RUSH: (Clinton impression) “Yeah, he just happened to end up over in Afghanistan because I didn’t have reason to take him,” but in the case where Yousef and his cronies were convicted, there was an indictment for Bin Laden. He was mentioned in an indictment as being a coconspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center attack. So there was reason to hold him, and that was accurately portrayed last night. Mary Jo White was the US attorney for the Southern District of Manhattan, of New York, and John O’Neill was happy as hell when he learned from her that Bin Laden could be pursued under terms of the indictment. Clinton had the chance, didn’t do it.
Now, that tape you just heard was from February of 2002. September 3rd of 2002, about seven months later, Clinton is on Larry King Alive, and King says, “You remember what you were thinking, Mr. President? What would go through the mind of the immediate former president watching the 9/11 attacks?”
KING: Did you also think at the same time, “We came pretty close to getting him”?
CLINTON: Yeah. I thought that my…virtual obsession with him was well-faced, and I was full of regret that I didn’t get him. I mean, I immediately thought that he had done it.
RUSH: (sigh) I’ve tried to tell you people for countless numbers of years now, we’re dealing with a… the man has a genuine problem. You just heard from February 2002, essentially the Sudanese wanted to give bin Laden to us, and Clinton wasn’t interested. Now you’ve just heard that Clinton had a “virtual obsession” with him and was “full of regret that I didn’t get him, I mean I immediately thought that he had done it.” (Clinton impression) “I told Bruce Lindsey when that second tower went, I said, ‘I know it’s Bin Laden! I know it. Only the Bin Laden guys and the Iranians could have done it. The Iranians aren’t going to do it because they’re a country; that makes them a big target. I knew Bin Laden did it. I was virtually obsessed with this guy, and I knew it was?”
(sigh) Back in just a second. I just don’t want to relive the nineties.
END TRANSCRIPT