(2006-1700-F) Osama bin Laden

The materials in FOIA 2006-1700-F are a selective body of documents responsive to the topic of the FOIA. It should also be noted that there is significant overlap between this FOIA and FOIA request 2006-0228-F. Researchers should consult the archivist about related materials. This collection was a request for records dated March 3, 1997 to January 20, 2001 between Richard Clarke, Samuel Berger, and the President referring to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Taliban. The collection contains unclassified e-mails related to meetings or drafting public guidance. It also includes administrative materials related to document handling and tracking. Samuel Berger did not use e-mail and therefore e-mail correspondence is from Clarke to subordinates of Samuel Berger, and typically carry the instruction “FOR SRB.” Memorandum for the President would pass from Clarke through Berger to the President. It should be noted that because of sensitivities associated with counterterrorism activities and discussion related to Osama bin Laden this FOIA request is largely closed.  Richard A. Clarke began his government career working for the Department of Defense in 1973. In 1985, he was named Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence. From this position, Clarke rose to Assistant Secretary of State for Politico-Military Affairs. President Clinton named Clarke Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of Global Issues and Multilateral Affairs-later Transnational Threats-in the National Security Council. During this period, Clarke closely monitored terrorism and U.S. counterterrorism efforts, often advising Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, Samuel Berger. Clarke became an expert on Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda jihadist network. Clarke remained in the National Security Council into the George W. Bush administration but left in 2003 after becoming particularly open in his criticism of the administration. Osama bin Laden, often reffered to by the U.S. Government as Usama bin Laden or UBL, was the founder of al-Qaeda and was widely held as the mastermind behind a number of terrorist attacks on civilian and military targets around the world. In 1979, following college, bin Laden joined the Mujahadeen efforts fighting the Russians in Afghanistan. Intellectually drawn to jihad in college, it was in 1988 that bin Laden founded al-Qaeda with its jihadist focus and a determination to take up the jihadist cause elsewhere in the world. Following the withdrawal of Russian troops in 1989, bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden’s first known bombing was in Aden, Yemen in 1992. Though al-Qaeda was already active planning attacks on the United States—plans were discovered as early as 1990—the Embassy attacks at Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya in 1998 resulted in bin Laden becoming one of the FBI’s ten most wanted criminals. The CIA warned in December of 1998 that al-Qaeda was planning attacks in the United States. Bin Laden claimed responsibility for leading the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Ultimately bin Laden was tracked to a home in Pakistan and was killed by covert action on May 2, 2011.