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.

[kjam22]

This is very interesting. This is not a usual event. It does mean someone is up to something.

Yep...

[cincy29]

Coming Wednesday to all 3 morning shows, every CNN show during the day, all 3 nightly news shows, Leno, Letterman, etc.

And the White House response will be.... ??? ???

And the Bush campaign response will be.... ??? ???

Maybe they'll bring another plastic knife or two to the gunfight.

[1066AD]

A Democratic member of the 9/11 commission says there was a larger issue: The Clinton administration treated bin Laden as a law enforcement problem.
Just like Kerry wants to do today. Amazing.

[finnman69]

thanks Clinton....

[cincy29]

Whenever I go somewhere and overhear people in line at the bank, at lunch, at the gym, etc, they are always saying "I saw on the Today show" or "I saw on CNN." It's never "I saw on Foxnews" or "I read on freerepublic.com." And what comes after that usually sounds like DNC talking points. I think the ratings bear this out. What do CNNABCNBCCBS get, compared to Fox?

I live in a township where Bush got 64% of the vote, where our Republican Congressman got over 70% of the vote, where every township official, state official, and federal official is a Republican, and 8 out of 10 county officials are Republican.

So I either have this uncanny knack of running into all the Democrats whereever I go, or we're getting our asses kicked.

[Defender2]

#80. I care, however, we've known that the Enemy has owned the media for a very long time. As a FReeper, luckily, I can tell you truthfully that I am not one of the elite. I continue to serve in our Beloved Country's(U.S.A.) Defense and have recently fought some of our enemies overseas. Been a long time since I posted to you, sarasmom. Very Best FReegards, Defender2 D2

[LdSentinal]

"Bill Clinton is my favorite American president. Under his administration, we had 8 years of growth and prosperity."

- Osama bin Laden

[mo]

could'nt state it better....IMHO his conduct in the Oval Office defines "dereliction of duty" in the most professional sense.

[KC_Conspirator]

This reminds me of an episode early in the days of the Afghan war where one of our drones had a bead on one of the Taliban leaders but the order to fire was belayed by a military lawyer. Rumsfeld had a fit and changed that type of thinking overnight.

[cincy29]

"Bill Clinton is my favorite American president. Under his administration, we had 8 years of growth and prosperity."
- Osama bin Laden

That's the best thing I've read all night!

[finnman69]

.

Osama bin Laden: missed opportunities
The CIA had pictures. Why wasn’t the al-Qaida leader captured or killed?

By Lisa Myers
Senior investigative correspondent
NBC News

Updated: 7:01 p.m. ET March 16, 2004As the 9/11 commission investigates what Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush might have done to prevent the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, one piece of evidence the commission will examine is a videotape secretly recorded by a CIA plane high above Afghanistan. The tape shows a man believed to Osama bin Laden walking at a known al-Qaida camp.

The question for the 9/11 commission: If the CIA was able to get that close to bin Laden before 9/11, why wasn’t he captured or killed? The videotape has remained secret until now.

Over the next three nights, NBC News will present this incredible spy footage and reveal some of the difficult questions it has raised for the 9/11 commission.

..........my, oh my Hillary and bill will be hoping mad over this.

[I got the rope]

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

I agree. I like President Reagan, but he made us look weak. I'm glad that later on he grew some backbone.

[Barset]

Thank you for posting this list. b.

[HarryCaul]

Yeah, it means nothing for Bill politically, but then he's pretty much a non-force anyway, in a direct political sense.

But this does tarnish his circle, and some of them still matter.

You can dismiss this as being of no political importance, but you'd be wrong.

[Susannah]

Am I dreaming? Did NBC really report this?

I'm in Los Angeles County and NBC did report this on the evening news. They showed the footage from the flyover of Afghanistan in the fall of 2000 and they did say, just as the Newmax article states, that Clinton only wanted OBL taken alive.

[Hootch]

I can't believe that no one has mentioned Brokaw's editorializing... As Brokaw is introducing the piece, he say's the Clinton AND Bush administrations... Lisa Myers story had NOTHING to say about Bush administration involvement? Tom Brokaw told a bold face lie, not even supported by the story he was introdusing...

[Libloather]

In the White House?

It's my guess those billing records left the country on a hot air balloon. And then they fell to earth around Australia. Then they were swapped over to the enemy. Then they traveled to -um - South Africa. Then, on their journey around the planet, they hopped aboard the shuttle. And they were parachuted into DC.

What - you havin' a problem wiff dat?

[hole_n_one]

A "towering" Bin Laden highlighted in white.....

[Libloather]

The Clintons were too busy...

That really big weekend I was planning is pretty much toast now. Thanks. Thanks a bunch...

[expatpat]

I'm not so sure. It's on tape, and the media love good visuals over talk any day.