1. Modern History of al-Qaeda and Terrorism against the U.S.

2. What is al-Qaeda?
Al Qaeda is a stateless (meaning without a country) terrorist organization.
It was led and financed by Osama bin Laden, who was a radical
Shi’a Muslim and from
Saudi Arabia

3. When did al-Qaeda form?
The beginnings of al-Qaeda go back to 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

4. This was during the Cold War, and President Jimmy Carter opposed the Soviet invasion so he approved funding for military advisors and weapons to be used by the Afghanis to fight the Soviet Army.
The CIA sent stinger missiles to Afghans to shoot down Soviet helicopters.

5. Bin Laden in Afghanistan
Son of a wealthy Saudi Arabian family, Osama bin Laden was able to organize young men disillusioned with the royal Saudis to join the struggle.
He learned that armed Muslims could defeat a powerful Christian army
The Soviet army left in 1988.

6. Bin Laden moves to Sudan
Bin Laden and his followers organized in order to set up a base for future jihads. They spent the next 5 years doing military training exercises in Sudan.

7. In 1983, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, a terrorist group bombed a Marine barracks in Lebanon. Reagan did not retaliate despite the death of 283 U.S. Marines.

8. Desert Storm (Gulf War I)
In 1990, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded the tiny, oil-rich country of Kuwait. Kuwait owed Iraq money, so Hussein wanted to secure Kuwaiti oil fields. He believed that the U.S. would support him because they backed Iraq in the war against Iran, from 1980 to 1988.

9. Operation Desert Storm, 1990
U.S. imports oil from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait put those precious oil fields in danger. The belief was that if Saddam Hussein wanted to, he could invade Saudi Arabia and seize their oil fields too.
Iraqi tanks

10. U.S. and Saudi coalition
Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and other members of the Bush 41 administration went to The Kingdom and asked the Saudi royal family for permission to establish military bases in their country. The Royal Family had a tough choice to make: Do they allow a Christian army into the holiest country of Islam? Do they allow
American female soldiers
into The Kingdom?
Can the Saudis
themselves stop Saddam
Hussein?

11. Saudi’s choice
Osama bin Laden was back home from Afghanistan. He offered the Saudis the use of his soldiers to fight the Iraqi army because he believed that once the U.S. establishes a base, they won’t leave. Christian armies have no place in the land of Islam.

12. The Saudi Royal family chose the U.S. and not bin Laden.
President George H.W. Bush “liberated” Kuwait and pushed the Iraqi army back into Iraq. His quote: “This war is being fought for a three-letter word: God.”

13. Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden openly criticized the Saudi government. Saudi Arabia banished him; his family disowned him (officially).
Bin Laden left Saudi Arabia for Sudan to further build al Qaeda.

14. U.S. in Somalia
Dec. 4, 1992, George H.W. Bush sent 28,000 American troops to Somalia.
President Bush wanted to help the Somali people since all attempts to send food to them were intercepted by war lords.

15. The fiasco in Mogadishu
In 1993, 18 Americans died when their Black Hawk helicopter was shot down over Mogadishu, Somalia.

16. al Qaeda?
Some politicians think al Qaeda operatives taught the Somalians how to shoot down helicopters just like they did in Afghanistan against the Soviets.
The Somalis were using the same type of weapons that the
U.S. gave to the
Taliban when they
were fighting the
Soviets in the
1980s.

17. Iraqi terrorism
In 1993, agents working with the full support of Saddam Hussein tried to kill former President George H.W. Bush.
President Clinton responded by destroying their intelligence center.

18. World Trade Center bombing
9-11 was not the first terrorist attack on the WTC.
In 1993, a man rented a Ryder truck and detonated a large bomb in one of the towers hoping to knock it over onto the other tower.

19. Ramzi Yousef
He was a planner of the WTC bombing. He was a member/leader of al Qaeda.
Yousef stated, "Yes, I am a terrorist, and proud of it as long as it is against the U.S. government."
Speak 7 languages and has college degrees in engineering and chemistry.
Currently serving a life sentence.

20. 1993 WTC bombing The WTC bombing killed 6 people and
injured over 1000.

21. 1995 Oklahoma City bombing
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols detonated a large truck bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City.
This case of “domestic terrorism” was not connected to any foreign terrorist activities.

22. Oklahoma City
168 people died and many more were injured, including children in the day care at the bottom.

23. 1996 car bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia
The Khobar Towers provided housing for American military stationed in Saudi Arabia. 19 Americans were killed and hundreds injured.

24. Fatwa
In August of 1998, Osama bin Laden and 4 of his close associates sign and distribute a statement declaring “it is the individual duty for every Muslim who can do it” to kill Americans.

25. Kenyan embassy bombings
Two American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed simultaneously in people were killed.

26. President Bill Clinton response
President Clinton decided to attack al Qaeda in response.

27. U.S. attacked al Qaeda training camps in Sudan and Afghanistan with Tomahawk missiles. The camps were destroyed. Bin Laden survived.

28. U.S. responds with Tomahawk missiles

29. Millennium Attacks Foiled
Jordanian police halted 4 bombings that were to happen January 1, al Qaeda members were arrested.
4 al Qaeda terrorists were arrested after one tried to cross the Canadian border with nitroglycerin in his spare tire. They set out to bomb the LA International Airport.
In Yemen, a boat with explosives tried to bomb a navy ship but sank due to being overloaded.

30. USS Cole attack October 2000
In Yemen, Al Qaeda operatives sent a suicide bomber aboard a small ship near the USS Cole
and detonated its bomb, blowing a large hole in the U.S. Navy ship. 17 sailors were killed.

31. Where is the Sudan and Yemen?

33. September 11, 2001
Four airplanes were hijacked by al Qaeda terrorists.
Two crashed into the 2 World Trade Center towers.
One crashed into the Pentagon, the military building of the U.S. armed forces.
One crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, likely because passengers forced the plane down.

36. 343 firefighters and paramedics were killed
2819 people were killed
343 firefighters and paramedics were killed
Khalid Sheik Muhhamad was the central
Planner of the 9/11. Most terrorists (at right)
were from Saudi Arabia.

38. /

48. Firemen going up before towers collapsed.

50. Shoes people left behind to run faster.

52. A plane crashed into the Pentagon killing hundreds.
These buildings were targeted, the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon, because they symbolized U.S. financial and military power

59. Pentagon after attack

60. Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania
Its target was possibly the
White House or Capitol
building. It is believed tha the
passengers forced the
plane down.

61. Taliban
Al Qaeda and the Taliban government of Afghanistan were virtually one and the same.
NATO forces responded to the attack on America by organizing troops that were sent into Afghanistan to eliminate the government and destroy al Qaeda.
Many criticized President Bush for taking troops out of Afghanistan to fight in Iraq.
The war is still being fought, becoming the longest military venture that the U.S. has been involved in, unless you count Vietnam ( ).

62. Operation “Enduring Freedom” in Afghanistan

63. Where is Afghanistan?

65. Tora Bora
Famous battle in Afghanistan where al Qaeda allegedly saved Osama bin Laden’s life and snuck him out of the area and back into Pakistan.

67. Richard Reid
December 22, 2001
Now known as the “shoe bomber,” tried to destroy an airplane by igniting explosives hidden inside his shoes.

68. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad
September 2002, Pakistani officials arrested the 9/11 mastermind.
In reality, he was more dangerous than bin Laden.