What Bill Clinton just told a New York radio audience about bin Laden is not true. I know, because I reported this out in detail for my 2003 book, "Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11."
On WABC, Clinton said: "I had authorized the CIA to try to take him out. But they were afraid that if they missed, they'd kill a lot of innocent civilians. They didn't want to run the risk. I didn't second-guess them..."
That is not what happened at the moment his administration had its best shot.
On May 18, 1996, bin Laden left Khartoum for Jalalabad aboard a chartered C-130, traveling with his wives, children, and roughly 150 of his top aides and lieutenants. The flight had to stop to refuel in Qatar.
The CIA's Counterterrorism Center drew up an operations plan to interdict that plane in international airspace and force it down. It went to the White House and was presented to President Clinton. And he decided not to act — because he and most of his senior advisors already considered it a win just to have pushed bin Laden out of Sudan.
Here is what a former CIA analyst assigned to the Counterterrorism Center told me on the record for the book: "We were just incensed after we learned there would be no action on our recommendation. We had clear and convincing proof of what bin Laden had done, and it would have been easy to bring him in."
And here's the part Clinton doesn't mention on the radio: after 9/11, he told a dinner guest in New York that passing on bin Laden in 1996 was "probably the biggest mistake of my presidency."
So the CIA didn't block a strike out of fear of civilian casualties. The decision not to act on a workable interdiction plan was made at the top of the administration. Rewriting that now doesn't change the record.
In order to do this, both of these hosts and shows had to coordinate and collude with the Talarico campaign, which should actually be a scandal inside these networks.
All but one were ruled suicides
One is being investigated as a homicide and the person of interest is black
Just some race-baiting trash from this trash congresswoman
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson just announced that he is seeking a second term on the pitch that "our work is not done." So Chicago will lose the Bears but keep Brandon Johnson? For my hometown, Johnson has been Nero without the musical talent ...
If they could just take the fraud out of Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and the other 220 other welfare programs, they'd be solvent for generations to come. ~~ @JayWeber3 https://t.co/ZXI4R2Qcuf
This is the type of thing one needs to triple check that it isn’t AI because it’s THAT ludicrous.
But it’s not. Ladies and Gentlemen - the exact moment Jon Stewart became a caricature of himself is right here below.
Your clip of the month:
This might be the dumbest thing a reporter has ever said…. And that’s saying a lot.
Apparently if you crash a plane in 30ft of water or less it’s not considered a big deal.
Glad everyone on board was ok!
A reporter with @journalsentinel is trying to claim that it is no big deal that Tom Tiffany’s plane was forced to make an emergency landing in a lake last night.
For those who weren’t aware Tom Tiffany’s pilot was Lenny Boltz. He’s the Langlade County Republican Party Chairman and former military pilot.
What happened last night was a freak accident and thanks to Lenny’s expert piloting nobody was seriously hurt.
Pray for Tom and Lenny🙏
Here's some of the initial dispatch audio and video from the scene as Tom Tiffany's plane made an emergency water landing overnight near Wausau: "We have two victims in the water. We're just pulling them out right now ... Both are alert and conscious."