WASHINGTON -- In retrospect, the only public hint of the assault to come -- the only moment when President Clinton's intense, parallel preparations for his political survival and for a strike against terrorists might have crossed -- came Monday night.
After he grimly admitted his intimate relationship with Monica Lewinsky, the president tried to turn the nation's attention to more noble subjects -- to "important work to do," including "real security matters to face."
That was it. The president did not mention his meeting that afternoon in the White House solarium to discuss future counterterrorist missile strikes, even as prosecutors were arriving downstairs to grill him under oath about Lewinsky.
He did not mention that before he went to face the prosecutors, he ordered National Security Adviser Samuel R. Berger to convene the government's top security officials Tuesday for one more run-through of the mission. That meeting came just before the president left on what the world and even most of his aides expected to be a 12-day vacation, spent mostly in seclusion with his wife, daughter and dog.
In fact, at his borrowed estate on Martha's Vineyard. Clinton's telephone conversations to outside political advisers to discuss the dismal reaction to his speech about his relationship with Lewinsky were interspersed with calls to his security aides about the mission.
On Wednesday night, the president and his family went out to celebrate his 52nd birthday. He returned at 11: 30 p.m. to more telephone calls to advisers, including Vice President Al Gore, to chew over a last, troubling question about the targets.
He made up his mind about the targeting, then gave his final go-ahead in a talk with Berger at 3 a.m. Thursday.
Never has Clinton's fabled ability to compartmentalize his life been more starkly demonstrated than in the last two weeks.
As the one man in the world who held all the information, he walled off meetings with his lawyers to prepare for his testimony from meetings with his national security advisers to plan one of the largest military operations of his presidency -- simultaneous strikes seas apart by about 75 cruise missiles.
No political meddling
Anticipating accusations of political manipulation, the national security team took pains to avoid any appearance of political meddling. Berger, who headed the meetings to plan the mission, kept the operation a secret until the middle of this week from all but two of the president's top political advisers, chief of staff Erskine Bowles and his deputy, John D. Podesta.
White House advisers scoffed at suggestions that politics played a role in the assault. Several said that the recommendation for the attack was based on very strong intelligence and was unanimous. They said Pentagon and intelligence officials with no record of partisanship joined strongly in the recommendation.
Clinton's lawyers were said by White House aides to have complained last week that they were not getting enough time with him to prepare. They learned the reason why only when the rest of the world did, as the president appeared at 1: 55 p.m. before reporters gathered in an elementary school gymnasium on Martha's Vineyard and announced, "Today we have struck back."
Talk of a possible mission began Aug. 7, after powerful bombs exploded outside U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Twelve Americans and nearly 300 Africans were killed. The senior officials who would ultimately plan the strike held their first meeting. Sketchy intelligence reports already pointed at a culprit, Osama bin Laden, an exiled Saudi millionaire living in Afghanistan who had declared a terrorist war on the United States.
Gingrich was briefed
The White House also began what would be a series of briefings for House Speaker Newt Gingrich on the intelligence findings about the bombing.
On Aug. 10, Clinton departed on a political fund-raising trip to California, with White House officials insisting that he was going about business as usual despite his approaching date with prosecutors.
But the president cut short his trip to fly back to the White House the next night, arriving after dawn. Some political commentators surmised that Clinton was returning to prepare his defense. In fact, his stated reason was the real reason: He wanted to meet with his national security team.
The meeting lasted for an hour in the Situation Room in the White House basement, for a briefing on the investigation into the bombings and diplomacy with Africa. Then top White House, Pentagon, State Department and CIA officials -- what came to be called the small group -- moved up to the Oval Office with the president for a 45-minute talk about retaliation.
Further intelligence had confirmed links between bin Laden and the bombings, officials said, and suggested that a group of high-level terrorists would be gathering Thursday at a large compound in Afghanistan that was associated with him.
Army Gen. Henry H. Shelton, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had already prepared a set of flip charts for a proposed missile assault on directions from Berger.
The president started firing off questions. His security advisers described him as clear-headed and focused at every meeting. He never referred to his political or legal troubles, they said.
On Wednesday, according to a senior official who was present, Clinton wanted to know more about damage to civilians, possible terrorist retaliation and the expected response of other nations.
Clinton focused on one of the targets, a factory in the Sudanese city of Khartoum that intelligence showed was used to manufacture the precursor chemicals of VX nerve gas -- elements in themselves not dangerous. But, the president asked, what if the factory also stored a great deal of the deadly gas itself?
Clinton gave permission to begin moving ships into position in the Red and Arabian seas for an attack to begin in eight days.
The next day, Aug. 13, the president wept silently at Andrews Air Force Base as coffins arrived carrying the remains of 10 of the 12 Americans who died in Nairobi. Meanwhile, some of his closest advisers told reporters from the New York Times that, contrary to his previous denials, Clinton was considering telling the grand jury that he had had an intimate relationship with Lewinsky.
Reassured over casualties
On Aug. 14, at a meeting in the Oval Office, Clinton got the answers he had requested two days before. Shelton described a "plume analysis," which showed that because of the location of the factory, the casualties would not be high even if the factory contained nerve gas. Clinton gave the green light for the mission, and Shelton informed him that he had until 6 a.m. Thursday, to call it off.
Over the weekend, David Kendall, the president's private lawyer, practically moved into the White House. He met for hours with Clinton. On Saturday morning, the president delivered his radio address about receiving the bodies at Andrews. "Our administration will remain committed to the fight against terror," he said, with no elaboration.
On Monday morning, the president worked out in the White House gymnasium, then spent two hours with his lawyers. He followed that with the briefing in the solarium from Berger, who covered not just the pending operation but also the devaluation of the Russian ruble and other matters.
Then the president walked downstairs to the Map Room and shook hands politely with the prosecutors, whom his advisers say he had come to loathe. At 10 p.m. he addressed the nation for four minutes, again from the Map Room. Instant reviews panned the speech: too much anger, too little sorrow.
nTC As chatter filled the air waves the next morning, he met again with his national security team.
His team had by then given considerable thought to how to announce the assault. They recommended that Clinton go on his vacation as though nothing was in the works, then briefly announce the mission Thursday afternoon before returning to Washington for an Oval Office address.
It was the only recommendation that Clinton accepted without question, a senior administration official said yesterday.
On Tuesday, Gingrich, a Georgia Republican, was given a detailed briefing on the intelligence on bin Laden, followed Wednesday by a description of attack plans.
A few minutes before the president appeared in the Martha's Vineyard school gymnasium, the White House warned television networks of a major announcement on national security. At least one correspondent telephoned a senior White House official to ask if Clinton was about to resign.
The networks broke into the soap operas to show Clinton, making his first remarks since admitting on Monday night that he had misled the country. "Good afternoon," he began. "Today I ordered our armed forces to strike."
Pub Date: 8/22/98