I have just been watching Miniter on CSPAN being interviewed and answering phone calls about his book, "Losing Bin Laden." He credits Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, the writers of "Sacred Terror," as being among the "Good Guys" during the Clinton Administration on Terror.
He believes the first crucial mistake was made during '92 when Clinton decided to "Criminalize" the first bombing of the Towers and hand it over to the FBI. This meant that only the FBI agents in the NYC office could have access to the evidence. He quotes Woolsey as being totally frustrated by this decision. It kept the CIA out of the loop. Bin Laden had announced that Al Qaeda was at war with the USA, but Clinton would not accept that view. He wanted a lower profile that would keep it as a criminal matter.
The second crucial mistake was in '96 when Bin Laden was offered to us by the Sudanese, and we turned them down. Sandy Berger told other people in the Admin that he did this because he wanted to "kick the can" past the '96 election.
Miniter interviewed Berger several times at the start of his book writing process, and got an early Sunday Morning phone call from him about a year ago. Berger had found out what Miniter was going to write about the situation, and cursed and threatened Miniter.
A, "You will never do lunch in DC again," type of approach. Miniter laughed about it.
Again, no major attack on Miniter by the Clintonistas since the book has come out. He said that some had tried to claim that the Sudanese offer to turn Bin Laden over was not proved, but Miniter says he interviewed everybody involved, including the Sudanese General who came over here, had seen the documents, and it is proven. |
