USA · updated 2h ago · 3 min read
Bill Clinton Says CIA Abandoned Pre-September 11 Plan to Take Out Osama bin Laden
CIA abandoned pre-9/11 operation to kill bin Laden due to civilian casualty fears. Clinton says he authorized pursuit and would have preferred capturing bin Laden alive.
Whether the CIA risk decision or wider warning failures lead.
5 of 6 outlets skipped it: bin Laden had considered targeting India in 1998.
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New York Post
“Former President Bill Clinton revealed on Sunday that the CIA abandoned a plan”Read the original ↗
Diario Las Américas
“The declassification of dozens of intelligence reports on Osama bin Laden has once again placed under scrutiny”Read the original ↗
The New York Post spotlights Clinton’s interview, while Diario Las Américas frames the release as proof administrations ignored operational chances.
CIA plan called off
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said the CIA abandoned an operation to take out Osama bin Laden before the September 11, 2001 attacks because officials feared a failed mission could kill large numbers of civilians.
““I had authorized the CIA to try to take him out,” Clinton said”
Clinton, 80, said he had authorized the CIA to pursue bin Laden and told the agency that capturing him alive would have been preferable, but stopping him was the overriding objective.
In a radio interview with John Catsimatidis on WABC Radio’s “Cats Roundtable,” Clinton said, “I had authorized the CIA to try to take him out,” and he described being “scared” and “mad” when the CIA “at the last minute killed the plan.”
Clinton said the CIA ultimately decided against proceeding because “they were afraid that if they missed, they’d kill a lot of innocent civilians,” and he argued that bin Laden was determined to carry out what he did.
He added that he identified bin Laden as the likely culprit almost immediately after watching the second plane strike the World Trade Center, recalling that he was in Australia while Hillary Clinton was in Washington and their daughter was in Lower Manhattan.
Warnings and declassified briefs
Clinton’s account came as newly released CIA records shed further light on intelligence available to the administration before al-Qaeda carried out the attacks, with the documents released two days earlier covering the years before September 11.
The Arab Weekly said the CIA released “more than 100 pages of declassified presidential intelligence briefings,” and it described a September 10, 1998 memo stating bin Laden’s “preferred option is to strike the US on its own soil in Washington.”
The same release included an August 6, 2001 assessment during President George W. Bush’s administration saying bin Laden was “determined to strike” the United States and could potentially use al-Qaeda members already inside the country.
Diario Las Américas, writing from Miami, said declassified reports in the President's Daily Briefs (PDB) show U.S. intelligence had known for years about bin Laden’s intentions to attack targets inside the United States and had even considered scenarios involving aircraft and hijackings.D
Diario Las Américas quoted former CIA officer Enrique “Ric” Prado saying the information now made public confirms that “there were opportunities to act against Bin Laden before Al Qaeda carried out the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001.”D
Aftermath and continued risk
Clinton said his family was unable to contact their daughter in Lower Manhattan as thousands of people were ordered to leave the area on foot after the attacks began.
““I think it’s entirely possible. I think we have to stay on guard about that.””
He told Catsimatidis that he believes another terrorist attack on New York City remains possible and said, “I think it’s entirely possible. I think we have to stay on guard about that.”
Clinton also said the United States is now “much better prepared [now] than we were… [But] you only have to miss once, and then you’re screwed,” framing preparedness as a continuing part of the national security plan.
Diario Las Américas added that in the weeks before September 11, the FBI was conducting approximately 70 investigations related to bin Laden inside the country, and it said the CIA released 71 presidential intelligence reports covering the period from early 1998 through the day after the attacks.D
SANA said the attacks left 2,977 fatalities, excluding the 19 hijackers, and it described the events as leading to “profound transformations in United States foreign, security, and intelligence policy.”