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- A member of Osama bin Laden's
al-Qaida organization, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, was indicted in Federal court for allegedly conspiring to kill American nationals outside of the U.S. Salim is believed to be the chief financial adviser to bin Laden and serves on
al-Qaida's governing committee. Salim is also believed to have been involved in attempts to obtain components for nuclear weapons and issued religious decrees saying Muslims should unite to attack the U.S. (UPI, 1/6/99)
- The Clinton Administration is seeking additional counterterrorist funds including $2.8 billion to fight chemical, biological and computer warfare and more than $3 billion to fortify and rebuild its missions overseas. (The New York Times, 1/22/99, 1/25/99)
- A Federal jury has convicted Randy Graham, 42, a member of the Northern Michigan Militia, on conspiracy and drug charges for his role in a plot to blow up Federal buildings, electrical transformers and a television station. (UPI, 1/26/99)
- The National Governors' Association Center for Best Practices and the National Emergency Management Association sponsored a two-day summit for state and local governments to give input to the development of a national terrorism strategy. (AP, 2/3/99)
- The Administration imposed economic sanctions against 10 Russian institutes and enterprises for alleged sales of nuclear and missile technology to Iran. (Journal of Commerce, 2/24/99)
- Calling a Web site run by antiabortion activists "a blatant and illegal communication of true threats to kill," a Federal judge in Oregon banned the computer site called "The Nuremberg Files" from publishing "wanted" posters and personal information on doctors who perform abortions. The ruling followed a decision by a Portland Federal jury to award $107 million in damages to a group of doctors who had sued the operators of the Web site, claiming that it incited violence. (The Washington Post, 2/26/99)
- Illegal Palestinian immigrant Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer, 25, convicted of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in a 1997 suicide bomb plot targeting Jews traveling through a New York City subway station, was sentenced in Federal court to life imprisonment. (The New York Times, 3/2/99)
- The leader of the Montana Freemen, LeRoy Schweitzer, 61, was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison for trying to undermine the nation's banking system. Four of Schweitzer's followers received sentences ranging from probation to 15 years in jail. (The Washington Post, 3/17/99)
- Under legislation passed in 1996 that gives Americans who are victims of terrorist acts abroad the right to sue foreign countries in U.S. courts if those countries have been classified by the State Department as sponsors of terrorism, former hostage Terry Anderson filed a $100 million lawsuit against the government of Iran for its support of Hezbollah terrorists who kidnapped him and held him captive in Lebanon for nearly seven years. (The Washington Post, 3/23/99)
- The State Department issued its annual report Patterns of Global Terrorism, which documented 273 international terrorist attacks during 1998, marking a decrease from the 304 attacks in 1997 and the lowest annual total since 1971. The total numbers of people killed and wounded, 741 and 5,952 respectively, mark the highest on record. About 40 percent of the attacks in 1998 were directed against U.S. targets. Twelve U.S. citizens died in terrorist attacks in 1998, all in the August 1998 Embassy bombing in Nairobi. Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria remain on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. (Patterns of Global Terrorism 1998, 4/30/99)
- Denver authorities arrested Jack Modig, 39, for allegedly planning to torch a Denver mosque, and "kill Iraqis." A variety of weapons and bomb materials were found in Modig's car. Modig has had contacts with the Colorado Common Law Court, a spin-off of the militia movement. (AP, 5/13/99)
- An Arkansas jury sentenced white supremacists Daniel Lewis Lee, 26, to death and Chevie Kehoe, 26, to life imprisonment, for carrying out murder, kidnapping, robbery and bombing in four states as part of a plan to set up an all-white racist nation in the Pacific Northwest. (The Washington Post, 5/15/99)
- The U.S. Government indicted former U.S. Army sergeant Ali A. Mohammed, 46, on charges of collaborating with Osama bin Laden in a global conspiracy to kill Americans abroad. (The New York Times, 5/20/99)
- Two bills seeking to curb the proliferation of missile technology and nuclear capabilities to Iran are pending in Congress. The Iran Nonproliferation Act of 1999 conditions U.S. payments toward the International Space Station on Russian steps to end its assistance toward Iran and the Iran Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act would withhold the portion of the U.S. contribution to the International Atomic Energy Agency used for programs in Iran. (H.R. 1883, 5/20/99, H.R. 1477, 4/20/99)
- North American Militia member Bradford Metcalf, 48, convicted of plotting to blow up government buildings and threatening to murder Federal officials, was sentenced to 40 years in prison without the possibility of parole. (AP, 5/25/99)
- The FBI put Osama bin Laden, indicted in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and James C. Kopp, wanted in the 1998 killing of a doctor who performed abortions, on its 10 Most Wanted list. A grand jury later indicted Kopp for the murder of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian. (The New York Times, 6/8/99, 6/25/99)
- Citing an amendment contained in the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the Supreme Court refused to dismiss Libya from a U.S. lawsuit seeking billions of dollars in damages for the nation's alleged role in sponsoring the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people. (AP, 6/14/99)
- A Federal grand jury indicted Ayman al-Zawahiri and Khalid al-Fawwaz in connection with the August 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa. The indictment also charged the two men, who are believed to be close associates of Osama bin Laden and who are currently not in U.S. custody, with conspiring to kill Americans around the world. Al-Fawwaz is currently being held by British authorities and is awaiting extradition while al-Zawahiri, the leader of Egyptian Jihad, is thought to be in Afghanistan with bin Laden. (The New York Times, 6/17/99)
- Federal authorities arrested Kathleen Ann Soliah, a long-sought member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a band of leftist radicals that kidnapped newspaper heiress Patty Hearst 25 years ago. Soliah was indicted in 1976 on felony charges, including conspiracy to murder police officers and possession of explosives. (The Washington Post, 6/17/99)
- A Federal appeals court upheld the State Department's listing of Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran as foreign terrorist organizations. (The Washington Post, 6/26/99)
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