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Clinton Nixed OBL Indictment for Black Hawk Down

The Clinton administration prepared a secret indictment of Osama bin Laden in 1995 in connection with the Black Hawk Down attack two years before, but never filed it - a witness before the 9/11 Commission is set to testify on Friday.

"[U.S. Attorney for New York's Southern District] Mary Jo White was already working on a secret indictment against bin Laden as early as the late part of 1995," Clinton administration diplomatic troubleshooter Mansoor Ijaz told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg on Sunday.

Clinton officials, said Ijaz, had "evidence in their hands" implicating bin Laden in the Oct. 1993 Mogadishu attack that killed 18 U.S. Army Rangers.

But they "weren't willing to use it to seek an indictment," he insisted.

Ijaz, who is scheduled to testify before the 9/11 Commission behind closed doors, said the investigation needs to focus on the question, "What caused that indictment not to be handed down?"

As early as 1994, said Ijaz, Sudanese officials had "made it clear [to U.S. officials] that they had very strong indications that bin Laden was closely behind and involved with the Mogadishu terrorist operations."

"At that time [the Clinton administration wasn't] willing to open all of that up," Ijaz maintained.

"But when the early 1996 decision came from the Sudanese to send their defense minister over [to negotiate bin Laden's extradition to the U.S.], there was no question that the Clinton administration was made very clear that bin Laden had casual ties in real terms to the group that killed our 18 [Rangers] in Black Hawk Down."

"Had they been able to take advantage of [Sudan's 1994 offer to share intelligence on bin Laden], the Clinton Justice Department could have indicted bin Laden, which would have enabled them to bring him to the United States," Ijaz contended.

In 2002, President Clinton confirmed to a New York business group that Sudan had indeed offered to extradite bin Laden, but explained, "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."

But Ijaz said he personally briefed Clinton on Sudanese evidence of bin Laden's involvement in the Mogadishu attack.

"I took it directly to the president," he told Malzberg. "I put it on the table. I did it because the Sudanese were only able to do it at the lower levels of our government because nobody wanted to listen to them."

"And one of the things I'm going to tell the 9/11 Commission next Friday," the one-time White House operative warned, "is precisely what happened in my conversation with Bill Clinton personally, where I told him these things were possible - and what he said to me."

Though Ijaz has said he hopes to eventually testify in public, he's not leaving it up to the 9/11 Commission to get the word out.

"It's going to shock the nation when I bring all this out in a book - precisely how ignorant these people were about what they were doing," he told Malzberg.

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