Clinton: Claims I Turned Down bin Laden are 'Bull'

In his interview with CBS newsman Dan Rather set for broadcast on Sunday, ex-President Bill Clinton flatly contradicts his earlier recorded confession that Sudan offered to arrest Osama bin Laden and hand him over to the U.S., calling reports of such an offer "bull."

"On the accusation that he had opportunities to get Osama bin Laden, had opportunities to have him delivered by the Sudanese, he said, 'absolutely, flatly untrue,' describing it as 'bull,'" Rather tells the Washington Post on Thursday.

In February 2002, however, Mr. Clinton clearly admitted that the Sudanese offer had indeed taken place. And that he turned it down.

"Mr. bin Laden used to live in Sudan," Clinton told the Long Island Association on Feb. 15, 2002.

"He was expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1991, then he went to Sudan. And we'd been hearing that the Sudanese wanted America to start dealing with them again.

"They released him. At the time, 1996, he had committed no crime against America so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him, though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America.

"So I pleaded with the Saudis to take him, 'cause they could have. But they thought it was a hot potato and they didn't and that's how he wound up in Afghanistan."

On Thursday morning, NewsMax.com offered CBS's "60 Minutes" a copy of its exclusive recording of Clinton's remarks.

But it's not clear whether the network will be willing to embarrass the ex-president by airing smoking-gun proof that his current claims about the bin Laden offer are false.

Listen to NewsMax.com's exclusive recording of Bill Clinton admitting that he let bin Laden go free.

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