It’s been a while. How about a “Buzz’s Bedtime Story”? Let’s do this.
As most of you know, I carried the nuclear football and lived in the White House during the Clinton administration. In the evening, everything wound down in the building with only essential personnel around (Secret Service, NSC, the doctor and nurses, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, and me). The evenings are often boring and I normally hung out in my office/bedroom, or walked around, visiting folks. The Secret Service guys and girls, the medical unit, and the NSC staffers were my sanity, after being around the Clintons during the day.
On this particular night, I was having a cup of coffee late at night, chatting with the NSC watch officers watching TV, and talking about missions they were tracking. The NSC is largely a team comprised of military officers, intelligence staffers, and analysts. While I’m sitting there shooting the sh*t, a call comes in. We, the US, have Osama bin Laden in our sights in Afghanistan. We had military and CIA assets surrounding bin Laden’s camp and we were ready to pull the trigger to kill the terrorist. Sandy Berger, the NSC advisor, was on the horn asking us to get Clinton on the line in the residence and get the approval. (Berger would later become famous for stealing classified documents from the National Archives and sticking them in his pants). We only had a few hours during the night in Afghanistan or we’d have to scrub the mission. This was the fall of 1997 (the timing is hugely important).
Unbelievably, after several attempts, we couldn’t get Clinton to answer the phone in the residence. (Note: this is not the same situation I recounted earlier about Iraq, and Clinton on the golf course. Completely different situation, but sadly the same result). The special operators were barking at us on the satellite phones from the camp. They were watching bin Laden move around. Berger was barking at us for not being able to find Clinton. At one point, I walked upstairs to the main residence and the only people there were the valets.
After approximately two hours, Clinton finally responded. Of course, he wanted to chat with the SecDef, SecState, and AG. Ultimately, those clowns decided not to shoot based on concerns for “international law.” We did nothing and our assets on the ground were forced to exfiltrate in a very dangerous situation.
Just like Iraq and the golf course, Clinton was afraid to act. A few months later, bin Laden and Al-Qaeda bombed two American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people and wounding more than 4,500.
A few years later, bin Laden launched 9/11, killing 3,000 people. It’s all Clinton’s fault. I personally know that to be true.
And it’s all in here.
Good night, all.
