Obama Gets Bin Laden
Crowds cheered in front of the White House last night after President Obama's announcement that US forces had killed Osama Bin Laden and taken possession of his body.
I can't think of a downside to this, can you?
Here was the USA's position in 2002.
Call this a thread for comments. Talk among yourselves while I go make some coffee.
I can't think of a downside to this, can you?
Here was the USA's position in 2002.
Call this a thread for comments. Talk among yourselves while I go make some coffee.
posted by JimK at 8:02 AM
25 Comments:
WTG Obama and the brave men and women he leads! Thank you for your dogged pursuit and success in taking the evil that was Osama bin Laden off the face of the Earth. Your success has brought justice to the thousands of Americans who lost loved ones on 9/11.
God bless America and the President of these United States!!
Sounds like Osama was personally involved in this successful operation so he deserves congratulations.
I hope they took pictures of the body before they dumped it in the ocean. We don't need any "Elvis is alive" type theories going around.
HuffPo reports:
"...By mid-February, intelligence from multiple sources was clear enough that Obama wanted to "pursue an aggressive course of action," a senior administration official said. Over the next two and a half months, Obama led five meetings of the National Security Council focused solely on whether bin Laden was in that compound and, if so, how to get him, the official said.
Normally, the U.S. shares its counterterrorism intelligence widely with trusted allies in Britain, Canada, Australia and elsewhere. And the U.S. normally does not carry out ground operations inside Pakistan without collaboration with Pakistani intelligence. But this mission was too important and too secretive.
On April 29, Obama approved an operation to kill bin Laden. It was a mission that required surgical accuracy, even more precision than could be delivered by the government's sophisticated Predator drones. To execute it, Obama tapped a small contingent of the Navy's elite SEAL Team Six and put them under the command of CIA Director Leon Panetta, whose analysts monitored the compound from afar..."
Yep, that's right, Anon. Obama was personally involved with planning this operation for months. I, and many other Americans take pride in Obama's efforts and are still embarassed by Bush's admission that "I truly am not that concerned about him."
I would agree and did agree that Obama deserves credit for this operation so I don't know what the point of your comment was.
Oh, that's right. Your comments don't often have any point.
I hope they took pictures of the body before they dumped it in the ocean.
They took more than pictures to identify bin Laden. HuffPo reports:
"Washington - The U.S. used multiple means to confirm the identity of Osama bin Laden during and after the firefight in which he was killed, before placing his body in the North Arabian Sea from aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier, senior U.S. officials said Monday.
The al-Qaida leader was identified by name by a woman believed to be one of his wives – bin Laden had several – who was present at his Pakistan compound at the time of the U.S. raid. He also was visually identified by members of the U.S. raid squad, a senior intelligence official told reporters at a Pentagon briefing. Under ground rules set by the Pentagon, the intelligence official and two senior defense officials could not be identified by name.
The intelligence official also said quite a bit of unspecified material was collected by U.S. forces during the raid. Without describing the material, the official said it is being analyzed by a team of people at the CIA.
The officials said bin Laden was killed toward the end of the firefight, which took place overnight Monday in a building at a compound north of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. His body was put aboard the USS Carl Vinson and placed into the North Arabian Sea.
Traditional Islamic procedures for handling the remains were followed, the officials said, including washing the corpse, placing it in a white sheet. Preparations for at-sea burial began at 1:10 a.m. EDT Monday and were completed at 2 a.m. EDT, one official said.
The intelligence official said the DNA match, using DNA from several family members, provided virtual certainty that it was bin Laden's body.
Officials did not immediately say where or how the testing was done but the test explains why President Barack Obama was confident to announce the death to the world Sunday night. Obama provided no details on the identification process..."
"Earlier this evening, President Obama called to inform me that American forces killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al Qaeda network that attacked America on September 11, 2001. I congratulated him and the men and women of our military and intelligence communities who devoted their lives to this mission. They have our everlasting gratitude. This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done."
-George W. Bush
"After September 11, 2001, we gave our word as Americans that we would stop at nothing to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. After the contribution of millions, including so many who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, we have kept that word.
"The killing of Osama bin Laden does not lessen the suffering that New Yorkers and Americans experienced at his hands, but it is a critically important victory for our nation - and a tribute to the millions of men and women in our armed forces and elsewhere who have fought so hard for our nation.
"New Yorkers have waited nearly ten years for this news. It is my hope that it will bring some closure and comfort to all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001."
-Michael Bloomberg
"This is a profoundly important moment not just for the families of those who lost their lives on 9/11 and in al-Qaida's other attacks but for people all over the world who want to build a common future of peace, freedom, and cooperation for our children.
"I congratulate the President, the National Security team and the members of our armed forces on bringing Osama bin Laden to justice after more than a decade of murderous al-Qaida attacks."
-Bill Clinton
"Osama Bin Laden was responsible for killing 343 members of the FDNY on Sept. 11, 2001. Tonight, in firehouses throughout the city, our members are grateful for the news, and thankful to all the brave members of the U.S. military that had a role in this successful operation."
-FDNY Cmmr. Salvatore J. Cassano
Rudy Giuliani praises Barack Obama on mission that killed Osama bin Laden
"'I feel a great deal of satisfaction that justice has been done, and I admire the courage of the president to make a decision like this because if something had gone wrong everyone would be blaming him,' Giuliani told POLITICO Monday morning in his first comments since the capture..."
Read more of Giuliani's statement by clicking the link above.
Hours before President Obama's announcement that Osama Bin Laden had been killed, Dwayne Johnson tweeted, "Just got word that will shock the world — Land of the free ... home of the brave DAMN PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!. Post announcement, he followed that up with "..couldn't have asked for a better birthday present.." and "AMERICA BROUGHT IT — TEAM BRING IT FOREVER PROUD.."
"...it's possible Johnson, as his “Saturday Night Live” character The Rock Obama, gets special security and intelligence briefings every day."
< wink >
Hours before is when they told a few members of Congress "under strickest confidence"....
Which is why no President, Republican or Democrat, should ever tell Congress anything concerning national security.
Very sad.
Jim writes,
I can't think of a downside to this, can you?
I can...a re-organized and emboldened Al-Qaeda, and that is just for beginners. Don't get me wrong, but this is one battle in a much larger war. Congratulations and thanks to Pres. Obama for decisive leadership in bringing this one matter to a conclusion.
Emboldened? I see, so the US should have just left OBL alone there, minding his own business in Pakistan, rather than irritating and possibly angering al Qaeda. Good, Orrin.
the previous rude comment was not made by the usual anon
I do disagree with the idea that this emboldens al quaeda, however
bin Laden's survival was previously emboldening al quaeda and other terrorists
this decisive action by the President demoralizes rather than emboldens them
they won't feel safe anymore
Obama has hopefully turned away from his hopeless policy of only acting in partnership with other countries
he played this exactly right, keeping details closely held and acting alone
let's hope Hillary was wrong when she said the Presidency is not a job to grow into
Obama may be getting there
btw, it sounds like he tried to kill Gadaffi on Saturday and bin Laden on Sunday
wonder whose turn it is this weekend...
maybe the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong-il
Obama has hopefully turned away from his hopeless policy of only acting in partnership with other countries
His policy has never been to ONLY act in partnership with other countries. Early in the 2008 election, Obama made clear he would act unilaterally on actionable intelligence to bring down bin Laden without Pakistan's permission if necessary and that's exactly what he did. He rid the world of one of the worst terrorists of all time.
bin Laden has long been a recruitment tool for al Qaeda. Now that he's dead, he serves as a stark warning for those who would follow him: under Obama's leadership and policies, the USA will not rest until it finds you and kills you.
It has long been Obama's policy to act on actionable intelligence even when an ally refuses to do so. TPMDC reports FLASHBACK 2008: McCain, Clinton Slam Obama For Saying He'd Go Get Bin Laden In Pakistan (VIDEO):
"It began with comments Obama made in August, 2007 that if elected, he would make U.S. aid to Pakistan conditional: "Pakistan must make substantial progress in closing down the training camps, evicting foreign fighters, and preventing the Taliban from using Pakistan as a staging area for attacks in Afghanistan."
He continued:
I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges. But let me make this clear: There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf will not act, we will."
For Obama's campaign opponents, the comments became an illustration of the idea that Obama was too inexperienced to be president -- both for having the idea of acting without Pakistan's permission, and for being green enough to tell people about it.
On February 19, 2008, McCain spoke at a victory party for his win in the Wisconsin primary, and wondered: "Will we risk the confused leadership of an inexperienced candidate who once suggested bombing our ally, Pakistan?"
The following day, he called Obama "naive" and doubled down: "The first thing you do is, you don't tell people what you're gonna to do. You make plans and you work with the other country that is your ally and friend, which Pakistan is."
"You don't broadcast and say that you're going to bomb a country without their permission or without consulting them. It's just fundamentals of the conduct of national security policy," McCain added.
In a Democratic primary debate on February 26, 2008, Hillary Clinton picked up the meme: "Last summer, he basically threatened to bomb Pakistan, which I don't think was a particularly wise position to take."
During the general election, McCain continued to trumpet the same point. At a September 26 debate, McCain said: "I'm not prepared at this time to cut off aid to Pakistan. So I'm not prepared to threaten it, as Senator Obama apparently wants to do, as he has said that he would announce military strikes into Pakistan."
"Now, you don't do that. You don't say that out loud," McCain said. "If you have to do things, you have to do things, and you work with the Pakistani government."
"Nobody talked about attacking Pakistan," Obama replied. "Here's what I said, and if John wants to disagree with this, he can let me know: That, if the United States has al Qaeda, bin Laden, top-level lieutenants in our sights, and Pakistan is unable or unwilling to act, then we should take them out. Now, I think that's the right strategy; I think that's the right policy."..."
Obama was right!
Ooops, here's the repaired TPMDC link
FLASHBACK 2008: McCain, Clinton Slam Obama For Saying He'd Go Get Bin Laden In Pakistan (VIDEO)
"That, if the United States has al Qaeda, bin Laden, top-level lieutenants in our sights, and Pakistan is unable or unwilling to act, then we should take them out."
this is not what happened
Pakistan's military could obviously have raided this house, so they were able
reports are we didn't inform them, so we can't rightly say they were unwilling
we did it ourselves because it was our responsibility and only trusted our own execution
it's not that they were unable or unwilling
Obama has hopefully changed course as his former policy has caused loss and suffering and diminised our reputation
Obama has hopefully changed course as his former policy has caused loss and suffering and diminised our reputation
Obama changed Bush's course all right.
Bush started America's promise to avenge 9/11, standing on the rubble a few days later, as Condi recently reminded us:
“President Bush had at Ground Zero probably the most important moment maybe in American history. It was when this wounded nation watched their commander-in-chief stand on that rubble and say that they will hear us, we are going to avenge this.”
Then next month, October 2001, Bush reject[ed] Taliban offer to surrender bin Laden
December 2001, the Bush team let bin Laden escape at Tora Bora.
As Jim has pointed on in this blog, approximately 6 months later on March 13, 2002, Bush said he was "truly not concerned" about bin Laden. “I don’t know where Bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.”
Four years later, in 2005, Bush shuttered the bin Laden CIA unit, Alec Station.
In 2007, Obama said
" let me make this clear: There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf will not act, we will.""
And on May 1, 2011, Obama got Osama and brought some comfort to those who lost loved ones on 9/11.
Bea, ever the divisive apologist.
It's the downers like you who have condemened Obama to a one-term presidency.
The list of Bush policies on the war on terror that Obama attacked as venal in his campaign and which he has affirmed as President would embarass any Obama advocate aware of their surroundings, which apparently doesn't describe you.
You do realize that the information to find bin Laden was gleaned using the interrogation techniques that Obama denounced in 2008 and that the lead provided was being actively followed prior to January 2009, right?
You are pathetic.
that's right
gleaned
You do realize that the information to find bin Laden was gleaned using the interrogation techniques that Obama denounced in 2008 and that the lead provided was being actively followed prior to January 2009, right?
And where is your proof of that statement?
which papers do you read to get your information, Bea?
they apparently aren't keeping well-informed
or maybe key parts of your brain are unformed
either unformed or MIA
Oh, the Palin non-answer dodge. That's a great way to shut off conversation.
Let's see the sources of your information.
The sources I've read reports and interviews from who say torture provided no information that led to bin Laden's death include actual US interrogators like Matthew Alexander and Mark Fallon.
Alexander said "when you look at the use of waterboarding and enhanced interrogation techniques in the case of the trail of evidence that leads to Osama bin Laden, what you find is, time and time again, it slows down the chase."
Fallon said "I was privy to the information from Khalid Sheik Mohammed at the time. I‘ve investigated al Qaeda for a number of years. I‘m not aware of any substantive information or intelligence that was a derivative product directly from waterboarding."
Who are your sources and what did they say?
There is definately a great deal too find out about this topic.
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