NBC shows how Kerry’s ‘law enforcement’ approach to terrorism saved bin Laden’s life

Presidential candidate John Kerry, along with the majority of the Democratic establishment, believes that “The war on terror is less of a military operation and far more of an intelligence-gathering and law enforcement operation.”

Unfortunately for Kerry, a March 16 report by NBC’s Lisa Meyers illustrated how that mindset saved Osama bin Laden’s life prior to 9/11.

NBC aired classified surveillance footage of Osama bin Laden that was shot by an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) while flying over al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan sometime in the fall of 2000.

According to NBC, the footage “illustrates an enormous [missed] opportunity the Clinton administration had to kill or capture bin Laden.”

More significantly, NBC’s Meyers reported that “A Democratic member of the 9/11 commission says there was a larger issue. The Clinton administration treated bin Laden as a law enforcement problem.”

Meyers was referring to former Senator Bob Kerrey who told NBC that “The most important thing the Clinton administration could have done would have been for the president, either himself or by going to Congress, asking for a congressional declaration to declare war on al-Qaeda, a military political organization that had declared war on us.”

Senator John Kerry, however, insists that the fight against terrorism will require “primarily an intelligence and law enforcement” approach. By that logic, he would have waited until after 9/11 before trying to capture bin Laden.