Thread by @CIA

OTD 1998: nearly simultaneous bombs blew up at US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya & Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. 224 people were killed, including a CIA officer, & more than 4,500 people were wounded.

20th Anniversary of the US Embassy Bombings in East Africa:
bit.ly/2MrEv8r

10:30AM Nairobi, Kenya: first truck, loaded w 2,000 pounds of TNT, forced its way to back entrance of embassy. Despite a grenade & firearms attack, Kenyan guards & @USMC prevented access to building where it would have exploded in US Embassy basement.

Instead, terrorist detonated the bomb at a gate to the embassy. Explosion reduced much of the interior of the embassy to rubble. The secondary fragmentation from flying glass, internal concrete block walls, furniture, & fixtures caused most of the embassy casualties.

The majority of the Kenyan casualties resulted from the collapse of adjacent buildings located within a two to three block radius. The explosion was heard throughout the city center & the reverberations were felt in most parts of Nairobi.

Minutes later, a second truck bomb exploded outside of the US Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, causing extensive damage to the building. In total, the 2 bombings killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. Many thousands more were injured, most of whom were local citizens.

Bombings introduced the American public to Usama Bin Ladin & al-Qa’ida, who claimed responsibility.
Less than 6 months later, Bin LadIn gave Khalid Sheikh Mohammed approval to plan the deadly September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York & Washington.

Molly Hardy, senior finance specialist & new grandmother, was killed in Nairobi.

Molly, native of Valdosta, Georgia, moved to DC when her husband joined CIA as an ops officer. In 1971 she accompanied him to Laos, where she worked as a contract logistics assistant.

#inmemoriam

In 1975, Molly joined CIA as a payroll clerk & finance assistant. Over the next 23 years, she worked finance & budget issues in all directorates. Her overseas experience included TDY assignments in Asia, Latin America, & Africa.

#inmemoriam

Molly was assigned to serve as a regional finance officer in Nairobi. Her office was located in the section of the building that bore the brunt of the explosion.

Molly’s last act was to warn her colleagues to take cover in an inner corridor.

#inmemoriam

For that act of self-sacrifice and heroism, Molly Hardy was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Cross, the Agency’s highest award for valor.

Molly was 51 at the time of her death.
bit.ly/2MrEv8r

#inmemoriam

Within days of the bombings, 2 Bin Ladin associates were arrested & charged w the attacks.

CIA officers at a small station had received word the terrorists were fleeing to their country of operation & quickly put together an op that lead to the terrorists’ arrest & imprisonment.

Working closely with @FBI, the op also seized computers that contained details of another terrorist plot.

3 months after Africa bombings, a federal grand jury in NY charged Bin Ladin w orchestrating them & conspiring to commit other acts of terrorism against Americans abroad.

The counts were added to an indictment for a 1993 ambush that killed 18 US soldiers in Somalia.

Criminal complaint remained until June 2011, shortly after the al-Qa’ida mastermind was killed.

20th Anniversary of the US Embassy Bombings in East Africa:
bit.ly/2MrEv8r