State Dept. Says It Warned About bin Laden in 1996

NY Times ^ | August 17, 2005 | ERIC LICHTBLAU

[Homer1]

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 - State Department analysts warned the Clinton administration in July 1996 that Osama bin Laden's move to Afghanistan would give him an even more dangerous haven as he sought to expand radical Islam "well beyond the Middle East," but the government chose not to deter the move, newly declassified documents show.

[Homer1]

wow

[timestax]

1st of many bumps...take THAT Clinton!

[MarkeyD]

The New York Times said this?

[SunnyD1182]

Combine this with Able Danger, and it appears that the whole bin Laden situation is totally snowballing for Slick Willy this week.

I thought he was going to "take Bin Laden out"?

[Just mythoughts]

Wow indeed, Clintons getting slapped from all sides now.

[eyespysomething]

logon info from NYT:

user: rorahpg
p/w: 191919

[Kryptonite]

Yes, but doing anything about it would have made Bubba less electable, in his mind.

[Howlin]

Clinton aides admit little done to foil terrorism
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1464078/posts?page=6

CNN: White House April 2000 Terrorism report DOES NOT EVEN MENTION Al Quaeda.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1106927/posts

Negligence: Bill Clinton's Real Legacy On National Defense
http://www.freecongress.org/commentaries/2002/021205PW.asp

Clinton’s Loss?
How the previous administration fumbled on bin Laden.
http://www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/interrogatory091103b.asp

What Clinton Knew — And What Clinton Did
Ex-president become Second-Guesser in Chief.

http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry200310170939.asp

The Final Clinton Gift ? Give us Osama in 30 days, or.?..Dec.20, 2000 (title-mine)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/528591/posts

[Mo1]

The NY Slimes wrote that??

I am truly Shocked!

[SandRat]

RUT-ROW REROY!

[eyespysomething]

1996 was also the year Slick turned down bin Laden's head from Sudan.

[evolved_rage]

A little closet cleaning. Get everything out by 2006, so its all old news for 2008. Crabby old elephantine republicans with their long memory, 9/11 was sooooo yesterday....God I hate the 'Rat machine, and the Hitlery express.

[timestax]

"take Bin Laden out"?

He had nearly FOUR YEARS. But, he did NOTHING. He didn't want to hurt anybodies feelings, and lose precious votes for his reelection!

[WorkingClassFilth]

Like, wow, bump.

[conservative in nyc]

More:

State Department analysts warned the Clinton administration in July 1996 that Osama bin Laden's move to Afghanistan would give him an even more dangerous haven as he sought to expand radical Islam "well beyond the Middle East," but the government chose not to deter the move, newly declassified documents show.

In what would prove a prescient warning, the State Department intelligence analysts said in a top-secret assessment on Mr. bin Laden that summer that "his prolonged stay in Afghanistan - where hundreds of 'Arab mujahedeen' receive terrorist training and key extremist leaders often congregate - could prove more dangerous to U.S. interests in the long run than his three-year liaison with Khartoum," in Sudan.

The declassified documents, obtained by the conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch as part of a Freedom of Information Act request and provided to The New York Times, shed light on a murky and controversial chapter in Mr. bin Laden's history: his relocation from Sudan to Afghanistan as the Clinton administration was striving to understand the threat he posed and explore ways of confronting him.

--Snip--

Critics of the Clinton administration have accused it of ignoring the threat posed by Mr. bin Laden in the mid-1990's while he was still in Sudan, and they point to claims by some Sudanese officials that they offered to turn him over to the Americans before ultimately expelling him in 1996 under international pressure. But Clinton administration diplomats have adamantly denied that they received such an offer, and the Sept. 11 commission concluded in one of its staff reports that it had "not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim."

[Mo1]

OK .. why is the Slimes reporting this

This is ... well very out of character for them

[Lancey Howard]

Something's going on.
NO WAY do the scumbag Marxists at State volunteer this kind of information unless they KNOW that the information is forthcoming anyway. This is a pre-emptive strike, no doubt launched so that they have first crack at the spin.

[Bob]

Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark.

[advance_copy]

Critics of the Clinton administration have accused it of ignoring the threat posed by Mr. bin Laden in the mid-1990's while he was still in Sudan, and they point to claims by some Sudanese officials that they offered to turn him over to the Americans before ultimately expelling him in 1996 under international pressure. But Clinton administration diplomats have adamantly denied that they received such an offer, and the Sept. 11 commission concluded in one of its staff reports that it had "not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim."

The same "9/11 Commission" found no evidence that Able Danger identified Atta.

[corkoman]

\snip\ Critics of the Clinton administration have accused it of ignoring the threat posed by Mr. bin Laden in the mid-1990's while he was still in Sudan, and they point to claims by some Sudanese officials that they offered to turn him over to the Americans before ultimately expelling him in 1996 under international pressure. But Clinton administration diplomats have adamantly denied that they received such an offer, and the Sept. 11 commission concluded in one of its staff reports that it had "not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim."
The newly declassified documents do not directly address the question of whether Sudan ever offered to turn over Mr. bin Laden. But the documents go well beyond previous news and historical accounts in detailing the Clinton administration's active monitoring of Mr. bin Laden's movements and the realization that his move to Afghanistan could make him an even greater national security threat.../snip/

Sacre Bleu! Le poo is on the fan blades