Kevin Whitelaw, Warren P. Strobel, and Brian Duffy

About the author: Kevin Whitelaw and Brian Duffy are reporters for U.S. News & World Report. Duffy and fellow journalist Jim McGee co-authored Main Justice: The Men and Women Who Enforce the Nation's Criminal Laws and Guard Its Liberties. Strobel is a former White House correspondent for the Washington Times and is currently a senior editor for U.S. News & World Report. He is the author of Late-Breaking Foreign Policy: The News Media's Influence on Peace Operations.

In August 1998, American missiles fired from ships in the Red Sea struck their intended target, the El Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Sudan. The U.S. government claims the attack was in retaliation for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which occurred two weeks...