The Foreign Service Journal, May 2008

32 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 8 he bombing of the American embassy in Nairobi happened 10 years ago. It has taken that long to lessen the pain enough to allow myself to think about the significance of what happened on that morning in August 1998. I suppose Mohammed Rashed Daoud al-Owhali was told that if he offered his life to Allah there would be untold rewards waiting for him in heaven. Whether it was that promise or the desire to be part of the jihad that motivated him, F O C U S O N A F R I C A R EFLECTING ON N AIROBI : T HE A FRICA B OMBINGS AND THE A GE OF T ERROR A SURVIVOR REVISITS THE 1998 BOMBINGS OF THE A MERICAN EMBASSIES IN K ENYA AND T ANZANIA AND PONDERS WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED . B Y J OANNE G RADY H USKEY T Clemente Botelho