How Bill Clinton Dropped the Ball on Bin Laden
Filed under: Middle East
A newly released, previously classified report written by the CIA's internal ombudsman highlights the fact that it was former President Bill Clinton's gross negligence that led to the 9/11 assault on the United States.
Clinton appointed George Tenet to be the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in July 1997. As summarized by the Associated press, the report emphasizes that:
U.S. spy agencies, which were overseen by Tenet, lacked a comprehensive strategic plan to counter Osama bin Laden prior to 9/11. The inspector general concluded that Tenet "by virtue of his position, bears ultimate responsibility for the fact that no such strategic plan was ever created." The CIA's analysis of al-Qaida before Sept. 2001 was lacking. No comprehensive report focusing on bin Laden was written after 1993, and no comprehensive report laying out the threats of 2001 was assembled. "A number of important issues were covered insufficiently or not at all," the report found.
In other words, Bill Clinton and his DCI ignored the al-Qaida problem throughout his presidency, and escaped blame only because it burst into flames just after Clinton left office, only a few months after George Bush had taken power. Al Gore should consider himself lucky he lost the election he claims he won; had he become president, Clinton's chickens would have come home to roost. It's to Bush's credit that he did not seek to make political hay with this report, but suppressed it for more than two years.