While the forthcoming publication of “No Easy Day” is about to give American readers its own revelations about the raid that eliminated Osama Bin Laden last year, a new book published in Poland alleges that the Central Intelligence Agency could have assassinated the Al Qaeda chief back in 1999 — but chose not to do so out of fear it lacked the legal authority. Click below to find out more.
Details of the book, “Ferreting Out Bin Laden” by former Polish spy Alexander Makowski, were reported by the McClatchy news service. Published in June, the book has not yet been translated into English, and it is not clear if there are plans to do so.
It has long been alleged that President Clinton fumbled opportunities to get rid of Bin Laden, missing what some call an especially ripe opportunity in August 1998. Makowski’s book is perhaps the most detailed account of failed pre-9/11 attempts to kill the Saudi-born radical, who was then already in Afghanistan, from where he would direct his operations for the next several years, before coming to hide in Pakistan, where he was finally found and killed.
‘In late 1999…a group of Afghan agents loyal to an anti-Taliban guerilla leader proposed assassinating Osama Bin Laden,” says the McClatchy description of Makowski’s book. “All they wanted was the $5 million reward the Clinton administration had offered for Bin Laden’s capture.”
However, the CIA allegedly turned down the offer, fearing it would be overstepping its bounds by ordering the kill. In the wake of 9/11, American intelligence services have become much more aggressive in hunting down terrorists overseas. For example, last year, an unmanned drone killed the American-born radical Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen. But back before the Twin Towers fell, hunting down bin Laden was a fraught issue.
