Bill Clinton Reveals Why CIA Protected Bin Laden

Former President Bill Clinton is opening up about a haunting decision made before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, revealing that the CIA backed away from an operation targeting Osama bin Laden because officials feared innocent civilians could be killed.

Clinton, now 80, discussed the missed opportunity during an interview Sunday on WABC’s “Cats Roundtable,” saying he had authorized the CIA to pursue the al Qaeda leader years before 9/11.

“I had authorized the CIA to try to take him out,” Clinton said, explaining that capturing bin Laden alive would have been preferable, but stopping him was the ultimate goal.

Clinton said he still remembers his frustration when the operation was abandoned.

“I was scared, and I was mad because we tried to get him before, and the CIA at the last minute killed the plan that I think might well have succeeded,” Clinton said.

According to Clinton, intelligence officials feared the mission could turn into a disaster if something went wrong.

“They were afraid that if they missed, they’d kill a lot of innocent civilians,” he said.

Clinton said he did not second-guess the CIA at the time, but now believes bin Laden was so determined — and had so much money and infrastructure behind him — that more aggressive action may have been warranted.

“I wish we had done even more to get him,” Clinton said. “I always thought he was our biggest threat.”

The bipartisan 9/11 Commission later documented several proposed operations against bin Laden during Clinton’s presidency. One CIA-backed plan involved Afghan tribal fighters attempting to capture him, while other authorizations allowed lethal force under certain circumstances. Officials ultimately rejected or abandoned several opportunities because of operational risks and uncertainty about whether bin Laden could actually be captured or killed.

The commission also found that Clinton approved a highly classified authorization in December 1998 allowing bin Laden to be killed if capturing him was not considered feasible.

Clinton also revealed that he immediately suspected bin Laden when the 9/11 attacks began unfolding.

He was in Australia at the time while Hillary Clinton was in Washington. Their daughter, Chelsea, was in Lower Manhattan.

Clinton recalled watching television when the second hijacked plane slammed into the World Trade Center.

“I immediately said that bin Laden did this,” he said.

Those around him questioned how he could know so quickly.

Clinton said he believed only a small number of American adversaries had the resources necessary to carry out such an enormous attack and that bin Laden had already spent years plotting attacks against the United States.

Meanwhile, Clinton and Hillary were desperately trying to reach their daughter.

“We were worried to death about her,” he recalled. “She was one of the thousands of people who were told to just walk north. We couldn’t get in touch with her.”

Nearly a decade later, bin Laden was finally killed on May 2, 2011, when U.S. Navy SEALs raided his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, during the Obama administration.

Clinton’s comments come as newly declassified intelligence documents are providing an even clearer picture of the warnings American officials received before 9/11.

CIA records released around the attack’s 25th anniversary show that intelligence officials had been warning both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations for years that bin Laden and al Qaeda wanted to strike the United States. The reports included concerns about hijackings and attacks involving aircraft, although officials lacked the specific information needed to identify the eventual 9/11 plot.

Clinton also warned Americans not to assume another major terrorist attack could never happen.

Asked whether New York City could once again become a target, Clinton said he believes it remains possible.

“I think we have to stay on guard about that,” he said.

While Clinton believes the country is far better prepared today than it was before Sept. 11, he warned that terrorists only need security officials to make one serious mistake.

“You only have to miss once,” Clinton said.

His comments offer another glimpse into one of the most debated questions surrounding the years before 9/11 — whether the United States had opportunities to stop bin Laden before the terror mastermind launched the deadliest terrorist attack in American history.