Posted on 05/02/2011 4:07:12 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
(Reuters) - U.S. special forces set out to kill Osama bin Laden and dump his body in the sea to make it harder for the al Qaeda founder to become a martyr, U.S. national security officials told Reuters on Monday.
"This was a kill operation," one of the officials said.
"If he had waved a white flag of surrender, he would have been taken alive," the official added. But the operating assumption among the U.S. raiders was that bin Laden would put up a fight -- which he did.
Bin Laden "participated" in a firefight between the U.S. commandos and residents of the fortified compound near the Pakistani capital Islamabad where he had been hiding, the official said.
The official would not explicitly say whether bin Laden fired on the Americans, but confirmed that during the course of the 40-minute operation the U.S. team shot bin Laden in the head.
Three other men and a woman lay dead after the raid, but no Americans were killed. John Brennan, President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, said U.S. officials believed the woman was one of bin Laden's wives and that he had used her as a human shield.
Brennan said the commandos were prepared to capture Obama alive, but they knew that was a remote possibility.
"If we had the opportunity to take bin Laden alive, if he didn't present any threat, the individuals involved were able and prepared to do that," Brennan told reporters.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
RIP
Rest In Pork
I'll bet he wished he had more of his wives there.
Islama-punk.
What annoyed me to no end was these sickophants so concerned with his burial according to Islamic law. Stick a ham hat on his head wrap him in a pork robe strap a bomb on his a## put him on a raft have a drink and push the button. These guys get me sick
;-)
;-)
Obama is finding out that Mohammed was a liar and that Jesus Christ is the real prophet of the one true God.
Honestly, even if he was willing to give up. I’d have shot him to save America from the trail and the administrations mishandling of it.
I say the team that got him get the 25 mill reward. God knows they saved us 10 times that in court/security costs for a trail.
If by participate, you mean taking multiple rounds to the head then, yes he did indeed.
TRIAL! shessh.. twice I screwed that one up ;)
I’m gonna guess you meant osama, but it’s an easy mistake to make.
I’m just glad that right now, he knows that islam’s a lie. Maybe he’s in obvlivion/nowhere like before we’re born or in hell, but we all know he’s not in the retarded islamic version of the afterlife.
I’m surprised OBL didn’t have a secret, underground passageway to flee in when the compound was built. I guess he thought the place was impossible to breach.
"If he had waved a white flag of surrender, he would have been taken alive," ...But the operating assumption... was that bin Laden would put up a fight... during the course of the 40-minute operation the U.S. team shot bin Laden in the head... officials believed the woman was one of bin Laden's wives and that he had used her as a human shield.
when the americans recovered part of a russian submarine, the US military gave full soviet military burial rites to the dead. They even taped it to provide it to the soviets as a proof the dead were respected.
I am not saying I agree, I just understand of burrying the dead appropriately. If we did have him and dumping his body at sea prevents it from becoming a monument. (see arafat)
A fight? I heard OBL hid behind a woman!
I hope his 72 Virgins all look like Helen Thomas!
Some people have described hell as being on the outside of Heaven and forever knowing that you missed your opportunity to get in.
Why do I have a gut feeling the mission was to bring out a dead benLaden, whether he was in the compound or not?
Okrah is reportedly pissed at Obambi, who had promised to deliver to her show (and magazine) a live bin Laden.
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