Editing Osama bin Laden (section)

=== Criminal charges ===
On 16 March 1998, Libya issued the first official Interpol [[arrest warrant]] against Bin Laden and three other people. They were charged for killing Silvan Becker, agent of Germany's domestic intelligence service, the [[Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution]], in the Terrorism Department, and his wife Vera in Libya on 10 March 1994.<ref name="interpol" /><ref>{{cite web |last=Flade |first=Florian |date=2 May 2011 |title=The Untold Story of Gaddafi's Hunt For Osama bin Laden |url=http://www.worldcrunch.com/untold-story-gaddafis-hunt-osama-bin-laden/2963 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111122185405/http://worldcrunch.com/untold-story-gaddafis-hunt-osama-bin-laden/2963 |archive-date=22 November 2011 |access-date=3 September 2011 |publisher=[[Die Welt]]/Worldcrunch}}</ref> Bin Laden was still wanted by the [[Libyan government]] at the time of his death.<ref>{{cite web |last=Salama |first=Sammy |date=September 2004 |title=Was Libyan WMD Disarmament a Significant Success for Nonproliferation? |url=http://www.nti.org/e_research/e3_56a.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110602234625/http://www.nti.org/e_research/e3_56a.html |archive-date=2 June 2011 |access-date=28 May 2010 |publisher=NTI}}</ref><ref>Interpol Arrest Warrant File No. 1998/20232, Control No. A-268/5-1998. Brisard Jean-Charles, Dasquie Guillaume. "Forbidden Truth". (New York: Thunder Mouth Press, 2002), p. 156.</ref> He was first indicted by a [[grand jury]] of the U.S. on 8 June 1998, on a charges of conspiracy to attack defense utilities of the U.S. and prosecutors further charged that Bin Laden was the head of the terrorist organization called al-Qaeda, and that he was a major financial backer of Islamic fighters worldwide.<ref name="cron">{{cite web |author1=Frontline |author-link=Frontline (American TV program) |author2=The New York Times |author3=Rain Media |year=c. 2001 |title=Osama bin Laden: A Chronology of His Political Life |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/etc/cron.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060717222134/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/etc/cron.html |archive-date=17 July 2006 |access-date=25 July 2006 |work=Hunting Bin Laden: Who Is Bin Laden? |series=Frontline |publisher=[[WGBH-TV|WGBH]] Educational Foundation}}</ref>

During the Clinton administration, capturing Bin Laden had been an objective of the U.S. government.<ref>{{Cite news |date=25 September 2006 |title=Bill Clinton: I got closer to killing Bin Laden |url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/24/clinton.binladen/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061005001828/http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/24/clinton.binladen/index.html |archive-date=5 October 2006 |access-date=27 May 2010 |publisher=CNN}}</ref> Shortly after the September 11 attacks, it was revealed that Clinton had signed a directive authorizing the CIA (specifically, their elite [[Special Activities Center|Special Activities Division]]) to apprehend Bin Laden and bring him to the U.S. to stand trial for the 1998 embassy attacks; if taking him alive was deemed impossible, then deadly force was authorized.<ref name="cbs">{{cite news |date=16 September 2001 |title=Report: Clinton Targeted Bin Laden |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-clinton-targeted-bin-laden/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110508111618/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/16/national/main311490.shtml |archive-date=8 May 2011 |publisher=[[CBS News]]}}</ref> On 20 August 1998, 66 cruise missiles launched by U.S. Navy ships in the [[Arabian Sea]] struck Bin Laden's training camps near [[Khost]] in Afghanistan, missing him by a few hours.<ref name="Woodward&Ricks">{{cite news |last1=Woodward |first1=Bob |last2=Ricks |first2=Thomas E. |date=3 October 2001 |title=CIA Trained Pakistanis to Nab Terrorist But Military Coup Put an End to 1999 Plot |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800629.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160828011415/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800629.html |archive-date=28 August 2016 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref>

On 4 November 1998, Bin Laden was indicted by a [[Grand juries in the United States|Federal Grand Jury]] in the [[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York]], on charges of ''Murder of US Nationals Outside the United States, Conspiracy to Murder US Nationals Outside the United States, and Attacks on a Federal Facility Resulting in Death''<ref name=":3">{{cite web |title=Indictment #S(9) 98 Cr. 1023 |url=https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/nys/pressreleases/October12/ChargingDocs/Bin%20Laden.%20Usama%20S7%20Indictment.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226024410/https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/nys/pressreleases/October12/ChargingDocs/Bin%20Laden.%20Usama%20S7%20Indictment.pdf |archive-date=26 February 2017 |access-date=6 Feb 2023 |publisher=U.S. Department of Justice}}</ref> for his alleged role in the 1998 embassy attacks. The evidence against Bin Laden included courtroom testimony by former al-Qaeda members and satellite phone records, from a phone purchased for him by al-Qaeda procurement agent [[Ziyad Khaleel]] in the U.S.<ref>{{Cite news |date=14 February 2001 |title=Embassy bombing defendant linked to Bin Laden |url=http://archives.cnn.com/2001/LAW/02/14/embassy.bombing.02/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071226033056/http://archives.cnn.com/2001/LAW/02/14/embassy.bombing.02/index.html |archive-date=26 December 2007 |publisher=CNN}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Profile: Osama bin Laden |url=http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=osama_bin_laden |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229162104/http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=osama_bin_laden |archive-date=29 December 2010 |access-date=16 December 2018 |publisher=Cooperative Research}}</ref> However, the Taliban ruled not to extradite Bin Laden on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence published in the indictments and that non-Muslim courts lacked standing to try Muslims.<ref>{{cite news |date=21 November 1998 |title=Osama bin Laden 'innocent' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/217947.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111223030402/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/217947.stm |archive-date=23 December 2011 |work=BBC News}}</ref>

Bin Laden became the [[FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 1990s|456th person listed]] on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, when he was added on 7 June 1999, following his indictment along with others for [[Capital punishment|capital crimes]] in the 1998 embassy attacks. Attempts at assassination and requests for the extradition of Bin Laden from the Taliban of Afghanistan were met with failure before the bombing of Afghanistan in October 2001.<ref>{{cite news |last=Reeve |first=William |date=21 November 1998 |title=Osama bin Laden 'innocent' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/217947.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100114154322/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/217947.stm |archive-date=14 January 2010 |access-date=27 May 2010 |work=BBC News}}</ref> In 1999, US President Bill Clinton convinced the United Nations to impose sanctions against Afghanistan in an attempt to force the Taliban to extradite him.<ref>{{cite news |date=15 October 1999 |title=Security Council demands that Taliban turn over Osama bin Laden to appropriate authorities |url=https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/1999/19991015.sc6739.doc.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130816074745/http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/1999/19991015.sc6739.doc.html |archive-date=16 August 2013 |publisher=United Nations}}</ref>

In 1999, the CIA, together with Pakistani military intelligence, had prepared a team of approximately 60 Pakistani commandos to infiltrate Afghanistan to capture or kill Bin Laden, but the plan was aborted by the [[1999 Pakistani coup d'état]];<ref name="Woodward&Ricks" /> in 2000, foreign operatives working on behalf of the CIA had fired a [[rocket-propelled grenade]] at a convoy of vehicles in which Bin Laden was traveling through the mountains of Afghanistan, hitting one of the vehicles but not the one in which Bin Laden was riding.<ref name="cbs" />

In 2000, before the September 11 attacks, [[Paul Bremer]] characterized the [[Clinton administration]] as correctly focused on Bin Laden, while [[Robert B. Oakley|Robert Oakley]] criticized their obsession with Osama.<ref name="Loeb" />