Could the US kill Bin Laden in the 90's?

ThePest179

Banned
Partially to determine the truth value of the statements, did the US miss opportunities to kill Osama bin Laden in the 90's? If he's killed, what would the far reaching effects be?
 
The US Embassy Bombings and al-Qaeda congress both in 1998 are what brought him to the attention of the US. Before that he was largely a nobody. Apparently he barely escaped being killed directly or indirectly by the US on several occasions in the late 90s. Having him killed in the '90s by the US is easily possible but your window between him rising to prominence and the September 11 attacks is only about three years.

If he's killed he is quickly forgotten by Americans but he probably becomes a minor martyr to his cause. His biggest advantages seem to have been the name recognition and money/financing that he brought to his cause and his ability to organize and bring different groups together. Without him I suspect the whole movement will remain much more marginalized and disorganized without him and the boost that his successful attacks brought. A September 11 style attack is much less likely and the resulting US invasions as well. We might see more piecemeal attacks against US assets overseas.
 
Were there any other assassination attempts that almost got him?

I'm not sure. Had we gotten someone inside his network, we might have been able to. And we knew of his activities before 1998- Patrick Fitzgerald mentioned him in questioning a witness in the FIRST WTC bombing trial.
 
Delta Force had a plan to kill him in Afghanistan, according to a book I read by a former officer.
 
If Clinton isnt hounded by the Lewinsky scandal he probably takes him out. The whole "Wag the Dog" idea undermined any political capital he had for such a maneuver during the hearings. By the time things cooled off, they actually had plans developed to attack Afghanistan but it was so close to the election that they held off preferring to to start a war for the next guy to inherit.
 
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