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Obama Is Prominent in ‘SEAL Team Six,’ Weinstein Film LOS ANGELES — Thanks to the magic of editing, President Obama will have a starring role in a television drama about one of his biggest accomplishments — the killing of Osama bin Laden — that will be shown just two nights before the presidential election. But promotional materials and a copy of the movie provided to The New York Times this week also show that the film has been recut, using news and documentary footage to strengthen Mr. Obama’s role and provide a window into decision-making in the White House.

It may have been Barack Obama's most dramatic moment as president so far, and it certainly didn't go unmentioned as he accepted the Democratic nomination for a second term Thursday night. Speaker after speaker reminded the audience in the convention hall and beyond that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden -- the mastermind of 9/11, public enemy No. 1 for a decade -- had been gunned down by American commandos in Pakistan 16 months ago. They reminded everyone that it was Obama who had given the order.

Now that the White House and State Department have made clear that they believe movies compel terrorists to terrorize, it's time for them to get ahead of this problem. And one thing the White House can do immediately is to pressure Sony to stop the release of director Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty," which celebrates the killing of Osama bin Laden. I'm only saying this because, you know, the White House and the media told me movies inflame and cause terrorism. Think about it: if the poorly produced and laughably bad trailer for "The Innocence of Muslims" results in chaos,...

The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's health care law within the next week, and House Speaker John Boehner has issued a pre-emptive warning to fellow House Republicans if parts of the law are struck down: Forget about celebrating. In a memo sent to his entire caucus Friday, Boehner warned members not to gloat over what most Republicans would see as a victory. "[I]f the Court strikes down all or part of the president's health care law, there will be no spiking of the ball," Boehner wrote in the memo. "Republicans are focused...

As usual with this president, Obama's trip to and speech from Afghanistan had way more to do with politics than any real substance. Seven thousand miles, one way, is a long journey to share war remarks with countrymen that he should have and could have shared back home many months ago. Despite the administration's best backgrounding sales efforts, the document he signed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a meaningless basic agreement to talk later about forging a real agreement. Nothing was essentially changed by what the media lovingly called his "secret trip" to the war zone, which was simply...

The Path To bin Laden’s Death Didn’t Start With Obama Text Size PrintE-mailReprints By Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., April 30 Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. is a 31-year veteran of the CIA and the author of “Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives.” As we mark the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death, President Obama deserves credit for making the right choice on taking out Public Enemy No. 1. But his administration never would have had the opportunity to do the right thing had it not been for some extraordinary work during the George W. Bush administration....

Red siren at Drudge on this.

(CBS News) Arianna Huffington, founder and editor-in-chief of the The Huffington Post, called the Obama campaign's decision to tout the assassination of Osama bin Laden in a campaign advertisement "despicable." The ad questions whether presidential candidate Mitt Romney would have ordered the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. "I don't think there should be an ad about that," Huffington said Monday on "CBS This Morning." "I think it's one thing to celebrate the fact that they did such a great job (with television specials). All that is perfectly legitimate. But to turn it into a campaign ad is one of...

Classic MSM jujitsu. Chuck Todd has attempted to turn the issue of President Obama's unseemly spiking of the football on the anniversary of the killing of Osama Bin Laden into an attack on Republicans for reacting to Obama's politicization of the event. On his MSNBC show The Daily Rundown, Todd began his discussion of the matter this morning by asking the Washington Post's Dan Balz whether he was surprised by how "aggressive" the Romney campaign has been on the matter. A bit later Todd suggested to Clarence Page that Republicans were "overreacting" to Obama's boasts. Right. Romney should run a...

President Obama had a quick, blunt response Thursday to Republican charges that he's engaged in a foreign policy of "appeasement." "Ask Osama bin Laden," he told reporters at the White House on Thursday. Appeasement was the word of the day Wednesday as six Republican presidential candidates spoke at a forum hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington. It was most often used with regard to Iran, although some said it applied to Obama's broader foreign policy. "The president, for every thug and hooligan, for every radical Islamist, has had nothing but appeasement," former Sen. Rick Santorum said.

President Barack Obama delivered on another foreign policy promise on Friday with plans to pull the last U.S. troops from Iraq. But in a re-election campaign all about the weak U.S. economy, he may not get much credit. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, radical Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi -- these are all dead U.S. opponents that Democrat Obama can claim a measure of credit for getting. Now add to that Obama's announcement on Friday that the eight-year war in Iraq is ending, fulfilling a campaign goal he made in 2008 when he declared the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama hailed Muammar Gaddafi's death on Thursday as a warning to authoritarian leaders across the Middle East that iron-fisted rule "inevitably comes to an end," and as vindication for his cautious strategy toward Libya. Obama joined U.S. politicians and ordinary Americans in welcoming the demise of Gaddafi, who was for decades regarded as a nemesis of American presidents, and also claimed some of the credit for the Libyan strongman's downfall. ... "This marks the end of a long and painful chapter for the people of Libya who now have the opportunity to determine their own...

A Republican lawmaker accused the Obama administration of jeopardizing national security by cooperating with a Hollywood film project on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Representative Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, demanded an inquiry after learning of the Pentagon's collaboration with Oscar-winning filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow. "I write to express concern regarding ongoing leaks of classified information regarding sensitive military operations," King wrote in a letter to the inspectors general at the Pentagon and CIA.

There may be an overtly political reason that moviegoers will be seeing the story of the Osama bin Laden raid just before they vote for president. Sony Pictures, the company distributing next year's film, hosted a fundraiser for Barack Obama on their studio's premises in California last April. So far, Sony is the only major studio to hold a political fundraiser this cycle. According to Deadline Hollywood, Sony will release the bin Laden movie, directed by Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow, on October 12, 2012--less than a month before the presidential election. "The eyebrow does go up when you see...

WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Moviemakers producing a film about the U.S. special forces raid that killed Osama bin Laden are getting help from the Pentagon, but the Obama administration dismissed concerns on Wednesday that classified information has been divulged. The film, focusing on one of President Barack Obama's key successes in office, is due to be released in October 2012, less than a month before the election in which the Democrat is seeking a second term. Republican Peter King, chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, called on Tuesday for an investigation into contacts between the administration...

President Barack Obama will continue to tout the U.S. mission that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden with a visit Friday to Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Va. Mr. Obama will meet with intelligence officials to thank them for their efforts, “specifically for their excellent work in tracking down Osama bin Laden,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday. Mr. Carney said the president decided shortly after Mr. bin Laden’s death that he wanted to meet with intelligence officials at CIA headquarters. “I actually happened to be in his presence when he said he wanted to...

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama will visit the Central Intelligence Agency on Friday to honor the work of agents who helped find an elusive Osama bin Laden, the White House said. Obama will head to CIA's Langley, Virginia headquarters to thank officers "for the work they do every day to keep America safe and specifically for their excellent work in tracking down Osama bin Laden," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Wednesday aboard Air Force One. He said Obama made the decision to visit the CIA "in the wake of the successful bin Laden mission," in which elite...

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...

Reporting from Austin, Tex.— Osama bin Laden, mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, is now an applause line in a presidential campaign speech. Bin Laden’s name came up a couple of times in Obama’s address Tuesday evening at a fund-raising event in Austin, Texas. Early in Obama's appearance, someone shouted out, “Thank you for getting Bin Laden!’’ Obama said that was a “case in point’’ – a reason for voters to let him “finish what we started.’’ Later, Obama ticked off what he described as his administration’s accomplishments: lifting the ban on gays in the military; bringing troops home from Iraq....

President Obama today privately thanked the Navy SEALs who cornered and killed Osama bin Laden, congratulating them for a "job well done." The president met the elite Team 6 squad on the same day that bin Laden's terror network, al Qaeda, admitted that its leader was dead. Al Qaeda vowed that it would try to make America pay for his death. Among the team members the president met was the SEAL who fired the shot that killed bin Laden, though he was not told which one it was, according to administration sources.