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The final al Qaeda attack of <strong>the</strong> Clinton Era came on October 12, 2000. Al Qaeda terrorists<br />
attacked <strong>the</strong> USS Cole, killing seventeen of our sailors. Clinton decided to take <strong>the</strong> fight<br />
against al Qaeda to <strong>the</strong> highest level possible. Instead of funding and arming <strong>the</strong>m like<br />
Reagan, or ignoring <strong>the</strong>m like Bush, Clinton decided to destroy <strong>the</strong>m. He put Richard Clarke,<br />
<strong>the</strong> legendary bulldog whom he had appointed as <strong>the</strong> first national antiterrorism coordinator,<br />
in charge of coming up with a comprehensive plan to take out al Qaeda. What unfolded became<br />
<strong>the</strong> subject of a shocking cover story in <strong>the</strong> August 12, 2002, Time magazine, which I<br />
will now take credit for having read.<br />
Reliable Sources<br />
In Let Freedom Ring, Hannity outlines a charge that he frequently makes both on television and on<br />
<strong>the</strong> radio: that Clinton let bin Laden slip from his grasp. He writes,<br />
It's truly astonishing. Bill Clinton, AI Gore, and <strong>the</strong>ir liberal allies on Capitol Hill were offered<br />
Osama bin Laden by <strong>the</strong> Sudanese government, and <strong>the</strong>y turned <strong>the</strong> offer down. They could<br />
have taken him into custody and begun unraveling his terrorist network almost six years ago.<br />
But <strong>the</strong>y didn't. <strong>And</strong> now more than three thousand innocent Americans have paid with <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
blood.<br />
That is astonishing. Hard to think of a more serious charge. You want to be damned sure you<br />
have that one locked down pretty tight before you put it in print.<br />
But knowing what we already know about Sean Hannity and <strong>the</strong> standards to which he holds<br />
himself, what are <strong>the</strong> chances that this whole charge is just baloney?<br />
His entire case comes from a guy named Mansoor Ijaz, a PakistaniAmerican who claims to<br />
have transmitted <strong>the</strong> offer as a middleman between <strong>the</strong> U.S. and Sudan. I got <strong>the</strong> story on Ijaz<br />
from former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger and from Daniel Benjamin, past director for<br />
counterterrorism on <strong>the</strong> National Security Council and now senior fellow at <strong>the</strong> Center for Strate-<br />
gic and International Studies.<br />
Berger only had to meet once with Ijaz to determine that he was an unreliable freelancer,<br />
pursuing his own financial interests. Ijaz was an investment banker with a huge stake in Suda-<br />
nese oil.<br />
Ijaz had urged Berger to lift sanctions against Sudan. Why <strong>the</strong> sanctions? Because Sudan<br />
was and remains a notorious sponsor of terrorism, harboring Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda.<br />
Also, <strong>the</strong> Sudanese regime is <strong>the</strong> leading state sponsor of slavery and is considered by many to<br />
be genocidal. <strong>And</strong> totally untrustworthy. Ijaz, however, was arguing <strong>the</strong>ir case. As Benjamin said<br />
of Ijaz, "Ei<strong>the</strong>r he allowed himself to be manipulated, or he's in bed with a bunch of genocidal ter-<br />
rorists."<br />
Ijaz said that Sudan was ready to hand over bin Laden. The U.S. does not conduct diplomacy<br />
through self-appointed private individuals. When <strong>the</strong> U.S. talked to Sudan, <strong>the</strong>re was no such of-<br />
fer. The U.S. pursued every lead and tried to negotiate. Nothing.<br />
The story does have a happy ending. Ijaz now has a job as foreign affairs analyst for <strong>the</strong> Fox<br />
News Channel.