Perhaps in part due to President Obama's decision to open and close last week's State of the Union address with an acknowledgement of the Navy SEALs who executed the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the Abbottabad raid (or more precisely, the fallout from the raid) is suddenly generating a new set of controversies.
In the Wall Street Journal today, recently retired SEAL Leif Babin argues that President Obama is wrongfully exploiting the Navy SEALs for political gain, and worse, endangering Special Operations Forces by revealing operational details of the raid.
Meanwhile, Defense Department spokesmen are "clarifying" Secretary Panetta's remarks to 60 Minutes regarding Pakistani awareness of bin Laden's residence in Abbottabad.
And over at Blackfive, "Uncle Jimbo" claims Kill Bin Laden novelist John Weisman told him the White House delayed executing the Abbottabad raid while polling about the operation was conducted. This would be very bad, of course, although it should be noted this is unattributed hearsay.
I would expect that if the Obama campaign really does intend to make bin Laden's killing central to their case for re-election, we'll inevitably see more of these controversies over the next nine months. Ugh.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
VP Biden Opposed Abbottabad Raid
According to ABC News, Vice President Joe Biden told House Democrats at their annual retreat last weekend that he opposed SEAL Team Six's raid on Abbottabad, Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden.
Hmmm, it's a shocker that the guy who said . . .
Hmmm, it's a shocker that the guy who said . . .
“If he surges another 20, 30, or whatever number he’s going to, into Baghdad, it’ll be a tragic mistake, in my view." (Meet the Press, January 7, 2007). . . turns out not to be such a military genius after all. [Must . . . resist . . . urge . . . to ask whether he gave his recommendation in an Indian accent.]
"I mean, the truth of the matter is that, that the — America’s — this administration’s policy and the surge are a failure." (Meet the Press, September 9, 2007)
Monday, January 30, 2012
"Act of Valor" Featurette
Via the invaluable Blackfive, a two-minute featurette on the use of live ammunition during the filming of the battle sequences in "Act of Valor."
This merely reinforces my amazement at the realism of the action sequences I noted in my review of the film. But I don't think I can add much more than the cameraman quotes from the clip that Blackfive noted:
This merely reinforces my amazement at the realism of the action sequences I noted in my review of the film. But I don't think I can add much more than the cameraman quotes from the clip that Blackfive noted:
"I'm worried about richochets and everything."
"We'll give you a flack jacket and a helmet. You'll be fine."
Today in Manhunting History -- January 30, 2005: The Iraqi Election
After Abu Musab al-Zarqawi formally affiliated himself with al-Qa'ida in December 2004, he tried to undermine the event the Bush administration hoped would mark a turning point in the Coalition’s flailing counterinsurgency effort. In an internet audiotape posted a week before Iraq’s first free election in half-a-century, Zarqawi warned: “We have declared an all-out war on this evil principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology.” Given his demonstrated ability to slaughter large numbers of Iraqis gathered in public places, his threat to fill the streets with blood – were taken seriously. Yet Zarqawi proved no more effective at preventing the elections than Sandino had been in Nicaragua 75 years earlier. Despite AQI’s threats and more than 100 armed attacks on polling stations on January 30, 2005, more than 8.4 million Iraqis voted to select a 275-member assembly and transitional government, with only 44 deaths on election day.
RARE PERSONAL INTERJECTION!!! In January 2005, I worked on the Iraq desk in OSD-Policy, and spent the night of January 29-30 (8PM to 8AM) in the State Department's "Situation Room" as an observer/crisis responder . Even those of us who were (perhaps naively) optimistic about the course of the war expected massive casualties that day, and were prepared to issue talking points as to why the (anticipated) hundreds, potentially thousands of casualties would not derail Iraqi democracy. But an amazing thing happened as voting progressed throughout the night (roughly corresponding to 4AM-4PM Iraq time): the expected reports from the field of polling stations being bombed or Iraqi voters being gunned down in the street in mass atrocities never arrived. Instead, the television screens were filled with images of multiple generations of Iraqi families walking miles to vote, or of purple-fingered tribal members dancing in joy. Obviously, Iraq's troubles were far from over in January 2005, and much of the idealism of that day was lost amidst the increasing violence of the next two years. But it is easy to forget the surprising success of that day, and the incredible courage of the Iraqi people.
RARE PERSONAL INTERJECTION!!! In January 2005, I worked on the Iraq desk in OSD-Policy, and spent the night of January 29-30 (8PM to 8AM) in the State Department's "Situation Room" as an observer/crisis responder . Even those of us who were (perhaps naively) optimistic about the course of the war expected massive casualties that day, and were prepared to issue talking points as to why the (anticipated) hundreds, potentially thousands of casualties would not derail Iraqi democracy. But an amazing thing happened as voting progressed throughout the night (roughly corresponding to 4AM-4PM Iraq time): the expected reports from the field of polling stations being bombed or Iraqi voters being gunned down in the street in mass atrocities never arrived. Instead, the television screens were filled with images of multiple generations of Iraqi families walking miles to vote, or of purple-fingered tribal members dancing in joy. Obviously, Iraq's troubles were far from over in January 2005, and much of the idealism of that day was lost amidst the increasing violence of the next two years. But it is easy to forget the surprising success of that day, and the incredible courage of the Iraqi people.
Panetta on 60 Minutes
The full transcript of Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's 60 Minutes interview is available here.
The video is available (theoretically) here.
To be honest, there isn't much here on the hunt for Osama bin Laden that wasn't already leaked ahead of the interview. But the interviewer, Scott Pelley, does make one misleading statement in his narration that deserves comment. At 7:05 of the video, Pelley says:
While Panetta and the Obama administration deserve credit for the successful operation, the intelligence breakthrough that led to the targeting of the Abbottabad compound was the productive of a cumulative effort that began well before President Obama entered the White House.
The video is available (theoretically) here.
To be honest, there isn't much here on the hunt for Osama bin Laden that wasn't already leaked ahead of the interview. But the interviewer, Scott Pelley, does make one misleading statement in his narration that deserves comment. At 7:05 of the video, Pelley says:
The first challenge ordered by the president was to rethink the search for Osama bin Laden. There hadn't been a good lead since the U.S. lost him in 2001 in the mountains of Tora Bora, Afghanistan. Within a year and a half of Panetta taking over as director of Central Intelligence, the U.S. tracked al Qaeda couriers to a house in a town called Abbottabad, deep inside Pakistan.This suggests that the Obama administration's "rethink" is what led to bin Laden. But in reality, the key intelligence was gained in interrogations dating back to the early Bush administration, including the questioning of Hassan Gul. Gul had been captured by Kurdish forces near the Iranian border in January 2004 carrying a compact disc with a letter from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. These interrogations revealed the existence of a man known by the nom de guerre "Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti," one of the few couriers trusted by bin Laden. Painstaking detective work over the next three years -- not some magical "rethink" -- produced al-Kuwaiti's family name in 2007, which subsequently enabled an intercepted call with another al-Qa'ida operative in 2009 to finally lead U.S. intelligence to the region of Pakistan where al-Kuwaiti operated.
While Panetta and the Obama administration deserve credit for the successful operation, the intelligence breakthrough that led to the targeting of the Abbottabad compound was the productive of a cumulative effort that began well before President Obama entered the White House.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Panetta Acknowledges Role of Pakistani Doctor in Bin Laden Hunt
More from tomorrow's 60 Minutes interview with Secretary Panetta, who according to the New York Times became the first Obama Administration official to publicly confirm that a Pakistani doctor had been working for the CIA collecting intel in Abbottabad.
As many you may recall, Dr. Shikal Afridi ran a phony hepatitis B vaccination program as a ruse to obtain DNA from the occupants of the Abbottabad compound to confirm whether they were Osama bin Laden's family. After the raid, Afridi was subsequently arrested by Pakistani authorities and charged with treason.
Although Dr. Afridi did not get any DNA samples from bin Laden's family, Panetta told 60 Minutes that he was "very helpful" and added that "For them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think is a real mistake on their part." Although Panetta's acknowledgement is hopefully a sign that the Administration will not abandon Afridi, it also confirms every Pakistani conspiracy theory about the reach of the CIA within Pakistani society.
As many you may recall, Dr. Shikal Afridi ran a phony hepatitis B vaccination program as a ruse to obtain DNA from the occupants of the Abbottabad compound to confirm whether they were Osama bin Laden's family. After the raid, Afridi was subsequently arrested by Pakistani authorities and charged with treason.
Although Dr. Afridi did not get any DNA samples from bin Laden's family, Panetta told 60 Minutes that he was "very helpful" and added that "For them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think is a real mistake on their part." Although Panetta's acknowledgement is hopefully a sign that the Administration will not abandon Afridi, it also confirms every Pakistani conspiracy theory about the reach of the CIA within Pakistani society.
Panetta: Pakistani Officials Had to Know About Bin Laden
In an interview to be aired tomorrow night, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta tells 60 Minutes he believes Pakistani officials had to know that Osama bin Laden was hiding at the Abbottabad compound in which he was discovered and killed by SEAL Team Six last May.
"I personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what was happening at this compound," says Panetta, who was the CIA director during the planning and execution of the raid. "[T]his compound had 18-foot walls. It was the largest compound in the area. So you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question, ‘What the hell's going on there?’”
Panetta statement appears to contradict the previous Obama Administration position that that nobody in the Pakistani government knew of bin Laden's location prior to the raid, espoused publicly by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Is Panetta's statement a by-product of deteriorating U.S.-Pakistani relations or of new intelligence discovered in the intervening eight months?
In fact, there may be less than meets the eye here, as Panetta admits: "I don't have any hard evidence, so I can't say it for a fact. There's nothing that proves the case. But, as I said, my personal view is that somebody somewhere probably had that knowledge."
"I personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what was happening at this compound," says Panetta, who was the CIA director during the planning and execution of the raid. "[T]his compound had 18-foot walls. It was the largest compound in the area. So you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question, ‘What the hell's going on there?’”
Panetta statement appears to contradict the previous Obama Administration position that that nobody in the Pakistani government knew of bin Laden's location prior to the raid, espoused publicly by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Is Panetta's statement a by-product of deteriorating U.S.-Pakistani relations or of new intelligence discovered in the intervening eight months?
In fact, there may be less than meets the eye here, as Panetta admits: "I don't have any hard evidence, so I can't say it for a fact. There's nothing that proves the case. But, as I said, my personal view is that somebody somewhere probably had that knowledge."
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