During his tenure the former U.S. President controversially used cruise missiles against Iraq and Sudan under questionable motives.
A brief look at two incidents in his presidency that the former U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton undertook under the pretext of combating terrorism.
The June '93 Cruise Missile Attack on Baghdad
A day before former President George H.W. Bush was scheduled to visit Kuwait to commemorate its liberation in the Persian Gulf War in 1991 by a U.S. led coalition, a suspected plot to assassinate him was uncovered by the Kuwaiti authorities. The 17 plotters appeared to have been planning to blow up the president using explosives which were recovered in their Toyota Lancruiser.
After two months investigation into the seemingly foiled assassination attempt Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on the Iraqi Intelligence Service building in downtown Baghdad. Carried out in midnight the attack killed some eight Iraqis, including a famous Iraqi artist named Layla Al-Attar.
Clinton and Iraqi President Saddam Hussain traded accusations, Clinton asserting that Hussein's attempt of revenge "against the leader of the world coalition that defeated him in war is particularly loathsome and cowardly," whilst Hussein called the strike "cowardly aggression" and called the assassination attempt a fabrication made up by the Kuwaiti authorities.
Clinton tried to illustrate the attack as one made in self defence, dubbing the conspiracy to assassinate the former president as an "attack against our country and against all Americans."
The Destruction of Sudan's only Pharmaceutical Plant
On August 20th 1998, claiming that the Al-Shifa plant in Khartoum, Sudan was developing chemical weapons, Clinton had the facility destroyed by cruise missiles.
This strike was also launched under a second pretext of retaliation for a truck bomb 13 days earlier on embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi. The Clinton administration claimed that the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory, the only such factory in all of Sudan, was engaged in the clandestine manufacture of chemical weapons.
The raid, which involved cruise missiles launched from U.S. navy vessels, killed one and injured 10. However claims that the plant was engaged in the construction of chemical weaponry later proved to be very hollow.
What Clinton did do by taking this action was destroy Sudan's only source of medicine. In the long term this resulted indirectly in the deaths of tens of thousands in rural Sudan who relied on the factory as a source of production for the medical necessities. Their deaths were caused by very treatable diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.
The bombing also resulted in Americans present in Sudan supplying food to the impoverished who were suffering from famine as a result of the war having to leave as they feared retaliation as a result of their governments unilateral action against Sudan.
August 20 1998 was also the same day the U.S. military simultaneously launched 75 cruise missiles at four training camps in Afghanistan in an attempt to kill Osama Bin Laden and other high ranking al-Qaeda leaders. It also happened to be the same day Monica Lewinsky testified before the grand jury for a second time against the President. The minister of information of Sudan fittingly condemned Clinton by calling him a "proven liar" with "100 girlfriends."
The owner of the plant, a wealthy businessman named Saleh Adris, sued the U.S. for this attack and for claiming he had ties to Osama Bin Laden.
Since the attack the Sudanese have invited the U.S. to come to the ruins of the factory to test it for any traces of chemicals that they claimed the factory was producing. The U.S. has refused to do so and has also refused to apologize for this attack.
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