Clinton Lost Nuke Launch Codes, Blew bin Laden Attack
The ex-president himself was accused on Saturday of losing U.S. nuclear launch codes necessary to defend America from a potential attack with weapons of mass destruction - and even blowing an opportunity to kill Osama bin Laden.
Citing a bombshell new book by White House whistle-blower Lt. Col. Robert Patterson, who served as the president's military aide from 1996 to 1998, U.S. News & World Report reveals: "The day the Lewinsky scandal broke, Clinton was to trade in his 'biscuit' with the nuclear launch codes. But they were missing."
"We never did get them back," says Patterson, author of "Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America's National Security."
Patterson's recollection of the national security bungle isn't the first report suggesting that Clinton had a casual attitude about the nuclear codes. In 1994, the American Spectator magazine revealed that he wanted to reward an Arkansas state trooper for not corroborating accounts from other troopers who said he'd used them to pick up women.
The loyal trooper was offered the job of carrying the nuclear football, even though, according to colleagues, he had the tendency to break down and cry in stressful situations.
According to Lt. Col. Patterson, Clinton was also unavailable to make a key decision to kill Osama bin Laden, a move that, if successful, could have prevented the 9/11 attacks. Incredibly, he claims, the ex-president ducked calls from the Situation Room to approve a 1998 Tomahawk cruise missile attack on bin Laden's lair, then waffled until it was too late.
In 1996, Patterson claims, Clinton was "too busy watching a golf match" to sign off on a bombing mission in Iraq. |
