I had authorised Osama's killing: Bill Clinton

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, SEPT. 23. The former U.S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton, has said that in 1998, his administration had given the go-ahead to the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct covert operations against the Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden, authorising among other things, his arrest and even killing, if necessary.

``I authorised the arrest and, if necessary, the killing of Osama bin Laden and we actually made contact with a group in Afghanistan to do it. We also trained commandos for a possible ground action but did not have the necessary intelligence to do it in the way we would have had to do it,'' Mr. Clinton said in New York.

This time, the action against Osama could have a greater chance of success given the kind of broad coalition being put in place. ``Now we have support from people who would not have supported us then, and they give us many more tactical options than were available then...'' Mr. Clinton said.

Time and again, senior members of the Bush administration have been saying that Osama and his network of terrorists were going to be sought in many ways. The U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush, has also said that some of the ``success stories'' will not be made public. And, in all the discussions that have taken place in the last 12 days, one aspect was whether domestic laws pertaining to assassination would have to be looked at afresh.

There are specific laws dating back to the Ford administration on the U.S. getting involved in assassinations.``No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in or conspire to engage in assassination,'' says an Executive Order issued by the former U.S. President, Mr. Ronald Reagan, in 1981.

But laws on assassinations that some officials say are binding agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency have been subject to different interpretations by successive administrations. In fact, Republican and Democratic administrations have chosen two broad ways of going about the ``job'': letting third persons and parties get involved; or, in case of specific targets like the Iraqi President, Mr. Saddam Hussein, and the Libyan leader, Mr. Muamar Qadhafi, having no ``discussions'' on the possibility of the leaders getting killed.

In recent days, however, the view that the assassination laws are meant for foreign leaders and do not cover terrorists - a view that Mr. Clinton subscribed to - has gained ground. And no one considers Osama a world leader or statesman.

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Section  : International
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