Osama bin Laden was a Saudi-born Islamic dissident and militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda from 1988 until his death in 2011. Ideologically a pan-Islamist,his organisation is designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council,the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO),the European Union,and various other countries. He is most widely known as the mind behind the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Salesian priest and politician who became Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology,Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies to become a priest. He became a focal point for the pro-democracy movement first under Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier and then under the military transition regime which followed. He won the 1990–91 Haitian general election,with 67% of the vote. As a priest,he taught liberation theology and,as a president,he attempted to normalize Afro-Creole culture,including Vodou religion,in Haiti.
The al-Shifapharmaceutical factory in Kafouri,Khartoum North,Sudan,was constructed between 1992 and 1996 with components imported from Germany,India,Italy,Sweden,Switzerland,Thailand and the United States. It was opened on 12 July 1997 and bombed by the United States on 20 August 1998. The industrial complex was composed of four buildings. It was the largest pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum and employed over 300 workers,producing medicine both for human and veterinary use.
Operation Infinite Reach was the codename for American cruise missile strikes on al-Qaeda bases that were launched concurrently across two continents on 20 August 1998. Launched by the U.S. Navy,the strikes hit the al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum,Sudan,and a camp in Khost Province,Afghanistan,in retaliation for al-Qaeda's August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania,which killed 224 people and injured over 4,000 others. Operation Infinite Reach was the first time the United States acknowledged a preemptive strike against a violent non-state actor.
Richard Alan Clarke is an American national security expert,novelist,and former government official. He served as the Counterterrorism Czar for the National Coordinator for Security,Infrastructure Protection,and Counter-Terrorism for the United States between 1998 and 2003.
Laurie Mylroie is an American author and analyst who has written extensively on Iraq and the War on Terror. The National Interest first published this work in an article entitled,"The World Trade Center Bombing:Who is Ramzi Yousef? And Why it Matters." In her book Study of Revenge (2000),Mylroie laid out her argument that the Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein had sponsored the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and subsequent terrorist attacks. She claimed those attacks were part of an ongoing war that Saddam waged against America following the cease-fire to the 1991 Gulf War. Less than a year after her book was published,the September 11 attacks occurred. Mylroie subsequently adopted the view that Saddam had been responsible for the attacks,defending it on many occasions,including before the 9/11 Commission.
Joseph Charles Wilson IV was an American diplomat who was best known for his 2002 trip to Niger to investigate allegations that Saddam Hussein was attempting to purchase yellowcake uranium;his New York Times op-ed piece,"What I Didn't Find in Africa";and the subsequent leaking by the Bush/Cheney administration of information pertaining to the identity of his wife Valerie Plame as a CIA officer. He also served as the CEO of a consulting firm he founded,JC Wilson International Ventures,and as the vice chairman of Jarch Capital,LLC.
The main event by far shaping the foreign policy of the United States during the presidency of George W. Bush (2001–2009) was the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11,2001,and the subsequent war on terror. There was massive domestic and international support for destroying the attackers. With UN approval,US and NATO forces quickly invaded the attackers' base in Afghanistan and drove them out and the Taliban government that harbored them. It was the start of a 20-year quagmire that finally ended in failure with the withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan.
The Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH) (French:Front pour l'Avancement et le Progrès Haitien) was a far-right paramilitary group organized in mid-1993. Its goal was to undermine support for the popular Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide,who served less than eight months as Haïti's president before being deposed,on 29 September 1991,by a coup. The group received covert support and funding from the United States government.
Patrick Francis Kennedy is a former career Foreign Service Officer who served as the U.S. State Department's Under Secretary of State for Management. He was Director of the Office of Management Policy,Rightsizing and Innovation. He has been Deputy Director for Management at the cabinet level Office of the Director of National Intelligence;he returned to the Department of State on May 7,2007. Kennedy was U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations for Management and Reform and previously served as Chief of Staff for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. He was the Assistant Secretary of State for Administration for the Clinton Administration from 1993 to 2001. In 2014,Kennedy was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.
Mansoor Ijaz is a Pakistani-American venture financier and hedge-fund manager. He is founder and chairman of Crescent Investment Management Ltd,a New York and London-based investment firm that operates CARAT,a proprietary trading system developed by Ijaz in the late 1980s. His venture investments included unsuccessful efforts in 2013 to acquire a stake in Lotus F1,a Formula One team. In the 1990s,Ijaz and his companies were contributors to Democratic Party institutions as well as the presidential candidacies of Bill Clinton.
Robert Bigger Oakley was an American diplomat whose 34-year career (1957–1991) as a Foreign Service Officer included appointments as United States Ambassador to Zaire,Somalia,and Pakistan and,in the early 1990s,as a special envoy during the American involvement in Somalia.
The foreign policy of the Bill Clinton administration was of secondary concern to a president fixed on domestic policy. He relied chiefly on his two experienced Secretaries of State Warren Christopher (1993–1997) and Madeleine Albright (1997–2001),as well as Vice President Al Gore. The Cold War had ended and the Dissolution of the Soviet Union had taken place under his predecessor President George H. W. Bush,whom Clinton criticized for being too preoccupied with foreign affairs. The United States was the only remaining superpower,with a military strength far overshadowing the rest of the world. There were tensions with countries such as Iran and North Korea,but no visible threats. Clinton's main priority was always domestic affairs,especially economics. Foreign-policy was chiefly of interest to him in terms of promoting American trade. His administration signed more than 300 bilateral trade agreements. His emergencies had to do with humanitarian crises which raised the issue of American or NATO or United Nations interventions to protect civilians,or armed humanitarian intervention,as the result of civil war,state collapse,or oppressive governments.
Jordan has been a very close major non-NATO ally of the United States in the Middle East since 1996.
Sudan–United States relations are the bilateral relations between Sudan and the United States. The United States government has been critical of Sudan's human rights record and has dispatched a strong UN Peacekeeping force to Darfur. Relations between both countries in recent years have greatly improved,with Sudan's post-revolutionary government compensating American victims of al-Qaeda terror attacks,the removal of Sudan from the State Department's blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism and the United States Congress having reinstated Sudan's sovereign immunity in December 2020.
Sudan has a conflict in the Darfur area of western Sudan. The Khartoum government had,in the past,given sanctuary to trans-national Islamic terrorists,but,according to the 9/11 Commission Report,ousted al-Qaeda and cooperated with the US against such groups while simultaneously involving itself in human rights abuses in Darfur. There are also transborder issues between Chad and Darfur,and,to a lesser extent,with the Central African Republic.
The 1991 Haitian coup d'état took place on 29 September 1991,when President Jean-Bertrand Aristide,elected eight months earlier in the 1990–91 Haitian general election,was deposed by the Armed Forces of Haiti. Haitian military officers,primarily Army General Raoul Cédras,Army Chief of Staff Philippe Biamby and Chief of the National Police,Michel François led the coup. Aristide was sent into exile,his life only saved by the intervention of US,French and Venezuelan diplomats. Aristide would later return to power in 1994.
Since the 19th century,the United States government has participated and interfered,both overtly and covertly,in the replacement of many foreign governments. In the latter half of the 19th century,the U.S. government initiated actions for regime change mainly in Latin America and the southwest Pacific,including the Spanish–American and Philippine–American wars. At the onset of the 20th century,the United States shaped or installed governments in many countries around the world,including neighbors Hawaii,Panama,Honduras,Nicaragua,Mexico,Haiti,and the Dominican Republic.
The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) dates from September 18,1947,when President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 into law. A major impetus that has been cited over the years for the creation of the CIA was the unforeseen attack on Pearl Harbor,but whatever Pearl Harbor's role,at the close of World War II government circles identified a need for a group to coordinate government intelligence efforts,and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),the State Department,the War Department,and even the Post Office were all jockeying for that new power.
Donald K. Petterson is an American diplomat,and a career United States Foreign Service officer.
