It's getting the treatment by Vanity Fair, relaying the book's inside-baseball high level administration discussions that evidently led to the takedown mission. By the way, as reporters and bloggers sift through this Libya mess it's apparent the buck doesn't stop with the Decider Guy and sometimes not even his top level officials--it's those middle level officials that need to be voted out.
The excerpts support the gutsy call idea; it was on a 50/50 shot the "Pacer" was UBL yet Obama pressed ahead undaunted anyway. Joe Biden comes off as Joe Doofus, the only one in the room who advised O not to go because failure might scuttle his re-election chances. It appears Joe is playing his useful idiot role to a level that should get him an Oscar nomination.
But 50/50, remember that. It was a "toss-up". Which is funny, because if you read "No Easy Day" by the pseudonym SEAL Mark Owen he mentions a CIA analyst named "Jen" who was "100 percent sure" the Pacer was indeed bin Laden. The new bin Laden movie "Zero Dark Thirty" even seems to make a hero out of "Jen" through the character Jessica Chastain. Maybe it was better for the administration to have it released in December after all.
Meanwhile World Net Daily is pushing a story by former general Paul Vallely who claims unnamed intelligence sources tell him Obama knew nothing of the raid on May 1 because he was on the golf course and didn't order it. Panetta ordered it, and they actually had to pull him back to the White House to watch (which is why he appears to be ticked off and sitting in the corner). For this to be true there had to be a mutiny of sorts in the administration, which is a little hard to believe. Some conspiracy whackos actually think Obama waited until May 1--Mayday--to pull the trigger in order to make it a statement of the triumph of workers over religious fascism. Others believe he wanted to wait for the Correspondent's Dinner so he could first put Trump in his place for the birth cert.
Besides, a new picture released with Bowden's article acts to discredit the "Obama didn't know" notion, should anyone take a serious notion to believe WND. Notice the shot of Obama in the Sit room in what appears to be a pre-mission meeting bylined May 1--the day of the attack--which had to have occurred before Obama hit the golf course because previous explanations take him from the course to the residence to the operational room, whence the event was ready to unfold--still wearing his golf shoes. Hillary is wearing the same pants suit in both this new picture and the famous one. Also, the new Vanity Fair shot contains Leon Panetta, who was supposedly back at Langley during the event.
Let's just say that if Vallely's source is correct America has some serious, serious problems, but it seems the chance is less than 50/50. By the way, is this his source? Or this? The latter's book contained a blizzard of inaccuracies about other events that discredits its narrative.
So what about the raid, was it indeed a "kill mission"? Bowden mentions a fantasy version where UBL gets captured leading to an article III court appearance in the US. Seriously. Even Eric Holder thought this was impossible. Going back to Mark Owen's book he claims the stories about bin Laden being killed in the room going for the gun with the young wife trying to shield him were indeed stories; he detailed UBL being shot and mortally wounded as soon as his head popped out the hallway door at the first sign of the approaching SEAL team. Bowden's book confirms this storyline as well. By the way, that shifting narrative is one reason Vallely's source can't be fully discounted.
Owen found it strange Binny never went for his weapons, which were in the room and not even loaded, while having perhaps 10-15 minutes to collect himself after hearing the crashed helo and gunfire downstairs. He attributes this to the cowardice of some leaders, and he may be correct. Then again, maybe he was expecting to be captured. Maybe he was about to come out with his hands up, yelling for his court-appointed attorney. Or as Bowden points out, maybe he figured it was a Pakistani force coming to officially remove him for some political reason. Don't count on ever knowing for sure.
And don't count on having anyone in the media ask the administration if this football spiking and all these films and books might rile up the Muslim street and its one billion Osamas.
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