LONDON – The UK backed a US plan to assassinate Osama bin Laden nine months before the 9/11 attacks, according to The Times on Friday.
According to newly declassified documents, the British government, led by former Prime Minister Tony Blair, supported the strategy of assassinating the Al-Qaeda leader with an airstrike.
Bin Laden was on the FBI’s most-wanted terrorists list at the time, following a series of Al-Qaeda attacks, including the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed more than 200 people.
Bin Laden also masterminded a suicide bombing against the USS Cole, a US Navy destroyer, which killed 17 people.
Blair’s foreign affairs adviser, John Sawers, told him at the time, “We’re all in favor of whacking OBL. The Americans still don’t have proof that he was behind the attack on the USS Cole.
“They won’t launch airstrikes until they have a smoking gun, which could be after January 20 (when George W. Bush takes office).”
British support for Bin Laden’s assassination was mentioned to Blair in a pre-dinner briefing before the prime minister was scheduled to meet with US President Bill Clinton, who was quickly replaced by Bush.
“We’re all in favor of whacking OBL, but we need some notice and a chance to influence the timing,” Sawers explained to Blair.
The US had been looking for Bin Laden since the attacks on its embassies. Clinton was recorded saying the day before the 9/11 attacks that the US had the opportunity to kill Al-leader Qaeda’s in Afghanistan, but the plan was scrapped due to the risk of civilian casualties.
“I almost got him,” Clinton said on the tape, which was made public in 2014. However, he added that the risk was too great, so “I didn’t do it.”
Source: AP