What I don’t get about the “lasing the targets” bit is the fact that if they were lighting up targets, and yet nobody pulled the trigger, wouldn’t that mean the order to not engage came down in the minutes before the lasing took place? Almost simultaneously, which is unlikely? Please enlighten if you know more.
I don’t know anything about this, but if the order in effect for all assets in the area was to “stand down” it would mean that even though a Predator drone, for instance, might be ABLE to fire on the target, they had a standing order not to. If the SEALs could either see or were in radio contact to know that the Predator had hellfires that could be utilized, they might paint a target in the hopes that it would be hit - either because Obama would change his mind about the standing order, or because they hoped somebody would disobey orders and help, like they had done.
Maybe somebody who knows more about the military can give us both a clue.