Hank Crumpton, Former CIA Officer: Clinton Wouldn't Authorize Osama Bin Laden Kill In 1999

Hank Crumpton, a former CIA officer and top counterterrorism official, said in a recent interview that President Bill Clinton's White House missed a golden opportunity to take out terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in 1999.

Bin Laden was in Afghanistan in 1999, Crumpton told CBS's "60 Minutes" in a segment that aired on Sunday. His convoy had been clearly identified by an early edition Predator drone, which at the time didn't have weapons capabilities.

"We saw a security detail, a convoy, and we saw bin Laden exit the vehicle, clearly," Crumpton told CBS's Lara Logan, describing aerial images captured by a drone flying somewhere outside of Kandahar. "The optics were spot in, it was beaming back to us, CIA headquarters. We immediately alerted the White House, and the Clinton administration’s response was, ‘Well, it will take several hours for the TLAMs, the cruise missiles launched from submarines, to reach that objective. So, you need to tell us where bin Laden will be five or six hours from now.' The frustration was enormous."

The administration also denied the CIA's request to engage their on-ground forces, Crumpton said, which could have acted more quickly. The missed opportunity led the CIA to speed the process of arming the unmanned drones with Hellfire missiles, so that they could act more swiftly if they found bin Laden again. U.S. forces have since come to rely heavily on unmanned aerial vehicles to carry out strikes on targets in hostile territory, much to the disapproval of some human rights groups.

Clinton has been criticized for a supposed failure to seize opportunities to kill bin Laden on multiple occasions. A 9/11 commission report, which brought the original release of the drone footage that Crumpton is referring to, led to accusations from Clinton's opponents that he had neglected to act despite a wealth of convincing intelligence.

Crumpton's interview comes as his book, "The Art of Intelligence: Lessons from a Life in the CIA's Clandestine Service," hits the bookshelves. It focuses on the CIA's response to 9/11 and the rapid implementation of covert operations on the ground in Afghanistan. Read advance excerpts at the Daily Beast.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[most reasonable]

01:09 PM on 10/16/2012

The attempt to force the European banks to disclose Muslim accounts used to attack american interests was halted by Phil Gramm who was head of the banking Committee, claiming that it would be BAD FOR BUSINESS.

[rich8049]

08:06 AM on 05/17/2012

You liberals are all the same. The man makes a point and you go to the defense of a dem. Doesnt matter what they do, you just hit the posts defending any and everything democrat and liberal and start your attack on the messenger, which is the liberal way. The guy did not say the wh response was good or bad, it just stated a fact. Ah, i forgot, when someone throws in facts the liberals go nuts.

[George Cummings]

11:23 AM on 05/19/2012

feel free to throw some facts then..as this post is entirely 'fact' free

[Truth Talker]

09:19 PM on 02/02/2013

Right. Like it was a Democrat who ultimately got bin Laden. After a Republican had eight years, it took the Democrat three. Facts for you. Enjoy.

[charleshbuchannan]

03:06 PM on 05/15/2012

What a nonsense headline.

1) It was not Clinton that said no.

2) His NatSec people were perfectly correct: the only way, on that day, to grease bin Laden was to fire a cruise missile at him. The delay would be hours. All that would have happened would be the creation of a crater 30 miles behind bin Laden.

What is the point of all this?

[wildirishviolet]

12:29 PM on 05/15/2012

What really gets me about these "former CIA agents" is you know GD well they are not allowed to talk about anything, former or not.
So right away you know the are lying. That plus what did they do their whole careers ? Lie. What are they really good at ? Lying.
Why should we believe anything a "former CIA agent" says when they are not even allowed to tell their own families who they work ,what they do or where they go ? Preposterous, to say the least. You've had your 15 minutes of fame, go home.

[NVLady007]

01:44 PM on 05/15/2012

omg I cannot believe you said that ... if he were trashing Bush you would say he is so honest... eyeroll

[sctdog49]

12:12 PM on 05/15/2012

Nothing new here. Conservatives have been cleaning up the messes Liberals make, since 1775.

[Sharon8one2]

12:22 PM on 05/15/2012

With all do respect, I find your comment dyslexic.

[notmoderate]

12:47 PM on 05/15/2012

"due" respect

[Amanda Matthews]

08:12 AM on 05/16/2012

Amazing isn't it? The disconnect is freaking amazing.

Hey sctdog. bush** & cheney were YOUR thugs, Nixon was YOUR crook. Hoover was YOUR incompetent. And Reagan, a guy who ran the country through his wife's astrologer and couldn't tell where he was or where he'd been from one day to the next was YOUR guy.

[JohnTheMac]

01:32 PM on 05/15/2012

Funny, in 1975, G Ford made Assassinations illegal.

[sctdog49]

01:43 PM on 05/15/2012

Another case of the right appeasing the left. It looks like the drones are not following the rules John, lol.

[NVLady007]

01:51 PM on 05/15/2012

Too funny... read the whole report ... Assassinations refers to Country Leaders ... Bin Laden was not a Leader of a Country

[Linda from Deerfield]

11:43 AM on 05/15/2012

I thought we already knew this -- isn't this when Congressional leaders told Clinton if he went after Bin Laden they would accuse him of merely trying to distract the public from his Lewinsky dalliance?

[Dan Slander]

11:34 AM on 05/15/2012

No one ever made Bill Clinton look better than George Bush. An abysmal Prez that looked the other way at genocide (the Tutsis') opened the floodgates fro bad loans (Glass Steagal) and played hands off with terrorists (Towers 93, USS Cole). I know the media continues to love the guy and he hangs with the jet set but a sober look down the road will show how bad he was, though we do have alot of evidence now.

[Theatrixnyc]

12:25 PM on 05/16/2012

though we do have alot of evidence now.”
**
We have the evidence that from President Clinton's first day in Office, he was being pressured to go into Iraq, and yet he never caved to it. Cheney brought that ten year old War Plan, along with the Patriot Act, AND placing himself in charge of Security of the Pentagon, the first time in it's History that a Vice-President ever had that responsibility. Cheney also left the same Pentagon unprotected, for the first time in it's History on 9-11.

President Clinton has his faults, and the vast Right Wing (Rupert-FOX-Murdoch) Conspiracy, highlighted every single one......but Bush/Cheney did a number that will never be forgotten anytime soon.

[Sharon8one2]

11:21 AM on 05/15/2012

At least President Clinton and intelligence agencies were monitoring OBL. President Obama, with the diligence and fortitude of special ops teams , and the counseling of many involved in this decision, was able to give back the survivors, the injured, the victims' family and friends, the volunteers and rescue groups who risked their health digging in the rubble, and the many who donated money or time to the causes, a bit of consolation called JUSTICE. What did Pres. Bush give the aforementioned people?.........a slap in the face by saying after entering the war in Iraq, that he didn't worry or care about Osama bin Laden.

[arie1951]

01:24 PM on 05/15/2012

"Mission Accomplished". More of the Republican motto: I've got mine so screw you!

[NVLady007]

01:52 PM on 05/15/2012

Psst... 9-11 was planned under Bill Clinton's nose...

[nothingbutthefacts]

12:15 PM on 05/16/2012

Read "Classified Lady" to find out how and what really happened under Bush.

[tony941]

11:11 AM on 05/15/2012

Excuses, excuses, excuses. Bin Laden had a laundry list of terrorism
plots against the USA including the '91' Trade Center Bombing and
the USS Cole incident to name a few. Bin Laden was already on the
government's take down list. In retrospect, we probably would not be talking
about 911 had Clinton given the order to neutralize him. And what would
Obama have to brag about if Bin Laden were already dead?

[cali4856]

11:34 AM on 05/15/2012

May not have been talking about it either is GWB and DC didn't ignore intelligence reports either. Of course intelligence and GWB should never be mentioned in the same sentence, so I apologize.

[65ball]

12:34 PM on 05/15/2012

Also don't say intelligence and Obama in the same sentence either. Remember Obama thinks we have 57 states....

[tony941]

01:32 PM on 05/15/2012

Prior to 911 Bin Laden was an easy target . After 911 was all together a different story where he went deep underground. Every country in the free world was looking for him then. By the way, it was the intelligence gathering means GWB implemented that Obama wanted to, but never did, remove that eventually nailed him.

[Red XIV]

03:16 PM on 11/30/2012

Clinton DID give the order. It simply wasn't obeyed.

[mstaggerlee]

11:08 AM on 05/15/2012

This is pretty old "news", but here's some more, for you history buffs. GWBush had not one, but TWO opportunities to get Bin Laden. In 2003, at Tora Bora, Bush decided to delegate the task to Afghan troops, who left a clear escape path when they went in. Then, in 2005, we actually had a Seal team on a C-130 headed for a raid on an Al Queda summit meeting, when Rumsfeld veto'd the op & called them home.

[Unclebuggies]

11:01 AM on 05/15/2012

Having a drone sighting when there are no weapons within range is not a "golden opportunity." I saw Amanda Seyfried on TV this morning, but that wasn't a "golden opportunity" to get her autograph.

[Tmboy]

10:59 AM on 05/15/2012

Big question.... was the United States in the business of killing people residing in Sovereign countries before 9/11 and when not at "war".

Was the idea to send a missile that wouldn't get there for 5-6 hours to blow something up even though he probably would not be there in 5-6 hours? Is that what Clinton said no to?

[JoeMomma]

10:59 AM on 05/15/2012

If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's never trust the CIA. And I do mean never.

[ssnt]

10:51 AM on 05/15/2012

Sounds like it was Clinton's fault.

[iBubbi]

10:51 AM on 05/15/2012

I heard Clinton talk about this several times - this all came down after GWB was elected but before he took office and Clinton didn't want to make this kind of decision just before GWB took over the Presidency.