Al-Qaida

a Timeline

Last Updated: 6-27-2005

• 1990 Late - al Qaeda organization moves headquarters from Afghanistan to Khartoum Sudan where an Islamist government is in power. Bin Laden is in Saudi arabia under house surveillance unable to join his organization. (Sageman, p.39)

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• 1992 March - Bin Laden is sent to Kabul to help stop the internecine fighting among Afghan resistance factions. Instead of retuning to Jeddah, he flies to Khartoum. (Up to this point there has been no targeting of the `far enemy` by bin Laden's al Qaeda network.) (Sageman, p.39)

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• 1993 February 26 - First World Trade Center bombing. Huge bomb explodes in Level B-2 of the underground garage of WTC. Six are killed and nearly 1000 injured. The bomb's architect, Ramzi Yousef, later tells an investigator he hoped to knock over one tower into the other and kill 250,000 people, but lacked enough explosives. (9/11 Commission Report p.72) Yousef's uncle Khalid Shiekh Mohammed organized the financing of attack. "The extent of al Qaeda's involvement in this plot is unclear." (Sageman, p.44)

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• 1993 October - U.S. helicopter in Mogadishu Somalia shot down using techniques learned in Afghan war shown by al Qaeda to Somali clan fighters. 18 American Rangers are killed in the crash and ensuing rescue attempt. U.S. responds by withdrawing from Somalia. (Sageman, p.40) (Bowden, p.110)

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• 1995 January 6 - `Bojinka` Plot to kill 4000 airline passengers foiled. Fire in Ramzi Yousef apartment/labratory in the Philipines ruins his plans to blow up on 11 US airline planes as they flew from points in Asia (Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok) to cities in the U.S. on January 21. His use of tiny nitro-glycerine bombs undetectable by airport security would have led to the shutting down the airline industry as well the death of thousands. (Reeve, p.79-91)
  Yousef was famous as a lady's man who didn't fast during Ramadan and was not a member of al Qaeda, but he did recieve support from jihadis and visited jihadi camps in Afghanistan. (Reeve, p.125-7)

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• 1995 August - Osama bin Laden writes an open letter to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia calling for a campaign of guerrilla attacks to drive U.S forces out of the kingdom. The letter is widely circulated in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 1995 November 13 - National Guard training center in Riyadh is bombed. "Four suspects confess to having been inspired by Osama bin Laden and receiving training in Afghanistan or Bosnia." Saudi authorities execute the four before they can be interrogated by U.S. agencies (Sageman, p.44)

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• 1996 May - Osama bin Laden and about 150 followers and their families return to Afghanistan from Sudan.

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• 1996 November - Gwynne Roberts conducts an interview of bin Laden for the British documentary program `Dispatches.` Bin Laden threatens to wage an Islamic holy war against the United States and its allies if Washington does not remove its troops from the Gulf region. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 1997 August 10 - In a video interview with CNN's Peter Arnett, bin Laden praises the bombing of the Khobar Towers U.S. barracks in Saudi Arabia. He tells Arnett that "if the American government is serious about avoiding explosions inside the U.S., then let it stop provoking the feelings of 1,250 million Muslims." (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 1998 February 23 - In a fatwa entitled, "Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders World Islamic Front Statement," bin Laden announces the formation of a coalition of Islamic groups, including Egyptian Islamic Jihad led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, (and the Egyptian Islamic Group) and calls for the killing of Americans worldwide. In the fatwa, bin Laden states:

  "To kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque [Jerusalem] and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim."

  Al-Zawahiri becomes No. 2 in al-Qaida and a number of Egyptians prominent in EIJ become al-Qaida leaders. (MSNBC NEWS)
  Rank and file of both EIJ and Egyptian Islamic Group rebell against their leaders. EIG publishes a retraction. EIJ does not. (Sageman, p.47)

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• 1998 May 28 - In a video interview with ABC's John Miller, bin Laden praises Ramzi Yousef and Wali Khan Amin Shah, convicted in the "Day of Hate" airliner bombing plot -- which sought to blow up 11 U.S. commercial aircraft in one day -- saying "America will see many youths who will follow Ramzi Yousef." Bin Laden also praises the bombers of the Khobar Towers. "We predict a black day for America and the end of the United States as United States ... Allah willing." Bin Laden's military commander, Mohammed Atef, also is seen on the tape. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 1998 August 6 - Al-Zawahiri sends a statement to a London-based Arabic newspaper saying, "We are interested in briefly telling the Americans that their messages have been received and that the response, which we hope they will read carefully, is being readied." (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 1998 August 7 - Twin bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. 258 killed and over 5000 wounded, mostly Africans. Nairobi attack kills 12 American and 201 others, almost all Kenyans. Dar es Salaam attack kills 11 people, none of them Americans. (9/11 Commission Report, p.70)
  First deviation from original al-Qaeda M.O. of "targeting enemies on Muslim soil to force their withdrawal." (Sageman, p.47)

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• 1998 December 22 - In an interview with Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Pakistani journalist who reports for The News of Pakistan, as well as Time Magazine, bin Laden discusses the embassy bombing attacks as well as other issues. He does not confirm a role in any of the recent bombings, but in response to Yusufzai, says:

  `My answer is that I understand the motives of the brothers who act against the enemies of the nation. When it becomes apparent that it would be impossible to repel these Americans without assaulting them, even if this involved the killing of Muslims, this is permissible under Islam.`

  He also calls it the duty of Muslims to obtain weapons of mass destruction. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 1999 January 15 - In an interview with al-Jazeera, bin Laden praises those who carried out the August 1998 Africa embassy bombings, saying the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, was hit "because it was the major U.S. intelligence center in East Africa." (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 1999 June 10 - In a broadcast of new elements from the January interview, al-Jazeera shows bin Laden telling their interviewer that American civilians are prime targets because they support killing Muslims through their tax payments. The interview represents his broadest rationale for killing Americans.

  Jihad now knows that with few weapons and people they destroyed the biggest war machine in Afghanistan. In our opinion, a superpower means nothing. The U.S. is much weaker than the Soviet Union was. We've learned from our Somali brothers how weak and cowardly American soldiers are. They lost only 80 people and they fled. I look at the great men who attacked Khobar and Riyadh with great respect, those who made the explosions in Riyadh, Khobar, East Africa and young Palestinians who are giving the Israelis a lesson.

  `A man is considered a fighter whether he carries a gun or pays taxes to help kill us. So when they say bin Laden kills civilians, who are they killing in Palestine? Children. Our aim is that every American man is an enemy whether he kills us or pays taxes to kill us. The U.S. has a double standard ... 75 percent of the American people support Clinton hitting Saddam Hussein. It is a nation where the president's rating goes up when he kills civilians.` (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 1999 Summer - Ayman al-Zawahiri resigns as Amir of EIJ "under criticism of his leadership in the face of continued operational disasters." His sucessor is judged ineffective and Zawahiri resumes control a few months later. (Sageman, p.51)

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• 1999 December - Bombings plots for Amman Jordan and Los Angeles LAX airport to coincide with the Y2K millenium are uncovered and fail. (Sageman, p.48)

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• 2000 January - Bombing plot against the US navy vessel USS The Sullivans in Aden. (Sageman, p.48)

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• 2000 September 20 - Video tape shown on al-Jazeera of bin Laden and three Egyptian clerics calling for the release of Omar Abdul Rahman, the blind sheik imprisoned in the United States. It's believed to have been filmed sometime between March and May 2000. Also seen on the tape are Ayman al-Zawahiri, Rifai Ahmad Taha, a leading figure in the armed Egyptian group, Jamaa Islamiya, and Assad Allah, son of Sheikh Abdel Rahman. Shown on Al-Jazeera, al-Zawahiri warns at the end of the videotape, "Enough of words. It is time to take action against the iniquitous and faithless force which has spread troops through Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia." (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2000 October 12 - Warship USS Cole attacked. As it enters the port of Aden a dinghy packed with explosives pulls up alongside ship and explodes. 17 sailors killed.

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• 2000 October 18 - Six days after the bombing of the USS Cole, Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, a leader of the Egyptian Islamic Group, calls for launching attacks on U.S. interests in the region.

  "Our officers and soldiers, and the sons of our people in Egypt, should learn the lesson of the U.S. destroyer in Aden; they have the Suez Canal through which dozens of U.S. and Jewish ships pass. `They [Jews and Americans] must realize that we have no other option but to besiege their embassies and military and civilian centers in our countries, which are numerous ... let the embassies and centers be burned down, ships and destroyers destroyed and individuals killed.` (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2000 December 24 - Bombing of churches throughout Indonesia by al-Qaeda. Resulted in only "a few deaths" and "must be considered a failure due to poor execution." (Sageman, p.167)

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• 2000 December 25 - Plot to bomb Strasbourg market by al-Qaeda (foiled). (Sageman, p.48)

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• 2000 December - Bombing plot in Manilla by al-Qaeda (foiled). (Sageman, p.48)

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• 2001 January 10 - Videotape of bin Laden celebrating the marriage of his teenage son, Mohammed, to the daughter of Mohammed Atef, his military commander. The tape was shot the previous day in Afghanistan. Also seen on the tape are Atef and Mohammed bin Laden. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2001 June - Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al-Qaeda merged "into a new entity called al-Qaeda al-Jihad." (Sageman, p.51)

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• 2001 September 11 - Attack on World Trade Center and Washington DC by four hijacked airliner planes. Nearly 3000 killed.

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• 2001 September 20 - Plot by Southeast Asian al Qaeda afiliate Jamaa Islamiya uncovered in Singapore. Would have used seven huge car bombs, "each twice the size of the Okalahoma City bomb," to destroy Western embassies and schools in Signapore that December. (Lee Kuan Yew interviewed by Charley Rose Sept. 2004)

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• 2001 September 28 - bin Laden's first declaration following the attacks appears in Pakistani periodical Umma. He denies any responsibility for the hijackings. Places "blame on American `which has no friends,` and on Israel's intelligence services, Mossad." (Kepel p.108)

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• 2001 Autumn - Plot to blow up U.S. embassy in Paris by al-Qaeda (foiled). (Sageman, p.48)

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• 2001 October 4 - A 98-minute al-Qaida training video tape believed to have been shot at various times -- but after the USS Cole bombing in October 2000 and before the U.S. presidential inauguration in January 2001 -- is distributed by Associated Press Television News and Reuters. On it, bin Laden praises the bombers of the USS Cole,

  "The courage of our youth was witnessed in Aden, where they destroyed their destroyer and instilled fear. ... Their ships stand so arrogantly in our ports." (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2001 October 7 - A threatening video tape released at the start of the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan and shown on al-Jazeera. It's believed to have been shot in late September or early October. Also on tape are bin Laden spokesman Abu Ghaith, al-Zawahiri, and Mohammed Atef, bin Laden's military commander. Abu Ghaith, a Kuwaiti, was unknown to U.S. intelligence prior to this tape. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2001 October 21 - In a controversial interview with al-Jazeera reporter Tayseer Alouni -- later indicted as a messenger for bin Laden -- the bin Laden makes threats against the United States and says the United States will be easier to defeat in Afghanistan than the Soviets.

  "We experienced the Americans through our brothers who went into combat against them in Somalia, for example. We found they had no power worthy of mention. There was a huge aura over America -- the United States -- that terrified people even before they entered combat. Our brothers who were here in Afghanistan tested them, and together with some of the mujahedeen in Somalia, God granted them victory. America exited dragging its tails in failure, defeat, and ruin, caring for nothing."

  The tape never airs on Al Jazeera, which apparently thought it was too incendiary. CNN obtains it in February and airs it internationally. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2001 November 3 - Bin Laden, dressed in camouflage and armed with an AK-47, says in a video tape aired by al-Jazeera that Afghanistan is in a religious war.

  "The people of Afghanistan had nothing to do with this matter. The campaign, however, continues to unjustly annihilate the villagers and civilians, children, women and innocent people."

  There's no indication of when the tape was shot, but almost certainly it was within weeks, if not days, prior to its release, since it refers to the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2001 November 7 - Several of bin Laden's sons, the oldest being Hamza, then age 8, play in the wreckage of a downed U.S. helicopter, believed to have been shot in October. The tape is shown on al-Jazeera. Video later shows up as part of a video tape the U.S. government releases in December 2001. (MSNBC NEWS)
  Interview with bin Laden appears in Lahore, Pakistan daily Dawn. bin Laden gives justification for killing civilians.

  "The September 11 attacks were not targeted at women and children. The real targets were America's icons of military and economic power,"

  but it is permissible to kill women and children in the process. (Kepel, p.124-5)

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• 2001 December - Failed shoe bombing. Richard Reid, a British convert to Islam who had been trained at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, tries to blow up his shoe on a flight from Paris to the United States. He is arrested and reveals "vast amounts of information" to interrogators. (Kepel, p.131)

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• 2001 December 12 - The CIA releases the "Dinner Party Tape" in which bin Laden describes planning for the Sept. 11 attacks, noting among other things the final order was given the "Thursday before," meaning Sept. 6. The video tape is the first in which bin Laden takes responsibility for the attacks. It was shot in November, possibly Nov. 9, 2001, in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It is released by the U.S. government to all broadcasters. Also on tape is Khaled al-Harbi, a Saudi cleric. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2001 December 27 - The "Gaunt Tape," so named because bin Laden is haggard and doesn't move his left arm, is believed to have been recorded in late November 2001, probably around Nov. 19. On the video tape, bin Laden refers to the U.S. bombing of a mosque in Khost "several days" earlier. (The United States bombed a mosque in Khost on Nov. 16). Al-Jazeera airs the tape. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2002 February - Bomb blast damages parked cars and shatters window near the Interior Ministry in downtown Rome. Is preceded on days earlier by the discovery of a tunnel that suspected Muslim terrorists were digging in the vicinity of the U.S. embassy, apparently intending to carry out a chemical attack. (Trifcovik, p.283)

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• 2002 February 21 - Pakistani police confirm that a video showing the beheading of Daniel Pearl has been circulating on the Internet, confirming Pearl's death for the first time. The video shows Pearl discussing his Jewish roots, his visits to Israel, followed by graphic video of his beheading, apparently at the hands of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. Mohammed is also believed to have been responsible for the video's production and distribution. (MSNBC NEWS)
  Rome - Four Moroccans are arrested and found to be in possession of maps showing the city water supply grid and a substance containing cyanide. (Trifcovik, p.283)

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• 2002 April 17 - The "Riverside tape," believed shot in October 2001, is shown on Arabic language broadcasters MBC and al-Jazeera in slightly different versions. On this tape, bin Laden praises the effects the Sept. 11 attacks had on the U.S. economy. Also on tape is Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's chief lieutenant, while several suicide bombers appear on the MBC tape. (MSNBC NEWS)
  The first admission of responsibility for the September 11 attacks marking "a break with the deliberate evasiveness that bin Laden had adopted with his interviewers up to that point." (Kepel, p.132-3)

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• 2002 Summer - al-Qaeda plot to strike at U.S. or British naval vessels in the Straits of Gilbraltar is discovered. Plot failure blamed on "lack of effective communication." (Sageman, p.52, 167)

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• 2002 October - Bombings in Bali resort. (Sageman, p.53)

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• 2002 October 9 - Al-Zawahiri tape threatens attacks on the United States, its economy and allies. "I promise you that the Islamic youth are preparing for you what will fill your hearts with horror," he says. It is unclear if the tape was recorded prior to the attacks on the Marines in Kuwait a day earlier. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2002 November 12 - Bin Laden, in an audiotape, calls President Bush the "pharaoh of this age" and lists recent attacks in a statement carried on al-Jazeera. Specifically, he notes:

  "The incidents that have taken place since the raids on New York and Washington up until now -- like the killing of Germans in Tunisia and the French in Karachi, the bombing of the giant French tanker in Yemen, the killing of Marines in Failaka [in Kuwait] and the British and Australians in the Bali explosions, the recent operation in Moscow and some sporadic operations here and there -- are only reactions and reciprocal actions."

  It is the first bin Laden message that can be dated in nearly a year. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2002 November 28 - Largely unsuccessful terrorist operation at Kenyan beach resort of Mombassa. Attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner with two missiles fails. 15 killed by explosion at Paradise Hotel: 3 suicide terror bombers, 9 Kenyan employees, and 3 tourists. (Kepel, p.126)

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• 2002 December - London daily Al-Quds al-Arabi publishes a pamphlet by Ayman al Zawahiri entitled Al-wala wal-bara or Loyalty and Separation, emphasizing the importance of giving trust and friendship to Muslims and withholding them from non-Muslims. (Kepel, p.134)

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• 2003 February 11 - Bin Laden criticizes U.S. plans for war on Iraq, citing Baghdad's historical role as a capital of Islam. In the audio statement, carried on al-Jazeera, bin Laden states:

  "We are following up with great interest and extreme concern the crusaders' preparations for war to occupy a former capital of Islam, loot Muslims' wealth, and install an agent government, which would be a satellite for its masters in Washington and Tel Aviv, just like all the other treasonous and agent Arab governments."(MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2003 February 16 - Entitled, bin Laden's Sermon for the Feast of the Sacrifice, the audio statement broadcast on al-Jazeera criticizes Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for planning their war on Iraq. Bin Laden states the two leaders' plans do not end with Iraq.

  "The preparations under way at present for an attack upon Iraq are but one link in a chain of attacks -- [currently] in preparation -- on the countries of the region, including Syria, Iran, Egypt and Sudan. However, the preparations for the division of the Land of the Two Holy Places [i.e., Saudi Arabia] constitutes the main part of their plan. This, we know, is a long-standing strategic aim [which has existed] ever since [Saudi Arabia] transferred its dependence from Great Britain to the United States six decades ago."(MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2003 March 1 - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, planning and operations chief behind 9/11 attacks is captured in Rawalpindi. Divulges information under interrogation. (Kepel, p.132)

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• 2003 April 8 - On the eve of the U.S. victory in Iraq, bin Laden urges suicide attacks and calls on Muslims to rise up against Arab governments that support the U.S.-led attack on Iraq. In the tape, bin Laden urges the faithful to attack governments in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Unlike previous recording allegedly by bin Laden, this audio tape has a single theme -- suicide attacks. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2003 May 12 - 35 people killed in a residential complex in Riyadh as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is visiting the capital, 9 of the victims are Americans. (Kepel, p.140)

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• 2003 May 16 - 45 people killed in Casablanca Morocco bombing. Targets are all "places with Jewish or European connotations," but all the dead are Muslims. (Kepel, p.140) As a result of inadequate assistance, only one of the five bombs results in mass casualties. (Sageman, p.54)

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• 2003 May 23 - Al-Zawahiri, in an audiotape aired on various radio and television outlets in the Middle East, tells Muslims to

  "burn the ground under their feet, as they should not enjoy your protection ... Expel those criminals out of your country." He also condemns Saudi and other Arab governments and concludes, "The coming days will bring to you news that will heal your hearts." (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2003 July - Several Islamist websites publish a "new Bin Laden speech," which attacks Saudi clerics and other Muslims for failing to join his jihad against the West. The audiotape is 90 minutes long and most of it is devoted to attacking Saudi clerics who support the ruling royal family, but also other "tyrants" in the region. It cannot be dated much beyond the fall of the Taliban regime in November 2001. (MSNBC NEWS)
• 2003 July - Fatwa by radical senior cleric grants legal legitimacy to the use of weapons of mass destruction against the US and Britain and against their citizens. Fatwa published on http://www.al-ansar.biz/ (a website associated with al-Qaeda) by well-known radical Saudi cleric Sheik Nasser bin Hamd al-Fahad, argues that the Muslim world is engaged in a defensive war against U.S. and U.K. aggression, so that Muslims must use all means at their disposal to defeat its enemy, even if they are likely to kill women and children or harm many Muslims. (www.ict.org.il)

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• 2003 September 10 - A combined audio and videotape showing bin Laden walking down a mountain path with Ayman al Zawahiri is broadcast on al-Jazeera. U.S. officials note that the audio from bin Laden does not make any references to current events, while al-Zawahiri does; indicating the bin Laden audio was old. U.S. intelligence also believes the video was dated. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2003 September 29 - In an audio tape played on Al Jazeera and Al-Arabiya television, Ayman Zawahiri calls Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf a "traitor" for helping US-led forces topple the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, for considering sending troops to Iraq and for considering recognizing Israel.

  "Muslims in Pakistan must unite and cooperate to topple this traitor and install a sincere leadership that would defend Islam and Muslims."(MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2003 October 18 - Al Jazeera broadcasts two audiotapes said to be made by bin Laden, vowing more suicide attacks inside and outside the United States and demanding that the United States withdraw from Iraq.

  "We, God willing, will continue to fight you and will continue martyrdom operations inside and outside the United States until you abandon your oppression and foolish acts,"

  said bin Laden, referring to suicide attacks. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2003 October 18 - Al-Qaida releases a new videotape message related to the May 2003 attack in Riyadh. On the 45-minute tape, made available on several websites friendly to the group, is an audio recording of the attack on U.S. and British housing in the Saudi capital. Also on the tape: What appears to be new images of Bin Laden ... and 4 terrorists killed in the bombing ... two speaking English for the first time on tape. One of them, Hazem Al-Kashmiri, claims to be the son of a former major general in Saudi intelligence. He says,

  "We promise that we will not let you live safely and will not see anything else from us: just bombs, fires, destroying homes, cutting your heads."

  A second terrorist, Mohammed Al Moqeet, adds, "Stop killing Muslims or we will kill you as you are killing Muslims." (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2003 November 8 - 17 killed by bombing in Riyadh. All are Arabs, some are Lebanese Christians. (Kepel, p.140)

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• 2003 November 14, 20 - 69 killed by bombs in Istanbul. "A synagogue, a Jewish center and a British bank are targets. A local Islamist newspaper runs the headline: `69 dead, but only 6 Jews.`" (Kepel, p.140)

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• 2004 January 4 - Al Jazeera broadcasts an audiotape in which bin Laden blasts the "occupation of the crusaders" in Iraq, which he claims is part of a conspiracy to occupy the entire Gulf region. It also makes reference to the arrest of Saddam Hussein the previous month in Iraq. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2004 March 2 - over 100 Shia killed in bombing at the holy shrine in Karbala, Iraq. Al Qaeda denies responsibility. (Kepel, p.145-6)

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• 2004 March 11 - 191 killed and thousands crippled for life in Madrid from coordinated bombing of four trains traveling toward the Atocha station. "If these early trains had been running on time on March 11, they would have converged at the station just as the bomb exploded. The railway station itself would have collapsed, killing thousands." Alarmingly the perps turn out to be almost all "Spanish residents ... grocers, mobile phone repairmen ... real estate agents ... leading ordinary ... lives" and having undergone no "indoctrination or brainwashing or deprivation in an Afghanistan training camp." (Kepel, p.144, 248)

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• 2004 March 30 - "Eight British citizens of Pakistani origin" arrested "soon after the discovery of a large stock of ammonium nitrate near London." Foiled plot is "primitive" but "deadly." Shakes up "many accepted notions of Britain's invulnerability." (Kepel, p.148, 245)

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• 2004 April 15 - Al Jazeera and Al-Arabiya broadcast an alleged audiotape from bin Laden in which he offers a "truce" to European nations as long as they withdraw troops from Islamic countries and stop attacking Muslims. The tape blasts the United States and Israel, vowing revenge for Israel's assassination of Hamas leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Bin Laden makes specific reference to the 9/11 attacks and the March 11, 2004 bombings in Madrid, saying what happened "was your goods delivered back to you." (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2004 May 31 - Abdulaziz Issa Abdul-Mohsin al-Moqrin, who identifies himself as al-Qaida's chief in the Saudi region, claims responsibility for a deadly attack in the kingdom's oil hub on a tape posted on the Internet. The unauthenticated tape was posted on a site known for militant Muslim comment along with a written statement about the attack that was characterized by contempt for non-Muslims. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2004 September 9 - In a videotape, Ayman al-Zawahiri says that fighters in Iraq have "turned America's plan upside down" and says that the mujahedeen in Iraq and Afghanistan will defeat the United States. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2004 October 1 - In an audio message, Ayman al-Zawahiri urges Muslims to mount worldwide resistance to the American "crusaders" and its allies. His lists of allies include Britain, Poland, Australia, Japan and South Korea. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2004 October 29 - In a message seemingly timed for the U.S. presidential election, a healthy looking bin Laden warns Americans that "your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands." (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2004 November 29 - In a videotape that seemed to have been recorded before the U.S. election, Ayman al-Zawahiri warns that America must change its policies toward the Muslim world, no matter who is elected president. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2004 December 16 - In an audio tape released via an Islamic website, Osama bin Laden praises an attack earlier this month on a U.S. Consulate in Saudi Arabia and criticizes the Saudi regime as weak and controlled by the United States. (MSNBC NEWS)

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• 2005 July 7 - 56 people civilians killed and 700 injured by bombings in London. A series of co-ordinated suicide bombings on three London Underground trains and one double-decker bus in central London. The bombings lead to a severe, day-long disruption of the city's transport and mobile telecommunications infrastructure. Al-Qaeda claims responsibility. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_London_transport_explosions)

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• 2005 July 21 - Second London attack fails. A second series of four explosions go off on the London Underground and a London bus, but only the detonators of the bombs explode. All four bombs remained undetonated and no one is killed or injured. All suspected bombers from this attack are arrested by police. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_London_transport_explosions)