in history strikes the World Trade
Center and Pentagon.
--Stephen V Cole
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