CIA 'turned down 1999 opportunity to kill bin Laden'

And while we are in the realm of who did what and when, a book published in June in Poland by former spy Alexander Makowski called Ferreting out bin Laden - published in Poland in June but not yet available in English, claims that a group of Afghans offered to kill Osama bin Laden in Kandahar in 1999, but were turned down by the CIA. Makowski says he was a middle man in the plot.

Speaking of the Afghan plan, Makowski says: “They gave us the exact location of the houses where bin Laden would be staying in Kandahar, the route he would be taking between his living quarters, his meeting place, and what kind of transportation he would be using,” Makowski told McClatchy Newspapers in a recent interview. He says the Afghans planned to use car bombs to kill bin Laden.

In October1999 a CIA officer flew to Warsaw with a response. “I would like everyone here to be absolutely clear on one thing: We do not have a license to kill,” the officer told top officials at the headquarters of Polish intelligence.“We have to capture bin Laden safe and sound so that he can stand trial and be sentenced legally". Really.

Makowski also claims that the CIA, when faced in 1996 with a choice of supporting Ahmed Shah Massoud or the Taliban to rule Afghanistan, supported the latter. Some interesting stuff here.

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/08/27/2271315/cia-balked-at-chance-to-kill-bin.html#storylink=cpy