BOOK EXCERPT: Losing bin Laden

NEAR KHOST, AFGHANISTAN—When Osama bin Laden decided to publicly declare war on the Western world for the fifth time in the Clinton presidency, he called a press conference that began with gunshots. It was May 1998.

Each of bin Laden's previous declarations of war had essentially been ignored by the Clinton Administration. The arch-terrorist first publicly declared war on America on October 12, 1996. "It is the duty of every tribe in the Arabian peninsula to fight jihad and cleanse the land from these Crusader occupiers. Their wealth is booty to those who kill them."

Amazingly, the Clinton Administration largely ignored bin Laden's plain threat. One reason might have been timing. With less than three weeks to go before the 1996 presidential election, Clinton was thinking about re-election, not national security.