Clinton Admits: I Turned Down Bin Laden Extradition Offer

NewsMax.com ^ | 8/11/02 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

Mansour Ijaz, the Pakistani-American businessman who says he was rebuffed by the Clinton White House after negotiating a deal for the extradition of Osama bin Laden to the U.S. in 1996, has gained an important new witness who backs his story - none other than ex-President Clinton himself.

Former Clinton administration officials such as senior National Security Council aide Nancy Soderberg have described Ijaz as an unreliable witness. Former Clinton spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri recently slammed him as "a liar" and "a crackpot."

But a tape recording obtained exclusively by NewsMax.com shows Clinton himself confirming all the key points of his story.

In never-before-reported comments to a New York business group this past February, the ex-president never mentioned Mr. Ijaz by name. But the events he related parallel the freelance diplomat's story exactly.

"Mr. bin Laden used to live in Sudan," Clinton explained to a February 15 Long Island Association luncheon.

"He was expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1991 then he went to Sudan. And we'd been hearing that the Sudanese wanted America to start meeting with them again.

"They released him," the ex-president confirmed.

"At the time, 1996, he had committed no crime against America so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him, though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America.

"So I pleaded with the Saudis to take him, cause they could have," Clinton explained. "But they thought it was a hot potato and they didn't and that's how he wound up in Afghanistan."

Since last December, Mr. Ijaz has insisted that he negotiated the deal for bin Laden's release from Sudan. But he maintained that the White House declined to take advantage of the offer because of legal technicalities - a detail now confirmed by the ex-president.

Immediately, however, former Clinton officials trashed the bin Laden extradition story as an exaggeration at best - a complete fabrication at worst.

Asked to respond to Ijaz's account in January, ex-NSC aide Soderberg told Fox News Channel, "He's living in a fantasy land. There was no such Sudanese offer."

"He's lying," Ms. Palmieri, now chief spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said of Ijaz's story in May. "The guy has absolutely no credibility. You'll see that you never see him on television anymore once he was outed as being a fraud."

Mainstream reporters, apparently unaware of Clinton's February comments, have also trashed Mr. Ijaz's account.

In May, both New York Times reporter Judith Miller and NBC newswoman Andrea Mitchell told radioman Don Imus they declined to cover the bin Laden extradition story because they didn't find it credible.

Listen to excerpts from the bombshell Clinton speech the rest of the press ignored.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Al-Qaeda
Clinton Scandals
NewsMax Scoops

[DoughtyOne]

Clinton has never quite figured it out, that perhaps just once in a while, it might be better for him if he'd shut the ---- up!

[kattracks]

He can't, He has to keep talking about himself because he's afraid no one else will.

[DoughtyOne]

Report: Mansour Ijaz, the Pakistani-American businessman who says he was rebuffed by the Clinton White House after negotiating a deal for the extradition of Osama bin Laden to the U.S. in 1996, has gained an important new witness who backs his story - none other than ex-President Clinton himself.

Clinton: At the time, 1996, he had committed no crime against America so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him, though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America.

If Laden wasn't wanted by the United States for doing something against us, why did Mansour Ijaz even know who he was?  Did Ijaz have a silly habit of trying to arrange the extradition of unknowns to the US?  Somehow I doubt it.  Isn't it time for another "is = is" statement by Bill?

[DoughtyOne]

Nobody else should. And I'm hoping that one day this nation's people will finally get their fill of him and his mrs., and extend to them the OJ treatment cubed.

[kayak]

Excellent point you make in #4.

Can someone jog my memory? What did we know and when did we know it about a connection between OBL and the bombing of the WTC?

[DoughtyOne]

Wasn't he involved with Somalia and several African (continent) embassy bombings? I believe those were known in 1996. The first WTC bombing was attributed to that Moslem Cleric in NY if I remember correctly. Was he connected to Laden? I don't think so.

[Askel5]

Clinton has never quite figured it out, that perhaps just once in a while, it might be better for him if he'd shut the ---- up!

Doesn't that seem a little odd for such a smart guy who's got no end of iron-clad and fang-toothed handlers?

I'm surprised he hasn't stepped up to the plate to take credit for the Yankee's World Series loss last year.

After all ... we're talking about a guy who issued his Own Personal Apology for Waco but weeks before Danforth cleared him entirely in his report issued November 8, 2000.

[kayak]

The embassy bombings weren't until '98.

On August 7, 1998, a truck bomb destroyed the U.S. Embassy in Kenya. Moments later another truck bomb exploded outside the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania. The bombings killed 213 in Kenya and 11 in Tanzania. (sourced here)

He is thought to be complicit in the 1993 bombing of the WTC ...... but I'm not sure when the connection was made.

According to the US, Bin Laden was involved in at least three major attacks - the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1996 killing of 19 US soldiers in Saudi Arabia, and the 1998 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. (sourced here)

[DoughtyOne]

This was on the radar in May of 1998.  I would think it was about the same as what as known in 1996, but that's conjecture.

Here's the LINK.

[LarryLied]

The embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya were in 1998. Al-Zawahiri(maybe Bin Ladin too) has been indicted for those attacks. The CIA and FBI had to be after Bin Ladin in 1996 too but I don't recall for what. The first WTC attack?

[Brush_Your_Teeth]

Was he connected to Laden? I don't think so.

He was connected to Bin Laden's right hand man that doctor from egypt.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

. . . first time I remember Ossama bin Laden's name mentioned was when Orin Hatch held Senate hearings and warned about the man. I remember that it hit me out of the blue at the time, didn't know what to make of it.

[DoughtyOne]

Ramsey Yosef was the cleric I was thinking of. He was arrested, and Laden was thought to have been the leasee of the place he was staying. Try the link to the ABC interview I provided. It's mentioned in there.

Good dates there. I thought those bombings were earlier.

[backhoe]

Cross-linking:

Bush and Clinton and 911- some facts...

[DoughtyOne]

                  
 

                  Feds want to keep bin
                  Laden-Somalia link in trial

                  April 20, 2001
                  Web posted at: 4:32 p.m. EDT (2032
                  GMT)

                  LINK

                  From Phil Hirschkorn
                  CNN New York Bureau

                  NEW YORK (CNN) -- The defense
                  presentation in the embassy bombings
                  trial will pause Monday so federal
                  prosecutors can make their case that
                  Islamic militants loyal to Osama bin
                  Laden trained the Somali fighters who killed 18 American soldiers in 1993.

                  The charge, largely ignored in 10 weeks of trial testimony and evidence about
                  the August 7, 1998, bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, is one
                  the U.S. attorney has not dropped in a proposal for reduced charges submitted
                  to the trial judge.

                  In a one-day presentation, the government is expected to call an expert witness
                  from the U.S. military to sum up what happened in the Somalia capital of
                  Mogadishu on October 3, 1993.

                  On that day, a firefight resulting from a U.S.
                  Army raid to capture lieutenants of Somali tribal
                  leader Mohammed Farrah Aidid left 18 U.S.
                  soldiers dead.

                  The U.S. troops were in Somalia to assist a U.N.
                  mission distributing food and relief supplies and
                  restoring order to the war-torn nation. The United
                  Nations had put a bounty on Aidid after his men
                  ambushed and killed 24 Pakistani peacekeepers
                  that June.

                  A federal indictment accuses bin Laden and 21
                  others in a terrorist conspiracy to kill Americans
                  dating to the early 1990s. Four of those named in
                  the indictment have been on trial since January,
                  accused of roles in the embassy bombings, which
                  prosecutors say were the culmination of the
                  conspiracy. The two truck bombings killed 224
                  people, including 12 Americans.

                  Prosecutors completed their initial evidence
                  presentation to the jury on April 4 after calling
                  more than 90 witnesses.

                  On Thursday, at the request of U.S. District
                  Judge Leonard Sand, the U.S. attorney's office
                  submitted a revised indictment to simplify the
                  charges the jury will be asked to consider.

                  Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in
                  court this week that one of the six terror
                  conspiracy charges -- plotting to attack U.S.
                  national defense facilities -- would be dropped and that the list of more than
                  150 overt acts alleged in the main conspiracy count would be reduced.

                  Copies of the revised indictment were under court seal, pending a court
                  conference scheduled Monday afternoon.

                  Fitzgerald has told Sand the actions alleged in Somalia will remain in the
                  government's case.

                  Defendant Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, 36, a Jordanian national, is the only
                  defendant in court directly implicated in Somalia. The indictment names Odeh
                  as one of seven known members of bin Laden's group, al Qaeda, who trained
                  Somali tribes.

                  Aside from the unforeseen casualties, the U.S. military action on October 3,
                  1993, "was a success," according to a memo by Maj. Gen. William Garrison,
                  the commanding officer. "The targeted individuals were captured." More than
                  500 Somalis died from the battle.

                  Aidid died in 1996, his son Hussein succeeding him as tribal leader and de facto
                  president, although Somalia had no central government until last year. A
                  peace-brokered parliament installed last summer elected a new president,
                  Abdiqasim Salad Hasan, to a transitional three-year term.

                  The three men now on trial in New York along with Odeh are Mohamed
                  Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali, 24, a Saudi; Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27, a
                  Tanzanian; and Wadih el Hage, 40, a naturalized American.

                  None of the defendants are expected to testify. The defense is expected to
                  rest at the end of next week.

[DoughtyOne]

It's a wonder I don't have an ulcer. ; )

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you.

[DoughtyOne]

                 Excerpt:  LINK to full article

                 In Sudan, bin Laden appeared to concentrate on
                 switching gears. He reportedly built a road from Khartoum
                 to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, and apparently farmed.
                 Plenty of Afghans came to join him.
                      Bin Laden was certainly close to Egyptian radical
                 groups based in Khartoum — among them, Islamic Jihad.
                 Through an organization he funded in London, bin Laden
                 continued to call for radical change in Saudi Arabia. But
                 after years of continued criticism of the Saudi royal family,
                 his own family disowned him.
                      In 1992, bin Laden claimed responsibility for attempting
                 to bomb U.S. soldiers in Yemen, and again for attacks in
                 Somalia in 1993.
                      By 1994, the Saudis wanted bin Laden out of their back
                 yard. The Americans joined them in putting pressure on the
                 Sudanese to expel him.
                      He left Sudan for Afghanistan in the spring of 1996, by
                 which time he had been identified in a State Department
                 report as “a major financier of terrorism.”

[kayak]

Here's an interesting time line regarding OBL .....

Osama bin Laden: A Chronology of His Life

A couple of very interesting items

...... Spring 1996 - President Clinton signed a top secret order that authorized the CIA to use any and all means to destroy bin Laden's network.

.....June 25, 1996 - A large truck bomb devastates the US military residence in Dhahran called Khobar Towers, killing 19 servicemen. The US military initially linked bin Laden to the attack but now believe a Saudi Shiite group was responsible (Source: Washington Post 8/23/98). U.S. investigators still believe bin Laden was somehow involved.

[kayak]

That is a real treasure trove! I now have it bookmarked. Thanks for all the work to put it together!

[Mike Darancette]

Report: Mansour Ijaz, the Pakistani-American businessman who says he was rebuffed by the Clinton White House after negotiating a deal for the extradition of Osama bin Laden to the U.S. in 1996, has gained an important new witness who backs his story - none other than ex-President Clinton himself.

Has Ijaz even been called to testify before either the House or Senate?

I wonder how anxious the DemocRATS are for that Non=Partisan comission now?

[DoughtyOne]

I was looking for an incriminating statement in 95 or 96 to reveal Clinton's knowledge. But if he signed that CIA order to destroy Laden's network, that seem to imply that he had a pretty good concept of what the guy was up to.

The article that started this thread talked about the Clinton's spinners and the media's handling of early reports if this story. They're not looking too hot right now.

[backhoe]

Thanks for looking... one of the neat things about the 'net is that if you wait long enough, material like that just kind of falls in place, and all you have to do is gather it up...

[kattracks]

What Did Clinton Know and When Did He Know It?!?

Headlines we'll never see in the lamestream media.

[DoughtyOne]

I'm not sure. He might actually know something. We wouldn't want that. < /sarcasm >

[kayak]

I'm going to have to quit the search for tonight. Maybe someone can turn up just what we're looking for tomorrow or in the next few days.

It's a shame there are no real journalists in the media any more ..... they only seem to want to read the memos sent to them by the DNC rather than searching out the facts on a story like this.

[backhoe]

It's a shame there are no real journalists in the media any more ..... they only seem to want to read the memos sent to them by the DNC rather than searching out the facts on a story like this.

Just a couple of random thoughts on this:

1- you know virtually all people in the media- TV, radio, whatever- have at least as much access to this stuff as we do. Do they just not look for it? Or do they just not want to mention it?
2- I well recall ( but didn't know how to save links at the time ) stories here during the 2000 election about how the DNC & democrats would come up with new "talking points" and send them to journalists, who would then base their stories and interviews on them. Anyone have that stuff saved?

[mo]

The Clintons have made a career of pissing on all of us while the media just stand around assuring us and one another that its only raining.....one of these days...just one of these days, the find wheels of justice will make it around to them..I can hope can't I!

[Clara Lou]

Okay, now I want this to go to the right people, and I want the Republicans to USE this against the Democrats.

[gaspar]

Osama Bin Laden was an unindicted co-conspirator in the first trade towers bombing. For Clinton to say that we had nothing on OBL is a lie; secondly, a grand jury could have been called at any moment and an indictment could have been secured by federal prosecutors in New York. He did not bring OBL to the US because he was afraid of the Muslim reaction. In sum, as usual, he was looking out for his own sorry hide.

By the way, Mansoor Ijaz was quite the hero when he was collecting hundreds of thousands for the DNC and Al Gore. When he told the truth, he was skewered.

As for Judith Miller and Andrea Mitchell not wanting to touch the story, the first is an accomplished author but a stooge for the NYTimes; Andrea Mitchell simply knows nothing about Islam or the Islamist movement. T

[gaspar]

Shaykh Omar, the blind cleric who was mullah to the Egyptian revolutionary organizations, and OBLaden first met in Pakistan in the mid-1980s during the war against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Their paths crossed many times after that and they had many mutual friends. OBL's men helped support Omar, and in the USA the blind shaykh was, among other things, involved in the collection of funds for Islamist movements, including Al Qaida.

[financeprof]

. . . though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America.

If we truly knew that OBL was intending to commit crimes against the US, and since it is certain that any efforts to carry out such intended acts would have involved multiple individuals, a conspiracy rap would have been a slam dunk--so much for the story that we had nothing to hold him on. Moreover, if we had no grounds to detain him, how can Clinton justify signing an order to eliminate his network? Just more Clintonian BS.

[Alamo-Girl]

I assume you mean the 1993 WTC bombing. The public knew at least by 1998: 1998 – Osama bin Laden connected to 1993 WTC bombing

There were a lot of other indications though:

New York Times 2/19/00 Judith Miller “….. Government officials investigating a decade of international terrorist attacks say they have found a common thread, Islamic charities and relief organizations that they suspect are being used to move men, money and weapons across borders. American officials said Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile charged with masterminding the 1998 bombings of American Embassies in East Africa, relied on at least nine of the groups in his recent operations. Other charities and relief groups, the Americans said, have been linked to a recent plot to bomb historic and tourist sites in Jordan, the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and terrorist attacks in Egypt against tourists and Government officials. "These charities and relief groups are a crucial part of terrorism's infrastructure," said one official who monitors terrorism closely. "Money people give for worthy causes should not wind up buying explosives or phony passports. But we still know too little about how Islamic fundamentalists use and abuse these groups." ……”

UPI 4/18/00 “…….An Islamic guerilla group in southern Philippines believed to be backed by Osama bin Laden warned Tuesday that it would abduct and kill U.S. citizens unless a World Trade Center bomber and two others are released from U.S. prisons.…..”

vny.com/UPI 1/26/01 Richard Sale "......Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born Islamicterrorist suspect sought by the United States in connection with the August 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, had months earlier been linked to the 1993 deaths of 18 U.S. Rangers in Somalia. A Justice Department indictment of those responsible, however, was suppressed and no action taken, U.S. intelligence sources revealed Friday. ..... According to former U.S. intelligence officials, bin Laden was secretly indicted for the Ranger killings in 1997. "I personally discussed the indictment with the FBI," one former U.S. government source said. But the indictment was later "torn up" and then made part of a public indictment of bin Laden and 17 co-defendants filed in 1998 by the Justice Department following the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in which 224 people died. The Ranger murders are mentioned specifically on pages 18 and19 of that indictment......"

As you can see from the above, the Clinton administration approach was to investigate and prosecute bin Laden like an ordinary criminal through a court of law. (sigh…)

[JavaTheHutt]

The Truth Is Out There!

Bump!

[DoughtyOne]

That's for sure.

[DoughtyOne]

Very true. I think I ran out of energy about the same time you did.

[TADSLOS]

Simple picture math of Clinton's refusal to act against Bin Laden:

1993 WTC BOMBING +

MOGADISHU +

KHOBAR TOWERS +

USS COLE =

[goldstategop]

The mainstream pressitutes never bothered to follow up on the story cause they're in love with Bubba.

[facedown]

"He's lying," Ms. Palmieri, now chief spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said of Ijaz's story in May.

How appropriate.

[goldstategop]

She meant Ijaz but I think its more descriptive for the presidential felon.

[facedown]

And herself!

[jwalsh07]

btt

[Dog]

Found this......Bin Laden...

In 1996, Sudan expelled bin Laden due to threats of U.N. sanctions for bin Laden's complicity in an attempt to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Seems Bin Laden tried to kill Mubarek.....new one to me...

[DoughtyOne]

I read that one place myself. I guess that's not bad enough for us to want to take him out of circulation. Don't we cooperate with interpol, or is it just in the European nations? I would think an all points would be issued to pick him up by all means possible under the circumstances.

[goldstategop]

I think we all know who should be picked up and its not Bin Laden. Bwahahahaha!!!

[DoughtyOne]

Yep, that's a given. lol

[rwfromkansas]

bump

[Paul Atreides]

I was going to say how funny it is that Bubba sends out his floozies to call someone else a liar, only to have the "liar's" statements prove to be true.

[Howlin]

Um........how does Mr. Clinton spin this:

"At the time, 1996, he had committed no crime against America so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him, though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America.

In light of this from the linke you provided:

...... Spring 1996 - President Clinton signed a top secret order that authorized the CIA to use any and all means to destroy bin Laden's network.