Posted on 05/01/2011 11:30:46 PM PDT by Para-Ord.45
Apparently, the key to the whole operation was finding and tracking Bin Ladens most trusted courier, a process that took years and involved info given by Guantanamo detainees:
Sunday afternoons raid by U.S. forces that killed Osama bin Laden was the culmination of years of careful and highly advanced intelligence work, senior administration officials said in a conference call, describing the genesis of an operation that sounded like it was right out of a Mission Impossible movie.
Some time after Sept. 11, detainees held by the U.S. told interrogators about a man believed to work as a courier for bin Laden, senior administration officials said. The man was described by detainees as a protégé of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and one of the few Al Qaeda couriers trusted by bin laden.
Initially, intelligence officials only had the mans nickname, but they discovered his real name four years ago.
Two years ago, intelligence officials began to identify areas of Pakistan where the courier and his brother operated, and the great security precautions the two men took aroused U.S. suspicions.
Last August, intelligence officials tracked the men to their residence in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a relatively wealthy town 35 miles north of Islamabad where many retired military officers live.
When we saw the compound where the brothers lived, we were shocked by what we saw, a senior administration official said.
The compound was eight times larger than any other home in the area. It was surrounded by walls measuring 12 feet to 18 feet that were topped with barbed wire. There were additional inner walls that sectioned off parts of the compound and entry was restricted by two security gates. And the residents burned their trash instead of leaving it outside for pickup. There was a three-story house on the site, with a 7-foot privacy wall on the top floor.
While the two brothers, the couriers, had no known source of income, the compound was built in 2005 and valued at $1 million. That led intelligence officials to conclude that it must have been built to hold a high-value member of Al Qaeda.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/05/raid-got-bin-laden-was-culmination-years-work-sr-admin-official-s#ixzz1LAodut4D
In other words, Bush got the ball rolling on this;)
Obama taking credit for this is like Harry Truman taking credit for winning WWII.
In other words, getting Osama bin Laden really is due to the hard work and persistence of President George W. Bush and what he put in place beginning shortly after 9/11/2001. All Barack Obama did was not get in the way, then give the final go order at the end. Then he stepped up and took the glory, of course.
I think that’s a little exaggerated. Obama has been President for 2 and a half years almost. It’s not like Truman who took over on Apr 12 and the Germans surrendered on May 6.
He should get credit. He continued the efforts, he built on the leads, he was able to make sure that none of this was leaked(I’m amazed at that and I think most people are). He made the decision not to share this with any other countries or people outside the US. He ordered an assault into a sovereign nation armed with nuclear weapons! That’s a pretty big deal. Probably never been done before in history. If this went bad he would have taken all the heat. He pulled the trigger, he made the decision, and it worked.
I’m not saying he did it 100%, but he should get credit. As should Panetta, et al.
I don’t like him but I give him credit on this one.
YEARS of steady, non-stop diligence .. and buckets of blood, sweat and tears .. the foundations of which operations and hard work were planned and begun by President George W. Bush! God bless him dearly for all his resolve and the unparalled courage of our incredible troops!
Bush’s “Torture” (aka waterboarding) of KSM lead to the killing of 0sama by 0bama, who objected to the “torture.”
What a hoot!
0bama takes credit for the fruits of “torture”. I love it. GWB lives in 0bummer’s brain, free of charge.
Moral of the story is to ALWAYS short Obama.
I agree. A mature answer...which means many here won’t like it.
Maybe so, and in fact, I think Obama was motivated by the fact that he could rub it in Bush’s nose, if he did get UBL.
Now let’s see what he does with Mullah Omar, and Zawahiri.
Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld did all the design work and the building for this successful mission by our military. BHO was merely a passive observer.
And here's a dusty classic from a decade ago that came to fruition in spite of the impediments erected by the illegal _resident at 1600:
chmod +x /bin/laden
Sort of a dual credit. GWB gets credit for getting it underway, and BHO gets credit for not screwing it up.
Exactly right.
He deserves some, but it is limited. This is politically a win, so it takes little bravery to make the decisions he made. As another mentioned, this is similar to the Seals action against the pirates near Somalia. He gives the final go ahead, but it is countless others doing the work and take the risks. I never heard Bush work so hard to take credit as Obama did tonight, and that tells us quite a bit.
To his credit, he demonstrates significantly more leadership here than Clinton did as CIC. Clinton was terrible in these situations, getting too much in the way. Obama let the smart people do what they wanted to do here. It is a different time, though. Post 9/11 is radically different than before.
that photo been around since 2010?
http://windowintopalestine.blogspot.com/2010/11/years-of-deceit-us-openly-accepts-bin.html
At least old Harry had the cojones to use the bomb. Twice!
I mean, I’m still astounded by him going after a country with nukes. That takes big ones. And he didn’t pull the Clinton act of telling them ahead of time which may have warned him and allowed him to escape(like what happened in the 90s). Even Reagan’s raid on Libya in 86 we told people ahead of time and it allowed him to get out of dodge. He managed to keep this totally secure. Abbottabad and Rawalpindi are heavy military areas in Pakistan. It can’t be that easy to fly a few choppers in there with a huge assault force. What if the Paks picked up on it and thought India was coming after them or something?
He’ll get big creidt for this and barring some huge economic collapse(much worse than it is now, a new recession, 10%+ unemployment, $5+ gas, etc...) it likely sealed his re-election.
I can’t say with certainty, but I am sure both Obama and Bush made it clear to the Paki government that were coming after OBL where ever he is. I am sure Paki probably gave their blessing for that, for no other reason than they could not deny such a request with the world pressure post 9/11. As I said before, Obama did his job here, but it was nothing extraordinary.
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