The following is excerpted from my book, Dereliction of Duty:

The White House Situation Room was buzzing. It was fall 1998 and the National Security Council (NSC) and the “intelligence community” were tracking the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, the shadowy mastermind of terrorist attacks on American targets overseas. “They’ve successfully triangulated his location,” yelled a “Sit Room” watch stander. “We’ve got him.”

Beneath the West Wing of the White House, behind a vaulted steel door, the Sit Room staff sprang into action. The watch officer notified National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, “Sir, we’ve located bin Laden. We have a two-hour window to strike.”

Berger ambled down the stairwell and entered the Sit Room. He picked up the phone at one of the busy controller consoles and called the president. Amazingly, President Clinton was not available. Berger tried again and again. Bin Laden was within striking distance but the window of opportunity was closing fast. The plan of attack was set, with American patriots on the ground and in the air. Biden Laden was cornered. For about an hour Berger couldn’t get the commander in chief on the line. Though the president was always accompanied by the Secret Service, he was somehow unavailable. Berger stalked the Sit Room, anxious and impatient.

Finally, the president accepted Berger’s call. There was discussion, there were pauses—and no decision. The president wanted to talk with his secretaries of defense and state. He wanted to study the issue further. Berger was forced to wait. The clock was ticking. It was only a few hours that America had to pull the trigger or lose its prey, with assets on the ground and in the air. The president eventually called back. He was still indecisive. He wanted more discussion. Berger alternated between phone calls and watching the clock.

The NSC watch officer was convinced we had the right target. The intelligence sources were conclusive. The president, however, was concerned about offending neighboring nations in the region. He wanted a guaranteed hit or nothing at all.

This time, as was often with Clinton when offered the opportunity to defend America and Americans, it was nothing at all. We didn’t pull the trigger. We “studied” the issue until it was too late—the window of opportunity closed. Al Qaeda’s spiritual and organizational leader slipped through the noose. And the citizens of the US would suffer the ultimate terrorist attack three years later.

As I detailed in the first part of this series on 9/11 and Clinton, I was a recently retired Air Force pilot and flying as a Delta Airline’s copilot on that horrific day. I was scheduled to fly, ironically, that morning from Atlanta to New York’s LaGuardia Airport.  As I was kissing my wife and children goodbye passing our living room TV, I saw the immediate aftermath of the first Trade Center attack. I remember vividly NBC’s Katie Couric speculating that it was probably a small civilian aircraft that got lost. With that amount of fuel feeding that kind of fire, I knew there was no way. I sat back on my couch and watched the second hijacked airliner hit the other tower live. 

It was then I knew. I knew that the years of indifference and risk avoidance on the part of Bill Clinton had come home to roost. America had been attacked. The intelligence he’d seen and that I’d seen had predicted this. We knew they were going to do it…and he did nothing. And they did it.

The United States of America was founded on a foundation of God-granted principles, but we send our men and women into combat around the globe to defend and fight for those principles. My former boss, Bill Clinton, failed us, and 3,000 were killed domestically and over 15,000 killed in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, due to his dereliction of duty.

America can’t afford another leader like Bill Clinton. Yet here we are with Joe Biden. Vote accordingly. Otherwise, we’ll be enduring more days like September 11, 2001.