Damien and Phenoix
I want to address a point made earlier concerning the Bin Laden-Sudan offer. I know of the story well. First of all it was invented at by the 'no spin zone' people at FOX and is a total lie.
What happened was this:
Sudan
never offered to extradite Bin laden to the US. In 1996, bin Laden was becoming such a problem to the Sudanese government that they wanted him gone. At that time, Bin Laden was not wanted for any crime against the US and therefore could not be held. This was before Africa bombings, the USS Cole, and 9-11 although he was wanted by Allied countries (like Saudi Arabia and Egypt) for anti-government activities. In 1996 The Sudanese government offered to extradite bin laden
to Saudi Arabia. The Clinton Administration begged the Saudis to accept the Sudanese offer. The Saudis reject Sudan's offer as they are afraid Bin Laden's influance with the masses would spark an attempted overthrow of the monarchy. It was felt that he was more of a danger inside the country than outside of it.
If you want proof...Here is the actual quote from Clinton from the very speech FOX claims as its source Clinton admitted fumbling on Bin Laden. This is what he really said:
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/4/20/112336.shtml
CLINTON: So we tried to be quite aggressive with them [Al Qaeda]. We got -- well, Mr. bin Laden used to live in Sudan. He was expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1991, then he went to Sudan. And we'd been hearing that the Sudanese wanted America to start dealing with them again. They released him. At the time, 1996, he had committed no crime against America, so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him, though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America.
So I pleaded with the Saudis to take him, 'cause they could have. But they thought it was a hot potato and they didn't and that's how he wound up in Afghanistan.
As we see another bit of 'fair and balanced' reporting at FOX. Of course, they were silent on the part where Bush REALLY DID let bin laden escape at Tora Bora...