Posted on 05/17/2002 8:34:21 PM PDT by tomball
HONOLULU (AP) - Former President Clinton said Friday he knew about the dangerous potential of Osama bin Laden but discounted reports that a 1999 analysis should have alerted his administration to a terrorist attack on the scale of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The analysis warned that members of bin Laden's al-Qaida organization could hijack an airliner and fly it into government buildings like the Pentagon on suicide missions.
"That has nothing to do with intelligence," said Clinton, who was in Hawaii on a two-day stopover en route to East Timor. "All that says is they used public sources to speculate on what bin Laden might do.
"Let me remind you that's why I attacked his training camp and why I asked the Pakistanis to go get him, and why we contracted with some people in Afghanistan to go get him, because we thought he was dangerous," he said. "But that's not the same thing as having intelligence about specific things."
The Bush administration has asserted that no one in government had envisioned a suicide hijacking before it happened.
"That was a report by a congressional research service and the Library of Congress using public information and it basically says he's a dangerous guy that might do a lot of things," Clinton said. "So we tried to get him. That doesn't have anything to do with what the intelligence people, the CIA or the FBI, tell the administration.
"That's why I did everything I could to get bin Laden, because I thought he was a dangerous man," he said. "And as we've seen, he is."
President Bush on Tuesday named Clinton to head a delegation representing the United States at the inauguration of East Timor President-elect Xanana Gusmao. East Timor, a former Indonesian territory, separated from Jakarta in 1999 during Clinton's term.
AP-ES-05-17-02 2311EDT
CYA- but Bush didn't have any more info than you so you are effectively arguing for him.
bump
Here is a question .. why they hell is he telling other nations to handle OUR national security????
Why the hell didn't he do it himself .. oh I forget he was to busy with his all nighters
I don't have a list yet .. sorry
How true. No matter how many time you flush, these two keep coming back to the surface.
It is a lie to say that no one in the intelligence chain knew about Islamic terrorists plans to suicide in airplanes!
Bring on the hearings.
Everything, except taking him when he was offered up like a Thanksgiving turkey on a platter.
Yes, that's why Clinton refused to have bin Laden extradited to the United States... twice.
Clinton is a traitor.
All form over substance. What a woose, {sic?}
... besides, he was too busy vandalizing the White House on Jan. 20, 2001 to worry about passing along any trivial information such as that....
As always, the man is an utterly shameless scumbag.
This needs to be sent to Charlie Rangel (D-NY) immediately. Tonight on Hannity & Colmes, he insinuated that perhaps Bush knew more than he was saying because immediately after the attacks, Bush stated that it was Osama bin Laden who had committed the atrocities. Rangel's argument was: "How could the President know that it was bin Laden so soon after it happened unless he had prior knowledge?"
Rangel was acting really arrogant the whole time he was on. The Dems think it's all such a big joke; they're so smug about it all. God willing, we'll have the last laugh on them.
Just the TURD between the Bushes.
I think that someone will be tried for Treason before this War is over. Klinton is the first candidate for that charge.
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