Anyone believe this loser was making any real coherent decisions? I bet they had to drag him away from a ball game on TV to do this.
Posted on 09/07/2011 8:06:39 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
THE mission to kill Osama bin Laden was almost called off at the last minute due to a lack of certainty over whether the terrorist leader was living in a Pakistani compound, a new documentary has revealed.
In his first detailed interview since the al-Qaeda leader was shot dead by Navy Seals, US president Barack Obama revealed that he took a “gamble” and was advised not to go through with the risky operation.
Just days before the May 1 attack, the CIA had advised there was a 60-70 per cent certainty that bin Laden was holed up with his family in a fortified compound in a military suburb of Abbottabad, Pakistan.
But on April 28 a special “red team” of security analysts advised the President they were only about 30-40 per cent certain it was the world’s most wanted man, due to a lack of evidence and an unusually large number of visitors to the house.
A “tense” Whitehouse meeting followed where a number of Mr Obama’s highest advisers told him the “stakes were too damn high”.
Even though I thought it was only 50/50 that bin Laden was there I thought it was worth us taking a shot,” Obama said in Bin Laden: Shoot to Kill.
If the mission was unsuccessful, the President admitted he faced “huge geopolitical ramifications”.
In the one-hour documentary, America’s top security advisers and the President speak for the first time about the plan to kill bin Laden.
Using cinematic re-enactments, the documentary also offers an inside look into the White House Situation Room, where Mr Obama, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and other officials watched the attack on a live video link.
“It was a quintessential presidential decision,” National Security Adviser Thomas E. Donilon said of the attack.
It was also one of Mr Obama’s most challenging moments, eclipsed only by the near-death of his daughter Sasha from meningitis as an infant.
“That was the longest 40 minutes of my life, other than when my daughter got sick at the age of 3 months and we were worried about whether she was going to be safe or not,” he said.
The documentary also reveals how an al-Qaida courier known as "The Kuwaiti" led US intelligence sources to bin Laden by traced calls though his mobile.
CIA surveillance of the house showed a man known as “the pacer” regularly walking in the garden and US experts tried to use the sun’s shadows to measure if it was the 6ft4 bin Laden.
The program also detailed the Navy Seal's elite Team 6's intense training, including building a replica of bin Laden’s compound in the Nevada desert so that soldiers memorised every step and doorway in the house.
But when it was finally confirmed that bin Laden had been killed with shots to the head and chest, there was little celebration inside the White House, the documentary revealed.
“This was a big gamble. I think at the time I said something very brief: ‘We got him’,” Mr Obama said.
“But there was no whooping, no hollering, high-fiving inside the Situation Room.
“At that point all of us were focused on are these guys going to get out safely.”
Data found inside bin Laden's house revealed he had been planning a terrorism attack in the US on the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, with Obama as the main target.
Hours after the attack, Mr Obama, yet to receive DNA confirmation that it was bin Laden, announced to the world that the terrorist mastermind was dead.
“Fortunately we were right,” he said.
I heard Panetta head of CIA got tired of waiting for Obama
and made Obama do it....some weird maneuver.
- “Fortunately we were right,” he said.
Like we would ever know the truth.
Don’t trust a thing this admin says nor the assumptions underlying what they say. Where’s the body? Until and unless they produce a verifiable (by multiple independent third parties) corpse, I will have zero faith that this operation has any resemblance to what the official line says.
Anyone believe this loser was making any real coherent decisions? I bet they had to drag him away from a ball game on TV to do this.
It was a half nelson maneuver. ;)
HE took a gamble??
How about the Seals?
It’s all about the “O”.
So they go in and it's some lower level jihadi instead of Osama. How is that huge geopolitical ramifications?
If he is talking about the Pakistanis finding out we did a raid in their territory, well they did find out.
If he is talking about the possibility that dozens of SEALs could get killed, well that just happened and that didn't seem to put a damper on Obama's vacation.
lol, he looks like Erkle in this picture.
afferte mihi corpus ... until then, you are a poophead.
Wow, Obama was that hesitant about this?
Well, everyone remember, the movie version of this event will be in theaters on Oct. 12, 2012, just in time to influence the election. I trust that the movie will show all of the doubts and missteps along the way, as well as the final conclusion. It would be disappointing to see Hollywood idiots make a movie about Obama getting Bin Laden and trying to make it a puff piece for Obama.
I suspect he was curled up in the fetal position suckingn his thumb until someone poked him and told him it was over.
Exactly. Valerie Jarrett said “no” so Panetta and Daley did an end run and Obama had to be dragged off of the golf course.
This one definitely needs a Barf Alert...
That photo of the war room almost looks like Obama’s image was photoshopped in. We will never know.
Whether Obama gave the go ahead because he had guts, or because he didn't have the guts to risk being the guy who missed Obama (as subsequently told in Panetta's tell-all book), the order was given, and the attack went ahead.
The heroes are all the uniformed and non-uniformed people in harms way who contributed to this. Barry gave the order, and for whatever reason, that is one small tiny checkmark of positive in an Administration that has otherwise been a disaster.
Doesn’t matter. Osama was dead already......YEARS ago. This was Barry’s Kabuki theater for his base. No body....and Seals “offed” to keep other informed mouths shut.Remember how sick you got of seeing the flashlight in Saddam’s mouth before he was hung?????
Now....shall we talk about Donald Young? Larry Bland? Nate Spencer? Lt. Quarles Harris?
May God bless the families of the Seals.
Barry’s got blood ALL over him/her.
I’m still waiting for proof we got Osama.
Does anyone hear think that if Bush, as president, had “got him” and announed it without providing proof that the LSM (and every conspiracy nut including those here on FR) wouldn’t be still throwing a hissy fit?
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