It took nearly 2 years for the Clinton administration to realize that
Al Qaeda posed a threat and begin pursuing it seriously.
Investigations into the supporters of the terrorists who bombed the
World Trade Center in 1993 turned up Osama bin Laden. Until this tie
was recognized, the FBI and CIA had viewed bin Laden as merely a
wealthy loudmouth. However, further scrutiny uncovered Al Qaeda
organized attacks on American soldiers in Somalia, Yemen, and Saudi
Arabia. Plans also existed to abduct US soldiers in the Persian Gulf,
and intelligence officials learned that bin Ladin had started trying
to buy materials for a nuclear weapon in 1993. The possible
possession of Stinger missiles by Al Qaeda further increased
officials' concerns. Difficulties in acquiring nuclear materials led
bin Ladin to change his focus to chemical weapons, possibly including
tests of nerve agents in Sudan before he moved to Afghanistan in 1996.
"By the end of 1995 President Clinton signed a top-secret order,
approved by the congressional intelligence committees, that authorized
the CIA to begin covert operations to break up bin Laden's terror
network. The agency's counterterrorism center--200 operatives housed
in a windowless warren of cubicles in the CIA's Langley, Va.,
headquarters--had set up a special bin Laden task force. Analysts were
assigned to read every word the Saudi had spoken or written. Computers
with sophisticated "link analysis" programs were busy printing out
diagrams of bin Laden's loose-knit network, which included thousands
of Muslim fighters with varying degrees of allegiance to him in almost
a dozen countries. In early 1996, intelligence sources tell TIME, the
CIA also began making plans to "snatch" Osama from a foreign country
and bring him to the U.S. for trial. But bin Laden avoided some of the
nations where the U.S. was waiting to pounce--including Qatar and
Kuwait."
"Inside the Hunt for Osama" by Douglas Waller with reporting by Peter
Hawthorne and Elaine Shannon, Time (December 21, 1998)
http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,989866,00.html
Unable to locate bin Laden, the CIA embarked on a planned to harass Al
Qaeda by having operatives in foreign countries arrested or deported
and searching through their possessions to try to find out what they
were up to. These "disruption" tactics were used globally, and
uncovered an Al Qaeda cell operating in Nairobi, Kenya by August of
1997. The leading member of the cell moved with his family to Texas
after being harassed, where he remained until he was arrested in
connection with the bombings of the US embassies in Africa. The CIA
thought it had busted up the cell, but a new team was dispatched to
Nairobi to conduct the embassy bombings.
An additional CIA-FBI team established itself at Pakistan's border
with Afghanistan in the spring of 1998 to collect additional
intelligence. CIA and Army special forces officers made plans to
snatch bin Ladin from Afghanistan, but CIA Director George Tenet put a
stop to the operation because of fears of US casualties. However, in
June, the CIA arrested four members of a bin Laden-affiliated group in
Albania who were planning to bomb the US Embassy in the capital.
Immediately following the embassy bombings in Africa, the FBI arrested
many of the participants, and Clinton launched a cruise missile strike
against bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan. The United States
increased its awareness of bin Laden as a major threat, and efforts
were made to further disrupt his terror network. However, the
Treasury Department made no progress in cutting off bin Laden's
finances, and the State Department could not get the Taliban to evict
bin Laden from Afghanistan. Additional arrests of bin Laden's
operatives continued, with the CIA arresting a group planning to
attack the US Embassy in Azerbaijan. Egyptian terrorists associated
with the plot were deported to Cairo.
The cat and mouse game continued, with the CIA expecting five to 15
attacks during the 1999 millennium celebrations. Fortunately, the
attacks were prevented. "The Jordanians broke up an al-Qaeda cell in
Amman; Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian based in Montreal, panicked when
stopped at a border crossing from Canada while carrying explosives
intended for Los Angeles International Airport; and on Jan. 3, 2000,
an al-Qaeda attack on the U.S.S. The Sullivans in Yemen foundered
after terrorists overloaded their small boat."
"Could 9/11 Have Been Prevented?" by Michael Elliott, Time (August 4,
2002) http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,333835,00.html
Because of the difficulties associated with penetrating Al Qaeda with
agents, the CIA sought allies in tribal leaders in Afghanistan, and
plans were made for flying a plane to a desert runway in Afghanistan
if bin Laden were captured. Unfortunately, Clinton's presidential
findings were ambiguous on the question of whether or not bin Laden
could be killed in an attempt to capture him, leaving the CIA
reluctant to proceed. At the same time, Clinton ordered two US Navy
submarines to remain in the northern Arabian Sea ready to attack bin
Laden with cruise missiles if he could be located. Unfortunately, the
CIA was unable to track bin Laden sufficiently accurately, and any
missile would take at least six hours to be launched and get there,
allowing Pakistan to warn bin Laden of its approach.
After the attack on the USS Cole, plans were created for Delta Force
to seize bin Laden in Afghanistan. However, Clinton declined to order
an American retaliation for the attack. The CIA and FBI were
reluctant to officially conclude that he was behind the attack, so
Clinton felt politically unable to do anything. Richard Clarke and
Sandy Berger both made a point of emphasizing the Al Qaeda threat to
Bush administration officials during the transition, with Clarke
advocating a much more aggressive stance, including attacks against
bin Laden assets in Afghanistan. The Bush Administration was
pondering what to do about Al Qaeda when 9/11 occurred.
While the Clinton Administration clearly devoted attention to bin
Laden and Al Qaeda, it lacked the political will to do anything that
substantially damaged the organization. Certainly there were some
successes in preventing attacks, but the organization's ability to
launch attacks was never seriously degraded during the Clinton
Administration despite its policy of "disruption." The
ineffectiveness of the Clinton Administration's policies clearly
emboldened bin Laden to pursue further attacks against United States.
Sincerely,
Wonko |
