I had chance to kill Osama bin Laden, Bill Clinton said hours before 9/11
BY Agencies3 Aug 2014 11:45 PM GMT
Agencies3 Aug 2014 11:45 PM GMT
Former US president Bill Clinton admitted in 2001 that he had passed up the chance to kill Osama Bin Laden because he was concerned about potential civilian casualties, according to a newly-unearthed audio tape recorded just hours before the 9/11 attacks on the US. In the recording, the former US president addresses a group of business leaders at a paid engagement in Australia, on 10 September, 2001.
‘Osama bin Laden (is) a very smart guy,’ Clinton says. ‘I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about him, and I nearly got him once ... I could have killed him, but I would have had to destroy a little town called Kandahar in Afghanistan and kill 300 innocent women and children. And then I would have been no better than him. And so I didn’t do it.’
The tape was released to Sky News Australia this week by Michael Kroger, the former state president of the Liberal Party in Victoria, who said he had not deliberately kept its existence a secret, but had simply forgotten about it until now.
Kroger added that the recording was made with Clinton’s permission, when the former president spoke to an audience of about 30 people at the Melbourne offices of the investment bank JT Campbell.
‘Osama bin Laden (is) a very smart guy,’ Clinton says. ‘I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about him, and I nearly got him once ... I could have killed him, but I would have had to destroy a little town called Kandahar in Afghanistan and kill 300 innocent women and children. And then I would have been no better than him. And so I didn’t do it.’
The tape was released to Sky News Australia this week by Michael Kroger, the former state president of the Liberal Party in Victoria, who said he had not deliberately kept its existence a secret, but had simply forgotten about it until now.
Kroger added that the recording was made with Clinton’s permission, when the former president spoke to an audience of about 30 people at the Melbourne offices of the investment bank JT Campbell.
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