“We don’t look like people who have won a war. We look like scared, fearful, losers.”
The Piece of Paper That Killed Bin Laden
If you can manage to decipher Leon Panetta’s chicken scratch, you too can read the final memo that launched the raid that killed America’s most hated enemy. The memo is part of Peter Bergen’s Time cover story on Osama bin Laden’s last days and Obama’s call to go ahead, despite Joe Biden and Robert Gates’ disapproval, with the Navy SEAL raid on bin Laden’s Abottabad complex.
Read: The Atlantic Wire
“Trust me, if you went to 26th and California [the Cook County Criminal Courthouse] with the evidence that Osama bin Laden was in the building, no judge would have given you a search warrant. No way. They would have looked at you and said, ‘bring me something real here.’”
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In a one-to-one meeting with Bin Laden, he was told the justification for the mission.
The al-Qaeda leader told Badat that “the American economy is like a chain”, he said.
“If you break one link of the chain, the whole economy will be brought down.
“So after the 11 September attacks, this operation will ruin the aviation industry and in turn the whole economy will come down.”
Badat said his final orders were given by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man who has admitted masterminding the 11 September attacks and who is being held at Guantanamo Bay where he will be tried by a military tribunal.
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History is full of awful opinions. For your entertainment, we’ve compiled a list of them in our Bad Opinion Generator. Enjoy!
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When the president asked his top advisers for their final opinion on the mission, all of them were hesitant, except for the former CIA director, now Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Biden said.
“Every single person in that room hedged their bet except Leon Panetta. Leon said go. Everyone else said, 49, 51,” Biden said, as he offered the unsolicited details of the decision-making process.
“He got to me. He said, ‘Joe, what do you think?’ And I said, ‘You know, I didn’t know we had so many economists around the table.’ I said, ‘We owe the man a direct answer. Mr. President, my suggestion is, don’t go. We have to do two more things to see if he’s there,’” Biden recalled.
While the vice president did not explain what those two more things were, the next morning the president gave National Security Adviser Tom Donilon the “go” to launch the SEAL raid of the compound.
“He knew what was at stake, not just the lives of those brave warriors, but literally the presidency,” Biden said.
”“Iran is in many ways a safer territory from which al Qaeda can operate. The United States has targeted al Qaeda in Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, and other countries, but it has limited operational reach in Iran.”
“He’s unique in this sense. … [In the Taj] the gunmen know the place inside and out, even though they’ve never been anywhere near Mumbai, let alone a luxury hotel. That was all thanks to this preliminary work that Headley had done.”
Man Is Said to Be Arrested in Bid to Kill Government Workers With Bomb
The authorities have arrested a man who law enforcement officials believe was planning to build and detonate a bomb in New York with government workers as the target, a person briefed on the case said on Sunday.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly of the New York Police Department, and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.were expected to announce the charges against the man at 7:30 p.m. at a news conference at City Hall.
We’ll cover the press conference, all.
(via shortformblog)
“FBI Director Robert Mueller said the alleged terror plot involving Iran “reads like the pages of a Hollywood script.”
Christopher Hitchens: Assassination is the best option
Probably because it mainly provides the kind of short-term cinematic satisfaction that characterizes the Hellfire terminus, the flashy ending of al-Qaeda’s main media star has only led to the reopening of some pressing questions about the nature of the jihadi menace. It has also forced us to confront the idea of words as weapons, and the relationship between ideas and actions, in a world of conscienceless criminal violence that operates without employing any code or precedent of its own.
So now we have the phenomenon of an American citizen, able to whisper directly into the ears of people living here, but until recently being able to do so from a geographical location where our laws cannot reach him. There is no precedent, however remote, for a legal and moral challenge of this kind, let alone for a political or military one.
The FBI says there's a chance for a retaliatory attack in the wake of Anwar al-Awlaki's killing. P's and Q's? Keep on those.
The FBI also released a similar warning when U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden. In related news, the guy who designed the underwear bomber’s underwear bomb was likely also killed in the strike that killed al-Awlaki.
(via shortformblog)
What Gets an American on The White House 'Kill List'? - Max Fisher, The Atlantic
Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told to Congress Wednesday that the U.S. can target Americans to be killed if it believes they are involved in terrorism. This supports an earlier report that the CIA and JSOC maintain White House-approved “kill lists” of three to four Americans. Blair articulated the policy as requiring high-level approval but did not mention Congressional oversight or judicial review. He described the criteria as “whether that American is involved in a group that is trying to attack us, whether that American is a threat to other Americans.” So far, the only confirmed American target is Anwar al-Awlaki. The vagueness of Blair’s criteria, as well as the assertion that Awlaki meets those criteria, raises the question: What gets an American citizen on the kill lists?
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“To start assassinating American citizens without charges - we should think very seriously about this.”
Ron Paul
“Al-Awlaki was born here, he’s an American citizen, he was never tried or charged for any crimes” -Ron Paul
