CIA Agents Reveal Bill Clinton Stopped Them from Killing bin Laden Before 9/11: Documentary

The Longest War is produced by the creators of Homeland.

The film focuses on the U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, as well as the terror attacks that brought us there.

But had Bill Clinton taken out Osama bin Laden when he had a chance, then history would have been completely rewritten.

According to the Daily Beast, CIA agents explain exactly how Clinton stopped them from taking out bin Laden:

When the Afghan tribal networks uncovered that a caravan carrying bin Laden would be traveling along a certain route, they suggested U.S. forces bury a cache of explosives along it to eliminate the infamous terrorist. But Grenier told them they’d be “risking jail” if they did, and that was all thanks to President Clinton.

“The CIA had a so-called ‘lethal finding’ [bill] that had been signed by President Clinton that said that we could engage in ‘lethal activity’ against bin Laden, but the purpose of our attack against bin Laden couldn’t be to kill him,” Grenier explains in the film. “We were being asked to remove this threat to the United States essentially with one hand tied behind our backs.”

According to director Greg Barker, “It’s hard to believe now, but back in the late ‘90s, most of the Washington national security establishment—including President Clinton, the State Department, the Department of Defense—simply did not view Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda as a serious threat. The handful of U.S. officials who saw the looming threat clearly—and there were some, mostly mid-level officers at the CIA’s bin Laden unit and the counter-terrorism branch at the FBI—tried in vain to raise alarm bells at the highest levels, but were often ignored and even ridiculed.”

“As a result,” he continues, “policy decisions were made that seem unfathomable today, like a Justice Department ruling that it would be illegal for the United States to intentionally kill bin Laden, which left CIA officers in the field feeling frustrated and angry, as if they were unable to prevent a train crash happening in slow motion right before their eyes. The irony is that many of these same mid-level officers were later blamed for not doing enough to prevent the 9/11 attacks, when in fact the blame rests with the senior decision-makers who ignored direct warnings for far too long.”

“There’s enough blame to go around, and I think the film hands it out evenly,” EP Alex Gansa tells The Daily Beast. “Bill Clinton didn’t have the balls to do what was necessary before 9/11, George Bush didn’t take the threat seriously enough when he came into office and then grievously overreacted when that threat was realized, and Obama didn’t do what he promised during his campaign—namely, end the wars.”

“The threat was real,” he says. “And if President Clinton had taken action and killed Osama bin Laden, there wouldn’t have been a 9/11, and if there wouldn’t have been a 9/11 there wouldn’t have been an Afghanistan, and if there wouldn’t have been an Afghanistan there wouldn’t have been an Iraq. What would the world be like?”

An exclusive clip with CIA agents explaining the missed opportunity to take out bin Laden can be viewed below:

The new revelations come as issues relating to national security take a back seat in the general election.

Topics like the economy, health care, and COVID-19 appear to dominate the election cycle.

However, while President Trump is fighting to protect our lives and livelihoods, he also understands the threat of terror and terror-backing regimes.

According to NBC News, Trump has ordered the Pentagon to "destroy" any Iranian boats that harass U.S. ships:

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he had directed the Navy to “shoot down” Iranian gunboats that harass U.S. ships, but Pentagon officials said they had received no new directives.

Trump created a stir when he made the announcement via Twitter just after 8 a.m. “I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” he wrote.

The tweet came on the morning Iran launched a military satellite and a week after the Pentagon accused Iranian vessels of harassing U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf.

Three U.S. defense officials told NBC News they were caught off guard by the tweet because the president had not ordered a change in the policy or rules of engagement. One official compared it to his 2017 tweets announcing a surprise ban on transgender people openly serving in the military.

At a press briefing a few hours after the president’s announcement, Defense Department officials characterized it as more of a warning to Iran than a shift in policy.

“What he was emphasizing is all of our ships retain the right of self-defense, and people need to be very careful in their interactions to understand the inherent right of self-defense,” said Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist.

“It was a very useful thing he put out,” Norquist added.

Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. John Hyten said “the president’s message was crystal clear,” adding, “I like that the president warned an adversary.”

During his first term in office, President Trump has kept our country safe, rebuilt our military, and begun the process of protecting our southern border.

This November, we'll have the opportunity to vote on whether we want to continue on this path of prosperity and strength, or return to the ways of the previous administrations... literally.