Posted on 05/20/2002 8:45:52 AM PDT by kattracks
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Ca., said Sunday she believes that Osama bin Laden decided to launch deadly terrorist strikes on U.S. territory in direct response to President Clinton's failed missile strikes on bin Laden's Afghanistan headquarters in 1998.
"I think, once we struck bin Laden in '98, the training camps, the open-source information, in other words, the people writing books, and one of them being Yosef Bodansky, points out in his book that that was a turning point for bin Laden," Sen. Feinstein told CNN's "Late Edition."
"That's when he decided he was going to go after the United States. Now, I happen to believe that's correct," she contended.
The Clinton administration's August 20, 1998 missile strike against bin Laden's Khost, Afghanistan training camp has been dubbed by critics "the Monica missile attack" because of widespread suspicions the ex-president used it to create a distraction from Monica Lewinsky's Sexgate grand jury testimony, scheduled for the day before.
With her comments to CNN, Sen. Feinstein becomes the highest ranking elected official to endorse the theory that the deadly 9-11 attacks were planned in direct response to the ill-fated 1998 strikes, which included an attack on a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory.
Clinton has repeatedly tried to justitfy the 1998 missile strikes, sayings he had reliable intelligence that placed bin Laden in his Khost encampment up to a few hours before the attack was launched.
But some now theorize that the failed attempt to kill bin Laden not only enraged the al Qaeda chief to the point where he decided to target the U.S. directly, but that Clinton's decision not to pursue subsequent plans to kill bin Laden left the terror mastermind in a position to carry out his 9-11 plan for revenge.
In little noticed comments last February to a group of Long Island, N.Y. business leaders, Clinton explained why he didn't do more to take bin Laden out after the failed missile strikes.
"I actually trained people to do this. We trained people," he revealed.
"But in order to do it we would have had to take them in on attack helicopters 900 miles from the nearest boat, maybe illegally violating the airspace of people if they wouldn't give us approval."
Clinton said he also weighed an option to bomb Khandahar because U.S intelligence had tracked bin Laden to a compound in the city. But he decided to spare the terror chief in order to avoid killing innocent Afghanis.
"As far as we knew, he never went back to his (Khost) training camp," Clinton told the Long Island crowd. "So the only place bin Laden ever went that we knew was occasionally he went to Khandahar, where he always spent the night in a compound that had 200 women and children.
"So I could have, on any given night, ordered an attack that I knew would kill 200 women and children," Clinton said.
The ex-president bolstered his excuse for not bombing bin Laden a second time by arguing that such an attack "had less than a 50 percent chance of getting him." (See: Clinton: I Wanted to Bomb Khandahar)
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
An insult to warriors everywhere. One cannot effectively train others what they haven't become proficient at themselves. This from a man-boy, who can't even "train" his libido.
ELECT MORE DEMONICRATS LIKE CHIFI/DA$$HOLE TO CONGRESS IN 2002!
Giuliani Defends Bush Administration (says Clinton partly to blame)
Giuliani, a Republican, suggested that the Clinton administration also should be accountable given that much of the intelligence now coming under scrutiny was collected during its watch.
"Remember, the Bush administration when this attack took place was a very new administration and they had just inherited the intelligence apparatus put in place by the Clinton administration so when you look at this you're going to have look at both," Giuliani told The Associated Press after a speech to graduates of Georgetown Law School.
But some now theorize that the failed attempt to kill bin Laden not only enraged the al Qaeda chief to the point where he decided to target the U.S. directly, but that Clinton's decision not to pursue subsequent plans to kill bin Laden left the terror mastermind in a position to carry out his 9-11 plan for revenge.
Clinton stirred up the hornets nest while wagging the dog and then walked away leaving it for somebody else to deal with. Just as he did when Sudan (I think it was Sudan) wanted to hand bin Laden over on a silver platter and Clinton refused.
Since when is illegal violation an impediment?
Had the business leaders just gathered informally on a street corner?
Bombing another country and not expecting the same is a big mistake in war. Claiming 'surprise' and 'we did nothing' is either complete stupidity or is working a con job spin on the American people.
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