NEW YORK, Sept 26: The Republicans and Democrats were on Monday embroiled in a war of words over efforts to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. The slanging match ensued after former president Bill Clinton, during an interview with Fox News on Sunday, became visibly angry when asked whether he had done enough to stop Osama bin Laden.
Mr Clinton first leaned forward in his chair, jabbed his finger at Chris Wallace, the interviewer, and said he had done all he could to eliminate the Al Qaeda leader.
“I worked hard to try and kill him,” Mr Clinton told Chris Wallace. The former president then retorted that he wanted to know why the Bush administration had not faced much criticism for letting Osama get away, claiming: “I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since.”
Indeed, the only time US forces apparently knew Osama’s location since Mr Bush came to office was in Dec 2001 — during a pitched battle in Afghanistan’s Tora Bora mountains.
Mr Clinton ordered the only known US attempt to kill Osama in Aug 1998, launching a salvo of cruise missiles on an Al Qaeda training camp after the attacks on two US embassies in Africa.
But one intelligence official also contends that Mr Clinton had far more chances than President Bush to kill the Al Qaeda supremo, although the individual at the same time accuses Mr Bush of ignoring warnings about Osama before the attacks of Sept 11, 2001.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice disputed Mr Clinton’s claim that he had left a comprehensive plan to fight Al Qaeda when his term ended.
Mr Clinton claimed in the television interview that he had ‘battle plans’ drawn to go into Afghanistan, overthrow the Taliban and launch a full-scale search for Osama bin Laden.
But Dr Rice, who was national security adviser at the time of the Sept 11 attacks, disagreed with Mr Clinton’s version during an interview on Monday with the New York Post.
“We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight Al Qaeda,” Dr Rice said in a transcript of her comments released by the State Department.
“For instance, big pieces were missing, like an approach to Pakistan that might have helped in the hunt for Osama.”
