"Having a cabinet where just about every single person was a lawyer and almost none had any military experience, you tend to get legalistic group-think. They were all so used to seeing the world in legal terms that even when bin Laden was offered to Clinton, they didn't think they had a case so they let the matter drop."

Well, we are nation which is ruled by law.
I do agree that we are overweighted in the lawyer dept. And Lawyers by nature a cautious bunch. But assuming the room was full of George Pattons; what would they have done at that particular time?
If he was a terrorist which acted against Americans, Lawyers should said we have jail cell for him, but if he had not commited crimes against Americans- are the Pattons going to suggest we kill him?

I think the simple fact was that we had a national policy of not regarding terrorist or potential terrorist as much of a threat- unless they were acting directly against our nation. We thought these guys had a "certain right" to use violence for political purposes.