If the Bush administration had to operate "out in the open" they wouldn't last a week before impeachment proceedings were initiated against Bush. Secrecy and closed-door meetings are absolutely vital to his entire administration. They simply could not survive in any other environment.

As to why Clinton didn't take out Bin Laden himself: he did put out just such a "kill" order on Bin Laden apparently - but only if it didn't also involve killing any other innocent civilians, according to the CIA. And the CIA claims that they almost did it, too, during the Clinton administration, but the team assigned to the job aborted at the last moment because they heard civilian voices (female voices apparently) coming from the "objective" they were about to attack. You can find plenty of factual accounts of that particualar Osama/CIA encounter out here on the web, if you look.

As to why "Clinton didn't pass on a plan to deal with Al Queda to Bush" before he left office: he did -- and Bush just threw it all in the trash along with everything else Clinton offered him. This is also well documented already, and was brought up many times during the recent congressional hearings.