The more I read into the story, the more amazing it is. Kudos to the SPECOPS for a near flawless mission. Also, an even bigger kudos to the many intelligence agencies that took years to piece together the information that was largely obtained through Signal intelligence (phone calls and emails) as well as human intelligence in Pakistan. The interrogations of KSM and Gitmo guys gave some info, but the real work came from the hard working people of the CIA, NSA, DIA and NGA. Those are the real people that deserve credit. Without them, there is no raid.
A great day again, but now the work continues to defend the country.

Also, check out this photo from the NYT this morning on a picture take during the raid, Obama's look is straight awesome, it has a badass look to it. I also like the quote he gave when it was announced Bin Ladin was dead, "We got'em."

I think that's one of those photos that's going to be important for a while.

Yeah, their ability to reconstruct the area beforehand and drill multiple contingencies was an indication that it needed to be flawless. Again, it was a big risk and thank God they are as good as they are. I read they were 50/50 on Bin Laden's presence there.

Rumor I hear is that was the moment when Bin Laden was shot and killed

Reason why Hillary had her hand over her mouth and Biden was also holding a rosary the whole time

Those of you giving BAM credit for giving the order may want to hold off on the circle jerk just yet. Seems like our fearless leader choked and fumbled at the 5 yard line.

http://socyberty.com/issues/white-house-insider-obama-hesitated-panetta-issued-order-to-kill-osama-bin-laden/

Q: You stated that President Obama was “overruled” by military/intelligence officials regarding the decision to send in military specialists into the Osama Bin Laden compound. Was that accurate?


A: I was told – in these exact terms, “we overruled him.” (Obama) I have since followed up and received further details on exactly what that meant, as well as the specifics of how Leon Panetta worked around the president’s &#8220ersistent hesitation to act.” There appears NOT to have been an outright overruling of any specific position by President Obama, simply because there was no specific position from the president to do so. President Obama was, in this case, as in all others, working as an absentee president.
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Read more: http://socyberty.com/issues/white-house-insider-obama-hesitated-panetta-issued-order-to-kill-osama-bin-laden/#ixzz1LLRGJBmx
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Nice job once again Commander in Decisive.

tk421;758767 wrote:Those of you giving BAM credit for giving the order may want to hold off on the circle jerk just yet. Seems like our fearless leader choked and fumbled at the 5 yard line.

http://socyberty.com/issues/white-house-insider-obama-hesitated-panetta-issued-order-to-kill-osama-bin-laden/




Nice job once again Commander in Decisive.

A blog....are you serious?

You also know he would have to have given the final order anyway right?

Con_Alma;758509 wrote:This is not the time to be partisan. It's sad when people resort to that during these efforts.

I think the President took a big risk sending such a concentration of special ops guys into one location. It was a gutsy move and turned out to be the right call. I'm glad he made the decision he did.

tk421;758767 wrote:Those of you giving BAM credit for giving the order may want to hold off on the circle jerk just yet. Seems like our fearless leader choked and fumbled at the 5 yard line.

http://socyberty.com/issues/white-house-insider-obama-hesitated-panetta-issued-order-to-kill-osama-bin-laden/



Nice job once again Commander in Decisive.

So much for not being partisan.

At least he didn't let him get away, like W. did.

stlouiedipalma;758895 wrote:So much for not being partisan.

At least he didn't let him get away, like W. did.

+1

This is neither here nor there, but OBL place looked like shit. They were saying this was a huge 1 million dollar mansion and bigger than most homes around it..... It looked like a damn crack house. Now, obviously he wanted to be low key, and it's wrecked from the raid, but I guess I was expecting something more than what it looks like.

bigkahuna;758927 wrote:This is neither here nor there, but OBL place looked like shit. They were saying this was a huge 1 million dollar mansion and bigger than most homes around it..... It looked like a damn crack house. Now, obviously he wanted to be low key, and it's wrecked from the raid, but I guess I was expecting something more than what it looks like.

I thought the same thing. This is poverty stricken Pakistan. A million dollar mansion would be like a castle. I also read they called this an "upscale" suburb of Islamabad.

Much of the million dollars probably came from the walls and such. Although I haven't seen the pictures of the compount and perhaps they were using the proverbial "million dollar" term to indicate that it was more elaborate than others in the area no in the sense that it cost $1,000,000. Who knows though.

And if you're using this achievement to either bash Obama or tout Bush or bash Bush or whatever...fuck off. If you're going to tout anyone make sure it's the damned intelligence agencies and special forces that did this.

majorspark;758959 wrote:I thought the same thing. This is poverty stricken Pakistan. A million dollar mansion would be like a castle. I also read they called this an "upscale" suburb of Islamabad.

Yea, they said it was an affluent suburb.

ptown_trojans_1;758687 wrote:The more I read into the story, the more amazing it is. Kudos to the SPECOPS for a near flawless mission. Also, an even bigger kudos to the many intelligence agencies that took years to piece together the information that was largely obtained through Signal intelligence (phone calls and emails) as well as human intelligence in Pakistan. The interrogations of KSM and Gitmo guys gave some info, but the real work came from the hard working people of the CIA, NSA, DIA and NGA. Those are the real people that deserve credit. Without them, there is no raid.
A great day again, but now the work continues to defend the country.

Also, check out this photo from the NYT this morning on a picture take during the raid, Obama's look is straight awesome, it has a badass look to it. I also like the quote he gave when it was announced Bin Ladin was dead, "We got'em."

The more that comes out of this, it is apparent that this was a targeted killing against practically unarmed targets in a sovereign country without their permission - sounds like something Bush would do!

I support the decision to do this, but the more I read about it there was less of a firefight and more of a "The Departed" ending, with Matt Damon telling Mark Wahlberg ok. Bin Laden wasn't even armed, and I doubt a 54 year old man with health problems would be much of a threat against the Seal Six. Again I agree with it since OBL got what was coming, but this goes against the Obama of a few years ago that would have insisted on a capture and bringing him back for trial. He wanted a dead body and proof of dead body and got it, I just hope that the Seals weren't put in harm's way just so we could get the body when we could have just droned the place.

Manhattan Buckeye;759117 wrote:The more that comes out of this, it is apparent that this was a targeted killing against practically unarmed targets in a sovereign country without their permission - sounds like something Bush would do!

I support the decision to do this, but the more I read about it there was less of a firefight and more of a "The Departed" ending, with Matt Damon telling Mark Wahlberg ok. Bin Laden wasn't even armed, and I doubt a 54 year old man with health problems would be much of a threat against the Seal Six. Again I agree with it since OBL got what was coming, but this goes against the Obama of a few years ago that would have insisted on a capture and bringing him back for trial. He wanted a dead body and proof of dead body and got it, I just hope that the Seals weren't put in harm's way just so we could get the body when we could have just droned the place.

Drones would have been ineffective, according to Defense officials. Plus, there would not have been a viable way for us to get the body. Unlike what we did for Zaqqawi in Iraq, we would not be able to get on the ground and see for ourselves the results. We wanted to be absolutely sure we got the guy, so the only way to do that was SEALS. Also, the SEALS went through so many plans and thought they Bin Laden would be armed, have a suicide vest, head to a secret tunnel, etc.I'm sure the orders were if you can take him alive great, but if he moves or acts like he has a weapon, kill his ass.

stlouiedipalma;758895 wrote:So much for not being partisan.

At least he didn't let him get away, like W. did.

Sad. We will never grow into the country we could be with this attitude. Partisan politics is a cancer that will ruin us.

stlouiedipalma;758895 wrote:So much for not being partisan.

At least he didn't let him get away, like W. did.

Or flat out refuse to take him into custody well before 9/11 when offered, like Clinton did.

There will be some who flat out refuse to give the POTUS credit, just as there will be some who refuse to give Dubya his share. It is what it is.

"I'm sure the orders were if you can take him alive great, but if he moves or acts like he has a weapon, kill his ass. "

You sure? We'll have to disagree. There was no way they were taking him alive. Again I AGREE with it but we can stop with the high and mighty talk about acting different than the previous administration. Obama acted EXACTLY how W would have, that's why his support from this has peaked.

Alive if you can....Dead, just as well.

Looks like some of the intel came from waterboarding, among other things?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42880435/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/?gt1=43001

gut;759215 wrote:Alive if you can....Dead, just as well.

Who is this person who speaks to me as though I needed his advice?

ptown_trojans_1;758687 wrote:The more I read into the story, the more amazing it is. Kudos to the SPECOPS for a near flawless mission. Also, an even bigger kudos to the many intelligence agencies that took years to piece together the information that was largely obtained through Signal intelligence (phone calls and emails) as well as human intelligence in Pakistan. The interrogations of KSM and Gitmo guys gave some info, but the real work came from the hard working people of the CIA, NSA, DIA and NGA. Those are the real people that deserve credit. Without them, there is no raid.
A great day again, but now the work continues to defend the country.

Also, check out this photo from the NYT this morning on a picture take during the raid, Obama's look is straight awesome, it has a badass look to it. I also like the quote he gave when it was announced Bin Ladin was dead, "We got'em."

Ptown - I agree our intelligence network was crucial to pulling this off. No doubt about it.

Let me ask the follow-up question: Do you think the myriad of agencies - and you listed 4 of them (CIA, NSA, DIA and NGA), along with all of our military, gitmo personnel, and the FBI - caused this to take more time or less? I've read where OBL was holed up in that place for 5 years. Then I heard they were tracking his courier, the one that led us to OBL, since August - 8 months ago. Seems to me the communication between these groups gave OBL a few extra years on his life instead of taking him out much sooner. What say ye?

I'm not P'twon, but I'll say this... you have one "shot" to get it right. You better make sure you have it right. Use the best intel to track someone; get a pattern if possible; predict his next steps... and if your right with your predictions, then you can make your move. Otherwise, it's deep do-do.

cruiser_96;759221 wrote:Who is this person who speaks to me as though I needed his advice?

I have declared Phillip my high counselor.

The more I think about this entire scenario and the more info. that comes out of this situation; I think it is pretty obvious that Pakistan was aiding Bin Laden. He was in a town with a large military presence in a fortified compound inside a sovereign country that is supposedly our "ally". He knew (or thought he knew) that we would never go into a country that was our ally without their permission. This made him feel secure and safe. Meanwhile, Pakistan tells us that they are looking for him too all the while they are just sitting on their asses laughing at us while Obama remains relatively safe all these years within their borders. Pakistan should be cut off from all US aid.

I commend Obama for making this call. This is what this "war on terror" should have been all along; small, calculated missions. All out war is not the answer and has not helped eradicate the enemy, but empowered the enemy and created new "franchises" of Al Qaeda.

I give Obama all the credit he deserves for making the call to go in with special ops and get intel, along with making the kill.

That said, the way the information has come out has led me to believe a couple things: Despite what the administration is saying NOW (stories have been changing), this was a kill operation; there was never intent to capture. The baloney about Obama first having a weapon, then using his wife as a shield, were unnecessary lies. Why they're afraid to say that they went in to blow his brains out, I don't know. They could just as easily have dropped a bomb on the place.

Second, it's very obvious to anyone who gives it half a thought that Pakistan (or POCK-is-tawn) was hiding and aiding Bin Laden all this time. You don't live in a house that sticks out like this does, in the middle of a country's version of West Point, and not be known for who you are. So the administration scrambling about whether to give credit or not to Pakistan seems silly to me. I guess they feel they need this group as an ally and want to continue sending billions there, despite being betrayed on this in a big, big way.

Again, I applaud him for making this call. The intel will be of tremendous use, I'm sure, to track down other associates and plots.

It's very clear that Obama learned FAST that he needed to keep following what Bush had put in place if he wanted to be effective in his role of defending the country from terrorism. Those of us who don't like many of his policies, almost all of them domestic, haven't disagreed with much as he has been Commander In Chief so far. And certainly not this mission.