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.

[nutmeg]

Related thread here:

Osama bin Laden: missed opportunities [CIA had video of him in fall of 2000 by Lisa Myers, NBC

[hole_n_one]

Image from "spy tape"....

Source: MSNBC

[cwb]

Wow! Scaraborough just played Lisa Meyer's and NBCs exclusive video of a Predator drone tracking OBL in 2000. It was clear from the video that it was a high level AQ meeting with the leader (OBL) obviously present at the time. Although NBC did ask the question, "did Clinton let OBL slip away," they still had to throw in if Clinton, being hampered by scandal, prevented him from acting. It never seemed to hamper him in the past. It's about time they released this information that many have known about for some time.

[BikePacker]

Yes... we must not forget that Ron (the best Prez of my lifetime) turned tail in Beirut as well.

In a way, the Islamofascists did America a great favor on 9.11.2001.

It FORCED US from our slumber.... it could have continued to smoldered another decade, until a Nuke was detonated in NYC.

[dead]

President Clinton, like most Presidents since the intelligence investigations of the 1970's, were terrified of having foreign enemies killed.

Reagan took a pretty good shot at the head of Ghaddafi.

Just missed him too, and took out a few members of his family.

It knocked him back into his box for a lot of years.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

[BlueNgold]

Apparently we have lost the concept of 'new' in the term 'news'. Sad to say, but this is old information. Amazing that the bulk of the public through their own dissonance is somehow startled to learn this...

[ladyinred]

I think it is replayed, I will check it out, thanks.

[Defender2]

#25. Good points, dead!!!!

[Jewels1091]

Think this is in the committee that is studying the break down??? Sounds like a major break down was a president who was PLAYING at being president and had no clue what to do!!!!! The only head that he has that works was being intertained by Monica.

[HarryCaul]

" if Clinton, being hampered by scandal, prevented him from acting."

Ask the people who died in the missle strikes he ordered during the impeachment.

[Wild Irish Rogue]

" Am I dreaming? Did NBC really report this?"

I only saw it on MSNBC, but, they usually replay the segments shown earlier on NBC. The tape is jaw dropping.
Besides the video of Al Queda training, there were videos of Osama.
You can clearly see a tall man, wearing white robes, in the center of a large group of terrorists.
This was at an isolated, known AQ compound-which could have easily been vaporized, if Clinton had ordered in a strike. This was not in the middle of a crowded city.
Osama and his band were sitting ducks, ready for take down and Clinton passed, because it was too close to the election.

[Delta 21]

Talk about an Intelligence Failure!!!

[M. Dodge Thomas]

I'd be delighted to see OBL dead, then or now. But IMO it's far from clear that his death prior to 9/11 (as a result of action by either Administration) would have prevented the WTC attacks - just as it's unlikely that his death tomorrow would cripple the various Islamic militant movements.

[Petronski]

LEGIBILE FONT:


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.

[hoosiermama]

Was thinking along the same lines....The problem was the lack of intelligence IN the White House, not given to the White House.

[Irish Eyes]

NBC must think that this is good for Clinton, that he did not kill him out right or...the world is comming to an end and NBC is seeing the light ....... hmmmmmm

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Clinton Comes Out Swinging for Kerry

[kjam22]

There is a real power struggle going on in the Dem party. This is about getting Hillary etal out of power. I'd bet this story had Kerry's approval before NBC would run it.

[faithincowboys]

Legacy.....