On the anniversary of the 1993 WTC attack, I think we should remember how it happened

2/26/91 Brig. Gen. Richard Neal in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, says Iraqi forces are in "full retreat" with allied forces pursuing; Iraqi POWs number 30,000-plus, number to climb to 63,000. USA Today website

2/26/91] Saddam Hussein announces Iraqi occupation forces will withdraw completely. USA Today website

2/26/91 Residents of Kuwait City celebrate end to occupation. Resistance groups set up headquarters to control city. USA Today website

2/26/91 The Iraqis, who had the Third World's largest poison-gas operations prior to the Gulf War I, have perfected the technique of making hydrogen-cyanide gas, which the Nazis called Zyklon-B. In the hands of al Qaeda, this would be a fearsome weapon in an enclosed space -- like a suburban mall or subway station-this same form of cyanide was found in the 1993 WTC attack residue and in the seized bomb-making storage unit. It was also found in the Euphrates River by advancing US Marines South of Baghdad in 2003

On June 10, 1992 [1993 World Trade Center bomber ] Salameh makes the first of 40 phone calls to his uncle, Kadri Abu Bakr (a convicted terrorist who spent time in Israeli prison), in Baghdad, formerly no.2 in the PLO's Western Sector. His phone bills go from around $140 a month to $1400+ a month in June, and over $2500 in July! Given Iraq's totalitarian regime, the origin of the calls, and his uncle's past it is extremely likely that the Iraqi IIS was at the very least monitoring his calls and thus complacent in the 1993 WTC bombing. (Note: this is the first suggestion that Al Queda (and/or its affiliates, allies, or network branches) is preparing a terrorist attack, and the planning is directly connected by phone to Iraq-where the IIS monitored and bugged most phone calls. Calls to and fro the United States-a country that had just defeated Iraq on the battlefield barely a year earlier-were certainly monitored heavily. For more information on these calls including some court-released records of some specific calls, see also The War Against America by Laurie Mylroie.)

6/21/92 [1993 World Trade Center bomber ] Abdual Rahman Yasin gets a US passport from the American embassy in Amman, Jordan. He'd been living in Baghdad, but had been born in the US. [Author's note: after the 1993 World Trade Center attack, the ringleaders (Yasin and Yousef) will escape to Iraq and Pakistan respectively.]

9/1/92 [1993 World Trade Center bomber ] Ramsi Yousef (aka "Rashid the Iraqi") arrives in United States

“Bin Ladin seemed willing to include in the confederation terrorists from almost every corner of the Muslim world. His vision mirrored that of Sudan’s Islamist leader,Turabi, who convened a series of meetings under the label Popular Arab and Islamic Conference around the time of Bin Ladin’s arrival in that country. Delegations of violent Islamist extremists came from all the groups represented in Bin Ladin’s Islamic Army Shura.Representatives also came from organizations such as the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hamas, and Hezbollah.51” -911 Commission Final Report

“In Late 1992, Yazdi, Turabi, and Bashir agree to begin planning and preparing various terrorist attacks to be conducted in close coordination. These attacks included an escalation of attacks against US and UN forces in Somalia and (later) against the World Trade Center in NYC.” -Bin Laden The Man Who Declared War On America by Yossef Bodansky 1999

“Turabi sought to persuade Shiites and Sunnis to put aside their divisions and join against the common enemy. In late 1991 or 1992, discussions in Sudan between al Qaeda and Iranian operatives led to an informal agreement to cooperate in providing support—even if only training—for actions carried out primarily against Israel and the United States. Not long afterward, senior al Qaeda operatives and trainers traveled to Iran to receive training in explosives. In the fall of 1993, another such delegation went to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon for further training in explosives as well as in intelligence and security. Bin Ladin reportedly showed particular interest in learning how to use truck bombs such as the one that had killed 241 U.S. Marines in Lebanon in 1983.The relationship between al Qaeda and Iran demonstrated that Sunni-Shia divisions did not necessarily pose an insurmountable barrier to cooperation in terrorist operations. As will be described in chapter 7, al Qaeda contacts with Iran continued in ensuing years.52” -911 Commission Final Report

In early 1993 (according to documents discovered by CNS News, and according to the 1998 indictment of UBL), Iraq and AQ formed a non-aggression agreement. UBL also asked if he could move his ops to Iraq, but was denied as Saddam didn't expect sanctions and inspections to A) be successful and B) last long. In 1995 when Saddam's son in laws defected, there was a resulting inspections bonanza and most of Iraq's hidden WMD programs were discovered. Between 95/96, Iraq made its first offer to UBL to move his HQ to Iraq. UBL had just gone back to Afghanistan and successfully backed the Taliban to be the political arm of AQ. He felt safer there, so he declined, but the offers of HQ in Iraq would continue every year from that point till UBL was driven from Afghanistan (even then, Iraqi agents were picked up in Pakistan trying to make the offer yet again). In 1996, Iraq further started to back other islamic extremist groups that it had once been wary of-before inspections and sanctions lasted longer than he had expected and before the son in law defections. At the same time as Iraq was changing its tune on extremists, and as soon as UBL took power in Afghanistan, as many as 250,000 people are reported to have gone through UBL's camps...trying to become terrorists.

11/2/92 President George Bush loses the Presidential election to Bill Clinton83 -The War Against America: A Study of Revenge by Laurie Mylroie

“Saddam has publicly crowed about the fact that Bush is now gone, Gorbachev is gone, and Thatcher is gone-while Saddam is still in his palace in Baghdad, having outlasted them all.” -The Greatest Threat, Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the Growing Crisis of Global Security, By Australian Ambassador Richard Butler, fmr head of UNSCOM

11/3/92 Saddam Hussein holds victory rally at Ramadi, fires his pistol in the air shouting, "The mother of all battles continues and will continue!" 83 -The War Against America: A Study of Revenge by Laurie Mylroie

Immediately after successfully surviving longer than his opponent-his nemesis, Saddam cried out that he was still around and still fighting the first Gulf War. Saddam still believed-accurately too-that the 1991 Gulf War was still under way. Air battles were fought almost every day, sanctions/blockade was still in place, the cease-fire was useless, and he was still fighting (as evidenced in his attack attempt on Pres Bush Sr.). Most importantly to Saddam, he was still alive, in power, and still fighting. He had deemed his survival as the determining factor in his war with the West, and he was clearly still in power. However, he had learned in the past two years that openly striking the United States was simply impossible to do without consequences. He had also learned that the Islamic Extremists who he had once warily watched, could be used to act as surrogates, mercenaries, contractors, or at the very least as a deniable means of attacking without fear of consequence or retribution.

11/18/92 The first phone call related to purchasing the 1993 World Trade Center bomb equipment appears on Ramsi Yousef's phone bill

11/30/92 [1993 World Trade Center bomber ] Salameh gets a storage locker to store the 1993 WTC bomb and bomb-making materials.

12/1/92 [1993 World Trade Center bomber ] Ramsi Yousef [aka “Rashid the Iraqi”] starts making phone calls to arrange his escape from the United States to Pakistan

"American intelligence believes that Al Qaeda and Saddam reached a non-aggression agreement in 1993, and that the relationship deepened further in the mid-nineteen-nineties, when an Al Qaeda operative - a native-born Iraqi who goes by the name Abu Abdullah al-Iraqi - was dispatched by bin Laden to ask the Iraqis for help in poison-gas training. Al-Iraqi's mission was successful, and an unknown number of trainers from an Iraqi secret-police organization called Unit 999 were dispatched to camps in Afghanistan to instruct Al Qaeda terrorists. (Training in hijacking techniques was also provided to foreign Islamist radicals inside Iraq, according to two Iraqi defectors quoted in a report in the Times in November of 2001.)" The parenthetic reference to a November 2001 NY Times article, which describes the Salman Pak terrorist training camp outside Baghdad, is notable. A ruling by a Federal Court against the Iraqi regime on behalf of two families of those who died on September 11, 2001 was based partially on that training. 82 -The New Yorker, February 10, 2003

In February 1993 Yazdi, Turabi, and Bashir present their plans to Iranian terror experts in a meeting in Khartoum, Sudan. The Iranians approve, and the attacks are ordered to proceed. -Bin Laden The Man Who Declared War On America by Yossef Bodansky (1999)

2/26/93 World Trade Center bombed by Al Queda 14 -Richard Miniter “The Iraq -- Al Qaeda Connections"

[b]"At 18 minutes after noon on February 26,1993,a huge bomb went off beneath the two towers of the World Trade Center.This was not a suicide attack.The terrorists parked a truck bomb with a timing device on Level B-2 of the underground garage, then departed.The ensuing explosion opened a hole seven stories up. Six people died. More than a thousand were injured. An FBI agent at the scene described the relatively low number of fatalities as a miracle." -911 Commission Final Report[/b]

2/26/93 [1993 World Trade Center bomber] Ramsi Yousef (aka "Rashid the Iraqi" to his co-conspiractors) flees the United States to Pakistan on a fake Pakistani passport with the name Abdul Basit (A Kuwaiti missing since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait) -The War Against America: A Study of Revenge by Laurie Mylroie

1/1/94 Abdul Rahman Yasin was the only member of the al Qaeda cell that detonated the 1993 World Trade Center bomb to remain at large in the Clinton years. He fled to Iraq. U.S. forces recently discovered a cache of documents in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, that show that Iraq gave Mr. Yasin both a house and monthly salary. 65 -Richard Miniter “The Iraq -- Al Qaeda Connections

Abdul Rahman Yasin, who badly burned his leg while mixing the chemicals for the World Trade Center bomb, was interviewed by the FBI and, in a costly mistake, released. After it realized its error, the FBI placed him on the list of "Most Wanted" terrorists. But they were too late. Abdul Rahman Yasin had fled the United States for Iraq, where U.S. intelligence officials believe he remains today. -The Al Qaeda Connection by Stephen F. Hayes

3/4/93 [1993 World Trade Center bomber ] Salameh is arrested for his part in the WTC bombing The War Against America: A Study of Revenge by Laurie Mylroie

3/5/93 [1993 World Trade Center bomber ] Abdul Rahman Yasin flees the United States for Iraq where he lives peacefully until his CBS interview years later. The War Against America: A Study of Revenge by Laurie Mylroie

Chronology of the Kuwait Crisis

July 31	Iraq and Kuwait begin talks in Saudi Arabia under mediation of King Fahd on oil pricing and production as well as Iraqi territorial claims.
August 1	Iraq walks out of talks with Kuwait. Press reports claim 120 Iraqi officers executed by firing squads for opposing aggression against Kuwait.
August 2	Iraqi forces invade Kuwait. The U.S. bans trade with Iraq and freezes Iraqi and Kuwaiti assets. The United Nations Security Council passes Resolution 660, which condemns the Iraqi invasion and calls for immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait.
August 3	Fighting continues in Kuwait City. Iraq masses troops along the Kuwaiti-Saudi Arabian border but announces that it will begin to withdraw its forces on 5 August. President Bush warns Iraq not to invade Saudi Arabia offering to defend it against Iraqi attack. Japan, West Germany, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg freeze Iraqi and Kuwaiti assets. The Arab League Council of Foreign Ministers votes to condemn the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
August 7	President Bush orders deployment of U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia after receiving approval from King Fahd.
August 8	Iraq announces that Kuwait has become its 19^th province. The U.K announces it will send forces to defend Saudi Arabia. Up to 50,000 multinational troops may be sent.
August 9	UNSC passes Resolution 662, which declares the Iraqi annexation of Kuwait “null and void”.
August 10	Iraq orders all embassies in Kuwait closed by 24 August 1990. Arab summit passes a majority vote to send a Pan-Arab force to Saudi Arabia alongside coalition forces. Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Morocco play an integral part in passing the initiative and commit to send troops to Saudi Arabia.
August 11	Arab world countries from Morocco to Jordan and Yemen demonstrated against what they saw as a double standard between Israel and Iraq.
August 12	The U.S. threatens to use force, if necessary, to intercept trade with Iraq. Saddam Hussein makes a peace offer tied to Israel leaving the occupied territories.
August 13	King Hussein of Jordan meets with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad.
August 14	King Hussein flies to Washington to meet President Bush.
August 15	Saddam Hussein offers to meet Iran’s conditions for ending their state of war.
August 16	Iraq has about 160,000 troops in Kuwait. The U.S. navy prepares for multinational maritime intercept operations. Bush announces Jordan will adhere to UN sponsored economic embargo of Iraq.
August 17	U.S. calls up military reserves.
August 18	U.S. warships fire warnings at Iraqi oil tankers. UNSC passes Resolution 664, which demands that Iraq free all hostages taken in Kuwait.
August 19	Iraq offers to release all foreigners if U.S. forces leave the region.
August 20	Iraq announces western hostages will be used as human shields to deter attack. Saudi Arabia will increase oil production to compensate for the loss of Kuwait oil.
August 22	Jordan closes its borders with Iraq and asks the UN for economic relief. U.S. announces it will not close its embassy in Kuwait.
August 24	Iraqi troops cut off electricity and water for Western embassies in Kuwait City.
August 25	UNSC passes Resolution 665, which authorizes the use of force to enforce its embargo.
August 28	Saddam Hussein allows all women and children held in Iraq to leave. U.S. troop deployment to the Persian Gulf reaches 50,000. U.S. expels some Iraqi embassy personnel.
September 4	Iraq has about 165,000 troops in Kuwait and 100,000 more in Iraq near the border.
September 5	Saddam Hussein calls for an Islamic holy war against U.S. forces in the region.
September 10	Iran and Iraq renew full diplomatic relations.
September 13	UNSC passes Resolution 666, which permits humanitarian food shipments to Iraq to be distributed by third parties such as the Red Cross.
September 14	Iraqi troops storm the French and Belgian Ambassadors’ quarters in Kuwait City. The UK will send 6,000 troops.
September 15	U.S. troop deployment to the Persian Gulf reaches 150,000.
September 16	UNSC passes Resolution 667, which condemns Iraq’s actions against Embassies in Kuwait.
September 19	Iraq impounds assets of countries supporting the embargo.
September 23	Saddam Hussein vows retaliation against Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Israel if attacked.
September 24	UNSC passes Resolution 669, which entrusts the Sanctions Committee to examine requests for economic assistance.
September 25	UNSC passes Resolution 670, which imposes an air embargo on Iraq. Iraq has about 3,500 tanks, 2,500 armored vehicles, and 1,700 artillery pieces in Kuwait.
September 27	The UK and Iran resume diplomatic relations.
September 28	The Amir of Kuwait reports Iraq is pillaging his country and repopulating it with outsiders.
October 1	U.S. passes a joint resolution to “deter Iraqi aggression.”
October 3	East and West Germany reunite. Amnesty International reports Iraqi atrocities in Kuwait.
October 20	Canada abandons its embassy in Kuwait; French, British, and U.S. Embassies remain open.
October 24	Released American hostages claim they were starved and denied medical attention.
October 29	UNSC passes Resolution 674, which demands release of hostages and holds Iraq liable for damages in Kuwait.
November 1	President Bush insists that he wants a peaceful solution to the crisis. Iraq will allow family members of hostages to visit during Christmas holidays.
November 5	U.S. and Saudi Arabia agree that both must concur on going to war.
November 8	President Bush announces the U.S. will double its troop strength for the coalition.
November 15	Saddam Hussein says he will release hostages if the U.S. promises not to attack.
November 19	Iraq announces it will send another 250,000 troops into Kuwait and calls up 60,000 reserves and 100,000 conscripts. President Gorbachev declines to back a UN resolution authorizing an attack to drive Iraq from Kuwait.
November 27	Testimony before the UNSC reports atrocities by the Iraqi military.
November 28	UNSC passes Resolution 677, which condemns Iraq’s attempts to alter Kuwaiti demographics.
November 29	UNSC passes Resolution 678, which gives Iraq until January 15^th to comply with all previous resolutions and authorizes the coalition forces to “use all necessary means” to force Iraq from Kuwait.
November 30	President Bush offers to send Baker to Baghdad and invites Aziz to Washington.
December 2	U.S. announces it will not attack if Iraq leaves Kuwait and releases all hostages. Iraq fires Scud missiles.
December 3	The U.S. has 240,000 troops in the region.
December 6	Saddam Hussein announces he will release all hostages, citing a change in the U.S. position.
December 8	Iraq says Aziz will travel to Washington on 17 December, but Saddam Hussein will not see Baker until 12 January.
December 11	France announces it will send 4,000 more troops to total 10,000 in the region.
December 15	Iraq cancels Aziz’s visit to Washington.
December 28	Iraqi ambassadors return to coalition capitals saying Iraq is ready for serious and constructive talks to end the crisis.
December 31	Japan offers to resume aid to Iraq if it withdraws from Kuwait.
January 2	NATO orders planes to Turkey to deter an Iraqi attack. Iraqi forces in Kuwait estimated at 325,000. U.S. forces number 325,000 plus 245,000 coalition forces.
January 4	Kuwait government in exile announces it will provide about 300 military volunteers.
January 9	Baker and Aziz meet in Geneva but fail to resolve the crisis.
January 14	Antiwar demonstrations held in many U.S. and European cities. Iraqi National Assembly votes to continue the policy of defending Kuwait.
January 15	UN deadline for Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait.
January 17	War begins at 0230 Baghdad time with massive air and missile attacks on targets in Kuwait and Iraq. Iraq launches Scud missiles into Israel and Saudi Arabia. Iran says it may join the war if provoked by Iraq.
January 18	The UK promises another army battalion and an air force squadron. U.S. forces attack an offshore oil platform; capture the first Iraqi prisoners of war. Scud missiles hit Tel Aviv.
January 21	Iraq says it will use coalition prisoners as shields against air attacks.
January 22	Iraqis set fire to oil storage tanks and facilities in Kuwait. Scud missiles continue to hit Tel Aviv.
January 23	Iraq suspends the sale of gasoline to its population. Iraq threatens Turkey for allowing coalition forces to use Turkish air bases. Saudi Arabia begins importing oil products.
January 24	Two oil slicks found moving south from Kuwait. Coalition claims Iraq dumped the oil; Iraq claims coalition bombing caused the spill.
January 26	Oil spill threatens Saudi Arabian water-purification plants on the Persian Gulf. Iraqi warplanes begin flying to Iran.
January 29	U.S. Marines fire artillery, mortars, and TOW missiles at Iraqi bunkers in Kuwait. U.S. and the USSR offer a cease-fire if Iraq makes an “unequivocal commitment” to withdraw from Kuwait.
February 1	Coalition air forces bomb a 10-mile long Iraqi armored column.
February 4	Iraq suspends all fuel sales to its civilian population.
February 6	Iraq severs diplomatic relations with the U.S. and five other coalition members. President Gorbachev says that coalition military operations threaten to exceed the UN mandate and sends an envoy to Baghdad for talks with Saddam Hussein. Emir of Kuwait wants Kuwaiti ground forces included in the liberation of Kuwait.
February 11	Iraq orders all 17-year-old males to sign up for military service.
February 12	Soviet envoy Yevgeny Primakov reports Iraq is ready to negotiate a settlement to the war.
February 13	Coalition air campaign passes 67,000 sorties and U.S. troop deployment reaches 514,000.
February 14	U.S. Department of Defense claims coalition planes have destroyed 1,300 tanks, 800 armored personnel carriers, and 1,100 field artillery pieces.
February 16	Iraq’s UN ambassador threatens to use weapons of mass destruction.
February 18	USS Tripoli and USS Princeton hit floating mines.
February 19	Coalition air forces conduct the first daylight bombing raids on Baghdad. Iranian newspaper cites an Iraqi official saying that Iraq has suffered 20,000 dead and 60,000 wounded. Baghdad radio reports Aziz has returned from Moscow with a peace proposal. President Bush says the Soviet proposal is insufficient to end the war.
February 20	Baghdad radio reports Aziz will return to Moscow with Saddam Hussein’s reply to the Soviet peace proposal. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of coalition military forces, says Iraqi military is on the “verge of collapse.” Coalition air campaign passes 86,000 sorties.
February 21	The USSR announces that Iraq has agreed to a plan that could lead to Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait. Saddam Hussein declares Iraq is prepared to fight the ground war.
February 22	Iraq dynamites 732 Kuwaiti oil wells; more than 650 catch fire. The Soviets announce an eight-point peace plan.
February 24	Ground campaign begins at 0400 Saudi Arabia time.
February 25	Scud missile hits U.S. military barracks in Al Khobar. The blast kills 28 soldiers and wounds 90 more, the largest coalition loss of life in the war.
February 26	U.S. rejects the new Soviet peace plan. Residents of Kuwait City celebrate the end of occupation. Kuwait’s emir declares three months of martial law. Saddam Hussein announces Iraqi occupation forces will withdraw completely. The U.S. regains control of its embassy in Kuwait City.
February 28	Coalition air campaign passes 110,000 sorties. Cease-fire begins at 0800 Saudi Arabia time.
April 3	UNSC adopts resolution 687 dictating final cease-fire terms to Iraq.

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