"You had this whole weird experience with the Clinton administration that [Osama bin Laden] was behind the bombing of two American embassies," Gingrich told Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes." "They all believed [bin Laden] was behind the World Trade Center [attack in 1993]."
But, the former Republican leader explained, "they were so tied into the rule of law, in the narrowest American sense, that they had an opportunity for Sudan to give them bin Laden and they couldn't take him." Gingrich continued:
"Now, I would just suggest to you that there is no national security explanation for why we allowed bin Laden to get away with the Sudanese offers. "If the story that came out today is true, that the Sudanese literally offered to give us bin Laden and the Clinton administration could not figure out a legal rationale - this is an administration that argued over what the meaning of the word 'is' is.
"Now, if they couldn't figure out a way, an argument about bin Laden, to keep him, there was something profoundly wrong with the psychology of the [Clinton] administration."
Former Clinton White House political guru Dick Morris concurred with Gingrich, telling FNC's Rita Cosby that Clinton was too distracted by the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal to concentrate on getting bin Laden.
"[Clinton was] distracted, disheartened and depressed and not terribly focused," Morris told Cosby late Wednesday.
"And also I believe [Clinton was] risk-averse," Morris said, in an observation he first shared with NewsMax.com last Friday.
"I think that one of the reasons we sent in cruise missiles as opposed to commandos [in 1998] was that he was averse to risk," he told Cosby. "He didn't want to suffer casualties. He was worried about criticism for that."
Morris said he was skeptical about the Clinton administration's excuses for failing to apprehend bin Laden in 1996.
"It's very hard for me to believe that the United States could not muster a case against bin Laden," Morris told Cosby.
"I have to believe that if Bill Clinton were not a distracted president during this period that there would have been a much greater focus on the terrorism issue."
