Helmet Cams Recorded Osama bin Laden Raid – Narrative Revised, Revisited ~ forex online

<a rel="attachment wp-att-12156" href="http://republicanredefined.com/2011/05/13/helmet-cams-recorded-osama-bin-laden-raid-narrative-revised-revisited/seal-helmet-cam/"><img class="size-full wp-image-12156 alignleft" title="SEAL helmet cam" src="http://republicanredefined.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/SEAL-helmet-cam.jpg" alt="Navy SEAL Helmet Cameras Osama Bin Laden Raid" width="249" height="188" /></a>Helmet-cams worn by the Navy SEAL Team recorded the entire raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound?
Not that anyone was really buying the official White House narrative of the Osama bin Laden raid after <a href="http://michellemalkin.com/2011/05/06/the-fog-of-fog/" >umpteen revisions</a>; or the story of how the administration “viewed” the operation in “real time”; but this account does paint, perhaps a more realistic version of how “intelligence officials” were able to <a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/05/13/seal-helmet-cams-recorded-the-entire-bin-laden-raid/" >track the mission’s progress</a> – or at least <a href="http://www.blackfive.net/main/2011/05/seal-helmet-cam-video-and-live-feeds.html" >piece it together post-op</a>. What it doesn’t explain is why White House spokesmen seemed to be making educated guesses as to the details in the days following the raid on the Abbottabad compound.
<div id='stb-box-4128' class='stb-grey_box' ><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/12/eveningnews/main20062410.shtml?tag=cbsContent;cbsCarousel" >CBS News</a> national security correspondent David Martin reports the 40 minutes it took to kill bin Laden and scoop his archives into garbage bags were all recorded by tiny helmet cameras worn by each of the 25 SEALs.
Officials reviewing those videos are still reconstructing a more accurate version of what happened. We now know that the only firefight took place in the guest house, where one of bin Laden’s couriers opened fire and was quickly gunned down. No one in the main building got off a shot or was even armed, although there were weapons nearby.
The SEALs first saw bin Laden when he came out on the third floor landing. They fired, but missed. He retreated to his bedroom, and the first SEAL through the door grabbed bin Laden’s daughters and pulled them aside.
When the second SEAL entered, bin Laden’s wife rushed forward at him — or perhaps was pushed by bin Laden. The SEAL shoved her aside and shot bin Laden in the chest. A third seal shot him in the head.</div>
Having reserved judgment on most of this <a href="http://theothermccain.com/2011/05/03/white-house-cant-get-its-story-straight-on-how-osama-bin-laden-was-killed/" >ever-changing narrative business</a> in the interest of giving the administration the benefit of the doubt on not wanting to compromise future missions or the fruits of this one, I think it’s finally fair to weigh in on the matter given the insane amount of information that has been slowly leaked to the public. If this whole thing was still hush-hush with the purpose of not letting bin Laden associates know exactly what was uncovered, I’d be all for chalking the mysteries of this raid up to “national security”, but I think that ship has regrettably sailed.
The only conclusion I can reasonably draw at this point is that the President and his Senior Staff were probably not “in the loop” as to full and specific operational details until at least some time Monday following Counter-Terrorism Adviser John Brennan’s <a title="John Brennan, White House Briefing on Osama bin Laden Kill-Capture Operation, Burial" href="http://republicanredefined.com/2011/05/02/john-brennan-white-house-briefing-on-osama-bin-laden-kill-capture-operation-burial/" >briefing with the Press</a>. After all, it was his account that set the stage for Narrative Part I – the script that would be subsequently edited a number of times in the days that followed.
If you also remember, on Tuesday, CIA Director Leon Pinetta <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/05/leon-panetta.html" >told Jim Lehrer of PBS</a> that there was a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/8493391/Osama-bin-Laden-dead-Blackout-during-raid-on-bin-Laden-compound.html" >25 minute blackout</a> in the video feed to the White House. Supposedly, the President was able to hear radio communication that “Geronimo” was there/killed, but he and his staff were in the dark during the actual raid.
<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dnD9_NcjmO8&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dnD9_NcjmO8&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
On balance, Pinetta seems to be running routes from a different playbook than that of the Administration on a number of matters as he was also the one to go on record saying that <a href="http://republicanredefined.com/2011/05/03/white-house-set-to-release-osama-bin-laden-death-photo/" >photos of a dead Osama bin Laden</a> would eventually be <a title="White House Will Not Release Osama bin Laden Death Photo, No Need “To Spike the Football”" href="http://republicanredefined.com/2011/05/04/white-house-will-not-release-osama-bin-laden-death-photo-no-need-to-spike-the-football/" >shared with the public</a>.
—–
So, here’s my theory. The President, his advisers, the CIA, and the Pentagon put together this incredibly detailed operation. Then, when it was time to carry it out Sunday evening, video communication was dropped? Probably not – at least not by accident. Knowing that this President ran for office as the most anti-war; anti-hostility; anti-provocative action; anti-action candidate in recent years, I just can’t believe that the CIA or the Pentagon really wanted the Nobel Peace Prize winner or his band of pacifist Lefty appeasers making last-minute calls that could potentially jeopardize this mission.
I think the President authorized the raid, and then the CIA and the Pentagon made certain that he could not have second thoughts. A “blackout” is the perfect cover. And in fairness, it also afforded the President “plausible deniability” should anything go wrong. Good news is/was… <a title="Bin Laden Son Missing in Aftermath of US Seal Raid" href="http://republicanredefined.com/2011/05/11/bin-laden-son-missing-in-aftermath-of-us-seal-raid/" >nothing substantial</a> went “wrong.”
The only questions I have at this point rest in what the President’s true intentions were for bin Laden once the <a title="Who Shot Osama bin Laden? Mystery SEAL Profiled" href="http://republicanredefined.com/2011/05/10/who-shot-osama-bin-laden-mystery-seal-profiled/" >SEAL Team</a> had the terrorist leader in their grasp. Were they to capture him and bring him to justice, or were they to kill him without reservation?
I’m inclined to believe there must have been <a href="http://ace.mu.nu/archives/316074.php" >multiple scenarios</a> worked through beforehand – probably in consult with Justice and the President’s top advisers. Capture IFF… Kill IFF… The “blackout”, the time for debriefing, and the public relations campaign that needed to be waged before news was broke by Pakistani media probably contributed to the jumbled first narrative offered by Brennan; and the subsequent revisions that followed.
So, what’s the takeaway here? Personally, I’m not that troubled with the multiple accounts of what actually happened in the compound. I chalk that up to an administration prone to pandering to the Muslim world and the “international community”, and assume that they were simply dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s. They were probably just making sure that the actual events – or at least those reported – squared with at least one of the pre-mission scenarios so that no one in the White House, CIA, or Pentagon walked away with mud on his/her face.
Look. Logistically speaking. Bin Laden had to die. Even if the Administration wanted to “<a title="President Bush Breaks Silence on Osama bin Laden Raid" href="http://republicanredefined.com/2011/05/13/president-bush-breaks-silence-on-osama-bin-laden-raid/" >bring him to justice</a>“, they wouldn’t have had the slightest clue what to do with him once they got him there. The raid alone went against everything the President campaigned on and purportedly stood for. Bringing him to justice would have required a revisiting and a revision of every position he and his administration had taken regarding detention of terrorists and the not-to-be-spoken-of war on terror. It was the only call; and if he couldn’t make it, Pinetta and the Pentagon were surely willing to do so in his stead.
Add that to the fact that the CIA probably wanted no part of an Obama Justice Department getting its hands on bin Laden, and I think you can probably figure out who really made the call here. Osama bin Laden’s history and rise to power is one that crossed paths with the US on a number of occasions – and not every time in an adversarial role. The information between that guy’s ears could have potentially been more than damning to the CIA. A bullet to the head was the only solution to that problem.
In sum… I have no doubt that in the days and weeks to come, we will inevitably continue to be fed little tidbits of information regarding this raid – a revision here; an addition there; a redaction where necessary. The work of the CIA is the kind that deals in shades of gray. The labor of the Pentagon and the people at its employ is not fit for those with weak stomaches. And this President and his administration have been anything but the “transparent” change-agents that they promised to be. The end result is a slow leak of information that will ultimately still leave many of us wanting. But maybe, just maybe; that is how it’s meant to be. Nay, needs to be.

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Helmet Cams Recorded Osama bin Laden Raid – Narrative Revised, Revisited

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