Comments on: U.S. Strike Aided Bin Laden-Taliban Ties?
Newly Declassified Documents Suggest 1998 Training Camp Attack Cemented Alliance
Add a Comment See all 104 Comments
- Realizing the growing problem with Bin Laden, Bashir sent key intelligence officials to the U.S. in February 1996.
The Sudanese offered to arrest Bin Laden and extradite him to Saudi Arabia or, barring that, to "baby-sit" him--monitoring all his activities and associates.
But Saudi officials didn''t want their home-grown terrorist back where he might plot to overthrow them.
In May 1996, the Sudanese capitulated to U.S. pressure and asked Bin Laden to leave, despite their feeling that he could be monitored better in Sudan than elsewhere.
Bin Laden left for Afghanistan, taking with him Ayman Zawahiri, considered by the U.S. to be the chief planner of the Sept. 11 attacks; Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, who traveled frequently to Germany to obtain electronic equipment for Al Qaeda; Wadih El-Hage, Bin Laden''s personal secretary and roving emissary, now serving a life sentence in the U.S. for his role in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya; and Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Saif Adel, also accused of carrying out the embassy attacks.
Some of these men are now among the FBI''s 22 most-wanted terrorists.
The two men who allegedly piloted the planes into the twin towers, Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi, prayed in the same Hamburg mosque as did Salim and Mamoun Darkazanli, a Syrian trader who managed Salim''s bank accounts and whose assets are frozen.
Important data on each had been compiled by the Sudanese.
(cont) - Reply to this comment
- What''''s sad is that Billdo Clinton let the terrorists survive to fight another day resulting in he death of 3000 in New York.
Had Clinton accepted Bin Laden from the Sudanese on a silver platter, all the terror attacks may never have happened.
Posted by mbcsmith at 08:56 AM : Aug 21, 2008
You need to get over it, bushite. Who was President when 9-11 occurred? Where was DUMBYA most of the time during his first term in office? Hiding out on his farm in Crawford like the alcoholic cowardly failure that he is and continues to be. You concerned about Clinton having sexx with someone else while President? Is that what worries your little mind? I COULD CARE LESS! It means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about his performance as President! If you want to weed out all the politicians who cheated on their spouses while in office, there wouldn''t be enough left for a good poker game. You like to use that excuse against Clinton but look the other way when your own party''s politicians do the same thing. Now that''s being just a little self-righteous, isn''t it? - Reply to this comment
- L.A. Times
December 5, 2001
Clinton Let Bin Laden Slip Away and Metastasize
Sudan offered up the terrorist and data on his network. The then-president and his advisors didn''t respond.
By MANSOOR IJAZ
President Clinton and his national security team ignored several opportunities to capture Osama bin Laden and his terrorist associates, including one as late as last year.
I know because I negotiated more than one of the opportunities.
From 1996 to 1998, I opened unofficial channels between Sudan and the Clinton administration. I met with officials in both countries, including Clinton, U.S. National Security Advisor Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger and Sudan''s president and intelligence chief. President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, who wanted terrorism sanctions against Sudan lifted, offered the arrest and extradition of Bin Laden and detailed intelligence data about the global networks constructed by Egypt''s Islamic Jihad, Iran''s Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas.
Among those in the networks were the two hijackers who piloted commercial airliners into the World Trade Center.
The silence of the Clinton administration in responding to these offers was deafening.
As an American Muslim and a political supporter of Clinton, I feel now, as I argued with Clinton and Berger then, that their counter-terrorism policies fueled the rise of Bin Laden from an ordinary man to a Hydra-like monster. (cont) - Reply to this comment
- Total failure?
How was our economy? Better yet, how was our economy under Clinton versus our economy under Bush?
Posted by hungry1968 at 09:23 AM : Aug 21, 2008
Well, the 2000 recession and stock market collapse pretty much says it all for old Billdo''s economic policies. - Reply to this comment
- Clinton was the biggest failed presidency in U.S. history. He didn''t recognize this as anything more than a police matter and let the terrorists grow stronger until they attacked us.
Way to go Billdo. - Reply to this comment
- Clinton was a total failure as president. While he was having sexx in the oval office Bin Laden was bombing our embassies.
Posted by mbcsmith at 08:59 AM : Aug 21, 2008
Total failure?
How was our economy? Better yet, how was our economy under Clinton versus our economy under Bush?
How do you think the GOP "War on America" is going? - Reply to this comment
- What''''s sad is that Billdo Clinton let the terrorists survive to fight another day resulting in he death of 3000 in New York.
Had Clinton accepted Bin Laden from the Sudanese on a silver platter, all the terror attacks may never have happened.
Posted by mbcsmith at 08:56 AM : Aug 21, 2008
First of all, at least Clinton TRIED to kill bin Laden - unlike Bush, who helped him and his family escape safely.
Secondly, why should Clinton have accepted bin laden from Sudan in 1996? What was bin Laden wanted for, at the time of the "proposed trade"?
Third, why aren''t you decrying the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations for making bin Laden into a "terrorist superpower" by providing him with arms, ammo, and CIA training? - Reply to this comment
- Watch ZeitGeist on the internet - go on I dare you!
- Reply to this comment
- All I can say is at least Clinton tried to kill Osama - not like Bush who invites him to dinner to plan another attack.
- Reply to this comment
- No one ever accused Clinton of being smart. Frankly, he''''s the dimmest bulb in the box.
Posted by mbcsmith at 09:01 AM : Aug 21, 2008
So first you accused Clinton of doing nothing to prevent the terrorist attacks, and then you''re crying because he did try to kill bin Laden?
You change your position(s) almost as quickly as McCain does!! - Reply to this comment
- No one ever accused Clinton of being smart. Frankly, he''''s the dimmest bulb in the box.
Posted by mbcsmith at 09:01 AM : Aug 21, 2008
Not sure how you can say that, all the while Bush can''t string 3 words together, and have them make any sense.
Typical Bush speech; Well, it''s like, uh, this, if you uh,,simply state, uh that, uh,, well, if you do,,,
ETC ,,ETC
Yup,,he''s really smart,,NOT! - Reply to this comment
- Nothing like driving our enemies into each others arms and banding them against us.
Smart!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by slim1h2o at 06:54 AM : Aug 21, 2008
No one ever accused Clinton of being smart. Frankly, he''s the dimmest bulb in the box. - Reply to this comment
- Clinton was a total failure as president. While he was having sexx in the oval office Bin Laden was bombing our embassies.
- Reply to this comment
- What can you expect? The guy has been and will continue to be a loser. He has nothing to fall back on as a legacy except to pass the blame on to someone else for his failures as a President and as a man. Sad for this country, that''''s for sure.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by leftyintexas at 08:52 AM : Aug 21, 2008
What''s sad is that Billdo Clinton let the terrorists survive to fight another day resulting in he death of 3000 in New York.
Had Clinton accepted Bin Laden from the Sudanese on a silver platter, all the terror attacks may never have happened. - Reply to this comment
- What can you expect? The guy has been and will continue to be a loser. He has nothing to fall back on as a legacy except to pass the blame on to someone else for his failures as a President and as a man. Sad for this country, that''''s for sure.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by leftyintexas at 08:52 AM : Aug 21, 2008
What''s sad is that Billdo Clinton let the terrorists survive to fight another day resulting in he death of 3000 in New York.
Had Clinton accepted Bin Laden from the Sudanese on a silver platter, all the terror attacks may never have happened. - Reply to this comment
- As Bush gets closer to the end of his presidency, expect more lame attempts like this to blame the disaster of the Bush "legacy" on Clinton and the Democrats.
The Bush administration gets sadder by the day.
Posted by rafterman1 at 08:34 AM : Aug 21, 2008
What can you expect? The guy has been and will continue to be a loser. He has nothing to fall back on as a legacy except to pass the blame on to someone else for his failures as a President and as a man. Sad for this country, that''s for sure. - Reply to this comment
- Wasn''''t Clinton the president at this time?
Posted by jamesm12341 at 07:34 AM : Aug 21, 2008
Morning Troll. Wasn''t DUMBYA the President when 9-11 occurred? Just wondering.....And how''s my grammar this morning? Find any mistakes? - Reply to this comment
- There is no doubt that Clinton was asleep at the wheel on this--of course the endless obsession of the self-righteous Republicans with impeachment may have contributed to that distraction.
But the incompetence continued in amplified form under George Bush. Bush was specifically informed a month before 9/11 that an attack was likely to be made on the WTC with airplanes.
Bush went back to chopping brush in Texas, taking nice afternoon naps, riding his bike, and boinking Laura.
And Cheney realized a nice attack on the US would ever so much strengthen his hand.
Problem solved! - Reply to this comment
- Another meaningless byline of propaganda by CBS aimed at the administration.
This is truly a non story.
Is anyone surprised the Taliban used the hackneyed cliche: "The enemy of my enemy is MY friend!"
BTW in 1998 Who was president? Hint - ''WJC'' - Reply to this comment
- Well Bushbots? This info is from the State department, which is headed by "Uncle Tom''''s Rerverted Rice".
What do you have to say now?
Posted by brianbwb at 06:34 AM : Aug 21, 2008
What I have to say is ''huh''? Bushbots? This happened under Clinton. And by the way, just because you don''t agree with her politics, you should be ashamed of yourself for calling Secretary of State Rice an ''uncle Tom''. I guess a black man calling a black woman that makes it ok....right? It''s very ugly and beneath you. - Reply to this comment
Mike Huckabee on GOP "rock stars," 2012, health care reform and more.
