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Cia and fbi refused to certify binladen link to USS cole { September 24 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/us/24clinton.htmlMr. Clinton complained at the time that the C.I.A. and F.B.I. had refused to certify that Mr. bin Laden was responsible for the Cole attack.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/us/24clinton.html
September 24, 2006
Clinton Faults Bush Team Efforts to Get bin Laden Before Sept. 11
By REUTERS
WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 (Reuters) — Former President Bill Clinton, angrily defending his efforts to capture Osama bin Laden, accused the Bush administration in an interview to be broadcast Sunday of doing far less to stop Mr. bin Laden before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In the interview for “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Clinton defended the steps he took after the bombing of the destroyer Cole in 2000 and faulted “right-wingers” for their criticism of his efforts to capture Mr. bin Laden, the Qaeda leader.
“But at least I tried. That’s the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now,” Mr. Clinton said when asked whether he had failed to anticipate the full threat from Mr. bin Laden. “They had eight months to try; they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed.”
The Sept. 11 attacks occurred almost eight months after President Bush succeeded Mr. Clinton in January 2001.
“I authorized the C.I.A. to get groups together to try to kill him,” Mr. Clinton said.
“Now if you want to criticize me for one thing,” he continued, “you can criticize me for this: after the Cole, I had battle plans drawn to go into Afghanistan, overthrow the Taliban and launch a full-scale attack search for bin Laden.” But he said he was not able to follow through with his plans, adding, “We needed basing rights in Uzbekistan, which we got after 9/11.”
Mr. Clinton complained at the time that the C.I.A. and F.B.I. had refused to certify that Mr. bin Laden was responsible for the Cole attack.
Earlier this month, Mr. Clinton dismissed as “indisputably wrong” a television movie that suggested he was too distracted by the Monica Lewinsky scandal to confront the Islamic militant threat that culminated in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
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