RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Osama Dead

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BRIAN WILLIAMS: Can you confirm that it was as a result of water boarding that we learned what we needed to learn to go after Bin Laden?

LEON PANETTA: Brian, in the intelligence business you work from a lot of sources of information and that was true here… It's a little difficult to say it was due just to one source of information that we got… I think some of the detainees clearly were, you know, they used these enhanced interrogation techniques against some of these detainees. But I'm also saying that, you know, the debate about whether we would have gotten the same information through other approaches I think is always going to be an open question.

BRIAN WILLIAMS: So finer point, one final time, enhanced interrogation techniques -- which has always been kind of a handy euphemism in these post-9/11 years -- that includes water boarding?

LEON PANETTA: That's correct

In an interview with Steve Kroft for this Sunday's "60 Minutes" conducted today, President Obama said he won't release post-mortem images of Osama bin Laden taken to prove his death.

"It is important to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence or as a propaganda tool," said the president.

"We don't trot out this stuff as trophies," Mr. Obama added. "The fact of the matter is, this is somebody who was deserving of the justice that he received."

The president said he had discussed the issue with his intelligence team, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and that they agree with the decision. White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday that Mr. Obama made the decision today.

In explaining his choice not to release the photo, Mr. Obama said that "we don't need to spike the football." He said that "given the graphic nature of these photos it would create a national security risk."

President Barack Obama is to release up to 2,000 photographs of alleged abuse at American prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan in a move which will reignite the scandal surrounding Abu Ghraib prison in 2004.

The decision to make public the images sought in a legal action by the American Civil Liberties Union comes amid a political firestorm over alleged torture of detainees under President George W. Bush.

Some of the photographs, which will be released before May 28, are said to show American service personnel humiliating prisoners, according to officials.

The images relate to more than 400 separate cases involving alleged prisoner abuse between 2001 and 2005.

The Pentagon fears a backlash in the Middle East similar to the one provoked by pictures from Abu Ghraib prison, near Baghdad, in 2004 which became emblematic of American mistakes in Iraq.

WASHINGTON — In a reversal of an 18-year-old military policy that critics said was hiding the ultimate cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the news media will now be allowed to photograph the flag-draped coffins of America's war dead as their bodies are returned to the United States, but only if the families of the dead agree.

Gates, who said at the news conference that he was "never comfortable" with the ban, tried to have it overturned a year ago.

But he said he encountered resistance in the Pentagon, and so he "demurred."

But once President Barack Obama said this month that he was reviewing the ban, Gates again sounded out senior officials at the Pentagon.

"I'm very disappointed," said John Ellsworth, the president of Military Families United, whose son, Lance Corporal Justin Ellsworth, was killed in Iraq in 2004 at age 20. "There was nothing wrong with the way things were. I believe that the administration basically caved to the special interest groups, the antiwar groups, that are going to politicize our fallen."

"What is the need to show these caskets," Ellsworth added, "other than to try to inflame controversy?"

Debra Burlingame, the sister of Charles "Chic" Burlingame (pilot of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon) met with President Obama today, along with other families who were victims of 9/11. Burlingame said she confronted Obama about Attorney General Eric Holder prosecuting the men who interrogated KSM, which may have produced intelligence leading us to bin Laden.

Burlingame describes the encounter with Obama: "As a former attorney I know you can't tell the Attorney General what to do, he said, 'No, I can't.' But I said 'we -- that shouldn't stop you from giving your opinion. We wouldn't be here today if they hadn't done their jobs. Can't you at least give them your opinion.' And he said 'no I won't,' and he turned around and walked away."

Sarah Palin.

You edited my post.

It's been interesting watching some of the sniping by the other side in the aftermath of Obama sending Osama to hell. Also makes it clear that those people will never be reasonable. After all if they can't even give the guy credit for this, it isn't going to happen ever.

Trump is the greatest!

Good job summing up some of the con talking points but Obama's involvement was more than just saying ok to a plan. He actually made it more of a priority to get Osama and took criticism by both parties over two years ago for his willingness to go into Pakistan and take him out.

I want to be bsams friend.

Even as he eliminated the "enhanced" interrogation techniques and other intelligence procedures that over several years led to the killing of Bin Ladin.

So the country is actually less safe now, because we are no longer able to gather the kind of intelligence that has kept us safe up from terrorist attacks up to this point. Thanks to Obama.

I'm just waiting until this administration eventually takes credit for the policies that allowed for his death.

He was killed on Obama's watch. That means he's solely responsible for Osama's death.

Obama didn't take sole credit for this and went out of his way to give credit to everyone that worked on getting the big bad guy.

How many times did he mention the military in his speech and how many times did he mention himself?

President Obama thanks Fort Campbell soldiers
Obama, Biden pay tribute to troops
3:31 AM, May. 7, 2011 | Comments

President Obama thanks soldiers at Ft. Campbell fo...: Meets privately with operatives who killed Osama bin Laden

FORT CAMPBELL— President Barack Obama paid tribute to an appreciative audience of more than 2,300 soldiers Friday, thanking them for the spirit of service and sacrifice that led to the capture and killing of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

“You’ve been on the front lines of this fight for nearly 10 years,” the president told a standing-room only, camouflage-clad crowd in a hangar at Fort Campbell, home of the 101st Airborne Division.

“You were there in those early days, driving the Taliban from power, pushing al-Qaida out of its safe havens. Over time, as the insurgency grew, you went back for, in some cases, a second time, a third time, a fourth time.”

Obama spoke five days after bin Laden, whose al-Qaida organization was responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, was killed in Pakistan.

Before the rally with the troops, he met privately with units that were heavily involved in the mission: the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which is based at Fort Campbell, and Navy SEAL Team 6.

“Job well done,” he told the special forces.

To the 101st, Obama said: “I came here for a simple reason — to say thank you on behalf of America.”

...

tennessean.com

Obama is clearly trying to grab all the credit.

It's funny how, when you present some people with absolute fact and proof, they still try and either claim it's false, or simply try and twist their argument a different way. Meanwhile, though, you proved your point with facts. Well done and argument unquestionably won.