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Saudis Funded Clinton After Nixing OBL Offer

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Ex-president Clinton's decision to ask Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah for a high-dollar donation to his presidential library came just months after Saudi leaders rebuffed his request to take custody of Osama bin Laden - when officials in Sudan, where the al Qaeda chief was then living, offered him to the U.S.

Former FBI director Louis Freeh revealed on Thursday that Clinton personally put the touch on Abdullah after failing to get the Saudi leader's cooperation in the probe into the June 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, which - according to the 9/11 Commission - was a joint al Qaida-Hezbollah operation.

The 9/11 Commission Report also notes that Sudanese officials testified they tried to offer bin Laden to the U.S. just three months earlier, in March 1996.

In a 2002 speech to a New York business group, Clinton confirmed the Sudanese offer, and said he tried to press the Saudis to take bin Laden:

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  "At the time, 1996, he had committed no crime against America so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him. So I pleaded with the Saudis to take him, 'cause they could have. But they thought it was a hot potato and they didn't and that's how he wound up in Afghanistan."

Citing "Saudi sources," columnist Robert Novak reported in January 2002 that the royal family came through with a donation to the Clinton library of up to $20 million.

Questions raised by Mr. Freeh's claim include whether the Saudis felt beholden to Clinton for not pressing them harder on the Khobar probe.

But another concern is whether the Saudis saw their donation as a reward to Clinton for not insisting that Riyadh take bin Laden into custody when the Sudanese offered him up.

Listen to NewsMax.com's exclusive recording of ex-President Clinton explaining how he tried to get the Saudis to accept extradition of Osama bin Laden.

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