A day before 9/11, Bill Clinton said he could have killed Osama bin Laden

A day before 9/11, Bill Clinton said he could have killed Osama bin Laden
(Image credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

It turns out that Bill Clinton had Osama bin Laden on his mind mere hours before al Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Speaking to a group of Australian businessmen on Sept. 10, 2001, Clinton said he once had the opportunity to kill bin Laden, but decided not to because it would have led to the deaths of innocent civilians. An audio recording of the remarks was released for the first time today by Australian media.

Here's what he said (h/t MSNBC):

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Ryu Spaeth

Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.