Could Bill Clinton Have Prevented 9/11?

In a speech he gave on September 10, 2011, President Bill Clinton told Australian businessmen that he had a chance to kill Osama bin Laden in 1998 but passed because it would have required taking out an Afghan village and killing women and children. An audio recording of the speech surfaced this week and his comments are transcribed below.

And I’m just saying, you know, if I were Osama bin Laden … He’s a very smart guy. I spent a lot of time thinking about him. And I nearly got him once. I nearly got him. And I could have killed him, but I would have had to destroy a little town called Kandahar in Afghanistan  and kill 300 innocent women and children, and then I would have been no better than him. And so I didn’t do it.

You can hear his words for yourself in the embedded video.

Why this recording stayed private until this week is a mystery. Records show that Clinton was giving a speech in Melbourne to J.T. Campbell & Co. for a $150,000 fee on that day. Would the mostly Saudi terrorists have gotten it together to pull off the 9/11 attacks without the leadership of Osama bin Laden? It seems unlikely. If he knew then what we all know now, would he decide to kill bin Laden and accept the civilian casualties?