Today in Manhunting History -- August 14, 1998: Targeting Bin Laden for the First Time

On Friday, August 14, 1998, a week after the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, CIA Director George Tenet delivered to the NSC the CIA’s formal judgment that Osama bin Laden was responsible. Tenet began his presentation of the CIA and FBI’s investigation by stating: “This one is a slam dunk, Mr. President,” a phrase he would infamously repeat nearly five years later to a different president. Although the embassy attacks clearly constituted an act of war against sovereign U.S. territory, there was no serious discussion of a broad U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan.

Within days of the attacks the CIA received a report that senior leaders of terrorist groups linked to bin Laden had been summoned to a meeting on August 20 at the Zawhar Kili camp complex roughly seven miles south of Khost in eastern Afghanistan. The intelligence indicated that bin Laden himself would be present. Tenet called this information “a godsend. . . . We were accustomed to getting intelligence about where bin Laden had been. This was a rarity: intelligence predicting where he was going to be.” The principals quickly reached a consensus on attacking the gathering, with the objective of killing Osama bin Laden.

Former CIA Director George Tenet