"In the spring of 1996, the government of Sudan offered to deliver Osama bin Laden [then living in Khartoum] into U.S. custody. The Clinton Administration was aware of the threat bin Laden posed, but it worried it didn't yet have sufficient information to indict him on terrorism charges in court. Instead, the U.S. sought to have the Saudis take bin Laden and behead him."

In February 2002, Clinton said he was personally involved in negotiations with the Saudis.

"I pleaded with the Saudis to take him, 'cause they could have. But they thought it was a hot potato," he told a New York business group.

While the ex-president made no mention of any plan to behead bin Laden, he did admit to turning down a Sudanese offer to have him shipped to the U.S.

"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."

In an October 2001 interview, Clinton national security adviser Sandy Berger hinted that the beheading plan was part of the Clinton administration's renditioning policy, where terrorists are sent to Third World countries with the expectation that they will be tortured - or worse.

"In the United States, we have this thing called the Constitution," Berger told the Washington Post. "So to bring [bin Laden] here is to bring him into the justice system. I don't think that was our first choice. Our first choice was to send him someplace where justice is more 'streamlined.'"

Saudi Arabia, where bin Laden was born, follows Islamic Law, which sanctions the beheading of criminals and other offending citizens.

Editor's note: