8/17/2005

Clinton State Department Documents Outlined bin Laden Threat to the United States in Summer 1996

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released two declassified “Top Secret” State Department documents that warned Clinton administration officials of the activities and influence of Osama bin Laden following his alleged “expulsion” from Sudan in May 1996. The documents, authored by the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, discuss bin Laden’s travels, his prolonged stay in Afghanistan, financial networks, anti-Western threats in press interviews, ties to the Khobar Towers bombing and bin Laden’s “emboldened” threats against U.S. interests.

“This is not a case of hindsight being 20/20,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These documents prove the Clinton administration knew the danger Osama bin Laden posed to the United States back in 1996 and yet failed to take any meaningful action to stop him.”

Click here to read the actual Clinton State Department documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, and click here to read a New York Times article written about Judicial Watch’s discovery.
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1996 was five years before the tragic day of September 11, 2001...FIVE YEARS!

Yea, folks...this is the president that was more concerned with interns...cigars...and wearing ties "to send a message" to that intern...

Guess national security just wasn't as exciting, hmmm?

DR