Breaking news of Osama raid to Pakistan was easier than thought, says Obama

[rent4country]

Obama also wrote about why the Pakistani military was not informed.

 

[Irfan Baloch]

What-a-bou-tery

That includes both parties. Americans for leting him "slip" and Pakistan to "allow him in and stay house pest" in the country.

that is true

Bin Laden's Tora Bora escape, just months after 9/11
By Gordon Corera

Bin Laden's Tora Bora escape, just months after 9/11

Only a few months after 9/11, American troops located Osama Bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan - so how was he able to evade them?

www.bbc.co.uk

Military incompetence'
The commander of the CIA Afghan operation, Hank Crumpton, spoke to the top military commander who said it would take weeks to get troops in.
"Tora Bora was just a case of military incompetence," argues Richard Clarke, at the time, a White House counter-terrorism adviser.
"They had plenty of time, they had the people, they had the information - this was not a matter of miscommunication. This was a matter of general officers deciding not to do it because they didn't think it was their mission."
Many are angry that the US did not use marines based in Kandahar, not far away.
Cofer Black, the CIA's director of counter-terrorism at the time, blames the decision on a reluctance to risk troops.
"When you compare that to a war that went on for 10 years with American and British troops fighting, in hindsight you can say… it would have been well worth it," he says.
"If I'd had any wish, it would have been I'd got up off my desk and made a call and said, 'I want to see the president.'"
General Tommy Franks, then in charge of Central Command (CentCom), made the decision not to send in reinforcements. He declined to comment. Other colleagues reject the idea it was a mistake.
"You could have waited longer and put troops in. In that same amount of time, Bin Laden could have left," argues General Richard Myers, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"So there was a sense of urgency. And the decision was left to General Franks, the CentCom commander, and we backed him. We thought, 'Yep, that sounds good'. I'd do the same thing again."
Berntsen remains angry. "The US military spends a trillion dollars a year on defence. Why is it that they could not get forces into that area? It's a ridiculous statement that they couldn't get people there.


another Nugget by CNN

Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry repeatedly asserted that President Bush let bin Laden escape by using Afghan forces instead of American troops against al Qaeda in Tora Bora.

==
there are multiple accounts by American Marines and delta force personnel who say they were told to stand down and stop the pursuit of the AL leadership.

maybe Osama had useful life for the Americans? Pakistan needed to be embarrassed later for whatever reasons.

 

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

Yet, a "stealth" helicopter got lost....

Obama should be more concerned about how the House Niggers can save their a$$e$ from the Whites now that their anger is reaching the tipping point....

The Pindi Boys have nukes to put others - including the best from the Ehl-i Sheyatin- on the notice! What have the House Niggers got????

 

[jupiter2007]

So basically the then Army Chief of Pakistan committed treason because of whom we are forever marked as terrorist sympathizers and terrorist safe havens?

That's true. Zardari is the real traitor and he probably got money from Obama.

 

[Itachi]

Mullah Omar leader of Afghan Taliban, on the other hand managed to live for 10 years & peacefully die in close proximity to an American base in Afghanistan
why not apply the same logic and suggest that US military commanders at the Base were complicit in letting Mullah Omar live just accross the base and never get discovered?

They actually searched his house twice....still couldn't find him according to the press release.

 

[Rank]

It is shameful for the military establishment esp Kiyani ... according to Obama, he was surprised to see the response of the Army Chief and the President of Pakistan... instead of feeling humiliated, both were congratulating him instead... WOW

Kiyani: bhai aap pehlay ilaan kardain isay pehlay kay hamari koom hamko galyaan day
Zardari: waah zabardast kaam kiya hey aap nay

This is your past worst shitty leadership!

 

[Meengla]

There is no way Pakistan was not part of this game. And I am guessing there can be two reasons for Pakistan not claiming its role in this whole drama; first is the possible backlash that could have been unleased in form of terror attacks on Pakistan with the narrative being that Pakistan sold a mujahid to the Americans--suicide bombers were going off left & right in Pakistan in those years

I don't blame the Americans for not involving Pakistan. A sitting Governor of the largest province of Pakistan Mr. Taseer was gunned down in broad-day light by his own fanatical bodyguard. Info about the raid just could not have been hidden in not only Pakistan but I bet in most of the countries of the world. Rumsfeld has a video out there where he made a forceful defense of Pakistan by saying something like 'if one in Pakistan knew then others would know'.

So, no, I for one don't believe at all Pakistani forces were aware of the OBL operation BUT neither do I believe that anyone in the Pakistani governance at any level was involved in protecting OBL: OBL had a juicy $50 million bounty on him, to get someone started.

What I do believe is that it was the Pakistani intelligence tip which led to OBL being nabbed and Americans know it well. It's a different matter that Leon Panetta, unlike Obama, started to blame Pakistan for his personal glory. And while Americans knew of Pakistan's innocence, they were already on a path of 'Do More' those days and used the OBL raid to further pressure Pakistan into giving strategic space to India in Afghanistan.

Regardless of the truth, the OBL raid was a historic opportunity for not only the Pakistani government but also the bloggers to project Obama's recognition of Pakistan's help. OBL was nothing short of the modern Hitler re-incarnate and Pakistan had a legit case to claim a part of the glory. But, no, not only on the Pakistani govt but also the bloggers didn't grab the opportunity and wasted time and energy on conspiracy theories which, even if founded on truth, were NOT going to find audience in the world. What more damage could Al Qaida had done in Pakistan that they had not already done for years?

 

[Saifullah]

That's true. Zardari is the real traitor and he probably got money from Obama.

No one gives a f about Zardari. Every one knows who is incharge of security matters in Pakistan and it's our gernailszz. Pathetic morons who take oath to defend this Land and sellout like roadside sluts. Sellout like kayani and Co are in charge to defend Pakistan, No wonder this happened.

the criminal silence of Pakistani leadership can be pardoned.

Very gracious of you to side line the sellouts of gernailz. The sellout leadership of Kayani and Co is the reason for this. Salal happened under the same leadership didn't it ?

 

[Raider 21]

no one was silenced.
one guy who lived near by and saw the whole event started reporting and video uploading on facebook and other social media.
they raised the place to stop it becoming a mausoleum of Osama.
I have a swatai friend who talks of multiple helicopters flying all day and the Americans going to Terbella as well. it was impossible to silence when the national and international media was there.

it was like a festival. people from local and other places were visiting the place and being told to stay back by half hearted officials
the officials were sheepishly hiding their red faces for the claims of the Americans so I dont recall anyone telling locals to stay quiet.

My aunt saw quite a lot of the action during the helo explosion from a distance and grandparents heard shooting (they live on EME Kakul Rd). Needless to say, they were in awe of all the action the Americans pulled off.

 

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

Pak President Asif Zaradari sounded very happy getting a telephone call following the raid according to Obama!!! How has Pak been surviving these traitor maggots?! Mujib looks almost "angelic" in front of these bastards.....

 

[Rank]

Pak President Asif Zaradari sounded very happy getting a telephone call following the raid according to Obama!!! How could Pak survive those traitor maggots?! Mujib looks almost "angelic" in front of these bastards.....

Zardari wasn’t a head of security... he has no special army perhaps a man who had control, who has first hand reports from its Army was sitting somewhere in pindi..

 

[monitor]

Breaking news of Osama raid to Pakistan was easier than thought, says Obama


Anwar IqbalUpdated 18 Nov 2020



Barack Obama has claimed in his memoirs that breaking the news to Pakistan of a US raid into Abbottabad to kill Osama bin Laden was easier than he had expected as the then president Asif Ali Zardari understood the US position. — AFP
Barack Obama has claimed in his memoirs that breaking the news to Pakistan of a US raid into Abbottabad to kill Osama bin Laden was easier than he had expected as the then president Asif Ali Zardari understood the US position. — AFP
WASHINGTON: Barack Obama has claimed in his memoirs that breaking the news to Pakistan of a US raid into Abbottabad to kill Osama bin Laden was easier than he had expected as the then president Asif Ali Zardari understood the US position.

The book — “A Promised Land” — was released on Tuesday and gives a blow-by-blow account of the raid by American commandos that killed the world’s most wanted terrorist on May 2, 2011 inside his compound in Abbottabad.

Obama wrote that he knew ordering a military strike inside an allied state violated its sovereignty but he decided to go for it as he did not want to miss the chance to take out the Al Qaeda leader.

“Whatever we chose to do in Abbottabad, then, would involve violating the territory of a putative ally in the most egregious way possible, short of war- raising both the diplomatic stakes and the operational complexities,” he wrote.


The former US president revealed that his two closest aides, the then vice president Joe Biden and defence secretary Robert Gates opposed the raid. The revelation shows why Obama released the book after the Nov. 3 elections as it would have hurt Biden, who is now the President-elect.

After the raid, Obama called many American and world leaders, including the then president of Pakistan.

Zardari “showed genuine emotion, recalling how his wife, Benazir Bhutto, had been killed by extremists with reported ties to Al Qaeda,” Obama wrote.

“I expected my most difficult call to be with Pakistan’s beleaguered president, Asif Ali Zardari, who would surely face a backlash at home over our violation of Pakistani sovereignty,” he wrote.



“When I reached him, however, he expressed congratulations and support. ‘Whatever the fallout,' he said, ‘it’s very good news'."

Obama then asked his military Chief, Mike Mullen, to call his counterpart in Pakistan.

“Mullen had put a call in to Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and while the conversation had been polite, Kayani had requested that we come clean on the raid and its target as quickly as possible in order to help his people manage the reaction of the Pakistani public,” he said.

Obama said he ruled out involving Pakistan in the raid because he believed that certain elements inside Pakistan maintained links to the Taliban and perhaps even Al Qaeda.



He wrote that when it became increasingly clear that Bin Laden was living in a hideout in Abbottabad, he decided to go for the kill.

“Based on what I’d heard, I decided we had enough information to begin developing options for an attack on the compound. While the CIA team continued to work on identifying the Pacer, I asked Tom Donilon and John Brennan to explore what a raid would look like,” he wrote.

“The need for secrecy added to the challenge; if even the slightest hint of our lead on bin Laden leaked, we knew our opportunity would be lost. As a result, only a handful of people across the entire federal government were read into the planning phase of the operation,” he said.

Although he acknowledged that “Pakistan’s government cooperated with us on a host of counterterrorism operations and provided a vital supply path for our forces in Afghanistan,” he decided not to share the information with Islamabad.

“The fact that the Abbottabad compound was just a few miles from the Pakistan military’s equivalent of West Point only heightened the possibility that anything we told the Pakistanis could end up tipping off our target,” he added.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2020

Breaking news of Osama raid to Pakistan was easier than thought, says Obama

Former US president reveals that his two closest aides, Joe Biden and defence secretary Robert Gates, had opposed the raid.

www.dawn.com

Its unthinkable a most wanted person olive Osama bin laden would be living in near proximity of Pakistan's premier military academy without any help fron certain elements of Pakistani military and intelligence. US should atleast informed Mr Zardari before the attack would have facesaving for Pakistan.

 

[Ghessan]

as there is already a thread on his book so I add:

Hostility towards Pakistan quickest route to national unity in India, says Obama
Anwar IqbalUpdated 19 Nov 2020
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The quickest route to national unity in India is “expressing hostility toward Pakistan,” says Barack Obama, America’s first coloured president in his new book, “A Promised Land.” — AFP/File
WASHINGTON: The quickest route to national unity in India is “expressing hostility toward Pakistan,” says Barack Obama, America’s first coloured president in his new book, “A Promised Land.”
When Obama met Singh again during his visit to India in November 2010, Singh told him that he feared “rising anti-Muslim sentiment had strengthened the influence of Hindu nationalist BJP”, the main opposition party at the time.
The book, released worldwide on Nov 17, also includes a pen portrait of former Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, whom he first met at the 2009 G20 summit in Pittsburgh.
Obama described Singh as “a gentle, soft-spoken economist” who engineered the modernisation of his nation’s economy.
ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD

Obama quoted Singh as saying that the “call of religious and ethnic solidarity can be intoxicating” for politicians, particularly in a country like India, which was still racked by poverty, wealth inequality, violence and ultra-nationalism.
Obama noted that “many Indians (took) great pride in the knowledge that their country had developed a nuclear weapons programme to match Pakistan’s, untroubled by the fact that a single miscalculation by either side could risk regional annihilation.”
“Violence, both public and private, remained an all-too-pervasive part of Indian life. Expressing hostility towards Pakistan was still the quickest route to national unity,” Obama wrote.
“Most of all, India’s politics still revolved around religion, clan, and caste.”
But Obama also acknowledged that “in many respects, modern-day India counted as a success story, having survived repeated changeovers in government, bitter feuds within political parties, various armed separatist movements, and all manner of corruption scandals”.
But “despite its genuine economic progress, … India remained a chaotic and impoverished place: largely divided by religion and caste, captive to the whims of corrupt local officials and power brokers, hamstrung by a parochial bureaucracy that was resistant to change,” he added.
“A Promised Land” ends with the US raid on the Bin Laden compound in 2011 and, therefore, does not include the current Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi.
Read: Breaking news of Osama raid to Pakistan was easier than thought, says Obama
Commenting on the prevalence of violence in India, Obama wondered if “violence, greed, corruption, nationalism, racism, and religious intolerance” were “too strong for any democracy to permanently contain”.
The former US leader noted that those who believed in violence “seemed to lie in wait everywhere, ready to resurface whenever growth rates stalled or demographics changed or a charismatic leader chose to ride the wave of people’s fears and resentments”.
Obama also praised Singh’s ascent to prime minister’s office, noting that he was from an “often persecuted Sikh religious minority.”
He claimed that “more than one political observer” told him that Sonia Gandhi had “chosen Singh precisely because as an elderly Sikh with no national political base, he posed no threat to her 40-year-old son, Rahul, whom she was grooming to take over the Congress Party.”
“Somehow, I was doubtful” if Rahul Gandhi was capable of “preserving the Congress Party’s dominance over the divisive nationalism touted by the BJP,” he wrote.
Obama described Rahul Gandhi as “smart and earnest,” with good looks” but noted that “there was a nervous, unformed quality about him, as if he were a student who’d done the coursework and was eager to impress the teacher but deep down lacked either the aptitude or the passion to master the subject.”
Obama wrote that India had “always held a special place in my imagination.” Analysing this fascination, he said: “Maybe it was its sheer size, with one-sixth of the world’s population, an estimated two thousand distinct ethnic groups, and more than seven hundred languages spoken.”
But “more than anything, though, my fascination with India had to do with Mahatma Gandhi. Along with Lincoln, King, and Mandela, Gandhi had profoundly influenced my thinking,” he added.
Obama mentioned that his Indian and Pakistani college friends, who “taught me to cook dahl and keema and turned me on to Bollywood movies” also stirred his interest in India.
But this, he wrote, could not hide the huge issues India faced as the world’s second most populated country.
“Across the country, millions continued to live in squalor, trapped in sunbaked villages or labyrinthine slums, even as the titans of Indian industry enjoyed lifestyles that the rajas and moguls of old would have envied,” he writes in his new memoir.
“Violence, both public and private, remained an all-too-pervasive part of Indian life.”

Hostility towards Pakistan quickest route to national unity in India, says Obama

In his new book, the former US president describes Manmohan Singh as “a gentle, soft-spoken economist”.

www.dawn.com

 

[Mujahid Memon]

Pakistan academy trains cadets. its not involved in fighting. PMA is a very big landmark in Abbotabad spread over hundreds of acres so it has proximity to of thousands of homes in Abbotabad
its a shame Osama managed to live his last days in Abbotabad but it was Pakistan tip off of Al Qaeda courier that helped in locating him

Mullah Omar leader of Afghan Taliban, on the other hand managed to live for 10 years & peacefully die in close proximity to an American base in Afghanistan
why not apply the same logic and suggest that US military commanders at the Base were complicit in letting Mullah Omar live just accross the base and never get discovered?

Do you really believe this propoganda that Osama was in Abbotabad??

 

[Riz]

Someone informed obama that due to that zardari smile and kyani congratulations we are now out from Afghanistan with another shameful defeat..