Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror

By Richard Miniter

Book Overview

Journalist Rich Miniter uses his unparalleled access to sources and stories throughout the Middle East, Africa, and the United States. He paints a devastating portrait of how close the U.S. military was to killing bin Laden--on multiple occasions--and how, each time, Clinton dropped the ball and allowed bin Laden to grow stronger and more dangerous.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0895260743
• ISBN13: 9780895260741
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Why This Book is Outstanding

Here's a list of the reasons this book is simply outstanding:1. It has the goods on what Clinton did and didn't do from Clinton's own people. High-level, in the Situation Room kinds of people.2. It has the goods on what Clinton did and didn't do from court records, government documents, and extensive research.3. It has the goods on what Clinton did and didn't do from the CIA and the FBI. Even from foreign intelligence services that were involved!4. It's fair. It really is. The author actually tells you the things Clinton got right, even though there are very very few of them. But you can't blame the author that there are so few things Clinton did right! But the fact that it's fair makes the failures even more powerful.5. It's a serious piece of work. Lots of fact and little opinion. That's the way indictments should be.6. It deals head-on with the "Reagan/CIA created bin Laden myth," and debunks it. (That's for all the reviewers pretending to have read the book who complain the book doesn't deal with that issue.)7. You learn alot about how all the pieces fit together right up to the Oval Office.8. It's a page-turning read.9. It's suspenseful. 10. It has fascinating characters.11. And the final reason that it's outstanding is that it's got the Clinton lovers running scared for all the reasons above.P.S. If you want a test for someone who didn't read the book writing a review, just look for the words "polemic," "rant," "boring," "screed," "badly researched," etc. You get the picture

Just wonderful

This author tells us the reason that global terror founds its way to americas shores on 9/11. How did it happen? THe author explains in detail how the CLinton administration bent over backwards not to offend the 'peacefull' religion of Islam and did nothing to stop Bin Laden. Terrorists understand only strength. Clinton and his boys were to busy doing other things to notice that Bin Laden was being allowed to get away with unspeakable crimes, much like [Germany] in the 30s. It is no wonder terror finally hit us so hard when we did so little to prevent its unleashment. This book takes us behind the scenes in Yemen to understand the Cole bombing and shows us the foolish military policy that had us bombing the Sudan while thousands of terrorists were training in Afghanistan. This book explains how a weak administration with a weak foreign policy can allow our country to become so open to attack. Its clear that Bin Laden saw our weakness, our openness as he was allowed to hit us from the shores of SOmalia, tot he mountains of Kenya, to the cities of Saudi and finally our own backyard. Its not like Bin Laden didnt warn us, Like [Germany] with Kampf, Bin Laden told the world he would 'declare war on the United States' and the CLintons sat back laughing and must have been thinking "these savage muslims cant possible hit us here in this socialist paradise we are building". Well the book explains what happened, pick up a copy. And for all of you Clinton lovers, the author is not a clinton hater he is merely explaining how we dropped the ball, a republican might have done the same.

Fast Paced Book Will Make You Angry As Hell

Like others reviewers said, this is not an Ann Coulter/Al Franken kind of book. It's long on story and fact and, thankfully, short on opinion. The story really gets to you. It reminded me of In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors (another fast paced book). Not the same subject of course since the Indianapolis sailors were heroes and Clinton not fit to clean their shoes.Be ready to get worked up by the book and to get really p--ssed off. I never gave a damn about Clinton's sex life. The worst scandal of the Clinton presidency was what he did to the military. You don't want some book smart, rhodes scholar in touch with his feelings all the time to be commander in chief. Read this book if you want to see what you get if you do.

Thumbs Up From Cap Weinberger

The following review appeared in the Washington Times on September 2."Effective Foreign Policy a Must"By Caspar W. WeinbergerRichard Miniter's new book, "Losing bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror," tells the sad, infuriating history of the number of opportunities President Clinton had to capture and imprison or kill the terrorist Osama bin Laden. Instead, we are still hunting. Bin Laden is still at large and alive enough to sponsor and concoct the details of the worst attack on America in our history -- the destruction of the World Trade Center and the bombing of the Pentagon. What other horrors he is planning we do not know, simply because he is still uncaptured.That reality is the sickening part of this remarkably well-researched and -sourced new book. Mr. Miniter -- part of the reporting team that broke the "The Road to Ground Zero" story in the Jan. 6, 2002 London Sunday Times -- has told how many real, actual and missed opportunities the Clinton administration had to capture and defang bin Laden. Why in the world would any U.S. administration not accept any and all offers to help dispose of one of the most vicious and well-financed terrorist leaders?For several reasons, as the author points out.The Clinton foreign policy was to get re-elected. Therefore, anything that might be controversial had to be avoided. So, from the beginning to the end of the administration, the Clintons "demanded absolute proof before acting against terrorists." This high bar guaranteed inaction. At the beginning of his term, after the attack of Feb. 26, 1993, Mr. Clinton refused to admit that the World Trade Center had been bombed. Later, he referred to it only as "regrettable" and "treated the disaster. . . like a twister in Arkansas." Earlier, he had "urged the public not to `overreact' to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing."That attitude was typical of the Clintonites. The president did not want to hear about bad news -- such as our terrible losses in October 1993,-- when Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in Mogadishu, Somalia, or the even more terrifying losses in New York. That would require a strong response which might upset some of the strange group of advisors and officials Mr. Clinton had collected. So it was with all the other missed opportunities to get bin Laden.CIA Director James Woolsey rarely had any meetings with Mr. Clinton. The president never supported Mr. Woolsey's urgent request for Arabic-language translators for the CIA in 1994. A separate feud between Mr. Woolsey and Sen. Dennis DeConcini, Arizona Democrat, was allowed to run its course without direction by the Clinton White House, which further set back the CIA director's appeal for Arabic translators. So, as the author concludes, "a bureaucratic feud and President Clinton's indifference kept America blind and deaf as bin Laden plotted."The Sudanese would offer to let the U.S. see their intelligence files and all the data they had gathered about bin Lad

Miniter's Masterpiece

Miniter's outstanding book is a masterpiece. It keeps the reader completely engaged as it reveals the truth behind Clinton's failure to apprehend Bin Laden and prevent the attacks of 9/11.I have read many books on this subject and cannot recommend this one highly enough. From the first page it is impossible to put down this gripping account of history.