Background

In August of 1998, terrorists bombed United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In retaliation, the Clinton administration pounded alleged terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan believed to be manufacturing chemical weapons with cruise missiles. Later, it became known that the training camps were deserted long before the bombs fell, and the pharmaceutical plant manufactured nothing more than medicines for the people of Sudan. This is all part of the public record. Judicial Watch has uncovered evidence, however, that there were behind the scenes attempts on the part of the Sudanese government to provide intelligence to the Clinton administration and even offered to monitor and eventually extradite those responsible for the African bombings and Osama bin Laden. The Clinton White House refused both offers. The President, in an attempt to divert attention from the Lewinsky scandal, ordered the cruise missile attacks instead.

Key Excerpts:

Letter from the Minister of External Affairs, Sudan to the Center for Strategic and International Studies

"…When you meet with Congressman Lee Hamilton, please ask him to share with you our President’s letter to him two years ago in which we offered close cooperation with U.S. Intelligence organs in combating terrorism."

Report of the European Sudanese Public Affairs Council

"In April 1997, there was another invitation, once again inviting the Clinton Administration to send FBI counter-terrorism units to Sudan to verify any information they may have had about terrorism. The letter was addressed to Representative Lee Hamilton, the then chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and is part of the Congressional Record. This offer was eventually turned down four months later.

The Clinton administration brought pressure to bear on the Khartoum authorities to expel him from the Sudan. The Sudanese minister of information, Dr. Ghazi Saleheddin, revealed that: "We gave [U.S. officials] a piece of advice that they never followed. We told them: 'Don't send him out of Sudan because you will lose control over him...Now, the United States has ended up with war with an invisible enemy.’"

Report of the United States Department of State, John L. Mills, February 24, 2003

"Following the passage of three critical UN Security Council resolutions (1044, 1054, 1070), Sudan ordered the departure of Osama bin Laden from Sudan in May 1996."

Relevance

The Clinton administration is guilty of ignoring crucial intelligence opportunities in the war against terrorism. It chose to ignore offers by the Sudanese to provide crucial intelligence regarding the activities of terrorist groups and to monitor and eventually extradite Osama bin Laden to Saudi Arabia where he could be apprehended by the U.S. Instead, the Clinton administration chose to impotently fire cruise missiles at useless targets and force the Sudanese to deport bin Laden to a place where he could hide and prepare for the terrorist attacks of 2001. The Sudanese had offered to give bin Laden to the U.S. The Clinton administration refused, and September 11 came three years later. All of this was done to appear more "presidential" during the Lewinsky scandal.