Giving credit where credit's due: Reckonizing George Bush's role in the killing of Osama bin Laden :: War on Terror

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May 2, 2011

Giving credit where credit's due: Reckonizing George Bush's role in the killing of Osama bin Laden

Topics: Political News and commentaries, War on Terror

In last night's presser announcing the death of Osama bin Laden, our campaigner-in-chief seemed to take full credit for the killing of bin Laden ... using 'I and my' so many times that I quit counting (never 'our or we'). And although yes, he did mention the U.S. military and he indeed deserves credit for authorizing the mission (in the words of Ross Douthat: "This is a triumph for the United States of America, for our soldiers and intelligence operatives, and for the president as well"), there was not an utterance of gratitude mentioned for the previous administration from whose much criticized (by the left) interrogation methods obtained the crucial leads that led to OBL's location.

In September 2010, the CIA presented Obama with a set of assessments that indicated bin Laden could be hiding in a compound in northwest Pakistan. Starting in mid-March, the president convened at least nine National Security Council meetings to discuss the intelligence suggesting bin Laden may be hiding out virtually in plain sight.

The CIA developed their theory through leads from individuals in bin Laden's inner circle and other captured fighters following Sept. 11. Intelligence officials were repeatedly told about one courier working for bin Laden, as someone that America's Most Wanted Man deeply trusted.

The detainees provided U.S. officials the courier's nickname, and identified him as protege of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and a trusted assistant of Abu Faraj al Libbi, once al-Qaida's third highest ranking official. (He was captured in 2005).

As Bryan Preston points out over at PJ Tattler, piecing all that together ... KSM was captured in Pakistan in 2003. Al Libbi was captured in 2005. Both, and many other captured al Qaeda terrorists, have been held at Gitmo for years, where they have been interrogated, queried, quizzed and waterboarded. Clearly, the information they all have dribbled out has been patiently pieced together over years, finally giving US intel a name and an operational picture that was actionable. If we had simply killed them with drone aircraft, or made the decision early on not to find out what they knew, the raid to get Osama bin Laden would never have happened.

This having been said, I think Sarah Palin has done the best job of putting the bin Laden killing into its proper perspective: "God bless all the brave men and women in our military and our intelligence services who contributed to carrying out the successful mission to bring Bin Laden to justice and who laid the groundwork over the years to make this victory possible."

Read all of Step by Step: How the U.S. Killed bin Laden

Here is a map of where bin Laden was killed.

Posted by Hyscience at May 2, 2011 7:02 AM

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