By Jessica Hopper, Subrata De and Tim Uehlinger
Rock Center
President Barack Obama describes the killing of Osama bin Laden as the “most important single day” of his presidency and said that the decision to carry out the raid was one that he had to ultimately make alone.
“I did choose the risk,” the president said in an exclusive interview with Rock Center Anchor and Managing Editor Brian Williams. “The reason I was willing to make that decision of sending in our SEALs to try to capture or kill bin Laden rather than to take some other options was ultimately because I had 100 percent faith in the Navy SEALs themselves.”
A year after the May 1, 2011, raid on bin Laden’s compound, Obama and several of the advisers who helped plan the operation, known as “Operation Neptune’s Spear,” spoke exclusively to NBC News, reflecting on the tense months spent planning and debating the feasibility of this daring raid. The interviews occurred before the president made an unannounced visit to Kabul on Tuesday, where he and President Hamid Karzai signed an agreement on the future of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.
“This had to be such a close-held operation,” the president said. “There were only a handful of staff in the White House who knew about this.”
The president did not share news of the mission’s launch with his staff, or with the first lady.
“Even a breath of this in the press could have chased bin Laden away,” Obama said. “We didn't know at that point whether there might be underground tunnels coming out of that compound that would allow him to escape.”
The killing of the 9/11 mastermind had been years in the making, a mission that Obama’s two predecessors had been unable accomplish. President Bill Clinton fired 75 cruise missiles trying to kill bin Laden while President George W. Bush was frustrated by the al-Qaeda leader’s ability to evade capture.
The lead
After years of hunting bin Laden, the Central Intelligence Agency got its biggest break in late 2010.
Helmed by then CIA Director Leon Panetta, the agency identified the home of bin Laden’s courier in the upscale town of Abbottabad, not far from Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. Satellites revealed someone else living at the same compound: a tall man walking in the courtyard that analysts dubbed “The Pacer.”
“Ultimately it was a 50/50 proposition as to whether this was actually bin Laden,” Obama said.
He and his advisers, including Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, hammered out the possibilities.
Clinton said that she was brought into the process in January 2011 when a series of intensive meetings began in the White House Situation Room, or “Sit Room.”
In March of 2011, the president ordered Admiral William McRaven, then commander of Joint Special Operations, to outline a possible raid on the suspected bin Laden compound.
“I remember the moment in the Sit Room with General McRaven,” Clinton said, “and, you know, someone said, ‘Well, this sounds really dangerous and we’re going to expose our guys and what do we know is going to happen?’ And he said, ‘Well, with all due respect, we’ve done this hundreds of times.’”
In fact, the night bin Laden was killed, Special Forces carried out several other missions in the region.
“What may not be known is in addition to this operation that night, this specific one, there were multiple operations just like this going on in Afghanistan,” said retired Admiral Mike Mullen, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Some of them actually more difficult than the one that got bin Laden. And when I say more difficult, I don't think higher strategic risk, certainly not more important, but physically more difficult, more dangerous than the one that our great Special Forces executed.”
The dress rehearsal
The plan to raid the compound in Abbottabad developed rapidly and by April 21, 2011, Admiral Mullen attended a dress rehearsal in the Nevada desert.
“When I actually went to the rehearsal and watched it at night at a place where they built a compound just like Abbottabad and watched it in execution, that just gave me great confidence that they could execute this,” Mullen said.
He met every member of the SEAL Team Six that would ultimately carry out the mission.
“I got to look each of them in the eye. They showed me in their execution of rehearsal and also in that steely-eyed glare that they give you that they were ready to go,” Mullen said.
Some of the men weren’t yet aware who they were preparing to attack, but Mullen’s presence signaled that they were going after a high-value target.
“They knew certainly how critical this was. They knew who they were and who they were working with,” he said. “They may not even have known it was bin Laden at that point, but I'm sure they suspected it.”
One week later, it looked like weather conditions in Pakistan would be perfect for the raid — a moonless night with clear skies. If the raid didn’t happen that night, it could be months before weather conditions would be appropriate again for this high-risk operation.
Making the decision
Armed with the confidence that the Special Forces could carry out the mission, it was decision time. So on Thursday, April 28, 2011, the president gathered his advisers in the Situation Room, located below ground level in the White House.
“There was no consensus,” Biden said. “The president on the last day got us all down in the Situation Room and he said, ‘Okay, it’s basically a roll call.’”
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recommended an air strike with no forces on the ground. CIA Director Panetta supported a raid by Special Forces and so did Secretary of State Clinton. Vice President Biden wanted to wait on further proof that bin Laden was indeed in the compound.
“It was never contentious because I think everybody understood both the pros and cons of the action,” Obama said. “People who were advocating action understood that if this did not work, if we proved to be wrong, there would be severe geopolitical consequences and obviously most importantly, we might be putting our brave Navy SEALs in danger.”
During the meeting, the president never indicated which way he was leaning. After the discussion, he dismissed his team and said he’d have a decision in the morning. He had dinner with his family and then went to his study after his wife and daughters went to bed.
“Well, there is no doubt that you don't sleep as much that evening as you do on a normal night,” the president said. “I stayed up late and I woke up early.”
The next morning, in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, he told his national security advisers that the mission was a go.
“You have some serenity in knowing that you've made the best possible decision that you can and, you know, in that situation you just, you do some praying,” Obama said.
A trio of national security advisers – John Brennan, Tom Donilon and Denis McDonough – had prepared briefing points for the president, but it was clear his mind was made up.
“My recollection is that he said, ‘It’s a go, we’re going to do the assault. We’re going to do the raid. Complete the orders, let’s go,’” said Donilon.
Keeping the Secret
In order to not raise suspicions, the president and his advisers had to keep up their weekend plans.
Secretary Clinton said she faced an awkward question at a wedding for one of her daughter’s friends.
“It was so ironic,” she said. “All these smart young people who work in all kinds of enterprises, one of them came up and said, ‘Do you think we’ll ever get bin Laden?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. I have no way of knowing, but I can tell you this, we’ll keep trying.’”
She also hid the raid from her husband.
“This was such an important secret to keep,” she said. “No one in the State Department knew. “I just felt a personal responsibility to keep it close, but that meant that I was basically, you know, having to consult with myself, to be honest.”
Moments after giving the go-ahead for the raid, the president and the first lady boarded Marine One on a trip to inspect tornado damage in Tuscaloosa, Ala. And on Saturday night – the evening before the raid – he attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and chuckled when a joke about bin Laden was made by comedian Seth Meyers.
“That was a little bit of acting going on there because my mind was elsewhere,” he said.
National Security Advisor Donilon said that when he left the White House Correspondents’ Dinner early, a reporter asked why he was leaving before the event concluded.
“I got this thing tomorrow,” Donilon said as offhandedly as he could.
The raid
On Sunday, May 1, 2011, the president’s advisers gathered in the Situation Room at around 11 a.m. Half a world away, the SEAL team waited for nightfall.
So as not to arouse suspicion that a major gathering was under way in the West Wing, the team ordered pizza from several different places and also sent someone to Costco to get food.
The president played nine holes of golf at Andrews Air Force Base before heading to the Situation Room at around 2 p.m.
“It is one of those rare moments when you know that the man you’re watching is putting everything on the line,” Biden said. “Everything on the line. Not only risking the lives of these incredible, incredible warriors, but also knowing that if he’s wrong about this man, he’s going to pay a very, very high price for it.”
At around 2:30 p.m., word arrived that the first wave of helicopters had left Jalalabad, Afghanistan, for Abbottabad with Navy SEALs, a Pakistani-American translator and a service dog named Cairo. At the president’s request, two Chinook helicopters stayed close by with additional SEALs as backup.
“They were accustomed to operating in the dark,” Obama said. “They were accustomed to landing in the compounds where they weren’t sure what was behind closed doors. These guys were all trained to do that.”
“A lot of them had as much gray hair as you and me and, you know, if you had passed them on the street, you might have – and if they were in civilian clothes – you might have thought they were accountants or doctors or, you know, worked at Home Depot.”
After the mission started, the CIA provided audio and video of the raid in real time in a smaller room next to the Situation Room. The atmosphere, said Admiral Mullen, was tense.
Soon, the president and his advisers began crowding into the room where the video was being played, which was never meant to hold as many people as it did that day. Brigadier General Marshall “Brad” Webb was receiving and interpreting information from the mission. Never expecting Obama to come in the room, he was sitting in the chair intended for the president.
“He started to get up and people were starting to go through the protocol and figuring out how to rearrange things,” the president said. “I said, ‘You don’t worry about it. You just focus on what you’re doing. I’m sure we can find a chair and I’ll sit right next to him.’ And that’s how I ended up (on a) folding chair.”
The group watched the hazy, but intelligible images and gasped when the first helicopter’s rotor stopped turning and it suddenly dropped, crashing over a stone wall.
“That helicopter didn’t make it to the right spot and everyone went, like, ‘Whoa,’” Biden said.
Obama remembers seeing the Secretary of State cover her mouth with her hand.
“It was just the shock of the moment,” Clinton said. “It was, I mean, all of us sitting there, and I would even predict probably our military and defense colleagues, you know, for a minute were kind of holding that breath again.”
The mishap was blamed on a bad downdraft and unusually warm temperatures, which can affect lift and maneuverability. The president called it a “touch and go moment.”
“The only thing that I was thinking about throughout this entire enterprise was, ‘I really want to get those guys back home safe,’” he added. “I want to make sure that the decision I’ve made has not resulted in them putting their lives at risk in vain, and if I got that part of it right, if I could look myself in the mirror and say as commander in chief I made a good call.”
Back inside the Situation Room, the loss of a helicopter didn’t make any difference in Admiral McRaven's monotone play-by-play voice, beamed in from Afghanistan.
“Did not miss a beat. He is a cool customer,” said Obama.
Clinton recalled watching the SEALs leave the helicopters.
“We could see our guys moving,” she said. “It was an intense experience for all of us because it was real time, visually, until we lost the visual connection inside the building.”
The SEALs had moved inside the compound with their body armor, weapons and night vision.
“At this point, I think all of us understand that we’re a long way to go before the night is done,” Obama said. “And, you know, I’ve said this was the longest 40 minutes of my life.”
As the SEALs moved inside, the national security team listened for “Geronimo,” the code name for bin Laden.
“We knew that was the call sign and when we heard that, they felt they had identified Geronimo, that was the first moment, and then Geronimo KIA,” the president said.
Several members of the president’s national security team told NBC News that there were provisions in place to take bin Laden alive.
“But we also understood that it was not likely that he was going to be giving himself up in that way,” Obama said, “and that there was a strong possibility that he would end up being killed if in fact he was in the compound.”
Along with precision and planning, prayer played a role for some of the president’s closest advisers. Vice President Biden and Admiral Mullen both nervously spun rosary rings on their fingers as they received word that the body of the man they believed was bin Laden had been put on a helicopter with U.S. forces.
“We knew the mission had been successful in that bin Laden was on board, but then it was an hour flight back,” Biden said.
Biden had begun to put his rosary away when he felt a tap on his shoulder from Mullen.
“I leaned down," Mullen explained. "I said, ‘Mr. Vice President, not yet. Keep it going because as important as killing, capturing or killing bin Laden was, it was more important to get him out.’ And so we were a long way, even as we got bin Laden, his body in that helicopter, we were a long way from completing that mission at that point.”
The death photo
When the SEAL team made it safely back to Afghanistan, photos were transmitted to the president and his team to offer photographic proof that bin Laden was dead.
When asked about seeing the picture of bin Laden, who had been shot in the head, the president took a long pause.
“I think it’s wrong to say that I did a high five,” he said, “because you have a picture of a dead body and, you know, there’s I think regardless of who it is, you always have to be sober about death. But understanding the satisfaction for the American people, what it would mean for 9/11 families, what it would mean for the children of folks who died in the Twin Towers who never got to know their parents, I think there was a deep-seated satisfaction for the country at that moment.”
Secretary Clinton believes strongly that the president was right not to release the photos.
“I looked at them,” she said. “Obviously, (it's) never easy to see any dead body, but it was part of the job. I think we made the right decision not to sensationalize this, not to desecrate it, so to speak. His body was flown to a Navy ship. It was given a proper Islamic burial at sea and I think that we handled it exactly right.”
After the president and his team felt confident that bin Laden was indeed dead, they began calling Cabinet members, Congressional leaders and foreign heads of state.
The president called Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
“I think it was an important symbol of who we are as a people,” he said of the calls. “We get into these partisan fights, administrations come and go, but there’s a certain continuity about who we are and what we care about and what our values are.”
For Mullen, one of the most important calls placed was to his Pakistani military counterpart about the crashed helicopter.
When the first pictures of the wreckage emerged hours later, aviation websites went wild. The crashed chopper appeared to be proof of a stealth version of the Blackhawk that the United States had been rumored to be developing for years. Its noise-reducing technology and unique fin had been designed for near silent, invisible operation. In coming days, neighborhood children picked through pieces of what had been among the military's best kept secrets.
“I called General [Ashfaq Parvez] Kayani in Pakistan,” Mullen said. “I felt obligated to let him know what had happened … and then part of that conversation was about the helicopter and I said, ‘We need that back.’”
As more calls were made, the news began to leak, spread at lightning speed by the Internet. The president and his advisers, however, were unaware that throngs of young people were pouring into Lafayette Park to cheer outside the White House.
“The thing that surprised me that night and I don’t think we had planned for was the public reaction,” Donilon said. “We walked out and we could hear the noise and I remember very clearly turning to whoever was walking next to me saying, ‘What is that?’”
Secretary Clinton described it as an “astonishing moment.”
“We could hear this roar. We had no idea what it was,” she said. “Then all of a sudden we were able to decipher, 'U.S.A., U.S.A.'”
Telling his family
Before the president heard the cheering crowds and addressed the nation, he checked in with the first lady.
“She’s at dinner," he said. "I let her know, you know, that I’m probably going to miss dinner because I’ve got a few other things going on tonight. It turns out we had a fairly important thing to announce.”
He recalled telling his daughters that bin Laden was dead.
“Malia and Sasha, I think, were too young to fully absorb 9/11. On the other hand, they’ve grown like all our children have grown up in the shadow of 9/11 and terrorism and understood who Osama bin Laden was.”
The president said that the full impact of the mission hit him a few days later when he met the SEALs who had carried out the operation. He said that he gave the pilot of the helicopter that crashed a “pretty good hug.”
“They presented me with the flag that had gone on that mission, signed by all of them on the back and I think it’s fair to say that will probably be the most important possession that I leave with from this presidency,” he said.
Leave a Comment:
It was boots in and boots out with both the democrats and republicans for that wretched OSAMA! HAIL to the CHIEFS! USA! USA! USA!
If I was an American ...The very second that I saw This Idiot praising himself ...MANIPULATING THE MEDIA BY trying to use the Bin laded scene as a tactic to gain popularity at a time of re-election ....I WOULD CAST MY VOTE FAR AWAY IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION.
IF YOU AMERICANS CAN'T SEE THIS THEN YOU ARE BLIND......THIS DORK HAS BEEN DOING THIS WITH ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING ON THE TABLE ...FROM BIN LADEN...TO ENDING WARS TO BUTTERING UP COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS....TO RECOVERING YOUR ECONOMY
And the media ...especially MSNBC who are notoriuos for this ....have been his partners in manipulating these stories to the public.
The wost of all the stories ....trying to get you people to believe the economy is in recovery and this NUT-JOB had everything to do with it.....Such lies they publish on this GOOF-BALL's behalf.
blind little mice...lol you got that right brother!
i'm surrounded by stupid LWNJ'S and being out numbered everytime another is brainwashed by a media in the tank for a no exsperience, community organizer(dim wit) to help him ruin the greatest place on earth to live.
turbulence
So, you are not an American. You can go straight to H.ell. How dare you insult our American President.
It's aliens like you that our brave military and patriots fight against. It's one thing for American RWNJ's to spew their c.rap. They have a right.
But you can take your unAmerican, insulting, and unwanted opinion back to whatever backwater foreign country you came from.
Get out and stay out!!!
Yep don't have to be american to comment here ...but your stupid comment does reveal stupid is that stupid does.
Going straight to hell is not your call fool.
I never said I was unamerican...I just said you have a nutjob fpr a president .....maybe your his nutjob buddy ...But whetever this nutjob does affects the whole world and my peacful country too.... ....Ya Nutjob!
I come from the same place as you.... NORTH AMERICA...but a nice peaceful place just North of you. Its just too bad you countries leaders have to drag mine into your wars and depraved economic downfall.
But I do believe we are a bit smarter than you...that's why our banking system holds and yours is corrupt ...just like your government. The whole world suffers from your countries leadership ...and that's a fact ...so ...SHADDUP THE PIE HOLE!!
So...you are just a rude, inept, uneducated, backwater Canadian that doesn't have a clue.
You don't come from the same place that I do. I sir am a Citizen of the United States of America, the Greatest country on the face of the earth. I am a patriot and a veteran. I have sworn my honour and my life to the defense of this country.
I can guarantee that your country would lapse into third world status without the protection and trade from the U.S.
We are now allies, if you want to keep it that way, I'd suggest that you keep your outlandish comments to yourself lest you tick off more than half of the American public.
As for intelligence, from the tenor of your post, it is clear to me that if I took your brains and stuffed it up a gnats behind, it would look like a BB in a boxcar.
Yes I do In fact this whole contitnent belongs to my ancestors. You are not the greatest country on earth you stole your country from my ancestors.
Your people raped pillaged and murdered my people you ignorant fat headed american. But there are still many of us left.
You see that's how stupid you are in your fatheaded assumption of people ...you think your the only one.
But my country is your country and so is Canada ..You see @!$%# I'm North American... you are not....I travel freely in both countries and am recognised as a citizen in both counties.
I AM OJIBWAY AND YOU A S S HOLE ARE IN MY COUNTRY!!
It a-s-sholes like you that make everyone dislike you people...shear fatheaded arrogant idiots that thing the world bows to you.
You got it wrong dufuss ...without the allies you would be nothing!
Canadians don't need your @!$%# ...we have all our own ...we could sustain ourselves without you but as allies we do you a favour.
My friend I am very well educated...and Empires live and die and most of the ones in history have lasted for thousand of years ....your messed up country is only 240 years old and let me tell you ....your country will fade like all other messed up empires ...only your 200 or 300 years if you make will be nothing but a flake of chaff in future history ....forgotten ...because it only lasted a fragment of the time that most empires that existed lasted.
We Canadians would your kick you scronny little ass any time of the day.
My point is proven by your very words. You do not warrant a further response.
Your words prove nothing ....only your arrogant ignorant attitude that sparks the darkness out of anyone you speak to to entice retaliation.
I started this post commenting on the mess your countries leadership has brought to your people. Not commenting towards on the people.
Your initial ignorant response ...that only showed what ignorant arrogance you carry... manipulated the remainder of this thread.
Here Read your first response!!
turbulence
So, you are not an American. You can go straight to H.ell. How dare you insult our American President.
It's aliens like you that our brave military and patriots fight against. It's one thing for American RWNJ's to spew their c.rap. They have a right.
But you can take your unAmerican, insulting, and unwanted opinion back to whatever backwater foreign country you came from.
Get out and stay out!!!
Now that my friend was your response to a comment that was not incriminating anyone but your useless leader....not you ....or any other ameican....only setting an opinion on what your leader has done and will do and the effects it has had on all other countires.
And believe me I know very many True Amercan patriots that I love and respect and have know all my life ....and NONE OF THEM SPEAK LIKE YOU WITH SUCH ARROGANCE OR ENTICE ANYONE TO RETALIATE IN A DEROGATORY WAY.
So... you can take that arrogance and ignorance that you started in this thread and shove it!
PS. I still think your leader is a NUT-JOB
The "most important day in his Presidency" was to decide what EVERY President would have decided?
Wow! He's got pretty low standards.
But then again, that's been his whole presidency.
And the decision made by this left wing ass that condemns waterboarding as "torture" was to kill Bin Laden on the spot instead of capturing him. Something that his whole presidency has been made of. Instead of capturing these people and getting information from them about plots and future attacks, he's instead chosen to assassinate or blow to bits every single one of them, along with everyone else that is in the area, including any innocents. What are "compassionate" President.
Also, the ONLY "risk" that he took was political. The REAL risk was taken by those the flew the aircraft and carried out the raid while Obama sat on his butt hoping the pictures being taken could be used for his re-election campaign.
How about the pics of Bush golfing while a hurricane killed thousands?
This is OLD news! Move on, Why don't you do something new? Lower taxes for a change! Stop inflation, Legalize Weed, Get gas back down to $1.50 a gallon?????? Do something that really matters now. Stop spending OUR Money!!!!!!!!
Obama made the decision he gets credit. Remember Bush the "decider" many gave credit to for his speeches after 9/11? Yeah he did a great job of telling people sorry. Sorry terrorists killed so many on my watch. Sorry we did not find WMDs and started a false war that killed thousands and cost the country it's economy. Republicans get over the fact you got a losing horse and all the name calling and rewriting of history does not change the facts you voted in a loser and we all suffered and it cost your party many members including myself. The fear mongering, the name calling and senseless delusional facts are over they have nothing to prove that any crude we are dealing with today was not part of their decision when they voted in Bush.
Obama made the decision he gets credit. Remember Bush the "decider" many gave credit to for his speeches after 9/11? Yeah he did a great job of telling people sorry. Sorry terrorists killed so many on my watch. Sorry we did not find WMDs and started a false war that killed thousands and cost the country it's economy. Republicans get over the fact you got a losing horse and all the name calling and rewriting of history does not change the facts you voted in a loser and we all suffered and it cost your party many members including myself. The fear mongering, the name calling and senseless delusional facts are over they have nothing to prove that any crude we are dealing with today was not part of their decision when they voted in Bush.
What President Bush couldn't or wouldn't do in two terms in office, took President Obama only three years and Trillions less in Taxpayer Dollars. Bush Jrs. Failed Presidency cost the Tax Payers Trillions in dollars and an untold amount of lives. Bush Jrs. Relationship to the Bin Laden Family still to this day concerns me greatly especially after more then 3000 fellow Americans lost their lives to one of their Saudi Family Members...
God Bless President Obama and God Bless the United States of America.
Leon Panetta put together a memo that would place all the blame on the Admiral in charge if anything went wrong. If we followed Obama's prohibition on enhanced interrogation, including waterboarding, bin Laden would have never been found. Panetta agreed with this in his recent interview with Brian Williams.
So what we have is a political opportunist taking full credit for something any president would have done and hoping to deflect his failed presidency in every aspect except when he acts like Bush with intel produced during Bush'e administration.
This a-whole is beneath contempt.
LOL Bush's intell brought us an Iraq war based on NOTHING. Thousands died based on his crack intell.
America shouldn't torture. That's one of the places the line should be drawn for us and we should accept the consequences of doing so. Waterboarding is a stain on our reputation that will be there forever. We need to be ideals oriented before we are results oriented. Before you ask, yes, even if it costs lives.
just another MASSIVE over playing of his hand...and all the stupid LWNJ'S are kissing his muslim ring!
Holy crap, spike the football AND an end zone dance.
What the pres and the liberal media will do to prop this failure up is just beyond belief.
The "mission" started with gathering the intelligence used to kill the target. That included water boarding. President Clinton let Osama get away on multiple occasions. The decision to kill Osama was Obama's. There were many good decisions that lead to the ultimate killing. Good decision to water board good decision to kill. Enough said. It is a bad decision to try to take credit that is not all yours and exploit it to political gain. Obama will learn this in the coming months, mark my words.
Did not Bin Laden kill thousands on Bush's watch? I guess it is easy to blame Clinton looking over your shoulder through the rubble.
You mised my point. I beleive I fairly gave credit where it is due. The point is that to overstate your accomplishment to make political gain (especially for election purposes) is not a wise move. Just for the record that is true for either/any party/candidate.
Bush talks about his greatest day is sitting there hearing thousands are dead during 9/11 or the thousands dead during Kitrina. Obama talks about killing a major terrorist. Enough said.
I'n sorry that you just dont get it - it is not about Bush/Obama - it is about the United States of America. You are lost in the weeds of partisanship.
What President Bush couldn't or wouldn't do in two terms in office, took President Obama only three years and Trillions less in Taxpayer Dollars. Bush Jrs. Failed Presidency cost the Tax Payers Trillions in dollars and an untold amount of lives. Bush Jrs. Relationship to the Bin Laden Family still to this day concerns me greatly especially after more then 3000 fellow Americans lost their lives to one of their Saudi Family Members...
God Bless President Obama and God Bless the United States of America.
"Trillions less in Taxpayer Dollars" ???
um, there has never been a greater run up of debt in the history of the Union, than under Obama. He added $4 trillion in just 3 years (that's a 40% increase)! His budget calls for the national debt to jump to $26 billion by 2026.
BTW, Bush and Obama are on the same take America-down-the-drain team. So if you are concerned about CIA asset Bin Laden being tied to Bush, you should have the same concern about Obama. How do you know we even got Bin Laden? No pictures were released, and Obama dumped his body in the ocean w/n 12 hours. This whole story is BS! Take the clay out of your eyes.
This guy is a limp-noodle, weak-sauce president. He is giving Jimmy Carter a run for his money as worst president to ever sit in the office. It's going to be close by November to see if Obama can overcome a slight deficit to take over the title from ol' Jimmy. My gut says Carter still ekes it out by a nose, but just barely.
You have to give Obama some credit, He did have to leave the golf course early to attend?
The same one Bush was at during Kitrina?
Probably he was an idiot also? Nobody in the US should of had to suffer like those people did after Katrina.
I am not saying that Bin Laden didn't need to die but, if murdering the man was the most important single day of his presidency I shudder to think what his worst day would be.
Exerpt from the article:
“It was never contentious because I think everybody understood both the pros and cons of the action,” Obama said. “People who were advocating action understood that if this did not work, if we proved to be wrong, there would be severe geopolitical consequences and obviously most importantly, we might be putting our brave Navy SEALs in danger.”
I am now forced to ask:
Isn't that their job? What makes them any braver than the rest of the men and women in the Armed Services? Especially any who have been sent abroad. When are you going to do something substantial and beneficial that will actually help the situation "our" country is in?
Why isn't Obama decrying "It's Bush's fault" again. Bush started Gitmo, which Obama opposed and vowed to shut down, which was where the intelligence to get Bin Laden came from. Any POS POTUS would have given the order, and this POS did.
msnbc....This need to label your reporting editorials, not news.
President Obama is a Successful Commander in Chief and War Time President.
Bush Jr. Failed as President and nearly Bankrupted the Country in the process.
We can all sleep well now that President Obama is in Charge of all the Republicans.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! you're an idiot
... successful at slavishly chaining future generations to eternal debt too!
Cannot have it both ways, liberals. If Bush is to blame for all that is going on, then he also gets the credit. What is fair is fair.
Bush really should be taking credit for this as he started the whole search years before Obama was president. In fact, if there was a vote back then, Obama would have probably voted against going after Bin Laden.
LOL Bush took credit...for Kitrina...for false intell in Iraq.....for many blunder and we handed him tissue, patted him and the back, and said do not worry it happens.
Let's not forget the Gulf oil spill, Obama's trillions added on to our debt, more people on welfare and foodstamps, including his relatives, need I go on? Do you agree with him that Abraham Lincoln is the first president? How many states in our union? Basics that he doesn't know.
"anyone would have made that same decision" is the same sort of simplistic right wing mentality that had the Bush administration saying the Iraq War would last "6 weeks, 6 months at most", that it would pay for itself and that we would be greeted as liberators.
It's not that simple, obviously. You would think they'd know that by now, but they don't and that's what scares me most about Romney.
Romney said we should not worry about Bin Laden...ahhhhh cut the cost....really? He has plans to kill thousands more but....ahhhhh cut the cost
Dal, this administration at first did not even use the word terrorism, wanted to close Gitmo (failed promise), and wanted to try terrorists in a New York court. Wow, now they are tough and strong. Could it be because it is election time and they know their record is embarassing? I shudder to think what his re election (which will not happen) would be like. I believe he told the Russian leaders that he will do whatever he wants as he has been doing. Failure! Notice the capital F
Obama's real thoughts on the raid:
Let's see, my ratings are currently in the toilet. If I do this and it fails it can't get much worse. If I do it and it it's successful then my ratings will go up. So this is a no brainer, let's do it, and as for the SEALS they're a dime a dozen."
Obama, will you shut up about the Bin Laden thing (no one cares). Besdies that, you didn't even prove you got him (release pictures please). People are out of a job, our debt is out of control, you are attacking businesses everyday through your czars, education is in the dumps, you incite race and class warfare on a daily basis, you piss on the Constitution and values of the American people. You will go down in history as the worst president in the history of the country, Bush is a close second, but you sir are undoubtedly the worst!
I care! Thank you for speaking up for America LOL. Yeah no one cares about a terrorist that planned to kill thousands more....WOW....nutty agenda
dal - please say something intelligent ... i dare you.
Wasn't Obama at the WHITE House correspondence dinner when it went down. Making jokes and living it up.
ray, as all presidents do, they try to keep it a secret by maintaining their appearance schedule.
That's what leaders do.
I personally can't wait until January 2013 when the White House doors hit Obama in the ass on his last exit from that place, but I will give him the credit for at least having more BALLS than Slick Willie. At least Obama had the nerve to give the order to the SEALs to take Bin Laden out. Had Clinton done that during his time in office, 9/11 might very well not have happened, and the resultant wars never started.
So, if Obama wants to lay blame in the future, maybe he should stop blaming Bush and start blaming Clinton.
Opps the unemployed are waking up...the new right
so the next 4 years Romney will blame Obama ??
And you know this why? Liberals always suspect others are a vile and corrupt as they are. As the saying goes "One rarely looks under the bed unless they have hidden there themselves."
dal... sorry, six figure income. very gainfully employed.
Ray... unfortunately, all politicians lack the balls to accept responsibility. they like the power, ego boost and narcissism, but everyone of them, republicrat and demican will always try to deflect blame to another or a previous office holder.
i wonder if the crash of the helicopter was part of the plan ?? photo's of the helicopter was proof to the american people that the seals had been there. but i ,, like alot of americans,, still wonder,, if bin laden is really sleeping with the fishes.
obama as any sitting president gave the go ahead,, that was his job... he has no militery experience, so he doesn't know squat... the only president who did was bush. clinton would have been in the same boat as obama. it wasn't obama's azz on the line. a dead seal is by far more important,, than a political oops.
And now we learn that he knew that OBL was there for five months before he finally was cajoled into acting. Five months before the clown finally acted. And notice that it is all about him. Count the times he praises the SEALS or the people iin the intelligence community that was set up in the Bush administration and then compare it to the number of times he says "I"!
watermoon....
the planning and logistics for this type of operation don't happen overnight. they build a mock compound and train relentlessly for something of this magnitude. the operators go over the entire operation and every conceivable contingency to ensure mission success and team survivability.