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'Congratulations, you've killed Bin Laden': Moment Pakistani military commander told Obama the hunt was over - after Biden asked aides 'you think he's really going to do this?' and WH staff questioned how The Rock found out before the rest of the world
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • A new oral history recounts President Barack Obama's decision to authorize the raid on the bin Laden family compound in Pakistan

  • It describes the efforts to positively identify the top terror leader before and after his death

  • Pakistani military chief of staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani provided information when U.S. officials finally called to tell him of the raid

  • Biden viewed his role as trying to 'stretch out his options' when giving Obama advice
But the real purpose of the article is to portray Joe Biden as a steely-eyed statesman:
The new oral history by Garrett Graff also describes the difficult decision to decide whether to go ahead with the raid.

The contours of that advice is already known: with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reluctantly urging action, and former Vice President Joe Biden stressing caution.

According to former deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes, Biden's role in a key Thursday strategy session before Obama authorized the raid was partly the role of 'devil's advocate' – just hours before a raid that had to take place between Friday and Monday because there would be no moon.

Biden, the former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stressed the potential for blowback in Pakistan – whose government was infuriated by the incursion into its territory. The U.S. feared providing notice could cause a leak that would botch the operation.

'Biden had worked a lot on Pakistan over the years, and he really laid out the risk of this going wrong and the potential for confrontation with the Pakistanis,' said Rhodes.

'Our embassy being overrun, the fallout that could ensue. I don’t remember it as being firmly against as much as it being about like, “I’m going to point out the downsides that you need to consider from the perspective of Pakistan.”

Said former CIA Director John Brennan: 'I think Joe Biden was most concerned about if it was a failed mission, what it would mean for Barack Obama and his prospects for a second term.'

Following the Situation Room discussion that Rhodes called 'incredibly dramatic,' Biden pulled Rhodes and chief of staff Denis McDonough into a small conference room.

“You guys think he’s going to do this?” Biden asked.

'We both said, “Yes, absolutely. He always said he would.”'

'What was interesting about that is that Biden said, “Look, I see my role as trying to stretch out his options.” In a sense, Biden was just trying to make sure that Obama had a bunch of room for his decision-making. That always made me think that while he was opposed in the meeting, that some of his opposition was this role he saw for himself—he took a position against the grain to just create space,' said Rhodes.
Posted by: Skidmark 2021-05-01
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=600806