CIA nixed plan to take out Osama bin Laden before 9/11: Bill Clinton's big reveal

Former US President Bill Clinton has revealed that the CIA scrapped a plan to take out al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden before the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, fearing the operation could go wrong and result in the deaths of innocent civilians.Clinton, 80, said he had authorised the CIA to try to eliminate bin Laden and would have preferred to capture him alive, but stopping the al-Qaida chief was the priority. However, the agency called off the operation at the last minute because of concerns over potential civilian casualties, he said on Sunday.“I had authorised the CIA to try to take him out. I was scared, and I was mad because we tried to get him before, and the CIA at the last minute killed the plan that I think might well have succeeded,” he said in a radio interview on WABC's “Cats Roundtable” show.Clinton said the CIA feared that an unsuccessful operation could result in the deaths of many innocent civilians. “But they were afraid that if they missed, they'd kill a lot of innocent civilians. They didn't want to run the risk. I didn't second-guess them,” he said. 'OSAMA BIGGEST THREAT TO US'Clinton said he had long regarded Osama bin Laden as the biggest threat to the US and wished his administration had done more to capture or kill him. “I wish we had done even more to get him. I always thought he was our biggest threat. I wanted to get him, and I did what I could to do that,” he added.The former US President recalled watching the September 11 attacks unfold on television in Australia, where he was at the time, and said he immediately suspected bin Laden was responsible when the second plane struck the World Trade Center. “At the time, I was in Australia. Hillary was in Washington. But our daughter was in Lower Manhattan, and we were worried to death about her,” Clinton said.Their daughter, Chelsea Clinton, was among those in New York at the time and was instructed, along with thousands of others, to walk north as the attacks unfolded.Clinton said he was watching television when the second plane hit the Twin Towers. “I immediately said that bin Laden did this. They all looked at me and said, ‘How do you know this?’” he recalled.CIA DOCUMENTS REVEAL OSAMA'S ATTACKS' PLANSClinton's recollection came as newly declassified CIA documents shed light on the intelligence warnings about Osama bin Laden in the years before the September 11 attacks.The material, released to mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11, includes presidential daily briefs dating back to 1998 that warned of Osama bin Laden's interest in attacking the US and his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.One 1998 assessment even said al-Qaida might hijack an aircraft and use it as a weapon against a US city.The documents also show the reach of Osama bin Laden's network beyond the US. A CIA brief dated August 28, 1998, said bin Laden intended to conduct attacks in several countries, including India, Pakistan, Egypt and countries in the Arabian Peninsula. However, the document did not identify any specific target or operational plan in India.Osama bin Laden remained at large for nearly a decade after the 9/11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in the US.He was eventually killed in a covert US military operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011, during the presidency of Barack Obama. US Navy SEALs carried out the raid on his compound.Meanwhile, Clinton said that, in retrospect, he believed Osama bin Laden had been determined to attack the US and had the financial resources and operational capacity to pursue his plans.CLINTON ON NYC SECURITYThe former US President also warned that New York City could face another terrorist attack, although he said the US is now better prepared to respond to a threat on the scale of 9/11.“I think it's entirely possible. I think we have to stay on guard about that. We have to make sure we're getting all the intelligence we can on the issue,” Clinton said.He said the possibility of another attack meant counterterrorism and intelligence gathering would have to remain a continuing part of US national security planning.“We're much better prepared (now) than we were,” Clinton said, while warning that even a single intelligence failure could have devastating consequences.“If you're running the country, you want to make big good things happen, and stop big bad things from happening,” he said, adding that he hoped the issue could ultimately help Americans find “unity again.”- EndsPublished By: Prateek ChakrabortyPublished On: Sep 14, 2026 09:19 IST