I’ve heard that Sudan offered to turn Osama bin Laden over to the United States, but that President Clinton rejected the offer.
However, no one I hear ever cites a source for this story, so my question is: was such an offer ever made? What were the details of the offer?
I tried searching general questions, but the closest I could find was this thread.
I’d like for this to remain a general question please, so let’s leave politics out of this and stick to facts and cites, thanks!
According to former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger (and via Al Franken, but he cites two articles from the Washington Post, dated October 3, 2001 and July 13, 2002; the latter entitled Skeptical about Sudan and written by Sandy Berger), the entire case came from a guy named Mansoor Ijaz who claimed to have transmitted the offer between Sudan and the U.S. as a middleman. He also had a huge stake in Sudanese oil.
Ijaz wanted the US to lift sanctions against Sudan (sanctions imposed because Sudan was and is a sponsor of terrorism), and claimed that Sudan was ready to hand over bin Laden. However, the U.S. does not conduct diplomacy through self-appointed private individuals; and when the U.S. talked to Sudan, there was no such offer.
Courtesy of Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, and the Washington Post and Sandy Berger by association. Please don’t sue me, Al.
Not to get too Great Debates about it, but this is one of those “Clinton screwed up” myths that conservative pundits like to toss about in the debates about the War on terrorism.
The short (false) version: The Sudanese government offered to turn Osama bin Laden to the Clinton Administration, and Clinton said no.
The long (true) version: Mansoor Ijaz, a Pakistani-American, approached the United States and offered to serve as a middleman between the U.S. and the Sudanese government. Ijaz claimed the Sudanese government was ready to hand over bin Laden, and would do so if the US lifted sanctions against Sudan (the sanctions are in place because the Sudanese government is an active sponsor of terrorism). Ijaz met with then-National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, who ended up convinced Ijaz was an unreliable freelancer, out to make himself rich – Ijaz was also an investment banker with a huge stake in Sudanese oil, and those sanctions were hurting him.
But just in case Ijaz was telling the truth, the US government talked to the Sudanese government directly about the deal. The Sudanese government denied any such offer existed. End of story.
(Summation courtesy of Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, by Al Franken, page 113. Original sources – cited on page 358 of Lies – include “US Was Foiled Multiple Times in Efforts to Capture bin Laden or Have Him Killed” and “Skeptical About Sudan”, both from the Washington Post)
So, no, the Sudanese government never offered to turn Osama bin Laden over, and so Clinton could never have refused a deal that never existed. On the bright side, Mansoor Ijaz is now working as a foreign affairs analyst for Fox News…
Darn, beaten to the punch. 