Jeb Bush Slams Bill Clinton for Not Pursuing Bin Laden More Agressively

US presidential hopeful Jeb Bush criticized former leader Bill Clinton for not pursuing Osama bin Laden more aggressively.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The comments came Monday night when the former Florida governor appeared in an interview with the Fox News channel. The news outlet played the Republican candidate a 2002 audio clip in which former President Clinton stated that bin Laden had "committed no crime against America" in 1996, and so he "did not bring him here," even as he "knew he wanted to commit crimes against America," according to The Washington Post.

"I think there's two ways to look at Islamic terrorism," Bush said, responding to the 2002 comments by a former US president.

"One is a threat that has to be taken out as it relates to, you know, creating a strategy that calls it a war, or we view it as a law enforcement operation where people have rights. I think the Clinton administration made a mistake of thinking bin Laden had to be viewed from a law enforcement perspective," Bush said.

US special forces killed bin Laden in an operation conducted in Pakistan in May 2011 following a 10-year manhunt for the Saudi-born al-Qaeda leader. The manhunt was initiated in part as a response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

The upcoming US presidential election is scheduled on November 8, 2016.