Former US President Bill Clinton said Sunday that the Central Intelligence Agency halted a plan to target al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before the September 11, 2001 attacks, amid fears that a large number of civilians could be killed if the operation failed.
Plan to target bin Laden halted over civilian casualty concerns
Clinton said during a radio interview that he had authorised the agency to try to eliminate bin Laden and told it that capturing him alive would be a good option, although stopping him was the priority. He added that the plan was cancelled at the last minute, despite his belief that it might have succeeded. Clinton attributed the agency’s decision to fears that innocent civilians could be injured if the operation missed its target, noting that he had not objected to the decision at the time.
But he said he wished more efforts had been made to reach bin Laden, whom he regarded as the greatest threat to the United States because of the money and capabilities at his disposal. The former US president recalled watching the September 11 attacks from Australia, saying he immediately believed bin Laden was behind them when the second plane struck the World Trade Center tower.
He said he knew that the al-Qaeda leader had been planning an attack against the United States for some time. Clinton said his daughter was in Lower Manhattan in New York at the time, and that he and his wife, Hillary, were deeply worried about her after they were unable to contact her, as thousands of people were being asked to leave the area on foot heading north.
Bin Laden killed in Abbottabad
In a related context, Clinton warned that the possibility of a new attack on New York remained, calling for continued vigilance and stronger intelligence gathering. He said the United States was better prepared than it had been before the September 11 attacks, but considered that a single security gap could be enough to cause a catastrophe.
