Bin Laden will take his revenge: A grim prediction after US airstrikes on Afghanistan and Sudan

August 1998: President Clinton says Bin Laden declared war on the United States. Now Clinton has declared war on him, writes Robert Fisk

Members of Pakistan's religious group Sipah Sahaba Pakistan burn an effigy of Bill Clinton and an American flag in Karachi in protest at the US airstrikes on Afghanistan (AFP/Getty)

Four days ago, as president Bill Clinton was testifying to Kenneth Starr about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, foreign diplomats in Pakistan were told that “all foreigners” in Afghanistan were in danger.

European embassy staff suspected that the United States, with the help of the Pakistani authorities, was about to assault Osama bin Laden, the Saudi dissident opposed to Washington’s continued presence in Saudi Arabia. One foreign embassy official in Islamabad told me the sources were American.

Now we know why. But the results are likely to be incalculable. President Clinton says that Mr bin Laden declared war on the United States. Now Mr Clinton has declared war on him – which is exactly what Mr bin Laden, guilty or otherwise of the American embassy bombings, will have wanted. Mr Clinton wants to destroy Mr bin Laden. Now Mr bin Laden will want to destroy Mr Clinton. He can count on the support of millions of Muslims who will never be persuaded that the strikes against Afghanistan and Sudan were anything but a cynical ploy to distract attention from Mr Clinton’s sexual adventures.