It is an important policy decision when you consider this:
Is Sudan Terrorism's new Mecca? (1997, the year after we were offered Osama)
Quote:
Is Sudan terrorism's new Mecca, or a victim of anti-Islamic fear? If you ask Sheik Hassan al-Turabi, leader of Sudan's National Islamic Front, Sudan has no connections to terrorism and is being falsely accused because of its Islamic affiliation. However, if you ask any of Sudan's bordering neighbors, the image of terrorism is quite vivid.
In a time when terrorist oriented countries such as Iran and Libya were tempering their passion for openly funding terrorism, an unlikely supporter emerged. Who would have thought that a country desperately trying to stabilize after a 1989 coup d'etat, engulfed in civil war for the past thirteen years, and economically crippled would openly engage in terrorist activities?
|
U.S.-Sudan Terrorism Ties Spell Disaster for Anti-Khartoum Activists
Quote:
When President George W. Bush announced his "war" against terrorism, activists who have lobbied hard to persuade Congress to impose far-reaching sanctions against Sudan's National Islamic Front (NIF) government for what they say is "genocidal" repression against the South thought victory was theirs at last. Not only had the NIF hosted the prime suspect, Osama bin Laden, from 1991 to 1996, but the State Department only last April, in its annual report on terrorism, said Khartoum was still being "used as a safe haven of various groups, including associates of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization."
"Sudan must be seen as an essential piece of the (terrorism) puzzle," said Nina Shea, a member of the quasi-governmental U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom shortly after Bush's announcement.
|
They may not be up to the level of the "Axis of Evil" but,
Cuba Serbia and Sudan join to make the 'Axis of Somewhat Evil'
Clinton made a decision to not cooperate with a terrorist nation. Additionally we only had suspicions, not proof that Osama had masterminded the first attack on the WTC. Is that enough to risk strengthening another terroristic nation? Hindsight tells us yes. but I think from what he had to work with he made the right decision at the time.