"Too many people around him could have been killed" says the butcher of Waco

[b]Best-Laid Plans …
Plan to Capture Bin Laden Before 9/11 Was Called Off[/b]

By Brian Ross


May 21— The FBI made secret plans to capture and arrest Osama bin Laden five years ago, long before the terror leader's deadliest plan came to fruition.  

Jack Cloonan, a former FBI agent who is now an ABCNEWS consultant, said that federal agents seeking bin Laden had developed a plan to have a plane fly in and attack a compound in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where the terror leader was believed to have been holed up back in 1998 — three years before the devastating attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

But when the plan went up the chain of command for approval, it was killed by then-Attorney General Janet Reno.

"They came to the decision that this plan was probably too dangerous, that the loss of life on the ground would have been significant," Cloonan said. There was concern that people around the bin Laden compound would be killed."

The Secret Team

Cloonan was part of a secret team of federal investigators whose sole purpose was to apprehend the terror leader.

Like other agents, he was relishing the idea of nabbing the head of al Qaeda.

"I would have said 'Sheik bin Laden, you are under arrest. You are charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals abroad,' " he said.

Starting in early 1996, a team of FBI and CIA agents was secretly sent to an unmarked office in a nondescript building off the Beltway in Alexandria, Va. It was called Alex Station, and it was the center of a U.S. government operation to capture bin Laden. Cloonan was one of 13 FBI agents from New York who was part of Alex Station.

"We were in the business of trying to find people, track them down," he said.

By early 1998, Alex Station had developed enough information through investigation and informants to get a formal criminal indictment returned against bin Laden, which would still be used if he were captured today.

Cloonan said the agents learned a great deal about al Qaeda's operations and its leaders during this time.

"We can say for the first time, this is who is running al Qaeda, this is the military committee, this is what you do when you join al Qaeda, " Cloonan said. "You raise your right hand and you pledge bayat [swear allegiance] ... to bin Laden."

But Cloonan said they were on more than just a discovery mission.

"There's no sense in getting involved in a case like this and seeking an indictment if you're not going to bring this to a logical conclusion," Cloonan said. "And that logical conclusion for us was the arrest of bin Laden."

The Compound Plan

The plan to capture bin Laden was focused on a compound in Kandahar, the stronghold of the Taliban, the Islamic militia that ruled most of Afghanistan at the time.

"We had information, pretty good information on the particular house where he was," Cloonan said.

Using a desert area outside San Antonio, Texas, similar to the terrain in Afghanistan, the Alex Station team actually practiced the short takeoff and landing that would have been necessary to carry out the mission. A plane was to fly in from Uzbekistan.

"A U.S. plane was to fly in," Cloonan said. "And he [bin Laden] would have been greeted by an FBI agent, who would have said, 'Sheik bin Laden, there is a warrant for your arrest,'" he said.

The former attorney general declined to comment to ABCNEWS' Good Morning America, saying the incident was classified.

Cloonan says Reno's decision to kill the plan was never reopened.  

[url]http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/World/GMA030521Bin_laden_plan.html[/url]

My goodness how they start eating their friends once they are out of power...

I saw this yesterday, but then forgot to go back and post it myself, glad someone else did.

Hmmmm, they should have told "her" there was crank cookin and child molestin going on. Be kicking ass then...!

She would have done the country a service if she would have prosecuted Al Gore for High Treason like Louie Free wanted to do back in '97.

Dike Bitch refused to take up an air tight case !!

Lets send back poor refugee kids back to that turd smoking COMMIE BASTARD instead !!

SHE NEEDS TO SPEND SOME TIME IN LEVENWORTH IF YOU ASK ME !!!!

What was Gore's offense??

And it's 'Freeh'...

should have told her that a cuban child was being kept there after his mother died trying to free him from the communist slums of Cuba.  She would have gone in there and captured the kid and sent him back.  Damn communist bitch!!

The problem is if this raid turned bloody, it would make Klinton's legacy look bad.

Just ignore Osama. That was the Klinton Admins policy.

CRC

I thought you were being sarcastic....  Please explain to me how clinton raising taxes and adding regulations helped the economy?  If you'll notice, things didn't pick up much until after the republicans took control of congress in '94, and started blocking his stuff.

FBI wanted Al Gore's head on a platter for SELLING nuclear warhead and ICBM targeting technology to the PRC ( COMMIE CHINA) in exchange for 8 million in illegal campagin contributions .
Where you been???