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1999 report warned Former President Bill Clinton acknowledged receiving a 1999 analysis that warned of possible suicide hijackings by Osama bin Laden, but he said the report offered no specifics other than the al-Qaida leader was a "dangerous guy who might do a lot of things."
of jet hijackings
Former President Clinton says
terror report offered no specificsBy Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.com"Let me remind you that's why I attacked his training camp," Clinton said yesterday in Honolulu, "and why I asked the Pakistanis to go get him and why we contracted with some people in Afghanistan to get him, because we thought he was dangerous."
The September 1999 report by the Library of Congress for the National Intelligence Council, which advises the president and U.S. intelligence on emerging threats, noted that "suicide bomber(s) belonging to al-Qaida's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives (C-4 and semtex) into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or the White House."
Speaking to reporters after a round of golf at the Waialae Country Club, Clinton said the report "used public sources to speculate on what bin Laden might do."
"But that's not the same thing as having intelligence about specific things," he said.
The report, entitled "Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism: Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why," described suicide hijackings as one of several possible retribution attacks al-Qaida might seek for a 1998 U.S. airstrike against bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan.
"(It) basically said he was a dangerous guy who might do a lot of things, and so we tried to get him," Clinton said.
The former president's comments came as the Bush administration has been criticized for not heeding intelligence warnings before the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The Bush administration has asserted that no one in government had envisioned a suicide hijacking before it happened -- a notion supported by Clinton.
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Clinton addressed the press and shook hands with onlookers immediately after finishing a round of golf. Joining Clinton on the course were Gov. Ben Cayetano; his chief of staff/senior adviser, Sam Callejo; and former Govs. John Waihee and George Ariyoshi.Speaking to reporters near the 18th hole, Clinton described the 1999 report as one that attempted to "speculate about what bin Laden might do."
"That was a report by a congressional research service, the Library of Congress, using public information," Clinton said, "and that's why I did everything I could to get bin Laden because I thought he was a dangerous man.
"And as we've seen, he is elusive."
Clinton had been scheduled to watch Brian Viloria fight Sandro Oviedo at the Blaisdell Center last night but instead said he wanted to get a good night's sleep. Clinton is scheduled to leave Oahu today and continue on to East Timor, where he will lead a U.S. delegation to observe the country's independence day on Monday.
He ate dinner last night at the Bali-by-the-Sea restaurant at the Hilton Hawaiian Village with members of the delegation.
The former president has been in Hawaii since Thursday night on what U.S. Secret Service officials described as unofficial business, including the golf game.
"I had fun," Clinton said after his last putt. "Didn't play very well, though."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.