MISSILE RAUNCH President Clinton in 1996 ordered this Sudan pharmaceutical plant destroyed by cruise missiles just to distract the media from Sexgate revelations, the owner charges.

SUIT: SEXGATE SPURRED CLINTON AIRSTRIKE

By VINCENT MORRIS

WASHINGTON - Then-President Clinton was aiming to "restore his popularity" after the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal when he bombed a medicine-making plant in Sudan, according to a lawsuit filed by the plant's owner.

The suit, which seeks $50 million in damages, blasts Clinton's claim that the plant was "associated" with terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Clinton turned the plant - which reportedly made ibuprofen, antibiotics and anti-diarrhea pills - into rubble in 1998 when he ordered cruise-missile strikes in the midst of the Monica investigation.

"There was no factual warrant for the destruction of the plant," says Stephen Brogan, a lawyer representing Salah Idris, who owned the plant and filed the lawsuit.

"Three days before the attack, President Clinton appeared on national television and made certain admissions about his conduct that were personally and politically embarrassing to him and to the first lady," Brogan added.

"By ordering the U.S. military into action to destroy this claimed threat to the American people, President Clinton and his advisers sought to restore his diminished presidential authority and popularity."

Clinton declined comment.

The U.S. government, which is named as the plaintiff, wants a federal judge to dismiss the suit. It was filed last summer but has received little attention.

Associated Press

Related items on this website:

 AR Online Aug 1998 "Chemical factory? yeah, right!"

 Arianna Huffington (Oct 1998): The Real Dirt on Sudan