NBC: Clinton Ordered Bin Laden Spared

Newsmax ^ | 3/16/04 | Limbacher

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

A secret CIA videotape shows that the Clinton administration had pinpointed the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden a year before the 9/11 attacks, but declined to kill him because of White House orders that he should be taken alive.

The video, obtained and broadcast by NBC News, "illustrates an enormous opportunity the Clinton administration had to kill or capture bin Laden," the network reported Tuesday.

Images filmed in Afghanistan by CIA Predator Drones show a man clad in white robes who towers over his entourage. [Bin Laden is 6' 5" tall.]

The film was shot over Tarnak Farm, the walled compound where bin Laden was believed to live at the time. The layout of the buildings in the Predator video perfectly matches previous photos and diagrams of Tarnak Farm prepared by U.S. intelligence.

The clip left CIA analysts convinced they had located the man who in 1998 had bombed U.S. embassies in East Africa and whose agents, four years earlier, had detonated a bomb in the parking garage of the World Trade Center.

"It’s dynamite. It’s putting together all of the pieces, and that doesn’t happen every day," said William Arkin, a former intelligence officer and now military analyst for NBC.

Though President Clinton has boasted repeatedly that he issued orders to kill bin Laden, no action was taken when the White House finally got its chance.

Why not?

Gary Schroen, a former CIA station chief in Pakistan, told NBC that the White House had in fact ordered the CIA to do just the opposite - take bin Laden alive or not at all.

The order "reduced the odds from, say, a 50 percent chance down to, say, 25 percent chance that we were going to be able to get him,” Schroen told the network.

The directive effectively killed the plan and, along with it, the U.S.'s best chance to prevent the 9/11 attacks.

[Adam36]

The best September 11th site. http://www.september11victims.com/september11victims/

[nopardons]

btt

[Bullish]

I can never see those pictures - of people jumping - falling - from the WTC without feeling utterly sick.

I can't ever see them without getting mad.

[Brandon]

they still had to throw in if Clinton, being hampered by scandal, prevented him from acting.

Hey, if a president has personal problems that prevent him from acting in the country's best interest, he should step aside shouldn't he?

[dalebert]

But assinating Bin Laden would have been the best way to go. We could have made it look like the French did it.

[RightOnline]

Clinton would f**k up a wet dream. This doesn't surprise me in the least.

[CyberAnt]

"can't even imagine the implications politically"

ROTFLOL!! You have to be kidding .. not with the "partisan media" in charge. Only the VRWC or the "attack machine" will report this.

The Globe has already allowed a reporter to take the sword for Kerry .. what's next??

[Adam36]

One question, how could the Monica scandal have affected Clinton.
If this was a year before his presidency ended. This would have been January 2000. The Monica Story was gone by then.

[beaversmom]

After the story appeared tonight on NBC, Brokaw said they would concentrate tomorrow with the question is President Bush doing all he can do to get Osama or something to that affect. It's a setup to attack President Bush. They can't hurt Clinton.

[faithincowboys]

This is where they are going. they are going to slam bush. Here is the story about busha nd the drones. go to this thread

[beaversmom]

[dalebert]

I have no idea.

[CyberAnt]

Well .. I don't see how the story about Bush will shelter Clinton from blame.

[XHogPilot]

BUMP

[faithincowboys]

Me either, but we're dealing with the Leftist media.

Clinton had 8 years, the offers from the Sudan and three clear shots in 2000--that would have made what Bush did or didn;t do in his 8 months in office moot. Go to my other thread-- Kerry's secret weapon. It lays out more about what's to come.

[faithincowboys]

Kerry is planning to make hay out of Bush not using the drones, has a Key former Bush official to help him.

[AnimalLover]

Ping

[jocon307]

"9/11 changed all that."

You are correct, but beware American, John Kerry wants to change it back!

[The G Man]

"Cool montage! May I copy it for a poster?"

Please do.

[Tuscaloosa Goldfinch]

Thanks!