CBS Airs New Footage of Clinton Denying Bin Laden Offer

NewsMax.com ^ | 6/21/04 | Carl Limbacher and the Newsax.com staff

[kattracks]

In an effort to counter the growing perception that President Clinton forfeited America's best chance to arrest Osama bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks, "CBS Evening News" anchorman Dan Rather aired new footage Monday night of Clinton strenuously denying that the government of Sudan ever offered to extradite the al Qaida mastermind.

In a segment initially edited out of Sunday night's "60 Minutes" broadcast, Clinton tells Rather, "To the best of my knowledge it is not true that we were ever offered [bin Laden] by the Sudanese, even though they later claimed it. I think it's total bull." In more remarks deleted from the original broadcast, the ex-president claimed:

"Mr. Absurabi, the head of the Sudanese government, was a buddy of bin Laden's. They were business partners together. There was no way in the wide world this guy who was in business with bin Laden in Sudan was going to give him up to us."

During Sunday night's telecast, the portion of Clinton's comments on the Sudanese offer aired by CBS was far more abbreviated.

"I don't believe that is true," he said. "There was a story, which is factually inaccurate, that the Sudanese offered bin Laden to us. As far as I know, there is not a shred of evidence of that."

The Clinton-CBS publicity machine racheted up denials about the Sudanese offer after talk radio stations from coast-to-coast aired audiotape on Monday of a Feb. 2002 speech where Mr. Clinton admitted that Sudan had indeed offered him bin Laden, but that he turned the offer down.

"At the time, 1996, he had committed no crime against America so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him, though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America," the ex-president explained, in comments recorded exclusively by NewsMax.com.

Clinton's characterization of the Sudanese story as "bull" was first reported Thursday by the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, based on his interview with Mr. Rather.

But "60 Minutes" spokesman Kevin Tedesco insisted to NewsMax later in the day that Clinton never uttered the word "bull," explaining instead that the Mr. Rather had attributed the word to Mr. Clinton erroneously.

"Clinton never used the word 'bull.' That was Dan Rather's word. Clinton never said that," Tedesco said.

"60 Minutes" declined NewsMax.com's offer to share its recording of Clinton admitting he had turned down the Sudanese offer, and instead let Clinton's denial stand unchallenged.

In a March staff report issued by the Sept. 11 Commission, commission investigators said that every Sudanese official interviewed about the bin Laden offer confirmed the story, while every Clinton official they spoke to denied it.

In his own April 9 interview with the Commission, Mr. Clinton said he'd been "misquoted" in reports claiming that he had confirmed the bin Laden offer.

9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey said two days later that at the time of Clinton's interrogation, he was unaware that staffers had obtained a videotape of Clinton's 2002 speech where he detailed the Sudanese offer.

Mr. Clinton's expanded denials were posted to the CBS News web site after the Monday's "CBS Evening News" broadcast.

Listen to the recording that was too hot to handle for "60 Minutes."

[Sauce]

"factually inaccurate...not a shred of evidence..."

Where have we heard that before?

[billclintonwillrotinhell]

CBS is rapidly going from being politically biased to being journalistically corrupt. Here we have the impeached one himself accidentally on tape admitting what turned out to be a major blunder, and Dan Rather covers his ears with both hands, yelling, "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT."

Both the New York Times and The Associated Press gave about the worst book reviews imaginable to Clinton's 950-page yawn-a-thon, yet Dan Rather rated it five stars, LOL!

[Michael Smith]

For the most part, the past four years have been pleasant not having to listen to Bill Clinton lying and spinning things on a daily, if not hourly basis. Here we go again, immersed in all the sewage he brings to anyting in which he involves himself.

I may be the lone wolf, but I think this book tour is the start of his conquest to become the next Secretary General of the UN. Its the only way he retain any sort of power that will disrupt and maim the lives of his fellow human beings.

[Vision Thing]

Both the New York Times and The Associated Press gave about the worst book reviews imaginable to Clinton's 950-page yawn-a-thon, yet Dan Rather rated it five stars, LOL!

Dan Rather and CBS have a vested interest in the sucess of clinton's book. CBS and clinton's publisher are subsidiaries of Viacom.

[billclintonwillrotinhell]

Dan Rather and CBS have a vested interest in the sucess of clinton's book. CBS and clinton's publisher are subsidiaries of Viacom.

But Rather would be just as corrupt without any Viacom connection. I remember a couple of years ago when Rather went on The O'Reilly Factor and stated that he considered Bill Clinton to be "an honest man." And, of course, Rather got in a lot of hot water once after he attended a Democratic Party fund-raiser. Rather is just a left-wing liberal who covers for Clinton any chance he gets.

[randog]

9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey said two days later that at the time of Clinton's interrogation, he was unaware that staffers had obtained a videotape of Clinton's 2002 speech where he detailed the Sudanese offer.

Interesting that every Freeper and conservative talk show host in America was aware of the videotape, but I'm not surprised Kerrey hadn't heard of it. But then I wouldn't be surprised if Kerrey couldn't find his @ss with both hands.

[mhx]

I may be the lone wolf, but I think this book tour is the start of his conquest to become the next Secretary General of the UN.

He still has time to be elected President again.

But that's unconstitutional! you say. Well, you're right about that. But here's what I'm thinking.

Many Republicans want a constitutional amendment to allow Arnold Schwarzenegger (or any other naturalized US citizen who has been here a very long time) to be eligible to be president. Democrats, knowing what that's about, will never support that.

Many Democrats want the two-term limit for the presidency lifted. (Really. Go back and look while Clinton was president and see how many times that proposal was made in Congress.) No Republican is likely to support that.

Combine the two, and you've got an amendment that might just pass, and Bill will certainly get behind it.

[Howlin]

Where have we heard that before?

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky?"

[CyberAnt]

Well .. Monsoor Ijaz says that at least 3 offers were made, because Monsoor was involved in 2 of them and was aware of the 3rd.

Now .. why would I believe an impeached rapist ..??

[conservative in nyc]

Dan Rather and CBS have a vested interest in the sucess of clinton's book. CBS and clinton's publisher are subsidiaries of Viacom.

Not quite.

Bill Clinton's book is published by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, which is owned by the German international media company, Bertlesmann AG.

HILLARY Clinton's book was published by Simon & Schuster, a division of Viacom, which also owns CBS.

[devolve]

- Slick Willie to Gennifer Flowers: "Deny it!" - Slick Willie`s "I Did Not Inhale....." - The Monica Lewinsky Oval Office Theme - Slick Willie`s Denial "....that women Miss Lewinsky...." - Slick Willie`s Police Plan For Sex Offenders - Slick Willie`s True Romance Confessions About Monica - Sen. Hillary Clinton: "When You Wish Upon A Starr" - Sen. Hillary Clinton: "My Rose Law Firm Papers?" - Sen. Hillary Clinton: "Bill and I are just Poor Folks!" - Sen. Hillary Clinton: "Travel Office Was Terrible!" - Slick Willie Down That Road Again - Slick Willie confesses he let Osama bin Laden go free! - Slick Willie`s Fried Chicken Franchise - Slick Willie`s and Monica`s Theme Song - John Kerry - His Early European Swiss School Years - John Kerry Accuses US Troops in 1971 - John Kerry and Tere$a Heinz First Date! - John Kerry Says The UN Must Be Over US In 2003 - Kerry`s Mystery Intern "Alex X" With John And Tere$a - John Kerry*s Environmental And Economic Plan - John Kerry: "My First 100 Days As President" - John Kerry`s "Better And Smarter Plan"! - Ter$a Heinz-Kerry*s Social Agenda As First Lady! - The American Voter Reality Check November 1st, 2004 - Hillary Clinton`s Theme: "I Could Hardly Breathe!" - Slick Willie and Hanoi John Theme Song

[UnChained]

""factually inaccurate...not a shred of evidence..."

"Where have we heard that before?"


WJC said:

“There’s not a single, solitary shred of evidence that I did anything wrong or that his [Marc Rich’s] money changed hands,”

When questioned about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky and the Whitewater investigation, Clinton told reporters, “There has not been a single shred of evidence of anything dishonest I’ve ever done in my public life.”

Parsing this correctly translates it to: "There is more than one piece of shredded evidence."

[The KG9 Kid]

Just for kicks, I Googled® for the search phrase 'Shred of evidence AND Clinton'.

I received several hundred pages worth of hits covering such topics as the Sudan/Osama deal, Monica Lewinsky, Rose Law Firm, FBI files, the LORAL ballistic missile guidance technology transfer authorization to China, Vince Foster, stolen embroidered bath towels from a US Navy aircraft carrier by Clinton staffers, White House travel office, White Water, Paula Jones, that dead Starbucks girl, Mena airport, Branch Davidians, Ron Brown, OKC bombing, TWA Flight 800, and on and on and on.

If we're taking requests for catch phrases we never want to hear again after 2004, I humbly submit 'Shred of Evidence'.

[The KG9 Kid]

... Oh, and several of my hits turned up Hillary's shredding of evidence in the White House.

[GretchenM]

... counting the minutes till dan rather is off the payroll as a clinton / dem crazy policy / castro / etc. shill ...

[jmstein7]

BUMP!

[wayoverontheright]

Fox News should seize the moment and play the audio of Clinton's admission, while re-interviewing Monsour Ijaz, and let the chips fall.

[mewzilla]

Did anyone catch O'Reilly last night? He had on Richard Miniter and Toon apparatchik P.J. Crowley. UBL and what Toon did/didn't do to get him was the subject of the discussion. Miniter laid out how Toon had nine opportunities to get UBL, three with Predator strikes. Toon chose each time not to authorize. Crowley tried to talk about Bush, and O'Reilly stopped him. Tried to hem and haw. O'Reilly stopped him. Tried to argue that the Predator vid was inconclusive. Miniter just laid out the facts. At the end of the segment, O'Reilly asked Miniter who had custody of the vid. Miniter mentioned that the 9-11 Commission could have access to it if it wanted, but that the vid should still be with the CIA. O'Reilly was going to make some phone calls today and said he'd keep us updated. He wants to show the video. So much for Toon's lies.

[truthandlife]

BUMP