Word: commandant
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...sort against Libya began late in March when U.S. intelligence learned of Libyan intentions to conduct future terrorist acts like the West Berlin disco bombing on April 4. At a National Security Council meeting on April 7, the President clearly decided that the time for action had arrived. His command: "Try to make the world smaller for the terrorists...
After the Security Council met in the Oval Office on Wednesday, April 9, a joint security-intelligence team prepared a list of five targets. First on the list was the Bab al Azizia army compound, which serves as Gaddafi's command center and residence. "We hit Gaddafi's barracks because it's the nerve center for his command structure and headquarters of his loyalist guard," says a top national security aide. There is little doubt that Azizia was also targeted in the hope that the Colonel would be very much at home and killed or injured in the attack. Using...
Next on the hit list was the military section of the Tripoli International Airport, base of Libya's fleet of nine Il-76s, which have been used in terrorist operations for supply and transport. A third target was the Benghazi army barracks, which Gaddafi uses as an alternative command post. Then came barracks at the naval port of Sidi Bilal, near Tripoli, a commando training facility. Finally, security officials recommended a strike at the Benina airfield, where Libya's MiG-23 interceptors are based, as a precaution against counterattack...
...April 13, following his return to the White House from Camp David. In doing so, the President asked Admiral Crowe how late he could still order a cancellation of the mission if conditions should warrant a change of plans. The Joint Chiefs Chairman assured his boss that he could command a turnaround as late as ten minutes before strike time...
...night sky over Tripoli was stitched with orange streaks as tracers and missiles arced up toward the attackers. "They fired everything they had," said a senior Pentagon official, including Soviet-built SAM-2, -3, -6 and -8 missiles and ZSU-23-4 antiaircraft guns. Said Vice Admiral Frank Kelso, commander of the Sixth Fleet, who was in overall command of El Dorado Canyon: "I don't think anybody has ever flown a mission in any more dense SAM environment than they were in today...