While on the internet reading the Bloomberg piece on Trump having decided to run for president,news alerts erupted that the President would interrupt scheduled broadcasting to make an announcement. Soon it leaked that it would be about national security. Drudge ran a banner that Obama would be interrupting Trump's Celebrity Apprentice, obviously for political reasons of getting even with the Donald. As the delays mounted, it became clear that the annoucement would be major--Qaddafhi--no they could wait until Monday. Because Congress had to be notified, the leaks came from the Hill that President Obama would announce that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by the United States.
Crowds of George Washington University students made their way to the White House and Lafayette Square, Times Square began to fill up and Ground Zero saw firefighters start coming. After the President's speech, the crowd at the Phillies-Mets game started chanting, "U.S.A! U.S.A! Obama! Obama!"
Fox was slow to cover the news because it is after all President Obama. Geraldo Rivera declared on Fox, "President Obama is dead", a story repeated by Fox 5 here in D.C.
The immediate statements that followed the announcement ranged from the classy to the tasteless. Peter King,the Republican Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, congratulated President Obama for his role in the whole operation. Richard Shelby, formerly the head of Senate Intelligence and whose state the President is bailing out because of the tornedos,praised himself, saying that if the intelligence community had not made the reforms he suggested they would never have caught Bin Laden. President Clinton issued a statement almost immediately praising President Obama and the national security team. President George W. Bush issued a statement praising President Obama and claiming that justice was done. It was George W's statement that provided the narrative for Fox News the rest of the evening.
This morning the various Republican candidates weighed in. Except, we haven't heard from Mr. Exceptionalism, yet, Newt Gingrich. Tim Pawlenty only got to President Obama after two paragraphs praising George W. Bush. Mitt Romney praised all the armed forces and intelligence community and mentioned "the President" without his name. Sister Sarah and Michelle Bachmann only praised the military and never mentioned the president, even in the generic. Dick Cheney rattled off praise for everyone and lastly congratulated the President. Mitch McConnell never mentioned the President at all. John Boehner did and little Eddie Cantor praised Obama for "following the vigilance of President Bush to bring him to justice."
It wasn't whether President Obama would get Osama Bin Laden, it was when. Candidate Obama was very firm about his desire to get Bin Laden even though his critics ignored his statements. What they didn't ignore were his statements that he would attack inside Pakistan if need be. John McCain, who kept saying he knew how to get Bin Laden, called this irresponsible and refused to entertain the option because Pakistan was a sovereign state. Mitt Romney blasted Obama for suggesting this as "ill-advised". And the father of American Torture, Richard Cheney wrote this suggestion off as being offensive to our ally on the war on terrorism.
A funny thing happened on the way to this day. George W. Bush had let Osama escape at Tora Bora, thus plunging us head long into the Iraq War and the prolonged occupation of Afghanistan. Both George W and Dick Cheney downplayed the necessity of capturing or killing Bin Laden. In 2006, George W. Bush closed down the unit that had been hunting Bin Laden. It was then widely disseminated among conservatives and neoconservatives that Bin Laden had died. Michael Ledeen ingeniously had Bin Laden dying in Shi'ite Iran.
When President Obama took office, Rahm Emmanuel asked the national security community where Bin Laden was. As Bob Woodward has reported, they said they had no idea. "Fifty billion dollars spent and you have no idea?" Rahm erupted.
In June 2009, President Obama requested the CIA Director within 30 days present him with a detailed operational plan for locating and bringing Bin Laden to justice. It was in August 2010 that we had the first solid tip of where Bin Laden was. The intelligence community had been tracking a man known as Bin Laden's most trusted courier and he started showing up at the walled complex in Abbottabad. He was known to be very poor yet it turned out that this place was his residence.
Finally, at 8:20am on April 29,2011, President Obama decided there was enough intelligence that Osama bin Laden was at this complex and he ordered the go-ahead of the operation. By 3pm, all the appropriate agencies and forces were planning the operation.
In short, credit should go to the man who was patient enough and persistent enough to finally go after Bin Laden. And the risks were great. It had to be done without tipping off the Pakistanis and all the helicopters had to work to avoid another Carter fiasco. Special Forces and the Navy Seals hit the complex, finished the job, carried out Bin Laden's body within 40 minutes.
The reason Obama cancelled drone strikes in that area and avoided using them on this front was to create a false sense of security for Bin Laden. Also if Bin Laden had been killed in a drone strike there would be enough skepticism to linger for years. Capturing Bin Laden would only have sparked the bitter debates over where and why he should be tried. To avoid creating a site for a memorial, the body was taken and buried at sea.
During the raid, American forces found a motherlode of intel on the Al Qaeda networks throughout the world. Since Bin Laden had settled into his new mansion, he was comfortable enough with his security as to have all his hard drives,paperwork and other documents on the entire organization. The true effect of this will be seen in months ahead as cells after cells are rounded up.
One eyewitness found his fifteen minutes of fame--Sohaib Athur of Abbottabad tweeted the whole raid without knowing what was going on. Sohaib had moved to the leafy suburb of Islamabad to avoid all the terrorist attacks and violence in the city. An IT worker he saw first our helicopter go down--it was later destroyed by Americans to eradicate evidence--and explosions behind this walled compound. He didn't know his neighbor was Osama Bin Laden.
It wasn't beauty that killed the beast. It was his construction. As an old construction manager Bin Laden knew the business. So five years ago he constructed this compound for his closest associates and his immediate family. The CIA has been asking questions about this mansion for the last five years as it was going up. It seemed peculiar that such a fortified complex would be constructed so new Pakistan's West Point. Good point. The Paksitani have alot of 'plaining to do.
Once the intelligence community linked the Bin Laden's courier to this building the red lights went off.
We can not overestimate the effects Bin Laden's death will have on Al Qaeda and its Starbucks' franchises. This was the man who fused a global terrorist network with insurgent movements around the world and actually created a new form of a political military movement. While low-key these past years , he was everpresent in the planning of operations. This is the only leader Al Qaeda ever knew. While one can expect an uptick in terrorist acts to mark his martyrdom, the effects of these will be short before you see a fade on the international scene.
In the Arab world, the new democratic movements and the young are saying that this marks an end of an era and now they can concentrate on trying to build democratic societies. Hamas was tacky enough to lament his passing. And we will see other extremists voice their opinions also.
But now Bin Laden is a t-shirt.
I know this is supposed to be carthartic but it just reminds me of all the lost years, the lost blood and treasure triggered by our wrong-headed reactions to 9-11. I find it sad.
But I am glad that Bin Laden was killed on the 8th Anniverary of George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished " Speech. It reminds us that sometimes it takes a Black man to clean up a White boy's mess.
Well done, Mr. President. Mission Accomplished.
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