[cwb]

One of the problems might've been that this desperation and danger may have never made it to the desk of the president. When Bush took over, Clinton's people were still all over the place...usually in all the high places were decisions are made. If these people believed as Clinton...and that going after OBL was a violation of legal statutes, they most certainly wouldn't have passed their concerns onto Bush.

Hell, Janet Reno and her higher-ups in the Justice Department came down hard on Clinton for bombing Sudan and Afghanistan. It is hard to tell what Bush knew...but as we saw even after 9/11, we had legal beavers obstructing military operations that never made it to the top...ala the (I think) Mullah Omar spotting that was disengaged by some lawyer-type from the military. From what I understand, Rumsfeld put his foot through a glass when he found out that someone passed on it.

[OldFriend]

It is common knowledge that the State Department and the Justice Department did not want Clinton to attack Osama ben Laden. They wanted to deal with it as a judicial matter.

The result of that miscalculation is tragically clear. It is also clear that Clinton was incapable of making a tough decision and allowed himself to take the easy way out.