T3 B4 Hurley Reading Material 4 Of 4 Fdr- 1st Pgs Of All Reading Material In Folder (for Reference- Fair Use) 998

Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company The New York Times View Related Topics April 13, 1999, Tuesday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 1; Foreign Desk LENGTH: 2424 words HEADLINE: U.S. Hard Put to Find Proof Bin Laden Directed Attacks BYLINE: ByTIMWEINER BODY: American commandos are poised near the Afghan border, hoping to capture Osama bin Laden, the man charged with blowing up two American embassies in Africa eight months ago, senior American officials say. But they still do not know how to find him. They are depending on his protectors in Afghanistan to betray him — a slim reed of hope for one of the biggest and most complicated international criminal investigations in American history. Capturing Mr. bin Laden alive could deepen the complications. American officials say that so far, firsthand evidence that could be used in court to prove that he commanded the bombings has proven difficult to obtain. According to the public record, none of the informants involved in the case have direct knowledge of Mr. bin Laden's involvement. For now, officials say, Federal prosecutors appear to be building a case that his violent words and ideas, broadcast from an Afghan cave, incited terrorist acts thousands of miles away. In their war against Mr. bin Laden, American officials portray him as the world's most dangerous terrorist. But reporters for The New York Times and the PBS program "Frontline," working in cooperation, have found him to be less a commander of terrorists than an inspiration for them. Enemies and supporters, from members of the Saudi opposition to present and former American intelligence officials, say he may not be as globally powerful as some American officials have asserted. But his message and aims have more resonance among Muslims around the world than has been understood here. "You can kill Osama bin Laden today or tomorrow; you can arrest him and put him on trial in New York or in Washington," said Ahmed Sattar, an aide to Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric convicted of inspiring the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. "If this will end the problem — no. Tomorrow you will get somebody else." Interviews with senior American officials and knowledgeable observers of Mr. bin Laden in Pakistan, Sudan and elsewhere suggest that there is widespread support among ordinary people in the Muslim world for his central political argument: that

The New Yorker: Fact

Page 1 of7

GET Access To The World Of Entertainment And More,,,

COM)K\KT

THE NEW YORKER FACT IN THE

December 31, 2003 i home

MAGAZINE

i e-mail 1 tha page

PROFILES GONGS ON ABOUT TOWN THE TALK OF THE TOWN

THE MAN BEHIND BIN LADEN by LAWRENCE WRIGHT How an Egyptian doctor became a master of terror. Issue of 2002-09-16 Posted 2002-09-09

to a Mt»

e

pug*

SHOUTi& MURMURS FACT

II—THE MARTYR IV

FICTION CARTOONS ONLINE ONLY FROM THE ARCHrVE

V

In 1950, the year before Ayman al-Zawahiri was born, Sayyid Qutb, a well-known literary critic in Cairo, returned home after spending two years at Colorado State College of Education, in Greeley. He had left Cairo as a secular writer who enjoyed a sinecure in the Ministry of Education. One of his early discoveries was a young writer named Naguib Mahfouz, who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature. "Qutb was our friend," Mahfouz recalled recently in Cairo. "When I was growing up, he was the first critic to recognize me." Mahfouz, who has been unable to write since 1994, when he was stabbed and nearly killed by Islamic fundamentalists, told me that before Qutb went to America he was at odds with many of the sheikhs, who he thought were "out of date." According to Mahfouz, Qutb saw himself as part of the modern age, and he wore his religion lightly. His great passion was Egyptian nationalism, and, perhaps because of his strident opposition to the British occupation, the Ministry of Education decided that he would be safer in America.

VI VI! VIM

IX X

Qutb had studied American literature and popular culture; the United States, in contrast with the European powers, seemed to him and other Egyptian nationalists to be a friendly

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/7020916fa_fact2b

12/31/2003

• 10/8/99: Michael Sheehan, Secretary Albright's Designation of Foreign Terrorist Organiz... Page 1 of 9

Terrorism Resources

Ambassador Michael Sheehan Coordinator for the Office of Counterterrorism Briefing, Secretary Albright's Designation of Foreign Terrorist Organizations Washington, DC, October 8,1999

Secretary Albright's Designation of Foreign Terrorist Organizations MR. RUBIN: Now, if we could turn to the Secretary's designations on terrorism, there is a statement that I am going to briefly summarize under the Secretary's name that we will provide you after the briefing. The Secretary designated 28 groups today. This is the second biannual designation under the Act. Ambassador Sheehan will go through the various groups that this applies to. These designations have three main consequences, ensuring that it is a crime to provide funds, weapons or other types of tangible support to the designated organizations. Second, members and representatives of these organizations are ineligible for visas and are subject to exclusion from the United States. And, third, any funds that these organizations have in our country will be frozen. Through the good work of our counterterrorism coordinator, Michael Sheehan, the State Department plays a key role in this effort to stop terrorism. That is why Secretary Albright believes it is alarming that Congress has just voted to slash our funding for counterterrorism programs at a time of increased public concern about the terrorist threat and clear evidence that terrorists continue to target Americans, this action is directly contrary to the interest of our country and is one of the reasons the President has said he would veto the Foreign Operations Appropriation Bill. With those general comments, let me introduce you again to a regular briefer here in the briefing room, Ambassador Michael Sheehan. Thank you. AMBASSADOR SHEEHAN: Thank you, Jamie. Let me expound upon Jamie's opening remarks and say a few words about the Secretary's designation of the foreign terrorist organizations, FTOs as we know them, and then review a few other aspects of our counterterrorism policy. As a member of the State Department, our role isn't always as glamorous as those of my counterparts in other agencies, FBI, CIA, the military, apprehending criminals, bringing them back on airplanes late at night. But we are, rather, the steady and the political, diplomatic fight against terrorism. Often unseen, slow grind, diplomatic slog that I believe really pays dividends in the long term.

http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/991008_sheehan_fto.html

12/10/2003

ic New Yorker

Page 1 of 33

December 31, 2003 home

THE NEW YORKER FACT PROFILES

THE MAN BEHIND BIN LADEN by LAWRENCE WRIGHT How an Egyptian doctor became a master of terror. Issue of 2002-09-16 Posted 2002-09-09

.Last March, a band of horsemen journeyed through the province of Paktika, in Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border. Predator drones were circling the skies and American troops were sweeping through the mountains. The war had begun six months earlier, and by now the fighting had narrowed down to the ragged eastern edge of the country. Regional warlords had been bought off, the borders supposedly sealed. For twelve days, American and coalition forces had been bombing the nearby Shah-e-Kot Valley and systematically destroying the cave complexes in the Al Qaeda stronghold. And yet the horsemen were riding unhindered toward Pakistan. They came to the village of a local militia commander named Gula Jan, whose long beard and black turban might have signalled that he was a Taliban sympathizer. "I saw a heavy, older man, an Arab, who wore dark glasses and had a white turban," Jan told Ilene Prusher, of the Christian Science Monitor, four days later. "He was dressed like an Afghan, but he had a beautiful coat, and he was with two other Arabs who had masks on." The man in the beautiful coat dismounted and began talking in a polite and humorous manner. He asked Jan and an Afghan companion about the location of American and Northern Alliance troops. "We are afraid we will encounter them," he said. "Show us the right way." While the men were talking, Jan slipped away to examine a poster that had been dropped into the area by American airplanes. It showed a photograph of a man in a white turban and glasses. His face was broad and meaty, with a strong, prominent nose and full lips. His untrimmed beard was gray at the temples and ran in milky streaks below his chin. On his high forehead, framed by the swaths of his turban, was a darkened callus formed by many hours of prayerful prostration. His eyes reflected the sort of decisiveness one might expect in a medical man, but they also showed a measure of serenity that seemed oddly out of place. Jan was looking at a wanted poster for a man named Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, who had a price of twenty-five million dollars on his head. Jan returned to the conversation. The man he now believed to be Zawahiri said to him, "May God bless you and keep you from the enemies of Islam. Try not to tell them where we came from and where we are going." There was a telephone number on the wanted poster, but Gula Jan did not have a phone. Zawahiri and the masked Arabs disappeared into the mountains. I—THE SPORTING CLUB

In June of 2001, two terrorist organizations, Al Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad, formally merged into one. The name of the new entity—Qaeda al-Jihad—reflects the long and interdependent history of these two groups. Although Osama bin Laden, the founder of Al Qaeda, has become the public face of Islamic terrorism, the members of Islamic Jihad and its guiding

http://www.newyorker.com/printable/?fact/020916fa_fact2

12/31/2003

rfPSCI-SSCI Joint Inquiry Staff Statement, Part I: Statement of Eleanor Hill: September ... Page 1 of 26

Joint Inquiry Staff Statement, Part I Eleanor Hill, Staff Director, Joint Inquiry Staff September 18, 2002 Foreword

Chairman Graham, Chairman Goss, before I proceed with my statement, I want to make clear to you and the members of these two Committees that the information I am going to present has been cleared for public release. As you know, much of the information the Joint Inquiry Staff has been examining is highly classified. Over the last two months, we have been working with the Intelligence Community in a long and arduous process to declassify information we believe is important to the public's understanding of why the Intelligence Community did not know of the September 11 attacks in advance. By late last night, we were able to resolve all but two issues. The Director of Central Intelligence has declined to declassify two issues of particular importance to this Inquiry: • Any references to the Intelligence Community providing information to the President or White House; and • The identity of and information on a key al-Qa'ida leader involved in the September 11 attacks. According to the DCI, the President's knowledge of intelligence information relevant to this Inquiry remains classified even when the substance of that intelligence information has been declassified. With respect to the key al-Qa'ida leader involved in the September 11 attacks, the DCI declined to declassify his identity despite an enormous volume of media reporting on this individual. The Joint Inquiry Staff disagrees with the DCI's position on both issues. We believe the American public has a compelling interest in this information and that public disclosure would not harm national security. However, we do not have independent authority to declassify intelligence information short of a lengthy procedure in the U.S.Congress. We therefore prepared this statement without detailed descriptions of our work in these two areas. Introduction

Chairman Graham, Chairman Goss, members of this Joint Conunittee, good morning. I appreciate the opporftunity to appear here today to advise the Committees, and the American public, on the progress to date of the Joint inquiry Staffs review of the activities

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002Jir/091802hill.html

12/29/2003

The Intelligence Community's Knowledge of the September 11 Hijackers Prior to September 11,2001 Eleanor Hill, Staff Director, Joint Inquiry Staff September 20,2002

/ashingtonpost.com: Military Split On How to Use Special Forces In Terror War

Page 1 of5

washingtonpost.com

Military Split On How to Use Special Forces In Terror War By Gregory L. Vistica Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, January 5, 2004; Page A01

With Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld pressuring the Pentagon to take a more aggressive role in tracking down terrorists, military and intelligence officials are engaged in a fierce debate over when and how elite military units should be deployed for maximum effectiveness. Under Rumsfeld's direction, secret commando units known as hunter-killer teams have been ordered to "kick down the doors," as the generals put it, all over the world in search of al Qaeda members and their sympathizers. The approach has succeeded in recent months in Iraq, as Special Operations forces have helped capture Saddam Hussein and other Baathist loyalists. But in other parts of the world, particularly Afghanistan, these soldiers and their civilian advocates have complained to superiors that the Pentagon's counterterrorism policy is too inflexible in the use of Special Forces overall and about what units are allowed to chase down suspected terrorists, according to former commandos and a Defense Department official.

Open an Savings Account in under § minutes!

In fact, these advocates said the U.S. military may have missed chances to capture two of its most-wanted fugitives — Mohammad Omar, the Taliban leader, and Ayman Zawahiri, deputy to Osama bin Laden - during the past two years because of restrictions on Green Berets in favor of two other components of the Special Operations Command, the Delta Force and SEAL Team Six.

No No Minitiums

ING Ai) DIRECT They said several credible sightings by CIA and military informants of Omar entering a mosque this spring in Kandahar, Afghanistan, were relayed to U.S. forces at nearby Firebase Gecko, where a Green Beret team was ready to deploy. But rather than send in the Green Berets, who were just minutes from the mosque, commanders followed strict military doctrine and called on the Delta Force, the team of commandos whose primary mission is to kill and capture targets such as Hussein. In the several hours it took the Delta unit, based hundreds of miles away near Kabul, to review the information and prepare for the raid, Omar vanished, said the sources, all of whom advise Rumsfeld's senior aides. Other informants reported spotting Zawahiri in a medical clinic in Gardez, Afghanistan, in the spring of 2002. Green Berets five minutes away were ordered to stand down so SEAL Team Six, another of the hunter-killer teams, could storm the clinic and capture or kill Zawahiri, according to the sources. But too much time elapsed during preparations, and Zawahiri escaped. The Special Operations Command declined to comment on the reports.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54655-2004Jan4?language=printer

1/5/2004

^^*~washingtonpost.com: Afghan Delegates Approve Charter

Page 1 of3

washingtonpost.com

' * t»» { R f I i l « G

Afghan Delegates Approve Charter Following Bitter Debate, Assembly Clears Path To Democratic Elections By Pamela Constable Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, January 5,2004; Page A01

After three weeks of raw emotional debate and intense private negotiations, members of a constitutional assembly in Afghanistan agreed yesterday on a new charter for the volatile postwar nation, clearing the way for its first democratic elections in 25 years. The 502 delegates accepted a political system with a strong president and a weaker parliament, similar to the version sought by President Hamid Karzai and backed by the Bush administration, despite vehement objections from ethnic minority leaders and Islamic fundamentalists at the historic meeting. "There is no winner or loser. . . . This is the success of the whole Afghan nation," Karzai told members of the assembly, or loyajirga, shortly after they stood en masse to endorse the new constitution in a huge white tent on a university campus in Kabul, the capital.

Open an Orange Savings Account in under § minutes!

President Bush praised the outcome in a statement from Washington, saying the new constitution "lays the foundation for democratic institutions" in Afghanistan and will thus "help ensure that terror finds no further refuge in that proud land." The adoption of the charter comes two years after U.S. and Afghan forces routed the extremist Islamic Taliban movement. It clears a major hurdle in the political transition that was mandated by the United Nations in late 2001. The government now hopes to hold presidential elections this summer, and Karzai is widely viewed as the favorite.

8rest Rate No Fees NoMinimums

ING INDIRECT

But the loyajirga, composed of delegates from across the ethnic and political spectrum, came close to collapsing several times after it opened Dec. 14. Repeated bitter confrontations among delegates laid open deep fissures in Afghan society on such issues as religion, women's rights and regional dialects. Several contentious issues were left unresolved in order to salvage the assembly. In comments yesterday, the U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, was critical of the obstructionist role regional Islamic militia leaders had played during the assembly, and he said there would be little point in holding elections this summer if adequate security measures were not instituted throughout the country. As a result of compromises between Islamic hard-liners and moderate government reformists, the final charter did not include a reference to sharia, or Islamic law, saying only that no Afghan law "can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions" of Islam. But some observers said the strength of religious law would depend partly on who controls the Supreme Court.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54653-2004Jan4?language=printer

1/5/2004

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company The New York Times View Related Topics August 8, 1998, Saturday, Late Edition - Final Correction Appended SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 5; Foreign Desk LENGTH: 1757 words HEADLINE: BOMBINGS IN EAST AFRICA: THE OVERVIEW; BOMBS RIP APART 2 U.S. EMBASSIES IN AFRICA; SCORES KILLED; NO FIRM MOTIVE OR SUSPECTS BYLINE:

By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

DATELINE: NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug. 7

BODY: Two powerful bombs exploded minutes apart outside the United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania this morning, killing at least 80 people, 8 of them Americans, in what officials said were coordinated terrorist attacks. In Nairobi, an enormous explosion ripped through downtown shortly after 10:30 A.M., turning the busy Haile Selassie Avenue into a scene of carnage and destruction that left more than 1,600 people wounded and dozens still missing long after night fell. The blast, which leveled a three-story building containing a secretarial school and gutted the rear half of the embassy next door, dismembered more than a dozen people passing on foot and incinerated dozens of others in their seats in three nearby buses. Just minutes before, a bomb apparently planted in a gasoline tanker detonated near the front entrance of the United States Embassy in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, about 400 miles to the south. The blast destroyed the front of the building and toppled a side wall, throwing charred debris down the street, setting cars on fire and toppling trees. At least 7 people were killed and 72 wounded, none of them American, officials said. In Washington, President Clinton condemned the attacks as abhorrent and inhuman acts of cowardice. He vowed to bring those responsible to justice "no matter what or how long it takes." Transcript, page A8. The bombings underscored how vulnerable American officials and diplomats remain in an age of global terrorism, particularly in some third-world capitals where borders are porous and security is not as tight as in the industrial world. The blasts seemed to be coordinated attacks against the United States, and appeared to be unconnected to any local grievances or political currents in the two capitals, American officials said. At least eight Americans, one a child, and an unknown number of Kenyan employees

August 21, 1998, Friday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 6; Foreign Desk LENGTH: 1438 words HEADLINE: U.S. FURY ON 2 CONTINENTS: THE OVERVIEW; U.S. CRUISE MISSILES STRIKE SUDAN AND AFGHAN TARGETS TIED TO TERRORIST NETWORK BYLINE: By JAMES BENNET DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 BODY: Dozens of American cruise missiles struck targets in Afghanistan and the Sudan today in what President Clinton described as an act of self-defense against imminent terrorist plots and of retribution for the bombings of American Embassies in East Africa two weeks ago. The strikes were launched from ships in the Arabian and Red Seas at dusk. It was not immediately clear whether the raids were a military success. Pentagon officials said that no Americans died but that they had no immediate estimate of other casualties or damage. With about 75 missiles timed to explode simultaneously in unsuspecting countries on two continents, the operation was the most formidable American military assault ever against a private sponsor of terrorism. The targets were identified by Pentagon officials as an extensive terrorism training complex in Afghanistan, 94 miles south of Kabul, and a factory for the building blocks of chemical weapons near Khartoum, the Sudan. Mr. Clinton and his national security team linked both sites to Osama bin Laden, the exiled Saudi millionaire tied by American intelligence to the twin bombings on Aug. 7 in Kenya and Tanzania. The bombings killed 12 Americans and nearly 300 Africans. Mr. bin Laden, who is in Afghanistan, apparently survived the attack, which officials insisted was not aimed at him. "Let our actions today send this message loud and clear," Mr. Clinton said in an address from the Oval Office. "There are no expendable American targets. There will be no sanctuary for terrorists." The President made no apologies for ordering the strikes without permission from Afghanistan or the Sudan, saying, "Countries that persistently host terrorists have no right to be safe havens." Mr. Clinton's stone-faced appearance marked his emergence from two days of shelter from a howling political storm. He returned to the White House this afternoon from vacation on Martha's Vineyard, where he was trying to repair family ties

r

Others were more critical. Accusing Mr. Clinton of "lies and deceit and manipulations and deceptions," Senator Dan Coats, Republican of Indiana, said that the President's record "raises into doubt everything he does and everything he says, and maybe even everything he doesn't do and doesn't say." Administration officials dismissed such skepticism. Mr. Cohen said: "The only motivation driving this action today was our absolute obligation to protect the American people from terrorist activities. That is the sole motivation. No other consideration has been involved." After the strikes Mr. Cohen ordered all military bases to increase their states of alert. The United States today issued a new worldwide warning to Americans and diplomatic personnel "to exercise much greater caution than usual." In his speech Mr. Clinton warned Americans that the strike would by no means put an end to terrorism. "This will be a long, ongoing struggle," he said. "America is and will remain a target of terrorists." Copyright 1998 The Washington Post The Washington Post View Related Topics August 21, 1998, Friday, Final Edition SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01 LENGTH: 2546 words HEADLINE: U.S. Strikes Terrorist-Linked Sites In Afghanistan, Factory in Sudan BYLINE: Barton Gellman; Dana Priest, Washington Post Staff Writers BODY: American cruise missiles struck without warning yesterday at paramilitary training camps in Afghanistan and a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant that U.S. intelligence identified as a chemical weapons facility. President Clinton described the synchronized blows as retaliation for the twin bombings this month of U.S. embassies in Africa and an effort to preempt further terrorist attacks. "Today, we have struck back," Clinton said in a surprise announcement at the Massachusetts island resort of Martha's Vineyard, where he cut short his vacation and returned to Washington for a late afternoon conference with his national security team in the White House situation room. Clinton described the training complex in Khost, Afghanistan -- 94 miles southeast of Kabul and just inside the border with Pakistan -- as "one of the most active terrorist bases in the world." He said it was "operated by groups affiliated with Osama bin Laden," a Saudi expatriate whose public declarations and shadowy history have placed him at the center of suspicion since the Aug. 7 destruction of U.S. embassies

Administration officials were cautious about the results of the attack and declined to discuss whether all missiles reached their targets. Preliminary reports are "that it was a successful attack," said a senior Pentagon official. "It's still nighttime over there. We will just have to wait and see." At the Pentagon news conference and in later interviews, Pentagon officials made clear that their anti-terrorist mission is murkier and more uncertain than a traditional war. As a result, they offered no impressive video footage of the bombing or any of the operational details that commonly follow successful military operations. "The issue is, we don't know what we don't know," said one military official with knowledge of the attack. "We need every edge we can get, so in 24 hours if you are all still confused, the guy sitting in the rubble in Afghanistan will also be confused. This is different than fighting Iraq." A Pakistan-based Afghan news service, Afghan Islamic Press, reported that at least 15 people were killed by the missile strike in Afghanistan, Reuters said last night. U.S. forces in the region braced for retaliation. There are about 20,000 U.S. military personnel in the Persian Gulf area, and U.S. officials said all military installations have taken fresh measures to secure themselves from attack. In the District yesterday, Executive Assistant Chief of Police Terrance W. Gainer said the police department had "increased security around our own buildings" and was providing additional support to "embassy and office areas where foreign nationals might be." "Clearly we are on a heightened state of alert," he said. "We have no specific intelligence that indicates there is any increased actual threat, but we are sensitive to the possibility. These are pretty tense times around the world, and Washington is a potential target." Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company The New York Times View Related Topics August 22, 1998, Saturday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 3; Foreign Desk LENGTH: 1463 words HEADLINE: AFTER THE ATTACKS: THE PRESIDENT; Clinton, Dogged by Scandal, Juggled Politics and Bombing BYLINE: By JAMES BENNET DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 BODY:

August 22, 1998, Saturday, Final Edition SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01 LENGTH: 1878 words HEADLINE: Reports of U.S. Strikes' Destruction Vary; Afghanistan Damage 'Moderate to Heavy1; Sudan Plant Leveled BYLINE: Eugene Robinson; Dana Priest, Washington Post Staff Writers BODY: The barrage of 79 cruise missiles fired by U.S. forces at suspected terrorist-linked installations effectively destroyed a factory in Sudan and inflicted "moderate to heavy" damage on paramilitary camps in Afghanistan, Clinton administration officials said yesterday in the first assessment of the damage caused by Thursday's surprise attack. Reports from Afghanistan indicated that at least 21 people were killed and more than 50 wounded in the strike on a group of training camps around Khost, near the Pakistan border. Pakistani journalists who visited two of the targeted camps said they saw widespread damage and at least 20 craters from cruise missile impacts. One camp, completely destroyed, "gave the look of a big dump," a witness was quoted as saying. President Clinton, who had interrupted his vacation to meet in Washington with his national security team and address the nation about the air strikes, returned to Martha's Vineyard yesterday without further public comment. Top administration officials, meanwhile, spent the day explaining to Congress and the public the reasons for the attack — and the nature of a new kind of conflict that Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright called "the unfortunate war of the future." "I think it's very important for the American people to understand that we are involved here in a long-term struggle," Albright said on Capitol Hill after a briefing with key members of Congress. Terrorism, she said, "is not any form of political expression; it is not a sense of religious freedom. It is murder, plain and simple." Defense Secretary William S. Cohen indicated that Thursday's strikes — aimed at facilities linked to Osama bin Laden, a Saudi-born millionaire whom officials now call the major terrorist threat to U.S. interests — might not be the last. "We have contingency plans that we are developing, and there may be more in the future," he said. International reaction to the unilateral U.S. military action was generally positive, although Russian President Boris Yeltsin was sharply critical. Afghanistan's leaders deplored the action, as did Sudan's. In Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, an angry mob stormed the vacant U.S. Embassy and ripped down the American flag. Cloud cover prevented U.S. intelligence monitors from obtaining a more complete picture of the damage in Afghanistan, said national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger.

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh yesterday cut short his trip to Africa, canceling plans to lay a wreath on the site of the devastated U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in order to return to Washington. The agency also dispatched a SWAT team to Africa to help protect the 250-plus FBI employees stationed there. The FBI also issued a nationwide security alert to local law enforcement agencies, a routine measure in the wake of military action abroad. Although U.S. officials have reported a surge in threats against American installations around the world in the last week, FBI officials said they were unaware of any specific threats against domestic targets. Pentagon security was increased to Threatcon Alpha, meaning officials perceived a general threat of attack but no specific indications of one. Black-suited, machinegun-carrying special police, fondly called "Ninjas" by military personnel who work at the building, were visible on the roof and at all entrances of the building.

Copyright 1998 The Washington Post The Washington Post View Related Topics August 22, 1998, Saturday, Final Edition SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01 LENGTH: 1154 words HEADLINE: A War in Which Success Is Elusive BYLINE: Barton Gellman, Washington Post Staff Writer BODY: If Thursday's missile strikes were aimed at the vital underpinnings of Osama bin Laden's paramilitary power, as one Clinton administration explanation maintains, they demonstrated the paucity of such targets available to those who aim America's conventional weapons of war. Strictly in terms of materiel exchange, the United States expended $ 79 million in satellite-guided cruise missiles to destroy thousands of dollars worth of obstacle courses, field barracks and tents. But even as what strategists call "centers of gravity," the main sources of an enemy's strength, neither the Sudanese factory nor the Afghani training camp pounded by the missiles has that kind of vital importance to bin Laden, according to senior military officers interviewed yesterday. The measures of success for the missile strikes ~ like many of the engagements in what Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright yesterday called "unfortunately the war of the future" — may continue to seem as diffuse and elusive as the confederation of extremist groups led by bin Laden.