different strings

May 21, 2003

Missed opportunity?

ABCnews.com is reporting that in 1998, there was a plan to try and capture Osama bin Laden, but due to concerns about the possiblity of civilian casualties, it was never approved.

Jack Cloonan, a former FBI agent who is now an ABCNEWS consultant, said that federal agents seeking bin Laden had developed a plan to have a plane fly in and attack a compound in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where the terror leader was believed to have been holed up back in 1998 - three years before the devastating attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

But when the plan went up the chain of command for approval, it was killed by then-Attorney General Janet Reno.

"They came to the decision that this plan was probably too dangerous, that the loss of life on the ground would have been significant," Cloonan said. There was concern that people around the bin Laden compound would be killed."

Conservatives are likely to have a field day with this, pointing out that, because we were too concerned about people on the ground around bin Laden, we ended up allowing 3,000 of our own people to be killed. It should be remembered, though, that this was not the only opportunity we might have had to capture bin Laden, and following the start of the Bush administration, much of the focus on investigating terrorism was reduced and the many warnings of an impending attack were ignored.

In other words, it took both the Clinton administration and the Bush administration's inattention to concerns of terrorism to allow the WTC/Pentagon attacks to happen. Neither one is solely to blame, neither is entirely innocent. We had opportunities during both administrations to take steps to lessen the threat of terrorism, and both administrations had warnings about terrorist attacks that were not well-acted upon.

Posted by thorswitch at May 21, 2003 04:50 PM | TrackBack

Comments

One other thing that probably won't get mentioned in the reporting. After the USS Cole bombing in 2000, the Clinton administration drew up plans for an invasion of Afghanistan to find and capture Osama bin Laden. These weren't carried out by Clinton reportedly because he was set to leave office before the action would have been completed. Instead, the then incoming Bush administration was briefed on the need for action and the plan. Which, they ignored. I recall hearing that our eventual invasion of Afghanistan bore a striking resemblance to the plan that Clinton's team drafted.

I get the sense that Clinton's team came to understand the risk that bin Laden posed domestically, but only too late to act on it. It makes me wonder what would have happened if Gore had made it to the Oval Office...would he have done something different than Bush?

Posted by: Vince at May 21, 2003 06:47 PM

We probably wouldn't have had 8+ month-long honeymoon with Gore; more than likely office/position-holders would have stayed in place. Bush was still working on appointments up to 9/11.

Gore also would not have taken a month-long vacation in August 2001. It's not like him.

Additionally, the Israeli/Palestine peace process that Clinton had worked on so hard would not have gone fallow; Gore could have picked up and hit the ground running. Bush, on the other hand, actively disengaged from a number of diplomatic relationships (North Korea included).

Had Gore become president, it couldn't have been worse than it is now.

Posted by: Rayne at May 22, 2003 07:23 AM