Aide: Clinton approved killing bin Laden

By KEN GUGGENHEIM

Mar 24, 2004 | Bill Clinton gave the CIA "every inch of authorization that it asked for" to carry out plans to kill Osama bin Laden, the former president's national security adviser testified Wednesday, bluntly disputing claims that the spy agency lacked the authority it needed.

"If there was any confusion down the ranks, it was never communicated to me nor to the president and if any additional authority had been requested I am convinced it would have been given immediately," Sandy Berger said in nationally televised testimony before a bipartisan panel probing the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the worst in the nation's history.

Berger testified a few hours after the panel released a report that said CIA officials, Director George Tenet among them, did not believe they had the authority to assassinate the leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network. A subsequent decision to rely on local Afghan forces sharply reduced the chances of his bin Laden's capture, the commission said.

Tenet, who preceded Berger in the witness chair, was not pressed on the issue.

The CIA director, whose tenure has spanned both the Clinton and Bush administrations, praised aides to both presidents for their attentiveness to terrorism.

• View blog reactions