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On Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 10:05 AM, <tedkaufman@comcast.net> wrote:

> Biden says he advised 'don't go' on raid to kill bin Laden
> 11:47 PM, Jan. 27, 2012 |
>
> <http://www.delawareonline.com/comments/article/20120128/NEWS02/201280327/Biden-says-he-advised-don-t-go-raid-kill-bin-Laden>
> Written by NICOLE GAUDIANO <ngaudiano@gannett.com> News Journal
> Washington Bureau
>
>
> [image: Joe Biden advised two more things had to be done before the
> raid.]
> Zoom
> Joe Biden advised two more things had to be done before the raid.
>
> More
>
> *WASHINGTON *-- Vice President Joe Biden said he advised President
> Barack Obama last spring not to immediately authorize the raid on the
> compound in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden 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 to see if he's there."
>
> Biden recalled the conversation while addressing Democratic members of
> Congress on Friday at a retreat in Cambridge, Md.
>
> He did not specify which two things he had considered necessary for the
> operation against bin Laden to proceed.
>
> Biden said Obama also sought opinions from senior advisers, including the
> Joint Chiefs of Staff. Biden did not say where the conversations took
> place, but he recalled that no one was willing to give a definitive answer
> except then-CIA Director Leon Panetta, who told Obama to move forward with
> the SEALs operation, Biden said.
>
> "Everyone else said 49, 51, this," Biden said. "It got to me. He said,
> 'Joe, what do you think?' and I said, 'You know, I didn't know we have so
> many economists around the table. We owe the man a direct answer.' "
>
> Obama then left the room, saying he would come to a decision, Biden said.
> The next morning, as Obama was boarding the presidential helicopter, he
> told National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon, "Go."
>
> As it turned out, the information that bin Laden was hiding at the
> compound in Abbottabad was correct. The SEALs team killed him there on May
> 1.
>
> Biden recalled the conversations to make a point about Obama's strength as
> a leader. He said Obama made his decision knowing that if the operation
> went awry, even his most loyal staffers would later say, when books were
> written, "I didn't tell him to do that."
>
> "I hope no one would've done that," Biden said.
>
> Biden said Obama knew his decision put at stake not only the lives of the
> SEALs but also the image of the presidency.
>
> "And he pulled the trigger," he said. "And that's clear to American
> people. It says less about bin Laden than it does about character, about
> [Obama] leading from behind. [Obama] doesn't lead from behind, he just
> leads. And that's clear."
>
> *Contact Nicole Gaudiano at ngaudiano@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter
> @ngaudiano.*
>


--

Alexander Snyder-Mackler
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