A little-covered portion of Richard A. Clarke's written statement to the 9/11 commission this week:

The Clinton Administration responded to Iraqi terrorism against the US in 1993 with a military retaliation and against Iranian terrorism against the US in 1996 at Khobar Towers with a covert action. Both US responses were accompanied by warning that further anti-US terrorism would result in greater retaliation. Neither Iraq nor Iran engaged in anti-US terrorism subsequently.

Covert action against Iran? Could it have been so covert, not even then-FBI Director Louis Freeh knew about it? Here is how Freeh described the Clinton Administration's actions in response to the Khobar Towers bombings, which killed 19 U.S. servicemen and wounded another 400:

In order to return an indictment and bring these terrorists to American justice, it became essential that FBI agents be permitted to interview several of the participating Hezbollah terrorists who were detained in Saudi Arabia. The purpose of the interviews was to confirm--with usable, co-conspirator testimonial evidence--the Iranian complicity that Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan and the Mabaheth had already relayed to us. (For the record, the FBI's investigation only succeeded because of the real cooperation provided by Prince Bandar and our colleagues in the Mabaheth.) FBI agents had never before been permitted to interview firsthand Saudis detained in the kingdom.

Unfortunately, the White House was unable or unwilling to help the FBI gain access to these critical witnesses. The only direction from the Clinton administration regarding Iran was to order the FBI to stop photographing and fingerprinting official Iranian delegations entering the U.S. because it was adversely impacting our "relationship" with Tehran. We had argued that the MOIS was using these groups to infiltrate its agents into the U.S.

After months of inaction, I finally turned to the former President Bush, who immediately interceded with Crown Prince Abdullah on the FBI's behalf.

Covert action didn't take care of the terrorists who carried out the bombing; Freeh was still trying to hunt them down until his last day in office. And it certainly didn't scare off other terrorists who have continued to plan to attack U.S. citizens.

And if there was a covert action against those reponsible for the bombing, why keep Freeh out of the loop? Why let him twist in the Clinton Administration's diplomatic netherworld?

Not all chapters of the Khobar Towers bombing case have yet been written, eight years after the fact.