[Aaron0617]

I don't know about this story. I heard it was near impossible for Western spys to infiltrate Al Qeada.

If its this easy to spy on this group, especially around 1999, then why didn't Clinton direct the CIA to do this and get the same intel Britian did. Instead of fire a couple Tomahawks in the general direction of Bin Laden

[Dog]

If its this easy to spy on this group, especially around 1999, then why didn't Clinton direct the CIA to do this

You answered your own question....Clinton wanted no part of this....Sudan wanted to give Bin Laden to us on a silver platter ....but Bubba was to busy finding Monica a job..

[Brad’s Gramma]

You're being sarcastic, right? Right?

[steveegg]

If its this easy to spy on this group, especially around 1999, then why didn't Clinton direct the CIA to do this and get the same intel Britian did. Instead of fire a couple Tomahawks in the general direction of Bin Laden

You have your choice of reasons:

• S(l)ick Willie just didn't give a damn except when it looked like he would be evicted from the Oval Orifice.
• Klintoon really wants America destroyed, but in a way that wouldn't finger him as the Quisling.
• He has a soft spot in his heart for Islamists.

[MadIvan]

Thanks to Weird Bill, you had no intelligence assets in Afghanistan on September 11th. Nil. Nada. Zero. MI6, however, did have a presence and is still there.

Regards, Ivan

[WorkingClassFilth]

If I recall stories after the Afghan invasion correctly, they found some of those Tomahawk cruise missiles intact in caves. Krinton fired about 75 of them (I think) and, amazingly, one story I read here on FR claimed that only 40% of them functioned by successful detonation. How in the world that would occur still escapes me - munitions that only work 4 out of 10 times they're fired? Oh well, the news at that time said that bin Laden had sold some of them to the Chinese to take apart at their leisure and reverse engineer. How convenient. How Krintonesque.

[Diana Rose]

why didn't Clinton direct the CIA to do this

You must be new here

[altayann]

Probably because there are more people in Britain who
could pass as Al-Queida recruits who're loyal to Britain than in the US.

Britain did have colonies all over the world, you know.

[LasVegasMac]

I heard it was near impossible for Western spys to infiltrate Al Qeada.

Who said they were Western version spies?

Point taken about being hard to infiltrate, but if we (or UK) do, chances are it was not a James Bond look-a-like that does it. No?

LVM

[GOP_1900AD]

You've answered your own question... key word is "Clinton."

[CharacterCounts]

I don't know about this story. I heard it was near impossible for Western spys to infiltrate Al Qeada.

If Taliban Johnny can just go over there and sign up, how hard can it be?

[JRandomFreeper]

then why didn't Clinton direct the CIA to do this and get the same intel Britian did.

Because the CIA can't use the same techniques as British intel can. Like pulling a trigger on someone to become a "made man".

The US has strict laws against that kind of thing for our intel folks. The UK doesn't. In fact, some of the techniques that the UK used against the IRA were pretty brutal (but justified).

/john

[concerned about politics]

If its this easy to spy on this group, especially around 1999, then why didn't Clinton direct the CIA to do this and get the same intel Britian did. Instead of fire a couple Tomahawks in the general direction of Bin Laden

Because he had security groups busy hunting down bootleg videops for Hollywood.
For Bill Clinton, DNC contributions have always come before national security.

[Grampa Dave]

These were MI6 agents from the UK.

The UK didn't deball their intel spooks like the Clinton did with our CIA.

[Timesink]

If its this easy to spy on this group, especially around 1999, then why didn't Clinton direct the CIA to do this and get the same intel Britian did.

Because in 1995, Clinton mindbogglingly ordered the CIA to cease all HUMINT activity with groups considered to be human-rights violators. And needless to say, the Taliban and other Islamist organizations don't get particularly good grades on their report cards in that subject area.

Said rule was not lifted until after 9/11.