It was after, Osama Bin Ladens pet peeve was the military bases that the U.S. built and retained for the Gulf War.
TP,
It was before.
There are a lot of misconceptions about OBL. His history of pet peeves began well before US Troops set foot on Saudi soil.
Osama Bin Laden's first target was the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s. He trained Arab volunteers to fight the Russians.
He wanted Iraq next in the early 1990s but could not get anyone to cooperate.
Only then did he turn his efforts against the USA.
OBL got into trouble with the Saudi king originally in 1990 when he offered to train the Saudi army to resist the threat posed by IRAQ....Yes IRAQ. The Saudis considered the proposal wild and rejected it and OBL. They suspended his travel privileges at that time.
I believe the time line is that OBL began operating out of Sudan in 1990. By 1991, at the latest, he was there full-time. His Saudi passport and travel privileges were revoked in 1991. He stayed in Sudan until 1994 when he was kicked out of Sudan and went to Afghanistan.
When the Yemen bombing occurred in 1992 and WTC bombing in 1993 OBL was operating out of Sudan not Saudi as your article implies.
unclewest
Here are a few References:
"While America Slept" by Peter Bergen, Page 31, "During the early 1990s he set himself up as one of the most active businessmen in Sudan."
"Shadow Warriors" by Tom Clancy and General Carl Stiner, Page 504, "Terrorism finally reached US shores in 1993, with the bombing of World Trade Center....In the same year, the wealthy Saudi expatriot Osama Bin Laden emerged as a mastermind and organizer of terrorism.
megastories.com
"His first move, in 1990 or 1991, was to write to Saudi Arabia's King Fahd offering to train Saudis to resist Iraq...
The idea was rejected. Bin Laden,.... slipped out of the country to Sudan " |
