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Read other letters about this article
Groenhagen: "Bin Laden in 1997 said he would send Clinton "messages with no words" in response to Clinton's policies vis-a-vis Iraq."
Xrandadu Hutman: "Way to cherry-pick, there. Bin Laden had a laundry list of reasons, with that being just one small aspect. Bin Laden's justifcation involved the U.S.'s entire history of meddling in the Middle East and other Islamic regions."
Xrandadu Hutman: "Thanks for the history lesson, professor. You forgot to mention the bombing in Saudi Arabia, though. You're a little off your game here."
First, if you're referring to the Khobar Towers bombing, that occurred in 1996, which, obviously was before bin Laden's 1997 declaration. You see, our number system goes 1,2,3,4,5,6,7, and so on.
I guess I can forgive you for being ignorant concerning bin Laden's 1997 interview with CNN. That was perhaps his most important interview with Western media and, surprisingly, CNN removed it from its web site. The original URL for the CNN interview is www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/impact/9705/09/feature/transcript.ladin.html.
Fortunately, that URL can be retrieved using the Wayback Machine at www.archive.org. It's also available at http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/binladen/binladenintvw-cnn.pdf
See the last page of the PDF. Bin Laden's "laundry list" had essentially three items:
1. Sanctions against Iraq, which he the UN FAO said contributed to the deaths of 567,000 Iraqi children under five.
2. U.S. troops on Saudi soil. Those troops were there to enforce sanctions on and the containment of Iraq. Note that there were just 950 U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia in 1993. By 2000, there were 7,053 (see chart at www.sinsofthehusband.com).
3. Israel.
Contrary to your claim that Iraq was just one small aspect that motivate bin Laden to send Clinton "messages with no words," it made up two-thirds of his case.
