U.S. Strike Aided Bin Laden-Taliban Ties?

Newly Declassified Documents Suggest 1998 Training Camp Attack Cemented Alliance

(AP)  The U.S. cruise missile strike on an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in 1998 was meant to kill Osama bin Laden. But he apparently left shortly before the missiles struck, and newly declassified U.S. documents suggest the attack cemented an alliance with his Taliban protectors.

The State Department documents released Wednesday provide details of the evolving relationship between Taliban leader Mullah Omar and al Qaeda chief bin Laden over four month in 1998. The period begins Aug. 21, 1998, one day after the missile attack - retaliation for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on Aug. 7 of that year.

Omar said publicly on Aug. 21 he would continue to protect bin Laden. But the next day, he told a State Department employee in private that he would be open to negotiating bin Laden's presence in Afghanistan, giving U.S. officials faint but ultimately false hope the Taliban might hand him over to Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden had been in Afghanistan since he was expelled from Sudan in May 1996.

Those talks took place sporadically over the next few months in 1998, according to documents obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University through a Freedom of Information Act request.

In the interim, however, bin Laden had traveled south in Afghanistan to Kandahar. There, he would be close to Omar, who wanted to "keep a watch on him," said a secret cable sent from Islamabad, the capital of neighboring Pakistan, to U.S. diplomatic and military posts on Sept. 9, 1998.

By the end of that October, the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad was concerned the tables had turned and Omar was falling under bin Laden's political and philosophical sway. The U.S. once had believed the Taliban's ambitions were confined to turning Afghanistan into a Sunni Muslim theocracy. Now, however, there were signs that Omar's association with bin Laden was driving him toward a greater goal - pan-Islamism, the unification of all Muslims under a single Islamic state.

"I believe that bin Laden has been able to get into the good graces of Omar - who is very poorly educated and unsure of foreign affairs - and to influence him in his way of thinking," according to a cable from Oct. 22. "The potential ramifications of a Mullah Omar who is drifting toward pan-Islamism are grim. First and foremost, it could mean that the Taliban would under no condition expel bin Laden because they see his cause as theirs."

The rest of the documents detail months of unsuccessful U.S. attempts to persuade the Taliban to expel bin Laden.

"Time for a diplomatic solution may be running out. Taliban brush-off of our indictment and other evidence may indicate movement from tolerance" of bin Laden's presence "to more active support," said a Nov. 28 memo for then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Bin Laden remained in Afghanistan until after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when he apparently was driven out by the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. He is believed to be hiding in western Pakistan's ungoverned border area.

After the bombings of the two American embassies, the U.S. launched 62 Tomahawk cruise missiles at two al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. It was believed bin Laden was at one of them meeting with several of his top men, but left shortly before the missiles struck.

[libsluv2spit]

carter''s incompetence during the iran hostage situation SHOWED middle eastern nutjobs that terrorism works

[liberalme]

As far a Berger himself goes, sorry that Dems don''''t have the talent for competent corruption like Repubs do. We''''ll just have to put up with incompetent Dem thieves like Berger and leave the real good, prefessionally executed corruption to neocons.

Posted by rafterman1 at 02:21 PM : Aug 21, 2008

Yes!! And right now the White House is looking for about 250 "missing" emails from 2003--I bet they''re in the same place as Bin Laden--Bush doesn''t want him and he sure doesn''t want those "lost" emails found!

[rosieod4prez]

"Newly Declassified Documents Suggest 1998 Training Camp Attack Cemented Alliance"


Sure, and they hated each other before, right ?

[mbcsmith]

The untold CRIME:

What did former national security advisor to Clinton, Sandy Berger, actually STEAL FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES during the 9/11 commission hearings. We will never know, but it must have been very damaging to Billdo for his former lackey to violate national security and steal.

Berger was convicted, lost his national security clearance and law license.


WHAT DID BERGER STEAL IN ORDER TO HIDE IT FROM THE 9/11 COMMISSION?

[mbcsmith]

The untold CRIME:

What did former national security advisor to Clinton, Sandy Berger, actually STEAL FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES during the 9/11 commission hearings. We will never know, but it must have been very damaging to Billdo for his former lackey to violate national security and steal.

Berger was convicted, lost his national security clearance and law license.


WHAT DID BERGER STEAL IN ORDER TO HIDE IT FROM THE 9/11 COMMISSION?

[mbcsmith]

The untold CRIME:

What did former national security advisor to Clinton, Sandy Berger, actually STEAL FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES during the 9/11 commission hearings. We will never know, but it must have been very damaging to Billdo for his former lackey to violate national security and steal.

Berger was convicted, lost his national security clearance and law license.


WHAT DID BERGER STEAL IN ORDER TO HIDE IT FROM THE 9/11 COMMISSION?

[mbcsmith]

The untold CRIME:

What did former national security advisor to Clinton, Sandy Berger, actually STEAL FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES during the 9/11 commission hearings. We will never know, but it must have been very damaging to Billdo for his former lackey to violate national security and steal.

Berger was convicted, lost his national security clearance and law license.


WHAT DID BERGER STEAL IN ORDER TO HIDE IT FROM THE 9/11 COMMISSION?

[mbcsmith]

The untold CRIME:

What did former national security advisor to Clinton, Sandy Berger, actually STEAL FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES during the 9/11 commission hearings. We will never know, but it must have been very damaging to Billdo for his former lackey to violate national security and steal.

Berger was convicted, lost his national security clearance and law license.


WHAT DID BERGER STEAL IN ORDER TO HIDE IT FROM THE 9/11 COMMISSION?

[mbcsmith]

The untold CRIME:

What did former national security advisor to Clinton, Sandy Berger, actually STEAL FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES during the 9/11 commission hearings. We will never know, but it must have been very damaging to Billdo for his former lackey to violate national security and steal.

Berger was convicted, lost his national security clearance and law license.


WHAT DID BERGER STEAL IN ORDER TO HIDE IT FROM THE 9/11 COMMISSION?

[mbcsmith]

Nothing, because nothing was hidden. The government already had copies of all the stuff he took and his punishment was probation, so the authorities didn''''t think too much of his "crime". Try again.





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by rafterman1 at 01:11 PM : Aug 21, 2008


LOL...LOL again. It is really sad to see the LIBS aren''t willing to point some scrutiny at the criminal BERGER and the inept Clinton.

[missingamerica]

That should have read:

The fact of the matter is that I did and do see the Clintons as being far more closely aligned with "the powers that be" than they are with the American people.

(Too much memory in my fingers.)

[missingamerica]

i know your politics shade your eyes from the TRUTH but Berger stole information fron the national archives during the 9/11 commission hearings. Doesn''t that raise your LIB outrage that Berger would commit criminal acts to protect the Billdo Clinton administration.

Posted by mbcsmith at 01:05 PM : Aug 21, 2008

Ah, but you ASSUME he was acting to protect the Clinton Administration.

I am not willing to "assume" for the standard reasons; for all I know, Berger was indeed acting to protect the Bush family and/or PNAC.

The fact of the matter is that I did and do see the Clintons and being far more closely aligned with "the powers that be" than they are with the American people.

[mbcsmith]

Posted by ibsteve2u at 01:02 PM : Aug 21, 2008



i know your politics shade your eyes from the TRUTH but Berger stole information fron the national archives during the 9/11 commission hearings. Doesn''t that raise your LIB outrage that Berger would commit criminal acts to protect the Billdo Clinton administration.

[missingamerica]

WHAT DID BERGER STEAL IN ORDER TO HIDE IT FROM THE 9/11 COMMISSION?

Posted by mbcsmith at 01:00 PM : Aug 21, 2008

Proof that the Bush family was acting with the Saudi royal family to fund Osama Bin Laden?

[mbcsmith]

The untold CRIME:

What did former national security advisor to Clinton, Sandy Berger, actually STEAL FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES during the 9/11 commission hearings. We will never know, but it must have been very damaging to Billdo for his former lackey to violate national security and steal.

Berger was convicted, lost his national security clearance and law license.


WHAT DID BERGER STEAL IN ORDER TO HIDE IT FROM THE 9/11 COMMISSION?

[missingamerica]

And the rest is history!

Posted by mbcsmith at 12:57 PM : Aug 21, 2008

History as rewritten by revisionist neocons, in the interests of honesty.

[mbcsmith]

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)

[mbcsmith]

L.A. Times 12/5/01
But U.S. authorities repeatedly turned the data away, first in February 1996; then again that August, when at my suggestion Sudan''''''''s religious ideologue, Hassan Turabi, wrote directly to Clinton; then again in April 1997, when I persuaded Bashir to invite the FBI to come to Sudan and view the data; and finally in February 1998, when Sudan''''''''s intelligence chief, Gutbi al-Mahdi, wrote directly to the FBI.

Gutbi had shown me some of Sudan''''''''s data during a three-hour meeting in Khartoum in October 1996. When I returned to Washington, I told Berger and his specialist for East Africa, Susan Rice, about the data available. They said they''''''''d get back to me. They never did. Neither did they respond when Bashir made the offer directly. I believe they never had any intention to engage Muslim countries--ally or not. Radical Islam, for the administration, was a convenient national security threat.

And that was not the end of it. In July 2000--three months before the deadly attack on the destroyer Cole in Yemen--I brought the White House another plausible offer to deal with Bin Laden, by then known to be involved in the embassy bombings. A senior counter-terrorism official from one of the United States'''''''' closest Arab allies--an ally whose name I am not free to divulge--approached me with the proposal after telling me he was fed up with the antics and arrogance of U.S. counter-terrorism officials.

(cont)

[mbcsmith]

L.A. Times 12/5/01 (cont)
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)

[mbcsmith]

L.A. Times 12/5/01(cont)
The offer, which would have brought Bin Laden to the Arab country as the first step of an extradition process that would eventually deliver him to the U.S., required only that Clinton make a state visit there to personally request Bin Laden''''''''s extradition. But senior Clinton officials sabotaged the offer, letting it get caught up in internal politics within the ruling family--Clintonian diplomacy at its best.

Clinton''''''''s failure to grasp the opportunity to unravel increasingly organized extremists, coupled with Berger''''''''s assessments of their potential to directly threaten the U.S., represents one of the most serious foreign policy failures in American history.



And the rest is history!