Anti-American Terrorism

A major international security concern that surfaced in the post-World War II period was the emergence and evolution of international terrorism. The dominant theme in the evolution of this threat has been anti-American terrorism. No other country has had its overseas interests subjected to the same level, lethality, diversity, and geographic scope of international terrorist activity as the United States. This five-volume work chronicles the development of this threat through 12 U.S. presidential administrations over a 70-year period. It assesses the terrorist threat in the U.S. and overseas and how the government responded. The expansion of the field of terrorism in academia, think tanks, institutes, and the private sector over this period is also addressed.Volumes I and II covered the Eisenhower through to the George H.W. Bush administrations. This volume documents the terrorist threat faced by the Clinton administration (1993-2000) and how it responded. It was during this administration that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda emerged as major terrorism actors and the planning and preparation for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks took place. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing, 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and 2000 bombing of the USS Cole missile destroyer also occurred during this period. Importantly, this book is the first to address in detail a plan — neglected by the media and suppressed by the U.S. government — to kill President Clinton during a visit to Manila in November 1996, in which al Qaeda was suspected. Executive orders, presidential decision directives, domestic legislation, international treaties, special counterterrorism units, terrorist renditions, presidential findings, public diplomacy, and counterterrorism actions are also examined.