9/11 Commissioner Lehman Reacts to Clinton-bin Laden Audio

9/11 Commissioner former Navy Secretary John Lehman said Monday that President Bill Clinton's decision not to accept Sudan's offer to extradite Osama bin Laden to the U.S. in 1996 was probably the biggest blunder in the war on terrorism.

Reacting to NewsMax.com's audiotape of Mr. Clinton admitting he turned down the Sudanese, Secretary Lehman told radio host Sean Hannity, "[Clinton's comments offer] a very good insight into the overall policy during the Clinton administration, which was essentially dominated by lawyers [who treated bin Laden] as a law enforcement, not a foreign policy or a prevention issue."

Asked if it was "wrong to conclude that the biggest mistake we made was not taking Osama when we had an opportunity," Lehman told Hannity, "Yes, that's certainly true."

"There were many ways in which [bin Laden] could have been apprehended," he added.

Reacting to comments from 9/11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean, who said yesterday that if the U.S. had nabbed bin Laden while he was in Sudan, "the whole story might have been different," Secretary Lehman told Hannity, "I do agree with that."

The former Reagan administration official said, however, that it was a mistake to focus entirely on the 9/11 mastermind, because al-Qaida is "raising a whole generation of young Arab children and youth to hate America."

"Getting Osama probably would have disrupted the planning [for 9/11]," Lehman said, "but it wasn't just Osama."

To hear NewsMax.com's exclusive audio recording of ex-President Clinton explaining why he turned the Sudanese offer down, Click Here.

Editor's note: