Assassination attack on Bill Clinton. Retired Secret Service agents on the 1996 Manila attack attempt – Reuters

The story of one of Al-Qaeda's first attempted attacks against the United States came to light in 2010, but this is the first time Reuters has obtained details about it. The agency cites interviews with eight retired American Secret Service agents, seven of whom observed those events while in Manila.

Bill Clinton and the First Lady arrived at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the capital of the Philippines on November 23, 1996, late in the evening. As Reuters describes, as Air Force One was approaching to land, Secret Service agent Daniel Lewis informed a team of agents waiting at the airport about “cargo on the bridge” on the main route leading to the hotel where the US president was to stay.

Lewis Merletti, who was in charge of Bill Clinton's security detail, said that he also came to this conclusion when another agent, whose name he does not remember, reported to him that he had intercepted a conversation in which a “wedding on the bridge” was mentioned. It reminded him of an intelligence report from a few years ago that mentioned the word “wedding” as a terrorist term for assassination. The planned route of the presidential motorcade ran over three bridges on the main access road to the hotel. In this situation, Merletti made a quick decision to change the route of the presidential motorcade to an alternative one.

As the presidential motorcade took the congested alternative route, Philippine security officials actually found a bomb on the bridge the motorcade was originally scheduled to cross. A strong charge was connected to a mobile phone that was to be used as a detonator. The bomb was found on a street electrical box.

According to agents, Philippine officers also found a red Mitsubishi Pajero abandoned at the other end of the bridge. There were AK-47 rifles inside the car, which could suggest that the attackers planned to block the road with the vehicle and open machine fire on the presidential column.

Gregory Glod, a retired Secret Service agent, said that the US intelligence agency later assessed that the attempted attack was organized on the orders of Osama bin Laden by al-Qaeda militants and the Abu Sayyaf Group, Filipino Islamists widely considered to be the local arm of al-Qaeda. Glod declined to indicate which U.S. agency provided this information. Reuters notes that it was unable to confirm them, and the CIA declined to comment on the matter.

Reuters reported that it found no evidence that the US government was investigating the foiled attack on Bill Clinton. The agency was also unable to determine whether intelligence agencies conducted secret investigations into the matter. The agency notes that for some Secret Service agents it interviewed, the events in Manila left unanswered questions. “I always wondered why I wasn't detained in Manila to supervise some investigation,” Gregory Glod said.

When asked about those events, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told Reuters that “an incident occurred,” but noted that the information was still classified. He also declined to say what action, if any, the United States took after the failed attack in Manila. Bill Clinton also did not respond to repeated contact attempts.

Reuters writes that former CIA director Leon Panetta, who was Clinton's chief of staff at the time, said he was not aware of such an incident, but said that the attempted assassination of the US president should be investigated. An investigation into such a case taking place outside the United States requires the consent of the attorney general, which would trigger an FBI investigation. The agency notes that the FBI also declined to comment on this matter.

Four former U.S. officials, including then-ambassador to Manila Thomas Hubbard, confirmed to Reuters that they had thwarted the 1996 coup but said they were unaware of any U.S. investigation or action taken at the time.