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May 02, 2011 07:11 AM UTC
131 Comments
This is not a partisan event. Unless you’re a giant douche.
“Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.” Samuel Johnson
I like the fact that he is saying that this does not end operations against Al-Queada. Ayman al-Zawahiri, we are looking at you next!
Also, whoever it was that pulled the trigger should never have to buy their own drinks ever again!
Being that guy? Wow. This might end up being one of the greatest stories ever told.
My oldest daughter was here tonight. On 9/11, we were watching cartoons in the morning before I had to drive to Boulder for a session. They didn’t break in. I turned on sportstalk radio when we got in the car and heard Dan Rather’s voice talking about one of the towers crashing down. I told her to wait in the car – went back inside and grabbed my firearm, as everything was so up in the air at that point. Drove by the State Capitol and saw the troopers with their AR’s watching every car that drove by.
Almost 10 years later, I called her in to sit and watch this news with me. She’s 13 now, and really curious. I actually pulled her away from ‘Holy Grail’ which she’s just found in my DVD collection and loves.
What a remarkable decade it’s been. I’m crying almost as much as I did on that beautiful day in September. Different tears, though.
He, the man who fired the killing shot, may not know given that it was in the course of a firefight. Time will tell, but I would guess the most likely scenario would be that it could have been anyone there on the ground.
And congratulations are in order to the whole chain that made this possible. The intelligence officers and analysts. The people who trained these fine soldiers. Particularly to the men who put their lives on the line as part of the sharp point of the spear, but the this is an achievement shared by a small mountain of US and allied personnel.
around them and their families. It could send some crazies their way. I’m sure they are aware of the risk but being recognized probably isn’t that important to these men. You figure that it wasn’t just one person but an entire army that never quit on accomplishing this mission.
that I should feel guilty about celebrating a death…
but I really, really don’t.
I feel the same way. He was a sick man and the world is better without him around.
This also sends a VERY STRONG signal to terrorist organizations throughout the world that if you harm or seek to harm our people, how ever long it takes, we will find you and kill you. The fact that it almost took ten years to me shows our determination more than anything.
I also hope this brings a little bit of peace and closure to the relatives of all those who lost their lives from such complete savagery on 9-11.
God bless America.
CNN
Nice, cologeek. Excellent comment!
Wasn’t long ago they took out a few Somali pirates in what was an amazing piece of work. Now this. Just incredible.
JSOT isn’t really a service -they take the best of the best from every branch, and forge it into the Hammer of Democracy.
Maybe it was SEALS who stormed the compound, but it was prob the Army’s 160th Aviation Unit that flew them in, Air Force techs that flew drones around the area for intel and to discourage any re-enforcements, Marine Force Recon and AF Helirescue units on standby in case they needed to rescue anyone, and logstics weenies of every branch that makes it all work.
The only time the military tries to trump each other’s service is in a bar or during the Army/Navy game. The rest of the time we just get shit done…
but what does it say about the powers that are really in control in Pakistan that this was a huge compound, standing out like a sore thumb, much bigger than any surrounding houses, bristling with barbed wire and heavy security 35 freakin miles outside of Islamabad? Can we stop sending these folks billions any time soon? Just sayin…
What do we do with the body now?
My first response is that we should doe the same thing the Soviets did with Hitler. Cremation and scatter the ashes so his grave will not become a shrine. The politics may not make that possible, but ideally.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/201…
Not sure what that means precisely.
The body will be handled according to Islamic tradition.
Normally that means burying the body facing Mecca. However, I’m hearing talk of burying the body at sea, which is acceptable in Islamic tradition if they die at sea or there’s a fear that the body will be desecrated. That would be good for depriving the extremists of any graves to dedicate to a martyr.
I am guessing given the amount of planning that went in to this operation that they’ll be very sure to cover every aspect of this carefully…
within 24 hours of his death.
as “shark food” rather than “burial at sea.”
Hopefully naked so the crabs can feed on his putrid carcass and with biodegradable weights to sink to the bottom. No one will ever be able to mark the spot or leave flowers for a memorial. That’s how thorough they were getting rid of this mass murderer. Good riddance.
I was afraid that Obama was going to tell us that terrorists had a nuke inside the U.S. Glad it turned out to be good news.
That never crossed my mind. Hope you’ve both recovered. Must have been pretty stressful.
Just my opinion, but it sounds like you have been brainwashed by GOP fear mongering. Why else would you think the worst?
re: Navy SEALS. Maybe the President has a lot of confidence in the SEALS after they took out the pirates. They ARE pretty special!
Do you think you’d actually be told that?
President: “We’re asking the public not to panic.”
Public: “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Righto.
Please don’t be so fucking stupid. This is not a partisan deal. Obama helped the US triumph over an evil, evil man.
the US’s (and the President’s) epic victory isn’t partisan.
Clown. Nobody else has attempted to put a partisan slant on this. Get bent.
http://youtu.be/x7OCgMPX2mE
to Freeperland and mourn with your friends. The rest of the country will be celebrating this historic event.
I’m celebrating. But I’m celebrating with Dem and R friends.
I’m an American.
what about the graphic suggests partisanship?
I stole it from a conservative friend on Facebook. I agree that both Dems and Repubs are winners tonight.
It’s an American victory. Hell, it’s a world victory.
Good night.
You stay classy, San Diego.
That made this partisan.
Fuckhead.
You are a sad, strange little man.
I honestly would’ve celebrated just as much if it were Bush. It got done, and that is a great thing.
This endeavor began four years ago, under Bush, and was finished up by Obama’s administration. Clearly, agencies that in the past that refused to work together finally figured out how to team up and share information, which is also a first for us. Plenty of credit to go around. No need to turn this into a smug fest.
For starters try Sean Hannity’s. If idiots are going to give the highest priority to total nonsense based on no evidence whatsoever, there is nothing wrong with poking fun at them for it when something happens that shows what the priorities are for people in the reality based world. It’s not partisan to make fun of silly wackos unless you’re saying that one of our major political parties is entirely made up of these silly wackos.
Don’t even need to go to the ‘opinion’ side of Faux…try their news site. The wingnuts are actually out in force.
Say that Obama only did this to take Americans’ minds off the deficit.
I just think that this unique event lets morons from each side of the aisle show their asses.
To somehow relate this to a partisan loss in any way is unconscionable. This is a victory for all of us.
That said, coming from someone who now can’t stand the President and is going to work very hard to get him fired in 2012…He deserves an enormous amount of credit for this. He didn’t mamby-pamby around with Pakistan’s ‘sovereignty’, he didn’t set the military up for failure ala Carter with a poorly designed mission plan. It sounds like he said ‘Let’s kill the fucker, and let’s not screw around. You military guys plan it and I’ll give the ok.’
So any political gain he makes from this mission is deserved, IMO. Just not at the expense of anyone else. The first tip on this guy came under Bush, and I’m glad they worked together on it. I also thought Bush’s statement last night was fantastic and humble, and appropriate.
The initial plan presented was a bombing run, but Obama wanted other options to minimize civilian casualties, including the non-combatants in the compound itself. Make no mistake, the helicopter run was risky, but it was the right decision to ensure we got the target.
The initial reports make it sound like KSM or one of his associates pointed to the courier while at Gitmo, though under what circumstances we don’t know. I’m sure there will be claims that torture worked and was the right thing to do… Unfortunately that lead was a dead-end until this past August when they matched a real person to the nickname given.
They apparently matched his name in 2007.
Do you have a different opinion if the information that led to the death of OBL was gleaned from waterboarding?
What was accomplished is the same regardless of its origins – a great victory and a whole lot of legwork.
It doesn’t change my opinion on the torture that we have inflicted on detainees. It was wrong, is wrong, and will always be wrong.
Dick Cheney, the Heritage Foundation, Steve King, and others are all now getting on the waterboarding bandwagon.
Factually, though, they’re wrong – if the information on this guy’s nickname was obtained in 2005 as reports say, then it wasn’t obtained through waterboarding.
President and feel proud for our country and then consider how this will play out politically without being a giant douche.
Aaron should have posted a clip — there’s gotta be one somewhere — of the Commander in Chief swaggering across the deck of an aircraft carrier.
Maybe a clip of Cheney grumbling nonpartisanly how Obama is endangering our national security.
Or a clip of master pilot McCain harumphing that Obama doesn’t know anything about the military or national defense.
Glad to note you’re an “American”, too. (You’re sure you’re not a “true American”? That would make Aaron and others … what?
“palling around” with terrorists would have been apropos here too.
(Sorry, Senor Bee, it’s hard for me — refraining from being a partisan douchebag for more than 12 hours.)
we would have already seen the death pix splashed all over Faux and a candid Oval Office with that Coward-in-Chief holding some gold-gilded keepsake from Osama’s lair.
Let’s be thankful that Progressives & Dems try to tone it down a notch. Remember it was GW that actually called it a Crusade — talk about ultimate partisanship.
Aaron, how dare you have a sense of humor? Don’t you know that liberals are supposed to humorless automatons?
The only thing more annoying than a conservative with a stick up their butt is a liberal with a sense of humor. Which made the White House Correspondents Dinner really painful. Watching the shots of the President making jokes and Donald Trump squirming on what must be a two by four up his butt was like nails on a chalkboard.
Please, stop, please!
President Obama tonight:
“And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda…”
In other words, after Bush had essentially dismantled the efforts to find Bin Laden, President Obama made it a national priority.
Thank you President Obama.
Can you give any evidence that Bush had “essentially dismantled the efforts to find Bin Laden”?
This is garbage.
From The Weekly Standard, by Fred Barnes (conservative commentator on Fox in a conservative magazine), Sept, 2006, reporting on a White House meeting with George W. Bush,
“WE NOW KNOW WHY the Bush administration hasn’t made the capture of Osama bin Laden a paramount goal of the war on terror. Emphasis on bin Laden doesn’t fit with the administration’s strategy for combating terrorism.”
That took 20 seconds of research — there’s plenty more.
that he just doesn’t spend much time thinking about it. Tonight Bush is very graciously giving credit where credit is due, elbee, but since you brought it up, here’s a link to refresh your memory as to just how concerned he professed himself to be years ago:
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/…
And I’ve made that mistake myself a few times in the last 8 hours, but this would be a good time to be careful about it….
Really, really sorry! It was late and all but no excuse! Of course I meant Osama. Could not be more embarrassed!
…and knew you’d feel embarrassed. But the folks that know you also know you have absolutely no reason to feel that way. Cheers.
This is twice I’ve called you out on intellectual dishonety.
Before it concerned shooter outing Plame, and completely neutralizing Brewster Jennings.
Now it’s this.
you know damned well Bush dismantled the CIA group responsible for hunting Bin Laden in’05.
Surely you do
How could you not?
This young charismatic Democratic President reinstated that group immediately after his inauguration and made killin Bin Laden job 1 for Panetta and the Cia.
Then he had the courage to act on intel, knowing full well that the slithering reptiles on your side of the aisle would have dismembered him had the op’ failed.
I won’t do your research for you, as you say you’re an adult. But google bush dismantles CIA group hunting bin laden.
I can stomach your partisan sleaziness to a point, but enough is enough.
I’m Ellbee.
Anyway, how did we get the original tips, then? How were we able to identify the courier by name in 2007? Because we totally stopped trying?
What do you make of this?
That wasn’t our ‘charismatic…smooch…smooch…blah…uhhhhhh’ President – that information now seems to have been gleaned by precisely the tactics that he (and I’m sure you) don’t particularly care for.
I’ll say it once more, and slowly…just for you.
Obama deserves great credit for yesterday, and so does the previous administration. Intel initially gathered under Bush was folowed through two admins, over years, between departments that historically haven’t worked seamlessly together, and it culminated in a great victory for you and I as Americans. Yes, we’re on the same side. Say it with me now…
KUM-BAY-YA….my LORD………
…it just keeps coming.
Read this and tell me again how Bush did so little to search for OBL?
And more…
I don’t want to lift too much, but I think it’s important for you to see my point, again.
Bravo, President Obama, and Bravo, President Bush. Thank you both for tracking this demon down, no matter how long it took, and how much cooperation it needed to have between everyone.
I also think the discussion is worth having about the methods used to obtain this information. Two of the prime characters were interrogated in black prisons in Europe. We don’t know what methods were used, but out of those sessions, we came by most of our most valuable information. Next, the biggest lead that President Obama’s folks came by looks like it was snatched by an NSA wiretap.
Does any of that change the pride you feel in the ends of what it accomplished?
According to Donald Rumsfeld, and reported by Drudge, 2 sources that you probably trust:
Hopes that helps guide you through that discussion you want to have about the methods used to obtain this information. Traditional interrogation => useful information.
http://www.drudge.com/news/143…
Laughing boy did that with the Valarie Plame timeline too.
I don’t know if it’s willfull or it’s just that he grabs what he sees and goes with it before vetting it.
The links can be impressive at first blush, but, as in this case, when thoroughly read through, there’s no “there” there.
I’d like to hear you comment on how if Bush did nothin to capture Bin Laden, that a majority of the leads were generated under his watch.
“Under his watch” is a large umbrella.
People do their jobs under every administration. They’re professionals, and it that business, they, for the most part, indeed the vast majority are extreme professionals.
“Majority of leads unter his watch”? He was in office 7 plus years after we got hit!
Of course there’d be more leads in 90 months than there would be in 30 or so.
Once again, like you allways do, you’re changing the subject.
The waterboarding timeline flies in the face of Id’ing the courrier.
Here we go again, just like the Plame thing.
I’m done – it’s exceedingly obvious you simply don’t like me, and it has very little to do with the history or the reality of the situation, so I’ll let you just tell yourself you totally burned me on this one.
Toodles, homie.
PS Dick Armitage outed Plame. Don’t forget that.
Bully to victim in 60 seconds. Stop whining.
This isn’t about “liking” or “not liking” you.
And again you change the subject.
You know the time line on KSM is incorrect. I called you on it.
Stop with the snarky bullshit and the partially correct talking points and I’ll ease up.
Partisanship’s one thing.
You’ve been doing this for so long you don’t even know you’re doing it.
shooter threw Armitage down the stairs and Armitage ate the round for him.
Move along, please.
You can have your own opinion, but not your own facts, Jack.
You’re a bullshit artist.
According to this NYT article, it was a CIA covert ops re-organization putting boots on the ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan that finally connected the courier to his real name in 2007. That puts identifying the courier on Bush’s watch, with or without his actual input – and Bush is on record explicitly downgrading his efforts to capture or kill OBL.
It took until 2009 to actually locate that courier – apparently a discovery by Pakistani police and intelligence – and another full year of cautious tailing by the CIA to figure out that he lived at the compound raided the other night, followed by about 8 months of intensive study of the compound.
In the end, it was Obama who pulled the trigger on bin Laden, though. He took a serious political risk in ordering the invasion; his own aides note that there was only a 50-80% chance that OBL actually lived at the compound.
Although I haven’t seen anything to suggest that “a majority of the leads were generated under his watch.”
1. This needed to happen. Finally. My sincere thanks to all involved.
2. Unfortunately, it ain’t over.
3. Now, it will be over the next six to twelve months that our security forces and systems will be tested like never before.
They’re less likely to have a well planned operation then. We will probably see more activity in the near future, but probably also less effective activity than if they took their time.
appreciate your good wishes. Thanks for making my late night idiotic use of Obama when I meant Osama look a tad less idiotic by comparison, Dave.
C’mon BC, David didn’t say that he was wishing for another attack and more victims. Absolutely no one wants that, further that’s not even a little bit unclear.
did I misunderstand? A quick, poorly planned operation could still claim victims, couldn’t it? I stand by my opinion that to express hope for any kind of terrorist operation is at least a tad more idiotic than my idiotic type-o.
to my point three:
with a cojent point that it would be advantageous to have the inevitable testing come quickly — emotionally — without a kind of “well planned operation” that would facilitate effective or harmful testing.
Again, I don’t see anyone wishing for more victims, on the contrary . . .
And, I’m not saying I agree with his view, but that I understand the opinion, and that’s certainly not wishing harm on anyone.
and admit that Dave, no doubt, doesn’t actually wish any potential victims ill. Still standing by my opinion that Dave’s choice of words is even more idiotic than my type-o.
@David — You have an incredible penchant for writing a lot of utter nonsense. But we’re greatful, at least, that it’s usually not mailicious.
(Sorry guy, she’s tenacious . . . )
Apparently FOX can’t figure out who died, either.
http://i59.photobucket.com/alb…
Made me feel that much more embarrassed. I made the same mistake once back in 2008. I am now forced to admit it’s entirely possible the Fox runner was nothing more than a similar error on the part of an exhausted staffer. I did switch to Fox a few times just to see how they were covering it and besides jumping to the conclusion that the rumor about Bin Laden being killed last week, not yesterday, was fact and presenting it as such on the runner, their “straight news people were being quite civilized. Later they were on board with the killing taking place Sunday.
Not at all. I already mixed up the two names this morning during a conversation. It’s so easy to do and so embarrassing when it happens. And it happens a lot, to many of us.
I still feel like a moron.
You totally shouldn’t.
A military analyst who was on Scarborough this morning referred to OBL as Obama this morning; immediately caught himself and apologized.
From now on I’m never using “Osama'”and would recommend media types also refer to said individual exclusively as “bin Laden” to avoid more foot in mouth incidents due to unfortunate one letter difference between his first name and President’s surname. “Osama” is dead to me, play on words intended.
He’s shark food.
the “bin Laden” styling will have to think twice.
David all morning, and look where that got me.
All the clips of Obama’s performance at the correspondents dinner are still all over the lace. Watch the one where he teases the Donald about the leadership decision he had to make, choosing between Busey and Meatloaf. While he’s delivering the punch line about that being the kind of decision that keeps him up at night, looking completely relaxed, breezy and carefree, he had just the day before made the decision to go in for the bin Laden kill and the wheels were already in motion at that very moment. At that point there was a very real possibility it might end very badly with hell to pay.
Obama being too cool and unemotional is a popular complaint but sometimes being cool is ..well… super cool. No action star, with nothing real to lose except a good review, could have played that scene better. Bruce Willis, Vin Diesel, eat your hearts out. Oh and Donald, too.
I’d hate to play Texas Hold-em with Obama. The guy has freaking nerves of steel.
really wanted to be a tough negotiator, he could be. Maybe now that he’s got this bin Laden thing out of the way he can redirect those nerves of steel to become the People’s Man of Steel. One can always hope.
We want to find them as quickly and as early as possible. If they respond emotionally with less preparation than they would otherwise, our chances of catching them before they do anything goes up.
I absolutely agree it would be better if there was never another terrorist action. My point was simply that if someone is determined to harm others, the less planning & preparation they put into the action the better the odds of catching them in time.
My question to you based on your response is this – would you prefer that they did not react emotionally and instead continued to carefully plan their activity?
Preparations take time, leave trails, require communications (which can be intercepted) etc.
So I think both immediate ’emotional’ responses and carefully planned ones, over time, carry tactical risks–although perhaps of a different nature.
In any case, I understood what you meant (and didn’t think you meant what you didn’t) but I am not sure I agree.
I’m not talking anything as elevated as strategy here. Just thought it was a really stupid sounding way to put it. Thanks for making me feel better about my spelling gaffe, though!
If your point was that I could have phrased it better – on that I’ll agree.
Al Jazerra is doing a special/breaking news coverage of this. Lots of great info – which as usual you will not get on the U.S. media (which seems to be concerned about the family we fought against to be independent).
you know that this story has pretty much wiped wedding news in the US news media as well.
Wow that was fast. Was it a shotgun wedding? Anybody invited to it? or was it a private ceremony with the Queen rapping them upside the head for doing it before wedding rings were passed around?
Right now Obama is doing a Medal of Honor ceremony for the noon (EDT) news. Praising Gates and others. Proud of “men and women in uniform”.
You are right. I have not watched any live TV since Friday morning when the wedding was on. Then nothing until this morning when I turned it on to catch the weather report.
I am glad he is dead; my first thought was for retaliation and those Americans overseas, unarmed and ungarrisoned, who might be targets.
Certainly, congratulations are in order to the bravery of the President in making the call and to the military for carrying it out.
Thank you, Mr. President and those men and women that took out the face of terrorism around the world.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/…
that the so-called “official” reaction is from an anonymous source. Perhaps someone isn’t sure of the meaning of the word “official”.
“I officially do not want to have my head chopped off”
when he declares “Mission (partially) Accomplished!”
Boy, am I proud of our armed and civilian forces folks who pulled this mission off — and of their Commander in Chief. They’ve made a hell of a lot of people happy today all around the world.
Man Unknowingly Live Tweets About Raid on Osama Bin Laden’s Compound
we can all still come together and agree that it is indeed a great day because we’ve used our overwhelming military and covert intelligence superiority to go into a foreign country and shoot our most hated enemy leader in the head. Conservatives especially should be gladdened by the outpouring of support on both sides! Though we may disagree on health care, welfare, etc., I think everyone agrees that the money spent on killing the enemy is money well spent.
announcement last night and his demeanor this morning as I watch today’s Medal of Honor ceremonies, I have to say that I am particularly proud, and relieved, that I haven’t seen any of the official public “Heh, heh, heh, we got that somanabich. Hooorah” that, frankly, is making me cringe as I watch the “coverage” of this operation at other venues.
We may have actually seen an operation that rivals The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo 18Apr42.
This is absolutely unfathomable.
Seal Team 6 is the ultmate.
Thanks guys, God Bless.
And the Doolittle raid had major repercussions not only in the morale boost, but it caused the Japanese to attack Midway – where we took out 4 of their carriers.