Political, military and technical developments: from Clinton's memories of bin Laden to the rescue of an American pilot in Iran and the race for artificial intelligence

Former US President Bill Clinton revealed new details about the United States’ attempt to get rid of former Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before the attacks of September 11, 2001, explaining that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) stopped, at the last minute, a plan that was targeting him due to fears of the loss of a large number of civilians if the operation failed.

Clinton said, during a radio interview with the American station WABC, that he had given the agency his approval to try to liquidate bin Laden, indicating that he would have preferred to capture him alive if possible, but his main priority was stopping his activity.

He added: “But the agency canceled, at the last minute, a plan that I believe would have likely succeeded, as intelligence officials feared that if they missed the target, they might cause the death of many innocent civilians.” "They didn't want to take any risks and I didn't disagree with their decision."

He continued: “But I believe, in the end, that bin Laden was determined to do what he did, and he had a lot of money and capabilities.”

The former US President confirmed that he considered Bin Laden one of the biggest threats facing the United States, and that he desperately wanted to reach him before the attacks occurred.

He said: “I wish we had done more to reach it.” "I always thought he was our biggest threat, and I wanted to catch him, and I did everything I could to make that happen."

Clinton also recalled his realization that Bin Laden was behind the attacks of September 11, 2001 as soon as he watched the attacks on television, remembering that Al-Qaeda had been planning, for a long time, to launch an attack on American soil.

“At the time, I was in Australia, and Hillary was in Washington,” Clinton said. But our daughter was in lower Manhattan, New York City, and we were deathly worried about her. "She was one of thousands of people who were simply told to walk north, and we were unable to contact her."

He added: “I was watching TV in Australia when the second plane hit the World Trade Center towers. I immediately said that Bin Laden had done it. They all looked at me and said: How did you know that? I replied: Well, because the only two opponents who have the ability to do this are Iran and Bin Laden. The Iranians will not do this because we are capable of wiping them off the face of the earth immediately. While Bin Laden was holed up in a cave in Afghanistan.”

He indicated that he knew for sure that Bin Laden was the perpetrator.

About ten years after the September 11 attacks, American forces were able to kill Osama bin Laden, during a secret operation targeting his hideout in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, on May 2, 2011, during the presidency of Barack Obama.

In the context of his talk about the security of the United States, Clinton warned of the possibility of New York City being exposed to a new terrorist attack, stressing that the danger has not ended, despite the improved preparations of the American agencies.

“I think it's entirely possible, and I think we have to stay alert about this and make sure we get all the intelligence we can get,” he said.

He added that the United States has become, today, more prepared to confront an attack of the same size, but he stressed that any simple mistake made by the security services will lead to a disaster.

A US Air Force officer narrated exciting details about his survival after his fighter plane crashed over a mountainous area in the Iranian desert last April, stressing that he faced death the moment he free-falled from a high altitude, before spending about 50 hours injured and hidden in Iran, until American forces were able to rescue him.

According to the American CBS News network, the American officer, who was known by his operational code name “Bravo” for security reasons, was sitting in the back seat of an American F-15E fighter as a weapons systems officer. That is, the officer responsible for the armament and radar systems and tactical coordination of the battle, during a mission launched, on the night of April 2, near a mountainous area south of the city of Isfahan, close to a site where Iran kept a large portion of its highly enriched nuclear materials.

According to the commander of the US Central Command (Centcom), Admiral Brad Cooper, the plane’s mission that night was to launch a strike on industrial facilities linked to the Iranian drone and missile program.

However, the plane, which cost $30 million and has been a mainstay of American air combat operations for decades, was shot down by a shoulder-fired missile, weapons that may cost about $100,000 each.

Moments of terror

In his first public account of what happened, Bravo described the moment the missile hit the plane as being like “collision with a freight train.”

Speaking to CBS News, he indicated that he and his colleague did their best to save the fighter. But it soon became clear that saving the plane was impossible, so the two pilots were forced to jump by parachute.

But the missile also damaged Bravo's parachute, causing it to fall at an estimated speed of 110-160 kilometers per hour.

Bravo said about that moment: “I looked up and did not see an umbrella, and that was the scariest scene of my life.” So I prayed, 'Lord, let your will be done, but if I'm going to survive this situation, I need help.'

The officer collided with the ground forcefully, causing him to suffer a fracture in his back, arm, and shoulder, but he was able, despite his injuries, to move away from the site of his fall, before climbing to a high mountainous area in the hope of hiding from the Iranian forces that were searching for him.

Race against time to save him

In the United States, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was informed of the plane crash and confirmed that his country would act to rescue the pilots.

After about 6 hours, American forces were able to rescue the pilot of the plane, who was given the code name “Alpha,” during a daytime operation during which American helicopters came under fire.

“It was a gun battle, all the way in, all the way out, but they got (Alpha) back,” Hegseth said.

However, the rescue forces were unable, at first, to find “Bravo,” who remained hidden in the mountains, amid the cold, wind, and lack of food and water.

A rescue force was almost dispatched shortly thereafter, but Hegseth noted that “the circumstances were not conducive to carrying out this.”

“It was a very difficult decision,” Hegseth added. "I'll never forget being in the operating room and saying, 'Okay, I guess we'll wait another 24 hours.'"

The intelligence agency comes to the rescue

The US Central Intelligence Agency played a pivotal role in locating and rescuing Bravo, through a massive deception operation aimed at misleading the Iranian forces who were searching for him, in addition to using secret techniques to determine his location.

Before the final rescue operation began, American bombers and drones carried out strikes on Iranian Revolutionary Guard sites near the area where the officer was hiding.

More than 90 American soldiers participated on the ground in the rescue operation, while hundreds more participated in the air and thousands of personnel provided support. Cooper described the operation as one of the most complex rescue operations in the history of the US Army.

Bravo said that seeing the rescuers was “one of the greatest moments of his life.”

But the danger did not end there, as the rescue planes got stuck in the sand, preventing them from taking off, until a secret Air Force unit intervened to save the situation. American forces were forced to destroy two planes and rescue helicopters to prevent their technology from falling into Iranian hands.

About fifty hours after his plane was shot down, Bravo was able to leave Iran.

After his return to the United States, the officer stressed that what happened he saw as not only a personal story of his survival, but also “a model of what teamwork, training, and leadership can achieve.”

As for his colleague, “Alpha,” he expressed his gratitude to the rescue teams, saying: “I am still impressed by the professionalism and tactical prowess shown by the search and rescue specialists and the joint force that carried out the mission to rescue me and Bravo, whether those in the theater of operations or those who worked behind the scenes.”

Yesterday (Sunday), US President Donald Trump criticized the voices that have recently called for slowing the pace of development of artificial intelligence, describing them as “negative.”

According to Agence France-Presse, the US President said in a statement to reporters during his visit to Ireland: “I think there are many negative voices that raise the issue and should not do so and are talking about things that will not happen.”

He added: “We are ahead of China in the field of artificial intelligence. “We are the most advanced country in the world, and frankly, I want to maintain this situation, because whoever uses artificial intelligence wins.”

These comments came days after artificial intelligence researcher Jacob Cookson decided to leave the sector, accusing the companies “Open AI” and “Anthropic”, where he previously worked, of “gambling with our lives” in the race to develop models capable of improving their capabilities independently.

“The people who build artificial intelligence actually think it might kill us all by the end of the decade,” Coxon wrote in a post on X.

Anthropic Director Dario Amodei on Saturday urged companies to slow down the pace of developing artificial intelligence, in light of growing concerns about the dangers of “super-intelligent” systems.

This proposal was supported by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and XAI owner, billionaire Elon Musk, as pressure increases to strengthen supervision of the sector.

In an interview published on Saturday, Altman said that his company would not go public this year due to safety concerns.

For his part, US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson believed that curbing the development of artificial intelligence would have a negative impact on the United States in its race with China.

Johnson said in statements to CNN on Sunday morning: “If Congress holds an emergency session in an effort to control artificial intelligence, we will lose the race with China, and that constitutes a threat to all Americans.”

He continued: “There is no need to panic now. We must deal with this new technology as we have dealt with others in the past, and ensure that we do everything we can with a sense of responsibility, without stifling American innovation.”

Johnson called for a meeting in Congress with senior executives in the artificial intelligence sector to discuss the best possible regulatory framework.

“I will do it tomorrow,” Johnson said.

Johnson's position comes partly in response to calls from prominent Democratic opponents to cancel the October parliamentary recess so that lawmakers can work on legislation related to the safety of artificial intelligence.

Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council at the White House, acknowledged the risks that could arise from artificial intelligence escaping controls, but said that the “biggest risk” is that “a bad-intentioned party will gain access to an artificial intelligence system that is better than the one we have and is able to protect us.”

But Democratic leaders objected to this proposal.

The leader of the Democratic minority in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, said in an interview with ABC on Sunday: “We definitely need to act urgently to confront the existing challenges.” “Unfortunately, Republicans have abandoned their responsibilities.”

Democrats from the party's left wing, including California Representative Ro Khanna, called for a complete halt to the development of artificial intelligence systems capable of self-improvement.

The Trump administration has largely embraced AI companies during his second term.

According to the Reuters news agency, artificial intelligence executives have pumped huge amounts of money into the campaign for the midterm congressional elections scheduled for November 3, which will determine control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.