# Bush Sr. Assasination Attempt?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-sr-assasination-attempt/153094>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 6, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-sr-assasination-attempt/153094 "2003-02-06T01:32:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-sr-assasination-attempt/153094/1 "2003-02-06T01:32:21Z")

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Can someone provide reasonably factual links or summary of Iraq’s supposed assassination attempt of Bush Sr.? Google is turning up a lot of froth and I’d like to understand what the “case” is.

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**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-sr-assasination-attempt/153094/2 "2003-02-06T01:41:51Z")

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From a [WP story from the time it came out](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/iraq/timeline/062793.htm):

> [@](#):
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> Clinton was persuaded to act by three kinds of evidence, a senior intelligence official said last night. First, key suspects in the plot confessed to FBI agents in Kuwait. Second, FBI bomb experts painstakingly linked the captured car bomb to previous explosives made in Iraq. Third, unspecified intelligence assessments concluded that Saddam meant seriously the threats he has made against Bush. Other classified intelligence sources supported this analysis, the official said.

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**Author:** ![Inky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7feea3/32.png) [@Inky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inky_1)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-sr-assasination-attempt/153094/3 "2003-02-06T01:45:21Z")

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Yeah, I did a goodly bit of digging to substantiate that story as well, thinking GW had an axe to grind, and the only unbiased account I could dredge up was this:

> [@](#):
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> **April 1993**  
> Iraqi involvement is suspected in an assasination attempt made on former President Bush in Kuwait. Eleven Iraqis are apprehended by the Kuwaiti government.

From [here](http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~irdp/ref/ref03.html).

So I guess it was kept pretty quiet for diplomatic reasons.