Osama bin Laden: missed opportunities

[Zipp]

NBC News has obtained, exclusively, extraordinary secret video, shot by the U.S. government. It illustrates an enormous opportunity the Clinton administration had to kill or capture bin Laden. Critics call it a missed opportunity.

A Democratic member of the 9/11 commission says there was a larger issue: The Clinton administration treated bin Laden as a law enforcement problem.

NBC News contacted the three top Clinton national security officials. None would do an on-camera interview. However, they vigorously defend their record and say they disrupted terrorist cells and made al-Qaida a top national security priority.

Link


To bad ol' Bill didn't pull the trigger...They had a clear shot.

 

[conjur]

Ayup. Clinton definitely dropped the ball in tracking down bin Laden.

Bush could do better, too, and is finally throwing more resources into Afghanistan (but, then again, it *is* an election year.)

 

[Bowfinger]

Before you get the Bush apologists too whipped up in a Clinton-bashing frenzy, remember tonight's story was the first of three on missed opportunities. I'll wager some of the stories to come will be Bush's bungling:

• Wednesday: What more could the Bush administration have done to get bin Laden?

BTW, unpopular though it may be, I'm not so sure treating terrorism as a law enforcement problem is as unreasonable as many suggest. Treating it as a military problem carries its own set of issues and obstacles. I suspect the right answer is something in the middle, a hybrid of military and law enforcement.

 

[Jadow]

Clinton and his little troll Albright really dropped the ball here!

 

[Orsorum]

Originally posted by: Jadow
Clinton and his little troll Albright really dropped the ball here!

Just like Bush and his little troll Rumsfeld dropped the ball in Iraq!

 

[SuperTool]

Originally posted by: Jadow
Clinton and his little troll Albright really dropped the ball here!

Of course Bush did things differently when he came into office

You rightwingers just don't give up.

Gary Schroen, a former CIA station chief in Pakistan, says the White House required the CIA to attempt to capture bin Laden alive, rather than kill him.

Makes sense to me. How would killing Bin Laden in fall 2000 prevent 9/11? The plan was already in motion, killing him without extracting information about the cell would have accomplished nothing.

 

[sMiLeYz]

It's great how right wing love to talk about Clinton and his failures, but never really mention or totally ignore Bush failures.

 

[arsbanned]

Actually this story is basically false. Read the facts:
Here

Officials point out that once they saw whom they believed to be bin Laden in the video, it would have taken them three to seven hours before they could bomb the spot. Predators at that time were generally not armed.

Plus, they really don't even know if it was Bin Laden.