A Grim 10-Year Anniversary of the U.S. Embassy Bombings in Africa
With the attacks, al Qaeda emerged as the pre-eminent terrorist threat to the United States
Reader Comments
Kevin Whitelaw's Africa Bombing Article, 7 Aug 08
Mr. Whitelaw's article is a needed reminder that terrorists strikes against the US began years before 9/11/01 and can occur anywhere in the world. Associates of mine died in Nairobi as well as 20 and 25 years earlier in Pan AM 103 Beriut embassy bombings.
Actions by the CIA in the immediate afternath of the African bombings preempted other attacks that had been planned for that autumn. One of the preventive CIA operations is described for the first time in our recently released book, SPYCRAFT: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs from Communism to al-Qaeda by Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton (Dutton, 2008), pages 243-247. It is an excellent example of how the integration of technology and clandestine operations has become a critical and proven component of our national counterterrorism strategy.
