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Monique Bianco

INR 4084

Research Paper

Clinton Administration and the 1993 attacks

The Clinton administration was faced with some difficult tasks that many people

believe the Clinton administration either did an excellent job or did nothing at all. There

was a lot of controversy over the 1993 World Trade Center attacks. The media harped on

President Clinton for not doing enough to defend our homeland. Clinton came into his

presidency with aspirations to make a new pathway for the U.S. while trying to focus on

various issues that were at hand. He didn’t have an overwhelming amount of experience

with foreign affairs but he knew that to strengthen the country alliances and agreements

needed to be made. The Clinton administration was faced with acts of terrorism that

paved the way for new procedures to be implemented by following administrations.

Throughout this paper we will look at how former President Bill Clinton reacted to such

acts and how we could have avoided future attacks such as the September 11, 2001 Twin

Tower attacks.

When Clinton was President in 1993 the economy was in a recession from when

previous stocks had collapsed years before. Due to the economic crisis, Clinton’s plan of

action was to spend most of his time investing in education, healthcare and opening up

the foreign markets. Clinton came into office with little foreign affairs background but

during his presidency he was faced with the 1993 car bombing of the World Trade Center

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in New York City. Not only was there the 1993 incident but also in 1996 yet another

terrorist attack occurred in Saudi Arabia where a military housing complex was bombed

that ended up killing 19 soldiers. Furthermore, again in 1998 U.S. embassies were

targeted. The overall goal of the first terrorist attack of the World Trade Center was to

bring one of the towers down inevitably injuring more than 1,000 people in the process.

The terrorist’s ultimate goal was to kill up to 250,000 people making a profound

statement to the new president who had only been in office for 38 days. Clinton reaction

to attacks was rather strange for some Americans to grasp. According to Bryon York in

his article discussing the Clinton presidency, Clinton’s reaction to the attack was to tell

the American people not to “overreact.” Clinton didn’t take the 1993 attacks, as seriously

as he should have due to the fact he was simply busy with other more pressing

obligations. One could argue that if more attention and action was taken about these

attacks maybe a preventative action could have been implemented that would have

stopped the September 11th attacks.

One of the first arguments about the way Clinton handled the attacks was the way

he looked upon the bombing as just a law-enforcement issue. By approaching the

situation in this manner investigators couldn’t share information they had gathered as

quickly as they could have. The Clinton administration barely talked about the matter,

essentially sweeping it under the rug. They had come to the conclusion that this terrorist

acts just a small group working together. Clinton’s main objective was to get reelected so

any foreign policy views he had were non-controversial. The FBI went on a massive

manhunt to find the groups responsible for the attacks. Finally in 1994 they arrested

several radical Islamic fundamentalists for the bombings. The individuals arrested were

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Ramzi Yousef who was a Sunni extremist, Mohammed Salameh, Mohammed

Abouhalima and Ahmad Ajaj. Although it was an accomplishment to have the

individuals arrested it made the government officials seem like they could handle

terrorism. The Clinton administration was barely capable and now America looked like

they could deal with any form of terrorism on a higher level, which they simple could

not.

The attacks of the World Trade Center in 1993 had very similar characteristics to

the September 11 attacks. By the time of the 9/11 attacks American officials had known

about al Qaida which brought up a pressing question that we should have been able to

predict that they were going to attacks and we should have had defenses ready. This is of

course just assumption people came up with but it brings up a valid point. Through the

1993 convictions the legal system didn’t fully inspect all parties. Meaning, they didn’t

examine other treats facing the United States. The trials never brought up Bin Laden and

policy makers never took a second look at him. During this time President Clinton made

Louis Freeh Director of the Bureau. Freeh believed the terrorism was a major threat to the

United States but decentralized field operations and field agents gained significant power.

He focused a lot of his attention onto the Middle East even encouraging people to not

wait for terrorists to attack. Even though Freeh tried to create a system that would try to

prevent terrorism even creating a Counterterrorism Division within headquarters but his

efforts when unnoticed. The FBI instead focused much of its attention on drug

enforcement and violent crimes. The FBI’s budget for counterterrorism tripled in the 90’s

through the fiscal years, in 2000 there were still just as many agents though focused on

drug enforcement. Senior agents were reluctant to change. The purpose of the new

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division was to collect information, identify trends of terrorist groups and determine what

the FBI did not know already. One of the main issues with the force was that they were

using old tactics and instead of hiring individuals they were hiring analyst from within

who didn’t have the expertise, which was needed. Until 9/11 the FBI counterterrorism

division had never fully completed strategic analytical reports or assessments of terrorism

to U.S. homeland.

For approximately two months prior to the bombing the conspirators gathered

materials needed for the terrorist act. They resided in New Jersey and apparently rented

storage space that was used as a staging area for the bomb and subsequent loading of it

into a Ryder rental van. The terrorists drove the 1,500-pound urea-nitrate bomb into the

basement area of the World Trade Center and then set the timer and left. The explosion

rocked the World Trade Center killing six people and injuring over a thousand others.

These criminals dawned a new age in terrorism, the wholesale attack on civilians with the

desire to inflict as much damage as possible. The men that committed this heinous crime

have been linked to several terrorist groups including the Islamic Jihad, Hamas and

Sudanese National Islamic Front. On March 4, 1994 a jury found Salameh, Ajaj,

Abuhalima and Ayyad guilty of the World Trade Center bombing. They were all

sentenced to 240 years in prison. However, the masterminds were not caught until later.

Eyad Ismoil and Ramzi Yousef were convicted of murder and conspiracy in the World

Trade Center bombing. Prosecutors believe Eyad helped Ramzi load the bomb into the

truck and then drive it to the World Trade Center basement and park the vehicle. Eyad

was sentenced to 240 years in prison and ordered to pay a 10 million dollar fine. Yousef

received life in prison plus 240 years and a 4.5 million dollar fine. He was also ordered to

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pay 250 million dollars in restitution. The fines were given to insure that these men

would never profit from their actions. Further, the judge recommended that Yousef spend

his sentence in solitary confinement. Federal prosecutors are still looking for Adul

Rahmin Yasin in connection with the bombing. He is believed to have fled to Iraq.

Some would say that the 9/11 attacks could have been prevented. The Clinton

administration and his staff could have pursued the matter with greater detail. Clinton

came into the administration with full knowledge that to build a firm foundation you need

to create relationships and democratic alliances globally. Clinton was to expand NATO

making it a magnet for new partners and missions. Through this killing in Bosnia was

stopped due to NATO’s first engagement. Furthermore, the ethnic cleansing that was

going on in Kosovo was having action placed upon it. NATO provided security and

allowed for numerous refugees to return safely. Besides working on relations with

Europe, the Clinton administration also focused a lot of their attention with Asian

alliances. The strategic alliance with Japan was updated creating outlines on how they

would handle certain situations. There was a reduction in the North Korean threats

through deterrence and diplomacy. By October 1994 the Framework agreement was

negotiated which dismantled North Korea’s dangerous nuclear weapons and long-range

missile testing in 1999. Finally, South Korean relations were defined with them now

agreeing to cooperate with the U.S. To focus on the Middle East again in September 1993

the Declaration of Principles was agreed on and in September 1995 the Interim

Agreement on Palestine’s self rule was put in place.

Clinton helped develop the counter terrorism strategy, which was lead by a national

coordinator. He also developed one of the first national strategies to protect critical

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infrastructure. This was to bring together private sector and government. He then

increased funding on critical infrastructure protection by over 40 percent since 1998.

Every since the 1993 attacks our government has been fully aware of al Qaeda. They

viewed this group of terrorist as a small but deadly group that they didn’t know much

about. The Clinton administration and administrations that followed were concerned with

other matters like creating a new pathway for the country so they focus on al Qaeda

slipped in a since to the back of people’s mind. Not only was this group of terrorists

slipping to the back of people’s mind but also it wasn’t until 2001 where the military

really took strong action against terrorist. For example, in 1998 when the Taliban refused

to hand over Osama bin Laden the Pentagon decided not use to Delta Force to capture

him. Everything is speculation, but if more force were to been used then maybe the U.S.

would have made an impression sooner that they weren’t going to tolerate terrorism,

which a country never should. While the Clinton administration was moving in the right

direction when it came to dealing with terrorism they didn’t go far enough. One thing

people don’t remember when they criticize administrations is that terrorists don’t give out

blatant warnings that they are going to attack. They may imply so or if our investigators

truly analyze everything they can predict the actions that are bound to come but even then

everything is still speculation and assumptions. Terrorists have also proved to be

dangerously adaptable and opportunistic. Each time the government develops an effective

response to a particular tactic, such as hijackings, terrorist’s work around these defenses,

such as by plotting midair bombings. When it became more difficult to smuggle bombs

aboard planes, terrorists turned the planes themselves into weapons. The United States is

a rich target with many weaknesses to be exploited. If one soft spot is shielded, another

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spot becomes more vulnerable. Meanwhile, a singleness of purpose streamlines the work

of terrorists.

To continue our discussion about the actions taken by the Clinton administration

there are some key facts a lot of people over look when analyzing how the reacted and

tolerated terrorist. Never before had any attacks been directly associated with bin Laden

until the 1998 attacks where intelligence could conclude bin Laden had been related.

After this it became a priority to capture him before any more damage could be caused.

President Clinton pressed to have military groups on the ground in search parties with the

mission of finding bin Laden. However, we had no support from neighbors such as

Pakistan or a home base near Afghanistan that could make this mission possible. The

CIA worked feverously on capturing terrorist abroad with the hopes that they would end

up talking. They finally caught Ramsey Youssef, responsible for the 1993 World Trade

Center bombing and Mir Aimal Kansi, who murdered the CIA employees at Langley.

Clinton traveled to Pakistan in 2000 even though he was fully aware that this trip could

potentially be very dangerous but he felt strongly about the terrorist threats he knew he

had to go overseas to try and get a handle on the situation. Former President Clinton and

Vice President Al Gore at the time were in agreement that two G-7 units needed to be

focused on terrorism. Clinton’s main objection on his 2000 Pakistan trip was to press

General Musharraf on the need to confront the Taliban. These efforts culminated in the

UN Security Council adopting UNSCR 1333 in December 2000, which included a

multilateral arms embargo against the Taliban. Furthermore, we tried to freeze al Qaeda

assets preventing them from being able to continue on with any on going plans. In 1998

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and 1999 President Clinton blocked their transactions and froze millions of dollars of

Taliban assets. Clinton also bought bioterrorism supplements.

President Clinton tried to bring the attention of terrorism public by referring to it

in his speech’s and State of the Union addresses. He was the first to really press for a

global fight against terrorism and labeled it as the “enemy of our nation.” More

preventative actions could have been made to ensure that terrorists would have been

captured or weakened before they could launch a successful attack like they

accomplished on September 11th. There was a lot going on for the Clinton administration

to handle during the time of his presidency and the attention kept bouncing around on

different matters at hand. The actions taken by the administration were headed in the

right direction as stated earlier but they weren’t quit enough to make a successful impact.

The matter of the World Trade Center bombings should have been taken more seriously

and not looked upon as another investigation. Intelligence knew for a period of time

about terrorist groups and al Qaeda so maybe they couldn’t have expected the attacks as

for where and when they would occur but they should have anticipated that they were

going to make a big move sooner then later. Overall, the Clinton administration

implemented some procedures that helped pave the way for future administrations to go

after and track down terrorist while keeping our allied relationships strong. Of course

there are also going to be other issues that are going to arise for a President and his

administration but terrorism should always be looked upon as a serious matter, which

needs to be dealt with immediately. With Clinton’s ambition to capture terrorist and put

Americans at ease that our security is strong he could have possibly prevented further

attacks.

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