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Brian Williams hosts tonight. He described this event as being the most important of his journalistic career. Rock Center with Brian Williams ‘Inside the Situation Room’ airs Wednesday 9pm/8c on NBC.
“I did choose the risk,” the president said in an exclusive interview with Rock Center Anchor and Managing Editor Brian Williams. “The reason I was willing to make that decision of sending in our SEALs to try to capture or kill bin Laden rather than to take some other options was ultimately because I had 100 percent faith in the Navy SEALs themselves.”
A year after the May 1, 2011, raid on bin Laden’s compound, Obama and several of the advisers who helped plan the operation, known as “Operation Neptune’s Spear,” spoke exclusively to NBC News, reflecting on the tense months spent planning and debating the feasibility of this daring raid. The interviews occurred before the president made an unannounced visit to Kabul on Tuesday, where he and President Hamid Karzai signed an agreement on the future of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.
“This had to be such a close-held operation,” the president said in the interview airing tonight at 9pm/8c on NBC. “There were only a handful of staff in the White House who knew about this.”
The president did not share news of the mission’s launch with his staff, or with the first lady.
“Even a breath of this in the press could have chased bin Laden away,” Obama said. “We didn’t know at that point whether there might be underground tunnels coming out of that compound that would allow him to escape.”
It’s the ONE thing he’s got……think it will last through to the election?
Now that was real chutzpah on the Presidents part!
National security will be a very important issue in the upcoming campaign, and I think it’s perfectly fair to evaluate presidential candidates on the basis of decisions they would make. We know that Mitt Romney would not have approved this courageous decision. I think voters should give the issue due consideration when making their decision this fall.
Starry…starry…starry…
Do you really want to open that Pandora’s box of everything that Obama said…..?
All those statements that are blatantly not true… or controversial…etc.
Also, the Admiral in charge would have been a cut out for the President if it had gone wrong.
Funny how previous Presidents didn’t seem to use that “I” word so much when talking about accomplishments.
What evidence do you have to come to the conclusion that Romney wouldn’t have made that decision? And who is ‘we’? And while I support the president 100% in the decision he did make I’m not quite sure how ‘courageous’ it was. It took him over 5 months to decide one of 4 different ones. I think he chose wisely, but courageous…. eh. He had to choose one, I’m just glad he did before the guy got away, it did take 5 months after all.
Besides, Romney said way back in 2007 he would. So, your either talking out your butt or you just dont know what your talking about. With all due respect Starryflights.
Hi Admin, what is moderation? Can you not post more than one comment on this site in a row?
The first comment always goes to moderation. After the first time, you should go right through, unless you are in some other way marked. Obviously you are marked and you know why, Dan/Hello/Jaydog/et al. Each comment will have to be approved. What you said to Starry isn’t off to a very good start.
Folks, it looks like someone has tried to slip through my net. Look what I caught!!!! You will be evaluated on a case by case basis on my time table, not yours. Once screw up and you sit in pergatory–again.
@Peterson
But 5 months is the blink of an eye compared to the time his predecessor had.
You guys don’t get it, do you? This isn’t just about bin laden. An overwhelming majority of Americans, including Republicans, support Obama’s decision to withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Americans have no more appetite for sending thousands of troops to build democracies around the world. Face it, you guys have lost the advantage you once had on foreign policy, and badly.
Starry, we have been so consumed with City politics that I haven’t chimed in. You are right. Most Americans think it is time to bring the troops home. Most don’t want to waste our money on nation building or defoliation of Afghani poppy crops.
Right now, Obama has the home team advantage. It shouldn’t be an argument between the parties. Agreed.
@Starryflights A “courageous decision” that was enabled by tactics that you consider war crimes, right, Starry? Because we all know that the identity of OBL’s courier was revealed by KSM’s waterboarding. You do know that, right? And yet here you are, spiking the football. So unseemly…
Nothing gets past da Howler! But I still haven’t seen proof from Starry on her claim that Romney wouldn’t have made the same courageous decision. Is there video or something I haven’t seen?
Starry is not a she.
Mr. Obama did not mention Mr. Romney by name in his comments, which escalated a blazing campaign row over who should get credit for the daring helicopter-borne raid deep into Pakistan that killed the terrorist mastermind.
But he was clearly referring to comments Mr. Romney made in 2007, when the Republican questioned whether it would be right to infringe Pakistani territory if Islamabad refused to act on intelligence on terror suspects.
“It’s wrong for a person running for the president of the United States to get on TV and say, ‘We’re going to go into your country unilaterally,’” Mr. Romney said in August 2007.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/01/osama-bin-laden-death-anniversary/
Read it and weep
The Navy Seals get the credit for the daring helicopter-borne raid.
Poor Starry. Do we really have to list for her, once again, all of the empty words uttered by candidate Obama in 2008? Shall we once again hold his feet to the fire?
Starry is not a her.
@Moon-howler
I always picture Starry like the character Pat in the SNL skit. Who knows…. Neither he nor she…just Starry.
And no…this is not a put down.
Yes it is. Stop. You know better than saying that.
so, Obama is to get no credit for the taking out of Bin Laden – something that Romeny, McCain and Palin said they would not do (go into Pakistan without being invited)?? And why does Carter get all the blame for the failure of Operation Eagle Claw??
Had the raid failed or not gotten Bin Laden – I am positive, that it would be made into an election issue.
@Moon-howler
No… it isn’t. I’m saying that Starry never revealed a gender and I pictured Starry as a NON-gender…. Pat is just a good example.
Actually, yes he did reveal a gender, when he went to South Africa for the World Cup.
Additionally, I have said Starry is not female on here no less than 5 times.
Yes, it is offensive, after you have been told. To say you think someone is androgenous in front of them certainly isn’t flattering unless you were brought up in a barn, and I feel certain you weren’t.
However, if all reason and reliance on memory fails, then let’s go with the obvious. I have decreed it obnoxious.
@Pat Herve
Had the raid failed, Obama would have Admiral McFarren to blame. HE was the one to give a Go/NO go command and had direct control. As per Leon Panetta’s memo.
Obama gets credit for getting OBL but its not classy to constantly say that “I” did this or that. Credit the troops and move on.
Carter gets the blame for the failure to do anything besides Op. Eagle Claw. He just gave up. Iran had committed and act of war and the President tried one mission. It didn’t help that the military under Carter was woefully deficient in training and materiel. He gets the blame the same way coaches get credited or blamed for winning or losing.
cargo – if you have not heard Obama credit the troops on the successful mission, well, then, I guess you are just not listening.
Renditions, waterboarding, detentions = intelligence gathered that uncovered the identity of OBL’s courier and ultimately OBL’s whereabouts. The victory lap is unseemly for a president who told us he was better than all of that. But I guess the ends justify the means if a Democrat is the one who reaches the finish line first.
Close your eyes. Then you won’t have to see him taking the victory lap, if that is what you want to call it. Many Americans are glad we (meaning Americans) have that accomplishment done and over with. Perhaps he takes a victory lap for all of us.
Then there are those pesky drones with their collateral damage. Mission Accomplished!