Lehman: 9/11 Commission Eyeing Secret Clinton Video

The independent commission investigating the 9/11 attacks has examined a secret videotape of ex-President Clinton discussing an offer from Sudan to have Osama bin Laden arrested five years before the 9/11 attacks, former Navy Secretary and 9/11 Commissioner John Lehman revealed on Tuesday.

Asked if the never-before-seen video confirms that Clinton admitted turning the offer down, Lehman told radio host Sean Hannity, "Well, that is what he said."

While the video of Clinton's bombshell remarks, delivered to the Long Island Association in February 2002, had never been released prior to a request from the 9/11 Commission, NewsMax.com's exclusive audiotape shows the ex-president explaining:

"We'd been hearing that the Sudanese wanted to start dealing with us again. They released him. At the time, 1996, had committed no crime against America, so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him."

Secretary Lehman said that when Clinton was interrogated about the comment during his April 8 testimony, his account was somewhat at odds with the version on the tape, saying, "It's not quite the way he described it."

Lehman explained that the former president attempted to give "a broader understanding of what he was talking about" in the February 2002 speech. Asked for specifics, Lehman told Hannity, "I can't go into it, but we will have the full story" in the final report due out in July.

At the time of Clinton's questioning, apparently he, along with at least some of the 9/11 Commissioners, were unaware that his 2002 comments had been recorded. According to 9/11 Commissioner, former Sen. Bob Kerry, Clinton called a transcript of his remarks "a misquote."

In April, LIA spokesman Gary Wojtas told NewsMax that he had turned the secret Clinton video over to the 9/11 Commission at their request the month before. In 2002, the LIA turned down requests for copies of the video from NBC News, the Fox News Channel and NewsMax.

Asked in April whether he would now make the tape public, Wojtas told NewsMax: "That's something we're waiting on right now - that's all I'll say on that. It's not that we won't do it. It's just something we need to wait on right now."

Wojtas did not return NewsMax's call last week seeking release of the videotape.

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