Posted on 05/10/2011 12:15:53 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
US President Barack Obama was willing to risk a military confrontation with Pakistan in order to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, the New York Times reported revealing additional details about the US raid on his hideout.
Obama insisted that the assault force hunting down the al Qaeda leader be large enough to fight its way out of Pakistan if confronted by hostile local police officers and troops, the influential US daily said on Monday citing senior administration and military officials.
Two teams of specialists were on standby: One to bury bin Laden if he was killed, and a second composed of lawyers, interrogators and translators in case he was captured alive, the officials were cited as saying.
That team was set to meet aboard a Navy ship, most likely the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in the North Arabian Sea.
"Obama's decision to increase the size of the force sent into Pakistan shows that he was willing to risk a military confrontation with a close ally in order to capture or kill the leader of al Qaeda," the Times said.
"Their instructions were to avoid any confrontation if at all possible. But if they had to return fire to get out, they were authorised to do it," one senior Obama administration official cited by the daily said about the rules of engagement for the Osama mission.
The planning also illustrates how little the administration trusted the Pakistanis as they set up their operation, the Times said.
American surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft were watching and listening to how Pakistan's police forces and military responded to the raid, officials cited by the daily said.
That determined how long the commandos could safely remain on the ground going through the compound collecting computer hard drives, thumb drives and documents.
In planning for the possible capture of bin Laden, officials decided they would bring him aboard a Navy ship to preclude battles over jurisdiction, the Times said.
The plan was to do an initial interrogation for any information that might prevent a pending attack or identify the location of other Qaeda leaders, it said.
But US officials acknowledged that the mission always was weighted toward killing, given the possibility that bin Laden would be armed or wearing an explosive vest, the Times said.
“With a nuclear power, no less, or didnt any of his twenty-something staffers tell him that Pock-ee-ston (as he pronounces it) has atomic weapons and missiles?”
There are no WMD. There never were.
You got that right.
It’s Jarack Obaurba, now with movable parts and a kung fu grip.
Like a Soviet field marshal? Don't say that too loudly .....
Actually, though, I think he'd rather be the guy who regularly executed Soviet field marshals ..... by sending them Nikita Khruschev with a brand-new Tokarev pistol in a box.
Hmmm. Here's a thought: What if, from Obama's POV, the raid was a three-fer?
One, he gets credits he can use to muzzle GOP national-security campaign issues and get re-elected in 2012.
Two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is a big dog in the Muslim Brotherhood, gets the leadership of al-Q'aeda at the same time the MB gets the leadership of Egypt served up to them on a plate by Obama.
Three, bereft of cred and fresh out of friends, the Paki military gets overthrown by the Taliban and al-Q'aeda, who thus get The Bomb and the services of Dr. A.Q. Khan, the Paki nuke-maker.
Later on, Obama and the Muslim Brotherhood cooperate in a "high crime and misdemeanor" that will make history forget about Benedict Arnold. Then Obama recites the Shehada in public for real and announces he's always been a secret Musselman fanatic and shaheed, and promptly gets "martyred" for the Umma in a huge propaganda coup/scandal.
How about that one?
I'm still half-persuaded he just doesn't care.
But he still talks about building up a civilian force (private army, or party army a la the SA and Waffen-SS). How he would manage the constitutional legitimacy of such an organization, if he began to arm them, I don't know.
And as a practical matter, how would he deal with all the "reactionary" patriots now in uniform?
He's obviously trying to drive some of them out by introducing homosexuals, and secure himself a more-liberal military, and to stress-test the senior leadership cadres, to identify the next generation of reliable Wesley Clarks.
But the OldThinkers in uniform would still be a problem, so he probably plans a monster RIF at some point, to blow the Good Guys out into the street and leave the catamites and left-wingers in place as "the new military" who won't mind pogrom-izing Americans for their race and politics.
</thinking out loud; /thinking about Obozo as a Marxist-Leninist rather than as a jihadi shaheed>
A “right wing teabagger” pulls the trigger, and Congress grants special powers to Joe Biden, including suspension of habeas corpus, until the “domestic terrorists” are all safely behind bars.
No, if Obama is going to pull something like that, someone else will be the human sacrifice.
Hillary, maybe. Two birds with one stone. Under the bus, Hildy. (You, too, Huma. </snark>)
Yes, it was very pronounced.
No wonder he was shot on sight. What special operator wants to be part of the debacle explained above....? Who did they have in mind as the lead lawyer on this mission....Harmon Raab?
“Now I can’t even read Obama without seeing Osama.”
I thought it was just me? Hope we can get a nice AMERICAN name in there. /s
Why I am curious about all of this, the way they are releasing info is so political. Unnamed sources to the NYT? Late night the world-is-ending news alerts followed by Obama crowing about himself? Something big better happen somewhere to take this off the front pages.
PLEASE Myley Cirus elope with Justin Bieber or something ;)
It’s becoming clear - Biden is the smart one....
And, unable to distinguish reality from fabricated reality the public would fall inline like the moldable serfs that they are quickly becoming.
The journOlists have been ordered to make him the hero and they have no problem doing it.
Matthews heils his Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iovgXnKe—Y&feature=player_embedded
In the beginning of the clip he loses his breathe like he is in love?
Obamagasm Awards
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2717238/posts?page=33
Complete claptrap.
But then it is from an Indian newspaper, and India hates Pokeestan.
If Zero dithered any more than he did, Bin Laden would still be alive, and Seal Team 6 would have been in Iranian Rescue 1980—Part 2.
The non- Natural Born One needs to go—as soon as possible.
Even a clown like Biden does not hate this country as much as Zero.
Amen.
Permit me one little tweak.
Obama is a figurehead who does what Valerie Jarrett tells him to do.
NY Slimes*** By next week, he'll have been the first one into the hideout, taking out Osama with one well-placed shot right between the eyes and then translating all the documents from Arabic before piloting the helicopter to the awaiting aircraft carrier, where he cooked a delicious gourmet meal for the SEAL team, before reading them their rights under the UCMJ for war crimes. He then prepared the body for burial at sea and performed the Islamic funeral ceremony. ***
'Obama was ready for military confrontation with Pak'
("Commander McBragg" Obama jumps the shark
If the NY Slimes thought they could get away with telling that Fairy Tale, they would.
an aside on 'Commander McBragg'.
Per TCM's Robert Osborne that cartoon character was modeled after the great (IMHO) British actor C. Aubrey Smith
(General Burroughs in the 1939 movie 'The Four Feathers')[one of my faves]
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