[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book II)]
[August 20, 1998]
[Pages 1460-1462]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Address to the Nation on Military Action Against Terrorist Sites in 
Afghanistan and Sudan
August 20, 1998

    Good afternoon. Today I ordered our Armed Forces to strike at 
terrorist-related facilities in Afghanistan and Sudan because of the 
imminent threat they presented to our national security.
    I want to speak with you about the objective of this action and why 
it was necessary. Our target was terror; our mission was clear: to 
strike at the network of radical groups affiliated with and funded by 
Usama bin Ladin, perhaps the preeminent organizer and financier of 
international terrorism in the world today.
    The groups associated with him come from diverse places but share a 
hatred for democracy, a fanatical glorification of violence, and a 
horrible distortion of their religion to justify the murder of 
innocents. They have made the United States their adversary precisely 
because of what we stand for and what we stand against.
    A few months ago, and again this week, bin Ladin publicly vowed to 
wage a terrorist war against America, saying, and I quote, ``We do not 
differentiate between those dressed in military uniforms and civilians. 
They're all targets.''
    Their mission is murder and their history is bloody. In recent 
years, they killed American, Belgian, and Pakistani peacekeepers in 
Somalia. They plotted to assassinate the President of Egypt and the 
Pope. They planned to bomb six United States 747's over the Pacific. 
They

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bombed the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan. They gunned down German 
tourists in Egypt.
    The most recent terrorist events are fresh in our memory. Two weeks 
ago, 12 Americans and nearly 300 Kenyans and Tanzanians lost their 
lives, and another 5,000 were wounded, when our Embassies in Nairobi and 
Dar es Salaam were bombed. There is convincing information from our 
intelligence community that the bin Ladin terrorist network was 
responsible for these bombings. Based on this information, we have high 
confidence that these bombings were planned, financed, and carried out 
by the organization bin Ladin leads.
    America has battled terrorism for many years. Where possible, we've 
used law enforcement and diplomatic tools to wage the fight. The long 
arm of American law has reached out around the world and brought to 
trial those guilty of attacks in New York and Virginia and in the 
Pacific. We have quietly disrupted terrorist groups and foiled their 
plots. We have isolated countries that practice terrorism. We've worked 
to build an international coalition against terror. But there have been 
and will be times when law enforcement and diplomatic tools are simply 
not enough, when our very national security is challenged, and when we 
must take extraordinary steps to protect the safety of our citizens.
    With compelling evidence that the bin Ladin network of terrorist 
groups was planning to mount further attacks against Americans and other 
freedom-loving people, I decided America must act. And so this morning, 
based on the unanimous recommendation of my national security team, I 
ordered our Armed Forces to take action to counter an immediate threat 
from the bin Ladin network.
    Earlier today the United States carried out simultaneous strikes 
against terrorist facilities and infrastructure in Afghanistan. Our 
forces targeted one of the most active terrorist bases in the world. It 
contained key elements of the bin Ladin network's infrastructure and has 
served as a training camp for literally thousands of terrorists from 
around the globe. We have reason to believe that a gathering of key 
terrorist leaders was to take place there today, thus underscoring the 
urgency of our actions.
    Our forces also attacked a factory in Sudan associated with the bin 
Ladin network. The factory was involved in the production of materials 
for chemical weapons.
    The United States does not take this action lightly. Afghanistan and 
Sudan have been warned for years to stop harboring and supporting these 
terrorist groups. But countries that persistently host terrorists have 
no right to be safe havens.
    Let me express my gratitude to our intelligence and law enforcement 
agencies for their hard, good work. And let me express my pride in our 
Armed Forces who carried out this mission while making every possible 
effort to minimize the loss of innocent life.
    I want you to understand, I want the world to understand that our 
actions today were not aimed against Islam, the faith of hundreds of 
millions of good, peace-loving people all around the world, including 
the United States. No religion condones the murder of innocent men, 
women, and children. But our actions were aimed at fanatics and killers 
who wrap murder in the cloak of righteousness and in so doing profane 
the great religion in whose name they claim to act.
    My fellow Americans, our battle against terrorism did not begin with 
the bombing of our Embassies in Africa, nor will it end with today's 
strike. It will require strength, courage, and endurance. We will not 
yield to this threat; we will meet it, no matter how long it may take. 
This will be a long, ongoing struggle between freedom and fanaticism, 
between the rule of law and terrorism. We must be prepared to do all 
that we can for as long as we must.
    America is and will remain a target of terrorists precisely because 
we are leaders; because we act to advance peace, democracy, and basic 
human values; because we're the most open society on Earth; and because, 
as we have shown yet again, we take an uncompromising stand against 
terrorism.
    But of this I am also sure: The risks from inaction, to America and 
the world, would be far greater than action, for that would embolden our 
enemies, leaving their ability and their willingness to strike us 
intact. In this case, we knew before our attack that these groups 
already had planned further actions against us and others.
    I want to reiterate: The United States wants peace, not conflict. We 
want to lift lives around the world, not take them. We have worked for 
peace in Bosnia, in Northern Ireland, in Haiti, in the Middle East, and 
elsewhere. But in this day, no campaign for peace can succeed without a 
determination to fight terrorism.

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    Let our actions today send this message loud and clear: There are no 
expendable American targets; there will be no sanctuary for terrorists; 
we will defend our people, our interests, and our values; we will help 
people of all faiths, in all parts of the world, who want to live free 
of fear and violence. We will persist, and we will prevail.
    Thank you. God bless you, and may God bless our country.

Note: The President spoke at 5:32 p.m. from the Oval Office at the White 
House.