Posted on 05/13/2011 10:03:28 AM PDT by newzjunkey
Speaking at a town hall with Marines at Camp Lejeune on Thursday morning, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Special Forces who participated in the successful mission to kill Osama bin Laden were worried about their safety, and that he was concerned that so many details of the operation had become known to the public.
“Frankly, a week ago Sunday, in the Situation Room, we all agreed that we would not release any operational details from the effort to take out bin Laden,” Gates said. “That all fell apart on Monday -- the next day.”
Gates’ response was prompted by a question from a Marine in a Medical Logistics Company, who asked “what measures are being taken to protect the identities and the lives of the SEAL team members, as well as the lives of military forces deployed that might have to face extreme retaliation from terrorist organizations that want to have those identities known?”
Gates said that “there is an awareness that the threat of retaliation is increased because…of the action against bin Laden. “ He said there “has been a consistent and effective effort to protect the identities of those who participated in the raid, and I think that has to continue.”
The defense secretary said that “when I met with the team last Thursday, they expressed a concern about that, and particularly with respect to their families…I can't get into the details in this forum, but we are looking at what measures can be taken to pump up the security.”
Asked for further clarification of Gates’ remarks, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said that Secretary Gates was "not pointing fingers at any particular individual or any particular building" for details becoming known. "But all of a sudden airwaves and newspapers were filled with details about a covert military and intelligence operation and that's concerning because one of the reasons that these operations -- and this operation in particular -- are effective is because how they do their work, how they're equipped, how they're trained, their tactics and procedures are all secret. The more that's in the public domain the less likely we'll be able to pull these operations off in the future."
Me too.
"But, he continued, their initials are 'Barak Hussein Obama' and 'White House'. OOOPS! Did I just say that?"
In all seriousness, I am amazed that OBL's hide out was known since August and none of this came out in the New York Times or appeared in Wikileaks. We have the world's most porous and least disciplined government.
I can't get into the details in this forum, but we are looking at what measures can be taken to pump up the security you can hear all about it on the news tomorrow.” (Right after we tell Leahy)
There I fixed it.
You have gotten it, friend, right on the money. POTUS Obama could not care one iota about our Navy Seals, or for that matter any military man or woman. He hates them all. He is worried about one thing and, one thing only, his hate America butt and only that. Every other American can get thrown under the bus. This Obama dude is Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Castro, Chavez, etc., all rolled into one tyrant and dictator!!!
The first rule of fight club is: You do not talk about fight club.
The second rule of fight club is: YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB.
But people whose lives are on the line, or people they love, or a nation they love, have always been the motivation for people to keep secrets. That has always been true and is so today. Only the immoral and mentally ill people break a trust.
Everyone in the know on this was at best a few hundred disciplined and patriotic people from JSOC / CIA / NSA, plus a bare handful of scruffs at the White House.
Normally, they'd be leaking juicy Top Secret information faster than you could say, "Redistribute the wealth", but in this particular case, they had good reason to keep it quiet.
***My guess: these leaks came from the WH to help make Lt. Commando 0bam Bam look like the military action hero toy doll that Nancy Pelosi knows he is.***
Obama reminds me of the little banty rooster who jumps up on a fence, flaps his wings and squeeks...”Rook-atook-aroo! See me! See me! I did it! I did it! I did it!”
O got his photo ops and a bunch of military types and their families have to have eyes in the back of their heads. Good thing they can’t have concealed weapons on military bases. What could be wrong about this, after all, John Kerry told us about the losers in the Marines. In all seriousness I would think very hard about getting out of the service under this CIC and his crew.
When you dance with the devil (dems) you will be used.
Gates should know that the moral of the story is ‘don’t make agreements with serial liars’. Those loose purple lips will sink our ships in the interest of getting reelected. Its all about him now.
It fell apart because there was a political advangtage to do so. If the mission had been a failure, it would barely have been mentioned. Just an attempt to get a high value target in Pakistan.
Typical political use of the passive voice, along the lines of "mistakes were made."
The passive voice is used to avoid taking -or assigning- responsibility.
Have you noticed they’ve let out tidbits of info nearly everyday since the operation?
There is no doubt in my mind that Obama and his political team, David Plouffe and Axelrod (now in Chicago) commissioned polls and saw that the more details the better for Obama.
The only thing "gutsy" about Obama's call was the political risk. A Desert One-like failure would have made him into another Carter, but the circumstances were far different. The Mission was undertaken in friendly territory and we had the best special ops personnel ever fielded plus better technology. After watching the compound for nine months on the ground as well as using satellites, the risk/reward assessment was a no-brainer militarily. Politically, it was a minimal risk with great reward.
The only fly in the ointment would be a revenge attack by AQ against the US that would point to security weaknesses in defending the Homeland. That is something I don't want regardless what the political fallout might be.
Fixed.
Goes hand-in-hand with not releasing photos. They want to craft the news over time, and releasing the photos a few days ago would be blowing their wad too much at once. When they said they would not release photos - too gruesome - they had and have all the while full intention of releasing them. All in due time. They may be "released" or they may be leaked, they will decide what's best [for the campaign]. Choreography at its worst.
I hope Gates writes a tell all book before the 2012 election. If he has anything more detailing this type of galling incompetence, it would be a best seller and Gates could help save us from more 0bama.
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