(2018-0724-F) Attempted assassination of former President George H.W. Bush in Kuwait

The materials in FOIA 2018-0724-F are a selective body of documents responsive to the topic of the FOIA. Researchers should consult the archivist about related material. Records released in this collection include memorandum, notes, administrative forms, cables, emails, and correspondence. Open records discuss President George H. W. Bush’s trip to Kuwait, the assassination plot, the Kuwaiti investigation and trial of suspected assassins, and records related to the United States’ June 26, 1993 retaliation against Iraq. President George H. W. Bush left office January 20, 1993 and looked forward to fulfilling a November 1992 invitation by Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and the State of Kuwait to visit. On April 14, 1993, Bush traveled to Kuwait and was feted at a large and elaborate dinner in which he was awarded Kuwait’s highest award, the Order of Mubarak the Great. The Kuwaiti people saw former President Bush as a savior of their country and a great hero in their liberation from Iraq. However, President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, saw Bush as the reason for much of the suffering of the Iraqi people. A formerly classified and now released CIA report entitled “The Attempt that Failed: Iraq’s Attempt to Assassinate Former President Bush in Kuwait, April 1993” notes a long history of threats against the life of President Bush in, or through, the Iraqi press. Agents of the Iraqi Intelligence Service put in motion a plot to kill President Bush in Kuwait during his April 1993 visit. Many of the details have been reported in the press and through the Kuwaiti courts at trial. The plan failed when the Kuwaiti Security Services discovered the vehicles and explosives and arrested those involved. Ultimately at trial in the Kuwait State Security Court, 13 of 14 defendants were convicted of the attempted assassination of President Bush. On June 26, 1993, the United States retaliated against Iraq. President Clinton addressed the people of the United States on the evening of the 26th. In that speech Clinton noted, “It is clear that this was no impulsive or random act. It was an elaborate plan devised by the Iraqi Government and directed against a former President of the United States because of actions he took as President. As such, the Iraqi attack against President Bush was an attack against our country and against all Americans. We could not and have not let such action against our Nation go unanswered.” The United States attack resulted in the deaths of between six and eight Iraqi nationals and the wounding of another 12. On June 27, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke to an emergency gathering of the United Nations Security Council. The majority of records related to this FOIA case are closed for national security reasons.