US Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz KidBiden
The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body...
said he had advised President Barack Obama
My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it...
not to authorise the raid on the compound in Pakistain where the late Osama bin Laden
... who went shovel-ready...
was thought to be hiding. "My suggestion is, don't go," Biden recalled, saying when Obama sought his opinion on whether to give Navy SEALs the go-ahead to raid the compound. "We have to do two more things if he is there." Biden did not specify which two things he had considered necessary for the operation. Obama also sought opinions from senior advisers, but no one was willing to give a definitive answer except then CIA director Leon Panetta
...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993....
, who told Obama to move forward with the operation, Biden said.