Appendix: Sudan

From an Associated Press photo:

Debris from a pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum destroyed by U.S. cruise missiles on Thursday, August 20,1998. Sudanese President Omar Hassan el-Bashir said that if the United States truly believed that the Khartoum pharmaceutical factory made chemical weapons, it committed an ugly crime by bombing it in the midst of a city and endangering thousands of lives by the risk of releasing the chemicals into the surrounding neighborhoods.

Beautiful Lady, Belladonna

"...well into the nineteenth century a few drops of liquid distilled from belladonna, a plant of the nightshade family, used to be applied to the pupils of operatic divas before they went on stage, and those young women about to be introduced to a suitor, with the result that their eyes shone with a rapt and almost supernatural radiance, but they themselves could see almost nothing."

~ W.G.Sebald, Austerlitz, 2001

An abbreviated chronology: All Monica, All The Time

November 1995: Lewinsky and President Bill Clinton begin a sexual relationship. Jan. 19, 1998: Lewinsky's name surfaces in an Internet gossip column, the Drudge Report. Jan. 21, 1998: Several news organizations report the alleged sexual relationship between Lewinsky and Clinton. Clinton denies the allegations as the scandal erupts. Jan. 22, 1998: Clinton reiterates his denial of the relationship and says he never urged Lewinsky to lie. Jan. 25, 1998: Ginsburg says Lewinsky will "tell all" in exchange for immunity. Clinton political adviser James Carville says "a war" will be waged between Clinton supporters and Kenneth Starr over Starr's investigation tactics. Jan. 26, 1998: Clinton repeats his denial, saying, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." July 25, 1998: Independent Counsel Ken Starr has served President Clinton with a subpoena that calls for his testimony before the Lewinsky grand jury. July 28, 1998: In a dramatic breakthrough, lawyers for Lewinsky and Starr work out a full immunity agreement covering both Lewinsky and her parents. July 29, 1998: President Bill Clinton agrees to testify voluntarily and Starr's office withdraws the subpoena. July 30, 1998: Sources say that as part of her immunity agreement, Lewinsky has handed over to prosecutors a dark blue dress that she alleges may contain physical evidence of a sexual relationship with President Bill Clinton. The dress is turned over to the FBI lab for testing. Aug. 6, 1998: Monica Lewinsky appears before the grand jury to begin her testimony. Aug. 17, 1998: President Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting president to testify before a grand jury investigating his conduct. After the questioning at the White House is finished, Clinton goes on national TV to admit he had an inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Aug. 19, 1998: Word that Starr has requested and received a sample of Clinton's DNA becomes public. Aug. 20, 1998: Monica Lewinsky testifies before the grand jury for a second time.

Saying "there will be no sanctuary for terrorists," President Clinton on Thursday said the U.S. strikes against terrorist bases in Afghanistan and a facility in Sudan are part of "a long, ongoing struggle between freedom and fanaticism."

His comments were broadcast live from the White House shortly after he arrived in Washington from his vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

In a brief comment made before his departure, referring to the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7, the president said, "Today, we have struck back."

Press Release: September 29, 1998
General Assembly of the United Nations

UNITED STATES BOMBING OF PHARMACEUTICAL PLANT GRAVE 'ACT OF TERRORISM' SUDAN'S MINISTER FOR EXTERNAL RELATIONS TELLS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The bombing of the El-Shifa pharmaceutical plant in the Sudan by the United States was a "grave act of terrorism", as heinous and cowardly as the bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, the Minister for External Relations of the Sudan, Mustafa Osman Ismail, told the General Assembly this morning.

Speaking as the Assembly continued its general debate, Mr. Ismail said the factory had produced essential and life-saving medicines and nothing but medicines. In this instance, the United States had acted as "adversary, jury and judge" and continued to oppose even the dispatch of a fact-finding mission by the Security Council – called for by the League of Arab States – which could easily establish the facts about the production and ownership of the factory.

The bombing came at a time of enormous health crisis in the Sudan, caused by famine. In war-torn southern Sudan 2.4 million are at risk of starvation, and in all Sudan, 2.6 million Sudanese – approximately ten percent of Sudan's 27 million population – are at risk, according to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

The medicine for treating the malnourished came mainly from the El-Shifa factory, the largest in the Middle East. The factory, whose components were imported from the United States, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, India and Thailand, was producing antibiotics, malaria tablets and syrups, as well as drugs for hypertension, diabetes, ulcer, tuberculosis and rheumatism.

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark has said the U.S. government wanted an excuse to strike at Sudan and the decision to bomb a pharmaceutical plant there was strictly political. Clark made the accusations to reporters after returning from Sudan, where he led a delegation from the International Action Center on a fact-finding mission to the El Shifa pharmaceutical factory.

According to some administration officials, the factory was attacked in the belief that a soil sample taken from outside the plant revealed the presence of Empta, a key ingredient in deadly VX nerve gas. "It is absolutely absurd to believe that they scooped up some dirt and found nerve gas on the outside of the plant,'' Clark said, adding there were some four million people living in the Khartoum area and that any nerve gas would have affected local residents. Instead Clark said the U.S. "merely wanted an excuse to hit Sudan. The way the target was chosen was purely a political decision.''

• The Folly of Proof | Appendix: IRAQ

• The Folly of Proof | Appendix: KOSOVO