The Attempted Assassination of Bill Clinton in Manila 1996

Annie Jacobsen's latest book about American clandestine services, "Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins" is an interesting look at covert operations of the CIA around the world. Towards the end of the book she mentions a surprising story about the attempted assassination of Bill Clinton in Manila in 1996.

President Clinton with then Sen. Arroyo and President Ramos

It was November 24, 1996, and Lew Merletti accompanied President Clinton to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in the Philippines. Security was intense, with an estimated 26,000 police and soldiers assigned to protect visiting dignitaries. The U.S. State Department warned its citizens to be on alert for a possible terrorist attack. In Manila, President Clinton was scheduled to visit a local politician. The route chosen would take him across a bridge in central Manila. 

“As the presidential motorcade began to move,” recalled Merletti, he received a “crackly message in one earpiece.” Intelligence agents had picked up a message using the words “bridge” and “wedding,” which Merletti “interpreted to be terrorist code words for assassination.” Merletti ordered the motorcade to change course, something only he had the authority to do. “The motorcade agent Nelson Garabito did a great job rerouting the president under those difficult circumstances,” he says, and that agents “discovered a bomb on the bridge.” The assassination attempt was not made public. The Secret Service keeps all assassination attempts against a U.S. president classified Top Secret so as not to encourage copycat attacks. The details of the Manila bomb were made known to only a handful of members of the U.S. intelligence community.

Pg. 330-331

A much fuller account of this incident can be found in "The Death of Virtue: Clinton Vs Starr" by Ken Gormley

One incident that Merletti kept locked in his mental file and that was unknown to the rest of the world related to a disagreement he had with President Clinton in November 1996. In this episode, Merletti had overruled Clinton and, in doing so, saved the president’s life. Merletti had been traveling with the president to Manila in the Philippines, when a snap decision confronted him as head of the presidential protective detail. Clinton was scheduled to attend a late-afternoon appointment with a senior member of the Philippine government. As was common for the gregarious Clinton, he was running late. The motorcade route from the hotel, where Clinton was wrapping up his meeting, to the government official’s office would take approximately “fifteen minutes. President Clinton instructed Merletti, “You gotta get me there fast. I’m really late.” 

One of the jobs of the Secret Service was to “make the president’s schedule work.” Merletti understood that. As they climbed into their long, black car, however, Merletti received a crackly message in one earpiece: Intelligence operators in the field had picked up a radio transmission in which the unknown speakers used the words “bridge” and “wedding” in close proximity. The latter word, he knew, was a code word once used by terrorists to mean a hit, or an assassination. On the motorcade route that had been mapped out, the president’s car was scheduled to cross a bridge. 

Merletti urgently requested if intelligence could get “more information.” After a momentary buzz in his earpiece, the response came back: “Negative.” In the meantime, the president was still pushing Merletti, “Let’s go, let’s go. We’re late!” As head of the PPD, Merletti had to take a stand. His paramount job was to protect the chief executive, regardless of what the president wanted. Merletti climbed into the car and looked directly at Clinton: “Mr. President, I have bad news for you,” he said. “We’re going to be real late, because we’re taking a different route.” 

There followed a “strong discussion” between the president and Agent Merletti. It was “professional” in every way, Merletti recalled, but the conversation involved “strong language” on “each side. In the end, Merletti directed the motorcade to travel the direction he wanted, and the president sunk back in his seat, unhappy but overruled. 

As the presidential entourage wound forward along its altered route, a U.S. intelligence team was dispatched to the bridge. The structure was a white concrete span in a busy downtown area of Manila and was flanked by picturesque palm trees and neat pedestrian sidewalks. Underneath the bridge, explosives specialists uncovered a bomb powerful enough to blow up the entire presidential motorcade. 

This thwarted assassination attempt was never made public; it remained top secret except to select members of the U.S. intelligence community. The American government’s subsequent investigation of this plot to kill Clinton, however, revealed that it had been masterminded by a Saudi terrorist living in Afghanistan—a man named Osama bin Laden. Intelligence reports revealed that this bearded criminal’s nascent terrorist organization, known as al Qaeda, had engineered the effort to murder the American president. The Secret Service was already watching bin Laden—he had been involved in at least one earlier attempt to assassinate Clinton in the Philippines in 1994. The plot to kill Clinton in Manila had failed only because members of the PPD were trained to put the safety of the president first, regardless of conflicting instructions, even from the chief executive himself. In Merletti’s view, “If you’re not capable of making decisions like this, you don’t belong in that position.”

Pg. 491-492

Clinton arrived in Manila for the APEC summit a day before the attempted attack. How did his would be killers know the route his motorcade would take? Was there a mole? Was the bomb placed just shortly before Clinton's motorcade was due to cross the bridge? A boat stopping under a bridge so a man could hide a bomb would be noticeable. Neither account tells what bridge it is but from the description (white concrete, palm trees, pedestrian walk way) it might be the Jones Bridge. 

According to The Manila Standard there were two other bombs discovered, one at the airport and one at the APEC venue.

Manila Standard, November 23rd, 1996

But Philippine security sources said police had reported “srong indications” a leftist hit squad would launch terror attacks - including bombings and assassinations - to disrupt the summit, to be attended by US Presidney Bill Clinton, Chinese Presdeitn Jian Zemin, and other key leaders.  

An intelligence report obtained by Reuters meanwhile indicated explosives found at Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Wednesday night were not part of a drill as originally announced. 

The report, for President Ramos, said a bomb made up of three hand gernades with their safety pins already removed and wrapped in tape had been found in a black bag on a stairway of the arrival area. 

It said members of an airport security task force were still investigating the incident. 

Officials at the time inisisted the explosives has been placed there as part of a security drill. The same explanation had been given for a pipe bomb discovered a few hours earlier inside the gates of Subic Freeport where the summit is to take place. 

The top secret, high-level Philippines police report on the overall terrorism threat did not specifically mention Americans as targets.

It is not surprising that Philippine security officials would lie to the public about the bombs found at both NAIA and Subic Freeport. That the report focuses exclusively on "a leftist hit squad," the Alex Boncayao Brigade, and excludes Islamic terrorists shows that Philippine security officials were not up to speed on the threat posed by Islamic terrorism and in particular al Qaeda despite uncovering the Bojinka Plot a year prior in January 1995.  The Bojinka Plot was a large scale terrorist attack planned by al Qaeda to blow up 11 planes and assassinate the pope. Prior to this plot al Qaeda made plans to assassinate Bill Clinton during his visit to the Philippines in 1994 which begs the question of why security officials did not consider a second attempt on his life from this same terrorist organisation as very likely.

He left Manila for several days, but was met by Islamist emissaries upon his return to Metro Manila. They asked him to attack United States President Bill Clinton, who was due to arrive in the Philippines on November 12, 1994, as part of a five-day tour of Asia. Yousef thought of several ways to kill the president, including placing nuclear bombs on Clinton's motorcade route, firing a Stinger missile at Air Force One or the presidential limousine, launching theater ballistic missiles at Manila and or killing him with phosgene, a chemical weapon. He abandoned the idea, as it would be too difficult to kill the President. However, he incorporated his plan to kill the Pope into the Bojinka plot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bojinka_plot

The "he" is Ramzi Yousef. Ramzi curently resides at ADX Supermax Prison in Florence, Colorado for his role in the 1993 and 2001 World Trade Centre attacks. How was al Qaeda able to place a bomb under a bridge in Manila with no one knowing?  Security for APEC was tight.

As part of the preparation for the summit, the Philippines strengthened its security force. At least 26,000 police and soldiers were deployed to ensure the security of the delegates and guests. President Ramos assured APEC participants of their security in his speech during the inauguration of Subic Bay International Airport. On 22 November 1996, two days before the Economic Leaders' Summit, the US State Department, through its spokesperson Nicholas Burns, warned American citizens in the Philippines to take security precautions following threats against American diplomats attending the summit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APEC_Philippines_1996

Despite all the security precautions taken one of the more interesting incidents of the 1996 APEC meeting was when Vice President Estrada welcomed President Clinton at the airport and was blocked by the Secret Service.

Manila Standard, November 25th, 1996

Security was so tight when US President Bill Clinton flew into Manila Saturday night for an Aisia-Pacific summit that his minders stopped VIce President Joseph Estrada when he went to welcome the US leader at the airport. 

“You cannot tell me what to do right here in my country,” Estrada snapped to the US security men. “I am the Vice President.” 

Estrada, who described the incident to reporters, was blocked when he tried to approach Clinton after the US leader flew into Manila Saturday night for the annual summit of the 18-memeber Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. 

Estrada was allowed through after explaining who he was. 

Estrada headed the Philippine welcoming party for Clinton which also included House SPeaker Jose de Venecia and Sen. Gloria Mcapagal-Arroyo, a calssmate of Clinton years ago when she was studying in the United States. 

Summit security is tight due to fears that Philippine leftiss may try to mount an attack during the APEC conference. The Clinton motorcade made a last-minute  switch in its route from the airport after two men were reported acting suspiciously at a traffic signal control box on the original route.

The Bojinka Plot was discovered in January 1995 and by then Yousef was long gone from the Philippines. So who orchestrated this attempted assassination in 1996 at the behest of bin Laden? Who was left with ties to al Qaeda except the MILF and Abu Sayyaf? In fact just last year a bin Laden associate was arrested in Mindanao.

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/08/02/1939912/bi-deport-jordanian-linked-bin-ladens-brother-law

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) is set to deport a Jordanian man, an alleged former henchman of the brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden, a few weeks after he was arrested in Zamboanga City.   

Mahmoud Afif Abdeljalil, 51, is now under custody of the government pending his deportation after the BI, military and police operatives arrested him last July 4, according to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente.  

Quoting authorities, the BI said that Abdeljalil had served as the point man of Saudi businessman Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, bin Laden’s brother-in-law, in managing several charity organizations in the south that funneled money to al-Qaeda and the Abu Sayyaf group.

The public can never expect the government to tell them the true extent of security threats to the nation until long after the fact which leaves one wondering what is the real security situation in this country? The government continues to reassure the public that everything is fine and safe for tourists and investors despite the presence of communist and Islamic terrorists throughout the country. If anything the lesson to learn from the attempted assassination of Bill Clinton in Manila in 1996 is that Philippine security officials are not always up to snuff about the threats facing the Philippines.