Panel: U.S. Made Effort to Stop al-Qaida

[LARED]

WASHINGTON - In a secret diplomatic mission, Saudi Arabia won a commitment from Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to expel Osama bin Laden in 1998, but the Taliban later reneged on the agreement, a federal panel said Tuesday.

The mission was among the most promising, yet ultimately fruitless, efforts by the United States to use diplomacy to stop al-Qaida in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks.

The independent commission reviewing the Sept. 11 attacks said in a preliminary report that the decision to use diplomatic rather than military options against al-Qaida allowed the Sept. 11 terrorists to elude capture years before the attacks.

The panel, known formally as the National Comission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, presented its findings as it began hearings with top-level Bush and Clinton administration officials. The aim was to question officials on their efforts to stop bin Laden in the years leading up to the attacks.

http://www.comcast.net/News/GENERAL//XML/1110_AP_Online_Regional___National__US_/ed918224-5ed4-4f58-8ade-82135674c789.html

[grannylib]

1. Under Clinton's watch....and what did Chimpy do with the intel given to

him (he needs it, he has none of his own...) by the Clinton administration?
Ignored it.
There is blood all over their hands.