The timeline of US Embassy Bombings Trial:
Pre Bombing:
October 3-4, 1993 - American soldiers, participating in the United Nation's peacemaking Operation Restore Hope, are ambushed in Somalia's capital of Mogadishu. Eighteen die, some of the bodies are paraded in the streets.
April 9, 1994 - Saudi Arabia revokes Osama bin Laden's citizenship.
August 23, 1996 - Bin Laden issues a fatwah declaring holy war against the United States and calling for attacks on U.S. troops.
February 23, 1998 - Bin Laden issues a fatwah declaring U.S. citizens should be killed anywhere in the world. It is endorsed by other jihad groups including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. The fatwah is published three months later in the newspaper London newspaper "Al-Quds al-'Arabi."
June 8, 1998 - Two months before the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, bin Laden is indicted on one count of conspiracy to attack defense utilities of the U.S. The indictment alleges that bin Laden runs an organization called al Qaeda ("the base") which trained and assisted the Somali tribesmen who killed U.S. soldiers in October 1993. U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White seals the indictment and does not make any charges against him public for five months.
August 5, 1998 - Newspapers publish reports of a threat by Egyptian Islamic Jihad stating the U.S. will be punished for helping deport four Islamic fundamentalists from Albania to Cairo.
THE BOMBINGS
August 7, 1998 - Twin truck bomb explosions, 10 minutes apart, occur outside the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. A total of 213 people die in Kenya and 11 die in Tanzania. Faxes sent by the "Islamic Army for the Liberation of the Holy Places" to media outlets in Qatar, France, United Arab Emirates and London suggest two Saudi dissidents carried out the Nairobi bombing, and an Egyptian staged the Dar es Salaam attack. However, no one publicly makes a credible claim of responsibility for the terrorist attacks.
INVESTIGATION AND ARRESTS
August 7, 1998 - Mohammed Sadeek Odeh, a Jordanian citizen, is arrested in Pakistan trying to enter the country from Kenya with a fake passport. Over the next three weeks, he admits to being a member of al Qaeda and is extradited to the U.S.
August 12, 1998 - Kenyan detectives, acting on a tip, pick up Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali, a Saudi national, at a hotel in Nairobi. Al-'Owhali is interrogated by Kenyan and U.S. investigators, who say he confesses to a role in the bombing. He is extradited to U.S.
August 20, 1998 - U.S. military retaliates for the embassy bombings with cruise missile attacks at suspected bin Laden camps inside Afghanistan and at the al Shifa pharmaceutical plant in al Qaeda's former base of Khartoum, Sudan. U.S. officials say the plant had been used to manufacture components of VX nerve gas. President Clinton blocks all financial transactions between bin Laden and U.S. banks, companies, and citizens.
August 27-28, 1998 - Odeh and al-'Owhali make their first appearances in Manhattan federal court and are charged with the murder of 12 Americans killed in the Kenya bombing, with conspiracy, and with using a weapon of mass destruction.
August 28, 1998 - U.S. Attorney files a sealed criminal complaint filed against Haroun Fazil, later known as Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the alleged ground leader of the Kenya attack.
September 14, 1998 - U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White files an amended sealed complaint against Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, allegedly a high-level operative of al Qaeda. The four counts allege Salim, a Sudanese national, managed financial affairs for al Qaeda, ran its training camps, trained and armed terrorists including the embassy bombers, and conspired to kill American nationals.
September 16, 1998 - Salim is arrested in Germany and jailed in Munich on a U.S. warrant charging him with murder and using weapons of mass destruction. More charges will be filed later accusing him of conspiracy to transport explosives and attack U.S. military installations.
September 17, 1998 - U.S. Attorney White unseals a criminal complaint charging F. A. Mohammed with participating in the Kenya embassy bombing. The U.S. State Department announces a $2 million reward for Mohammed who fled Kenya the day before the bombing.
September 18, 1998 - El Hage is arrested. He is interviewed by FBI agents about his connections to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. Three days later, U.S. Attorney White obtains an 11-count indictment against El Hage.
September 21, 1998 - Tanzania's government charges Rashid Saleh Hemed, a Dar es Salaam resident, and Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed, an Egyptian, with 11 counts of murder, one for each fatality, for alleged connections to the Tanzania bombers.
September 23, 1998 - In a bail hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald says Wadih el Hage has ties to known terrorists including the World Trade Center bombing conspirators El Sayyid Nosair and Mahdud Abouhalima, as well as bin Laden. El Hage, who has no criminal record, is denied bail and pleads not guilty to perjury in Manhattan federal court the next day.
September 27, 1998 - Saudi dissident Khalid al-Fawwaz, an alleged London operative for bin Laden, is arrested by British police on charges of conspiring with bin Laden and others to murder U.S. nationals.
September 1998 - Federal prosecutors file secret charges against Ali Mohamed, an Egyptian-born former U.S. Army sergeant suspected of being a "mid-level player" in al Qaeda. In a closed hearing, he is accused of participating in al Qaeda's conspiracy to kill Americans overseas.
October 30, 1998 - Ali Mohamed is arrested after appearing before a grand jury.
November 4, 1998 - Osama bin Laden and the man the U.S. identifies as his military chief, Muhammad Atef, are indicted for the embassy bombings and for conspiring to kill Americans outside the United States.
December 16, 1998 - Five men, all fugitives, are indicted for participating in the Tanzania embassy bombing. The five -- Mustafa Mohammad Fadhil, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, Fahid Mohammad Ally Msalam, and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan -- are all accused of being members of al-Qaeda. The State Department announces rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to any of the fugitives' arrest.
January 7, 1999 - Salim is indicted in the alleged conspiracy to kill Americans worldwide. He becomes the 12th defendant named.
May 19, 1999 - Ali Mohamed is indicted, becoming the 13th named defendant in the case's fifth superseding indictment.
June 7, 1999 - FBI adds bin Laden to its 10 Most Wanted list.
June 16, 1999 - Reputed head of the paramilitary group Egyptian Islamic Jihad Ayman al-Zawahiri, of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and al-Fawwaz are named as defendants.
July 12, 1999 - U.S. Attorney White files a criminal complaint against Adel Mohamed Abdul Almagid Abdul Bary and Ibrahim Eidarous for conspiring with bin Laden to kill Americans. These two Egyptian nationals are accused of leading the London cell of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which allegedly collaborated with al Qaeda.
October 7, 1999 - Khalfan Khamis Mohamed is apprehended in South Africa and extradited to the U.S.
March 20, 2000 - Tanzania drops charges on Ahmed and deports him to Egypt.
April 4, 2000 - Tanzania reduces charges on Hemed from 11 counts of murder to a single count of conspiracy to murder for allegedly lending his Dar es Salaam residence to the Tanzania embassy bombers.
May 8, 2000 - Bary and Eidarous are indicted. The seventh superseding indictment now lists 17 defendants in the case. Six are in U.S. custody: Odeh, al-'Owhali, el-Hage, Salim, K.K. Mohamed, and A. Mohamed. Three are in U.K. custody: al-Fawwaz, Bary, Eidarous. Eight defendants, including bin Laden, are fugitives.
October 20, 2000 - Ali Mohamed pleads guilty to all charges against him. In a written confession he reads in open court, Mohamed directly links bin Laden to the embassy bombings and implicates several other defendants in the conspiracy. The number of defendants now slated to stand trial in January slips to five.
November 1, 2000 - Salim allegedly attacks a corrections officer at Metropolitan Correctional Center. The incident results in Salim being charged with attempted murder and Salim's terror conspiracy case being separated from the others. The number of embassy bombings defendants going to trial slips to four.
December 20, 2000 - U.S. Attorney White obtains indictment of five new defendants -- Saif Al Adel, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah, Ahmed Mohammed Hamed Ali, and Anas Al-Liby -- for their involvement in the conspiracy to kill Americans and destroy U.S. property. All are fugitives. Only Abdullah is accused of direct involvement with the Kenya bombing.
The Trial in the next post.
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