{"id":23094,"date":"2026-08-24T09:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T13:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=23094"},"modified":"2026-08-24T09:51:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T13:51:48","slug":"presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/","title":{"rendered":"Presidential Entitlement to Kill: the 1998 Bombing of Sudan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Presidential Entitlement to Kill: The 1998 Bombing of Suda<\/a>n<\/h1>\n

By James Bovard<\/p>\n

Last week was the 28th<\/sup> anniversary of the U.S. government bombing of a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan. Scott Horton, director of the Libertarian Institute, observed last week that that wanton assault by the Clinton administration \u201chelped make a folk hero out of bin Laden<\/a>, drove up recruitment for Al Qaeda and made it more difficult for the Taliban to give him up.\u201d Operation Infinite Reach was a farce of the first order \u2013 and may have helped pave the way to the September 11 attacks.<\/p>\n

That carnage resulted in a federal court ruling that practically gave presidents a license to kill any time that they claimed to have good intentions. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

On August 7, 1998, two trucks loaded with explosives detonated nearly simultaneously, wrecking U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 224 people, including 12 Americans, and wounding more than 4,000.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government quickly concluded that the embassy attacks had been an al-Qaeda operation. Twelve days later the Clinton administration launched Operation Infinite Reach. In a failed attempt to kill Osama bin Laden, scores of Tomahawk cruise missiles struck al-Qaeda terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. Thirteen cruise missiles launched from U.S. ships in the Red Sea destroyed the El Shifa factory in Khartoum, Sudan.<\/p>\n

President Clinton announced that \u201cour goal was to destroy, in Sudan, the factory with which bin Laden\u2019s network is associated.\u201d Clinton declared that the attack on the \u201cchemical weapons-related facility\u201d was an \u201cexercise of our inherent right of self-defense … to prevent and deter additional attacks by a clearly identified terrorist threat\u201d and that the \u201cterrorist-related facilities in Afghanistan and Sudan\u201d were hit \u201cbecause of the imminent threat they presented to our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Washington press conferences on the day of the attack, National Security Adviser Sandy Berger continually referred to the \u201cso-called pharmaceutical plant.\u201d When a \u201csenior intelligence official\u201d speaking at a Pentagon briefing was asked, \u201cWhat is this pharmaceutical facility supposed to make?\u201d he replied, “We have no evidence \u2013 or have seen no products, commercial products that are sold out of this facility. The facility also has a secured perimeter and it\u2019s patrolled by the Sudanese military.”<\/p>\n

But the plant was actually wide open to visitors and had been visited by U.S. government officials, World Health Organization officials, and foreign diplomats in the months before the U.S. attack. There was no Sudanese military presence near the plant.<\/p>\n

Earlier in 1998, El Shifa had been awarded (with U.S. government approval) a UN contract to ship a hundred thousand cartons of a veterinary antibiotic medicine to Iraq under a special exemption to the UN embargo on that country. In the days after the attack, journalists reported that the factory grounds were littered with \u201cmelted packets of pain relievers and bottles of antibiotics.\u201d Before the smoke had ceased rising from the rubble, it was undeniable that El Shifa was the largest pharmaceutical producer in the Sudan.<\/p>\n

The factory was destroyed in part because, when CIA whiz kids searched the Internet for information on it, the El Shifa website did not contain a list of drugs the factory manufactured. This supposedly proved the factory was a chemical-weapons site that must be destroyed.<\/p>\n

Defense Secretary William Cohen announced, \u201cWe do know that [bin Laden] has had some financial interests in contributing to the \u2013 this particular facility.\u201d Salah Idris, a Saudi Arabian banker and industrialist, bought the plant five months before the United States destroyed it, but the U.S. government was unaware that the factory had changed hands. After Idris approached the U.S. government to seek to correct its mistaken assumptions about bin Laden\u2019s ownership, the U.S. government responded by notifying the Bank of America to freeze $24 million in Idris\u2019s bank accounts in the United Kingdom under a U.S. regulation covering \u201cpending investigations of interests of Specially Designated Terrorists.\u201d U.S. government officials claimed to possess secret evidence linking Idris to bin Laden. Yet, though the freeze was based on suspicions that Idris was a terrorist financier, the U.S. government never bothered to officially list him as such.<\/p>\n

Cohen announced that \u201cthe facility that was targeted in Khartoum produced the precursor chemicals that would allow the production of a type of VX nerve agent.\u201d Administration officials stressed that the \u201conly known use [of the precursor chemical discovered] is as a precursor ingredient in the nerve gas VX.\u201d In reality, the precursor ingredient \u2013 known as EMPTA \u2013 is also used in pesticides.<\/p>\n

The Clinton administration\u2019s smoking gun was little more than a cupful of dirt that a \u201cCIA operative\u201d had scooped up in December 1997<\/strong> across the street from the factory \u2013 60 feet from the factory entrance and on someone else\u2019s property. The CIA did not bother to test the soil sample until July 1998. Former CIA official Milt Bearden later observed, \u201cNever before has a single soil sample prompted an act of war against a sovereign state.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Clinton administration possessed a much stronger case for attacking the terrorist training camps in Afghanistan than the factory in the Sudan. But, especially with a name like \u201cOperation Infinite Reach,\u201d hitting only one country simply would not do. National Security Council official Richard Clarke later explained that since bin Laden showed his \u201cglobal reach\u201d by bombing U.S. embassies in two countries, President Clinton \u201cobviously decided to attack in more than one place.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his August 20 announcement, Clinton declared, \u201cAfghanistan and Sudan have been warned for years to stop harboring and supporting these terrorist groups. But countries that persistently host terrorists have no right to be safe havens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two weeks after the bombing, the Sudanese ambassador to the United States, Mahdi Ibrahim Mahammad, declared that in May 1998 he had \u201cdelivered a formal letter of invitation to a senior official in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, offering to establish a joint effort between our two countries to see the possibilities, to explore them, of working together against international terrorism.\u201d The United States scorned the Sudanese offer. Mahammad was angry that the U.S. government blocked a Sudanese request for a UN investigation of the bombing.<\/p>\n

When State Department Undersecretary Thomas Pickering was asked why the U.S. government opposed a Sudanese request for an independent investigation headed by former President Jimmy Carter,<\/strong> Pickering replied, \u201cI\u2019ve just presented the evidence very clearly, I think, on why this was a target. I don\u2019t believe that an international investigative committee needs to have an additional role. The evidence, in our view, is clear and persuasive.\u2019<\/p>\n

But the primary evidence presented was the assertion by a government official that the U.S. government possessed secret evidence \u2013 which, of course, it could not reveal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The cruise missile attack came three days after President Clinton, in a deposition with Independent Counsel Ken Starr\u2019s legal team, finally admitted he had had an \u201cinappropriate\u201d relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.<\/strong> Clinton gave a brief television address on August 17 during which he seemed nearly out of control with rage. Lewinsky was returning to the grand jury for additional testimony on the day that Clinton bombed Afghanistan and Sudan \u2013 giving rise to the nickname \u201cMonica\u2019s Missiles\u201d for the attacks.<\/p>\n

In a speech eight days after the attack, Clinton bragged to an audience about how he had sacrificed himself to protect innocent Sudanese:<\/p>\n

“The night before we took action against the terrorist operations in Afghanistan and Sudan, I was here on this island [Martha\u2019s Vineyard], up until 2:30 in the morning, trying to make absolutely sure that at that chemical plant there was no night shift…. I didn\u2019t want some person, who was a nobody to me but who may have a family to feed and a life to live and probably had no earthly idea what else was going on there, to die needlessly.”<\/p>\n

One factory watchman was killed and ten other people were injured in the attack.<\/p>\n

Clinton did not have a second thought about destroying the largest pharmaceutical factory in one of the poorest nations on Earth. The Sudanese, like many others in the Third World, cannot afford the more-expensive drugs produced in Western countries. El Shifa was the largest producer of malaria tablets in Africa. In the months after the attack, Sudanese government officials blamed the U.S. attack for a severe malaria epidemic.<\/p>\n

Twelve days after the bombing, Defense Secretary Cohen \u201cinsisted that the incomplete intelligence was irrelevant to President Clinton\u2019s decision to destroy\u201d the factory, the New York Times<\/em> reported. Cohen told reporters that the U.S. government \u201cdid not learn until at least three days after the attack on the plant that it made medicine.\u201d This raises questions about government officials\u2019 reading speeds, considering that the news was splashed all over the world\u2019s media within hours of the attack.<\/p>\n

Idris, the factory owner, hired one of the most respected law firms in Washington to file suit to have his assets unfrozen. On the day before the U.S. government was obliged to respond to his claims in federal court, it threw in the towel and permitted Idris to reclaim his $24 million. When Idris filed a second lawsuit to receive compensation for the destruction of his factory, the U.S. government effectively invoked sovereign immunity, refusing its permission to the lawsuit and thereby eliminating any chance for recompense.<\/p>\n

The U.S. attack on the Sudanese factory exemplified a fatal mixture of bad intelligence and crass politics.<\/strong> When the operation turned out to be a fiasco, there was a total evasion of responsibility. Instead, the Clinton administration preferred to repeat banalities about the evil of terrorists. Clinton portrayed the destruction of the factory as a triumph of American idealism:<\/p>\n

“Terrorists must have no doubt that in the face of their threats, America will protect its citizens and will continue to lead the world\u2019s fight for peace, freedom, and security…. America is and will remain a target of terrorists precisely because … we act to advance peace, democracy, and basic human values; because we\u2019re the most open society on Earth.”<\/p>\n

Despite the lofty rhetoric, Clinton\u2019s action, at best, did nothing more than protect Americans from Sudanese horse pills.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That Clinton shot at and missed bin Laden in the wake of the 1998 embassy bombings may have been the best thing that ever happened to bin Laden. At the time of the embassy bombings the Taliban were on the verge of expelling him from Afghanistan; they considered him to be a rude, trouble-making, publicity-hungry guest. But as a Wall Street Journal<\/em> analysis concluded, the U.S. retaliation \u201cturned Mr. bin Laden into a cult figure among Islamic radicals, made Afghanistan a rallying point for defiance of America and shut off Taliban discussion of expelling the militants. It also helped convince Mr. bin Laden that goading America to anger could help his cause, not hurt it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/em> concurred, noting that the failed U.S. counterstrike converted bin Laden into a \u201chero\u201d and a \u201crevered figure\u201d among many Muslims.<\/p>\n

Though the bombing policy was outrageous, it took a federal appeals court to convert one atrocity into a perpetual presidential license to kill. This doctrine provides a \u201cget out of jail free\u201d card for any president who itches to bomb foreign nations. The owners of the El-Shifa Pharmaceutical Industries plant\u2014the largest pharmaceutical factory in East Africa\u2014sued for compensation after Clinton\u2019s attack demolished their facility. Eleven years later, a federal appeals court dismissed the case: \u201cPresident Clinton, in his capacity as commander in chief, fired missiles at a target of his choosing to pursue a military objective he had determined was in the national interest. Under the Constitution, this decision is immune from judicial review.\u201d Determinations based on secret (often false) information legally absolved presidents of any killings or calamities abroad.<\/p>\n

As long as the president or his spokesmen claim benevolent motives, any killings they authorize are legally sacrosanct.<\/strong> This legal doctrine provided the shield for President Obama\u2019s assassination program that claimed a right to kill Americans without a trial, without notice, and without any chance for targets to legally object.\u00a0 The only legal liability for that program was limited to former NSA contractor Daniel Hale, who was convicted and imprisoned for disclosing that the Obama administration had no idea who it was killing with its drones and missile attacks abroad.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, few Americans realize that the U.S. government\u2019s pattern of reckless bombing began long before George W. Bush\u2019s 2003 invasion of Iraq. \u00a0Likewise, President Donald Trump\u2019s bombing campaigns and invasions have thus far been impossible to thwart on the homefront.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Presidential Entitlement to Kill: The 1998 Bombing of Sudan By James Bovard Last week was the 28th anniversary of the U.S. government bombing of a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan. Scott Horton, director of the Libertarian Institute, observed last week that that wanton assault by the Clinton administration \u201chelped make a folk hero out of bin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[450,347,51,4915,4914,4913,63,4916,2075,26],"class_list":["post-23094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bombing","tag-cia","tag-clinton","tag-el-shifa-factory","tag-milt-bearden","tag-monica-lewinsky","tag-murder","tag-operation-infinite-reach","tag-sudan","tag-terrorism"],"yoast_head":"\nPresidential Entitlement to Kill: the 1998 Bombing of Sudan - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Presidential Entitlement to Kill: the 1998 Bombing of Sudan - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Presidential Entitlement to Kill: The 1998 Bombing of Sudan By James Bovard Last week was the 28th anniversary of the U.S. government bombing of a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan. Scott Horton, director of the Libertarian Institute, observed last week that that wanton assault by the Clinton administration \u201chelped make a folk hero out of bin […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-24T13:51:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-24T13:51:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-at-09-37-59-Presidential-Entitlement-and-the-1998-Bombing-of-Sudan-The-Libertarian-Institute-1024x763.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"763\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/24\\\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/24\\\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"Presidential Entitlement to Kill: the 1998 Bombing of Sudan\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-24T13:51:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-24T13:51:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/24\\\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":2114,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/24\\\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-at-09-37-59-Presidential-Entitlement-and-the-1998-Bombing-of-Sudan-The-Libertarian-Institute.png\",\"keywords\":[\"bombing\",\"CIA\",\"Clinton\",\"El Shifa factory\",\"Milt Bearden\",\"Monica Lewinsky\",\"murder\",\"Operation Infinite Reach\",\"Sudan\",\"Terrorism\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/24\\\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/24\\\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/24\\\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\\\/\",\"name\":\"Presidential Entitlement to Kill: the 1998 Bombing of Sudan - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/24\\\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/24\\\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-at-09-37-59-Presidential-Entitlement-and-the-1998-Bombing-of-Sudan-The-Libertarian-Institute.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-24T13:51:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-24T13:51:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/24\\\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/24\\\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/24\\\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-at-09-37-59-Presidential-Entitlement-and-the-1998-Bombing-of-Sudan-The-Libertarian-Institute.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-at-09-37-59-Presidential-Entitlement-and-the-1998-Bombing-of-Sudan-The-Libertarian-Institute.png\",\"width\":1900,\"height\":1416},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/24\\\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Presidential Entitlement to Kill: the 1998 Bombing of Sudan\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Presidential Entitlement to Kill: the 1998 Bombing of Sudan - James Bovard","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Presidential Entitlement to Kill: the 1998 Bombing of Sudan - James Bovard","og_description":"Presidential Entitlement to Kill: The 1998 Bombing of Sudan By James Bovard Last week was the 28th anniversary of the U.S. government bombing of a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan. Scott Horton, director of the Libertarian Institute, observed last week that that wanton assault by the Clinton administration \u201chelped make a folk hero out of bin […]","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2026-08-24T13:51:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-08-24T13:51:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":763,"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-at-09-37-59-Presidential-Entitlement-and-the-1998-Bombing-of-Sudan-The-Libertarian-Institute-1024x763.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"Presidential Entitlement to Kill: the 1998 Bombing of Sudan","datePublished":"2026-08-24T13:51:10+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-24T13:51:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/"},"wordCount":2114,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-at-09-37-59-Presidential-Entitlement-and-the-1998-Bombing-of-Sudan-The-Libertarian-Institute.png","keywords":["bombing","CIA","Clinton","El Shifa factory","Milt Bearden","Monica Lewinsky","murder","Operation Infinite Reach","Sudan","Terrorism"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/","name":"Presidential Entitlement to Kill: the 1998 Bombing of Sudan - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-at-09-37-59-Presidential-Entitlement-and-the-1998-Bombing-of-Sudan-The-Libertarian-Institute.png","datePublished":"2026-08-24T13:51:10+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-24T13:51:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-at-09-37-59-Presidential-Entitlement-and-the-1998-Bombing-of-Sudan-The-Libertarian-Institute.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-at-09-37-59-Presidential-Entitlement-and-the-1998-Bombing-of-Sudan-The-Libertarian-Institute.png","width":1900,"height":1416},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/presidential-entitlement-to-kill-the-1998-bombing-of-sudan\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Presidential Entitlement to Kill: the 1998 Bombing of Sudan"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23094"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23098,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23094\/revisions\/23098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}