Obama: Risky approach on bin Laden was the best

AP – In this image taken from video and released by CBS, President Barack Obama is seen during an interview …

By WILL LESTER, Associated Press – Mon May 9, 3:38 am ET

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he knew that sending special forces in helicopters to get Osama bin Laden at his Pakistan compound was risky, but he felt it was the best way to make sure they had their man.
In an interview aired Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes," the president said he thought it was very important to be able to be sure.
"In some ways, sending in choppers and actually putting our guys on the ground entailed some greater risks than some other options," Obama said. "I thought it was important, though, for us to be able to say that we'd definitely got the guy."
He said he also wanted to avoid "collateral damage" in a residential neighborhood.
Bin Laden's presence in the neighborhood for about five years has raised questions about who knew about his presence and who was helping him.
"We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan. But we don't know who or what that support network was," Obama said. "We don't know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that's something that we have to investigate, and more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate."
The president said that even with months of intelligence work, the odds bin Laden was in the compound were only about 55-45. But Obama said he had such confidence in the special forces that he decided the risks were outweighed by the benefits.
"Had he not been there, then there would have been some significant consequences," Obama said. "Obviously, we're going into the sovereign territory of another country and landing helicopters and conducting a military operation. And so if it turns out that it's a wealthy, you know, prince from Dubai who's in this compound and, you know, we've sent Special Forces in, we've got problems."
A team of Navy SEALs stormed the compound in the military town of Abbottabad near Islamabad a week ago and killed the al-Qaida leader.
Obama says he was very aware of past military missions that ended tragically — notably the failed 1993 mission of elite U.S. troops in Mogadishu, Somalia, and the unsuccessful attempt to rescue the Iranian hostages in 1980.
"You think about 'Black Hawk Down,'" he said, referring to the title of a book and movie about the Mogadishu mission. "You think about what happened with the Iranian rescue. And ... I am very sympathetic to the situation for other presidents where you make a decision.
"You're making your best call, your best shot and something goes wrong, because these are tough, complicated operations."
Obama said the amount of "blood and treasure" the country has spent to avenge the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, weighed heavily in his final decision.
"I said to myself that if we have a good chance of not completely defeating, but badly disabling al-Qaida, then it was worth both the political risks as well as the risks to our men," he said.
Obama said he made the decision the Thursday night before the raid and kept it a secret from most of his senior aides. He then announced his decision to key staff Friday morning before flying off to survey tornado damage in Alabama and visit Florida, where he made a speech.
Then on Saturday night, he played the role of comedian-in-chief at the White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner.
"The presidency requires you to do more than one thing at a time," he said.
A wealth of intelligence about al-Qaida was seized at the compound. Analysts are combing through that data for information about possible planned attacks and other terrorist operatives.

Info from Osama raid shows interest in US trains

By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press – Fri May 6, 12:10 am ET

 

WASHINGTON – Some of the first information gleaned from Osama bin Laden's compound indicates al-Qaida considered attacking U.S. trains on the upcoming anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. But counterterrorism officials say they believe the planning never got beyond the initial phase and have no recent intelligence pointing to an active plot for such an attack.
As of February 2010, the terror organization was considering plans to attack the U.S. on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. One idea outlined in handwritten notes was to tamper with an unspecified U.S. rail track so that a train would fall off the track at a valley or a bridge, according to a joint FBI and Homeland Security bulletin sent to law enforcement officials around the country Thursday. The al-Qaida planners noted that if they attacked a train by tilting it, the plan would only succeed once because the tilting would be spotted the next time.
The warning, obtained by The Associated Press, was marked for "official use only."
Information on the train plot appears to be the first widely circulated intelligence pulled from the raid this week on bin Laden's secret compound in Pakistan. After killing the terror leader and four of his associates, Navy SEALs confiscated a treasure trove of computers, DVDs and documents from the home where U.S. officials believe the al-Qaida chief had been hiding for up to six years.
Other intelligence information gathered at the compound represented a terrorist wish list but has revealed no specific plan so far, a U.S. official said. He said documents indicated a desire to hit the U.S. with large-scale attacks in major cities and on key dates such as anniversaries and holidays. But there was no sign those plans were anything more than ambitions. The U.S. official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Intelligence analysts have been reviewing and translating the material, looking for information about pending plots and other terror connections. Even before the raid, intelligence officials for years have warned that al-Qaida is interested in attacking major U.S. cities on holidays, anniversaries and other dates that are uniquely American.
"While it is clear that there was some level of planning for this type of operation in February 2010, we have no recent information to indicate an active ongoing plot to target transportation and no information on possible locations or specific targets," the warning Thursday said.
The FBI and Homeland Security told local officials to be on the lookout for clips or spikes missing from train tracks, packages left on or near the tracks and other indications that a train could be vulnerable.
Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler said, "This alleged al-Qaida plotting is based on initial reporting, which is often misleading or inaccurate and subject to change." He said the government has no plans to issue an official terror alert because of it.
An official with the Association of American Railroads said the organization has received warnings from the federal government and is sharing the information throughout the railroad network. "We are always making sure that the system is run as safely and securely as possible," the organization's spokeswoman, Patricia Reilly, said.
U.S. officials have disrupted other terror plots that targeted rails, including a 2009 plan to blow up the New York City subway system.
On Monday the FBI and Homeland Security warned law enforcement officials around the country that bin Laden's death could inspire retaliatory attacks in the U.S., and terrorists not yet known to the intelligence community could be operating inside the country. The transportation sector — including U.S. rails — remain attractive targets for terrorists.
___
Associated Press writers Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report.

Clinton says the U.S. will stand by Pakistan

By Arshad Mohammed and Saeed Azhar

 
ROME/ABBOTTABAD (Reuters) – The United States said on Thursday it would stand by its ally Pakistan despite the strains in the relationship exposed by the discovery and killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. troops close to the Pakistani capital.
"It is not always an easy relationship, you know that," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on a visit to Rome.
"But, on the other hand, it is a productive one for both our countries and we are going to continue to cooperate between our governments, our militaries, our law-enforcement agencies, but most importantly between the American and Pakistani people."
Some Americans, including many in Congress, have suggested that Washington attach more strings to the billions of dollars in aid it gives Pakistan, or even cut off Islamabad altogether.
Others say Washington needs Pakistan as a partner to fight al Qaeda and other Islamist militants, as well as to pursue the war in Afghanistan it launched 10 years ago in response to bin Laden's attack on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001.

[ For complete coverage of politics and policy, go to Yahoo! Politics ]

In the aftermath of bin Laden's death, Clinton said Washington and its allies must continue working with Pakistan to fight al Qaeda in that country and Afghanistan.
"38 INTENSE MINUTES"
Ahead of a meeting in Rome with European and Arab allies, Clinton defended the decision to kill bin Laden during Monday's raid on his home at Abbottabad, a garrison town near Islamabad.
U.S. accounts of what happened have changed throughout the week, and initial characterizations of a 40-minute gun battle have given way to officials being quoted as saying only one of the five people who were killed had been armed.
Some in Europe and the Muslim world condemn the failure to arrest bin Laden as a breach of international law and have warned that this, as well as the disposal of his body at sea in a move criticized by Islamic clerics, may provoke a backlash.
Clinton said bin Laden had been a clear target for the United States for almost 10 years but his death did not end the battle against terrorism. But she refused to comment on details of the special forces operation in which he was killed, which she watched unfolding on a live video transmission.
"Those were 38 of the most intense minutes," she said.
U.S. officials have sought to keep a lid on growing skepticism over Washington's version of events, insisting that bin Laden was killed during a firefight in the compound.
The White House has cited the "fog of war" as a reason for initial misinformation on whether bin Laden -- who was shot in the head -- was armed when U.S. Navy Seals stormed into his hideout from helicopters.
Citing U.S. officials, the U.S. television network NBC said four of the five people killed in the operation, including bin Laden himself, were unarmed and never fired a shot -- an account that differs from the administration's original assertions that the commandos engaged in a prolonged firefight.
The New York Times quoted administration officials as saying the only shots fired by those in the compound came at the start of the raid, when bin Laden's courier fired from a guesthouse adjacent to the building where the al Qaeda leader was holed up.
PHOTOGRAPHS WITHHELD
U.S. President Barack Obama resisted pressure from aides to release photographs of bin Laden's body, saying the images could incite violence and be used by militants as a propaganda tool.
"I think that, given the graphic nature of these photos, it would create some national security risk," Obama told the CBS program "60 Minutes."
"There's no doubt that bin Laden is dead," Obama added. "And so we don't think that a photograph in and of itself is going to make any difference. There are going be some folks who deny it. The fact of the matter is, you will not see bin Laden walking on this earth again."
Photographs acquired by Reuters and taken about an hour after the assault show three dead men -- not including bin Laden -- lying in pools of blood. No weapons can be seen in the closely cropped images.
The photos, taken by a Pakistani security official who was in the compound after the raid, show two men dressed in traditional Pakistani garb and one in a T-shirt, blood streaming from their ears, noses and mouths.
"I know for a fact that shots were exchanged during this operation," said one Pentagon official.
Attorney General Eric Holder, dismissing suggestions that killing the unarmed bin Laden was illegal, said the U.S. commandos who raided his hideout had acted in national self-defense.
U.S. Representative Adam Smith, speaking to reporters after a briefing by senior intelligence and defense officials, said the U.S. assault team had come under fire.
"They came in at night. It was dark. There were people moving around. They were fired at by, I think, more than one person," Smith said. "There were weapons in the area. It was a fast-moving situation in which they felt threatened and they responded accordingly."
PAKISTAN PROTEST CALLED
There has been no sign of mass protests or violent reaction on the streets in Muslim countries, including Pakistan.
However, a major Islamist political party in Pakistan called for mass protests on Friday against what it called a violation of the country's sovereignty after the U.S. raid.
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) also urged the government to withdraw its support for the U.S. war on militancy.
"We have appealed to everyone to hold peaceful demonstrations on Friday on a very large scale," JI chief Syed Munawar Hasan told Reuters.
Attorney General Holder said bin Laden was a legitimate military target and had made no attempt to surrender to the American forces who stormed his fortified compound near Islamabad and shot him in the head.
"It was justified as an act of national self-defense," Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee, citing bin Laden's admission of being involved in the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people.
He said a trove of information seized from the compound would likely lead to more names being added to U.S. terrorism watch-lists.
Pakistan, for its part, faces national embarrassment, a leading Islamabad newspaper said, in explaining how the world's most-wanted man was able to live for years in the military garrison town of Abbottabad, just north of the capital.
The Dawn newspaper compared the latest humiliation with the admission in 2004 that one of the country's top scientists, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had sold its nuclear secrets.
Pakistan has welcomed bin Laden's death, but expressed deep concerns about the raid, which it called an "unauthorized unilateral action."
The country has blamed worldwide intelligence lapses for a failure to detect bin Laden. But Washington is investigating whether its ally had sheltered the al Qaeda leader, which Islamabad vehemently denies.
"There is an intelligence failure of the whole world, not just Pakistan alone," Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told reporters in Paris on Wednesday.
(Additional reporting by Reuters bureau worldwide; Writing by Jonathan Thatcher and Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Bin Laden

Was burying bin Laden at sea a mistake?

Amid the justified celebrations over the killing of Osama bin Laden, an awkward question is starting to rear its head: Did U.S. policymakers err in burying the al Qaeda leader at sea?
Already, the decision has provoked criticism from some Islamic scholars, who say a maritime burial isn't in keeping with Muslim law. And there are signs that the move could help fuel skepticism, especially among President Obama's critics, about whether bin Laden was really killed at all.
The Pentagon has said the body was treated in accordance with traditional Islamic procedures--including washing the corpse--before it was placed in the waters of the northern Arabian Sea.
U.S. officials have said they wanted to avoid the al Qaeda leader's grave site becoming a shrine for his followers. They've also said it would have been difficult to find a foreign country willing to accept bin Laden's remains, especially in so short a time: Islamic tradition and practice call for the body of the deceased to be buried within 24 hours of death.
But several Muslim authorities said today that the sea burial in fact violated Muslim tradition--and warned that it could help trigger calls for revenge from militant Muslims.
What do you think?

Obama

Do you think the recent capture and death of Osama will solidify Obama's re-election???