The countries which pushed this change in regs were mainly China, Russia and France.
The US and UK knew they were losing the PR war badly, and Iraq was smelling proverbial blood in the water, so when UNSCOM established that Iraq had indeed filled shells with VX nerve gas before the Gulf War for use against coaltiion troops, thus proving Iraq was still in denial, Iraq pushed its boundaries harder and blocked inspections inside Iraq, buckling down for a possible attack.
Some aggressive talk from the US congress on regime change, Ritter's testimony, increasing talk in Washington about preemption and US and UK threats to strike made Iraq back down temporarily.
At this time bin Laden was indicted for the Africa embassy bombings, and also, Atta and the Hamburg cell began plotting in Germany, and Iraq sent its agent Hijazi to Afghanistan to talk with bin Laden.
DECEMBER 1998 : (IRAQI HIJAZI TRAVELS TO AFGHANISTAN) Iraqi Farouk Hijazi to travel to bin Laden's Afghanistan hideouts in December 1998. - "The Clinton Intel Record Deeper failures revealed. ," by Mansoor Ijaz, National Review Online, 4-29-2003
And what was Hijazi allegedly doing?
DECEMBER 1998 : (IRAQI OFFICIALS MEET WITH BIN LADEN IN AFGHANISTAN) Vince Cannistraro, the CIA's former counter-terrorism chief, said Baghdad made an overture to Mr bin Laden in December 1998. Saddam was apparently so impressed by the bombings that year of the two US embassies in East Africa that he sent Iraq's ambassador to Turkey, Farouk Hijazi, to Afghanistan to meet Mr bin Laden. The CIA believed Mr Hijazi offered Mr bin Laden and al-Qa'ida, then being pursued by the Americans, a permanent refuge in Iraq but the offer was refused - "The suicide bomber and the Baghdad conspiracy," By Chris Blackhurst, Independent.co.uk , 14 October 2001
DECEMBER 1998 : (AFGHANISTAN : IRAQI INTELLIGENCE CHIEF FAROUK HIJAZI MEETS BIN LADEN) "The [March 1998 al Qaeda envoy & Iraqi intelligence] meetings [in Baghdad] also laid the groundwork for Iraq's former intelligence chief, Farouk Hijazi, arrested last Friday [just before 4-29-2003] in Iraq, to meet with bin Laden in December 1998 in Afghanistan. Press reports also chronicled an earlier meeting between Hijazi and bin Laden in Sudan in 1994. " "The Clinton Intel Record Deeper failures revealed. ," by Mansoor Ijaz, National Review Online, 4-29-2003
DECEMBER 1998 : (IRAQI OFFICIAL AL-HIJAZI MEETS WITH BIN LADEN IN AFGHANISTAN) Following the December 1998 air strikes on Iraq, Saddam Hussein dispatched Faruq al-Hijazi to Kandahar, Afghanistan in order to meet with bin Laden and plot their revenge. To demonstrate Iraq’s commitment to bin Laden and al Qaeda, Hijazi presented bin Laden with a pack of blank, official Yemeni passports, supplied to Iraqi Intelligence from their Yemeni contacts. Hijazi’s visit to Kandahar was followed by a contingent of Iraqi intelligence officials who provided additional training and instruction to bin Laden and al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan. These Iraqi officials included members of “Unit 999,” a group of elite Iraqi intelligence officials who provided advanced sabotage and infiltration training and instruction to al Qaeda operatives. At that meeting, upon information and belief, bin Laden, al Qaeda and Iraq agreed to join efforts in a detailed, coordinated plan for a protracted terrorist war against the United States. - Findlaw, Ashton, et al. v. al Qaeda
Did somebody say "Yemeni passports?" :
DECEMBER 10, 1998 : (MOHDAR MOHAMED ABDOULAH ENTERS THE US) Mohdar Mohamed Abdoulah, 24, a former San Diego State University student, also helped the men obtain California drivers' licenses and Social Security cards, federal prosecutors said. Prosecutors said Abdoulah assisted Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, who are suspected of hijacking American Airlines Flight 77 and crashing it into the Pentagon. The men lived in San Diego for several months in 2000. Prosecutors also describe a third Flight 77 hijacker, Hani Hanjour, as Abdoulah's friend. - "Feds: Hijackers' Helper Hated U.S.," By Seth Hettena, AP via CBS News, May 9, 2002 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/09/attack/main508438.shtml8
"Mohdar Mohamed Abdoulah " entered the United States from Canada on Dec. 10, 1998 with a Yemeni passport and a valid visitor's visa.
In spite of Iraq's efforts to block inspectors from reaching sites, the inspectors kept trying more agreesively to get in to them:
DECEMBER 10, 1998 : (UNSCOM) Inspectors vow to press on with surprise inspections despite a dispute with Baghdad over access. Inspectors in new row - TIMELINE OF THE IRAQI CRISIS 1997-1998
And Iraq was getting more desperate, because the inpectors were finding things which proved Iraq had not given up on its intention to develop nuclear weapons and had not destroyed its equipment even after years and years of inspections and sanctions :
DECEMBER 1998 : (IRAQ, UNSCOM DISMANTLES GERMAN CENTRIFUGE INSTALLATION) The Times of London interview with Hamza notes another possible clue tog the nature of Brazil-Iraq relations in the early 1980s. Before leaving Iraq in 1998 -- just days before U.S.-led air strikes -- U.N. weapons inspectors had dismantled an illegally imported German centrifuge installation that had been used to refine progressively natural or low-enriched uranium until it became suitable for weapons, the Times reported. - "Brazil uranium sales to Iraq stir debate ," by Carmen Gentile, United Press International 9/25/02
At this time there were warnings that al Qaeda was planning to strike Washington and NY :
DECEMBER 13, 1998 : (BIN LADEN MAY BE PLANNING STRIKES ON NY OR WASHINGTON) "Suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden may be planning strikes on Washington or New York to avenge a U.S. missile strike on his Afghan headquarters in August, Time magazine reported Sunday. "We've hit his headquarters, now he hits ours," the magazine quotes a State Department aide as saying. U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno organized an exercise at FBI headquarters in Washington on Oct. 14 to plan for a possible terror attack by bin Laden, the weekly said.." Nando Times 12/13/98, via Alamo-Girl *
And there were threats overseas too:
DECEMBER 13, 1998 : (TERROR ALERTS) ".U.S. embassies in four Gulf nations said Sunday they have information indicating the "strong possibility'' of a terrorist attack at one or more American targets in the region over the next 30 days. A statement distributed to American citizens in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain asked them to be on alert to "any suspicious activity and take precautionary steps to reduce the profile and vulnerability of any U.S. facilities.'' The statement did not give details beyond saying there is "a strong possibility that terrorist elements are planning an attack against U.S. targets in the Gulf, possibly in the next 30 days.''." FOX; AP 12/13/98 via Alamo-Girl
DECEMBER 15, 1998 : (UNSCOM WITHDRAWS DUE TO IRAQI NONCOMPLIANCE) UNSCOM weapons inspectors withdraw from Iraq, saying Saddam has not delivered the unfettered access he promised, rendering the team unable to perform their mission.- Iraq - Scotsman says Saddam has weapons to wipe out world's population, nuclear bomb within 3 years "The Scotsman dossier - SPECIAL REPORT ON IRAQ" by Fraser Nelson, Westminster Editor
DECEMBER 16, 1998 : (IRAQ : UNSCOM : RITTER CRITICIZES OPERATION DESERT FOX) Former UNSCOM inspector Ritter's public turnabout came just a few months after his Senate testimony, when on Dec. 16, 1998, he unexpectedly criticized Operation Desert Fox, a four-day U.S.-British bombing operation, for not having the approval of the U.N. Security Council. - "Baghdad pressuring Ritter? Wolfowitz says Baghdad has history of blackmailing weapons inspectors ," By Art Moore, WorldNetDaily.com, Friday, January 24, 2003
DECEMBER 16, 1998 : (IRAQ : UN INSPECTORS WITHDRAWN) UN inspection team is withdrawn, after concluding that Iraq is not cooperating fully. - http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/page/0,12438,793802,00.html
DECEMBER 16 - 20, 1998 : (IRAQ : OPERATION DESERT FOX) Operation 'Desert Fox' begins: four days of US-British air strikes against Iraqi weapons programmes. - "Missile blitz on Iraq," http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/page/0,12438,793802,00.html
And, while Clinton and McAuliffe and Torricelli were hobnobbing with the mysterious Korean businessman Chang, who they even took advice from on Iraq:
DECEMBER 18, 1998 : (NORTH KOREAN SPY SUB IS SUNK BY SOUTH KOREAN NAVY) The South Korean navy sinks submersible North Korean spy vessel, with one frogman found dead in the Sea of Japan east of the Korean peninsula. http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/06/29/korea.navy.timeline.reut/
DECEMBER 20, 1998 : (OPERATION DESERT FOX ENDS; IT REVEALED THAT IRAQ HAD FITTED AIRCRAFT WITH CROP-DUSTING EQUIPMENT) End of Desert Fox, a 72-hour operation. Clinton says more may follow.- Iraq - Scotsman says Saddam has weapons to wipe out world's population, nuclear bomb within 3 years "The Scotsman dossier - SPECIAL REPORT ON IRAQ" by Fraser Nelson, Westminster Editor It was during Desert Fox, when a corner of a building's roof was blown off, that the CIA discovered Iraq had fitted aircraft with crop-dusting equipment.
DECEMBER 20, 1998 : (BIN LADEN HAS REBILT TRAINING CAMPS) ".THE world's most wanted terrorist, Osama Bin Laden, is preparing for war. Four months after the United States launched cruise missile attacks on his camps in Afghanistan, Bin Laden has rebuilt his "terrorist universities" and is constructing bomb-proof headquarters in a cave beyond the reach of spy satellites in the Pamir mountains in the north of the country.." - by Adrian Levy, Cathy Scott-Clark , Peshawar, The Sunday Times - London 12/20/98 via Alamo-Girl
This one's from an Italian paper and has a date :
DECEMBER 21, 1998 : (HIJAZI & BIN LADEN AGREE ON TARGET LIST) "Terrorist cells belonging to the network organized by Osama bin Laden...are ready go into action in the countries of the Persian Gulf and Europe...The list of targets is ready. It was agreed in Kandahar 21 December by Osama himself and Farouk Hijazi... The new recruits, together with the veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Bosnia, form the secret army that is expected to use its weapons against all those who oppose the rais of Baghdad. In order to make them even more dangerous, traditional training has been supplemented with training in the use of chemical weapons, toxins and viruses." [Corriere della Sera, February 1, 1999 (Italia)] see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/743697/posts?page=51#51
And I'll add some other details to give it color.
DECEMBER 23, 1998 : (CUBAN SPIES AT UN SHOWN THE DOOR) Three Cuban diplomats at the UN were ordered to leave the US. "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 (the WASP network) three months ago. The three men in NY have diplomatic passports, which give them immunity from prosecution as spies."
(Note that the Cuban Spy Elena Belen Montes, the Defense Intelligence Agency's senior Cuba analyst, who had written a much touted report downplaying the threat from Cuba which were used to justify dropping sanctions there, was apparently revealed by info from the WASP case. She was arrested a few days after 911 while calling her Cuban handlers.)
DECEMBER 23?, 1998 : (BIN LADEN TIME INTERVIEW, FATWA, SOMALIA) Usama Bin Laden was asked by Time magazine whether he was responsible fo rthe August 1998 attacks. He replied:
"...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 25, 1998 : (BIN LADEN COMMENTS ON AMERICAN PEOPLE SUPPORTING IRAQ, SAYING IT JUSTIFIES MUSLIMS KILLING AMERICANS AND BRITS) ". Osama Bin Laden, the Saudi exile accused of masterminding the U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa, is calling on Muslims to kill Americans and Britons for the airstrikes their countries carried out against Iraq. ``The British and the American people loudly declared their support for their leaders' decision to attack Iraq,'' Bin Laden said in Friday's edition of the Arabic newspaper Asharq Al- Awsat. This made it ``the duty of Muslims to confront, fight and kill'' Britons and Americans, he said. ``And anything that can be taken from them by force is the rightful prize of Muslims,'' Bin Laden said..." - AP, 12/25/98
JANUARY 1999 : (COX REPORT RELEASED) The Hazel O'Leary "willing to share" national security policy ended in January 1999, with the release of the Cox Report, asserting: "The PRC thefts from our National Laboratories began at least as early as the late 1970s. Significant secrets are known to have been stolen, from the laboratories or elsewhere, as recently as the mid-1990s. Such thefts almost certainly continue to the present."
JANUARY 1999 : (IRAQI AGENT ISMAIL BECOMES LIASON BETWEEN AL QAEDA, TALIBAN & IRAQ) In January 1999, Iraq began reorganizing and mobilizing Iraqi intelligence front operations throughout Europe in support of bin Laden and al Qaeda. Haqi Ismail, believed to be a member of the Iraq's Mukhabarat Secret Service, left Iraq to train in an Afghanistan al Qaeda camp. Ismail was believed to be a liason between Iraq, the Taliban and al Qaeda and was rewarded with a position in the Taliban Foreign Ministry. - Findlaw, Ashton, et al. v. al Qaeda
JANUARY 3, 1999 : (SADDAM OFFERS BOUNTY FOR DOWNING AN ALLIED JET) Saddam declares no-fly zones as “illegal” and says his people will resist them with “bravery and courage”. Offers $15,000 bounty to any unit that succeeds in downing an Allied jet.- Iraq - Scotsman says Saddam has weapons to wipe out world's population, nuclear bomb within 3 years "The Scotsman dossier - SPECIAL REPORT ON IRAQ" by Fraser Nelson, Westminster Editor
JANUARY 12, 1999 : (PAKISTAN, ABDUL HAQ) In Peshawar, Pakistan, intruders entered the house of Afghan political moderate Abdul Haq, who was not at home, and killed his wife and 11-year-old son
Abdul Haq would himself be captured by the Taliban or al Qaeda and hung just before US strikes on Afghanistan in late 2001. Just prior to 9/11/01's al Qaeda attacks on the US, the Northern Alliance leader Masood would also be assassinated by al Qaeda terrorists posing as reporters and cameramen.
JANUARY 16, 1999 : (US, BIN LADEN INDICTMENT) US DOJ indicted bin Laden and 11 other members of al Qaeda for killing and conspiring to kill US citizens internatiionally. FBI placed bin Laden in its Most Wanted list, with a reward of $5 million for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
FEBRUARY 22, 1999 : (RATS, BONIOR, AL NAJJAR, PALESTINIAN ISLAMIC JIHAD) Democratic House Whip Rep. David Bonior (D-MI) visited Mazen Al-Najjar in jail, Rep. Bonior is the first Congressman to visit Mazen. Rep. Bonior said he will ask Janet Reno to do away with the use of "Secret Evidence", he also promised to hand deliver a letter to President Clinton from Yara, Mazen Al-Najjar's ten year old daughter, calling for the release of her father.(This update from Mazen's Family & the AMC (American Muslim Council)
And a little insight into Liberia's importance today :
MARCH 1999 : (AL QAEDA IN AFRICA : LIBERIA & SIERRA LEONE : MOHAMMED TOURS DIAMOND FIELDS) Fazul Abdullah Mohammed went on to Liberia and Sierra Leone, touring the Sierra Leone diamond fields in March 1999 as part of a plan to funnel diamonds through West Africa, according to a European investigation into al-Qaida financing. - "U.S. and British troops comb borders in nervous Kenya : Fears of terror attacks heightened ," By EMILY WAX, Washington Post via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 5/16/03
And what was that about 16 words?
MARCH 19, 1999 : (CLINTON LIES ABOUT SECURITY BREACHES DURING HIS ADMINISTRATION; WHITE HOUSE AIDS OFFER CONFLICTING INFORMATION ABOUT CLINTON BRIEFINGS) On March 19, 10 days after the Wen Ho Lee firing and two months after the Cox Report, President Clinton was asked at a news conference whether any of these Los Alamos security breaches took place on his watch. The President replied: "To the best of my knowledge, no one has said anything to me about any espionage which occurred by the Chinese against the labs during my presidency." This is almost certainly a false statement. A New York Times story the next day notes "different accounts" of when Mr. Clinton was informed of China's espionage. A House committee was told Mr. Clinton was briefed in 1998. But in the weeks prior to the March 19 news conference, White House aides said National Security Adviser Sandy Berger had briefed the President in July 1997. According to the Times, NSC spokesman David Leavy "said that since the completion of [the Cox] report, Berger and other aides had refreshed their recollections. 'After the Cox committee process, we've remembered more,' Leavy said." Also at his March 19 news conference, Mr. Clinton hotly denied that his administration suppressed reports of Chinese spying to avoid association with reports of laundered Chinese contributions to the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign. "That is not true," the President asserted. - "The Wen Ho Lee Diversion," OpinionJournal - September 19, 2000
So, did the administration clean up its act?
2001 - 2002 early : (LAWRENCE LIVERMORE LABORATORY, US) Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham is said to be stunned by the possibilities raised by the allegations (that the Nuclear Weapons Information Program (NWIP)) was compromised) and furious that sloppy security may have compromised the nation's most sensitive project. That is, the assembly of virtually every single U.S. nuclear secret into one computer system. The suspect, who may even have become a U.S. citizen, only recently popped up as a security threat following discovery of potentially compromising family ties. "The Paki had been under surveillance for an unspecified period of time," a source tells Insight. "The FBI counterintelligence didn't want to make the same kind of mistake it had made with [Felix Bloch] who was caught in the mid-1990s spying at the State Department." Bloch was nabbed before the FBI could confirm the identity of his suspected handlers and contacts. Nor did it want to risk the sort of investigative gaffes committed at the Los Alamos nuclear facility when it targeted Chinese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee.
Investigators in the Livermore case conducting routine security sweeps are said to have discovered that their Pakistani suspect had engaged in suspicious activities that were registered by classified computer logs. This portion of the investigation was confirmed by a civilian source familiar both with the U.S. nuclear-weapons program and the incident.
"It is being treated as a high-level security investigation," one of the sources says, asking like some others not to be publicly named. Of apparent concern is that the Pakistani scientist had not revealed - or not revealed sufficiently - family ties in Pakistan, where some family members allegedly work for that country's intelligence agency, the ISI. "When we found out about this it set off alarm bells everywhere" because of U.S. intelligence suspicions that elements within the ISI actively supported and protected the Taliban in Afghanistan and helped to train al-Qaeda terrorists and other supporters of Osama bin Laden. Indeed, rogue ISI factions are suspected of helping terrorist groups after the Sept. 11 carnage. The ISI also is reported to be in close communications with Chinese counterparts. In recent years Pakistan has been a major ally of the People's Republic of China which, according to U.S. intelligence and security chieftains, has helped Pakistan develop modern nuclear weapons. Hence the alarm about alleged linkage between the Livermore scientist and family ties to ISI. ....Word about the arrest is being closely guarded both in Washington and California.- "U.S. Nuclear Security May Be Compromised," by Martin Edwin Andersen and Paul M. Rodriguez, Insight Magazine, March 11, 2002
What an interesting time period...
Oh well, I've wandered far enough from the topic now and need a compass to get back.