Policy Disputes Over Hunt Paralyzed Clinton's Aides

Washington Post ^ | , February 22, 2004 | Steve Coll

[Maria S]

Between 1998 and 2000, the CIA and President Bill Clinton's national security team were caught up in paralyzing policy disputes as they secretly debated the legal permissions for covert operations against Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.

The debates left both White House counterterrorism analysts and CIA career operators frustrated and at times confused about what kinds of operations could be carried out, according to interviews with more than a dozen officials and lawyers who were directly involved. There was little question that under U.S. law it was permissible to kill bin Laden and his top aides, at least after the evidence showed they were responsible for the attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.

The ban on assassinations -- contained in a 1981 executive order by President Ronald Reagan -- did not apply to military targets, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel had previously ruled in classified opinions. Bin Laden's Tarnak Farm and other terrorist camps in Afghanistan were legitimate military targets under this definition, White House lawyers agreed.

[small voice in the wilderness]

It must've been real intense then. So intense that clinton had no choice but to relieve his tension. In any way he could. Poor thing, he did it for us. POS

[Kozak]

And Ketchup Boys idea of an anti terrorism policy is to head back to the future to the Golden Clinton days of treating it as a criminal issue. God help the US if he's elected.

[Maria S]

Paraphrasing from 'Dereliction of Duty' by Col. Patterson, who carried "the football" (the code needed for a nuclear launch):

In the fall of 1998, they (the NSC and the intelligence community) had Bin Laden tagged. National Security Advisor Sandy Berger tried to get Clinton on the phone. They only had a two hour window to bag Bin Laden. Clinton was "Unavailable" (golf). He tried again and again to reach the President, to no avail. Despite being accompanied by Military Aides (Col Patterson, who carried "the football") and Secret Service, he was "unavailable". When Berger finally managed to get through, Clinton couldn't make a decision. He waffled away that two hour window. Bin Laden got away.

[martin_fierro]

Buncha pinheaded kids.

Thank God there are adults back in the White House.

[js1138]

Welcome to WienieWorld. Check your guns at the U.N. Desk.

[mo]

good ole' Wash Compost....stlil trying to persuade us all that while Bubba was peeing on all of us.....it was really rain. Somebody needs to take out the trash at the WP. That duplicity cost us 911. And I lay that at the feet of "the fourth estate" .

[Prime Choice]

Paralysis through Analysis. That's what one gets when one treats terrorism as a legal issue.

Clinton was a worthless PoS, as was his appeasenik foreign policy.

Let us never forget that the architects planned 9/11 under Clinton's watch. That alone shows how worthless this Kum-Ba-Yah crap truly is.

[Siegfried]

I just caught the related story on the CBS news tonight and the news bimbo ran a clip of some jerk quoted for the camera saying something like "neither the Bush administration nor the Clinton administration wanted to resolve the problem."

Huh? WTFO?

Clinton didn't do anything about terrorism, and his inaction directly led to the deaths of 3,000 Americans! President Bush, on the other hand, has been cleaning out the terrorist ratholes and making Americans proud.

So what kind of propaganda is this jerk spouting, and where does CBS get off portraying the Bush administration as not wanting to solve this security issue?

I just sincerely hope that more and more people are getting their news from the internet, where they can find the truth, and not just the leftist propaganda that spews forth on the major news media every night.

[OldFriend]

Janet Reno and Mad Maddie were the problem!

[Wild Irish Rogue]

Here's the money quote:

"Yet the secret legal authorizations Clinton signed after this failed missile strike required the CIA to make a good faith effort to capture bin Laden for trial, not kill him outright."

President Bush, SOTU,2004 :

" I know that some people question if America is really in a war at all. They view terrorism more as a crime, a problem to be solved mainly with law enforcement and indictments.
After the World Trade Center was first attacked in 1993, some of the guilty were indicted and tried and convicted, and sent to prison. But the matter was not settled.
The terrorists were still training and plotting in other nations, and drawing up more ambitious plans.
After the chaos and carnage of September the 11th, IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO SERVE OUR ENEMIES WITH LEGAL PAPERS . The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States, and war is what they got"

You have to wonder if the Democrats are getting nervous that we might be closing in on Osama, so they dust off Clinton and his flaccid attempts at fighting terror. BTW- I could only take Dereliction of Duty in small doses. As POTUS,Clinton was missing at times, and drunk on other occasions and not a peep from the mainstream media. Guess they were saving their energy for President Bush's National Guard records.

[mo]

Thank God for FreeRepblic and JimRob!!!

[FairOpinion]

Related article:

A Secret Hunt Unravels in Afghanistan (Ghost Wars : The CIA and Osama bin Laden, 1997-1999)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1082899/posts

[FairOpinion]

"But Clinton also authorized the CIA to carry out operations that legally required the agency's officers to plan in almost every instance to capture bin Laden alive and bring him to the United States to face trial.

At first the CIA was permitted to use lethal force only in the course of a legitimate attempt to make an arrest. Later the memos allowed for a pure lethal attack if an arrest was not possible. Still, the CIA was required to plan all its agent missions with an arrest in mind. "


==

They ties the hands of the CIA, by not authorizing deadly force.

Bush was unequivocal, when he said he wanted Bin Laden "dead or alive".

[Lancey Howard]

Bump your post #4.

[FairOpinion]

Check out this great video-ad about the difference between Clinton and Bush. It was created by FReeper jmstein7:



http://www.streamload.com/jmstein77/bushad3.asf

[Lancey Howard]

Bump your post #11.

[mrmargaritaville]

Berger should have had the 'nads to do it without Clintoon's okay.

[expatpat]

IMO it was not paralysis through analysis but sheer cowardice -- they didn't want to risk losing political power by being anything but passive.

[Prime Choice]

IMO it was not paralysis through analysis but sheer cowardice -- they didn't want to risk losing political power by being anything but passive.

Good point. Sadly, though, we may both be right!

God help us if a Democrat takes the White House before al Qaeda is destroyed.