Was Clinton offered Bin Laden by Sudan in '96?

[DougMD]

I realize there are reports that Bin Laden MIGHT be dead, but wanted to get to the bottom of Hannity's reports that Clinton was offered Bin Laden in '96 because it is hard to believe.

In case there was any doubt for some of you, listen to the recording at this siteof Clinton himselfadmitting that he was offered Bin Laden in '96, but thathe "had no legal basis for holding him."

http://www.lyingliar.com/lies/clintonosama.htm

If the situation were reversed and a republican was in office then and a democrat from 2001 on, they'd be stating over and over how the republican let him go, yet somehow they want to blame Bush for Bin Laden not being caught, despite the fact they'd whine if we went willy nilly into Pakistan to get him.

BTW, didn't we know Bin Laden was behind the WTC bombing and other terrorist attacks by '96 (i.e. plenty of legal basis for not only holding him, but putting him on trial and executing him)?

[BenGarrett]

I was amazed by Clinton's statements on Fox News that the "right wingers" had eight months to try to catch bin Laden (before 9/11) and did nothing.

Uh, hello? Clinton had eight freakin' YEARS and did nothing.

[DougMD]

And nobody offered him to Bush either. It is one thing to find someone who is so secretive that even those close to him don't know where he is. It is another to simply say "yes" and have him handed over.

Here is an excerpt from an article where we knew Bin Laden financed the attack back in '95. WHY IN THE WORLD DIDN'T CLINTON JUST TAKE HIM BACK THEN??? For him to lash out at Bush about not doing enough to get Bin Laden is despicable!

EXCERPT ABOUT 1993 ATTACK ON THE WORLD TRADE CENTER:

"During that period of time, we built the Chinese wall between counterterrorism agents and criminal agents higher and higher every year," Kallstrom said. "We did less intelligence sharing, not more."

And the landmarks plot - which called for simultaneous strikes at multiple targets - proved that terrorists were capable of shifting tactics to stay ahead of investigators. As their sophistication grew, so did their financial backing.

Court testimony shows the 1993 trade center conspirators spent only about four months plotting the attack, and drew on a bank account of less than $10,000.

The 1995 capture of Yousef in Pakistan signaled the emergence of a wealthy benefactor: Osama bin Laden. Yousef was found in a guest house for Afghan war veterans financed by bin Laden. He had sought refuge there after failing in a plot in the Philippines to kill 4,000 people by blowing up 12 U.S.-bound airliners.

A computer used by Yousef and interrogations of another terrorist who lived with him in Manila revealed that several Middle Eastern pilots were training at American flight schools. At least one had proposed hijacking a plane to crash into federal buildings.

Authorities came to believe Yousef was among a cadre of Islamic warriors who were being trained in Afghanistan to fight for bin Laden in a holy war against the United States.

[CtHunter8]

yes, Clinton had the chance to get Bin Laden on 3 seperate ocassions, and did nothing, he is simply one of the worst, if not THE worst president to ever lead our country


-Travis-

[Champlain Islander]

Hey he had other things to worry about like "special soaked cigars and blue dresses". He focused on the domestic front and was working closely with interns who wanted to do more than provide lip service.

Say what you want but that era did more for my portfolio than the past 6 years.[:@]

[Charlie P]

What had Bin laden done before 96?

[Charlie P]

Time and again, the United States missed opportunities to take out Osama bin Laden, and possibly al-Qaida, prior to 9/11.

Here are several of the missed opportunities to stop bin Laden prior to the devastating attacks of 9/11:

[*]June 1995: The CIA concluded that Osama bin Laden authorized the failed assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The CIA also concluded that Hassan al-Turabi, Sudan's leader, knew where bin Laden was living and aided the plot. The United States weighed options for attacking bin Laden and al-Turabi's headquarters in Sudan's capital, but retaliation plans were ultimately rejected - as tantamount to staging war with Sudan.

[*]February 1996 to October 1998: The United States targeted bin Laden's satellite phone calls. After a U.S. missile strike against bin Laden's camps on Aug. 20, 1998, however, an official leaked that the United States could track his movements through the use of the phone - nixing this key intelligence coup.

[*]March to May 1996: Varying unverified reports indicated that bin Laden's sanctuary, Sudan, offered to hand over bin Laden directly to the United States, but U.S. officials decided not to take him because there was not enough evidence at the time to charge him with a crime.

Was Clinton offered Bin Laden by Sudan in '96?

(The 9/11 Commission later concluded that there was no evidence that Sudan offered bin Laden directly to the United States, but it does find substantiation that Saudi Arabia was discussed as an option.)
[*]March 1996 to April 1996: Eager to get from beneath sanctions, Sudan advised the United States that it had a vast intelligence database on bin Laden and more than 200 leading members of his al-Qaida terrorist network. Although FBI officials wanted to parley with the Sudanese and get their files, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright pressed to continue to box the country in economically. No deal was made for the files.

Story Continues Below














[*]May 1996: When Sudan finally expelled bin Laden, the terror chieftain left in the company of many other key al-Qaida members, carrying cash. Flying to Afghanistan in a transport plane with his entourage, he made the trip unscathed - even though the United States reportedly knew of the particulars of the journey.

[*]June 1996 to October 2001: Al-Qaida took control of Ariana Airlines, which transported illegal drugs and arms and became the main conduit of militants traveling incognito as airline employees. The United States failed to act swiftly against the airline.


[*]1997: Although the CIA ramped up its Afghanistan operations and recruited some Taliban military leaders, none gets close to bin Laden.
[*]February 1998: The United States rejected yet another offer of the Sudanese al-Qaida files. Although the FBI remained eager to accept the offer, the official posture was that Sudan's offers were not credible - owing to Sudanese leader al-Turabi's ideologically bond with bin Laden.


So really what had Bin laden done prior to 1996?

[Charlie P]

EXCERPT ABOUT 1993 ATTACK ON THE WORLD TRADE CENTER:

Aer you saying Bin laden was wannted for the 1993 attack?

[Charlie P]

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=24537

Our understanding of the terrorist attacks -- going back to the 1993 Trade Center bombing -- has become loaded with errors obscuring Clinton's fecklessness. Correct those errors, which, unfortunately the film reproduces, and this essential point is far clearer.

The film links Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 bombing, to Osama bin Ladin. But, in fact, Yousef and bin Ladin had nothing to do with each other. Bin Laden is not indicted for the Trade Center bombing -- intended to topple the towers and kill 250,000 people -- despite an extensive effort to discover such links. Nor is that attack included in the military charges against Guantanamo Bay detainees, which outline al Qaeda's conspiracy against America. Indeed, bin Laden was not indicted until June 1998, when he was charged with one count: "conspiracy to attack defense utilities of the United States." The target is not identified, and no actual attack occurred.



George Tenet told the Congressional Joint Inquiry, "We now believe that a common thread runs between the first attack on the World Trade Center in February 1993 and the 11 September attacks....Mukhtar is the uncle of Ramzi Yousef, who masterminded the 1993 bombing plot against the World Trade Center. Following the 1993 attack, Yousef and Mukhtar plotted in 1995 to blow up [twelve] U.S. planes flying East Asian routes."

"Mukhtar" was an alias for Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM), the 9/11 mastermind. "Since September 11, the CIA has come to believe that KSM may have been responsible for all bin Laden operations outside Afghanistan," the Joint Inquiry reports. Yet U.S. authorities only learned of KSM's key role after the capture and interrogation of a senior al Qaeda figure in 2002. A U.S. intelligence official later told the Washington Post, "It wasn't until recently that any of us even realized he was part of al Qaeda....The big problem nailing him down is that the informants that we relied on, especially before 9/11, were mujaheddin. They'd been in Afghanistan, in Sudan, back in Afghanistan. Khalid was never a part of any of that" (emphasis added)

Ammar al-Baluchi (aka Ali Abdul Aziz Ali) -- Ramzi Yousef's first cousin and another KSM nephew -- was KSM's "right-hand man." Al-Baluchi sent the "primary funding" to the hijackers and coached nine of them on how to behave in America.

[Charlie P]

From a MSN article on the 9/11 commision.

Bin Laden's ties to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a failed plot to blow up commercial aircraft in 1994 in Manila, Philippines, are unclear, but they offered significant warning signs that Islamic terrorists were intent on demolishing American symbols and inflicting mass casualties, the panel said.