MARCH 1998 : (RUSSIAN COMPANY SIGNS CONTRACT WITH LIBYA FOR PARTIAL OVERHAUL OF TAJURA NUCLEAR RESEARCH CENTER)The Russian Atomenergoeksport company signs an $8 million contract with Libya for the partial overhaul of the Tajura nuclear research center. —Joseph Cirincione with Jon B. Wolfsthal and Miriam Rajkumar, Deadly Arsenals, Tracking Weapons of Mass Destruction (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2002), p. 307. via "LIBYA TIMELINE: Key events in the lead up to and the aftermath of the Iraq war," http://www.iraqwatch.org/roundtables/RT4/Libya-Timeline.htm as retrieved on Jun 30, 2004 22:01:38 GMT.
APRIL 1998 : (RUSSIA : N KOREAN CAUGHT PASSING COUNTERFEIT MONEY) - April 1998, Vladivostok, Kil Chae-Gong the Deputy Director for International Affairs of the Workers Party and the secretary managing secret funds for Kim Jong Il, was caught exchanging $30,000 of counterfeit money.- " North Korea: A Continuing Threat," Testimony before The House Committee on International Relations " by James R. Lilley, Resident Fellow, the American Enterprise Institute, Wednesday, March 24, 1999 see : http://www.aei.org/ct/ctlilley2.htm. Click here for an index of Testimony. APRIL 1998 : (IRAN AGREES TO RELEASE PRISONERS FROM IRAN IRAQ WAR) Iran agrees to the release of 5,584 Iraqi POW's in April 1998, and news organizations reported intermittent meetings throughout the remainder of the year between Iranian and Iraqi government officials toward reaching a final agreement on the remaining POW's held by each side.The Iranian government pledged to settle the remaining POW issues with Iraq in 1999. And joint Iran-Iraq search operations were initiated to identify remains of those missing in action.
APRIL 1998 : (IRAN-IRAQ WAR : POW ISSUE : IRAQ BELATEDLY RELEASES SOME IRANIAN POWS) The Iraqi regime has proven that, while it has no respect for human life, it values hostages that can be used as bargaining chips. There is already a well-established pattern of holding prisoners yet denying their existence, only to produce them when it benefits the regime. This was demonstrated in April 1998, when Iraq freed 319 soldiers who had been captured in fighting in March 1991, as well as 3 Iranians who had been imprisoned since the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) and were believed to be dead. - "The Plight of Kuwait's POWs", www.kuwait-info.org/pows.html
APRIL 3, 1998 : (UN INSPECTORS COMPLETE INITIAL SEARCH OF PRESIDENTIAL PALACE SITES IN IRAQ) Inspectors complete their initial search of the eight presidential sites with a visit to President Saddam Hussein's main palace in Baghdad. Initial searches end - TIMELINE OF THE IRAQI CRISIS 1997-1998
APRIL 6, 1998 : (USF, PROFESSOR SAMI AL-ARIAN) USF Engineering Dean Michael Kovac notifies Computer Science and Engineering Chairman Abraham Kandel that Professor Sami Al-Arian can resume his regular faculty duties in fall 1998.
APRIL 6, 1998 : (PAKISTAN'S KRL FACILITY TESTS MISSILE) Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) in Kahuta is in charge of the Ghauri missile program, which conducted the first flight test of the 900-mile-range Ghauri missile April 6
APRIL 9, 1998 : (UN REPORT SAYS IRAQ STILL HOLDING BACK INFO ON BIOWARFARE PROGRAM) A UN report claims Iraq is continuing to hold back information about its germ warfare programme. Iraq still holding back on weapons- TIMELINE OF THE IRAQI CRISIS 1997-1998
APRIL 13, 1998 : (IRAQI MUKHABARAT NOTE IS MADE ON THIS DATE SAYS IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS HAD BEEN GiVEN PERMISSION TO PAY BILL FOR AL QAEDA REPRESENTATIVE'S HOTEL STAY IN BAGHDAD)
"We have been informed by Saudi section chief [of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, the Mukhabarat] that we get permission to send the amount and the permission is sent to directorate accountant."
- 'We'll pay all expenses to gain the knowledge from bin Laden and convey a message back,' (Transcipts of documents linking Iraq to Bin Laden ) The Sunday Telegraph, April 27, 2003
APRIL 17, 1998 : (UN INSPECTORS REPORT NO PROGRESS) UN inspectors say they have made no progress in verifying whether Iraq has destroyed its weapons of mass destruction. - TIMELINE OF THE IRAQI CRISIS 1997-1998
APRIL 18, 1998 : (IRAQ DISMISSES UN REPORT) The Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf describes UN inspectors report as "baseless and boring" and calls for a time limit to be set on inspections. Iraq calls for time limit- TIMELINE OF THE IRAQI CRISIS 1997-1998
APRIL 1998 : (AL QAEDA DELEGATION ATTENDS HUSSEIN'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS, WHERE ARRANGEMENTS WERE MADE TO HAVE IRAQ TRAIN BIN LADEN RECRUITS; THESE RECRUITS FOUND THEMSELVES UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF UDAY; BIN LADEN WOULD REPAY THE REGIME BY DISPATCHING 400 'AFGHAN ARABS' aka MUJAHADEEN, TO FIGHT ANTI-REGIME KURDS IN IRAQ) That [Ayman Zawahiri's dinner with Iraqi VP Taha Yasin Ramadan in early 1998] was such a success that a delegation from al-Qaeda attended Saddam’s birthday celebrations that April, and it was during this trip that arrangements were made for bin Laden recruits to receive the sort of advanced weapons training they could not get in their camps in Afghanistan. The hand-picked bin Laden agents found themselves under the supervision of Saddam’s violent son, Uday, who wanted to conscript some of bin Laden’s skilled fighters into his own militia. Bin Laden reciprocated by dispatching “400 Afghan Arabs” to Iraq to fight Kurds. - "Hijacker 'given anthrax flask by Iraqi agent'," by DANIEL MCGRORY, The London Times, SATURDAY OCTOBER 27 2001, Additional reporting by Roger Boyes in Berlin; Richard Owen in Rome and Andrew Finkel in Istanbul
APRIL 1998 : (US PLACES SANCTIONS ON PAKISTAN) Two weeks after Pakistan tested its Ghauri missile, the State Department quietly announced it was imposing sanctions on KRL and a North Korean missile manufacturer for violating U.S. export laws related to the Missile Technology Control Regime, an international export control accord.
APRIL 21 - MAY 1, 1998 : (IRAQ : AL QAEDA COMMANDERS ABU-ISLAM & QASSIM VISIT SADDAM HUSSEIN'S SON QUSAY IN BAGHDAD) Two of bin-Laden’s senior military commanders, Muhammad Abu-Islam and Abdallah Qassim visited Baghdad for discussions with Saddam Hussein’s son – Qusay Hussein – the “czar” of all Iraqi intelligence matters in this period. -Youssef Bodansky, “Bin Laden; The Man Who Declared War on America,” Prima Publishing, Roseville, CA, 2001, page 324
APRIL 25, 1998 : (SUDANESE LEADER AL-TURABI ACTS AS MEDIATOR BETWEEN IRAQ & AL QAEDA) Spring 1998, Sudanese leader Hassan Al-Turabi again acts as mediator between Baghdad and Al Queda. Iraqi Intelligence leaders meet with Al Queda's Mohammed Abu-Islam and Abdullah Qassim (sometime between April 25, 1998 and Mmay 1, 1998). --- "PRE-BUSH timeline/list of Iraq's Ties To Al Queda," by Sam Pender-author of Iraq's Smoking Gun and other books on the matter , 6/12/04
APRIL 25 - MAY 1, 1998 : (AL QAEDA'S ABU-ISLAM & QASSIM MEET WITH QUSAY HUSSEIN IN IRAQ; ALSO IRAQI AGENTS MET WITH AL QAEDA IN AFGHANISTAN) Between April 25 and May 1, 1998, two of bin Laden’s senior military commanders, Muhammad Abu-Islam and Abdullah Qassim, visited Baghdad for discussions with Saddam Hussein’s son -- Qusay Hussein -- the “czar” of Iraqi intelligence. Qusay Hussein’s participation in those meetings highlights the importance of the talks in both symbolic and practical terms. Upon information and belief, as a direct result of these meetings, Iraq again made commitments to provide training, intelligence, clandestine Saudi border crossings, financial support and weapons and explosives to al Qaeda. Iraqi intelligence officials met with bin Laden in Afghanistan several more times. A second group of bin Laden and al Qaeda operatives from Saudi Arabia were then trained by Iraqi intelligence in Iraq to smuggle weapons and explosives into Saudi Arabia and other countries, which they later accomplished in an effort to carry out future terrorist acts of violence. - Findlaw, Ashton, et al. v. al Qaeda
APRIL 25, 1998 : (AL QAEDA'S ABU-ISLAM & QASSIM MEET WITH QUSAY HUSSEIN) Al Queda's Mohammed Abu-Islam and Abdullah Qassim meet with Qusay Hussein-then responsible for all Iraqi Intelligence matters. Both sides are satisified with negotiations regarding cooperation and a possible shift of Al Queda operations from Afghanistan to Iraq. --- "PRE-BUSH timeline/list of Iraq's Ties To Al Queda," by Sam Pender-author of Iraq's Smoking Gun and other books on the matter , 6/12/04
APRIL 28, 1998 : (UN DECIDES IT IS TOO SOON TO LIFT SANCTIONS ON IRAQ & RENEWS EMBARGO FOR ANOTHER 6 MONTHS) UN decides that it is too early to lift sanctions against Iraq, renewing the embargo for another six months. But the US acknowledges progress in the access to presidential and sensitive sites. Iraq sanctions stay - TIMELINE OF THE IRAQI CRISIS 1997-1998
APRIL 1998 : (FATHER JEAN-MARIE BENJAMIN CROSSES IRAQ, MAKING A "DOCUMENTARY" CALLED "IRAQ : THE BIRTH OF TIME") crossing Iraq with a camera crew (covering over 3000 kilometres), he [Father Jean-Marie Benjamin] produced a documentary entitled "Iraq: the birth of time" (RAI UNO).---- Source : http://www.benjaminforiraq.org/homeGB.htm
(* My note: I wonder who paid his expenses- more oil vouchers from Hussein?)
1998 summer : (UNSCOM, IRAQ) Effective inspections were essentially over, and the talents of a first-rate team of international arms experts put on hold. - "Years have been lost, and it isn't all Saddam's fault - The undoing of arms inspections in Iraq," by Barbara Crossette, International Herald Tribune , October 1, 2002
1998 : (AMR ELGINDY'S FATHER, IBRAHIM ELGINDY, LEADS A PROTEST ON BEHALF OF MUHAMMAD A SALAH- WHO IS LINKED TO HAMAS) Mr. [Anthony] Elgindy's father and brother are also active in Arab and Muslim causes. His father, Ibrahim Elgindy, founded an umbrella group of Muslim organizations in Chicago and led a 1998 protest on behalf of Muhammad A. Salah, whose assets were seized that year after the United States government linked Mr. Salah to Hamas, the radical Palestinian group. -- "Stock Adviser Knew About 9/11 Attacks, U.S. Suggests," by ALEX BERENSON, The New York Times, 05/25/2002